MacBook Pro 13" M1 has 2880-by-1800 resolution According to Apples tech specs, the new M1 MacBook Pro has a screen resolution of 2560-by-1600.
However, when I make a screen recording via quicktime or take a screenshot via Lightshot, it show that my screen resolution is 2880-by-1800.
What gives?

In short, macOS uses resolution independence. This results in more than one answer for physical, rendered and logical resolution / pixel counts. If you are coming at graphics from the standpoint that every pixel is physical and there is no variance, it’s quite concerning.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202471
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-your-displays-resolution-mchl86d72b76/mac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_independence

Depending on the settings you make for scaling factor and whether an app is toggled for low resolution mode, you will see quite different “overall” resolution as well as actual and rendered resolution. The hardware and software will scale up and down components and select 1x or 2x or 3x artwork to keep items like the menu bar visible, but thin lines thin and text crisp (at least most of the time).


How do I override the terminal command "rm" to perform the "rm -i" command by default? The command rm nukes files.

rm -i asks for confirmation before nuking the files.

When I use rm, I want rm -i to happen.

Use an Alias.

The alias command allows the user to launch any command or group of
commands (including options and filenames) by entering a single word

alias rm="rm -i"

The next time you issue the command rm it will issue rm -i
You can also make a new alias in case you want to keep rm functioning as it does by default.  To create a new alias
alias rmi="rm -i"

Now, rm will have it's default behavior and rmi will have the -i option
To make it permanent, just add it to your ~/.bash_profile.  This way, everytime you open a new shell, your alias will be ready to go.


iPhone 4s search sometimes stays blank Search page works very well except when it doesn't work at all. In those cases it just stays blank. What's the fix for that?

This happens to me too. A temporary "fix" is to turn off mail search in Spotlight. (Found on the Apple Discussion Board)


Does Mail Quick Look follow redirects when viewing webpages? When a phishing email presents a link, they often send you to a webpage that redirects you to another webpage that they harvest your data from. Does the Quick Look feature in Mail follow these redirects?

If it doesn't, can I assume that this is a safe way to do an initial quick check that a link is from a nefarious source?

i.e Would I expect to see the Redirecting... message in the Quick Look window? Would the people who created the exploit get any indication that I "clicked" on the link?

The simple answer is no, QuickLook will not follow links.

The more complex answer is as follows and excuse the exposition and some of the generalisations, it's a bit of a minefield is email.

If you think of QuickLook in general, applications provide an interface to their core logic to allow QuickLook to provide its functionality to the user, i.e. preview of different files types.

QuickLook on emails within Mail.app may differ to what is seen within Entourage or Outlook simply because the email is stored within the data storage of those applications, and QuickLook will use the registered app for that type to provide the preview functionality.

So in general, it is the registered email application doing the work of providing the preview.

Email applications regularly provide a certain level of protection for rich text and HTML formatted emails (unless you were using Outlook Express in the last 10 years haha) as follows:

Image preview turned off for unknown senders/email marked spam (sometimes a configurable option)
Non-execution of Javascript
Non-execution of Flash (Mail.app - bad, bad app allows this)
Non-rendering of embedded images/files
Detection of obfuscated content

Links within the email are part of the text content of the email, spam filters may validate the link URL against the domain the email was sent from but will never crawl the link to determine the links validity.

Any links that are not pure HTML anchors and are Javascript based will not be executed and therefore not followed either.

Some corporate email gateways will crawl standard links to determine link validity which cause some major nightmares for those people whose business is to track valid commercially sent emails, but the process they use just records the HTTP response from the link URL rather than the HTTP content of the response.

So as you can see from the above, the answer is categorically no, QuickLook will never follow the links in a previewed email, as long the the QuickLook provider for the email provides the minimum amount of security for reading emails.

Just for context, I worked for 3 years for an ESP (Email Service Provider), one of those companies that send emails on the behalf of major corporations and retailers.

A lot of the time, marketing departments would ask these same questions and ask us how to work round them. Naughty naughty people that they were :p


Is this normal: my direct Ethernet is 5x faster than the same Ethernet via Airport Express? When I connect my Mac via Ethernet it has 5x more maximum speed than when connecting it with the same Ethernet to the latest Airport Express. Is this normal (and if so, why)?

It is probably because you are connecting to a gigabit switch when referring to "direct Ethernet" and when you connect to your Airport Express via Ethernet, it is connected at 100Mb or "Fast Ethernet"

From Apple's website for the Airport Express:

I would check the switch you are using to connect "direct" and confirm that it is a gigabit switch.


Does the new Airpod Max support lossless audio on wireless? Earlier AirPods and AirPods Pro models send audio over 256kbps AAC.
As I use Tidal HiFi (lossless streaming) and some offline flac/wav files, I still need to use wired headphones, and I need to get 3-4 lightning to 3.5mm jack adapters each year, as they go off often.
I'm thinking about buying the AirPods Max, but I won't buy it if it's still limited to the same 256kbps AAC recompression as the earlier AirPods.
It seems it uses Bluetooth 5.0 which by itself supports up to 2Mbps, also it may have it's own wireless chip again, so I see the chance, but I'm awaiting confirmation as Apple's marketing page didn't convince me if it's supported or not: https://www.apple.com/uk/airpods-max/
Question:
Does someone know if AirPods Max support lossless audio over wireless?

It does not. Apple's current implementation of the bluetooth 5.0 specification does not allow for support of any lossless codec. And in any case the real world  performance of the bluetooth chipset can not sustain 2 Mbps beyond very short ranges so you may as well use a long cable to connect it.


Is the memory reported in Activity Monitor accurate? I've been relying on activity monitor to check my performance problems and what it relates to. I recently installed CleanMyMac and noticed that the memory reported by it is way different than the activity monitor:

Am I calculating the memory wrong? Or there is something I'm not accounting for? I expect to have 4.00 - 2.91 = 1.09 GB of free memory, instead CleanMyMac reports only 27.5 free memory. Is there anything I am not considering in Activity Monitor?

You are doing the calculations wrong. In the column you see: physical memory, memory used, cached files, and swap used.
Physical memory is total RAM. Memory used is amount of RAM used for running processes. Cached files is the amount of RAM used for storing cache files, and swap used is the amount of disk (HDD/SSD) space that is being used as though it is RAM. So the calculation should be: Physical memory - (memory used + cached files). In your case: 4 GB - (2.91 + 1.07) (give or take).

However, what's really important is memory pressure. The system is good about using the RAM wisely. Your performance shouldn't be impeded as long as the memory pressure stays in the green.


How to examine disks and their partitions via terminal? I am trying to examine my settings to prepare for a triple boot and would like to know how to completely examine my HDD before to make sure I know everything usefull for the project to know about it.

Examine with

diskutil list
diskutil info /dev/disk0 (disk0s1 etc.)
sudo gpt -r show disk0
fdisk /dev/disk0 (make/change partitioning with MBR)
sudo gdisk -l /dev/disk0 (make/change partitioning with GUID)
refit Partition Inspector / gptsync

diskutil is the OS X program to get info on and change partitions.

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS iMac HD                 4.0 TB     disk0s2
BVs-iMac-3:~ bvimac$

gpt is the OS X program specialized for GUID partition tables (in contrast to MBR)

$ sudo gpt -r show disk0
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640  7812237856      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  7812647496     1389639
  7814037135          32         Sec GPT table
  7814037167           1         Sec GPT header

fdisk is a program for several operating systems that manipulates master boot record partitioning tables.

$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 219051/255/63 [3519069872 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 - 4294967294] <Unknown ID>
 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

gdisk is a program for several operation systems that minipulates GUID partition tables (like gpt, but not just OS X). It can be downloaded here.

$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/disk0
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/disk0: 7814037168 sectors, 3.6 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 5782184C-C4EA-47D2-9039-F1564F7735F3
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 7814037134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 1389645 sectors (678.5 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640      7812647495   3.6 TiB     AF00  iMac HD

diskutil can be ised to get more information on the whole disk0 and its subsequent partitions disk0s1 and disk0s2.

$ diskutil info /dev/disk0
   Device Identifier:        disk0
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      ST4000DX001-1CE168 Media

   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)

   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

   File System:              None

   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 SATA
   SMART Status:             Verified

   Total Size:               4.0 TB (4000787030016 Bytes) (exactly 7814037168 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

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

   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 Yes
   Solid State:              No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported

$ diskutil info /dev/disk0s1
   Device Identifier:        disk0s1
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s1
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      EFI System Partition

   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)

   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)

   File System:              None

   Partition Type:           EFI
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 SATA
   SMART Status:             Verified

   Total Size:               209.7 MB (209715200 Bytes) (exactly 409600 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

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

   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 Yes
   Solid State:              No

$ diskutil info /dev/disk0s2
   Device Identifier:        disk0s2
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s2
   Part of Whole:            disk0
   Device / Media Name:      iMac HD

   Volume Name:              iMac HD
   Escaped with Unicode:     iMac%FF%FE%20%00HD

   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /
   Escaped with Unicode:     /

   File System Personality:  Journaled HFS+
   Type (Bundle):            hfs
   Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
   Journal:                  Journal size 311296 KB at offset 0x3a3c000
   Owners:                   Enabled

   Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
   OS Can Be Installed:      Yes
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 SATA
   SMART Status:             Verified
   Volume UUID:              1819AB9E-CACA-3408-8F03-B3ADBEEABC5B

   Total Size:               4.0 TB (3999865782272 Bytes) (exactly 7812237856 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        3.8 TB (3820305375232 Bytes) (exactly 7461533936 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         No
   Ejectable:                No

   Whole:                    No
   Internal:                 Yes
   Solid State:              No

refit is a bootmanager (that is currently not maintained any more) that comes with a tool, which is called gptsync or Partition Inspector. Its output looks like this:

*** Report for internal hard disk ***

Current GPT partition table:
 #      Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1             40       409639  EFI System (FAT)
 2         409640     98749479  Mac OS X HFS+
 3       98749480    100019015  Mac OS X Boot
 4      156317696    234440703  Basic Data

Current MBR partition table:
 # A    Start LBA      End LBA  Type
 1              1       409639  ee  EFI Protective
 2         409640     98749479  af  Mac OS X HFS+
 3       98749480    100019015  ab  Mac OS X Boot
 4      156317696    234440703  0c  FAT32 (LBA)

MBR contents:
 Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable

Partition at LBA 40:
 Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
 File System: FAT32
 Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)

Partition at LBA 409640:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
 Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
 Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af  Mac OS X HFS+

Partition at LBA 98749480:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
 Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
 Listed in MBR as partition 3, type ab  Mac OS X Boot

Partition at LBA 156317696:
 Boot Code: None
 File System: Unknown
 Listed in GPT as partition 4, type Basic Data
 Listed in MBR as partition 4, type 0c  FAT32 (LBA)


Facing problem to test Energy Consumption by a factorial function with Python module "pyRAPL" I would like to calculate energy consumption. That's why I have used the following program, unfortunately it gave errors.

