lion: assign buttons on a Microsoft mouse I have an old 5 button Microsoft mouse (Laser Mouse 6000) and forever I've assigned the thumb button to "back" in the browser and the middle mouse button to "next app" on the desktop. Since I've installed Lion, this doesn't seem to work. The settings in the "Microsoft Mouse" panel in System Preferences don't seem have any effect.

Is there another way to map mouse buttons? I've noticed that Mission Control seems to detect my 5 buttons and let me assign them, but only to Mission Control functions. I don't see anywhere else where I can do this. Do I just need to wait for new MS drivers? Thanks.

BetterTouchTool's "Normal Mouse" area allows you to assign functions to all kinds of mouse buttons and should work for you. It's free, too, so it won't hurt to try.

The author has issued a couple of recent updates to make it more compatible with Lion. There are still a couple of small things but I'm using it every day (previously with my mouse, now with my trackpad) and it's tremendously useful.


How can my website tell safari it's ok to save passwords? When I logged into my website in safari, I got the following message:

  safari will not save your password because MyWebsite requested passwords not be
  saved

What meta tag/value do I need on my site to tell Safari it's ok?

Make sure you don't have autocomplete=off in any of the forms.  This is the primary way that a website can tell a browser not to save passwords.  By default, if the website doesn't have anything, the browser will be happy to save passwords, so odds are that your website contains something like that somewhere.


Blurred Effect option for Portrait Mode on iOS11? Did we lose the Blurred Effect option for Portrait Mode on iOS11? My iPhone X I noticed this morning when I wanted to use that feature, Under Portrait Mode it just as the studio options now.

I think the default option (pre iOS 11) was changed to "Natural Light" in iOS 11. Try that option...


Where does an "Export to Apple Devices" file go to in Final Cut Pro X? Sometimes the most simple things in this software are not obvious. I get a "Share Successful" message but have no idea where it is on my HD.

When you do this you need to have 'do nothing' selected in the 'when done' box in order to get the save dialogue. Otherwise the file will go into ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music/Home\ Videos/ (yes this just confused me as well!)


Trying to install nasm-2.1108 but getting permission deny Trying to install my nasm version as 2.11.08 but when i hit the "sudo make install" im getting error like this

$ sudo make install
mkdir -p /usr/bin
/usr/bin/install -c nasm /usr/bin/nasm
install: /usr/bin/nasm: Operation not permitted
make: *** [install] Error 71

how can i resolve this problem im running Elcapitan on my mac.

current nasm version:

NASM version 0.98.40 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 11) compiled on Aug 17 2015

User-provided binaries should get installed to /usr/local/ (or more specifically /usr/local/bin) to avoid any versioning conflicts with standard applications/binaries. There should be an option to set the install directory to /usr/local when you run ./configure in your build directory.

PS: In OS X before El Capitan, it was rather easy to install to /usr/bin nevertheless. With El Capitan, Apple has introduced SIP to prevent these kind of modifications. There are ways to disable SIP, but I recommend to install to /usr/local instead.


Just activated old iPhone and App Store is trying to make me pay for an app I've already paid for I had an iPhone app on my iPhone 5s now currently under repair that had a $100 app called GIS kit.

I am connected to my iTunes account with the App Store, and have a bunch of apps that it's allowing me to download via the cloud download icon, but not this one.

So, a really quick way to answer this question would be with another question, and that is, does Apple even allow app creators to charge users twice for what is supposed to be a one time payment for an application?

I just activated this phone, have not done a hard reset or anything like that, so I'm hoping the GIS kit application simply just does not recognize that I have already downloaded it. But it could be something else, worst-case scenario I actually have to pay for it twice. Hope not.

No, Apple does not allow app creators to charge users twice for an app already purchased(in this context).
Of course the developer could create a new app with a new name, but identical content, and in that way try to get people to buy it twice. However that is not the case here.

Are you sure that you actually bought that program with that specific AppleID - are you sure you didn't buy it with a different ID?
You could check your purchasing history for your AppleID on iTunes (App Store).

Another thing to try is simply to press Download on the program, even though it doesn't display the Cloud symbol. If it downloads without requesting payment, you're good to go.


Mac OS X: How to merge pdf files in a directory according to their file names I want to merge several hundred pdf files in a directory automatically according to their file names.

E.g.

The files
1000.1.pdf
1000.2.pdf
1000.3.pdf
1000.x.pdf should be merged into 1000.pdf

and

2000.abc.pdf
2000.def.pdf
2000.ghi.pdf
2000.jkl.pdf
2000.5.pdf into 2000.pdf.

I don’t want to use solutions based on Preview/Automator (if available) because compared to third party software like Adobe Acrobat or PDFpen merging pdf files often (depending on the source documents) results in a significant increase in file size (see e.g. What causes PDF file size to increase when saving in Preview?)

Do you have any recommendations? Thank you!

There’s a Python script hidden in Automator.app that joins .PDF-files

/System/Library/Automator/Combine\ PDF\ Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py --help
Usage: join [--output <file>] [--shuffle] [--verbose]

Example usage:

/System/Library/Automator/Combine\ PDF\ Pages.action/Contents/Resources/join.py --output all.pdf *.pdf


using a 2009 bricked iMac as an external display with windows I have a late 2009 21.5" iMac. It has a mini display port. Its hard drive has been formatted, and I haven't re-installed OSX yet (and don't want to if I don't have to).

I'd like to use the iMac as an external display for a windows PC that has a display port.

Before I buy a mini-display port to display port adapter. How can I tell the requirements for this iMac to support target display mode?

This is pretty easy. No iMac other than some 27 inch models work in target display mode. Not all 27 support it, but some do.  No other size iMac and no other Mac period support target display mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592

Even the 2009 models 27 inch iMac won’t target display mode - Can I use my early 2009 iMac as an external screen?


Make urls in plain text files into clickable links I have a large file of plain text on Mac OSX that contains many http(s) URLs.
For example:

blah blah https://www.stackexchange.com
blah https://www.stackoverflow.com blah blah
https://www.google.com blah

What's the easiest way to view that text in a way that I can click on each link and open it in a web browser?

I would prefer a solution that doesn't require uploading the text file to the Internet.

You can also automatically change all of your links that appear as text into actual clickable hyperlinks


Open Unidentified .pkg file So I wanted to download the git command line and when opening the .pkg I got an Un ID'd Developer message.

I do not have admin rights and am locked out of the gatekeeper panel.

I then tried the xattr -d com.apple.quarantine  method to no avail.

Any tips?

Thanks!

NOTE: OSX El Capitan

Create a new folder, put the PKG you want to install into this new folder, CD to that directory then run these commands:

xar -x -f Install.pkg && rm Install.pkg && xar -cf Install.pkg * && open Install.pkg

(replace Install.pkg with the file name of the PKG file you want to install.)

These commands decompress the PKG, delete the original PKG, then create a new PKG, which should install without complaining about unidentified developers.


Can't see hidden files with Standard user I am using my Mac as a Standard user. Running latest OSX 10.10.3

I have used the following command from terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowALLFiles YES

But I still can't see my hidden files.

I've checked my ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist file and the correct entry is already there:

<dict>
    <key>AppleShowALLFiles</key>
    <string>YES</string>

If I login as Administrator, this command works fine. If I login as a different Standard user, this command works fine. It is something about this specific Standard user account that is preventing the command from working, but there is no way I am creating a new account just to fix this small issue. Anyone have any idea why this isn't working as it should?

Use cmd+r then open Terminal and type: resetpassword

On the next window, click on the name of your volume (usually “Macintosh HD”), then select the troubled user account name from the drop-down.

Skip the actual password fields (you are not changing the password).

Click the button on the bottom section labeled “Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs.”

Restart


What tools read SMART data and can run on USB bootable media? I'm looking for a bootable tool that provide SMART values from my HDD if there is such a thing.

So far I'm only able to get into the recovery mode of my MacBook Pro and I need to confirm a malfunctioning HDD.

As far as I know I can't install any software in Recovery Mode? I have SMART utility but I can't think of any way on how to use it like this.

Any good recommendations for a USB or CD bootable solution to check my HDD SMART values?

The process to make your own test rig is quite easy:

Install OS X onto a USB hard drive. A partition with 20 GB should be just fine.
Use the Startup Disk preference pane to reboot to that new OS and create an admin user.
Install homebrew - https://brew.sh
Install smartmontools - brew install smartmontools
Get a USB drive or SD card if you don't want to boot from the hard drive/partition.
Thin out files if your image won't fit on the chosen media (or buy larger media)
Use Disk Utility to Restore the OS from the partition to the media chosen

Now you have a UDB/SD card that can boot your Mac and run one of the best free SMART tools.


Outlook for Mac 2016, Gmail accounts and Smart Folder / Search showing message more than once Environment

OS: macOS 10.13.4
Application: Outlook for Mac 2016 (Insider Slow and Insider Fast)
Accounts: Gmail Accounts

I'm switching from Apple Mail to Outlook for Mac 2016.  In doing so, I wanted to create an "Unread" and also a "Today" Smart Folder so that I could more easily manage my multiple inboxes.

The Issue

Whenever I create a new search (or use one of the pre-defined Smart Folder searches), the results come back with each message being listed three times with the same time-stamp, and once without any time-stamp (!).

This seems to happen only to emails received in my Gmail accounts.  It does not appear to happen with my iCloud account.

If I leave the Smart Folder and click on All Accounts > Inbox, I see just the single email.

Work I've done so far

I've searched Microsoft's KB, search google, searched Apple, but can't find anything.

Any insights?

For anyone out there running Outlook for Mac 2016, especially if using Gmail, what happens when you use Smart Folders?  Do you ever see any message repeated?

In case anyone else runs into this problem, I found the cause and figured out the solution and am sharing.

The Cause

You'll run into this with Outlook for Mac 2016 and any Gmail account.

The reason why Outlook for Mac 2016's SmartFolder behaves this way is because it is searching on every folder (as one would expect).  What I didn't consider was that Google has an Inbox folder and an All Mail folder.  When you add a "Folder" column to the view, you'll notice this.

