Can I use an AirPort Express to extend a wifi network that has a Cisco base station? I have a household with mostly Apple products with a Cisco base station. I was wondering if I can use an Airport Express as a range extender. If it works, it would be very attractive for me since I could also use it to play music from my iPhone through it.

I would say without doing the research on the specific model (generation) of Airport and the specifics on the firmware on the Cisco device - they may work but it's certainly not guaranteed.

It's almost inconceivable the first part would fail. The express will join almost any network and AirTunes will work as long as it is in range.

The extending is where you want to do your homework if you need that to work as well to not be disappointed with a purchase. WDS is the main standard - so be sure you read up on the Apple WDS documentation as well as whatever Cisco provides.

WDS in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad protocol, but it makes your network much more complicated and much more likely to fail since any one part failing cascades to the rest. Many people (even professionals) have lost days to trying to make WDS work and maintain/troubleshoot it when problems arise.


Do I have to downgrade from iOS 7 Beta in order to get iOS 7 today? I downloaded the iOS 7 Beta about a week ago and now I'm worried I'll have to downgrade in order to install iOS 7 that's being released today. Anyone have any insight? If I have to downgrade, what's the easiest way?

You will have to download the GM seed from the Developer Portal to move off the Beta. This will once again be a complete clean and restore so make sure your backups are up to date before starting.

Barring any last minute showstoppers the GM build will be the released version.


Miniaturise all windows with AppleScript tell application "System Events"
    set mywindows to windows of (processes where background only is false)
    repeat with theItem in windows of (processes where background only is false)
        set miniaturized of theItem to true
    end repeat
end tell

I get
error "System Events got an error: Can’t set miniaturized of UI element to any." number -10006 from miniaturized of UI element to any

I answered a similar question over on Stack Overflow, around the time I was still working mostly in High Sierra.  Testing it today, it still works on Catalina.
Here's the salient part of that answer:
tell application id "com.apple.systemevents" to set the value of ¬
        attribute "AXMinimized" of every window of every process ¬
        to true

Unfortunately, it's not going to minimise them all simultaneously, which would be lovely.  It does them one-by-one, not necessary starting with the one that's right in front of you.  Therefore, if you have many windows open, it can appear at first that it's not doing anything, but in fact it's minimising windows obscured by the frontmost one), and they'll minimise in turn, which is fun to see the first time, but irksome every other time when you just want it done now.
Another point that @user3439894 kindly reminded me of is that System Events is only aware of objects that exist on the currently active desktop.  Therefore, this method won't be to minimise windows that are on other desktops/spaces are off-screen.
However, if you aren't specifically looking to minimise windows, but rather just get them out of sight, then you can elect to hide the processes instead:
tell application id "com.apple.systemevents" to ¬
        set visible of every process to false

The major annoyance here is that Finder remains visible, and will need to have an extra line of code after to get rid of its windows, which I suggest should be:
tell application id "com.apple.Finder" to set ¬
        miniaturized of every window to true

The benefits, however, are that all the windows across all desktops/screens will be gone, not just the ones on your current desktop; and this takes place very quickly, almost instantaneously (apart from Finder).  Activating the application by clicking on its dock icon for example, makes the process visible again; typically, this means that the application and all of its windows that were previously visible will re-appear en masse.  Whether that's a positive or negative will depend on your needs.

The reason your code doesn't work is because miniaturised is not a property of the window object belonging to the processes suite of System Events' AppleScript dictionary.  It is a property of window objects belonging to the standard suite of any scriptable application's AppleScript dictionary (including SystemEvents, although it doesn't have any windows of its own); despite sharing a common name, these two window class objects are distinct and unrelated objects in AppleScript.


Mac Terminal support for multiple fonts I was trying to get emacs minimap to work on the terminal - http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MiniMap

However, the font is the same size as the rest of the screen, which makes it pretty useless. It seems to be the same in iTerm.

The standalone Emacs.app works, but I'd rather not use it.

Is there a mac terminal which supports multiple fonts?

I don't think it'll be possible - terminal-based applications (as those running in terminal emulators like Terminal.app, iTerm.app, etc are) don't support multiple concurrent fonts. This is because a terminal application is written to run on a traditional dumb terminal which wouldn't have the concept of multiple fonts. Within a terminal emulator, all text is displayed in the same font and this is why the sidebar doesn't look as it should.

The only solution is to use a version of Emacs running under either Cocoa/Carbon (eg, Emacs.app or Aquamacs) or X11.


What is the quality of SSDs included on a Mac? Are the SSDs used by Apple high in quality in terms of Speed and longevity (which is a particular issue with SSD). If not would you recommend buying a separate SSD and installing it after purchasing a mac?

Apple uses a mix of Toshiba and Samsung SSDs in the current lineup of Macs (pre-2011 they used Toshiba only). Neither are the fastest drives around, but they're still pretty speedy, and in most day-to-day cases you wouldn't notice the difference between a Toshiba or Samsung and the fastest Sandforce, Intel or Crucial/Micron drive. The reason for this is that almost all SSDs are so much faster than a traditional hard drive that the relative difference in SSDs is fairly small.

The Toshiba and Samsung drives are both respectable performers but trade that extra x% that differentiates the top performers for better reliability. From Apple's perspective it's a pretty smart trade, as the perceived performance in 95% of cases is still great, and the long term customer satisfaction is more important. For more specifics see the SSD section of Anandtech's 2011 MacBook Air review.

As to whether you should get a 3rd party drive or an Apple one, here's my advice:

If you know you need the best possible sequential read/write performance for a specific purpose, get a 3rd party drive. If you're not certain you need the extra performance, you probably don't.
If you're going to be getting a small drive (~128 GB or so), go with the Apple one. In a MBP you can get a 128 GB drive for $200, which is pretty competitive with prices at NewEgg, etc.
If you're want a bigger drive, you can generally save yourself ~$150-200 by going with a 3rd party 256 GB drive, but if that money matters less to you than reliability (and the reduced hassle of having Apple warranty cover the drive), get the Apple one.


Strange output at end of terminal session in OS X El Capitan Yesterday, I upgraded my MacBook Air from Yosemite to El Capitan.

I am getting strange output at end of terminal session after upgrade.

Last login: Mon Nov 8 11:12:50 on ttys000

My-MacBook-Air:~ user$ exit
logout
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history...truncating history files...
...completed.

[Process completed]

Anyone getting similar output? Is this some kind of virus? or it is OS feature?

Terminal saves a bunch of history so that when you open it again, it all looks like it did when you quit it.  The messages you are seeing reflect that saving of data.  You can see exactly what it is doing by taking a peek inside /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal:

grep "truncating history files" /etc/* 2> /dev/null
/etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal:     echo -n 'truncating history files...'


Time Machine: Backing up the local drive onto an external AND a partition of that external to another external My setup: I have an iMac that gets backed up via Time Machine to an external SSD that is partitioned to have storage for Time Machine and for working off a photo catalog in Lightroom directly from that drive (I've set it up this way so I can work off of that Lightroom catalog from my Macbook when traveling as well).
What I'm trying to do: is backup that "Photo" partition of the external drive onto another external drive only (I do not want to also backup the local drive there, just the partition of the external drive).
I'm not seeing a way to do this in Time Machine — any suggestions?

Sounds like you have an external SSD drive that is partitioned for Time Machine and a different partition for Photos and you want to backup the Photos partition to a second external drive. This really has nothing to do with Time Machine.
There's a variety of ways to deal with this scenario.  You can clone the Photos partition to the second external drive using Disk Utility (restore function), command line dd tool, or a 3rd party tool such as SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner. Some of which depends on the version of macOS you are running as the 3rd party software may only support Catalina or Big Sur on their latest versions.
If this is something you need to regularly run as a backup, I would recommend the commercial software such as CarbonCopyCloner to make it point and click easy.
In Disk Utility, attach both external drives, select the 2nd external drive where you will be copying the Photos partition to and click on Restore and then select the Photos partition on the first drive.  This will effectively clone the partition.
If you wish to do it from the command line in Terminal you need to first determine the drives identification.  /dev/disk3/disk3s2, etc. Use the command diskutil list to list all the drives and volumes (partitions) and be absolutely sure you understand which disk is which and that you make zero typos or you could clone the wrong thing or worse clone in the wrong direction effectively wiping out your data.  This is very powerful, rather straightforward but it is very unforgiving if you make a tragic mistake.
sudo dd if=/dev/disk1/disk1s2 of=/dev/disk2/disk2s1 bs=100M

Assuming you have 3 disks attached, /dev/disk0 would be your macOS Macintosh HD drive and supporting volumes (partitions).  /dev/disk1 would be the first Time Machine drive with the Photos volume (partition). The photos partition is likely the second partition /dev/disk1/disk1s2. The destination is /dev/disk2/disk2s1 creating a clone of /dev/disk1/disk1s2 on the first partition on the second disk /dev/disk2/disk2s1.

This is ONLY AN EXAMPLE, you need to determine what the correct disk identifiers are for your particular setup as they will likely vary.
For the technical people, cloning a drive from the command line for free allows for scripting and a DIY attitude.  But using software such as CarbonCopyCloner is far easier, less error prone, and worth every penny if you do this all the time. The latest version of CCC was recently updated and one of the main features was increased performance with a new multi-threaded file-copier. It may be a better choice over Time Machine as well. Depends on your particular needs.


iPhone Music app is displaying a disabled podcast episode After syncing my iPhone with iTunes, I now somehow have a "disabled" podcast episode:

All of the text is grey and there's no artwork
I can't play the episode even though it displays "19m left"
I can't delete the episode (swiping to delete does nothing)

How and why did this happen? And is there any way that I can either restore the episode so I can play it back, or simply delete it?

I had this problem with my musics. Try removing ONE single ipod episode (any episode is good) and sync the iPhone.

It should now sync everything but that one episode. You can put it back and sync it again and you're good to go.


Cannot set Apple ID on MacBook? It seems to me I'm not able to add my Apple ID to my MacBook, which would be handy if I ever needed to reset my password online for example. There's supposed to be a Set Apple ID section here according to my Google searches, but there isn't. Is there anything I need to do to be able to add the Apple ID? Curiously enough, I am able to see the device under iCloud's find my device.

