Merging pdfs with automator I'm scanning my mail and end up with two versions: front & back.

Files are named: scanf 01.pdf & scanb 01.pdf

I'm scanning about 40 pages a day, so it ends up to quite some lists.

Now, with automator, I've done the following:

Get Selected Finder Items # "scanf 01.pdf" & "scanb 01.pdf"
Combine PDF Pages
Move Finder Items # to Desktop
Name Single Item # so that its not a random name, but "Scan.pdf"
Add Date or Time # "Scan 2013-01-07.pdf"
Make Sequential # "Scan 2013-01-07 01.pdf" (is at least the idea)
Label Finder Items # Adds a red label, so I didnt see it yet

Step 6 is not working, as the sequence starts over every time I select two new files. So it says 'name already exists', after that it stops.

Questions:

How can I make step 6 work?
Is there something that automatically merges files, so that Scanf 01.pdf is merged with Scanb 01.pdf and that Scanf 02.pdf is merged with Scanb 02.pdf, and so on. As my current automator setup requires me to select the two files.

I didn't really test this, but you could use a shell script instead.

#!/bin/bash

join="/System/Library/Automator/Combine PDF Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py"
date=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d')
last=$(ls ~/Desktop/$date*.pdf 2> /dev/null | tail -n1 | sed -E 's/.* 0*(.*)\.pdf$/\1/g' || 0)

cd ~/Documents/Scanned/
for f in scanf*.pdf; do
    ((last++))
    output="$HOME/Desktop/$date $(printf %03d $last).pdf"
    python "$join" -o "$output" "$f" "${f/scanf/scanb}"
    osascript -e 'on run {f}
tell app "Finder" to set label index of (posix file f as alias) to 2
end' "$output"
done


Can I set up two Samsung monitors to my mac book air mid 2012? I have a Mac Book Air mid 2012 and want to connect two Samsung monitors- I have one through the thunderbolt and the other through the USB port but it is not working properly

Can I set up two Samsung monitors to my mac book air mid 2012?

No.

USB does not generally have the bandwidth for video data.

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp650?locale=en_US

This MacBook Air only additional supports one display via the thunderbolt port.

  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native
  resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an
  external display, both at millions of colors


Earphone security risk Can plugging public earphones in our iPhone 5's audio jack pose any security risk? Can our data (pictures, videos) be accessed? How often one can try a unknown earphone into iPhone 5c's audio jack in term of security and privacy risk?

There is no security risk. That is only audio and no data access is possible.

But there maybe some health concerns if using previously used earphone that are not sterilized. Whipping them with a germs killer wet-tissue or alcohol should do it.


How to ignore particular USB device given a vid and pid? I'm running Sierra v10.12.5. I'm trying to flash an stm32f100 chip using openocd. As per the documentation:

  For info the original ST-LINK enumerates using the mass storage usb class; however, its implementation is completely broken. The result is this causes issues under Linux. The simplest solution is to get Linux to ignore the ST-LINK using one of the following methods:

  modprobe -r usb-storage && modprobe usb-storage quirks=483:3744:i
  add "options usb-storage quirks=483:3744:i" to /etc/modprobe.conf

I tested this solution on an Ubuntu machine and it works. Now I'd like to replicate this on a Mac but I can't seem to find any information on how to do this.

modprobe does not exist in macOS / OS X as it is a Linux-specific program.

The macOS equivalent is kextload.

Have you tried to use pystlink to flash your chip?


My iCloud account was infected with a ransomware virus thru in a Windows Desktop Do I have to pay the ransom or there is a software I can use? The fies were encrypted and a .ooss extension was added. Thanks in advance for all your input.

It depends.

They didn’t infect your iCloud rather they encrypted the files on the local Windows machine in the synced directory.

If you have a backup of the files taken before they encrypted your files, then no, you don’t have to pay.  Simply restore your data.  If you don’t have a back up, you will probably have to pay.  The good news is this is very likely to work.  These scams don’t work if people know that paying doesn’t get your data back.

Whether you restore your data from backup or pay the ransom, make sure you do the following

Change your iCloud password from a non-infected machine in case the virus had a keylogger
Wipe that machine (format and reinstall)
Change the passwords on other accounts you may have visited.
If any of the documents contained banking or sensitive info, contact those institutions and change logins/passwords. It’s advisable to let them know what happened.
Update your anti-virus

As far as breaking the encryption, it’s next to impossible.  It’s not so much a “password” they used, but an encryption key and attempting to brute force it could take years; many, many years.

I wish there was better news I could give you, but you do have some work to do to recover and clean up.  You can take some solace knowing that municipalities and government agencies with dedicated IT departments have been hit with this as well.


How to delete all music on my iPhone How do I delete all the music on my iPhone.  I tried doing it through iTunes but it says my collection is not managed by iTunes and I don't want to erase and sync because all my apps are nicely backed up and sorted with iTunes.

I have only seen a way of deleting song by song on the phone.

Make sure you really want to delete all the music because they can’t be restored afterwards.

Open General » Usage in Settings.
Wait for iOS to load all the apps that take up the storage of your iPhone/iPad.
Find and select Music from the list.
You’ll see All Music in the list. Tap the Edit button on the top right, and choose to delete All Music.


Is it possible to access an iPhone over SSH on 3G? I am trying to see if I can SSH to my iPhone using the 3G network. So, given my IP, I am trying to make contact through SSH, using the defined port (which is no longer 22, I changed it).

It all works fine on my private wifi network.
For some reason, it doesn't on 3G...

Any ideas ?

Thanks

a) Unless you have jailbroken your device, iOS doesn't have an SSH server to run.

b) If you have jailbroken your device, it will not be possible to SSH into your iPhone over cellular. You are behind one of the most complex NAT setups there is. When you move between towers, and lose signal, you lose your lease to a unique ID with the cellular network (like an IP). However, every time your connection is re-established with your carrier, you're connected to a new tower and your connection is routed differently through another NAT and finally out somewhere, probably in another state.

In researching this alone, over the course of 10 minutes, my iPhone returned 2 different IPs from the internet, one in Florida, one in Pennsylvania.

Short answer: Wi-Fi = yes | Cellular = no


Windows 7 only seeing some Pictures on iPhone When viewing the Camera Roll in a friends iphone I am able to see many pictures.
However when viewing the same folder in Windows Explorer I can only see a small number by comparison.
My friend uses iCloud also and syncs to it and the pictures appear to be all there.
The issue is that she wishes to copy the pictures from the phone to local PC storage to clear space on the iPhone memory.

If on the iPhone you choose to optimize storage of your iCloud Photo Library, then only some of your photos are stored in full resolution on your iPhone. That explains why you can only see a subset of the files from the Windows Explorer.

The rest of the photos are stored in high-resolution in your iCloud account only. You can access them at www.icloud.com from your Windows computer.


Specfic epubs downloaded outside the iBooks store not syncing on a particular mac I have a handful of epubs I downloaded outside of the iBooks Store and read them across two different macs and an iPhone.

For reasons I cannot explain some books’ data  (highlights, notes, place in book) will sync across the devices while others do not.

The following options are turned on in my iPhone settings:

Sync Bookmarks and Notes
Sync Collections

On both macs I have the following turned on:

Sync bookmarks, highlights, collections across devices

I have not used syncing via iTunes. So some books sync via iCloud while others do not.

Despite syncing turned on, I cannot get a Macbook Pro to sync with the highlights on the iPhone for certain book. I drag the epub into iBooks on the Macbook and it thinks its a “new” book. FWIW, I have a Mac Mini that seems to sync fine.

How can I correct this?

Hardware:

Macbook Pro
Intel Core i7 3.1 Ghz
OS X 10.11.4

Mac Mini
2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
OS X 10.11.4

iPhone SE 64GB
iOS 9.3.1

Thanks in advance.

Go to system preferences-> icloud -> icloud drive options...

Then look for ibook entry, check it. Done


New Magic Trackpad Anomalies? Pairs fine, Trackpad Preferences can't find it New Magic Trackpad Anomalies?

Bizarre problem here with my new Magic Trackpad with Force Touch. The trackpad pairs via Bluetooth no problem, and shows up as actively connected in the Bluetooth connection window, as you can see in the screencap below:

As you can see above, the trackpad is connected properly.

But the trackpad preferences console fails to find the trackpad, thus displaying the message below for two hours now.

Yes, I've tried turning Bluetooth and the trackpad off, and removed the batteries from the old trackpad. Still, however, it renders the trackpad basically useless; it works, but lags at a slow speed and has none of my preferred gesture settings.

Anybody having similar issues? A fix?

new Magic Trackpad and new Magic Mouse, need OS X El Capitan. In previous versions of OS X, it will pair normally as a HID device, but its particular features won't be available.


What do some of the / directories do? When I run cd / && ls I see some directories in which I know the purpose of, and then others I don't.

Here are the directories I do not know the functions of:
/etc
/opt
/private

What do all of these do? Thanks in advance.

Edit: I also see some empty folders, like /cores. Are they safe to remove?

This link explains what you want very briefly, with this Apple doc doing a better job, and this older post really explaing.

/etc: Machine local system configuration, holds administrative, configuration, and other system files; Contains host-specific configuration files.
/opt: Has a very similar role to /usr/local and they seem interchangeable. However, from my experience working with other Linux/UNIX sysadmins, there seems to be a preference for /usr/local in BSD-based UNIX OSs.
/private: The Unix core: other directories are symbolic links to folders within here
/cores: When applications crash, they can save a lot of information about the state when they crashed here.

So you can delete the content of /cores, but you shouldn't remove the folder itself.


Videos not autoplaying in Safari in 10.12 In website sites like Twitter & Facebook, I used to (can’t remember when things “broke”) have videos autoplay, but they no longer do.  (Videos do autoplay correctly in Firefox.)  I can get them to play after I double-click them, which maximizes them to full-screen.  If I minimize back to a std inline video, they continue playing “correctly.”  I have some extensions, but disabling them doesn’t help.  Also, disabling all plugins doesn’t help.  Suggestions to fix?

