Mac OS X is not starting anymore I tried to install Mac OS X El Capitan and it failed in ~70% progress after reboot and now I even can't start recovery mode (pressing Cmd+R just tries to continue installation process and fails again and again).

Assuming I can get a backup of my user files over Target Disk Mode and then hand migrate them, what steps do I need to perform to wipe and reinstall Yosemite on my Mac?

If you have another Mac, you should make a bootable Yosemite drive. To do that, you need an 8GB USB drive and the Yosemite installer downloaded. Here are the instructions, copied from the linked article:

  Connect to your Mac a properly formatted 8GB (or larger) drive, and rename the drive Untitled. (The Terminal command used here assumes
  the drive is named Untitled.) Also, make sure the Yosemite installer,
  called Install OS X Yosemite.app, is in its default location in your
  main Applications folder (/Applications). This means that if you moved
  it before installing Yosemite, you need to move it back before making
  your installer disk.
  Select the text of this Terminal command and copy it: sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\
  Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume
  /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\
  Yosemite.app --nointeraction
  Launch Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
  Warning: This step will erase the destination drive or partition, so make sure that it doesn’t contain any valuable data.

  Paste the copied command into Terminal and press Return.

  Type your admin-level account password when prompted, and then press Return.

When that's done, plug that USB drive into the El Capitan Mac, hold down Option and turn the Mac on, and select Install OS X Yosemite from the list of startup drives. That should bring you into something that's identical to the Recovery HD for all intents and purposes (the only difference being that you don't need to redownload the OS X installer; it's stored locally). From there you should be able to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Yosemite. Good luck!


iTunesConnect does not show submitted binary It is quite often I am submitting binary, and it does not appear in iTunesConnect. Why? my strategy is that I resubmit it. But it is often that resending does not help. Do you know the reason why Apple does not let it appear?

The binary will appear, but it just takes time. Sometimes it'll be visible within minutes, sometimes a few hours, depending on a range of factors (network bandwidth, server congestion, processing times, etc).

Also, some people don't realise that they need to click on the '+' sign under the Build section. That is, when it's ready, it'll appear and clicking on this reveals the binary.

My personal experience has been that it usually takes about a half hour to appear, but once it did take almost 18hrs. I suspect at present there will be larger than usual demand on Apple's servers, reviewers, etc because many developers are updating apps, not just because of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, but especially because of Xcode 8.1 and Swift 3.

Also useful is this site for checking average App Store Review times (I know it's not what you're actually asking about, but it's a useful resource nonetheless).


/usr/bin Permission change OSX 10.9 Mavericks I am trying to set up Java on Xcode and it needs to access /usr/bin/java at some point. But I cannot get hold of this folder and I get this message: The folder “java” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.

Even when I try to reach the permission through Get Info the system does not open the folder because of the same restriction.

I think it is possible to change the permission through Terminal but I am afraid to blow up something on my Mac. How can I change the permission safely?

/usr/bin/java is no valid folder in any installation or version of Java (I know of).

Instead the file /usr/bin/java is a symlink to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Commands/java installed by the default Apple Java installer (v1.6.x).

The Oracle Java installer (either JDK/SDK or JRE) is installed to /Library/Java.


How could I set apple icon image (xxx.icns) to file or folder? There is already a related question talking about setting a png image to file or foler as icon (
How can I change a file or folder icon using the Terminal), but what if my image is an icns?

I know pngs may be extracted from an icns, then follow the solution above. But icns has an advantage that it could fit different sizes.
So how could I set apple icon image (xxx.icns) to file or folder?

Right click the file and click "Get Info" (or press Cmd+I on the file). Drag the desired icon onto the current icon and it will replace the existing one.


iCloud Photo Sharing - Not receiving invitation I previously had an iCloud Photo Share album and then the pictures would stop appearing on my stream when the other member added new ones. We then removed me from the Stream to re-add. When we tried, I do not receive the invite. We tried my phone number and Apple ID. When I send the same person an invite to a "test" stream, they get the invitation right away.

I have other photo streams with other people and have not ran into any issues, just with this one person. They are able to send invites to other people for other albums as well. I am on iOS 9, they're on 8 but we had this issue when we were both on 8 as well.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I've never experienced a similar issue, but these 2 steps won't hurt:

Make sure both your iPhone and the other member's iPhone have iCloud Photo Sharing AND iCloud Photo Library turned on.
Make sure you have the same settings set up on your Mac/iPad if you use any.

Also, if your shared iCloud Photo Album has more than 5,000 photos, you will need to make a new album to continue sharing.

Here's a great site for everything related to iCloud Photo Library:
https://tidbits.com/article/15584


Apple Hardware Test doesn't run with original disk I have the original disks to my Macbook Pro mid-2010. Holding D or option-D at startup launches internet recovery, which ultimately gives error -3403D in both cases. (I was expecting only option-D to launch internet recovery.) The disk does seem to contain the correct AHT version (it is Mac-F22586C8). How can I run the local, non-internet, disk-based Apple Hardware Test?

Mac OS 10.12.6, 15-inch mid-2010 (MacbookPro6,2), Boot ROM: MBP61.0057.B1C, SMC: 1.58f17

There could be a whole range of reasons you're unable to get this to work (e.g. problems with your optical drive; a problem with your disks, etc), so it may be worth downloading AHT directly from Apple and running it from a USB.

The version of Apple Hardware Test (AHT) that shipped with your MBP should be AHT 3A171. You can download it directly from Apple here.
Create a bootable USB flash drive by using Disk Utility's Erase function. Make sure you choose OS X Extended for the format and the GUID Partition Map for the scheme.
Now have a good read of the Run AHT from bootable USB stick section on this github page, as this provides the instructions for copying the AHT onto your USB drive and blessing it so it can boot your MBP.

NOTE: By following steps 1 and 2 above you have already done the first and third bullet points on the github page.

Let me know how you go.


MagSafe: Where is the charger ID stored? I'm about to change my power adapter's cable due to the classic cable fraying.

However, according to this, there's data that gets passed around using the 1-Wire protocol.

I only see 2 wires on there.

Is the cable a "smart" cable with a built-in IC, or are all logic and data pieces in the charger brick itself?

The charger's serialization and capabilities are determined by the chip in the Magsafe connector.  The Mac also controls the LED, not the charger.

  Understanding the charger's ID code

  You can easily pull up the charger information on a Mac (Go to "About this Mac", "More Info...", "System Report...", "Power"), but much of the information is puzzling. The wattage and serial number make sense, but what about the ID, Revision, and Family? It turns out that these are part of the 1-Wire protocol used by the chip inside the connector.


Keyboard shortcut for AppleScript works only when preferences window is open I created this AppleScript to play/pause Youtube videos running on Chrome:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Google Chrome" to (tabs of window 1 whose URL contains "youtube")
    set youtubeTabs to item 1 of the result
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        execute youtubeTabs javascript "document.getElementsByClassName('ytp-play-button ytp-button')[0].click();"
    end tell

    return input
end run

It works fine when I run it from Automator. I saved the service and added a keyboard shortcut ⌘+J for running the service. I also added Automator to the Accessibility settings (following this SO answer).

Now here's the strange part: it works when I have the System Preferences window on focus. If I close it, or switch to any other window, the shortcut doesn't work. I noticed that it's working because there's a menu item in System Preferences window that corresponds to the shortcut, and that is getting triggered when I press the shortcut.

Please help. Thanks in advance.

As I mentioned in my comment to wch1zpink's answer "Making sure the Service's settings are correct and the shortcut key sequence is not in use by another is the first step" and mentioned afterwards by jackjr300 in his comment. Changing the keyboard shortcut to one that is not used by anything else in the system or any application (that is if 'Services receives no input in any application' is set), works for me, whether or not System Preferences is open, when using the code, as is, in the OP and a non-conflicting key sequence.

There also is no need to have any applications set in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility for this particular use case, whether running from Automator or when using a non-conflicting keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > (Name You Gave The Service).

To resolve your issue, you must use a keyboard shortcut that is not already assigned elsewhere in the system and or any applications.

You might have to use a three or four key sequence as there are very few, if any, two key combos that aren't already in use.

On a side note, return input is not at all needed in the code in this particular use case.


Mounted volume not accessible I'm trying to mount an external volume:

/bin/mkdir -p /Volumes/share
/sbin/mount -o nosuid,-d=777 -t smbfs //user:pwd@host.local/share /Volumes/share

The script runs as a Daemon, no error. The share is visible from Console (whith root privileges) and the mounted share has all privileges enabled:

drwxrwxrwx  1 root  wheel  16384  2 jan 21:19 share

However I cannot even list the content ls of the mounted share unless I use root privileges. It's this normal?

This problem appeared only after upgrading from High Sierra to Catalina and I wonder if the later is more restrictive and how to make it work.

Edit 1: this is the result of mount | grep share:

//user@host.local/share on /Volumes/share (smbfs, nosuid)

Finally, after many turns, I've found what's going on:

The executing shell/app in the script (e.g. zsh, sh, python - in my case /bin/bash) needs to have Full Disk Access privileges. In order to do so I went to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Security & Privacy, selected Privacy tab, unlocked the settings and added /bin/bash to the list.

Now I can read and write the mounted share.


Taking forever to move files to the trash Finder is taking forever to move, rename, etc. files, especially when moving to the trash or emptying the trash.

Here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI1jlh8d6C0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It takes 80-95% of my CPU and spins 13 threads to think about it for a few minutes:

About my Mac:

So, I took it to the Apple store, they weren't really any help. I held down option and reinstalled the OS in-place and that worked! Finally I can use Finder again .. whew! Let me know if this helped you.


Configuring Apple Mail with Gmail Aliases I am trying to use AppleMail and trying to configure to using gmail alias.

