How can I use AppleScript to see if a specific line of a .txt file matches a variable? I have a .txt file saved on my computer. The contents of the .txt file looks like this, for example:

I want my Automator application to read the first line of the .txt file and to put that line into a new variable. This is so that I can check if this variable matches another variable.

My ultimate goal is to have my application automatically write today's date to the top of the file and add an additional blank line beneath today's date. But I only want this to occur if today's date has not already been written to file, of course.

Here's the code that I have so far:

# Part 1
# Get and format today's date.

set TodayDate to current date
set y to text -4 thru -1 of ("0000" & (year of TodayDate))
set m to text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & ((month of TodayDate) as integer))
set d to text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & (day of TodayDate))
set FormattedTodayDate to y & "_" & m & "_" & d & " -"

# Part 2
# Get the first line of the .txt file.

set Target_Filepath to quoted form of "/Users/Me/Desktop/Documents/My Fruit Log.txt"

set FirstLineOfTxtFile to <this is where I need your help, Ask Different>

# Part 3
# Check to see if the first line of the .txt file is today's date.

set TodayDateAlreadyWritten to false

if FirstLineOfTxtFile contains FormattedTodayDate then
    set TodayDateAlreadyWritten to true
end if

# Part 4
# Write today's date to the first line of the .txt file (if necessary).

if TodayDateAlreadyWritten = false then

    set TextToWrite to FormattedTodayDate & "
    "
    set OriginalText to quoted form of (do shell script "cat " & Target_Filepath)
    set TextToWrite to quoted form of TextToWrite & "\n" & OriginalText
    do shell script "echo " & TextToWrite & " > " & Target_Filepath

end if

It is Part 2 where I am in need of assistance.

I may have made some mistakes in any of the parts of the above code (but none to my knowledge), so please feel free to correct me as you see fit.

These are my sources:

Part 1: Formatting short dates in AppleScript

Part 4: How to prepend to text file in AppleScript?

Okay, I believe I've narrowed down the 0D bug in relation to using cat in the do shell script command and have modified the code so it doesn't introduce carriage returns, at least so far in testing just this code presented below. I would have to do further testing to see explicitly where the bug is however I've recoded it to use a do shell script command in a manner to write to the file without introducing carriage returns.

However I've commented out the first rewriting of Part 4 that uses the do shell script command because while not introducing carriage returns it does add an empty line to the end of target file each time it's runs and while not fatal nonetheless I'm not sure you'd want it to happen. So, I've added an alternate way not using a do shell script command.

Note that I prefer to use the camelCase naming convention for my variables, so I've rewritten all of the code adding additional code and comments as I prefer them. Sorry if this inconveniences you however I needed to do it in a manner that enabled me to effectively work through any issues. Feel free to modify as needed/wanted.

The code below works on the target file whether or not it initially contains ASCII Text content and I've verified on my system after multiple writes there are no carriage returns introduced and the original target file was first verified, whether empty or not, had no carriage returns and no line feeds were converted at any time as compared to other versions of code that caused this issue.

--    # Part 1 - Get and format today's date.

set todaysDate to (current date)
set y to text -4 thru -1 of ("0000" & (year of todaysDate))
set m to text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & ((month of todaysDate) as integer))
set d to text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & (day of todaysDate))

set formattedTodaysDate to y & "_" & m & "_" & d & " -" as string

--    # Part 2 - Get the first line of the target file.

set targetFilePathname to (POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt")

--    # Initialize firstLineOfFile variable in case the targetFilePathname file is empty.

set firstLineOfFile to ""
try
    --    # The commented line of code below is to be used when defining the actual code
    --    # in order to ensure a line feed "\n" is used and not a carriage return "\r".
    --    # Note that when compiled, the "\n" is converted to a literal newline
    --    # and a commented code line will be shown for all similiar instances.

    --    # set firstLineOfFile to first item of (read targetFilePathname using delimiter "\n")

    set firstLineOfFile to first item of (read targetFilePathname using delimiter "\n")
end try

--    # Part 3 - Check to see if the first line of the target file is today's date.

set isTodaysDateAlreadyWritten to false
if firstLineOfFile is equal to formattedTodaysDate then
    set isTodaysDateAlreadyWritten to true
end if

(*
--    # Part 4 - Write today's date to the first line of the target file, if necessary.

if isTodaysDateAlreadyWritten is equal to false then
    --    # set theTextToWrite to formattedTodaysDate & "\n"
    set theTextToWrite to formattedTodaysDate & "\n"
    set theOriginalText to ""
    try
        set theOriginalText to (read targetFilePathname) as string
    end try
    --    # set theTextToWrite to theTextToWrite & "\n" & theOriginalText
    set theTextToWrite to theTextToWrite & "\n" & theOriginalText

    do shell script "echo " & quoted form of theTextToWrite & " > " & quoted form of targetFilePathname
end if
*)

--    # While the commented out Part 4 above does work by not introducing any carriage returns nonetheless
--    # it does introduce and additional empty line at the end of the target file and therefore will not be used.
--    #
--    # The following Part 4 does not use the do shell script command to make the writes nor does it add extra lines.

--    # Part 4 - Write today's date to the first line of the target file, if necessary.

if isTodaysDateAlreadyWritten is equal to false then
    --    # set theTextToWrite to formattedTodaysDate & "\n"
    set theTextToWrite to formattedTodaysDate & "\n"
    set theOriginalText to ""
    try
        set theOriginalText to (read targetFilePathname) as string
    end try
    --    # set theTextToWrite to theTextToWrite & "\n" & theOriginalText
    set theTextToWrite to theTextToWrite & "\n" & theOriginalText
    try
        set referenceNumber to open for access targetFilePathname with write permission
        write theTextToWrite to referenceNumber starting at 0
        close access referenceNumber
    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with title "File I/O Error..." with icon caution
        try
            close access referenceNumber
        end try
        return
    end try
end if


Is there any way to disable Mac OS X global search string propagation? Mac OS X has a feature where if you use any search box in any app, it automatically overwrites every other search box with the text you searched.

I find this rarely useful and it often interferes with any workflow where I expect an individual app to stay pre-filled with what I last searched in that app. Is there any way to disable it?

(I've also never seen anyone discuss this feature anywhere. When was it introduced? Does it have a name? Is it mentioned anywhere in the documentation on developer.apple.com?)

It's usually called the find pasteboard or find clipboard, and I think it has been around since before OS X.

I tried using strings to search in frameworks, but I didn't find any hidden preferences for making it application-specific.


Taking long list of repeated values and copying to sorted, unique list Alrighty, I’m working on some homespun financial rejiggering. I have a manually-entered “Keyword” column that features many repeated values.

A small sampling:

Cleaners
Cleaners
Cleaners
Cell
Cell
Cell
Cell
Cell
Cable
Cable
Cable
Cable
Band
Band
ATM Fee
ATM Fee
ATM Fee
ATM Fee
ATM Fee
ATM Fee
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon
Amazon

I need to create either another column OR table that takes these many values, de-dupes them and sorts them alphabetically, like this:

Cleaners
Cell
Cable
Band
ATM Fee
Amazon

This needs to be done with  formula… not manually or scripted.

Suggestions??

This AppleScript uses terms from the AppleScript Toolbox plug-in to function correctly.

I copied your list of duplicates and pasted them between the double quotes in the first line of my code

set theList to paragraphs of "Cleaners\nCleaners\nCleaners\nCell\nCell\nCell\nCell\nCell\nCable\nCable\nCable\nCable\nBand\nBand\nATM Fee\nATM Fee\nATM Fee\nATM Fee\nATM Fee\nATM Fee\nAmazon\nAmazon\nAmazon\nAmazon\nAmazon\nAmazon\nAmazon"
set noDupes to AST copy list theList with sorting items without keeping duplicates
set text item delimiters to {linefeed}
set theList2 to noDupes as text
set theList2 to reverse of paragraphs of theList2
set the clipboard to theList2 as text

Will return A new list without the duplicates and copy it to your clipboard:

Cleaners
Cell
Cable
Band
ATM Fee
Amazon


Black hole all IP addresses except for 192.168.1.1 I have a machine. I want to configure it so that it can only talk to 192.168.1.1 (gitserver) and 127.0.0.1 (localhost).

