My iPhoto library takes way too much space on my Mac Air. Can I upload it to the iCloud? So, the iPhoto library (not to be confused with the "Photos library") takes almost 30 gigs on my 250 gb macbook air. I am curious, I've managed to upload the Photos library to the iCloud reducing it's size to mere 3 GB. Is there any way I can do the same trick with the iPhoto library? As far as I can understand, it's the location for my older photos, taken and uploaded before apple rolled the new photos library in?

No, you can’t. In order to do this, you have to migrate from iPhoto to Photos.

Photos contains the integration with iCloud storage that can offload to your iCloud account on demand to free up local space.


OS X Catalina: add user to sudoers Prior to OS X Catalina I could add a user to the sudoers by editing /etc/sudoers with an admin account.

With OS X Catalina, I can no longer do this as it seems that Catalina moved to a read-only root filesystem and so /etc/sudoers cannot be edited.

According to this official Apple User Guide, it appears that the sudoers file is now located at /private/etc/sudoers, but I am still unable to edit this file with an admin account.

What is the correct way to grant a user sudouers access in Catalina?

It turns out that even an admin user needs to use sudo to edit the sudoers file at /private/etc/sudoers so the following did the trick to open the file for edit:

$ sudo visudo /private/etc/sudoers

As usual, a user can be added to the list of sudoers by adding a line such as this:

username ALL=(ALL) ALL


Using rsync with path names containing spaces I am trying to use rsync (on macOS Catalina) but have trouble with spaces in file path names. I have used -s or --protect-args but they do not do anything (when I look at the help for rsync, these options are not listed).

I am running rsync 2.6.9 in zsh. Can anyone help please?

Here is what I get when I run this rsync command:

chris@cgimac ~ % rsync -ahv /Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health /Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump
building file list ...
rsync: link_stat "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/of" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/CG-nas/mac" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/drives/Fitness" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/and" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync: link_stat "/Users/chris/health" failed: No such file or directory (2) done

I get the exact same result if I modify the command to

rsync  -ahv  ‘/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health’ ‘/Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump’

I have looked elsewhere and there are many examples eg st

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rsync-transfer-filename-that-contains-whitespace/

where the -s (or --protect-args) option for rsync apparently work.

The -s option doesn't protect against arguments with spaces passed on the command line, proper quoting does

rsync -ahv "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/Backup of CG-nas/mac drives/Fitness and health" "/Volumes/G_5TB_general/temp dump"

(in your second example you seem to use typographical quotes).


Macbook Pro Early 2015 13" Retina suddenly dead, no response I have an Early 2015 Macbook Pro retina that was running fine until yesterday. I was watching Netflix on it (running on battery) and it just died without any warning. It has no response at all. When I try the SMC reset, the charging light changes from Orange to Green on releasing the buttons. That is the only response I can coax out of it. It is a lightly used machine with no damage. What could I try before taking it to the Genius Bar?

Do you know if the computer is booting? When you click the home button do you hear the start tone. If you think you had the volume muted, you can do a pram reset which will reset the volume settings, etc..If it boots, to figure out if it’s the physical screen or the system, try plugging the computer in an external monitor or a TV to the HDMI port.


Airplay on Bluetooth speaker paired to Mac I've got a Bluetooth speaker (a JawBone Mini) and I paired it to my Mac.
I can set it as output device from System Preferences -> Sound -> Output but I would like to use it as an AirPlay speaker, as I do on my iPhone. Is there a way to do that?

(In iOS, this speaker works great with AirPlay)

Unfortunately, this is not possible.  The reason you can Airplay with your phone and not your Mac, is due to the fact that the Jawbone Mini app appears to convert the Bluetooth speaker to an Airplay device as shown here.

https://jawbone.com/kb/articles/JawboneappiOS.html and here http://appadvice.com/appnn/2013/12/review-jawbones-big-jambox-could-be-the-best-portable-speaker-out-there (the second link is for the Jawbone Big Jambox, but the app is the same).

However, you should be able to pair the speaker with Bluetooth and still use it. If you want it to show up in the Airplay speaker menu, you need to build a DIY solution with a Raspberry Pi or purchase an Airplay Compatible Speaker as zero said above.

Hope this helps.


MacBook [Pro] - how many displays, what resolution/frequency? How do I find out the number, type, resolution & refresh rate of additional monitors I can attach to my MacBook or MacBook Pro?

This is an attempt at a canonical QA, as per the Meta QA -
Where is the list of canonical questions stored for Ask Different?  to try prevent the myriad "same but different" questions we get on every possible combination of computers, cable & monitors
There are perfectly good resources out there that Ask Different should not have to duplicate the efforts of.

This may not be the only available resource on this topic, but it is a comprehensive & reliable one...

EveryMac, as the name suggests, has information on every Mac model ever made [also iPhones, iPads, iPods], including but not limited to the number of external displays supported & their maximum specification.

If you are not absolutely certain which model you have from  Menu > About this Mac, then they have a search engine which can identify from many data types, serial number, part number etc, the

Ultimate Mac Lookup

  Lookup Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads by Apple Order Number, Model Number, EMC Number, Model Identifier, Serial Number and Intel processor number.

This is an example of the data they provide for the current 2018 Core i9 15"

I have no affiliation to EveryMac, their partners, advertisers or sponsors.


Why does updating Xcode make my computer so slow? I updated Xcode. Now some things take forever to run.

$ time make -n
make: Nothing to be done for `update'.

real    0m30.069s
user    0m0.011s
sys     0m0.025s

Likewise Python:

$ time ./foo.py
Terminated: 15

real    3m0.015s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.006s

foo.py looks like:

#!/usr/bin/python
print 'hello, world'

This happened the last time I updated Xcode. The problem went away by itself after a day or so, but I'd rather not be dead in the water for the next day or so.

I'm running 10.14.5 (18F203) on a 2018 Macbook Pro

Run Xcode post updating to make sure any post installation scripts get a chance to run.

After that, restart your Mac and see if the problem goes away.


MacBook Pro - Can't get to recovery mode I was given a 2nd hand MacBook Pro. When I tried to boot with Command+R to get into the recovery mode I get this lock screen.

I don't know the password - is there any way to reset it?

That's the screen for a firmware password. An Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider can remove it for you assuming the machine is newer than 2011 and you can prove ownership.

Other than that, there are a few low probability solutions you can try yourself:

Internet Recovery Mode by holding Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R at startup.
Boot from an external hard drive.
Create a bootable macOS USB flash drive (instructions here).


Recommendations for a good Bandwith Tracker on OS X Is there a way I can track total bandwidth usage over the course of a month? My service provider requires me to stay within fairly strict limits.

I really like BitMeter OS. It's free, runs as a service and has a slick browser-based interface. It also runs on Windows and Linux.


Send an application to a specific Space Is there a way to send the current used application to a specific Space?

For example, I work in Space 1; I double-click on a document and an application starts to open this document. Is there a quick way to send this application to Space 2?

I don't think there's a particular kayboard shortcut you can use, but if you click on the app's title bar and hold mouse button and then click ctrl+n where n is the number of the screen you want to send it to it will be moved there. Bear in mind you will be moved there too.


Unable to run Bash 5 from launchd I have the following launchd agent:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>bash-check</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Users/spark/tmp/bash-check</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/Users/laktak/bash-check.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

With the following script bash-check:
#!/usr/local/bin/bash

type bash
bash --version

I cannot get it to use Bash 5 (/usr/local/bin/bash), the log from launchctl start bash-check is always:
bash is /bin/bash
GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin19)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Your script uses type to find the first instance of bash within PATH and then calls exactly that instance. So if /bin is before /usr/local/bin (or, more likely, /usr/local/bin isn't in PATH) the macOS version of bash is found and executed.
To check the version of the running shell use
echo $BASH_VERSION

instead.


Button labels missing from security confirmation for installer When trying to install software and prompted for username and password, button labels are missing as well as the stored username:

This could be a problem with the font cache on your Mac. You can reset the font cache on Mountain Lion with the following steps.

Open Terminal and run this command: sudo atsutil databases -remove
Reboot immediately


How to backup and restore /opt with Time Machine on macOS High Sierra? I have an old MacBook Pro running High Sierra. Time Machine backs up /Users but not /opt.
The Time Machine preferences let me exclude directories, but does not let me add directories that I want to back up.
How can I get Time Machine to backup /opt on High Sierra and how can I restore it?

How can I get Time Machine to backup /opt on High Sierra?

You don't need to do anything special to back it up: Time Machine backs up all folders on your Mac.
However, you may get the impression that /opt (and other folders like /bin or  /cores, as you mention in your comment) are not included because the Finder hides those folders by default:

But don't let the Finder mislead you:

either press ShiftCommand. to let the Finder display all folders (press ShiftCommand. again to hide them),
or open Terminal, list the contents of the backup folder and you will see that everything is there:

How can I restore /opt?

Proceed as follows:

Open a Finder window.
Enter Time Machine.
Press ShiftCommandG and enter / to display the root folder of your drive.
Press ShiftCommand. to display hidden folders. You should see /opt now.
Browse the timeline on the right-hand side and select the desired date.
Select /opt.
Press Restore. Note that Time Machine will probably ask whether you want to keep a copy of your current files.


How do I remove unwanted OS X User Accounts? When starting my MacBook Pro I get 4 Accounts to choose from and need to choose one of them.  One of the 4 Accounts is named Guest - will keep this.  The other two are not wanted. One has Admin below it. The other has Standard below it.  The one I use is Peter with Admin below it. How to remove the two unwanted Accounts?

The 'discs' you're referring to are users for your computer.

In the system preferences pane, click on a user, for example QCD in your case.

Now click on the '-' sign under 'Login Options;

This should do the trick.


