macOS partition startup Volume and Recovery Disk type FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF plus part of the disk corrupted? I have a situation very similar to the ones depicted in two previous questions I found (this and this), but still different (I address why my situation is different later on in the question).

The problem

I am really panicking, my computer has been in unbootable status for two days now and because of coronavirus lockdown, in Italy there is no any opened tech shop, at this point I do not know what to do and any help is very much appreciated.

I had a ~50 GB linux partition on the SSD (total ~250 GB) of my 15” Macbook Pro mid-2015.
I created this partition to boot ubuntu back in 2016 and I used it regularly alongside macOS.
About one year ago I updated to Mojave 10.14, and this is the macOS version my computer is running now (I am mentioning it because I suppose that the update changed the file system of my macOS partition to APFS, keeping unmodified the ubuntu partition, I guess).

Today I decided to remove the ubuntu partition, I started the computer on macOS, opened Disk Utility, find the ~50 GB partition assigned to ubuntu on the pie chart, I clicked on the “-“ sign to remove the partition and then “Apply”.
Disk Utility returned to me instantly with an error (not remember exactly the text, but I remember that no error code was given) saying it could not perform the operation, so I googled a bit some solutions (MY COMPUTER WAS PERFECTLY WORKING) and I found a post suggesting to perform some operations from ubuntu, so I decided to restart my computer in order to open ubuntu - I repeat, it was perfectly working, many apps opened and fully working, etc. - and...

It booted into “GNU GRUB version 2.02”

I tried to restart my mac keeping “option” pressed, but it could only find the “EFI Boot” disk (picture attached) which is the one I usually select to boot Ubuntu.
Also, Ubuntu now doesn’t even work anymore, because if I select “EFI Boot” it starts “GNU GRUB version 2.02”.

Now I really started panicking, I don’t care about data of the ~50 GB ubuntu partition, but so foolishly I haven’t backed up the ~200 GB macOS data, and I am just so affectionate to them, I would really like to recover them.

Data Recap

15” Macbook Pro mid-2015
Right now I am booting from the network.
256 GB SSD partitioned in:
~200 GB APFS macOS partition - FileVault encrypted - running Mojave 10.14
~50 GB ubuntu partition - don’t remember the file system (data here doesm’t matter to me)

Photos Attached

diskutil list
gpt -r show /dev/disk1
disk1 information from Disk Utility
Disk Utility overview of the physical disk
booting situation with only the “EFI Boot” partition

Why my situation is different

My situation is different from other questions because of 3 reasons:

The ~50 GB ubuntu partition is disappeared, maybe corrupted, indeed if you add up all the disk's size in diskutil list, you still miss ~50 GB.
I have 2 disks at the same time (index 2 and index 3) that are in the FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF status
When I call gpt -r show /dev/disk1 I don't get any "Suspicious MBR at sector 0" message unlike others users that wrote other questions.

Update 1

I just wanted to confirm that I am booting the mac from Network Recovery and also my Disk Utility version.
Disk Utility Version is: "Version 13 (606)" - "Copyright 2002-2014 Apple Inc.". Is seems, indeed, pretty old.

Try the following commands.

gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk1
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 397105928 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk1


Maximize window after cmd+tab switching to app with only one window minimized? One thing is very annoying on macOS: Imagine you have an App openen, line Notes - with only one window. You minimize this window so it's as an icon in the dock, not showing on the screen (coz for example you need more space on desktop). Then you switch to another app. Then you want to switch back to Notes, but... The logic should be that it will restore it's only one window to the original position, so you can work with the app.
But it will not happen. You are back in Notes, but the only one windows is still minimized in the Dock, so you actually switched to the app but you cannot work - you have to unminimize window from the Dock or open a new one.
Any clue how to make only-window unminimize automatically? Any tool, system settings, script, bash script, anything?

Hide the app instead of minimizing it
Instead of minimizing the app, try to hide the app instead by using CMD+H. Functionally it appears to be the same for your use case, and when you switch back to the app either by clicking on it on the Dock or by selecting it in the App Switcher, all windows for that app will reappear in the positions they were when you hid the app.


Can I send files using bluetooth to a device that is not discoverable but previously paired? I can send files using the built-in Bluetooth File Exchange on OSX Lion just fine, except it requires me to put my phone in a discoverable state. However, since this is an Android phone, it stops being discoverable after 120 seconds. In addition, I have a nice Bluetooth toggle on my home screen but I can't get one for BT and discoverable.

The Phone is paired with my MacBook, so I was wondering if somehow I could bypass the discoverable requirement for previously paired bluetooth devices.

Normally, yes. Click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar, your phone should be listed in the “Devices” category. From there, you can toggle actions on it.


How do I determine the negotiated link speed for a network connection in Big Sur? How do I determine the negotiated link speed for a network connection in Big Sur?
Big Sur removed the handy Network Utility tool that displayed this information. This tool was powered by many standard Unix tools, most of which I can replicate. However, I cannot find how to determine the current link speed for my networking connection.
I'm not looking for the current transmission speed - this can be found in System Information. I want the link speed, which is the maximum theoretical transfer speed. Knowing this value can be handy when configuring a wifi network to make sure you are connected to the proper band, the band is configured right, and you aren't leaving any potential speed on the table.
I've seen suggestions to use ifconfig but this does not output any useful information.
$ ifconfig  en0 | grep media
$    media: autoselect

my suggestion (albeit very ugly) is to use the airport utility thats hidden in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources, if you use 'airport -I' it will give you the max rate which I think is equivalent to the link speed. Hope that helps.


Migration Assistant ... transferring from a Mac G5 with no display to 2014 iMac Our trusty 9 year old Mac G5 hit what appears to be a dead end ... the graphics card died and thus no picture, just a black screen. In desperation -- because we're a busy design and education company -- we purchased a brand spanking new 2014 27" iMac. Beautiful machine. That was the easy part. And we bought the necessary cables to speed the transfer of data and applications from Firewire (G5) to Thunderbolt (iMac).

Now here's the migration issue and request for help: In setting up the transfer of data from one machine to another, the procedure says to start Migration Assistant on both machines. The problem with the G5 is that the monitor is dead so there's no way to navigate to the Migration app in the Utilities folder. The Migration Assistant on the iMac therefore cannot locate the G5 and just spins endlessly.

I just learned that on older PPC Macs you could restart the machine and hold the "T" key down to force it into target mode. This may be the answer but wanted to post this in case it doesn't work and there's another solution.

Please advise and thank you in advance.

Target disk mode is the answer. In my experience, there's a pretty good chance it will work even if the display is dead.

If Target disk mode fails, you could easily remove the hard drive and connect it to a SATA dock and transfer that way.


El Capitan frozen boot process Just thinking:
I have been reading a "lot" of users who's system just did not starts once it has been turned off or after a restar command.
Some things in common: Virtual machines, Boot camp, multiple partitions, I exactly do not know what could it be. But, behaviour is something about addressing the startup sequence.
At least in my case, my MBP (mid2009, 8GB, 1TB HDD) progress bar just keep static at 0%. The HDD has zero activity. So, it looks like it receives the command to start, but then do not know exactly what to do.
Something about the mounting point? Something about creating a virtual drive? Something about trying to use an already used space?
I will appreciate some help trying to fix it. As you did read, my MBP is pretty old, so battery is an issue. I must keep it fully charged to avoid restart from zero. Each time I must reinstall and it takes 1 hour from pen drive an a lot of network activity. Apart: My MBP is now a lot of times faster than using previous OSX. It has this awful pitfall, but in the other hand is a really excellent work.

You can troubleshoot El Capitan the same as any other OS X - boot in verbose mode to see a specific log of what is happening so you now the exact area in the boot process when it's failing.

Or you could install 10.11 on to a fresh, new USB drive and get a test that confirms your hardware isn't the problem since a clean install should boot properly.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573 - How to start up your Mac in single-user or verbose mode
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 - Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up


Error when mounting sparse bundle from terminal I picked up this command on how to open a disk image and have the password prompt in the terminal window (useful for remote mounting):hdiutil attach -stdinpass /path/to/image
source

However, it's not working with this particular volume. I get this error:

bash-3.2$ hdiutil attach -stdinpass ~/Desktop/Summer\ Docs.sparsebundle
Enter disk image passphrase:
hdiutil: attach failed - Device not configured

Here are the permission for the sparsebundle trying to be opened:

drwxr-xr-x@  6 non-admin  staff   204 May 31 16:06 Summer Docs.sparsebundle

What is wrong with the sparsebundle image that I can't mount it this way?

There's probably nothing wrong with the sparsebundle image. The error message tells you that something is wrong with the context/environment that you're the command in.

From the man page for hdiutil:

"Device not configured.  This error is returned explicitly by DiskImages when its kernel driver or framework helper cannot be contacted.  It also often shows up when a device has been removed while I/O is still active.  One common case of the helper  not being found is when Foundation's Distributed Objects RPC mechanism cannot be configured.  D.O. doesn't work under dead Mach bootstrap contexts such as can exist  in a reattached screen(1) session.  Root users can take advantage of  StartupItemContext(8) (in /usr/libexec) to access the startup item Mach bootstrap  context."

You'll need to ensure that you run the command from a session where the necessary support systems are available.

For example if you run the command inside a reattached screen session, this problem can occur (the word screen here is the name of a specific program).

So start by trying the command as an ordinary, logged in user on the physical machine using the GUI Terminal.app. Make sure you have administrative privileges (sudo) and get the command working.

Then afterwards you can try running it via ssh, via a launchd or whatever it is you're trying to accomplish.


Automation on iOS not triggering when connected to WiFi I have set automation on my iPhone to turn on DND when it connects to work WiFi, however, the automation doesn’t work.

Does anyone know why this wouldn’t work?

Here’s a screenshot of rule:

According to https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/enable-or-disable-a-personal-automation-apd602971e63/ios, an automation based on Wi Fi cannot run automatically. You will get a notification asking if you want to run the automation. You then have to press Run.


macOS sierra scrollbar issue After upgrading to macOS sierra I've noticed that scrollbars are appearing always, even if I go to settings and then select appear when scrolling it still shows them and after quitting and going back to settings it reverts back to appear always. Is there any ways to solve this issue myself?