This machine is meant to be pure work, no distractions.

I'm on OS X Lion.

I'm familiar with iptables on Linux, but not sure how to configure this (or if it's even possible).

What do I need to read up to make this work?

PS: configuring the router is not an option; it's some simple $30 router.

Mac OS X like other BSD systems uses ipfw instead of iptables. Read the man page for full reference.

One way to would be to deny all TCP "establish connection" packets except those directed to gitserver, leaving all other traffic untouched:

ipfw add allow tcp from me to gitserver setup
ipfw add allow tcp from me to me setup # may not be needed
ipfw add deny tcp from any to any setup

The rules will be lost on reboot, so they must be set on every boot (e.g. from /etc/rc.common or crontab's @reboot).

If that seems too complicated, get a third party firewall. Little Snitch is a good one, but it costs another $30 :)


MacBook Pro 2011 logging itself out after a period of inactivity when I am not using it, at some point, every day, my MBP tries to log out on its own. When I 'wake it up' I can see message windows about "applications aborting logout", obviously because some applications that needed to save data aren't allowing OSX to close them.

This is extremely irritating, because all applications that have nothing to save, will close down on me, sometimes in the middle of a long download.

My MBP isn't configured for hibernation, or logging out, or even sleeping. It's always does it on AC power and I simply have no idea why.

The problem started with Snow Leopard, and persists with Lion as well.

Output of my pmset utility is:

Active Profiles:
Battery Power       -1
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 standbydelay   4200
 standby    0
 womp       1
 halfdim    1
 panicrestart   157680000
 hibernatefile  /var/vm/sleepimage
 sms        1
 networkoversleep   0
 disksleep  10
 sleep      0
 hibernatemode  3
 ttyskeepawake  1
 displaysleep   60
 acwake     0
 lidwake    1

Does anyone have a clue why my mac tries to shut down all the applications and logout when I don't use it for a few hours? How do I stop this?

System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Unlock the settings -> click the Advanced button -> Disable the logout option


Paint replacement for MacOS I need an app that does the following:

Allow me to paste multiple snapshots from clipboard. Also resize and move them.
Draw arrows, write texts...

Just what paint on windows does.

I've tried Gimp but is terrible slow and full of bugs.

Acorn

  Acorn has everything you need in an image editor.

See also Can anyone recommend an app for creating flowcharts and diagrams? for other suggestions.


What's the best way to sync Chrome bookmarks to iPhone? I use Google Chrome on my Mac as my browser, and I'd like to be able to have access to my bookmarks on my iPhone. Safari provides bookmark syncing automatically, and Mozilla has an app that provides that functionality, but I the only thing I can find is Xmarks which is a) paid, and b) synchronizes with a third-party service, instead of utilizing Google's existing bookmark sync for Chrome. Are there any other solutions?

You could give Xmarks a try. Works fine for me.

You install it as a plugin for Chrome, and as a pref pane for your Mac. Your Mac will be synchronized to your iPhone.

I didn't try the mobile app yet.


MacBook 5,1 (unibody) getting kernel panics if memory bank 0 is populated Any configuration of ram that uses bank 0 on my MacBook causes a kernel panic after about an hour of use.

The slot looks fine: all the pins are there, and are straight (no visible bends or breaks)
it's not a RAM problem; I've tried four different modules in total, all of them leading to the same results.
My EFI/SMC is up to date
PRAM and SMC resets don't help
OS X reinstallation doesn't help

How should I proceed to troubleshoot/fix this?

You've covered pretty much all the troubleshooting bases. If it's not a problem with the RAM itself, and it's not a problem with the firmware or software, it's almost certainly a hardware problem.

You could try running the Apple Hardware Test, but it's almost certainly a problem with the memory controller, which as far as I'm aware means a new logic board. Take it to an Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider.


Where is the iOS simulator in Xcode? I'm using Xcode 10.1 on Mac 10.13.6.
I'm trying to follow the instructions here -- https://www.macinstruct.com/node/494, for accessing the iOS simulator on my Mac.  After right clicking on Contents -> Applications, all I see is

Is there something else I need to do to get the iOS simulator installed?

The iOS simulator is installed with Xcode. Unfortunately the instructions you're following are now outdated.
In order to start the simulator, you simply start Xcode and then in the top menu select Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Simulator.


Safari only wants to connect to localhost via HTTPS Do a lot of local development and recently I've noticed that I cannot connect to non-HTTPS services running on localhost. If the services provide HTTPS then I am able to connect, but every time I try something like "http://devsite:8000", Safari always tries to access "https://devsite.local:8000".

Using Chrome, I can properly access the site.

Perhaps the issue is HSTS?

I am running Safari 10.1 on macOS Sierra.

Actually, it looks like it was HSTS.

I followed the directions posted here:

Close Safari.
Delete the ~/Library/Cookies/HSTS.plist file.
Reopen Safari.

And now localhost sites are working correctly.


Need Help With iPhone 4 I have an iPhone 4 that I shut off with the touch assist because my lock button is broken. How do I get my phone to turn back on?

Either connect it to iTunes or to a powersource


Macbook Pro 2020 doesn't recognize second monitor while using usbc I want my MacBook pro-2020 to be closed and have one screen as the main screen(desktop) and the other screen as an extended one. I have 2 new Dell UltraSharp U2419HC monitors, and an UltraSharp U2419H (non-usbc).
I have connected one screen to my MacBook using type c to type c cable (from screen to MacBook) and another display port cable from one screen to another one.
It looks like either my mac detects only one screen, or either I can't get an extended view over the 2 Dell screens.
Currently, the 2 Dell screens display the same thing, my Desktop. When I open my MacBook screen, it detects it's own screen and the Dell screen that is attached with the USB c on extended mode but doesn't detect the second Dell monitor.
When I get into the System Pref -> Displays I can only see the Dell monitor that is connected with USB c.
I have also tried to connect the USB c to a Dell laptop and it did work, so I assume it's not a connectivity issue, and furthermore when I'm connecting the second Dell screen using HDMI cable type c to my MacBook (overall 2 Dell monitors connected directly to my MacBook) it works.

Daisy-chaining monitors over USB-C is not supported on macOS. This is due to the fact that macOS does not support MST for monitor daisy-chaining, unlike for example Microsoft Windows. You will need to use Thunderbolt monitors in order to get display daisy-chaining working.
With your current hardware, you need to connect each monitor to its own port on the MacBook Pro - or get a Thunderbolt 3 dock that allows you to connect two monitors to the dock, and then the dock via one cable to the MacBook Pro.


Looking for Working Weather Dashboard Widget So the weather widget apple includes with macOS no longer works. It's been broken for a while now, I suspect it's never coming back. Especially since it was powered by Yahoo. Also Apple's "dashboard widget" directory hasn't been updated in 10+ years. So that's useless.

I'm looking for a simple little widget that will give me current conditions and a 7+ day forecast. Nothing complicated. But it is really useful and it's a bummer not having it.

I modified Apple's Dashboard widget to use an entirely different weather API. You can download it from https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/i-fixed-apples-broken-weather-dashboard-widget.2225715/.

You'll need to grab API keys from DarkSky and MapQuest and add them to the top of weatherParser.js inside the modified widget. This process is extensively documented in Widget's readme.

Alternately, you can also use the FairWeather widget.  It's not quite as pretty as Apple's widget, but it gets its weather data directly from the NOAA's servers, so I suspect it's less likely to break than something which pulls from a private company.

Sadly, the original download link is broken, so I uploaded it here: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/fair-weather


How to save PDFs from web for offline reading on an iPad? I bought an iPad Air to use in my airplane for flight guidance (secondary screen from panel mounted GPS). I'd like to download the manuals for my various avionics, and stop carrying a flight bag that is full of paper manuals.