Right click on your username, in the current user list, and select "Advance Options", from there you can change/add your Apple ID.


How can I install/run apps that use Rosetta on Lion? Is there a workaround to install/use apps that are using Rosetta on Lion?

I'm still using Zend 5.5 and I don't want to switch to a new IDE right now.

At the time of writing Rosetta is not included with Lion, not supported by Lion officially and not available from any other channel (official or unofficial) for use on Lion.

So: no, there is no workaround. Your Rosetta-based applications cease to function if you upgrade to Lion.


How to tell open file dialogs to hide invalid file types? One of the most annoying things about working on my Mac is when I am using an open file dialog from any application. For some reason beyond me it shows all the files that are invalid to open greyed out. Then any files that are of the correct kind, or folders, are in black, and mixed in. Of course I can sort by kind, but it still doesn't make any sense to have to wade through all the files I cannot open. I could kind of understand it if I could force it to open one of these other files, but I cannot even select them.

Is there a way to tell the open dialog to only show me folders and valid files to open?

Spoke to the Apple Geniuses today. They said it wasn't possible. Best I could come up with was to group the files by type.


Best mode for a router I have this wireless router I use to connect my iPhone and iPad. This router has 4 settings:

802.11b/n Mixed
just 802.11g
802.11b/g/n
802.11g/n

Which one should I choose to have maximum speed on my iDevices?

thanks.

Go with:

802.11g/n

That setting covers the first generation iPad through to the latest iPad that got announced yesterday as well as the first generation iPhone through to the latest iPhone 4S. Your devices should pick the faster protocol (N) if they support it. If not, they'll use the slower protocol (G).

But between G and N you've got just about all modern wireless devices covered so your network should be friendly to everything WiFi you bring in to it.


How to automate audio editing? I want to make audio editing workflows in Automator. My current goal: to cut out exactly the same length from a group of audio files.

I haven't found any audio editors supporting AppleScript yet. Other kinds of scripts/solutions are also welcome.

Install Homebrew, run brew install ffmpeg, and then run something like

cd ~/containing/folder;for f in *.aif;do /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i "$f" -ss 0:12:34 -t 0:0:5 -c copy "${f%.aif}-clip.aif";done

where -ss 0:12:34 is the starting position and -t 0:0:5 is the duration.


Change primary display through command line Is it possible to change the primary screen for a Mac through command line?

The traditional way of doing this is from System Preferences > Displays and dragging the white menu bar on the top, between screens.

I have different setups at home and work and sometimes I need the primary display to be different. Rather than having to change this by dragging/dropping as explained above, I would like to run a script through a program like Alfred/QuickSilver and then just toggle/switch my primary displays.

If i could do this through command line, it would be awesome. There is this program called cscreen that allows me to do this, but it only runs on PowerMacs.

cscreen actually runs on Intel-based Mac as well. You should be able to change primary display through it.


After upgrading to Catalina, is there a way to remote control the Apple Music app on my desktop? I have upgraded to Catalina and I have enabled Home Sharing.

I am able to connect to an airplay speaker from my desktop and from my phone.

I also have a set of non-wifi enabled speakers attached to the desktop.

From my phone, I am able to access the music library on my desktop, but I am unable to remote control the Apple Music app running on my desktop from my phone.  Is this possible?

No - not today. Apple needs to update their iTunes remote so it works with the Music app in catalina.


What is the oldest version of Mac OS that can be used on retina displays? For development (backward testing with older OS versions) I need to install older mac OS versions.  Ideally I'd want to go as far back as Snow Leopard.

I have an iMac with retina (model  iMac15,1).  Before I hunt and dig around for old installation media and experiment, I'd like to find out what is the oldest version that properly supports retina displays (i.e. allows for a properly readable screen)?

The web says Retina was introduced with Macbook Pro 2012 which would be around Mountain Lion.

Expierences (first hand) anyone?

The limitiation isn't so much the display as the hardware overall. You can't install OS versions older than the hardware because older versions don't bring all the required drivers etc. for various components.

Your iMac (late 2014) came with OSX 10.10 pre-installed, so this is as far as you can go back.


Lion: Task switcher icons are badly discolored when I press command-Tab to get the task switcher icons, to let me change the foreground program, I am seeing that after a little while, the icons are badly miscolored. Anybody else seeing this bug? Thanks.

Yes, I'm seeing the same problem on occasion. For me it happens mostly often when I connect an external display - the switcher looks as though it's underneath a semi-transparent black overlay. Restarting Dock.app (which runs the application switcher, as far as I know) doesn't help, but rebooting the laptop with the external display still attached does.

I've reported the issue to Apple (using their bug reporter) and have been informed that it's a known issue. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.


Can't delete photo, right clicking doesn't bring up trash can I'm trying to delete a photo but it won't bring up any trash icons I've read about when right clicked.
I tried dragging it to trash on the Dock and there are now multiple copies of the photo in the trash but it is still in my photos.

The shortcut to delete files in Finder is usually Cmd+Del.

And in other apps it is usually just Del.


How do I disable automatic media (image/movies/music) discovery in finder? Finder may not be directly responsible for this, but it appears that OSX crawls my filesystem and indexes all of the images, music, movies, and whatnot that it can find everywhere. It is represented in the "All My Files" location in Finder where it has various categories for all of the files it has found somewhere in my home directory.

For various reasons, I wish for this behavior to stop completely. If it can't be stopped completely, though, I can live with simply removing these inconvenient previews from Finder and allow the index to sit unused somewhere on my disk (though, I'm sure it's taking up precious space).

OSX Version is 10.10

Here is a picture of the sections that I am referring to in Finder. I have circled points of interest to draw your attention to my specific example of images. Less than 20 images are in actual Pictures folders or whatnot.. the rest are in my system from git repos and whatnot that contain content that I will never wish to surf through from Finder.

You can't stop it from indexing by file type, but you can by location.

System Prefs > Spotlight > Privacy

Any location you drag to there will no longer be indexed or appear in search results.


How to remotely access a Mac from my iOS app? I'd like to remotely access a Mac mini from my iPad app.   The simplest method appears to be via SSH but I've read this requires jailbreaking the iPad and I don't want that.   Is there an 'Apple approved' method to so this?

I don't currently need access via the internet, just via the local network.   Note that some changes will require password authentication; passwords can be encrypted in the iPad app to ensure security isn't compromised over the network.

I'm assuming that you're an application developer since you said "my iPad app".

SSH works over standard TCP, it does not require jailbreaking, so you could use that (Here's a library to use SSH with: https://github.com/Lejdborg/NMSSH). You'll just need to enable SSH (Remote Login) in the Sharing settings of the OS X computer. I'm not aware of any other non-proprietary services you can use that is built into a Mac to execute commands on it remotely. You could alternatively run your own service running on the Mac to remotely control it.

If all you need is file access, you can use AFP (Apple File Protocol) or SMB (Server Message Block) through File Sharing in Sharing settings in OS X. Or SFTP through Remote Login. You can find example client implementations of those online.


Import keychain to clean macOS install? I am contemplating my first truly clean install in perhaps 20 years. My current working Mac is a direct hand-me down since Tiger in 2005, which was already a migration from OS8 or 9, around 2001.
Assuming I need nothing except my keychain to remain intact, what's the best method to ensure its survival?

For this exercise, I will have Time Machine & also a clone of the drive before nuke & pave, as well as off-site storage on Backblaze, so let's assume all data is 'safe' & can be recovered if needed.

Current & replacement OS will both be 'current macOS', either 10.14.4 or 10.14.5 depending on when I actually do this.
The machine is a Mac Pro upgraded 4,1/5,1 so spare drives are easy to add & replace.

Actually that is pretty easy and a common question out there on the internet. OSXDaily says this is the best way to copy a keychain to a new Mac.

  From the Mac OS X Finder of the Mac containing the original keychain file, hit Command+Shift+G to bring up Go To Folder and enter the following path:

~/Library/Keychains/

  Copy the user “login.keychain” file to the new Mac, do this with AirDrop, Ethernet, USB, etc
  On the new Mac, hit Command+Spacebar to open Spotlight and type “Keychain Access” then hit return, this launches the Keychain manager app
  Pull down the “File” menu and select “Add Keychain” and browse to the keychain file you copied to the new Mac, selecting Add to import the stored keychain data to the new Mac.

Sounds about right to me.


iTunes do not connect to iTunes Store anymore This started to happen some days ago, but it's pretty annoying, my podcasts aren't been updating too.
When I click in iTunes Store it just show 'accessing itunes store' (the loading bar) and just keep this like forever.
I already try to remove iTunes completely like it says here:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

And here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/23959/completely-remove-itunes-and-other-apple-software-from-a-windows-computer/

But still with same error, any adivce ?

Here it's all the programs that are installed in my computer now:

http://i.imgur.com/eRYKy.png

http://i.imgur.com/mwClj.png

My computer is a :
DELL Optplex 790
Windows 7 x64
8gb memory RAM

Thanks.

I found the solution here

  Try this folks - it has just solved my problem - iTunes 10.5 is
  running perfectly and only using about 50% CPU.

  Start --> Programs --> Accessories (Right Click on Command Prompt) -->
  Run as Administrator then type in: Netsh winsock reset Hit enter,
  restart PC, open iTunes, go to Store

  Alternatively you can use the 'Run' icon just to the right of 'All
  Programs' when you click on start, past in Netsh winsock reset and
  enter.

  Hopefully it works for you too.

  For further reference material on this have a look at:
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357


Aperture: during Import, keys to check/uncheck an image? In Aperture 3, at the beginning of the Import process, one can select/check or unselect/uncheck images one by one.

But it requires the mouse.

In the Viewer view, during that selection process, I can go to the next image easily using the keyboard, with the -> key, but what is the way to uncheck an image using the keyboard?

(ie without having to click on the checkbox with the mouse)

Edit

Since I'm here, and in order not to create another question:

is there a way to have the Undo to work only on the current image, being viewed in preview?