Go to finder and press command+shift+G on your keyboard and the dialogue box that appears paste in - this path in it

/Users/your
username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleMultitouchMouse.plist and delete this plist file com.apple.AppleMultitouchMouse.plist then go to system preferences and click on general and instead of selecting appear when scrolling select automatically based on mouse or trackpad


How do I get rid of "movies" taking up so much space? I have a MacBook Pro, and according to the info in About this Mac, about 67 GB of storage is "movies". I don't have any movies stored. What does this mean, and how do I free up the space? Also, how do I find out what is listed as "Other" so that I can clean up items stored there? Thanks!

Firstly - do not worry about "Other". This is a catch-all category and will include lots of system-only files, uncategorizable files etc. Unless these are stored within your user home directories then don't worry about them.

According to OSX Daily, the summary overview in Disk Utility will give a total for all video files - anywhere on the disk. Some of these may be in iTunes locations (including podcasts and iTunes U). A small few will be videos within system locations such as /System/Library/Compositions. You may find that a large number are part of your installed applications and their support libraries (this will depend on which applications you have installed, of course).

One way of searching for these video files is to use the Finder search box and type 'movie', then select 'kind = movie' from the system suggestions dropdown. Make sure that you select 'This Mac' for your search scope, and you should see all the files and their locations. There are lots of disk usage-reporting apps available to make this process simpler.

Don't delete any files within /System or /Library.
Don't delete any
files within /Applications or /Library/Application Support unless you
accept the risk of breaking those apps and reinstalling them.


If I restore from an iCloud Backup will my photos go back into Camera roll I an trying to sync my iPod Touch 5 to iTunes but had reset my PC. Now I need to erase everything off my iPod Touch.

If I restore from an iCloud Backup will my photos go back into Camera roll?

Yes it will restore your photos from your camera roll

Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


which attached usb device is which? I have a Macbook Air (2015). It has two identical USB ports, one on the left and one the right.
I bought two identical USB flash drives and plugged both in. I'm copying a single large dataset onto both drives. The first transfer is complete, the second has just begun and will take another hour. I would like to disconnect the drive that I've already transferred the files to. I obviously do not want to disconnect the wrong drive, the drive with an active file transfer. But these drives do not have any kind of activity indicator (like an LED).
So, which drive is which? If the physical devices offer no clue, can I figure this out by consulting fstab or some other low-level system info? Do the physical ports have predictable locations on the internal bus, or anything like that?
I don't expect an answer within the next hour, but I'm still interested in the question academically. When the two USB devices are different, it's easy to know which is which because you put them there and are aware of their differences.
Also: this question is specific to 2015 Macbook Airs. If Apple did things predictably back in 2015, great for me, even if the *nix & Windows situation is the wild west.

Before you find yourself in the same situation again, you need to first ascertain and mark each disk with its serial number where you can easily see it, or at least know where it is, if it's already on the outside of the case.
You can run the following command in Terminal with one disk at a time mounted:
system_profiler SPUSBDataType

Review the info and mark the case of the target disk. Then do the same for the second disk.
Then when you find yourself in this situation again, you can use Terminal to determine which disk is being written to.
First run the mount command.
When mounting two disks whose name are the same, using the mount command in Terminal, the second one mounted will show as e.g. /dev/disk4s2 on /Volumes/Name 1 while the first one mounted will show as e.g. /dev/disk3s2 on /Volumes/Name, e.g.:
/dev/disk3s2 on /Volumes/Name (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
/dev/disk4s2 on /Volumes/Name 1 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)

Now using sudo fs_usage -w -f diskio you'll see lots of messages, e.g.:
11:31:08.015616    WrData[ANT1]    D=0x0345b918  B=0x80000  /dev/disk4s2  /System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/Name 1/path/to/file

Seeing that it's /dev/disk4s2 being written to, then in this example case, you'd run diskutil eject disk3 to eject the disk of the same name that's not being written to, under the use case you described in your OP.
You would then run  system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -E '.*Serial Number:|.*BSD Name:' in Terminal, looking just at the information where there is a BSD Name: immediately following a Serial Number: to see which disk is, e.g disk3 by its serial number in this example.
Look at the serial number on the case of each disk and unplug the one that's not being written to base on the output of the commands run in Terminal.


Connect an iPad Pro to an older Macbook Pro using a generic USB-C to USB-A cable The older Macbook Pro I'm using doesn't have USB-C ports. The cable that came with the iPad Pro I'm using came with a USB-C to USB-C cable. I tried to use a USB-C to USB-A cable from a Huawei phone to connect the iPad and the Macbook, but there was no connection whatsoever.

Does it mean I'll have to get hold of a very specific USB-C to USB-A cable, such as a “Belkin USB-A to USB-C Cable (USB 3.1)” (cf. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209186#computer)?

No, there's no need to use that specific cable. Any standards-compliant USB-C to USB-A cable should work.


Install Xcode without admin Is there any way to use Xcode on a computer that I don't have admin permissions for?

Is there a way to at least use command line tools like git and gcc?

There's an answer to this over on StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1837889/authorize-a-non-admin-developer-in-xcode-mac-os

You need to add your OS X user name to the _developer group. See the posts in this thread* for more information. The following command should do the trick:
sudo dscl . append /Groups/_developer GroupMembership <username>

It looks like you'll still need the admin account for this part but after that you should be able to run Xcode on your account.
*This isn't the link from the original answer. That page is actually gone. I've added a new link ot a thread in the Apple Support Communities.
Hat tip to Ned Deily.


How can I force Finder to be opened in a specific size? Possible Duplicate:
  Mac OS X Lion Finder Window Size

Every time I open Finder it open in a small windows I want it open in a bigger window how can I do this?

The way to set up a "default" Finder window is indeed a bit obscure: first you'll open a new Finder window, and then without clicking on any file or folder arrange the window to your needs (resize, position, define view, show/hide sidebar, etc.) and close it again immediately. Every new window should now use this new setup as a default.


Is there a way to view and control the powerstate of the discrete GPU on a 2011 MBP in OSX? I noticed that running with the discrete GPU uses more power and generates more heat. I just need the discrete GPU to drive an external monitor, I'm not concerned about performance.

By controling the power state I expect to control the voltage and frequency of the GPU. This could be achieved by either changing the power state of the GPU or the voltage and frequency directly.

I just want to make sure that the MBP runs as cool as possible.

I use gfxCardStatus to see and control if my discrete GPU is in use. Is that what you want?

To see how much power is consumed you can use iStat Menu for example...


App to lock my iPhone for some time I already asked a similar question sometime ago (though that was focused on free apps) and the answers were negative, but I've done some research and it seems there could be a way.

Basically, I’m looking for apps which lock the phone, either for a specific app (I.e. “don’t use Facebook for 1 day”) or for the full phone (I.e., “don’t use any app for the whole day, except for phone calls & SMS”). On Android this is doable with Offtime. On iOS Offtime (conveniently renamed to “Offtime light”) is totally useless (it doesn’t lock anything at all).

However, on the iPhone I found two more apps which seem to be able to do what I want: Flipd and Freedom.

Flipd

The app requires me to install a MDM certificate on my phone in order to allow locking. However, I don't know what a MDM certificate is, and since this is a company mobile, I cannot risk third parties to access my emails and documents. Is it safe to install the MDM certificate?

Freedom

This app doesn't seem to require a MDM certificate (I can't be sure because I haven't downloaded it: it looks like there's no free trial, so before buying it I want to be sure it works). It does require a "limited VPN", though. Again, is this safe?

If both apps aren't safe, are there safe alternatives?

I'm from the Flipd team and just wanted to chime in here. The MDM used to activate the Full Lock in order to hide your apps is completely safe. Not only does Apple thoroughly vet apps like ours that use MDM, the call we make via MDM is only to hide your third-party apps and then to push them back onto your device over the internet at a scheduled time. This feature is similar to Apple's Restrictions mode, but on a schedule.

The only error you might run into is if you have a weak or no internet connection; at which point your apps may not appear as scheduled. This is easily resolved by uninstalling the MDM and your apps will return immediately.

I hope this helps!


iCloud Sync with Outlook works only one way I just tried syncing my office PC's calendar to my iCloud account to get the calendar entries on my phone. After installing the iCloud panel for Windows and activating calendar sync Office got my personal calendars, but iCloud still does not know about the appointments I got in my Outlook calendar.

Is there something I missed?

I think that there is a better way for you to configure this to work smoothly for you.

The pre-smartphone method of getting calendar data onto a phone (or the Palm Pilot's of the past) was to "sync" the device with a computer using a physical cable.  In this setup, the computer was the central repository of information.  The reason for this was simply that old Palm devices simply didn't have an Internet connection of their own like modern smartphones do.  Put simply, modern smartphones should rarely be "synched" with a computer any more to exchange data.

Instead, your iPhone is as capable as your computer to connect directly to your work server to exchange calendar data.  You iPhone is also capable of having multiple email/server accounts (i.e a connection to iCloud, another to your work server, and possibly another to a Gmail or Yahoo mail account).

Therefore, the solution to your configuration problem is simple.  Set up your iPhone in Mail/Calendar/Contacts settings to connect to your iCloud account, and then set up a second account to connect with your work's server (Exchange)?  Your iPhone will then get calendar data right from the two source servers over the Internet (no more sync cables needed).  The iPhone will then overlay the calendar data from both accounts.  It will also allow you to show or hide each calendar separately, or simply see them both in the same calendar.  When you create a calendar event from the iPhone, you can even choose which calendar it belongs to.

On your computer, you should do the same.  Set up Outlook to get email/calendars/contacts directly from the iCloud server, and also from your work server.

Once you have your computer and your iPhone connecting directly with the servers then calendars, email, and contacts will always be current and "in sync" thereafter.