I can browse the web and open the documents, generally PDFs.
How do I save them and open later when I'm airborne and not online? There doesn't seem to be a right-click, Save as kind of function. I have an Apple keypad for it also, but I don't see how one does mouse-type functions like I'd do in Win7 or Win10.

You can technically install one of the many PDF viewers for iOS from the App Store, save the PDFs within the app, and you are good to go. As long as the PDF is saved locally, you won't need an active Internet or Wi-Fi connection.

One of the most popular and and 1st party app is Apple Books. If you couldn't find it installed, you can open the referred link on your iPad and install it.

Once installed, you can export the desired PDFs into Apple Books app, either by syncing with iTunes, or wirelessly via AirDrop from another Mac. Once you have the app installed, you can also open a PDF file in a web browser on your iPad (such as Safari, or a 3rd party browser) while online, and export the PDF file into Apple Books. Once exported, the PDF remains available for offline viewing.

There are also a variety of other ways to get the PDF into Apple Books and a variety of other apps (such as Amazon Kindle) that lets you do the same. Totally depends on your preferences, availability and your use of other devices and services etc.

Step by step instructions to save a PDF file open in a Web browser to Apple Books app

Make sure you have the Apple Books app installed on your iPad. If not, open this link on your iPad to go directly to the App Store page of the Apple Books app.

Open the desired PDF file in the Web browser of your choice. Here I have opened a PDF file in Safari.

Tap on the share icon in the browser toolbar (shown just next to the address bar) to reveal the share sheet. Once the sheet is shown, tap on Copy to Books item. If the option is not shown, you can enable it by tapping on More button shown at the end.

Voila! the PDF file is downloaded behind the scenes and copied into the Apple Books app. It can be viewed under Collections → Downloaded in the Apple Books app.

You now have access to PDF file in offline mode.

You are only limited by the amount of available storage space on your iPad when it comes to number of PDF files that can be saved for offline viewing. Apple Books can also save and open ePUB books.


MBP 16" i9 (Late 2019) Possibly Overheating I just got a 2019 MBP 16" Model with 2.3 GHz i9 (turbo to 4.8GHz). When running simulations in MATLAB I have noticed the fans to spin quite loudly, and the CPU temp is rising very high. I have seen the temp peak 100C when plugged in, and around a max of 95C on battery power.
My question is whether this is typical behavior for this computer/CPU or whether I am at risk of damaging my components.
(Note: I am using this completely out of the box - have made no modifications, overclocking etc.. The temperatures I am seeing are just higher than I have seen previously for CPUs and I was shocked to be honest)

The CPU is specified to function up to 100 degrees C. So a temperature of for example 95C is fully within its operational specification. There's no risk of damaging the CPU.
I.e. unless you experience some problem related to the temperature, there's absolutely nothing to worry about.


Sync Android with iTunes I have iTunes on my Windows 7 PC. I love how flawlessly iPhones sync with iTunes, but I have an Android phone :( Is there an easy way to plug in my Android and sync it with iTunes?

If it matters I have an HTC First.

Download and install the  iTunes to android Sync-Windows
 on your your computer.

Description

Requires: iTunes+Windows not for mac users
Synctunes wireless syncs an iTunes libray from Windows to android.

It allows you to sync your iTunes music, podcasts and videos from your iTunes library on windows to to your android device over WiFi.

Features:

From iTunes computer it Syncs to android like below

Syncs to internal or external SDCARD

Syncs Podcasts from your iTunes library to android.

Syncs Music tracks from iTunes to android.

Syncs Playlists.

Syncs tracks from iTunes store downloaded on your computer

Syncs album art

Organizes songs in android by artist/albums

You can filter your tracks to be synced (by size, length , date etc)


13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display + Adobe Creative Cloud Purchased a 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.  It came with 4GB of RAM and 128GB HD. Got it yesterday, and now I discover that you cannot upgrade the RAM to 8 or 16GB.  I need to run Adobe Creative Cloud programs from time to time.  Will these programs run too slow? Should I send it back?

It's pretty trivial to open Activity Monitor and look at the RAM usage.

When the graph is in RED - you will have significant slowdowns and really need to take immediate action if you require performance from all the apps running. Usually a restart will let you know if the applications you run have memory leaks and need you to quit them often, log out often, restart the OS often. Or if those apps always use a lot of RAM memory and you should either find more efficient applications to do the same work or run less apps at once or find a Machine with more RAM (assuming your Mac doesn't allow user-upgradeable RAM).

When the graph is in yellow - you're unlikely to be able to measure slow downs, but it's a signal to quit any apps you don't need (email, web browsers with dozens (or more) tabs open, social media, music streaming apps, chat apps (cough slack, cough) and let the system focus all resources to the main apps you need.

When the graph is in green - no worries about RAM being what's causing your workflow to not run at full speed. The constraints you have at that point are network, CPU, or just the apps aren't making use of the machine resources at all and need to be redesigned / updated.)


SMC reset to fix battery not working, but cant be sure SMC reset has taken place I have had a new battery in my mid 2012 15" macbook pro running 10.11.6

The battery health as monitored through a battery health app downloaded from the mac app store has been deteriorating ever since i installed it and after about 3 months the battery is saying "Service Battery"

This doesn't tell the full picture though, as if it use my Mac once i get the "low battery 9 minutes remaining" warning, it will go on for hours without cutting out.

Ive been told i need to do an SMC reset to address the issue, but each time i do it following Apples guides for laptops with a removable battery, it dosnt fix anything?

How can I know that an SMC reset has taken place, can it be seen in the logs ? Or can i do an SMC reset through some kind of GUI tool which will give me feedback instead of the standard way which i cant be sure has worked.

Here is an output from About this mac > System Info > Power

Model Information:
  Serial Number:    REDACTED
  Manufacturer: SMP
  Device Name:  REDACTED
  Pack Lot Code:    0
  PCB Lot Code: 0
  Firmware Version: 2
  Hardware Revision:    00aa
  Cell Revision:    2
  Charge Information:
  Charge Remaining (mAh):   220
  Fully Charged:    No
  Charging: No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   3918
  Health Information:
  Cycle Count:  81
  Condition:    Service Battery
  Battery Installed:    Yes
  Amperage (mA):    -1943
  Voltage (mV): 10877

System Power Settings:

  AC Power:
  System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 3
  Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):   0
  Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    3
  Wake on AC Change:    No
  Wake on Clamshell Open:   Yes
  Wake on LAN:  Yes
  AutoPowerOff Delay:   14400
  AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1
  Display Sleep Uses Dim:   Yes
  GPUSwitch:    2
  Hibernate Mode:   3
  PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep:   0
  Standby Delay:    4200
  Standby Enabled:  0
  Battery Power:
  System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
  Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):   0
  Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    2
  Wake on AC Change:    No
  Wake on Clamshell Open:   Yes
  AutoPowerOff Delay:   14400
  AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1
  Current Power Source: Yes
  Display Sleep Uses Dim:   Yes
  GPUSwitch:    2
  Hibernate Mode:   3
  Reduce Brightness:    Yes
  Standby Delay:    4200
  Standby Enabled:  0

Here is an output from the command system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -i "charge information" -A 10

Charge Information:
          Charge Remaining (mAh): 234
          Fully Charged: No
          Charging: No
          Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 3918
      Health Information:
          Cycle Count: 81
          Condition: Service Battery
      Battery Installed: Yes
      Amperage (mA): -2579
      Voltage (mV): 10890

It's quite possible you have a defective battery, bad cable or power handling chip issue on the logic board itself.  From the output you posted, here's what we know.

81 cycles and FCC of 3918 mAh is way out of specification
The Voltage and charge measurement that you have 234 mAh (mili-amp hours) remaining
It's showing a draw of approximately 2.5A (battery is being drained)

The SMC can only accumulate how much battery capacity is left by measuring the current power against the current draw and known full capacity.  In this case, it's measuring that you're out of power and indicating your battery needs to be serviced.

There's no "dipstick" that can give you the actual charge, the SMC must calculate it and from the data it's getting from the battery, it thinks it's failing even though it continues to work.

