Unable to install apps on iPhone, either free or paid I had an Apple ID in one country and was unable to update the debit card, which had the same currency and a different country address.
Now I cannot install free or paid apps. I tap Get and am prompted for a password. If I put the wrong one, I see:
Verification failed
Your Apple ID or password is incorrect
Cancel Try Again

When the password is right, I see a spinning circle and then I see Get again, just as before.
I tried this thread to sign in from my name in the Settings app. I get prompted for a different email address, to which I say no put my email and password, and nothing happens either. I changed the sign-in away from the other email, which was still connected to the Game Center (from Settings > Game Center), and tried signing in again with the same result.
Everything seems to be in order with my Apple ID, which I can see on a desktop browser with my current country.
How can I install free or paid apps?
I am using an iPod Touch with iOS 12.4.7.

I contacted Apple for support and they were unable to explain why this happened. They suggested three things:

reset network settings, then enter wi-fi settings again: this failed,
install the latest software version (12.4.8): this worked,
restore the iPod to factory settings: I did not try this.

To see if it works, I could either have signed in from the Settings app, which requests the password for my Mac computer, or to sign in from the App Store app.


How can I pause an automated Mac app store update in macOS Sierra? I note the question How can I pause the download on Mac App Store and then resume it later? saying that downloads can be paused in Launchpad. However, my Mac (macOS 10.12.1) has started to download an update automatically. I can see that in the Activity Monitor, where the storedownloadd is top of the network received bytes listing. And, now I notice it, I see the Launchpad icon in the dock is showing a download bar, "1.05GB of 1.54 GB", but right-clicking it gives me no pause option. It's probably the Xcode update, since that is listed as due and they are typically GBytes. Launchpad shows no Xcode icon, and no other icon in Launchpad shows downloading. Right-click of the app store icon in the dock doesn't give me a pause option. The updates screen in the app store doesn't seem to offer a pause option.

How do I pause a Mac app store automatic update in Sierra, please? I need to stop the Mac using all my network bandwidth for the next few hours.

Open System Preferences and you'll find an item App Store there.

Disable the "Download newly available updates in the background" option. This way your Mac will still let you know when new updates are available, but it will not download them automatically.


Possible to have all Airport Extreme traffic go through a VPN? I'm wondering if it's possible (and if so, how to do it) set up my Airport Extreme so that all devices connecting to it have their traffic piped through a VPN. If I have an OpenVPN running on a Linux server outside my home, is it possible to route all traffic through that?

Airport running stock software doesn't have the ability to encrypt traffic on the WAN port. You could set up a server and use that connection to establish a VPN and have the AirPort WAN connect directly to the server - but that would require a computer on the local ethernet upstream of the AirPort wan port.


External backup drive unmounted, then endless churn I have a 5 year old Seagate USB2 drive for backups, used for a few months with time machine on my Retina MBP.

Lately, I've been getting an error that it was improperly ejected (I didn't actually eject it), and I can hear the drive churn endlessly on its own. I can't remount it, its power button doesn't respond, I have to power cycle it, then it mounts again and seems to work. Until the next incident.

Is it dying on me? It's old but has only been lightly used, until recently.

I've had a similar problem with a 2 TB Fantom drive.  Worked flawlessly for years, then it started to spontaneously unmount for no apparent reason. Time Machine being on or off doesn't have an effect.

It had been chained through another USB device (a MiniStack drive), and simply by taking it off the chain and plugging it directly into the Mac, I solved the problem.

Before ditching the drive, try changing USB cables and changing the routing (even a different USB port on the Mac.)  Five years is a bit old for a hard drive, but it's not unreasonable.


Automator: Combine PDF pages double or triple in size I have the following workflow: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EhuddCrCrmwRfJPe9M0QoamWwNm9U_Nm/view?usp=sharing

Here's the desired outcome: I select a file, it splits it and I rebuild it as smaller sections of the PDF. Basically, an even better version of this workflow (or applescript) would split a PDF in half. I have been unsuccessful.

When I run my workflow, it creates a folder with all the different pages of the PDF. When I reselect half of those and combine them, it doubles or triples in size. That seems backwards, but it looks like the workflow is creating a repeating looped document. Super confused.

Image of workflow:

I solved the problem using PDF Sam. Description from website:

  Merge, split, extract pages, rotate and mix your PDF files. Runs on
  Windows, Mac, Linux and any other operating system where a Java
  Runtime Environment (with JavaFX) version 8 or above is available.
  Free and open source since 2006.

Just download the program, which is a PDF tool, and then stick your PDF in it. Once you've done that, you can chose the option to split the PDF.


Bootcamp "Missing Operating System" on external drive I've been using an external disk drive to use boot camp on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012). It's 1TB, so recently I added a partition to store extra files on it (350GB for boot camp, 650GB for storage). However now when I try to boot into my windows partition it says Missing Operating system. Here is some info about my disk drive: (VECTOTECHHS is the storage partition)

$ diskutil list disk2
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:               Windows_NTFS BOOTCAMP                378.0 GB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS VECTOTECHSS

$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk2
Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 124519/255/63 [2000409264 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         2 -  738321070] HPFS/QNX/AUX
*2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 738322432 - 1262084096] HFS+
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

Any help is appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Your posted output, from sudo fdisk /dev/disk2, shows a * next to the number 2. This means partition 2 is flagged in the MBR table as the bootable partition. The * should be next to the number 1, because I assume this is your bootable Windows partition. You can use the sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk2 command to move the *. This command is interactive. The interactive input would be flag 1, quit and yes.


How can I turn my email off for the night? (iOS) I would like to be able to easily turn on and off notifications for a particular app. I have my reasons for this, and if you'd like to know them you can check the edit history, but please keep responses to the topic of how I can do this, not whether I should want to.

There seem to be a couple of options for this, but neither is ideal.

Firstly, I could turn on "do not disturb" mode for the periods when I'd like the notifications turned off. This will block notifications from other apps, so it's not what I want.

Secondly, I could go to Settings -> Notification Centre -> [my app] and toggle "Show on Lock Screen". This doesn't seem to be something Siri can do for me, and it's something I want to do very often, so going this deep in the menu hierarchy is inconvenient.

Is there a more convenient way to toggle notifications for a particular app?

As for the current version of iOS (7).
No, there is not. Apple only offers the Do Not Disturb feature and the settings for notification center which are currently not controllable by Siri.


Folders and files are overlapped by menu in Finder I have been a Windows user my whole life and just purchased my very first Apple product ever: a MBP.

I have a question regarding Finder, which may be a bug or simply me who doesn't know how to use it properly.

Anyways, here's the (potential) problem: when I am using Finder in split screen mode sometimes folders and files are overlapped by the upper menu.

Check this out:

As you can see in the image above, some folders are now 'under' the upper menu and I cannot seem to be able to get them back in 'visible' positions.

Can someone advise if this is a bug or it's just me being newbie?

Thanks :)

--- UPDATE

I am on MacOS 10.12.5 - the scroll bar is 'fully scrolled up' already.

I can't drag folders or files - when I release the mouse button, they simply stay in their original position.

The problem occurs in all folder view modes.

--- UPDATE II

I don't have 'none' or 'snap to grid' as options in the 'sort by' dropdown:

Or in the 'arrange by' dropdown:

The 'clean up' entries in the view menu are disabled:

One thing I forgot to mention: the sidebar also gets 'swallowed' by the upper menu:

'Documents', 'Desktop', 'Google Drive', 'Air Drop', etc., are also hidden by the upper menu.

It's most likely a Problem with automatic sorting and cleanup in the Grid Display. Look at the general Info Pages from Apple Support here and here about customizing your Display Settings.

In Short: Right-click (if it is activated) on the Finder Window and change the 'sort by' Option and activate the cleanup. You probably have the Option 'Snap to Grid' activated - try deactivating it.

-- Addendum --

As a second option, try deleting the '.DS_Store'-Files, which store Icon Positions and Images (see further explanation here). If that doesn't help there are a few other possibilities, but let's start with the easiest one

Like all Files starting with a dot [.] these are invisible. You have to use the Terminal.app, found in /Applications/Utilities/ do remove them. Technically, you need only remove the .DS_Store-File in the Folder "Canada" according to your Screenshot.

Open the Terminal and navigate to the Folder, f.e. within 'Documents'

cd /Users/yourusername/Documents/Canada

hit enter, the type

rm .DS_Store

You should close the Folder "Canada" and then reopen it again. The Icon and Sidebar Position should be normal.


What software is best for taking notes fast and keeping in sync between iOS and web? My requirements are very simple- I want notes that I can access quickly and easily via the web (from my Mac or PC) and also via iPhone and iPad.

For iOS, it's critical that I can go from having an idea to typing it out immediately- think the level of speed of the default "Notes" app in iOS app.

A rich text editor would be nice, but not necessary at all.

The iOS built in Notes app would be perfect if I could sync it to Google Docs, but I don't think it can. Google Docs itself is great on Mac/PC, but takes much too long to get started writing a note on iOS devices. I've tried Evernote, which is almost good, but unfortunately I've found that editing notes back and forth between web and iOS usually tends to revert back changes and get other very bad behavior.

Any ideas very welcome. Bells and whistles like rich text, tagging, etc. would be swell but not necessary at all, all I really care is being super fast, and able to sync.

Simplenote has an iOS app and it syncs back to the Web, so can be accessed from the iOS device, and/or your Mac or PC.

http://simplenoteapp.com/

On your Mac, apps like Notational Velocity will also sync. There are apps for PCs well.


Using pinyin with tones to input Chinese characters I'm a Chinese learner and know from my teacher that there is software (for Windows), which lets you strictly input withtype in pinyin with tones. E.g.  hao3 becomes 好. The Mac OS shipped Chinese input does have pinyin input, but no tone selection, hence you input hao to get 好 (no tone mark). I wonder if there is any way for me to use a pinyin input with tones for Mac OS or on my ipad.