How do I get a CD version of El Capitan suitable for a Macbook Pro? I have 2 Macs, and am downloading El Capitan from the app store.  I want to see if I can install it on an older MacBook Pro that has a broken Command-R feature that prevents me from installing the OS.  (It says contact apple support)

Since that costs $, I'd rather see if I can simply boot and reinstall the OS in a clean way.

How do I locate and burn the downloaded El Capitan in a way that will make it bootable on the other mac?

Apple does not sell an optical media version of El Capitan. You need to use OS X Recovery or a USB drive to re-install El Capitan, which is relatively simple to create. All you need is an 8 GB USB drive and a computer running OS X. Instructions on how to create such an installer are here: How to make a bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer drive

  Making the installer drive

  Connect to your Mac a properly formatted 8GB (or larger) drive, and rename the drive Untitled. (The Terminal commands I provide here
  assume that the drive is named Untitled. If the drive isn’t named
  Untitled, the procedure won’t work.)
  Make sure the El Capitan installer (or at least a copy of it), called Install OS X El Capitan.app, is in its default location in your
  main Applications folder (/Applications).
  Select the text of the following Terminal command and copy it.

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume

  /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\
  Capitan.app --nointeraction
  Launch Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities).
  Warning: This step will erase the destination drive or partition, so make sure that it doesn’t contain any valuable data. Paste the
  copied command into Terminal and press Return.
  Type your admin-level account password when prompted, and then press Return.
  You may see the message “To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/Untitled. If you wish to continue type (Y) then press
  return:” If so, type the letter Y and then press Return. If you don't
  see this message, you're already set.

  The Terminal window displays createinstallmedia’s progress as a
  textual representation of a progress bar: Erasing Disk: 0%... 10
  percent...20 percent... and so on. You also see a list of the
  program’s tasks as they occur: Copying installer files to disk... Copy
  complete. Making disk bootable... Copying boot files... Copy complete.
  The procedure can take as little as a couple minutes, or as long as 20
  to 30 minutes, depending on how fast your Mac can copy data to the
  destination drive. Once you see Copy Complete. Done., as shown in the
  screenshot above, the process has finished.

  Createinstallmedia will have renamed your drive from Untitled to
  Install OS X El Capitan. You can rename the drive (in the Finder) if
  you like—renaming it won’t prevent it from working properly.


How do I send a set of youtube URLs from a Mac to the youtube app on Apple TV? On my Macbook I note a series of youtube URLs that I would like to watch, sometime.

They are extended documentaries, and so I'd like to watch them on the TV. The TV is hooked to an Apple TV (4th gen).

I could of course use the youtube app on the Apple TV to search again for the URLs, but this is terribly tedious. It's a task best done on a computer.

How do I send a set of youtube URLs from a Mac to the youtube app on Apple TV?

Yes, I am aware that I could use AirPlay. But doing so inevitably requires me to run back and forth between the Mac and the Apple TV.

I could also send the URLs via Google Keep to my iPad, and AirPlay from the iPad to the Apple TV, but I'm hoping there is a way that turns the Apple TV into a standalone device, without requiring me to type the URLs by hand.

In your Apple TV YouTube app, you should see an option to activate.. To login to your YouTube account.  Once you follow the instructions displayed on your TV, you should then be logged into your YouTube account and on your TV you can see your favorites and playlists etc.


Scaling external Display on Macbook Pro Mid 2012 I have a Macbook Pro Mid 2012 and I use it together with a Dell 24" Monitor, which has 2.560 x 1.440 pixels (WQHD).

When I use this monitor together with my Windows PC, I'm using a scaling of 125% to increase everything (e.g. GUI elements, font, etc.) to a proper size. Screenshot of the corresponding options in settings:

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an equivalent setting option on my Macbook. All I can do is to change the output resolution for the external display. When I choose the native resolution 2560 x 1440 everything is of course quite small. When I choose for example 1080p everything has a proper size for me, but it is blurry.

Is there any possibility to have something like "windows scaling" on my MacBook Pro Mid 2012, or is there any 3rd party App which adds this functionality?

I'm looking for something like this for external displays on my MacBook:

UPDATE 16.05.18
available resolutions via RDM

You're best off using Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable for this.
  HDMI would work but you'd need to make sure your mDP to HDMI adapter
  and HDMI cable were compliant. It's just easier to buy one mDP to DP
  cable.

The easiest way is to hold Alt when you click on the Scaled option, which will force macOS to show the additional scaled resolutions in the list.

Here's Displays for my Apple Cinema HD Display as standard:

And then after Alt-clicking the Scaled option:

Alternatively, you can use a menu bar app called RDM (download link at bottom of readme) which lists all available resolutions, with retina resolutions marked by the ⚡ lightning bolt emoji:


Is it possible to hack the "Correct spelling automatically" setting in OS X to emit a sound when correcting? There are many times when I curse the autocorrection mechanism for changing what I typed, but overall, much of the corrections are welcome so I don't really want to disable it. I do want to have it do it's work but alert me when it makes each change so I don't have to proofread everything or focus with perfect attention to the screen to see the momentary red and/or blue underlining that alerts me to the machine override.

I would love a way to turn on an audible beep (customizable of course) so that I also get a warning each time my typing gets corrected (and only when autocorrection occurs).

Not exclusively, but there is a tool that will mark spelling and other changes with a sound.

As described in this answer, it is possible to detect the type of text field change that autocorrect uses programmatically. A sound is issued whenever any of the text changes - but this results in a lot of false positive "sounds" when autocorrect did not happen. A proof of concept app was released August 2011, so I hope it is still fully functioning. Direct download link: http://cl.ly/9CIZ. The app works in the background, and has a few options, such as the sound to be played. The author of the tool states:

  Again, this doesn't work perfectly and has a couple of bugs but it
  should work 99% of the time!


Default sender in Apple Mail when replying and more than one account Using Mavericks Apple Mail, I have two Exchange mail accounts, one for myself and one for Jane Doe.  The accounts are organised in the left hand mailbox list with mine above Jane Doe's.  If I reply to mail sent to both myself and Jane Doe, the default Sender that Apple Mail uses (unless I change it with the pulldown menu of email addresses) is Jane Doe, but it should be myself (since I am writing the email).  Is this a bug, or behaviour that I can change?  Note that on Preferences > Composing I have set "Send new messages from:" to my email, but this doesn't make a difference (and indeed the setting says it is for new messages, while I am concerned with the Sender of replies.)

Lets differentiate between NEW massages send from and Reply to sender.

There are 2 settings in Mail for each of the purpose.

One is for new mails:

That is the setting to either use a specific account or current Mail box account.

The other is for Replay-To.

The Reply-To settings are in each individual account settings, there you choose which account is to be used in Replay-To.

Preferences- Accounts - Outgoing mail Server (SMTP)
set the Server there and check the box use only this server.

Make sure you use (set) different server setting there for each account.


Is there a terminal emulator for Mac OS X that supports binding Ctrl+(Shift)+Tab? I want to bind Ctrl+Tab to \033[27;5;9~ and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to \033[27;6;9~. Unless I am missing something, the default Mac OS X terminal emulator will not let you bind these key sequences to custom escape sequences like it does with the "F" keys (F1, F2, etc.) and most other keys.

Is there another terminal emulator I can use on Mac OS X that does support rebinding those keys?

Yes.  There is a product called iTerm2.  The best part is that it's FOSS

One of the features of iTerm2 is that you can remap any of the keys including the ones you asked about.  For instance, I remapped Ctrl+Tab to send the text "blah" it it worked perfectly.

After hitting Ctrl+Tab, it sends the keystroke:


Has Apple hidden any tributes to Steve Jobs? In Apple's software, are there any hidden tributes or memorials to Steve Jobs?

Someone told me you can find his glasses in an app but I can't find them.

The Reading List icon in Safari is a tribute to the glasses.

Didn't know the story behind the iconic glasses - see this Wall Street Journal article talking about it.


Lion Server: Is Mobility in Workgroup Manager related to Profile Manager in the Server.app? I'm about to set upon a difficult task -- well, difficult for me anyway: Lion Server and Profile Manager with an eye toward managing a couple of MacBooks that will be taken out of the office from time-to-time.

I have several questions about it, but I'll take them one at a time as I learn more.

I was on the phone with Enterprise Support and asked them how I might manage a couple of MacBooks in my Open Directory environment. They pointed out the Profiles section in server.app and that I can set up mobility in there so I can guarantee that laptop users can still login and access their server-homed desktop and documents while they're physically out of the office.

Recently, I set up some Preferences options in Workgroup Manager and noticed there's a "Mobility" icon there.

Are Profile Manager and Mobility related to one another? Or do they operate independently?

As a side question: Do I need to enroll ALL computers in the profile manager regardless of whether they're going to be mobile or not? If so, will that affect my current setup which is primarily done through Workgroup Manager.

Cheers,

tcv

Mobility in Workgroup Manager and Mobility in Profile Manager are tools to do the same job. If you have used previous versions of Mac OSX Server Workgroup Manager is familiar but is now deprecated. Profile Manager should do all that is required to set up a network account that is accessible on a laptop out of the network office.
What I have found is that using both tools at once on a single device/account is, as you might expect, not helpful in identifying and setting good syncing rules.
My experience is limited to small networks (<10 devices) and this information comes as a result of my test server experience, as I have yet to upgrade any production servers.


How to disable Command + Left keyboard shortcut in Yosemite CMD + LEFT is a really important shortcut that i use in multiple applications on my mac: (go to back in google chrome, to put the cursor in the beginning of line in any IDE...etc.). however, it seems that in Yosemite(?) this command seems to move my window left.

how do i disable this keyboard shortcut? (same with CMD+RIGHT)

i looked in mission control and system settings keyboard, but couldn't find anything

Nevermind. i found out why - apparently someone installed BetterSnapTool on the server, which does this.


Only download new email on Apple Mail app on macOS Is it possible to set up a new email account on Apple Mail app on macOS and only have it download new emails from the time it was set up on the Mail app?
I want to have a fresh start with an existing email address but I don't want to delete any of my old emails.
Question: how do I add an email address to the Mac Mail app and only have it display new emails?