MWE:

#need python3.7 to run this
from math import *
import time # time module is used to delay your program for a bit so that you can get a reading, that is not zero
        #but delay will/might give you more noise from the system
import pyRAPL
a=1

pyRAPL.setup()
measure= pyRAPL.Measurement('bar')

measure.begin()         #to begin a measurement
for i in range (100):
    a=a*(i+1)

print (a)

time.sleep(0.001)       #this time delay (in seconds) is the approximate minimum time of which it gives a reading, any duration lesser                  #than this might yield '0' energy consumption

measure.end()           #to end the measurement

val =measure.result     #output the result by the following

print (val)

#the above result will contain 5 values
#access one by one with the following syntax

print ('label= ',val.label)
print ('timestamp= ', val.timestamp)    #it gives the exact time of initialisation of measurement, (in epoch) needs to be converted to date and time format
print ('duration= ', val.duration)  #gives the duration of program running between begin() and end()

print ('energy consumed by CPU= ', val.pkg[0])  #value of energy consumption by the CPU in micro Joules  <==== We need this

print ('dram value = ',val.dram[0]) #value of RAM energy consumption (in seconds) <--- needs to be converted, not so sure how

Errors result:

How can I fix this problem?

Looks like one of the imported packages (probably pyRAPL) only works on Linux, there is no /sys pseudo filesystem on macOS.


How do I burn a movie DVD on MacOS Catalina without additional software? I can burn a data DVD on MacOS Catalina but getting a movie DVD burned is escaping me.  Is this possible without additional software?

A VIDEO_TS folder is what I am looking to burn... VLC plays this perfectly including displaying the DVD menu.  How can I burn this?

No. Sadly, since Apple discontinued iDVD, there is no built-in way to burn a movie DVD.

Burn is an excellent free utility for creating audio, video and file storage on optical media.


What does the Key icon mean when I type in a password in terminal? When I type in a password in Terminal, it sometimes displays a key icon on top of the cursor. I thought that that meant that there was an integration with the KeyChain, but I don't seem to be able to find anything to corroborate that. What does this icon mean? Is it just an indication that something is a password? I see the icon when I type read -s ASDF as well, leading me to think it just indicates a "hidden" input.

It means that what you're about to type won't be printed out to the terminal — it's hidden input. It's not making any reference to Keychain or other security features.


From Yosemite to Mavericks I originally bought my Mac mini on Yosemite. I wanted to downgrade to mavericks, and on this website I read that if I went into core services and changed my SystemVersion.plist from 10.10 to 10.8 and download Mavericks from the AppStore, I would have mavericks. Guess what? App Store doesn't even work! All of my apple apps don't work because it says I need 10.10, including text edit. Can someone please help me? I even called apple and they didn't know what to do. HELP!!!!

Restart your MacMini to recovery mode by pressing cmdR at startup.

Open Utilities/Terminal in the menubar

Please replace "YourMainVolume" with the name of your main Mac volume (probably "Macintosh HD") in the following commands.

If you made a backup of your SystemVersion.plist (like advised in my answer) enter:

rm "/Volumes/YourMainVolume/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist"

and hit ↵, then enter:

mv "/Volumes/YourMainVolume/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist.backup" "/Volumes/YourMainVolume/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist"

and hit ↵.
Enter exit, hit ↵, quit Terminal and restart your Mac.

If you didn't make a backup of your SystemVersion.plist enter:

vi "/Volumes/YourMainVolume/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist"

and revert the edits you made previously. (vi Quick reference)

Quit Terminal and restart your Mac.


What is the use of snapshot.db? After installing Mavericks, I discovered snapshot.db (1.5 GB) file in:

/var/db/systemstats/snapshots.db

What is the use of that file? Is it safe to delete it?

At a high level, the file you listed is a binary database file used by the OS to track power usage, performance and sleep/wake data over time. Despite the general guidance to not delete anything from /var/db this appears to not cause undue harm if you were to delete that one file on occasion.

This feeds the new views of energy usage and perhaps might help with diagnostics if you have problems down the line and ask Apple to help diagnose the system.

The program that writes to that file (as well as associated files in /var/db/systemstats ) is systemstatsd.

You can use the systemstats --help command to get more details and read from that file if you are curious. The manual page I linked to is the shell of a manual page and the code is mostly undocumented by Apple other than the documentation that is build into the tool and accessible from calling it with the help option.

It's generally not safe to delete anything in /var/db since the system could depend on the files being coherent, but I've tested removing all contents of that directory by booting into Single User mode and the system seems to recreate things properly and handle any attempts to manually clean up these files.

I wouldn't recommend deleting anything from sytemstats on a Mac you are not ready to erase and reinstall and you also might get odd information from Activity Monitor if you manage to get the database and log files in an inconsistent state. That being said, it looks like the system was programmed defensively to handle things going missing from that directory and not cause erratic operation in general if you do so anyhow.


Securing my data when recycling iPod at the Apple Store I'd like to get a new iPod touch, I'd also like to not have to re-input all my contacts and notes (don't mind clearing out the apps) but I want to make sure of two things before I go in and take advantage of the 10% discount at the Apple Store.

Can I backup my data on an as updated as possible 2nd gen iPod and restore it onto a shiny new 4th gen iPod?
Can I make sure (within reason) that my data is cleared off the iPod when I turn it in to the Apple store?

Yes, your backed up data in iTunes from your 2nd gen iPod should be able to be restored into a new 4th gen iPod, based on my experience upgrading from a 1st gen iPod Touch to an iPhone.
Regarding clearing data, check out this ZDnet blog post. It includes information about the Erase all Content and Settings option that you can use to wipe the iPod, including a quote from Apple Support. More specific details for all Apple iDevices can be found on this Apple page.


Force Google Chrome use single process Across the internet I found an interesting solution of how to make Chrome consume less memory and this is - forcing the application use single process for all the tabs. Unfortunately the instruction was made for Windows users. What should I do to try this feature in OS X? Will it actually help? And if not, what would you suggest to free more memory?

The corresponding article:
http://howto.excitebuzz.com/make-google-chrome-use-less-memory/120

If you're running low on memory, you may try to use Safari instead, it allows you to enable single process mode.

For that you need to enable the Debug menu in Safari.

Open Terminal and type in the following command and hit return

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

Open the Safari app. (If you had Safari opened, you need to quit and open it again.)

You will see a Debug menu, just check the Disable Per-Tab Web Processes item.

It will ask to quit Safari, click the button and open Safari again.
(It will close all tabs, so make sure you don't have anything pending)

Open the Safari app again. You're in single process mode!
You can check it by opening Activity Monitor app.

Results

This is not very scientific, but just to give you some idea.

Before (multi-process)

  50 Tabs opened on apple.com
  Total system ram used 5.61GB

After (single-process)

  50 Tabs opened on apple.com
  Total system ram used 4.47GB

Reduction in 1.14GB

Reverting

Just uncheck the Debug > Disable Per-Tab Web Processes to go back to the multi process mode.


Create bootable USB drive from Linux ISO I'd like to take a Linux ISO (e.g., CentOS, Ubuntu), and create a bootable USB drive. (It will be used for booting on a stock PC, not on the Mac). How do I go about creating such a drive using a Mac?

Open Disk Utility (you can find it in the Utilities folder). Insert your USB drive, and select it in the left pane. Choose the tab "Restore" on the right side of the window, drag the image file into the "Source" field and the USB drive into the "Destination" field. Click the "Restore" button.

That should do it.


Running Steam game in fullscreen doesn't allow second screen to show anything else (Mavericks) In Mavericks, when I'm running a full screen game, the second screen can't show desktop (or browser, or anything else.)  My understanding is that Mavericks sets the second screen in a different Space so both can be used.  Am I doing something wrong or is that a wrong understanding?

I believe Steam uses its own full-screen mechanism independent of the system's full-screen option.  Since it's not the typical full-screen provided by OS X, the multiple spaces feature doesn't work here.


Disk Utility says disk is corrupt after running fsck -fy Disk utility reports that the disk needs to be repaired.

I can't find the original boot disk, so I booted to single user mode and ran:

fsck -fy

This reported that it fixed a problem, and that the disk had been modified.  Re-running it a 2nd time said that it was OK.

So I restarted, and tried running the Disk Utility app again - and it still reports that the disk needs to be repaired.

Repeat, with the same results - fsck says it has repaired the volume, but the Disk Utility says there are problems.

I also tried running diskutil repairVolume but it would not run because I was in single user mode.

Is there anything else I can try to repair the volume?  Is there a way to create a bootable DVD/USB from a running system so I can try running the Disk Utility app?

Honestly, you don't mess around with these messages. I think that the first thing to do is to make sure you have a complete backup of your hard drive. Get a second drive with enough capacity. Use Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine, or Super Duper to copy the drive.

Once you have a backup, you could easily reformat the drive, (this will avoid bad sectors), and then copy back from the backup.

My 2¢ Hope this helps..