The Fix

To avoid the duplication, you need to update your Smart Folder search so that it excludes the All Mail folder of each Gmail account.  The image below shows my Outlook for Mac 2016 with four (4) Gmail account All Mail folders excluded.

If you're not sure how to do this, Click your Smart Folder (or click the upper right Search box and type something and then save to create one).

Click Advanced and then add the following search parameters:
"Read Status->Is->Unread"

Click +

Set the next parameter to:
"Folder->Is Not->Choose Folder".  Once you click Choose Folder, a Window opens (titled Window) with a search field. In the search field, type in All and you'll see the All Mail folder.  Select it.

If you have more than one account, repeat this with each account.

Click Save Search once you're done.

Now you're Smart Folder will work if you're using Gmail.


dns lookup specified in /etc/hosts and then dscacheutil != differ from dig, host, chrome Via a long chain up of OS upgrades I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

Setting entries in my /etc/hosts file is working only occasionally, mostly not.

For example on a freshly rebooted machine.  With the only networking set to Wifi.

Everything is unmodified and fine:

bash-3.2$ grep facebook.com /etc/hosts
# 127.0.0.1 facebook.com
bash-3.2$ sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
bash-3.2$ dscacheutil -q host -a name facebook.com
name: facebook.com
ipv6_address: 2a03:2880:f127:283:face:b00c::25de

name: facebook.com
ip_address: 157.240.18.35

bash-3.2$ host facebook.com
facebook.com has address 157.240.18.35
facebook.com has IPv6 address 2a03:2880:f127:283:face:b00c::25de
facebook.com mail is handled by 10 msgin.vvv.facebook.com.

But then I uncomment that line for facebook, and I get this:

bash-3.2$ grep facebook /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   facebook.com
bash-3.2$ sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
bash-3.2$ dscacheutil -q host -a name facebook.com
name: facebook.com
ipv6_address: 2a03:2880:f127:283:face:b00c::25de

name: facebook.com
ip_address: 127.0.0.1

bash-3.2$ host facebook.com
facebook.com has address 157.240.18.35
facebook.com has IPv6 address 2a03:2880:f127:283:face:b00c::25de
facebook.com mail is handled by 10 msgin.vvv.facebook.com.

I don't observe anything suspicious in the output of scutil --dns.  The dig command and chrome both seem immune to the /etc/hosts change.

help?

This command will tell you which process is making the changes to your hosts file:

sudo dtrace -qn 'syscall::open*:entry /arg1&3/ { printf("%d %s %s\n", pid, execname, copyinstr(arg0)); }' | grep hosts


Hardware shut off of iPhone mic (eavesdropping prevention) You may have heard of some news about iPhone (and computer) that some software can eavesdrop on you by, using a software/malware.  A recent example of that is this one: Facebook Doesn’t Listen To Everything You Say, But It Does Listen When You Do This

So I want to prevent anyone from doing that.

For camera, I think a very safe counter measure is to simply block the view of the camera (by a piece of tape, for example).  (Note, by the way, that even the FBI Diretor suggested you to do that.  See this article: FBI Director: Cover up your webcam)

Now how about the microphone?  Perhaps one counter measure is to blocking the internal mic also by a tape.  But I am also thinking whether I should do the following instead?  Plug in a dummy plug into the headset/mic jack (the plug has four rings and does not really connect to a real headset/mic electrically).  Would this disable the internal mic by hardware?  I think this method may be better because I am not sure a paper tape can block the audio completely for the internal mic.  Do you agree with this assertion?

Any suggestion?  Thanks!

The answer may be same or different for iPhones and computers (and other smartphones).  But let's assume for now my main concern for now is iPhone.

Note: I have read this post but I still don't know the answer.  My question is what if the dummy plug has four rings but those rings are not electrically connected to a microphone.

Is your iPhone jailbroken? If not, I am not aware of a single instance where an iPhone that is not jailbroken has been compromised in terms of its camera or microphone.

The article you link to is about a laptop webcam, and this is a known risk and there are many examples of people's laptops being compromised (especially Windows models).

Assuming your iPhone is not jailbroken, then any apps that are designed to use your microphone need to request access to the microphone. If you do not give permission, then iOS does not allow them to use the microphone. You can also check these settings manually at any time by going to Settings > Privacy > Microphone.

In terms of what you're actually trying to do, this will not work without some sort of software modification. The reason is that the internal microphone is available unless you have attached a microphone (or headphones that also incorporate a microphone). If what you connect to the headphone socket does not contain a microphone, then the internal microphone is still available.


Is there any way to restore only whatsapp data from encrypted itune backup? I have changed my iPhone from iPhone7 32Gb to iPhone7 128Gb. I backed up my old iPhone running iOS 13.5 using iTunes and try to restore that backup in new iPhone running iOS 14.0.1. the problem is that when restore backup process finished my iPhone went into Apple logo boot loop so I have to reinstall iOS 14.0.1 using iTunes. I tried to restore twice but every times I ended up in boot loop problem and have to reinstall iOS. I badly need my WhatsApp data so is there any way or 3rd party application to restore just WhatsApp data from my encrypted iTunes backup?

There is a company called BackupTrans that promises to be able to recover lost data from backups. I didn't try what you are suggesting, but I successfully transfered WhatsApp data from an android phone to iPhones 3 times using their "android whatsapp to iphone transfer" programme. You could try to do some research on their products, maybe there is something useful for your case.


Need help finding my lost iPod 5 I lost my iPod 5 a few days ago, I'm pretty sure it's sill in my house. Is there a way to turn the Wi-Fi on my iPod or thru my a Apple account?

There is no way for iCloud to connect to an offline iPod if WiFi is off.

Maybe if Bluetooth is on, and you had a speaker or other Bluetooth device paired to it, roaming through the house with it may activate the link and give you an idea of where it can be.


OS X Server running on a Mac used for daily work -- possible? Issues? Family with some iPhones, iPads and now a new iMac. We would like to have a common family calendar, which should be synced to the iPhones, as soon as they are in the local wifi. On the iMac, everybody has his own account and own iTunes. But it seems difficult to have a certain common calendar.

Can I install the OS X Server on the iMac, which will be used for daily work (artwork, office)?

I'm asking because there are many articles about how to install a OS X server on a mac, but nothing about using the server mac for daily work independently from server things. I've seen this question here: Running OS X Server on main machine , but it is older and the answer is not really specific...

EDIT

We can not put any data into the cloud. So all those services which depend on selling my data to somebody else are not a solution, neither outlook.com nor iCloud. Besides that, our internet connection upstream is only about 30 kbit/s. That's why I'm looking for a local server.

I have been running OS X Server on my desktop since 10.6. Zero issues, and zero impact on the current user ( I use the same machine as my primary computer). I run Web, DHCP, DNS, Calendar, Contacts, File Sharing, Time Machine and VPN. No significant CPU or memory issues.

Some things to mind though:

Don't turn it off, and don't let it sleep. My desktop is on 24/7 except for software-update reboots.
The server needs a fixed IP address. This doesn't mean that your house needs a fixed IP address from your provider, but you do have to set the server's IP address on the subnet.
if you want to run all those local services you will need to understand DNS. Hope you like reading, I recommend the O'Reilly books, which are now available in electronic form so you don't also need steel shelves to hold them.


Why I can’t use zoom+ or zoom- in firefox4 in mac‘s Multi-Touch Touchpad? I can use zoom function in firefox3 and safari,but when I update to firefox4,I find I can’t use the zoom function ,how can I fix this problem?


Can I install Windows 7 on a MacBook Air without a SuperDrive? Is it possible to install Windows 7 as a second OS on a Macbook Air with no access to a superdrive? And if it is, how?

The most straight forward method to actually getting this done is to get your hands on an external DVD drive that connects via USB but is not the point of your question.

Yes it is possible; you'll need to get your copy of Windows 7 DVD put onto a USB thumb drive. (There are several guides available online - I've not done it myself so I can't recommend one)

Another alternative requires a lot of extra work and is really designed if you're planning to image or install on multiple MacBook Airs; it's possible to NetBoot your MacBook Air using the USB Ethernet adapter. (Source) This requires either a rigged out version of Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server handy. With DeployStudio you can install a pre-made image of Windows 7 that way.


Can I make a song in my iTunes library into a ringtone I have a iPhone 6 Plus and was wondering if I can use a song that I purchased in iTunes as a ringtone for my iPhone?

Yes. Follow this guide or any other after getting the song from ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.

  Select and edit a song

  The first thing we'll need to do is choose a song in iTunes to use as a ringtone. Open up iTunes on your Mac or PC and click on the My Music tab. Choose a song that's on your hard drive then right click on it, choose Get Info, then click the Options tab.

  Within the main panel you'll see settings for Start and Stop. A ringtone can only be thirty seconds long, so use these settings to isolate the part of the song you want then click OK. You won't be deleting anything on the actual track itself, so don't worry.

  Now highlight the song, go up to File at the top of the screen and select Create New Version>Create AAC version. iTunes will duplicate the track, but if you look closely you'll see that the new version is only thirty seconds long. That's the one we'll use for our ringtone. Remember to go back to the original track now and untick the Start and Stop options, otherwise the track will only play that short section.

  Change the file type

  Highlight the short version of the song, then right click and select Show in Finder. Now you'll see the two versions of the song. The duplicate should have a 1 at the end of the name to differentiate it, and of course the file size will be smaller. To use it as a ringtone we'll need to convert the file type from .m4a to .m4r, which involves clicking on the name once to highlight it, then once again to edit the name so we can change the last three letters. Finder will then ask you if you are sure you want to use the new file type? Choose 'Use .m4r' in the pop up box to confirm. Leave the Finder window open for now, as we'll use it again in a moment.

  Delete the shorter track

  Return to iTunes and delete the short version of the track, remembering to check the length carefully before you do so. When prompted choose Keep File, as we want to remove the track from our music library but not our computer entirely.