Making the user input a tone used to be the default in OS X, but not since at least OS X 10.8. Now it continues to guess your characters as you keep typing, and since it's pretty good at guessing, I guess tone selection was deemed an unnecessary step.

There may be some way you can fiddle with com.apple.inputmethod.SCIM.plist or com.apple.inputmethod.TCIM.plist to bring the old behavior back, but at least in the preferences menu that option is no longer available.

One thing you can do: after typing the "untoned" pinyin for a character, cycle through the four tones by hitting Tab (it's Option + Tab in Traditional Chinese). This will limit the list of suggestions to one particular tone at a time (it also displays a diacritical mark over your pinyin as a visual indicator of which tone you're on).


What happens when you paste an app into TextEdit? In the past, I have pasted apps into TextEdit, which would show something like the following. I always thought that this was a convenient way to store app icons (as .icns files), in case I ever wanted to back a list of my apps up (just the names/icons, not the apps themselves) to manually download and install later.
I recently tried pasting about 20 apps into a TextEdit document, and the document turned out to be about 3GB large. This definitely is much larger than the .icns files for 20 apps. What exactly is stored in this TextEdit document?

When pasting an application into TextEdit as an RTF document and saved as Rich Text Document with Attachments it creates a Rich Text document bundle, e.g. Untitled.rtfd and will contain a copy of the application pasted into the document.
The more apps you paste into the document the larger it will be.
You can check the contents of the e.g. Untitled.rtfd document bundle by selecting it in Finder and right-click then select Show Package Contents.
There you will see a copy of each application bundle you've pasted into the Rich Text Document that was saved as Rich Text Document with Attachments.


RSS app: How to get approval for App Store? I submitted a RSS reader app, but it just got rejected from the App Store, with this cited:

8.5: Apps may not use protected third party material such as trademarks, copyrights, patents or violate 3rd party terms of use. Authorization to use such material must be provided upon request

We found that your app contains features that may infringe on rights owned by various news and media outlets.

Specifically, we found that your app provides users with a news feed generated from them.

Please provide documentary evidence of your rights to use this content.

Acceptable documentation includes a copy of your contract with the copyright holder or a detailed authorization letter from the copyright holder to your company. Please make sure the documentation you provide specifies the rights for commercial use as the App Store is considered a commercial environment, even if you choose to offer your app for free.

I'm wondering how all of the other many many RSS reader apps got approved, so that I can figure out what to do to get mine approved too.

My app just generates a feed based on interests you select.  And that feed pulls from RSS.

Would greatly appreciate any help at all, thanks!!

What Apple are saying is that the content your App would be pulling through is the property of the news / media outlets who produce it. As to not infringe on their copyright, you need to get approval from these news outlets that you can then show Apple to get your app approved.

Getting the news outlets to agree might depend largely on how you pose it to them, you want them to perceive being included in your app as beneficial to them. I don't know how the app is structured but maybe if you pull through teaser content for example and have links through to more content then that's where you can present a benefit to the news outlets. You need to contact someone in upper management in the first instance, someone who has the authority to authorise your use of the content, and maybe pitch it to them as follows:

Hi _________

My name is __________, I'm the head of ________ Software. I'm contacting you because of your role at ____________. My company has recently produced an app that aggregates news stories and provides links through to the media outlets who produced them, we're now looking for strategic relationships we can develop with key content producers to ensure our service always has the best array of content. We don't intend charging news outlets for displaying their content as we plan to monetize the app through other means, which means this service provides free promotion  of your content. I believe that your organisation might be a really good fit for this service and was hoping we could have a phone conversation to discuss the matter further.

Please let me know when would be a good time for me to give you a call and I look forward to telling you more about our application.

Regards,

Hopefully that gets you started...


Does the new .HEIC photo image format include Apples advance photo features ie Live Photo? Was the .heic file format created to address the advance features supported by Apple that is not supported by traditional .jpg files:

Live Photos;
Depth Map information;
Filters used;
Lighting modes;
Other post edit information that can be rolled back, such as Cropping.

If so, this would be a great wrapper format to handle all advanced features and support portability between devices.

Digging into my Photos library on my Mac, It doesn't seem so.

I have a live photo taken on my iPad Pro 10.5, which when I dive down into the Masters folder to find, it is saved as a .heic, but only seems to be a still image.

When I go across into the resources/media/master folder, and tracked down all files with the same creation date, I found a matching mov file, just the way Live Photos were previously saved as jpg/mov pairs.

I popped the mov into MediaInfo, it is in hevc, and weighs in at 2.55MB, while the heic is 1.3MB, so it looks like Apple is not packing them together in a single file, at least not yet. Perhaps they plan to do so in the future, but not until there is wider adoption of the HEIF format, or more products out there with HEVC hardware support...? Anyone's guess at this point.


Possible to get 1440p from a 2012 Mac Mini via mini DP -> HDMI adapter? I recently purchased a 2012 Mac Mini and am attempting to max out my dual monitor setup.

Currently, I connect my Mac to a Dell S2417DG's HDMI 1.4 in via this passive mini DP to HDMI 1.4 cable. According to the specifications, 1440p should be possible, yet macOS only offers a 1080p maximum in System Preferences > Displays.

After some exploration, I found and applied this patch, which made a 2560 x 1440 resolution available in Displays. Enabling this resolution, however, doesn't work, and the monitor indicates that there is no longer an input signal. I have also tried setting up 1440p via SwitchResX and verified that all timings are correct according to the monitor manual, but when I apply the custom resolution, the display stays in 1080p mode.

Is it possible to achieve 1440p via mDP -> HDMI on a 2012 Mac Mini?

I am running High Sierra (10.13.3).

I am aware that a working solution would be to use mDP -> DisplayPort, but my gaming PC takes up the DP slot for 1440p@165hz.

As I suspected and as Allan suggested in the comments, I needed an active adapter. This cable, which is the active version of the passive cable I originally purchased, did the trick; I now have 1440p via mDP -> HDMI.


Why can't I disable my iPhone's (iOS 5) new mail sound? I have an iPhone 4 running iOS 5.

In the last month or so, it has developed an annoying habit. When a new mail arrives it makes a "boing" sound and a vibrate.

It does this, even though the New Mail sound setting in Settings is switched to None. It does this, even when all sounds are switched off, via the mute button!

It is very annoying! Does anyone else see this bug, and does anyone have a suggestion (short of a clean install) to fix it?

I had this problem. It was caused by the Gmail app. If you have it installed, go to your phones Settings and find the Gmail app in the list. Turn off Sounds and that should fix your problem.


Why isn't iPhoto '11 showing an event present in the library? I'm having a problem where the last imported photos to my iPhoto '11 (version 9.1.5 (615)) library don't show up under the "Events" entry. The event shows up under "Last import" and under "Photos", but not under "Events". I have tried to re-create the event several times, without luck. There are several events created from the last two photo imports that aren't showing under "Events".

What can I do to fix this problem? Is there a way to reset iPhoto's "Event" index somehow so it can be rebuilt?

Seems like the problem only was that I had managed to sort the events "manually" (View > Sort Events > Manually) which hid the newly created events in-between my rather large amount of existing events. Sorting by date (View > Sort Events > By Date + Descending) shows my new events first in the list as they should.


How to get my keyboard backlight back after Mountain Lion upgrade? I have a non-Unibody MacBook Pro running 10.8.2. After I installed Mountain Lion, the keyboard backlight does not light up any more. Is it a connection with the new OS, or is it a defect of my Mac?

You're not alone, expect an OS X update to address this very soon, until then others have had success by disabling the auto dim in low light feature.

System Preferences > Keyboard > uncheck "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light".


Cannot delete/erase APFS volume I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) running Mac OS Mojave. When I boot it up, it shows a grey screen with a question mark on a folder.
I have figured out that the issue is with the internal SSD as I can boot from a USB installer with Mojave just fine. I can see the internal disk with diskutil and also see /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/ from the terminal. I was able to recover the few files this way that I hadn't backed up earlier. However this was too slow as even an ls command on the Macintosh HD Volume takes a couple of minutes to execute and the system.log in /var/log shows loads of error messages of this type: Kernel[0]: disk1: I/O error. But, I managed to get the files I needed.
Now I want to wipe the SSD or atleast erase the data from the /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/, but I am not able to do that. I tried Disk Utility but it just hangs every time I open it and running diskutil from the terminal on always ends up with some error. I have tried verifyVolume, repairVolume, eraseVolume, deleteVolume, deleteContainer and eraseDisk with diskutil but they all end with an error which looks something like this: Error: -69877: Couldn't open device or similar to this.
I found this answer here to delete the APFS partition using a bootable USB with Linux Mint. This ended with an error message too saying Input/output error.
Is there any way I can wipe the SSD clean?
The disk and the volume are not encrypted and I have also tried resetting NVRAM, PRAM and SMC but none of that helped. Booting up into Recovery Mode doesn't help either. It shows a spinning globe but there is no progress bar, and nothing happens.

You can try :
diskutil zerodisk force diskX

Where diskX is to be replaced by the internal SSD indentifier.
But given the previous errors, I doubt the effectiveness.
The best solution is to remove this SSD by following this link: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2015+SSD+Replacement/48251


Can’t restore Time Machine back up - an error occurred while adding recovery system to destination disk Just upgraded my 2012(mid) non-retina  13” MacBook Pro with a crucial
sad 1tb and having troubles restoring back up from Time machine. I’m
sure it’s important to mention I installed a new data cable as well.
The steps I used were: In the recovery mode, I erase the hard drive
in the disk utilities section and then go to back up from time
machine. I go through all the steps to select the time machine and
back up version. It seems to start the back up for a few moments but
then I get an error:
“An error occurred while adding a recovery system to the destination
disk. Restart your computer, and then try restoring again.”
I’ve gone throug a couple of cycles of this, consulting you tube each
time to see if I’m missing something or if trying a couple of
different steps in the disk utility menu helps.  My backup is
encrypted and I did not select the Mac Extended + Journaled
(encrypted) format just the Mac Extended + Journaled format.
I’m lost and don’t know what to do and what to try to resolve this.