Your best bet is to replace the battery (it's probably still under warranty) and still more likely to be the cause if you were careful with the cables and reseated them.


iphone, itunes store app: how to view text hidden by "..." I just went to look at the next album by Tune Yards and I can see it says "Pre Order: expected J..." but there appears to be no way to view this text!

Anyone know how to expand it or get it show the full text

I've seen the non expandable "..." before and it's annoyed me enough over time to post :)

One way to view the full text is to tap on the Share icon at top right of the screen and then tap on one of the options such as the Message icon. Doing this will create a new Message with the full text followed by the URL. You can then just cancel the message, or send it to yourself!

Obviously, this is really just a workaround I use because I haven't come across another way within iOS to view the full text.


Output 4:3 video on old Apple TV? I have an old Apple TV that I have hooked up to my 4:3 TV, and I would like to have the output from the Apple TV match the ratio of my TV so there isn't any stretching or squishing. It's running the latest firmware 3.0.2.

I don't believe it will be 4:3. One of the requirements for ATV was a widescreen TV. I think it always assumes a 16:9 ratio. As @matthewpavkov suggested, best bet would be to get the tele to force the input into 4:3, but it's very model dependant if the tele actually supports that.

Update: I stand corrected, there seems to be a thread related to this exact issue on the MacRumors fourms http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=658621 However, it seems that it stopped working on the 3.x firmware, so there's an even more hacky way of achieving it here. Sounds horrible though! http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=811425


Open Terminal via Finder (hitting F4?) On Linux file manager, I think Dolphin (not sure right now, sorry) I can open Konsole just hitting F4. I would like to have the same on MacOS/Finder, openning Terminal instead. Is it possible?

I'm on El Captain.

I use Go2Shell for that purpose. It's a free app which can be added to Finder. Clicking on it will open a new Terminal window with the current directory.

You can get it on the Mac App Store.


Applescripting Numbers to save, close and quit in an App instead of the Script Editor After using Applescript to add a new row with data to a Numbers document, I'm trying to save and close the document and then quit Numbers. Using the script below to save, close and quit Numbers works when I run it in an open Script editor window:

save document 1 in "/Users/name/Desktop/Workout.numbers"

close document 1 in "/Users/name/Desktop/Workout.numbers"

activate application "Numbers"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "q" using command down
end

But it does not work when run as a standalone Applescript App; it seems to stop on saving.

And, as a side note, using the tell block below to quit Numbers acts in the same way; it works when run via the Script Editor, but not in an App:

tell application "Numbers"
    quit
end tell

Why the difference between running in an open Script Editor window and running as an Applescipt App? How can I script Numbers to save close and quit in an Applescript App?

You need to direct the save command to Numbers app...

This should work for you.

tell application "Numbers"
    save document 1 in POSIX file "/Users/name/Desktop/Workout.numbers"
    delay 0.1
    close document 1
    delay 0.1
    quit
end tell

Or if you want to make the code a little prettier...  This should work also.

set saveToFolder to path to desktop folder as text
set numbersDocName to "Workout.numbers"
set numbersDoc to (saveToFolder & numbersDocName)

tell application "Numbers"
    close document 1 saving yes saving in file numbersDoc
    delay 0.1
    quit
end tell


10.6.8 Update Combo Failed Unknown Error I recently received an old iMac 27" aluminum unibody core 2 duo (EMC 2309: 2009 model) that was having troubles with the graphics card after High Sierra installation. I was looking to set it up as a media-station/test-machine, and was thinking Snow Leopard would be perfect. I already have an old mac mini on my desk running MacOSX10.6.8, but rather than copying over my hard drive, I decided to do a fresh install. It was during the 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1, after the install, that I encountered a problem. I found an identical thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6883727 but there was no clear answer to the problem, and I did not want to go through hours of a slower-than-my-normal-internet-speed download from https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?locale=en_US

I already had saved a copy of the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.dmg on the same drive with my 10.6.2 Install Volume, and the 10.6.2 install had run smoothly. I went to run the 10.6.8 update, only to get an installation failure with an "unknown error":

It turns out the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.dmg available online is not quite the same as the one I had previously downloaded, the file size was slightly smaller, and the creation date later.

Is this simply a case a developer signature expiring, and publishing a rerelease? If so, Is my new MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.dmg also going to expire? It's just nice not to have to wait to re-download something from a crappy link for hours only to discover it timed out at less than 5%. I was hoping to make an install media for this, but it seams pointless if it's not going to work the next time I need it. Is there a way to get around installer expiration issues?

Set the date on the Mac back to to for example 1st of May 2012 using "Date & Time" in System Preferences. Remember to turn off "Set date and time automatically".

This will allow you to bypass the expiration check.

Remember to set the time and date back when you're done updating.


Does the Mountain Lion installer receive updates? I downloaded the Mountain Lion installer on the day it was released on the App Store. If I now wait some time before doing a clean reinstall:

Does this installer receive updates?
Is it updated only with 10.8.x releases, or is it independent of those?

Yes the installer is updated with 10.8.x releases as they come out. You will need to update the installer app through the App Store as you would for any other app. ( Source: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: the Ars Technica review).

  Like any other application purchased from the Mac App Store, these OS
  installers are updated in-place as part of the normal Mac App Store
  update process when new versions are released. It's as if your Mac OS
  X 10.6.0 installation disc gradually morphed into a 10.6.1 installer,
  then a 10.6.2 installer, and so on.

Example given is 10.6, but the reviewer is talking about 10.8.


Why do I have IPv6 listeners when IPv6 is disabled? I'm working under OS X 10.8.5, fully patched. I have IPv6 disabled under Network Settings:

I also have unneeded network interfaces disabled:

While troubleshooting an OpenSSH server issue, I performed a netstat -an and noticed there were IPv6 listeners:

$ netstat -an | grep -i listen
tcp6       0      0  *.1522                 *.*                    LISTEN
tcp4       0      0  *.1522                 *.*                    LISTEN
tcp6       0      0  ::1.52698              *.*                    LISTEN
tcp6       0      0  ::1.23053              *.*                    LISTEN
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.23053        *.*                    LISTEN
tcp4       0      0  127.0.0.1.631          *.*                    LISTEN
tcp6       0      0  ::1.631                *.*                    LISTEN

How is it possible to have IPv6 listeners when IPv6 is disabled?

Because not setting up your network card to use ipv6 does not prevent applications of opening such sockets.

The sockets displayed as *.<port> are not bound to specific ip addresses/interfaces of your machine. They will simply listen to any incoming connection on any interface. Of course, no ipv6 connections will come in through your ethernet card if ipv6 is not set up.

Besides that, I'm pretty sure that another interface on your machine is set up to use ipv6: your loopback interface. Hit up a terminal and type ifconfig lo0 and you'll see it having an ipv6 address assigned to it. You can also use ping6 ::1 :). In fact, the ipv6 sockets listed as ::1.<port> are bound to this interface and will only receive connections from your local machine.


Transfer private MP3 files from my PC to my iPhone SE 2020 tl;dr: I want to add my own .mp3 files (and audiobook etc.) to my iPhone SE 2020. After selecting File > Add to Library and selecting file in iTunes for PC, files are added, but nothing happens next -- i.e. iTunes for iPhone shows empty lists and nothing is synced to it. What am I missing?

Problem
I don't have a Mac and I am a Windows 10 user. I want to play on my iPhone 2020 a private (privately owned) MP3 file or files:

an audiobook not purchased in iTunes,
a MP3 copy of some audio CD / DVD that I use in my courses etc.

What must I do to achieve this. Exactly what steps should I undertake in order to transfer my private MP3 file to my iPhone 2020? To be able to see and play that file there?
iTunes
I added files the iTunes way and that was successful:

Installed iTunes app to my Windows 10 (newest official version)
Opened it up and login with my AppleID (the same as used in my iPhone)
Press Ctrl+O and navigate to a single .mp3 file

I also added remaining folders by selecting File > Add Folder to Library.
Playlists
I have added four private (not purchased in iTunes) audiobooks:

used File > Add Folder to Library four times,
created four separate playlists, added them to one playlists folder,
added each audiobook to a corresponding playlist,
waited some long time.