  Import the track to iTunes as a ringtone

  Go back to the Finder window and double click the shorter file. Rather disconcertingly it will disappear from the box, but start playing in the background. Don't worry, it isn't really gone. Return to iTunes, go to the row of icons in the top left corner and click on the three dots. This brings up more options, one of which is Tones. Click this and you'll see that the short version of the song is now a ringtone.

  Sync the ringtone with your iPhone

  Connect your iPhone to iTunes and click on the little phone icon just to the right of the three dots. This will bring up the iTunes panel for your phone, from which you want to select Tones in the left hand column. Once inside click Sync Tones>Selected tones>then the track you've created. Finally go to the bottom right hand corner and click Apply.

  Set the new ringtone

  All that remains to be done now is to go to Settings on your iPhone, then Sounds, and you'll find the new ringtone at the top of the list. Tap on it to select it as your general tone.


Is there a full list of FN-key mappings for the MacBook Pro? I am looking for a document that would specify how can I produce strokes like the ones below on a MacBook Pro keyboard.

Insert
Numpad Plus
Numpad Minus
...

So far this seems to be the most complete list:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5636


Software to allow saves to external drive when it's not present? I'm wondering if software for this purpose already exists.

What I want to be able to do is to be able to save to my external drive when it is not connected to my computer. By this I mean I want the drive to always appear as though it is connected so that I can choose to write to it whenever I want. If the drive is connected when I save to it the files I want to save will be written to my local drive and then when the external is connected, copied across.

Does anything similar to this exist?

Maybe not in the form you want, but have you thought about using rsync via Terminal?

i.e., rsync –r /Users/you/Documents/ /your_network_mount/destination_folder/

Then either run it from the Terminal whenever you need to, or save the above as a .command, create an Automator workflow, and run the .command using "Do Shell Script". If you save the workflow as an Application, you can just double-click it and voilà.. instant directory syncing to your external drive at your fingertips.


Should I make a backup of OSX before bootcamping Windows 10 I have the Mid 2012 Macbook Pro. I want to know if I should make a backup of osx, before dualbooting windows 10. I already have all my files backed up to the cloud, but not osx. Do I need to do so? Also, how is the performance of windows 10 on a mac? Am I able to un-dualboot windows 10 from my mac, if i dont like it?

I would strongly recommend making a backup before setting up Boot Camp. Setting up Boot Camp involves repartitioning the disk into an OS X partition and a partition for Windows, but OS X doesn't know how to format the Windows partition into NTFS. So, it formats the Windows-to-be partition in the FAT32 format, and expects you to use the Windows installer for reformat it into NTFS. If you don't do this quite right, the Windows installer may reformat the OS X partition as well, causing complete data loss.

Thus, it's much safer if you have a full backup. Just in case.


Who first wrote the kernel for Mac OS X based operating systems? Was it Steve Jobs? I mean not the idea, but who actually made it happen through the physical work itself?

Was it a single individual who wrote the bootstrapping software, kernel, graphics, all other assets, etc.?

I am curious on the coder, not the incentive or ideal, even though I do care on both.

I am also curious on the first ever kernel or boot loading software, not current coders, but the initial and original one(s) of that time who did this.

It wasn't really Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs helped create OSX which is derived from the original operating system kernal.

OSX is based on the Mach Kernel. "Mach is an operating system kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research, primarily distributed and parallel computation." Richard Rashid was the lead developer on the Mach project. Avie Tevanian was also one of the original developers on the Mach project.

OSX was then developed from this Mach Kernel by Steve Jobs' company NeXT. This happened during the time that Jobs was away from Apple. So Jobs' (company) developed the first iteration of OSX which was then purchased by Apple. Apple actually purchased NeXT outright, and Jobs went to serve as CEO at Apple.

Mostly from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_kernel


Recoverability with HFS Plus following removal of a disk from RAID 0 hardware or software A theoretical question (I do not have spare hardware to test for this).

Scenarios

If RAID 0 is used (no redundancy of data) with HFS Plus, and if a disk within the array is disconnected for a while whilst the file system is mounted by OS X, then I assume that:

the OS will at least present a red alert for an improper eject
worse behaviours may occur.

I'm not particularly interested in the behaviours of the Mac around the time of disconnection. Most interested in the aftermath …

Logically, I guess: switch off all hardware, replace the missing part of the RAID 0 array (reintroduce the missing disk) then restart the Mac.

The question

How likely is it that the end user – the person who found or made the disconnection of the disk – might recover data in the following situations?

Where the RAID 0 is software-controlled (for example, created by Apple Disk Utility)
where the RAID 0 is hardware-controlled.

I imagine that the end user would find recovery difficult or impossible; that the RAID-specific expert services of a company might be required.

Whilst the question is theoretical, I will greatly appreciate any experience-based answers.

In a RAID 0 set established by Disk Utility you, of course, have zero redundancy. The moment one of the drives is lost from the set the entire set becomes useless and you have a volume failure. If (and only if) no attempt was made by anything to write to the volume while the physical drive wasn't there you might be lucky and it will be OK but otherwise you will have a problem.

At that point any recovery is going to be difficult. Any attached Mac will just see the volume disappear. I've seen this happen a number of times and getting the data off was only ever partially successful (and a small part at that) and extremely expensive. My advice to a couple of customers who've had it happen is just give it up as a joke and go to the backups. Chances of good data recovery are so close to zero as makes no difference.

If you are extremely lucky and there was no attempt to write to the volume and the heavens smile upon you then it is conceivable that a volume repair might work. I've actually seen it happen - once.

For a hardware RAID 0 it's pretty much the same.

The only place I like to use RAID 0 is in a separate hardware drive array such as the Promise boxes for a user who really needs the speed for something like video editing.

If you really need the speed of RAID 0 then make sure you have really good backup policies.


Earliest way to disable wifi at login or boot I'm running Catalina, and the OS will always turn wifi on at boot. I've been looking into methods to turn wifi power off when I login, and I've created a .plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.username.wifi_off</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Users/username/.wifi_off.sh</string>
  </array>
  <key>Nice</key>
  <integer>1</integer>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/tmp/wifi_off.err</string>
  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
  <string>/tmp/wifi_off.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>

which is placed in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, and the file .wifi_off.sh is:

#!/bin/sh
networksetup -setairportpower en0 off

Is this quickest and/or most efficient way to disable wifi at login? How can this be extended to disable wifi at boot, so that wifi is disconnected at the login screen, before anyone has logged in?

You may be asking two different things, but in the last paragraph you said:

  The ultimate goal is to prevent the system from automatically logging into a network

Prevent System From Automatically Logging Into a Network:

I think the way to accomplish that is to un-check (disable) the Auto-Join feature for each WiFi network name/SSID that's stored. System Preferences, Network, Advanced.... Uncheck all checked boxes in the "Preferred Networks" list.

Also note that there are a couple of other options here that may be of interest:

You can uncheck the option to "Remember networks this computer has joined"
You can check the box to "Require administrator authorization to: Turn Wi-Fi on or off.

To Disconnect WiFi Power at Boot Time:

To disconnect wifi power at boot time, you can use cron. It's certainly simpler than building a .plist, and it's invoked at boot instead of login. In my testing, it survives a login, but of course it could be "overruled" by other system settings -- YMMV. It can be re-started from the WiFi icon in the menu bar after login when you wish. Here's how to do this from the CLI:

crontab -e

This will start your designated crontab editor, and open your current crontab. If you don't have a crontab (haven't used it previously), you'll be prompted to select from one of three choices for default editor. I'd suggest you choose pico or nano. That done, the default crontab will be opened in the editor of your choice.

Once the editor has started, make the following entry on the first empty line at the "bottom" the file:

@reboot /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower en0 off

Save and exit the editor, and your new crontab becomes active. This command will now execute aach time your system boots, and (subject to the exception mentioned) your WiFi interface will be "OFF" until you turn it on.


What's the quickest way to get a graphic on the clipboard saved to disk? I have a graphic on the clipboard on OS X.

What's the quickest way to get it onto disk as a png or jpg?

Maybe the File | New From Clipboard menu of /Application/Preview.app.


Encrypt Time Machine backups without deleting old backups? I'm on Mavericks (10.9.5). I have an external USB drive that I use exclusively for Time Machine backups.

I just realized that the backups are unencrypted. Is there a way to configure Time Machine to encrypt all backups on this drive, both existing backups and future backups, without erasing the existing backups?

This answer indicates that it can be done with "sparsebundles", but the post is 5 years old and it seems risky.

Is there an easier way?

Update: I was mistaken that the backups were unencrypted -- they are actually encrypted. I was fooled because Time Machine preference window includes the word "encrypted" below the listed backup disks, but only if the backup disk is plugged in. If the backup disk is not plugged in, Time Machine still lists the backup drive, but it loses the label "encrypted". Doh! In Disk Utility, I verified that the disk is encrypted with FileVault2; moreover, OS X prompts me for a password when I plug in the disk. Would still like to know the answer to my original question though.

Try at your own risk, but this might work:

Rename the {machine}.sparsebundle to {machine}-unencrypted.sparsebundle
Show package contents on the sparsebundle
Make a backup of com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist

Copy it to com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist.original

Open com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist
Set some placeholder value in com.apple-backup.HostUUID, for example seedotoriginal
Save and close

This should allow you to start making a new encrypted backup. Eventually {machine}.sparsebundle should appear next to the previous one ({machine}-unencrypted.sparsebundle).

If you need to restore from the unencrypted backup, you can replace com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist with com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist.original.

Once the encrypted backup procedure has completed, you can delete the unencrypted backup sparsebundle (watch out, that may take quite long).

Note that it might be still possible to fetch the deleted, unencrypted data from the disk. I would recommend getting another disk so that you can properly clean the disk from unencrypted files by writing zeros to it a couple of times, before starting to make encrypted backups on it.


