Startup security utility menu not properly popping up I am trying to configure the security utility but I get this menu instead:
What I am doing is attempting to install windows on an external drive. I am following the steps from this video.

This utility can only be run on the following Macs with the T2 Security Chip:

iMac Pro
Mac Pro introduced in 2019
Mac mini introduced in 2018
MacBook Air introduced in 2018 or later
MacBook Pro introduced in 2018 or later

More information about the Startup Security Utility can be found at this Apple Support Document.
Information about the T2 chip can be found at this Apple Support Document.


Can I purchase from other sites using my Apple ID? Is it possible to purchase from other sites using my Apple ID account like paypal; to pay for items on sites other than the iTunes store?

How would this be done technically? I have came up with a few possible solutions but doubt them. Would Apple even allow this?

Short answer is: no. iTunes accounts are meant for purchasing products from Apple, and Apple only.

Apple might decide at some point to partner with other companies to allow you to reuse your account on other websites, but I don't think it has done so so far. Besides, iTunes is an online store, not a payment service like Paypal.


Adobe Flash Substitute I am on a flight that requires Adobe flashplayer if I want to watch movies. I have an Ipad 2 and wonder if there is another Apple app that will work?

Puffin Browser (free with limitations, 99¢ to subscribe for 6 months)

Photon Flash Player ($9.99)

You could also use many remote desktop applications to stream from a desktop PC or Mac. Probably doesn't help much on a flight, though.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2599798/apple-ios/how-to-run-flash-on-your-ipad-if-you-must.html


OSX Yosemite Prohibitory Sign on Startup I performed hard restart on laptop after it froze during a restart.

When loading again, the apple logo displayed with a loader then displayed a prohibitory sign. After some time reading and many failed attempts, I have been unable to restart mac successfully -

I am unable to boot into safe mode or single user mode to run disk utility as suggested by other apple documents. I even tried a PRAM reset. Is there anything else I can try?

UPDATE: holding cmd+r on restart allowed me to properly enter disk utility.

Wondering what you meant by PRAM reset due to the fact that technically, on the Intel models, it's now called NVRAM even though you still have to use the P and R keys. If you have ethernet, you can hold down command-option-r at startup to boot to directly from Apple and run First Aid in Disk Utility. If you have a battery that can't be readily removed, you might want to reset system management (SMC) by ensuring that the Mac is turned off, then disconnecting everything except power, then pressing and releasing together shift-control-option and power on/off (eject) buttons. Then do your NVRAM reset again. That can help about half the time. (NVRAM reset is starting then immediately pressing and holding command-option-p-r until the startup chime plays a few times, at least three.)


How many times can I submit my app to iTunes Connect? I recently have been submitting quite a few reviews to Apple, and I wondered if they might get annoyed with the amount of times an app is called for review. I have not approached this limit yet, but I wanted to make sure I do not annoy Apple's reviewers.

How many times can I submit my app to iTunes Connect for review? Is there a certain amount of times per month or week?

I'm not aware of any documented maximum number of times you can submit an app for review (source: App Store Review Guidelines).

The Review team will take the most-recent review request and start their review process, based on my experience over a few years.  When you submit a new version for review, the previous version is no longer eligible for review.

The only time you need to be concerned is when the review has already started (you've been notified that it's started) and then you want to do an update.  To avoid this situation, just be sure you really want them to do the review and your app is ready before you tap the 'submit' button.


I want to create a new calendar "on my mac" but the item is missing in calendar.app v. 8 I have migrated to Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Sometimes I use an 'on my mac' calendar. I just wanted to create one for one of my projects, but I can only see "Exchange", "google" and "iCloud" but I don't want any of those, just a local one.

The menu item is not there anymore. What setting am I missing?

To create local calendar on Yosemite (when no such option is available via File menu) navigate to calendar in Other section in the sidebar, select one and right click, then select New Calendar. This should create calendar in On My Mac section (local).


Prevent Mail pop up automatically when there's a new email I'm using macOS Mojave. Apparently I've changed a setting - but can't figure out which one - that forces Mail to automatically pop up in the active desktop when there's new email.

For instance, I'm in a desktop with Safari maximized, I receive an email and the Mail app automatically splits the screen and shows the new email.

This happens even when I'm connected to a projector and in a meeting. considering I've even turned on the Do Not Disturb mode when mirroring TV and projectors, it's super strange.

Could you please help me find this option to prevent Mail pop up when there's a new email?

IF you go to Notifications > Mail you should be able to change the Mail Alert Style to "None" to avoid mail alerts altogether.

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4306641


iPhone Back Up Storage I am aware of the two conventional methods of removing an iPhone back up from the computer storage - 1) Through iTunes 2) by directly locating and deleting it using file explorer (on Windows)

Here's the problem:

Last night, I had at least 70GB of free space on my PC's storage. Then I backed up my iPhone, leaving my storage @ 10~GB free space after the back up. After backing up, I decided to remove the back up from the computer since it takes too much space, so I opted for option 1 - which is to remove the back up file through iTunes. However, this did not restore my 70GB disk space, it only left my computer with 18GB of free disk space. I've checked the back up file through file explorer but apparently it's gone already (probably deleted by iTunes). So now I am stuck with an unlocated back up file and 18 GB of free disk space. Hope someone could help me restore my 70GB. Thanks.

Did you recently uninstall and reinstall iTunes from the Microsoft Windows 10 store? If so, the location of the backups may have changed, causing the backup to not be where you expect it to be.

Here's a blog post I wrote with instructions to get to both locations where the different versions of iTunes store the backups on Windows 10. (The different versions being direct download from Apple and download from the Microsoft store.) Hopefully checking the "other" spot will help you find the backup that is hiding from you :)

https://deciphertools.com/blog/where-are-iphone-backups/

If you don't see anything, you may need to allow showing hidden files. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028316/windows-view-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-10


How to paste from clipboard into a Preview edited PDF file It seems the clipboard does not work - either direction. I can not copy and paste into or from a Preview edited PDF doc.

Why is Preview so unfriendly/ difficult to use with external tools?  Any workarounds on this?

Can you confirm that the text you are viewing is actual text, rather than an image? For example, I opened a PDF in Preview, drag-selected text, right-clicked to choose Copy. I was then able to paste that text into a text editor.

Now, with respect to editing, click the Show Markup Toolbar at the top-right. From here, you can create a Text object, paste your clipboard text, and then adjust the text size and color.

With respect to limited editing, keep in mind that a PDF is generally a compiled format (i.e., the layout for that PDF was created in another application). This is easy to forget when PDF viewers like Acrobat and Preview provide seemingly easy tools for editing and applying annotations. (I suppose that you could also try editing with Illustrator, though that could potentially get quite messy, depending upon the source of the PDF).

As a rule, it's better to edit a given document in its original application, and then recompile into PDF. However, if you have frequent need to perform touchups to PDF, then the Adobe Acrobat application is recommended.


How can I change the shape default in Preview app? Every time I click on the oval shape in Preview, I get a big ellipse filled in opaque blue.
How do I change this default such that every time I click on the oval, I get a transparent circle with a black border?

To remove the fill colour, click on the [orange] square and choose white colour, which is transparent behaviour.
The border colour can be changed by clicking on the [red] square and choose whatever you need.


How do I turn on 3-finger drag on trackpad (Sierra)? I originally set my trackpad to drag items when tapping on them with three fingers but it no longer works? How do I turn it back on?

I think this is what your after…

Navigate to System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options.
Check the Enable dragging checkbox.
Select 'Three finger drag' from the dropdown.


How to export all emails from a mailbox in Apple Mail I'm trying to export all emails from an account I have setup and mapped to Apple mail on my computer. There are 1200 emails. The account is no longer active so i'm trying to export all the emails in the mailbox in apple mail to an .mbox file that I can import somewhere else.

The problem is when I do an export of the mailbox and then import it somewhere, there are only 88 emails when there should be 1200+.

Why is this only exporting some of the emails and how can I make it so it exports all of them?

I couldn't get my export working even with a mailbox rebuild.  However, my goal was simply to archive my old mail, and not necessarily to do so in the mbox format, so copying the raw mailbox with 'mv' was adequate for my purposes.

After some trial and error, I found the path was ~/Library/Mail/V3/IMAP-<account-name>/.  Sharing it here in case anyone anyone else is in the same boat.


Can't find network files over SMB protocol using the Spotlight in Lion I tried to find some files in a network volume mounted in OS X Lion over SMB using Spotlight. Didn't work.

But, when I tried the same search from OS X Snow Leopard it worked perfectly.

What do I need to perform this kind of search? Something to be enabled with the "defaults" command in the CLI?

You have to tell Spotlight to index the volume so you can find the files on it.

Open Terminal and issues the command:

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/<name of the network_volume you want SL to index>

This command should work in every version of macOS from Snow Lion up to El Capitan


All default OS X icons disappeared Has someone else this kind of problem after yesterday's update for July'12 Macbook Pro?

I have tried all the typical things like Reboot, Restore Disk Permissions, killall SystemUIServer. The one thing that does fix this issue is making a new user account. When I log in to that account, the icons are revealed.

rebooting in safe mode, and rebooting in normal mode solved exact same problem for me (it is method suggested in thread mentioned above My Retina MacBook Pro is missing some icons suddenly! What happened?)


Does "Group Message" mean that all recipients would "see" each other? I was wondering if I send a message to two (or more) people using iOS5, will the message automatically be a "Group Message"?

So, does that mean that in the above picture, John would know that I've sent "msg" to Peter, and Peter would know that I've sent "msg" to John?

In my experience I always see all recipients in a group iMessage - so depending on if the author of the message chose email or phone numbers I see each recipient's information.

If I have that address/phone in my address book, then I get my address book's name for the contact, but even then, I can tap on the name and determine if an email or phone number was used to address the group.