Try this·
Go to the Internet Recovery, erase the drive in Journaled format, and then restore.
I suspect, in your case, erasing the drive from Recovery is not the correct approach.


AirPrint and Apple Configurator I have a small office setup where I control certain functionality of a set of iPads. One of the things I need to do is to be able to allow a set of iPads to AirPrint, while keeping others from doing the same. Is there a way through either the Apple Configurator, or the iPhone Configuration Utility, to disable AirPrint by device?

What I ended up doing was to implement Printopia Pro, which incorporates user groups. This has the effect of locking down the printers except for the users who need access. If you own Printopia, you can get $20 off on an upgrade to Pro. If you need permission-based printing like I do, I'd recommend doing so.


Applescript to get track number of song from multi-cd album in iTunes? I have an Applescript that reports the currently playing song name, album, song number, and total number of songs on the album. If the album comes from a single CD or if the song comes from CD 1 of a multi-CD album, everything works, and I get the following:

Song 2 of 30

However, if the album comes from a multi-CD set, then the song number is incorrect for songs from CD 2, CD 3, etc. Here's an example: L'Elisir d'Amore has two CDs, and in iTunes, it is entered as such (e.g., CD 1 of 2 and CD 2 of 2). The script correctly reports there are 30 songs (16 on CD 1 and 14 on CD 2). When playing a song from CD 1, everything is accurate. When playing a song from CD 2, the song number begins again at 1, so the very last song appears as

Song 14 of 30

because it is the 14th song on CD 2. Is there a way to get the script to display Song 30 of 30 for the last song on CD 2 without some kludge of figuring out the number of CDs, then counting up the songs in CD 1 and then adding to the track number of the song in CD 2? This kludge gets quite ugly for albums spanning as many as 14 CDs.

Here's the simplified bit of code:

tell application "iTunes"
    -- code to check that there is a current song
    set z_album to album of current track as string
    set z_num to count of (every track whose album is z_album)
    set z_song to name of current track as string
    set z_trk to track number of current track
    log z_song & " (" & z_trk & " of  " & z_num & ")"
end tell

Personally I do not have much of a need, if any, to automate iTunes with AppleScript. In the past I've found iTunes to be one of the more difficult apps to automate. Nonetheless, I took a look at your code, the AppleScript Dictionary for iTunes, a few web searches that basically yielded nothing noteworthy, and some failed programmatic attempts to easily get a list of discs and track count for each disc of an album.

I'll assume the kludge context in your question is because there is no easy direct way to programmatically ask an album for its disc count and track count per disc to do the math with, in a straight forward manner. So with that... here's my kludge, which was tested and works as desired on my iTunes Library:

tell application "iTunes"
    try

        set theCurrentTrackProperties to (properties of current track)

        if (disc number in theCurrentTrackProperties) is not greater than 1 then

            set theSongName to (name in theCurrentTrackProperties)
            set theTrackNumber to (track number in theCurrentTrackProperties)
            set theTrackCount to (track count in theCurrentTrackProperties)

            log theSongName & " (" & theTrackNumber & " of " & theTrackCount & ")"

        else

            set theSongName to (name in theCurrentTrackProperties)
            set theTrackNumber to (track number in theCurrentTrackProperties)
            set theTrackCount to (count of (every track whose album = (album in theCurrentTrackProperties)))

            set theDiscNumber to (disc number in theCurrentTrackProperties)
            set theAlbumsTracksProperties to (properties of every track whose album = (album in theCurrentTrackProperties))

            set theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo to ""
            repeat with i from 1 to (count of theAlbumsTracksProperties)
                tell item i in theAlbumsTracksProperties
                    set theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo to (theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo & disc number & space & track count & linefeed)
                end tell
            end repeat
            tell current application
                set theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo to (do shell script "sort -n -k1 -u <<<" & quoted form of theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo & " | sed '/^$/d'")
                set theTracksPerDiscCount to ""
                repeat with i from 1 to (theDiscNumber - 1)
                    set theTracksPerDiscCount to (theTracksPerDiscCount + (word 2 of paragraph i in theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo))
                end repeat
                set theTrackNumber to (theTrackNumber + theTracksPerDiscCount)
            end tell

            log theSongName & " (" & theTrackNumber & " of " & theTrackCount & ")"

        end if

    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon caution
        return
    end try
end tell

The example AppleScript code, shown above, does the following:

Sets the properties of the current track to the variable theCurrentTrackProperties.
Checks to see if the value of the disc number property in the variable, theCurrentTrackProperties, is not greater than 1.
If the value of the disc number property is not greater than 1, it's straight forward processing and logs the desired information.
If the value of the disc number property is greater than 1, then the else branch preforms the kludge to do the math, and logs the desired information.

What the kludge does:

Sets some additional initial variables.

One for the value of the disc number property of the current track,theDiscNumber, is used to determine how many discs the track count is needed for.
Another to hold the properties of every track of every disc in the album, theAlbumsTracksProperties.

The value of the variable, theAlbumsTracksProperties, is processed in a repeat loop to which the output of is held in the variable theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo.

The variable theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo, is a list of the disc number and track count from every track in the album.

This list is then processed to remove all duplicate info, so as to have a singular entry for the track count of each disc number in the album.

The do shell script command uses sort and sed to process the list, the value of the variable theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo.

sort -n -k1 -u <<<

-n compare according to string numerical value
-k1 start a key at POS1
-u without -c, output only the first of an equal run
<<< directs input from the command line, not a file

theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo the list as command line input directed to sort
| sed '/^$/d'

| pipe the output of the sort command to sed
sed '/^$/d' delete blank lines
Because the value of the variable theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo is a concatenation with a linefeed at the end of each repeat loop, it becomes the first line of output from the sort command and is removed with sed, so as not to have to account for the leading blank line later in the script. If it was left as a part of value of the variable theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo, that's (re)set by the return of the do shell script command, then word 2 of paragraph i would have to be word 2 of paragraph (i + 1) in order to skip the leading blank line. So it makes more sense to remove it before it ends up as part of the final value of the variable theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo.

With the variable, theAlbumsDiscNumberTrackCountInfo, now only containing a list of disk number with its corresponding track count, one line for each disc in the album, it's now easy to do the math, whether the album contains 2 discs or as many as 14 discs, or more.
The remaining AppleScript code, which includes another repeat loop, preforms the math necessary to add up the track count of each disc number preceding the disc number the current track is from, and adds them together, and then logs the desired information.

That said, if anyone knows an easy direct way to programmatically ask an album for its disc count and track count per disc to do the math with, in a straight forward manner to avoid a kludge, please post an answer.


Boot MacBook to Linux/Windows from TimeCapsule. I love to run different OSs in my 13" Retina MacBookPro. If I can install Windows/Linux/OSX on the Apple TimeCapsule and can Boot them over network wirelessly It will be awesome. If its possible please let me know how to do that. I will go and get one TimeCapsule.

If https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3816843?start=0&tstart=0 is the solution, Please elaborate it.

Apple TimeCapsule doesn't offer netboot/netinstall services. None of the essential requirements for such services like NFS (Linux/OS X), http(s) (OS X) or tftp (Linux/Windows) run on the Time Capsule.

You need Mac OS X Server, a NAS/Linux server or a Windows Server (I think some pimped Windows Client OSs will do it also) to accomplish this.


Messages will not login; just sits and spins Whenever I open Messages, enter my credentials, and attempt to login the status indicator spins forever and the application never authenticates me and loads.

I had this issue on Mavericks and still have it on Yosemite. I tried removing the frameworks for Messages/iMessage in OS X and even reinstalled the OS from the recovery partition, but nothing works.

Has anyone else had the same issue and any luck with resolving it? Thanks for your time!

My logic board was recently replaced in this Macbook and the vendor never serialized the newly installed logic board. I discovered this by going to "About This Mac" and seeing the serial number being reported as "Unknown".

The vendor corrected this actually applying a serial number to the logic board, which required specialized software that they had to boot off of from a DVD.

Once the serial number was applied then Messages worked just fine.


Prevent OSX from auto-detecting and deleting dates in iCal, Reminders I use iCal's month view, so when creating an event I put it as all-day and put the event time in the title, like so: "3:30 meeting with Steve", "9am-10am TYO-NYC flight" (if you find it unusual, I'm not the only one doing this, and this style has benefits such as when dealing with time zones). iCal promptly removes the time from the title and changes the event from all-day to the new time, so I have to edit it again.

Same thing with Reminders application. Even more annoyingly, if you put a link containing a date (eg. http://www.tofugu.com/2013/06/04/how-to-write-letters-in-japanese-an-introduction/), it will convert this to a "remind me on this day" date as well.

It looks like it cannot be turned off anywhere in Preferences, but maybe there is a setting accessible from the command line?

(So far I found only one suggestion online, and it was to type the date twice - iCal will remove one date, but keep the other. While this works, it's annoying and you still need to change the even back to "all-day" and I hope there's a better way.)

I'm running Maverick with all the latest updates.

Since data detectors are handled by Mail & not iCal itself you may turn this feature of with the following command entered in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors YES

To revert this behaviour:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors NO

Please note that any time detection features of Mail are turned of as well.


Group processes by apps in Activity Monitor under Memory tab I am using OSX 10.10.5 with activity monitor 10.10.0. Mac newbie.

In the memory tab, all the processes under chrome is scattered. I just want to know to how much of the resource is used by chrome all together. Is there a better app that will do it?

Basically, I want to see the resources used by all the apps that I using (seen on the side dock) grouped under the name of the apps.