(the default for multiple undoes, is to perform the undoes even on previously edited images (not shown during the undo) - very confusing/dangerous)

What can you do is to select the photos you want to import by:

click and dragging
cmd + click to add one photo
shift + click to select the range from the current selected.

Then click on any photo's checkbox, and all checkboxes will be checked as well.


Exclamation mark over messages icon I have an exclamation mark showing over my messages icon on my iPhone and it wont let me access messages. Any idea how to resolve?

The exclamation mark means that a message you attempted to send was not sent—you had no signal, for example.


terminal: how do i pipe the results of grep to open a file I'd like to grep and open a file in just one terminal command.

Suppose I'm in this directory:

$ ls
1.txt   2.txt   3.txt   4.txt   5.txt

and I want to open 3.txt

I thought I could do ls | grep 3 | open

but it looks like open doesn't accept piped input. Is there any way to do this?

Try open $(ls | grep 3). Depending on your specific needs, you can also skip the grep part and use open $(ls *3*) (or even open *3*) directly.


Connecting to one Mac from another shows shared drives that no longer exsist When I connect to my Mac Mini from my MacBook Pro (both 10.6.8) as a registered user, I see sharepoint that no longer physically exsist. How do I delete these entries?

On the Mac Mini, you will want to open up the Sharing Preference Pane and go ahead and delete all the shares that you wish to no longer have listed.

The changes should be immediate, but I suppose the other computer that connects to the shares might need to log out and in if you are still seeing phantom entries.

Also, there is a slight case your Airport hardware is proxying these shares in case the Mini goes to sleep, so you might want to just shut down the Mini, then the router and finally the MacBook if you can't get these entries to clear.


iPhone only lets one side of any earbuds work I just bought new Samsung earbuds and plugged them into my iPhone 4. Only the right side works though. If they're new, why is only one side working? How do I fix my phone itself because I know that it's my phone that isn't working because these are like the 6th new earbuds I've bought that only works on the right side?

Double check that you don't have the left/right balance pushed to one side. The slider should be set right in the middle. This is in Settings > general > accessibility > hearing.


Deleting undated files from Time Machine I just bought a new MacBook Pro with Lion.  I restored my files and apps from the MacBook with Snow Leopard, etc., from Time Machine.  All seemed to have uploaded correctly, but after using several weeks, I did find missing files . . . which I recovered by going back into Time Machine and simply uploading those files.  Recently, while attempting to back up my machine, I got an error message stating, "This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 467.34 GB but only 155.61 GB are available."   I realized that all the old data needed to go, except I wanted to save 3 backups from the old computer to ensure that I could recover the files, should I find others missing. Easy enough, I thought!  Wrong!

I opened Time Machine, navigated the window to the MacBook Pro setting, went back in time to select the date before which and including I wanted to delete the old files.  Much to my dismay, only files after February 12 were dated, the others were gray, contained no dates and were impossible to select.  So, now what?

Sadly, I could have avoided this, had I delete old data before I uploaded files to the new computer.  But, I'm afraid my learning curve runs behind my needs.  "Coulda, woulda, shoulda!"  So, now what?  Help, please!

Your best bet is to turn off Time Machine, eject the backup drive and get some help from someone trained to know what Time Machine looks like.

It's entirely possible, the software deleted the old files and over-wrote them with new backups. It's also possible you had a minor glitch in the permissions and all is well.

Assuming you are near a retail store, you can usually get a quick read from someone in the store or worst case, make a support request at the bar. Phone support is also an option, but I've found that taking the backup drive and the mac (as well as your old mac drive / CPU) in to the store is the fastest way to get someone seeing exactly what is going on and your data uncertainty sorted.

As much as I like to help guide people, it's really best to disconnect the drives and reduce the risk of more files getting deleted and not learn on this one instance if you can get some professional help on this.


Automator "New File" workflow in Mojave returning “Not authorised to send Apple events to System Events.” I have copied a workflow to create a new file from within the finder, saved in ~/Library/Services/. It runs fine from Automator and appears in the Finder > Services menu, but there's no "services" menu when clicking in a blank area within a folder.
I'd expect to right-click on a blank space in a folder (or the desktop) and use the contextual menu and activate it.
The main issue is that the script runs fine from within Automator, but not from the Finder:

The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error: “Not authorised to send Apple events to System Events.”

Has anyone else had this issues with a working script?

In System Preference/Security/Privacy/Automation after unlock you have to select Finder/System Events.
Then may be in Accessibility you can select Finder if you got an error.
There are some explanations : https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-privacy-preferences-on-mac-mh32356/10.14/mac/10.14


Upgrading my Mac: Will it increase performance? I have a macbook pro 13" 5,5 late 2009 edition, I use it all the time for taking notes and research at college etc. but I also use it to record music for my band and occasionally I play games on it. I am quite a mobile person and whilst a desktop isn't out of the question I'm a student so don't really have much money. I have recently started to play more games and record more music and I'm becoming increasingly aware of my Mac's low performance when gaming and occasionally when recording so I looked online for ways to increase the performance.

I've been considering upgrading to a SSD and changing my measly 2GB of RAM to 8GB.

Will this upgrade actually increase the performance during games? How much?

I always recommend an SSD as an upgrade to revitalize just about any system. You will notice a performance increase with an SSD, though it will be mostly load times (we're talking a night and day difference here). You aren't going to increase your frame rate. Sure, it's true that your system doesn't have many more years (months) left in it, but if you buy a good SSD you can move it to your next system.

8GB of RAM isn't too expensive, so it really depends on how long you want to keep the system. Any performance boost you notice may or may not be your imagination.

If it were me, I'd do both because I do like to squeeze the last bit of life out of my electronics (though I would have done these upgrades a few years ago) and if it is generally working for your basic needs why get a new laptop?


Bluetooth version on mac I updated my early 2015 retina Macbook Pro 13" to macOS Sierra.
In system information and in the menubar (see pic) the bluetooth version is 5.0.0 is it just a driver version or do i now have bluetooth 5?

The Macbook pro 13" (early 2015) has Bluetooth 4.0 . You are watching the driver version.


The server returned the error: The server “imap.gmail.com” cannot be contacted on port 993 My Mac Mail has just started going on the fritz.
I have a gmail account linked to mail and also a hotmail account. Both have warning signs and I cannot send or receive mail. They were both fine yesterday. I have not updated or changed anything.

I am running OS X 10.8.2 and Mail Version 6.1 (1498).

When I click on the warning sign for gmail to 'take it online' I get the following message:

  Unable to receive mail. There may be a problem with the mail server or
  network. Verify the settings for account “gmail” or try again.

  The server returned the error: The server “imap.gmail.com” cannot be
  contacted on port 995.

...And the following for Hotmail account:

  Unable to receive mail. There may be a problem with the mail server or
  network. Verify the settings for account “Hotmail” or try again.

  The server returned the error: The server “pop3.live.com” cannot be contacted on port > 995.

I've tried sending mail and it shows that both gmail and hotmail are both offline.

I have been on multiple forums with this problem and it seems the whole world is having the same problem with no fix.

I've already tried the following to no avail:

I've checked all my info is entered correctly.
Changing the 'incoming mail server' to IMAP.googlemail.com - this got rid of the warning sign but still, will not send or receive mail. The warning sign has now changed to a 'zig zag' sign next to gmail.
Changing the port number from 995 to 993.
Re-entering my password.
Deleting the accounts and re-adding them.

Nothing works. Please does anyone have a REAL fix for this?

* Cant add this comment for some reason? But here we go:

Hi there,thank you for your fast responses. I have tried restarting my router and mail.app to no avail. Apologies - an error in my copy/pasting, the port for IMAP is 993. I just tried your terminal command and got the following:   imap.gmail.com: nodename nor servname provided, or not known. I just tried adding my gmail acc. on my sisters iPhone 5 and got the following: Unable to connect to SSL, would you like to try and connect without SSL? (Yes) and got this: The IMAP server 'imap.gmail.com'is not responding. Check your network connection and that you entered the correct information in the 'incoming mail server' field. Im sorry, I dont know what a VPN is.

Also, All of a sudden BOTH accounts just came back online and updated with new mails etc. I've 'essentially' not changed anything. I reset the app and the router well over 20 minutes ago prior to this. You'd think changes would be instant if that was the fix?

The canonical fix for troubleshooting Mail on OS X is to run the Connection Doctor (it's slightly buried in the Window menu without a keyboard shortcut to summon it) to isolate whether you have a general network error condition or a specific error on one or more of the accounts.

Each mail account will typically have two servers - different internet ports and potentially different username / password / authentication details.

Once you can isolate a specific error message on a specific port to a specific IP address, you can begin to troubleshoot whether you have a configuration issue, a network reachability issue or a server issue.

The show detail button is helpful to log the exact transactions and communications between Mail and the server.

If you have a vexing problem, I have found that disconnecting the network connection and quitting Mail (or forcing a reboot while the network is off) will let you start Mail and disable all Mail accounts except for one and also check for a stuck message or two in the Outbox. File those away as drafts so that you can then run connection doctor, re-enable the network and systematically work on the communication needed between the Mail program and your mail server.


How to delete thousands of contact email addresses A year ago when I upgraded my iPhone to the latest model, the computer technician who works on our business computers helped me with a couple of issues with which I was having problems.  He doesn't know what happened, but he ended up importing my complete business address book email addresses into my iPhone and now I have over 4,000 contacts of customers I will never contact with my personal iPhone.

This presents a great problem for me each time I want to look up a personal contact, I have to wade through hundreds of names until I find the one I need.   Is there a program that will allow me to work with this huge contacts list outside of the iPhone (such as on my regular computer with a large screen) and permanently delete those contacts that I don't need?

I'm not sure if this will solve the problem exactly as you specified, but you can hide those 4000 contacts of customers on your iPhone with the steps below.

If your entire email's contacts are synced with your iPhone, you can choose to display only actual contacts and hide those email contacts with the Groups button in the Contacts.app in iPhone

For instance, this is a sample screen that could show when you touch Groups

Also, if you go to your Mail settings on your iPhone (Settings => Mail, Contacts, Calendars) and your Mail account, you can choose to remove your email contacts from your iPhone contacts by turning Contacts off in the picture below.


