macOS Sierra: ulimit maxproc only 2500? macOS Sierra introduced us to the ulimit-Justin-Bieber-restriction. Thanks, Apple!

According to this tutorial you can set ulimit max manually by creating two files. In the tutorial max. processes is at 2048.

Did this. Problem is: my max. processes per user is 2500. Found out via try & error. Great stuff!

Why? Why can't I go over this number? Tried 2600, after reboot uname -a shows 1064. What is this number, why exactly 1064? Why am I limited in user processes anyway? The default number was 709...

P.S.: for those who wonder why I need such a "high" number: it's because of JMeter and the thread handling there. If I don't manually edit the maxproc, JMeter just won't run properly. Or not at all.

TL;DR

The method for increasing max. processes per user described in the tutorial the OP referenced is both dangerous and ineffective. Do not do it that way. If you need more user processes, enable Server Performance Mode as described here.
"What is this number, why exactly 1064?" See Why is macOS limited to 1064 or 2088 processes?
"Why am I limited in user processes anyway?" Because the system can only run a limited number of processes at once, the system limits users to a lower number of processes so that the system itself remains able to run processes, for example one to display a warning that you have run out of of processes.

Details
The articles the OP linked to are DANGEROUS because they install configurations that allow a single user to crash the computer by filling up the process table, meaning they can create as many processes as the system will allow (well, probably minus 2 or so reserved for root, which was a kind of protection against this in the old days when 2 processes were enough for a system administrator to get in and fix problems). They also install those configurations in a way for which there is no automatic or easy rollback once you forget that you set them or how you set them, and they may interfere with future default increases when you upgrade to a new OS version. More importantly, they do not really achieve what they claim to achieve with regard to increasing the number of processes a user can run.
The default hard limit for kern.maxproc (the maximum total number of processes that can run at one time systemwide) under OS X is 1064. The limit was 566 until OS X Lion, at which point it was increased to 1064 for computers with 3 GiB or more of memory. The limit was increased again in High Sierra for computers with 12 GiB or more memory (exact formula is detailed in the description of serverperfmode here.) and increased again in Catalina (and my guess is it will be increased again in Big Sur). (See Why is macOS limited to 1064 or 2088 processes? for more details about where the specific numbers like 1064 came from.) Although you can change the number while the system is running, it does not take immediate effect; you have to set it during the boot process to take effect and at that point the kernel will not go above 1064 (or whatever limit you are already seeing).
You can set kern.maxprocperuid (the maximum number of processes a single user can have running at one time) to a higher number, even higher than kern.maxproc, but having it too high risks having an out-of-control process crash the entire machine by filling up the process table. That is why the default maxprocperuid is 709 which is 2/3 of 1064: to ensure a single user cannot take up all the processes.
Server Performance Mode
Before High Sierra, the only way to increase kern.maxproc above 1064 is to have at least 16 GiB of memory installed and the to turn on "Server Performance Mode", which reconfigures the kernel to operate like a server rather than an interactive workstation. Starting with High Sierra you can increase kern.maxproc by adding more memory, but still, short of adding memory, the only way to increase it is by turning on "Server Performance Mode". In that mode, kern.maxproc is set to floor(system_memory/8 GiB) * 2500. You also get much higher limits on many other parameters, like max open files and max network connections. You get these higher limits automatically, without having to create or modify files like the linked articles tell you to.
If sysctl kern.maxproc returns kern.maxproc: 1064 (or any multiple of 532 or 1044) then you know you do not have server performance mode turned on. To turn it on, execute this command line in the terminal:
sudo nvram boot-args="serverperfmode=1 $(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | cut -f 2-)"

and reboot. That setting will persist and your computer will remain in server mode until you clear NVRAM completely or turn Server Performance Mode off by executing
sudo nvram boot-args="$(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | sed -e $'s/boot-args\t//;s/serverperfmode=1//')"

Turning on Server Performance Mode is safer and easier than trying to change individual kernel parameters by editing configuration files, and it has the added advantage of working where those other things will not. And unlike editing configuration files, is also automatically rolled back when you clear NVRAM, which is a standard part of restoring a misconfigured computer to a standard and sane configuration.
You can read more about this Fix “fork: resource temporarily unavailable” on OS X.


Notification Center message via AppleScript/osascript -- specify an application name and icon When sending a notification to OS X's Notification Center via AppleScript's osascript, such as in:

osascript -e 'display notification "Finished that long running task." with title "Finally!"'

The Notification Center shows "AppleScript Editor" as the notification's source:

Is there a possibility to specify a different source (as in application) and icon when sending a notification this way?

I don't think it's possible with AppleScript but it is with terminal-notifier:

-sender ID         The bundle identifier of the application that should be
shown as the sender, including its icon.
-appIcon URL       The URL of a image to display instead of the application
icon (Mavericks+ only)

For example:

terminal-notifier -title title -message message -sender com.apple.TextEdit


Why is my iPhone still listed in iCloud though I erased all content and settings on the device? I erased all content and settings on my iPhone, and the Find My iPhone activation lock was disabled (no activation lock). So ... Why is it still listed in iCloud Settings, Devices? The info blurb on Devices page says that it's listing the devices still signed in. How is this phone still signed in? Is this normal? Is something wrong?  It should be signed out. Maybe it could be listed as an old device ... but not "Signed In". I no longer have possession of this phone. I am very concerned for what this means. Worried I did something wrong here.

As described in this Apple support document, you should have signed out before deleting the device.  The article provides also alternative methods (in case one has no control of the device).

If you're using iCloud and Find My iPhone on the device, sign in to iCloud.com or the Find My iPhone app on another device, select the device, and click Erase. After the device has been erased, click Remove from Account.

If you can't follow either of the above steps, change your Apple ID password. This won't remove personal information that's stored on your old device, but it prevents the new owner from deleting your information from iCloud.


Removing gray part of BBEdit/TextWrangler How can I remove the gray part in BBEdit/TextWrangler.
I want it to be white as the other part.

Screenshot (see part marked with red square):

It is called the page guide. You can hide it in TextWrangler in two ways:

For a single document, select "Hide Page Guide" from the "View -> Text Display" Menu.

To hide it for all documents, there is a setting in the "Text Status Display" category.


Dropped iPad turns off by itself I dropped my iPad and now it turns itself off.

It says to connect to iTunes.  I look this up but the answers say to connect to a computer.  I don't have a computer to connect this to.

Is there a way to fix this without connecting to a computer?

if the iPad isn't broken, you are going to need to process a DFU wipe.

unfortunately you will need a computer running a current version of iTunes, if you follow the processes described here:

  Connect the device to a computer using a USB cable.
  Hold down both the Home button and Lock button.
  After 8 seconds, release the Lock button while continuing to hold down the Home button.
  If the Apple logo appears, the Lock button was held down for too long.
  Nothing will be displayed on the screen when the device is in DFU mode. If open, iTunes will alert you that a device was detected in
  recovery mode.
  If your device shows a screen telling you to connect the device to iTunes, retry these steps.

(Source)


How to Get Root Access in Mojave? I need to copy "Network Diagnostics.app" into the Mojave Core Services library.

Running "csrutil disable" from terminal doesn't work, says you have to run from Recovery OS. I don't know if I have Recovery OS or not, only Mojave is installed.

Giving Finder "Full Disk Access" under "Security and Privacy" threw errors when I tried to copy the file (a circle with a line through it appeared when I tried to drag and drop).

Giving muCommander (a 3rd-party freeware file manager) Full Disk Access didn't work either, "unable to write to directory" error.

I read that this can be done through the command line, what would the syntax be? Is this correct:

sudo cp \Desktop\"Network Diagnostics.app\MacintoshHD\System\Library\CoreServices\Applications\

Seems strange that I can't run a program as Administrator, but I understand this was a deliberate decision by Apple. Is there a way to accomplish this?

Root isn’t what you need, SIP must be disabled if you desire to modify the system files while booted from the same system as the files to be edited.

  A centerpiece is the protection of system-owned files and directories against modifications by processes without a specific "entitlement", even when executed by the root user or a user with root privileges (sudo).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Integrity_Protection

macOS Recovery is part of the built-in recovery system of your Mac.
First, boot to recovery, then open terminal from recovery and run sudo -s to become root. Then you are clear to make modifications to the normal system on the Macintosh HD volume.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

You could also run the disable from recovery and restart it you want to opt out of protection indefinitely and not just temporarily.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204899

I’m generally not doing that but your system, your call totally.


How to fix an iPhone stuck on "Connect to iTunes" screen after iOS8 update? My iPhone 5S is stuck on the "Connect to iTunes" screen after trying to install the iOS 8 update. I can't connect to iTunes because I have a Google Chromebook.

I don't know what to do. I'm dyslexic and I have Asperger's. I need the iPhone to communicate with people because I have speech problems.

Your device seems to be in Recovery Mode (or DFU Mode but that's hardly the case unless you were jailbreaking). If the firmware update was successful, you might get out of Recovery Mode by simply rebooting the iPhone. iPhone in Recovery mode should also reboot by itself after 15 minutes.

A manual reboot is done the usual way, by holding down the Sleep button and swiping the 'Slide to power off' slider when it appears. After iPhone has shut down, start it by pressing the Sleep button.

If the iPhone stays it the Recovery Mode after the reboot, it must be restored with iTunes. You only option is to find a computer with iTunes and restore the firmware when connected to iTunes. You will lose all non-backed up changes on the iPhone when restoring! After restoring a functional iOS, you can restore the latest backup of your iPhone.

There are also various pieces of software (i.e. TinyUmbrella) that have the means of getting an iPhone out of the Recovery Mode, if the iOS is otherwise functional. However, I'm not aware of such programs available on a Chromebook.

When you get to a computer with iTunes, there's an Apple's support article listing the steps to resolve most iOS update and restore errors with iTunes.