I know this is old, but this feature does exist:
Go to Activity Monitor, click "View" (at the top) and select "All Processes, Hierarchically".

Hope this helps someone!


Maximum number of pages on iPad, and maximum apps in a folder? For some reason, after I installed many apps (because a company made them free Apr 27 to 29), and then, the icons don't appear at all, and there was no warning.

And I started to wonder, are there maximum number of pages?  And so I created some folders and put existing apps in them, and the other apps magically appeared. (I forgot if I restarted iPad in order to see them).

And there seems to be maximum 20 apps per folder.

I just wonder why there was no warning whatsoever given iPad and Apple products are usually very well designed and user friendly. Are there official pages that describe this situation?

There is a maximum of 11 pages of apps on your iPad.  Those that don't show up can be launched by swiping all the way left to the iPad spotlight, and searching for the app title.  As for maximum number of apps in a folder, I was able to fit 20 (as you mentioned).

I was not able to find any official documentation regarding this matter.


iTunes movie classification I have a few .mp4 files that I have added to iTunes.
Some are classified as Home Movies and other are My Movies.
I was wondering if there is any way to change this maybe by converting to a certain file type. I was also wondering how does iTunes determine this.

In iTunes, Get Info on the specific video. From the Options tab, select Media Kind and change it to Movie or the appropriate format.

iTunes selects the Media Kind based on any metadata it can parse from the file. Lacking anything for .mp4 files, it defaults them to Home Video.

If you have movies ripped from DVD and want to add metadata, take a look at MetaZ. (It's the replacement for the old MetaX when that stopped being updated and functionality broke.) iTunes properly reads the metadata that MetaZ embeds. You will want to remove the files from iTunes, process with MetaZ and then re-import them into iTunes.


Is there some way to make Mailbox for Mac access my Mac "Contacts" for recipients? I'm using the Mailbox for Mac app. (It's the latest version, which is 0.4.0 at the time I'm posting this.)

When I type names into the recipients field, it shows me some names (I assume they're names in my gmail contacts, but I'm not sure).

But it doesn't show me names in my contacts. I think it used to, but I know other clients I've used have offered me both the contacts taht gmail's servers have for my account AND the contacts on my Mac. So...

Is there some setting or trick to get Mailbox to access my Mac contacts?

According to the Mailbox website:

On the desktop, contacts are currently populated from emails that are synced with Mailbox. We don't have a way to import your contacts from your email accounts at this time.
We're planning multiple contact improvements down the road, including full contact integration in the future.

On a side note, you know about the ban on questions for software not publicly released, but you didn't search the relevant website for assistance before posting? Tsk, tsk. ;)


How can I match the text color and background color in Terminal? I use emacs/org-mode which uses color for hiding some of the headlines as is shown here.

This works well with Aquamcas, but when I run emacs in text mode, I still see the stars in the headline as I didn't make the background color exactly the same as the color of the font.

How can I match the text color and background color in Terminal?

Open a terminal window and type some of the text whose color you want to set the background the same as.  Then open Terminal preferences.

Click the Window tab and then the Background Color.  This brings up a color picker window.  Click the magnifying glass in the upper left and move it over the text you want to match the color with.  When you click on the text this will set the color you want.  You could also set it directly in the RGB slider panel shown in the 2nd image which matches the text color from your image in the question.


ln -s symbolic link command error I tried to use the ln -s command to create a symbolic link to offload storage onto a separate volume and get the following error:

ln -s/Volumes/NONAME/POP-emailaccount@provider.net/ ~/Library/Mail/V2/POP-emailacount@provider.net
ln: illegal option -- /
usage: ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file [target_file]
       ln [-Ffhinsv] source_file ... target_dir
       link source_file target_file

Can't interpret what was illegal about what I did. Can anyone walk me through it.

You need to separate the arguments on the command line. Try

ln -s /Volumes/NONAME/POP-emailaccount@provider.net/ ~/Library/Mail/V2/POP-emailacount@provider.net

(note the space character after -s)


Mail.app won't launch Skim in Mountain Lion I have been using Skim for a while as my standard PDF reader. After migrating to a new MacBook Air with Mountain Lion (currently running 10.8.2), I can no longer launch Skim from Mail.app.

This same issue was reported to the Skim community ( http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3557462&group_id=192583&atid=941981 ) and closed as invalid, as it was considered a problem with Mail.app, not Skim.

Does anyone know how to get this to work again?

I experience the same problem. I upgraded to OS X mountain Lion and I can confirm that opening .pdf attachments with skim fails when done directly from Mail.

The only workaround I know is to first save the .pdf somewhere (for instance the Desktop folder) and then skim works normally again.


Is it possible to update iPhone4  to a provider-neutral OS so WiFi hotspot can be enabled? I want to use an original (non jailbroken) iPhone4 to access the internet with an iPad.

This should is possible using the Personal wifi hotspot included in iOS 4.3 as mentioned in Can I use tethering to share my iPhone's connection with my iPad?, however some providers (such as the Dutch T-mobile) have removed this feature in a localised version of the OS.

Is there a (legitimate) way to update to a "generic" iOS so I can use the Personal Hotspot to tether my iPad or is there another (legitimate) way to not have to get the 3G iPad and an extra sim card.

Please note I am in Europe, i.e. not on AT&T or Verizon

It is not a carrier localized version of the OS that is installed on the iPhone. There is one iOS release image for each hardware model. What changes for each mobile network is the carrier settings, which is downloaded either OTA (iOS4+) or by iTunes when the phone is activated or connected and an update is available.

If you have the released from any carrier lock then if you move to another mobile provider supporting the tethering feature then their carrier settings will enable the preference.


Time Machine menu bar Icon Location I'm trying to find the Time Machine menu bar icon resource so I can change how it looks a bit. Where is that icon? In Time Machine's package contents > resources, all I see is backup.icns (the Finder icon), menu.plist, and 33 .lproj folders for different languages. In the English folder is a single file called Menu.strings.

The Time Machine menu bar item is located at:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/TimeMachine.menu/

The menu bar item uses four PDFs for the four different icon states, in Contents/Resources/:

Above icons from OS X 10.10 Yosemite DP2


iOS 10, Messages has bifurcated chat history with my wife I can't figure out what's going on here, but my wife appears twice in Messages on my phone (iPhone SE, iOS 10.3.1) and I appear twice in her Messages on her phone (iPhone SE, iOS 9.3.4).  There are two distinct chats with each of us, but there is only 1 contact for either of us on our phones (in the Contacts app).

I can't see any pattern to the chats either, There are messages between us that were sent with our iPhones, Macs, and iPads in both chats.  I can't see anything that clearly displays why either would be used at any particular time.  There's no pattern that I can discern.

This is also causing problems with chat history being properly recorded on our Macs.  Only 1 of these chats appears in Messages on our Macs, so there is a big gap of missing messages when we communicate using macOS.

So I suppose this is a 2-part question:

How did this happen?
How can we merge these two chats into one so that we don't lose any chat history but going forward will have only a single chat between us across all Apple devices?

EDIT:  To make matters even stranger - in further testing I sent a message from my iMac to my actual mobile phone number (rather than email address) in Messages.  The "send" side of the message (in Blue) went to one chat in my phone, the "receive" side (in grey) went to the other!  Both use the identical contact on my phone.  I just don't get this at all.

EDIT 2:  I'm fairly convinced at this point that somehow, this is related.  Every time I send myself a message from either my iMac or MBP, by selecting my email address (and NOT my phone number), after I send it if I click on my name in Messages, it is set to my phone number again.  I've no idea why, but Messages seemingly simply will not allow me to send messages via my email address any more.

EDIT 3:  More weirdness.  When my wife sends me a message, it goes to one of the two chats on my phone.  When I reply from my Mac, the reply comes from the other chat on my phone.  Even though both chats appear to come from the same contact (mine) and send to the same contact (hers).

This type of behavior is usually caused by Messages between phone numbers and iCloud ID's (typically your iCloud email address). You can click the target user for a message at the top of the thread (macOS) and it will show which address it was exchanged with (phone or email). On iOS, tap the circle with the username or photo at the top of the thread and the "recent" tag will be on the address used for those messages. See if the two threads are different.

Also make sure your Mac is enabled to send and receive messages from your phone numbers on both Macs. This is not the default for the Mac, though it is for the iOS devices.


PowerPoint's save as PDF in AppleScript results in print job I have a small AppleScript to save a PowerPoint pptx file as PDF from command line. I use the script every 6 months, and last autumn it still worked. But today I run into problems. I updated to 10.14 in the meantime, and I guess there were also quite some Office for Mac updates. But as I have no clue about where this problem is coming from, these can also be completely irrelevant information.

The problem with the script is: When calling the script, it doesn't save a PDF, but sends the file to the default printer.

Here is the already updated, but still not working script:

on run arguments
    tell application "Finder"
        set src to POSIX file (first item of arguments) as alias
        set dest to (second item of arguments) as text

        open src
        delay 10

        tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
            save in dest as save as PDF
            close
        end tell
    end tell
end run

As there is not much code, and as the script did work before, I have no idea on what is wrong with it now.

@MaxWyss's comment brought me to look at the script from command line. I executed the few steps as arguments via osascript:

$ osascript -e 'tell application "Finder"' -e 'set fileAlias to POSIX file ("file:///Users/me/folder/file.pptx") as alias' -e 'set theOutputPath to ("file:///Users/me/folder/test.pdf") as text' -e 'open fileAlias' -e 'delay 10' -e 'tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"' -e 'save in theOutputPath as save as PDF' -e 'end tell' -e 'end tell'
281:320: execution error: Microsoft PowerPoint got an error: Parameter error. (-50)

I'm a little surprised about the error message, so I tried to run the script again:

$ osascript pptx2pdf.scpt file:///Users/me/folder/file.pptx test.pdf
pptx2pdf.scpt: execution error: Microsoft PowerPoint got an error: Parameter error. (-50)

I don't know why I overlooked this error. I guess it is due to the many things I changed in the script. However, this is the error message, which, unfortunately, still leaves me without a clue, as the slides still get sent to the printer queue.