On the iPhone, there is a group message toggle - but at iOS 5.1.1, it doesn't seem to matter whether this is on or off on the sender or the receiver - I still see everyone in the group iMessage. As far as I can tell, that switch doesn't do anything on an iPhone and isn't there to even help on an iPad / iPod touch.


macOS installations shows less space than I have I cleared my system to install the BigSur beta:

So I have 62 GB free space.
But when Im in the installation process its shows the following:

Just 28 GB free space. How can I fix this?
when I look up my HDD via finder it shows me:

So that 34 GB should be purgable. But how to delete this stuff since my recycling bin is empty.

I found a solution:
I just created a new APFS parition and reserved as much space as possible. Then the space which was shown as purgeable was deleted automatically. After that i removed the partition again and had all the free space.


Macbook Pro hangs when booting into Boot Camp Windows 7 I have a 2011 Macbook Pro 15" 10.7.4 with Windows 7 installed in Boot Camp. A few days ago, I tried to boot into Windows 7 and it just froze after I selected the Boot Camp volume on the Select Drive screen and the processor fan went into overdrive. This now happens every time. The only way to make it functional is to force-power-off and restart in OS X.

I don't understand what's happening - Windows 7 works fine when I use it via Parallels, but won't boot to the metal.

I've tried resetting the SMC and PRAM but nothing seems to work. This is extra frustrating because I need to use Windows for work.

I looked here, but it's no help:

Bootloader freezes on login screen when booting into Lion from Boot Camp

If you get a copy of Paragon NTFS for Mac you can do a disk repair for NTFS volumes. The software has a 10 day trial and a license is about $20. NTFS for Mac also serves as a driver for full access to NTFS volumes which is superior to the limited Read only access of NTFS volumes built into Macs. If you are a regular user of both Mac and Windows its worth the investment.

Once installed the program is accessible from System Preferences. For the problem described above you need to first unmount the volumes "System Reserve" and "BootCamp". Then remount the volumes and run verify on each volume.


Is there a good / acceptable blog-publishing application on Mac OS X? On Windows, there is the pretty good Windows Live Writer.
I have always been told that there is no equivalent on Mac.

What would be the best alternative?

Some details about pros/cons, missing features, cool tips would be appreciated.
I will make this question community wiki.

One of the best applications is MarsEdit (40$) by Red Sweater Software.
It supports many blog types (including Tumblr), and allows both HTML and Rich Text editing.
I think it also allows editing Wordpress pages and not only blog posts.
It handles image uploading, editing of posts and supports multiple blogs.

Some of the cons of MarsEdit are its HTML editing shortcuts and macros which are a little uncomfortable and a bit too little.

If you're comfortable with HTML, then the known TextMate text editor can also be used as an editor for blog posts and then you can either copy/paste from there or use a blogging bundle which will let you upload from there. TextMate can also show you live preview of your HTML in a separate window.

Of course, being a specialized application, MarsEdit is more feature rich in the blogging sense but TextMate has a better editor (obviously).


I want to install Windows 7 on an external drive I've read two articles about booting Windows from external drives as opposed to a stock Bootcamp install. Here are the links:

http://kevtg-compuproductive.tumblr.com/

http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.fr/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.html

The latter of the two seems more difficult, plus I do not have an external hard drive with USB 3 compatibility, so I think I would use the other one. Though I could just buy a new external drive...

Has anyone tried these methods? I want to make sure they're legitimate before I try them.

Thanks! :)

I'm not sure if you are still looking for an answer, but here it is:

I haven't tried those specific methods, but I have installed Windows 10 on an external hard drive. It should be the same, although you will need a Windows 7 iso image.

Step 1: Download a virtual machine to run Windows on. I used VMWare Fusion and used a 30-day trial.

Step 2: Search "windows 10 iso image" and click the first link from Microsoft. Download it.

Step 3: Open the VMWare application and upload the Windows 10 iso image onto it, and run Windows.

Step 4: Go on your virtual Windows and download WinToUSB from this: https://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/.

Step 5: Find and download a Windows 7 iso image. The official Microsoft website has it, but you will need the product key you received when you first installed windows.

Step 6: Open the WinToUSB tool and upload the .iso image onto it, and choose which version to install. Connect your external drive to your Mac, make sure it connects to VMWare, and select it once it shows up on WinToUSB.

Step 7: Wait until the tool installs Windows 7 onto the external drive. While this is running, go to the Bootcamp app and ONLY download the Windows Support Software.

Step 8: Once the WinToUSB tool finishes installing, you can close out of VMWare by shutting down from the virtual Windows. The connected external drive should show up on your mac again, and drag the Windows Support Software folder into the drive.

You should now have an external drive with Windows 7 on it, and the Windows Support Software on it as well. You can boot from it by restarting and holding option and choosing the external drive. Use the Windows Support Software to install the correct Apple Drivers in the external drive when inside the Windows 7 boot.

This was the method that worked for me on an Early 2014 MacBook Air on High Sierra.


Notes Application not able to open after upgrading to MacOs Sierra I have Macbook Pro 15" Retina display. I recently upgraded to macOS Sierra from El Capitan.  After upgrading, I am no longer able to open my Notes application.

I have important data on Notes; how can i recover or can fix this issue ?

Please check it out and please help me what should i do.
Thanks

I had an old mail account which doesn't work any more, but in the System Preferences -> Internet Accounts preference pane in the Use With list Notes were switched on for this account. After I turned it off I was able to launch Notes.


Creating NetRestore on 10.10.1 failing When trying to create a NetRestore image in SIU on 10.10.1 and trying to add custom packages the build will always fail with Error Code 2.

I noticed when you try to Customize Packages that "Essential System Software" reads as 8.03TB but the SSD inside the computer is only 256GB.

I have tried to redownload the "Install OS X Yosemite" from the Mac App Store three times and with all 3 sources the "Essential System Software" will still always read as 8.03TB.

Does anyone else experience this and know how to resolve this?

'Customize Package Selection' is only valid for NetInstall images and not for NetRestore images - at least for Mavericks.

Source

Probably it's the same for Yosemite. I haven't a source for that though.

On the other hand 'NetRestore' just uses an already prepared image of a working OS X installation - so absolutely nothing to customize afterwards...


What could be the reason for dock icons to have disappeared? So this has happened to me again, my icons from desktop and the icons on dock and launchpad have been disappeared. I'm guessing that the icon builder daemon has crashed.

What should i do to get back all the icons to back where it was?

That is a strange behavior which happens to many users. One way to fix that is to open a terminal and use the killall-command.

Because the launchpad is connected with the dock, you can just use the following command to get your icons back:

killall Dock

That should fix your dock and launchpad-problem. But I don't know if it will help for the missing Desktop-icons.


Uninitialized HDD after GPT to MBR conversation, 3 HFS+ Volumes and 1 ExFAT 2 TB External Hard Drive.

Error during converting from GPT to MBR and now Disk can't be mounted.

'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' appears when HDD is plugging in. Files are really important for me.

I read a lot of questions and answers here, but still can't find a solution that can help. Here is what I got in the terminal using commands from some answers near. It seems like partition table is broken. Is that possible to recover or rebuild it? If there is already clear answer somewhere here, coud someone push me there or maybe give me a vector, where I should search in? If someone could help for this specific issue, it will be really awesome. I will be really appreciate any help.

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk6
    Disk: /dev/disk6    geometry: 243201/255/63 [3907029168 sectors]
    Signature: 0xAA55
             Starting       Ending
     #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     1: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
     2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
     3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
     4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

    gpt show disk6
           start        size  index  contents
               0           1         MBR
               1           1         Pri GPT header
               2          32         Pri GPT table
              34        2014
            2048  1562503168      1  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      1562505216  1326149632      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      2888654848   236972032      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      3125626880   781402112      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
      3907028992         143
      3907029135          32         Sec GPT table
      3907029167           1         Sec GPT header

       diskutil info disk6
       Device Identifier:         disk6
       Device Node:               /dev/disk6
       Whole:                     Yes
       Part of Whole:             disk6
       Device / Media Name:       ST2000LM007-1R8174

       Volume Name:               Not applicable (no file system)
       Mounted:                   Not applicable (no file system)
       File System:               None

       Content (IOContent):       None
       OS Can Be Installed:       No
       Media Type:                Generic
       Protocol:                  SATA
       SMART Status:              Verified

       Disk Size:                 2.0 TB (2000398934016 Bytes) (exactly 3907029168 512-Byte-Units)
       Device Block Size:         512 Bytes

       Read-Only Media:           No
       Read-Only Volume:          Not applicable (no file system)

       Device Location:           External
       Removable Media:           Fixed

       Solid State:               No
       Virtual:                   No
       Hardware AES Support:      No

Please, let me know if there will be a need in more information, I'll do my best.
Thanks for your attention.

Having rummaged on other forums and sites, I came to the conclusion that gdisk can save me. And lo and behold!