Failed to install ghostscript, during Imagemagick installation I'm kinda new to those CLI installations so I don't know exactly what I'm doing I'm just following the installation steps of the guide:

I want to install Imagemagick on my Mac 10.5.8:

I typed ´sudo port install imagemagick´ and I got this error in return:

localhost:~ giorgio$ sudo port install imagemagick
--->  Computing dependencies for imagemagick
--->  Dependencies to be installed: ghostscript liblzma urw-fonts webp
--->  Building ghostscript
Error: Target org.macports.build returned: shell command failed (see log for details)
Error: Failed to install ghostscript
Log for ghostscript is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_print_ghostscript/ghostscript/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: ghostscript liblzma urw-fonts webp
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
To report a bug, see <http://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets>

I've also tried to look inside the main.log file, but I couldn't understand anything with my knowledges!
I've pasted it here with the hope that you can help me:
http://pastebin.com/YeAGJQkF

Thanks in advance!
Giorgio

:debug:main Privilege de-escalation not attempted as not running as root.

It seems from the error log that you aren't running as root even though you used sudo. You need to make sure you're in an admin account then use sudo port install imagemagick.


What is the best dropbox compatible iPad app for MS office documents? It's pretty simple. I just got an iPad and want to get the best app to edit word documents that I have saved in my dropbox. There are many options: pages, quick office, docs to go, office2.

I am looking to be able to browse documents within DropBox and tap edit to open them in the editor. I'll make a few changes and expect to be able to tap save and have it automatically update DropBox.

I'm a professional writer, I've tried out a bunch of these apps, and I prefer Dataviz’s Documents to Go Premium, which creates and edits Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The great thing about the Premium version (and justifies the extra $6 over the basic version) is that it connects with the Dropbox online storage service. Documents to Go does a good job of editing Word documents, including maintaining styles, etc.


can "File system check exit code is 8" be repaired? I have a startup disk from my old computer with error File system check exit code is 8.

can this be repaired?  I would like to use it to migrate files and settings to my new computer, it is an SSD if that makes any dif.  I do have the filed from this disk backed up but not the system settings needed for migration assistant to move tho new mac.

Generally speaking it depends on what you mean by repaired.

That error indicates that the filesystem on that disk is damaged. The good news is that if you reformat it the disk will still be usable. That is also bad news, as you may have noted.

You can try running disk utility on that drive a few times (3 - 4) and see if is repairable. Depending on the filesystem in use on the drive you may be able to use something like DiskWarrior to fix the disk. But beware that DiskWarrior and pretty much all disk repair utilities can't repair APFS volumes (yet).

If that is the case you can try a data recovery utility or sending the drive off to be recovered for you, which can be expensive.


Is there a relatively straight forward way to make a note of all applications/programs installed on my mac for future reference? Is there a relatively straight forward way to make a note of all applications/programs installed on my mac for future reference, without having to note down each application one by one via word etc

Open /Applications in the Finder
Press Cmd-A followed by Cmd-C
Switch to Pages/Word/TextEdit/etc.
Create a new document and press Cmd-V

Repeat for sub-folders of /Applications and any other place (~/Applications maybe) where you have installed applications.


How to open time machine progress bar window I know that there is a window where time machine can display its current progress, along with an estimate about how long it will likely take till the current backup is complete. This window did somehow appear during my initial backup. However, I currently can't find a way to manually open that window for a subsequent backup. Yes there is the Time Machine tab in the Control Panel, but that will not provide an estimation of remanining time. Neither does the context menu of the menu bar icon. So how can I get that window?

I am 100% sure there is no way to see how long the the backup takes just the size of the backup and how much portion of the size it has already backed up like shown below.

The only time duration that Time Machine shows is when you are restoring from a backup and during the first time you set up Time Machine using a empty hard disk.

I just noticed that "Open Time Machine Preferences" shows a progress bar for the current backup operation. I just upgraded to Maverick recently so this may be a new feature.


Finder stopped showing the content of a text file I have been using MacBook pro-2017 for about a year, in the mean time I have added a couple of quiclook generators (e.g. QLStephen.qlgenerator) for various services for the Finder.

For quite a few days it was working good, but now, I encountered a strange problem. Nowadays I can not see the contents of any file in the finder, e.g. when I click on a a.txt file it shows no contents, but when pressed Shift key it shows the QuickView of the item.

How to restore the original settings of the Finder?

I tried deleting all the quicklook plugins, but still, the problem is sustained.

Attempt:

cd  ~/Library/QuickLook
sudo mkdir backup
sudo mv *.qlg* backup/
qlmanage -r
killall Finder

PS:
I tried also deleting all the contents of QuickLook and restarted the computer. Still it does not work. Maybe I have to reset the Finder settings, but I don't know how?

Note that here the a.txt is not empty but Finder shows nothing.

How can we make the Finder show the contents of this file?

Update
Backed up and deleted the QuickLook folders from the computer.

sudo mv /Library/QuickLook ~/library_quicklook
sudo mv ~/Library/QuickLook ~/home_library_quicklook

sudo rm -rf com.apple.quicklook.ui.helper.plist
sudo rm -rf com.apple.quicklookconfig.plist
sudo rm -rf com.apple.QuickLookDaemon.plist

qlmanage -r
qlmanage -r cache
killall Finder

Still does not work.

Related links:
https://www.cnet.com/news/fixing-quick-look-issues-in-os-x/

To show contents of a text file you must have the correct settings for your Finder window. You can't use icon view or list view. Your figure shows you are using list view. That view has never shown file contents on my computer. On the Finder header bar there is a label that reads "View", and above that are four icon options: the first is icon view and the second is list view. You want the third option but I don't know what its called. If you select this way of viewing the contents of the Finder window, text files and other types are displayed showing the 1st page of the contents of a file. The correct viewing option is shown in the figure below.


How can I view PowerPoint files on an iPad? I want to play PowerPoint presentations on an iPad which I create on a computer, using MS Powerpoint 2010.

I know there is an Apple app for that, but it isn't free. So, are there any other apps or methods?

If you have only small amount of presentations, which you want to play on iPad, you can convert pptx file into jpg's or pdf's on PC and then upload it to iPad


Can VLC output video through HDMI adapter to TV on first gen iPad? I have videos on the iPad that can be played back by VLC.
But the only output I get when connected to the TV is sound, no video.

Is there any way to get them to play through the HDMI using VLC, or alternatively move them to Cinemax without connecting to a PC and iTunes

According to Apple's documentation, the AV Adapter for iOS supports mirroring only on the iPad 2. On the iPad and iPhone, video out has to be supported by the app itself, whether Apple designed it (YouTube) or a third party app (Netflix, Hulu).

Because VLC for iOS hasn't been updated in quite a while (indeed its no longer available on the App Store for legal reasons), I wouldn't be surprised that the VLC app just does not support video out, although I don't know for sure if that's the case.

There is recourse if you jailbreak, DisplayOut, which enables mirroring on VGA, HDMI, component, or composite outputs for the original iPad, iPhone, and fourth gen iPod Touch. If you are able to install this you would then be able to output VLC on your iPad via the HDMI adapter.


iPad 2 not updating to iOS 5.1 Please don't scold me because I know I broke the cardinal rule of updating...never shut down in the middle of an update. I was updating to iOS 5.1 over the air on my iPad and after the update downloaded it went to the screen with the white apple and the loading bar. After 15 min nothing had loaded and I force shut it down. Now when I go to try and update it says "Install Now" because the download file is still in the iPad, I believe. I tap "Install Now" and it says "Unable to Install Update an error occurred installing iOS 5.1" every time. I tried installing it through iTunes and it said my iPad 2 was ineligible for this update. My iPad is still working, I can play games and what not, so it's not "broken"

I backed it up to iCloud prior to updating. Do you think I should restore and reload from iCloud or can you think of a way I could somehow update it again from my iPad?

If you have it backed up. Restore it from the backup and then perform the update again. Following standard instructions for doing that.


How can I stop Mission Control rearranging windows when I drag a window and press CTRL+number? I have a setup with 4 Desktops/Spaces. When I click CTRL + 2 the focus moves to that desktop. When I want to move an app from desktop 1 to 3 I drag the window a bit and press CTRL + 3 (or 2 or 4 — these are Spaces/Desktop numbers). For some reason, the apps in other desktops move randomly from their desktops (rearranging the whole layout by moving other apps between desktops). Am I doing something wrong or is this some kind of bug?

I’m on Mavericks 10.9.1.

Go to System Preferences → Mission Control and make sure that the checkbox for Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use is disabled.

I am able to reproduce your scenario perfectly with this checkbox enabled and disabling this checkbox causes the spaces to be fixed in their position regardless of the switching of window position.


Finder favorites bar icons not showing I re-installed Google Drive for my mac (OSX Yosemite 10.10.5) and the icon has since disappeared from the favorites bar in the finder. However, the icon shows up in the more info section. What is going on here?
Here is the view of the Favorites bar in Finder.

And here is the more info view that shows the icon.

This's actually by design since macOS has stopped showing custom icons in recent versions of the OS.

My Google Drive icon is also a generic icon, others too:

If you want to display the Google Drive icon, it wouldn't be possible without third-party software.

Extra: Dropbox uses a "hack" to show its icon in the sidebar as seen in this question, How come Dropbox gets an icon in Finder sidebar?.


Playing fullscreen in the same window I have Vlc version 2.1.4 operating on Mac OSx Yosemite.  When I open any VLC video to fullscreen, it opens into a separate window, or desktop. What i want to do is to be able to fullscreen the video yet have it stay within the desktop that I used to open the file. Is that possible?

No. Since I think Mavericks, full-screen sets itself up as a new Space. You might be able to work around it on 2 monitors by using 'Displays have separate Spaces' in System Prefs > Mission Control.


El Capitan XQuartz fails to open. Abnormal code 126 I am running 10.11.2 on a Macbook Pro and have downloaded the Quartz 2.7.9 and installed it.  The installation GUI claims the XQuartz installation was successful.  I rebooted my machine and logged back in.  I attempted to start Quartz and there is a momentary activity on the docking bar, like the icon is going to appear, but then it does not.