My primary email address is sid@mydomain.com and I have configured this in Apple Mail and able to send / receive messages properly. This primary email has an alias on my google apps for business sid-sales@mydomain.com

Whenever someone sends an email to sid-sales@mydomain.com, I receive it on sid@mydomain.com and on the Apple Mail. So far good.

Now, I want to configure Apple Mail so that I am able to send emails using both my primary email and the alias (and with different names). So, I want to have two email configurations -

- Sid <sid@mydomain.com>
- Sid from Sales <sid-sales@mydomain.com>

I am not able to get this working. I tried adding both the emails separated by a comma in the Accounts section. After doing this, both the emails appear in the From field and I can choose from one but the receiving side is always getting my email from my primary email address. So, if I choose sid-sales@mydomain.com in the From field, the receiver still sees sid@mydomain.com

I also tried changing the plist file by adding EmailAliases - I was able to change the Name but the email address is still sid@mydomain.com

Can somebody please help me with this? I tried searching a lot on the internet but I am not able to find anything which will solve the problem.

None of the other solutions worked for me right now with Apple Mail 9.3 on OS X 10.11.4. Just to make sure, my situation is as follows:

I have a primary email address xyz@somedomain.com as a Google Apps account
I added a domain alias otherdomain.com to that account
I want to send from xyz@otherdomain.com and have the receiver see this in the "from:" field (notice that this is slightly more complicated than in the original question, but includes the original question's case!)

After a lot of experimenting, this did work (both parts required, it seems).

On the Gmail end:

For the primary email address xyz@somedomain.com, I went to Gmail online, then (under the top right tool icon) Settings > Account.
There I clicked: "Add another email address you own".
In the window popping up, I entered my (same) name and, under "Email address", the full alternative xyz@otherdomain.com
I left "Treat as an alias." unchecked.
Clicking the "Next step>>" button, I left the default top selection (the one that says "easier to set up")
I saved this.
(Back in the main Accounts screen, I checked "Reply from the same address the message was sent to", but that doesn't seem to be relevant to the root problem we are trying to solve here)

Using "Compose" still in Gmail online, I was able to change the from field to xyz@otherdomain.com and confirm that the receiver saw this as the "from:" field (as well as in the raw mail data).

Now in Mail, in the settings for xyz@somedomain.com I just added an alias in the "Alias:" field right under "Description:". Now Mail shows the alternative email address in the From field when composing emails in Mail, too, and the recipient sees xyz@otherdomain.com as the true sender (checked in the raw mail data again).

Notice that without the Gmail modification from Step 1, adding an alias to Mail just resulted in an additional line "X-Google-Original-From: xyz@otherdomain.com", which Mail wouldn't recognize as a sender in any form.


Testing a website using Safari on Linux I run linux and use virtualbox to cross browser test my website. I have Windows10 and Windows7 within virtual box which allows me to test the site with IE and Edge browsers.

I have never used Apple/Mac OS so I am very much in uncharted territory here. I need to test the site on Safari but after searching online, it appears as though it isn't possible to download a MacOS ISO to install in virtualbox: link (I do not have access to an apple computer)

I tried installing Safari on a windows VM but it is a really old version since Safari is not supported on Windows. Also, from what I can tell there are no Linux versions of Safari.

Is there a way to test the site using Safari somehow without owning a Mac?

While it's not entirely the same thing, you could use one of the WebKit Linux ports to run "mostly Safari" on Linux. However, if you're intent on running macOS on non-Apple hardware, there are ways. However, note that these methods may violate Apple's macOS SLA.

According to Apple's macOS 10.12 SLA, you may use your limited, non- transferable, non-exclusive license:

  to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances
  of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on
  each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple
  Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing
  during software development; (c) using macOS Server; or (d) personal,
  non-commercial use.

From a technical perspective, there's nothing that would prevent you from running a VM on non-Apple hardware, though you would clearly be in violation of the SLA, and as such, I can't recommend you do this. However, if you decide to run a VM on Apple hardware, it's possible to create a compatible ISO. In any case, you'd need access to a macOS equipped machine.

Again, while clearly in violate of the SLA, there are methods to put macOS on non-Apple hardware, generally known as Hackintoshing. Again, I cannot condone this, but it is technically possible.

The easiest and most legally clear method is still to run Safari on Apple hardware, and that's what I'd recommend.


How can I not have Command Line Tools installed, yet still have it? $ type git
git is hashed (/usr/bin/git)
$ /usr/bin/git --version
git version 2.24.3 (Apple Git-128)
$ pkgutil --pkgs | grep ^com.apple
com.apple.update.fullbundleupdate.19H2
com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.15.7Supplemental.19H15
com.apple.pkg.EmbeddedOSFirmware
com.apple.update.fullbundleupdate.19H15
com.apple.update.fullbundleupdate.19G2021
com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.15.7.19H2
com.apple.pkg.SecureBoot
com.apple.pkg.update.os.SecUpd2020-001Catalina.19H114
com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.15.6Supplemental.19G2021
com.apple.pkg.Core
com.apple.update.fullbundleupdate.19H114
com.apple.pkg.XProtectPlistConfigData_10_15.16U4147
com.apple.files.data-template
com.apple.pkg.XProtectPlistConfigData_10_15.16U4145
com.apple.pkg.MRTConfigData_10_15.16U4142
com.apple.pkg.MRTConfigData_10_15.16U4146
com.apple.pkg.IncompatibleAppList.10_15.16U1923
com.apple.pkg.Pages10
com.apple.pkg.iMovie_AppStore
com.apple.pkg.Keynote10
com.apple.pkg.Numbers10
$ ls /Applications/Xcode.app
ls: /Applications/Xcode.app: No such file or directory

As you can see, I have neither the Command Line Tools, nor Xcode installed, yet I still have Command Line Tools. How is this possible? Is there something that I'm missing?

Git being there means some part of the CLT is there, since the shim doesn't come up, and since Xcode is not installed.
It is a known problem that the receipt for the CLT may disappear.  One documentation of this is by MacPorts, linked here.

Download the command line tools package from the Apple Developer site.

If the version of the CLT you need is not listed at the developer site, but an older version is, reinstalling that will restore the package receipts. Then just run Software Update to trigger the update to the newer version.

Or, on Mac OS X 10.9 or greater, Software Update can reinstall the package:
sudo touch /tmp/.com.apple.dt.CommandLineTools.installondemand.in-progress
softwareupdate -l

Run Software Update
sudo rm /tmp/.com.apple.dt.CommandLineTools.installondemand.in-progress


Moving 'Sites' folder to Dropbox I'm trying to move my standard ~/Sites folder, or the global Sites folder (in Library/WebServer/Documents) to my Dropbox folder, and make this usable with Web Sharing, PHP, MySQL etc.

So far I have changed the httpd.conf in etc/apache2 to overwrite these lines:

# original: DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
DocumentRoot "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/users/cannyboy/Dropbox/Sites"
# original: <Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents">
<Directory "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/users/cannyboy/Dropbox/Sites">

But when I browse http://localhost I get:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this to work?

You could just move the Sites folder into the Dropbox folder - and then make a link/alias from the new Dropbox location back to ~/Sites.

After you've moved the Sites folder into Dropbox you right click on the Sites folder in Dropbox, and then choose "Make Alias" and move this alias into ~/ (remember to rename it to Sites) - alternativ create the alias this way: Can I create Windows-style alias in Finder?


Marketplace on top of an iOS app? Is it possible to write an app for the iOS App Store, where developers can write Web apps to run on the top of your app. The developer's app will run in a Web View that has been injected with a cookie with session information about the user logged into your app.

At the end of the day, this is just a Web browser with no native capabilities. So, I was wondering if Apple could deny the app, because it is messing with their profits? If so, what if you did some sort of token system where a user could buy token's through an In-App Purchase that they can then use to purchase apps on your market place?

Yes, it is possible to write such an app. It is actually very simple as what you're describing is really just a specialised form of an ordinary web browser. You'll find multiple browser apps on the App Store, so these apps are well established.

Yes, Apple could possibly deny such an app from being listed on the App Store. It is their store after all, so in theory they have the possibility of denying any app. This is not the same as saying that this app will be denied - not at all.

Yes, it is possible to create such a "token system". Apple explicitly details that in-app purchases can be used for in app currencies or "credits", and that these can be used to "tip" digital content providers.

All in all, from your description it seems unlikely that your app idea will be approved on the App Store. Apple explicitly forbids creating an app that is really just an interface for displaying third party apps similar to the App Store. Apple also explicitly forbids creating apps that download and run code for running other apps inside an app.

Whether or not your idea is a forbidden App Store competitor, or it is an allowed "curated web browser" really depends on the execution of your idea.


Fastest way to transfer a bunch of photos TO iphone camera roll? what is the quickest way to transfer a bunch of photos (and videos) that come from an iphone to another iPhone's camera roll?

Sync with iPhoto/Aperture is not an option: they wouldn't end up in the camera roll
Opening from email or dropbox one by one and saving them is not an option: too many!
A big email is not feasible

AirSharing and Dropbox apps are apparently of little help, since I couldn't find a “save all” command.

Any suggestion is welcome, third party apps too!

Phoneview - is a great option.  It's fast too.  Connect iphone, copy the files to your desired directory, disconnect.  Connect other iphone, copy files to desired location on iphone.  Boom!

Drag n drop ease.  Free download, and cheap too. edit: it allows you to see entire disk media folder :)


Limit what a tethered iPhone internet connection can be used for I have various background services running on my Mac which use quite a lot of bandwidth: Google Drive, a couple of OneDrive sync programs, iCloud sync, Dropbox, and Backblaze for a general backup of my harddrive.