Mapping Home and End of Apple keyboard in VMWare fusion I have mapped the Home and End keys of my apple keyboard to work PC style: Go to the beginning of the line and end respectively. (Using DoubleCommand if that is important, I am aware of other ways of doing this, and open to alternatives if that would solve my problem)

I use Windows 7 using VMware fusion (primarily for C# development on Visual Studio). When I have this set up (Home = Beginning of line...), I am unable to use this on Windows, when I have not set this up, it works "as expected" on Widows (to beginning of line) but on the Mac, I have the default mac behavior.

I tried remapping the keys using Vmware preferences, but the Home key is recognized as "Left" for some reason:

This is what happens when I press the Home key:

Currently I change this setting every time I switch between windows running Windows apps and those running mac apps, but I am finding it more and more frustrating.

Is there a way to somehow have both? Meaning some kind of setting that makes Home to go to the beginning of the line on both Windows and Mac apps?

KeyMap4MacBook can actually do this. As I told in the question, the problem is Windows and Mac OSX interpret Home and End differently. So what I needed was an app that allowed me to have different mappings for different apps (Windows is in VM Ware or Parallels, which are apps)

KeyMap4MacBook allows to have different key mappings for the Mac and different ones for VMs / Remote Desktops:


Phone number and email I have an iPhone 4S.  When I send or receive texts, my phone uses my email address and I followed instructions to switch it but it wouldn't let me click on my number to receive messages from that.

If you went into Settings > Messages > Send and receive, and you were not able to click on the phone number(s) listed there, this is because they are already in use.

You simply need to disable the email address by clicking on the blue arrow next to the email address listed instead and then tap "Remove this Email".

Finally, make sure to tick the correct number from the "Start new conversations from:" section.


Is there an OSX workaround to configure a "unifying" receiver without Logitech's control center? I have two Logitech wireless devices (keyboard and mouse) that work well on my ppc mac (running OSX 10.4.11). Each has a little USB unifying receiver that came with it, each receiver being paired with the device it came with. You're supposed to be able to pair both devices to a single receiver, but Logitech wants you to download the Logitech Control Center in order to do so. I just finished "cleaning house" on my system, removing unwanted and residual third-party stuff, and I'd rather not install some "bloatware" if there's a way I can manually pair both devices to one receiver. Add to that the fact that Logitech no longer offers a version of LLC that runs on 10.4.I've seen some people mentioning SteerMouse and USB Overdrive, and might check them out, but is there any other option? I don't care about customizing the buttons, just pairing both devices to one receiver.I hope this isn't considered off-topic. I realize the question centers around Logitech, but I'm hoping there's a way to access configuration setting with OSX.

Thanks!

Apparently the only "workaround" is to install Logitech Control Center, use it to pair the devices with the receiver, then uninstall the LCC software.I tried both USB Overdrive and MouseSteer first, but neither seems to include the necessary pairing functionality. I uninstalled each, then found an older version of LCC (version 3.3.0) that was compatible with my operating system and processor, used it, took careful note of what and where it was installing on my system, used the included uninstaller, and voila!Actually, there was some residual stuff that I dug up and deleted manually. I should mention that the LCC installer had a pretty good and thorough ReadMe that actually listed what files would be installed in what locations. It did omit a couple files that I found with a sudo find, but the whole thing was pretty painless.And now I have a keyboard I like and a scroll-wheel on my mouse! I've been living in the dark ages with the one-button magic mouse for a long time :)


Is someone remotely accessing my iPhone? Can someone watch you on face time auto without you knowing it?

On my iPhone there are calls I never made and the light turned on by itself saying facetime with a number by it.

Is someone watching me and using my phone?

The number by FaceTime simply means you missed a Facetime call. Just like missing a 'regular' phone call, someone tried to call you using Facetime, and you didn't answer.

There is no security risk here, no one is watching your phone or snooping on you. Someone just tried to call you.

It is likely someone did this by mistake. On iPhone, you can easily Facetime from the Contacts app, and the Messages app, without meaning to. It is convenient, if you intend to Facetime with someone. Otherwise, it is simply and icon you never touch again!


"Specks" on photos - possible to repair? I have several specks on the photos from my iPhone 5 64GB:

and here zoomed in

These are not on the lens as they are not blurred, so I assume they are on the sensor or faulty pixels on the sensor.

My question is if this is a repairable for a price which makes sense for an iPhone 5 64 GB. Any experiences?

As far as iPhone replacement parts go, the usually the only ones that cost more than a few dollars are the digitizer assembly (touchscreen), logic board, battery, and (for the iPhone 5 and later) the rear case of the iPhone. Cameras usual cost less than $5.

Replacing the camera in the iPhone 5 is more complicated than it needs to be, but definitely possible. Here's the iFixit guide.


Is it possible to connect iTunes playlists to folders? Is it possible to connect iTunes playlists to folders so that playlists update automatically when I add new song to a folder?

Yes, but you don't do it within iTunes. If you want the song files you drop into a particular folder to automatically be added to an iTunes playlist, you use Automator to create a folder action like this one:

You start Automator, and create a Folder Action. You select the folder you want as the source of files.
Then, the action is "Import Files into iTunes" at which point you select the playlist to which you want the songs added. Then you save the Folder Action.


MagSafe Power Cord soldering with Power Brick How can I solder power cord back as it was? Has anyone else had the same problem? I know that Apple hardware and peripherals are very hard to "open up", so maybe some of you know some tricks about it. My power adapter looks like this:

Messing with a line voltage components like transformers is a huge fire hazard.

When these cords fail due to mechanical abrasion, it's common for other parts to melt or fray and I wouldn't trust myself to know if the repaired unit would be safe. I would worry the heat of soldering would do more damage to the cord close to the solder point.

Have you already called Apple and had them check if that adapter can be exchanged?


Thunderbolt display fails to play audio I'm running a MacBook Pro (late 2011 model) that has a recent OS X upgrade to version 10.8.1.  For some reason, when the MacBook Pro is docked to the Thunderbolt display, it no longer sends sound out the Thunderbolt display, but instead uses the tinny MacBook Pro speakers.  I looked in Preferences to see if there is some way to get the big display to handle the sound.  Any ideas?

Run Software Update with the TB display connected, it may require a firmware update.  (edit: changed from comment to answer)


How to format external drive into ZFS? I've installed MacZFS, I've read the FAQ and Getting Started section, but I've still troubles to understand how to simply format the external drive into ZFS on OSX. I'm confused with zpools, can anybody explains what are the zpools and how to format the drive?

I've tried also to use Disk Utility ZFS-Dumodule, but without success.

Is there any simple command to format the hard drive or to use Disk Utility for that?

My drive is: /dev/disk5.

Related:

Solaris tip of the week: file-based ZFS for development and test environments

The getting started page you posted a link to explains how to create a simple one disk pool.

This is the only thing you need to do. Creating a pool will automatically create a file system with the same name as the pool, which is what you call formatting a drive.

In your case, you can run from the command line:

diskutil partitiondisk /dev/disk5 GPTFormat ZFS %noformat% 100%
zpool create extdrive /dev/disk5s2

and you'll have a new volume named extdrive available.

If you happen to run software with inconsistent file naming, like Adobe products and possibly Nikon capture, you might want to create a dedicated file system with case insensitivity set using something like:

zfs create -o casesensitivity=insensitive -o normalization=formD  extdrive/data


I get a bash syntax error message every time I open Terminal on macbook -bash: /Users/admin/.bash_sessions/720116FC-4C25-4FFA-AC15-00D5C843C15F.session: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token ('
-bash: /Users/admin/.bash_sessions/720116FC-4C25-4FFA-AC15-00D5C843C15F.session: line 1: echo Restored session:

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Open /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal (requires sudo), replace

echo echo Restored session: $(date) >| "$SHELL_SESSION_FILE"

with

echo echo \"Restored session: $(date)\" >| "$SHELL_SESSION_FILE"

The point is to quote the echoed message.


Photos not deleting off iPad when deleted from iPhone When I take a pic on my iPhone it syncs to my iPad as well, but when I delete a pic from my iPhone, it doesn't get deleted off my iPad.

iOS 8.1,
iPhone 5c,
iPad Air

The following settings are enabled:

Settings > iCloud > Photos > My Photo Stream and Photo sharing

Settings > Photos and Camera > My Photo Stream and Photo sharing on the iPhone

Settings > Photos and Camera > My Photo Stream and Photo sharing on the iPad

Does anyone have any idea how to fix the issue?

My opinion that you had better make format to your ipod.I don't know exactly whether will be ok or not.you do as well.


Using my Time capsule to improve WiFi from my network supplied modem We've recently moved house and now I have a Macbook Pro, a 2009 Time Capsule and an ADSL modem/router from our network supplier, Telstra. The Telstra modem doesn't have enough grunt/range to reach another room for me to use my iPad there. In a previous house we connected the Time Capsule to another type of Telstra modem by Ethernet cable and the Time Capsule acted as router. It sent the signal throughout a two storey house.
Can I do the same with this setup and what do I have do on the Macbook to make it all work?

It is certainly possible to set up your Time Capsule as your sole router even when your modem is a router/modem combo.

Setup

Part 1: setting up the Time Capsule normally

Download Airport Utility on your Mac (if you already have downloaded it, ensure it's version 5.3 or later).
Connect your Telstra modem to the WAN port of your Time Capsule via an Ethernet cable.
Connect the Time Capsule's power cable to an AC outlet.
Open the Airport Utility app on your Mac (search Spotlight for it or go to the Utilities subfolder of your Applications folder).
The Time Capsule will have an initial name (such as "Time Capsule fea88c"). Click continue to proceed.
Select "Create a new wireless network" and click Continue.
Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions (you'll probably want to use the same SSID/Password for your new network as your old one had). When finished, your Time Capsule will restart and apply your settings.

Now your Time Capsule is broadcasting WiFi. Problem is, so is your Telstra router/modem.

Part 2: turning off the router portion of the Telstra.