In the /var/system/log/system.log I see the following entry:

Jul 26 13:03:44 WAM-RMASA-01 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.56032[3608]): Service exited with abnormal code: 126

I took a stab at installing a previous version of XQuartz 2.7.8 and that yielded the same results.

Any clues on what to look at to troubleshoot this further?  Looked for additional logs but nothing is popping out as being X11 related.

Not sure it is relevant, but I do not have Xcode installed.

I found that there was a hidden directory that contained extra logs.  The path is /private/var/log/system.log

Within this log I found additional information.Jul 26 16:38:55 WAM-RMAES-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections

Jul 26 16:39:11 --- last message repeated 8 times ---
Jul 26 16:39:11 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[44680]: Xquartz: bootstrap_look_up(): Unknown service name
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: giving up
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]: /opt/X11/bin/xinit: unable to connect to X server: Operation timed out
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections /opt/X11/bin/xinit: server error
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44581]): FairPlay decryption failed on binary.
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44736]: expr: syntax error
Jul 26 16:39:12 --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44736]: xauth:  file /Users/rmaes/.serverauth.44737 does not exist
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[44835]: Xquartz: Unable to locate waiting server: org.macosforge.xquartz.X11
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.stub[44843]: Xquartz: Starting X server: /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app/Contents/MacOS/X11 --listenonly
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44736]: /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app/Contents/MacOS/X11: line 12: /usr/local/bin/tcsh: No such file or directory
Jul 26 16:39:12 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44736]: /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app/Contents/MacOS/X11: line 12: exec: /usr/local/bin/tcsh: cannot execute: No such file or directory
Jul 26 16:39:14 WAM-RMASA-01 org.macosforge.xquartz.startx[44736]:

These logs reveal possible reasons for the failure to start.  One is that the tcsh shell that is declared as my default shell came over from my linux account apparently.  TCSH doesn't exist on the same path that was defined by default.

So for better or worse, I don't want to mess with the config in case IT has some clever link between what I change in my MAC profile and what my linux environment has, so I just make the following soft link.

sudo ln -s /bin/tcsh tcsh

A Bang!  XQuartz starts right up!


How to set up a local calendar while using iCloud for other calendar on mavericks I would like to have some additional calendars that are not synced through iCloud on one of my computers. I have been using this calendar to run small programs at certain times. These programs are however only (a) available on this one machine and (b) would not even be allowed on e.g. an iPad.

As I am currently forced to sync the calendar to all my devices however my iPad is turning the custom alerts into normal standard alerts. Breaking the entire calendar.

Is there a way around this? Thanks!

A co-worker figured this one out for us:

In Calendar, go to Calendar: Accounts, select your accounts you are using in Calendar and uncheck "calendar" from the section where it says "Use With".

Once there are no internet accounts available, Calendar will allow you to set up an "On My Mac" local calendar.

Once that's set up, re-check the "Use With: Calendars" checkbox and all should be well.

Caveat: for us, we were able to check and uncheck this setting without having to set anything up again.  I won't guarantee this will be the case for you, so be sure you know how to set up your accounts again and as always, have backups.


How do I format a big disk (4TB) for use in both macOS and a Raspberry Pi? I need to setup a big hard disk (4TB) so that I'll be able to use it in both macOS and in a Raspberry Pi.

Up to now all my attempts failed - at the moment I have formatted it so that it uses GPT, type "linux filesystem", and all the 4TB are recognized - linux recognizes it but not the Mac

The solution proposed in Trying to format USB (using Linux/fdisk) so it shows up on my Mac does not work since it suggests the MSDOS type, which doesn't work for big disks.

Is there a recommended way to solve this?

For the partition table, you'll want to use the "GUID Partition Table" (called GUID Partition Map in macOS Disk Utility, and GPT on Linux/Raspberry Pi). The MBR partition table you've have been suggested indeed does not work for partitions larger than 2 TB.

For the file system itself, you'll want to use ExFAT. It is a relatively simple file system understood by both macOS and Linux/Raspberry Pi without many of the size limitations of earlier MS-DOS style filesystems such as FAT16 and FAT32.


What can I do to check the integrity of the hard drive and all its files, to see if they are corrupt or not? Recently there has been some files disappearing (in iTunes), and I'm not so sure of the extent of this problem yet. Perhaps it may have been an iTunes upgrade bug, but I'm not so sure.

What can I do to check the integrity of the hard drive and of all the files on my Mac computer, to see if they are corrupt or not?

Is there a hard drive integrity checker that I can use on my Mac?

Disk Utility does a very cursory scan of your disk, and should be your first software to consult should you suspect any problems with your disk. Select the option to Verify Disk from the main window. If all tests pass and the drive is marked "OK", but you still suspect a problem (or would like to do a more thorough scan, I suggest picking up SMARTReporter (non-free utility, costs money) and doing a much more in-depth scan.

To run the test, you will have to right click on the disk icon that will be placed in your system tray. Then right click the drive you wish to test and you will see a list of options:

SMARTReporter can perform deeper and more meaningful scans, and can also print specific attributes and thresholds. Below are the results of my OCZ Vertex2 SSD:

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   110   107   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0/31869480
  5 Retired_Block_Count     0x0033   100   100   003    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       7333h+33m+30.980s
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       89
171 Program_Fail_Count      0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
172 Erase_Fail_Count        0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct  0x0030   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline      -       10
177 Wear_Range_Delta        0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
181 Program_Fail_Count      0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
182 Erase_Fail_Count        0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   030   030   000    Old_age   Always       -       30 (Min/Max 30/30)
195 ECC_Uncorr_Error_Count  0x001c   110   107   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0/31869480
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0033   100   100   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
231 SSD_Life_Left           0x0013   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
233 SandForce_Internal      0x0000   000   000   000    Old_age   Offline      -       2432
234 SandForce_Internal      0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       2880
241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB     0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       2880
242 Lifetime_Reads_GiB      0x0032   000   000   000    Old_age   Always       -       5440

Pay special attention to the Reallocated_Event_Count value, as that is the number of blocks that have been found to be "bad." If you see a high count, that could likely indicate problems with the drive and thus problems with the integrity of your filesystem.

This will give you a better idea as to the health of your current drive.

Should Disk Utility find any problems, repairing the primary partition (that houses your OS) will require a reboot. When you hear the boot chime, hold down the OPTION key and select Recovery HD from the list. Then launch Disk Utility from the menu bar. From there, you can repair your main partition.


How can I tell when Finder is done searching? I don't see any progress indicator, and the title of the window says:

Searching "[Directory]"

Is there supposed to be something that happens to let me know when the search is complete?  On some large directories (tens of thousands of files in hundreds of sub-directories) I know the search isn't complete, because it hasn't found files that I know are there, and I usually give up before it finds them.  So on a directory with less files it is rather concerning to see no indication if the search is done yet or not, especially when nothing has been found that I hope will be found, but am not sure if will.

Yes you can. Turn on the status bar: View > Show Status Bar.

There you can see whether the Mac is searching.


What's the simplest way to process files with UTF-8 characters in groff on macOS? I require Polish diacritics, such as ą, ć, ę, etc.

Of course, I can always pre-process the file to replace UTF-8 characters with escaped characters but that's not elegant.

As of today, macOS Mojave ships with a quite outdated version of groff (1.19 or something...) which apparently cannot handle the -K option. Thus it fails to recognise any fancy diacritics (german umlauts in my case), if you run groff -Kutf8 ....

You can get a newer version of groff on macOS by installing it via Homebrew, as per this post

brew install groff gs

(not sure if gs for ghostscript is actually required; I installed it anyway)


How to clean a sticky Magic Trackpad click? My magic trackpad seems to have gotten dirty in the button.

I've tried swabbing around the button with alcohol but I still, at times, have to lift the trackpad to release the mouse click.

Do you have any clever ways of cleaning it?

My Magic Trackpad 1 also lost its ability to unclick and I had to lift it up to get it to release. I tried various cleaning fixes but none worked for me. It seemed that there was no spring-back action left in the magicpad. I use the pad a lot in photoshop with lots of clicking and dragging so I guessed the spring had finally just worn out. However I found a solution on this website.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Magic+Trackpad+Click+Adjustment/6171

It was more than I wanted to try, but I really need my magic pad to work as I had a big project on the go. The fix works well and I added little adjustment to the procedure. In step 3 where the adjustment screw is pointed out in the photo, the bar it is set in is also the spring that provides the un-clicking action of the pad. I gave the whole bar a gentle pull upwards, away from the pad, this put some spring back into the trackpad. The Magic trackpad now works perfectly again.

I also used 2 rubber self-sticking bumpers to replace the feet. These bumpers are often used on the back of picture frames to protect walls or under trays to to prevent scratching tables. The size I got were 8mil and fit perfectly. The added advantage to putting them on first is than you fine tune the screw adjustments you make to the trackpad before replacing the white back to the trackpad. This video shows put the bumpers on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmO_G7Ct9k8

Final word of advice, gently warm the white back of the trackpad before removing it. A hair dryer works well and I just laid mine in the sun for awhile.


Texting iPhone 5 to iPhone 5 (roaming) I am ready to pull my hair out.  My boyfriend and I both have iPhone 5's and live in Canada.  When he is here, there is no problem.  But when he travels (which is very often) to the States, he is not getting my messages and I am not getting his - at least inconsistently.  HE gets texts from everyone else but me it seems because they are not using iphones. It shows that my messages were sent from me (no errors), but they don't get to him, and viseversa - he is also sending some to me when he is away, that I am not getting.  What in the world is happening?

I thought it would send them to one another as an SMS if iMessage was unavailable but evidently not.  But I just noticed a setting that was OFF on mine that says "send as SMS when iMessage isn't available".  When did this change? I thought it would automatically do that?

You basically answered it yourself. Your iPhone is trying to send iMessages and can only deliver them when he has internet access (apparently he turned data roaming off). What you also can do is click on the message in the blue bubble, hold, and then select "sent as text measage". This will convert the iMessage to an SMS and it will appear in a green bubble.