  Update iTunes
  Update the OS X
  Update, disable or remove your computer’s security software
  Unplug extra USB devices
  Restart
  Try again


Fast way to select and delete all photos on an iPhone? One way to delete all photos from an iPhone is to go to the bottom photos in an album, tap 'Select' in the top right of screen, press the bottom right photo and without lifting your finger, move your finger to the top left of screen, where it will continue to scroll up while selecting photos.
The problem is, this selects photos at a rate of about 200 photos per 10 seconds. I have 25,000 photos, so I will need to sit there holding my finger in exactly the right place for 20 minutes.
How can I delete all photos from an iPhone album quickly and efficiently? (i.e. immediately)

Click 'Select'
Move your finger from the bottom-right most photo and move your photo up to the top left of screen (so the screen starts scrolling up and selecting photos)
Here's the important step, with your other hand, tap the top left of screen (above where your finger on your other hand is). It might take a few tries but it will eventually speed all the way to the top of your photos only taking 1-2 seconds, whilst selecting all the photos along the way.

It's a little tricky, but very much worth it.


How did my new iPhone know my WiFi credentials? I just bought a new iPhone SE to replace a destroyed iPhone 5S. It was set up to the point of being able to make calls at the Apple store, but it was not logged into iCloud. At some point after getting home I noticed it was already logged into my router's WiFi. I had not yet manually attempted to log onto my router. I may have logged into iCloud but this device must have a different UDID than my old iPhone 5S. How then was my new iPhone able to automatically log into my router's WiFi?

iCloud Keychain shares your WiFi networks, including passwords, to all of your devices. So if your new phone had been logged into iCloud, that’s where it got the network details.


Is my unsaved Quicktime player movie recording still on the hard drive somewhere? I recorded a movie (File > New Movie Recording) using Quicktime Player and when I stopped I accidentally clicked "Don't Save" instead of "Save".

Is that recorded content still on the hard drive somewhere, maybe in a temp or cache folder or something in a hidden directory?

I'd like to recover it.  Thanks.

I was able to recover a recording after QuickTime Player crashed because I disconnected the projector which was in full-screen. I found my recording up until the point of crash in this location: /Users/AB/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/Unsaved QuickTime Player Document.qtpxcomposition

More info here: https://www.macstories.net/news/recovering-a-lost-quicktime-recording/, which in summary said to:

Right-click the qtpx file we found
Select "Show Package Contents"
Find the movie or audio we were looking for and copy it to where we want


Select the first or last file in finder with the keyboard, or disable filename sort in finder I'm renaming a long series of file one by one while previewing them. UNFORTUNATELY, Finder re-sorts the file list, so that means that each time I rename a file, it changes the current selection to the end, so I need to quickly go to either the first file or the last in the list.

On windows explorer, when I hit end or home, it selects the last or first file. It can be quite useful when browsing a long series of files. On top of this, on mac you can have a preview of the file which is very handy.

Finder seems to have a different behaviour, I have a macbook pro, so I either it FN-left or FN-right to simulate those keystrokes, but it does nothing. Also the keyboard viewer display a different symbol when I hit FN-enter, I don't really know what that is.

Alternatively, I could just tell Finder to not sort files at all, just leave them in place. Is there a way to do this?

PS sorry for some reason, access to google https is not authorized with mac at my library, so I can't login at all.

In column view and list view you can use ⌥↑ and ⌥↓.

You could also set arrange by to none (⌃⌘0) and sort by to size (⌃⌥⌘6).


How to know which files iTunes could not import? I'm trying to import a large iTunes library from an XML file, but at the end I get a message:

  Some songs of "example.xml" file were not imported because they were not found

However, I know that all the songs in the XML really exist (since I've generated it a few minutes before), so how can I know which songs iTunes didn't import? Is there maybe a log somewhere I could look at?

I have found that importing songs with ampersands and commas in their title or album name can cause problems.  I haven't found a workaround, but exporting the library to a text file and then searching the proper columns might help identify the missing files.


El Capitan stuck on install On a work iMac 27" Intel i5 that wouldn't boot when I got it. Did a restore to Yosemite. Tried to install El-Capitan, which didn't go well at first (I would download it and then get a message telling me it was corrupt when I tried to install). This morning, I re-downloaded and the install kicked off (progress!). However, it stalled and now shows the grey apple and a progress bar (about 95% completed). It's been like that for hours.

I tried to re-start but it goes right back to this screen. I ran disk utility, but nothing came up.

I'm not a mac user, so I'm not sure what steps to try next. Do I need to do another restore to Yosemite?

Apple Support: 1-800-275-2273 (Or you can get it from here)

Call, it wont take long, and you don't need to have applecare or anything like that. And this way, if something breaks, maybe you'll be eligible for some kind of reimbursement.

You can do the whole thing with your phone on speaker. I actually tried to call them myself (and then relay the information) but one of the first things they ask for is a serial number.

The occasions i've called them are all blurred together, but i vaguely remember being told to hold the power button for some specific length of time, holding some key while it started up (which might have been to activate disk utility), and unplugging the iMac.

The key thing, though, is that i called them, it didn't take long, and in doing so i was able to fix it.


Would formatting my iMac fix my failing drive? I have been dealing with this problem for few months, I was using bootcamp on my iMac late 2013, and after a while its driver corrupted using too much disk space and slowing down. So I deleted it and created a new bootcamp partition but my problems didn't end there. Every time I shut down my computer its windows files would corrupt again making me redownload windows. And few days ago this corruption affected my main iMac drive too. I can repair the disk through disk utility because its giving me exit code 8, my internet recovery mode is giving me code -2002f and its startup is extremely slow ( only the part where you enter your password and log in) everything else is fine. Startup problem is the same problem i had with the bootcamp. I was getting black screens during startups. I wasn't able to delete my bootcamp partition until today because the disk utility didn't let me to do it. I deleted it through terminal and now I am dealing with my main drive corruption. I plan to sell this iMac very soon due to educational fees and I want to fix this before I sell it. I am currently trying to log into single user mode but its keep failing to mount disk0s2 and there is a small white circle with a cross on the screen. How can I fix this? Would formatting my iMac solve all my driver problems?

The 2013 iMac was offered with 1TB hard drive, Fusion drive, or SSD. The first two of these use mechanical spinning platter hard drives, which are expected to have a limited life before failing.

After six years, it's likely that the drive is failing, and so Erasing or repartitioning it won't help. Replacing the drive is possible, but "moderately difficult".


Why does opening Mac Mail show a preview pane not the whole email? On my MacBook OS X 10.10.3 when I used to open Mac Mail it would just display the entire message and there was more flexibility to deal with this or other messages. Now it seems to load a preview (constrained) version of the message with fewer options not the entire message as before. Looking on viewing preferences there is no obvious way to view email messages as before.

Quickest way to get the old view back is enable Classic Layout, prefs > viewing...


Apple Script not running as expected The following is an applescript which is meant to take the body of the latest email and extract text out of it. As you can see the result is shown below. This result is show as the script was running correctly before. Now it is not.

The email I sent later on contained the message "#tech sxi" but the script is not showing the correct output for this email. This is not the only one. Every time, I am sending a new mail and running the script again, i get the same problem, the result just does not change.

As one of the commenters alluded to, "get first message of inbox" probably won't return what you expect.

When retrieving messages using AppleScript, Mail sorts your mailbox accounts alphabetically.  Within each account's inbox, messages are sorted newest first.  What you have selected in Mail doesn't change the order in which they're returned to AppleScript.

So if you have the following accounts and inbox messages appearing in Mail in this order:

My iCloud

Message dated 1/5/16
Message dated 1/10/16

My Gmail

Message dated 1/10/16
Message dated 1/5/16

"get first message of inbox" will return the Message dated 1/5/16 from the "My Gmail" account (G comes before i, 1/5/16 comes before 1/10/16).

My guess is that you have more than one account in Mail.

Name the specific mailbox.  This will always set theMessage to the newest message in "My Gmail".  (The account name is the same name you see in Mail in the list under Inbox).

set theMessage to first message in mailbox "INBOX" of account "My Gmail"

This is an unusual approach, however, as mail moves, so the first message in your mailbox could become your second message unexpectedly.

Here are a couple of reliable ways to extract data from messages:

Use selected messages (messages you've selected by clicking on them in Mail):

tell application "Mail"
    set theMessages to selection

    -- This block extracts the topics from the messages
    repeat with theMessage in theMessages
        set theMessageText to content of theMessage
        try
            -- Set topic to the string starting just after the hash
            set topic to rich text ((offset of "#" in theMessageText) + 1) thru end of theMessageText
            -- Truncate the topic at the first space
            set topic to rich text 1 thru ((offset of " " in topic) - 1) of topic
        on error
            -- No topic found in message
            set topic to ""
        end try
        log topic

    end repeat
end tell

Mail Rules (run a script on messages that match certain criteria).  In Mail, open Preferences > Rules.  Create a new rule with "Run AppleScript" as the action.  Select "Open in Finder" from the menu that lets you select which script to run.  Open Script Editor, and save the code below as a script in the folder Mail opened.  Back in Mail, select your saved script as the script to run:

using terms from application "Mail"
    on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule thisRule
        -- This block extracts the topics from the messages
        repeat with theMessage in theMessages
            set theMessageText to content of theMessage
            try
                -- Set topic to the string starting just after the hash
                set topic to rich text ((offset of "#" in theMessageText) + 1) thru end of theMessageText
                -- Truncate the topic at the first space
                set topic to rich text 1 thru ((offset of " " in topic) - 1) of topic
            on error
                -- No topic found in message
                set topic to ""
            end try
            log topic
        end repeat

    end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from


How to know app(from AppStore) is still installing and didn't just hang? I am trying to download Xcode and it says "installing" but has not done anything different for an hour(just sitting there).  How do I know it is still installing?

One good way to tell, especially for large apps like Xcode that take some time to install / upgrade, is to open the Activity Monitor (under Applications > Utilities).   You'll find a process called storedownloadd.   You can check to see it's CPU usage to give you an idea that it's happily working away.

You can see in my screenshot, I just started an upgrade of Xcode, and my process is running around 60%.   After a couple minutes (after this screenshot), the process dropped down to 5%, but it still working away...   as long as there is CPU usage here, you know it's still in progress.