And nothing happened on iPhone side. I still see empty lists and no sign of my audiobooks.
Question
What should happen next? Are all my steps correct and in above described scenario files should appear in my iPhone automatically? Or am I missing some crucial step?
Does the fact that my File > Devices > Sync menu item is disabled plays any role here?

If you wish to copy MP3 files from a PC to an iPhone via iTunes then it is very important to connect both devices physically at least once. Only then sync via iTunes will be available and possible.
Some additional possibilities:

using designated software:

Dr. Fone - Phone Manager (iOS)
EaseUS MobiMover.

using any cloud storage solution like Dropbox or Google Drive, by installing it on both iPhone and PC and using the same account in both devices.

Here are two example videos (out of thousands  out there probably) that describes some of these methods above in some more details:

How to save an MP3 to your iPhone
How to Transfer MP3 to iPhone

It is also possible to transfer files via wireless network using AirDrop, however this method seems to be possible only from Mac, not from PC, which is not, what OP is asking for.
You may be able to just use SnapDrop instead of AirDrop. This does not require installation and works similarly to AirDrop. It has the advantage that it is compatible with all devices that support WLAN and Bluetooth.
https://snapdrop.net/


iPhone autolock feature doesn't work My iPhone 4 doesn't lock automaticaly anymore. It seems that it is since iOS 6 update.

Is it a known bug? someone has noticed this problem? or is there a parameter or something that might be the cause of the problem?

I ran into a similar situation with an iPad running iOS 6. Powering it down, then back on again fixed it. Hard to say for sure if we had the same issue, but it's worth a try. Toggling the Auto-Lock setting might also be worth a try.


WEP Security for Internet Sharing? I have a Nintendo DS to connect to the internet, but my router does not support WEP. I used to be able to create a WEP internet share on my MacBook 2010, but after the upgrade to 10.11.4, I cannot.

Is there any solution?

WEP was completely removed in Yosemite:

http://tidbits.com/article/15158

WEP is broken enough that you might just consider using an open Wifi connection (Security: None) but if you want to have a basic level of protection to stop someone from just walking into the equivalent of an open door the best solution would be to get a cheap secondary wifi router and set it up with it's own SSID with WEP, making sure to turn off DHCP on the router and connect it via a LAN rather than the WAN port (Apple Airports can just be put into Bridge Mode). If you're worried about security you could unplug the secondary router when you're not using it or disable it's Wifi.


How to search Mac for files that begin or end with a space " " or period "." I just need to know how to search (within Finder vs Terminal, if possible) for all file names within a specific folder, which begin or end with a space or a period.

For example:
" file.jpg" (begins with a space)
"file .jpg" (ends with a space)
"file..jpg" (ends with a period

Additionally, finding a file name with the characters * or " in it. Searching for this in file name using Finder produces thousands of results which don't actually have * or " in it.
Example: "fil*e.jpg" or "fil"e.jpg"

With Finder as the active application, choose Find from the File menu. In the Searching "This Mac" window that brings up, select Kind is Document, then use + to add another condition with Name as the first item. If you choose begins with as the second item, you can find files whose names begin with a particular character, like space. The ends with condition won't find files with the names in your examples unless the filename suffix ends with the character of interest, but you can find a particular character, like a space, as the last character before the suffix if you choose contains and follow that character with .. For your file..jpg example you would use .. for the search text. This approach will find literal * characters in filenames, if you choose contains and use * for the search text.

Finding such files with the find command (in Terminal) is straightforward if you quote special characters appropriately. For example,

find Downloads -name ' *' -ls

reports all files in my Downloads directory which begin with a space,

find Downloads -name '*\**' -ls

reports all files in my Downloads directory with a * in its name,

find Downloads -name '*\.\.*' -ls

reports all files in my Downloads directory with two consecutive . characters in its name, and

find Downloads -name '* .*' -ls

reports all files with a space character immediately before the suffix. Finally,

find Downloads -name ' *' -ls -o -name '*\**' -ls -o -name '*\.\.*' -ls -o -name '* .*' -ls

reports all of those files in my Downloads directory. You can anchor the search elsewhere by replacing Downloads on the command line, and you can use other options to restrict the search further (-type f would ignore directories and symlinks).


Will a cloned hard drive function exactly as the original? If I buy a new hard drive and clone my original onto it (using Carbon Copy Cloner or something similar), will my computer function exactly the same as it did before? Will things like licensed programs not work properly? (I can't think of any reason they wouldn't, but you never know.)

Yes.  I swap out drives all the time... it's basically transparent on a Mac.  I've even booted my MacBook Pro's drive on my wife's MacBook Pro and vice versa.  It takes a minute longer to boot as it reconfigures itself but once it starts you can't even tell the difference.


iPhone4: Keep playing songs after song selected from Search iPhone screen ends? When I first got my iPhone 4, if I selected a song from the "search iPhone" screen (when you hit home twice), iTunes would start playing a playlist of all my songs, starting with the selected one.

I recently updated it to 4.2.1 (I don't remember exactly what I was at before). Now, when I select a song from the "Search iPhone" screen, iTunes starts playing a playlist containing only that song.

Is there a way I can get the old behavior back?

I believe it has to do with the way you last accessed your iPod. If you open your iPod and  select songs and then select a song to play, the next time you search for a song, it will continue to play through all of your songs. If the last time you accessed the iPod by going to a particular album or playlist, it will only play the songs located in the same album or playlist as the song you searched for.

Its a little confusing but I could try to explain it better if you need me to.


What's the easiest way to copy the current URL in Fluid? When I'm in a fluid app, and have navigated somewhere, I sometimes want to share that URL with someone.

What's the fastest way to get it onto the clipboard? It seems like it should be simple, but I'm at a loss.

EDIT:  I just figured out that I can turn on "show toolbar", which will add a url bar, but is there a quicker way?  I don't really want it on most of the time and enabling it is a lot more annoying than a cntrl-c.

Developer of Fluid here.

Yes, there's a very easy way:

⌘ + L (That's "Command - L")

That will temporarily "show" the toolbar (if it was hidden), and select all the text in the URL location field. From there you can copy it, via ⌘ + C.

Then, to hide the toolbar, you can press:

⎋ esc (That's "Escape")

If the toolbar was previously hidden, this will hide the toolbar.


MacBook Pro erratic keyboard and trackpad detection MacBook Pro Early 2015 OS 10.10.5 (because of Internet Recovery)

Problem:
So for the last few days the built in trackpad and keyboard of my MacBook Pro have been acting up. After waking up from sleep, they were unresponsive, or didn't respond at all. After waiting some time, they worked again (until next sleep).

Resets:
So in an attempt to fix it, I tried all the resets one get told to do (PRAM, NVRAM SMC), without any effect.

Reinstall:
At some point, I wanted to make a clean install and booted in recovery mode. Here the internal keyboard and trackpad worked 100% of the time.
That is until I erased the drive. Now only external input devices work at all (even in Recovery).

I even tried Internet Recovery so now I have a freshly installed Yosemite on a erased drive. The keyboard light is working and the trackpad clicks. But Yosemite doesn't detect them at all (Bluetooth Assistant starts since no keyboard/mouse is detected).

Can I somehow check if the driver(?) is installed correctly. Can I totally wipe my Laptop ( Drive, Recovery Partition UEFI)? And would that help?

Could it be a hardware error, even though it worked 100% at some point in Recovery Mode? At some point I noticed that the keys would work if i pressed them for a long time, but as of now this isn't the case.

To close this up:

I went to an Apple Store had the logic board replaced. Afterwards, I reinstalled from a backup and everything seemed fine...

But yesterday I noticed that I forgot to re-enable disk encryption (using File Vault). After enabling it and rebooting I got the exact same problem again. This time I also experienced the problem described here: Password incorrect after enabling FileVault

But unlike last time the problem disappeared (so far) after disabling encryption again.