Can't mount primary HD, Disk Utility shows Invalid Node Tree Size There are similar lines of questioning in the forum, but few valid responses. Apologies for reposting. I've searched for hours on end...

I'm a tech consultant (software, not hw) helping my relative out with a problem on MBP 2011 running Mavericks.

One day - it failed to startup & he was brought to diagnostics / language page. Disk Utility verify sees problems with Invalid Node Tree size. Repair says it can't be repaired.

fsck tried from single-user mode, nothing. I don't even know if fsck will work on a  volume that is not mounted?

I tried creating a mount point (mkdir /Volumes/newmount) and mounting the drive there, no luck. Mounting from Disk Util also fails.

I tried creating an image of the drive (actually...all 3 of the drives...Mavericks I guess has an EFI and 'Restore' partition). The image failed to mount on an external HD.

I have purchased DiskWarrior - that's my next step. The last backup was "in August" which actually meant "June of 2012" upon investigation into his TimeMachine backups. He's got family / baby photos and videos and is desperate to recover.

Is there a way to remedy the 'Invalid Node Tree' issue? For instance, if I run migration assistant & migrate the volumes from old to new, will a new 'Node Tree' be created for me on the new HD? Is there a different approach I can take to making the disk image copy - just isolating the 'Macintosh HD' to improve my results?

Use DiskWarrior. It is exactly the purpose of the software to fix such errors.
If DiskWarrior can't solve it. Use something like DataRescue to get the data, then reformat and reinstall.


Is Bluetooth and Wifi MAC address always sequential? This is related to the iPhone and iPad. Every single device I came across has sequential bluetooth and wifi mac addresses. Except for one device and I think it might be jailbroken I am not sure (it was a friend's phone). Is this always correct? Every iPhone/iPad has sequential mac addresses except for the jailbroken ones? If not is there a pattern between bluetooth and wifi mac address?

I imagine this is the case: iPhone and iPad are using an integrated chipset (like this: http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4334) supporting both Wifi and Bluetooth. And as both of them are on the same chip the manufacturer could be just incrementing the MACs.

However the question is why you ask this - if you want to use this information to check if it's the same device: don't, as there is no guarantee that it will always be this way.


How to get the hex color of a cell in Excel 2011 I'm trying to write a script to automatically generate an excel sheet.  To keep the coloring of cells/rows consistent, I want to get the html color code from Excel to use in my script.

I found this link online which seems to give me what I need but I can't find a corresponding function in Excel 2011.  Can someone tell me how to get the hex/html color code for cells from Excel 2011?

Digital Color Meter

In '/Applications/Utilities/` there is an app 'Digital Color Meter'. You can use this to find the color codes (HEX, RGB, etc)


How to run secondary Skype after recent Microsoft update? After an update from Microsoft, /secondary Skype stopped working as mentioned in How can I run multiple Skype accounts in one computer?. I think they willfully want only one Skype should be working on a desktop.

The only one way I've found to run multiple Skype instances now is to just install the old classic Skype.

Is there any way to do it for new Skype?

After reading Ian's answer, I find it is a great solution to this my question. I am posting my own answer just to share my findings based on Ian's link as I faced difficulty on using above answer's path and settings.

Copy the skype shortcut paste thereon to create new skype shortcut.
Rename it as you want just to distinguish from the primary shortcut.
Now, go to its properties and append following string in Target
property
Skype --secondary --datapath="C:\Login_1"
Hence the new full string will be "C:\Program Files
(x86)\Microsoft\Skype for Desktop\Skype.exe" Skype --secondary
--datapath="C:\Login_1"
Click on this shortcut and you are done.


MacBook Pro black screen - or reset password My MacBook Pro fails to start.
I hear the "ding" sound, the keyboard lights up, but the screen stays black.

After a couple of minutes, I hear the fans growing louder, until after a few minutes, the computer stops.

I tried a few times, also closing the lid, plugging to a TV, options key, etc. Nothing.

Except, once in a while, it seems to start correctly, the screen turns on, and then it tells me I have forgotten my password and offers to reset it.

There is no option to say "NO I haven't forgotten".

When I play along and reset my password, at the end of the process it says my password was successfully reset (including something about FireVault), then it requires me to restart the computer to complete.

Of course, once I restart, I'm back to square one with the black screen. I've managed to reproduce the reset screen 3 times so far - without really coming up with a rule as to when it happens. The rest of the time, just black screen.

It's a MacBook Pro 15" from 2011 (I think), running Yosemite.

This happened to me too with my macbook pro 15 (mid 2012) running yosemite. What I did is took a flashlight and see if there was an image still on the screen. What I found out is that I was able to see the log in screen but it was all dark. After logging in all was back to normal.

Eventually if that doesn't work you can reset the pram of your computer. Follow this link http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht3964 .


Is it possible to exclude different volumes from Time Machine between two macOS systems that run on the same machine? I'm currently switching between two different macOS installations on a single MacBook Air. One is 10.14 installed to my MacBook's internal drive and is my main system, and the other is 10.15 beta installed on an external drive for testing software.

I have both systems set to back themselves up to two different Time Machine network disks. However, I'd like to exclude the other system volume from each of those backups, i.e. the 10.14 backup does not include the 10.15 volume, and vise versa.

However Time Machine seems to save which volumes get excluded to the volume itself, so if I exclude one of these system volumes from a Time Machine backup, it will be excluded from all Time Machine backups! I haven't found a way to do what I want.

Currently I'm dealing with this by not mounting the other system volume in whichever system I'm running. But every now and then I need to copy files between them, and if I mount both at the same time and forget to disable automatic backups, I run the risk of Time Machine suddenly trying to back up the wrong volume, which would be something of a disaster. (It'd take hours to complete and totally fill up my Time Machine drive, among other problems.)

Is there anything I can do to get Time Machine to behave how I want?

I think it is possible for your situation.

(but before the reading: all writeup here is valid only for Mojave and Catalina, I cannot tell about other versions, it may or not be the same for other versions)

Historically time machine backups evolved into various kind of "marks" to determine which item is included or excluded. For the recent version I think most of them are valid. (I am referring to hidden files, extended file attributes, and similar identification "things" that time machine uses for it to know details about files to backups and for backup items)

But your case is not so complex (which would require a complex criteria to use file attributes or complex things)

You want to exclude a whole disk

Mojave and Catalina, when excluding an entire volume from Time Machine Backups, configure this setting on a local system config file, without touching files or inserting attributes on the selected volume to be excluded.

The volume exclusion list is saved under /Library directory of the operating system.
Specifically on this file:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

This is the system wide configuration file to hold settings for the Time Machine application. Which means, Time Machine is not dependent of any user settings. It is a unique System setting. (There is no news here, it is just an emphasis on this information)

When you go to System Preferences -> Time Machine, and add a entire volume to be excluded, this information to exclude it is saved on that .plist file, inside a subcategory called "ExcludedVolumeUUIDs". That is very interesting because it saves the reference using the UUID of the volume, this way if you, for example, rename the volume, there will be no problem, because the UUID will continue the same, so this is a REAL volume exclusion, and not a weak reference to its name nor any folder reference [or mounted folder reference]... Another good thing about this, is that if you have any kind of external or exchangeable volume, it does not insert any Time Machine information on the disk/volume filesystem (Eg. You could have a volume used on 2 systems, which is backed-up when connected to your home iMac, but not when your are using it connected on your MacBook laptop at office.

The exclusion via UUID in is 'by system' and not 'by touching the volume'

So, considering the facts that:

the exclusion for Volumes is a system setting, and
it does not modify anything on the target volume

You can have different setting between your 2 operating system. Because each of them will have its personal Time Machine volume exclusion settings [configured inside itself on that individual system file]

You can look at that file, and I recommend you to look, to be sure it is correctly excluding by having the item under UUID volumes to be excluced (otherwise if not there, the exclusion would be using another method, like I mentioned before, such as file attributes. And we don't want other methods, we need UUID volume exclusion)

To read that entire file, use this command:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

here is mine:

{
    AlwaysShowDeletedBackupsWarning = 0;
    AutoBackup = 0;
    BackupAlias = {length = 334, bytes = 0x00000000 014e0002 00010e45 58544552 ... 45524100 ffff0000 };
    Destinations =     (
                {
            BackupAlias = {length = 334, bytes = 0x00000000 014e0002 00010e45 58544552 ... 45524100 ffff0000 };
            BytesAvailable = 1705257172992;
            BytesUsed = 1294991835136;
            ConsistencyScanDate = "2019-07-24 13:07:32 +0000";
            DestinationID = "C459ACD4-31AE-41D1-AC65-D88E5D317E43";
            DestinationUUIDs =             (
                "90991750-4768-36CC-8DFD-13BCA5C776AE"
            );
            LastKnownEncryptionState = NotEncrypted;
            RESULT = 0;
            ReferenceLocalSnapshotDate = "2019-07-24 11:24:46 +0000";
            RootVolumeUUID = "3DA126C7-122A-40C0-80B2-1225E390D130";
            SnapshotDates =             (
                "2019-04-20 22:31:05 +0000",
                "2019-05-19 03:42:05 +0000",
                "2019-05-26 03:38:32 +0000",
                "2019-06-04 09:24:07 +0000",
                "2019-06-15 17:25:18 +0000",
                "2019-06-30 08:33:36 +0000",
                "2019-07-04 18:10:38 +0000",
                "2019-07-12 16:11:50 +0000",
                "2019-07-24 13:07:32 +0000"
            );
            UnencryptedBackupWarningDate = "2019-06-01 05:01:48 +0000";
        }
    );
    ExcludedVolumeUUIDs =     (
        "92C778BF-621C-4017-866E-59031130661C",
        "78014957-8494-45A0-92A4-F36A059EEDE7",
        "6A3046E5-2EFC-48DE-909E-D6FF2744D140",
        "7B808A26-9743-4D3E-9605-DEA648D2776A",
        "CB723B05-D8B5-40D8-BBAD-0542A5AC1220",
        "0225C60C-86F7-44EE-A578-CCF60963BDCA",
        "52BD54AB-8E4F-41C0-AF85-2831913156EC",
        "909DA662-20A1-408E-BBA3-0CD8E9B1B3DB",
        "4E319128-35AA-4D50-A9E4-A8A5DA4B47BC",
        "7B4ED02C-7E46-4457-B1FF-5B884483CD7B"
    );
    HostUUIDs =     (
        "BD223C40-7AA3-592D-85CF-DE69305768BC"
    );
    IncludeByPath =     (
        "/Applications",
        "/Library",
        "/System",
        "/bin",
        "/private",
        "/sbin",
        "/usr"
    );
    LastConfigurationTraceDate = "2019-07-12 16:12:00 +0000";
    LastDestinationID = "C459ACD4-31AE-41D1-AC65-D88E5D317E43";
    LocalizedDiskImageVolumeName = "Backups do Time Machine";
    PreferencesVersion = 4;
    SkipPaths =     (
        "/Volumes/Scratch"
    );
    SkipSystemFiles = 0;
}