There is a hidden setting in Safari that disables auto-playback of videos.

To enable auto-playback, paste the commands below in Terminal.app (CMD+Space, type "Terminal"). Quit Safari first.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool true
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool true
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool true
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool true

You may need to reboot your Mac.

To disable auto-playback in Safari use the commands below:

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool false
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview WebKitMediaPlaybackAllowsInline -bool false
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool false
defaults write com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2AllowsInlineMediaPlayback -bool false

In case this should not work, please let us know if the video-playback works with the Safari Technology Preview.


Time Capsule and multiple Macs Does the Time Capule support Time Machine backups from multiple macs out of the box?

Yes. Each Mac get's it's own sparse bundle disk image.


Cannot boot Ubuntu on a triple boot system (Catalina, Win10, and Ubuntu 18.4.4) I am running a 2012 Macbook Air (5,2) with a 1TB SSD installed. I plan on using Mac as my main OS, windows for apps unavailable on mac, and linux for programming. Using the Mac Boot Manager (hold alt while booting up) allows me to boot Windows and Mac with no problem. But when I choose EFI boot to run Ubuntu, it then loads Grub. Choosing Ubuntu in Grub then gets stuck in emergency mode. I have installed rEFInd, but when I choose ubuntu it switches to Grub and rEFInd no longer comes up on startup. I have listed my disk partitions below:

% diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         450.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Transfer                50.0 GB    disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         250.0 GB   disk0s4
   5:                 Linux Swap                         6.0 GB     disk0s5
   6:           Linux Filesystem                         244.0 GB   disk0s6

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +450.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     168.3 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 41.5 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                523.5 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.1 GB    disk1s5

How would I go about booting Ubuntu?

Update:

After reading the comments, I tried to create a second EFI partition. In disk utility I added a 200MB partition out of the APFS partition. Disk Utility said that the process was successful, but now my APFS will not mount.

    /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               449.8 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Boot                    200.6 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data Transfer                50.0 GB    disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data                         250.0 GB   disk0s5
   6:                 Linux Swap                         6.0 GB     disk0s6
   7:           Linux Filesystem                         244.0 GB   disk0s7

At this point, I just don't know what to do :(

With respect to your model/year Mac, the boot files for Windows and Ubuntu are installed to a FAT32 formatted volume stored in the EFI partition. Both operation systems store some of their boot files in the EFI/Boot folder. This causes a conflict which can result in either or both operation systems not appearing in or not booting from the Mac Startup Manager.

One possible solution would be to have two EFI partitions. It does not really matter when you create the second EFI partition. However, the second EFI has to exist by step 4 below. Here I will assume the second EFI partition exists at the end the drive (disk0s7).

Install macOS.
Install Windows. Windows will put its boot files in the first EFI partition (disk0s1).
Install Ubuntu. Ubuntu will put its boot files in the first EFI partition (disk0s1). Some of the Windows boot files will be overwritten.
Add the Windows boot files to the second EFI partition. The steps are given below.

Boot from the Windows installation flash drive. Enter shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt window. Enter the following commands. Here I assume windows is installed to drive C: and partition 7 contains the second EFI volume. If not, then make the appropriate substitutions.

diskpart
select disk 0
select partition 7
assign letter=s
list volume
exit
bcdboot c:\windows /s s:
exit


Is alarm vibration suddenly broken in iOS 7? I have alarms set up in my iOS Clock app, with both "Vibrate on silent" and "Vibrate on ring" switches set to ON in the Settings app. For the last several months I've been relying on a silent audio file to create a vibrate-only alarm to wake me up. But this morning, it seemed to stop working — the alarm went off, but made no sound and did not vibrate. Only the screen lit up like usual.

I've tried deleting and re-creating the alarms, un-toggling and re-toggling the vibrate switches in Settings, trying alarms using the built-in ringtones, and rebooting the device, and nothing seems to make alarms vibrate again. As well, the state of Do Not Disturb mode has no effect (though it of course never has).

Even stranger, I also have some other iPhones to test, and they're all now inexplicably showing the same behavior.

Affected OSes:

iOS 7.0.2

Affected phones:

iPhone 4S
iPhone 5S

I've been using this standard alarm behavior for a long time, and suddenly it's not working without having performed an iOS update.

Any suggestions?

(Sorry making this an answer, I don't have enough points to comment yet)

This probably isn't your issue as you've recreated your alarms, but I can cause my phone (iPhone 4S, 7.0.3) to do only "one" vibration by creating conflicting alarms for the same time, one having the sound as "none" and the other to any random sound.

It took a bit of juggling, but I managed to have the sound alarm start first and then immediately the none alarm started and the sound and vibrations stopped.


Docker for Mac 10.11.6 will not start, uninstall hangs and docker menu will not open when running Something has gone wrong with Docker on my mac and I'm trying to remove and re-install versions but I can't get the menu open to do a factory reset.
Every version I install either says it will not run with this version of Mac OS, or it "starts" and puts the icon in the top bar but I just get the colored wheel when I mouse over it and the menu won't open.
What can I do to manually factory reset docker?

I'd give AppCleaner a try.
Drop the errant app onto its open window (or you can set it to auto-launch if you throw an app in the Trash) & it will offer to clean out any associated files, allowing you to have a clean start.


Where can I find a printable keyboard layout when the option key is pressed? I am new to Apple, and I am new to use a Swiss French keyboard; unfortunately, a lot of useful characters are only available when the option key is pressed.

I would like to have an image of them available to be printed or to be quickly available, so that I can learn them. I have noticed that you can see the layout from Sys preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources > press the option key, but the image is too small and to be honest I do not know how to take a screenshot while pressing the option key.

Do you have any suggestion or good image?

Use Keyboard Viewer to see the keyboard instead of sys preferences.

Use the Grab app or the Screenshot app in Applications/Utilities to take a picture of it.


Water damage on an iPhone 6s - Sound not working (Locked into Headphone mode) I accidentally dropped my iPhone 6s in some water for probably less than a second. I immediately dried it off with a towel, and left it off for 5 minutes, hovever I didn’t put it in rice. Luckily, my iPhone worked perfectly perfectly after I turned it on again apart from it wouldn’t play audio, because it thought it had headphones plugged in when it didn't. Can anybody tell me why this is and what to do?
Also, the iPhone 6s apparently has water damage indicators, how may I find these?

I had the exact same thing happen to me. Got water spilled on my iPhone 6s. I immediately wiped it with a tissue paper and let it dry.

Immediately afterwards I noticed that while the phone rang fine for incoming calls, other sound (media) didn't play through the speakers and the microphone stopped working. The iPhone was basically locked into headphone mode (noticed via the volume change HUD), where and sound was not playing back through the speakers.

I was able to revive it by doing the following two things:

Blowing compressed air into the headphone jack.
Repeatedly plugging/unplugging the 3.5mm pin of the Apple EarPods in the headphone jack.

After a while, I was able to get the iPhone out of the headphone mode (I think primarily due to the second approach) and the speakers and microphone started working alright.

However, in my case, the Taptic engine took the toll of water damage and it stopped working after a while (I was never able to get it to work).

P.S.: When it happened to me, I search the Web and found a lot of posts where people have narrated the same issue (making me believe that its particular with iPhone 6s). For most cases, plugging/unplugging the EarPods/headphone resolved the issue.

P.P.S.: Here's a Apple Support document which discusses water and other liquid damages to iOS devices and the built-in indicators.

Water and other liquid damage to iPhone or iPod isn't covered by warranty

  Phone and most iPod devices are equipped with Liquid Contact Indicators (LCIs) that you can see from the outside.

  An LCI will activate when it contacts water or a liquid containing water. The indicator's color is normally white or silver, but when it contacts water or a liquid containing water, it will turn fully red. An LCI won't activate because of humidity and temperature changes that are within the product's environmental requirements.

  To find out if the LCI in your device contacted liquid, find your product in the table (in the linked document) and locate the LCI or LCIs in your device. To help you see the LCI, use a lighted magnifying glass and angle the light or the device until you can see the LCI.


ln -fFs does not update symlink I have two directories newdir and otherdir and would like to update a symlink, that initially pointed to otherdir to newdir.

When I run:

> ln -s otherdir symlink

I see a symlink:

> ls -al symlink
symlink -> otherdir

When I run:

> ln -sFf newdir symlink

I would expect symlink -> newdir, but I see the old link when I run:

> ls -al symlink
symlink -> otherdir

And I also noticed that a new symlink exists:

> ls -al symlink/newdir
symlink/newdir -> newdir

Is there a way to prevent ln from interpreting the destination path as parent directory ?
Or is the only way to prevent this from happening to remove the link first ?

Use the -h option:

-h    If the target_file or target_dir is a symbolic link, do not follow it.
      This is most useful with the -f option, to replace a symlink
      which may point to a directory.

$ ln -shf newdir symlink
$ ls -al symlink
symlink -> newdir


Delete user account - High Sierra - 10.13.2 I have, since I bought my device second hand, an account that was created by the seller. I want to remove it but can't. I have removed the admin capabilities of this account but still the "-" in the account menu is unavailable.
I have logged in this account and closed the session to be sure, doesn't change a thing

You can see the lock is open...
Do you know this problem ?

You need to wipe the Mac & start over.
Right now you don't own even the OS, let alone any of the other software on the Mac. You will at some point come up against the issue that an update requires the Apple ID of the original owner & you will then be stuck.
See Apple KB - What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac
The original owner should have done this. As they didn't, you need to do the last one - Erase your hard drive and reinstall macOS.
By wiping the Mac & starting afresh with your own Apple ID, you will then have full control over the Mac.
Depending on precisely which Mac it is [if it is new enough to have a T2 chip*] you may need the original owner to retrospectively do the first 6 steps or you may be locked out. If you reach that point & cannot trace the original owner, then only Apple can unlock it & will require proof of ownership.
*Apple KB - About the Apple T2 Security Chip


Spotlight shortcut Cmd+Space stops working in Yosemite I have to go to the spotlight menu under system preferences and change and re-set the keyboard shortcut to Cmd+Space and then it starts to work again.