It took me a few hours to come up with a solution that works in my environment.
Please note that some elements need internationalization like "Vorschau" or "Sichern". This is a german solution working with PowerPoint for Mac 16.16.27 on macOS HighSierra 10.13.6.
I had to heavily debug things with Script Debugger ($99 well spent ..) to get things working. Please note how Preview is used for the actual PDF saving. I tried doing this from Powerpoint but it was unreliable.
-- 2018-01-31
-- https://github.com/irmowan/Convert-ppt-to-pdf/blob/master/Convert-ppt-to-pdf.applescript
-- modified by WF 2020-11-15
--
-- ppt2Pdf({"/Users/wf/Projekte/2020/Infrastruktur2020/ppt2pdf", "TestMe.pptx"})

--http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050523140439734
-- passing command line arguments to applescript
on run (argv)
    log (count (argv))
    if ((count of argv) < 2) then
        log "usage: ppt2pdf basepath [filenames]"
    else
        my ppt2Pdf(argv)
    end if
end run

--
-- convert powerpoint to pdf on the given list of files
--
on ppt2Pdf(fileNames)
    log "launching Powerpoint ..."
    set pp to "Microsoft PowerPoint"
    tell application pp -- work on version 15.15 or newer
        launch
        set isfirst to true
        repeat with fileName in fileNames
            if isfirst then
                set basepath to fileName
                log "base path is " & basepath
                set isfirst to false
            else
                if fileName ends with ".ppt" or fileName ends with ".pptx" or fileName ends with ".pptm" then
                    set filePath to basepath & "/" & fileName
                    -- set filePath to POSIX path of fileAlias
                    set pdfPath to my makeNewPath(filePath)
                    log "trying to convert powerpoint file " & filePath & " to " & pdfPath
                    open filePath

                    -- save active presentation in pdfPath as save as PDF
                    -- save in same folder
                    -- https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=26342
                    --tell application "System Events"
                    --  set listOfProcesses to (name of every process where background only is false)
                    --  tell me to set selectedProcesses to choose from list listOfProcesses with multiple selections allowed
                    --end tell
                    --repeat with processName in selectedProcesses
                    --  log processName
                    --end repeat

                    if not my chooseMenuItem(pp, "Datei", "Drucken...") then
                        error number -128
                    end if

                    --my showUiElements(pp, "menu button")
                    -- my waitFor(button whose description is "PDF", 5, 0.5)
                    my choosePopUp(pp, "Layout für den Druck", "Notizen")
                    my choosePopUp(pp, "Farbausgabeformat", "Farbe")
                    --my chooseMenuButtonItem(pp, "PDF", "Als PDF sichern")
                    local myTitle
                    tell application "System Events"
                        -- the magic of Applescript
                        -- if you really want the title and not a reference to it you need to use an operator
                        -- http://books.gigatux.nl/mirror/applescriptdefinitiveguide/applescpttdg2-CHP-12-SECT-5.html
                        set myTitle to title of window 1 of process pp & ""
                    end tell
                    my chooseMenuButtonItem(pp, "PDF", "In Vorschau öffnen")
                    delay 5
                    tell application "System Events"
                        log "waiting for Vorschau to display " & myTitle
                        set timeLeft to my waitForAppearWindow(myTitle, process "Vorschau", 30, 0.5)
                        if timeLeft < 0 then
                            log "Vorschau " & myTitle & " window didn't show up after 30 secs"
                            error number -128
                        else
                            log "Vorschau appeared with " & timeLeft & "secs left"
                            tell process "Vorschau"
                                delay 0.2
                                click menu item "Als PDF exportieren …" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Ablage" of menu bar 1
                                delay 0.5
                                -- CMD-SHIFT-G to set the export director
                                -- https://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/keycodes.php
                                keystroke "g" using {command down, shift down}
                                delay 0.2

                                tell sheet 1 of window (myTitle)
                                    tell sheet 1
                                        -- dereference basePath
                                        local basePathStr
                                        set basePathStr to basepath & ""
                                        set value of first combo box to basePathStr
                                        delay 0.2
                                        click button "Öffnen"
                                        delay 0.2
                                    end tell
                                    click button "Sichern"
                                    set timeLeft to my waitForAppear(sheet 1, 3, 0.2)
                                    tell sheet 1
                                        if timeLeft > 0 then
                                            click button "Ersetzen"
                                        end if
                                    end tell
                                    delay 5
                                    keystroke "q" using {command down}
                                end tell

                            end tell
                        end if
                    end tell

                    --tell application "System Events"
                    --  set timeLeft to my waitForAppear("button", button "Sichern" of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 of process pp, 5, 0.5)
                    --  if timeLeft < 0 then
                    --      log "Sichern button didn't show up after 5 secs"
                    --      error number -128
                    --  end if
                    --  click button "Sichern" of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 of process pp
                    --end tell

                    --tell application "System Events"
                    --  delay 0.5
                    --  try
                    --      set timeLeft to my waitForAppear("button", button "Ersetzen" of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 of process pp, 5, 0.5)
                    --      if timeLeft < 0 then
                    --          log "Ersetzen button didn't show up after 5 secs"
                    --          error number -128
                    --      end if
                    --      click button "Ersetzen" of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 of process pp
                    --  end try
                    --end tell
                    log "done ..."
                    -- close filePath
                end if
            end if
        end repeat
        -- still in tell powerpoint context
        --tell application "System Events"
        --  delay 0.5
        --  try
        --      set timeLeft to my waitForVanish("window", window "Sichern" of process pp, 60, 1)
        --      if timeLeft < 0 then
        --          log "print dialog didn't vanish after 60 secs"
        --          error number -128
        --      end if
        --  end try
        --end tell
        quit
    end tell
end ppt2Pdf

on showElement(uiElem)
    local className
    set className to class of uiElem as string
    log (((«class pDSC» of uiElem as string) & "=" & value of uiElem as string) & "(" & className) & ")"
end showElement

--
-- show all UI elements
--
on showUiElements(appName, filterClassName)
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process appName
            tell (1st window whose value of attribute "AXMain" is true)
                repeat with uiElem in entire contents of it as list
                    try
                        local className
                        set className to class of uiElem as string
                        if filterClassName is missing value or className is filterClasssname then
                            log (((description of uiElem as string) & "=" & value of uiElem as string) & "(" & className) & ")"
                        end if
                    end try
                end repeat
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end showUiElements

--
-- wait for the given element to appear
--
on waitForAppearWindow(elementName, parentElement, time, slice)
    set timeLeft to time
    set appeared to false
    repeat until (appeared) or timeLeft ≤ 0
        try
            set appeared to window elementName of parentElement exists
        end try
        delay slice
        log "."
        set timeLeft to timeLeft - slice
    end repeat
    log timeLeft
    return timeLeft
end waitForAppearWindow

--
-- wait for the given element to appear
--
on waitForAppear(element, time, slice)
    set timeLeft to time
    set appeared to false
    repeat until (appeared) or timeLeft ≤ 0
        try
            set appeared to element exists
        end try
        delay slice
        log "."
        set timeLeft to timeLeft - slice
    end repeat
    log timeLeft
    return timeLeft
end waitForAppear

---
--- wait for the given element to vanish
---
on waitForVanish(element, time, slice)
    set timeLeft to time
    try
        repeat while (exists element) and timeLeft > 0
            delay slice
            log "."
            set timeLeft to timeLeft - slice
        end repeat
    end try
    log timeLeft
    return timeLeft
end waitForVanish

on chooseMenuButtonItem(appName, buttonName, itemName)
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process appName
            tell window 1
                local win1
                set win1 to it
                tell sheet 1
                    log "choosing " & itemName & " of menu button " & buttonName
                    tell menu button buttonName
                        click
                        delay 0.1
                        tell menu 1
                            click menu item itemName
                        end tell
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end chooseMenuButtonItem
--
-- choose a popup
--
on choosePopUp(appName, buttonName, itemName)
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process appName
            tell window 1
                tell sheet 1
                    log "choosing " & itemName & " of pop up menu " & buttonName
                    --repeat with pbutton in pop up buttons
                    --  local pbutton1
                    --  set pbutton1 to pbutton
                    --  log description of pbutton & "=" & value of pbutton
                    --end repeat
                    tell (1st pop up button whose description is buttonName)
                        click it
                        delay 0.5
                        pick menu item itemName of menu 1
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end choosePopUp

--
-- https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/
-- LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/MacAutomationScriptingGuide
-- AutomatetheUserInterface.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40016239-CH69-SW17
--
on chooseMenuItem(theAppName, theMenuName, theMenuItemName)
    try
        -- Bring the target app to the front
        tell application theAppName
            activate
        end tell

        -- Target the app
        tell application "System Events"
            tell process theAppName

                -- Target the menu bar
                tell menu bar 1

                    -- Target the menu by name
                    tell menu bar item theMenuName
                        tell menu theMenuName

                            -- Click the menu item
                            log "clicking " & theMenuItemName
                            click menu item theMenuItemName
                        end tell
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
        return true
    on error
        return false
    end try
end chooseMenuItem

on makeNewPath(f)
    set t to f as string
    if t ends with ".pptx" or t ends with ".pptm" then
        return (text 1 thru -5 of t) & "pdf"
    else
        return (text 1 thru -4 of t) & "pdf"
    end if
end makeNewPath


Why doesn't my wireless mouse connect automatically? Every time I want to use my wireless mouse (Apple Magic Mouse) with my Macbook Pro, I need to plug in a USB mouse and "Connect" the mouse manually via the bluetooth menubar widget. Is there anything I can do to make this happen automatically?