Make Use of the Archive Function
In Apple Mail, you can Archive mail that you no longer need immediate access to, but you don't want to delete.
See the Apple Support Document:  Archive emails in Mail on Mac

I want to have a fresh start with an existing email address but I don't want to delete any of my old emails.

This is exactly what Archive will do.  You will have a nice, fresh start with your In-Box, but you wouldn't have deleted any of the existing email messages.  If you ever need to search for them again, they are readily available.
In my personal workflow, I archive everything older than 365 days (you can set up a rule, but that's a different question).  The other day, I needed a Serial Number for a scanner I purchased 2 years earlier and was able to find it within a couple of seconds.  This feature works, and works well!


How to install boot camp without Windows cd? I'm trying to install boot camp on my MacBook Pro, problem is I don't have a windows installation disk. Can someone please explain how to install bootcamp without the cd? Please!

Are you missing the physical media and only have an ISO of the Windows CD or do you not even have that? An ISO and an 8GB thumb drive is all you really need. Just launch the Boot Camp app and follow the prompts.

Boot Camp is basically the glue that allows Windows to install on a Mac. And by glue I mean the installation utilities and drivers.

Using Boot Camp without Windows is kind of like using an oil filter without the car to plug it into: it has no function all by itself, it only works in concert with another part. In the case of the oil filter, it needs a car or other vehicle. In the Case of Boot Camp, it needs Windows.


Add heading to Google Docs document from iPhone quite a straightforward question. I started to really like Google Docs and the fact I can edit them from iPhone from the mobile site.

However, I would like to add headings to the documents while editing on iPhone. It is not possible through any drop-menu, but isn't there some sort of hack?

I can suggest several for title editing, but I'm unaware of any that offer headings.

If you've already scanned through the available App Store offerings without much success, then I can suggest little-else. It's not about a hack, as Google hasn't gone out of their way to restrict you in this fashion. Probably on the long list of to-do's.


Enable the display of harddrives in the finder sidebar from terminal I administrate MacBooks (os version 10.13) most of the time remotely and as much as possible from terminal only.

I know how to display Hard drives in the sidebar of the Finder using the graphical interface > Finder > Preferences...

Is it possible to enable this from terminal?
(sfltool is not available anymore since 10.13+)

Here's my solution based on the link shared by @sansSpoon:

You can use this python lib: FinderSidebarEditor

Simply put it in your python path then in python, you can edit your Finder Sidebar easily:

#!/usr/bin/python

from FinderSidebarEditor import FinderSidebar                  # Import the module

sidebar = FinderSidebar()                                      # Create a Finder sidebar instance to act on.

sidebar.remove("All My Files")                                 # Remove 'All My Files' favorite from sidebar
sidebar.remove("iCloud")                                       # Remove 'iCloud' favorite from sidebar
sidebar.add("/Library")                                        # Add '/Library' favorite to sidebar
sidebar.add("/SomeShare", uri="smb://shares")                  # Mount 'smb://shares/SomeShare' to '/Volumes/SomeShare' and add as favorite to sidebar
sidebar.add("/SomeOtherShare", uri="afp://username:pw@server") # Mount pw protected 'afp://server/SomeOtherShare' to '/Volumes/SomeOtherShare' and add as favorite to sidebar
sidebar.move("Library", "Applications")                        # Move 'Library' favorite to slot just below 'Applications'


How to click and drag to select/copy only part of a message in iMessage for OS X? Can anyone tell me how to restore the feature that allows clicking and dragging in a message in the OS X Messages app to select only part of a message that has already been sent or received?

This capability seems to come and go. I just did it a few days ago, and now it doesn't work again.

On a whim, I tried quitting Messages, and re-starting just the app, and it actually worked; before quitting I was unable to highlight part of a message. Afterwards, now I can select a subset of a message. I can also double-click to select a single word, etc.


Word for Mac: Quickly checking a check box I have several Word documents with check boxes

On Windows, you can simply click them to change the status (checked / not checked). But the only way I found to check/uncheck the checkbox with Word 15 or greater for macOS is to double click it and then to switch the value in the form field options:

Is there a quicker way to change the value?

Buried in the answer to this previous, somewhat related question (from which I liberally cribbed).

Go to Tools  in the menu.
Choose Protect Document...
Under Protection, select Protect Document for:
Then select Forms
Hit OK

My version of Word for Mac is 16.10.


Can't find log out button for Gmail on iPhone I am unable to log out of my Gmail account from my iPhone 6+. My screen starts from Inbox till end of folders but no log out shown. How do I log out?

Logging out needs to be done in Settings:

open Settings
scroll down to Accounts & Passwords, tap on it
tap on your Gmail account
delete it from there

This will just remove your mails and account info from your phone, it will not delete the account as such.


How can I add more destinations to Alfred's "move to..." results? Currently, when I use Alfred to action the currently selected item in Finder (using Cmd-Opt-), and then selecting "Move to...", the only options that come up are "Desktop" and "Documents". Is there a way to add additional sources to this list or to navigate in this screen to move the file to a different location?

The screen you're referring to is Alfred's standard file system browser, which is described in Preferences -> Features -> File Navigation.

A few useful keys for that screen are:

Use / to go to the root of the filesystem
Use ~ to go to your home folder

The complete description can be found in the preference window mentioned above, including a few customizable keys.


System-wide Keyboard Shortcut for Moving to Sidebar/Next Column I've been on a bit of a Keyboard-only kick lately, enabled chiefly due to the Chrome Keyboard Shortcut Extension, and I've begun bumping into a few difficult situations in everyday Desktop App use.

In applications like iTunes, or Code Editors, they have a unified sidebar with categorically organized content. iTunes has categories for your library, other people's libraries, your device, and playlists, Coda has a file picker, etc. But what is the easiest way to move keyboard focus to these sidebars? My current solution is to alternate Tab and ▼ aimlessly until I see an item on the sidebar highlighted. Needless to say this is frustrating and can lead to unintended changes being made in content panes.

I notice that most all apps have a function to hide the sidebar in the app menus, but restoring it doesn't move the focus to the sidebar.

I've looked at the Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcut Question but didn't find what I was looking for. Is there some kind of a global shortcut that will move focus between different interface elements, easily? Reliably?

Thinking outside the box:

If the only reason you want the keyboard shortcut, is to avoid your mouse, have you considered a trackpoint keyboard?

Because I had RSI in the past, trackpoint keyboards are about the only ones I can use (even at clients, I usually bring my keyboard, or work from my laptop that has such a keyboard).

The big upside of those keyboards is that you don't have to take your hand of the keyboard in order to use the mouse.
For trackpads I still need to (somehow using my thumb is far less accurate on trackpads than using my index finger, o I still need to lift my hand for pointing).

It takes a little while to get used to a trackpoint, but I can't do without them any more.
USB trackpoint keyboards work equally well on Mac and PC.

--jeroen


How do you delete albums (or large groups of songs) from your iOS device using iTunes Match? I forced my iPhone to download everything in iCloud (create All Music playlist, download, wait...). Now I want to delete about 25% of my music from the device. iOS 7 only allows you to delete one song at a time. How can I delete albums or ideally large groups of music at a time?

First, turn off iTunes Match (temporarily) on your iOS device: Settings > Music > iTunes Match > Off

Connect the iPhone (or iPad) to iTunes. Under DEVICES, find yours and highlight Music. Manually organize and delete songs, albums, artists, genres, etc.

Once iTunes is done updating, disconnect. Reenable iTunes Match.


How can I use multiple browser versions at one time? On Windows I can use Utilu Firefox collection (there also ie collection on his site).

How can I use multiple browser versions to see how my website works in different versions of different browsers in OS X?

For example I want to install browsers with biggest market share:

Internet Explorer
Firefox 3.6, latest and previous
Google Chrome latest and previous
Safari (any older versions possible)
Opera

Firefox

Firefoxes is a shell scripts that will install all major versions of Firefox on OS X, and set up separate profiles so you can use them simultaneously. Currently it installs:

Firefox 2.0.0.20
Firefox 3.0.19
Firefox 3.5.9
Firefox 3.6.28
Firefox 4.0.1
Firefox 5.0.1
Firefox 6.0.1
Firefox 7.0.1
Firefox 8.0.1
Firefox 9.0.1
Firefox 10.0.2
Firefox 11.0
Firefox Beta
Firefox Aurora
Firefox Nightly
Firefox UX Nightly

You can set it up so it only installs the specific versions you want.

Optionally, the script can install Firebug for each version of Firefox too.

It will also set icons that contain the version number:

Safari

For Safari, check out Multi-Safari.

Chrome/Chromium

For Chrome/Chromium, install any version you want, change the app name from Chromium.app to e.g. Chromium 19.app for clarity, then disable auto-updates for that version.

Opera

Download old Opera versions here: ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/mac/

IE

Get VirtualBox and then run this ievms script. It will automatically download legal Windows images for testing purposes and set up virtual machines for every IE version you need.


iPod Touch can't download apps Since yesterday, my first-generation iPod Touch would not let me download apps. In the app store, the image description (the one that you can slide left and right) would not appear and was replaced by small rectangles. The [free] or [0.99] button does not respond.

My iPod Touch is not jailbroken, and is updated with the latest firmware (3.1).

How can I fix this issue?

I've experienced similar problems in the past and it tends to be fixed by force quitting the app, by double tapping the home button so the multi-tasking tray appears, holding down the app until the red 'x' appears and then tapping that before opening the app store again.


Applescript fill up chrome textfield class
mytexthere

I don't manage to fill up the text from this textfield

here is my script :

set textToSave to "Demo"
tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell tab 3 of window 1 to set theTextInfo to execute javascript "document.getElementsByClassName('search-field has-drop-down-menu component')[0].value=" & quoted form of textToSave
end tell

I have no error on AppleScript but no result on chrome...

Similarly with your question here, the issue is that you're trying to reference an HTML element by a class name that does not exist.

The HTML snippet you supplied contains a single
 element, whose class attribute has the value "content".  Your JavaScript uses the getElementsByClassName() method with the argument 'search-field has-drop-down-menu component', which seems to have come from nowhere.