Has anyone else also experienced this? Anyone know what causes the shortcut to stop working?

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts tab and click Restore Defaults. Then reconfigure your shortcut.


Stop Xcode from Hijacking my File Associations I typically associate certain file types with certain editors and IDEs. You know R with RStudio, Java with JetBrains, and all the other goodies with Sublime Text.

But every time I install an Xcode update, Xcode takes over every code-related extension imaginable, and I have to associate my files manually.

Is there anyway to prevent Xcode from taking over my file associations?

Absolutely there is!
Unfortunately because Xcode is installed through the Mac App Store, we are unable to control / prevent the change from occurring in the first place. The automated installation takes care of that for us.

How to Change the Default Programs
Luckily there is an easy fix to resolving the issue and reversing the change. The only caveat of which is the fact that this is done on an extension-based level.

Go to any file whose extension you don't want to open with Xcode (e.g. my file.java).
Right click on it, select Get Info (or CMD I).
Under Open With, select your editor for that extension.
Click Change All to make the change global across all files of this type.

I believe some IDEs or even individual Text editors will ask if you would like to associate them with the most common formats for software development - with Xcode that's a little less optional. Anyway, hope that helps, let me know if it did and how you make out. I'd be interested in following up with you on this.


If I buy an app in the App Store, will it work on future major releases or will I need to repurchase it? I usually buy Apps in the Mac App Store and iOS App Store but I've always had the doubt, when I buy it, will the app be available in the future for the next releases or not?

I never brought an App two times because of a major release, but is it possible?

Yes it is definitively possible. As of now, Apple does not enable the developers to publish paid updates for their software. Due to that, developers sometimes release different versions to buy from the App Store.

E.g. have a look at http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/photoforge/id314173066 and http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/photoforge2/id435789422


"Compress file" in Catalina sets wrong permissions on ZIP file When zipping one or more files via Finder (Right click on file → Compress) the created the ZIP file has permissions set to rw------- / 600.

When I use the zip command in Terminal, permissions are set as expected rw-r--r-- / 644.

All of this started to happen after I upgraded to Catalina last weekend.

Before, all ZIP files were created with permissions rw-r--r-- / 644, regardless if it was created via Finder or Terminal.

It looks like something is broken in the Finder command an/or Archive Utility.app

Do you know any fix for this?

This is really annoying, when uploading a zip file to an FTP server.   Today a client called that he can't download the file. It took me a while to figure out what happened.

Clarification: The question is not about how to fix the FTP upload. It is about how to make Finder / Archive utility behave in the in same way as before, using macOS Mojave.

The Finder and Archive Utility are not broken; the change in permissions will be deliberate.

  It looks like something is broken in the Finder command an/or Archive Utility.app

Increasing Security

Apple's security engineers will likely argue that the new user only read write permissions, 0600, are correct and that zip is now wrong. Limiting default permissions is the direction macOS is heading.

Automator or AppleScript

Instead of fighting Apple, consider creating an Automator service or AppleScript to compress your files. You can then control the final permissions of the archive.


ssh/terminal tricks with iPhone I have a lovely jailbroken iPhone 4. Works fine. Very much enjoying being able to ssh into the device, but I can't help feeling I'm missing a few tricks with the ssh, would anyone be able to point me in the direction of where I might be able to do cool things? I'm interested to know if I can, for example:

Have the iPhone play music or make a noise via ssh command - would help when I know I've left it around the house somewhere...
Simulate a touch of the screen? (similar to, say, how Java's Robot package works on a desktop) Would be quite cool for executing macro commands...
Send an sms remotely (wishing now)
Any ideas? Anyone know if things like this are possible over ssh?

This will restart springboard:

killall -HUP SpringBoard

Not very useful unless you want to annoy your signifigant other.


Wi-Fi auto-disconnect for iPhone? Is there an app to disconnect an iPhone from a Wi-Fi router at a specific time, other than just turning off Wi-Fi?

You may be able to configure the router to only allow WiFi access to the iPhone during certain times of day.  This isn't a connection timeout so much as a parental control over the time of day WiFi is allowed.  The setting is located in your routers admin interface.


Secondary Click: Click but not tap with two fingers On my Macbook Pro, I prefer the secondary click to be "Click with two fingers", but the closest option that exists in the Trackpad Preferences is "Click or tap with two fingers".

Is there any way for me to keep the behaviour that "click with two fingers" is secondary click, but make it so that "tap with two fingers" does nothing?

If you choose for clicking to be the only option (meaning, deselect the "tap to click" option underneath the
secondary click" option), you should be allowed to only click with two fingers for the secondary click. That is one very simple, straight-forward way of solving your issue.


Why is my iPhone 4S's home button not responding from home screen? My home button seems to be working okay to move out of apps etc, and double tapping brings up the expected menu, but on the home page, a single tap no longer swaps to the search interface, and when modifying app positions, clicking home no longer stops the apps 'shaking' - is there any way to rectify this?

These features should definitely work with the home button on your 4S. You should contact Apple to get a solution, which may include repairing or replacing the phone. If you are near an Apple retail store, set up a genius bar reservation. If not, call Apple for support.


iTunes archive on non permanent external drive? Is it possible or recommended to have the iTunes library on a non-permanent external drive? What will happen if I e.g. sync my iPhone while the drive is not attached? Or what will happen when iTunes thinks it should download the music I have bought on my iPad while the drive is not connected?

It is possible. In fact, I manage my family's iPod this way.

The howto is answered in How to move iTunes’ Mobile Applications folder to an external hard drive. Shut down iTunes, move your library, then start iTunes back up while holding down Option. Tell it you will choose a library, then show it your library on your drive. For more advanced library management, see Can I keep my iTunes library on an external drive?.
As for your concerns, always shut down iTunes before removing your drive. I don't know what will happen if you unplug it without killing iTunes.
If you try to bring up iTunes without your drive plugged in, you will see these two dialogs, one after the other:

In the first one, simply click OK to get the second one, then quit, plug in your drive, and try again. If iTunes can't find your library, it will not try to sync your iPhone or download purchased music.


Personal hotspot unavailable intermittently, "contact your carrier" A friend has an iPhone 6 and a plan that includes tethering.

A couple of weeks ago, her "personal hotspot" feature started acting up. It tends to be inactive. When you try to activate it, you get a message asking to contact the cellular provider.

Turning the phone off and on again solves the problem.

The provider maintains that tethering is activated, and that there is no problem on their end. I checked the cellular data settings and they are OK.

What could be causing this?

Could it have been caused by a software update?  iOS is up to date.

Some cellular plans allow Personal Hotspot / Tethering, others do not. It's worth your friend checking with your cell provider whether it's allowed on the plan she's on and/or if there's a usage limit (highly likely) and that limit has been reached.

For reference, my old cell plan had 1GB of Personal Hotspot usage allowed and watching a couple of movies on the laptop using Netflix got through that real fast, so I upgraded my plan.


osx service for `mpc add`ing files to mpd’s playlist I’m trying to create a service in automator, which allows me to add files/folders from Finder directly into my mpd playing queue.

I tried the following, the command runs, but nothing happens.

Could anyone please help?

PS: My music-directory is $HOME/Music/ – if that’s important …

EDIT: The following code works perfectly in bash, but not as service.

for arg in "$@"; do
  dir=$(cd -P "$(dirname "$arg")" && pwd)/ || continue
  mpc add "${dir#"$HOME/Music/"}$(basename "$arg")"
done

Following code …

for arg in "$@"; do
  dir=$(cd -P "$(dirname "$arg")" && pwd)/ || continue
  /usr/local/bin/mpc add "${dir#"$HOME/Music/"}$(basename "$arg")"
done

does the trick.


Full tv out for iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 Does the universal dock allow full tv out?  I have read on a few pages that it might.  But I don't know if it really does and if it supports more than just videos and Pictures.

If I use an iPhone 4 will it work?

Again I am looking for full video out. Not just videos and pictures.  I got the cord that says it is for tv out but it only supports videos, slideshows and selected apps (tv genie).   I am looking for more support than that.

Based on your question, I think you might be referring to mirroring, which is only supported by the iPad 2.

For other devices, it'll do video out as long as the app itself supports it, as you suggest.


I cannot see a particular USB printer from AirPort Extreme I have an older AirPort Extreme (UFO, Version 5.7).

I can connect an Epson MX330 printer to the USB port of the AirPort Extreme and it appears on the AirPort Utility "Printers" tab, and I can print to it.

I can connect a Ricoh Aficio MP C4500 directly to a MacBook Pro (10.6.8) USB port, and it automagically downloaded and installed the driver and will print to the Ricoh.

But when I plug the Ricoh into the AirPort Extreme USB port, it does not show up on the AirPort Utility "Printers" tab, and of course, won't show up on any AirPort connected device, either.

I have tried re-starting both the Ricoh and the AirPort Extreme while they were connected.

Any clues on how I can get this $20,000 printer to work with AirPort Extreme like the Epson that came free with my MacBook Pro does?

Plug it in via Ethernet, not USB.

Any printer with built-in networking support (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) is best connected to the network via its network port. That's the most natural, best-supported, most reliable, most fully-featured way for your devices to discover and print to it.

When base stations first supported USB printer sharing in 2003, it was kind of a hacky workaround for the printers of that time, which were often USB-only. It's still a hacky workaround today, but luckily most people don't need to use it anymore as most printers (even the free-after-rebate consumer models) added networking by about 2005.


Can't Delete Time Machine Backups, Can't Move Them Out of Trash I think this is similar to this question, but I'm having a slightly different problem.

I've been using an external LaCie drive for my Time Machine and SuperDuper backups. But I was getting messages that the Time Machine drive was full, and the SuperDuper runs out of room.