Is it better to use MacPorts or just use an Ubuntu VM for local tools/services when developing on a Mac? As a developer (primarily JVM-based web apps), I need to use a lot of different tools and services, such as Redis, RabbitMQ, MySQL, git, mercurial, etc. Having worked in a Linux environment where such tools are just an apt-get away, and a Windows world where I just run what I need in a VMWare Workstation VM (aka. also just an apt-get away + vm overhead), I'm a bit lost now that I'm hoping to move away from Windows and into the Mac ecosystem for my computing life.

I've read about MacPorts vs. Fink vs. Homebrew and found it all to be a bit confusing as to which one will suit my needs the best, though I think MacPorts is the most flexible option of the three.

Since I'm used to running what I need in a VM, however, is there anything against doing that when using OS X? What are the tradeoffs between going with MacPorts to install things directly vs. using an Ubuntu VM (via VMWare Fusion) to host the tools / services I need?

In particular, I am concerned with the disk usage, maintainability, and ease of use more than I am concerned with performance. In other words, this is what I care about (in order of preference):

Ease of use - How easy is it to develop on the Mac and use the tools / services
Disk usage - How much disk-space is taken up. The newer macbooks use SSDs and space is at a premium.
Maintainability - What work is involved in keeping packages updated, adding new packages, and removing old ones
Currentness - How up-to-date are the tools / services that are available
Performance - How fast things run, services in particular

My instinct says that installing the actual development tools, like Mercurial, git, etc. directly via the projects' recommended method, and then installing the server-side components like MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, etc. into a VM is the best route, but what are the pros-cons of doing this vs. going with something like MacPorts?

Note: I realize that this is a rather programming-centric question, but the central issue is that OS X is different from Windows and *nix when it comes to setting up a development environment and I'm not sure how to navigate in these OS X-specific waters.

Ultimately this is a fairly personal question, that will depend a lot on your workflow and preferences, but I'll add what I can.

My instinct is in line with yours—install the tools you need for writing your code natively, and use a VM for your server-side environment. My reasoning on this is that you (presumably) bought a Mac to use it, and doing most of your development work in a Linux VM seems like a bit of a waste. Use the native tools so that you can use them with whatever other OS X software you may want.

Similarly, while you could probably do a decent job of mimicking your deployment environment in OS X, using a VM is the best way to guarantee exact compatibility (it also makes it easier to manage different versions of your various programs, if you need to work with a production environment and a future server upgrade, etc.).

Ease of Use

I think the OS X tools + testing VM approach wins, as having all your development tools accessible without the need for a VM is the most frictionless, and the testing VM can act independently. OS X is BSD at the core, and as such there's great integration with the command line, particularly in developer-type tools like text editors.

Disk Space

VMs will obviously take up more room than just installing the tools natively, but Ubuntu seems to be able to run in a pretty small footprint (the CLI-only install on my home server runs around 3-4 GB I think, and that could probably be pared down if I tried). So unless you're really cramped for space, I wouldn't worry too much unless you need many different VMs.

Maintainability

I think you'll definitely want to go with a package manager, whether it's MacPorts or one of the other options. I'm not experienced with any of them, but I know MacPorts (and probably Homebrew and the others) have one line update commands, similar to apt.

Currentness

This depends a lot on how you choose to install your software, and what software you're using. Apple tends not to update the CLI tools it bundles very often (often only with major OS releases), so if you rely on a particular version of something that's otherwise built in, you may want to install a newer version (which you should do by installing to a new location, not overwriting the system version). My best advice here is to do some Googling and figure out how current the packages that are important to you are in each package manager.

Performance

VM performance on any recent Mac should be pretty good, but it obviously depends on how intensive the tasks running on the guest OS are. Unless your server side component is pretty heavy (and I don't see why it would be under a development testing load), you should see pretty good performance, particularly if your VM doesn't run a GUI.

Anyway, that's my take, perhaps others can chime in with more specific opinions on Macports vs. other options, or other takes on VM vs. native.


Finder go to Clipboard I’d like to create an Apple script that will use a text path in clipboard and open a new Finder window and go to that path

If you can use the Terminal, do

open "`pbpaste`"


El Capitan Mail: How to cancel processes in Activity window? I've found a number of questions about the "floating" behavior of the Mail Activity window in El Capitan.  I have a different question:  In all previous versions of Mail.app, processes in the Activity window could be cancelled by clicking on the "Stop" button.  In El Capitan, the Stop button no longer seems to exist.  So the Activity window tells me if something is stuck, but doesn't give me any way to cancel a process.  Is there any way to get that functionality back?

Edited: Here's an example of what I'm talking about.  This window has been stuck on "Connecting..." for more than 20 minutes.  There's no way to stop it and there's no way to find out what's going on.  Turning off Wi-Fi and restarting the app (even rebooting!) didn't do anything; that "Connecting..." process is just still there.

To cancel the activity without the (X) button that is gone since El Capitan, on Mail versions with the V4 format, it seems to be enough to stop the app, go to cd ~/Library/Mail/ and remove the three ExternalUpdates.* files.

These seem to be the files that keep the queue of remote operations.


One of the keys in keyboard has become "harder to press" I have a Retina MacBook Pro and I don't know how to explain it well. One of the keys (number 9 key, if it makes sense) has suddenly "not sensitive enough" while typing fast. I mean, I can definitely press it when I want, the change is very subtle, when I'm typing fast it doesn't get pressed. If I explicitly press just a bit harder there is no problem. Whenever I tap all keys with my typing pressure, all get pressed easily expect the 9 key. The difference is subtle but it's definitely noticeable and is really annoying while typing (especially when typing ( when programming). How do I make it respond normally?

The problem went away by itself in a few hours and never came back. Everything returned back to normal.


Why are drivers not working in Windows 10 with bootcamp? My colleague has two MacBook Pro 13 (Retina) laptops and has setup Windows 10 through bootcamp on both. The bootcamp wizard has been installed on both but there is a problem with the Thunderbolt drivers on one of them. When an external display is connected via Thunderbolt, it does not display anything until the machine is rebooted. There is a USB device in device manager that has an issue "set address failed" which we suspect is related to the problem.

The hardware is not quite identical... the problem machine is a 2014 MacBook Pro whilst the one that works is a 2015 MacBook Pro. Both are running El Capitan.

Any suggestions?

In case it helps others, I got a response from Apple that it just isn't supported on the 2014 MacBook Pro. Another user on the Apple forum (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7419574) has confirmed this on his 2014 MacBook Pro.

This post (http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thunderbolt-hotplug-on-windows-10.1819920/) suggests that it works on a limited number of 2014 Mac computers but not all as the official FAQ suggests.


Is the trackpad in the Mac Air connected to the keyboard? My wife spilled a little water on her Mac Air -- MD760ll/A which we got in August 2013 (just outside of any AppleCare warranty).  At first it was completely dead, but I removed the back and battery and sopped up the water and used a desiccant in a sealed box to dry it out even further.

Now it turns on, but the keyboard and trackpad don't work, however I can use the Mac with a USB keyboard/mouse.

Is the trackpad connected to the keyboard?  If that's the case is there the possibility that I would only need to replace the keyboard?

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's MacBook Air; it's always frustrating when accidents like that happen. According to this step in iFixit's teardown of the 2013 Air, it appears that the trackpad is attached to the motherboard, instead of the keyboard:

Again, best of luck with the repair of the MacBook. If she can do without for a little while, waiting for a refresh in the line may be worthwhile, depending on the extent of water damage that isn't readily apparent (water damage can manifest weeks or even months after the fact.)


How to delete Apple ID without password? How can I delete an Apple ID from an iPad without the password to the Apple ID?

I am purchasing a second-hand iPad from my friend's shop. The previous user of this iPad didn't reset all the content and I do not have his Apple ID password and his email.

Is there a way to delete previous owner AppleID account?

you sure have his email if you know his Apple ID.
You can delete it if Find My iPad is not enabled. Otherwise it will become locked if it is.

These what you do before buying second hand Apple device


VPN over ethernet, Internet over wifi I use a VPN to connect to my work network. It works fine for accessing internal resources, but getting out to the internet over the VPN can be spotty. (Not because sites are blocked. It's just slow.)

Is there a way to segment traffic so that VPN works over the ethernet connection but access to the internet goes over wifi?

I don't have a lot of experience with networking but I'm comfortable with the Terminal and shell scripting.

Depending on the VPN client being used, this may or may not be possible. Certain VPN clients (like Junos Pulse, for example) can be set by your network administrator at work to enforce certain routing policies when connected via your VPN client. If your sysadmin at work set your VPN client to force all outgoing traffic to go through your VPN then you're most likely out of luck (I know that Junos Pulse can be set to automatically disconnect if the routing table is touched once connected). As your sysadmin at work how it's configured.


How to use MacBook from my PC I have a PC with a big monitor and a 13" MacBook sitting on my desk. I have to do some development in PC environment and also some iOS development on MacBook.

Is there a way I could use my PC's monitor, mouse and keyboard with both PC and MacBook?

Basically, I want to be able to switch between PC's and MacBooks's desktops at will. Something like two virtual desktops: one showing what's going on on PC and the seconds one showing what's MacBook doing. All mouse movements and keystrokes should go to currently active desktop.

I do not want to purchase any additional hardware if possible.

Is it possible? If so, how?

You can install a free, open-source VNC client and server on your PC. You can then use the PC to connect to the Mac through Apple's built-in screen sharing capabilities, which can use the VNC protocol, or you can find a free VNC client for Mac OS X.

VNC stands for "virtual network computing"; it is a well-established protocol for letting one computer view the screen on remote computers and use the keyboard and mouse to control them, all over a network connection.

For your PC, check out RealVNC.

I haven't used this to connect between a PC and Mac in several years, but you can configure things on your Mac to permit VNC on your PC to connect to your Mac. You may have to make adjustments on your Mac to your firewall and open ports. Other people here can probably provide more details on configuration.