This is fine when I'm on a regular wifi connection, but when i tether my Mac to my iPhone I have limited data -- only 4GB per month. I'd like to be able to limit the services which can use my internet connection when that internet connection is provided by my iPhone.

Is there a straightforward way to do this? I use Little Snitch and think I might be able to set up a specific profile for when I've connected via a tethered iPhone, but this seems quite complicated.

I had the same issue and have been using "Trip Mode" on my Mac to good use. Currently sells for about $10CAD.

http://tripmode.ch

What I need now is something that will do the same on my iPad...


Can system logs tell me when I closed my Macbook? I'm trying to figure out how late I've been working for the last few months.

Normally my old line manager would not have given me time in lieu. However she was fired last week and I now stand a chance of getting some time back from the company.

The best measurement of when I stop work is when I last close my macbook each day. Could I find this out from the sys logs?

The last message before I opened my MacBook this morning was

5/19/19 22:43:36.000 kernel[0]: AirPort_Brcm43xx::powerChange: System Sleep

I'm not sure I closed it at that time exactly last night but it was close.

I've just run an experiment now and it took about 15 seconds from my last activity before I close the lid until that message appears.


How to stop AppleIDAuthAgent flooding the console log with messages about expired apple id After upgrading to Mountain Lion I have noticed this message being flooded into my system console:

AppleIDAuthAgent[179]: SERVER Removing certificate for Apple ID "...@???.??" dsID="XXXXX" because it has expired or been revoked. (renewCertificateForAccount()/AppleIDAuthd.cpp #143) accountCheckDispatch

Anyone know how to fix this?

This seems to result from deprecated MobileMe and iDisk preference files laying around. This post at the Apple discussion forum may help you delete the relevant files:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.DotMacSync*.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.idisk*.plist
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.idisk*.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist
~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Prefernces/ByHost/com.apple.coreservices.appleidauthenticationinfo*.plist
~/Library/Prefernces/ByHost/com.apple.coreservices.appleidauthenticationinfo*.plist.lockfile

Don't forget to close relevant applications (like Mail or Messages) before the deletion; it also might be a good idea to at least log out and in again afterwards.


upgrade iphone 4 to latest iOS as 9 or 10 Is it possible to upgrade iPhone 4 iOS to 9 or 10 using jail break approach?

Main purpose to install apps which require latest iOS. So is there any method even through security bypass?

Rather throwing the older phone any possibility by experimenting?

If you check the iOS Support Matrix, you will see that the latest version of iOS that supports the iPhone 4 is iOS 7.

You can't upgrade to a version of iOS greater than that - so iOS 8, 9, 10, 11, or the upcoming 12, are all out of reach for that phone.


How to use Microsoft Office 2016 behind a proxy? I've just finished a fresh install of Microsoft Office 2016. When I run Microsoft Word, I obtain the start page with different propositions for creating a new document.

But the cursor is a spinning wheel and I can't use the interface. In the Activity Monitor I see Microsoft Word (Not Responding) with a CPU usage of about 27%.

What can I do?

P.S.: I'm using OS X 10.11.6 and Microsoft Word for Mac 15.26 (160910)

P.S.2: I'm working behind a proxy

The problem is related to the fact I'm working behind a proxy.

After reading this article     Microsoft Office 2016 and proxy URLs.

I've added the following url's:

nexus.officeapps.live.com
ocos-office365-s2s.msedge.net
config.edge.skype.com
officeclient.microsoft.com
odc.officeapps.live.com
store.office.com
omextemplates.content.office.net
nexusrules.officeapps.live.com
templateservice.office.com

to the bypass proxy list by going to : System Preferences -> Advanced... -> Proxies and filling the field Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains

P.S.: the domains must be separated by commas.

== EDIT ==

Today, I tried to refine this list given by the above mentioned article and I discover that Word was still running fine even without the list. Apparently, it's needed only on the first start of the application.


Process “ubd” high CPU usage I noticed my MBP got really slow, which must be strange with SSD and 8GB of RAM.

So I opened the Activity Monitor to discover a process called ubd keeps its CPU usage very high, about 120% most of the time:

I found a thread that discusses the issue but it is related to having hundreds of iCloud certificates in the keychain, which I don't.

How do I go on with diagnosing the issue?

By observing log messages in ~/Library/Logs/Ubiquity/<my username>/, I realized that Ubiquity (iCloud process) kept trying to create a file in a folder that doesn't exist:

I opened up the Terminal and created this directory and its parent directories up to .ubd:

cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/
sudo mkdir .ubd && cd .ubd
sudo mkdir peer-E2B13E4F-56F7-C79B-1621-E30738B638FE-v23 && cd peer-E2B13E4F-56F7-C79B-1621-E30738B638FE-v23
sudo mkdir ftr

Then I changed the newly created directories' owner from root to myself:

cd ../..
sudo chown -R <my username> .ubd/

The fan turned silent instantly.


Can OS X be configured to only allow administrator users access to shutdown tools? Setting aside pushing a physical power button, can I prevent non-administrator users from initiating a software shutdown?

In Mac OS X Lion all users are allowed to shut down the workstation. How do I allow only the administrator to shut down the workstation?

You can use Workgroup Manager and OS X's managed preferences (MCX) to restrict access to the Restart and Shut Down commands in the Finder:

..then use the Accounts prefpane to show or hide the Restart, Sleep, and Shut Down buttons at the loginwindow:


Find out about links I have a few links set up.  I can do ls -l and get full information about them.

For example:

Me-Machine:Links me$ ls -l ~/Links

total 8

lrwxr-xr-x  1 me  staff  64 26 Jul 23:20 jenkins_tc -> /Users/me/developer/buildproj/apache-tomcat-7.0.42/bin

I only want to see the link,

jenkins_tc -> /Users/me/developer/buildproj/apache-tomcat-7.0.42/bin

and not the rest of the stuff.

What would be the command for this?

This command:

    stat -f "%N%SY" symbolicLinkName

will produce the output:

    symbolicLinkName -> linkedFileName

(-f is the "format" option for "stat".  The %N in the format is the filename of symbolic link and the %SY is the way to print out the name of the file it points to with the string " -> " before it. (The S usually means to print the field as a string but it has the special meaning for "Y", the name of the file pointed to, which adds the arrow before the file name.)


Please help me recover my ringtones after an iPhone restore I downloaded ringtones from iTunes a couple weeks ago.  I don't think I ever synced my iPhone since, but I did have to reset my iPhone due to an application crash.

When I got my iPhone restored from a backup, my ringtones were gone and the only way to prove that I ever had them was through the receipt that Apple sent to my email account.

I tried finding them on "purchased" in my iTunes account but there was nothing there.

How can I retrieve my ringtones?

Found over here:

With iPhone connected to computer:

In iTunes menu select "Store," then "Deauthorize Computer"
Then select "Store," then "Authorize Computer"
A message will pop up saying "X out of X Computers are Authorized" or something to that effect.
Sync iPhone
Restart iPhone, go to settings, sounds, ringtones. Purchased ringtone should be on top.


iPhone and iPad suddenly can't access local IPs I have an iPhone 6 and an old iPad, and they are connected to my wifi and are browsing the internet fine.

I'm also able to reach the config page of my router at 192.168.1.1 from both devices.

Until today, they were also able to browse my LAN to show sites I'm developing on my local server (e.g. 192.168.1.120).

Now, however, neither iOS device is able to connect to LAN IPs other than the router homepage at 192.168.1.1.

I've tried rebooting both devices, rebooting my router and cable modem, restoring my router settings to an earlier version, etc.

Using the "Network Tools" app by KeepSolid on iPhone shows that Trace Route works for normal sites but then fails for LAN sites such as 192.168.1.120.

I have no idea what changed today.  The only thing I can think of is that my girlfriend took her Macbook out of town. But I have no idea how that could affect the rest of the LAN. She is not running a server on it.

What else can I try to diagnose and fix this problem?

Update: The "Network Tools" iPhone app has a DNS lookup utility. When I type in my local hostnames, they point to the proper IP addresses as the "A" record. Other records (AAAA, MX, NS, SOA, SRV, and TXT all say "DNS server returned answer with no data"). I don't really know what this means, and I guess it might all be irrelevant since hostname resolution is useless if my devices can't even visit an IP address directly in a browser.

It's looking likely that the problem is a bug in the DD-WRT firmware on my Netgear WNDR3700 router.

I haven't been able to fix it yet.

People in that thread suggest that running the following commands in the router would be a suitable workaround, but I haven't gotten them to work yet:

swconfig dev switch0 set enable_vlan 1
swconfig dev switch0 set apply

UPDATE:
Oops, it's potentially not a bug in that firmware; I am even having problems after swapping out the router. But since this other router uses DD-WRT too (although a much earlier version of the firmware), I'm leaving this answer here since it's still my best guess and might help someone.


Play/Pause buttons - different application? Given the age of this question, and the fact that it's about the remote, I think there's merit in asking this again, and separately:

On a Mac keyboard the F8 key is also a play/pause button. By default, it controls iTunes. I would like to use it to control another program (specifically Vox)

Is this possible?
Is it possible without third-party software?

It's possible, but not without third-party software or scripting.

You can use the Vox preference pane to set this though:

(go to Vox → Preferences → Controls → Setup)


Homebrew permission issues I basically installed Homebrew as described at https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/installation.

However, my user account ist not an Administrator account, therefore I substituted my user identity with the one of user admin (su - admin), who is an Administrator. Then, as user admin, I installed Homebrew by executing /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)". Moreover, I installed giter8 by running brew update && brew install giter8.