I went into LaCie Backups.backupdb and grabbed a bunch of old Time Machine backups and dragged them into the trash.

Trash has been trying to delete them for over 24 hours with no end in sight. So I stopped it and tried to bring the files back in to Backups.backupdb, but it won't let me.

So I've got all these files I can't trash, but can't put back.

Any ideas?

So, as an answer, save any other data on another drive, then reformat and partition the drive.

You shouldn't be able to put any Time Machine files into the trash in the first place, so if that happened, you need to get anything you care about off that drive and erase it anyhow. If you don't need the backups - you can use Disk Utility to just erase the drive - that will empty your trash instantly as well as all the data on that drive.


Batch change creation dates based on file names I have files that are named like "12. 2017-04-11 063118.jpg", and "123. 2016-09-05 115236.jpg". The number to the left of the "." counts up like an index from 1 to 1400.

How can I set the creation date and time according to how it is specified in the file name for all 1400 files I have in the folder. I know the command touch -t changes the creation date, but I do not know how to extract the date/time information from the file name and put this into a command so this is done automatically for all files.

I know from another thread that the below should work. but i don't know how to tweak the text conversion to correctly apply to my file naming convention.

for f in *; do
    t=$(echo $f | sed -E 's/([A-z]*-)|([ ,;])|(\..*)//g' | sed -E 's/(.*)(..)/\1.\2/')
    touch -t $t "$f"
done

The above code works if my file naming convention is like "clip-2014-01-31 18;50;15.mp4", however, I have a different format: "12. 2017-04-11 063118.jpg", and "123. 2016-09-05 115236.jpg". Does anyone know how to tweak the sed function command to process the conversion into the correct format for touch?

Bash parameter expansion will work:

for f in *; do
    t="${f#* }"
    t="${t%%.*}"
    t="${t:0:4}${t:5:2}${t:8:2}${t:11:2}${t:13:2}.${t:15:2}"
    touch -t $t "$f"
done

t="${f#* }" strips off the part before  (< the first space)
t="${t%%.*}" strips off the part after .
t="${t:0:4}${t:5:2}${t:8:2}${t:11:2}${t:13:2}.${t:15:2}" formats the content of the date variable (t) for touch which requires the following format: [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.SS].

And as one-liner:

for f in *; do t="${f#* }"; t="${t%%.*}"; t="${t:0:4}${t:5:2}${t:8:2}${t:11:2}${t:13:2}.${t:15:2}"; touch -t $t "$f"; done


What tools and concepts are good for someone thinking about using HFS filesystem compression? I have a client with about 60TB of data on multiple HFS+ volumes, attached directly via fibre channel and shared using AFP. We are running around 85% capacity at present, and the budget to expand storage won't come into play for months. Our data growth suggests we'll hit 90% capacity in four months. I'm considering some sort of in-place filesystem compression that would transparently compress files at rest in storage, while not changing the workflows of the desktop users. (That is, they should just work as usual without having to decompress files.)

I understand HFS+ filesystem compression can be accomplished by using the ditto command; I've also successfully used the free afsctool to compress files. The latter has not been updated for quite some time and I'm unsure of the developer's commitment. I'm not a programmer, so the source code means little to me.

Are there any alternative commercial tools that will silently, automatically perform filesystem compression in the manner I seek? Preferably, there would be reliable enterprise support for the tool (say, telephone support). Or, would I be better off scripting compression periodically using ditto? Is HFS+ compression even the right path?

First you should figure out whether or not compression is worth it. This depends largely on the type of content you're storing. If the content is not compressible (JPEG images, most video formats, ZIP archives, etc.), there's little benefit and the added overhead of decompression may even cause a (minor) slowdown in file access.

HFS+ compression is most likely the wrong tool, for several reasons. First, compression isn't transparent, only decompression is. That is, if a file is stored compressed, it will be transparently decompressed when being read, but a newly created file will not be compressed by default.

Worse, when you overwrite or append to a compressed file, it will once again be stored without HFS+ compression. Therefore, if you wanted to use HFS+ compression with user data, you would need to copy the entire volume first (using ditto or afsctool), file by file. On 60 TB this might take rather a long time. Furthermore you would regularly have to run a process that determines which files were added/modified recently (or aren't compressed) and (re)compresses those.

As the ditto man page states, HFS+ compression "is only intended to be used in installation and backup scenarios that involve system files". It's great for your /Applications folder, but not very suitable for your filer. Only if you're really desperate for capacity and have a lot of files that never get written to I would even consider it. Key being desperate :)

I'm not aware of any transparent file system level compression packages for OS X. ZFS supports transparent file system compression, but switching your filers OS and FS may not be an option (since sadly there's no complete ZFS implementation for Mac OS X).


Installation Alert won't go away After a failed installation of updates the following alert won't go away.  It gives me no option to cancel.  Any ideas on how to get rid of it short of rebooting the machine?  Using OSX 10.9.4.

Please advise.

Start Activity Monitor (from Launchpad/Other or via Spotlight).

Find iTunes in the list and close it. If it's not there then find iTunes Helper and close that.

The names are present in the Process Name column, closing the processes is possible via the X button situated around the top left corner (of course not the red one, which closes the Activity Monitor itself, but below that).


Is it possible to turn down the brightness of an external monitor via controls on mu Mac? When using my old Thunderbolt monitor I loved that I could turn down the brightness from my Mac keyboard, but on the 2 new monitors I've bought recently, I can only turn down the brightness using their clunky on-monitor system.
Are there any 3rd party monitors that:

Ideally can turn down the brightness via software controls on the Mac or
Have Very easy to use and accessible brightness buttons on them?

You could use the free app MonitorControl to change the brightness on an external monitor with the brightness keys.


How to manually control processes launched on start? Every time my Mac starts, about ~210 processes are launched, requiring about ~1000 OS Threads. With every Apple update this number increases. My laptop freezes for 1-3 min a couple of times per week because some process I've never heard of starts consuming 100% of CPU time till they likely crash. From googling process names the Apple process launch policy on laptops with limited battery life seems to be: launch every time everything for anything anyone might ever want to do.

Is there a way to do something about this?

What I've found:

Some of the processes are started by root (I don't want to do much about those).
However, most of them are started by my user, and most of those are for things that I do not need or that I have explicitly disabled in system preferences (keychain, messenger...).

I guess launchd is in charge of starting all these processes. I've found /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons but these are just a small fraction of the processes that get launched, and none of them are system processes.

If they are all launched by launchd is there a configuration file for startup processes somewhere?

Note: I don't mind at all that a process gets launched when I do something that requires it. It is just that I find 200 processes, most of them for things I don't always need and a lot of them for things I've explicitly disabled, to be just nuts.

Update:

It seems that sudo launchctl list is a good place to start, one can then use launchctl load <service> and launchctl remove <service> to load/remove services. It would be nice to get a list of which services are safe to remove, and which services should never ever need to be removed, gonna experiment with that.

~200 processes seems a tad high, but not out of range for *nix systems depending on the hardware and services being invoked. Managing the things that you've installed through the LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons is the best plan that won't kill your system. Digging into services invoked by launchd is not something I'd recommend unless you understand what the process is there for and what it does - some launchd processes are inter-related and killing one can cause another to fail, and you're heading to a broken system.

For the "freezing" problem, find the service(s) that are suddenly spiking their CPU usage and do some Google searching, note what apps you have open at that time, read the Console logs and see if you can narrow down the cause. Fixing problems like that takes a scalpel, not a shotgun.


control fan speed using Applescript (or terminal) I would like to control the fan speed using terminal, if possible without third party app.

The idea is to automate and schedule different fan speed.

macOS does not support user control of the fan speed.

smcFanControl

The open source project smcFanControl claims to offer fan speed control. Be careful overriding Apple's fan behaviour; you risk damaging your computer.


Upgrade this iMac to the latest version of Os X? I have an iMac running 10.5.8. How well/badly do you think it would work if I upgrade to the most recent version of MacOsX (and can I leap there in one go, or do I need to first upgrade to an intermediate version of the operating system)?

Here is what System Profiler tells me:

   - Model Name: iMac
   - Model Identifier: iMac5,2
   - Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
   - Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
   - Number Of Processors: 1
   - Total Number Of Cores: 2
   - L2 Cache: 2 MB
   - Memory: 2 GB
   - Bus Speed: 667 MHz
   - Boot ROM Version: IM52.0090.B09
   - SMC Version (system): 1.6f0
   - Serial Number (system): W86450CMWV7
   - Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CBA120C3

Thanks for your help.

From Apple's site:

  If you’re running OS X Leopard and would like to upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion, first you’ll need to upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard. You can purchase OS X Snow Leopard here.


Viewing two pages Apple Pages 5.2.2 In Apple Pages 5.2.2, how can I choose view 2-up? It used to be selectable in lower left corner of document...not any more. Thanks for any tips.

Here's one way to get a two page view of your document in Pages 5.2.2. Open your document and select print from the file menu. At the bottom left of the box, where you see PDF, scroll to choose Open in Preview. Then under view in the menu bar, you can choose Two Pages, and you get a two pages view which can be scrolled vertically, but cannot be edited. You can cancel out of preview without printing. I couldn't get the two page option in regular preview, only in print preview.


Pressing and holding "e" over end of word that ends in a ":" What steps will reproduce the problem?
0. Using RubyMine
1. Use IdeaVim
2. Hold down "e" to auto-repeat end of word
3. Hit a : at end of word
4. See picture! I can pick lots of strange "e" characters.

What is the expected result?
This should not happen. How to turn this off?

Cross reported here: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/RUBY-16003

However, I think this is a Mac issue, as this just happened after the recent upgrade.

Aside from the author of the software addressing this, the following command turns off the press and hold, bring up the e's:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false


How can I delete Mail.app's cached e-mails that are saved to disk in OS X Lion? I am running out of some disk space, and noticed Mail has about 30GB of emails stored.

What is the best way to delete these emails? I don't need them as a server has a copy.