Allow ssh-keygen-wrapper to access "System Events" for all users in the same computer When I run my AppleScript in a remote mode, I get this message in an user where the script runs:

“sshd-keygen-wrapper“ wants access to control “System Events“. Allowing control will provide access to documents and data in “System Events“, and to perform actions within that app.

Is it possible to allow ssh-keygen-wrapper to access System Events" for all users in the same computer ONLY once, i.e. each new user in this computer doesn't need to allow this ssh-keygen-wrapper again?

It doesn't matter if it's a manual or programming solution.

You should permit your AppleScript to access System Events from system preferences,
System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility.

Click on the + icon under that panel and add your AppleScript.

If that not works, try adding it under Full Disk Access which you can select from the left pane.


Give assistive access to a single applescript I have this script:

#!/usr/bin/env osascript
activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
tell process "SystemUIServer" to keystroke "q" using {command down, control down}
end tell

It needs assistive access. It seems I have to enable this access for the whole terminal application (iTerm2 in my case) to get it to work. This seems like giving a lot of privilege to iTerm. What are the security implications? Is there a workaround?

"Is there a workaround?"  I'd call it the "right" way.

Use the script editor. save the script as an application.  Thus, the script becomes a full fledged  application.  Give the app assertive capabilities.   should you want to start the app from the terminal, open your-app.

What to worry about:
"Effective defenses against malware and other threats" by John Galt
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8841


iTerm2 command line configuration Is there a way to configure iTerm2 preferences from the command line?  I am specifically looking to automate setting the Key preferences, for instance configuring escape codes to be sent when certain key combinations are pressed.  I am using a script similar to https://mths.be/macos for other osx automation.

Thanks!

Is there a way to configure iTerm2 preferences from the command line?

Technically, it's possible.  Your keybinding are held in your profile which is accessible in ~/Library/Prferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist.  To write custom profiles you will have to...

Convert to XML (plutil -convert xml1)
Make your changes
Convert back to Binary (plutil -convert binary1)

(I highly suggest making backups of your original .plist before doing this.)

This will require some due diligence and reverse engineering on your end to ensure you're adhering to the XML structure for iTerm as this isn't documented anywhere.

An alternative to this would be to look at Dynamic Profiles within iTerm2


creating a new user in Mac will it reset everything? I want to reset all my configurations trying to install MySQL & other development stuff through the Terminal on my MacBook and start fresh. Because it was my first time doing this and I think I made lots of wrong stuff.

So, do creating a new user will do this or I need to make a new "fresh" install for the OS?

Creating a new user will trash all the configurations that are stored in the old user's home directory (i.e. /Users/old_username)

This does not affect configurations done in the system folders(e.g. /usr/, /etc/, /Libraries

So you need to figure out if you configured mysql in your home directory or in the system folders.

Typically if you had to use your administrator privileges to configure mysql then it's stored in system folders.


Cut command shortcut problem I cannot find the way to change the key shortcut for cut command on my macBook pro.

Where can I change that setting?

I can't find it with the rest of the key command preferences.

On my machine, the following works:

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Application Shortcuts. Press the [+] button. Select All Applications, type Cut, press your shortcut, and press Add.

Note that on systems still running OS X 10.8 and earlier, it's: System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Application Shortcuts


High memory usage on MacBook PRO retina 16Gb i7 2,5ghz I'm using a MacBook Pro  Retina 15-inch 16Gb
Processor 2,5 Ghz Intel Core i7
Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1536 Mb
OS: OS X  Yoseminte v10.10.2

I'm having a problem with my ram. I think its eating too much rum when I'm not doing anything..

Please find my screenshots attached.

And this is how it looks when I have the Adobe Photoshop open (a small psd file 5,2Mb), Microsoft Word (1 page), Itunes, And the Chrome Browser (12 tabs opened)

Can someone help me with this issue? Why is it eating that much RAM?
If there is any other info that you need for this situation please tell me so I can get that for you.
Thank you

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

That's perfectly normal for Yosemite - the new rule is "empty RAM is wasted RAM."

The system will fill the RAM so that any process needing to quickly use it has it already available, rather than having to request more.

As you see from your pictures, the Swap file is zero, so nothing is being traded off to the hard drive. That's about as good as it gets - everything that needs RAM has all it needs & nothing has to use the slow swapfile instead of real RAM.
You also have zero memory compression, so there is no pressure at all on the machine's resources. Everything is as it should be.

Old-style memory flushers are actually less than useful under the new memory handling routines & will slow the machine down rather than speed it up.


How to resume a Mavericks download on OS X 10.6? I've initiated OS X Mavericks download from the App Store. Upon either re-login or restart, the OS X Mavericks icon in the dock shows that it's paused. Clicking Resume from the context menu doesn't do anything.

It's a usability bug. You have to open the App Store, log-in, and only then will the Resume option work. To resume, you can also click "Download" on the OS X Mavericks line in the Purchases table of the App Store.

Since there's no instant feedback as to whether anything is being downloaded unless your connection is very fast, you can use Activity Monitor to check whether network download seems to be saturated. An alternative is iStat Menus (non-free with 14 day free trial). There, you can not only see that data is downloaded, but you can confirm that it is the storeagent process that does the downloading.


How to monitor output sound from terminal Is it possible to read current volume or frequency of outgoing sound from terminal? I am using OS X Mavericks

You can get the volumes of the currently selected input, output and sound effects/alert device as a percentage value with an AppleScript one liner:

osascript -e "(get volume settings)"

which gives something similar to:

output volume:56, input volume:63, alert volume:28, output muted:false


Keep two Macports installations in sync I've got two Macs, an iMac and a Macbook Pro. I do web development work on both, my data is synced with a local cloud solution. But how do I keep my Macports installations in sync? At the moment I try two manually install the very same packages, but with all the port variants I'd hope for a more sophisticated solution.

You could pipe the output of port echo active to a file on one machine, sync the output to the other machine, and run port install for each line.

That would be just the most naive solution, mainly not handling "merge conflicts".


Change to Chrome behavior for pinching to zoom in PDFs Recently, I've found that when using the pinch-to-zoom motion with the trackpad while reading a PDF in Chrome, I no longer get the preferred behavior: Chrome's zoom ticking up discretely by 25% or so. Instead, I get a continuous "screen-zoom" effect (similar to holding Control and scrolling), inside the Chrome window (as opposed to the actual screen-zoom, which is independent of the application). Chrome's usual zoom controls still work, but I have to access them either by keyboard shortcut or clicking the respective buttons.

There are several down-sides: the resolution does not update, so my zoomed-in PDF is unnecessarily grainy, and I cannot use horizontal scrolling to navigate, only vertical. Further, the zoom happens wherever the cursor is, rather than centered in the page. Finally, there is a fixed upper bound to how far I can zoom in. This is all rather strange and unwieldily; how can I recover the original behavior?

I am using OSX 10.9.5, and the most recent version of Chrome. All four "Scroll and Zoom" options under Trackpad in System Preferences are active. If I deactivate 'Pinch to zoom', instead of recovering the old behavior, nothing happens when I pinch.

Thanks for your help!

As a "workaround" to this issue, you can download BetterTouchTool and remap these gestures in Chrome:

A "pinch in" to ⌘–
A "pinch out" to ⌘+

That should "solve" your problem.


MACPro restarts one second after shutdown if USB Hub is connected - Why? i have added a USB3.0 PCIe card (Inateck KTU3FR-4P USB 3.0 expresskarte 4 port) to my Mac (MacPro Early 2008, OS X 10.8.4 (12E55))

...with this all is working as it should, no problems with shutdown.

To have better access to the USB3 ports i have now bought an USB3 Hub (Inateck HBU3VL2-4 4 port USB 3.0 Hub without extra current needed).

And this is what makes me problems.
If i connect the Hub to the Card, and afterwards shutdown my Mac, it restarts itself after 1 second.

The console log shows some strange info about current and an error (SetFeature(kUSBFeatureDeviceRemoteWakeup) failed. Error 0xe000404f)
...

But the Systeminfo shows well...

And during working with the mac all is OK. Also if i connect a hdd to the hub, it is working as it should...only shutdown doesn't work if the hub (with or without any device on it) is connected to the card.

Shutdown/restart Log:

There is no wake reason...

Any ideas how to fix this are welcome?

Thanks, richard.

You are creating 8 USB connections on a single USB with your set up without additional power supply for the external USB.

That might create some problems in power management for the host USB controller in your system.

Once you connect the device to the USB port, the specification imposes limits on current draw.

The host first recognizes any peripheral as a low-power device, which is limited to less than 100 mA of current. (total of 800mA in your case, which is very close to the limit of 900mA):

The peripheral can then ask the host to recognize it as a high-power device through a process called enumeration.

Once enumeration is complete and permission is granted, the peripheral current limitation increases to 500 mA for that device, but remember the internal limit is 900mA for all.

Your second Error (SetFeature(kUSBFeatureDeviceRemoteWakeup) failed!

The USB specification also includes a suspend mode that supports remote wake-up.

This mode limits quiescent current to a total of 500 µA for a low-power device and 2.5 mA for a high-power device; it often requires switches to power down portions of the peripheral's electronics. That would be normal error with 8 USB ports connected, so just try without them, or leave it alone

Why does you computer wakes up!

Aug 25 14:55:51 Richards-Mac-Pro kernel[0] <Debug>: Wake reason: EHCI

Based on your information for wake reason, the EHCI is the USB host controller that does that.
One solution would be to used a self powered USB.

To post only the wake reason use the cmd+shift+4 to take a screen shot only of the wake reason.


Trouble Reinstalling macOS Sierra My dad was running macOS & Windows on his Early 2015 MacBook Air, and both crashed. Apple’s service center said the only option was to reinstall macOS.

Using the Windows Command Prompt I backed up as much data as I could. Then I tried to reinstall Sierra, but couldn’t boot into the Recovery Partition. Internet Recovery never worked (at best it progressed to 10% then stopped).