If you've paired it before, clicking the mouse after turning it on should do it.


WiFi issue brand new 16" MBP - self-assigned IP address Brand new 16" MacBook Pro with a highly frustrating issue. Only one potential fix but only works temporarily. Any help is much appreciated.

-
Details
I just received a 16" MBP today, and set it up from Migration Assistant as I've done with many Macs successfully over the years. However, it wouldn't connect to WiFi, stating, "Wi-Fi has the self-assigned IP address 169.254.*. and will not be able to connect to the Internet.

This was when I was connecting to previous known networks. However, it WAS able to connect to one open SSID which I'd never used before successfully.

The only fix that has mysteriously worked is to change the MAC address. When I run the command line on this forum post, the WiFi successfully connects. However, upon restart, it once again reverts to self-assigned IP. (I believe Catalina doesn't allow MAC address changes).

Can anyone please help explain how I can resolve this, why the MAC address change works temporarily, and how I can ensure a more permanent solution? It's a custom ordered 16" MBP that took 5 weeks for delivery, so I'd highly prefer not to send it back.

Here are a list of things I've tried:

Resetting SMC/NVRAM/PRAM
Renew DHCP Lease
Remove/delete network
Delete plist/prefs in the SystemConfiguration
Tried two different hotspots
Tried two physically diff networks at home and work

I see two possible problems here:

First possibility is that your MAC address after reboot is somehow invalid (i.e. for example set to all zeros). That could make your DHCP server (probably in your home router) reject your request for an IP address).

Check if that is the case by running the following command in the Terminal:

ifconfig en0

Note the line that starts with "ether" - it should have a valid MAC address looking something like f2:23:48:a3:1e:22 or similar.

Second possibility is that the problem is really with your WIFi router / DHCP server and not locally with your laptop. This could happen if your router added the new MacBook Pro's MAC address to a block list or similar.

Check the router's settings and management interface to ensure that the MAC address of your new MacBook Pro is not listed in any black lists - and if you have white listed your old computer, then white list your new computer as well.


Running Applescript using cron jobs not working I'm new to conjobs and applescript but I have the script done correctly i believe. (any critique is welcome) I don't want to bloat my calendar with events to do this because I use my calendar for appointments and I don't need the bloat.

Here's my goal: run an apple script at 9am/5pm to enable/disable a mail account (after this works I'm going to add loging in/out of an Messenger account, first things first)

here's my script:

tell application "Mail"
          set offTime to 17
          set onTime to 9

      set dayOfWeek to weekday of (current date)
      set theHour to get the (hours of (current date)) as string

      if theHour ≥ onTime then
                say "email on"
                set enabled of account "MAILBOX" to true

      else if theHour ≥ offTime or (dayOfWeek = Saturday or dayOfWeek = Sunday) then
                say "email Off"
                set enabled of account "MAILBOX" to false

      end if

end tell

accessing cron jobs via this

sudo pico /etc/crontab

and within cron jobs i've used

0 9 * * * username osacript
"/Documents/disablemail.scpt"

0 17 * * * username osacript
"/Documents/disablemail.scpt"

variations I've attempted (based on search engine results)

0 9 * * * username osacript
"~/Documents/disablemail.scpt"

0 9 * * * /Documents/disablemail.scpt

0 9 * * * ~/Documents/disablemail.scpt

0 9 * * * osacript /Documents/disablemail.scpt

0 9 * * * osacript ~/Documents/disablemail.scpt

I think that's all of them.

Any feedback/assitance appreciated, thanks!

Cron was replaced by launchd a while back. If you're just getting started with this project, you might want to do it in launchd.


Can people access my iphone data by opening it up My iphone is faceid and pin protected. My apple id is two step authentication on.
It's not working now, so I sent it to a repair man to fix. However, If he opens up the phone, and takes out the storage chip. Can he use that storage on another phone of his ?

Check out the following links to understand more about Data Protection and Secure Enclave on iOS Devices

Data Protection
Secure Enclave


Can we load video onto iPad without iTunes? We have a shared iPad at work which is used for trade shows etc.

It is a pain to only be able to copy content to this from one PC, i.e. one nominated shared PC with iTunes on it. We have Windows XP on the PC currently.

Is there a decent way of plugging an iPad into an arbitrary PC and loading content on to it, while not breaking iTunes sync?

I've tried Dropbox but that will only allow us to stream the video within the Dropbox app, rather than download and save it into the Movies app. We really need to save the video content on to the iPad for offline playback.

You can use the "File Sharing" feature of various apps THROUGH iTunes, but without having to actually SYNC with iTunes.

Install the free CineXPlayer app. This will allow you to play a much broader range of videos.

Then plug your ipad into any computer with iTunes installed. iTunes will recognize the device, and let you browse it WITHOUT syncing it. If you go to the "Apps" tab inside the device's pages in iTunes, you'll see CineXPlayer listed below, in "File Sharing". Select CineXPlayer and drag movies to the "Documents" pane.

Ta da!


Mac folder which is Not Shared is shared and fully accessible from a Windows machine On my desktop, I right click on Macintosh HD and then on Get Info.
The Shared Folder checkbox is Unchecked and under Sharing and permissions, I have:

  system    (read and write)
  myUser    (me) (read only)
  wheel     (read & write)
  everyone  (No Access)

However, if I access my Mac from a Windows machine, using the Mac's IP address, e.g \\192.168.2.1, I am initially asked to enter my credentials to gain access. I enter my Mac credentials. I then see Macintosh HD as a folder, and basically, the whole Mac system is visible.

I can see the root folders, and access /Users/myUser and see all documents, pictures etc.

This is not good.

If Macintosh HD is not marked as Shared, why do I see that as a shared folder? I believe that having myUser (me) listed under Sharing and Permissions might be the issue here. However, if I remove myUser, then I am not able to view root folders from the terminal/console.

Thank you for all your input!

According to this answer on the Apple Support forum, if you enable (tick) a user for SMB sharing, it shares the root of the system drive (provided they are an Admin):

  Users you have set up with accounts in Accounts preferences can access
  your computer by connecting to it over the network. A user with an
  administrator account can access your entire computer.

You can see the drive because you are an administrator, and you entered your password on the windows machine. If you hadn't entered your password (or had used a non-administrator account) you wouldn't have been able to see the drive.


How to turn off notifications sounds when OS X is in Do Not Disturb mode? (High Sierra) Toggling "Do Not Disturb" blocks banners/alerts for notifications, but I still hear the sound when I, for example, get a message.

Is there any way to mute the Notification sounds without muting the entire computer?

Notification sounds are silenced in Do Not Disturb mode. Contacts marked with Emergency Bypass will bypass this and allow the notification sound to be played.


Why is my approved iOS app, distributed "privately as a custom app for business," not visible to my organization in Apple Business Manager? Issue

When I search for my company's internal app in Apple Business Manager, there are no matches. I've tried searching by name, SKU, and App ID. Searching by name returns four results, none of which is relevant.

Why isn't the app found?

Background

This is an iOS app that my company developed for internal use. Before publishing to the App Store, we opted to distribute "privately as a custom app for business."

We copied our organization's name (1) and ID (2) from Apple Business Manager to App Store Connect (3 and 4), to grant ourselves access to the app.

The app was approved yesterday, but it doesn't show up in Apple Business Manager. What are we missing?

I had a similar issue. It turned out that even though I was offering my app for free, I still had to fill out the 'Paid Apps' agreement in App Store Connect.


Problem with XAMPP after installation I have just installed XAMPP and when I click "start all" nothing actually starts since there is a problem with the some configurations (I do not have any idea of what those lines mean since I am a completely novice in servers). I just to have everything running in order to be able to start my PHP course.
Here goes what is written in the application log (upper tab):

Starting all servers...
Starting MySQL Database...

Starting Apache Web Server...
/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/apache2/scripts/ctl.sh : httpd started
Starting ProFTPD...
Exit code: 8
Stdout:
Checking syntax of configuration file
proftpd config test fails, aborting
Stderr:
MacBook-Pro-de-Gloria.local proftpd[47065]: warning: unable to determine IP address of 'MacBook-Pro-de-Gloria.local'
MacBook-Pro-de-Gloria.local proftpd[47065]: error: no valid servers configured
MacBook-Pro-de-Gloria.local proftpd[47065]: Fatal: error processing configuration file '/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/proftpd.conf'

I do not know if this info could be useful but my OS version is Sierra 10.12.6

Please feel free to ask me more details in the case you need additional information to find out what the problem is

Thanks in advance! :)

Edit: Here is what the file /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/proftpd.conf has

# This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file (rename it to
# 'proftpd.conf' for actual use.  It establishes a single server
# and a single anonymous login.  It assumes that you have a user/group
# "daemon" and "ftp" for normal operation and anon.

ServerName          "ProFTPD"
ServerType          standalone
DefaultServer           on

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port                21
# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new dirs and files
# from being group and world writable.
Umask               022

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30.  If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value.  Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances            30

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User daemon
Group      admin

# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
<Directory /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/*>
  AllowOverwrite        on
</Directory>

# only for the web servers content
DefaultRoot /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs

<Limit SITE_CHMOD>
  DenyAll
</Limit>

# daemon gets the password "xampp"
UserPassword daemon 2TgxE8g184G9c

# daemon is no normal user so we have to allow users with no real shell
RequireValidShell off

# daemon may be in /etc/ftpusers so we also have to ignore this file
#to login with "OSX Users"
AuthPAM on
AuthPAMConfig ftpd
UseFtpUsers off

Your answer is found here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/617591/proftpd-unable-to-determine-ip-address/617593#617593

you will need to do an ifconfig at the command line and post it. We will also need you to provide your hostname by posting the output of cat /etc/hosts.