Using Automator or AppleScript to encrypt/decrypt with OpenSSL I would like to know how to use Automator or AppleScript to create a droplet that would compress/uncompress (tar.gz) and encrypt/decrypt with OpenSSL files and/or directories dropped in it. The workflow on what the droplet will do to encrypt would be something like this:

Files/directory is dropped on droplet
Files/directory is compressed
A password prompt is presented
OpenSSL is used to encrypt file, file is renamed to *.encrypted

To decrypt:

File is dropped on droplet
If file is named *.encrypted, a password prompt is presented. If not, do encrypt workflow
File is decrypted, and renamed
Files is uncompressed

Anyone?

Actually, Automator is not a bad choice for this, as it allows you to combine AppleScript and shell scripting without actually having to mix them (which leads you straight to escaping hell, after a short stay in quoting purgatory) and pass values between them an orderly fashion. Also, besides a droplet application, Automator will allow you to create a Service with excellent integration into Finder:

Create a new Automator workflow.

either select “Application” when prompted what type of workflow to create – that will get you a droplet that processes files and folders you send to it, or
select “Folder action” and set “Accepts selected” to “files and folders” – that will get you an item in the Finder Services and context menu of files an folders (all translations approximate, I’m on a German system).

Add a "Run AppleScript” action and edit its contents as follows:

on run {input, parameters}
    try
        tell application "System Events" to set thePassword to text returned of (display dialog "Please input your password for OpenSSL encryption" default answer "" with hidden answer)
    on error errorMessage number errorNumber
        if errorNumber is -128 then quit me -- user has canceled
        error errorMessage number errorNumber
    end try
    return (thePassword as list) & input
end run

– this will prompt the user for the encryption password and pass it as the first argument to the next action.
Add a “Run Shell Script” action, setting it to get its input through arguments (not stdin, as is default). Make sure the shell is set to /bin/bash. Edit the script contents as follows:

[[ -n $1 ]] && password="$1" && shift || exit 0
for f in "$@"; do
    if [[ ${f##*.} = "encrypted" ]]; then
        fname="${f%.encrypted}"
        openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -salt -in "$f" -out "$fname".tar.gz -pass pass:$password || continue
        tar -xPf "$fname".tar.gz && rm "$fname".tar.gz || continue
    else
        fname=$([[ -f $f ]] && printf "${f%.*}" || printf "$f")
        tar -czPf "$fname".tar.gz "$f" || continue
        openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt -in "$fname".tar.gz -out "$fname".encrypted  -pass pass:$password && rm -f "$fname".tar.gz || continue
    fi
done

– this will decrypt and untar-gzip .encrypted files, tar-gzip and encrypt all other files and directories with AES 256-CBC encryption and the password given.

Caveat Empteor: error handling is primitive (basically, the for loop skips an iteration when it encounters an error), there is no logging and there is no failsafe against wrong password inputs (you might want to ask twice and compare the results, as the shell utility does). Disasters should not happen, though, as files are only deleted when the previous steps complete successfully.

Finally, you might want to investigate alternatives to prompting for a password – a passphrase file on a USB key, say (use -pass file:/Volumes/volname/passfile instead of -pass pass:$password, skip the Applescript step and remove the first line of the shell script), or storing your password in the OS X keychain and retrieving it programmatically (see this answer of mine on Stack Exchange for ways to do that).


Airplay mirroring with extended desktop: how to choose which apps end up on Apple TV? I use my Macbook hooked up to a TV via HDMI for most of my work, and want to use Airplay mirroring from my Mac to extend my desktop and play online videos full screen on my Apple TV while also being able to do work on my computer that won't end up on the screen. It seems to me that using airplay mirroring with the "desktop extension" option is the best way to do this. However, whenever I turn it on, all of my apps end up on the TV screen and my desktop ends up completely blank. Is there a way to choose which desktop is the one that goes on to the TV?

When you switch from Mirroring to Extended Desktop

  To move open windows, or Applications, to the Apple TV display simply
  click and drag the window by the Title Bar to the left hand side of
  your display (keep dragging over the screen edge). As you do this the window will appear in a transparent
  view on the Apple TV display. Once the entire window is on the new
  display, it will become active and can be interacted with in your
  second workspace........

You can also use Mission control and just drag the allocations between the displays.

And the cmd left arrow


Magic Trackpad 2 force touch settings Problem iMac! I have Magic Trackpad 2 I use on my iMac 2013
When I bought it worked without problems for a few weeks.
But now I have a problem, my iMac recognizes it as trackpad 1

When you go to settings then Trackpad has no option for force touch. How can I determine what caused this and/or fix it to I can control the details again?

This might need some triage to narrow what you've tried. Restart, new user, apply software updates. Before even that point, you should back up to Time Machine or your chosen backup method.

reset the NVRAM and SMC would rebuild the pre-boot hardware and software settings
restart the OS cures a temporary situation
installing new OS would rule in or rule out software issues

To expand on the initial triage steps above:

I would pair another trackpad (external) since that would tell me if your software or settings were causing this (some trackpads may not even do haptic, so I could see a check to see if the hardware had that and then the software draws what you see intentionally) in which case you would erase the Mac and reinstall the OS - verify the hardware shows haptic and restore your data and apps.

If it's not software, then hardware repair would be needed to see why your trackpad isn't being sensed as haptic since at that point you know your software is good.


How to change chart colors in Pages 5? I cannot change the individual colors in my charts. Under "Chart Colors" there is only this list of 12 predefined color swatches called "fill sets". Most of them are ugly. Not being able to change individual colors means no ability to add the company's brand colors to documents and that sort of thing. How can I change the colors of my chart?

I figured it out! One must click on an individual point on the graph or chart and then go to the Style tab under Fill and change that. It will change the color for all the data points in that column.

Not intuitive at first, but definitely easy once you know about it.


Using "+Left/Right" to move between words in an editing window I've recently switched to a MacBook as my main platform for doing work. Previously, I was an all-Linux sort of person (I now run Linux under VMware). But there are still a few UI differences that are driving me crazy, and one of them is this:

I am used to being able to use ctrl+→/← when in a web form, or even in most editing apps, to move left and right by a whole word. However, on my MBP those keys switch between desktops in Spaces. And where MacOS tends to use the ⌘-key for common control-isms (like ctrl+C, etc.), ⌘+← and ⌘+→` do start-of-line and end-of-line, respectively.

Is there a modifier for moving by words, under MacOS?

⌥ + arrow keys will let you navigate by word. As you said, ⌘ + arrow keys will move to the end/beginning of the line or document. Both of these can also be used with ⇧ to select, or the delete key. Furthermore, you can double-click to select a word and triple-click to select a paragraph — and if you double-click-drag or triple-click-drag, you can select multiple words or paragraphs.

Also useful, and perhaps familiar to you coming from Linux:

ctrl A moves to the beginning of a paragraph
ctrl E moves to the end of a paragraph
fn ⌫ deletes forwards (and can be combined with ⌘ or ⌥;
you can also use ctrlD which doesn't work with the other modifiers)
ctrl K deletes to the end of the paragraph (kill)
ctrl Y pastes that text back (yank)
ctrl L scrolls so the selected text is visible
ctrl T transposes the two characters next to the cursor
ctrl O inserts a newline after the cursor

More interesting shortcuts and uses of the keyboard can be found here and elsewhere on the internet.


Does apple get any payment for the Wired magazine viewer App? If you are subscribed to Wired magazine (paid subscription) you can download the Wired iPad app free and enter your Subscription # and view it on the iPad.

No, Apple doesn't get any payment this way. There are a lot of newspapers, magazines etc. providing apps which allow electronic access. If they would offer in-app purchases Apple would take the usual 30%.


Airpod pros active noise cancellation seems to activate with loud noises normal? Whenever there's a high-pitched screeching noise the active noise cancelation on my airpods pros activates itself for a few seconds. Is this a feature or a bug on my model? Has anyone else ever experienced this and should I return these for an exchange?

I experience this as well - pretty sure it’s a feature to protect our hearing.


How to find all devices (IP Address, Hostname, MAC Address) on local network? I've read almost every thread related to this, yet no one has quite made it easy to access a table like the following.

  IP Address     Hostname        MAC Address
  192.168.1.10 | myAppleTV     | 02:78:42:9b:bb:12
  192.168.1.10 | myiPhone      | b2:18:4a:3a:42:22
  192.168.1.10 | myiMac        | 09:17:a2:95:c4:00
  192.168.1.10 | myCanonPrinter| a0:ea:72:77:b4:aa

Most of the time I use arp -a and there is also dns-sb, but none of them make it easy to find out 3 key pieces of information whenever I am messing around on the network, i.e., IP Address, Hostname and MAC Address. I am surprised that there isn't a utility that accomplishes this!

If using a third-party utility is not an issue for you, then I recommend giving these a try:

arp-scan (available via Homebrew)

brew install arp-scan
arp-scan --localnet

fing (download and install the "Desktop Embedded CLI" package from fing.com or via Homebrew brew cask install fing)

sudo fing -r 1 -d true -o table,text

Both utilities have a number of additional modes and features. I suggest reading the manuals fully to get the most out of them.