So I deleted all my partitions and downloaded a Sierra image from someone who put it in Google Drive. I don’t know what I did wrong but it turned my hard drive into an “OS X Base System.”

I tried resetting SMC, PVRAM/NVRAM… Nothing worked.

Now when I start the Mac normally it tries to resume the macOS installation, but fails because the HDD contains an “OS Installation Media.”

Then I got my hands on a friend’s Mac that I used to Create a bootable installer for macOS. I now have the USB boot drive, but I cannot boot to it (it shows the Apple logo and then “No Entry”). Trying to boot to the regular HDD also shows “No Entry.”

I would appreciate any help reinstalling my Mac cleanly.

Here's a guide to get you going again.

Not sure if your question needs to be closed as too broad / too much 20 questions - technical support, but following Apple's erase and install process should fix this at the cost of any data you still have on that drive.

Can't start Mac in recovery mode - only get folder with question mark instead


Is there a way to access/see all files stored in iCloud to one account? I am aware that there is a online view under icloud.com, and there is a OS X and iPhone app for iCloud.

Why I am asking, is:

  I deleted all of my iCloud files (so I thought), and emptied the whole
  drive. One year later, I installed 1Password on my Mac, activated
  iCloud Drive again, and there it was: "Do you want to use your old
  iCloud file?"

So there are hidden files which stay there, no matter what.I thought I deleted everything, but somehow there were files missing or still there.

  So what is the best way to view the iCloud Drive content?

All of your iCloud Drive content will be shown here: https://www.icloud.com/#iclouddrive.

However, 1Password does not store data in iCloud Drive: it stores your passwords (encrypted) in iCloud Documents and Data, which is a separate part of iCloud.

To access your Documents and Data, on an iOS device: open the Settings app, go to iCloud, tap Storage, and tap Manage Storage.

You'll see a section called Documents and Data under the Backups section if you do indeed have documents and data stored in iCloud. You can edit/delete the data of each app here.


Time Machine - How does one convert Backups.backupdb to a backupbundle? I recently had a critical drive failure on my network drive that I use for Time Machine backups. Creating the first backup over the network (with ~1TB of data) will be painfully slow.
I've already created a backup using Time Machine on the drive mounted via USB, however this is a Backups.backupdb folder structure, not a backupbundle disk image that Time Machine uses when working over the network.
Is there a way to create/convert a new backupbundle file with the Backups.backupdb folder such that I don't have to run a first full backup over the network? Alternatively, is there a way to convince Time Machine to use the backupbundle structure when backing up over USB?

While I haven't tried this personally, I recently came across a workaround posted on the MacRumors forums that claims it should work:

There is a work around to do this. Attach the drive to the router
(assuming it supports Time Machine) then start a backup to the disk
using Time Machine. Give it a couple minutes to get started, then stop
it and disconnect.
Now attach the drive to the Mac over USB. Look in Finder and you will
see a sparse bundle with the partial Backups.backupdb file there. Just
delete that file and empty the trash.
Now turn on Time Machine and do a full backup. When it is done you
will have the full Backups.backupdb on the drive. Just move that from
the root of the drive into the sparse bundle. Now connect it back to
the router and turn TM back on. It will pick up where it left off with
incremental backups going forward.

Another variation on this method creates a local Samba file share mount on the USB drive as a workaround. Full details in the linked answer, but a summary snippet follows:

sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.2/32
Plug your usb drive, then via System Preferences / Sharing add a smb share to a folder time-machine-macbook in the drive time-machine-usb Then, add a destination backup (Time Machine will see it as a network share)
sudo tmutil setdestination -a "smb://user:password@127.0.0.2/time-machine-macbook"

If there is a simpler/more direct way to do it though, that would be awesome to know! I was thinking maybe something in the tmutil command line program may be able to do it, but haven't yet tried.
According to Apple's Disk Utility User Guide, it appears possible to manually create a sparsebundle disk image:

In the Disk Utility app  on your Mac, choose File > New Image > Blank Image
Enter a filename for the disk image, add tags if necessary, then
choose where to save it.
In the Name field, enter the name for the disk image.
In the Size field, enter a size for the disk image.
Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose the format for the disk:

I believe for Time Machine you will need to choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) (reference)

To encrypt the disk image, click the Encryption pop-up menu, then
choose an encryption option.
Click the Partitions pop-up menu, then choose a partition layout.
Click the Image Format pop-up menu, then choose an option:

Sparse bundle disk image: Same as a sparse disk image (below), but the
directory data for the image is stored differently. Uses the
.sparsebundle file extension.
Sparse disk image: Creates an expandable file that shrinks and grows
as needed. No additional space is used. Uses the .sparseimage file
extension.

Click Save, then click Done.
Disk Utility creates the disk image file where you saved it in the
Finder and mounts its disk icon on your desktop and in the Finder
sidebar.
In the Finder, copy your files to the mounted disk image, then eject
it.

Edit Note: macOS Catalina appears to use the extension backupbundle instead of sparsebundle, but it seems that this file is still mountable in the same ways as previously.


Which app does this menu bar icon belong to? I'm talking about the leftmost icon in the bar, to the left of the f.lux icon. Nothing happens when I click on it. And having opened the menu on another item and then navigating to the left or right with arrow keys, will jump over this item.

It's a stupid LibreOffice icon showing up when a new update is existing.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/252910/361005


Is there a "Apple Music App" for Windows10 OR is only the iTunes app available? Is there a "Apple Music App" for Windows10 OR is only the iTunes app available?
On the Apple website, there is a link to download "iTunes For Windows"  but I am wondering if there is a separate  "Apple Music" app available or planned to be available?

The Apple Music app is only available for Macs at this time as your own research has indicated.  I don't think any user here can reasonably speak to any plans Apple has on Apple Music integration for Windows.  If they are an employee, they will be bound by nondisclosure; if they are not an employee, it will only be rumor at this point.  Your best answer for this kind of question will come from Apple's product support team.


What does the "4G" that appears on my iPhone 4S's AT&T network indicator mean? Since upgrading my iPhone 4S to iOS 5.1 (from 5.0.1), the AT&T network status indicator now reads "4G" where it once read "3G". What has changed from the previous version? Does this "4G" mean the same thing as it does on the "new iPad"?

Nomenclature
The terms 2G, 3G and 4G do not refer to a specific wireless standard, but a a whole bunch of different standards:

There has been controversy on what standards should be referred to as 4G. When Apple introduced the iPhone 4S, they followed other companies in referring to HSDPA as a 4G standard. HSPA+ is the successor to HSDPA.

DC-HSPA+
Technically, HSDPA and HSPA+ are 3G wireless standards. However, HSPA+ has received technological upgrades which increased the theoretical throughput to become similar to that of LTE.
If 4G were to indicate speed rather than a wireless standard, it's legitimate to refer to the upgraded HSPA+ as 4G. However, this improved HSPA+ should be referred to as DC-HSPA+, not merely HSPA+.


How do I reinstall the OS when buying a MacBook Pro since no install media was delivered to me? I just bought a refurbished MacBook (through a reputable retailer) and 3rd party external drive for Time Machine backups. There are no install discs and my concern is that after the warranty ends (90 days) if I need to reinstall the OS, I will have to purchase Snow Leopard (it has 10.6).
So, how would I reinstall OS X since I received no installation media?

There are plenty of ways around this dilemma:

Method 1: Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion. You'll get loads of new features, and the all-new Recovery partition so you won't need discs. It should be free if your retailer was Apple Certified via the Apple Up-to-Date Program.

Method 2: Contact the reputable retailer. They should give you the original discs if you ask for them.

Method 3: Ask if you can borrow a friend's disc if you ever need it in the future.

Method 4: Contact Apple. I'm sure that if you describe your situation, they'll give you the SL discs at least.

Method 5: Purchase Snow Leopard. It's only $20, and it'll give you peace of mind if that's what you really want. You could buy it with the money you saved buying the refurbished Mac in the first place.

When you get your Mountain Lion/Snow Leopard installer, make sure you make a USB flash drive backup of it and keep it safe.

For Mountain Lion see here: Create a Bootable Mountain Lion USB Key Installer

For Snow Leopard see here: How to Create a Mac Snow Leopard USB Installer Disk


"Logout user after (x) minutes of inactivity..." not actually logging out users On my network when a user is auto-logged-out, this feature seems to just activate fast-user-switching,  Is that what it is supposed to do?

I am talking about the setting, as seen below in El Capitain, from System Preferences, and you can also access this setting with profiles/mdm for example from the Profile Manager (formerly Workgroup Manager).  I have this disabled in both the local system and the profiles assigned to both the devices and user-groups.

I've also seen the same proposed issue in Yosemite.  This is annoying because when users don't logout, the system seems to go back to the login screen without clearing the RAM, possibly also locking files that are in use, etc.; creating a truly slow, buggy machine.

Activating fast-user-switching is indeed what it is meant to do. It does not log the user out, so to speak, but it does prevent account access without the user's password.

We must first understand that logging out involves quitting everything that a user has open, and locking only secures the account in its current state. This does introduce some form of overhead as logging out requires all applications to be quit.

There's also the slight issue of a user's unsaved files being lost if the entire account is logged out instead of locked.

Side note, you can achieve the same login window through checking "System Preferences > Security and Privacy > General > Require password (x) minutes after sleep or screen saver begins".

Alternatively (although not advisable), running

exec /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow

will bring up the same lock screen.


Difference between the Sennheiser i300 and MM70i headphones for iPhone/iPod/iPad From what I can gather, the Sennheiser i300 headphones are Apple exclusive headphones, not available anywhere else, but they appear to be identical to the Sennheiser MM70i.

Can anyone shed any light on this? They look the same, are they the same internally? I can't even find the i300's on Sennheiser's site!

Here's some links:

i300 on Apple.com: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H3559ZM/A
MM70i on Sennheiser.com: http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/...

Thanks for any info on the differences!