Now, as user admin I can run command g8 which is installed in /usr/local/bin. However, using my regular restricted user account, I cannot run this command, as its permissions are too restrictive:

$ ls -la /usr/local/bin/g8
lrwxr-x---  1 admin  admin  29 Sep  2 11:12 /usr/local/bin/g8 -> ../Cellar/giter8/0.2.0/bin/g8

As you can see, g8 has permissions 750 and is owned by admin:admin; so, as regular user, I have no chance to run g8. But, what is even more strange, some crucial folders have similar - too restrictive IMHO - permissions:

drwxr-x---  3 admin  admin   102 Sep  2 11:12 Cellar
drwxr-x---  7 admin  admin   238 Sep  2 11:12 Library

Thus, even after fixing the permissions of symbolic link g8 (readable and executable by all users), regular users cannot execute commands / run programs installed via brew install..., as regular users cannot access folder Cellar, nor folder Library, which both contain crucial files for most programs.

Is this by design, or is this a bug?

Very old question but I thought I'd mention that some people (including me) chown the homebrew /usr/local/ directory so you can run everything in it without issue. I used:

sudo chown -R `whoami` /usr/local


Installing El Capitan from a bootable DVD I have El Capitan on a bootable DVD. I restart my Mac and hold the option key until the disks come up and I choose EFI Boot (name of the disk is different than what it shows at the time of booting). DVD-ROM starts like a jet and a progress bar pops up. It goes all the way to very close to the end and then DVD-ROM stops and no more progress. I never have installed any OS X and now I am wondering if such a thing is possible at all. I checked the Boot ROM version and upgraded to the last version that matches my mac 8.1.

My question obviously is what should I do?

I've created bootable DVDs (DVD+R DL, specifically) for Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Capitan, and used them without any problems to install on various MacBook Pros. Thus, the OS X installer can't require write access to the installer's volume (as of 10.11.x anyway). Creating an El Capitan installation DVD is slightly different than previous, but a user 'tywebb13' on MacRumors is who I've followed each time I've created these DVD installers. He's posted the Terminal commands (including short explanations for each) to create a bootable El Capitan DVD (or just the ISO if you skip the last command).

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/el-capitan-bootable-dvd.1923931/page-2#post-22407115

NOTE: Some of the posts in that thread refer to installing them in virtual machines, which adds confusion. But 'tywebb13' is consistently focused on optical media installers for actual Apple hardware, and I've always followed his instructions to success.


Regularly used hotel apps have a strange overabundance of acknowledgements that have not been there before on iPad pro MRT My iPad pro is acting strange I noticed in the acknowledgement portion several with MRT ay the beginning in the Marriott and SPG apps.what is it and how do I get rid of it?
or should I iPad pro is acting a little odd I was looking through  I be concerned I know this is not something that has been there I know it's new and I mean there's just acknowledgement after acknowledgement with this MRT in the beginning

When you install an app, it typically enables all notifications and banners or asks once and then enabled all of them.

I would go to the settings app on iOS (the settings app from Apple) and select notifications. I like to turn everything off - all the apps, none get a notification until I use the app and decide that I actually want to see notifications.

In your case, you can make a list of all the hotel and travel apps and then just tick them off one by one.


iPad is getting calls from my iPhone My iPad keeps ringing when I get a call on my iPhone.  I have disabled FaceTime and Messages, but it still doesn't work.

Under Settings > Facetime there's a seperate switch for "iPhone mobile calls" (on the iPad). That should be off. If you're still getting the calls try resetting your iPad, make sure you have a backup first.


When I try to move the folder, the copying process begins Why, when I move (using mouse) one folder into another, instead of moving, copying process starts? How to fix it?

OS X El Capitan
Folders are located on an external drive, GUID partition scheme, connected via USB.

Hold the  Cmd ⌘  key as you drag.
This will reverse the default behaviour of 'move to same drive, copy to another'


Where does OS X Lion save data from my iPhone backups? Where does OS X Lion save all the information it copies when making backups of my iPhone 4? Specifically, I'm looking for where my contacts, photos, music are.

I can not find them in the 'Application Support' folder.

Information about your iPhone is in ~/Library/MobileDevice

The Backup of your iPhone (photos, documents, settings, etc.) is in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Neither of the above are in a form which is easily readable.

To be able to see and/or extract data from the backup you can use an application like iBackup Viewer


Photos and Camera usage on iOS I am constantly being warned that my 32GB iPhone is running low on free space. Looking at Usage in Settings I can see that 10.5GB are being used by Photos & Camera, with the breakdown:
Photo Library: 9.2 GB
Synced From iTunes: 137 KB
My Photo Stream: 1.1 GB
Shared Photo Stream: 227 MB

My Camera Roll in the Photos app only has 5 pictures. My Recently Deleted album has 85 photos. I am trying to determine where the rest of the storage is being used, and how to free it up.

My extended family and I use Shared Photo Streams to share pictures of our kids. On my iPhone I'm subscribed to seven Shared Photo Streams, the largest of which has 1,800 pictures and 100 videos (the rest are much smaller).

Is the Shared Photo Stream storage being lumped in with Photo Library in the usage breakdown? Or is something else going on?

Go to Settings > General > Date & Time Untoggle "Set Automatically"
Manually set the date a year or two in the past
Open "Photos"
Select "Albums"

If, like me, you had already cleared out everything from the
Camera Roll and "Recently Deleted" folder, you'll smile to see that
your "Recently Deleted" folder now has thousands of images back.
Those are your phantom photos Open it, "Select" and start deleting
Return to "Date & Time" and fix your clock

Now, go back into Settings > General > Usage > Storage > Manage Storage. You'll notice your Photo & Camera is empty if you deleted everything


Use Apple TV as airport express If I buy an Apple TV and connect my HiFi system to the optical out, will the sound go to the TV through the HDMI cable, and the through the optical cable?
Or will the optical cable take precedent over the HDMI?

Basically can I use the Apple TV as an Airport Express for my HiFi, when the TV is turned off, without plugging cables in and out?

The audio signal is sent to both the HDMI and the optical outputs at the same time, so yes, what you want to do is possible.


How can I have Mission control, but just for one application? I have tons of windows open, and would like Mission control to only show the windows for one application.

How can I do that?

Note: I know that I can "scroll up" on the bundled windows for a particular application in Mission control, and the windows will "expand" a bit, but it isn't great.

That's called “Application windows” in System Preferences → Mission Control. There you can set a hot key to activate this. If you have a track pad, it's also available via four finger swipe down.


bluetooth keyboard not in keyboard preferences I have a Microsoft Surface Ergonomic keyboard and a 2016 touchbar MBP running macOS 10.12 (Sierra). The keyboard is connected to the MBP (I can type) but it doesn't show up in keyboard preferences (so I can't remap keys).

How can I get the keyboard to show up to show up in keyboard preferences? How can I remap the keys to be:

Windows -> Alt
Alt -> Command
Caps lock -> Control or Escape.

I'm aware of karabiner but am frustrated that is keyboard isn't showing up.

It doesn't show up for me either on 10.12.2.

Karabiner Elements is working great for me.


Downloads vs Update charts in new iTunes Connect Where can I see the new downloads vs update charts? In my case I see only a single line with units per day.

Some hints and maybe screenshots will be useful!

It appears that this has been removed from the new iTunes Connect Sales & Downloads.

  Units is the aggregated number of items sold, refunded, or updated for a given day or week.

However, the data is still in the raw reports:

  Update transactions have the Product Type Identifier 7.

Source: https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wo/5.0.0.13.7.2.7.9.3.1.2.3.3.1.1.4.1


Time machine backup or File Vault encryption of encrypted disk image I have a small encrypted disk image on my Mac (Yosemite), containing account numbers, tax reports and such. I created it using Disk Utility, from folder, which I subsequently safely deleted. I am also doing encrypted TM backups and turned File Vault on - to keep the rest of the files safe.  Could this possibly weaken the encryption of the said disk image on the backup disk or the when the computer is turned off?  (1) Using the login/TM/File Vault password for the disk image (2) Using a different password.

My goal is not to strengthen the encryption of the said disk image; only to make sure it's not weakened. The reason for encrypting it separately is that I want it always encrypted - even when the computer is on and I am logged in.

If you encrypt something once, you can't weaken it by encrypting it another time. You can strengthen it, but not very much that it makes a big difference. Most attacks are brute force password Crack attacks, on both filevault and the disk image, because there is the highest chance for the decrypter to win. So you harden the step of decryption because you encrypt twice, but you don't harden it much. but btw, best anti brute force tactics are using algorithms like PBKDEF2 instead of simple SHA. but that's something only apple can do. and I expect from them to do something like that.


Preview.app Very Slow To Save Highlights on PDF (rMBP, OS X 10.10.3) I have scanned a textbook into PDF. The file is 725 pages and 1.73 GB large. It is mostly text but there are a few images per page. Now that the book is scanned in, OCR'd (SearchScan exact), and Bookmarked (all done via Adobe Acrobat Pro XI), I can read the file digitally. I am a big fan of annotating (specifically highlighting) my readings in Preview.

So I open up the file in Preview.app to begin my studies. It scrolls a little slow and lags a bit, but overall I can work with the file given (to be fair, the size is large). However, saving the file after any highlighting is a nightmare.

When I highlight a word, and then hit CMD+S, Preview "saves" the file in less than a second. However if I immediately hit CMD+S a second time (which is the only way to actually save the file, I believe, because only after the second Save does the "Edited" marker at the top of the file go away), I instantly get a spinning beach ball of death. The ball spins for several minutes (15+). After the Save is completed and the "Edited" tag disappears, I "X" out of the file with the red X, and the beach ball process occurs for a second time. It is almost as if Preview is re-saving the entire document, instead of just the one page which I annotated.