If you need to avoid using third-party tools then here's a way to do something similar with built-in commands. You can run these interactively, but it's probably easier to save it as a script. N.B. to keep it short, this script does no error checking, and only works on /24 subnets. Modifying it to work on subnets of other sizes is left as an exercise to the reader :)

#!/usr/bin/env bash
tab=$'\t'
pIF=$(echo "show State:/Network/Global/IPv4" | scutil | awk -F: '/PrimaryInterface/{sub(/ /,"",$2); print $2}')
sn=$(ipconfig getifaddr $pIF | sed -En 's/^([0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+).*/\1/p')
for i in {1..254}; do ping -i0.1 -W100 -c1 $sn.$i | grep from; done
arp -a | grep $pIF | sed -e 's/^\?/unnamed/' -e "s/\ at\ /${tab}/g" -e "s/\ on\ /${tab}/g" -e 's/\ ifscope.*$//g' | awk 'BEGIN { FS="\t"; OFS="\t"; printf "%-17s\t%-15s\t%s\n", "MAC","INTERFACE","HOSTNAME (IP)" } { if($2!="(incomplete)") {printf "%-17s\t%-15s\t%s\n",$2,$3,$1}}'

This should output something like:

MAC                 INTERFACE       HOSTNAME (IP)
0:90:b:7a:85:62     en0             r1.lan (192.168.20.1)
2c:36:f8:48:2b:47   en0             cisco-sg300-10p.lan (192.168.20.2)
84:78:ac:a6:95:a0   en0             cisco-sg300-20.lan (192.168.20.3)
b4:fb:e4:cb:93:85   en0             wap1.lan (192.168.20.10)
0:11:32:10:cd:c1    en0             nas.lan (192.168.20.20)
0:11:32:3d:99:c9    en0             nas2.lan (192.168.20.21)
0:11:32:10:cd:c1    en0             unnamed (192.168.20.23)
d4:4b:5e:fe:6a:75   en0             brwd44b5efe6a75.lan (192.168.20.90)


Spotlight doesn't work after Yosemite Upgrade Why doesn't Spotlight work now that I've upgraded to Yosemite?  How to fix?

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
Learn how to re-index a folder or an entire volume for Spotlight.

From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
Click Spotlight.
Click the Privacy tab.
Drag a folder or an entire volume (your hard drive) to the list.
If prompted for confirmation, click OK.
Remove the item or volume you just added to the list by clicking it and then clicking the minus ("-") button.
Close Spotlight preferences.
Spotlight will re-index the contents of the folder or volume.


Time Machine only backs up /Users and /opt I have 2 MacMinis.  The two MacMinis are both connected via firewire.  I have one MacMini backup over afp over firewire to a hard drive on the other MacMini.  This system works perfectly and the whole MacMini gets backed up.

I have a MacBook.  The MacBook has the same system, but does not have the firewire connection and only backs up over WiFi.  When I look at the backup of the MacBook, it only has the Users folder and the opt folder.  No errors are reported in TimeMachine, and no files are in the Exclude list.

Select Options… in System Preferences » Time Machine and specify which directories you don't want backed up.

theis answer shows, what happened on your device:

Time Machine Synchronize just my Home Folder to external hard drive in MacOS Leopard

So you have to do it the other way round


Can I use a different AppleID on my Apple Watch? I have an iPhone and an Apple Watch. For my elderly mother I want to buy a second Apple Watch, with LTE. This is in case she falls or something else happens and she has to call for help.
However she doesn't have an iPhone and I want to avoid buying an iPhone just for the Watch, since it won't get used at all. Can I associate the second Watch with my own iPhone, but make it use a different Apple ID which I create for my mother?

Apple has a setup guide for precisely this: Set up an Apple Watch for a family member
Since watchOS 7, you can set up Apple Watch for a family member using a new/separate Apple ID joined to the same Family Sharing group as your primary Apple ID. Choose ‘Set Up for a Family Member’ when prompted in the Watch app to begin the setup process.


Macbook Pro 2020 13" and bad image quality with external VGA monitor I have just bought a new MBP 2020 13" and at the moment I am using it with an old 17" HP L1750 external monitor with the USB-C-to-VGA apple adapter; the quality of o the image on the external monitor is way worst than the one I got with my old MBP 13" 2009 (also with VGA adaptor): the text is kind of blurry and reading on that monitor is very tiring for the eyes.

Do you know why and if there is a solution?

In both cases the external monitor is set (in MacOS preferences) to 1280x1024, the native monitor resolution.

Thanks.

Since we don't have the the setup to compare and can't see how much the difference is, we can only make an educated guess. According to the information here, I believe the operating system running on 2009 MBP should be OS X 10.11 "El Capitan". On the other hand, MBP 2020 should be running Catalina, which is the latest for now.

There are some posts on the web (e.g., here, here, or here) which mention that the font smoothing on modern MacOs versions, especially Catalina has evolved so that the text looks much worse on displays which does not have dense pixels such as the retina screens or the 4K screens of sizes between 21 - 27.

If the problem is not related to the conversion of signal to VGA, using the solution stated in here should decrease the problem just a bit. I had the same problem with a 24" 1920x1200 HP monitor lately, and these settings helped to some extent.

Nevertheless, it looks like Apple has optimized its software and smoothing algorithms for the high resolution displays and therefore, MacOS Catalina seems to be not as forgiving as the older MacOS versions. On the other hand, currently, Windows and Linux does not have this problem and can do better with lower resolution screens as of now.

Hope this helps.


Macbook pro “13” mid 2010 battery not holding charge. Macbook pro “13” mid 2010 shutdown after removing the megasafe charger. .

.

Any help will be appriciated.

According to the images you have provided, your battery is not holding its charge and will need to be replaced.

In the first image, it says replace now which indicates that it is time for a replacement. In the second image, it also says it is not charging.

  All rechargeable batteries have a limited lifespan and may eventually
  need to be serviced or recycled. Your own battery’s lifespan will vary
  depending on how you use your device as well as the settings you
  choose for it.

Replacement details are avaliable here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/mac/repair/service

The cost depends on what size mac you have and if you have apple care


Automator Start Capture action doesn't detect stop in Quicktime in OS X 10.8.2 I am attempting to create an Automator application that will launch Quicktime, create a new audio capture, start that capture, and then save it with a specific filename after the stop button is clicked in the capture window. Although I was able to do this in Lion without any difficulty, I keep running into problems with the Start Capture action in Mountain Lion. Even though the "Wait for capture to complete" checkbox is checked, the action doesn't seem to detect when the stop button is clicked in Quicktime. Any solutions, tricks, or workarounds that would get this working properly would be greatly appreciated!

There's a lot that doesn't work with respect to automating QuickTime under Mountain Lion. This is ugly, but it appears to be a workaround that has the key virtue of actually working.

In your automator flow, use the action "Run AppleScript". Use this as the script:

tell application "QuickTime Player"
    activate
    set x to new audio recording
    tell x to start
    delay 1
    set lastLength to duration of x
    delay 1
    set newLength to duration of x
    try
        repeat while lastLength is not equal to newLength
            delay 1
            set lastLength to newLength
            set newLength to duration of x
        end repeat
    end try
    --  display alert name of document 1
    set v to file of front document
    set thePath to POSIX path of (path to desktop)
    tell x to activate
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "S" using {command down, shift down}
        delay 1
        keystroke thePath
        delay 1
        keystroke return
        delay 1
        keystroke "specific file name"
        keystroke return
    end tell
end tell

This isn't pretty, but it's a workaround.

Just about all the code-based ways to script the save command in QuickTime via AppleScript appear to be broken in Mountain Lion. I can't access the path of the frontmost document. I can't export. I can't close saving. It all fails either silently or with an error message. What does seem to work is to send the appropriate keystrokes to simulate a manual file export. So that's what I've done here.

I suspect you want your file saved with a name different than "specific file name" and perhaps somewhere other than your desktop. Make the appropriate substitutions in the script so that can happen. The file will then be there on disk; subsequent actions in your workflow can take advantage of it.

Note that if your file already exists, you'll get a confirmation dialog in the QT save command, and the script doesn't handle that automatically.


Safari Running slow on iMac under OS 10.4.11 We have a problem with Safari on a 'white' iMac running OS 10.4.11
Basically, it gets slower and slower with longer and longer periods of 'whirly ball' pauses.
Then we restart the iMac and is OK for a few days.

Any idea about what is causing this would be appreciated? Could it be plug-ins?

Technical Details: 2GHz PowerPC G5 iMac OS 10.4.11 running Safari 4.1.3

If you are keeping an application like Safari open and constantly running for multiple days at a time, this is the reason itself that is causing you the issue.

When you quit an Application, not close its windows, but actually quit it by either clicking on the name of the application in the top left hand corner and choosing quit or by hitting Command + Q while in the application, it will free up its RAM and resources that it is holding on to.

This happens a lot for people who don't like to restart their machine and constantly leave things running or always open.  Its convenient, no argument there, but it can bog down your computer because it is constantly holding onto everything you have been doing.

It would be similar to never cleaning off your desk, always keeping everything you need on your desk at all times.  Things would pile up and pile up and get more and more cluttered.  Its convenient because you have everything in arms reach but after a while, the time it takes to find things in the piles of stuff that you have becomes longer and longer.  That is what safari is doing, it is keeping track of all the stuff you have looked at and watched and done on the internet, just in case you want to return to it quickly.  By leaving Safari open and running for days at a time, it is lugging around so much stuff that even doing simple things becomes a chore.

Now I am not telling you to turn off your computer every time your done using it.  Using sleep mode is fine, but just remember to quit your applications.  An easy way to see what Apps are open is by hitting command + tab.  If there are a lot of things open, quit them.  If they are quitted, they won't show up in the little box that pops up when you hit command + tab.  Restarting your machine is good to do every couple of days, because it lets the computer free up resources that it may be holding on to that you probably aren't even using.  Its just part of regular computer maintenance.

Some people will say to never restart your machine and others will argue and tell you to restart it or turn it off when your not using it.  Everyone will have their theories and opinions when it comes to this.  The important thing to remember either way is that you need to quit the apps that your aren't using anymore.  If you are putting your computer to sleep, and you don't need what was open anymore, close those applications, free up the RAM they are using, give more resources back to the computer so that when you pull it back from sleep, it will be ready to work, instead of remembering to lug around those things you don't care about anymore.

You can also google search ways to keep your mac running smoothly, and you'll notice usually in that list is the advice to quit applications when not in use.

I know this was kind of winded, but I hope it helps you keep things optimized and running smoothly.