Find your Telstra router's local IP address (this page might help). NOTE: It is probably 10.0.0.138, but may also be 192.168.0.1 (or something else even!).
Type this IP address into your browser's address bar.
You should see a setup page for your Telstra router/modem (if you don't, you have the wrong IP address from step 8).
Find the WI-FI section:
In the WI-FI section, navigate to both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz tabs, and in each uncheck Enabled.
Test that you successfully disabled your Telstra modem/router's routing capabilities by unplugging the Time Capsule. If your internet connection drops, and your devices go offline, you're all set.
Plug your Time Capsule back in and enjoy.

Your sole router should now be the Time Capsule. If any step goes wrong, feel free to leave a comment below so I can assist you further. Thanks!

Sources and more information

Setting up Time Capsule normally, an Apple Support article.
Accessing Telstra router settings, a Telstra forum.
Turning off WiFi broadcasting of a Telstra router, a Telstra forum.


How to translate between Windows and Mac -style file locations? For an office with mostly Windows workstations and a few OS X workstations, what's the easiest way for the Mac users to translate to and from a Windows-style file paths?

For example, to automatically translate \\fileserver01\client-files\client01\comp.psd, if sent in an email, to //fileserver01/client-files/client01/comp.psd?

This site has a way to translate into a mac network location and open it: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040322155331393

So you could easily save that as a text service and be able to select a windows network location, right-click it, and have it translated and opened.

I imagine you could sort of reverse the function and translate back into a windows network location string.

Here's how to set up a text service/quick action to convert to a Mac path and open it in Finder:

Open up Automator
Choose "Service" (called "Quick Action" in macOS Mojave)
Drag a "Run AppleScript" item from the library into the main area on the right.
Copy and paste this AppleScript into it:
https://gist.github.com/2211017 (it wouldn't properly format in here)
Save it under "Convert and Open Windows Path" or whatever you like.
Select a path in an application, right-click it, and look for the service you created (it might be under a "Services" sub-menu)

Here's what your Automator service should look like:


How to copy part of a text, iOS10 In iOS 10 Apple added the ability to react to messages (“tapback”). You can give a thumbs up, a heart, laughter, etc. You do so by tapping and holding the message and then tapping your reaction when the options pop up.

Before iOS 10, though, tapping and holding a message allowed you to select part of the message, just like tapping and holding text most anywhere else on the iPhone.

Is it still possible to partially copy text from an iMessage or SMS? If yes, how do we do so?

Best way is to select "forward" then you can select part of the message to copy. Apple should fix this though.


how do I access iTunes Visualizer options? I'm using iTunes 10.4 and under "menu > View > Visualizer >" there are two options, "iTunes Visualizer" or "iTunes Classic Visualizer" there's also a greyed out "Options..." menu.

The last time I used visualizer (a while ago) there were several cool visualizers to choose from like plasma shapes, and bouncing balls, and stuff.  I don't see any of that here.

Where are these options?  Were they removed?  And why is "Options..." greyed out?

Thanks!

Have you upgraded to Lion?

As per this support thread it seems the extra visualizers require 32-bit mode:

  Right click on iTunes.app in your Applications folder and click "Get Info". In the window that appears, click "Open in 32-bit mode" at the bottom of the "General" pane.

  This is a work-around, not a fix, and I have filed a bug report with Apple.


How to reformat a time machine drive to use on a PC My sister used to be a mac user and recently switched to a PC. She has her mac stuff backed up on  two hard drives, one is formatted as a time machine. We've transferred all her important files to the other one that is not a time machine, so the time machine one is empty. She wants to use the time machine one as a backup drive for her PC but I"m not sure how to get it to reformat... help?

Ages ago it was just 'fdisk', but now Microsoft suggests this: Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Mangement/Storage/Disk Management/Format

Ref: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-format-hard-disk-partition#create-format-hard-disk-partition=windows-7


FunctionFlip doesn't work. Alternative/fix? I am on OS X 10.9.5 and recently (can't remember if this happened during 10.9.4 or not)

FunctionFlip has started to work very inconsistently for me.

Basically I use this to enable the F1-F10 keys for use in terminal (and some of them I set to do stuff like next/prev. tab e.g. in web browser) and I used FunctionFlip to generally enable the volume control keys so that they work globally.

But lately it's just not been "kicking in" so it's hit and miss every time i try to change the volume.

I got tired of FunctionFlip not working right and finally found Karbiner does exactly what I want and works great.


Replace a string in directory name using a variable i have a script set up to make a new directoy in folder based off a variable named for another directory that goes like this:

str="/home/folder/test"
base="$(basename $str)"

mkdir -p "/home/folder2/${base}"

What im trying to do now is find and replace a string in this varible when it makes the new folder.

Example, i have:

/Home/Album-Artist[FLAC]

assigned to the variable.  When i use mkdir to make the new directory, I want to find and replace "FLAC" with "V0" so in the new folder it will be

/Home/Album-Artist[V0]

Solution

Replace your line:

base="$(basename $str)"

with:

base="$(basename $str | sed 's/FLAC/V0/')"

or, if you want the [ and ] brackets to become part of the search pattern:

base="$(basename $str | sed 's/\[FLAC\]/[V0]/')"

Explanation

The | (or pipe) character essentially means “take the result and feed it into the next program”.
The sed (stream editor) command takes the input, applies commands to it, and prints the result. For example, the s/FLAC/V0/ command in sed means “for each input line, search for FLAC and replace it with V0 (but no more than once)”.
sed uses regular expressions instead of fixed search patterns. That means you need to escape certain characters; hence, my last example says \[ and \] in the search pattern (instead of just [ and ]).


Accidentally deleted a system framework, macOS screwed! I accidentally deleted AddressBook.framework. Now when I restart my iMac the system can't load this framework thus nothing is working.

I have a bootable disk of macOS Sierra but going to recovery mode and installing macOS Sierra is not possible because downgrading High Sierra isn't allowed.

Formatting my disk will result in losing all my files because I don't have a Time Machine backup.

How can I restore AddressBook.framework to get my system working again.

Usually you would have to reinstall High Sierra in Recovery Mode. If you don't have access to another Mac running High Sierra locally and with limited download quota do the following:

Ask someone to upload High Sierra's AddressBook.framework as zip somewhere (e.g. a file sharing host) and submit the download link.
Boot to High Sierra's Recovery Mode.
Open Terminal and disable SIP (which should be disabled anyway or you wouldn't have been able to delete the framework).
Quit Terminal and open Safari. Enter the download link and save the zip file to /Volumes/< main_volume_name>/System/Library/Frameworks/

Alternatively (if the link doesn't allow to choose a download location, which can occur on some file sharing hosts) open the Preferences in Safari and set in General > File download location > "Ask for each download":

Then save the file to /Volumes/< main_volume_name>/System/Library/Frameworks/:

In the example below the name of the main volume is System. Your main volume name may be different (e.g. Macintosh HD or macOS).

Open Terminal and enter:

cd /Volumes/<main_volume_name>/System/Library/Frameworks/

Depending on your Safari settings the zip will be unzipped automatically after the download and the next two steps (unzip/rm) aren't necessary!

/Volumes/<main_volume_name>/usr/bin/unzip -a AddressBook.framework.zip
rm AddressBook.framework.zip

check codesigning:

codesign -dv --verbose=4 AddressBook.framework

if this step fails delete AddressBook.framework and get a proper one.
Check the restricted flag:

ls -laO AddressBook.framework

which should show for . (the dot: . is the "bundle/package" AddressBook.framework here - the date will be different of course):

drwxr-xr-x    7 root  wheel restricted 224 Sep 25 21.59 .
...

(You may have to add the restricted attribute to AddressBook.framework later if it's missing)
(Enable SIP) and reboot.


Best app to read rss feed in real time Could someone help to find best free / paid Mac OS or iOS (or both) app for reading rss feed in real time? I want the recent posts to appear at the top of screen with time, date and source. Also it should be minimalistic and functional design, ability to search and filter with key words. Any suggestions?

I've been using Reeder for some time now, it's pretty easy to use. There is a version for iOS and OS X. You can find all you're looking for in the settings section.

Image :


need more memory on my phone I have the iphone 5 ios 6 and I have two backups on there and it tells me
I need to delete one of my backups. Would this delete my stuff already on my device even if it says that it will delete  all backup data from icloud?

No it will not delete the data from your phone. A backup is stored on your PC/Mac or on iCloud but the backup is just a reference copy of what is already on your phone. Deleting a backup will not delete the current data on your phone.


Upgrading to a SSD, any possible issues with the OS X upgrade? So I had thought that my AppleCare lasted until September, so today I visited the Geniuses to try to squeeze a new hard drive out of them. Unfortunately, my warranty ended a couple weeks ago, and so I am shopping for a new SSD instead.

Newegg has some great deals, and it looks like I will be getting off pretty easily price-wise. My one question is, however, how does changing out my hard drive (myself theoretically) change the Mountain Lion upgrade issue? Are there any involved problems with a new drive and upgrading?

Nope. While you've got to re-install the OS, now would be a great time to just do a clean install and use Migration Assistant from the old hard drive, using it as a pre-install "backup".


How do I get Time Machine to Show in Notification Center? Notifications has many of my favorite Apps in it, however, Time Machine is conspicuously  absent.

I read here that it should be showing:

  System notifications System alerts with updates about your battery,
  Time Machine backups, and ejected disks appear as notifications, so
  you can easily spot them with the rest of your notifications.

How do I add Time Machine to the list?

You don't need to add Time Machine to the list. Along with all other OS X system notifications, they are shown in Notification Center without any user intervention required to activate them. Conversely, you can't disable them either. This is the same with battery notifications, disk ejection notifications, etc.

If you want to disable Time Machine notifications, set the flags value for _SYSTEM_CENTER_:com.apple.TMHelperAgent in the app_info table in ~/Library/Application Support/NotificationCenter/<udid>.db to 12609 or 13639.

If you want to customise it further, change one of the other entries for Notification Center, then read the flags value for that app and save it as the flags value for TMHelperAgent.