If you wind up here looking for answers: Try disabling File Vault and check this for more details: MacBook startup problems - mouse and keyboard not working at login / stuck on apple logo


Dual 4k displays on a Macbook Pro 15" Late 2013 I would like to get two external monitors for my MacBook Pro 15 Late 2013 running Mojave 10.14.3. Specifically, I'm considering two of the Dell P2415Q 24" Monitors. I may also keep my MacBook open and use the display as a 3rd monitor.

Usage is mainly for programming work with some light non-FPS gaming (talking Civilisation, not CS:GO)

Will my MacBook be powerful enough to drive this dual 4k monitor setup?
Can I use MST and daisy chain the two displays from one Thunderbolt port, or would I need to run a separate cable for each display?
Just generally will it work perfectly fine, or are there potential issues I should be aware of?

Similar questions have been asked before but I feel like there's some conflicting answers (or I just don't understand) and I just want to check before I spend so much money...

In reference to your questions about setting up dual 4K displays...

  Will my MacBook be powerful enough to drive this dual 4k monitor
  setup?

No.  Your MacBook Pro is only capable of supporting 2560x1600 on two external displays.  In other words, it's capable of supporting dual QHD (Quad HD) monitors.

  Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native
  resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up
  to two external displays, both at millions of colors

Source:  Apple MacBook Pro 2013 Technical Specifications

Additionally, this question/answer is very helpful in determining what displays can be connected and with what resolutions.

  Can I use MST and daisy chain the two displays from one thunderbolt
  port, or would I need to run a separate cable for each display?

You will need to run a separate cable for each display as  Apple, for whatever reason, chose not to support MST daisy chaining.

  Just generally will it work perfectly fine, or are there potential
  issues I should be aware of?

"Perfectly fine" is subjective, but assuming you connect a display independently to different Thunderbolt ports, it should work.  Additionally, it would be beneficial if you used a mDP (mini DisplayPort) to DisplayPort cable and not convert to HDMI.  If you must convert to HDMI, use an active adapter.


What areas of the MacBook Air should I keep clear? According to the User's Guide of the MacBook Air, it says:

  Set up your MacBook Air on a stable work surface that
  allows for adequate air circulation under and around the computer. Do not operate
  your MacBook Air on a pillow or other soft material, as the material can block the
  airflow vents.

The only airflow vents I see are in the back right where the screen and keyboard meet. Thus, I'm wondering if covering the front 90% of the bottom of the MacBook Air with something soft such as a cloth (i.e. the part with no vents) will have any adverse effects on the cooling mechanism. The only thing I can think of is that the bottom of the laptop acts as passive cooling by having that little bit of air between the bottom of the laptop and the desk its sitting on. Having it on a cloth or something similar would no longer provide this air cushion and would affect the cooling mechanism of the laptop.

Is my theory about how the passive cooling works correct? Or is it fine to use the laptop on something such as a pillow as long as it doesn't cover the end that has the vents?

You are correct. While the major fan vent is in the back, it is important that air can circulate under the laptop. This is because the bottom side of the laptop can get hot, and the space between the laptop and the (hard) surface helps release that heat. A soft, squishy surface will just trap it and push it right back up into the computer.And a computer with only one fan vent needs all the help it can get.

That said, you should be OK using the laptop on something soft for most of the time. It's when the fan starts spinning that you really should move to something more solid.
To keep an eye on how hot your computer is,\ and how fast the fans are going, I use the free iStat Pro widget.

Hope this helps.


How does iOS app DRM work, exactly? When I purchase an app in iTunes on my Windows computer, I get an *.ipa file that is a self-contained iOS application package. I can browse the contents of these IPA files with 7-Zip and even extract resources and other details, which suggests these IPA files aren't encrypted at all.

So if they aren't encrypted, how does DRM work? What's stopping me from copying an IPA file to someone else's computer and importing the IPA into iTunes and then installing it on someone else's device?

Also, can someone please confirm that so long as I keep the IPA file I will be able to install it to my iDevices (under the same Apple ID, of course)? I'm just concerned that in future an app might be updated to remove features or might even be pulled from the app store completely.

Actually, it works more like SSL. Upon signing up for an Apple account Apple generates a Public/Private Key pair for your username. It then gives you your private key and it keeps your public. (That's why when you first buy or when you restore your iDevice you must activate it with your iTunes account). Upon activation it transfers your private key to your iDevice. Basically what happens is when you buy an app (free or paid) Apple generate a 4096 byte long header that is encrypted with your public key.

If you have any understanding of Public/private keys, the public key can encrypt for it's private pair... For example I would use a servers public key to encrypt data to send to the server. The server would then use it's private key to decrypt it. When it wants to send data back, it uses my public key to encrypt the data and I use my private key to decrypt it! Public keys can only encrypt data and cannot decrypt and vice-versa for private keys.

When you download your app it has a header encrypted with your public key. Only your private key can decrypt the header embedded in the app. So for example, if I copied an IPA generated for you, and put it on my iDevice (this is assuming you can get It there, iTunes would refuse to sync it anyway), and then I tried to run it, it would simply crash because my private key wouldn't be able to decrypt the header! Also its worth noting that the IPA file (an IPA is essentially a zip file that's been renamed) doesn't have the header, if you take a look at the contents of an IPA you will realize that it contains an extension-less file, take Facebook's app for example, it would have a file named 'Facebook'. This is the app's binary, and this is the file that has the encrypted header in it.

Yes, as stated above your apps will continue to run so long as you can remember your Apple ID as the iDevice (and iTunes) does NO signature checking with iTunes what-so-ever! This means you can install removed apps and also sync older IPAs to your device so long as they are yours and you still have the IPA indefinitely!


Alias - 'Show Original' in new tab Update:
After the two answers so far I have moved the goalposts slightly. I need multiple selections & tabs - the existing answers; one has multi-select capability, the other gives me tabs, which I've realised is the way to go.

I decided the best way to keep track of a catalogue of published photographs without disturbing their original hierarchy was to drag aliases across to a separate location.

However, many use-cases require the original; they can't cope with having the alias itself dropped to, eg a web site, or Photos.app

Right click - Show Original insists on showing it inside the same window container, so going back to the alias folder loses its place, the selection is gone. In a large folder, this really tests your memory as to where you were up to.

Is there any way to force it to open in a new window, similar to Cmd/double-clicking a folder, thus keeping your place in the folder of aliases?

Currently on High Sierra 10.13.4

I looked around and found an applescript (which can be turned into a shortcut) that does just want you want. Unfortunately, it's not super simple like it should be. It's better than nothing though, and you only need to do this once. It will save you time in the long run.

1) Open Automator.

2) Create new 'Service'

3) Set Service receives to 'no input' in 'Finder'

4) add 'Run applescript'

5) put this code inside it:

-- duplicateFinderTab.scpt
-- Uses a hacky workaroud to duplicate the frontmost Finder tab,
-- since Apple hasn't provided great AppleScript support for this.

----------------------------------------------
on run {}
    tell application "Finder"
        if (count of Finder windows) > 0 then set duplicate_me to target of front Finder window
        set _sel to the selection
    end tell

    new_tab()

    tell application "Finder"
        set target of front Finder window to duplicate_me
        select _sel
    end tell

    open_orig()

end run

----------------------------------------------
on new_tab()
    tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
        set frontmost to true
        tell front menu bar to tell menu "File" to tell menu item "New Tab"
            perform action "AXPress"
        end tell
    end tell
end new_tab
----------------------------------------------
on open_orig()
    tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
        set frontmost to true
        tell front menu bar to tell menu "File" to tell menu item "Show Original"
            perform action "AXPress"
        end tell
    end tell
end open_orig

6) save it (if you open a finder window, and have your alias selected, then go back to automator and hit 'run', then it will work at this point) -- Note: it may prompt you to add 'Automator' to the 'System Preferences' -> 'Security & Privacy' -> 'Accessibility' permissions.

7) in system preferences go to 'keyboard' -> 'shortcuts' -> 'services' -> 'whatever you named it' .. pick a shortcut (like "^-CMD-O").