I have spent many hours trying to figure out how to fix this. I have encoded and re-encoded the PDF in many different manners. I "Optimized" the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro XI using JBIP and then with ZIP. I "Exported" the file out of Preview itself, with the Quartz filter. I reduced the quality of the PDF so that it was only 750 MB large. I repaired disk permissions. None of these various methods significantly decreased the beach ball time of the Preview saving process.

I'm sure I could break up the textbook into smaller files, but this is an inconvenience. I could also use a different app to annotate the PDF but I've always liked Preview up until now and use it consistently for all of my note-taking needs. In fact I have a 300 page textbook PDF that is 150 MB and Preview handles the file well; it only takes maybe 10 seconds to save and the file does not lag.

I can't really decrease the quality (ie size) of the PDF because the text would be hard to read.

I realize it's a large PDF, but I don't think I'm asking too much of Preview for 2015. I would really appreciate help with this matter as this saving issue is putting me behind.

My computer:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB, Yosemite 10.10.3

Edit 05/30/15: I think something is wrong with the Preview.app, not my PDF file. I have a scanned textbook PDF (530 pages, 330 MB) that I've reference periodically over the past year and it used to be a lot zippier. Nowadays the book takes about 30 seconds to save. Not a very long time, but longer than I remember...

What I ended up doing was simply break the textbook chapters into individual PDF files. Not the ideal solution, but at least the saving process for highlighting is relatively quick with chapter files.


iOS: Bluetooth LE background app I severly suffer from iOS (supposedly) killing my apps all the time although I purpusefully do not kill them. They are also listed in the task manager (double tap on home).

This is especially bad for at least two of my apps:

HID Mobile Access (keyless entry system)
Noke (Bluetooth pad lock)

For the former, all that should need to be done is to shake the phone. Then card reader should activate and open the door. For the latter, only the shackle of the pad lock should have to be pushed and it should automatically unlock if the phone is nearby (i.e., in my pocket).

BOTH nearly never work, rendering them nearly useless (if I need to dig into my bag to find the phone I can also dig for the key or the RFID card).

Both work when I manually start the app (and shortly after) but then randomy fail again after some time.

Both apps have a background app refresh option which I have activated.

The developers of the apps claim that this would be a limitation of iOS and the functionality would not work. I would fine it bold to advertise a functionality that can't even work ...

Shouldn't background app refresh allowing exactly this ... keeping those kinds of things working?

I also have an Apple Watch and there I never experienced communication loss or problems.

How does the background app refresh work exactly for Bluetooth LE? Is there a function to probe for a Bluetooth LE device in the background?

Are the developers of these apps just making up excuses?

(Tile is another Bluetooth LE app with the same problems. However, here I don't mind too much)

It is indeed challenging to get that functionality to work reliable, since iOS has a very conservative power saving mechanism and developers are not making things up.

The problem is: While there actually is a way for Apps to use Bluetooth LE while in the Background, it's very limitated. Typically, to connect to a BLE device like Noke, the App needs to scan on for the device which advertises is presence. Only after a scan is received, the app can actually connect to the device. A device issues a scan using iOS system services and registers a callback, which means the OS "calls"/"activates" the app if a device that was scanned for is found.

When scanning for a device, there are several parameters that can be tuned that affect power intensity but also latency when interacting with BLE. In gerneal, you need to balance these parameters for the best experience. In foreground, scanning for and connecting to devices is very quick on iOS, but in background, iOS ignores some options developers can configure but foremost, it reduces the frequency of the scan which greatly reduces the power usage, but also introduces a lot of latency. iOS also decides when to issue the callback to the app described above.

I made the discovery that power saving on iOS 11.1 is way more aggressive then on iOS 10. Are or where you using iOS 11 when those problems occured?

Source: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/NetworkingInternetWeb/Conceptual/CoreBluetooth_concepts/CoreBluetoothBackgroundProcessingForIOSApps/PerformingTasksWhileYourAppIsInTheBackground.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40013257-CH7-SW1


Is there a way to pass keyboard shortcuts from a PC to a Mac while using ultraVNC? At work I normally use a Windows laptop. My group recently bought a Mac mini to start playing with mobile. A monitor was not purchased. Instead it was deemed that we would access the mini with ultraVNC viewer.

This works for most things, but I am a heavy keyboard shortcut person. Trying to use cut and paste shortcuts just jumps my editor all around. It is very frustrating and slows down my productivity. Is there a way when I hit ^-c on my PC, in the viewer that it emulates ⌘-C?

Try hitting Windows-C when in the VNC viewer.


Is it possible to copy 'rich text' formatting on iPhone? If I copy text from Safari or another app, is it generally copied in rich text format, or plain text format? And if rich text, is there any way to paste it formatted, or see the HTML source of the copied text?

Text is copied in rich form in iOS 3+.
You can try it by copying some text in Safari and pasting it to Mail.

But pasted text format will depend of the app. For example, the SimpleNote app only paste in plain text format, since the service doesn't not support image and text styling.

There is no native way to see the copied text in HTML form. You'll have to find an app to do that.


Mac OS X Notes moved to Exchange disappear I moved the notes from Local notes to Exchange, and then my Notes crashed. When i reopen the Notes, i dont see them in Exchange and neither in local Notes I dont see these are present in Recently deleted either. I tried reading NotesV6.storedata.html as well, but didnt work. Please help.

I was able recover all the files i lost. Lucky enough.
You can follow following steps to achieve it.
Following used:
1. mac_apt
2. DB browser for sqlite

Using mac_apt, i connected to database command below on terminal
./mac_apt_singleplugin.app/Contents/MacOS/mac_apt_singleplugin -i ~/Library/Group\ Containers/group.com.apple.notes/NoteStore.sqlite -o ~/Desktop/Note/mactool/ NOTES
This will create a Notes.csv in our output folder provided. It will have all the notes present.
Open the CSV, You will see your note text in the column 'Data'. For me, the 'Data' didn't had complete text present, but was partial. To get entire note file i filtered on the 'Folder' (as i lost one specific folder data) and got 'ID' column.
I connected to NoteStore.sqlite database using DB browser for sqlite
Open the NoteStore.sqlite in SQLite Browser and
run query as
SELECT * from ZICNOTEDATA  where ZNOTE='ID';
Click on each ZDATA entry and on the right side click 'Export'
Save the blob as whatever_filename.gz
Unzip the file using your preferred tool (i have used gunzip on Mac OS X)
You will get your plaintext at the beginning of the file ( there is more than just plain text ).


iPhone 3GS: Right audio channel broken? Recently, my iPhone 3GS has stopped playing music out the right earphone. I have tried other earphones, but the same thing happened. Is there anything I can do?

My theory: Obviously, you have tried with several headphones, and the situation has not changed. Your headphone jack might have become dirty.

In some cases, this blocks the connections from one ore more audio channels to the headphone. You might want to try to clean it gently, e.g. with a cotton swab. You can find more info on how to do this here or google a bit. Good luck!

PS: I did overlook the comment on this question, which I virtually duplicated with this answer. Nevertheless, have you tried to fix your iPhone jack with the methods described?


Move Developer Folder I want to free some space on my SSD.

Is there a way to move the Developer folder from my root drive to another one without breaking anything?

Some files in the /Developer path are referenced when you launch specific functions within  Xcode. If you need to recover space and absolutely has to move /Developer, you could try

Move the /Developer folder to the alternate path and symlink it so
that Xcode still finds it at /. Note: I haven't tried it with Xcode 4.x, so please share if this works.
alternative is to do a clean uninstall using 'sudo
/Library/uninstall-devtools' and custom reinstall Xcode by
specifying a different path.


Install Ubuntu without a CD drive So here is the situation. I own a older Mac Mini (Intel core duo, 1.66 GHz) and thus will not be able to update to Lion. Also the internal CD drive failed about 3 months ago.

Now I love my Mac. & love "Snow Leopard " but I have been playing around a lot with Ubuntu, running it in a virtual machine. I think that I can replace all or almost all programs that I now use on the Mac. with programs running on Ubuntu.

Since I will not be able to buy new hardware any time soon, and this Mac Mini is now "officially" a low end un-supported machine.  I would like to do the following .....

Completely erase the internal hard drive on the Mac Mini.
Yet keep a bootable copy of the internal system on an external firewire hard drive (super duper).
Install and run Ubuntu on the internal drive, retaining the ability to boot into Mac OS 10.6.8 from the external drive.
So that I can retain both work environments until I am working 95% percent of the time in Ubuntu.

Did I say that the internal CD drive failed. Yes, It will not read nor write. Gone. I am not going to replace it as it would cost more than the Mac is worth.. ( apple quoted me $130) so....  I have questions ....

(first about me .. I am not afraid to drop into terminal, have written many apple scripts, an might be called a "super user")

1.) How the bloody hell can I install Ubuntu without a working CD drive?
    I have tried to make a bootable thumb drive with the ISO for ubuntu and boot from that. No luck . Will keep trying this as it is probably the best way. But any advice would be helpful.

2.) Once I get Ubuntu up and running on the internal drive will It be difficult to re-boot into the external drive with Mac OS 10.6.8?
    This is most likely trivial, but I can not test it so I am A little uneasy.

3.) if I buy an external CD USB drive can I use that to install Ubuntu? (about $10.00 on e-bay)

Thank you for reading...

This link on the Ubuntu forum explains how to install Ubuntu from a USB stick on a Mac.  I've done a few installations this way (when there was no working CD drive) and it works well.


Greek letter shortcuts in Keynote 6.5 I recently switched to Keynote for writing scientific talks. I use tons of greek letters and need a fast way to type them in. I have seen on other questions and forums that people just change the auto-correct settings to replace things like \lambda with the Greek letter. However, in Keynote 6.5 I cant seem to find the auto-correct settings to do this. Its looks like they moved it out of the preferences menu. Anyone know where this is, or have another solution?