BigSur upgrade breaks the share menu option in Safari I've just upgraded to Mac OS X Big Sur (Version 11.01) from Catalina. Normally in the browser or finder you can select the 'Share' to send information to another application. For example, if browsing a site and want to save the information I would typically select the 'Share to' icon, select Notes and then my information would be saved.
After upgrading to Big Sur I've hit the following issues:

Share menu in Safari is empty
Selecting the 'More' option pops up
the Extensions preference which is all blank

Now if I try the path of going to the Safari option to add an extension the new functionality in BigSur pops open the App Store. I can select an option and after installing it then says to return to the Extensions 'management' screen but nothing is able to be selected or activated.
Net result - stuck !
Does anyone have any suggestions

I can suggest you to reinstall macOS BigSur from the recovery but without deleting your drive (so you don't loose your stuff)
The good thing is that inside of macOS the System and user partition is separated so you are not forced to touch the user partition while reinstalling the system!


"Show In Playlist" CatalinaOS I've created a custom keyboard shortcut for the "Show In Playlist" command in the Music app. When I use the shortcut, I can see the menu bar is selected, but it does not open a menu showing the playlists. I am aware this is possible by right/cmd-clicking on a song in the library, but this is a tedious process for a large library. Thanks!

You would normally need a nested menu command Show in Playlist->ListName but this doesn't seem to work in the instance. It shows the key command in the right place but doesn't act on it.

I thought at one point that if you could find the correct symbol for the gear icon  then it might work, but best I can find is ⚙ which doesn't seem to have any effect. The key command appears to be correctly registered without it anyway.


Dedicated SSD/HDD to install Windows on a MacBook So I have a Late 2008 unibody MacBook. I recently bought a caddy to replace my optical drive with so I can fit a secondary drive in the laptop.

I have a 256 SSD in the main and a brand new 128 SSD to go in the caddy. Ideally I would like to have a Boot Camp install, but really don't want to go playing with the 256 SSD in the main drive with Mac OS X on, for more than one reason - but mainly as I do not have the space on there for the required partition.

Is there anyway to get a Boot Camp setup where the Windows install is on its own disk?

As always, feeling a bit silly answering my own question. But this was quite easy.

So I had two SSD's, one had Mac OS X installed on and was running fine. Because I was putting my second SSD in place of the super drive, but I needed the super drive to install windows-I first removed my Mac OS X SSD and put my to-be-Windows on in it's place.

So my machine had one blank SSD in. Inserted the windows disc to install, got windows on and updated. At this point I had a mac with just windows installed.

Then I swapped the super drive for my windows SSD and put the mac SSD in the main drive slot. From there just press alt on boot-up :D


Strange behaviour of Target Display Mode with iMac, Mac mini and Thunderbolt display I bought a 27" iMac and hooked it up to my Thunderbolt display. The iMac is also thunderbolted to my Mac mini.

When I press meta-(fn-)F2, the following happens:

The iMac screen goes dark.
The Thunderbolt display shows the Mac mini's (locked) screen.
I can move the mouse on the Thunderbolt display but not click at anything.
The keyboard doesn't work (except meta-F2).

When I press meta-F2 again, this happens:

Both screens go back to being screens of the iMac.
The screens switch places and the Thunderbolt display becomes the primary display with the Dock.

I am at a loss as to how I am supposed to use this feature.

Are mouse and keyboard supposed to travel with the screen?

Why does the Mac mini screen appear on the secondary display?

Why do the screens switch places when I switch back from TDM?

Update: The iMac is a late 2013 iMac running 10.9 (no updates). The Mac mini was new a few months ago and came with (and still runs) 10.8(.6 I think).

This Apple KB article will help answer some of your questions:

Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

From what you're describing, I think what is happening is that the Thunderbolt Display is acting like a regular display for the iMac, while the iMac is acting as a TDM for mini. Thus, the signal for the mini ends up on the Thunderbolt Display (since it's considered "part of" the iMac).

At first glance, I'd say that TDM isn't intended for multiple screens, though I'm not sure...

To specifically answer 1. and 2. (from list item 14 in the link above):

  [...]Other keyboard and mouse input is disabled on the iMac while it is in TDM[...]

This means that the keyboard and mouse need to be connected to the mini in order to work beyond presssing Cmd+F2 to exit TDM.

In regards to what happens when you exit TDM, that's probably just a side effect of the Thunderbolt Display being the last active display (Remember, 10.9 moves the dock to the display on which you're interacting. Makes the menu bar opaque, too).


How can I increase battery life with iOS 4? Since I upgraded to iOS 4 on my iPod touch second generation my battery life is draining very fast.  Is there anything I can do to help with that?

Restart the iPhone (press and hold Home and the top button simultaneously till you see the slider to turn it off, and then slide the slider. Once off, press and hold the top button to turn it back on)
Turn off Bluetooth (Settings > General > Bluetooth) if you're not using it.
Turn off the WiFi option "Ask to join networks" (Settings > WiFi) to keep the WiFi radio from constantly scanning for new networks when you're not connected. It will still remember and auto-connect to networks that you've connected to before, but you'll have to manually connect to any new networks.
Turn "auto-brightness" off (Settings > Brightness) and set the brightness level lower. I would only do this as a last resort if nothing else seems to work.
Let the battery run all the way down to zero (i.e. let the phone run till it won't turn on anymore), and then recharge it all the way to full.


No one- and two-finger tap in Better Touch Tool? I'm trying to get my three-finger tap to middle-click functionality in Mountain Lion since MiddleClick seems to have been broken in the upgrade. However, in order to let BTT react to tap gestures, "Tap to click" has to be unchecked in the Trackpad preferences panel.

But by doing this, you remove the ability to either one- or two-finger tap on content to interact with it.

I'm 99.9% certain I checked everywhere in BTT's settings, but I cannot for the life of me figure out where to find the options for those (though single-finger gestures do allow for taps in quadrants, I don't like having to tap in specific places on the trackpad—it's more convenient as it's implemented in OS X).

Edit: I'm open to alternative solutions, so long as it's not MagicPrefs. At least on my machine, that app seems to make the trackpad pretty wonky with the sensitivity.

Seeing as my original question was brought up due to a lack of compatibility with Mountain Lion from MiddleClick, I think that this answer should suffice:

As of 19AUG12, MiddleClick has been updated to support Mountain Lion and is now available for download.


Firewall with application rules for iPad I've read some other topics about not needed firewall for iPad's, but I'm searching the other way of security or (more important) to help my budget.
I need firewall that has incoming/outcoming rules for every app. Rules should be remembered and asked only once, but easily to change. Good would be having profiles which I could switch when needed.

Is something like this available for iPad? Is it working without Jailbreak?

P.S. It should block apple services too when I want to.

Firewall iP

Firewall iP lets you block connections from apps on your jailbroken iOS device. You can set up custom rules to block/allow certain TCP & UDP connections.

iOS 7

In response to your comment about 3G data, in iOS 7 you can specifically set certain apps/services through your 3G data connection:


Refurbishing MacBooks I am looking to start refurbishing MacBooks with the intention of reselling them. If they come with the original disks, then I can’t see any problems arising, as I should be able to restore them to as factory release and resell with the disks.

I can, however, see a problem arise if they do not come with original disks, and the software is corrupt, or has no recovery partition etc. What I would like to know is the legal implications of reinstalling a copy of the original software, in order to resell the machine.

Is there a way to establish what the original software was when supplied new, and what would be the licensing issues, in obtaining a copy of OS X to perform a recovery?

Presuming machines would be from 1-3 years old, would I be able to just use one disk of say Snow Leopard, Lion etc to reinstall to original specifications, or would I need to purchase a new software pack for each machine that does not have the original disks?

The Software License Agreement for Mac OS X states the following:

  3. Transfer

  A. If you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware, you may make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party, provided that: (i) the Apple Software is transferred together with your Apple-branded hardware; (ii) the transfer must include all of the Apple Software, including all its component parts, printed materials and this License; (iii) you do not retain any copies of the Apple Software, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (iv) the party receiving the Apple Software accepts the terms and conditions of this License. For purposes of this License, if Apple provides an update (e.g., version 10.8 to 10.8.1) to the Apple Software, the update is considered part of the Apple Software and may not be transferred separately from the pre-update version of the Apple Software.

This means that a transfer to you as a buyer or to the next seller that does not meet these conditions (eg. does not include the installation media), does not imply a valid license transfer for Mac OS X for you to reinstall the OS or sell the computer again.


How can I require a user to change their password? I created a new account on a machine and gave it a default password but I want to ensure the user changes the password when they log into it for the first time. It's just a laptop with nothing special running client version of Mac OS X 10.6.8.

I'm sure it's possible, I remember seeing a check box where you could require the user to change their password at some point.

Could someone refresh my memory on this or tell me how to achieve this goal?

Found on Apple Support Communities.

Go to

Workgroup Manager
Select the User or Users
Advanced Tab
Options


Import back video into iPhone after adjusting time & location in Photos app on macOs While travelling, I like to exchange photos/videos via WhatsApp with other people. Doing it usualy at night, or a few days later, the time of the received item needs to be adjusted in order to have a clean time related photo album on the iPhone.

I use the Photos app on my mac in order to change the time & location, export the new item in my desktop and then send it back to the iPhone via AirDrop (at this time I actually get 2 items : the old one with the "wrong" time and the new one with the "correct" time).

The issue is that it doesn't apply to video, the new timeline is the one of the exportation (i.e a moment ago). But everything is fine with the photos...

Note that the new video time do change correctly on the Photos app when adjusting it.

Is the process to export back video into the iPhone is different than the process to export back photo ?

I use Mojave 10.14.6 with Photos 4.0 & iOs 12.4.1

I can't give you a simple answer, but perhaps I can point you in the right direction.

What you are doing when you change the time/date on your photos is changing its metadata. Metadata is text contained within the file that is read by programs such as the Mac OS Finder when you use Get Info, photo programs, etc... Some programs allow you to edit the metadata, such the Image-->Adjust Date and Time... menu item within the Mac OS Photo app.

More generally, media file metadata can be changed using programs called metadata editors. For example, exiftool is a command-line metadata editor that is available on Windows, Mac, etc... TagScanner is a WYSIWYG metadata editor on Windows.