Therefore, to explain briefly about the getElementsByClassName() method, it is used to search within a collection of HTML elements for all the elements that have a class attribute with the value you specify as the argument.  For example, getElementsByClassName('foo') will match
...
, and ..., but it will not match
...
.

To replace mytexthere inside the
 element, you could use this method with the argument "content" (the class name of the
 element); identify the correct index number if the method returns more than one item; then set the textContent property to the desired value:

    document.getElementsByClassName('content')[2].textContent='...';

where [2] would need to be changed to the correct index number from the list of elements returned by getElementsByClassName('content').

There are other JavaScript methods you can use, such as querySelector(), which—to be useful—will require you read up on CSS Selectors.  But, once you're familiar with these, you can perform some very powerful element queries.


I accidentally deleted the App Store.app I accidentally deleted the App Store.app, I've tried to reinstall the OS X but it takes too long. So I canceled it.

Does anyone have the App Store.app that I can download? BTW I'm on 10.9.5.

Once, I also deleted the Mac App Store from my MacBook Pro running OS X Snow Leopard. I fixed it by downloading the Combo update. So you can also try downloading the COMBO update for 10.9.5 from here : https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1760?locale=en_US.

Combo Updaters are your best bet since if anything changes within the app between 10.9.0 and 10.9.5, then the app will be in the package.

However, since this app isn't supposed to be deletable, you might want to run a full reinstallation of the entire OS. That will perform a much better check on things and permissions in case you have further damage than just that one app being deleted. Start with the combo and try the full install if you still have issues or doubts.

Lastly, now is a very good time to make a back up of what you have before you install anything.


Not able to boot into Ubuntu after Yosemite Upgrade I am running dual boot on my iMac. I upgraded my OS to OS X Yosemite yesterday,and now I can't boot into Ubuntu. How can I fix my issue?

If your Ubuntu partition is still there, you probably need to install a rEFIt (or an equivalent) so you can choose your Ubuntu partition.

http://refit.sourceforge.net


How to I "edit as new" with Apple Mail? I have a mail message where I typed the email address from a business card. Unfortunately I made a typo, so it bounced. I'd like to open the mail and edit it as if it were a new mail without "Fwd" or "Re" and all that, but I can't find an option do to that with Apple Mail.

Is it possible?

Go to sent messages.

Right click the message and click "Send again"

This will open the message as you wanted.


How to Highlight a Symbolic Link in Finder of El Capitan? You cannot do the highlight in Finder of El Capitan 10.11.4.
However, there may be other methods to do it.

How can you highlight a symbolic link in Finder of El Capitan?

Set your highlight on the original, the symlink will follow - even across different drives on the same machine, even across different machines, so long as they are able to see each other.

Note: Sometimes the changes are not visible immediately to the Finder. Any change to the folder is usually enough to 'remind' it.


How can I reduce the heat produced when running resource heavy applications for a long time? As a software developer I often have to run resource heavy applications for a long period of time. As such my system is able to run the workload without too many issues (uses between 60-70% of CPU max) though my system can get a bit warm (Intel Power Gadget confirms 80 degrees celsius) are there any tactics I can use to reduce the amount of heat generated?

Firstly, probably worth checking that kind of temperature isn't going to damage your machine. This might be helpful at working that out: http://www.buildcomputers.net/cpu-temperature.html

As you'd likely know, processors and GPUs have an optimal temperature they run at which is regularly around 50 degrees C. Yours is well over that.

It'd be easier to suggest things if we had an idea of the spec and model but these a few general things

Few things to try:

Ventilate - ensure that the air vents are clear - this includes dust and things on your desk - it goes without saying that while a laptop has the word lap in it, it doesn't mean use it on your lap. Lots of laptops I've seen with heat damage are from doing things in bed with the sheets blocking the vents.
Ensure your fans are operating currently - if they don't sound like they are running at full speed when the CPU is at 80, then your fans or sensors aren't working. To that end, if you are good with physical tools, take the machine apart and clean the fans out with compressed air

If the issue persists take it to an authorised repairer. There could an issue with the thermal paste, and that kind of thing should be fixed by a professional.

If this still doesn't resolve the issue it's likely that you have a machine that is under powered to your needs and you are working it too hard. In other words, it might be time to upgrade to an iMac Pro later this year


Where can I get install discs for OS X 10.5 to max out a Powerbook G4? Over the past year, my dad's Powerbook G4 (OS X 10.3) lost the ability to run any usable version of firefox or other end of life PPC software. Apple customer service wouldn't sell him a copy of 10.5 and told him to search ebay for copies of OS X 10.5, 8 months after releasing 10.6. We've been watching ebay and the price just keeps climbing above the original price.

I told him to buy a copy of 10.6 and the license should allow for installing older versions. He took it to a 3rd party Mac dealer and they said they couldn't install 10.5 if he doesn't own a 10.5 license (which no one will sell anymore). Does the OS 10.6 license cover older versions of OS X? Can 10.5 be obtained for the original price anywhere?

Firstly, I'm not sure where you heard that 10.6 shipped less than six months ago. It actually shipped in August 2009, making it over 12 months old.

Old system software tends to sell at a premium. I'm not sure why, but it may be at least partially because Apple no longer produces them. However, as Apple only sells 10.6 as a stand-alone OS (that is, it doesn't sell upgrade versions, just full) you can legitimately buy 10.5 from anyone with a copy who has since upgraded to 10.6.

There are plenty of places to buy 10.5 if you're willing to shop around. Keep an eye on this search and this search and see what turns up. For instance, this eBay sale is currently going for $40.


How to save half-made service in Automator? How to save half-made service in Automator without making it active, as it is not finished?

It does not matter if it's unfinished. Doing Command+S will save it under ~/Library/Services.

Taking the Service out of ~/Library/Services and restarting Finder (if you want immediate effect) will make this Service not to be shown under Menu / Services. Putting it back will, of course, make it appear again.

It does not matter where the file is placed, you'll be able to open it with Automator to continue editing it.


How can I make my Terminal login as my mac account and now bootcamp partition? I recently installed windows 7 on a partition using bootcamp and all went well. Now i am trying to use terminal on my original mac partition on OSX but the command line comes up as:

myusername-Win7:~ username$

i am having trouble connecting to an ssh tunnel for lowering for WoW, could this be my problem as it looks like its using windows 7?

Look's like somehow your computer has had it's name changed.

Changing your Mac’s computer name:

Launch System Preferences
Click the Sharing icon
Type in what you want your Mac’s new computer name to be
Close System Preferences


AppleScript to perform actions to text in new TextEdit document I need to make an AppleScript that would create a new TextEdit file, type any random text, then a table would pop up and give you two options to choose font of that text, then same with colour, save the file on desktop and close TextEdit.
This is what I have so far, but I came to an end of my knowledge:

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    make new document with properties {text:"XDXDXD"}
    set theDesktopPath to the path to the desktop folder as text
    tell front document
        set font to "Comic Sans MS"
        set size to 40
        set its color to {65535, 0, 0}
    end tell
end tell

I'm not sure how to tell what isn't working from the script above. Can you help with the completion of the script?

This is what I've written based on what was posted as the sample. First I set the filename and the file path of the document to create:

set filename to "test.txt"
set filePath to path to desktop

I wrote a display dialog that prompts a linefeed with a timeout and vague validation:

try
    set enteredText to (display dialog "What is your text?" default answer linefeed with title scriptTitle giving up after 40)
    if button returned of result = "" or gave up of result = true then error number -128
    set enteredText to text returned of enteredText
on error
    return display notification "Script cancelled" with title scriptTitle
end try

After the entry of text I then tell TextEdit to manipulate the text based on what you've supplied and save it to a file on the desktop:

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    set theDoc to make new document with properties {text:enteredText}
    tell theDoc
        set the color of every word to {65535, 0, 0}
        set size to 29
        try
            set font of theDoc to "Comic Sans MS"
        on error
            set font of theDoc to "Times"
        end try
        save in file ((filePath as text) & filename)
    end tell
end tell

The script's entire code:

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions

(*
    Date: 18-12-20
    Developer: r2d2
    Purpose: prompt for text, manipulate in TextEdit and save to file.
    Version: 1.1
    Name: textedit_experiment.scpt
*)

set filename to "test.txt"
set filePath to path to desktop
set scriptTitle to "r2d2 TextEdit script"

try
    set enteredText to (display dialog "What is your text?" default answer linefeed with title scriptTitle giving up after 40)
    if button returned of result = "" or gave up of result = true then error number -128
    set enteredText to text returned of enteredText
on error
    return display notification "Script cancelled" with title scriptTitle
end try

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    set theDoc to make new document with properties {text:enteredText}
    tell theDoc
        set the color of every word to {65535, 0, 0}
        set size to 29
        try
            set font of theDoc to "Comic Sans MS"
        on error
            set font of theDoc to "Times"
        end try
        save in file ((filePath as text) & filename)
    end tell
end tell
return display notification "Script COMPLETED" with title scriptTitle

The script as it is is a base and there are far other forms of validation and improvements that can be made such as file existence, text returned testing or dialog testing but I wanted to answer the question.

Edit:

Code for the TextEdit tell modified to include closure of the document, text passed is hard coded as foobar:

tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    set theDoc to make new document with properties {text:"foobar"}

    tell theDoc
        set the color of every word to {65535, 0, 0}
        set size to 29
        try
            set font of theDoc to "Comic Sans MS"
        on error
            set font of theDoc to "Times"
        end try
        save in file ((filePath as text) & filename)
    end tell

    set theDoc to front window
    try
        close theDoc
    on error
        display notification "Didn't close document"
    end try
end tell

Screenshot of dialog:

Screenshots of the above hard coded tell block and re-opened RTF file:

Code modified to take passed text to dialog and RTF opened:


Is installing Xcode necessary? I installed Xcode 12.2 on my MBP. I installed it from App Store and it's 28 gb, while my Mac only has a SSD of 128gb.
I use vscode for all my c/c++ programs so is there a need for me to keep Xcode on my device?