You can also be more specific to reading it by selecting the key ExcludedVolumeUUIDs:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist ExcludedVolumeUUIDs

(
    "92C778BF-621C-4017-866E-59031130661C",
    "78014957-8494-45A0-92A4-F36A059EEDE7",
    "6A3046E5-2EFC-48DE-909E-D6FF2744D140",
    "7B808A26-9743-4D3E-9605-DEA648D2776A",
    "CB723B05-D8B5-40D8-BBAD-0542A5AC1220",
    "0225C60C-86F7-44EE-A578-CCF60963BDCA",
    "52BD54AB-8E4F-41C0-AF85-2831913156EC",
    "909DA662-20A1-408E-BBA3-0CD8E9B1B3DB",
    "4E319128-35AA-4D50-A9E4-A8A5DA4B47BC",
    "7B4ED02C-7E46-4457-B1FF-5B884483CD7B"
)

You can see I have several excluded volumes, those are volumes on my secondary 2TB  disk that I don't want to backup.

Configuring your 2 systems for exlusion

Boot Mojave:

Just open System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Options

and select a disk volume from the finder open dialog:

save, and execute the command line to verify the exclusion by UUID:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

You should see the volume UUID included under the key ExcludedVolumeUUIDs

  Don't backup yet. Let's configure both and verify.

Boot Catalina:

And do the same.

Verify the the exclusion is inserted for UUID with the command line.

Also on the Time Machine Preferences item, of each MacOS, you will see the excluded volume of the other, and it will have an icon which is a hard-disk icon. The same icon of that Finder open dialog.

Boot Mojave again:

And confirm that the exclusion configured on item1 remains the same. (It should be the same as configured on item 1, untouched by the configuration done on item2)

This is it:

Each operating system now have the respective other-disk UUID item under that configuration key, and the Time Machine dialog should also show the other-disk of each one.


Numbers Lookup Finding incorrect values I have many tables with two columns (key-value style) and I want to combine all the values in a single table. I lookup key in a first column and insert a value from the second one. I've encountered an issue when a wrong key is looked up. Here is a simple example:

The RBYourselfNotUsedRule is not present in Table 1 and 271 belongs to RBVariableReferencedOnceRule. Does anybody have an idea why RBVariableReferencedOnceRule was looked up for RBYourselfNotUsedRule?

If the LOOKUP function can't find the search-for value, the function matches the largest value in search-where that is less than or equal to search-for.  This is why, when the formula cannot find the match, it returns the closest thing it can find.

From Apple's Documentation:

  LOOKUP(search-for, search-where, result-values) search-for: The value
  to find. search-value can contain any value.

  search-where: The collection containing the values to be searched.
  search-where can contain any values.

  result-values: An optional collection containing the value to be
  returned based on the search. result-values can contain any values.

  Notes
  VLOOKUP compares a search value to the values in the leftmost
  column of a specified collection. Unless an exact match is required,
  the row containing the largest left-column value that is less than or
  equal to the search value is selected. Then, the value from the
  specified column in that row is returned by the function. If an exact
  match is required and none of the leftmost-column values match the
  search value, the function returns an error.

When opting for the exact match, you could wrap the formula in a IFERROR() function to catch the "no match" error and return whatever you specify.  i.e.: "" empty string or other message. "No Match" as a example.

You may need to use the more powerful function VLOOKUP().

Example:

A more powerful combination of functions to perform lookups is INDEX(MATCH()). [This function gives much more power for looking up references without having to know the exact column number.]  For more information and an example, see Using INDEX MATCH for Advanced Lookups | Deskbright.  Even though this reference is for Excel, Numbers supports these functions just as well.


Can't remote login after startup I have an iMac running Catalina (10.15.2) that I don't have a keyboard or mouse plugged into. I just want to use it via screen sharing and SSH.

The problem is that often when I want to use it I can't. SSH hangs, screen sharing won't connect. I've tried restarting it via the power button, but even when it gets to the login screen I can't use SSH or screen sharing.

The only thing that seems to work is plugging in a keyboard and mouse, and logging in the normal way. Then SSH and screen sharing start working. They continue to work for a while. Eventually I come back and it's back in a bad state.

In Energy Saver settings I checked "Prevent computer from sleeping" and "Wake for network access" as well as "Start up automatically after power failure", power nap and hard disk sleep are unchecked.

This is caused by having FileVault enabled in the security settings. The disk won't decrypt until someone logs in, so services like remote desktop and sshd won't start until then.


Error message trying to open rtorrent I just installed rtorrent using Homebrew(on Macbook Air with Mavericks), but every time I try to open it I get the following error message :

dyld: Symbol not found: __ZNSt3tr18__detail12__prime_listE
  Referenced from: /usr/local/lib/libtorrent.18.dylib
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib
 in /usr/local/lib/libtorrent.18.dylib

This is my .rtorrent.rc file :

directory = ~/Downloads/
session = ~/.session/
encryption = allow_incoming, try_outgoing, enable_retry
schedule = watch_directory,5,5,load_start= ~/Downloads/*.torrent
schedule = untied_directory,5,5,stop_untied=
schedule = tied_directory,5,5,start_tied=

According to the answer from: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/24132

  I ran into the same thing this week with upgrading to Mavericks. It'll fix itself if you do:

brew reinstall libtorrent --build-from-source

  In this case, I think the issue is that the Mavericks bottle for libtorrent is bogus, but it's the default install.

Author: bconway


Making a default window size and preview size for folders on a Mac I work for a photography company and we have just switched to Mac for showing our photos directly to our clients when they come to our booth. The change to Mac has changed how we show our photos. We are like a roller coaster ride where it takes your photo and you walk up to a booth to view them.

Our problem is that I want to show them in a folder with a size just below fullscreen and in cover flow (with a BIG preview size). The trouble is that customers are the ones who are using them and so they will close to the window. I have 4 Macs open to customers at a time with hundreds of viewers in a weekend.

When I reopen the folder it has been saved in cover flow but the folder window is smaller (nowhere near fullscreen) and the size of the preview to folder ratio is very small for the preview size I want (again this is in cover flow).

I want to be able to change this default sizing like I can for cover flow always defaulting. I know it would just take 10 seconds each time to resize, but a year from now that will add up to hours.

Also, what would be even better is if they close the window that it will automatically reopen it or reopen a specific window?

This is not in the program "preview". This is when I am viewing folders (read only) and they need to be viewed well in cover flow.

One way of doing that is to use the "Use as Default" in the View Options after you have adjusted the size.

Go to View in Menu bar then select show View Options.

Now adjust the size to your liking then click Use as Defaults.


Is iPad Pro 10.5” (2017) only wifi or it needs to be wifi + cellular? I am looking on eBay for an iPad Pro 10.5” model and in the original Apple website it clearly says that both Pro versions 10.5” and 12.9” comes with Wi-Fi + Cellular connectivity. But many of the sellers in their descriptions point out that it is Wi-Fi only. I do not understand - should the iPad Pro 10.5” come with Wi-Fi + cellular or only Wi-Fi?

The iPad Pro, regardless of whether it's the 10.5" or 12.9" size, comes in two main configurations - one with Wi-Fi only and one with both Wi-Fi + Cellular.

The reason many of the sellers are pointing out that the model they're selling is Wi-Fi only is because that's the configuration they're selling.

For more detailed information I refer you to the specs provided on Apple's website. You'll see that there are details for both the Wi-Fi models and the Wi-Fi + Cellular models. For example, you'll see differences listed under Size and Weight and so on.


How to make nsurlsessiond actions less anonymous to the user? With the introduction of OS X Yosemite every once in a while little snitch (network monitoring program) pops up a requestor asking for permission to allow nsurlsessiond a connection to some ip address.

I understand that nsurlsessiond provides an API to allow any program using it to retrieve data via http or other supported protocol. In fact it acts like a proxy.

Is it possible to see which programs are using nsurlsessiond and of course what they use it for?  I'm thinking of something like an access log file. Because in this current situation I am not able to do monitoring on applications using nsurlsessiond.

The 'more details' button should at least tell you who it's trying to contact, from which you may be able to decide whether to allow.

Possibly the main connections floater would give you more data…

You could always drop in a request to obdev or even see if there's anything in the forum

I agree it would be a useful addition, to know what app is calling an API like that.


How can I keep an app open in the background? As I was using an app on my iPhone, I accidentally hit the home button. I quickly reopened the app. But instead of it resuming where I left off, the app had to load all over again. (This was Clash of Clans and I was in a raid!)

Is there a way to keep an app open in the background?

Such a feature would also allow me to quickly check something and then return to the app that I was on.

Apps are paused when backgrounded and resume when opened. If an app does not correctly resume to the state it was left in, this is something only the developer can fix.

It's not possible to run an app in the background as if it was in the foreground. Apps can only run a limited set of tasks in the background for a short period of time per Apple guidelines, or use structured backgrounding such as Background App Refresh.