Go to Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts

Choose the mail account
Choose the advanced tab
Change the status of "Keep Copies of message for offline viewing" to "Don't keep..."

Apples's documentation does not say what happens when you change the status, but goes on to state:

  It’s recommended to use the default selection (“All messages and their attachments”) so you can search entire messages. Additionally, keeping copies of messages on your computer improves junk mail filtering and includes the messages in Time Machine backups.


iPhone 4 iOS 7 seems to register more data used I have checked the breakdown of data used. Under Settings > General > Usage, the Storage Breakdown for apps is:
Photos & Camera - 387MB
Whatsapp - 378MB
Voice Memos - 334 MB
etc. (in descending order)

In addition I have cleared most of pics and videos under Camera as part of my weekly routine. But I am still left with only 1GB (both registered on iTunes, Settings > General > Usage, and iExplorer (3rd party iPhone explorer).

What would be the reason why this is so? and how do I regain more space?

I do not download many apps. But my phone is jailbroken. Maybe it is because some Cydia apps are merely "uninstalled"? is that how it works?

Try iCleaner. This removes a variety of leftovers and other jailbreak files that can consume a lot of space. These files don't show in Usage as they are regarded by iOS as part of the system, but can be safely removed.

Cydia: it cleans up Cydia caches and temporary files, Cydia applications unnecessary files, partially downloaded Cydia packages and repo files.
[…]
Log files: it deletes log files and crash reports from known locations. These files are generally irrelevant to the user and can be safely deleted.
Cache files: it scans and deletes system cache files and databases. Some of them are rebuilt upon respring. This helps removing obsolete cache data.
Temporary files: it deletes temporary files from your device. These files are meant to be removed automatically, but they often happen not to. iCleaner takes care of that.


Selectively route VPN traffic - how do I determine subnet value? I'm trying to route just specific traffic (a specific domain) on my Mac over my company VPN. This seems to be the most recommended way to do it,

Create the file /etc/ppp/ip-up with following content:

#!/bin/sh /sbin/route add SUBNET $5 replacing SUBNET with subnet, you want to route through VPN (for ex. 192.168.0.0/16)

execute as root:

chmod 0755 /etc/ppp/ip-up This file will be executed each time you connect to VPN.

...but I don't understand how to determine the SUBNET value. Do I need to create a subnet? Is the subnet name for the VPN in network preferences somewhere? I really don't have a good idea of what a subnet even is, so I'm not following how to implement the solution above.

You don't need to create a new subnet, you just need to figure out what subnet (or subnets) your company's network uses. For example, if the IP addresses on your company's network are in the ranges 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.255, then you can use the subnet mask "10.0.0.0/24". If the range is 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.255.255, then you can use the broader range "10.0.0.0/16". You can search for "subnet calculator" to find some tools that can help you figure out the notation for the subnet range you want to capture.

Make sure your local network doesn't overlap with the range, though. Your home network should use a different subnet (like 192.168.0.0/24 for example) that won't conflict with your office's network.


How to download entire iCloud Photo Libary to Windows PC Is there a way I can download my entire iCloud Photo Libary to my windows PC then clear the iCloud Photo Libary to free up space on my iCloud account?

I have spent the past hour researching this and I'm still no further on...

This strategy works at the time of writing using nothing but the PC.

Install iCloud for Windows
Open File Explorer and open the context menu (right-click) on the iCloud Photos entry in the left-hand-side panel (image below)
Select 'Always keep on this device', and wait for the green progress bar across the path to disappear - every file should now have a green tick as its 'status' indicator
Once this is done, copy files across to a part of your hard drive that isn't managed by iCloud
Open iCloud, untick 'Photos', activate via the 'Apply' button, and confirm 'Delete from PC'.

Your iCloud Photos are now un-synched from your PC but all the files will be in the location you chose in step 4.
Once this


How can I force OS X to update its time more regularly? We have a Mac mini build server running 10.9.5 and sometimes the build fails on the codesign command, which fails because of the timestamp on one of the files. The way we usually "fix" this is to simply go on the build server and update the time (either graphically by clicking the clock or in the command line), then the next build will succeed.

In the preferences, the option "Set date and time automatically" is checked and the time server set is Apple Europe (time.euro.apple.com). The machine is always on but usually nobody connects to it for days/weeks (when something goes wrong usually).

This is a bit tedious and time wasting, is there a way to tell Mac OS to keep in sync with the time server more regularly? I could try running a crontab every hour to force time sync but I am wondering if there is something more obvious that I am missing?

You can define a minpoll and maxpoll time in /etc/ntp.conf. Usually the poll time is auto-adjusted by ntpd depending on some complex algorithms.

The default minpoll and maxpoll time (without specifying minpoll/maxpoll in ntp.conf) should be 6 (64 s) and 10 (1,024 s). By adding minpoll/maxpoll entries and values to ntp.conf you may force different update sequences. The values are seconds as a power of two and the allowed integer values are [3...17]. The minimal poll time is then 8 seconds and the maximal poll time is 36.4 h. You have to reboot the system or force quit ntpd with kill ... in the Terminal or in the Activity Monitor after changing the config file to apply the modifications. The ntp daemon will be relaunched automatically after killing it.

Here is an already modified example ntp.conf with a poll time between 1024 and 4096 seconds:

...
server 160.45.10.8 minpoll 10 maxpoll 12
server 192.53.103.104 minpoll 10 maxpoll 12
server de.pool.ntp.org minpoll 10 maxpoll 12

Screenshot of the ntp traffic after changing the default config file without minpoll/maxpoll to the above example 16 minutes ago and reverting it after another 12 minutes to the original state:

The default poll time of 6 is clearly visible in the above screenshot with an update sequence of ca. 1 minute in the first 14 minutes and the last 4 minutes.

Using lower poll times [3..5] (= 8 seconds to 32 seconds) doesn't necessarily mean that the time is more accurate! Due to the extended calculations made by ntpd the time adjustments may oscillate and more inaccurate results may occur than with higher poll times (≥6).

After a system update/upgrade you may have to readjust/restore the modified config file!


Use Apple Wireless Keyboard for PC and Mac I need a wireless keyboard and mouse that I can switch between my MacBook Pro and PC.

I was looking at the Apple Wireless Keyboard, but I'm not sure if I can change from PC to Mac usage easily enough.

Does anyone have a similar setup?

As per Bluetooth functionality, one would have to pair/unpair with the chosen device to switch to another system. It's worth noting that Apple by no means supports PC's to work with their accessories, and a quick search will show you plenty of people having a less-than-stellar experience trying to make it work. A more appropriate long-term solution is a wired keyboard and a KVM to switch between systems.


Messages appearing on locked screen How can I hide text messages from the locked screen of my iPhone 4S?
I find that having a password is useless as everyone could read messages from the locked screen.

On the iPhone select Preferences -> Notifications -> Messages
Scroll to the bottom
Turn off "View on Lock Screen"

You have to repeat this for all notifications you don't want to be shown on the lock screen.


Unable to uncheck the "Encrypt Backup" box, in iTunes 11 I am running iTunes 11, and have just plugged in my iPad 2 (running iOS 6.1.2) in.

I would like my back-ups to be unencrypted, but I can't uncheck the check box that would allow me to, as you can see in the screenshot:

Anyone know how to fix this?

I do know the backup password, and have tried changing it but to no avail.

I had a similar issue and documented the procedure here:

  I have found that this can be caused by installed Profiles
  (Crashlytics Provisioning Profile in my case, but some other people
  reported the same with an M1 (the telecommunication company) Profile
  installed).

  To delete it:

  Go to Settings > General > Profile, tap on the app’s configuration profile.
  Then tap Delete Profile. If asked, enter your device pass-code, then tap Delete.

  Then:

  Go to the Summary page for your device in iTunes
  Double check "Automatically Back Up" is set to "This computer"
  Double check "Encrypt iPhone backup" is unchecked
  Press "Back Up Now"


sudo asking for password even though user doesn't have a password set I have a computer that doesn't not require a password. I'd like this to continue into sudo, but unfortunately it doesn't recognise a user not having a password.

According to Apple the sudo command requires a non-blank password: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202035

Is there some way I can easily override this so I can have a blank password with sudo? It's only ever a hindrance and security on this machine is not an issue. Thanks.

I found an answer that works perfectly (although it requires temporarily adding a password to your user first):

Open the Terminal

Type: sudo visudo

Enter your user's password (create one if necessary).
Change this line FROM:

%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

TO:

%admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

(press 'i' to enter insert mode if you can't edit the text)
Write and Quit

:wq

(press 'esc' first to enter command mode)


Will superdrive work on Macbook Air with Ubuntu? I have a Macbook Air on which I am considering installing Ubuntu 14.  I bought the Mac mainly because of the great hardware.  I got a live copy of Ubuntu working from a USB stick and I am now just testing to see if everything works.  My Soulmate bluetooth device works fine.  My external Western Digital USB harddrive works fine.  My Apple Superdrive does not seem to work.  I figured this might be because I have not actually installed and added the third party support.

Anyone get their Superdrive working under Ubuntu on a Macbook Air?

This issue has been addressed on https://askubuntu.com/q/413882/48105. The OP doesn't report having successfully put his SuperDrive to work on Ubuntu. Here's my experience so far:

The MacBook Air SuperDrive does not work out of the box on Ubuntu 14.04
Installing sg3-utils through the Linux terminal and then running sg_raw /dev/sr0 ea 00 00 00 00 00 01 "wakes up" the drive. Now I'm able to insert media, view its contents in a file browser and eject the media.
DVD playback is not working. Not even the mighty VLC was able to reproduce it. However, I'm still able to rip the DVD.

You can learn more about the issue and how to automate this
wake up process here: http://techtalk.christian-moser.ch/wordpress/?p=517

I hope I can edit this soon and tell you can safely install Ubuntu on you MacBook Air and have SuperDrive work 100%. For now, it only seems to be able to open and browse the media files.


What are the consequences of jailbreaking an iOS device as a Developer? What would be the consequences of Jailbreaking my iOS device as a developer?