For C/++ you only need the compiler (clang)/toolchain, which can be installed via commandline:
xcode-select --install


water splash caused minor iPad Power Button problems, what is the risk of mainboard corrosion? Summary

Water splash on iPad Pro 12.9" (first generation)
Power button stopped working, then few times appeared to press itself, then started working again.
Third party repair service refused to open it and clean the mainboard to prevent corrosion.

Detailed explanation and questions are later, but basically I'm not sure if it's better to keep insisting and searching for other repair service to clean motherboard or maybe the risk is negligible?

Details

I have a waterproof backpack but I must have not zip it completely in a hurry and I was caught by heavy rain.

Upper part of my iPad got slightly wet (about 5cm from the top, based on trace left on protective case). It was not submerged in the water, it appears to be a splash type effect.

I haven't even noticed that after arriving in my office, I was working on it as usual and suddenly noticed the power button is not working and then suddenly noticed the water stain on the protective cover.

As emergency solution I enabled the accessibility feature as replacement for it.

Few hours later the button started to act like pressing itself, just few times, randomly.

Few more hours later it started to work back as usual.

After hours I went to nearest electronic repair shop which is trusted by couple of my friends. I requested them to open up my iPad and clean up the area around the power button using isopropyl alcohol to prevent corossion.

They refused to do it, they said it's just water and my iPad is going to be fine. Honestly, it sounds to me like they just didn't wanted to do it and gave me a bad advice.

Some research

As explained in this reference, the rain water is not pure, it contains contaminants from the atmosphere and even after dried out, can cause corrosion and oxidation.

http://www.circuitnet.com/experts/80616.html

I also reviewed all the water damage related questions on this Stack and extracted relevant ones.

Answers that recommend cleaning at third party repair shops. However in case of those questions, device was submerged or there was large spill making most of the liquid enter insides of the device, not just splashed.

How to deal with phone dropped in water
MacBook Pro mid-2010- water damaged - but it still plays the chime?

Those answer recommend drying, ventilation and just using it as long as possible, however here there was a serious spill and most of liquid ended up inside of the device, in my case probably only a little bit, there is not much cavity to let water through on top of iPad case.

Spilled water on Macbook Pro 13 inch, early 2015
No sound (speakers/jack) + microphone's dead after spilling water

This one in addition seems very optimistic if amounts of water are small.

A few drops of water on my Macbook Pro

The answer here recommends ultrasonic cleaner, however I suppose it also requires opening up the device so doesn't make the repair less risky.

iPhone 4S fell into water and blacked out, with only CPU and mainboard burning. Is it possible to export the data from two years ago?

Questions

Potential damage could be worse than just power button replacement?

Given the fact the device was not submerged, only partially exposed to stream of water and visibly affected only the power button

If potential corrosion occurs, would it require only power button replacement or entire iPad mainboard?

Better to find another repair shop and insist for cleaning?

Cleaning the motherboard is a complicated repair, my iPad is 12,9" version, screen is easy to break, I don't feel confident doing it myself. I head iPads are designed to be splash resistant, I'm wondering if it is worth taking the risk and just not do anything or is it sure corrosion might get it and I absolutely need to search for new repair shop that will take the challenge and clean up the motherboard?

What if they offer this ultrasonic cleaning instead of isopropyl approach? Should I go for it?

I've been to one more repair shop, they also refused to open it and redirected me to official Apple Service center. I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar.

Apple representative provided me with following information:

They don't open iPads. Assuming you have Apple Care and there is a problem, they replace the whole unit.
They don't advise opening it, they say the device is sealed and glued and it would be hard to put it back together as it was.
They say they understand my concern about corrosion, after my requested, they showed me more or less where motherboard and batteries are placed.

I returned home and did more research on my own.

I checked settings of my iPad and got it's exact model: A1584
I Googled "A1584 teardown"
On this website I found very detailed photos of the inside. I grabbed the case my iPad had on during splash - it still had the mark after the splash.
I downloaded the x-ray photo and highlighted the pattern of the splash on it, I also highlighted where mainboard is placed and with arrows I marked potential entry points of water.
I estimate, since the device was not submerged, only trace amounts of liquid could enter inside of the case and I think it's reasonable to say it couldn't reach the battery or mainboard.
I estimate worst case scenario, potential corrosion could damage the the smaller circuit boards connecting power button, camera and volume buttons to the mainboard.

Reference on iPad teardown

My decision:

Taking into account following information:

Device was not submerged and I estimate liquid couldn't reach critical components.
Device is sealed and non-trivial to open, after closing it again might become less hermetic.

I decide to

Not open it for cleaning of the motherboard.
Prepare extra means of precaution for such events, purchased a case with better sealing.


How to map function key (F1-F12) to perform like they do with builtin keyboard on Macbook I have an USB external keyboard but the Fn(1-12) keys are kinda useless. I use my macbook in clamshell mode and I want to use the regular function like expose, etc.. using function keys.

Is this possibile with os x sierra?

I recommend using the free tool Karabiner-Elements to accomplish this. After you've installed it, go to the Function Keys tab and set each key's behavior as desired. Below is a replica of the default key behaviors on a 2014 MacBook Pro, for example. If you want to only remap the function keys on your external keyboard, then uncheck the internal keyboard in the Devices tab.


Syncing Desktop and documents to iCloud I have a mac book pro which I enabled syncing desktop and Documents to iCloud.

This is working fine.

I also have a iMac which has a different desktop and documents.

If I also enable syncing desktop and documents to iCloud on the iMac.

Does it separate the documents & desktops into different folders on iCloud.

Or

Does it merge the two together into one desktop and one document folder.

If it merges, what does it do with files and folders that are the same name but different documents?

My understanding is that there is only one desktop synced per iCloud account. I would remove everything from the desktop of an 'about to be connected' mac - so you can manage any clashes.

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive says

  You can organize and combine folders from multiple Macs when you turn on Desktop and Documents on those computers too. After you turn on Desktop and Documents on a second Mac, you'll find its files in folders with the same name as your second Mac inside your original Desktop and Documents folders. Then you can combine your files manually, but iCloud doesn’t automatically merge the files in case you want to keep them separate. Any edits you make are seamlessly updated in iCloud Drive. There’s no need to manage your folders and files again on your other devices.


Tethered jailbreaked iPhone 4S is stuck on the Apple logo because the battery died It's impossible to put it on DFU mode because it won't turn off and I don't know what to do.
iTunes won't recognise it either.

How can I fix this?

I fixed it. I won't delete the question because I think this may help other people... but if mods want to delete it, then go ahead.

Today when I woke up the battery had died again, so I took advantage of this (because now it won't turn on everytime I tried to turn it off). Redsn0w has an option to boot the iphone/ipod if it's off while on tethered jailbreak, but it won't work with iphone 4S because it has A5, not A4; but I used the DFU instructions there to make sure it was done correctly (there's no screen that will tell you it's on DFU mode, but redsn0w will pop up a message telling you it doesn't support your device). Then I opened iTunes and it recognized it now and asked me if I wanted to restore it, and that's it... at least it works now.

In fewer words:

Let the battery die.
Plug it on your computer and let it charge for a minute or so.
DO NOT turn it on. Try to put it on DFU mode (if you don't know how
or need to be looking at the instructions with the seconds needed on
each button then download RedSn0w and cick on Extras>Boot).
Start the phone and go to setting reset and reset the phone and cydia or tethered jailbreak will removed from your device


Cannot mount USB with anything, including Disk Utility I am trying to connect a USB to a Mac I am using, and i cannot seem to.  When i plug the device into the Mac, i get an error that reads 'The disk inserted is not readable by the computer.(It contains an Ubuntu live boot)  This is interesting as i was able to plug it in before and it worked, including when it had those files in it.

I see the usb in the Disk Utilities menu, but when I click 'mount', it does nothing to it, and when i try to verify it, it says to repair the disk, but that option is blanked out.  When I try to clear the USB of the files, it says that it can't connect to the device.

Is there any way i can mount or access the device so that i can copy files to this?  I can't use another USB as i don't have another one to use for this.

I'm guessing the drive is in a filesystem that is either not supported by Mac or corrupted. First, you should connect the drive, open Terminal and type

diskutil list

Then you'll see a few disks (shown similar to /dev/disk1) and their name and size. Based on their name/size, locate which one is the problematic drive and edit your question to include it's entry.

But either way, the case is probably that the drive is just not formatted so good. Mac can be really picky sometimes when it comes to disks, so I really recommend you try to burn the ISO onto the drive using Rufus. Rufus is an incredible tool which is also completely free, but unfortunately it's only available for Windows. So try to get yourself one (or maybe ask a friend to allow you to use his) so you can use this tool, then just open Rufus, choose your disk in the drop-down menu (make sure you choose the right disk!!), check the box saying "Create bootable disk" and click the disk button, choose you ubuntu ISO, and hit format. I use Rufus a lot and it hasn't failed me yet.


Macbook pro low temperature tolerance Can I bring my Macbook Pro car camping in temperatures that may reach -5 degrees F?  I have found a lot of information on high temperature tolerances but not on the low tolerances.

I just looked at the user manual for my Macbook Pro (mid-2012), and discovered this info:

Storage Temperature:

-4 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit

Operating Temperature:

50 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit

According to the storage temperature, it looks like your -5 F is calling it a little too close.

This appears to be an online copy of the user manual I have.

Look here for more manuals.


Video out on iPod dock: pre-iOS versus iOS I have an iPod dock with Video Out. It says on the box that it only supports pre-iOS devices for that (iPod classic and the like), and it certainly does not seem to do anything with my iPod Touch (audio and remote control work fine, though).

Is this something that can be solved with an additional (cheap) adapter, or are the two Video Out systems fundamentally different?

Unfortunately, the old video output is not compatible with iOS devices, even with an adapter. To see, why, here's a diagram of the iPod dock connector pinout. Notice that there are some video output pins that are only used for older iPods.