Using the Keyboard System Preference, in combination with the Greek keyboard, I was able to get this to work.

Open System Preferences > Keyboard

Select the Keyboard tab and check Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar. The flag of your default language should now appear to the right of the Date/Time menu item.

Select the Input Sources tab > Add Greek keyboard

Select the Text tab > select then add \lambda to the Replace field

From the Character Viewer menu bar item, choose the Greek keyboard > Select the With field and type the 'l' key. This should insert the λ character in this field.

From the Character ViewSwitch back to the default keyboard.

Now, whenever you type \lambda you will see this replacement pop-up:

Repeat with other characters.


MacBook Pro: How to open last terminal tabs on restart? On my Macbook terminal I have 1 window opens with 4 tabs.

When I am restarting, it asks to 'Terminate processes' once I click & restart MacBook pro.

Terminal opens with Basic profile only.

How can I open my last windows 4 tabs again.

I can't find in preferences.

I don't have enough reputation to post a comment, so I will post an answer instead, though I don't expect it to solve your problem.

If you're asking for a one-time restore (like the "Recently closed tabs" option in Chrome), I don't know of any way to "restore" those specific tabs and commands. You can type history into the Terminal and it will list the last 500 commands issued, if you're just trying to remember the commands you entered previously.

Perhaps you could save your tabs as a Window Group before restarting your computer if this is something that happens on a regular basis. Do this by clicking on the Window menu, then clicking "Save Windows as Group..." and name the window group then select the "Restore all commands" option.


How can I restore my iPhone 4s without getting the newest software? Need to restore my 4s but cannot let it be upgraded to iOS 8 because iPhone 4s can't handle that new of an iOS.  I'm totally locked out of the phone (disabled) because my child tried to get into the passcode too many times.  :(

Can I get it restored without getting new software system?

There are places online where people have kept the IPSW files, if you trust them not to have tampered with this then you could find the right one and when you are in iTunes Option/Alt + Click the Restore button and it will take that IPSW file.

I am not 100% sure if this will work because iOS has to check with the iTunes server and I am not sure if it will activate a phone on an old version... I think it will but can't be sure.


Hot Corners for Mission Control stop working I set the upper right corner of the screen as a Hot Corner to activate Mission Control. However, some time after setting it, the Hot Corner stops working. Keyboard shortcuts still work.

Going back into System Preferences, changing the Hot Corner to some other action and then back to Mission Control resolves the problem temporarily. But eventually it fails again.

This wasn't always a problem with Lion. Mission Control Hot Corners used to work fine. I'm not certain, but I think the problem started with the 10.7.2 update. Either that, or some other software recently installed on my Mac is causing a conflict.

Any idea on how to resolve the unreliable Hot Corners?

27" iMac Core i3, OS X 10.7.2

Had this issue November 2016 running OS 10.12.1 "Sierra" an additional symptom is that Mission Control was not launching. I fixed it by opening Activity Monitor, Quit the dock (force quit was not necessary). Went back to normal


Can OSX proxy settings vary by browser? I'm moderately familiar with OSX but am attempting to solve an issue remotely.

My girlfriend is in Argentina for a bit, and the IP location bars her from many "US only" sites that she frequents.

To combat this, my proposal is to Install another browser (Firefox in this case) and rig that through a U.S-based Open Proxy server. This would be her "US" browser.

However, I wasn't sure whether changing the proxy for one browser's settings would change it in a central location for others.

So, long question short: can I configure proxy settings for one browser only on OSX, or do they carry between all browsers?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Any application can network directly or use the system settings. As @geekosaur states, Opera has its own setting, as does Firefox (along with the option to use the system settings). Chrome and Safar use the system settings.

It's really up to the application developer how they implement their proxy controls (if they even have proxying!).


Mobile responsive Website loaded into an App for review I am developing an website for  client, the website is mobile responsive say www.myresponsivewebsite.com. The client want to bundle this website as a iOS application using the UIwebview and load the website when the App opens.

Now according to the Apple review guidelines
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#minimum-functionality
says

  Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store.

So my question is :

Will the app be rejected for sure with only the website repackaged as an App?
Having a few native screen and loading the web page would be wise solution to make sure that the app does not get rejected.

Note : The client does not want the app to be fully in Native environment.
Reference : 1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7421002/app-rejected-from-apple-app-store-because-uiwebview-need-some-advice
2] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6735476/will-ios-apps-that-are-just-uiwebviews-be-rejected

Oh it will get rejected, no matter how fancy or how good you want to cover it. If the app is mostly just web, you will get rejected. I didn't even have a web browser involved and it got rejected for "not entertaining enough" but it had to do with medical, so idk.

Try adding tabs (UITabBarController) for different sections, eg. about, contact, etc. with pages designed specifically for this "app" without links so the client can't go off track. For example About tab will show about.html without links. (still think it will be rejected)

Or simply just make an API to load these stuff programmatically?


How to choose the "From" account in El Capitan Mail when composing e-mail I use Apple Mail using two e-mail accounts (both IMAP but I don't think it really matters). Before El Capitan when composing an e-mail, one could choose the account the e-mail should be send from using a drop-down in the compose-window. However with the El Capitan update this dropdown is gone and there seems no way to select the account the e-mail should be send from after composing the e-mail.

The Mail settings do have an option to select the sending account. Here I can set it to one account or use the open mailbox as indication for which account to send mail from.

Is there any way to switch the sending account after composing an e-mail in El Capitan?

Select your preferred email address in Preferences > Composing > Send new messages from:

If for some reason that doesn't work, try rebooting.


Any way to move contacts between groups on iPhone? Is there any way to move a contact in Contacts on my iPhone into a group? I can create a new contact in any group, but I don't see a way to move an existing contact between groups.

Seems like an oversight that I would have to go back to my Mac, or delete a contact and manually recreate their card in a different group, in order to do this.

Go to "groups" in "Contacts" and uncheck all the groups except the one the contact you want to move is in.
Search for the contact you want to move and "Share" the contact  to your own email address or phone # via text.
Click "edit" on the contact you just sent and delete it.
Go back to Groups and uncheck the group the contact was sent from.
Leave only the Group you want the contact in checked.
Go to your email/text and import the new contact.  It will automatically be added to the only active group which you selected.
Go back to Contact Groups and select all the groups you want showing on your phone.

Voila!


What do i need to upgrade a Mac? I'm a PhD student and I work with a Mac which is not mine (I mean, it's property of the university). I'd like to upgrade the OS to the most recent version (compatibly with the hardware and other stuff...), but I don't now how this works.
The questions are the following:

Is the Mac "connected" to an account? (Actually I use it with no problem, but ...)
To upgrade the OS, do I need to use an Apple account? (I think yes.) Does this account have to be associated with some purchase done in the past?
Can I downgrade if something goes wrong?

I'm not sure what you mean. You need to be more specific. If it's that the Mac is tied to an Apple ID, no: only the current installation and user accounts are.
Yes, you'll need one to download the installer unless you get it some other way (someone else downloads it, you use internet recovery, etc.)
Sort of. To my knowledge, you can only do so if you have a Time Machine backup of relevant files from before your upgrade. You'd be able to move most changes back over once you finished the downgrade, but I don't know of any easy way to restore an older version directly from the current one without losing data.


Is there a way to pickup iPhone calls on my Macbook Pro? I have my iPhone headset plugged into my Macbook Pro so that I can listen to some proper music and have my Iphone 4 lying next to my MB Pro.

Now, of course, it would be really really fancy if there was a way I could proxy my incoming iPhone calls to my MB Pro via Bluetooth (essentially turning my MB Pro into a bluetooth headset) so that I can still pick up calls with my iPhone headset, even though it is plugged into my MB Pro.

Is there a way to do this?

This is a feature apple brought with the lastest OS X : OS X Yosemite.

OS X Yosemite is still a beta and will be released publicly in fall 2014.


Bootcamp stuck at: Please wait while boot camp assistant is removing the partitions it created I am trying to install windows 10 as dual boot on my macbook pro 2017, running mac os mojave (10.14) using bootcamp assistant.

It runs normally and then in the end where it removes the temporary partitions it created, it gets stuck, for hours and hours.

I have:

Tried running the process multiple times.
Filevault is not active (never was)
Restarted the system many times (which removes the partitions, including windows one too, maybe because the process didn't complete?

This is the diskutil list dump from terminal:

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         340.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED             8.0 GB     disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                152.0 GB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +340.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            63.6 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 23.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                508.3 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US... +4.7 GB     disk2

/dev/disk3 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            Boot Camp              +1.2 GB     disk3

The error image looks like this:

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Update:

It got fixed after mac os mojave developer beta 2 update.

I've just encountered the same issue as you and have resolved it.

The issue for me was caused because I am using a windows ISO that contains x86 and x64 versions which is too big for the small reserve space bootcamp sets aside for the install ISO. Get a version that is specific to what you need x64 OR x86

anyway, you need to make a backup of your mac on a hard drive, using Time Machine is fine and the easiest way. Or simple remove your critical files and set up from fresh.

REBOOT
HOLD COMMAND+R
ENTER DISK UTILITY

You need to find the master drive for the hard drive that has the issue. (you can select view all drives/volumes on the top left if you don't see it straight away.

My drive was something like "APPLE SSD0256R DRIVE"

click ERASE and name it exactly as you see the name written before . (It should be MAC OS JOURNALED from the drop down menu too) Now click ERASE again to confirm.

You will now have restored the drive to a single partition.

QUIT DISK UTILITY

Now proceed to use time machine to restore or reinstall Mac OS from the previous menu.

That will put you back in the state before attempting to install windows.

P.S. I did try to use the command line options as mentioned elsewhere but they just would not work for me so this was the only way.
Hope you get it all sorted!
_/_


How can I combine multiple PDFs using the command line? Is there a quick one-liner to combine multiple pdfs into one?

I know it can be done using Preview.app

Have a look at "Combining PDF files on the command line in OSX" in Joining PDF Files in OS X From the Command Line.

  It turns out that from Tiger onwards, OSX ships with a Python script
  that does exactly what you need. The script is already executable, and
  Python is pre-installed on OS X, so all you need to do to run it is
  opening the Terminal and typing

"/System/Library/Automator/Combine PDF Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py" -o PATH/TO/YOUR/MERGED/FILE.pdf /PATH/TO/ORIGINAL/1.pdf /PATH/TO/ANOTHER/2.pdf /PATH/TO/A/WHOLE/DIR/*.pdf

Also on the linked page it suggests making a symbolic link for the join.py file to make typing easier however they omitted the -s in ln -s ... ..., and without it, a hard link is created.  Probably wouldn't matter, however though I'd mention it.


Not able to get a partition that fills SSD I installed a 512GB SSD in my Macbook Pro. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get a partition over 256GB. I tried a couple of time to erase it in recovery mode but it does not work.

I just want one big partition.

Does anyone know what is happening?

$ sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93…
      409640   511524320
   511933960   487011680      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECA…
   998945640     1269536      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECA…
  1000215176           7
  1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
  1000215215           1         Sec GPT header

Your new 512 GB disk has about 260 GB of unallocated disk space (starting at block 409640 and ending at block 511933959).

The on-board OS X tools don't allow you to move the beginning of a partition (the second partition starting at block 511933960) to smaller block numbers (like 409640).

My advice: create a new partition in the unallocated disk space. Clone the content of your current main volume to the new one. Then remove the current main volume and expand the new main volume. Additionally you should change the wrong type of your Recovery HD (i=3).

Preparation:

Attach a backup drive and backup your drive.
Detach the backup drive
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup. Booting to Recovery Mode is not conducive because the Recovery HD will be removed in one of the steps below. And you can't remove a partition used as a boot volume.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan). If you boot to a full system and login as admin you have to prepend sudo to execute special commands like gpt ...!

Modify the GUID partition table

Not to get confused with the index number and the relative on-disk position of a partition:

AFAIK the default gpt settings allow 128 partition entries in the partition table. The index i of those entries runs from 1 to 128. You may use any free index number to add a new partition. The on-disk position of a partition is independent of the index number. Example: You can add the first partition (block 2-1000) with i=43, the second (block 1001-2000) with i=42 and the last one (block 2001-3000) with i=2. To remove the entry of the second partition you mustn't use i=2 (the on-disk position) but i=42!

Enter diskutil list and gpt -r show /dev/diskX (with diskX: the disk identifier of your internal disk (probably disk0)) to get an overview. In the commands below I assume the disk identifier is disk0.
Now modify the type of the Recovery HD:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 3 /dev/disk0
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 998945640 -i 3 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Modify you main partition:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 511933960 -i 4 -s 487011680 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Add a new partition in the unallocated disk space:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 409640 -i 2 -s 511524320 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Check if everything is fine:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Your partition table should finally look like this:

     start        size  index  contents
         0           1         PMBR
         1           1         Pri GPT header
         2          32         Pri GPT table
        34           6
        40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640   511524320      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
 511933960   487011680      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
 998945640     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1000215176           7
1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
1000215215           1         Sec GPT header

To quit Terminal enter:

exit

and quit Terminal
Format your new partition and clone your old main volume to the new volume:

Open Disk Utility and erase/format the new partition (261.9 GB) to HFS+ Journaled. Give it a different volume name like Cantaloup2. The old main volume Cantaloup has the size 249.3 GB!
Restore your old main volume to the empty new one.
Boot to your new main volume Cantaloup2.
If everything is working, remove your old main volume Cantaloup and expand  Cantaloup2 to the full size.
Rename Cantaloup2 to Cantaloup.


How to disable "x days since last backup" reminders in High Sierra Since I updated to High Sierra (Version 10.13.1 to be exact) the "x days since last backup" reminders have returned, showing up every day or so in the top right corner of the screen. I checked, and the Back Up Automatically box in System Preferences is still unchecked.

Is there any way to make the reminders not appear again?

I'm not interested in backing up using Time Machine tool I've had poor success restoring my computer with it one previous time.

I had the same problem - you have to have your back up disk installed / mounted.  Then 'Select Backup Disk' from System Preferences / Time Machine, choose to 'Remove' - this way you force it to forget the disk and so it no longer reminds you about 'XX days since last backup'.


Drag and drop from iPhoto may remove the pictures from iPhoto Library, how to recover it? I modified the "Recursive Image File Processing Droplet" example provided from Apple in AppleScript Editor to rename any dropped file and move it to a custom folder. It worked seemingly flawlessly when I dropped images directly from iPhoto. Unfortunately I noticed now that the files where moved out of the iPhoto Library. So now the iPhoto Library is corrupted and iPhoto show the files I processe.

First of all when I dropped the files on my droplet it showed reassuringly the green "plus" sign, so I thought it was actually providing the droplet a copy of the file. Isn't this a sign of bad user interface?

Now, I'd like to know how to deal with the corrupted iPhoto Library and the missing pictures. So my real question is how to recover a corrupted iPhoto Library in the most painless way, when all happened is that some files where renamed and moved away. I wrote all the story as a warning for people who may do the same thing.

My system is OS X 10.7.4 and I am using iPhoto '09 8.1.2.

Most painless way: Restore from back up.

Assuming the photos haven't actually been deleted, but instead some form of database corruption:

Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.

If that fails:

Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)

This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.

Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards

TD


Hard Drive not working with VirtualBox on Mac OS X 10.10.2 Basically,

I have a Seagate Expansion Drive (1TB), I have ejected it from my MacBook and mounted it into the guest virtual machine, it comes up with the message:

  This USB device can perform faster if you connect it to a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port.

as if it were recognized, and then when I go to Devices and Printers, the Hard Drive is in the "Unspecified" section, and has a warning sign next to it, I click on it and then it says it needs troubleshooting, I go through the troubleshooting process, and it says that I need to re-install the device driver, so I click "apply", and it searches for a driver, and then it shows that it's installing the device driver software and it comes up with:

  Device driver software was not successfully installed

It says the hard drive has a driver problem, when I have been using it fine on OS X?

Windows 7 does not natively support USB 3.0, which is what the Seagate® Expansion Desktop 1TB USB Drive - Specs interface is.  To work around this Windows 7 native limitation, if no USB 3.0 3rd party driver for this device is available, you should be able to get it work by either plugging it into a USB 2.0 Port or into a USB 2.0 Hub before attaching it to the virtual machine.


How can I get the list of input sources shown when switching between input sources? I cannot get it to show on another MacBook.

I'm expecting the list to be shown when I press Control+Space.

The issue is that often conflicts exist between the shortcuts used for changing Input Sources and those used for showing the Spotlight search field.

To check/change these, follow these steps:

Go to Apple > System Preferences
Select the Keyboard preference pane
Select the Shortcuts tab
In the list at left, if you notice a warning icon next to either or both the Spotlight and Input Sources options, then you know you've got a conflict. If so,

you can select Spotlight on the left to remove the ticks from the checkboxes, or
you can set new shortcuts by clicking the current shortcut and then pressing the new key combination you want to use.

Note: Obviously you can change either or both sets of shortcuts to suit your needs, and you may need to do this on either or both Macs.


Apple Watch Activities: Outdoor Cycle shows no speed or distance When I use my Apple Watch Workout for running (Outdoor Run activity), the distance and speed shows while running.  However when I use the same for riding my bicycle (Outdoor Cycle activity) neither distance or speed are showing.  When the bike ride has ended, the activity is able to show the GPS map.

Why does the Outdoor Cycle Activity not show speed or distance?

Completely independent of my Apple Watch usage, I had reviewed my privacy settings on my iPhone and had disabled some location services that did not seem necessary to me.  One of these related to motion calibration.  Apparently this privacy setting was also applied on my Apple Watch.

  To enable this setting, on your iPhone (iOS 12):
  Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services -> Motion Calibration & Distance

I also assume that this will affect the accuracy of my running distance/speed logging as previously my Apple Watch ignored the GPS data and only used the accelerometers.

I couldn't find this answer on Stack Exchange.  Found the original solution on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7018497 .


"File Open" dialog is missing sidebar items I'm having the strangest issue since updating to OS X El Capitan. My "Open File" dialogs show the sidebar but all my main (and useful) locations are missing. Take a look at this screenshot. This screenshot shows Keychain Access but this happens in Safari when I'm trying to attach a file to Gmail for example, or uploading an image to Facebook.

What I would like is for the sidebar to show my home directories, such as Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.

Help?

Go to your user library in Finder. Hold down ⌥ while opening the Go menu and click Library.
Navigate to the Preferences folder.
Remove any files that are or contain com.apple.finder.plist. (The removal of those files will very likely reset your Favourites list in Finder.)
Restart or log out and log back in again then empty the trash and try again.

Restarting might not be necessary. As madpoet says:

  You can also relaunch Finder if you don't want to reboot or log out. Right click on Finder icon while you're pressing ⌥ and you'll see the Relaunch option there.

Alternatively, you can use this Bash oneliner by Christophe Marois:

cd ~/Library/Preferences && sudo find com.apple.finder.plist* -exec rm {} \; && killall Finder


How is continuous play with song cues in mixtapes handled in iTunes? The question relates to something similar to cue sheets in iTunes that from my understanding is not available. However if I were to buy a continuous play DJ mix from the iTunes store it must be handled in some other way, right?