What are some of the benefits, and what are some of the issues with Jailbreaking as a developer?

How would this effect Xcode when "paired" with my iPod?

Consequences:

increased personal responsibility to not install software or firmware that might prevent restoration to a supported configuration.
increased personal responsibility for device instability or security vulnerabilities
less software support from the vendor (may be moot if you run beta software as there is less support for that as well)
potential delay if you ask for a hardware repair (either within or without the warranty period) if you do something that prevents a factory restore I suppose you might be out of luck, but I consider that further action (or error) past a jailbreak.
reduced confidence that the app will be of use in debugging issues
having to determine if an issue is in all devices or just in jailbroken devices (such as frequent and intermittent issues with push notification service).

I have had hardware exchanged by Apple when running beta software - the technician was able to tell it was clearly a hardware error and I was open with her when I presented the device for service. I wasn't made to feel like I had done anything wrong. You could be denied service if you're running software not designed by the manufacturer, I think a little common sense will let you know if it's worth the risk.

I see jailbreaking as taking down a guardrail. If you crash and the "authorities" rule you would have been safe had you left up the protection, you've got less grounds to stand on. From the comments on another answer - a several people disagree with this (and that's better than fine, many viewpoints is a strength here)

On the plus side, if you know what you are doing, you might be able to patch known vulnerabilities better than or faster than Apple does. You might also gain knowledge you would not in the process of jailbreaking and dealing with the device while the guardrail is down.

But to gloss over the difference between hardware support and software support or just stating "jailbreak=bad" over simplifies a complex issue in my eyes.


Secondary (right) click doesn't work after disconnecting mouse Whenever I disconnect a mouse (a generic cheapo Lenovo branded one) and reconnect it, I lose the ability to right click using the mouse. I have to resort to using CTRL+Left click. I have tried it with a different mouse (non Apple) and experienced the same problem. I also tried switching the secondary button to Left just to make sure it wasn't something specific with the L/R button. When I do that, the secondary click doesn't work even if it is the left button.

The only way I have solved this is to do a full restart. I suspect logging out and back in may fix this.

I think this is a driver issue somewhere. Any Ideas?

I am running Yosemite with all the latest patches. I've had this problem since Mavericks (my first OSX).

It seams like you have some kind of incapability between your mouse and computer.

Try with enabling right clicking on both your trackpad (if you have one built in) and your mouse from Mac OS Settings.
Also, if you have the possibility try with an another mouse and see if it work.

Try googling your mouse model and Mac OS problems or something like that.


I have `/usr/bin/env` in my "Macintosh HD" but not in the recovery partition. Is this normal? I'm working on a MacBook Air, that's currently booting to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. It also has an Ubuntu 16.04 partition, that I am currently trying to reach.

I was trying reinstall rEFInd, which due to SIP is done from the recovery partition. It failed because;

-bash: ./refind-install: /usr/bin/env: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Which was thrown by the #!/usr/bin/env bash at the top of the install script.

I had a look and indeed there is no /usr/bin/env in my recovery partition.  There is one on the main partition. This is the terminal in the recovery partition:

[-bash-3.2# ls /usr/bin/env
ls: /usr/bin/env: No such file or directory
[-bash-3.2# ls /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/env
/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/env

Now the end goal it to reinstall rEFInd (I had it before, but updating macOS changed the boot order so it no longer boots correctly), but my question right now is: Is it normal to not have /usr/bin/env in the recovery partition?

The fact that the rEFInd script expects it to be there makes me wonder if I have broken something.

Is it normal to not have /usr/env/bin in the recovery partition?

Yes, it's perfectly normal for /usr/bin/env to not be in the recovery partition.

If you were to mount the Recovery partition and open the BaseSystem.dmg container to search for the file, you'll find that it doesn't exist.

$ diskutil list

 #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh              999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD            650.0 MB

So, disk0s3 is the one we want to mount

$ sudo mkdir /Volumes/RecoveryHD
$ sudo mount -t HFS /Volumes/RecoveryHD

Now, open the recovery system image BaseSystem.dmg.

$ open /Volumes/RecoveryHD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg

A GUI will pop up on the screen with a Finder window.

Traverse to the /usr/bin and you'll notice that env is not there.

It's important to remember that the Recovery partition is a slimmed down version of the actual base system.  To make rEFInd work correctly, it needs to be done on the boot partition, not from the recovery partition.  So, in the end, you didn't mess anything up.


How can I use my iPad as a graphics tablet? I have an iPad and would like to use it as a graphics tablet for recording video tutorials on my computer.

What software should I use to allow the iPad to be an input device to control my PC directly? I want to be able to draw on my computer via the iPad. It would work like the Bamboo Pen Tablet like the one in the "graphics tablet" link.

The answer to your question is Avatron's AirPad software. http://avatron.com/apps/air-display I've just downloaded the Windows version and so far it seems stable enough, though I'm sure the Mac version is even more solid, since the Windows version appears to be relatively new.

That having been said, it's pretty impressive and does exactly what you want to do EXCEPT of course, there's no touch sensitivity, and there will always be a bit of lag (heck, Graphic tablets have lag too, believe it, but just a lot less).

Check it out!


Map Option to Alt instead of Alt Gr I've connected an external keyboard to my MacBook Pro. It's a Windows keyboard, but I'd rather not re-learn the swapped order of the Windows/Alt keys (vs. Option/Command keys). So I went to System Preferences, Keyboard, Modifier Keys… and swapped them:

So far, so good. But "Option" isn't really interpreted as "Alt" here Both in VMware Fusion and in Royal TS, the Windows key on the left and the menu(?) key on the right now do what appears to be Alt Gr, with various subtle but annoying differences in Windows, such as:

the alt-tab switcher is now sticky. You have to explicitly confirm with enter
some letters like alt-o now produce special characters
keyboard mnemonic (underlined menu items) do not work at all
Even though VMware Fusion does offer numerous remapping options, I couldn't figure it out. This trick works. However, that seems hacky and would also need to be applied to every single remote desktop in Royal TS. Not great.

I'd much rather solve this on the Mac side. If I turn the mapping off, Alt does get sent as Alt, so why does swapping the two change it to Alt Gr at all?

It looks like Karabiner-Elements is what I'm looking for.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/281437/9422 has been quite helpful. So far, this mapping appears to do what I'd expect (unlike Apple's):


macOS shortcut/bash script to immediately close (UNIX signal 9/SIGKILL) all "Not Responding" programs I'd like a shortcut or tool that sends UNIX signal 9/SIGKILL to all Not Responding programs.

A clickable shortcut is preferred, although I'm also willing to set up a Bash script and run that from command line.

Here is a Applescript I used on Maverics...

It basically looks for 'Not Responding' apps in Activity Monitor and Kills them

tell application "Activity Monitor" to run  --We need to run Activity Monitor
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Activity Monitor"
     tell radio button 1 of radio group 1 of group 1 of toolbar 1 of window 1 to click --Using the CPU View
     tell outline 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 -- working with the list
         set notResponding to rows whose value of first static text contains "Not Responding" -- Looking for Not responding process
         repeat with aProcess in notResponding
             set pid to value of text field 5 of aProcess  -- For each non responding process retrieve the PID
             if pid is not "" then do shell script ("kill -9 " & pid) -- KILL the PID.
         end repeat
     end tell
end tell


How does the Boot Camp Assistant force the Windows installer to prompt the user to choose an edition of Windows to install? When choosing to install Windows 7 using the Boot Camp Assistant, after files have been copied from the Windows ISO to a USB Flash drive, upon rebooting I've noticed that the Windows installer prompts the user to choose an edition that they would like to be installed - even if the source Windows ISO is of a specific edition (Home Premium, Ultimate, etc). How is this possible - does Boot Camp Assistant simply remove the "ei.cfg" file from the USB drive or similar?

The latest Windows 7 with SP1 ISO can be downloaded from the Microsoft website Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files). After entering the product key for Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade 32/64-bit (English), I was eventually lead to the page shown below. I downloaded the 64 bit Windows 7 ISO.

After mounting the ISO, I was able to determine that a  ei.cfg file does exist in the sources directory. The contents is shown below. The default is to install Windows 7 Professional.

[EditionID]
Professional
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0

According to Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp, the Boot Camp Support Software includes an answer file named AutoUnattend.xml. The Microsoft document Windows Setup Edition Configuration and Product ID Files (EI.cfg and PID.txt) states the following.

  Note   An answer file takes precedence over these files. If you use an answer file during installation, Windows Setup ignores the EI.cfg and PID.txt files.

Using the Dism command, provided by the latest Windows 10, produces the following list of images stored in the sources\intall.wim file on the Windows 7 ISO. Windows 7 Professional is the image with index of 3.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18362.418]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

X:\Sources>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.18362.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MINWINPC

DISKPART> list vol

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     D   CCCOMA_X64F  UDF    CD-ROM      5170 MB  Healthy
  Volume 1     E   GSP1RMCPRXF  UDF    CD-ROM      2047 MB  Healthy

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

X:\Sources>Dism /Get-ImageInfo /imagefile:E:\sources\install.wim

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.18362.1

Details for image : E:\sources\install.wim

Index : 1
Name : Windows 7 Home Basic
Description : Windows 7 Home Basic
Size : 11,710,161,360 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 7 Home Premium
Description : Windows 7 Home Premium
Size : 12,222,587,449 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 7 Professional
Description : Windows 7 Professional
Size : 12,122,886,417 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 7 Ultimate
Description : Windows 7 Ultimate
Size : 12,285,492,779 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

X:\Sources>


What does it mean when a computer is 'greyed out' in Apple Remote Desktop? I've got several computers that I manage using Apple Remote Desktop. Sometimes I have issues connecting with some of them. I've noticed this most often happens when their computer icon is light purple (greyed out) as opposed to dark purple.

Any ideas what this light purple means?

Per the ARD Administrators Guide (PDF), A "light purple" client status icon means that the client is offline (page 177).