How to change Appstore language I just updated my iPhone to iOS 7 and, even if the country and billing info is for Romania, on the phone AppStore and iTunes Store are in german, only a few buttons are in Romanian. I would like them to be in Romanian or english, what can I do? I read online about this issue but nothing works. The phone is in sync with computer.

Have you tried the following?

Go to Settings.
Tab iTunes & App Store.
Tab your Apple ID and then Sign Out.
Now Sign In and choose Create New Apple ID (you won't complete this, don't worry).
You'll be asked to choose your store (country/region), choose the country which has the language you want the AppStore to be in (Romania or United States in your case).
Click Next and then Agree.
Fill in the information until you're asked to insert your credit card info.
When you reach the credit card info, click Cancel and exit the Create New Apple ID section.
Go back to Settings and sign in with your actual Apple ID.
Open the App Store and everything should be in the language you picked.

Links
I found this tutorial, which explains the steps I have listed above.


Are L-shaped and T-shaped Magsafe 1 interchangeable? I want to buy replacement Magsafe 1 cable for my MBP 17" Late 2011, and they are available in two options — L-shaped and T-shaped. My computer was shipped with L-shaped connector, however I want to swap it for T-shaped, as I find it more convenient.

So, will it fit? Are there current restrictions on T-shaped connectors, e.g. won't they overheat when powering 85W MBP?

In short no, there's no problem.

Apple changed the "old" T-models with new L-models.

However, they are exactly the same and I've been using a 85Watt MagSafe charger for years now as it charges much faster.
Just do it, and nothing will change, except if you go from 45/60 watt to 85 (it will load faster :)). It's just a new look, the connectors are exactly the same.


How do I stop getting notifications to Try Safari on Mac I'm getting these stupid reminders to TRY SAFARI. As I don't trust Apple, how do I stop them from trying to push products on me on my personal system where in my opinion, these advertisements should not even be allowed at all?

You can turn off notifications in Safari in Notification Centre in settings:

Set it to None.


How do I temporarily hide the Picture in Picture window? When watching video using Picture in Picture on a Mac, how can the video be temporarily hidden?

Drag the video off the screen to hide it. The video will mostly move off screen with a portion still visible, but blurred. Audio from the video will continue playing.

You can drag or click it to replace the videos position on screen.

Video
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/TatteredOccasionalIaerismetalmark-mobile.mp4


Triple-booting Ubuntu on MacPro w/ Win10 and High Sierra (two separate drives) I am running a 2009 MacPro (5,1) with two separate hard drives: on one, I've installed MacOS High Sierra. On the second, I used Bootcamp to install Windows 10 (legacy/BIOS, not EFI), then installed Ubuntu 18.04 using this guide. I can boot into all three systems using the Apple Startup Manager (holding ALT during bootup). The issue is that when I open High Sierra's "Startup Disk" menu (in System Preferences), I do not see Ubuntu. Only MacOS and Windows/Bootcamp appear in this menu. I'd like to boot into Ubuntu using the "Startup Disk" menu, and I think it is possible if I modify my EFI partitions as described in this second guide.

What would be the right way to do this?

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Mac Storage             1.2 TB     disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                485.9 GB   disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                         300.1 GB   disk0s4
   5:                 Linux Swap                         15.0 GB    disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3

You can make Ubuntu appear in the Startup Disk pane of the System Preferences application, but unfortunately you can not select Ubuntu as the system you want to use to start up your computer. For example, if you try with macOS 10.13.6, you get the following error message.

However, if you have rEFInd properly installed, you can use an application to select the system you want to start up your computer. For example, I have the following rEFInd icon on my dock.

Clicking on the icon produces the following window.

Here, I can select the startup system.

The same is true for Ubuntu. I have the following rEFInd icon on the Ubuntu launcher.

Clicking on the icon on the Ubuntu launcher produces the following window.

Basic steps to implement this answer

Allocate a small (200 MB) "MSDOS (FAT32)" partition for rEFInd. I would suggest at the end of disk1. The command for doing this is given below.

sudo diskutil resizevolume disk1s2 999G 1 MS-DOS REFIND 200M

  Note: The above command will move up disk1s3 and place the new partition disk1s4 last.

Download rEFInd.
Install rEFInd on the "MS-DOS (FAT)" partition.
Configure rEFInd to recognize the 3 operating systems.
Install the software (scripts) in each operating system to choose the default operating system to boot at startup.

Brief explanation of use

rEFInd does not change the Startup Manager menu, except rEFInd itself will now appear in this menu. In fact, you will use the Startup Manger to make rEFInd the default operating system to boot at startup. rEFInd will the silently instructs the firmware to boot what ever operating system is defined as default in the rEFInd configuration file. The software scripts you install and execute on each operating system (as shown in my answer) rewrite the rEFInd configuration file to change the default operation system. – David Anderson 21 mins ago

So, if the firmware is booting macOS through a default boot to rEFInd and you hold down the option key at startup to boot to Windows, then this boot to Windows is temporary. Next restart will boot back to rEFInd, then to macOS. If you hold down the control key while selecting Windows from the Startup Manager, then Windows will become the default operating system and rEFInd will be bypassed.

You can use the Startup Manager to enable or bypass rEFInd. The firmware has two modes to startup the Mac. The first mode boots the default operating system every time. The other mode, boots a selected operating only on the next startup and leaves the default unchanged. The rEFInd Boot Manager only uses the second mode. So, when you use rEFInd, you are actually booting the Mac twice on each restart. The first boot is to rEFInd and then second boot is after rEFInd instructs the firmware to boot to the desired operating system


How to convert file format of massive image How can I convert a very large Portable Pixel Map (ppm) file into a png on MacOS?
I have a massive ppm image on my computer. The file is ~70 GB and I need to convert it to a png which would make it ~100 MB. I have cleared up enough space (>70 GB) on my machine to complete the conversion but am having some issues.
What I Have Tried

Open image in preview and export to png
Preview refuses to show the image and instead just shows a black square. When I try to export it tells me that the exported file will be zero bytes. So... no dice.

Use ImageMagick to convert the file from terminal
This actually runs and tries to convert the file, but problems arise after about a minute of computation. First, my computer freezes then after a minute or two restarts because of a kernel panic.

netpbm

Netpbm is a package of graphics programs and a programming library.

Try using the open source netpbm tools to perform the conversion. The conversion will likely look like:
 pnmtopng input.ppm > output.png

Where input.ppm is the name of the existing large file and output.png is the name of the desired png formatted file.
The project talks about trying to keep memory use low:

Memory Usage
An important characteristic that varies among graphics software is how much memory it uses, and how. Does it read an entire image into memory, work on it there, then write it out all at once? Does it read one and write one pixel at a time? In Netpbm, it differs from one program to the next, but there are some generalizations we can make.
Most Netpbm programs keep one row of pixels at a time in memory. Such a program reads a row from an input file, processes it, then writes a row to an output file. Some programs execute algorithms that can't work like that, so they keep a small window of rows in memory. Others must keep the entire image in memory. If you think of what job the program does, you can probably guess which one it does.

Installing
You can install netpbm on your Mac using the Homebrew project, see Install Homebrew. Once brew is on your Mac, use the following command to install netpbm:
brew install netpbm

If you need help using the command line or tools mentioned, please ask questions.


MAMP always grabbing focus when quitting an app in Mavericks Upgraded from Lion to Mavericks and now when quitting any app, MAMP is always grabbing the focus instead of the previously opened app e.g. open MAMP, open Safari, open TextWrangler, quit TextWrangler, MAMP has focus instead of Safari. This was working fine in Lion. Anyone seeing similar behaviour or know how to fix it?

I have this issue sometimes with several applications, all i do is to quit and reopen Google Chrome and everything get back to work as expected.


Mouse scroll works only couple seconds after restart It seems like my mouse scroll works only for a short period of time after restart. I use Bluetooth mouse Logitech MX Master with installed it’s Logitech options.

I tried to reinstall the Logitech Options, reset NVRAM and PRAM, forgetting device and reconnecting it.

There is no problem with the mouse itself (mechanically).

Thanks.

Solved. Apparently deleting the app Logitech Options the regular way isn't enough. I did find the remaining file Logitech Uninstaller, when I got rid of it, the mouse started scrolling properly. It seems like Logi has some issues with the newest Logitech Options and it ruins scrolling drivers with Mojave. Thanks.


How can I change calendar/contacts sync setting for iPhone? I recently upgraded to iTunes 11.0.1.12.
When I plug my iPhone 4 (iOS 5.1.1) into the computer, I noticed that under the "Info" tab, "Sync Contacts" and "Sync Calendars" don't have any options displayed, and it give me the message:

  Your contacts (calendars) are being synced with your iPhone over the air from iCloud.Over-the-air sync settings can be changed on your iPhone.

However, I do not know how to change those settings on my iPhone. What settings should I change to enable me to sync Contacts and Calendars through iTunes once again?

If you go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > iCloud (should be the first account)  and scroll down to Contacts.

When you scroll to "Contacts" you must slide it off. I did this by sliding the "Contact" button from right to left and swiped away the green.  I was prompted to "What would you like to do with the previously synced iCloud contacts on your iPhone.  I chose "Keep on My Phone".

Then you can use iTunes like you used to do and select the Contacts you want to be synced. I prefer this way.


Having small video files from iphone videos, either compressing large ones or recording them so they are small in the first place tl;dr I want to compress very big video files and start recording them small in the first place.

My goal is to have my video files be small enough that they don't take up all the space in my Mac (and thus can be upload to youtube at some point). Currently they are around 30 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes long. I record them with the built in iphone video recorder and they are around 5 to 10 GB of size.

I don't need them to be extremely high quality. In the way youtube has quality, I would be fine with something around 480p. Depending on the size of the video 720p is also good, but if the video is to large its not useful for me.

I am not sure if its because the iphone just automatically records in HD, but I would like to turn that off and have videos of size less than 5GB. One way to solve my problem could be to start recording them with no HD. Is it possible to turn down the HD quality from the automatic recording in iphone? Maybe there is an iphone app that already does this? Its crucial that I am able to save them to my actual computer, so whether the app is free or not, I need to upload them to youtube and save them on my mac.