Both of the above are quite powerful, but also have a learning curve to use them. I'm guessing you'll want a simple editor for Mac OS, but I can't recommend one since I've been happily using the above for my needs. I briefly looked into the availability of metadata editors for the iPhone and found a couple (e.g., Photo Investigator, MetaPho) that claim to do what you want, but cannot be tested for free (they cost $3-$4).

One other thing: there are usually multiple types of date-timestamps for each file, so another thing you may need to discover is which is important for your needs. For example, using the Terminal command exiftool file.mp4 I see 9 timestamps for a recent movie I was sent via WhatsApp:

File Name                       : file.mp4
File Modification Date/Time     : 2019:09:11 10:24:45+02:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2019:09:11 10:24:44+02:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2019:09:11 10:24:58+02:00
...
Create Date                     : 2019:08:18 13:04:29
Modify Date                     : 2019:08:18 13:04:30
...
Track Create Date               : 2019:08:18 13:04:29
Track Modify Date               : 2019:08:18 13:04:30
...
Media Create Date               : 2019:08:18 13:04:29
Media Modify Date               : 2019:08:18 13:04:30

(to focus on the timestamps, I've omitted most of the exiftool metadata listing)


Coffee spill on MacBook Pro Retina I spilled half a cup of coffee (Nescafé, whole milk, water, no sugar) on the keyboard of my MacBook Pro Retina 15'' (MacBookPro10,2, Early 2013)
Details that you can skip:
It happened almost 3 days ago (62 hours as of this post).
At the time of the incident the mac was powered on and in use.
I immediately:

unplugged the power cord,
forced a shut down (by pressing the power button for a few seconds),
turned it upside down, with the keyboard facing down and parallel to the floor,
tried to wipe it dry,
sworn a lot.

Before bringing it to the Apple store, I decided to wait a few days to let it dry and try to power it on again. After all, something similar happened years ago with an 2008 MacBook (white) and a glass of water, and after a few days of rest the mac recovered fully.
(If anyone is wondering, I even left it a day and a half in a plastic bag with a lot of rice)
However, now it's been almost three days and it still doesn't power on.
I gently removed the power button from the keyboard and it looks dry, although the contact under the rubber pin seems a bit dirty.
Question
Does anyone know what kind of damage should I expect? Is it possible that once completely dry it will work as usual?

In situation as you described, HDD could survive with high probability, but as MBP retina uses SSD instead there is a small, but chance to kill it. First steps to repair it is to disconnect the battery and disconnect the SSD. This is guarantee to prevent:
1) future information losses
2) future damage of logic board.

What damages can you expect - generally, in these cases this is 50/50 game. Cleaning requires disassembly of the MacBook and wiping board with cleaning agent e.g. ethyl alcohol (96% concentrated). It is non-conductor, so then when macbook will be reassembled, it probably will work.
My friend had similar problem: water and MBP retina 13. And now his MBPr works OK, but only with power cord plugged in. I do not recommend connect it to power cord until it properly dried and cleaned (with alcohol).


Angry Birds scores did not transfer from iPhone to iPad I uploaded all my Angry Bird games, Star Wars, Bad Piggies, etc., from my iPhone to my iPad. The games uploaded fine but all my hard earned scores are gone. Do I need to replay levels to get to where I was?

Although the developer didn't write the code to keep your progress in sync, you can manually move the save files and settings from identical versions of the App - sometimes even from iOS to a computer version of the game.

In a nutshell, you'll need software to poke into the Application's saved files - so you'll need a PC or Mac or to jailbreak both your iOS devices.

Second, you'll learn what files and check the versions and move the files.

Worst case, you crash the new empty version of the app, and delete it and try to move the scores a second time.

There are many tutorials on this. Our site and others have information on using PhoneView on the Mac, and a game site has a very well done tutorial that I will link below:

http://www.angrybirdsnest.com/how-to-transfer-angry-birds-progress-between-ios-devices/

Good luck - you'll learn more about how apps work, and hopefully not have to replay all those levels!


Accessing via 127.0.0.1 via home network I am running Yosemite on a MacPro.
I have an AMPPS installation with a file sharing database app running within it.

I access the files via 127.0.0.1 on a browser running on the Mac. How can I set this up to allow access from within the rest of my home network, using that address?

You cannot with just ordinary TCP/IP let other computers access your web site on the Mac Pro using the IP address 127.0.0.1. This address has a special meaning in the IP protocol, and always refers to the local computer - never other computers.

If you really want to do so, you'll need to use port forwarding. You can use SSH to port forward the remote port 80 to the local port 80, and thus be able to access the remote AMPPS web site using the 127.0.0.1 address.

However, there's really no point in doing so. It won't make it faster, better or anything else. As you write no reason for wanting 127.0.0.1 specifically, it seems you're better off using an ordinary RFC1918 IP network on your home network - such as for example 10.x.y.z/8 or 192.168.x.y/16.


Can I safely remove /usr/bin/java from Mountain Lion 10.8.2? If I do so, will something, such as a service, break?

Mac App Store apps and OS X core applications and services don't depend on Java, but some 3rd party applications (like LibreOffice) do, and they will break if you delete /usr/bin/java.

Since /usr/bin/java is a symlink:

/usr/bin/java -> /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java

if you notice that an application complains about missing Java or fails to start after deleting /usr/bin/java simply recreate it like this:

Open Applications>Utilities>Terminal
Make the symlink (type your password if asked):

$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java /usr/bin/java


Ghost contacts in spotlight I have a strange situation, where I see multiple versions of a single contact. When I search for a name I see

current version (from iCloud)
old version (don't know from where)
an even older version (don't know from where)

When I try to open the new one, contacts.app start and I see the correct contact. When I try the old one, the app starts but no contact is shown.

I tried clearing spotlight data (block my drive and then unblock it). The contacts first were absent, but soon they reappeared. I guess somewhere on my drive there is a data file which stores the old contacts, but the contacts.app can't access it.

How can I find this file and remove it? It especially annoying in photos which (as it turns out) allow me to tag a photos with three faces and when I search for a name also all three show in the list.

Michal, Thanks for answering your own question; that really helped me.

Spotlight searches on my two Macs were littered with phantom duplicate contacts. I was hesitant to go this approach until I read of your success.

For future visitors, my steps were:

You may want to backup Contacts (File - Export - Contacts Archive)
Quit Contacts.app
Turn off all contact sync services (System Prefs: Internet Accts: iCloud/Google: Contacts)
Move contents of ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/sources to Trash.
Re-enable iCloud, Google, etc Contact sync.
Check address book in Contacts.
Test Spotlight Search: success.


Keyboard Shortcut for Creating a new Desktop (new Space) on MacOS How do I create a new Desktop ("Space") on macOS using only the keyboard?

Found a solution with apple script here, credit to @codehearts:
https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/issues/143

tell application "System Events"
  do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
  click button 1 of group "Spaces Bar" of group 1 of group "Mission Control" of process "Dock"
  do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
end tell

The script can be either saved as a ...applescript file with #!/usr/bin/osascript line to run in the shell, or bind to a key directly in Alfred to start a new desktop through Mission Control.


How can I re-download music I bought onto my iPhone? I was looking for a song today in my music library that I used to listen to all the time because I noticed it would never come on when I shuffled my music. It wasn't in my music library and I used to be able to go to my settings and there was a setting to show music you've purchased from the iTunes Store but wasn't on your device and I could easily go into my music library and press the little cloud button with an arrow and BAM the music would be on my phone again.

Is there a way to still do that without subscribing to Apple Music?.

If you go to you purchases on iTunes Store you can still download your purchases, no apple Music subscription needed.


Deleting iPhone's Apple Support General Log File I have an old iPhone 3GS I'm trying to use back again.
I loaded it up on iTunes and noticed I have 3.8Gb worth of "Other" data stored in it. Keep in mind this is the 8Gb model.

I've tried all conventional methods for clearing up "Other" data, to no avail.
On a more thorough search through the phone's folders I found a very large .log file stored in this directory:

var/mobile/library/logs/Apple Support/general.log

This log file is 2.7Gb! Considering this is almost half my whole device's memory, I would like to get rid of it.

Is safe to delete this file?

Yes, all log files are safe to delete. I’ve often run iCleaner’s file type cleanup, which removes all .log files across the entire filesystem, without any unintended consequences.


I have a mid-2012 MacBook Air, and the Service Battery alert is showing My 13" Macbook Air recently started showing the "service battery" alert. It's the mid-2012 model, and is still under Apple Care. The alert seems to appear mainly when I'm running off the battery. Is this a battery issue or a bug in the system?

If it is still under Applecare I would absolutely get it checked out.  In the very least if there is an issue, you will get the battery replaced under warranty and be able to enjoy a few more years with it.


Terminal: how to make tab notify somehow when new text received I'm familiar with some Terminal's, like in Linux, that have an option to "flash" or "change color" the tab's title text, whenever new text is "displayed" on that screen (for instance, tailing a file).  iTerm can do it in OS X as well splendidly, changing the font color, etc.  Is there a way to do that with the built-in mac Terminal application?  I'm not talking about some special "when you finish this command, flash a growl message" just a general small notification when new text is received.

If you are running Yosemite, you should see an ellipsis (three dots) on the extreme right side of a tab if that tab has been updated while not in the foreground. See the left-hand tab in the screenshot below.


APFS container over multiple physical disks I have an encrypted APFS container with several volumes. The container lives on a physical partition (disk0s1), which is followed by more partitions (disk0s2, ...) with no free space in between. I need to expand one of the volumes on the container without having to move the other physical partitions in order to expand disk0s1. I know with LVM you can expand the container (physical volume) with other partitions which don't need to be adjacent, or even on the same hard drive. Is that possible with an APFS container?

There is no official documented way to add another physical storage to an existing APFS container.

I tried several possibly "undocumented" apfsVerbs like addPhysical, addPhysicalStorage or addStorage without success.