Homebrew refuses to work on macOS Sierra Just yesterday I updated my machine, a MacBook Pro (Mid 2010), to macOS Sierra. Everything seems to work fine, except when I try to use the homebrew packet manager with any command, for example brew help, the following error message is printed:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require': cannot load such file -- mach (LoadError)
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/extend/pathname.rb:2:in `<top (required)>'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/global.rb:3:in `<top (required)>'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:55:in `require'
    from /usr/local/Library/brew.rb:15:in `<main>'

I have not messed with anything related to ruby. Upon research I noticed that there seem to be some compatibility issues with Sierra and homebrew around, however, none seemed to match my problem exactly.

For the big picture: I solved the issue by uninstalling homebrew and then re-installing it again. In order to help people maybe gain a bit more insight, let me go into further detail.

Researching the Internet for the error message, my first hunch was that it had something to do with permissions. Check a discussion on Reddit or on the Homebrew GitHub for reference. However, running sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local did not to the trick. In any way, I would advise to be very careful using this command as it will transfer the ownership of /usr/local from the root user to yourself, which, apparently, was not intended by Apple. You can undo this by running

sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local
sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local

However, note that this will only undo it for the folder /usr/local and not recursively for all its files.

So, I was left with uninstalling. If you want to do the same, type

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall)"

in order to run the official script or see the Homebrew FAQ for reference.
Be aware that this will also uninstall all your Formulae and that you will be left with installing them manually again later on.

To re-install homebrew, simply run

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

If anyone figures out why I got the error in the first place or how it can  be addressed directly, please let me know.


Identify Certificate Authority from public key Under OS X, the /usr/local/etc/openssl/cert.pem contains many certificates in this format:

----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
 <...snip..>
----END CERTIFICATE-----

In Ubuntu, in /etc/ssl/certs, each certificate is in its own file; with the files named like Visa_eCommerce_Root.pem, Swisscom_Root_CA_1.pem etc.

I was wondering if on OS X there is a way I can get similar names for each certificate contained in the cert.pem file?

PS. The context is that I am trying to debug an issue on OS X where some SSL connections fail, but when I import all the .pem files from Ubuntu into OS X, the SSL connection works. I wanted to identify which certificate is missing on OS X.

In OS X you can inspect all the system root certificates by doing the following:

Press cmd + spacebar and then type "keychain access" followed by return.
Select "System Roots" and "Certificates" in the left side pane.

You should now see all the root certs installed and used by OS X e.g.

You should be able to compare this list to the list of certs installed on your Ubuntu box.

PS: You can parse the cert.pem certificate via openssl x509 -text -noout < /usr/local/etc/openssl/cert.pem. This won't give you a list of roots though, just a single cert (whose purpose I am unsure of).


Blind, can't hear when battery is low? I have a Macbook Pro. I'm legally blind and usually don't see the popup that says the battery is low.

Is there a way to make it give me an audio alert?

I've heard that you can do this with Voiceover, but I can't find any options for it. If there's a way to do it without voiceover, that would be even better.

Thank you!

this can be done using Apple Script after I did slight research.
Actually I cannot help you with it, because I am not experience in apple scripting, but if some would like to try, here is advisory:

Give your mac a more attention grabbing low battery warning


TextEdit removes Byte-Order-Mark (BOM) from Unicode/UTF files. How to fix? I'm working with UTF-8 files, but TextEdit seems to not fully support the BOM. When a BOM is present, it DOES render unicode characters correctly. However, upon saving the file, the BOM is removed, so subsequently opening the file in TextEdit causes 'the wrong' characters to be displayed.

Is there a way of remedying this? Bear in mind I'm sharing files with several non-technical users, so anything related to the command-line is out of the question. If the solution is 'use another text editor', this might just about be acceptable, if it's free, and not totally different from TextEdit - i.e. the simpler, the better. But, ideally, there's a way of fixing TextEdit ...

This isn't the main solution you're looking for, but TextWrangler is free, handles UTF-8 (and many other encodings) very well, and doesn't have too steep a learning curve, particularly if you're just using functionality similar to TextEdit. I know you'd like to fix TextEdit, and I hope you get an answer explaining how to do that, but in the absence of a primary solution, this should be a good backup plan.


iMessage and facetime not displaying my number I have an iPhone 5 running iOS 7.1.2, I recently turned off the iMessage and FaceTime and then ejected my SIM card and inserted SIM card of another network. After few hours I again switched my SIM again to previous network.

After that I am trying to activate my iMessage and FaceTime but no luck. It is not displaying my number in address.
I checked my number in Phone but there my number is correct.

I have tried network reset, phone reset, hard reset, turning  on and off both services but no luck. How do I go back to using FaceTime and iMessage on my original network?

Ring your carrier.

They may have to reset your phone's profile, if the other SIM messed it up.  They can send the new data (connection profile) remotely, you just OK it when it arrives.

My carrier sometimes sends me a new phone profile after a major iOS update, or if they add new functionality etc. I can easily imagine swapping SIM cards could mess up the original profile.


How to find the password to my iPad's currently-connected Wi-Fi network? I am connected to my wifi on my iPad but I want to know if there is a way to find the password that is put in to get connected to it.

If you're using iCloud Keychain, the password is synced to your keychain on your Mac and is therefore accessible in Keychain Access.

Open Keychain Access, select the keychain and look for the Wi-Fi network. Clicking show password will prompt for your password, then the network password will be displayed.


Connect to a second computer at startup First, I'm sure this question has an answer somewhere, but I cannot find it.

Is there a way for my main computer to connect to a backup computer on startup? I want to run TimeMachine from the remote machine. The connection would be over the network.

Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination

On the 'host/storage/backup' Mac

Go to System Prefs > Sharing
Enable File Sharing
Add a folder as the back up destination (note, you might want to partition a section of the HD for this) under "Shared Folders"
Right click, Advanced Options
Select "Share as Time Machine backup destination"

Then on the 'working' Mac, as long as both devices are visible to each other on the network, you should see the 'backup' Mac as a TimeMachine destination.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202784#mac


Alternative to iOS 10 Music app which is now missing star rating I'm using the phone to categorise my ripped music while I'm on the train or whatever. I sync this with iTunes to have the same information available on my Mac. With iOS 10 I am no longer able to do so, because Apple seems to think like/dis-like is enough choice.

I don't concur with this view.

What iOS Apps are you using on your Mac and iPhone to categorise music ? I'm even open to leave the iTunes universe all-together.

The star system is cumbersome, but still quite ok to classify songs in a simple way:

1 - defect , 2 - like, 3 - party song, 4 - mixtape song, 5 - reserved

This is definitely more information that love and hate.

So what's your take on listening and categorising to your mp3 files on your iOS device and Mac ?

Cesium Music Player includes your iTunes metadata and allows you to change star ratings while listening to music on your iPhone

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cesium-music-player/id924491991?mt=8


macOS Sierra, kernel_task running taking more than 400% of CPU After upgrading my MacBookPro to macOS Sierra, CPU is running very fast. When I tried to debug the issue, here is what I have found.

Solutions that I have already tried.

Reset SMC
Reset PRAM
Tried to delete model identifier files (OS is not allowing).
Removed all login items, and all automatically starting apps
Removed all items in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/StartupItems.
Removed all installed software

But still no luck, any leads will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Took apart the case and cleaning out the fans totally solved this for me. There was a lot of lint build-up in both of them so they were not cooling the system adequately.

The reason it causes high CPU load is that Mac creates fake CPU load to slow down the computer as a last-ditch effort to control temperature.


How to depict your name on your iPhone's lock screen? Before upgrading to iOS 7 from iOS 6, I had the wallpaper of my iPhone 4S lock screen show my name, address, and email address. Just in case somebody found my phone and was willing to see it returned.

After upgrading to iOS 7, I noticed that any notifications to the lock screen will blur the text to practical invisibility, even if I manoeuvre the text on the wallpaper right in between the top line and the time. (Also, but not relevant to the question, the text placed there moves quite a bit around if you tilt the phone.)

In iOS 7, is there a way to leave some details to be easily1 found by the finder of the locked phone? (And I do not mean writing/scratching on the phone or a sticker. I actually came from the earlier sticker-on-the-back solution.)

1The finder might figure out that you can remove the notification, but, even if aware of the possibility, that might not be the obvious thing to do at all.

As you very well explained, the notifications will blur any image. So, the options are:

Not to show any notification on the lock screen
To depend on the Find my iPhone service from Apple.

I personally would not do #1, as I lose features from my phone. I have, however, activated the "Find my iPhone" service.

With this service, if your phone is lost, you can send messages to it (that will be displayed on the lock screen) and/or you can block the device and let the person only call a specific (alternative) number. This is called the "Lost Mode".

The only drawback, I see compared to your iOS 6 Wallpaper solution, is that you will have to go to a computer and access the iCloud site to effectively enable one of those features.

Apple has added Activation Lock in iOS 7, that if enabled, even if stolen, your iPhone cannot be deleted or activated with another Apple ID. If the finding person/thief knows this, he will probably return it to you.


Need a bit of help running a couple lines of bash in applescript. Maybe straight bash is best? Preface this by saying I will be launching this script whether it be applescript or bash script with Alfred.app.

Sorry to be so blunt and unknowledgable but I need to run a couple lines of bash in an applescript. I think a simple bash script is capable but I do not know for sure. Here are the details (note that the commands should probably be different so if you have suggestions, please feel free to state them as they are probably correct):

I want the script to

rm ~/Library/Vidalia/vidalia.conf'
unzip ~/Library/Vidalia/vidalia.conf.zip'
launch Vidalia.app

Step below I do not believe is possible since the Vidalia.app is not scriptable and I don't want the applescript/bash script to be running until Vidalia quits... but if it's possible to implement without the script needing to stay open:

4) On quit of Vidalia.app rm ~/Library/Vidalia/vidalia.conf

Is this possible. I can use bash or applescript whatever is easiest for you guy's & gals to help me with. If I could get the first three steps to run I would be plenty happy! Thanks for your time and sorry for my lack of knowledge. Any tips or pointers are welcome.

Heck, I don't even know if those are the "proper" shell commands to use, they did the job but if they are "sound" I do not know.

Thank you for your time and patience.