Repurpose Fusion Drive - Booting from USB 3.2 Gen 2 SSD iMac Retina 4k 21.5" (2019) 3GHz Core i5 with 8 GB RAM and 1TB Fusion drive.
Big Sur 11.2 booting from external 1TB Samsung T7 SSD, backing up to a NAS.
Questions:

Is the internal SSD (28GB?) active in this setup?
Can the Fusion drive be formatted and Windows 10 be installed on it using Bootcamp?
Can the Fusion drive be 'split' and the internal SSD 'fused' to the external SSD?

Thanks for any input.

Is the internal SSD (28GB?) active in this setup?
Your Mac was shipped with an 1 TB SATA HDD and a 32 GB NVMe SSD. So, you have two separate internal drives which were configured as a Fusion drive with macOS installed. You state in your question that you have an 1 TB Fusion drive, so I assume the internal SSD is active as part of the Fusion arrangement. You should be able to verify this by inspecting the output from the command diskutil list.

Can the Fusion drive be formatted and Windows 10 be installed on it using Bootcamp?
Here, I assume you mean using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10. In this case, the answer is no. You would be trying to install Windows 10 on a USB drive and the Windows 10 installer GUI would not permit this to occur. However, you can use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Windows Support Software (the drivers), then you could install Windows 10 by using the Windows 10 installer CLI. For example procedures, see this answer.

Can the Fusion drive be 'split' and the internal SSD 'fused' to the external SSD?
You should be able use the internal SSD and external SDD to create a Fusion drive arrangement. You could even install Big Sur into this Fusion drive. I was able to verify this part of my answer by creating this arrangement in a VirtualBox virtual machine. I assume if this is possible in a virtual environment, then the same configuration would work with real hardware.


What is the quickest way to setup Instiki on Lion? A few months ago I setup an Instiki wiki using Snow Leopard.
It took me quite a while, as I had to work some black magic to understand which version of ruby (plus gems/rails) I was supposed to install/update.

Now I've upgraded to Lion after formatting (bad idea huh?), and I'd like a new instiki up and running. So I thought: instead of wasting another day in trial and error I might ask if someone smarter and more knowledgeable has a quick and dirty way to do it (e.g. avoiding installing xcode tools!).

Cheers!

p.s. Instiki is very cool http://www.instiki.org/show/HomePage, especially if you like maths. Its user-friendliness is very far from Tiddlywiki, but I think it's much cooler.

p.p.s. please feel free to retag appropriately.

EDIT As pointed out, some more info might be useful.
When I try to run instiki (contained in a folder named taccuino) this is what it tells me

./Desktop/taccuino/config/../config/preinitializer.rb:20: Bundler couldn't find some gems.Did you run `bundle install`? (RuntimeError)
from ./Desktop/taccuino/config/boot.rb:28:in `load'
from ./Desktop/taccuino/config/boot.rb:28:in `preinitialize'
from ./Desktop/taccuino/config/boot.rb:10:in `boot!'
from ./Desktop/taccuino/config/boot.rb:124
from ./Desktop/taccuino/script/server:3:in `require'
from ./Desktop/taccuino/script/server:3
from ./Desktop/taccuino/instiki:6:in `load'
from ./Desktop/taccuino/instiki:6

See here for proper instructions.

But, in brief,

ruby bundle
./instiki --daemon

I don't think there's anything quicker than that.


Ways to share folders from Mac host to Mojave guest on VirtualBox (using NFS Manager or other options)? I have a Yosemite host and Mojave guest VM via Virtualbox. I want to share the host's folders with the guest. I'm aware there are at least three ways but I haven't been successful with any of them. I'm not an expert and it took a while just to get Mojave as a guest on Yosemite after several failed attempts with Parallels 10. The three ways I'm aware of are:

Guest Aditions: I've installed Guest Additions and I've added directories in the Virtuabox's "Shared Folder" settings. However, I can't seem to find the shared folders in Finder in Mojave - they should just show up under a shared network file no?
NFS Manager (https://www.bresink.com/osx/NFSManager.html)
or setup a Mac server by configuring mac settings via the file sharing section.

Which is the best/easiest way (from the above or from other ways) and is there a video/step-by-step guide about it?

AFAIR the guest additions's sharing feature doesn't work for the macOS varieties. On the other hand none of the mentioned options is necessary to get file sharing running.
The only thing needed is a proper network connection.
The most simple configuration: using the physical NIC of the host as bridged device in the guest. If the physical NIC is already connected to the internet, you don't even have to set up a NAT-network to get internet in the guest.

Shut down the guest
Open the config window of the guest in VirtualBox
Chose network > adaptor 1
Choose Bridge and the appropriate physical NIC of the host (usually en0 or en1) and hit the OK button

Now start the guest machine.

Open System Preferences > Network > bridged NIC on the host and make a note of the network settings (e.g. IP: 192.168.0.2/Mask: 255.255.255.0/Gateway: 192.168.0.1 DNS:192.168.0.1).

Open in the guest: System Preferences > Network > only NIC available which usually has a similar name as the physical NIC of the host (e.g. Ethernet - the interface name (en0, en1, etc.) may differ though).
Enter a different IP in the same network (e.g. IP 192.168.0.12). The rest stays the same (255.255.255.0/192.168.0.1 DNS:192.168.0.1)

Create a folder to share on the hosting Mac.

On the host switch to System Preferences > Sharing, enable file sharing, hit the +-sign and choose the folder created in the previous step.

In the guest open in the Finder > Go > "Connect to Server..." and connect to the hosting Mac with the proper IP (e.g. smb://192.168.0.2) and credentials.

This common approach didn't work out for the OP for unknown reasons. So things were reversed and a folder in the guest was shared. On the hosting Mac open in the Finder > Go > "Connect to Server..." and choose the IP of the guest (e.g. smb://192.168.0.12) and log-in with the proper credentials.
This worked after adjusting the time of the hosting Mac (it was off for ~8 minutes and Kerberos doesn't like this - server and client time should be in sync; AFAIR 5 minutes difference is acceptable).


Can easycap viewer work on macOS? I have recently bought an EasyCAP DC60. I have also downloaded easy cap viewer Fushicai on my MacBook Air which is currently running macOS Sierra. I'm trying to display my PS3 on my laptop using a HDMI to AV converter because I don't have an AV cable for my PS3. When I start up the easy cap viewer, it just shows a black screen.

How do I fix this?

The problem you have is that EasyCapViewer 0.6.2 isn't supported on versions of macOS above Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10). In other words, it will work with versions of the Mac OS from OS X Leopard (specifically 10.5.8) up to Yosemite, but won't work on El Capitan or Sierra.

According to the developer:

  2015-10-31: Reports indicate EasyCapViewer doesn't work on OS X El
  Capitan. This would be a good time for other developers to pitch in. I
  will spend some time investigating too but no guarantees.

Source: https://bentrask.com/easycap/

Unfortunately there has not been an update since from the Developer.

In the absence of other macOS alternatives, you may have some joy from using a Windows installation via Bootcamp or via software such as VirtualBox, Parallels, or VMware Fusion.


How can I backup my apps from the iPad to my mac? I recently updated to Lion and didn't keep any backup of the local library for my installed apps on the iPad.

Now when I'm trying to update to the latest version of iOS it tells me this:

But when I'm trying to Sync Apps it tells me this:

The thing is that I don't have any apps right now in my iTunes library and my question is: How can I backup my existing apps from my iPad without losing them?

I really want to avoid downloading them all again, since some of the apps (like VLC) are not even in the AppStore anymore and I don't want to jailbreak it.

First, you should authorize your computer with your iPad if you haven't already.

From the Store menu, choose Authorize Computer.
In the dialog that appears, the Apple ID button is selected by default. If you have an  AOL account, select AOL.
Enter your Apple ID or AOL screen name and password, then click the Authorize button.

Then, transfer your purchases:

From the File menu, choose "Transfer Purchases from "Lipis' iPad" "

Wait for iTunes to complete the transfer.

Check in your library for your apps and the like.

Then you can sync without worry.


AppleScript: Close all open Windows I'm trying to write an apple script to close all open Windows. The following is what I tried:

tell application "System Events"
  repeat with theProcess in (application processes where visible is true)
      tell application theProcess
          close
      end tell
   end repeat
end tell

This does not seem to work. I get:

  Script Error: System Events got an error: Can't get application (item 1 of every application process whose visible = true). number
  -1728

I don't care if applications quit or if just the windows close.

I tried to debug this, but I could not get this script opened in Xcode.

Edit: Thanks to user3439894 I've settled on the following script which just sends Command + Q to each of the visible applications:

tell application "System Events"
    set theVisibleApps to (name of application processes where visible is true)
end tell

repeat with thisApp in theVisibleApps
    try
        tell application thisApp to activate
        tell application "System Events"
            keystroke "q" using command down
        end tell
    on error errMsg
        display dialog errMsg
    end try
end repeat

This works for me for now. As user3439894 suggested, I need to go through and understand the AppleScript Language Guide

The first issue is in what (application processes where visible is true) returns.

As an example, on a clean install of macOS 10.13 with just Finder and Script Editor open:

tell application "System Events" to get application processes where visible is true

Returns:

{application process "Script Editor" of application "System Events", application process "Finder" of application "System Events"}

What you really want is to get a list of names of applications that are visible, e.g.:

tell application "System Events" to get name of every application process where visible is true

Returns:

{"Script Editor", "Finder"}

The following example AppleScript code will try to close all open documents of each application and on error close all windows.

Now I opened some documents in TextEdit and Preview and some windows in Finder then ran the example AppleScript code. It closed all open documents in TextEdit and Preview and all windows in Finder, but not Script Editor.

Note: This will not close and Script Editor documents and silently errors out with:

error "The document can’t be closed while the script is running."

Example AppleScript code:

tell application "System Events"
    set theVisibleApps to (name of application processes where visible is true)
end tell

repeat with thisApp in theVisibleApps
    try
        tell application thisApp
            try
                close every document without saving
            on error
                close every window
            end try
        end tell
    end try
end repeat

Also note that with this example AppleScript code as coded will not close every document or close every window of an application that does not support those commands and should fail silently because of the try command.

This example AppleScript code is being presented to illustrate what's wrong with your present code and an example of how to help achieve your goal.