Huh! So I asked an Apple representative, but they didn't know. I also asked Sennheiser and they finally got back to me. Apparently the i300 are exclusive to Apple (as I suspected), and although they look very similar to the MM70i, they're apparently closer in sound performance to the cheaper MM30i.

So basically, the Apple exclusive Sennheiser i300 are equivalent to the Sennheiser MM30i.

You can see the MM30i here:
http://www.sennheiser.co.uk/uk/home_en.nsf/root/private_headsets_mobile_music_504739

According to the Sennheiser representative, the MM70i has a better bass response and more accessories than either the MM30i or the i300.

So, from what I can gather, it seems buying the cheaper MM30i, or the more expensive MM70i, is a better option than the Apple exclusive i300.

Update: Since I wrote this question, it appears that Apple have reduced the RRP of their i300 to match that of the MM30i. However, as Amazon seems to consistently offer a 30% discount on the MM30i's, the Apple exclusive headphones are still more expensive in a practical sense.


In iMovie 11, how do I export at my custom resolution/aspect ratio? It only allows 16:9/4:3? I see a few posts that say it will also export at the aspect ratio you imported at, but how?

I recorded a portion of my screen with Quicktime's screen recorder, and it came to a resolution of 680x812. I imported that into iMovie, as well as a 640x812 image at the end, but when I go to export, I only get this screen, where none of them are the resolution of my video, and it puts black letterboxing on the sides:

How do I do it?

Also, how do I get it to not degrade video quality?

I can address your first question. You can't export into a custom resolution. For that, you need Final Cut Pro X and Compressor. See this blog post for a description of the process.

  (Apple's) suggestion was to edit your video using standard video formats in FCP X, then export it to Compressor and use the Geometry tab in Compressor to create the final movie size you need.


Can DVI displays and thunderbolt ports be expected to wake the monitors every time from sleep? I've got a 15-inch MBP Retina. I am using both Thunderbolt ports to drive two third-party monitors via DVI.

Sometimes (at least 3-4 times a week) after the display goes to sleep when I walk away from my desk, when I return one of the monitors won't come back up. OSX acts like it thinks the monitor is still active - it appears in the arrangement dialog and windows are still positioned over there. But the monitor itself says it is not receiving a signal.

The only way I've found to fix this problem is to disconnect both Thunderbolt ports and reconnect them. Just reseating the one with the issue does not fix it.

Is there a way to prevent this, or at the very least, fix it without having to constantly unplug-replug both monitors?

I have this same issue on my iMac 27" (Mid 2011) with one external DVI monitor. I took the iMac into the Apple store and the genius couldn't provide an answer to why this was occurring. I also tried using both Thunderbolt ports and the issue would happen on both. So for now what I did was to not let my iMac go into sleep mode. I set it to just have the display's go to black and when I activate the iMac the external display always comes back. Hoping a future update to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 will fix this issue.


Able to answer—but not make—iPhone calls on Mac Background
Among the many promising features of OS X 10.10 grouped under the label "Continuity" is the ability to make and answer iPhone calls from the Mac. The Mac uses the iPhone's connection to the carrier's voice network. I think this technology works over wifi.
Problem
I'm able to answer calls, but not make them. The error message I receive on my Mac is, "iPhone calls not available. Your iPhone must use the same iCloud and FaceTime account."
What I've done
I've confirmed that both iCloud and FaceTime on my iPhone—as well as iCloud on my Mac—are logged into the same account.
Question
What could be causing this issue, and what should I do to fix it?

Try completely logging out of your Apple ID/Account, everywhere (every setting/option where you can do so), on both of your devices.

For example, on iOS, you should try signing out from iCloud, iMessage and FaceTime:

Settings → iClound → Sign Out
Settings → Messages → Send & Receive → Apple ID: ... → Sign Out
Settings → FaceTime → Apple ID: ... → Sign Out

Then try logging back into your Apple ID/Account on them and setting it up again.

Hope this helps :)

-James


Git stored credentials work locally but don't have effect if logged into the machine via SSH I have a remote macOS machine with git and GitHub Desktop installed, as well as my SSH public key.

If I connect to the machine via Screen Sharing, open a shell window and try e.g. git pull in my repository it works fine and doesn't ask for the credentials.

However, if I connect to the same machine using SSH and try the same git command, it asks for credentials every time (and works if I give it the correct username and password).

I tried a few suggestions such as this one but everything I do doesn't seem to have any effect when connecting to the machine via SSH.

Is there some sort of a policy of not updating the KeyChain via SSH? Or is it something else?

P.S. I added this to my ~.ssh/config:

Host *
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes

Doesn't seem to help.

Also, my git URL is https://github.com/...

Add ForwardAgent yes to your ~/.ssh/config under the UseKeyChain line


Which apps can magnify content on iPad? For my Dad, who is losing sight, I'm looking for alternatives on the iPad for this: http://www.visualinktech.com/products-clover7.html
An electronic magnifier for magnifying paper articles. I found some alternatives in the appstore:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/see-it-video-magnifier/id514559829?mt=8

But I'm wondering if there are more alternatives and do you have experience with likewise products?

The camera app that comes with all iOS devices with cameras can magnify images.

If you want a live preview, you can also use accessibility on the iPad to zoom the display in many, many ways, as documented by this article by Apple on the accessibility features that iOS includes.

  Zoom

  Zoom is a built-in screen magnifier that works wherever you are in iOS. And it works with all apps from the App Store. Turn Zoom on for full-screen or picture-in-picture view, allowing you to see the zoomed area in a separate window while keeping the rest of the screen at its native size. You can adjust the magnification between 100 and 1500 percent and access multiple filter options in either view. While you’re zoomed in, you can use all the familiar gestures to navigate your iPhone. And Zoom works with VoiceOver, so you can better see — and hear — what’s happening on your screen.

You probably don't need to invest in any third party apps until you've exhausted all of the built in capabilities of iOS and the associated hardware.


How to set a different encrypted boot volume without unlocking? I have two MacOS installs as part of a dual-boot configuration on my MBP.  Both happen to be Mojave 10.14.  They are installed on two encrypted APFS volumes in the same APFS container.

I want to be able to set the next boot volume without supplying a decrypt password or holding down the option key during reboot.  Related, I want the current 'other volume' to be the default volume.  The current default is the second MacOS install that I performed.

The troubles I see:

1) Under System Preferences -> Startup Disk is that the decryption password is needed:  "It must be unlocked to determine if it is a valid startup disk."
   - this can't technically be true.  When I hold down the Option key during boot the decryption passwords aren't known at that time yet two volume options are presented.

2) The examples of command-line bless command are based on a volume mounted under /Volumes which of course means the decryption password is made available.

I was able to change the default boot volume which is just a partial resolution of my question.  This is done by using an alternate form of the bless command based on an un-mounted storage device.  From the intended default volume OS booted:

$ sudo bless --device /dev/disk1s1 --setBoot

(where disk1s1 is the current and intended volume which can be observed from Disk Utility -> Info )
Now the OS that I want to be default boot boots by default.

Unfortunately,

I can't set the next OS to boot from the command line with running from the other partition.

$ sudo bless --device /dev/disk1s5 --setBoot --nextonly
Could not set boot device property: 0xe00002e2

Google search of the error shows similar challenges related to System Integrity Protection (SIP) but to me no clear resolution.


Paste  into Mac OS X command line I want to paste <TAB> into command line, in order to execute cut command with <TAB> as the delimiter. Everytime I try to do it, it simulates clicking the tab key and completes the command with some file(-s) from the current directory.

Is there any solution (I've tried copying straight from text editor)?

Mac OS X 10.7.5, running bash.

You can insert a literal tab by pressing Ctrl-v (quoted-insert) and tab.

You can insert tabs in strings with $'\t':

cut -f2 <<< $'aa\tbb'

Or use pbpaste:

pbpaste | cut -f2

This makes tab just insert a tab:

bind '"\t": self-insert'

If you use option as meta, adding this to ~/.inputrc would make ⌥⇥ insert a tab:

"\e\t": "\C-v\t"


Question about iPod/iTunes My husband has a older iPod nano.  He has music on it that he put in himself from cd's which were misplaced in a move.  He also has music from iTunes.  In addition, since I have an android phone, I have been buying music through Amazon music.  I'd love to get him a new iPod touch for Christmas to make it easier for him to add and remove music but I'm worried that his non iTunes music won't transfer over and the Amazon music won't be able to be used.  Can anyone tell me if that will be an issue? And if so, is there something specific I can do to make it all work? Any help would be appreciated.

As long as the songs are still present inside his library in iTunes, all the songs are still available to sync over to the new iPod touch.

Also, you should be able to sync his old iPod nano to iTunes to get the songs back in the event that they are not in the library.


Is there a way to remove the gap between window edge and the screen edge when the Dock is hidden? When you hide the Dock, OS X leaves a small gap at that edge. Is there a way to get rid of it?

In case you have never noticed the gap before here is a screenshot. Guess which side of the screen has the Dock:

Not yet (as of macOS Sierra 10.12.6). When hiding the dock, the OS still leaves ~4 pixels of visible space presumably reserved for some part of the dock behavior. Third party window resizing doesn't seem to help either. Creator fifafu of BetterTouchTool wrote:

  You mean the gap when the dock is hidden? Unfortunately this is a
  limitation given by the system :-(. I haven't found a way to
  workaround that.

Note: This is more noticeable on lower resolution external displays (4px on a retina display is barely visible).

Some workarounds:

Move the window over the visible pixels, then drag from the opposite side (but also notice the additional delay in showing the dock)
Use an external display and set a different monitor as primary (drag the white menubar in the display arrangement in sys prefs), allowing full sizing on the non-primary display.

Related Apple SE but for visible docks: Force windows to be maximized but not fullscreen?