Then you will change /etc/hosts to

x.x.x.x  MacBook-Pro-de-Gloria.local
xxxx:xxxx:xxx:xx::x MacBook-Pro-de-Gloria.local

The IP addresses above will be provided by ifconfig (assuming this server is on your own system). It is likely that the IP address will be 127.0.0.1, and the IPv6 address will start with fe80:

or (better) fix the setup to have a proper FQDN and naming scheme.


How to tell what version a Snow Leopard DVD is? I have a Snow Leopard DVD that was copied from the original. All it says on the CD is "Snow Leopard" How can I tell what version of the DVD it is? The DVDs were only released in versions 10.6.0 and 10.6.3.

You should be able to see the OS version by going to System Preferences > Startup Disk. If it doesn't show in Startup Disk for some reason, you can run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion" ProductVersion

If your DVD is not called "Mac OS X Install DVD" then you'll need to replace that part of the command with the actual disc name.


OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 .plist can't be found My HDD is encrypted. Accessing Terminal from Recovery Mode -> Utilities. The location /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/ doesn't contain <user>.plist.

There is an user account for sure and I can see it on regular boot.

Any ideas what is wrong and alternatively where can I find password hashes for user accounts.

Nothing is wrong! In Recovery Mode you can't simply access your common users since the Mac is booted to a special recovery image which doesn't contain your familiar accounts except a root user.

To access your common users you first have to unlock and mount the FileVault2 volume and then you can find the hashes at:

/Volumes/<Volume_name>/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/<user>.plist


Apple dictation missing commands in web browser I am dealing with physical problems from the keyboard/mouse, so discovering Apple dictation has been amazing. However, I work a lot in Google Docs and Gmail... and Google Chrome (or any web browser) does not let me use all of the commands that Apple's dictation provides. It's missing essential selection, navigation and editing commands that are available when using an Apple app like TextEdit. Those commands are essential for moving the cursor around and making fixes without the keyboard. The only solution that's been working for me has been to type in TextEdit, and then to copy and paste into the browser. But this is not a real solution.

It would be nice to stick with the native (and free) Apple dictation software on the mac, so does anyone have an idea to get these dictation commands to work in a web browser for use with gmail and google docs?

Edit: I found that Safari lets you use Apple's dictation with gmail, but still not with Google Docs.

Google docs uses a custom javascript application that disables the services component of the Mac (that lets the built in Mac voice dictation work.). If you want to use voice dictation in Google Docs, you have to use there build in functionally, and you MUST use Google Chrome.

From Google:

  For an easy way to put words on a page, you can type with your voice in a document. At the moment, this feature is only available in Chrome
  browsers.

Here's how to activate the type with your voice function for Google Docs.

In a Chrome browser, open a Google Docs document.
Click the Tools menu -> Voice typing...

A pop-up microphone box will appear. When you are ready to speak your text, click the microphone or press Cmd + Shift + S on your keyboard.

If this is the first time you've let Chrome use your microphone you will get a little pop-up from the top of the screen asking to OK Chrome using your microphone. Hit Allow to enable the microphone in Chrome.

Once you click in the Click to Speak box, the mic icon will turn orange and appear in a circle.

You can now dictate into your Google Docs. As you do the mic icon will show when it detects sound with an outer ring.

When you're finished, click the microphone again.

From Google:

  While voice typing in Google Docs is only available on computers, many Android and iOS phones and tablets have built-in microphones that
  you can use with a document. Look for the microphone icon on your
  mobile keyboard.

For more information you can check out the Google Help Documentation here:
Typing With Your Voice.


iTunes Match questions regarding songs marked as "Uploaded" I have about 800 songs marked as "Uploaded".  I would love for them to be replaced by "Matched" 256kbps AAC files.

Will iTunes Match ever re-check songs that have been flagged as Uploaded at some later point. Is there a way to re-submit them for checking?

I have over 5000 tracks which have been uploaded, whenever I add new music, Match is updated, and it determines whether to upload it or match it.

I was interested in this also, so I created a smart playlist for the kind set to MPEG audio and within the playlist I display the iTunes Match columns.

Recently I checked this list, and instead of all of them displaying Uploaded, a couple of hundred had changed to Matched, so I deleted them locally and re-downloaded the matched version.

So in answer to your question, yes, they are sometimes updated, and there's nothing you need to do other than occasionally update match by adding new music, or manually from the menu, and then check your smart playlist.


Is it ok to delete iOS Files from my macbook pro? I have in my MacBook pro a folder called MyName iPhone. Which is taking up about 21gb of space.

It seems like a backup of the phone. It says last accessed: 2 years ago which happens to be when I go my MacBook pro.

What happens if I delete this folder? Is it recommended? What will I lose? Will my phone's data be lost or unrecoverable?

Yes. You may safely delete these files listed in iOS Installers as they are the last version of iOS you installed on your iDevice(s). They're used to restore your iDevice without needing a download if there has been no new update to iOS. If you delete these files and you later need to restore your iPhone, iTunes will update to the newest iOS version by uploading the appropriate installer file.

I manage my iPhone 8 & an iPad 6th Gen through iTunes and this is what I see. The top section are backups, and the bottom section the installer (.ipsw) files:


iPad using too much data on WiFi? I am using an iPad 3 (WiFi) on iOS 9.2.1 and since two days I have been having an issue. I don't have an unlimited WiFi connection, I use my mobile phone hotspot for iPad. Now whenever I connect my iPad to hotspot, it starts using very high data, i.e, 2-3 MB every second without any app running. I also tried turning of Background App Refresh, Automatic Downloads are turned off, I tried a soft reset but to no avail. Any idea what's causing this??
P.S: By data, I don't mean mobile data on iPad(My iPad is WiFi only), I mean that it's using the data from my hotspot connection.

Much of iCloud will synchronize when you are connected to WiFi and not cellular data.

Check in the settings app and be sure to turn off iCloud backups (or restrict severely the parts of the data that backup). Also, look at things like iCloud photo library, podcast apps, My Photo Stream and others that wait until you connect to WiFi to avoid burning cellular data.

Can you take it to a proper WiFi temporarily to see if after 30 minutes whatever backup and sync are needed complete and then you will have lower usage going forward?


Is there a way to rearrange home screens on iOS? I used to be able to arrange the home screens ( pages ) in iTunes prior to iOS 11. I could create new empty pages, ect.

Is there a way to do this? For instance switch homescreen #2 for homescreen #3?

Depending on your setup, you have two options.

OPTION 1 - Use iTunes 12.6.3 instead. Refer to this answer for more details!
OPTION 2 - Use Apple Configurator 2. Download and install Apple Configurator.

Apple Configurator 2 provides much more advanced features in terms of managing your iOS devices. However, if you don't already have it installed, then the current version (v2.5) requires macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later to run.

Once installed:

Connect your iPhone via USB to your Mac
Launch Apple Configurator 2
Select your iPhone
Go to Actions > Modify > Home Screen Layout...
Your screens will appear
Click and hold the mouse pointer on the screen outline and drag it to change its order. So, using your example, click and hold the outline for screen 3 and drag it to the left of screen 2.
Click on the blue Apply button at bottom right.


How can I edit .cmdline files? I'm setting up my Raspberry Pi on my Mac (Big Sur) using this instruction set. I'm currently on the step where I have to edit the recovery.cmdline file on the NOOBS file, but there isn't any app I could find that can edit the file, including Terminal. How can I edit .cmdline files?

In Terminal run nano /path/to/file.cmdline.
In Finder, right-click on the file icon and open with TextEdit.app


Remove faded folders in iCloud Drive Some apps create their own folder in the iCloud Drive. Because I want to see everything all the time I enabled show hidden files (like here).

So this is how my iCloud Drive folder looks like:

Problem

I do not need the faded out folders "PrinterPro", "Sprit-Rechner", "PDF Expert", "PRINT" and "Trails" and I can't delete them. They will just come back.

Solution Attempt

The left side of the picture shows my iCloud Drive settings where you can enable or disable some folders, but the faded out do not show up there. I also tried to reinstall the apps but I can't find any option for iCloud folders.

I was able to delete the hidden folders that existed in the root of my iCloud Drive from iOS and macOS that apps I'd previously deleted from my devices.
I'm using macOS Catalina version 10.15.2 but this may work on earlier versions of macOS.

Open Terminal.app and type this but do not press return yet:
rm -rf

Make sure there is a space after the "f" at the end of the command

In Finder, open the iCloud Drive folder and change it to List view (command+2) so you can easily see all of the hidden folders.

Select all of the folders you want to delete, then drag them in to the Terminal window. It will automatically add the path of the folders to the command, separated by spaces.

So the command would look something like this:
    rm -rf /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Automator/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~ScriptEditor2/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~TextEdit/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~QuickTimePlayerX/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/6LVTQB9699~com~seriflabs~affinitydesigner/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~net~doo~scanbot~vpp/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Numbers/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/F6266T9T75~com~apple~iMovie/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Keynote/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/WUGMZZ5K46~com~bohemiancoding~sketch/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~com~readdle~Scanner~PDF/Documents  /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud~is~workflow~my~workflows/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/F3LWYJ7GM7~com~apple~garageband10/Documents /Users/username/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~Preview/Documents

Press return. It may ask you for your computer password.

After running the command, nothing will happen in the iCloud Drive window.

The only two things I observed at this point that were different from before were:
a. When clicking on of one of the folders, the Finder Path Bar will show iCloud > and the folder's icon, but will not show the folder name
b. Dragging the folder to Terminal again does nothing - it does not generate the text path like before.

Restart your Mac

Return to iCloud Drive in Finder and the hidden folders should be gone.


What is the feature called that brings you to the file name by typing the first few letters? This is not a profound question, but I don't know the answer.

What is the name of the OS behavior that brings you to the file name in a finder window by typing the first few letters?

"Search as you type"?

It is called as 'Code completion' feature or 'Typing intelligence'.