Other things:

It may require you to do this once:

when finder is selected, in the menu,

'Finder' -> 'Services' -> 'whatever you named it'

or if it didn't appear:

'Finder' -> 'Services' -> 'Services Preferences..' -> check the box in system preferences that your application is called

There are other permission errors you might receive depending on how your system is set up, however, you should notice that the script DOES work when you hit 'run' on step 6 or after step 5. Just first select the file in the finder then swap over to the automator app and hit 'run'.

And if everything worked smoothly for you, the cmd-cntl-O shortcut should work for you, so you can do that shortcut, (which opens a new tab of the same selection), then right click and select 'show original'

Edit by OP
If you receive an error "com.automator.runner.xpc is not allowed assistive access" then the workaround is not obvious.
You cannot add com.automator.runner.xpc itself to Assistive Access, nor does adding Automator or Automator Runner help, however after a reboot the clue was that two errors were triggered, not just one.

Adding Finder itself to Assistive Access allowed the script to run.


Rescue light red Time Machine backups after El Capitan Update Here is my story:

Oct 2: I have Yosemite Installed and configured Time Capsule taking regular backups.
Oct 3: I update Yosemite to El Capitan
El Capitan installation halts at 14% for 2hrs
I force-restart my machine several times but the update never goes through
I format my primary OSX partition and want to setup my mac again.
I start recovery process from boot
try to find my time machine but it shows my ONLY FULL Backup is 18th Sep (which is not what I want)
I use the same, restore using that 18th Sep backup.
When the restore process completes, my MAC is somehow updated to El Capitan with my data from 18th Sep backup
Now I configure my Time Machine again, it shows my last backup of 4th Oct but its light-red bar (slowly blinking from very light to light red bar)
I can't seem to access that 2nd Oct backup

Can anyone share if they have felt same, attaching screenshots for reference.

Hit “enter Time Machine”
Press the key combination shift-command-C
Then (very important) select a red bar to go back in time
Explanation: dull red bars represent backups you cannot access, bright red bars you can
Then from Macintosh HD navigate to desired folder you want to restore
Backups will now be accessible and you can select the folder you want to restore.


What's the MacOS equivalent for Ctrl+Shift+V? If you use the keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + V on Windows, it usually pastes the text from the clipboard without formatting.

Is there an equivalent shortcut for macOS?

Not all apps support this (MS Office, I'm looking at you) but many do including Apple's Apps.

Though is not without formatting Per Se. It is actually Paste and Match Style and you do it with:

  ShiftCommandOptionv


How to determine quickly what is the currently running OS volume? Is there a quick way to find the volume on which is located the current running OS ? I've noticed that the sort order of the volumes list can be changed manually, so the current system volume is not always on the top of the list.

PS : And, in my case, of course, there are several volumes with a System Folder.

If in terminal, one could type open / which opens a Finder window for the root (similar to what @andersmoldin described).

You could also drag the volume's icon to the Finder's sidebar for quick access later on.

Or you could drag it to the Dock.


Public Wifi spot + "Not trusted" = Danger? Occasionally, when trying to connect to open Wifi spots (unknown to me)...

... my iPhone gives me a warning about the server identity...

... and shows a dialog that looks like a certificate confirmation to me.

Needless to say I cancelled the operation, and made a mental note to ask you, dear reader:

Am I in danger? What is happening here? And why does it say www.apple.com in the second screen?

This is happening usually because the router itself is doing some sort of proxy or authentication. You would usually see something like this in a public area where you need to 'log in' to get access.

iOS (and I think the Mac too) goes to look for a known file on one of Apple's servers. If that file doesn't exist (which basically means it can't reach it), it knows there must be some go-between first. It then will display this sheet, usually asking you to log in or accept the terms.

If the location is legitimate, I usually have no issue doing this. For example, businesses or restaurants that advertise free wifi service. I know the place I see this the most is at a grocery store I frequent. You must first click 'agree' on a form before moving on.

Also, the reason the cert is invalid is because until you 'authenticate', that router usually tries to forward all requests to its internal page. So, if you had an HTTPS connection open on apple.com, the device complains because apple.com is now resolving to that local router.


Where to does macOS's iTunes save iPhone's back data? I have done a backup of data from my iPhone to my macOS.

And I don't know where iTunes saved it to on my computer. No notification, no pop ups, just nothing. Just latest backup time. How can I know where my data is on my computer?

On macOS your backups are in /Users/your username/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup.

Open Finder, and select the “Go” menu at the top of the screen. Hold the Option key, and select the “Library” menu option from the Go menu. (On Lion and above, Library will only appear with the Option key held.)
From Library, navigate to Application Support -> MobileSync -> Backup.

Source (from a blog post I wrote on the topic): https://deciphertools.com/blog/where-are-iphone-backups/


Can Facebook Messenger spy on me to the degree many sites are claiming? Its going around now that Facebook is attempting to shift its Messaging users from using the main Facebook app to the Facebook Messenger app. Many sites have posted stories (though admittedly dated) about the app's Terms of Service and its alleged capabilities.

Many of the permissions the app asks for strike me as technically impossible given iOS's sandboxing, but I'm not an iOS developer and can't speak to that with certainty.

Here's what the HuffingtonPost lists:

  Allows the app to change the state of network connectivity

  Allows the app to call phone numbers without your intervention. This
  may result in unexpected charges or calls. Malicious apps may cost you
  money by making calls without your confirmation.

  Allows the app to send SMS messages. This may result in unexpected
  charges. Malicious apps may cost you money by sending messages without
  your confirmation.

  Allows the app to record audio with microphone. This permission allows
  the app to record audio at any time without your confirmation.

  Allows the app to take pictures and videos with the camera. This
  permission allows the app to use the camera at any time without your
  confirmation.

  Allows the app to read you phone's call log, including data about
  incoming and outgoing calls. This permission allows apps to save your
  call log data, and malicious apps may share call log data without your
  knowledge.

  Allows the app to read data about your contacts stored on your phone,
  including the frequency with which you've called, emailed, or
  communicated in other ways with specific individuals.

  Allows the app to read personal profile information stored on your
  device, such as your name and contact information. This means the app
  can identify you and may send your profile information to others.

  Allows the app to access the phone features of the device. This
  permission allows the app to determine the phone number and device
  IDs, whether a call is active, and the remote number connected by a
  call.

  Allows the app to get a list of accounts known by the phone. This may
  include any accounts created by applications you have installed.

"The Insidiousness of Facebook Messenger's Mobile App Terms of Service" - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-fiorella/the-insidiousness-of-face_b_4365645.html#

It seems to me that there wouldn't even be APIs available for most of these actions.

Is it possible for Facebook Messenger to spy on me to this degree?

This answer is from a public API point of view. Jailbreaking will obviously change this. The permissions are clearly from Android where apps have much more 'free' access to the device—this is what the permissions translate to from an iOS point of view for this site.

  Allows the app to change the state of network connectivity

Not going to happen. Apps can only read certain information such as Wi-Fi info (including but not limited to SSID, BSSID, vendor, IP, subnet mask and received/sent total since boot) and cellular info (including but not limited to carrier, country, network type, IP, MCC, MNC and received/sent total cellular data since boot). Apps can not change any kind of network information; they can't even change the Wi-Fi network.

  Allows the app to call phone numbers without your intervention. This may result in unexpected charges or calls. Malicious apps may cost you money by making calls without your confirmation.

Nope, making a call using tel:// (or telprompt://) throws a huge dialog box on the screen at the OS level requiring the user to press Call or Cancel. As the dialog is at OS level, the app can't simply bypass it. The connection can't take place unless Call is pressed. Also, as this requires confirmation for each call, the call can't take place in the background without user interaction.

  Allows the app to send SMS messages. This may result in unexpected charges. Malicious apps may cost you money by sending messages without your confirmation.

This is the same as calling. Using MFMessageCompose requires user confirmation at an OS level and can't happen in the background as discussed above.

  Allows the app to record audio with microphone. This permission allows the app to record audio at any time without your confirmation.