UPDATE - Question: How to move unzipped file into different directory?

Okay I have one last question. How would I do this same sort of action, but I wanted to keep vidalia.conf.zip in another directory?

Say, for example, an external volume named tor - I moved into the mounted volume named tor with pushd, but when I go to extract the file with what I think should work -d I get the error that I  cannot create extraction directory

Which is good because I don't want to replace the directory, just move what get's unzipped into the pre-existing directory. Yeah, I will probably have to remove the file already there depending on what I am doing so what I have looks like this...

pushd ~/Library/Vidalia/
rm vidalia.conf
popd
pushd /Volumes/tor
unzip vidalia.conf.zip -d ~/Library/Vidalia/
popd

I haven't quite tried this too much once I ran into the error with plain old -d. As I was typing this I realized that I had to be navigating directories more with pushd and then out with popd.  Originally I just had lines 4 and 5 but added the top 3 to remove the .conf that currently is there ... if ... it is there...

Which bring me to one more question… Is it harmless to tell bash to remove a file that doesn't exist? I would have no idea where to even start with if then statements.

Lastly, can anyone recommend a good beginners intro to Bash book? I'd love to actually learn this stuff instead of just having to google and then turn around and bug you all. Thank you again for your help. You solved my earlier problem perfectly, I even learned a lot from the simple example (I think.)

Cheers!

As @laaph mentioned, if you just want to run bash commands, use a bash script.

There are, however, a few issues with your commands.

Your script has to look like:

#!/bin/sh

pushd ~/Library/Vidalia
rm vidalia.conf
unzip vidalia.conf.zip
popd
open /Applications/Vidalia.app

If you didn't change to the correct directory, unzip would unzip the file into your home directory, or wherever you launched your script from.

There are ways to look for when an app quits, but in your case this seems useless, you're removing the .conf whenever you launch the script anyway. But if you really want that, you could simply do:

#!/bin/sh

pushd ~/Library/Vidalia
rm vidalia.conf
unzip vidalia.conf.zip
popd
open -W /Applications/Vidalia.app
pushd ~/Library/Vidalia
rm vidalia.conf
popd

(This would make the script wait until you close the app, and then it'd delete the configuration file. Again though, this is useless and redundant if you'll be only launching the app with the script.)

Also, you could try a simpler solution: I assume that what you want is just to have the same vidalia.conf whenever you start the program. If that's the case, try just making the .conf read-only.


Does running some commands on terminal with sudo permission consume more RAM? I routinely need to run large programs for testing purposes on a Mac. And they have a lot of sudo commands. Most of the commands have to do with FTP and string manipulations in plists.

I know it's silly but do commands run with sudo permission require more RAM? I'm talking around 5-6 GB RAM utilisation which never goes down even after the program has run its course. Currently, the only solution is to reboot the PC.

Theoretically yes, there could be memory leaks etc in the application which only trigger when the application runs with administrative or root privileges. In practice the chance for this is probably rather small, and I would look for issues elsewhere first.


Can I copy an app from an iPad to an iPad2? I bought an iPad and bought several apps, then I bought an iPad 2.

Can I copy the apps I bought to the iPad 2 and keep them on my iPad or do I have to buy them again?

This is what the official Apple documentation says:

Your Apple ID can have up to 10 devices and computers (combined)
associated with it. Each computer must also be authorized using the
same Apple ID. Once a device or computer is associated with your Apple
ID, you cannot associate that device or computer with another Apple ID
for 90 days. You can view which devices or computers are currently
associated, remove unused devices or computers, and see how long
before they can be associated with a different Apple ID from the
Account Information page in iTunes on your computer.
Last Modified: November 14, 2011


Can I install any iOS version I wish by picking and choosing which firmware to restore? I'm trying to downgrade my iPhone from the current iOS to an older one, as per this question.

But every time I try, I always receive this error:

  The iPhone could not be restored. This device isn't eligible for the requested build.

I have tried many times with and without DFU mode. Any ideas regarding this?

Downgrading or upgrading to a no longer current version of iOS is generally not possible once Apple stops signing the old software, as is needed when iTunes is preparing to install or restore an iOS. This signing window typically is closed within days of a new version shipping.

Putting a newer iOS on older hardware that never even supported that OS is near impossible.

As part of the iOS restore process, iTunes has to check with Apple's servers to 'sign' each install of iOS just like App Store apps must be signed to run. Once a new version comes out, Apple stops signing previous releases to keep everyone running the same iOS version and to prevent you from jailbraking your device again after restoring by forcing you to do an update.

If you had previously Jailbroken your device on iOS 6, it may be possible, providing you have saved your 'SHSH blobs' which can 'sign' the install instead of Apple. See this article for some general information around this topic.

This wikipedia page contains a list of iOS devices & the latest iOS they can support - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices


My iPhone is no longer appearing in Wi-Fi menu above the line after changing mobile phone provider I want to share Internet connection from my iPhone to my Macbook. Before, I just clicked the Wi-Fi icon on my mac and my iPhone automatically appeared there above the line. I did not need to enable personal hotspot on iPhone.

However, I've changed my mobile phone provider recently, and iPhone option no longer appears on Wi-Fi menu automatically without enabling hotspot on the iPhone (see picture). I there a way to make it work like it did before?

I'm aware that there is an option to connect to my phone from the Bluetooth icon, but that's not what I want.

Update

I followed @drivec suggestion and it fixed my issue. Here is what I did:

Logged out of iCloud both on Mac and iPhone.
Rebooted both devices.
Logged into iCloud on both devices.
Rebooted both devices.
Now my iPhone appears in the Wi-Fi menu of the Mac without turning on "Personal Hotspot" on the iPhone, see picture below.

The Instant Hotspot is part of Apple's Continuity and Handoff features.
Try each of these troubleshooting steps:

Confirm both devices are logged into iCloud.
Toggle WiFi and Bluetooth off and on for both devices (for iOS, use the Settings app and not Control Center to toggle these settings).
Reboot both devices.
Log out of iCloud on both devices and log back in.

Logging out of iCloud and back in on both devices can be a pain and take some time, so make sure to try the previous steps first. It may or may not be helpful to reboot your devices after both logging out and logging back in.
For this particular situation, the asker indicated that they did the following to solve their problem:

Logged out of iCloud both on Mac and iPhone.

Rebooted both devices.

Logged into iCloud on both devices.

Rebooted both devices.


Big Mac Pro issue (1,1 - 2006) Three days ago for some damn reason I decided Snow Leopard wasn't good for my Mac Pro 1,1 anymore. I decided to embark on the quest of updating it to El Capitan.

So using the Pikify and downloaded the software it took me 3 days but yesterday I finally managed to boot it up and it was working okish... bit slow and had some issues with Final Cut but it was working.
This morning I decided to run updates and well... shit gets serious...

When I boot it up, I get the  logo and the bar starts filling up it gets to half way and it switches to my second screen and starts again (this time slower) reaches half, all screens go grey and I get the Language selection. Once I select the Language I'm stuck at a Utilities window where I can choose to restore from a backup (which I don't have) choose to reinstall OS X (done that but nothing changed) find help online or start Disk Utility up to try and repair damaged disks (tried that but all disks are working fine)...

I have 3 drives mounted on my computer:

500gb - 6 GB free space (OS installed here)
500gb - 293,51 GB free space
1TB - 217 GB free space (Windows 7 installed here)

12 GB RAM - 2,66 processor - 5070HD ATI

If anyone needs any more info please let me know...

PS: I tried booting in Safe Mode, which doesn't work.
I tried resetting VRAM by pressing cmdaltPR, but nothing changes.

Another big issue is the fact when I try to open Terminal I'm logged in as bash-3.2 not as User.

With a machine that old, I'd probably use a different Mac to download a clean OS installer and then try installing to a totally new drive (USB or FireWire) to ensure you have working hardware that can run an install.

Installs exercise a lot of functionality that only runs at install time. A marginal machine can keep running for a long time past when it can actually pull off an install let alone an install/upgrade in one pass.

The benefit of this is you keep your data safe (assuming you don't have a backup) and don't have to wait hours/days for migration of settings and data to know if the simple OS install worked or not.


Replacement for iPod.app on old iPhone 3G with large buttons for play/pause and prev/next track I've dedicated my old iPhone 3G as a Bluetooth audio player.  It works great except for controlling the audio.  I find that the previous and next buttons are too close to the play/pause button on both the lock screen and in iTunes.  I often jump to the next song when I just wanted to pause the current song.

Are there any iOS 4.2.1 apps out there to fit my needs?  I found Big Button Music Player, which is the type of thing I'm looking for, but the current version requires iOS 5 or greater.

Any recommendations for apps to play the music I already have on my phone, and provide a UI with larger buttons?

You can try Track 8 - swipe to change tracks - but I'm not sure whether it is iOS 5 or later.


What applications should I avoid charging my iPhone with? I always charge my iPhone with the charger that comes with it but I was wondering could I use different kind of USB devices to charge my phone? Will it damage my phone?

You can charge an iPhone with any reputable USB charger, but unless it is designed for Apple will charge very slowly (~100mA the USB default).

In some cases (this is based on earlier iPod dock) the device will refuse to charge if it incapable of negotiating a charge rate.

You would have more luck plugging into a computer. This will still be slow, but should be capable of negotiating a 500mA rate).


What iPad app is this? I was wondering what this app was called that i also saw during an Apple video.


iPhone EDGE Network Problem I have a factory unlocked, not yet jailbroken iphone 3g. I am running ios 4.2.1 and firmware 5.15.04. My problem is that the edge connection keeps getting turned off randomly (rather frequently) and I need to keep toggling the airplane mode to get it back to work. I already tried resetting network settings, resetting all settings, restoring to factory settings and creating a new profile. None of it seems to work. Other iPhone users on Airtel (a carrier in India) are not having this problem. Please let me know if anything could be done?

The last thing you can try to do before sending it to repair is making a new install by Erasing All Content and Settings. There are many ways to accomplish this and many layers of wiping. One of them is through installing a new firmware (ipsw) file just in case the one iTunes download is somehow corrupted.