How do I access Find My Friends from iCloud.com? I have been reading that it is now possible to access Find My Friends from iCloud.com,  and I have a friend who is able to do so from their iCloud.com account: It shows up in the iCloud menu under the URL "icloud.com/#fmf".  But when I log in this URL silently chops off the "fmf" part, the "Find My Friends" app doesn't show up from the menu, and when I try to use an invite from my friend, it tells me to install the app on my iPad.

I don't have an iPad. In fact I don't have any mobile devices which are made by Apple, which is the whole point of wanting to use iCloud.com.

How do I get Find My Friends to show up on my iCloud.com account?

Update: I found that I can enable iCloud on my Mac by going to System Preferences -> iCloud and signing into with Apple Id.  After I do this, icloud.com/#fmf works to the extent that it brings up a map, but I still can't see any friends.  Then, when I try to click on the link in the invitation from my friend, I get the following message:

Find my Friends

To view <friend's name> (<friend's e-mail>) location, open your
invitation in the Mail app on your iOS device and tap View Request. If the
Find My Friends app is not installed on your device you can download it
free from the App Store.

Well.... once again I don't have an iOS device, and if I did I don't know how I would open the invitation in the Mail app, because my Apple Id is linked to a GMail account, not an iCloud account!

You can't to my knowledge. Find My Friends (sadly) requires an iOS or OS X device be configured for use with Find My Friends at least once. If you have no Mac or iOS device, you can't. If that article wasn't clear enough (it's rather vague) here's a more explicit one.

  Note: If you don’t see Find My Friends on iCloud.com, your account just has access to iCloud web-only features. To gain access to other iCloud features, set up iCloud on your iOS device or Mac.

After you do that, then you can access it from the web.


How do I move a folder and contained files in an external volume to another external volume using Terminal I have two drobos. I want to move a folder (called A) from one drobo name (Behemoth) to another drobo (Galactus) using Terminal (Mac). I have tried

ditto ~/Volumes/Behemoth/A /Volumes/Galactus/

but it says directory not found? Thank you.

Assuming the mount points are correct

ditto /Volumes/Behemoth/A /Volumes/Galactus/

should work (you had an extra ~ on the source side).

In case you want to move the data (as the text in your question implies)

mv /Volumes/Behemoth/A /Volumes/Galactus/

will work as well (or you just rm -r /Volumes/Behemoth/A after you've successfully copied with ditto).


Getting high ping when MacBook Air is connected to Wi-Fi I have a 13" MacBook Air with Yosemite 10.10.2 installed:

As soon as I connect it to my WiFi, I get a very high ping (1600 ms) on both my machines: Windows 7 PC and my MacBook. As a result browsing becomes very difficult. I ping 8.8.8.8!

But if I disconnect my MacBook ping becomes normal (70-80 ms) on Windows PC. I've checked ping by disconnecting my PC, restarted my modem-router, switched off Bluetooth on my Mac.

I've a modem + router D-Link 2750u on the ground floor wired to TP Link 740N on the first floor. I've tried connecting only to 2750u also by switching off 740N. I've been using this setup for last 4-5 months, but the issue has started since couple of weeks back.

What else I've tried:

Setting DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Deleting cache.db file from com.apple.safari
Booted in safe mode and restarted back. In safe boot mode I get the usual ping of 70-80 ms but after restarting and booting in normal mode the ping returns back to 1600 ms.

How do I solve this issue?

I was frustrated with a symptom which was :

High and spiking ping between 1ms to 9000ms
full bar signal but 50%++ loss ping packet
RSSI < -70db with 5-7 m distance from wifi router
Conflicting country code
Safari loading time takes forever, slow loading website (maybe due to loss packet)

What I have done was :

Restarting, reconfigure network setting, reconfigure router, diagnose network, deleting lot of plist ---> the symptom still there.
resolving COUNTRY CODE CONFLICT --- I was thinking that those symptom occur because CC conflict, thus I was editing the country code to be X2 by changing airportbrcm4331 (my case MacBook Air 2011) --> success but the ping still high. lot of article discuss how to do it.
So I think that there was a something wrong with antenna not the modem because there are no indication of wifi failure. so I did a DIY open MBA, check the modem, and find out that the antenna connector loose and not plugged  properly. plug it... put back things...

and voila everything works like charm. low ping, fast Safari response and works like it suppose to be :D


I want to remove some photos from iPhone 4s but keep them all in Photo Stream & iCloud I want to remove some photos from iPhone but keep them in Photos & iCloud. I want to keep my photoson my Mac Air, & desktop. When I try to delete them off my phone it tells me it will be delated from Photostream & iCloud.

I just want to decrease the number of photos on my iPhone. I connected to computer to upload some but it didn't ask me if I wanted to remove any from my phone.

It's not entirely clear, but I'll take a guess.

If you connect the phone to a computer and no photos are removed when you sync, the most likely setup is the iPhone is using iCloud Photo Library.

You would turn that off in the settings app - iCloud.

Then once the library is off - choose whether you want the phone to participate in Photo Stream / Photo Sharing or not.

At that point, once iCloud Photo Library is off - you can delete photos from the phone manually on the iOS itself or by connecting to iTunes / Image Capture app / Photos app on Mac / iPhoto on Mac and transferring / deleting photos en masse.

How to delete all photos in the camera roll in iOS 8.x?
Understanding Photo Stream


Will Migration Assistant move all my dot files, permissions, everything? On my old Mac I have my web dev environment set up with AWS profiles, proper permissions for npm and lots of other little things. Does the Migration Assistant just copy your documents, images and apps, or does it do a complete mirror image of the system?

Migration Assistant will copy everything in your home directory from your old Mac to your new one, so everything in your home directory will stay the same.

It will also try to copy applications and other system configurations to the new system, but it will not do a complete mirror image of the previous system.

If, for example, your old Mac is running MacOS 10.14 "Mojave" and the new one is running MacOS 10.15 "Catalina", you'll end up with Catalina on the new Mac.

If you want on the new Mac a system as close as possible to the previous one you can restore a Time Machine backup on the new Mac.

But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put an older version of MacOS on a new Mac that comes with a newer version of MacOS - it may not work as expected. I'd recommend to try the Migration Assistant way instead.


Reinstalling Numbers on Mac OS X Numbers was installed with a different Apple ID to mine (my bosses), so it won't let me update it (when it prompts for credentials, you can't overwrite the user name). I therefore need to reinstall it using my Apple ID.

I dragged it from Applications to the trash then restarted the App Store. However, it still insists there's an update (which prompts me for my bosses credentials again). I've tried all the tricks I can find to tell the App Store to refresh:

⌘+R
turning on debug mode and telling it to reset
deleting the download cache

Nothing has worked.

How do I blow Numbers away and reinstall it using my own credentials?

For Apple's "free" apps, such as Numbers, I've had success doing the following:

Leave Numbers.app in the /Applications folder
Start App Store, and check for updates.  This should show an update for Numbers, but do not try to update it yet.
Move Numbers.app/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt to your Desktop
Go back to the App Store, and update Numbers

This will download the new version, and create a new receipt file, with your new ownership credentials.

NOTE: This may not work if your second set of credentials is not already authorized to download Numbers via a different Mac, etc.


iCloud storage question - how can I stop using iCloud for email storage and just store emails on my computer? How can I stop using iCloud for email storage and just store emails on my computer (a MacBook Pro)?

You must first copy or move messages, and then delete it.
How to move or delete email from iCloud
Moving your messages from iCloud to your computer can be useful when your iCloud mailbox is full or you want to reduce the amount of iCloud storage you're using.
Moving selected messages
Follow these steps to move messages from iCloud and store them on your computer instead.

In OS X Mail, choose Mailbox > New Mailbox.
Select On My Mac from the Location menu, enter a name for the new mailbox, and click OK.
Select your iCloud inbox from the list of mailboxes in the sidebar, then select the messages to move.
Drag the messages to the new mailbox, or choose Message > Move To > the new mailbox.

Deleting selected messages
Follow these steps to permanently delete messages from iCloud without keeping a copy on your computer.

Select the iCloud messages to delete, then choose Edit > Delete. The messages are moved to your Trash folder in iCloud.
Choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items to permanently delete the messages in the Trash folder.

How to copy email from iCloud
Copying your messages from iCloud to your computer can be useful when you want to have a backup.
Copying selected messages
Follow these steps to create a copy of your iCloud messages on your computer.

In OS X Mail, choose Mailbox > New Mailbox.
Select On My Mac from the Location menu, enter a name for the new mailbox, and click OK.
Select your iCloud inbox from the list of mailboxes in the sidebar, then select the messages to copy.
Drag the messages to the new mailbox, or choose Message > Copy To > the new mailbox.

Copying the entire mailbox
Follow these steps create a single mbox archive of your iCloud mailbox, including every message and folder in the mailbox.

Select your iCloud inbox from the list of mailboxes in the sidebar.
Choose Mailbox > Export Mailbox.
Choose a destination folder for the mbox archive, then click Choose to save the file.

iCloud: Using OS X Mail to move, delete, or copy iCloud email


Can I manually specify Sound Output device in the Mac (like in Windows/Linux) In the Mac, is there a way to choose whether I want sound output through my internal speakers or the headphones (i.e. the audio port), irrespective of whether there are headphones plugged in or not.

I can do this in Windows and Linux and I really need to be able to do this on the Mac as well, for a certain reason.

Any help would be appreciated!

I think the general consensus on this appears to be 'no' ... but have you tried something like Soundflower or Jack Audio, which allow non-standard routings. I can't test for headphones here, as I'm on a Mac Pro, but it might be worth 5 mins of your time to try it - http://cycling74.com/products/soundflower/ or http://jackaudio.org


Does turning on WiFi on iPhone use battery? Does turning on WiFi (without connecting to any wireless network) use battery?

Yes. Your phone will be polling periodically for available networks, which will use battery. Even you set it to not ask to join networks, the radio is powered up and that takes some amount of power to do.