How to bring iPad's 5 finger pinch functionality to iPhone On the iPad, a 5 finger pinch will bring you to the home screen. How can we replicate that function on iPhone?

It's not possible to configure this five finger pinch gesture on an iPhone without jailbreaking it. Currently there are no jailbreaks for iOS 7 (see jailbrea.kr for available jailbreaks).

If the iPhone is a device with a version of iOS that can be jailbroken, then this can be achieved after a jailbreak using SBSettings and Activator (both installed through the Cydia app store). You can even assign custom gestures, like for example, a three finger pinch or a four finger pinch, for this action.


Can I use a hotspot without data to connect to a wifi speaker? I recently bought a WiFi speaker that needs to connect to a WiFi connection to play music from my phone.  I also travel out of the country a couple times a year but do not have a data plan for out of the USA.  Is there a way I can turn on my mobile hot-spot to connect my speaker to my phone without actually using data so I don't pay outrageous international data charges?  I currently have an iPhone 7.

No. Your iPhone can only join or create a Wi-Fi network at any one time. It can't do both simultaneously.

But you can buy a small travel router to do what you want. Both your speaker and iPhone would connect to it.


How to change boot picture of Windows partition? On a MacBook with Bootcamp installed, I got three partitions:

OS X 10.10
Windows 10
OS X Recovery

On boot, with 'alt' key down, I get the bootloader and I can choose which partition to boot.

On this screen, how to change the Windows (or OS X Recovery) picture?

I agree that you should test rEFInd using a flash drive. I see one can download "A USB flash drive image file" containing rEFInd. I believe you would be better off using my instructions. If you have any problems with my steps, let me know.

Steps to Install rEFInd on a USB Flash Drive

Download "A binary zip file" from The rEFInd Boot Manager:
Getting rEFInd page. I assume this will be saved in your Downloads folder.
Insert a flash drive into a USB port. Open the Disk Utility application and partition the drive as follows.

The format of the second partition does not matter. I happened to use MS-DOS (FAT). Before applying changes, click the Options... button and make sure "GUID Partition Table" is selected.

Apply the changes and quit the Disk Utility.
Open the Terminal application. Enter the following commands. You will be prompted for your log in password.

cd  downloads/refind-bin-0.8.7
./install.sh  --ownhfs  /Volumes/rEFInd  --alldrivers

This is what appeared in my Terminal window.

Last login: Fri Apr  3 01:53:35 on ttys000
Steelhead:~ davidanderson$ cd downloads/refind-bin-0.8.7
Steelhead:refind-bin-0.8.7 davidanderson$ ./install.sh --ownhfs /Volumes/rEFInd --alldrivers
Not running as root; attempting to elevate privileges via sudo....
Password:
ShimSource is none
Installing rEFInd on OS X....
Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at /Volumes/rEFInd
Copied rEFInd binary files

Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure
rEFInd.

WARNING: If you have an Advanced Format disk, *DO NOT* attempt to check the
bless status with 'bless --info', since this is known to cause disk corruption
on some systems!!

Installation has completed successfully.

Steelhead:refind-bin-0.8.7 davidanderson$

When running rEFInd from a flash drive, I needed to introduce a 5
second delay. This delay was not needed once I installed rEFInd
on my internal hard disk. I assume you will need this temporary
delay as well. This is accomplished by editing the refind.conf
file. Enter the following commands to edit the file in the TextEdit
application.

cd  /Volumes/rEFInd/System/Library/CoreServices
open  -e  refind.conf

At the bottom of the file, enter a line containing scan_delay 5,
as shown below.

Save the changes and quit TextEdit. If you get the following
message, just click OK.

Restart the computer. You should boot to the rEFInd boot manager. The menu that appeared on my computer is shown below. (Hint: To get a better view, open this image in a new window.)

Steps to Uninstall Automatic Booting to rEFInd

Boot to OS X.
Open "Startup Disk" from the "System Preferences" window. The "rEFInd" text, under the external disk icon, should be highlighted.
Click on the internal disk icon representing OS X. The highlighting should switch to the text under this icon, as shown below.

Quit System Preferences, shutdown the computer and remove the USB flash drive.

What is next?

The icons files are store in the following folder.

/Volumes/rEFInd/System/Library/CoreServices/icons

It should be just a matter of substituting your icons for the default ones.

If you find any of this useful, let me know. The next step would involve installing rEFInd on your internal hard disk. I do not yet know enough about the partitioning of your internal disk to answer the questions I have. Mainly, I need to see the output from the commands given below.

diskutil list
disktuili cs list
sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

None of these command change your computer. They only produce partitioning information.


How to or Is that possible to stop mDNSResponder without disable System Integrity Protection? I have tried the following:

$ sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

$ sudo killall -9 mDNSResponderHelper mDNSResponder

$ sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist: Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged

None of them stop mDNSResponder from running.

Why do I want to do this? I just want to stop it before closing the lid. Because this stupid app is waking up my system when my lid remains closed. I tried many ways to avoid it running when system is at sleep. But none of them works. So the best option is just to force kill it and re-run it later. Thanks a lot.

Btw, this is not a XY question. I mean I want to stop it. The above explanation is just to clarify the reason why I want to do it, otherwise, people may ask why I want to do it and ask me not to do. Well, I really want to stop it and this is the question. The app is 100% useless to me when my system is at sleep and my lid is closed. Thanks.

You cannot unload mDNSResponder on a standard setup with SIP enabled. You will have to disable SIP from Recovery mode in order to be able to do so.

I would not recommend running with SIP permanently disabled, which would be necessary if you want to periodically unload/load mDNSResponder with launchctl. So if you really want to do this (relatively obscure) thing, then I suggest permanently unloading the launch daemon, and then manually starting/stopping mDNSResponder as needed. The latter can be done with SIP enabled.

A different way to approach the issue, assuming that network traffic is the cause of the wakes, could be to let mDNSResponder run all the time, and use the built-in firewall pf to block all traffic from mDNSResponder before going to sleep, and removing the block after it wakes.

Yet another could be to take a look at the IOPlatformFeatureDefaults and check if TCPKeepAliveDuringSleep is enabled, and try disabling that. It could fix your problem potentially. You can find more information on how to do that here:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/30869802#30869802


Is there someway I can take a screenshot from Spotlight? I want to be able to take a screenshot using Spotlight. I know I can just press "Command-Shift-3" to get the job done, but I want to get some very computer-illiterate people to learn to take a screenshot without having them to learn a shortcut. They already know how to use Spotlight, hence the question.

I thought of making an Automator script to do this. But that did not work.

on run {input, parameters}

    (* Your script goes here *)
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "3" using {command down, shift down}
    end tell

    return input
end run

Any other suggestions? I don't want to install some app to do this.

You can use this AppleScript in an Automator app to take a screenshot.

on run
    do shell script "/usr/sbin/screencapture \"" & ¬
        POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & ¬
        "Screen Shot " & (current date) & ".png\""
end run

Save the Automator workflow as an app with an appropriate name for Spotlight to find it and suggest it.


Why does quitting an application open the minimised window of a running application? In the windowing user interface, why does quitting an application open the minimised window of a running application?
This happens in Mavericks, and possibly earlier versions of the OS.

OSX is setup to have a window take focus, this usually requires a Window to show, this is being in the foreground. The application that this window belongs to  is the process that receives and interprets keystrokes (strictly key events) (after the system global ones are dealt with)

Thus when you quit an application the OS has to choose an Application to put in the foreground.

I can't find the overall description in one document so this is based on development experience. If someone could find the correct overview this would help.


Full, encrypted, point-in-time Mac OS X (including data) backup and restore employing Drobo as backup-storage device? Summary

I want to restore any of the OS and data files my Mac OS X computers to any previous state I "save" (aka "backup"), so I can revert back to a known-working software state when a change causes a problem (like a problematic OS or application-software upgrade). I want to do this without Internet-bandwidth limitations (hence the Drobo is preferred, over a cloud-only-based backup).

Implementation Challenges

What solutions can solve limitations #1 and #2 (listed below) for the following scenario, and still meet the requirements served by CCC + Drobo? I prefer to keep the Drobo, but I expect to replace and/or augment CCC with something else/additional. However, I'll evaluate any solution, no matter how big the change. (Within reason. I have to stick with Mac OS X, for now.)

More Details

I currently employ Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to copy my entire MacBook Air (it's primary 'Mac HD' drive) historically running 10.9.5 and 10.10.5 to a Drobo Mini. I can restore my entire 'Mac HD' drive, including the OS, to the state saved on my Drobo backup by booting off a USB flash thumbdrive, then running a CCC restore from the Drobo -> Mac HD.

This is my only reliably means I know to reset my OS/apps/data/etc back to a known working state, especially after a 'Software Update' screws something up. This happens most often when I update to a new Mac OS X, decide its newly-introduced bugs are not worth it, and then I downgrade. (Happened with Mavericks and Yosemite. I suspect it will happen with El Capitan--when I first try it.) I then wait for the new Mac OS X to become mature enough for me to upgrade to it, or I'm simply forced to upgrade for whatever reason (like app support phases out for the older OS X version).

Limitations. The above works well, but there's 2 limitations I'd like to overcome:

OS X's FileVault can not encrypt my Drobo, given its thin provisioning. Thus my files on the Drobo are exposed "in the open" if some untrusted person/entity acquires/steals my Drobo.
Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) can not automatically or at least not easily restore (in the above scenario) to a backup state/time prior to the latest backup.

Time Machine. It is not a viable solution. I've tested it numerous times in scenario similar to above, and it has failed (miserably and obviously) every time.

CrashPlan. I've spoken with 3 different pre-sales tech representatives at CrashPlan/Code42. None of them claim to solve the above, even though I suspect they can do it as well as CCC does it today, with the aforementioned limitations, of course.

TrueCrypt. Ultimately, I suspect I'll need an backup-application-level and/or TrueCrypt-based encryption to solve this. But I'm open to anything that meets all the requirements.