Here are my actions, maybe it will save someone:

sudo gdisk /dev/disk6
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4

Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid MBR and GPT. Which do you want to use?
 1 - MBR
 2 - GPT
 3 - Create blank GPT

Your answer: 2
Using GPT and creating fresh protective MBR.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk3: 3907029168 sectors, 1.8 TiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 366A9BED-8C95-4B28-07DC-45407D80EFA7
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 3907029134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2157 sectors (1.1 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048      1562505215   745.1 GiB   AF00
   2      1562505216      2888654847   632.4 GiB   AF00
   3      2888654848      3125626879   113.0 GiB   AF00
   4      3125626880      3907028991   372.6 GiB   0700  Basic data partition

Command (? for help): ?
b   back up GPT data to a file
c   change a partition's name
d   delete a partition
i   show detailed information on a partition
l   list known partition types
n   add a new partition
o   create a new empty GUID partition table (GPT)
p   print the partition table
q   quit without saving changes
r   recovery and transformation options (experts only)
s   sort partitions
t   change a partition's type code
v   verify disk
w   write table to disk and exit
x   extra functionality (experts only)
?   print this menu

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): ?
b   use backup GPT header (rebuilding main)
c   load backup partition table from disk (rebuilding main)
d   use main GPT header (rebuilding backup)
e   load main partition table from disk (rebuilding backup)
f   load MBR and build fresh GPT from it
g   convert GPT into MBR and exit
h   make hybrid MBR
i   show detailed information on a partition
l   load partition data from a backup file
m   return to main menu
o   print protective MBR data
p   print the partition table
q   quit without saving changes
t   transform BSD disklabel partition
v   verify disk
w   write table to disk and exit
x   extra functionality (experts only)
?   print this menu

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): g

MBR command (? for help): ?
a   toggle the active/boot flag
c   recompute all CHS values
l   set partition as logical
o   omit partition
p   print the MBR partition table
q   quit without saving changes
r   set partition as primary
s   sort MBR partitions
t   change partition type code
w   write the MBR partition table to disk and exit

MBR command (? for help): p

** NOTE: Partition numbers do NOT indicate final primary/logical status,
** unlike in most MBR partitioning tools!

** Extended partitions are not displayed, but will be generated as required.

Disk size is 3907029168 sectors (1.8 TiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x00000000
MBR partitions:

                                                   Can Be   Can Be
Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status   Logical  Primary   Code
   1                  2048   1562505215   primary     Y        Y      0xAF
   2            1562505216   2888654847   primary              Y      0xAF
   3            2888654848   3125626879   primary              Y      0xAF
   4            3125626880   3907028991   primary              Y      0x07

MBR command (? for help): w

Converted 4 partitions. Finalize and exit? (Y/N): y
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
GPT data structures destroyed! You may now partition the disk using fdisk or
other utilities.

That's it, Drive is fully restored. Insane.


How to turn off localhost web server I've discovered by accident that my Mac is running a localhost web server. I typed "localhost" into Safari and got "It works!" I get the same result when I go to http://127.0.0.1:80.
My question is: How do I turn this thing off? I've tried things like this:
$ sudo apachectl stop

And
$ sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

But this changes nothing, and the Terminal complains
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist: Could not find specified service

I'm running Catalina. No MAMP. I did at one point a couple of years ago run npm briefly, but there is no evidence that this is its server (for one thing, it's on port 80).

Following up on Gordon Davisson's suggestion, I tried
$ sudo lsof -i | grep LISTEN

and got:
rapportd   462  mattneubelcap    4u  IPv4 0x3fcd6c7f11a6984d      0t0    TCP *:49169 (LISTEN)
rapportd   462  mattneubelcap    5u  IPv6 0x3fcd6c7f0a82c41d      0t0    TCP *:49169 (LISTEN)
cupsd     1117           root    5u  IPv6 0x3fcd6c7f0a829f5d      0t0    TCP localhost:ipp (LISTEN)
cupsd     1117           root    6u  IPv4 0x3fcd6c7f1975f0cd      0t0    TCP localhost:ipp (LISTEN)

Hidden web server
The web server running on your server is the one used by cupsd to manage your printers queue.
The command:
nmap localhost -p 80

will show you that it is actually closed, unless you activated the sharing of a printer.
You can stop cupsd either through the GUI of System Preferences… or with launchctl:
/usr/bin/sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cups-lpd.plist
/usr/bin/sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cups.plist

Nmap
If you don't have nmap because your version of MacOS doesn't anymore bring this useful software (which is a total failure for people who need to analyse network problems) you can easily install it with Macports or Brew. I estimate uou will need 15 minutes to install it, read the basic documentation. Within less than half an hour you will be able to discover holes through which your system can be attacked.


Setting older Wacom table preferences using MacOS 10.14 or later This is an update to an older question:Is it possible to use old Wacom tablet on 10.11?

I am not allowed to comment on some of the great answers there, so asking as a new question.

I followed the suggestions (answer by @RemBem) and was able to have the Wacom preference pane open using a combination of the most recent supported driver for my Intuos2 tablet and an updated info.plist.

However, most of the preference pane is grey and it is not useful. I wonder if anyone has a suggestion.

Here is what I observe.

The system sometimes also gets into a state where it thinks it needs to restart the System Preferences, but restarting doesn't help and it loops.

I suggest investigating the fixed drivers available from https://github.com/thenickdude/wacom-driver-fix — I have an Intuos 3 working well with macOS 11 (Intel CPU) here using the driver from that source. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully to get things working.
Pity I can't add this answer to the question at Is it possible to use old Wacom tablet on 10.11? where it might be useful too, the wonders of StackExchange reputation methodology ……


MacBook sleeps on changing lid inclination I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch early 2015 model. For the last few days, my MacBook started to sleep when I change the inclination angle of the lid. On repeated pressing of the Shutdown button, it wakes up.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know the root cause?

Usually it comes down to one of a few things. Here are a few based on the info there is to go on.

Reset the System Management Controller

To resolve nearly every power related issue on a Mac you can reset the SMC (or System Management Controller0. This will dump and reset settings for anything power management related, and is long known to resolve problems with things like fans, heat, sleep problems, display issues, etc.

On any modern MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with a built-in battery, which is just about all of them nowadays, this is how you do that:

Shut down the Mac and connect it to your MagSafe adapter and a wall
outlet as usual
Hold down the Shift+Control+Option+Power button at the same time for 5 seconds.
Release all keys at the same time
Boot the Mac as usual

Try a PRAM/NVRAM Reset

If the above trick failed, a PRAM reset can at times do the trick, and this is done upon restarting the Mac similar to an SMC reset:

Reboot the Mac and as soon as you hear the boot chime, hold and keep down the Command+Option+P+R keys together
When you hear the boot sound again, the PRAM has been reset so you can now let go of the keys and let the Mac boot up again as usual

Lastly, it can be hardware that is beginning to fail or failing.

A good way to check is by running Apple Diagnostics located on your computer.
There is a process in which it should be run and you can read the full documentation at Apple's website.


What is installer.failurerequests in the root directory? I just noticed a file called installer.failurerequests in my root directory:

cd /
ls
Applications/              User Information@          cores/                     installer.failurerequests  sbin/
Library/                   Users/                     dev/                       net/                       tmp@
Network/                   Volumes/                   etc@                       opt/                       usr/
System/                    bin/                       home/                      private/                   var@

It's a plist of some sort and its contents read as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>Operation</key>
        <string>fsck target</string>
        <key>CrashAtProgress</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</array>
</plist>

What is that file and what it is doing in /?  I am on OS 10.11.3

It's safe to delete this file.

It is a file left behind by the OS X installer in later versions. It seems to always be there after installation, so its existence does not indicate a failure in it self.

What the installer actually uses the file for is not known to me. It might be used if the installer fails/crashes, to indicate what the installer was doing at the time of the crash - but this is guesswork.


can't set iPhone 6+ headphones to max or full volume when playing music When I'm playing music in Spotify or any app with Apple earphones or auxiliary cable in my car, I can't turn music up to full volume. It goes as far as yellow indicator and 'High Volume' but won't go into the red. I wanna go up to 11 baby! Strange thing is it used to work a month ago, it used to go to the red. I didn't upgrade iOS or anything, I'm on jailbroken 8.1.1. I also have volume limit turned off in Music settings. I checked the earphone jack for lint and it seems clean.

I've Googled for days here and at a loss. Unless I'm using the Googles wrong, it seems I'm in the minority with this problem.

Turns out it was the jailbreak Activator tweak from Ryan Petrich. When I uninstalled it, I can go to full volume again.


Mysterious unidentified error message I keep getting this error on my Mac (see attached screenshot).

It happened yesterday and now today again.

The dialog is not associated with any application (at least, when I select it, it does not change the menu bar). In exposé the app title that it is given when mouse over is "UserNotificationCenter".

I can't find any info about this error on-line and I wondered if anyone had any ideas or any way to investigate it further.

Running 10.11.3.

I'm not sure, but it looks suspicious. Poorly written, use of exclamation mark, reference to "PC" - it all looks weird. It's pretty useless too - you get an "OK" button and nothing else? What sort of dialog is that?!

Maybe check your date/time settings, but if there's no problem, I'd be a bit concerned about malware. Did you install any software recently?


Transferring photos from iPhone to windows computer I recently purchased an iPhone 5. I was using an android device before this. When I made the switch from android to iPhone I synced my photos from my android device onto my iPhone 5. When I synced those photos over it made duplicates of every photo and stored them in a photo album (not camera roll).

How can I get the photos from that album on my iPhone onto my windows computer and delete the duplicates?

I am running the Windows 7 OS. So far I have tried importing photos and the only photos it will import are those from camera roll.

tems in the Camera Roll or the Saved Photos album of your device can be imported to your computer, just make sure to follow the instructions provided in the "Importing photos to your computer" section of this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4236


Can I transmit audio from iPhone to Mac via a Bluetooth A2DP profile? Is there any way to connect my iPhone 4 to my Mac Mini via Bluetooth so that I can play music on my iPhone and hear it on the speakers connected to my Mac?

When I try to connect to my computer via my iPhone's Bluetooth screen, it says "Connection Unsuccessful: 'My Mac mini' is not supported." However, if I take a look at the Bluetooth page in the system preferences of my Mac, I see that the following two services are listed for my iPhone: Audio Source and AVRCP Device (I had to enable the "Show More Info" option to see these).

While browsing the this site, I found a link to another answer that might be useful. So, it looks like a Sony Ericsson MBR-100 wireless dongle attached to the computer should do the trick. I've never used it (or even heard of it before today) but it sounds like it should work.

The reason the computer doesn't work is that both the computer support the A2DP profile but both as a server but not as a receiver. There might be a software solution to get the Mac to support A2DP as a client but I don't know of one.

Another option which doesn't quite do what you want but might be useful would be to use the Remote app on your iPhone to control your iTunes library remotely. This allows you to uses the iPhone as a remote control for your iTunes.


MacOS timed won't keep accurate time My MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports, 16GB) running Big Sur 11.1 won't keep accurate time. It's regularly up to a minute off. I verified this using:

https://time.gov
Comparison with my iPhone
sudo sntp -d time.apple.com

I've tried sntp -sS time.apple.com, and it doesn't adjust the time. I'd expect it to step to the right time, given we're (way!) more than 50ms off.
I've tried turning off automatic time sync in the system preferences, then setting the time right by hand, then turning automatic sync back on and it puts the clock back to the wrong time!
I've tried killing timed - it's restarted and the time remains wrong.
I've tried removing /var/db/timed/com.apple.timed.plist and then restarting timed. It recreates the file and the time remains wrong.
Reading this question, I checked the contents of the plist file, but mine doesn't appear to have any store of the current offset:
# plutil -p com.apple.timed.plist
{
  "BootUUID" => "<redacted>"
  "HostUUID" => "<redacted>"
  "RTCResetCount" => 0
  "TMLastNtpFetchAttempt" => 5331203.310338818
  "TMLastRtcTime" => 5331203.336288487
  "TMSystemTimeSet" => 0
  "TMTimeSynthesizer" => {length = 499, bytes = 0x62706c69 73743030 d4010203 04050607 ... 00000000 00000179 }
  "TMVersionKey" => 17
}

No mention of TMLastSystemTime or TMTimeError.
I'm at my wits end with this. It's a real problem because it often prevents me using 1Password-generated TOTP codes because the drift is so bad.
Any ideas, please?

There are other reports saying that time under Big Sur is not as accurate as it used to be, does not fully correct the time and in some cases maybe in error by many seconds. For example Time Synchronization Command line in MacOS Big Sur
In my case (2019 iMac) the time was consistently about 60 to 70 mS fast.
A simple command line check is to use the terminal command sntp pool.ntp.org. For examples:
sntp pool.ntp.org
+0.000444 +/- 0.084480 pool.ntp.org 129.250.35.250

sntp time.apple.com
+0.000304 +/- 0.000214 time.apple.com 17.253.66.125

This result is showing what my iMac now achieves - the first number shows an error of less than 1 mS.
To achieve this accuracy Apple's timed daemon needs to be replaced.
The cross-platform app for this is Chrony. This can be installed easily via Homebrew but its configuration might be considered as something of a black art.  Much easier is to use ChronyControl.  Just download, unzip and drag the app to /Applications.
With SIP disabled (if only temporarily) you can disable Apple's timed using:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.timed.plist

But don't worry if you want SIP enabled at all times, the timed daemon uses very little resources and ChronyControl will prevent it making time changes.
The first time you run ChronyControl, it will configure everything for you including starting the chronyd daemon with a default configuration, configuring logs and starting a helpful GUI app. Here is the GUI:

and the tracking display:

The only change I have made to the configuration is to replace the use of general purpose servers pool.ntp.org with a country specific set of servers au.pool.ntp.org.
The only other thing you might want to change is that ChronyControl puts the configuration file in /etc/chrony.d. Better, perhaps, to put it in /usr/local/etc/chrony.d.
Chrony is open source (and free), ChronyControl is donation-ware ($15 suggested) and its from the developer of the long established WhatRoute network utility.
I got started on using Chrony as a result of Feek's post on MacRumors to whom I give full credit for the discovery.


Can I play audio from my iPhone on my Mac? Can I attach my iPhone 3GS to my Mac Pro so that the iPhone's audio plays through the Mac Pro's speakers?

I can easily attach my Bose headphones so that the music from the iPhone plays through them… that's cool… but I want others to hear the music through my Mac Pro's speaker system.

Simple, and simply surprising:

First, check that you have enabled the iPhone/iPad as an audio input device in Audio Midi Setup.app:

Plug in your iPhone to your Mac using your Lightning Cable (doesn't work with 30 pin iPhones, sorry. [Yes I know you said 3GS])

Launch QuickTime Player

Choose File> New Audio Recording

Click the hard-to-see down arrow next to the Record 'button', choose iPhone under 'Microphone'

Play your music, game whatever on your iPhone, sound will come thru your Mac.

No need to hit record, the sound will play even if you don't record. Just turn up the volume.

Note: for those who want a louder volume, go to the system preferences on your Mac. Then go to the sound settings and you can increase the output volume so it is louder.


Copy message_id from selected message In Mail, when I've selected a message, I would like to have a shortcut to copy the message_id (see my previous question) to the clipboard.

How do I manage that? Applescript, I presume?

That's doable as well.  Paste the text below into AppleScript Editor (find it simply with Spotlight by typing "⌘Space AppleScriptEditor" and hitting the enter key when it's highlighted).

tell application "Mail"

    set theSelection to selection
    set theMessage to first item of theSelection
    set theUrl to "message://<" & message id of theMessage & ">"
    set the clipboard to theUrl

end tell

You can test this by pressing the run button in the editor (with a message selected in Mail). Once you're satisfied, save the script as "Copy Message URL to Clipboard" under either:

  /Users/yourusername/Library/Scripts

or even better

  /Library/Scripts/Mail Scripts

To save it to the Mail Scripts folder, first save it to your Desktop.  Then open a Finder window and do ⇧⌘G, type the path to the Mail Scripts Folder and hit enter to view that folder.  Now drag your newly created script to that folder.

While you're in the AppleScript Editor, you probably want to go ahead and enable the AppleScript Menu for the toolbar so that you can find and run the script easily.  To do this, open AppleScript-> Preferences (⌘,) and check the box labeled "Show Script menu in menu bar". Now you'll be able to access the script easily from

  Scripts menu -> Mail Scripts->Copy Message URL to Clipboard

Reference: Some of the AppleScript displayed above was snipped from a portion of this AskDifferent answer


How to block everything except my connection to the VPN? I'm trying to make Murus block everything, except my connection to the VPN server. I don't want my Mac to make any outbound calls to any ports unless via the VPN connection. I'm trying to add a rule that allows the VPN, while everything else is blocked by set block-policy drop.

I can connect to the VPN, but nothing works aside from that. Can you point me to the right direction?

I can make direct changes in pf.conf too (this should not necessarily be Murus).

Little Snitch (a highly customizable firewall for macOS) has the functionality you are looking for.

First create a profile for a VPN connection. (allow all in/out traffic) Then create a second profile, which would block all in/out traffic. Lastly, set-up automatic profile switching based on the current state of connection to the VPN server.

Check out this guide for more info.

  Once you’ve got Little Snitch’s automatic profile switching enabled,
  it will prompt you to choose the appropriate profile when you join
  foreign networks. You should obviously choose your untrusted profile.
  For both your known trusted networks and your VPN connection, you
  should configure the trusted profile to be selected. Once you’ve done
  this, all the pieces will come together. When you are on a public
  network, you can select the untrusted profile, and it will block all
  traffic until you establish a VPN connection. After that, it will
  automatically switch over to your trusted profile.


How to only include certain Podcasts on the iPhone with the Podcasts app I subscribe to several podcasts, but only want a small few to be downloaded to my phone. It does not appear to be possible to specify which podcasts the Podcasts app should be downloading and which ones it shouldn't. If this is possible, I would like to know how.

EDIT: With more recent iOS updates, this technique is no longer as useful. Playlists are useful to control whether an episode is sync'ed to the device. If a podcast is in a playlist, and that playlist is selected to sync to the iOS device, then all the podcasts in that playlist will be transferred to the device.

What no longer works is being able to create a playlist in iTunes and then play that playlist on an iOS device. There is only a single Up Next playlist available, and you have to manage it on each device.

ORIGINAL: I use Podcasts on my MacBook Pro, my iPhone 5 and my iPad Air 2. The only thing that I have found to work is this setup.

All my downloads of new episodes, etc. are done on the MacBook Pro. I basically leave iTunes running most of the time even when I am away and only have my portable devices with me.

I use Playlists on the MacBook pro iTunes to sort episodes for which device. Video podcasts primarily go to the iPad and audio primarily to the phone, but when flying I often put audio podcasts on the iPad to save battery life on the phone.

Then in iTunes I connect each device and use the settings for the device to control which podcasts and which playlists are synced to the device. I generally only sync checked files and I uncheck episodes after they are played.

Also in iTunes on the MacBook Pro I have smart playlists for recently played and recently added and I use those to help me find the newer Podcast episodes quickly and to uncheck played episodes quickly.

This is admittedly a lot of work. I spend a couple hours or more each week managing my playlists. I sync nearly every day to add new episodes and clean up old episodes. I just could never make the "automatic" sync'ing work the way I wanted, so I decided to take control of it with these techniques.

Final Note: in iTunes Preferences on the Store tab, I turn off Sync Podcast subscriptions and settings. I have found there is a bug in this process that sometimes causes iTunes to stop downloading any podcasts. There was some discussion on the Apple Support Forums that pointed me to this change.


Photos library can't be opened because "in use by another program" I copied a Photos library from an external (USB) drive to an internal drive but Photos refuses to open it because it be "in use by another program".

How can this be "fixed"?

I can't even get to the repair dialog by pressing Option-Command while starting Photos - the other dialog is faster.

I'm experiencing this problem from time to time. For example after I've just added pictures to my Photos.app library and then restarted Photos.app (for whatever reason). The problem seems to be, that spotlight starts doing indexing in the photos library directory and messes up with Photos.app... If you wait for a couple of minutes the problem should go away by itself. In my case restarting Photos.app does not help, restarting my Mac does not help, ejecting and then remounting the external hard drive again does not help either. The only thing that works is waiting.

If your external drive is slow, or if you've added lots and lots of photos it might take longer.


Logitech Mouse: how can I use additional buttons? I recently bought a Logitech M560 mouse.
It works fine on my Mac, but I wonder if there's a software/prefpane (free or paid) I can use to map the additional buttons I have on my mouse (i.e. to open dashboard, select line, etc...)
Logitech at the moment offers no support for Mac for this model (I was aware of this when I bought the mouse)

Without any configuration the bottom side button works as "Add bookmark" in Chrome, so I think I can do something for this...

Thanks to the previous answers, I have successfully used BetterTouchTool to map three different buttons:

Usign "Normal Mice" tab:

Button 3 (Wheel Left)
Button 4 (Wheel right)

Usign "Keyboard" tab:

cmd + D (Back), which I assigned to "Middle click".

Two buttons remain unmappable (Forward and Middle click), but it is better than nothing. Hope that it will fit to your needs.


Is there a way to setup an ad-hoc network without "losing" the device? Right now, when setting up an ad-hoc network, using the "Create Network" feature in OS X/macOS, the device creating the network is "lost" – meaning that it can't be used for normal internet connectivity anymore.

My question would be, if it's possible through some CLI utility or an app to create an ad-hoc network, but still be able to use the Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet?

In the early days of 802.11b, you could set a radio to either be in Access Point -> Station mode, or AdHoc, but not both simultaneously.  And, depending on the vendor, client devices, such as PCMCIA cards, couldn't be AP's without special firmware or software.

Nowadays, operating systems and chipset vendors have blurred the lines between infrastructure networks and adhoc to make tethering and home sharing easier.  Nevertheless, just as you can't connect to more than one SSID (wireless network) at a time, you can't host an SSID as an AP and join another one as a client.  Also, most client devices (computers, phones, and tablets) don't have the radio hardware necessary to be a repeater.

To do what you want, you'd need two WiFi adapters, one integrated and one USB, or an external device that acts as a WiFi-Ethernet bridge.


Changing SSD's and keeping everything I have a mid 2010 13" MBP.

I have an SSD, its not big enough so I am upgrading from 128GB to 256GB.

How can I take everything from the current SSD and then upload it to the new SSD - effectively giving me the same machine without installing OSX all over again?

Presumably I will need some new tech to read the SSD, copy it and then copy everything back once I have changed the SSD into the MBP?

How can I take everything from the current SSD and then upload it to the new SSD - effectively giving me the same machine without installing OSX all over again?
I upgraded my SSD some time ago in a similar configuration (128 GB->256 GB, MacBook Pro 15-inch early 2011).
Below is the procedure that worked for me, but note that for this to work your Mac must support OS X Internet Recovery. According to KB article "OS X: About OS X Recovery" (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718):

Mac models introduced after public availability of OS X Lion include
the ability to start up directly from an Internet-based version of the
OS X Recovery system.

which means that models manufactured before July 20, 2011 need a firmware update.
In your case you must have MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) EFI Firmware Update 2.5 or later installed, and that's probably the case, because most firmware updates are available as regular updates in Software Update/App Store.
To find out whether it is installed: Go to Apple menu > About This Mac, press System Report...:

and check if Boot ROM/SMC Version Information is MB71.0039.B0E or greater. If that's the case, you're good to go. Otherwise install it.
These are the steps:

Back up old SSD with Time Machine by selecting "Back Up Now" in menu bar:

Shut down Mac and replace SSD.

Start Mac while holding down ⌘-R and choose "Restore From Time Machine Backup":

Choose new SSD drive as target, wait until restore is completed and reboot.

This will let you keep everything.


USB tethering gone after upgrading to iOS 9 and iTunes 12.3 After upgrading my iPhone 6 to iOS 9, and iTunes to 12.3, I cannot use the Personal Hotspot via USB anymore. It worked fine until the updates.

Through WiFi it works fine, so the cause is not that Personal Hotspot wasn't turned on, or that the Cellular Data Network settings weren't correct. Also, after I plug in the USB, the device does show up in iTunes, and Image Capture sees it too.

So, Personal Hotspot works and USB works, but the two not together.

This is what the Network preferences show on OS X (Yosemite 10.10.5):
"Either the cable for iPhone USB is not plugged in or the device is not responding."

And here is a screenshot from the iPhone's Personal Hotspot. The blue badge shows I'm successfully connected via WiFi:

Also, it seems I'm not alone. Any pointers on how to fix it?

Update:
Per @SeeMeCode's answer, you can re-install iTunes to solve the problem.

Solved.
I found the solution here. It's caused by a damaged kernel extension /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext.
When I check /var/log/system.log, sure enough there is:
Sep 17 08:00:58 wagner.local com.apple.kextd[45]: Kext id com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHostMergeProperties not found; removing personalities from kernel.
Sep 17 08:00:58 wagner.local com.apple.kextd[45]: ERROR: invalid signature for com.apple.macos.driver.AppleUSBEthernetHost, will not load

This extension is installed with iTunes, so the cause was update to iTunes 12.3, not iOS 9. I tried to download iTunes and reinstall it, but it just installed the same damaged version of the kernel extension. So instead, I replaced it from a Time Machine backup as both the currently installed and the backed up version had the same version number 7.0.
After a restart, USB tethering works again.
To distinguish between the two, here's what the working one looks like:

$ ls -lR /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  6 root  wheel  204 Jan 10  2015 Contents

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext/Contents:
total 16
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  3202 Jan 10  2015 Info.plist
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel   102 Jan 10  2015 MacOS
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel   102 Jan 10  2015 _CodeSignature
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   474 Jan 10  2015 version.plist

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext/Contents/MacOS:
total 128
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  63024 Jan 10  2015 AppleUSBEthernetHost

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature:
total 8
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  3668 Jan 10  2015 CodeResources

And the damaged one:

$ ls -lR AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  5 ischeini  staff  170 Aug  5 00:30 Contents

Contents:
total 16
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ischeini  staff  3202 Aug  5 00:30 Info.plist
drwxr-xr-x  3 ischeini  staff   102 Aug  5 00:30 MacOS
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ischeini  staff   473 Aug  5 00:30 version.plist

Contents/MacOS:
total 144
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 ischeini  staff  71792 Aug  5 00:30 AppleUSBEthernetHost


Need to install SL on Mavericks external drive I have a 2012 iMac 21" with the latest Mavericks.  I also have a need for a bootable Snow Leopard external drive so I can run Boot Camp with XP.  I purchased a Snow Leopard Retail install disk only to find the iMac refuses to boot from it and instead I get a blue screen with Black insert showing unix style error messages.  Sorry, but unable to capture these.

I have no doubt I am missing something here, but at a loss for what it is.

Newer Macs can't run older OSX.

A 2012 iMac will run a Mountain Lion and upward.


How to remove app from iOS by name I know that I can remove app by long tapping on any icon on desktop and then tap the cross sign. But what if I have many apps and don’t want to waste my time to scroll among desktops to find specific app. I can find any app by search by name via drop down on desktop. Unfortunately in this case there is no ability to delete app (I didn’t find it), only to run. How can I remove app quickly only knowing its name?

Settings > General > iPhone Storage > (App Name) > Delete App


Is there a list of pre-installed command-line tools for macOS? I'm currently in the process of developing some shell scripts but have run into a problem: whilst I am able to execute numerous commands on my Mac, when I try to run it on other people's computers I get Command not found errors indicating that they do not have the specific command line tools installed.

It is my belief that many of these tools come as a result of installing Xcode and other package managers like Homebrew. My question is: is there a list or another way of finding out if a specific command (tool) is pre-installed on a standard Mac computer (without Xcode installed) without having to manually test it on someone else's computer?

For example, this post hints that git is pre-installed which is only the case if you have installed Xcode, otherwise, git is unavailable.

P.S. For my specific case, I am wondering if hexdump is pre-installed or not (without Xcode)

Actually it looks like there is a simple way to know that.

At Terminal prompt hit the Escape (or TAB) twice

It will ask you if you want to Display all 1527 possibilities? (y or n).

Or here https://ss64.com/osx/


Is it possible to create a text list of all my apps on the (Mac) App Store? Since I can't copy the list of my 'Purchased' Apps on Apple's App Store, I'm wondering if there's any other way to do this. I have little computer savvy, so if there's a solution it'd have to be step-by-step. Thanks.

In systems up to 10.11.6 you can save the "Purchased" page as html file to disk:

Quit App Store.app
Open Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities
Enter defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true and hit the Return/⏎ key to show the debug menu in App Store.app.
Open App Store.app (check that the "Debug" menu is available!)

If you have some hidden purchases and want them to be listed also, unhide them in your account.
Open the "Purchased" page - log in with your Apple ID if required.
Hit cmdU
Quit App Store.app
Bring Terminal.app to the front and enter:

cp ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.appstore/Data/Library/Documentation/pageSource.html ~/Desktop/pageSource.html

and hit the Return/⏎ key. The pageSource.html file is now on your desktop and can be opened with a browser
(Enter defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool false and hit the Return/⏎ key to remove the debug menu in App Store.app again.)
Enter exit and hit the Return/⏎ key.
Quit Terminal.app


2008 MacBook Air Can't Boot OS X Snow Leopard USB Install Drive I have a 2008 MacBook Air (MB003LL/A / MacBookAir1,1 / A1237 / 2142), and I am trying to reformat it with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, using the retail install DVD image snowleopard_10a432_userdvd.dmg restored to a USB flash drive with Disk Utility. I do not have an external DVD drive to use.

Whenever I try to boot, I get a "no" sign after a few minutes of waiting after the Apple logo.
If I boot it in verbose mode, I get:

USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): AF429H02YE09000451 0x154b 0x7a 0x1100
AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: initialization complete
Still waiting for root device
Still waiting for root device
Still waiting for root device

...and so on.

Does anyone know how I can solve this issue?

It can't find the kernel files.  When you turn on your Mac make sure you  pressing and holding the the "Option" key then selecting the USB flash?

If you are still having difficulty, then the creation of the USB flash disk didn't go so well.  I am assuming that you have a good DMG image of the Snow Leopard DVD.

You can't just "copy" or restore the image to the USB flash, you have to format and partition it first.  See How to Create a Bootable USB Drive With OS X Snow Leopard for a good tutorial on how to do just that.

Once you are done, you should be able to boot from the USB flash and install OS X.


iOS Wi-Fi is turned off for some application and cannot turn on? This actually looks like an iOS bug. There are quite some related issues that I cannot put all of them in the problem subject, so I am going to describe the background now.
Update by the end of 2020: Based on the follow-ups and answers, it seems that this problem still exists in iOS 14 and also occurs on Apple Watch.

iOS 10 has a region-specific function, that allows Chinese iPhone users to turn off Internet access completely, not just cellular data access. This function is associated with the iPhone model, not with cellular network operators, actual location of users, or language settings. This means it applies to iPhone bought in a Chinese Apple Store, a Chinese authorized store, or from an authorized Chinese website. Not sure if it has to be China, though. Anyway, a US model will not support this function, which means you can only turn off cellular access if your iPhone is a US model. Here is a third-party description of this function but it is in Chinese: 具透 | 你可能不知道，iOS 10 有一个中国「特供」的联网权限功能
Screenshots for this function:

The disturbing problem that I actually wanted to ask, happens this way:
I have two iPhones, an iPhone 5 (Chinese model, for China Mobile) and an iPhone 5s (US model, for T-mobile, and also works with AT&T), both running iOS 10.2.1 (latest version when I was encountered with the issue). None of them has a SIM card inside, which means I cannot use cellular data on either of them.
I backed up the iPhone 5 and recovered the backup on the iPhone 5s. The motivation is simply to migrate from one to the other.
For most of the applications and settings it worked well.
However, there are two applications, which when I open them, say "Wi-Fi is turned off for name of the application". (I cannot provide a screenshot for this because this dialogue only appeared once for impacted apps, even if I re-install the apps.) The dialogue pointed me to Settings, but the US iPhone 5s does not have Wi-Fi on/off switches in the Settings, and cellular data was set to "on". Now, these application cannot use the Internet -- they just say "No Internet connection".

What I tried:

Turn off cellular access of impacted apps. Problem persisted.

Turn on cellular access of impacted apps, again. Problem persisted.

Delete the app from the home screen, and reinstall from the App Store. Problem persisted.

Go to Settings/General/Reset, and reset the network settings. Wi-Fi passwords were removed, however, when I reconnect to Wi-Fi, those apps still cannot use Internet.

Checking if anyone has had similar issue, and if possible, how to fix this without resetting everything on the iPhone 5s.
I am not sure why some apps are impacted while some others are not. Impacted apps are:

CamScanner. It uses Internet to sync scanned files.

不背单词. It is an English learning app that uses Internet to download vocabulary.

This might be relevant and might not be. It could be some settings on the iPhone 5 making such difference but I no longer have access to those settings on the iPhone 5 now.

2ND UPDATE:
It got worse after iOS 14.2 update. \WLAN and Data for Camera and some critical apps are turned off so I had to do extensive search, or the phone would become somewhat unusable.
Cause: The cause seems to be the Watch app. There are some connections between apps on the Apple Watch and iOS, and there seem to be a bug regarding how the network setting are shared and sync'ed between Watch and iOS apps. So most likely the problematic apps had been installed both on iOS and Watch.
Solution: Reset all settings. Resetting network settings wouldn't work. You have to reset all settings (no data or media would be deleted).
Go to: General > Reset > Reset All Settings. After a reset you are done.
All settings will be deleted, so you will need to do some configurations. Wallpapers, dark mode, keyboard, region, date and time, Siri, etc. However you get to keep all your apps and data, which is okay to me.
Don't forget to turn on Siri as you lose CarPlay capability if Siri is off.
======
UPDATE:
Again this problem is gone with iOS 14.1 update that was applied two days ago! Apple please look after your regression test.
======
Sadly, this problem is still there even in latest iOS 14!
WLAN and Cellular Data will turn off for random apps and could never be turned on. Last time I saw this was on my iPhone SE 1st generation with iOS 12.
There was no way to fix the problem. I tried everything. Only after upgrading to iOS 13 did the problem go away and never came back. I thought that was the end of it. I guess there was a structural change made to the configuration table for app network access so the problem was gone.
Now I encounter the same problem with iOS 14! Nowhere to fix the problem, but can only wait for the next system update.


How to store note only on my Mac in Notes 4? I'm trying the new Notes.app version 4 with El Capitan. I "upgraded" my existing data to be compatible wit the newly revamped version of this app.

I have an "iCloud" group on the left panel, with a couple folders. But I do not have an "On my Mac" group.

So how do I store notes only on my Mac rather than through iCloud?

Choose Notes > "On My Mac" Account

I have just opened Notes on El Capitan to verify this. Please click on Notes in the menu bar, then click on "On My Mac" Account to access the local storage facility. The new group will appear upon clicking this option.


How do I force Keynote to sync with iCloud? When I create new Keynote presentations on my Mac they are not showing up on my iOS devices. I noticed when I open a document from iCloud there is a dotted iCloud symbol in the file viewer.

Is there a way to manually force the sync to occur? Last time I resolved this by disabling my iCloud account and re-enabling it, this is pretty painful though as it takes awhile.

Anyone know why these documents won't sync?

Ok so I got ahold of Apple support and they helped me resolve the issue by deleting the Keynote preferences file located at

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iWork.Keynote.plist

They instructed me to move it to the Desktop for backup purposes and then reboot the system, after rebooting and opening Keynote again the file was regenerated and the issue was resolved. They then had me trash the old property list file.


Launchctl difference between load and start, unload and stop I was reading through the launchctl man page and have a few questions about its functioning:

What is the difference between load and start, unload and stop?
Where do I find the job label for a daemon, is it in the plist file?

TL;DR

You typically want to use launchctl load -w and launchctl unload -w.
start and stop are usually reserved for testing or debugging a job.

Details

launchctl start <label>: Starts the job. This is usually reserved just for testing or debugging a particular job.
launchctl stop <label>: Stops the job. Opposite of start, and it's possible that the job will immediately restart if the job is configured to stay running.

launchctl remove <label>: Removes the job from launchd, but asynchronously. It will not wait for the job to actually stop before returning, so no error handling on this one.

launchctl load <path>: Loads and starts the job as long as the job is not "disabled."
launchctl unload <path>: Stops and unloads the job. The job will still restart on the next login/reboot.

launchctl load -w <path>: Loads and starts the job while also marking the job as "not disabled." The job will restart on the next login/reboot.
launchctl unload -w <path>: Stops and unloads and disables the job. The job will NOT restart on the next login/restart.

  Where do I find the job label for a daemon, is it in the plist file?

Yes, it's in the plist file and it typically matches the filename of the plist file.


Tracing the forward use of values in formulas in Numbers I use Numbers version 3.1 on Mavericks.

One can easily look at a formula in a given cell and immediately see the other cell references it uses.  I think of this as a backwards look.

Does any means or mechanism exist to do this forward rather than backwards?  By this I mean, can I trace the uses of a value or calculation in a cell as the propagate forward (typically down or to the right) through a spreadsheet - what formulas will use it rather than have used it.

I have used other spreadsheets, which had such a feature,  I just can't find it in Numbers.

If anyone knows how to do this please advise.

I presume you are referring to the formula relationship tool available in Excel:

I don't believe this feature is available in Numbers. You can notify Apple that you would like this feature implemented using their Numbers feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/numbers.html


Remux Videos for iTunes Playability? What video formats are usable within iTunes, specifically for syncability/playability on iOS devices?

I understand that we're talking about a number of different things here:

Container format
Video codec
Audio codec
Subtitle format

I have a fairly extensive library of many different kinds of videos, and the prevailing formats are MKV and AVI.  I don't really know what codecs are most common in my library, but they pretty much fall under the generic MPEG4 banner, I suppose.

Whenever I research this question on my own, Google results are saturated with transcoding utilities (both paid and free).  Sure, transcoding makes for a simple "one click and it magically makes my home video play on my iPad" solution, but for my library it presents a few problems:

Loss of quality
Significant investment in time and computing resources

Is it possible that most of what I have is close enough and just needs to be re-muxed into a different container format?  Is there a utility (even command-line) which I could try for this?  How would I use that utility to remux and not transcode?

I have been fighting this issue myself, with some success - but mostly, I have reverted to getting more of my collection in MP4 in the first place.

Subler is a must have to begin. It effortlessly does remuxing of MKV to MP4, including soft subtitles and iTunes Metadata. So for most MKVs, it is a breeze to get them into iTunes in a tidy manner.

When it comes to AVI and other formats, it's a bit trickier. AVI tend to be used with video codecs such as DivX or XviD, and although they could be remuxed into an MP4 container, it seems iTunes will not read it.

If you wanna play around with remuxing, your best bet is ffmpeg. You will need to compile it yourself or Google for binaries.

I'd advice you to convert your MKVs using Subler, and to re-rip/re-download the AVIs in a newer format where possible. What is left you can transcode using Handbrake.


How to automatically highlight and save the search keyword in a pdf? How to dynamically highlight and save, the keyword searched in a pdf document, with the Preview application?

For example, I want to highlight all the 'Apple' keyword in a document and save it, so when I open the document again, I see all the 'Apple' keywords are highlighted.

Preview already highlights all the words it found using search.

You can not save the document as such (showing the found words).


What are the differences between an iPod touch and an iPhone 4S? I see that the prices for the 64GB iPhone 4S and iPod touch are the same.

Besides having a phone as well as the monthly data fee and Siri, which I see is on the iPhone 4S, are there any other difference between the two products that I may be missing?  It looks like both use the same version of iOS.

The iPhone 4S has a much more powerful processor and better graphics performance. It's a dual core A5 processor, whereas the latest iPod Touch 4G still uses the A4 processor.

You will see a better throughout system performance and have the ability to play more resource demanding games.

If you're looking for my opinion about what to buy, I recommend you buy the iPhone 4S. After all: You can always use an iPhone as an iPod, but not vice versa.


How do I replace an alias by the original file it is linking to? I have a folder containing several alias for pdf's that each have > 200 mb. Each pdf is in a different location on my drive.

I need to compress all of those files.

What is the fastest way to do it?

There is always the slow way of going to each of the alias, right clicking it, copying the original to a predefined folder, repeat this procedure for every alias and finally compress the folder with all the original pdfs

Evidently this will take forever! Is there a fastest way? For example using Terminal.

Related, Is it possible to copy the original file of an alias using keyboard shortcuts?

Smart Folders are a great way to accomplish your desired result of gathering the files.  No matter where the file is on your drive, all can be selected then compressed.

Create a Smart Folder In the Finder, choose File > New Smart Folder, or press options+⌘+N.
To search for files, enter a topic, a phrase, or another parameter in
the search field.
To determine whether the search should include only the names of files
or their entire contents, choose “Name matches” in the menu that
appears below the search field, then click Name, then choose
either Filename or Everything.
To search for additional specific attributes, click the Add button
(+) below the search field, then make choices using the search
attribute pop-up menus that appear.
The menus work in pairs; for example, to search for images, you choose
Kind from the pop-up menu on the left, then choose Images from the
pop-up menu next to it.
Click Save, then specify a name and location for your Smart
Folder.
If you don’t want your Smart Folder to be in the sidebar, deselect Add
To Sidebar.
You can’t use certain characters, including punctuation such as a
colon (:), in folder names. If an error message appears, try using
another name. You can then save the folder for future use.

When you are satisfied that you have the files you need, select them and then compress.


Mavericks Mail- Sent folder not updating Ever since my upgrade to Mavericks my sent mail folder has not logged any of the messages I have sent. Any idea how to get it to refresh and find the messages I have sent?

I had this problem as well after upgrading to Mavericks. The solution for me was to select a different Outgoing Mail Server. My Exchange account was set to use the "Exchange SMTP" server (which worked fine for me prior to Mavericks). The other option in the pull down menu was something called "USERNAME@SERVERNAME (Exchange)" so I picked it. This solved the problem. Sent mail once again appears in my Exchange Sent Mail folder.

The weird thing is that this option is not listed as one of the SMTP servers if I click on "Edit SMTP server list".  Maybe it's something other than SMTP?


OS X Server FTP server I'm running an OS X Server with the following services turned on: Web, MySQL, DNS, AFP, Firewall. I'd like to also start FTP, and I did this, but I can't seem to make it work properly. I'm sure there is a way, but I can't find a way to make it work for me.

What I've done so far: - activated the FTP service - opened port 20-21 in the Firewall - forwarded ports 20-21 from the router to the Server

I use Coda to connect to my FTPs (as I do a lot of web development). When I type in this server's address + credentials it tries to connect for about 2-3 minutes before actually succeeding, and when it does it lists the following directories: "Public" (with a shortcut icon), "Users" (with a shortcut icon) and a file named "???" which it tries to open right away. Doing [cmd + k] in Finder also results in a 2-3 minutes waiting.

Also, I have no idea where to create new users for the FTP (just for the FTP) and how to give them permissions to specific directories (without useless ones like "Users" or "Public").

I've come to the conclusion that the built-in FTP server might not be the best option for me, but I have no idea what I should try. Using a separate app is not the ideal scenario for me as I'm trying to avoid keeping extra apps open on my server.

I suggest you use what comes with OSX, namely sftp/scp, included with every OSX since the age of dawn.

Enable SSH in the sharing (Remote Login), configure what users have access and then try to use sftp from the Terminal (if you are familiar with it). Try

man sftp

to see the help.

  DESCRIPTION
       sftp is an interactive file transfer program, similar to ftp(1), which
       performs all operations over an encrypted ssh(1) transport.

You have the benefits of "ftp-like" plus everything is encrypted.

If you still want to go ahead and use ftp, I suggest you take a look at ftpd conf file, located in /etc/ftpd.conf and /etc/ftpusers

In any case, take a look at the man page for ftpd.conf and ftpusers:

man ftpd.conf
man ftpusers

…to see other options you can add there (because the default one will be most likely empty or with little things in it).

There's no pretty program to configure FTP on OSX (there is on the Server version as far as I can remember).

Please note that FTP is not a very secure protocol by default and hence it should be running inside a chroot. (hint: man ftpchroot).


Access Website from VPN connection only I have a Mac Mini Server with Open Directory, File Sharing/WebDAV, VPN, and Website services running.

I can view files from my Mac on my iPad remotely when connected to my VPN. I can also view my website locally. I did not port forward port 80 on my router.

However, I have since requested a static IP with my ISP and purchased a domain name. I have the domain name A record pointed to my IP address.

How can I view my website hosted on my Mac by using my domain name ONLY when I'm connected through VPN? I don't want anyone going to mydomain.com and seeing my site unless they are joined to my VPN.

Right now I can type in the local IP to see the site, but I prefer to use my domain name instead.

Because you want to be able to access the domain only from your local network (which includes the VPN) then you didn't need to get the static IP or domain name. Those are only needed if you want to allow a user to connect from outside the network. For your purpose you just need to set up a domain on your intranet and I found a tutorial at http://www.edugeek.net/forums/internet-related-filtering-firewall/111965-domain-name-intranet-use.html that should work. If it doesn't work then you will be stuck with using the IP Address and out however much you spent on the domain and static IP. However on the bright side you are smart enough not to open up port 80 to the rest of the internet. Good luck!


OSX Launch Daemon for Periodic Screenshots I'm trying to figure out how to create a daemon that will take screenshots every 5 minutes on OSX.

The daemon with launchctl seems to run under a separate session so the screenshots I'm getting right now are just of my blank home screen rather than my actual current session screen.

Currently I have a screencapture script:

#!/bin/bash

screencapture ~/Desktop/$(date +%y%m%d%H%M%S).png

And a plist file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
        <dict>
                <key>Label</key>
                <string>com.startup</string>
                <key>Program</key>
                <string>path_to_script/screenshots.sh</string>
                <key>StartInterval</key>
                <integer>15</integer>
        </dict>
</plist>

In the comments to the question you say "But just want it to track what I'm spending my time doing".
Interpreting your underlying question as being how to track application usage, I will risk being downvoted for not answering your question as in its title.
I think that a large collection of screenshots is not the best way to track what you are doing. Certainly further analysis will be complex.
To track application usage, I use Keyboard Maestro with a one action macro.

This creates a CSV file with three fields: Date, Time and Application name.
That will provide application usage in a form which is amenable to further analysis.


why my mac opens with do not disturb mode although I didn't schedule? I don't choose any option on about Do Not Disturb. I added ss to you can see my settings. But sometimes Do Not Disturb mode opens automatically. (MacOS 11.2 Big Sur, Macbook Air 2017)

Open the terminal
Type killall NotificationCenter

This fixed it for me. I've found the solution on this reddit thread.


What makes Thunderbolt 2 adapter more expensive than TB 3 or USB-C? I have the 2015 MacBook Pro and I was searching online for a hub because I need an Ethernet port and more USB ports.

My first thought was "Oh, no problem. I'll just get one for 5 or 6 dollars".  So, I go online and check what it costs. The average was around 100$ up to 300$ or even more, at the same time, you can buy an identical hub for the Thunderbolt 3(USB-C) connector with price under 15 bucks.

How is this even possible? Are Thunderbolt 2 and 3 that different?

I will get a typical USB hub, it's not a problem, but I would like to know Why does this huge difference exist?

Thunderbolt is expensive because of two reasons:

Licensing fees required by Intel (initially co-developed with Apple but Intel gained all rights in 2012)
Technical requirement of having a Thunderbolt controller module on both the host and peripheral device

Because of the licensing requirements that Intel had, any peripheral product had to pay a royalty to Intel.  So, it was expensive to PC and motherboard manufactures because they had to pay both a license fee and incurred development costs to integrate it into their products.

In comparison to USB, the licensing fees are nominal, making it very cost effective to utilize USB in their products.

However, with the introduction of Thunderbolt 3, Intel removed the licensing fee and they started integrating the technology directly into their processors meaning that it’s now much easier and far cheaper to integrate Thunderbolt into new computers.

As far as compatibility, Thunderbolt 3 is backward compatible with both 1 and 2.  However, it will require an adapter because unlike Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 1 & 2 require an active (powered) cable; the protocol is still the same.

  you can buy an identical hub for the thunderbolt 3(USB-c) connector with price under 15 bucks.

This is a common misconception.  Thunderbolt 3 only uses the USB-C connector, but they are not the same. Thunderbolt 3 is several technologies in one as opposed to just USB:

PCIe
DisplayPort
USB 3.2 (soon to be USB 4)
Power Delivery

It’s the PCIe bus that is key here.  It allows for greater flexibility in terms of peripheral interconnect.  For example, you can hang a PCIe expansion chassis of your laptop and add external GPUs for gaming or data/number crunching applications.

From a personal standpoint, I have used both USB and Thunderbolt Ethernet adapters and found that the Thunderbolt adapters utilized less CPU, especially during heavy load, than their USB counterparts.


Can I install 16GB RAM on quad-core MacBook Pro? I'm planning to buy a new MacBook Pro with quad-core. And I want to install 16GB on it. But there is only 8GB options on Apple's website. Is this possible?

According to Apple the answer is no, but OWC has tested it and found that there are no issues putting 16GB (2x8GB) in the latest generation MacBook Pro. The upgrade doesn't come cheap, though - at this time 2x8GB modules will set you back $1599.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/1333DDR3S16P/


Is there any Mac Application used for part-zooming a picture? I found many screenshots for Mac App Store or iTunes App Store using pictures like this,
I want to find a Mac App can do this work.