Why does the font change after I paste an image in TextEdit? Here is a simple sequence of actions in TextEdit in macOS 10.13.6 that produces an unexpected side-effect. I don’t understand why, and would like to know how to prevent it.

Create a new document in TextEdit (using ⌘-n or menu item File ➜ New).
Look at the style bar at the top, and note the font & font size. The font that TextEdit uses at this point is what I set in my TextEdit preferences for "Rich Text Font". (In my case, Roboto 14pt.)

Capture an image to the clipboard, e.g., using the standard macOS facility for capturing a portion of the screen as an image to the clipboard. (Any image will do.)
Paste the image in the document (using ⌘-v or menu item Edit ➜ Paste).
Look at the style bar again: the font & font size have changed to Helvetica 12pt.

This affects text that you type in the document: if you type text before you paste in an image, the text will be in the font and font size you set in your preferences; once you paste in an image, any text that you type in the document after the location of the image will use a different font & font size. (It is not merely a glitch in the style displayed in the style bar.)

Why does the font change? What controls this behavior? And how can I make it stop changing, so that text typed after step #4 continues to be the font set in my “Rich Text & Note Font” preference instead of being switched to Helvetica 12pt?

In case it is relevant, here is an image of my TextEdit Preferences panel:

I can consistently reproduce this behaviour in TextEdit.app and Notes.app on macOS Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76). This happens with any kind of image insertion (eg. clipboard, drag & drop).

I don't know how to prevent it from happening when you're appending an image to text, but maybe you'll get what you want by inserting an image into the middle of formatted text; then the before/after text preserves original formatting. One thing that worked well for me is typing a space, then tapping the left arrow ◀ key once before pasting an image.

I'll go into more detail below about what else I learned.

The font always reverts to Helvetica 12 pt after pasting an image, regardless of any settings I tried. This seems to be a hardcoded, unchangeable system default. Although I haven't yet tried using TinkerTool to change system-wide font settings.

Peeking into RTFD files

I'm not sure how to peek at the in-memory state of NSTextView but if we save the file to disk then we can inspect the content of the RTF file. We're looking for a font-size directive like \fs12 or \fs24. Actually the original RTF file format doesn't support images, so we're really talking about .rtfd (RTF Directory) bundles here.

At first I compared two files, one where no image had yet been pasted, and another where the image was pasted and then removed. Interestingly, the file contents were identical! This suggests that there is no intentional change of text format settings, and that reverting to Helvetica 12 pt is directly connected to the presence of the image.

Then I inspected a file where I had appended the same image multiple times. The same image directive occurs in repeat without any text formatting directives. In particular, \fs12 never appears in the file.

\f0\fs48 \cf0 Hello World
\fs24 {{\NeXTGraphic Pasted Graphic.png \width500 \height520 \appleattachmentpadding0 \appleembedtype0 \appleaqc}}
{{\NeXTGraphic Pasted Graphic.png \width500 \height520 \appleattachmentpadding0 \appleembedtype0 \appleaqc}}
{{\NeXTGraphic Pasted Graphic.png \width500 \height520 \appleattachmentpadding0 \appleembedtype0 \appleaqc}}

Based on this, I can quite conclusively determine that this pasting behaviour is related to in-memory handling of formatted text. In other words, this seems to be a peculiarity of Apple's implementation of NSTextView.

It seems unlikely to me that this is the behaviour that Apple's software engineers intended to create. If it was intentional, then it would be off-topic to speculate about why. But since it does appear to be a bug, instead I would direct you to Apple's page where you can write feedback for macOS.

Possible leads for future investigation

How can we directly inspect the contents of the clipboard? Is there any text formatting information associated with an image in the clipboard?

We could probably identify a smaller case to reproduce this issue by directly manipulating an NSMutableAttributedString. It's been a while since I did Mac development, but I would probably focus my attention on appendAttributedString: or insertAttributedString:atIndex:.


How can I make the Eject Key to behave as the Insert key? Is there any way to force that the Eject Key behaves as the Insert Key?

In particular I would like to be able to send the key combinations Ctrl+Insert and also Ctrl+Alt+Insert to the following two applications using Ctrl+Eject and Ctrl+Option+Eject:

a) A VMWare Fusion image
b) A RDP connection with CoRD or Microsoft RDC


How much disk space is already used by the OS and included apps on a new MacBook Air I'm considering getting a new MacBook Air, and wondering whether to get the extra diskspace that the 256GB model offers.

128GB seems like it might be plenty but then I remembered that the OS takes up some space the pre installed apps also take up some space. So an upgrade from 128 to 256 would actually more than double the usable capacity of the machine. But by how much?

So my question is on a brand new, straight out of the box, July 2011 MacBook Air 13" if you right click on the mac disk and Get Info how much available space does it report.

I have a 128GB Air with Lion and iLife '11 ... which is what, by default, would come on a new Air from the Apple Store or authorized reseller. I have other apps, so this is only a guess, but...

Lion: 4-5 GB
iLife '11: 5 GB
Recovery Partition: 650 MB

So, on a 128GB Air, you should see about 115-118GB free space. On a 256GB Air, you would see about 243-246GB free space.


Question about printer repairing permissions Tried installing printer driver software. There was some message, that might have been about "software for the printer was installed incorrectly", then asked if I want to repair the thing, I agreed and it started repairing permissions. In the end it still didn't properly work.

The question I have is - what does repairing permissions mean in this context? I read articles and definitions and don't get it in this context. Did it mean the installer simply moved the driver under Mac's command or something?
Normal Mac thing, nothing to worry about?

Fixing permissions simply means that macOS is going through it's files and ensuring that all the files have the correct ownership and permissions (to read/write/execute).

For more detailed explanation on permissions, have a look at this article.

Usually, when something isn't working right, "fixing permissions" solves the problem because the system process that handles the operation (like printing) didn't have the permissions to access the necessary files.

In your case, it sounds like you have the wrong printer driver.


Stop drag w/ click instead of release I'm currently running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 on a mid-2015 MacBook Pro.  I have tap to click enabled and have enabled dragging without drag lock.  Currently I am able to double-tap to start dragging, and then the drag stops when I raise my finger.  I want to be able to also end the drag by clicking, so the full sequence would look like tap-tap-drag-click instead of tap-tap-drag-release.  I can do this on my 2011 Macbook Air, also running Yosemite.  It feels really unnatural to me to have the drag continue after clicking down, and I keep intending to end the drag this way habitually.  Do I need to break my habit or is this possible?

Open Preferences => Accessibility.

Select Mouse & Trackpad

Click on Trackpad Options...

and under the Enable dragging option, which should be checked you should be showing with drag lock.

Select a different mode:

Perhaps you'll be comfortable with one of the other two modes.


No disk to erase in Disk Utility Internet Recovery Earlier today, my MacBook Pro 2013 went to the grey screen of death (folder flashing with the question mark) and now won't boot up. I started internet recovery all fine, but when I went to reinstall OS X, there was no disk to install it to available.

Therefore, I want to the Disk Utility to erase, and do a clean install, except there is only disk0, and as part of that, OS X Base system showing. Total size of these two disks is only 1.28 GB, yet my HD is 256 GB.

Further, all of the options to erase are greyed out for OS X base system, as though I'm not in recovery mode, except I am.

Has my HD died, or do I have other options?

Internet recovery loads from the internet and runs in RAM. Presumably you have more than 1.28GB of RAM. OS X Base System is the base system for recovery, not your internal drive. Based on that, it cannot see your internal drive at all. There's not much you can do if the computer itself can't see the drive. If there's any way you can get this into an Apple Store, that would probably be the easiest solution as I'm sure Apple's technicians could fix this in no time.

On the other hand, if you're comfortable with opening this up and checking for loose wires, then that would probably be my first step (emphasis on MY first step. I wouldn't recommend this to most people).


Cellular data not working after software update? I have updated my iphone software to 6.1 on my 3GS and now my cellular data network is not available. Can this be fixed or can I restore an earlier version again?

I contacted my carrier (o2) and issue was resolved easily. It appears that Data Bolt-On, that I subscribe to, was no longer iPhone compatible. I was advised that this setting was affected by the Software Update. Not sure I really understand how or why but I was assured that the setting had now been amended and data services would be restored at midnight tonight


Can't backup iPhone 5s (iOS 8.4) using iTunes 12.3 (because an error occured) or iCloud backup I'm trying to backup my iPhone before upgrading to iOS9. Right now it's running iOS 8.4. After pressing 'Back Up Now' button in iTunes I'm getting this error message: 'iTunes could not back up the iPhone ... because an error occured'

I tried all steps from this official Apple's document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203271 (including restarting Macbook, iPhone, I tried another Macbook, different USB ports etc).

Any ideas how to fix this? I don't want to upgrade to iOS9 without backup.

UPDATE:

I upgraded my iCloud storage and tried iCloud backup. It failed with 'The last backup could not be completed' error.

UPDATE 2:

Probably I found the source of my problem. When I go to the Settings->General->Usage->Manage Storage I get list of installed applications. There is an empty application. Check this screenshot. Its size is 50.7Mb.

I can select it and I see such screen:

I can press 'Delete App', and there is no name for this app (null).

After confirmation this app goes from the list, but if I go back from Manage Storage and return there, it appears again, so this application can't be deleted.
I tried hard reset, but this application stays in settings event after it.

My iPhone isn't jailbroken

I faced the same issue on my phone: unable to backup, neither to iCloud or through iTunes. I found some few posts, most notably this one and this one .

Basically your on the right track: backup fail because of one or more zombie app(s). Apps that were deleted but are still there...  :(

The only option seems to be to find out what app is causing this, and reinstall it, check your backup is working again, then delete it (hoping this time it will go away for good, leaving a proper state for backup to keep working ) !

To find out what is your zombie app, you'll have to find out based on whatever information you have about it. Some like me still have the app icon showing in Settings->General->Usage->Manage Storage, which make identifying pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, in your case you'll have to find out what app of 50.7MB and version 23.0 you recently deleted. To help you in your quest, you could look into:

your memory  ;)
in the App Store of your iPhone, in the list of purchased apps, look for those not installed that could match. [added base on comment below]
in iTunes, in the iPhone sync screen, app tab, the app listed as installed on your phone while you do know you removed it...
in your iTunes Library, App folder, in list view so you can sort by size
your iPhone logs, using Xcode (that's the geeky way !). see the second post listed above for a detailed how-to.