But doing anything beyond the regular Apple way is entirely up to you as the process are even more time consuming and not all that simple.


Internet Connection Speeds Slow, iOS 9 not downloading --- Newest Refurbished AirPort Time Capsule First off, I'm using a manufacturer (Apple) refurbished AirPort Time Capsule, the newest model, which was delivered by UPS a few hours ago to my new house. I bought it directly from Apple.

The technician from Hughesnet, which is satellite internet, finished installing the equipment (satellite dish, modem, etc.) earlier today. A tech support rep promised me speeds of at least 9 mbps, with the max being 15. Yet, I'm never able to get more than 7 or 8, nothing close to the already-slow 15 expected or even the 9 that the tech support representative promised.

My problem is that regular webpages (such as Apple, Wikipedia, MLB) all load reasonably quickly, yet I am never able to download iOS 9. After a few minutes, iTunes on my MacBook Pro (mid-2009, running OS X 10.10.5 "Yosemite") will have about "1024.0 KB" downloaded, then the request will time out. The update doesn't seem to be downloading on my iPhone 5S, either, but it downloaded part way on a relative's Wi-Fi network earlier this week.

I've spent literally hours on the phone with Hughesnet's technical support and we were finally able to prove that the modem is working properly and that the problem must be the router.

The Airport Time Capsule has been updated to the latest software. Both the router and the modem have been power cycled multiple times.

Is there something more that I can do to troubleshoot my Airport Time Capsule? Could this just be a problem with Apple's software update servers?

Update:
I just ran another speed test using the Ookla Speedtest app and it's now showing a 20 mbps download speed, but the iOS 9 update still won't install.

Is there something more that I can do to troubleshoot my Airport Time Capsule?

Your OOKLA speed tests indicate that your AirPort is working correctly.

  Could this just be a problem with Apple's software update servers?

Yes.


ios: restore locally saved contacts My boss accidentally removed the locally saved contacts from his device.
If I login on his account on iCloud, there's nobody in the contacts app.
On the icloud website  I can try to recover contacts, but that option also tells me there is nothing to recover
He doesn't seem to have any icloud backups.
Basically he never used anything iCloud, there really are no backups.

I did see some shareware tools that pretend to recover contacts. Is this really possible? Will they really look for locally deleted items and recover them or are they just 'scams' that make it easy to recover contacts that are backedup somewhere.
I don't want to pay for software that will not recover anything anyway.

he has the latest iphone, probably with the latest update.

I tried several applications in trial mode; and all of them do require a backup.
He learned the hard way to make backups.


AirDrop shardingd error Trying to debug AirDrop issues on the mac with an iPad mini 4th gen (both up-to-date).

Basically on the Mac I can see the iPad (most of the time) and I can transfer files, however I can never see the Mac when I try to share a file (usually a picture from Photos).

I have the visibility of both iPad and Mac to Everyone and I think I have narrowed it down to the following error. However, I don't know where to go from here!!

08/04/2016 12:56:11.737 sharingd[269]: tcp_listener_accept Failed to set SO_NOSIGPIPE on new connection from fe80::ac13:bbff:fe88:5c69%awdl0.55701

Also, just as a side note, when both cannot see each other (happens quite often) I often notice that the Bonjour service doesn't seem to want to run. Anyone know how I can kick it into life?!

FYI, I have tried the basics like disable firewall (both OSX and Little snitch)...

TIA!!

This was  problem with LittleSnitch after all. Disable the network filter and it works as expected.


Record audio in video I just recorded a video conversation using the 'screenshot' function on my mac. The idea was to record the video call, but also the audio of me and the other person talking... There was NO audio recorded!

How to record audio from the screen?!

I came across the same problem when we went to online teaching after SARS-CoV-2 hit. I found a free workaround, but there are subscription services that work. I can't say for sure that this is the best way to do it (just best for right now?):

Open a web-conferencing app like Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc., and start a meeting without others.
Share your screen in the meeting, focussing on the video you want to record. Make sure you select to "Share computer audio" in this step.
Now open your preferred screen-recorder such as Screencast-O-Matic, Canvas Studio, Echo360, etc. (I don't know if the built-in recorder works), and record the shared web-conference video.

I hope this was helpful, but I look forward to better options if anyone has any! Good luck!


Can't run Python script from anywhere, even after PATH variable was edited? I was trying to set up my Mac to run custom Python scripts from anywhere without having to type python [script.py] or the explicit file path.

The script is called "testscript". I put the script in my own bin directory (separate from /usr/local/bin), called /User/Patrick/bin, and added it to my path so when I type echo $PATH it comes up correctly like so:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/User/patrick/bin:/usr/local/go/bin`.

I already added the line #!/usr/bin/env python to the top of the file, I already did chmod 700 testscript, but I still can't call testscript from anywhere.
Have things changed since OSX Yosemite?

Make sure the script is executable.

chmode +x filename

Make sure the script has the appropriate shebang line at the top:

#!/usr/bin/env python

Double check the path, it should be /Users (note the s at the end)


Opening a new iTunes window for my apps (Windows 7) I've currently got around 700 apps installed on my desktop PC, and 500 installed on my iPad.

I'm trying to remove all of the apps from my iTunes library that aren't on my PC, but it seems the only way of doing this is to delete my entire library and sync them back across which I have to be honest and say I'm not very keen on. It's a nightmare to have to keep clicking between them, especially in the new iTunes. At the moment I'm taking a screenshot every time I delete an app, which is far from ideal.

I'm wondering if there is a way to have one window open with a list of apps, and one window open with a list of my syncs within iTunes?

Certainly, deleting your iTunes library on your computer, then just syncing your iPad back to your computer would be the most ideal solution. There is no way to access old versions of iTunes when things weren't synced as they are now so the way you described isn't possible. However, as long as you have all of your stuff from your computer, then deleting everything there and just keeping the stuff from your iPad is probably the best solution. Sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear.


Can't get past choose partition on Windows 8 boot camp install. Then can't remove incomplete installation So I got a new shiny sparkling MacBook Pro retina and Windows 8 just downloaded from MSDNAA. Reading success stories on the web that this runs even though Boot camp says Windows 7 makes me want to try it.

I start the boot camp assistant and run through the wizard with all options checked, creating a USB installation media.

During the windows installation I get to the point where I choose which partition to install to, but I get the error message "Windows can't be installed on drive 0 partition 4".
Yes, I have clicked on drive options and then on format, but I still get the same error message.

Not getting anywhere I reboot back to Mac OS X and run the Boot camp assistant again with the hope of starting over and try again. The only availilable option in Boot camp is to remove Windows and restore the hard drive to a single volume. Fair enough. However, the computer only gets to "Status: partitioning hard drive" where it sits for hours (5 and counting). Computer still responsive, but boot camp assistant does nothing. I quitted the boot camp assistant, which it allowed without having to use force shutdown and without questions about whether I really want to quit the program during hard drive partitioning.

One annoying thing is that when booting the computer defaults to Windows, so I have to press the Alt key and choose the Mac OS X partition manually.

Anyone who has any ideas as of how to

get Windows 8 installation past the select partition screen?
get Boot camp to remove the Windows partition without freezing so I can give it another go?

I got it (at least the parts in my question) working:

Reboot
Reboot again
Run boot camp and remove old installation (this time it worked)
Reboot
Run boot camp and start Windows installation
At the choose partition screen, choose the boot camp partition, select Drive options, and then select Format.

I wonder why it worked this time, but not the first.
Now I get a error message of corrupt files however. Guess I have to download the DVD image from MSDNAA again.


Scripting the sniffer built into Wireless Diagnostics I'm interested in using the built-in wireless sniffer (accessible from Wireless Diagnostics by pressing Cmd-Opt-6) as a part of a script. Is there a way to control it via scripting, maybe AppleScript?

I need to:

start the sniffer
change the channel and bandwidth settings
output to a file (as usual)

Can the UI be scripted with input events? Does Wireless Diagnostics offer any Apple events?

Following this answer, I'd suggest starting by symlinking the airport tool, which is the backend behind the Wireless Diagnostic tool:

sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/local/bin/airport

and using it to sniff e.g. on channel 1 on your connection en1 (see ifconfig to figure out which network interface is the wireless one) via:

sudo airport en1 sniff 1

which will create a uniquely named .cap file in /tmp/. Use ctrl+c to end the sniffing. (Note that /tmp/ will be cleaned on reboot!)

Note that you can also use tcpdump directly for sniffing, without disassociating from wireless networks by:

sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -nei en1 -s 0 -w /tmp/scan.pcap


Open New Terminal From Finder When Terminal is Already Open Is there a setting that will let me open a NEW terminal window when I select the Terminal application from finder if one is already open?  What happens now is that it yanks me to the terminal window that is already open, which is a frustrating feature.
Thanks

In Catalina, and perhaps earlier macOSs, there are three ways to open a new Terminal window when a Terminal window is already on the desktop:

From within Terminal, go to the Menu Bar, select > Shell > New Window
From within Terminal, press Command-N to open a new window
In any application, go to the Dock, right-click on Terminal's icon > New Window


iPad app on MBA maverics Compatibility question
I want to download the BBC iPlayer from the iTunes store on my Mac Book Air (10.9), but it is only available for iPad or iPhone as shown here:

Can I still somehow use it on my MBA ?

You can't.

IPAs downloaded from the App Store are built for the ARM processor in actual iOS devices. Even if you signed up as a developer which would give you access to the iPhone Simulator, it's not an emulator and can't run ARM code.

The only way you can run iOS apps on OS X is if you have the iPhone Simulator and have a version of the app specifically compiled to run on the simulator.


How to search phone number in google contact without iphone contact sync? I don't want to sync full google contact list but i do want to search some google contact info time to time

How to search google contact phone number without iphone contact sync?