The feature may still be implemented later, since creating APFS FusionLCs is possible already:

diskutil ap createContainer [-main] device [-secondary] [device]

Example:

$ diskutil ap createContainer disk1s2 disk2s2
Creating container with disk1s2 disk2s2
Started APFS operation on disk1s2 Data
Creating a new empty APFS Container
Unmounting Volumes
Switching disk1s2 to APFS
Switching disk2s2 to APFS
Creating APFS Container
FusionLC autodetect: LC Fusion
Created new APFS Container disk4
Disk from APFS operation: disk4
Finished APFS operation on disk1s2 Data

$ diskutil ap addVolume disk4 APFS Data
Exporting new unencrypted APFS Volume "Data" from APFS Container Reference disk4
Started APFS operation on disk4
Preparing to add APFS Volume to APFS Container disk4
Creating APFS Volume
Created new APFS Volume disk4s1
Mounting APFS Volume
Setting volume permissions
Disk from APFS operation: disk4s1
Finished APFS operation on disk4


Apple Computers Not Connecting to the Internet So, it started right after Christmas when someone in our family got a brand new MacBook Air. She started having problems connecting to the internet right away, and then the rest of the macbooks (about 4 or so) had trouble connecting too. Up in the top bar at the top of the screen, the wifi icon shows that it is connected to the internet. But the wifi will turn off and on, and we figured out it had to do with the macs connecting to an ipv6 network. Every time it connects to an ipv6 network, it can't display any webpages. But anytime it connects to an ipv4 network, you can access anything that requires internet. Does anybody know about this?

From my understanding, if you have both IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity, the Mac operating system will try both and determine which is fastest. The problem is if the IPv6 DNS returns an IPv6 address that can not be reached, then the computer waits until it times out. This happens even it the IPv4 network reaches the web site. The only reasonable solution is to configure IPv6 as Link-local only.

Under System Preferences select Network.
Select the type of connection. (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc.)
Select Advanced...
Select the TCP/IP tab.
Select Link-local only as shown below.
Click on OK.
Click on Apply.

Link-local only means the IPv6 addressing will work for your Local Area Network (LAN), but is disabled on the Wide Area Network (WAN).

BTW, Microsoft has a fix for this, but only for Windows users. Download "Perfer IPv4 over IPv6 in prefix policies" from this site. There is way to make a similar change to the prefix policies used by the underlying Unix on a Mac. Unfortunately, from my understanding, OS X will ignore the change.


How to share a Smart Album in Photos App I am using the new Photos app in OSX and would like to share recent photos with the Apple TVs in my house by using Home Sharing.  The photos would be used for the screen saver feature on the Apple TV.  It seems as though the best way to do it is to use a Smart Album and set the Date range.

However, it seems as though Smart Albums cannot be accessed using Home Sharing as they do not appear as an option in the Apple TV screen saver settings.

Does anyone know if it is possible to share Smart Albums using Home Sharing?

It's quite easy:

close iTunes if it is open
have your smart albums created on photos app
still on Photos, create a new folder and named it with a unique name like
"Vacations 2018"
click on your smart album(s) and drag it(them) into the folder you just created
close the photos app
open iTunes, go to File -> Home Sharing -> choose photos to share with AppleTV
Select Share Photos from: Photos
click on Selected Albums (Select "Inlude Videos" checkbox if you want them played as well)
In the Albums collection, click on the folder you created at the beginning (Vacations 2018)
click the button Done at the bottom of the screen
close iTunes
Go to your AppleTV and select Settings -> General -> Screensaver -> Home Sharing -> Type -> Home Sharing -> Home Sharing -> Photos -> Photos. Confirm that you want to set photos as your screen saver
go back to the screensaver windows and choose the Preview option to confirm the photos are corrected select and displayed.

That's it!


Can iOS app bypass/skip the device passcode window if it knows the passcode To perform some important actions on iOS it's required to enter the device passcode, for example adding a VPN profile or installing custom settings config (new feature in iOS 14).
I wonder, is it possible for an app to do such actions bypassing/skipping the device passcode prompt window if it already knows the device passcode somehow. In other words, can an app enter the device passcode in the background without the user noticing it. Generally speaking, is it possible for a potentially malicious app to do bigger harm if it knows the device's passcode?
Thanks!
BTW I asked a similar question for macOS here and it seems that for macOS it's true.

The answer is actually quite similar as for macOS:
The intention of the system is (ofcourse) that apps are not allowed to bypass/skip these passcode prompt windows, and they're not able to "just" put in a code if they happen to know.
Similarly on recent macOS versions, apps cannot "just" interact with controls in windows they have not shown themselves. You can however give apps permissions to do so (for example an app that enables you to create macros of actions within other programs would be a good example of when you actually want to allow this behavior).
However - as your question on macOS centered around malware, the same is true for malware on iOS - if the app does not "follow the rules" and intentionally exploit weaknesses in the operating system's implementation, it is theoretically possible for apps to bypass/skip these prompts if it knows the passcode itself. It isn't really "theoretical" as in "can't really be done in practice", but more like "it will be a bother to do".


One mac, Two or more storage devices - how to divide things? We're at a crossroads where most Macs now have space and connections to contain two storage devices. SSD are fast, low capacity and expensive - HDD are in comparison slow, huge and cheap.

Both iMacs and Mac Mini can ship configured with two drives and all the portable Macs that still ship with an optical drive have a choice of several professional kits that securely mount either a second HDD or SSD inside the unibody. (I've even seen Airs with a light USB drive semi-permanently affixed to the metal side of the display with velcro since sometimes even the slimmest Mac needs to pack more storage punch.)

Yet Mac OS X doesn't really have a Setup Assistant that's willing to help divvy up our data on two drives. Software to intelligently move files to appropriate storage exists in the enterprise SAN space, but I don't think we'll see it for a while on the desktop. There's not even a guide I've seen on what or how to set up a mac with two drives, so Apple have left us a clean playing field upon which to experiment.

The best writing on this topic I have seen recently was written by Matt Legend Gemmell. His article titled Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup is great reading and seems to be relevant even if you have two spinning HDD.

Matt advocates

installing the OS, user home folders and most user data on the SSD
place user data that won't fit on the SSD instead on the HDD
implementing this by moving entire top level folders from the SSD home folder and placing them on the HDD.
using soft (sym) links to connect the two locations.

Is this thinking the current state of the art?

What works for you and more importantly, why does it work for you?

Tips on how full or empty to keep your boot drive and any gotchas you learned the hard way are greatly appreciated.

My setup is the following :

Macbook pro 2009, 13"
SSD (Intel X25M Postville) replacing the superdrive, used as system + home folder disk
Factory HDD used for music and pictures storage

I tried to move my home folder to te HDD, here are my conclusions :
when you move your entire home folder to an HDD, your mac boots fast, but you don't get too much performance gain while opening applications (even apps that do not use any document, like safari). That's because when the app starts up, it loads it preference and cache files from your library. If it is on the second drive, startup of apps is nearly as slow as when  you use your HDD for booting.

I now use my HDD for iTunes/Aperture and vmware images only. These apps are a bit slower than the others (but still as fast are when I didn't have a SSD). But I did not do as Matt recommends : I created new iTunes and aperture libraries directly on the HDD, using the alt key at launch. I do not like symlinks, that can break if you unmount your HDD, for maintenance or by mistake for example, leaving your home folder in a non consistent state.

Last points :

with this configuration, you have to be careful of what files you put on the HDD if you have multiple accounts on your mac : these files are accessible to anybody by default, and filevault will not protect them (unless you use Lion which allows full-drive encryption).
And you need to setup Time machine to include the HDD (if needed), which includes only the system drive by default.


Is an iPhone call recorder theoretically possible? NOTE: I know neither the iPhone SDK or Objective C, just wondering if possible.

I know obviously it would have to be on a Jailbroken device anyway, but it is technically possible for a iPhone call recording application to be made, or is it not possible to hook into the calls or the audio input/output?

I know obviously there would be no 'official' way of doing it and certainly not from an App Store application. And I know there are call recording apps which place outgoing calls through their own servers.

Just wondering if the reason it doesn't exist yet is just because no-one has coded it or if it's not actually possible?

On Jailbroken iPhones, SpoofApp does call recording. I am not a laywer, but note that recording calls may not be legal depending on where you are and/or where the other party is.


Is there any way to update the Bootcamp assistant app? We have a late 2011 MBP here and ideally I could do with having the more recent bootcamp assistant due to the various options available.

I can't seem to be able to edit the plist as shown in previous similar questions.

even with a sudo chmod 777 etc (yes I know 777 is overkill)

I would appreciate any help with this as really can't be doing with sourcing a legitimate CD and license for W7/8 in 2017

Thanks for help in advance

Basically Macs what originally were shipped with optical drives should use their drive to install Windows. If your optical drive is not longer available, virtual machine software such as VirtualBox can be substituted, but the installation process becomes significantly more complex. Usually a USB drive can not be used to install any version of Windows on such Macs.

The good news is your machine probably can run Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. If Apple does not support a new versioner of Windows, generally the older drivers can be used to install Windows. I have the current version of Windows 10 running on 2007 and 2011 iMacs.

Also, you probably will need to install Windows to boot using the legacy BIOS boot method. The primary reason for this has to due with the Windows Support Software provided by Apple. The drivers included are designed for a BIOS boot and therefore can cause problems if one attempts as installation using a EFI boot method.


Configure iPhone to send smaller pictures as e-mail attachment? A friend has an iPhone whose camera she uses with the default settings of 2592x1936 pixels, which is pretty big when attaching pictures in e-mails. The files are very big and I need to scroll down/right to view the whole picture.

I don't own an iPhone, and was wondering if it's possible to reconfigure it to:

Save local pictures as eg. 1024x768 (it's big enough when viewing pictures on a computer)
After saving a picture locally, making a smaller copy, eg. 640x480, and send that smaller copy as an e-mail attachment?

Can the iPhone do this, or is there an application that can do this?

You do it right at the point of sending an email…
right after you hit send, this screen appears…


Where is the Mac password requested by iOS stored? Recently (newly with iOS 11 for me, but apparently earlier for others) my iPhone has asked for my Mac password, indicating that until I provide it, certain features (on iOS?) will be unavailable to me.