Hope you'll get to it. Good luck !

Side note: I would have added more links, but being a rookie on 'Ask Different', I'm limited to 2 external links...


Finder "Show Icon Preview" for certain filetypes? In OSX (Yosemite) I've figured out how to switch between showing a file as an icon or as a preview in Finder.  I can go to Finder > View > Show View Options and then toggle the Show icon preview checkbox.

What I'm wondering is if there is some way to show the preview for certain file types but not for others.  Basically, I want to see the preview if it is an image file, but just see the file type icon for everything else (.doc(x), .pdf, .txt, etc.).

Is there a way to do this, or is it strictly one way or the other?

It's really one way or the other as you have speculated.  Don't worry, it really shouldn't slow things down having these otherwise convenient little thumbnails created for everything you have.


Keyboard acts as if the Command key is depressed 100% of the time I've got a 2010 macbook air that works fine in all respects except for the keyboard acts as if the command key is depressed all the time. The key does not appear to be physically depressed however.

Is this a hardware problem, and if so is it possible to replace the keyboard, or a single key on the macbook air? Or perhaps is their a way to disable a key in the OS and re-map it to another key, or just one of the command keys.

Not sure if this fixes it but It's worth a try:

Open the on screen keyboard viewer and click on the cmd key:

When I have the cmd key pressed down it now becomes unpressed.

If you're not sure where you can find the on screen keyboard viewer it can either be here or you have to enable "Show Keyboard & Character Vieuwers in menu bar" under your keyboard settings. And then click on show keyboard viewer in under the icon in the menu bar. Or just google how to show the on screen keyboard ;)


Is there a way to securely erase an SSD on my MacBook Air? I have a late 2011 MacBook Air with an SSD and Lion. I used it for a while and then I activated FileVault 2. Now the data is encrypted, but I need to securely erase it so I can sell the computer.

I thought about erasing it with gparted by installing it on a USB.

Any suggestions?

If you have a USB Flash Drive of 8 GB of size, you can make a Lion Installer and use it to securely erase the Drive.

http://macintoshhowto.com/osx/how-to-make-an-os-x-lion-usb-thumb-drive.html

You can also make a USB Bootable Recovery Disk as explained here by Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

Once you have done either you can hold down the OPTION key while restarting your computer and booting from it.

When it loads up, it will give you a few different options, you will need to use the Disk Utility part and highlight your HD and choose the Erase Tab.  Under the erase settings will be a security option when you can write the disk to 0 once or even multiple times.

There is a guide on it here:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3251

See the part where it says

  How to Zero erase and install OS X

I hope that helps you out.

Updated

The guy at the bottom of this post:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1267158

points out a work around to securely erase the SSD drive in the MacBook Air through encryption.

This is what he says:

  cmace127

  I found a workaround.
  Restart the computer and hold option to enter the setup screen. Go
  into disk utility and select the drive. Erase the drive using "Mac OS
  Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted). Make a password for
  the encryption, it doesn't matter what it is because you won't need
  it. Hit "Erase". Now select the volume and the "Erase Free Space" and
  "Security Options" buttons should no longer be grayed out. Click and
  select your level of security and off you go. I presume "Erase Free
  Space" and "Security Options" should do the same thing because you
  just erased the drive so all space is considered free. This worked for
  me so let me know if it helps.

Let me know if that's works, this should securely erase the drive since it will then be encrypted.

Also, in the future with Lion be sure to use FileVault 2 so that you don't have to worry about this again.


AppleScript current path for network drive or mount I'm trying to create an AppleScript service that allows me to create a new text file in a folder in Finder. So I can right-click on a location and create a new text file. This is my flow so far:

It currently works fine for most folders. However, when I try and do this on a mounted network folder I get this error:

  The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error: “Can’t make «class cdis» "X folder" of application "Finder" into type text.”

Based on the following answer, I edited the AppleScript in the first step to:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Finder"
        set the currentFolder to (folder of the front window as alias)
    end tell
    return currentFolder
end run

And now works correctly on network drives.


Is there a quick, free viewer for Word docs? TextEdit will open them, but often doesn't display them correctly.

I really like QuickLook, but it won't stay open and doesn't allow for copying text.

OpenOffice seems to read the files adequately, but is slow to launch.

The ideal would be something like Preview that can open Word docs.

Try Bean.

The last time I tried it, it was pretty quick (quicker than OpenOffice) and according to the website, can open .docx files.


How do I map a key on the A1048 109-key Keyboard to provide an "FN" button? I have an Apple A1048 109-key keyboard that I really like, except it does not have an FN button, which is a bit annoying.  Is there any way to remap one of the keys (I'm thinking the 'help' key) to function as an FN key?

You will not be able to do this.  The controller in the keyboard sends a keycode to the OS whenever a key is pressed.  That keycode is unique to every key on the keyboard... except for the Fn key.
The Fn key, modifies other keys on the keyboard, as does Shift, Alt, Ctrl, Option, etc... the only difference is that each of the latter modifiers is recognized by the OS.  In other words, the keyboard controller tells the OS that "shift" was pressed, at the same time as the "s" key.  The OS then iterprets that to mean the user wants a capital letter "s" or "S".
This is not the case with the Fn key.  The fact that it is pressed is captured by the keyboard controller and a separate, unique, keycode is sent when you press the next key.  For instance F1 sends a keycode, lets call that keycode "xyz"   When Fn and F1 are pressed at the same time, a different keycode is sent to the OS.
What you could do is discover what those keycodes are...the ones that are issued when you press Fn + F1-f13.  Then if you wern't using the function keys for their original purpose, you could map those to the new keycodes (the equivalent of pressing Fn+Fx) and go from there to get your volume keys and all the rest of the goodies that Apple hides up there.
Checkout this article form Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fn_key

Alternatively, the Keyboard settings pane of System Preferences will allow you switch whether you wanted a single keypress of any function key to send the keycode equivalent of Fn+Fx or simply Fx.   Perhaps you can use that checkbox to get what you want...  though I don't think it will work with your keyboard.  I think you need a newer keyboard to get this to work.


Cannot disable option "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" I want to disable the preference "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" in iTunes Preferences > Advanced.

However, every time I uncheck the box and click OK, it seems to refuse to disable this feature. The box is checked again if I immediately go back to the screen.

Is there some way to disable this via a plist file? Or should I reinstall iTunes somehow?

FYI: I am running iTunes Version 12.9.4.94 on MacOS Mojave 10.14.4, on a 2018 Mac Mini restored from a 2011 iMac that ran High Sierra before it died. As I've had my iTunes library running over several years, I'm guessing that there may be some configuration bug somewhere.

Seems to be some kind of bug. Only workaround I've found is to also disable "Keep iTunes media folder organized."  When I untick this box, the other seems to stay disabled.  If I try to re-enable it, the "Copy Files..." re-enables as well.  They're linked somehow. Did you have any success deleting itunes plist?


Screen saver on remote desktop My osx box is connected to my TV via HDMI. I use "Share Screen" to login to the box and play a netflix video. I must have installed an update or something because suddenly, when I close the "Share screen" window, the TV will go straight to screen saver. Previously it would let me keep watching Netflix using my Macbook to control. Any suggestions?

After an afternoon of tinkering, a semi-solution.

I found I can fix the automatic launching of the screen saver when closing a screen share by shutting down and restarting the screen sharing service by issuing these commands in a terminal window:

  sudo launchctl unload
  /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist

  sudo launchctl load -w
  /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist

(See Restart Screen Sharing Service on Mac mini Server for more details)

This can be accomplished remotely by via SSH as well.

Another observation, the automatic launching of the screen saver only seems to "stick" once I open a screen share while a screen saver is running.  It's almost as if the machine "remembers" if you logged on while a screen saver is running and "decides" to start it back up when you logout... forever.
From then on the screen saver will launch every time you close a screen share session (until you restart the machine, or the service)

I hope this helps with watching Netflix. Sadly it doesn't help me much since I often launch a pretty screen saver on the TV just for aesthetics.  After that to go back to 'normal' I have relaunch the sharing service, which is highly annoying.  Here's hoping someone has a better solution...

Old answer:

Not an answer, but acknowledgement that someone else is having the same problem and some more specifics.  Hopefully someone can help.

Same setup:  TV connected to my Mac via HDMI.  I use screen sharing to control it.
More Info:

1- The screen saver only launches when the last screen sharing client closes. (For example, if I'm using screen share on a laptop and iTeleport on my phone, if I close one or the other, the screen saver doesn't start up.  The screen saver will only start when the very last client disconnects.)

2- The screen saver launches even if the mouse is placed in a 'hot corner' set to 'Disable Screensaver'

3- If I reboot the machine, or disable and then re-enable screen sharing (using my connect mouse/keyboard) the problem goes away, until I run a screen saver once.  From that point on it will "auto-launch" the screen saver, until I reboot or disable/re-enable sharing.

4- I agree w/ OP that this problem must have come through an update or something because I have not noticed this behavior until just a few days ago after several years of using my mac mini with a TV connected as a monitor via HDMI.


El Capitan Mail 9.1: Disable remote content loading for junk mail only Is there a way to disable the remote content loading only for messages marked as junk? I am aware that I can disable for all messages via Preferences, however I always want to show remote content on non-junk messages.

First, make sure Mail's junk mail filtering is enabled in Mail preferences under Junk Mail.

Messages marked as "Junk" in Mail (orange-tinted, with the  icon) will automatically not display remote content, even if "Load remote content in messages" is turned on in Mail preferences! If Mail automatically detected a message to be junk, the following banner will be displayed:

However, if a message arrives that Mail doesn't think is Junk, this leaves you with a problem: if you view the message to mark it as junk, the remote content will be loaded. To mark a message as junk without loading it, right-click it in the message list and click Mark > As Junk Mail.

Now if you view it, it will show this banner instead of loading remote content: