USB keyboard temporarily not responding after wake from sleep I have a USB Keyboard connected to my 2012 MacBook Air running OS X 10.9.5. I use the computer in closed-lid mode and connected to a monitor. Often, but not always, when I wake the computer from sleep, I have to repeatedly tap keys on the keyboard before the keyboard starts responding. The sequence of events is as follows:

I wake the computer from sleep by pressing a key on the keyboard.
I attempt to type, and nothing happens. Not even the caps lock key on the keyboard works to illuminate the caps lock light.
I rapidly press random keys (or a single key) on the keyboard, and the keyboard begins to respond after a while.

The USB keyboard is connected with a powered USB hub between the keyboard and the computer. Using a different hub does not solve the problem. The keyboard does still show up under USB devices in System Information when it is not responding.

Is there a solution to this annoyance?

UPDATE: When the keyboard is not responding, I can make the caps lock light on the keyboard illuminate by pressing the caps lock button with the mouse in the OS X keyboard viewer. Doing so does not restore the keyboard to a responsive state though. I still have to repeatedly tap keys before the keyboard starts responding.

UPDATE: The problem remains under OS X 10.11.6.

Since it’s intermittent, I would suspect a slow disk or just a lot of CPU and the bus is failing. Any chance you could move to an SSD for faster sleep wake or triage / isolate all other usb devices or check that device on another computer?


How can I upgrade my mac to OpenJDK 11 using Homebrew? If I would have an older version of Java JDK on my mac such as Java SE 8 or OpenJDK 8, what would be a quick way to upgrade to OpenJDK 11 using Homebrew (using the brew command)?

Motivation for using Homebrew: Homebrew provides an easy way to do reproducible installation of a number of system tools (and makes it easier to undo mistakes).

Recommended commands to install OpenJDK 11 from AdoptOpenJDK (with notes after the # sign):

brew tap adoptopenjdk/openjdk # assuming this tap was not already added
brew cask install adoptopenjdk11 # this command *may* need a password to succeed

Note that OpenJDK as used by AdoptOpenJDK is open source under GPL v2 license with a Classpath exception.

This answer assumes that a recent version of Homebrew is installed, with brew cask install enabled and working.

At this point, assuming that no newer version of Java or Java JDK is installed, java -version shows me openjdk version "11.0.3" and javac --version shows me javac 11.0.3 (with no JAVA_HOME environment variable in use). The following commands show both JDK versions installed:

/usr/libexec/java_home -V
ls /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines

To install latest version of OpenJDK from AdoptOpenJDK:

brew tap adoptopenjdk/openjdk # (if not already added)
brew cask install adoptopenjdk # (*may* need a password to succeed)

Alternative installation of OpenJDK from download.oracle.com - with no AdoptOpenJDK tap needed:

To install OpenJDK 11 from download.oracle.com:

brew cask install java11 # (*may* need a password to succeed)

To install most recent OpenJDK version from download.oracle.com:

brew cask install java # (*may* need a password to succeed)

Here is the source of the java cask: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/java.rb

To find related packages on Homebrew:

brew search jdk (shows both AdoptOpenJDK and the Oracle JDK)
brew search java (see notes below)

According to this article, newer versions of Java JDK from Oracle are under GPL v2 license with a Classpath exception (they seemed to link to the same page on the non-https site).

Note that some previous java packages such as java8 are still using Oracle JDK instead of OpenJDK. How to install and verify an older OpenJDK version using AdoptOpenJDK is described in: How can I install java openjdk 8 on High Sierra


Dock Notifications Displaying Odd Red Icons Instead Having an odd issue. My dock is showing these strange red icons where normal numerical notifications should be. For example, Thunderbird will display a 3 when I have 3 new messages, but instead it is showing this red A? icon. This happens with all the apps in my dock that display a notification.

See attached screen shot:

Notice the Thunderbird icon at the top and the Printer icon at the bottom.

Anyway to get my standard notifications back?

This looks like it might be a problem with a system font.  Try this...

Open Font Book (in /Applications)
Select the "All Fonts" collection in the left-hand pane
Click any font in the right-hand pane to focus that pane
Select all the fonts using Edit -> Select All or Cmd+A
In the File menu, click "Validate Fonts"

If any fonts are corrupt, this method should alert you to the problem.


How to limit bandwidth of a specific app (iTunes) I'm currently downloading another series of 24, and I'm also downloading photoshop cs6 beta in Safari. iTunes is steadily downloading 24, several episodes ahead of where I'm watching, but photoshop CS6 is downloading much slower (if I pause 24, then it speeds up significantly)

Given that it's downloading several episodes ahead, I would like to slow down iTunes so that Safari can download CS6 faster. (but not pause iTunes because it's getting close to peak times when my connection is throttled, so it's best to use as much data as possible beforehand)

Is there a built in feature of OSX or iTunes that lets you allocate bandwidth to apps?
Or is there a 3rd party app that allows you to do this?

This utility allows you to throttle speeds on certain domains -  http://osxdaily.com/2009/08/19/limit-connection-bandwidth-with-speedlimit/

You could then throttle the domains that iTunes uses - a1.phobos.apple.com to a1999.phobos.apple.com


Is there a htop-on-linux like alternative for top / Activity Monitor on OS X? I'm looking for a better alternative for top. Both top and Activity Monitor are highly limited with regards to features. In particular, I'm interested in the following features:

Limit processes by name
Send different kill-signals to a process interactively, i.e. select the process from the process list and send a signal
Ability to show the entire command, not only the program name (as top -c does on Linux)
Show the status of each process
Optional: On Linux, top also updates the command when displayed, i.e. if a process writes in it's own argv during runtime, the updated command will be shown.

Htop is not an option, as it is unstable on Mac OS and only a small subset of it's features actually works on a Darwin system, probably because it partially relies on procfs. Is there a build or fork of htop that works on OS X since it has the features I want if it worked as it does on Linux?

You can install htop on Mac through brew with the following command:

brew install htop-osx

Don' t forget to grant root privileges after the installation.


M1 Mac (in DEP) first created user has no Secure Token I have an M1 Mac that is in DEP (using Jamf). If I wipe the machine (from within Recovery Mode) and reinstall Big Sur 11.1, the first created user does not have a Secure Token, and so I can not enable FileVault.
Looking on the web I have found people who had similar issues, but the general solution seems to be "wipe the machine and reinstall macOS, and you're all good", which is exactly what I am doing.
See this one as an example: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8487253
The best description of Secure Tokens (I am including the link because otherwise everyone else will point me there) is here: https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/secure-token-and-filevault-on-apple-file-system/
It looks like a bug in the OS - the initial created user has no Secure Token, and so I can not give any other users a Secure Token. Therefore I guess I am not allowed to use FileVault?

After much experimentation, it looks like the way to do this is to go to Recovery mode, and "Erase this Mac". I also used "Deactivate this Mac", but I am not sure if this helped or not.
After erasing the machine, and then reformatting and reinstalling (the classic nuke and pave), when macOS finished installing the single user on the system DID have a Secure Token, and I was able to enable FileVault.
It really shouldn't be this difficult, though.


Windows 8 slowdown since upgrading to Yosemite and Fusion 7 I was previously running Windows 8 pro in Fusion 6 on Mavericks. I had the VM configured with 2 processor cores and 4GB RAM. The main applications I use in Windows are as follows:

Visual Studio 2013
SQL Server Express
SQL Server Management Studio
IIS Express
Google Chrome (for testing and debugging with Dev Tools)

This setup worked completely fine, almost as good as a native Windows PC. I have recently upgraded to Yosemite and Fusion 7.0.1 along with upgrading VMWare Tools.

This has caused significant performance problems with my setup. Most notably:

The action I perform most is switching between VS2013 and Chrome (alt-tab), this used to be absolutely fine and for all intents and purposes was an instant switch. Now that same process can take anywhere between 1 and 10 seconds.
Opening dev tools in Chrome now takes on average about 5 seconds.
Making a DOM update in Chrome dev tools now takes a couple of seconds.
Attempting to inspect a DOM element (via the magnifying glass icon) now takes a couple of seconds.
Even switching between tabs in Chrome now takes anywhere up to 10 seconds which is just ridiculous. I never have more than about 5/6 Chrome tabs open at any time.

All of these used to be practically instant in the old setup.

All of these things combined for me are completely unacceptable. Although they are all only small amounts of time on their own, when they're added up it's leading to huge amounts of frustration and ultimately loads of unnecessary lost time.

I've done the usual of closing down any unnecessary background apps/services, I've increased the processor cores to 4 and increased the RAM to 6GB. Still no noticeable improvement.

To go from a setup which was working incredibly well and then supposedly "upgrading" and ending up with a setup which is significantly worse is very frustrating. I'm hoping that someone somewhere has come across something similar and can suggest something I can do to make my setup get back to somewhere near where it was before.

Many thanks,
Lee

I also posted this on the VMWare forum: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2446538#2446538

I had an answer back from DrTone who said the following:

  Shutdown your VM and change your hardware mode from 11 to 10 and
  restart your VM.  Your performance should be back to what you expect.
  Fusion has MAJOR issues with hardware level 11.

I did as he suggested and after some basic testing, performance appears to be back to where I was prior to upgrade which is good news.


How to set a default Calendar in iCal 10.7.2 Since I activated iCloud, iCal has changed the default calendar to new events to one which I do not want to use.

How can I change the default calendar for iCal? I cannot find a setting!

This is in iCal's preferences:

Preferences > General > Default Calendar.

This enables the default calendar to be set.


MacBook Late 2008 SSD Upgrade I have the late 2008 edition of the unibody MacBook. It has a built-in HDD which became unbelievably slow. The other tech-specs are:

Now, since its not too bad regarding the processor and the memory is ok too, I thought about speeding it up a bit by giving it an SSD.

[#1] Do you think this SSD will work for the MacBook? Or do you have another recommendation?

EDIT

[#2] I found an even quicker one for just 10$ more, might that one work as well?

Yep it'll be compatible, your HDD is a SATA II.

But because of the SATA2 limitation (~300MB/s) you won't be able to use your SSD at full speed.


Could not login into Facetime and Message 10.8.2 I did a clean install of Mountain Lion 10.8.2 on my MacBook Pro. Now I am facing some problem while loggin into Facetime and Message (could not sign in please check your network connection and try again). In console I am getting this message.

  apsd: Certificate not yet generated

A possible solution is to change your DNS server settings.

I had this problems for a while, and a friend too, and the solution that worked for us was just changing the DNS servers to Google's DNS.

To do this, go to System Preferences > Network > Advanced > DNS >

Then press the + button on the left below DNS Servers, and add both:

8.8.8.8

and

8.8.4.4

Hope this helps!


Automatically Move Files Created In Folder I have a project I've inherited from an ex-employee that is missing the source, so I am attempting to debug from the temp files it creates in a directory. The issue is that it creates and deletes some of these files so quickly I cannot move them to another folder.

I've tried AppleScript or Automator to automatically move files, however it doesn't seem to work on files created by the app, but does work if I move files into the directory in Finder.

I've also tried a looping shell script that does a mv *, but it also doesn't catch all files.

Is there some other way to automatically move files to another directory before they are deleted, or prevent the files from being deleted in the first place?

Try using a feature of OS X called "Folder Actions".

Right click on any folder and select "Folder Actions Setup".

It will gives you a whole list of options. These options come with the operating system. If you would like to modify a script you can double click it and make a duplicate. You can edit your script to do what ever you want. For example, I could code the script so that once an item has been added to the folder, it would play a sound or send me an email. It's quite useful.

Once you have coded your script you need to move it to the correct path. Go to Finder and select "Go", then press "Go to Folder". Type in this path: /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/. Drag and drop your script to that folder. You may be prompted for a password.

Next, go to the folder that you want the script to be applied to. Right click and your new script should be listed. Select it and hit Attach.

There you go!

Hope this helps.

More Information on Folder Actions here


Full path to python as reported by ps When I run python from the shell I for example do python2.7 script.

I later need to find this command again based on the ps aux output, however this output shows a full absolute path like this:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python

I am unsure how I can resolve python2.7 to the path above. I tried to install realpath (brew install coreutils), and ran realpath `which python2.7`, however that is not giving the exact same path, it gives:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7

I also tried python -c "import os; print os.path.realpath('/usr/bin/python2.7')" but that gives the same different path.

Why the difference and is there any way I can resolve to the other path ?

Is that what you want  ?

>>> import sys
>>> sys.executable
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Resources/Python.app/Contents/MacOS/Python


Are there any low-level settings in local Directory Service that can increase the blocking time after typing wrong password? I find there's a global policy that can temporarily block/disable a user (only 1 minute) after authenticating with wrong passwords a few times.

But what I want to do is to increase that 1 minute to a longer time, or permanently disable that user. Is it possible?

Try using pwpolicy

pwpolicy -n /Local/Default -setpolicy "minutesUntilFailedLoginReset=3"

This will set the policy of a failed login for a local account to 3 mins between logins.

pwpolicy -n /Local/Default -setpolicy "maxFailedLoginAttempts=1"

This will set the maximum number of failed login attempts to just 1 (IMO this is way to restrictive to account for innocent typos)


What is the difference between Home and Host drives on my windows Virtual Machine (Parallels)? I am running Parallels 9 with Windows 7 on a 2011 27" iMac with 20gb of ram, i5 3.1 processor, etc.  On the windows side, I have both a Home (//psf, though sometimes loads as Y:/ after a while) and Host(Z:/).  What is the difference?  Am I supposed to be able to access files the same way through both? I guess they point to different levels of my Mac Drive - the Host the whole drive, the home just my user folder. But why? Why are they both their? What is their purpose?

Note:  I am currently having trouble saving ArcMap outputs to a file geodatabase which I had created from Windows on the Home drive (//psf - Y:/) and am wondering if this trouble could be related to differences in accessing or creating files between these two drives on the virtual machine.  SO, these problems prompted this question.

Though your Parallels tech support service has expired, they do have Parallels Desktop for Mac forums, where you can ask for help, and find previous answers.

In particular, I found a relevant answer for you by eiraf-kr in the Parallels Forums.

  A user's "Home" folder is a common feature of Unix-y OSes, such as Unix, BSD, Linux, and OSX (since it's built up from a BSD core). You won't find any "Home" folder in Windows -- the closest you get is C:\Documents and Settings[username]\ instead.

  When you share your "Home" folder from your host Mac to the guest Windows machine, I think there's an option to have Parallels map the shared folders to Windows drives. (I say "I think" because I'm not in front of my Mac at the moment.) They'll then show up as extra drives in Windows Explorer, such as K: or R:.

  If you don't opt to have Parallels map your shared folders, I believe they'll appear under Network Places in the locations pane on the left of an Explorer window (this is for XP; I assume Win7 has something similar). Alternately, you can type \psf\Home into the Explorer URL bar. You can then opt to manually map such network paths to Windows drives for easier access. I've mapped my "Home" folder to the Z: drive in Windows, for instance.


Is it possible to use the Messages app with Google Voice? I've got an iPhone 4 that has no mobile plan or phone number, but I've got a Google Voice account. I know I can use the Google Voice app to communicate over SMS, but is it possible to configure the built in Messages app to use the Google Voice number?

in android, i know you can set the google voice, and/or hangouts(which is better version of google voice), to divert all texts to the native sms app. but i dont think you can with apple messages. they are so strict and guarding of using imessage for anything else but apple use, so i seriously doubt it. but try hangouts. its just like using a normal phone. and you can check the settings in it and see if it'll do it. yup. you can even facetime in hangouts! haha.


Does Time Machine Copy Renamed Files? Okay - so I have a relatively simple question but can't find a clear answer.

Say for instance I have a large video file in FolderA named something.avi.  Time Machine then makes a pass and backs this up.  Afterwards, I rename this file somethingelse.avi.

Does Time Machine physically copy all of this data a second time, or does it create a new link with the changed file name, which points to the data which has already been copied?

Anytime you make a change to a file Time Machine makes a new copy of the file:

John Siracusa's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: the Ars Technica review/Time Machine:

  It's unfortunate that Time Machine's cleverness does not extend just a bit further. The smallest unit of data that Time Machine will backup is an individual file. That means that if you change one byte in a 10GB file, that entire 10GB file needs to be copied to the backup volume. Hard link can't help you here. There's no way to make a hard link to "9.99999GB of the old data, plus this one byte of new data."

The beauty of Time Machine is that it automatically deletes the older copies of files from the backup when it needs to recover the space.


Unable to start gdisk due to "dyld: lazy symbol binding failed" error When I try to start gdisk on my retina MacBook Pro running Mavericks I get the following error:

dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: Symbol not found: __ZN3icu13UnicodeStringC1Ev
  Referenced from: /usr/sbin/gdisk
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib

dyld: Symbol not found: __ZN3icu13UnicodeStringC1Ev
  Referenced from: /usr/sbin/gdisk
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib

I have used gdisk on this machine a number of times before (last time was probably a few months ago) and am not sure what would have changed to cause this issue.  The modified time stamp of libicucore.A.dylib is July 4, 2014, so maybe something changed in an update.  Unfortunately, my time machine backups don't go back far enough to try to revert to the previous version.

The other day I upgraded an older Mac Mini to Mavericks and gdisk is working fine on there.  I even tried copying the library over to the laptop, but that didn't help.

Any thoughts on what could be going wrong and what needs to be done to fix it?

Well I certainly feel foolish...

Somehow in never occurred to me to check that both computers were running the same version of gdisk.  It turns out that the version on my laptop is a few versions older than the one on my mac mini and between those versions gdisk was updated to not use libicu because "it seems to have broken somewhere along the line" (according to change log).  Upgrading to the newer version fixed it.


How to fix iPhone SE only taking low resolution photographs Ever since iOS 11 or 12 (whichever the mid-2017 iOS upgrade was), my 64GB iPhone SE camera’s functionality has been diminished:

The camera no longer focuses very well (e.g., taking a photograph of a 8.5"×11" page of 12pt text results in mostly unreadable blur, even in bright lighting conditions.)
The camera's resolution has been nerfed, with resolution maxing out at about 1150 pixels by 1530pixels, or around 15% of the nominal 12MP resolution. Back in 2017, the camera took pictures that were 3000 pixels by 4000 pixels

I have:

I am using the rear-camera, not the front-facing camera
Restarted the phone
Cleaned the camera lens; and had my iPhone repair friend clean the camera inside the case
Hard reset the phone
Factory reset the phone
Insured that HDR and Live Photo are disabled
Tested with camera Flash set to Off, On, and Auto
Tested by replacing the camera with a brand new camera at my local iPhone repair shop which produced identical results (opted to keep original camera in light of this).
Under Settings > Photos I have Keep Originals checked
Under Settings > Camera I have tried Keep Normal Photo checked, and unchecked, and neither setting affects the problem
Under Settings > Camera I have tried Record Slo-Mo at both 1080p and 720p, and neither setting affects the problem
Under Settings > Messages Low Quality Image Mode is off
I only use the native Camera app, and have no other camera applications installed.
The current battery health is fine, and is not triggering reduced performance.

I do not use, and have never used iCloud, so I suspect this is not an issue of having used too much iCloud storage.

How do get normal functionality back on my iPhone SE camera?

The iPhone SE camera cannot take pictures at a 1150×1530 pixel resolution – so something is not adding up here. By default the back camera should produce images at 4032×3024 pixels.

I would suggest the following to ensure that you're grabbing a correct picture:

1) Use the built-in camera app

2) Ensure that no other apps are running at the same time (especially nothing should be used the camera for video)

3) Ensure that the dial at the bottom of the camera view is set to "Photo"

4) Ensure that you're using the back camera of the iPhone (i.e. not "selfie mode")

Take a photo and check its resolution using this method:

1) Open the Photos app and find your photo

2) Press the Share button in the lower left corner

3) Choose "Saves to Files" and save it on iCloud Drive or on the phone

4) Open the Files app

5) Find the photo in the list

6) Long-press the photo to get a popup menu

7) Choose "Info" in the popup menu

You can now see the actual resolution of the photo listed.

I have a suspicion that you might be sending the photo to someone else or a computer or similar using MMS, Messenger or similar, and that program is altering the resolution before you check it.

Therefore it is important that you transfer the photo using a method that preserves its full resolution.

That could be for example using iCloud Photo Library to sync it with your computer, or it could be using AirDrop to transfer the photo.


Trying to make an Attachment reminder using a RegEx, but the filter doesn't work So basically, in Mail, I'm trying to set it up so that if the word "attach", or "attachment" with any casing is detected and there isn't an attachment on the e-mail, it prompts me to add an attachment to the e-mail. I have Mail Act-On as a plugin to help me add more filters onto my Mail as it comes in and out.

I've made a RegEx in the javascript form for it to find out whenever I type the word in. I've tested it in a website and it comes back as true for the cases of words I've put in, but in Mail.app it doesn't work.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Mail rules are only applied to new messages in the inbox, not outgoing messages. I don't believe it is possible to have such functionality in Mail natively; you would need to create or install a plugin to do this. After some searching, it looks like there is a Mail plugin which does what you're looking for called Send Companion (free, with other paid features).

If you're running an older version of macOS (Tiger through Snow Leopard), Attachment Scanner (free) looks like it would do the trick.


Is GitHub working for you right now or is it an OS X 10.7 Firefox browser issue? EDIT: To quickly answer my question, see the bottom edit.

I forgot my GitHub account, so I tried reset my password. However, I'm not receiving any email. I tried it again, but to no avail.

So I thought I'd create a new GitHub account...

I'm at https://github.com/join, filling out username, email, and password. However, under the heading Verify Account this gif is just looping. I imagine a reCAPTCHA should load...right?

GitHub is displaying this message on the webpage:

Please note that GitHub no longer supports old versions of Firefox.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) with the most up-to-date version of Firefox that it can run.

Question: Is this a Firefox/10.7 Lion issue or an issue with GitHub at this point in time?

EDIT: A simple litmus test to definitively answer my question would be to do one (or both of the following):

1) Go to https://github.com/password_reset and see if you receive an email (I did not) It won't reset as long as you don't click the email.

2) Go to https://github.com/join and see if the loading gif under the heading Verify Account changes to something else.

It is an issue with OS X 10.7 in the sense that this operating system is very old and (most importantly) unsupported.

As it is unsupported, Mozilla have decided not to support recent versions of Firefox on this OS. This is similar to decisions taken by Google and Apple and other browser vendors.

As GitHub requires newer Firefox, and newer Firefox requires newer OS X - you're basically stuck. You should update OS X to continue - or if you cannot do that, then upgrade the hardware or use a different operating system.

You never want to be using an operating system that went out of support years ago (in this case October 2014). The security risk is very high, and logging in to usually sensitive sites such as GitHub should not be done from an unsupported environment.

In regards to your edit, GitHub works fine if you use it with a modern system. It is NOT because GitHub’s join page is broken or down.


Could I recover pictures from an itunes backup missing PLIST files? I have an itunes backup that is only missing the Plist files and I want to know if it's possible to recover pictures from this backup? The backup isn't encrypted and programs for reading Itunes backups don't work because of the missing .PLIST files. The backup is complete and has Manifest.db but just missing the PLIST files. I can't seem to find anyone else that has the same issue as me.

If the backup isn’t encrypted, then the photo files themselves will be intact photo files, regardless of the missing metadata files. (An encrypted backup without the Manifest.plist and Manifest.db would be another, sadder, story.)

Decipher Backup Browser should be able to read the backup without the metadata. https://deciphertools.com/decipher-backup-browser.html If the backup has the Manifest.db, you should see a Camera Roll Gallery section. If there’s no Manifest.db (or it’s an old Manifest.db) use the “Camera Roll Recovery” or “Photo/Video Recovery” sections.


Screen Sharing over internet on OS X Lion - cannot control remote machine I'm trying to connect remotely to a family member's new MacBook Air from my own iMac. Both machines are running OS X Lion.

I can connect to the files on the remote machine and I can see the screen of the remote machine.

But I cannot interact (mouse or keyboard) with the remote machine.

I can run LogMeIn (free version) with no issues. But I'd like to log in to the machine remotely with no input from the family member - it shaves at least 30 minutes off the support call. ;-)

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Most likely you have Observe Mode enabled on your end. In Screen Sharing.app, go to the View menu. You should see an entry for "Switch to Control Mode".


How to start an app in the foreground? For some reason, gitk always starts under all other apps.

How to make it start on top of all other apps, like a normal program?

Start it from the terminal with the gitk command, which lives in /usr/bin. There is no icon to click on...maybe need to create one?

Or is there a way to tell the OS to start it on top of all others? Perhaps with applescript?

Lion 10.7.5

You will need to edit the gitk file.

To find the location of your gitk file type the following

which gitk

Open the gitk file in a text editor, near the top you should see a line like the following

exec wish "$0" -- "$@"

Edit the line so that it looks like this

exec wish "$0" -- "$@" & exec osascript -e "tell application \"Wish\" to activate"

The next time you invoke gitk from the terminal it will come to the foreground

Your question is similar to a question on stackoverflow, if you don't want to edit the gitk file you can find other ways to achieve it there https://stackoverflow.com/q/11248284/1873471


Comparison of Microsoft Word to Apple Pages I'm thinking about getting a word processor for my Mac. The two most popular options are probably Microsoft's Word or Apple's Pages. Before I decide to buy one I need to make sure that it will have all of the features I need. Is there feature matrix which compares Word to Pages and shows which features each application supports?

I'd like to see an exhaustive list of all the features each one supports, or something very close to it. Ideally it should be in table format so that it's very easy to read.

I was recently in a similar position because I needed something for school, and I went with Pages, pretty much on price alone. A 5-license family pack of Pages costs a whole third less than the Home & Student version of Word, so I can put Pages on both home and work laptops and still have extra for my wife's and mum-in-law's Macs.

The article linked in @mybrainishuge's response is pretty much spot on in comparing the two. Each application does the same thing just in different ways. Some good, some not so much, but then all word processor apps have their quirks. Since my needs are humble (I have easy access to InDesign for any heavy page layouts) I figured how bad could Pages be compared to the bloat and "kludginess" that is Word these days; fifteen years I've been working with Office and I can safely say I genuinely don't like Microsoft products, so Pages it was.

YMMV, so I suggest working with the demos for each (I know Pages has a demo, but I'm not sure about Word as the companies I work for always just gave it to me) and see which one meets your needs.


What does it mean for `cp -a` to "not [preserve] directory structure"? The man page for cp says this about the -a option:

  Same as -pPR options. Preserves structure and attributes of files but not directory structure.

FreeBSD cp's manual does not have this caveat, although the structure of the options remains very similar, if not identical.

What does not preserving directory structure mean in this case?

It means that if you copy into an existing directory it will not delete existing files and subdirectories (and existing subdirectories will have their existing permissions and ownership information, even if there is a directory of the same name in the source copy). This is equivalent to the "merge" option when copying a folder in the Finder, and there is no equivalent to the replace option.


Mac OS X Terminal: -bash: $: command not found While trying to install pagekite on OS X Snow Leopard using the following command:

$ pagekite.py --signup

I got:

-bash: $: command not found

I am a noob with the terminal but after reading a bit I understand that it is a problem with my PATH

echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/usr/X11/bin

Can anybody spot the problem? If you ask me -without knowing a thing about it- I suspect the MacGPG2 (MacGnuPrivcacyGuard2) is out of place?

Thanks for your time!

Your PATH looks fine. The PATH variable is a collection of folders/directories in which the shell looks for commands to execute. So if you install additional software like MacGPG there might get new parts added.

But I assume that the command you are calling is called pagekite.py and not actually $. So you should call it like

pagekite.py --signup

or (if it is in your current folder/directory)

./pagekite.py --signup

The $ is often used in documentation to represent the shell command prompt and should not be entered to run the command afterwards.


how to stop krisp.ai app from starting on boot The Krisp app (a noise filter for skype calls) starts automatically on boot, and even if I remove it from the list of startup items, I keep finding it there.

This is annoying and intrusive. I like the app and I need it, so I won't uninstall it just yet, but I'd like it to start when I want, not when it wants.

Open System Preferences.
Go to Users & Groups.
Choose your nickname on the left.
Choose the Login items tab.
Check startup programs you want to remove.
Press the “–” sign below.
You're done.


Open Preview in full page view Whenever I open a PDF that is of ordinary DIN A4 format, the Preview window is oriented such that I can only see the upper half of the PDF. What I would like to have is a setting where I can define that every PDF is opened such that
- the full page is displayed
- the window is resized to reach vertically from the top to the bottom of the screen and
- horizontally has half screen size and that
- the window is placed in the right half of the screen.

Can I define these settings somewhere?

In 10.8 and later (but not in 10.7) there is a preference for the default view mode:

I don't know any way to change the default size or position of windows, but you can use an application like Slate, ShiftIt, or Moom to assign a keyboard shortcut for resizing a window to fill the right half of a screen.


Use Automator to open app as itself? I'm trying to figure out how to launch an app (in this case Discord) by default with added commands, and as such I figured I'd use Automator to create an app that runs a shell command.
The command in question is as follows:

MKL_DEBUG_CPU_TYPE=5 /Applications/Discord.app/Contents/MacOS/Discord

I put that on Automator, on the "Execute shell script" action, save it as an application, and when I put the app on the Dock, when I launch it, it shows two icons. Well, the cause of this is obvious, it's not launching the app itself with that command, what is in the dock is just a glorified terminal window which always launches the discord app with that command.

My question is: Is there a way I can do it so the command doesn't show two discord icons, and the discord window opens in itself?

Also because language barriers and bad communication are a thing, here are a few screenshots that illustrate my question better than words can

 The Automator app, on the Dock
 After launching the Automator shortcut, this is what happens
 This is what I'd prefer to happen

Edit: I'm not sure if this was clear to you guys, I wasn't even aware of this, but it seems that MKL_DEBUG_CPU_TYPE=5 acts as a command itself, which then runs the mentioned app with it's own properties, it's not a command parameter that Discord.app recognizes

Edit 2: Just to clear things out a bit more, when I run the Automator Application, it doesn't show the white dot that indicates the app is running, nor does it show the notifications number that stock Discord does, and that's what I'd like to happen on the Automator app, while hiding the real Discord icon from the dock

Does it have to be Automator?

I have an app which will take additional parameters at launch, which I do by saving an Applescript as a self-contained App.

The basic config is

do shell script "\"/Applications/NameOfApp.app/Contents/MacOS/NameOfApp\" -param1 -param2 -param3"
quit

Edit - Ah, reading more carefully, nope, that doesn't hide the icon of my applescript whilst it's running, & it will not quit until the launched app is itself first quit… but it wouldn't be confused for the app itself.
They are parent/child processes so will be displayed individually in the Dock.

You may be able to hide it like this question - Hide a running app from Dock?
…which rather makes this answer a bit pointless ;-)


Where can i find the source code for the pfctl utility? I have looked here: https://github.com/apple/darwin-xnu

But all i can find is the 'back end' for the pfctl tool, but i am interested in the command-line pfctl tool itself, the option parser and so on.

Has Apple released source code for this or documented it in a manual page for 10.14.1?

A path name embedded in the pfctl executable on my Mojave system:

/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/PacketFilter/PacketFilter-85/pfctl/pfctl_optimize.c

suggests that it's part of a "PacketFilter" package which Apple hasn't released.

However, this filename suggests that the tool is very similar (if not identical) to the OpenBSD utility of the same name.


Is there a Meltdown vulnerability fix already available for macOS? While Apple has yet to comment on the flaw, Alex Ionescu, Windows
  security expert, noted a fix was present in a new 10.13.3 update to
  macOS.

source: How to Protect Yourself From Meltdown and Spectre, the Latest Processor Security Flaws

Meltdown

macOS patched December 6, 2017 in macOS 10.13.2
iOS patched December 2, 2017 in iOS 11.2

Apple patched CVE-2017-5754 (Meltdown) in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2, Security Update 2017-002 Sierra, and Security Update 2017-005 El Capitan. (Support Article HT208331)

Spectre

As of January 8th, Apple has released updates for Safari on macOS and iOS to minimize the effectiveness of Spectre. (Support Article HT208394) Note that Spectre cannot be "patched", only more difficult to execute.


Can you sync an iPhone to the new MacBooks wirelessly? I recently bought a new MacBook and it doesn't have a usb port (I knew this when I bought it) I assumed there was a way to sync my iPhone to it wirelessly but I'm not sure if you can, Im just wondering if I'm going to have to buy the extension for the usb?

Are you talking about the MacBook that has exactly one port that handles everything, including power? That actually is a USB port, it just uses a USB type-C connector, which is not what your iPhone cord has.

You will need to buy the USB to USB-C adapter. Virtually 100% of USB devices sold today use the connector before type-C, the one that has been standard for nearly two decades (like the one on your iPhone cord), and so buying the adapter will likely become necessary at some point regardless of your iPhone's need for it.

Once you plug the iPhone into the MacBook for the first time, you can modify the settings so you can sync wirelessly with iTunes in the future - see Tetsujin's answer for instructions.


Find out if my iPhone is unlocked without purchasing another SIM Is it possible to determine if my phone is unlocked without buying another SIM card?

I don't know where it was originally purchased or what the original terms of the phone service were.

All my relatives are on the same network, so it doesn't help to borrow their SIM.

Three methods work for deteriming if an iPhone is unlocked:

You see the one time message from iTunes when it restores a phone that previously was locked and now is unlocked.
You contact your carrier and they will tell you if the phone on your account has been unlocked.
You swap the SIM with one that isn't from your carrier and it works.

Apple maintains a nice article explaining which carriers offer an unlock as well as other iPhone related services. If you didn't buy the phone yourself, it could have been sold originally as an unlocked phone in which case you would need to know this fact or experiment with two SIM to know if that device is in fact one that is authorized as an unlocked device.


When external speakers are plugged in to headphone jack of Macbook Pro (with Lion), output destination randomly switches I have an essentially new MacBook Pro with Lion and all updates applied, and am wondering if this is a hardware or software problem.  Essentially with something plugged into the headphone jack, things work as they are supposed to for a while, then the sound will switch back to internal speakers, or sometimes 'digital out' (I can watch it change in the system settings), and then often switch back.  It doesn't seem to follow any sort of pattern or be related to any specific application that could be open, and happens with different sources of audio (iTunes, streaming from the web), and different external speakers or headphones plugged in.  It does seem to be better for a while each time I unplug and plug back in the jack.

It sounds like a hardware problem in the jack. If you can put pressure on the external part of the plug and change it: cause static or breakup it's probably a hardware problem in the jack.

If you had said you only tried one set of headphones then I'd have said it's probably a problem in the headphone plug but if it's multiple phones and speakers then it's probably the jack.

There's a sensor in that jack that monitors if something's in it or not to switch off the internal speakers. The if there's continuous sound, just switching from internal to external the problem may be that sensor. If the sound cuts out from both internal and external once in a while it's probably the jack.

If the MacBook Pro is still under warranty I'd have Apple look at it, they'll swap motherboard to make it right if it's a hardware problem at no cost to you.


Jetdrive 850 install on Macbook Pro 2015 I have a Macbook Pro 2015 that I bought used. When I bought it, OS 10.13 (High Sierra) was installed, but the SSD was failing. I bought a JetDrive 850 to replace it, and put the High Sierra installer on an external USB hard drive.

When use the option key and choose "Install macOS High Sierra" from the USB drive, it takes me to the question mark folder.

Edited to add: When I try to boot to internet recovery, I get an 2002F error, which apparently indicates an internet connectivity. However, my WiFi is working fine for other devices.

What should I try?

I fixed this by reformatting and recreating the Mac OS X High Sierra install disk using DiskMaker X.

After that, I encountered another problem: the Transcend SSD had an MBR partition table, for which I needed these instructions on changing the partition scheme to GUID.


Successful jailbroken iPhone ran out of battery and stuck in constant reboot with worn sleep/wake button I successfully jailbroke my iPhone 3GS 5.1.1 untethered using Absinthe. I had been using the phone for a handful of days. Last night however the phone ran out of battery.
A few hours later, I plugged my phone to charge to find that when it got to the booting process with the apple logo, it stuck for a good ten minutes and then reboots. I let it reboot all night to see if anything changed.
There are a few things to note:

Before that phone ran out of battery, voice control was getting activated without me pressing the home button. If voice control did not get activated, then the music app would play a track. This happened twice during the day before the phone battery died in the evening.
I don't know if it is related. I blew on the button in case any dust was stuck. I also pressed the home in repeated succession to see if that would do anything. It eventually went away not sure how. Another reason that voice control and the music app activated because both happened when the phone was in a pocket.

Another thing to note is that my sleep/wake button is numbed from excess use. The button does not work and hasn't for over a year.

Finally the odd thing about when the phone shut down, the rotating circle did not appear. Just a black screen appeared and I don't recall a 10% warning coming up either but I am not certain of that.

My question is can I hard reset without using the sleep/wake button? Thank you

You say that your "display off button is numbed from excess use".  Apple calls this the "Sleep/Wake Button"

One of the functions of the Sleep/Wake button is to power off the device.  Another is to hard reset the device.  A hard reset is performed by holding down the Sleep/Wake Button and the Home button until the device shuts off.

It seems likely based on what you've told me that the numbed Sleep/Wake Button has started intermittently being activated.  This, along with a stuck Home button is probably activating the hard reset function.

I say this because you said that the voice control was starting on its own (stuck Home button) and that the "when the phone shut down, the rotating circle did not appear."
This is exactly how a hard reset works.

This would also explain why you didn't see the 10% battery life warning and why, if the hard reset keeps getting activated, your phone wouldn't finish booting.  You can activate the hard reset while the phone is in the process of booting.


automatically convert low-quality tracks when added to iTunes library When I add new tracks to iTunes, some of them are too low-quality to add to iCloud.  I have to manually convert them to AAC.  How can I have iTunes automatically do this so all of my tracks can go straight to the cloud?

If you are using Windows, you should be able to go through these steps:

Choose Edit > Preferences, click General, and click Import Settings.
Choose AAC format from the Import Using pop-up menu.

In that same window, you can also choose other import settings that may be of interest to you.


How to turn off animation while navigating browser's history Is there is any way to turn off animation while navigating through pages in safari (using one finger  swipe left/right gesture)?

I know, that it is a subtle different thing comparing to what we've accustomed to call navigation, since clicking back/forward history buttons works as expected.

But as for me, it is really annoying, eye straining and time consuming - to see animation each time you use mouse gestures to navigate.

You could simply disable scroll-to-navigate in the mouse/trackpad preferences, and instead use the two-finger swipe (or three, on a trackpad).


Is the iBooks app sandboxed on Mavericks? I would like to know if ibooks app on Mavericks is sandboxed.

I might read some unsecure ebooks (from internet).

Yes it is sandboxed.

…so you should be fine to read books out of the Internet.


Does FileVault 2 interfere with TRIM when using an SSD? Let's assume I have an SSD that supports TRIM-supported drive, and I create a single encrypted partition that fills the entire disk (minus the obligatory GUID and recovery partitions). Is FileVault 2 smart enough to TRIM deleted bits, or does the full disk encryption prevent this from happening? Even if it does TRIM deleted bits, will the encryption of the full partition (presumably marking every bit in that partition as used) slow down the drive because there's nowhere clean left for it to write to, resulting in write amplification?

I guess I wasn't that convinced, so I tested this empirically.

Setup: MacBookPro6,2, Mac OS X 10.8.2, FileVault2 enabled, Crucial C300 256GB (firmware 0007)

With TRIM disabled, I nearly filled the disk (5 GB left) over the course of everyday usage. Deleting ~50 GB of files, I then tried to create a 50 GB disk image. Results were pretty pathetic - an initial peak at 180 MBps quickly dropping down to average writes of about 15 MBps, the disk clearly stuttering (showing periods of zero writes where presumably the disk was trying to catch up). The file was deleted, and afterwards I enabled TRIM. Again, I tried to create the disk image, and again I got the same results. Finally, after deleting the disk image, I created a disk image for the third time - with freshly TRIM'd bits. Average performance was 200 MBps and was sustained.

So no, FileVault2 does not interfere with TRIM. (And no, garbage collection is not sufficient, Crucial.)


Giving instructions to an executable in UNIX? I'm pretty new at this, so excuse me if this is too easy.
The thing is, I have a bunch of instructions stored in a text file named: 'FTIG_dldStruct.txt' and I want to write them all into an executable named: 'STP'. I wrote this script:

#!/bin/bash
set +H

./STP # This is the executable

for i in {1..586}
    do
        sed -n -e "$i"p FTIG_dldStruct.txt
done

My program runs the executable, and it asks me for input like this:

STP> # I want the instructions here, but my for loop is not working until I exit the executable.

It appears you want to send some number (586?) lines from FTIG_dldStruct.txt to the ./STP command? If so, assuming ./STP reads from standard input as is typical, that may look like:

head -n 586 FTIG_dldStruct.txt | ./STP

As pointed out in the comments to pass the entire contents of the file that would be:

./STP < FTIG_dldStruct.txt

Various pipelines are also possible, perhaps to filter out comments (here arbitrarily defined as lines beginning with #) with grep:

grep -v '^#' FTIG_dldStruct.txt | ./STP

If you need ./STP to stick around after those commands are entered so the program can be interacted with, that's a more complicated issue and typically requires an expect script that in turn wraps around ./STP.

#!/usr/bin/env expect -f
set filehandle [open "FTIG_dldStruct.txt"]
set maxlines 586
spawn -noecho ./STP
while {[gets $filehandle line] >= 0 && $maxlines > 0} {
    # wait for prompt from program
    expect -ex "STP>"
    send "$line\r"
    incr maxlines -1
}
# turn interaction with the program over to the user
interact

This code would need to be saved to a file and made executable like any other script on unix. expect has also been made available as a library in various other programming languages.


Fully upgraded MBA or MBP (13")? I'm looking to buy my first macbook and I am unsure which one to buy. I will use my laptop while travelling mostly next year on my working holiday visa for general purposes (web browsing, watching movies etc), photo editing (Photoshop), occasional video editing (premiere) and android development.

I cannot decided which model to buy:

13" MacBook Air full upgraded ( 2.2GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, 8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM, 256GB SSD)

vs

13" MacBook Pro (2.7GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz, 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM, 256GB SSD)

both are priced at S$1,968.00 - might even go for the 512GB - also same price for both (S$2,388) but I'm not sure yet as I'll carry a 2TB external with me.

I'm frustrated why Apply still use Dual core CPU when there are so many quad cores available

My questions:

Could a full upgraded MacBook Air match/exceed the Pro in terms of performance? Would a fully upgraded MacBook Air have shorter battery life than the quoted 12 hours?

I would go with MacBook Pro for the better CPU, GPU (iris vs HD), and screen resolution since you are going to work with photo and video editing.


Why do OTA updates require so much space? Why do OTA updates for iOS always require at least 3GB of free space? It's kind of a pain to have to delete apps and then to have to reinstall them again.

The old OS has to run until the new one is in place and ready for the device to restart. Right there, you have 2x the space of a generic OS image.

Then, the OTA updates take more space than iTunes with a computer assisting  since your iPhone must have space not only for the compressed image, but also to store uncompressed contents of that download.

Lastly, some amount of temporary space is needed as it actually installs the updated firmware. This space is for upgrade scripts, patching settings, upgrading databases and getting all the old content ready for the new code.

Here's an accounting of the current fall 2013 upgrade with specifics. iOS 6 took up something like 600MB of space, but required something closer to 2.5GB of free space for the OTA update download/installation process, so it should be no surprise that iOS 7 asks for 3 GB space.

Here is a related link that may contain additional information.


How to encrypt exFAT on external drive? I have a lot of data on my external drive.
The file system is the exFAT.
I believe it is not possible to encrypt that filesystem with FileVault.

Do you know how (tool maybe) to encrypt exFAT on an external drive without changing filesystem?

I confirm that drives that use the FAT or the exFAT file format can’t be encrypted using FileVault.

Therefore, if this can help, I suggest you to create two partitions of the device using two different file format.


Cycle through pair of spaces for two screens with one keyboard shortcut I have two displays and created for each display with Mission Control several desktops (also known as Spaces):

Display 1: Desktops 1-5
Display 2: Desktops 6-10

I have following related settings adjusted

Disabled: Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use
Enabled: Displays have separate Spaces

I want to treat the desktops of each display as 5 pairs:

Desktops 1,6
Desktops 2,7
Desktops 3,8
Desktops 4,9
Desktops 5,10

I have already changed the keyboard shortcuts as following (from here):

This works fine after I have deleted ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist.

How can I cycle through the pairs of desktops with one keyboard shortcut, e.g. ctrl-left/right?

I am actually testing Amethyst and want to use mod1+n/p (mod1=ctrl+shift). I am hoping that I could use AppleScript to increase/decrease the desktop number 'modulo 5'. I am on macOS 10.14.5.

Yabai: tiling window manager with support for spaces

https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki#comparison-with-other-window-managers

Requirements of Yabai

"System Integrity Protection (SIP)" must be disabled
"Displays have separate spaces" must be enabled

Note

Yabai allows you to switch to a different space without animation (great)

Disable the Mission Control Mappings and use this ~/.skhdrc file with mappings as the OP wants (uses jq, e.g. install with $ brew install jq)

ctrl - left : index=`yabai -m query --spaces --space | jq '.index'` &&\
                        if (($index != 1 && $index != 6 )) then\
                            new=$((index-1)); \
                            other=$(((new+5)%10));\
                            yabai -m space --focus "${other}"; yabai -m space --focus "${new}";\
                        fi
ctrl - right : index=`yabai -m query --spaces --space | jq '.index'` &&\
                        if (($index != 5 && $index != 10 )) then\
                            new=$((index+1)); \
                            other=$(((index+5)%10+1));\
                            yabai -m space --focus "${other}"; yabai -m space --focus "${new}";\
                        fi
# ctrl+1-5:

ctrl - 1 : index=`yabai -m query --displays --display | jq '.index'` &&\
                if (($index == 1)) then\
                    yabai -m space --focus 6; yabai -m space --focus 1;\
                else \
                    yabai -m space --focus 1; yabai -m space --focus 6;\
                fi
ctrl - 2 : index=`yabai -m query --displays --display | jq '.index'` &&\
                if (($index == 1)) then\
                    yabai -m space --focus 7; yabai -m space --focus 2;\
                else \
                    yabai -m space --focus 2; yabai -m space --focus 7;\
                fi
ctrl - 3 : index=`yabai -m query --displays --display | jq '.index'` &&\
                if (($index == 1)) then\
                    yabai -m space --focus 8; yabai -m space --focus 3;\
                else \
                    yabai -m space --focus 3; yabai -m space --focus 8;\
                fi
ctrl - 4 : index=`yabai -m query --displays --display | jq '.index'` &&\
                if (($index == 1)) then\
                    yabai -m space --focus 9; yabai -m space --focus 4;\
                else \
                    yabai -m space --focus 4; yabai -m space --focus 9;\
                fi
ctrl - 5 : index=`yabai -m query --displays --display | jq '.index'` &&\
                if (($index == 1)) then\
                    yabai -m space --focus 10; yabai -m space --focus 5;\
                else \
                    yabai -m space --focus 5; yabai -m space --focus 10;\
                fi

If you are not interested in a tiling window manager but want to use these mappings, you can choose the layout mode 'float' in ~/.yabairc:

yabai -m config layout                       float


Can Apple TV estimate what time I will finish viewing the current show? The Apple TV shows a progress bar indicating how far along in a program I am. That bar shows the number of hours-minutes in total.

Apple TV is also aware of the current time-of-day, given updates over its internet connection.

Is there any way to have Apple TV estimate the time-of-day when I will complete the viewing of the current show?

Yes.

When you tap the touch surface of the remote in the 4th & 5th generation Apple TV, the progress bar appears as you described, with total length of that program along with an indication of how far along you are.

Tap that touch surface a second time. The labels on the progress bar to show the current time-of-day and the estimated time of completion. Just what you asked for.


troubleshoot applescripted typing missing shift key and numerics in windows xp under parallels 8? I am using a Windows XP VM with Parallels 8 under Mountain Lion. I have a remote desktop connection from XP that does not allow pasting from the clipboard, but typing works, of course. I have an AppleScript simulating as if I typed the clipboard. However, the Shift key is not held down for modified keys, even though all keyboard layouts are in sync otherwise. Also curiously, numeric characters don't go through while "(" is turned into "9". See the full example below.

This happens in script-typing into XP desktop apps too, RDC only motivates why I cannot simply paste the clipboard. But this is a problem of scripted keystrokes in Parallels!

This only happens for this script and even only some keys with the script, the shift key is synchronized otherwise.

The remote connection is not super fast, but low speed did not break the use of the script in other cases (when I did not need the XP VM).

What is there to do?

This KB-article is about a similar shift-key issue from previous versions, even RDC-specific, but did not solve my problem:
http://kb.parallels.com/en/9129

Here is the script:

on run
    repeat with theItem in (the clipboard)
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke theItem
        delay 0.01
    end repeat
end run

This is what I tried to copy and paste (by scripted typing):

  ~!@#$%^&*()_+

  QWERTYUIOP{}|

  ASDFGHJKL:"

  ZXCVBNM<>?

  `1234567890-=

  qwertyuiop[]\

  asdfghjkl;'

  zxcvbnm,./

This is what I got, see the messed-up order of rows, even, and even the cursor was before the x in last full-length line, not at the end — somehow it jumped to the beginning of a row before typing more.

  `1234567*90-+

  qwertyuiop[]\

  asdfghjkl;'

  -=

  qwertyuiop[]\

  asdfghjkl;'

  zxcvbnm,/

  xcvbnm,./

  `

It's a problem that i have brought to their attention on multiple occasions.  and as of right now, they still haven't even fixed the problem in v9 betas.  so, if this is a deal breker for you (as it was for me), keep using parallels v7.  it's the last one that they have that applescripting still works properly in.


Automator - Running Node Command in AppleScript Error I am trying to run an AppleScript that runs a node command like I would run it in terminal and appear to have the right start with the code, but I'm getting hung up on Automator not recognizing the node command sh: node: command not found. Can anyone point me to the reason why automator can't locate node (node command as in Node.js. Node.js is installed on my machine)?

Here is my AppleScript:

do shell script "cd /Users/user/Desktop/Projects/node/cli && node app.js DesktopUSA"

The PATH variable for your AppleScript doesn't contain /usr/local/bin! You can check this with do shell script "env >> $HOME/Desktop/env.txt".

So either configure an additional path or use the full path to node:

do shell script "cd /Users/user/Desktop/Projects/node/cli && /usr/local/bin/node app.js DesktopUSA"


Is it possible to do conditional formatting in Numbers for iOS? Is it possible to do conditional formatting in Numbers for iOS?  I'd just like to change the text or background colour depending on the cell's contents.

iOS Numbers does not support conditional formatting, and it is removed from the document upon import.

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4648 the following changes are made on iOS (my emphasis):

  3D charts are converted to 2D charts. Chart data is retained and
  editable.

  Conditional formatting is removed from imported spreadsheets. Cell
  content is retained.

  Table Categories are removed. Tables remain organized and category
  names are retained as static text.

  Filters are removed.


Cannot find old Notes data I just upgraded my harddrive for my Macbook Pro mid-2009 running High Sierra to a solid state drive. My old harddrive is now in an enclosure and I'm trying to access my old Notes from there, I forgot to back that up. I never connected that laptop to iCloud, and from seeing other articles/answers, I tried to find the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes but I could not even find this Library folder.
For curiosity sake, I tried finding it on my current SSD and at first I couldn't, but then I clicked Show View Options and added Library to the view. I then went back to the old harddrive folder where Library should be, clicked Show View Options, but adding Library to the view wasn't an option. Any idea where/how I can find my old Notes data?

If you didn't use iCloud, the notes are stored in:
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/ in a database file named NoteStore.sqlite
If you used iCloud, your notes are stored at:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/CloudKit/
To view the Notes you need an SQL app or typing sqlite at the command line.

https://github.com/jakwings/mac-notes-exporter


How to set my iPhone was always seen in iTunes via wi-fi? My iPhone cable is a bit broken and I often use wi-fi connection of my iPhone5 and iTunes. Sometimes my iPhone is not seen in iTunes. How to set my iPhone was always seen in iTunes via wi-fi?

I used to run into this problem all the time, and it was very frustrating.  The only thing that made any difference was to edit the settings of my wifi router to assign both my computer and the iPhone permanent, static IP addresses on my home network.  My iPad still occasionally disappears from iTunes, but this has cut down the frequency of the problem by about 85%.

I assume that this happens because iTunes caches the mobile devices location on the network, but doesn't update it very frequently.  Then if the device shows up with a new IP, it chokes.


What makes a webpage's sound continue after the page is closed? Some websites that have sound/music keep the sound running even after the web browser is closed on iPad. Some other websites stop the sound when the page is closed. I suppose there must be some coding within the HTML to control this. How is this done?

As you may see, websites that keep the music running appear as the music app (here on iOS 6)

It uses the HTML5 audio feature. In the website you gave (coffitivity.com). They use the JPlayer plugin for jquery to use the HTML5 audio API.


Traveling with laptop without iPhoto, How do I acquire older version like 8.1.2? Traveling with Macbook running 10.6 (recent upgrade from 10.5.8). It was a gift and does not have iPhoto. My Sony camera is jammed with images I would ordinarily unload to the big iMac at home (which has iPhoto). Without upgrading to the latest OS (which seems problematic) is there someplace I can acquire (buy, beg, borrow) an older version of iPhoto such as 8.1.2? The Apple site itself has some very unhappy reports from users of the new iPhoto. Upgrading this entire laptop to the latest OS just so I can download some images seems excessive. Or am I wimping out here?

You say the camera is jammed, do you just need to move to make space on the camera?

Most logical answer is to buy a new card for the camera... or connect the camera, use the USB features to move the photos off.  You will still have them when you back home to use on the big iMac at home.

However, if you want the version just download 8.1.2.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL970


TextMate 2: How to enable/disable Code Folding Text files shown in TextMate 2 are not currently showing me any options for Code Folding. IOW, there are are no up, down arrows over in the line number gutter on the left that allow collapsing regions of source code.

I assume I may have disabled Code Folding in the past (intentionally or unintentionally).

How does one toggle Code Folding enabled/disabled in TextMate 2?

My Setup:

TextMate version 2.0-alpha.9503
OS X 10.9.1

Since TextMate 2, I've also not had any icons in the gutter with regard to code folding.

Currently, I am folding/unfolding through the right-click menu…

…or by pressing F1.


Is it safe to delete python and pip versions 2 and 3 Considering mac only requires version 2.7 of python, and any version of 3, is it safe to delete to delete pip2, pip3, and python3 completely from my mac when I have v3.9 and v2.7. I found them in this folder /usr/local/bin

Probably, yes, since it's in /usr/local/bin (and so aren't the macOS system versions of python). However, you probably shouldn't just delete the executables from that directory, but the whole installation. The details of this will depend on how you did the installation, for example from Python.org, or homebrew, or anaconda.


MacBook Pro 2012 appearance I just got the latest MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz i7 Quad Core, 8GB RAM, non-retina).
But the packaging and overall appearance looks just like the older 15" one (I don't see any HDMI and stuff). Are the non-retina 2012 MacBooks supposed to look like this?

Whenever I search for the unboxing/review videos of the newest model, they only review the retina one.

It's easy. The non-retina MacBook Pros didn't get a redesign on the outside. They stayed the same (so, no HDMI "and stuff"). They only got updated on the inside, so your confusion on differentiating them is reasonable.

From Apple's site - here are images of the new 15" non-retina MacBook Pro:


How to increase the font size of plist editor (not code editor) in Xcode? Are there any settings in Xcode which can increase the font size of the plist editor (especially the key and the value text)?

I tried Preference → Fonts and Colors but to no avail.

I too have the same requirement and couldn't find any possible way to adjust font size of plist editor in Xcode.

I ended searching for a 3rd party plist editor and came across PlistEdit Pro. It lets you choose a custom font face and font size for displaying contents of plist via preferences.


Disable alt-tab (option-tab) instead of command-tab I am using Mac OS X 10.8.4 on a Macbook Pro and somehow alt-tab is switching between the applications from Dock. I would like alt-tab to work within RDP (Windows) only.

I don't know how (or if) did I enable that (i do not have KeyRemap4Mac or anything like that).

Is alt(option)-tab supposed to work as default?

Any ideas how I can disable this behaviour?

It sounds like you've managed to change your keyboard mappings.  Assuming you haven't installed 3rd party mapping software, the quickest fix is to restore the mappings back to default.

SystemPreferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Keyboard & Text Input -> Restore Defaults

Most likely one of the "Move focus to X" options is set to alt-tab


Error when using "pmset sleepnow" Whenever I use pmset sleepnow in Terminal (even with sudo) I get this error:
Unable to sleep system: error 0xe00002e2. I have no idea what's going on. Please help!

I struggled with the problem for months without any luck; the computer was unable to sleep, the sleep option on the apple menu was greyed out, pmset -g assertions (the most popular suggested solution to find ongoing processes) didn't return any result, and resetting the SMC didn't work. Today I finally found the solution that worked for mine

sudo pmset -a disablesleep 0

Hope this works for others too!


Recommended carrying bag for macbook pro 15.4" What are some recommended carrying cases for MBP 15.4"

BrentHaven makes amazing cases.  I used a backpack of theirs for four years of school for my MacBook Pro (the first Intel one they released), and it performed admirably.  Superb protection.


Dock indication about different application instances I miss a feature of the windows taskbar; I could see each application instance separately keeping an eye on my actual open Windows and not Apps.. This is useful especially in debugging, keeping two Chrome windows open - comparing - etc etc..

Is it possible to alter the Dock in a way that will give me indication of the Instances of One app, rather than a single application icon which I have to right click in order to see how many - if at all - instances are open?

I am asking either for Add-on apps, improvements, hidden gems, settings, anything...

There's a Multi-Touch gesture that can show you all the instances of one app. Swiping downwards with either three or four fingers (configurable in System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures) opens "App Exposé", a handy birds-eye view of all your open windows in the frontmost app. It's not the same as an indicator in the always-present Dock, I know, but I think this can be one of the best options you'll get without 3rd-party software (assuming such software exists).


How to uninstall Windows (bootcamp) bootloader after erasing all disks and restore macOS? I have a Macbook 12 (2017) with Windows 10 in Bootcamp and macOS 11.1.
I've erased all disks from recovery, re-formatted the disk as HFS+, but when it starts, it tries to boot Windows and stucks on Windows Recovery.
I've tried to do network recovery, it does the first step correctly, but after reboot tries to boot Windows and stucks in Windows Recovery.
After few tries, it stucks on downloading network recovery with 5010F error code. I've tried to reset NVRAM, seems that it's resetted (I hear two "booting" sounds), but after that it stucks on an "error" image (stroke circle). If after that I try to boot to network recovery, it still shows 5010F error.
So, how to completely erase the disk, including Bootcamp partition, if I can't boot to macOS recovery? Is a USB stick the only solution?

You could not have erased all the disks from recovery, otherwise there would be no Window Recovery to boot to. If you used the Disk Utility to erase all disks visible in the Disk Utility, then the result could be the same as the problem you describe in your question.

In other words, you did not know the Disk Utility does not show all the disks.

The EFI partition does not appear in the Disk Utility. This partition contains the Windows boot files. If you were to erase Big Sur, then the Mac would look for bootable files and would choose Windows if no other choice was available. This boot would not succeed, if you erased the Windows partition. Reseting NVRAM would not matter. Upon startup, the firmware is going to look for an OS to boot, which apparently in your case is the Windows boot files in the EFI partition.
You should be able to boot to macOS Recover over the internet. Occasionally, this can fail do to problems at Apple's end. Using another Mac to make a USB bootable installer is another alternative. Regardless, once booted to an installer, you should be able to use the Disk Utility to erase the internal drive. However, the question "How to change USB scheme when making bootable Catalina installer?" demonstrates that the Disk Utility can fail to work properly when Big Sur has been installed. An alternative would be to enter the diskutil command give below in a Terminal window. When this command is executed from macOS Recovery, internal drive of your Mac should be erased.

The command given below assumes the internal drive is disk0.

disktuil erasedisk apfs "Macintosh HD" gpt disk0


Verbose Mode during startup not working on Apple Silicon I have a Mac mini 2020 (with the Apple Silicon M1 chip).
I want it to boot up in verbose mode, i.e. the details of the boot process should be logged as text on the screen during bootup.
The following command is recommended by several articles:
sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

And this does indeed work fine on my Macbook Pro 2018 and Mac mini 2018, however, it seems to do nothing on my Mac mini 2020.
I have confirmed using nvram -p (and System Information) that the boot-args property is indeed set to -v, but it has no effect.
Is there some way to get this to work?

In the past, verbose mode showed on the screen information that was logged by the kernel processes to traditional files. Also in the past, the logging system was overhauled to write these logs to a database first so they can be queried and some but not all of the logs end up in files.
Now, you can’t see the messages on screen and have to either know which files contain portions of the logged messages or query the database directly after the system has started (or indirectly if the system never completes startup).

Where to see kernel startup messages after boot?

Addressing the “what changed” with Apple Silicon is Apple completed the transition to all machines running under a T2 with a Secure Enclave and other architectural changes to the startup process. Some of these were present in Intel, but legacy behavior remained while Intel was executing the kernel code.
The old non-volatile ram commands don’t “work” on Apple Silicon.

Is there an equivalent to resetting NVRAM on an M1 mac?

Your diagnosis is correct - the store still sets values, but the system doesn’t take any action or read them at boot as far as I can tell.


How to use the mouse scrollwheel to trigger a macro/service? I want to trigger "+" resp. "-" when I use the scrollwheel of my mouse (G700) together with CMD. Shortcuts triggered by key combinations only are simple, but using the scrollwheel as the trigger seems to be more complicated.

What are my options to use CMD+mousescroll to trigger a key or service?

One of the best apps that I have found that can do that is BetterTouchTool. It is free for MacOS 10.6+ It allows you to create links from all kinds of gestures, and button combinations. It works for the Magic Mouse, Normal Mice, Touchpads, Apple Remote, Siri Remote, Etc.
I was unable to get the cmd+scroll alone to work, but cmd+shift+scroll works great. To get it working: Install from https://www.boastr.net/ then open the app preferences and go to "Normal Mice" for gestures. "Add New Button" then Hold down the shift key as you scroll over the action area. (3) Make sure to check the Shift and the Cmd boxes.
Add a "Custom Shortcut" of + or -
You will have to create an entry for scrolling up and scrolling down separately.

Limiting The shortcut:
In the left panel "Select Application" you can have the Shortcut usable Globally or only apply if a specific app is active, ie. only work if you are in Chrome.
Advanced -- if you only want the shortcut to apply to a specific app you can setup a "Predefined Action" -> "Send Shortcut to Specific App" You can then Choose an app that receives the + or -


iOS - Data corruption after downgrade Yesterday, I downgraded my iPhone 7 from iOS 11.3 Developer Beta 1 to iOS 11.2 Release (It was being signed then) using the "Upgrade" option. Downgrade went fine, but after the downgrade, the device started overheating and I discovered most of my data was corrupted, including Social media, Wifi and iCloud passwords and contents and some System Settings. I had no option but to restore the iPhone, so I restored to iOS 11.2 and it works fine now.

My question is: Is this a normal behavior after a downgrade (from a beta) using the "Update" option?

Apple say in all beta documentation that you can not downgrade from a beta to an earlier version. What they mean is that behavior is undefined, and that if you run into problems when you try this, then you are on your own as it is not an action that they support.


Ask siri to set alarm silently? Is it possible to set an alarm with my voice to siri, receive confirmation, but not have her speak back?

Is there a technique I can use to do this with all commands?

Settings > Siri & Search > Voice Feedback

Your choices are :-

Always On
Control with Ring Switch
Hands-Free Only

So really to prevent her answering, you'd need the 2nd option & the ring switch off.
The info in the pref itself says this will only work if you don't use Hey Siri - you will have to use the double-click to wake her.

The alternative is to turn the ringer right down, Siri volume is tied to that. I haven't tested how that will affect an alarm though. It might be somewhat self-defeating.


Numbers - date cell set to last day of the month I have a Numbers sheet that I use to forecast the monthly interest payments on my mortgage and it's working well. The only issue is that the date cells auto-sets to the first day of the month.

Is there any way that I can make a cell automatically set to the last day in the month?

Might EOMONTH work for you?

The EOMONTH function returns a date that is the last day of the month some number of months before or after a given date.

Example: =EOMONTH("2/01/2015", 0) returns: Feb 28, 2015


Is there a iPod touch 1st gen recall program by Apple? I have a iPod touch 1st generation and was about to sell but somebody said to me to get in touch with Apple because apparently they are recalling them and I could get a iPod touch 5th gen? Is this right, and if so how could I do that?

There's no exchange or repair for the 1st Gen iPod touch. Perhaps someone confused the exchange from the 1st gen nano with the touch

You can find a full list of Apple exchange and extended service plans here:

https://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/

A recall means specific things in the US and most other countries and you would see formal advertisements, probably a note on Apple's home page www.apple.com as well as receive email and/or direct postal mail if a product was recalled. The iPod touch hasn't been recalled in the normal sense of that word.


Sharing my paid app on my iOS devices I have an iPhone 5 and need to buy an app which is quite expensive. The first question: if I want to use this app on my iPad (which has the same Apple ID), would I have to buy it again or not?

The second question: I am thinking about buying an iPhone 6 after 2-3 months and then selling my iPhone 5, would I have to buy this app again or not?

When you purchase the app, it stays associated to the Apple ID you used. You can install it on other iOS devices, too.

Quoth Apple:

  You can associate your Apple ID with up to 10 devices, with a maximum of 5 computers at any time. Each computer must also be authorized using the same Apple ID.

You can re-install it on a new iOS device in the future. Remember to Erase All Content and Settings, and sign out of iCloud before you sell your iPhone 5.


Restore from backup with new Apple ID I have an old iPad 3rd Generation (Retina Display). I am planning on buying the new iPad Pro 10.5. I am a little confused with backup and restore.

The old iPad has Kanini.Mom@gmail.com as the Apple ID (as it was my mom's iPad).

The new iPad is for my dad and so the Apple ID is going to be Dad@gmail.com

What I would like to do is:

Retain Photos
Retain Books from iBooks (These are PDF's not something which was purchased from iBook Store)

I do not need the games and other apps that was in the old iPad to be transferred in the new iPad.

I do want it use my new email address for everything (Apple ID, FaceTime, iMessages) etc.

How can I achieve that?

As fsb mentions, the photos are all tied with the Apple Id which is associated with the iPad. So, here is what we did

Connect iPad to PC / Mac
Copy all of the photos from iPad to PC / Mac
Upload photos to Google Photos associated with Dad's gmail
In the new iPad, sign in with Dad's email address (this can be the same gmail account as above or a new account).
Download the Google Photos app and sign into it with the gmail mentioned in step 3.


ClipX equivalent for Mac? Possible Duplicate:
  Good simple Clipboard manager

ClipX is a Windows clipboard management application.

The search feature would be incredibly powerful if I could find a suitable equivalent to Clipx on OS X.

I'm currently using Flycut but it's a bit buggy, inteface isn't what I'd prefer and interacts poorly with Eclipse.

Thanks! So curious if something like this exists.

I searched Alternativeto.net and came up with these search results:
Jumpcut

Jumpcut is an application that provides "clipboard buffering" — that is, access to text that you've cut or copied, even if you've subsequently cut or copied something else. The goal of Jumpcut's interface is to provide quick, natural, intuitive access to your clipboard's history.

It sits in your menu bar:

And you can assign a hotkey to bring up a pasting window:

According to the Flycut website, Flycut is based on Jumpcut. I am currently using it and love it!
PTHPasteboard
Pretty close to Jumpcut, with the exception that there is a paid upgrade.


Why is my MacBook sending out data, even when idle? From the "Activity Monitor" I noticed that even when the computer is idle, and with all browsers closed, it is still sending data out (several hundred bytes per second). I want to know why this is happening and where all the data is going.

It could just be bonjour or some other background network process or daemon communicating. You don't have to be explicitly browsing the web to be using network traffic

Bonjour - Is a set of networking protocols to allow different machines to see each other with zero configuration.

Daemon - Is just a process that runs unattended in the background.

Several hundred bytes is a tiny amount of traffic, it's nothing significant.  If you would like to monitor which ports are open, use "netstat" at the terminal


How can I configure the iPhone to send/receive mail through Gmail, but using a different e-mail address? I have a pobox.com account whose address I use as my main e-mail address and that forwards my messages to a Gmail address.

Eventough that is the address I tell my friends and coleagues, when I send e-mail from my iPhone it uses the default gmail.com address, and so people start to pick that as my e-mail address.

How should I configure a Gmail account in the iPhone that uses my pobox.com address for sent messages, instead of the gmail.com address? How should I set up storage of sent/junk/trash messages? How will Gmail archiving work?

This worked for me

  Assuming you have already setup the alternate account in your gmail

  Remove the gmail account from your iphone
  Add new mail account

  Settings > Mail > Add Account > Other
  Enter standard gmail id and password in New Account screen
  Enter standard gmail id and password in IMAP and SMTP screens (imap.gmail.com, smtp.gmail.com)
  After account is setup, under "IMAP Account Information" change address field to the desired account (Note that the "Incoming Mail Server" settings will remain as
  gmail info, this is the difference between creating the account manually and using the automatic gmail setup)

  Enjoy


How can I change the modified date of a symlink? I would like to change the modified date of a symlink. The symlink points to a directory so it cannot be a hardlink.
The following command works fine in the terminal for an actual directory, but it does not modify the modified date on the symlink. How can I do this and why does the command not work on symlinks?

touch -mt 201202112109 "Users/scott/actual directory"
touch -mt 201202112109 "Users/scott/symlink"

First one works, second one does not. the symlink actually points to the directory with the modified mod date. both are owned by same owner (me) and have same permissions.
Running Lion 10.7.3

You need to add the '-h' parameter to modify symbolic link timestamps.

In your case:

touch -mht 201202112109 "Users/scott/symlink"

Without the '-h' the timestamp of the file that is linked to is modified.


Bluetooth external keyboard for my iPad How can I stop my external keyboard from sending a text when I hit return?  I want it to just bring up the next line but it sends the text instead.  Originally, when hitting return, another line came up but now it sends the text...I must've caused this somehow but now I want it to return to the original function of just bringing up the next line.  Thank you.

I use Messages to text...

Press alt/option+return or control+return to enter a new line instead of sending.


Internal HDD VS External HDD startup I have a 20" early 2008 iMac, I upgraded the Hardrive and using an external USB connector installed a fresh OS (Lion 10.7.5) and it starts up and runs fine externally. However when i put it in the computer using the internal connections I only get a blinking folder icon. If I put the original HD it starts up and works fine so I'm thinking its not a physical problem in the case. Anybody have any ideas??

When you have the new HDD installed in the computer you should be holding down the option key when you boot the machine.  This will bring you to the startup manager and allow you to choose to boot from any drive connected that has a bootable OS installed.  Select the internal HDD.  Once you get to the desktop open System Preferences > Startup Disk  and permanently choose that drive to boot from.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417

If the drive does not show up in the Startup Manager, then you have a problem.


System keeps booting into recovery after upgrading to El Capitan I have (had) Maverics running under VMWare Workstation 12. Sadly I decided to upgrade to El Capitan. Now my system always boots into recovery (located at "/Volumes/OS X Base System"). I tried reinstalling Mac OS there but it keeps booting into this

What should I do to boot from /Volumes/Macintosh ? I tried selecting "Startup Disk" but it still boots into recovery :(

Try booting it into Recovery and use Disk Utility to verify the disk it see if we have any problems there.

Hold these keys until the Apple logo appears. After your computer finishes starting up, you should see a desktop with an OS X menu bar and an OS X Utilities window with the options listed above. If you see a login window or your own desktop instead of the Utilities window, it's possible that you didn't press Command-R early enough. Restart your computer and try again.


My iPad Mini isn't responding to the magnets in the cover; any fix? Recently, my iPad Mini has stopped responding to the sleep/wake magnets in my cover. Is there any fix for this other than taking it in for a hardware fix?

Go to Settings > General and if "Lock / Unlock" is off, turn it on. If it's on, turn it off, then back on and then restart your iPad by holding the home button and lock button together until you see an Apple logo appear. Don't worry, it won't effect any content on your iPad, but it might be necessary to fix your problem.


why file attachment in oneNote(Mac) is locked and how to bypass it? I want to edit file attachment like pdf and txt file in oneNote directly and save all the changes, but all the file attached in the oneNote when opened is automatically locked, I uncheck the lock option but the change not save into the file

How can I solve this irritating issue

It is not possible right now, because files attached to OneNote-notes are always read-only copies in the current version. If you edit them, Mac OS X saves the changes to a copy of the file in a location you can choose. To update the online copy of your file with your changes, you'd have to remove the old version of the file from the note and attach the copy with your new changes to it.


How to switch tabs with a German keyboard? Context: Most native macOS apps use
⇧⌘[ and ⇧⌘] for switching to the next and previous tabs respectively.

Problem: However this does not work for German keyboards. To type a [ or ] with a German keybord, you have to press alt5 or alt6 respectively.

Question: How to switch tabs with a German keyboard?

You should be able to switch tabs via the alternative shortcuts ⌃ control+tab and ⌃ control+⇧+tab.


What is the "akd" process, and do I need to allow it to connect to the internet? I use Little Snitch as a Mac OS firewall. Usually, it's fairly clear to me what needs to connect to the internet and what doesn't. However, I can't figure out what akd is or does, and why it needs to connect to gsa.apple.com.akadns.net:

Could anyone give me any insight on the implications of blocking it? Thanks!

Little Snitch Research Assistant tells you what it is.

  akd is part of the AuthKit (authentication/authorisation) framework. Also used in the process of authenticating of iCloud and other accounts using Apple ID.


How do I change some text in an OmniGraffle document via AppleScript without changing the text's styling? If I create an OmniGraffle document, add a text box with “Test” in red in size 28, I can change the text with this snippet of AppleScript:

tell application "OmniGraffle Professional 4"
    set text of first solid of first canvas of first document to "Hello"
end tell

But this will also change the color, font size and other styling attributes to some defaults. I have an old AppleScript script which did something like the one below to change the text without changing the styling attributes by setting the “text” property of the “text” of the “solid”. The AppleScript dictionary of OmniGraffle Pro says that the “text” property of a “text” is the “The actual text content.”

tell application "OmniGraffle Professional 4"
    set text of text of first solid of first canvas of first document to "Hello"
end tell

I am sure this used to work, but I've gone through a few OS X upgrades and OmniGraffle updates since last running that script, and when I try it now, I get an error. (I am still using OmniGraffle Pro 4 though, not the new OmniGraffle Pro 5)

Is there some other way to change just the text without changing the styling attributes or a workaround for the above error (which I suspect to be a bug)? Does it work in OmniGraffle Pro 5?

To not change the color, font size and other styling attributes : You must use classes in Text Suite or in Extended Text Suite.

Like this :

tell application "OmniGraffle Professional 4"
   set someGraph to solid 1 of canvas 1 of document 1

  --set word 1 of text of someGraph to "Hello"
  --set characters 1 thru 4 of text of someGraph to "Hello"
  --set attribute run 1 of text of someGraph to "Hello"
  set paragraph 1 of text of someGraph to "Hello World"
end tell


How to move a local copy of my mailbox to a new IMAP server? My mailbox has just been shut down without notice by my internet provider, because the internet connection had been cancelled some time ago. There is no way I can access it now, the IMAP server refuses the connection.

I just created a Gmail account to use as my new email.

I have a copy of most of my emails on my laptop, in the Mail app. Is there a way I can transfer these old emails to my new mailbox?

I read that there are ways to do an IMAP-to-IMAP copy with third-party software such as Thunderbird, but this is not possible for me as I lost access to the old IMAP server. I hope there is a way to upload the local copy of my old emails to my new mailbox.

The first idea I had:

Can you just forward the emails to the new account?
But that means some data is not right like the sender and the recipient.

So my other attempt:

To repeat your situation I used a software which blocks the Internet connection. And I was able to create a .mbox file. (the screenshot was taken later so the iCloud account is online again)

In mail app I imported the .mbox file as a local import.
Then I selected the mail and clicked move to and moved it to my other mail account.

I hope I could repeat your situation well, if not please tell me which steps not work for you. Maybe my answer is completely not working for you.
I think there are much cleaner ways to do your task with python scripts (like this, or that), but I think this solution is the easiest.


When I connect VGA adapter my second monitor becomes primary and MacAir monitor turns off It's been over a year since I successfully connected my external Samsung SyncMaster monitor to my MacAir as a mirror or dual display. Everything worked fine.

Yesterday I took my MacAir and the VGA adapter to a meeting room and connected to a projector which mirrored my MacAir desktop.

When I got back from the meeting and connected my SyncMaster monitor, my MacAir display goes black and SyncMaster becomes primary.

The interesting thing is if I first connect the VGA adapter to the Mac, then connect monitor cable to the adapter, the SyncMaster doesn't go live. Simply displays "No signal".

But if I first connect monitor cable to VGA adapter, then connect adapter to the Mac, the Mac display goes black and monitor becomes primary.

How can I fix this?

I went back to the same meeting room, connected to the projector, and everything works fine. Somehow it has changed the default screen to the projector. Changed it back, and now I can successfully connect my SyncMaster monitor.


Certain apps not updating on Mac App Store with "temporarily unavailable" and "could not complete your request" Certain apps on the Mac App Store are not updating (apart from iTunes and system updates), these include Pages, Numbers, Shazam, Evernote, OneDrive, etc.

It gives the following errors each time and refuses to update.

  This item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

  We could not complete your request. There was an error in the App Store. Please try again later.

I have macOS 10.12.2 on MacBook Pro mid 2015.

I had the same issue and resolved it by signing out (Store > Sign Out) then signing back in again.


Can I restore pre-Mavericks power key behavior? Mavericks changed the behavior of my MacBook Air's power key to put the Air to sleep immediately when pressed briefly.  Prior to Mavericks, the power key would summon the Shut Down dialog.

As detailed in OS X Mavericks: Using the power button, holding the key for 1.5 seconds brings up the old Shut Down dialog, and holding for 5 seconds will shut down unconditionally.  Holding control while pressing the power key will also bring up the Shut Down dialog.

Is there any way to restore the old, pre-Mavericks behavior as a preference?  I'm used to using the power key to get the Shut Down dialog and seem to not be able to retrain myself particularly effectively.

Since Mac OS 10.9.2 you can go back to something close to the pre-Mavericks behavior easily.

Type in terminal:
defaults write com.apple.loginwindow PowerButtonSleepsSystem -bool no

It's not exactly the same, since you still need to press the button for 1 sec. But if you press the button accidentally, the shut down dialog is not going to appear.

Note: if you want to go back to the Mavericks behavior, juste change no to yes.


Terminal won't find command of custom script since Catalina update I have a very simple script to hide the icons from my desktop

#!/usr/bin/env bash
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false
killall Finder

It is located in $USER/bin. Since the update, when I try to execute it using only the name of the script as a command, it doesn't work, the error being zsh: command not found: icon. Same for the other script located in the same folder.
If I execute the script by double clicking, it works.

The directory ~/bin/ (e.g. /Users/alice/bin) is no standard path for executables. It has to be added to the PATH variable.

After changing the default login-shell from bash (-10.14) to zsh (10.15-) any customizations of the PATH-variable in .bash_profile/.profile/.bashrc to add custom directories (e.g. export PATH=/Users/alice/bin:$PATH) or other variables (and aliases etc.) won't work anymore in your login-shell.

But you can simply create/modify a similar file for zsh (.zprofile/.zshrc):

touch .zprofile
echo 'export PATH=/Users/alice/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zprofile

Personally I soft-linked .zshrc to .zprofile:

ln -s ~/.zprofile ~/.zshrc

Afterwards either source this file or close and reopen the Terminal window to make the changes of the PATH variable effective.


How to tile windows without going into full screen? Currently, if I want to tile two instances, I press the green button on the top-left and place the instance accordingly.
However, each of the tiled instances always go into full screen mode. For a chrome instance, this is annoying as it means it's not possible to see the tabs.
How do I tile windows without making them go  full screen?

Pressing the green traffic light button would cause the window of most macOS apps to go full-screen.
You can press and hold the Option key when clicking on the green traffic light button to prevent the window from going into full-screen mode.
If you want to tile and align various windows belonging to same of different apps, you can use one of the many 3rd party window and tiling manager apps.
One such app that I use and find very useful is Divvy - Window Manager. It lets you tile windows quickly and efficiently for any macOS app and supports multiple displays too.
P.S.: No affiliation whatsoever with the developer of the app. Just a satisfied customer.