I don't own any purchased DJ mixes from the iTunes store so I can not check this but I have a few that I have gotten from other places and it would be nice to add in song information and track cues in the mix time line. Does anyone know how Apple handles this in iTunes?

I guess that it would also apply to podcasts and such. :)

Jason Salaz, lost my cookie :). Yes, cue sheets are mostly (entirely?) format agnostic but their usefulness depends on the player, as it's the component that adds cue information upon playback. In case of iTunes it appears that Apple embeds this information as metadata in a m4a container.

I tried using GarageBand to do this upon your suggestion, and it created an m4a file with embedded cue data. However GarageBand does other unrelated work, like reconverting the audio, normalizing and so on. I found an audio book editor on the Appstore that may do what I want as well, or perhaps a m4a metadata editor will as well if I find one.


Using apps on one device with different Apple ID's I was wondering, if I login to the app store with a different Apple ID on a device, will I be able to still use the apps on the device not downloaded or purchased from the current Apple ID?

Example: My wife has an iPhone with many different apps she's downloaded. If I took her phone, logged out of her app store Apple ID, then logged in with my Apple ID, and downloaded other apps, would I be able to use the apps she already downloaded on the phone without having to log her back into the App Store?

iCloud Family Sharing is perfect for this situation.

https://www.apple.com/icloud/family-sharing/

It allows you to share each others apps, pictures and purchased media without any issues.  It works pretty well in our experience.


Duplicated mail settings caused email loss in Mail on Lion Oh dear, not having much luck at the moment. Having recently wasted hours on a simple problem, I've transferred my anti-Midas magic to a friend, and lost some email data. Could someone advice (a) whether the below was an obviously stupid idea, and (b) if I can do anything in the way of recovery?

So, my friend uses Hotmail via POP3 in Mail, in Mac Lion on a MBP. This is set to delete mail in a week after it is read from the server (although she trims mail manually in the Hotmail web interface, and is fairly sure old mail wasn't being deleted, since she still has very old mail in her web-based inbox).

OK, so she's started a new company, and has purchased a domain/hosting package, and needed assistance setting it up. The requirement was that mail should pool in her Mail inbox together with Hotmail, but she should have a profile widget in the New Mail interface that lets her set which email address each message should come from.

Easy enough, I reasoned. The domain was already set to forward to her Hotmail address, so the hosting company is not doing any mail holding - just sending it on. I figured that creating a new mail profile which had all her Hotmail credentials except for the From address, which would be the info@example.com address we were setting up, would do the trick. Now, at this stage you're thinking:

that's worth a go,
that won't work, or
don't do that, you'll break it!

I'm hoping you're not thinking 3, since I went ahead and did that, and although the profile created, it caused an error, and did not appear to work. The error was:

The account path /Users/<name>/Library/Mail/V2/POP-<email>@<pop3-server>
is already being used by the account "Hotmail".

"OK", said I - and duly deleted the newly created "MyDomain" account. Sadly this removed the inbox, drafts and sent items related to the (perfectly functional) "Hotmail" account (which I didn't touch). A call to Apple support in India resulted in the specialist logging a call - and he seemed amenable to the idea that, since the profile popped up that error when we saved it, it should have warned us that it was about to do something catastrophic. I offered to log a bug with Apple via the web, but he said there would be no need, since he'd already done it.

So, either I hit against a Mail bug, and I should be hopping up and down, or I did something perfectly stupid, and I should be sitting in the naughty corner for a few hours. Honest thoughts very welcome on this point.

Meanwhile, my friend and I - in the absence of backups - are trying data recovery software (Disk Drill) to get back the mails that have been lost. We will see if this works tomorrow, but if any other ideas are forthcoming, I am all ears. We've dug into the Hotmail mail folder, and the important-sounding folders are 40KB or so - i.e. basically empty.

Help! and TIA.

Edit: it's a long shot, but my friend might have been running iCloud. Should this back up all her email, or just me.com email? We went into the interface and couldn't see anything under email (everything seemed empty) but I guess that might be because she wasn't logged in, or iCloud doesn't back this stuff up, or it wasn't running...

If I'm reading the initial question correctly, you wish to select which account new mail comes from.

In Mail prefs > Accounts > Account Information tab you can enter multiple email addresses in the Email Address field. You must separate them by commas.

When you create a new message The From dropdown will list every email address. These addresses will be used in the From: field.


To detect whether my phone is jailbroken or not? How would I know whether my iPhone is jailbroken?

If it is jailbroken, would you recommend that I update to a newer version?

I think the most simple test is to see if the cydia app is installed.

But that app can sometimes be hidden.

So you could scroll all the way to the left to spotlight search, type in "cydia" if the app comes up, then its jailbroken.

But It could be that the spotlight feature is disabled. In this case your device is jailbroken as well.

Technically I think it would be possible to hide the cydia app even from the spotlight search. But I don't see in any point in doing this. So I think checking for the cydia app is pretty watertight.


MacOS underestimates battery life on replacement battery I recently replaced the battery in my late 2011 MacBook Pro, and the battery seems to do fine except that it will drop very quickly from about 75% down to 2% and then continue to work for quite a while (I haven't timed it but probably close to an hour if not more of normal use).

What could cause this, and how might I fix it, so that it shows a more reasonable battery life estimate?

It's a little irritating having to guess at how much time I have left before it sleeps.

coconutBattery says:

Current Charge: 114 mAh (2%)

Note: this hasn't changed from 114 in the 15 (edit: 20) or so minutes since I first checked.

Full Charge Capacity: 5752 mAh
Design Capacity: 6900 mAh
Manufacture date: 2015-06-24
Loadcycles: 13
macOS Battery status: Good
Discharging with: 12.15 Watts
Manufacturer: Simplo
Battery failure: Yes

That last one makes me a little nervous. What does "Battery failure: Yes" mean?

I'd do a NVRAM and SMC reset (in that order). Before following the steps below, ensure you have no external hardware connected and that you're using the built-in keyboard.

Reset the NVRAM

Reset the NVRAM on your MBP as follows:

Shut down your machine. That is, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your MBP reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your MBP reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Reset the SMC

There's a couple of ways you can reset the SMC on your MBP, however I prefer the following steps:

Shut down your MBP
Keep the power cable plugged in
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button

After resetting both the NVRAM and SMC, use your computer to determine how well macOS is reporting the remaining battery life.

Battery Condition

To view what macOS has determined as the battery's condition, hold down the Option key and click on the battery icon in the menu bar. You'll now see the condition reported at the top of the drop-down menu that appears.

coconutBattery

If you haven't already, I recommend you download and install coconutBattery 1. It provides a whole heap of information that you'll find useful!

1 Note: I am not affiliated with coconutBattery in any way.


What does Apple Hardware Test error "4HDD/11/40000004:SATA(0,0)" mean? I have a 2007 24" iMac with 4GB RAM and internal 320GB HD. A while ago the machine froze and then would not boot. When I run the Extended Apple Hardware Test I get the error "4HDD/11/40000004:SATA(0,0)". Is this more likely to be a problem with the HD or the logic board?

A quick web search for that error indicates that it is a hard drive error. Some have suggested being able to boot from the disk in either Safe Mode or Target Disk Mode from the system install disk, mainly to get needed content off before a complete failure if it hasn't happened yet. Either way, you need a new hard drive.


MacBook Pro LED light flashing My LED light on my MacBook Pro flashes off for about 0.1 second then turns back on and will flash off again for the same amount of time while I'm using Skype.  Is someone spying on my camera?

I'm assuming you're talking of the camera status indicator LED. If it turns on for a svery short time, it means that some program tried to access the camera. From your description this is likely Skype.

As far as I remember there was a problem similar to this in an earlier version of Skype where it repeatedly tried to initialize the camera. Update your Skype to ensure this is not the case.

If that doesn't help, then check the camera settings in Skype. For example try not selecting your built-in camera as a video source in Skype at all. If that cures the flashing light, you know that the cause is Skype.


Can't use or change my system password. Lion 10.7.5 I've been having password problems for the past month or so. I first noticed that I couldn't update Flash because the installer rejected my system password. Today I tried to solve the problem, looking online for fixes, but nothing has worked so far.

Tried to reset my password on the "Users & Groups" System Preferences pane.
Restarted holding Option at the boot chimes > "Recovery HD" > "Mac OS X Utilities" > "Utilities" > "Terminal". Entered reset password on the command line. Kept terminal open. Completed the "Reset Password" pane. "Password not saved. You may not have permission to edit this disk or a general failure has occurred."
Restarted in "Single-User Mode": Command+S at boot chimes. In the command line I entered:

mount -uw /
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
dscl . passwd /Users/myusername mypassword
reboot

After this third attempt, I attempted to install some software and received the following message: "An error prevented the installation of .... Authorization failed. 100022".

I also used Disk Utility on my "Macintosh HD" to verify and repair permissions, which was successful; however, when I tried to verify and repair the disk itself, I got "Incorrect number of thread records (4, 24418)".

I purchased a new SSD and battery earlier this summer, knowing that I would have to clone my existing HDD to the new drive, but now I can't do much of anything without my password. If I could get a working password, I could try to repair my HDD with DiskWarrior.

Here's another question: how can I create a "Repair Disk Partition" on my new SSD, using existing 10.7 software? Here's an article which seems to say the Disk Utility can do it: "OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202294.

If I only had a password! Thank you all in advance for your wisdom.

Perhaps try enabling the root user from single user mode?

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
passwd root

https://www.personalmacgeniuses.com/2013/10/31/case-of-the-missing-admin-account/#.V8qUxGW_2AU