Another route to have small videos from iphone recording could be to compress these videos after I record them. Since, I already have a large collection of extremely large videos of size 5GB to 10GB, compressing them such that I can still watch and listen to their audio is crucial for me. Is there some kind of software for MAC that does this? Free software is always desirable, but I care that they remain watachble, a software compressing software that costs money is also option that I would want to consider.

Are there other ways to achieving these goals:

1) Recording videos and having them be small in the first place? (the length of the videos are going to be around 30 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. I am willing to compromise on quality but not size, 30 videos of each 1 minutes size is not a solution to my problem).

2) Compressing the video files that I already have on my MAC book pro?

To get a better sense of what my goal is, I would like to have videos of the quality of the following:

https://www.usenix.org/conference/osdi12/technical-sessions/presentation/corbett

The video looks fine and if you download it its of around 123.8 MB and its 30 minutes long. Something of comparable quality (seems like 480 to me) and that size would be perfect. My videos are presentations and stuff like that, their intellectual content is more important than viewing them HD, so something comparable to that quality and size is my goal.

Apple makes a pro app for Mac, Compressor, that can handle this task, but might be overkill. It can handle batch jobs etc.

There is also Roxio Toast which is a DVD burning utility but has a nice suite of tools for video conversion. You could use this to make DVDs or Blu Rays of all those vids and then get them off your system entirely. A Blu Ray burner is around $100-200 these days.

I use Panasonic 50-year-archival BD-R media, which was about $100 for 25 discs that hold 25 GB each whenI bought it last year. I burn all my HD videos to those, then delete it off my computer entirely. Then to watch it just throw that disc into your Sony PS4 or XBOX One, or Blu Ray Player attached to your TV.

Ideally you could do both: archive the big HD files to BD-R for backup purposes and posterity, and keep highly compressed files on the Mac for the occasional viewing.


iTerm - going one word backwards and forwards Would it be possible to configure iTerm 2 to go backwards and forwards one word through the curent text in the command line using a keyboard shortcut?

Killing a fly with a cannon:

Go to Preferences... > Profiles > Keys (not Preferences... > Keys)
Press Presets...
Select Natural Text Editing

Then, you can move a word backwards using Option ⌥ + ← and a word forwards using Option ⌥ + →, move to the start of the line using fn + ← and to the end of the line with fn + →. Also you can delete a word backwards using Option ⌥ + ⌫, delete the whole line using Command ⌘ + ⌫.

If the preset doesn't appear, reinstall iTerm2. If you installed it using Homebrew+Cask:

brew cask reinstall iterm2


Disable Search / Dictionary Popup Window in iTerm2 The newer versions of iTerm2 have a "feature" in which a Search dialog is displayed instead of doing a Start selection action.

My intention had been to select the 14 and the following paragraph .. but instead I am presented with the Wikipedia lookup of the symbol 14.  Not exactly what were on my mind ..

I have looked through all of the iTerm2 Preferences and not found anything to disable this behavior.  Anyone have better eyes than me on this?

You can disable this feature by opening iTerm2 preferences, then search for "dictionary". You can navigate to this preference by opening preferences, clicking "Advanced", and then scrolling through the list until you see "General" and "Perform dictionary lookups on force press".

You don't need to restart iTerm2 for this change to take effect.

This was tested while using macOS Catalina with iTerm2 3.3.6. I have "force click and haptic feedback" disabled in the system's Trackpad Point & Click settings.


Macbook Pro 8,1 not charging A week ago, I found an old MacBook Pro 8,1 (13” MacBook Pro, Late 2011). It was working fine, but the battery wasn't charging. The charging lights on the side of the MacBook said that it was fully charged, but when I unplugged the charger, it turned off instantly.

Why is this happening and what can I do about it?

Note: I installed Ubuntu so that it would run faster, but I do have a backup of macOS.

The battery on that MacBook Pro is dead. You could:

Have Apple replace the battery for you. However, since your laptop is most likely out of warranty after 6 years, this will cost you a pretty penny.
Buy a replacement battery and replace it yourself using these instructions from iFixit. The procedure is rated as easy and the page includes a video guide.
Use that laptop as a desktop replacement (permanently plugged-in). You’ll need to be extra careful to avoid data loss, considering the MagSafe connector will come unplugged very easily. You may consider duct-taping it in place.


How to remap tmux split pane keys? On my linux machines, for my terminal shell I have tmux keys mapped to allow me to split windows and then switch between new panes.

With or without these mappings I can't figure out how to remap the key combo's on my mac that let me divide the terminal window and stay in whatever directory I'm currently in, for the new window.  This is really handy for all my terminal work.

I can use the Iterm menu itself and/or the shortcut key combos it shows but these all seem to be are Iterm split windows not tmux and the one thing they don't do is set the same directory, they go to the my home directory (~).

Note this is not about switching tmux panes, that works, and it's not about switching Iterm panes as in iterm - what's the key-combo to switch panes? and the advanced configuration didn't seem to take effect either:

Does anyone know the key combo or mapping I can use/make to get the 'tmux split and stay in directory' functionality on my mac.  Model is about 2 years old.

I thought I had found it for the native window pane splitting within iterm splitting with the settings below, changing Working Directory from Home directory to Reuse previous session's directory:

but it didn't work, I'm still getting my home directory in new panes for Iterm window panes.

[Update - I've found that the original tmux key combo's for this - actionKey + " and actionKey plus % (no wonder I've remapped them!) do actually work on my mac, i.e.

So it seems that my remapping of them in .tmux.conf with

set -g prefix C-a # this just changes my prefix from ctrl-b to ctrl-a
bind \ split-window -h # Split panes horizontal
bind - split-window -v # Split panes vertically

isn't working (the remap of ctrl-a works but the binding of the other two keys for split panes doesn't), why might that be?

My entire .tmux.conf file is:

$ cat .tmux.conf
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf \; display "Reloaded!" # Reload with ctrl-r
set -g prefix C-a # prefix from ctrl-b to ctrl-a
unbind C-b # allow ctrl-b for other things
set -sg escape-time 1 # quicker responses
bind C-a send-prefix # Pass on ctrl-a for other apps
set -g base-index 1 # Numbering of windows
setw -g pane-base-index 1 # Numbering of Panes
bind \ split-window -h # Split panes horizontal
bind - split-window -v # Split panes vertically

I've also tried removing my .vimrc file though it shouldn't have been relevant to the terminal shell issue but I did it anyway and it didn't helped.

Info Update:

$ tmux -V
tmux 1.8
[mdurrant@Macintosh ~]
$ tmux list-keys | grep split
bind-key          " split-window
bind-key          % split-window -h

p.s. I've updated the title to reflect my updates.

I needed to reload (perhaps 'apply' is more appropriate) my configuration file.
I had restarted my mac and thought this would have done it but I still needed to do:

$ tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Note: type this exactly as shown.  source-file is literally what you type (or copy-paste) it is NOT something you replace with your own value).


A couple of shortcut keys have stopped working I have noticed that a couple of shortcut keys have stopped working. Thinking it could be another app using the shortcuts I've been into keyboard settings and restored all the default keys. This has not affected the problem.

The issue appears to be happening across different apps (I'm testing in Finder, Safari and my text editor).

Here are some examples: ⌘S for saving doesn't work, but ⇧⌘S for save all does work. ⌘N for a new window/file (text editor) doesn't work, but ⇧⌘N for new file(Finder)/new private window(Safari)/new window(text editor) does work.

Particularly ⌘S I use on a regular basis. I tried to add it again:

Keyboard preferences > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > Add

and ⌘S is still not working.

I'm working on a MacBook Pro with an external keyboard. The situation is the same working with the external keyboard connected or directly with the MacBook's own keys.

How can I get the shortcut keys' functionality back?

OS version 10.10.2 (14C1510)

--update--

I have also tried swapping the modifier keys over, I set ⌘ to ⌥ and vice versa - didn't fix the problem.

In trying to debug this issue I assumed that some other program had taken control of these keys. After force-quitting all open applications it did not help.

I then went to Activity Monitor and noticed one of my task bar apps was non-responsive. The app happened to be a clipboard manager (PasteBox). After quitting this app, all lost functionality has returned.


Sent emails don't appear in Sent folder I have a curious problem, that started recently with no obvious trigger or change in any configurations, that I know of, that might have triggered the problem.

In Apple Mail, my "Sent" folder will now only show a single email with the "Date Sent" field as "Today".  Additionally, it appears to only show my most recent email as the single email.

It does show emails from earlier dates, but a real gap in time from the single "Today" email.

As of this post on 29 Nov 2016, I have a single email showing "Today", them other Sent email on 24 Nov 2015 (5 days of emails missing).  Not certain without doing some forensics, but I think other Sent emails look missing from each date as well.

Interestingly, if I can remember the right search criteria (like entering "Today" in the Search box) the hidden emails found by the search appear.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

A possible new/additional clue:

In my "Account Info" window shown above, I see two emails apparently received this morning (30 Nov 2016) From "Sender Unknown". (Note, I've had to cover the names on other emails).

These emails do not appear in my Inbox.

Not certain if this means anything or not.
Please advise.

Whenever you encounter a problem with Mail.app, the first step is to rebuild culprit mailboxes.

  When you rebuild mailboxes for IMAP or Exchange accounts, messages and attachments stored on your computer are discarded, and then downloaded again from the mail server to your Mac. Your mailbox appears empty until the download is complete.

It is a similar fix to clearing your browser cache when you encounter website problems.


quicklooksatellite is blocking trash files I can't empty Trash folder. Some of files there are "in use". And it happens all the time.

  The operation can’t be completed because the item “blabla.xlsx” is in use.

I don't have any applications with these files. I don't have Finder with this folder open. And I didn't.

When I launch "What's Keeping Me?" utility, it says, that this file is opened in "QuickLookSatellite".

Is it possible to prevent?

OSX El Captain 10.11.3

I'm not sure about preventing it, but you can certainly try:

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

You may be prompted for your password. The command will forcibly get rid of everything in your trash bin.