Also see iOS 7 seems to be killing apps too often.


Show hidden files when searching in finder I can see hidden files in Finder but when I search it doesn't find hidden files.

I have tried these two commands

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

I also change "File visibility" to "Invisible Items" when searching in Finder search

Can I make my searches easier than this?

Sadly, I never found a solution to this either. According to LifeHacker there is actually no way to do it except using comercial software. So the only other possible answer your question is 'use the Terminal'

Open a terminal
Enter this command:

cd <your_directory_of_interest>
Find the files with a name starting with a 'dot'.

find . -name ".*"
You can redirect the resulting list to a textfile by adding > textfilename to the last command. Then use that file to do whatever you need to do with the files.


Are new macOS versions retained in the recovery partition? If a Mac is reinstalled by booting in to the recovery partition,
and the Mac came with El Capitan but was upgraded to Sierra via wifi,
what os will the Mac have after reinstalling via recover mode?

Found the answer to my own question:

The simple answer is, whenever you perform a major OS X upgrade, the Recovery HD partition is also upgraded to the same version of OS X. So, an upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion will result in a Recovery HD linked to OS X Mountain Lion.

source: https://www.lifewire.com/identify-os-x-version-on-recovery-hd-partition-2259968


Lost Time Machine Password - Unable to Format Disk I lost my password to my Time Machine backup. It's on a Seagate FreeAgent USB drive. I don't mind losing the data, I just can't figure out how to format the drive. I found this thread, however, the "Erase" tab that's mentioned doesn't appear when I select the drive. It's also grayed out for the partition.

I've tried running VirtualBox and accessing the drive in Windows, but the FreeAgent drive is grayed out as one of the available devices.

I've also tried hooking up the disc to a Windows XP machine and running the EaseUS partition tool, but that tool doesn't give me the option to format (as if it was grayed out).

Any thoughts or ideas?

you've probably answered this already, but you need to use the terminal.

diskutil list

and then

diskutil eraseDisk nameofnewdisk /dev/diskX

replace diskX with disk0 or disk1 or whatever from diskutil list


Monitor Mac external USB SSD wear? What is the best way to monitor the wear of my new external USB boot SSD? I'd like to order a new one to have ready before it gets too slow.  I have WD Blue and love the speed, and it worked perfectly the first time.
Also, I turned on TRIM via "sudo trimforce enable".  Was that a good idea with WD Blue?
Thanks.

If your external disk interface supports it, a good tool is to use smartctl. You can get it by installing HomeBrew and then running this command in the Terminal:
brew install smartmontools

Then run smartctl like this:
smartctl -a /dev/diskX

where X should be replaced with the disk number of the SSD in question.
In the output, you want to look for a line like this:

Percentage Used:                    1%

This is an indication of the wear on the drive. However, note that it is not an exact science - the drive could wear out before it reaches 100%, and it might also reach values above 100%.
Note: Wearing the drive down doesn't make it slow, as you seem to indicate in your question. When the drive wears out it will fail to be able to read some or all of the data that you have stored on the drive.
Make sure you have a working backup system in place. Just looking at the wear indicator and replacing the drive when the indicator is high won't ensure that you will keep your data.


Cannot paste image in Skype, Line, or Facebook Messenger but pasting works in WeChat and iMessage In iOS 7, we're able to paste an image into iMessage, WeChat, and Whatsapp, but not Line, Skype, or Facebook Messenger.
Is this an app-supported setting?
Thanks!

Pasting in images into the app requires support from the app's developer to allow this. This isn't as simple as a setting and therefore can't be adjusted externally.


Can I efficiently use the iPhone with a prepaid Sim card? I'm not sure this is the correct place where to ask this. If you can indicate me another Stack Exchange website I can use instead would be great.

Anyway, I'm willing to move to a prepaid sim card for my iPhone to cut costs. That is, I don't want to pay a monthly subscription, but pay per minute/sms/internet traffic.

I'm not calling or texting a lot, just very occasionally. And I sometimes use google maps via 3G.

Also, I would like to receive Facebook messages via 3G, but I don't need to be notified on time, the phone can check every 30 minutes for example for the Facebook inbox.

Can I have this with a prepaid sim card? To have my iPhone to check every 30 minutes for incoming messages / mails, so that it connects just few times per day and it doesn't stay online all the time?

This is perfectly doable. I use a prepaid SIM myself and get by without a problem (although my usage is a lot different to yours). Here are some tips to maximise your iPhone efficiency and minimise your bill.

Switch off "Background App Refresh". I have mine switched off for all but a few apps but for your needs it isn't necessary. This will boost battery life as well as reduce data usage since apps won't be able to update their content while backgrounded.
Set your mobile data network to 2G, and switch to 3G only when necessary. Again, this will boost your battery and reduce data costs, while still allowing Push notifications to come through.
Switch Push off for Mail, Contacts and Calendars. You can set the default action to "Fetch" and then pick between 30 minutes, an hour, or manually. The iPhone will then only check that often for mail or updates to your contacts/calendars (unless you open their respective apps).
I don't use the Facebook Messenger app so I'm not familiar with its settings, but if you have Background App Refresh off, you will only receive Push notifications and the messages will only actually come through once you open the app. There may be an option within the app itself to restrict the fetch interval for messages (although I doubt it because "Facebook knows best").
Disable 3G for specific apps. If there are apps you only need an internet connection for when you are at home or in a WiFi area, disable cellular data for them. This makes sure they don't sneak any information past you if you inadvertently open them while out and about.
Disable Location Services. This one is always a controversial one. While it will boost battery life and reduce data usage, you have to weigh up the cost of using a little bit of data to be able to use Find My iPhone against the cost of replacing your phone if it gets stolen.

Thats about all I can think of for prepping an iPhone for prepaid use. I'll update this if I think of any more.


Enable Cut in Finder in OSX 10.7 (Lion) Possible Duplicate:
  Why is it not possible to use the “cut” command to manipulate a file in the Finder?

I was fiddling with several settings a few days ago, and I'm pretty sure I did something that disabled the "Cut" option in Finder.

Anyone know where I can re-enable it?

As @RobZolkos said in his answer:

  It's not part of the Apple system to 'cut' files. The option is there
  and becomes enabled when text is selected. But not files. [...]

  ⌘+C then ⌥+⌘+V does the cut-and-paste for files
  on OS X.


"git commit -a" causes "subl -w: subl: command not found" i am not sure what is causing this problem but i am having problems using git. It seems sublime is somehow interfering. Does perhaps anybody know how to solve this problem?

I am running OSX 10.9.3.

git version
git version 1.8.5.2 (Apple Git-48)

git commit -a
subl -w: subl: command not found
error: There was a problem with the editor 'subl -w'.
Please supply the message using either -m or -F option.

The issue is that git commit is trying to use an editor to allow you to create a commit message. The editor for git is possibly overridden in is set in your ~/.gitconfig file. There will be a [core] section which sets the editor

e.g. for Sublime Text

[core]
  ...
  editor = subl -w
  ...

remove the editor line to make the default editor go back to the shell's default editor


Shared folder on one mac I have two users. In "Get Info" I shared a User1 folder with the User2. But how can I access the folder from the User2 account?

I assume that by "I shared", you mean that you've granted other users permissions to read and/or modify this file. But that's all this action does: Granting permissions. It's only half the way, and usually the second in order.

The simplest way (and the only one I know of) for the files to actually be shared between different users, is to have them in your "Shared" folder, which can be found in the "users" folder.

You would then access those file from this directory. For your own convenience, you can add this directory to your (left) Finder sidebar for quicker access.

There's a relatively recent and quite comprehensive article on sharing folders between users with this method over at MacObserver.


Final Cut Express 3.5 HD quits unexpectedly I am running FCE 3.5 HD on a Macbook Pro and whenever I start rendering, it (FCE) unexpectedly quits. Here’s the crash report:

http://inventaweb.net/matthew/fcecrashlog.txt

I have no idea if this will even help, as I have no idea even how to read it...but....

UPDATE: I am still having the problem, but not necessarily from rendering. Just moving video around can cause it to quit. Or selecting "Show video filmstrips"

EDIT: I sent a bug report to Apple. We'll see what they say.

The problem was with the cross-dissolve transition that I was trying to render. Technically, I haven't figured out the problem, but now I know what is causing the problem. I am able to render video in other sequences and that works just fine. I haven't tried rendering a cross-dissolve transition in another sequence. Thanks so much to bmike for helping me with this!

UPDATE: I have tried rendering other cross-dissolve transitions in other sequences and even in the same sequence that had a problem. It was only that edit that was having a problem. The cut that I had placed the transition on was a full 1080p video. I don't think my version of FCE likes 1080p video. When I try to do other stuff to that clip, it wil sometimes quit.


How to add application built-in services (menu bar commands) in Automator? I am wondering whether it is possible to use built-in services (menu bar options) of specific applications in Automator.

For instance, I want to create a service to launch Google Chrome and open a new window (the effect of Command+N when Chrome is active).

Is it possible?

You can always use AppleScript for that. In Automator, drag Run AppleScript to the right pane, and for the script, enter the following:

tell application "Google Chrome"
    make new window
    activate
end tell

The activate is optional, but it'll bring Chrome to the front.


Is it possible to disable the interlocutor's video in BlueJeans Prime for iOS? I use BlueJeans Prime for videoconference on iOS 11 (iPad). When in a videoconference, is it possible to disable the interlocutor's video?

The motivation is to reduce the network usage.

For BlueJeans (not Prime), one can swipe up, which will activate the "low bandwidth" mode:

Swipe down to go back to the normal mode.

That doesn't work  for BlueJeans Prime.

BlueJeans' tech support told me it is not possible. They don't have any plan to support the option in the future.


"There is no connected camera" - Macbook Pro 13" 2017 Does anybody have any alternative solutions? Seems like my computer no longer detect my built-in camera. I can't detect it in any application.

So far I have tried:

terminal killAll commands -> doesn't do anything and I get a 'No matching processes were found' message
Restart both SMC and PRAM
camera in safe mode also does not work
webcam on Secondary account does not work

I am at the end of my wits here.

This is a hardware issue - the most likely of which is that the camera has failed.

The error message, "There is no connected camera" means that macOS cannot see it physically.  You can confirm this by looking at your System Report (from About This Mac) under both headings Camera and USB.  If you don't see anything there, the camera has failed.

You've already done excellent diagnostics by attempting to boot into Safe Mode and using a secondary account.  The fact that it's not found in Safe Mode means it's unfortunately non-functional.

You could have it repaired, but likely it will require a disassembly of or replacement of the display.  You might be better off using a "external" USB webcam as it will be far less expensive than fixing the built in one.


How do I prevent content refresh on iOS 13? iPhone 7Plus running iOS 13.1.2.

Ever since upgrading to iOS 13 when apps with live feeds refresh it also resets to the top of the feed. So if I am trying to catch up on my Instagram  feed I may get 10 or 15 posts down the list and all of a sudden the feed refreshes and I "pulled" back up to the top of the feed. At first I thought this was an issue with the Instagram app but then it happened on the CNN app while reviewing the news. This led me to believe it was related to iOS rather than the specific app.

Is there a way to adjust or turn this behavior off so that the app does not auto-refresh but relies on pull-to-refresh?

There's no global way to do this because it's under control of the app developer.

Each developer can decide how they want to refresh the data and the view you're seeing.  In these instances, CNN & Instagram developers decided to keep that this was the behaviour they wanted to give you.

Some developers, for example, Tapbots (maker of Tweetbot), provide an option in the app Settings to allow their users to change this refresh experience.

Because there no global setting to control this, you would need to contact the developers of those applications and ask them to include this feature.


Change the quota size for an APFS volume I created one APFS Container for the whole of my external hard drive.
I created several volumes in that - some with quotas.
I have now discovered that one quota is now too small. I used diskutil apfs list /dev/disk10 to show me the Capacity consumed and the Capacity Quota.
How do I change the quota for an APFS volume under BigSur?

Unfortunately, there is no way to change an APFS reserveSize nor QuotaSize without destroying the APFS volume and recreating it.  You can only set these values when adding the APFS volume.


Is there any tool that will make it dead-easy to quarter the size of an image (i.e., de-Retina it)? Problem: when I take Screenshots on my retina mac using the built-in screen capture tool and attach them to certain tools (Outlook 2011, HipChat, etc.), they are enormous.

Usually to get around this problem, I'll resize them using Preview or I'll take the screenshots using Skitch.  But I'd love it if there was a way that I could simply select something from the right-click menu on the image and it would reduce the size to 1/4 (i.e., half the width).

Automator

You can use OS X's Automator.app to quickly resize images to 1/4 of their original size. The Actions you want are:

Get Selected Finder Items
Scale Images

You can create droplet like applications using Automator to make the whole process a single drag-and-drop. Alternatively you can set up a folder action to resize any image dropped into a folder.

To learn more about using Automator, see Apple's Mac Basics: Automator.


How to prevent MacOS from adding dot underscore files (._whatever.html )in zip archives? Our organisation receives zip files from Mac users which contain a ._ file in addition to the file we expect. In the past this was due to resource fork and data fork encoding limitations on other file systems. So for example, when we expect a submission that looks like this:
README.md
src/mysite.html
src/myscript.js

we generally receive a zip that contains files such as:
._README.md
README.md
src/._mysite.html
src/mysite.html
src/._myscript.js
src/myscript.js

This makes it difficult for us to process these files automatically. What instructions should we give to our Mac users to suppress these files we can’t process or handle?

There's no native way to automatically exclude resource forks or other extended attribute and filesystem metadata during compression, but many 3rd party apps can do it. These files contain filesystem data that should be preserved and you get a valuable signal that you have lost data when your process strips or ignores these files.
One such is Keka (donationware, ie free direct download, paid from App Store)


Mac does not restart, shutsdown instead I have several Mac's that when selecting restart they shutdown instead. (MacBookPro 15 SSD, MacBookAir(new), MacBookPro 15) By that I mean, if I select from the menu restart they shutdown and do not turn back on. The only thing I can think of in common about them is that they have FileVault setup and all have Mavericks installed.

What step can I take to figure out how to change the setups so that restart works to actually bring back the system to a running state?

I am very comfortable with terminal, editing files.
I took a look at pmset and don't see anything there.
I tried $ sudo shutdonw -r now  Same result, turns off stays off.

File vault was setup after initial computer setup. I had to enter the password for each user when I turned on FileVault and I saved the key. I have other computer with fileVault setup "i think" the same. I did it on each of them and they work fine.

Since you didn't list enough technical details about how file vault is set up (for instance if you have auto log in enabled or disabled, whether you are using institutional keys or just having one or more users storing the unlocking keys in the user accounts so that the recovery HD can unlock things) - I'll start with some steps to narrow down what might be happening.

First thing is to check if the machines are capable of restarting by storing the file vault key in RAM:

fdesetup supportsauthrestart

If that reports "false" then your hardware might not support restarts with FileVault 2 enabled. If it's true, does the system reboot if you ask for a controlled restart?

fdesetup authrestart

Also, if you're not comfortable with the fdesetup tool, you might want to review some of the helpful articles from Rich Trouton's blog. You'll want to start with an old article getting the basics covered if the current articles assume too much knowledge of how fdesetup works as dealing with file vault from the command line is a lot like the proverbial "sip of water from a fire hose" to many.


opening two remote screen sharing on the same client I have a macbook and I connect to my linux accounts with screen sharing. I would like to connect to two different linux accounts from the same client (my macbook) at the same time, using two different instances of screen sharing. Is this possible? How?

Just make a New Connection

For the purposes of answering this question, I have connected to two separate Macs - an XServe that I use for Dev purposes and a colleagues MacBook Pro - at the same time.  All my FreeBSD (alternative to Linux)  servers are "headless" and have no GUIs installed - everything is done via command line, so I can't show it connecting to a *nix machine GUI specifically.

To do this, just open a new session in Screen Sharing by clicking "New" on the Screen Sharing menu (top bar) or in Connect to Server (CmdK) and entering vnc://<servername or ip address>

I haven't tested the limit, but I am sure you can add more screens as needed.


How to unlock an iCloud account My apple iCloud is locked for security reasons, when I try to unlock it using my recovery gmail account, I don't see the link sent to me.

I mailed to the iTunes Store customer suport team more than thrice where they gave me steps to follow but still I couldnt unlock my account. I can't update my apps or backup them.

Even if I create a new Apple ID, the old one is stuck to the apple store, popping and asking for password.

If you haven't had any luck with email support, you should call AppleCare. They can unlock the account.


Reset Path for iOS cover I've recently started using Path for iOS. I changed the Cover image used, the one behind the activity, but how on earth can I reset it back to what it was when I downloaded the app, I can only now choose from my photo library.

You can't. They say this in their documentation. They also say you can choose other images from the photographer who provided their stock cover art, but in fact you can't; you can leave the default image, change to one of your own, then change to another of your own, but that's all.

  Once you change your initial cover photo, you cannot change it back to the original default cover, but you can change it to any other photo that you take or store in your photo library.

I think this new version of Path is quite nice, but there are some rough edges, and you just bumped into one of them.


mpd stuttering when run under launchd Background

As a terminal junkie, I've started messing around with a combination of mpd (Music Player Daemon) and a player, ncmpcpp (NCurses Media Player Client C++).

I installed these via Homebrew - a simple brew install mpd ncmpcpp. A bit of configuration later, and the apps are running quite nicely. The effect is actually rather impressive:

The problem I run into is when I want to run mpd automatically instead of having it launch in my terminal. It comes with a launchd plist, so I install that, and it appears to work - The problem is that whatever I'm playing, be that an MP3, streaming audio from a server, or whatever, the audio stutters every 5 seconds

This absolutely does not happen when mpd is invoked directly from the command line, only when it's fired off via launchd.

Here's what the plist looks like:

<!--homebrew.mxcl.mpd.plist-->
<?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>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>homebrew.mxcl.mpd</string>
    <key>ProcessType</key>
    <string>Interactive</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/opt/mpd/bin/mpd</string>
        <string>--no-daemon</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/usr/local</string>
</dict>

The ProcessType interactive was added by me in an attempt to force launchd to give the daemon higher priority, to no effect.

Debugging?

If we dtruss the process, there is a huge blast of identical gettimeofday messages correlated with every stutter. It looks like this:

gettimeofday(0x10A03FD40, 0x0, 0x1000)       = 1428698761 0

Things I've already eliminated

CPU / Disk IO

The system is relatively quiet - during the stutters, mpd is not even on the top 25 for memory or CPU usage, and load is well below 1.0

Incorrect environment causing bad config settings to be loaded

My mpd config is the one being loaded from ~/.mpdconf - same as it is when I run it by hand.

This appears to be a symptom of the way launchd chooses to handle the process.

The ultimate question

Why is the daemon so misbehaved when run under launchd, but not when run via terminal?

Bonus question:

What about the way launchd kicks off processes could be making this behavior manifest?

I had the similar issue and google led me to this thread. Now I have a solution to the problem if someone else find this.

Just remove the --no-daemon line.

This seems to work fine:

<?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>homebrew.mxcl.mpd</string>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/usr/local</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/opt/mpd/bin/mpd</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>


Finder is showing many files which I have deleted I have an Xcode project which I just deleted so I could rewrite it. (I used rm and rmdir) Here's the problem:

Though ls says that the folder is clean, Finder says it's still, there, and, what's more has the same files it had before I cleaned it.

Output of ls -GFal when run in that directory:

What Finder thinks is there:

Note: the second photo is exactly what the folder looked like before I cleared it.

I deleted the folder itself, but Finder is still showing it (and it's old contents)

I am using OS X Yosemite 10.10.1.

EDIT: When I restarted, it worked fine. But I would still like to know WHY it happened.

I had the same problem and I solved it by relaunching Finder. Here's how I relaunched Finder:

Hold the ⌥ (alt/option) key on your keyboard
Right click on the Finder icon in your Dock
click Relaunch

Here's a youtube video elaborately showing how to relaunch Finder.

Hope that helps.


How to use pipeline in Terminal I'm trying to convert a P12 file to a PEM file. When I execute the command, the terminal asks me for three things:

P12 passphrase (I type it in, hit enter)
PEM passphrase (type it in, hit enter)
PEM passphrase confirm (type it in, hit enter)

I know I can execute a sudo command all in one shot by using the following:

echo sudopassword | sudo rm -rf /file.p12;

How can I add all three values in one shot?

The canonical unix tool for this job is expect.

Here is a short tutorial that should get you going on scripting a series of passwords to be entered when the appropriate prompt is detected by the tool.


Which folders should be copied when performing a manual backup? I know that Time Machine and various backup softwares can be used to save some or all Mac data.

However, if I don't want to use any of them and simply copy data to an external hard drive, which folders should be saved?

The only list of suggested folders to backup that I found is this one:

Macintosh HD/Users/ : users data
Macintosh HD/Applications : (optional) applications
Macintosh HD/Library/ : (optional) some applications preferences

Is this accurate or is there any other folder that should be copied ?

The /Users folder is the most important, thats where all your personal data is kept.

The items in /Applications folder can always be re-downloaded but won't hurt to back them up too. Pay special attention to the apps that can't be easily obtained by downloading from the Mac App Store or from their web-site, like older version of app, an app no longer available from the developer/publisher or a self build app.


How do I forget neighbours' (never-joined) Wi-Fi networks? My WiFi can see 12 networks belonging to neighbours, locked and password protected, some with silly names. Network/Wi-Fi/Advanced allows me to remove names from the list, but only for networks I have joined. How can I remove the others?

Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced allows you to remove preferred networks. Preferred means that they are recognized (i.e. previously-connected-to) networks and you can set a priority order should multiple networks be available simultaneously. These networks will still appear in the list of available networks when they are nearby after removal from Preferred.

There is no way to remove network SSIDs from the list of currently-available networks.


Eclipse 4.2 on Mountain Lion: gatekeeper rejects as unidentified developer? Just updated the mountain lion, and download the latest Eclipse 4.2 to upgrade the old one. However when opening the application, it shows that it is from an unidentified developer and the gatekeeper refuses to open it.

I know that there is an option to change the security and privacy option to allow it, however I want to know whether there is a way to just add eclipse into the list. Any hint on this?

More information: before updating I have the Eclipse 3.7.2 on machine, and after updating it works smoothly (I think I have added it into the allow list). So is there a way to do this to Eclipse 4.2?

Thanks in advance!

disable Gatekeeper ("Allow applications downloaded from: Anywhere")
run Eclipse once
reset Gatekeeper to a more strict level ("Mac Store and identified developers".)

Doing this has allowed me to start Davmail, also a Java app, after Mountain Lion initially claimed the binary was corrupt ("App is damaged and can’t be opened" error message) even when back on the stricter level.

Another option, as mentioned in John Siracusa's excellent review, is to do the following from the Terminal:

% xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/Eclipse.app

I have not (yet) personally tested this but John's a solid source.


Question about GPU Panic on Mid 2010 MacBookPro6,2 I've read endless threads about this issue, but there is something I haven't found yet and I hope somebody could suggest something.
For what I've read so far, a considerable amount of MBPs manufactured during 2010 has a latent problem in the hardware that crashes the system.
This problem has emerged usually after upgrading the OS to Lion or latter versions.

Question 1:
it's not yet clear to me what it is bugged. Is it the GPU (Nvidia GeForce 300M) or the logic board? I've heard that many people had the logic board changed. I suppose a 'logic board' is the 'mother board', right?

Question 2:
I'm the owner of a MBP manufactured in 2010, but I haven't upgraded the OS so far, so I'm happy with my Mac. But now I need to upgrade, and I'm afraid I could have a bad surprise.
Is there a way to detect if my laptop is affected by this hardware bug before upgrading the OS? Maybe a testing tool to examine the hardware under stressing GPU switching? If anybody can suggest a proven test to run on Snow Leopard, I'll be grateful.

Question 3: being that a hardware related issue, it's not possible to be fixed by software patches. Why has it been latent on many Snow Leopard OS powered machines, then?

Thanks for your help

I am posting this answer to 5 similar questions. I tried everything from the Kext changes to the Github patch. I also tried to use Gfx. However, here's what worked for me. The latest version of Gfx doesn't set the MBP to use the Integrated card permanently. However, GFx version v1.8.1 does. Open it and set it to use Intel.

I have not had a GPU panic for 2 days. I also disabled SIP and installed the Github patch, but I still had Panics after that (however, this might be a solution thats GFx only, or maybe the patch also helped. Try Gfx 1.8.1 first)


How to put animated gif or 'giffy' in imessage? I sometimes receive imessages that contain moving images (animated gifs).

How are these imessages created? Do you need an external app or are they supported natively by imessage?

There are a couple of ways.

One, copy then paste from the Internet.
use the #images app in
iMessage


Does charging my early 2015 MacBook Pro all the time damage the battery? I am using my early 2015 MacBook Pro as a desktop by connecting it to an external display, thus, it needs to be plugged in to a charger all the time.

Does charging my early 2015 MacBook Pro all the time damage the battery?
Is it a bad practice?

Apple recommends not leaving it plugged in all the time. This can damage the battery over time, as lithium-ion batteries need to be frequently discharged.

If you are going to use an external monitor, why not buy a desktop computer? MacBooks are made to be portable and have their batteries used.


Firefox won't respond to force-quit On http://repl.it, I accidentally created an infinite loop in Python 3. I tried to close the tab, but Firefox already stopped responding. It wouldn't respond even after a while, so I force quitted FF. Then, I tried to reopen it, and it bounced for a while. It wouldn't reopen, so I force quitted and reopened again. Now, it is just sitting on my Dock with the little black "open" dot below it. Clicking on the icon does nothing.

How can I fix this? (I hate Safari) I don't mind using Bash/Terminal, if it makes a difference. Also, it would be nice if it didn't reboot all my other apps as well, but if worst comes to worst, this is okay. Thanks!

A few things you can try (ordered by "assertiveness"):

Start with Command-Option-Escape to bring up the Force Quit dialog and see if it's there. If it is, force quit it (sounds like you've already tried this).
Open Terminal, and run ps -eaf | grep Firefox. If Firefox appears in the list (note that there will always be an entry for grep Firefox, this is not what you want, the actual Firefox will be listed as something like /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox), note the PID (the second column, a number), and run kill -9 <PID>.

If neither of these work, try restarting the Dock (maybe Firefox actually isn't running but the Dock is confused):

Use the same ps -eaf | grep Dock.
There should be a process called /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock, note the PID and run kill <PID>.
The Dock should disappear momentarily and then restart.

If all this fails, easiest thing to do is probably just reboot your machine. If the usual shutdown dialog fails, press and hold the power button until the computer powers down.


Listing the terminal commands available for Mac OS I would like to make more use of the terminal. Is there a command I can use that could list for me all the available command of the Mac OS? I am using Snow Leopard.

You can hold the esc button for a few seconds (or press it or tab twice in succession). That will list everything executable in the path as well as all shell functions.

Also check out this question: Got any tips or tricks for Terminal in Mac OS X?.

This is a good introduction: Introduction to the OS X Unix Command Line.

If you type apropos .*, you will get a nice list of command and descriptions.


"Unexpected error" while extending Time Capsule with Airport Express I picked up an Airport Express before they disappeared from the market, with the objective of using its audio-out to connect remotely to a HiFi.

My set-up is as follows:

Time Capsule connected to cable modem. Internet + Wifi + time machine working properly.
New, not yet hooked, Airport Express.

I gave up after many failed attempts using AirPort Utility (under High Sierra 10.13.6 on a MacBook Pro) to extend the network: "An unexpected error occurred. Try again."

Connecting the Airport Express using Ethernet to its LAN line, I created an independent WiFi network. Now I can AirPlay form iOS just fine.

I can also AirPlay from the MacBook but only after I switch from the Time Capsule's Wifi to the Airport Express's Wifi.

How can I extend the network? I've tried resetting the unit by disconnecting power, holding the reset button for 10 seconds, and then reconnecting power while the reset button is still pressed; as well as switching Wi-Fi TCP/IP to "Link-Local Only" under "Configure IPv6".

I vaguely have the sense that it all worked nicely until I hit the "update firmware" red button for the Airport Express. Is there a way to regress the firmware?

Working solution : Follow suggested setup steps on iphone instead of computer.

I encountered the exact same problem as you while trying to set up my airport express to extend an existing network. All attemps at doing so failed from my computer (MacBook Pro 16-inch 2019 with macOS Catalina 10.15.3). After going through all the setup windows and setting up the airport Express' password, it said "an unexpected error occured".

After about 20 excruciating attempts and 3 different connection methods, I finally decided to try and set it up with my phone (Iphone 7 with iOS 13.3.1). In the wifi menu, I selected the airport express at the bottom of the page in a different list from usual wifi. I then followed exactly the same steps as those for a computer set up but on my iPhone and it worked!!


How to sort apps in Launchpad view? I'm looking for a quick/easy way to organize my apps in Launchpad view. I know of the drag & drop method, but I would like to be able to sort by date, name, etc. Is there a way to do that?

Launchpad Cleaner is a free alternative. It's no longer supported, but it continues to work just fine.


Macbook Pro Early 2011 max ram support Is it possible to put in 16 Gb ( 8 + 8 ) 1333 Mhz DDR3 in Macbook pro 15 Early 2011? As o apple website it says 8Gb max support, but I have found via Google Search, that people are using 16Gb also.