Is this stored somewhere once requested. If so where is this password stored?

With public key cryptography, It's not necessary to store any password on a technical level.

Apple could implement a “use once locally and securely destroy immediately” algorithm as part of key procurement (to decrypt keys used for encrypting data marked as 'secure' on iCloud such as Health, where the keys are based in part on device password) to derive cryptographic keys have been generated based on your current device passcode, apple keys, or other factors.


MacBook Pro only stays on for less than a minute This morning when I woke up my computer it turned off itself. Now it won't stay on for more than a couple minutes. The computer will boot up normally, but soon it turns off again. When it turns off, I hear a tiny clunk that I think is the hard drive, but I'm not entirely sure.

What can I do to troubleshoot the problem myself?

This is about a MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011.

It could be something as simple as you power button is stuck, forcing it to shut down.

If you hold the power button for 10 seconds it will forcefully shut down the computer.

In that case it will make the tiny clunk noise, which is normal due to HD been turned off and the HD reader head dropping. Do not do this to often, since you might damage it.

The stuck power button happens to computers on the back seat of the car exposed to food and other stuff.

If the hard drive is dead, you will see a gray screen, and that bad hard drive would not turn off the computer.


How to open a port on MacOS X I previously had Memcache running on my localhost/127.0.0.1 port 11211. Unfortunately, I rebooted my computer and now port 11211 isn't open and I don't know the command to open this port.

Can someone help with this?

you need to start memcache by typing

memcached

in terminal and leaving the window open

or start the daemon

memcached -d

you could also look for a loadctrl script if you want this to always run on boot.


How to change default font size when preview open microsoft excel document? I use macbook air, Preview is brilliant, But seems can not zoom out microsoft document(word, excel), So I want to change the default font size.

But how?

Enter the following command into the terminal. Quit and relaunch Preview.

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSSystemFontSize -int X

Change X to desired font size.

Source: http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/13-things-you-didnt-know-about-preview.php

Oh, and to Apple - ever heard of UI?!


Has there been an end date established for the Maps app on iOS less than iOS 6? It has been reported that the contract between Google and Apple to supply maps for iOS has not been renewed (or perhaps already has or is about to expire). Furthermore, it's clear that Google charges significant amounts of money for businesses like Apple to use the maps API so it's not clear to me that this data feed can continue to older OS indefinitely.

Has anyone seen a credible announcement if and/or when the map data might stop working for people that choose to stuck with iOS 3, 4 and/or 5 and the Google-data-fed integrated iOS mapping app? (And by choose, I mean the devices are not even supported on iOS 6 so the choice is more to buy new hardware or keep running what you have.)

I'm not looking for an alternative (like running Google Maps on iOS 5.1) - just an announced or a real end date of the map tile feed to iOS.

As long as you do not upgrade to iOS 6, you will get to keep the app forever. As for the API not working any more, since Apple used the official API any changes Google makes that would break the old Maps app will also break millions of other apps on many platforms. There is a possibility that Google could revoke Apple's API key, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.


How can I view PDF at two-pages and in the right-to-left order? How can I view PDF at two-pages and in the right-to-left order?

Acrobat can do this but Preview is more responsive.

Preview cannot do this.

You can manually rearrange each two-page layout in the sidebar, but this is time consuming.

If you don't care about the exact layout, you can add a blank page to the PDF in Preview (Edit > Insert > Blank Page) before the first page. This will shift the right page into left spot of the next two-page spread. This does break right-to-left formats, like manga.

There may be other apps that can accomplish this for you. Like you said, you can do it with Adobe Acrobat, and this is likely how you'll have to do it.


How to mute sound alert when a key is not recognized? I'm pressing F16 and it's not bind to anything and it's making a sound, like bip alerting me that the command is not found. How can I mute this sound?

You can completely disable alert sounds. If it's right for you, do it this way :

Go to System Preferences.app > Sound > Sound Effects
Mute the Alert Volume using the slider


I am no longer able to burn discs using my MacBook's SuperDrive. How can I fix it? About a year ago, the SuperDrive in my 2010 MacBook appeared to stop working. When I insert a blank CD or DVD, the disc does not show up in the Finder. The drive appears in Disk Utility, and I am able to eject it from there. I assumed this was a hardware problem with the SuperDrive, so I just purchased an external Samsung USB DVD drive. I am seeing the exact same behavior with it. This leads me to believe there is some kind of OS X problem rather than it stemming from the drives.

What steps should I take to troubleshoot and try to fix this?

I reset the SMC and the SuperDrive is working again.


External Hard drive automount problem I have a Drobo hooked up to my intel mac mini mounted to /Volumes/Drobo, although after a poweroutage the Drobo now automounts to /Volumes/Drobo 1.  I unmount it and mount it back on /Volumes/Drobo so that all of my apps work but, how can I force it to go back to using /Volumes/Drobo as the automount location?

You probably have a folder named /Volumes/Drobo, so it has to pick a different name to mount the drive under.  In one sense, this is fairly easy to fix: just rename/move/delete that folder, remount the drive, and you're set.

But it's probably more complicated than that because you probably have something set to automatically access something in /Volumes/Drobo, and when that doesn't exist it'll recreate it (which is probably what caused the problem in the first place -- after the port failure, the Drobo didn't remount in time, and whatever it was created an empty folder where it should've been).  So, you'll need to figure out what's recreating that folder, and get it to stop long enough to do the rename and remount operation.


Is there a limit on how much hard drive space a computer can handle? I'm thinking of getting a new SSHD for my early 2011 13" MBP, and if I do, I had the idea to give my 500GB HDD to my friend who has a 2007 MacBook (white polycarbonate). He seems to think that his computer can only take 80 and 120GB hard drives. Is this true?

The only limit would be with the format/filesystem the operating system uses.

You should be fine to put in whatever size drive you want, as long as it physically fits and uses the correct interface (e.g. SATA vs PATA).


Edit Content of IPSW file to install older baseband firmware I just got this old iphone4 from my aunt a few days ago and it is locked to AT&T... it has already been updated to the latest version 7.1.2 and has never been jailbroken. I have read that the only baseband that can be software unlocked is the 1.59 baseband... What i would like to ask is if it's possible to edit the iOS7.1.2 IPSW file and make it install the 1.59 baseband instead of the current 4.12.09. I was thinking of something like copying some file from the iOS4.0 IPSW file and replacing a coresponding file on the newer IPSW. I have absolutely no idea behind the engineering of these things, so I apologize if I come off as a noob.

Downgrading the baseband hasn't been possible to do on the iPhone 4 since iOS 4.0.x. Even if you had been preserving the baseband, the tool to do this with (sn0wbreeze) hasn't been updated since iOS 6, so you wouldn't be able to do it anyways. And to answer your question directly, no, it's not possible to downgrade it by injecting the older firmware into the IPSW. It kind-of used to work that way, but things have changed drastically since iOS 4 (and you needed a bootrom exploit to do it anyways on iOS 4).


External drives won't mount on restart One of my staff just got a new Mac mini with the USB 3 ports and Mavericks. It has 2 Seagate GoFlex 3TB hard drives connected: 1 for Time Machine, the other for Dropbox files.

When the computer is restarted, the drives don't mount. They are not visible in Disk Utilities. Unplugging the drives and plugging them back in will mount them. I'd like everything to mount and Dropbox to start up automatically for this user, which worked on the old Mac mini she was using. Now she has to go through multiple steps every time she restarts, which is not ideal.

Any ideas what might be causing this behavior?

Open a terminal window and enter the following command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool YES

That will prevent macOS X Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite from un-mounting drives at logout. Maybe that's the problem you're seeing as well.


Where can I see ITunes connect fiscal calendar without access to iTunes connect? My iOS developer enrollment is pending. But I want to see the fiscal calendar to get an idea about payout schedules etc for every month. Is there any place where the calendar is published?

As I have access I've made a screenshot for you.
I don't know why Apple hides this behind a login, but I don't think it's a secret.

* Update Fiscal Calendar 2017

Fiscal Calendar 2016


Macbook Pro (Late 2010) slow after installing Mavericks I've recently updated my 15-inch, Mid 2010 Macbook Pro to Mavericks. Since then, it's been running incredibly slow and tends to hang while using programs such as FireFox or Excel.

If I look at the activity monitor, the only task taking up a large amount of resources is kernal_task.

I've verified the hard drive through disk utility, and it said that the drive is fine. Here's the hardware overview, if that helps:

  Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier:   MacBookPro6,2

  Processor Name: Intel Core i5

  Processor Speed:    2.53 GHz

  Number of Processors:   1

  Total Number of Cores:  2

  L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB

  L3 Cache:   3 MB

  Memory: 4 GB

  Processor Interconnect Speed:   4.8 GT/s

  Boot ROM Version:   MBP61.0057.B0C

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

As Mathias711 pointed out in the comments, the cause of this was Spotlight automatically re-indexing after the after the OS upgrade. The process of indexing was greatly slowed down by OSX attempting to index a very slow, old external drive we had hooked up.

Once the indexing had finished (it actually took quite a while) the laptop eventually returned to its former speed.

There's also a post by Computer World that backs up this conclusion:

  OS X will rebuild the Spotlight index after a major System upgrade. The process takes time and degrades performance while it takes place.

  Click on the Spotlight (looking glass) icon to the top right of the display to see if indexing is taking place. If indexing is in progress you should see a dot in the middle of the looking glass icon and/or be told the operation is taking place. Allow the process to complete and you should see immediate performance improvement.


Can anyone recommend a stop watch or timer which stays always on top? My requirements for software or a script are:

I want to count hours when i am programming or browsing
Digits should appear on top on every app like browser or editor

Can anyone recommend a stop watch or timer app which  stays always on top on every application for macOS?

ActivityTimer is a Timer that's free in App Store and has an option to display countdown time in the Menu bar in digital or analog form.

I do not know that it can count up (like a Stopwatch).