This feature is built in ML 10.8 with the accessibility feature zoom. Go to system preferences Accessibility, select zoom the last feature is zoom style select picture-in-picture. This will be a rectangle and follows your mouse any where on screen. You can use option command = (to enlarge) or - (to decrees) the text under the magnifying rectangle, if you have a keyboard with num pad you can use option command + or - for the same effect.


How do I make the Globe key disappear from the keyboard? I do some dev and testing on the iPhone. Recently, I was testing some localizations and needed to change the language. I've since changed back to English, but now whenever I bring up a keyboard a "globe" key is always near the bottom of the keyboard. This annoys the heck out of me because I keep accidentally tapping it. Any way to turn it off?

Under Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards you've got a list of all the keyboard layouts available.
To remove the "Globe" key, you need to have only one keyboard enabled.


Are the Retina MacBook Pro 15" suitable for PC (Windows) gaming? I want to buy a MacBook Pro Retina 15" and install Windows 7 or 8 (boot camp) to play games.

Obviously games aren't ready for this 2880x1800 resolution, so I hope I can set the games to run at 1440x900 and, since this is 1/4 of the native resolution, have a perfect view (perfect scaling) of the game. This is what I dream about... from this, come some questions:

Is it possible, or am I buying a headache? Should I consider the non-retina display to avoid these resolution problems?
Are there any other types of problems that I should consider? Something like "NVidia drivers for Windows in a MacBook generally has this xxx problem...".

There are a great many games that support 2880x1800 and most of them support 2560x1600 (Cinema, Dell, and HP 30" resolutions)

Windows 7 & 8 don't support the quad-pixel and dual-pixel modes of OSX, they do things a bit differently. You always have the 2880x1800 resolution, and simply select larger font size (150% in my case).

Most games will work out fine, but some will need some tweaking (mostly selecting the option Disable display scaling on high DPI output on the compatibility tab.

If you regularily use an external monitor i would reconsider the retina display. Having upgraded to it from a 17" i5 I found out the hard way that neither OSX nor Windows can display different DPI to 2 monitors, hence my 30" Dell is pretty much useless.


macOS catalina install error - this disk doesn't use GUID partition scheme (Au Contraire!) I am trying to upgrade an Late 2013 iMac from OS X 10.9.5 to macOS Catalina.
When I run the catalina installer, it hangs a bit and eventually let's me try to click the drive to install on. After clicking furiously around on it, it eventually pops up the error about I need to use the GUID partition map.

Checking diskutil, I'm greeted by this:
$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

Ok, confused. Let me just check disk utility:

Also says GUID partition map. But what is that weird unlabeled partition above "Macintosh HD". Reboot into recovery mode and run disk utility. I see it's "OSX Base System" or something along those lines. Now when I go look at the partition map on THAT disk? Partition? It says "Apple Partiton map" or something like that. I can't change it in the recovery mode. So what's up? Why does disk utility when running the system not show the "real" partition map type? We can clearly see Macintosh HD here shows GUID partition map. Very confused.
I'd like to upgrade this without reformatting/erasing the drive. Hoping there is some doc or oddity I have not discovered to fix this.
Thank you,

Catalina will only install to APFS, which probably means you will have to install High Sierra first - which will install on HFS+ & convert as it runs.
See How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS? for deeper info on this in general [which unfortunately has got rather long & confusing over the years.]
Jumping this far… definitely have a known-good backup before you start.


How long will FileVault encryption take? Can I stop it? I enabled FileVault to encrypt my hard drive a few days ago. The encryption process is still not finished and the estimated time keeps changing. It's been anything between "4 days" and "300 days". The encryption process running in the background makes my MacBook Air (from mid-2011, OS X Yosemite) heat up very quickly.

I'd quite like to stop the process, or at least know how much longer it will take. How do I do that?

I'm also wondering if, in order to complete the process, I have to keep the computer turned on. Does the computer sleep mode pause the encryption?

I made a back-up of my computer's hard drive before I started the encryption process.

There is no way to stop the initial encryption process once it hat started. But the good news is that you don't need to have your computer running until the process has completed. You can sleep or reboot it anytime you like, the encryption will continue afterwards.


How to set up WebDAV (with wfsctl) on macOS High Sierra with Server 5.6.1? After having upgraded to High Sierra with Server 5.6.1 I want to recreate the WebDAV shares I had. I've used wfsctl to create a share point. The share point has ACL for a specific user. So far so good and wfsctl lists the share, but since Server.app is configuring Apache (a web site is running too) something must be done to make it work. "The Apache http instance for WFS should be configured to run behind macOS Server's proxy." wfsctl diagnose says "Config is valid", btw.

What do I need to do to make this work?

And ... I found the solution (so far).

The issue was that I did not use Wiki Server before on macOS Sierra + Server. Wiki Server was turned off. However, to enable WebDAV sharing on macOS High Sierra + Server, you need to activate Wiki Server in Server.app and turn WebDAV sharing on.

The tip was found on Tod Olthoff's blog: http://www.toddolthoff.com/blog_files/c6e4e39502d35b674693ad80ac2ca042-445.html

So, the only thing I had to do to get my wfsctl managed WebDAV shares running again was to turn Wiki Server on and WebDAV sharing on in Wiki Server.


Mirroring from my iPhone 7+ to aucary projector wirelessly to wall I want to mirror from my iPhone 7+, to an Aucary projector , displaying to a wall.   What adapters, or cables do I need ?   I haven’t been able to connect wirelessly ( Phone showing no wireless connection ) , and I don’t have anything to plug hdmi cord into , with 1 end in projector...               What are my choices ???!
THANKS FOR ANY HELP
STEVEO
steve.albion38@gmail.com

Two options you have to connect your iPhone to a projector.
Option 1) Get an Apple TV and connect that to the projector using a simple HDMI cable on either end. Then use airplay to stream the content of your iPhone to the Apple TV. I personally like this option as then you have a smart projector with plenty of options for playing content without your phone or computer.
Option 2) Get an Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter, which then plugs into your iPhone's lightning port and gives you an HDMI port. From there you can take a simple HDMI cable from the adapter into the projector.
Cost is cheaper on the lightning digital av adapter ($49 USD vs $149-179 USD) however long term you might find having an Apple TV more useful than the adapter.


How can I prevent Photos.app from being launched on OS X? I am trying to find a way to either delete Photos.app (or any other built-in for that matter) or stop it from ever launching (until I decide otherwise).

By the way, I have disabled the auto-launch when I connect a device. But I don't want Photos.app to suggest that I should convert my Aperture library by just clicking on one button. If other people are using my Mac this could happen and did before. Then I have to go in and manually edit my precious library again and I am afraid of destroying the hundreds of hours of work that I already put into it.

Maybe creating a separate user account for Others and move /Applications/Photos.app/ to /Users/Others/Applications/Photos.app and change the ownership of that helps you.


Why does my 2.5 TB HDD appear as a 2.2 TB HDD and a 300 GB HDD? How do I merge them? I have a Western Digital 2.5 TB hard drive. (Model WD25EZRS) It's connected through an external USB dock to my iMac, running Mac OS X Mavericks.

In Disk Utility there are two volumes, totaling 2.5 TB but separate as 2.2 TB and 300 GB. How do I format / partition / group the volumes to use this was one large drive with one partition?

Adding image http://mattmanuel.brace.io/diskutil_for_stackexchange.png

Open Disk Utility (in Application/Utilities). Locate your harddrive on the left. Not one of the partitions, but the whole harddrive. Then click Partition in the tabs on the right (see screenshot). Then click on the the dropdown menu (where Current stands in the screenshot), and select 1 partition (see screenshot 2). Click apply, and wait. Then you have 1 volume.

Note, your data will go lost. Save it somewhere else. Then you can safely put it back, after it has become 1 volume.


Will older Adobe Applications (CS5/CS6) work with Mojave? I have some Adobe applications that I use for occasional work (Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Acrobat).  These are the versions prior to the CC version (Creative Cloud) and they work on El Capitan through High Sierra.

I don't do enough graphics work justify the cost of a monthly CC license and these older version have been more than enough for what I want to do.

Now, with the new Metal framework of Mojave, will the Adobe Apps continue to function?  Contacting Adobe results in a support call that (magically) turns into a sales call for CC.

Has anyone tested Adobe CS5 or 6 products on Mojave beta as of yet and if so, what were the results?

Depends on App

I have tested the following application with basic functionality and ability to open. Tell me if you need me to test others.

Note: I am on Retina computer so it's not going to look great no matter what software I'm using. Also, with almost every app (including Apple Apps) there are error messages about 32-Bit support ending soon or portions of apps are too old to be used but I have found they mostly have no effect on anything.

My Config

MacBookPro 2017
3.5 Ghz Intel Core i7
16GB Memory
macOS Mojave Beta 7

Works

Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Bit slow but not too noticeable
Adobe Illustrator CS6
Adobe Bridge CS6 - Didn't test import but should work
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
Adobe After Effects CS6
Adobe Acrobat X Pro

Does Not Work

Distiller :(

If anyone can add to this please do!


How do you see more than the Last Opened date when an application was launched on Mac? I'd like to find more dates that I've opened an application besides the latest date shown under the Last Opened field.
I was going through my list of apps and found some old ones which I had forgotten about. Trying to jog my memory surrounding them, I stupidly launched them instantly before checking the Get info module for more info on when they were last opened. Now all I see is the current date displayed, and would really like to see earlier launch dates if possible.
Is there any way to see more? A history must be available somewhere right?

See the kMDItemUsedDates field of the output of command
mdls "/Applications/Sublime Text.app"

or any other app.
mdls "/Applications/Sublime Text.app" -name kMDItemUsedDates

will also work.