Thanks

The MacBook Pro from early 2011 will support 16GB of ram. The Macbook Pro 15" (non-retina) were sold with a maximum upgradeable ram of 8GB from the factory. However you can check OWC with your exact model number and confirm that it supports 16Gb.

OWC states the models that support 16GB here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM

To get your exact model id follow those steps: (Lion instructions also apply for mountain lion)


diskutil verifyVolume / : POSIX reports: Exec format error I'm having problems with my main system OSX volume.

When running sudo  diskutil verifyVolume  / :

$  sudo  diskutil verifyVolume  /
Password:
Started file system verification on disk1 OSX
Verifying storage system
Checking volume
disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
Logical Volume Group 986FADEF-FEF3-428E-944A-82EBB8F38184 on 1 device
disk0s2: Scan for Metadata Volume
Logical Volume Group has a 24 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy
Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint
Load and verify Segment Headers
Load and verify Checkpoint Payload
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Load and verify Transaction Segment
Incorporate 1 newer non-checkpoint transaction
Load and verify Virtual Address Table
Load and verify Segment Usage Table
Load and verify Metadata Superblock
Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees
Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume
Load and verify 126F7B49-5C33-457F-B6AB-3A6CD220F151
Load and verify D073860B-299F-4146-B68B-7233BD5488CB
Load and verify Freespace Summary
Load and verify Block Accounting
Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses
Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid
Load and verify Segment Cleaning
The volume 986FADEF-FEF3-428E-944A-82EBB8F38184 appears to be OK
Storage system check exit code is 0
Verifying file system
Using live mode
Performing live verification
Checking extents overflow file
Incorrect number of file hard links
Checking catalog hierarchy
Checking volume bitmap
(It should be 22232741 instead of 21777947)
File system check exit code is 8
Error: -69845: File system verify or repair failed
Underlying error: 8: POSIX reports: Exec format error

The error:

Checking volume bitmap
(It should be 22232741 instead of 21777947)
File system check exit code is 8
Error: -69845: File system verify or repair failed
Underlying error: 8: POSIX reports: Exec format error

Also tried:

    $  sudo  diskutil repairVolume  /
Error starting file system repair for disk1 OSX: Unable to unmount volume for repair (-69673)

So I tried it in recovery mode (Cmd+R on boot), but I have troubles getting past the encryption (diskutil coreStorage unlockVolume) giving me a generic error that it cannot unlock the volume.
Here my noobish OS-X volume management "skills" end.

The system works, overall, but I cannot resize the volume, for example and all volume checks end in mysterious errors, like the first one above, for example, which is unnerving.

Need help. TIA.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X 10.11.3

You can use the Disk Utility application from the recovery partition to do all of this (unlock and mount the disk, run repair, etc.). If you have any other disk repair utilities maybe give them a shot? Either way, if you don't have a backup already I'd make a copy ASAP.

Another idea is to boot into single user mode (Command-S on boot) and run fsck but not sure it'll be any different.


See progress of Spotlight re-indexing in El Capitan Other Questions and Answers address how to check the progress of Spotlight rebuilding its index, previous to El Capitan: Click the Spotlight menu. The menu/panel that appears reports a progress bar if re-indexing is in progress.

In El Capitan, that menu/panel no longer appears. Now a grey box appears in the middle of the screen where we are expected to enter our search words. The re-indexing progress bar no longer appears.

Type something — anything — in the gray box to reveal indexing progress:


Time Machine for MacOS High Sierra - Delete middle backups only I have spent years tinkering with complex features in Windows but am new to the Mac.  Time machine is not as straight forward as it appears.  The scenario I am looking to do, is within the Time Machine application, I would like to delete one or more backups that were made in the middle but leave some of the oldest earliest backups, and of course keep the most current backups.  This is to recover space and keep a record of my system as it was in certain known points in time just in case.  I use an external hard drive that is formatted in Mac format (HFS).

The Time Machine UI permits deleting all backups and deleting all backups before a given point but it does not seem to have an option to blow away just a specified backup (or backups) in the middle.

Is there a way to do this using the Time Machine UI?

You can do this with the Time Machine CLI: tmutil delete /path/to/backup

$ tmutil listbackups
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-04-142408
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-05-003504
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-06-005409
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-07-014517
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-08-023925
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-09-040035
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-11-055340
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-12-063921
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-13-075323
/Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-14-085121

$ sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
Deleting: /Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
Deleted (149.0M): /Volumes/Mac SSD TM/Backups.backupdb/g/2018-01-10-043920
Total deleted: 149.0M


USB Stick works on iMac, but on MacBook Pro not i have a strange problem. I formated an usb-Stick (64GB) on my iMac (Mac Journaled Filesystem). Not encrypted, no password. It works fine on several devices (e.g. Popcorn Multimediabox), Windows-Computer (uuugh) and even on the iMac.
But if i plugges it to my Macbook Pro, the USB-Stick is not recognized there. Other Sticks works fine but this stupid single stick not.

This is the last chance for this stick. I'll give it to a poor life by a windows guy if there is no chance to fix it :-(.

I know the reason ! It works with an USB-Hub with additional power. Plugged into the Macs directly, no stick is working.
On Windows-based machines (even in the Bootcamp on my iMac) the stick is working. It seems, that windows usb-drivers gives more power to usb devices (?)...


How can I merge .m4v files? I transcoded a DVD into several m4v files with HandBrake. How can I merge these files into one m4v movie?

You can use the built-in iMovie app to do this.

Create a new project, add your video files, and drag them to the timeline in order. Export your project as an M4V (Share-> Export Movie).

If you're completely new to iMovie, some good introductory tutorials can be found on YouTube.


Can I create a newspaper type document with photos and words and save directly on my iPad? I have a 64GB iPad and would like to be able to create and then store directly onto my iPad a newspaper like document. So that I can have access to it without a wifi connection. Can this be done? I am new to Apple so still learning what it can do!

If you want any document you create to keep itself in pages, you can turn off iCloud for pages in the settings menu. http://i.imgur.com/xHsVAJr.jpg      When iCloud is enabled, it will allow access to your most recent documents.

If you have an external PDF viewer and want the document to be read only, you can export it as a PDF file then open it in an app like Readdle's PDF Expert or Adobe's Acrobat Reader.


RAM compatibility between MacBook Pros I was hoping someone could help me determine if the original RAM from my mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro could be put into my mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro?

here are the specs of the original RAM

2x 2GB RAM  4GB PC3-12800 SODIMM

DDR3 SDRAM
204-pin
PC3-10600
1.5V
1333 MT/s

Here are the specs for the mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro:

Double Data Rate Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (DDR3) format
30mm (1.18 inch)
2 GB or 4 GB
204-pin
PC3-8500 DDR3 1066 MHz type RAM

And the mid 2012 13" MacBook Pro:

Double Data Rate Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (DDR3) format
67.6mm x 30mm (1.18 inch)
2 GB or 4 GB
204-pin
PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 MHz type RAM

It'll work, it's slightly faster than the RAM it came with.


Soundflower is not sending multi-output sound to all devices Okay, so I'm using a new MacBook Pro to do streams on my Twitch channel. That being said, I followed a Youtube video months back, when I first started on how to get my desktop audio through OBS. I did everything the video said and for a good amount of time everything was all good. Somewhere down the line the multimedia output that i selected in my sound preferences which was created after instaling soundflower was what i would select to get sound through OBS and still be able to hear everything through my scarlet 2i2. There was one time it just stopped working and I only heared audio if I selected the scarlet. I didn't pay no mind to it and idk what happened exactly, but it fixed itself. So I went back to the streams and today my computer overheated, froze all up and I restarted it. Uppon it booting back up the multimedia-output was not working or so I thought. Turned out the stream could still hear the desktop audio, but for some reason it wouldn't play it through my scarlet, so I could NOT hear what they were hearing. I'm sure there's a fix for this somehow. I just dont know enough to fix it myself. Please, can anyone help me out here?

While I don't fully understand what you're doing and what goes wrong I can't tell you how to configure Sound Flower the right way. But I know an alternative solution.

Using Audio MIDI Setup, to send Audio to multiple devices:

Your Mac has Audio MIDI setup installed by default. By selecting the + and choosing 'Create Multi-Output Device' you can send audio to both your headphones and to soundflower (which sends it to OBS if I understood you right).


iPad iOS6 built-in Notes app - where are the notes stored? I was thinking about migrating a majority of my text-based notes from Evernote to the built-in Notes app.  Evernote wants 4.99 a month to store off-line notebooks on your mobil e device.  I currently use a Macbook Air but was thinking about consolidating my notes onto my iPad so I'm not referencing two devices.

But I don't want old notes that were sync'd to the application to disappear or somehow be lost to me.

Are the notes stored locally? Is there a limit?

Notes are stored locally without limit other than storage space on the iOS device. They sync to iCloud and there is a web app for viewing / editing the notes.

They do count towards your 5 GB of free iCloud storage that you get by virtue of operating an iOS device. Should you need more storage than that, you can pay yearly.

If you don't sync the notes to the cloud, then that limit is not in effect. Whether or not you sync with iCloud, the notes are stored locally on the iPad.


Why did the USB connector for the aluminium Apple keyboard have gaps on the plug? I used to own an Apple USB keyboard - this was the metal version that had a USB port on each end. From memory, the USB cable that connected the keyboard to a computer had several gaps in the connector itself. Out of interest, why was this the case? I recall that a USB extension cable was also included with the keyboard - I wasn't sure if it could be related to this in any way.

If you are referring to the groove in one of the sides of the USB plug on the end of any wired Apple keyboard, it was designed to mate with the included USB extension cable. This extension cable was constructed with a guide inside the female end which allowed only the insertion of the cable from the keyboard -- it could not be used as a general USB extension. The male end of the extension cable was without a groove, so stringing two extension cables together was not possible, either. Thanks, Apple.

Keyboard USB connector:

And yes, I need to clean the cruft from my keyboard. I've been WFH for many hours a day for a few months and there just isn't time.