You should be able to search for contacts using your mobile browser or Google Apps Directory and Global Address List on iOS, without actually syncing them to your phone.
With your mobile browser:
Go to m.google.com and sign in to your account. You can then go to the contacts and search there.
Or try:

How to search your Google Apps Directory and Global Address List on
iOS

On your iPhone, launch the Contacts app.
Go to the Groups selection screen.
Select your_account Global Address List, where your_account is what you've named your account on the device.
Search for a contact.

All of the matching contacts from your directory should show up, such as users in your domain. You can search for users in
your organization using this method even if they're not listed as
contacts on your device under My Contacts.

From: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/2365056?hl=en


How can I get LaTeX working on Anki? Originally I was going to ask a question about how to get LaTeX working in Anki, but as I was writing the question, I was trying to solve the problem myself. I thought others may benefit from my findings, so I decided to post them here. If you notice that any of my steps are wrong, please let me know. And I was still unable to get it to work, so if you scroll down to the end, you can see where I'm stuck and still need help.

The current issue is: How can I install libgd?

I'm trying to make Anki work with LaTeX. The only information I could find about how to do this is from this page:

  [...] to use LaTeX, you have to install it separately - it is not  bundled with Anki
  [...] on OSX use MacTex
  Dvipng must also be installed.
  On OSX, if you use MacPorts or similar to install LaTeX, make sure latex and dvipng are linked in /usr/bin.

The standard installation of MacTex takes up 3GB, far more than I believe is necessary, since I am not going to use its GUI application. I just need the LaTeX library, if I understand it correctly, which should be way less than 3GB. Therefore, I'm installing the BasicTeX version instead, which only takes up about 100MB.

I'm not sure if I already have Dvipng installed or not, so I'm restarting Anki to see if it works or not. I got the following error:

  Error executing dvipng. [...] Output written on tmp.dvi [...]

So I probably need to install dvipng... The Install readme has the following information:

  Installing dvipng should be simple: merely ./configure',make', and
  `make install'.

  Prerequisites:

  The GD Graphics Draw library, libgd
  The path-searching library kpathsea
  libpng and libz

Again, I'm not sure which, if any, of these prerequisites I already have installed, so I'm just going ahead with the installation in hopes of error messages guiding me to the right path.

After executing ./config, it gives the error:

  configure: error: cannot find/use libpng

... which I think is weird since the readme states:

 To be able to compress and write PNG files to disk, dvipng (or
 really libgd) uses libpng which in turn uses libz. These should be
 available on any modern system, if not, download them and install
 them.

I went to the libpng website, and tried finding a "current binary" that works with my OS (10.6/i386), but it seems that none of the latest 3 versions have a binary that is available to download. So I went to the "old binaries" section, which took me to this website, which has libpng v1.4.5. I installed the "Individual Installer package" for libpng.

Now that it's installed, I tried installing Dvipng again, and it now gives the following error:

  cannot find/use libgd
  This drawing library can be downloaded at http://www.boutell.com/gd

When I go to that website, I see it says that the page moved and that it is currently down. There is only a link to the source files and no binary distribution. I'm not sure where I should go from here... should I download the source and compile it somehow? Once it's complied what do I do with it? Do I run some file it generates? Would I move files it generates to specific folders? How would Dvipng know how to access it? I'm unfamiliar with how to do something like this, so any help would be appreciated.

Here's a summary (so far) of the dependency hierarchy which must be installed in order to get LaTeX to work with Anki:

MacTeX: Installed (got the BasicTeX version to save a lot of disk space).
Dvipng: Not installed (can't install without libgd).

libpng: Installed (got the Individual Installer package).
libgd: Not installed (not sure how to install this).
???

Other questions:

Is there a better, reliable method to know if any of these dependencies are installed rather than running an installer which depends on them and hoping for a meaningful error message?

Your question was very helpful to me in getting LaTeX working with Anki, but I've found there's an easier way to get dvipng:

Install MacTeX.  I installed BasicTeX-2011.pkg (MacTeX-Additions-2011.mpkg is NOT required).
Open the terminal, type "tlmgr update --self && tlmgr install dvipng" and press enter. It will update TeX Live Manager and install the latest dvipng.

Once you do that, you should be all set.


iPod volume control problems I recently purchased an apple iPod touch 4th gen but the volume control has been stuck at the max and will start going up or down at any random time The up button doesn't work and the down volume will turn it down but it will go right back up. I've tried turning it on and off but to no avail.

How can I get my volume control back?

If your volume control adjusts itself after you restore the device to factory settings, it's likely a hardware error in a button or the headphone jack.

Therefore the steps to fix this are:

Back up your device
Restore the device
Take it in for service (assuming the issue doesn't resolve itself)


iPhone X - Temperature Problem I believe I may have a temperature problem with my iPhone X. My iPhone gets extremely warm when using Snapchat. Even up to 92 degrees Fahrenheit! Snapchat is not the only app that causes this behavior. Safari and Facebook both cause similar warmth. Texting and phone calls can also increase the temp but not as much (only up to 84 degrees).

It generally idles a degree or two more then room temp and during charging it can warm up to [ missing temp ] even when not in use.

To troubleshoot, I have attempted to reset. Unfortunately, this did not fix this issue.

Also don't believe its a hardware issue as this my second X, and also happens on my spare iPhone 7....

If any of you have a thermometer to check the temp that would be awesome.

Thank you.

92 degrees F is not an issue. Snapchat and similar programs that use the camera, GPS, and have higher GPU/CPU requirements will cause the phone to get warmer. If it was 92C then that wouldn't be good, but 92F just means you're using a lot of battery power.


Editing/Removing contacts from iPhone I've accumulated 1000+ contacts over the years and multiple iPhone upgrades. Is there any way to remove contacts quickly either on the phone or from my Mac while syncing?

(A decade ago, the Blackberry, company issued, synced with outlook. So I didn't edit on the BB at all. Does the iPhone sync to a program on the Desktop Mac, and I've just not noticed?)

iPhone5, MacPro running 10.6.8 by the way.

With recent OS X, you can enable iCloud so that the contacts are synced to the Contacts.app on the mac. If you are either unable or unwilling to upgrade OS X, you can also edit the contacts on icloud.com, provided iCloud & its contacts syncing option is enabled on your iPhone.


iPhoto update not available iPhoto won't open on my computer, insisting I need to update before using it, but when I click "check for updates" it informs me that there are no updates in the Australian store!!

Very frustrating, I don't use it a lot, but annoying that I can't use it until I update with a non-existent update!

Is there anyway around this? I'm not sure if I can download it from another countries store?

Lou

Does iPhoto show up under Purchased tab of your Mac App Store? If yes, you can try deleting the app from /Applications and try installing (downloading) it again from Purchased tab.


Invitations sent to Gmail do not appear in Calendar while invitations sent to Office 365 do When I receive meeting invitations to my Gmail account they appear as regular mails with an attachment. Opening the message in Gmail lets me add the event to my Google Calendar, making it appear in OS X Calendar after the next sync.

However, when I receive invitations to my Office 365 account they appear in OS X Calendar "incoming invitations" menu bar item. They also show up as grey tentative bookings in the calendar.

Why don't Gmail invitations work like Office 365 invitations? Can I make Gmail invitations appear in OS X Calendar?

N.B., I don't use the Gmail account in Mail.app, but I do use the Office 365 account there.

I don't know how to get better native integration, but Outlook 2016 and O365 sure does a good job with gmail and other email being integrated. It's not the typical Apple experience, but it's dramatically better than 2011 and much older Office suite.


Not able login into Google account on Mac with correct password I am trying to login into my Google account in browser (tried Safari, Firefox, Chrome) on newly bought MacBook Pro (macOS Sierra 10.12.4) but getting 'Wrong password. Try again.' error every time, even though with same password, I am able to login on my Android phone and Windows laptop.

Found this article https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/3178296; 2-way auth is off on my account currently, tried this https://www.google.com/accounts/displayunlockcaptcha too, but still no success!

You could try resetting a new password altogether, it's slightly extreme but that should certainly solve it for you.


Install Boot Camp 6 Without Internet Connection I'm using an early 2015 MacBook Pro and just updated it to El Capitan. Right now I want to install Windows 10 on my MBPr using Boot Camp. But the problem is, if I don't connect to the internet, Boot Camp Assistant will fail to install saying that it can't download additional software. I already downloaded the Boot Camp Support Software before so I don't want to waste a time to redownload it again.

Is there any solution for Boot Camp 6 to keep installing Windows without internet connection?

You will have to manually do it without using Boot Camp Assistant. This is the best guide I have found (archive 2016-07-09). You will have to create the partition then manually install the drivers once Windows is installed.


Exclude apps from iPhone/iPad backup? I own both an iPhone (4S) and an iPad (mini), running iOS 5 and 6 respectively. The two of them are quite filled with large apps (roughly 40GB in total) and thus my Macbook is getting crowded. This is because iTunes stores all downloaded apps, PLUS all apps from all devices, so there are three copies of many apps saved (downloaded app + 2 iOS backups).

I would like to exclude stuff which can be reinstalled from the iTunes store from my iOS backups, just like iCloud does - only without using iCloud (I prefer my backups being physically at home).

Is there a way to do this? If so, how?

Thank you!

I just had the same question and found a solution here:

I do not want to sync apps in iTunes11.

  iTunes > Preferences... > tab "Store" > section "Automatic Downloads" in the middle, there is a check box "Apps"


I can’t update but I can install apps (App Store) I can access the Japanese App Store and I can install the apps but when it comes to updating, it says “App has been removed by the developer from the app store.” (Which is not as my friends had already updated their games.)
My region is in Japan (both in the app store and the apple site) and I have never switched it to any country.
The only “fix” I found when one of my apps were like this, was to uninstall and reinstall, which isn’t favorable right now as my data will be lost once I uninstall.

It is possible that the developer has changed the bundle-ID of the application, which essential makes it a completely new app - just with the same name. This could explain why you cannot update your app that has the old bundle-ID, whereas other user's who downloaded the newer app with the new bundle-ID can.
This can happen for example when a company that owns an app sells that app to another developer. In certain cases, they need to use a new bundle identifier.