Have others noticed? Yes, lots. Macrumors dead ends:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bottom-dead-space-with-automatic-hidden-dock.1716910/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/hiding-dock-still-leaves-a-few-pixels-unused.1208427/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-remove-space-between-window-and-dock.1094679/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/hidden-dock-small-space-in-the-bottom-of-the-screen.931858/

It's even caused bug reports for OS X app developers:

https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle/issues/555
https://github.com/fifafu/BetterTouchTool/issues/672
https://github.com/search?q=mac+dock+gap&type=Issues&utf8=%E2%9C%93

I'll add that this issue exists vertically as well:

Manual workaround


Can the number given to the Cellular version of the Apple Watch be reached over the PSTN? From previous experience, my understanding is that if a Cellular Apple Watch is purchased and then a plan added to the Watch from a supporting carrier, the watch is given its own mobile number. Can this number be reached via the PSTN, or is it only an identifier that the Watch uses internally and not accessible from the outside?

Are you perhaps confusing an eSIM with a telco technology PSTN?

An eSIM is an Electronic Subscriber Identity Module.  It's the digital version of the "old fashioned" SIM or the plastic card that you put into the phone to get onto the cellular network. It's not tied to a phone number per se.  It's tied to an account that allows you access to the cellular network.
The PSTN is the Public Switched Telephone Network. It's the aggregate of all the switched circuit telco systems including cellular.
A phone number is just a sequence of digits assigned to an account so that another telco device can connect to it.  It's just a "pointer" to an account - you dial the digits and the phone company can make a single phone ring or multiple phones around the planet ring simultaneously (and a number of variations in between).

As far as how the iWatch's eSIM works, it is attached to your cellular account and for all intents and purposes, shares your existing phone number.  It's not given it's own unique phone number.

It's important to note that an eSIM or plain SIM do not have to have a phone number - any mobile hotspot that you can't make calls to won't have a phone number as the plans for these devices are data only.


Mimic TouchCursor movements on Mac I'm using OS X Lion.

I'm a PC user and just recently tried out using a Mac.  I'm used to installing a handy app in Windows named TouchCursor.  It allows me not to release my fingers in the "home" keys of the keyboard, which helps increase productivity (IMHO) because I don't need to reach out for the arrow keys anymore.

In Vim, the standard for the left, right, up and down is the H, L, K, and J keys.  I mimic it in Windows through TouchCursor by just adding the Spacebar (holding it down) + either H, L, K and J, depending on the direction I choose.  I made it universal, not only using Vim, but used it every time I navigate Windows, work with MS Office and other apps.

Is KeyRemap4MacBook able to this just like I used to do it in TouchCursor?  Currently I have downloaded it and would be experimenting and see how it goes.  I just needed to post this question assuming someone might have experience solving this.

Cheers!

I use both programs, and they are quite similar in spirit, but different in detail.  What I find works well for me in KeyRemap4MacBook is to turn on "normal mode" (I think that's what it is called).  I tap my Command key, then I can use vi-like keys, then I tap Command again (or use i).

Another useful thing is "simultaneous vi mode" (I think that's what it is called).  I press and hold s and d simultaneously, and while holding them I can use vi keys.  Quite similar to TouchCursor, except not with the space bar.

I wish there were programs that are more similar than these two, but I think this is currently where we are at.


Accidentally created a folder containing a copy of itself and so on I have a folder MyProject. It's an Xcode project folder (not sure if relevant).

I am well aware that this folder is around 800MB. Recently I noticed that Get Info said that it was 17GB large.

I inspected the folder, and all the files were there just fine... and then I noticed that it contained another folder called MyProject. When I opened it, it was the exact same case: all the files were there, and there was another MyProject folder in it. And so on. That's right: Folderception.

I solved this by simply deleting the first duplicate MyProject in the chain.

However, I am curious, how could this have happened?

In order for it to copy itself enough times to yield 17GB, it would have to take quite a while - and I didn't even notice. But the more bizarre question is, what action could I have done to implicitly create a chain like this?

This is entirely possible to create by making a hard link to the parent directory using the terminal 'ln' command. The OS just won't know that MyProject inside of MyProject goes to the same place. It is curious how this may have happened, though.


Permission of external disk under Mac OS I plug an external disk to the laptop whose system is Mac OS, but I can't create files/folders, or rename files in the disk... The Sharing & Permissions is You can only read.

Does anyone know how to modify this permission?

OS X can't write to NTFS natively - you'll need to install a package like MacFuse/NTFS-3G or Tuxera NTFS to write to NTFS partitions.

From the BootCamp Apple Support KB:

  During installation, the Microsoft Windows installer asks me to format
  the Windows partition using NTFS or FAT. Which should I use?

  If the partition is 32 GB or smaller, you can use either FAT or NTFS.
  If it's larger than 32 GB, or you are installing Microsoft Vista, then
  you can only format it using NTFS. Mac OS X can read and write FAT
  volumes, but only read NTFS volumes. Refer to the Microsoft Windows
  documentation if you are not sure which best suits your needs.


Can't connect to any apple servers, third party apps have trouble connecting Problem
I can't login to iCloud, Itunes, App Store on my Macbook
Accessing the App Store app displays a 'Cannot connect to App Store' message
Attempting to sign in by going to [System Preferences > iCloud] and entering my password results in "There was an error connecting to the Apple ID server"
(On my last attempt it made it to the two step verification step. But after entering the code it hung for some time before the message "Account Details could not be opened because of an error connecting to iCloud."

I can sign in to apple.com on the same computer through a browser with the same login information just fine.

Context
I've never had this issue before until a few days ago. One day I had issues login through another application (Clip Studio). I also get "steam was unable to sync your files with the steam cloud" message when trying to play games on Steam (another application on my mac). Eventually I tried updating with the App Store but it gave me a "Didn't get a response from the Apple Software Update server" message. My safari is also very very slow now.
Specifications
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
macOS Mojave
Version 10.14.6 18G6042
What I've tried:
Closing and opening the windows again
Restarting the computer
Double checking that my login info is correct
Restoring mac from time machine backup to an earlier date (what I believed was a couple days before the issue)
[Keychain Access > Preferences > Reset My Default Keychains]
Clear safari cache, clear safari history
Rebooting in safe mode (same issue there)
Creating a new user (same issue there)
Malware bytes scan (no issues)
Completely turned off default firewall (I don't think I have other firewall apps)
Checked Proxy settings
[only Auto Proxy Discovery is checked]

Just found a solution to this after a call with Apple. Simply unchecking "Auto Proxy Discovery" did the trick.
Just go into System Preferences > Network > Wifi > Advanced > Proxies > and uncheck "Auto Proxy Discovery".
Seeing as you posted this 3 months ago I'm sure you found a solution, but surprisingly I couldn't find an answer to this anywhere so I thought I'd post for anybody else with this problem.


iphoto versus imovie - wanting to get features from both places Origami is very nice. However, detailed control is, in my case, very hard to live without. I am setting up a 10-minute slide show. I want to use several pieces of audio cued to different points in the show. I want to have some sections, and origama shuffles my pictures across the section boundaries. Even text slides don't clue it in that this might be a good place not to shuffle across. Some of my consumers find the plain 'Ken Burns' transition in imovie positively sea-sickness-inducing.

I can predict that the answer will be that, inside iphoto, I'm in the traditional 'Steve Jobs is the reincarnation of Henry Ford' situation, and I won't be finding any way to exercise detailed control. So, can anyone give me a running start on how to introduce other transition effects to imovie?

Versions of iMovie after iMovie HD don't support plugins and extra effects.

You're looking for something more along the lines of Apple Final Cut Express ($170) or Adobe Premiere Elements ($80).

Both let you make photo slideshows with titles, effects, transitions, and music; and both let you install free and paid plugins for more.

Hope this helps.


Custom keyboard layout problem High Sierra I have just upgraded my OS to macOS High Sierra.

I have been using a custom layout for my Magic Keyboard. But after upgrading to the newer version is stopped working.

I have installed the custom keyboard again using Ukele, but it doesn't work properly.

Here are some weird problems I have encountered

It shows the custom layout in top bar. However I am not able to select this layout. Also this layout is missed in the System Settings.

After rebooting, it may be able to switch to the custom layout and even work correctly, but after some time it may stop working, or there are a lot of duplicated layouts will be displayed in the Settings.

When switching to another input source using Cmd-Space it may show an empty list item without any title.
I need to add my custom layout every time I reboot my laptop.

Please suggest how to fix this problem, I cannot work with the default keyboard layout.

UPDATE

Something really weird is happening to new OS

Here is duplicated layouts, and as far as they are same, I can't remove duplicates.

Some things to try based on others who have had this kind of problem with other keyboards

Make sure you do not have Siri turned on and that its keyboard shortcut is set to none.
If your layout is in Home/Library, try Library instead.  And vice versa, and try it in both at same time.
Disable any antivirus apps
Safe Boot
Set up new user account and see if it works when logged into that


free Apple apps for iPhone 4S? Apple said that they make iPhoto, iMovie, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote free with iOS 7. I looked in the app store with my device (iPhone 4S) but the apps are not free. So it seems that is only valid for the new devices?

Yes, those apps you mentioned are free for new devices. ie, activated on or after September 1, 2013.

  All five apps will be free if you meet the following criteria:

  You have to activate an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on or after September 1, and
  The device has to be compatible with iOS 7, and you can check our complete list of devices that can run iOS 7, and
  You have to install iOS 7, which will be available September 18. Before then, the apps will still have a price tag on them.

  Source.


How do I change the generic folder icon in Yosemite 10.10.4? I'm running 10.10.4, and can't seem to be able to change the generic folder icon. I've tried going into
/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/ replacing the icon there but it made no change. Then I tried the app Liteicon and it just made the generic folder icon disappear. Does anyone know how to change it?

I'm using Mac OSX Yosemite latest 10.10.5 and I've definitely sticked to the CandyBar app version 3.3.4 which is totally free from Panic inc.

I've been using CandyBar app since the Leopard days, the app works great until OS X 10.8 and "beyond", but now it is free and unsupported, so for OS X Mavericks / Yosemite etc. it might work with some hiccups. Nevertheless one can change icons for almost everything from system files to folders.