Choose where to save Catalina screenshot individually Should be a simple question: When I take a screenshot, I would like to be able to choose which folder on my hard drive it can go into, the way I can with every single other program (and could in the past with Grab and Jing). But with the Catalina screenshot tool, I cannot find an option to do this. There's a way to change the default folder to save screenshots (so that it doesn't clutter up my desktop by default - thank goodness!), but I can't find any place to choose where to save each individual screenshot when its created, short of pressing Move to Finder and manually moving it myself. Is there some way of choosing the save location that I haven't been able to find yet? Or do I have to change the default location every time, and remember to do that before I hit capture?

Yes - after invoking commandshift5, you will see the small dialog with choices for "entire screen", "window", etc, you will also see a choice for "Options". Click that to get a pop-up selection item - that's where you'll find your individual choices for file location.


Syncing POP email between devices A friend is having trouble with her email on her iPhone and iPad. If she reads a message on her computer, it doesn't show as read on her iDevice and vice versa. She's with Bell/Sympatico, and from what I understand, Bell uses POP3 for its incoming mail and POP3 doesn't sync across devices. Are we hosed, or is there a way around this?

POP is a pretty limited protocol. It doesn't do much beyond getting messages from senders and presenting them to clients (i.e. the iPhone and iPad) as requested. There's no syncing of state (i.e. read messages). Bell, like many major ISPs, only provides POP access, so your options are rather limited.

I would suggest signing your friend up for Gmail, which offers IMAP (and far more storage than Bell). Gmail can be set up check her Bell account, so that all messages to it will funnel into that account. It's even possible to set things up so that messages can be sent by the Bell account via the Gmail account, so that everything appears as it did before to the sender (although I would recommend using the new address as much as possible - it's beneficial to not have an account tied in to your service provider for flexibility).


Black line appears below screenshot when I paste it into Word When I use the screen capture feature on a Mac desktop running Mojave 10.14.6 and then paste the screenshot into Word 2016 for Mac, a black line appears below the screenshot. I'm not using the shadows/3-d elements in the screen capture. I don't want the black line to appear.  Not sure if it's happening with the screen capture, or if Word is adding it.

I just found another post regarding Word. If I change the "wrap text" setting in the picture properties to "Square", the black line disappears.


How to change arrow keys to scrub not skip iTunes tracks? I need to know what text to enter into System Prefs / Keyboard / Shortcuts / App Shortcuts, but I can't find the command names in the iTunes menu bar, nor by hovering any of the UI for tooltips.

I don't think you can set this behaviour anywhere in the preferences, but you can make this yourselves using Script Editor (installed on every mac) and FastScripts (get it here).

Building the script:

Open Script editor, copy the following lines to two separate files, and save them both to ~/Library/Scripts/

First:

-- iTunes Skip 5
tell application "iTunes" to set player position to (player position + 5)

Second:

-- iTunes Back 5
tell application "iTunes" to set player position to (player position - 5)

Setting the keyboard shortcuts:

Download and open fastscripts. Now you'll find it in the top bar of your screen. Click on it, go to preferences and set your keyboard shortcuts. The arrow keys themselves are not possible to set, because they're already in use for skipping tracks, but a good alternative would be something like: fn + ctrl + rewind/forward

Source: SixHat


Is there a complete and detailed description of what Migration Assistant copies over? Does it copy all files in ~/Library ?  Including cache files and even things like Flash cookies?  What about user created files/folders in / ?

etc etc

Migration Assistant is fairly well documented in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413 - basically if a newer or equivalent version of a file is not present, it gets moved by default.

In your case ~/Library is moved if you select that user - you can't deselect it like some other folders in the home folder.

Applications (which includes /Library/Application support as well as /Applications) move when that is selected.

Files in / only move if you choose other files. Everything goes AFAIK. Even ByHost preferences that no longer are used since the host has changed.


Restore option-left and option-right in MacOS terminal - What is the action sequence? In my terminal, in settings->profiles->keyboard, I set some shortcuts for option-left and option-right. When I realised that these had overwritten the default "move to beginning/end of word" behaviour, I deleted them. However, now that shortcut doesn't work at all.

For example, the shift+left shortcut says \033[1;2D. Does anyone know the magical incantation for beginning/end of a word?

I have the following settings:

Option Left is \033b
Option Right is \033f


Will downloading LaTeX slow down my MacBook Air considerably? I've begun downloading LaTeX and the download is 2GB. My MacBook Air has a 4GB 1600 Mhz DDR3 memory and a 1.3GHz Intel Core i5 processor. Will this large download have any impact of the long-term performance of my laptop considerably?

Adding application software will have no effect on the performance of your computer unless 1) the software is running or 2) it installs persistent background processes that consume resources. LaTeX does not do #2, so you need not worry that this will affect your computer in any negative way.


What is the best way to use two 27" monitors on your desk? In my work environment I have three smaller monitors and love the productivity benefit. At home I have two 27" displays (the iMac and an external cinema display), but am having trouble laying them out on my desk so I can effectively use them without neck strain. What's the best layout for ensuring most of your work involves you staring straight ahead at your work, while still letting your work spread out over all those lovely millions of pixels?

EDIT: responses so far have focused on having the monitors at the right level, i.e. at and below eye level. But the problem I'm having is that just one monitor nearly fills my field of vision, so I end up turning my neck or chair dramatically to work on the other.

You don't say what you'll be using them for.  I'm (among other things) a programmer, and for me being able to see a tall vertical area in my text editor is of primary importance.  Thus, given 2 widescreen monitors, I'd set them up vertically, next to each other.

I'm not unique here: when I visited Google, most of the programmers I saw had this layout too.

I would think this could help with your neck problem, since it makes the display area closer to a square, and not a really wide rectangle.  Alternatively, you could keep them horizontal, and stack one right above the other.  Depends on the shape of the things you're going to be looking at most, I guess!


Reinstall files after upgrading OS? Upgrading from 10.5.8 to 10.6.3

As I understand I need to back up my files. Is this a precautionary measure or do I necessarily have to reinstall all my files after upgrading the os?

This is just a precautionary measure, for the case if something goes wrong. If the update runs w/o any troubles (which should be the case) you don't need to reinstall all your files.

I've just configured time machine before updating my mac, and in that way you are on the safe side.


Shortcuts to label files in Finder Are there any shortcuts to label a file in Finder?

The fastest way i know is to place an icon in the menubar, but it would be much better when i can do it with the keyboard.

You could make your owns, creating an Application with Automator and then assigning a Shortcut to it.

To create the Aplication just:

Go to /Aplications/Automator and create a new Work Flow.
Select Get Selected Finder Items.
Then select Label Finder Items, and choose the color you want to label with.
Save as Aplication.

Now, you could assign a shortcut to it with an application such as QuickSilver, for instance.

You could, too, create a Service in Automator, which, as Daniel points out, can get a shortcut assigned directly. This post, shows you how.


Contact switched to Android; how to send texts instead of iMessages? My brother switched to an Android phone from an iPhone recently.

When I attempt to text him, it still tries to send those messages as iMessages.

Two questions:

will he receive these iMessages, and
if not, how do I default messages to him as texts instead of iMessages?

Thanks  for any help!

Your brother's Apple ID probably still has his phone number associated with it for iMessage. The smoothest way to deal with this is to have him disassociate his phone number from his Apple ID.

Apple has a self-service web site that explains how to accomplish this:

https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage

If that doesn't work, this older KB article has a helpful section "Unlink a phone number".

If he has other Apple devices (Mac or iPad) that are using his Apple ID, your iMessages may be being delivered there. If none of those devices are available when you send him an iMessage, your phone will eventually offer you the opportunity to resend the message as an SMS or MMS.

Unfortunately you can't disable iMessage on a per-contact basis.


Open Terminal App Without Opening A Window Is it possible to change the default settings in the Terminal App (OS X 10.7.5) such that when the app is launched, no windows are opened by default?

As a shot in the dark, I tried closing all windows, and then creating an "empty" window group and setting that as what should be "opened" when the app is launched, but it is still opening a bash window when the app is launched.

(The reason I ask is that some other apps I use occasionally launch Terminal with a bash prompt in a particular directory, but I always get two windows open: the default one in my home directory and the one the other application opened.)

Any suggestions?

It's very strange that you say this, because I only get one window open... It would be interesting to see how the applications are launching the Terminal. IF they launch it by opening Terminal, then opening a new window using Applescript or something, then you would expect to see two new windows, but if they just run a bash script, then it should just open a single window.


Does Google Maps for iOS work without data access or with low intermittent data access I am going on a road trip and want to use Google Maps for iOS.

The problem is there will not always be data access along the way.

Will it still work i.e. is the route downloaded when you click start or what should I do?

There is a nice feature on the Google Map app : you can cache the map.

Just zoom on the zone you want to cache, then type Ok maps in the search bar and this part of the map will be cached on the phone !


List failed login attempts on Yosemite I want to see if somebody has tried to log in on my computer, which is running Yosemite. I am primarily interested in tracking ssh log in attempts, as well as tracking people physically typing passwords on my keyboard to try to log in.

Closely related

List failed login attempts on Mavericks

sshd logging is determined in /etc/asl/com.openssh.sshd.

In short, you need to touch a file and then send syslogd a HUP signal:
touch /var/run/com.openssh.sshd-asl-enabled
kill -HUP $(ps -ef | grep [s]yslogd | awk '{print $2}')

After that, you will find the logs in /var/log/sshd.log


Is there a time limit on how long you can stream iTunes Radio? My iTunes Radio will shut off every few hours and ask me if I want to resume. Is there a time limit on how long you can stream iTunes Radio and if so can it be disabled?

You should count on it shutting off pretty much at the two hour point:

  Why does the music stop playing after two hours?

  iTunes Radio will time out if you don't interact with your system or
  device for approximately two hours. If this happens, simply access
  iTunes Radio again and choose a station to continue playing.

From: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5181 - Common questions about iTunes Radio

If you set a timer and change the channel about 20 minutes before things are about to stop, my experience is your 2 hours starts anew. I don't know if there's a practical limit on how long you could keep this up or if some pause is eventually enforced on the server side.