I run OS X server and use Time Machine to store things in an encrypted manner. I use a Promise R2 box for the actual storage instead of Drobo, and have not needed to use the AppleCare that I pay so that I get three years of Apple engineering support in case Time Machine acts up for me.

It just hasn't been an issue across the handful of clients that I've set up with similar setups. I used to lose a few backups a year when we were backing up to Time Capsule - but since using OS X server.app to handle the Time Machine - things are much better in a reliability standpoint.

Hopefully someone will have a good answer for Drobo since you have had bad experiences with Time Machine, but I wanted to chime in with what has worked well for the last 3 years. Of the 50 machines backing up over Time Machine, we're not seeing problems with Apple's encrypted backup solution.


Trying to install vsftpd via mac ports on snow leopard Using this guide: http://www.finiteloops.com/weblog/?p=79

I get this error:

500 OOPS: vsftpd: not configured for standalone, must be started from inetd

I am trying to turn on and off LISTEN in the config, but how to either link VSFTPD with INET or XINET or let it start in listen mode?

The man page for the config file for vsftpd should be of some help. If you set listen=YES in the config file, then vsftpd will be configured to run in standalone mode. It will then not be needed to be run from inetd or xinetd.

However, if you don't wish to run vsftpd in standalone mode, you will have to look at the man pages for launchd and launchctlto figure out how to set upvsftpdto load vialaunchd. Thexinetsystem was replaced withlaunchd` on Snow Leopard.


What does "iTunes err = -3259" mean? I am downloading some iTunes U content in iTunes and am getting

stopped (err = -3259)

on a number of the downloads.  I was hoping to find a list of err codes, but no luck.  Found a lot of forum posts for other error numbers, but not that one.

Any help?

I turned off "Allow simultaneous downloads" and now it is consistently downloading without a problem.


I need a list of MacOS app startup locations A year or so ago, I set up (under Sierra) a shell script I wrote to launch automatically using the conditions that it required "network availability" and was to trigger on external drive mounting by editing a plist file in Xcode.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the name or location of this file and I need to temporarily disable the configured auto-launch.  Can anyone identify this file or at least provide me a list of app startup locations to check?

If you are using launchd, the plist locations will be as follows:

${HOMEDIR}/Library/LaunchAgents - single user launch agent
/Library/LaunchAgents - all users launch agent
/Library/LaunchDameons - system daemons (runs as root)

To see what is being loaded, issue the command:

sudo launchctl list


Programmatically read both per-tab Terminal.app titles When bringing up the Inspector (⌘I) in Terminal.app to edit the title (⇧⌘I), there are actually two titles that can be entered. The first is known as the Tab Title and affects the terminal window title (but only when that tab is selected). The second is the Tab Subtitle and affects the text in the tab header only. [The naming seems strange, with Tab Title affecting the title of the window, and Tab Subtitle affecting the title of the tab.]

Preferring osascript, but open to other approaches, I wish to programmatically get both of these titles for each tab. In going through AppleScript dictionaries, Cocoa framework docs, etc., I have only found how to read the Tab Title, surfaced as the "custom title" (custom_title) property of the tab. This is the one that all search hits on getting/setting the title via osascript refer to. Even though there are other title properties in the window and tab.current_settings it seems that they all reference only this first title field and there is therefore some redundancy.

I am setting each title programmatically using terminal escape sequences, as I similarly do not know how to set the Tab Subtitle.

Although it is possible to use UI scripting, I expect that such an approach will have to visibly cycle through all Terminal windows/tabs in order to read them all when producing the overall output that I desire. I would prefer something that can get at the data without causing selection/focus changes.

My last option seems a little heavyweight (though may still be preferable to UI scripting) which is to export the settings (Shell > Export Settings...) which produces a large XML file which does include both fields. Surprisingly the data structures in this file match the AppleScript structures almost identically, except that it includes the field I'm otherwise missing.

Being quite new to programming on the Apple platform, can anyone enlighten me to how I can get at this data that seems it should exist in the place I am looking but that I am unable to find?

Try:

tell application "Terminal"
    set myTabs to every tab of window 1
    set myData to {}
    repeat with aTab in myTabs
        set aTab's selected to true
        delay 0.2
        set windowTitle to name of window 1
        set customTitle to aTab's custom title
        set end of myData to "Window:" & windowTitle & return & "Custom Title:" & customTitle & return & return
    end repeat
    display dialog (myData as text)
end tell


/Library/Keychains/System.keychain in restricted mode On OSX 10.12

A friend's keychain somehow got the "restricted" mode added to it. I know about csrutil disable from safe mode etc, I'd really like to know how it could've happened. He has no idea what he was doing back then, of course.

-r--r--r--@  1 root  wheel  -              0 Aug 5  07:38 .fl043D1EDD
-r--r--r--   1 root  wheel  -              0 Feb 17  2015 .fl947E1BDB
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  restricted 56612 Jul 18 21:02 System.keychain
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  -          33288 Sep 13 15:05 System.keychain-orig
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  -          56612 Jul 18 21:02 System.keychain.2016-09-13.11:28:12
-rw-r--r--@  1 root  wheel  -          55936 Sep 13 23:05 apsd.keychain

Check the file /System/Library/Sandbox/rootless.conf - there is a list of all "restricted" directories of files.
Also this article could help


How do I backup my shattered iPhone that has a passcode? So over the Halloween weekend.. I shattered the screen to my 5S :(

My buddy is lending me their old iPhone 5 for a bit. I planned to backup my 5s and restore it on the 5. Problem is.. I keep getting the message in iTunes that says I have to enter my passcode on my 5s to start the backup!

The screen is absolutely destroyed. It doesn't recognize fingers or anything. The screen only turns on when I get a notification.

I was thinking it might be possible to replace my 5s screen with my buddy's 5 screen if all else fails, but I'm not sure if thats possible. Maybe someone can answer that too.

Thanks guys!

If you phone is on, if you plug it into your Mac or computer it should automatically start to backup. As long as you have synced it on that computer at some point. Then you can just restore it when you get a new phone.


How do I set a textfields string to a variable in AppleScript? I want to set the text in a text field to a variable, in this case called variable1. Here's the part of my script.

on button836_(sender)
    set variable1 to quoted form of POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "Choose")

That's the first part. But I also wanted to set the text in textField to the value of variable1.

I tried doing this:

    textField's setString:variable1

But it didn't work. Usually, I have a script that returns the value, and doing textField86's setString:script837 etc. usually works, but it's different here. I even tried this stupid solution:

    set variable1script to do shell script "echo " & variable1
    textField's setString:variable1script
    end button836_

Which should work but it just tells me:

2015-11-26 15:12:27.077 [etc.] AppDelegate button836:]: -[NSTextField setString:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x6100001e0200 (error -10000)

You must use a method from the NSControl class --> Getting and Setting the Control’s Value

textField's setStringValue:variable1 -- variable1 must contains a string


Cleaning a MacBook Pro keyboard that's been covered in juice My lovely son spilled apple juice on my laptop keyboard.

It works, but it feels like it has grit under the keys and sticks a bit.

How do I clean it out?

I remember old keyboards could be just banged hard against the desk... I presume thats a bad idea though...

It's a macbook pro 15 inch laptop

You can actually remove the keys, clean them and then replace them again.

Follow this link to see how it's done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSpPlMdGvVI

The problem with liquid damage is that although the laptop may work fine now, if the juice has got onto the Logic Board, it can cause corrosion over time, which will more than likely cause issues.

However, I do hope this is not the case! Good luck!


Can folders in Family Shared iCloud be protected? I'm looking at changing to a Family Shared iCloud plan, and want to know if it's possible to protect folders in the iCloud.

So, for example, so I can put files like Home Insurance documents in there, that the Parents can see but not the Children.

My understanding is that each AppleID cannot see the other files and the only thing shared is the total capacity of each item that is stored in each siloed storage.

If you are giving the children access to the Mac or iPad where you are storing these files, you’ll need to encrypt them separately (Disk Utility allows encrypted disk images - kind of like a secure USB drive that only mounts when you put in the proper passphrase) or set those devices to lock and not allow the children in unsupervised.

Then you can explicitly share only the files you want with the several AppleID that belong to “the Parents” on a one-off basis.


Does Family Sharing allow others to see the free Apps that you've downloaded? Does Family Sharing allow others to see the free Apps that you've downloaded or is it just the paid Apps?

I did search online but couldn't seem to find confirmation.

Yes, but not without looking.

More specifically to your iPhone scenario, to see what has been downloaded by a family member, you would need to follow the steps outlined below.

App Store

Go into the App Store app
tap on Updates at bottom right
tap on Purchased at top of screen
a list of family members will appear
tap on the family member to view their purchases

Note that by purchases we mean all downloads, as free apps are effectively treated as though they were purchased for $0.00.

iTunes

A similar process is required to view their music, movie and other iTunes purchases:

Go into the iTunes app
Tap on the More icon at bottom right
Tap on Purchased
a list of family members will appear
tap on the family member to view their purchases

Once again, by purchases we mean all downloads.

iBooks

And, with iBooks:

Go into the iBooks app
Tap on the Purchased icon at bottom right
a list of family members will appear
tap on the family member to view their purchases

Once again, by purchases we mean all downloads.


Better tabs management in Safari 6.x I'm looking for extensions to allow the Safari 6.x versions to manage a large number of open tabs better than the current implementation. In particular I'm looking for two features:

Vertical tabs. This is possible in Firefox by means of the extension Tree Style Tab.
App tabs. In Firefox it is possible to pin tabs as app tabs.

Up to know I've found and tried several times SafariStand but it doesn't look great and it doesn't provide the features of Tree Style Tab. I would really like to move from Firefox to Safari, but for the problem of "I have too many useful extensions in Firefox." :)

Has anyone discovered extensions that add these features to Safari for OS X?

Safari does not allow extensions or plugins to mess with the tab bar. If you really need this functionality, your best bet is to use Firefox with the plugin you mentioned.