Attempting to access the microphone throws an OS level alert at the time the access is first requested by the app. Subsequent attempts at accessing the microphone will not require confirmation, but only when the app is in the foreground. Using the microphone in the background shows a double-height red status bar to inform the user of the case and using the microphone in the background must be initiated by an app that was in the foreground when the access was requested. Access can be removed from the app at any time in Settings → Privacy → Microphone.

  Allows the app to take pictures and videos with the camera. This permission allows the app to use the camera at any time without your confirmation.

Pictures do not require any special permission until iOS 8 and will then throw an alert like the microphone. Video requires the microphone permission, which throws an alert.

  Allows the app to read you phone's call log, including data about incoming and outgoing calls. This permission allows apps to save your call log data, and malicious apps may share call log data without your knowledge.

Nope, apps have no access to your recent calls list. The data is not accessible through APIs and is stored outside of any app's sandbox.

  Allows the app to read data about your contacts stored on your phone, including the frequency with which you've called, emailed, or communicated in other ways with specific individuals.

Contacts access is granted through an OS level alert. This grants read/write access to the contacts themselves, but no further information. Communication frequency, etc, is not able to be obtained as discussed for the previous permission.

  Allows the app to read personal profile information stored on your device, such as your name and contact information. This means the app can identify you and may send your profile information to others.

This can only be obtained through the access of the 'me' card in your contacts, which requires the user grant specific permission at an OS level as discussed above.

  Allows the app to access the phone features of the device. This permission allows the app to determine the phone number and device IDs, whether a call is active, and the remote number connected by a call.

An app can access the phone number that the device was activated with using NSUserDefaults. Note that this is the phone number the device was activate with and is not read from the SIM card. The UDID (Unique Device Identifier) was depreciated and Apple no longer accepts apps which access it. I'm not aware of any way to determine whether a call is active using public APIs and definitely not what phone number the call is with.

  Allows the app to get a list of accounts known by the phone. This may include any accounts created by applications you have installed.

Accounts such as Twitter and Facebook require OS level permission to be granted to the app. Other accounts such as mail accounts can not be accessed by other apps. Apps that create accounts such as mail clients store accounts themselves as opposed to using the system's storage and therefore such accounts are not able to be accessed unless that app specifically shares such information in that way (for example, logging in to your Google account in the YouTube app also makes your account available in Google Chrome and visa versa).


Is it possible to copy iPhone data to Mac using Xcode? I connected my iphone to a my friend Mac which running Xcode to debug an app. After plugging, I clicked "Trust [this computer]" and it took some time to detect the device in Xcode. While debugging, he opened a window which I saw my photos on my device and he switched back again to debug window.

After fixing the app bug, I asked him to un-sync my device and he told me your data is just synced with itunes and when you unplug your device, I cannot see your data (photos) any more.

Actually, I am not convinced and I am thinking wherther he copied my iPhone data including my photos to his computer or not. I am sure he did not use iTunes during this process.

Can anybody tell me it is possible to copy iPhone data to Mac during Xcode debugging?

The window that popped up was probably the Photos app, that will typically auto start when a new device with photos is attached. Your friend did the right thing by closing it when he saw it happen. No copies of your photos would have been made at this time, only thumbnails were downloaded and those would be removed when Photos was closed.

He theoretically could have copied some data, but Xcode will not automatically copy anything sensitive, so unless he is a really sneaky 'friend' that set up his Mac to copy in the background in advance, I think you are probably OK.


How to create a new partition on FileVault disk on MacOS I have a 500GB disk on MacOS encrypted with FileVault 2.

I have successfully resized the disk to 250GB.

Now I want to create another partition to install another MacOS on the 250GB free-space of the disk.

But DiskUtility failed on me, it just can't create the new partition I wanted and showed me no error at all.

How could I safely create the new partition I need?

This the result printed out from the command $ sudo gpt -r show disk0

          start       size  index  contents
              0          1         PMBR
              1          1         Pri GPT header
              2         32         Pri GPT table
             34          6
             40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
         409640  488940896      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      489350536    1269760      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
      490620296  486484731
      977105027         32         Sec GPT table
      977105059          1         Sec GPT header

Your 500 GB disk has about 250 GB of unallocated disk space (starting at block 490620296 and ending at block 977105026).

To create a new partition in the unallocated disk space you have to boot to another boot disk.

Preparation:

Attach a backup drive and backup your drive.
Detach the backup drive
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Yosemite or El Capitan). If you boot to a full system and login as admin you have to prepend sudo to execute some commands like gpt ... or newfs_hfs ...!

Modify the GUID partition table and add a new partition

Enter diskutil list and gpt -r show /dev/diskX (with diskX: the disk identifier of your internal disk (probably disk0)) to get an overview. In the commands below I assume the disk identifier is disk0.
Now add a new partition with:

gpt add -b StartBlock -i IndexNumber -s size -t type disk #size has to be dividable through 8!

In your case:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk2 #unmount the FileVault2 volume if unlocked
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 490620296 -i 4 -s 486484728 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Get the disk identifier of the new partition

diskutil list #probably disk0s4

Format the new partition:

newfs_hfs -v "Volume Name" -J /dev/disk0s4

To quit Terminal enter:

exit

and quit Terminal
Open Disk Utility to verify the new volume
Reboot

In case you want to move the recovery partition to the end of the disk first

This is not recommended if your first main volume is encrypted with FileVault2. The first Recovery HD contains some encryption keys to unlock the FileVault2 volume. Moving/changing the Recovery HD may render your FileVault2 volume unaccessible and useless.

Create a new recovery partition and clone the old one:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk2 #unmount the FileVault2 volume if unlocked
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 975835264 -i 4 -s 1269760 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0
dd if=/dev/disk0s3 of=/dev/disk0s4

remove the old recovery partition and add a new normal partition

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt remove -i 3 /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 489350536 -i 3 -s 486484728 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Get the disk identifier of the new partition

diskutil list #probably disk0s3

Format the new partition:

newfs_hfs -v "Volume Name" -J /dev/disk0s3

To quit Terminal enter:

exit

Open Disk Utility to verify the new volume
Reboot


Remote login into Windows from Mac using Remote Desktop Client and VPN I am trying to login into my work computer (Win7) which is in a private network through the Remote Desktop Client (RDC) after connecting through VPN. The VPN gets connected but the RDC does not. It tells me that the remote computer might not be connected or switched on, both of which are not true. The VPN is of Cisco IPSec type. I have tried changing the DNS of the VPN but it doesnt help. I am running OSX 10.9.3.Any solutions?

I do this all the time and more often than not it is a subtle configuration issue on the PC side.

But first (once your VPN is active) open up terminal and ping one of your servers, network devices, workstations or a printer by IP address. One that you know will respond to a ping when you are AT work (EG no firewalls or stealth mode)

Once you have verified that you know that connectivity is there you want to verify that RDP works from one PC to another INSIDE your network. EG can you RDP in from someone else's PC to the PC you want to get to?

This should start you on the way. The first one to verify your VPN is working right and the second to verify your workstation responds properly to RDP requests.

That will significantly narrow down your search to your VPN connection being mis configured or an issue with your firewall and VPN or possibly your workstation having an RDP issue.

The new MS Remote Desktop for the Mac works very well (just remember that a two finger tap is a right click) and I have had no issues connecting with a variety of Win7, XP workstations and 2003, 2008, 2012 servers. so it is unlikely that is a problem.

And one more thing, do you have Little Snitch configured to block MS Remote Desktop?


How does the "Unicode Hex Input" input source work? How can I enter a character using that input source? I tried entering a tab character with ⌥+0009, but I didn't get anything. Viceversa, with ⌥+9999, I get 香.

Am I doing anything wrong, or doesn't the input source allow to enter control codes?

I tested those codes on Firefox 4.

You are right by pressing Option ⌥+0009.

My guess would be that Firefox, like many browsers, doesn't like tab characters (especially with forms). Try in TextEdit; it should work there.


How to test a Macbook Air battery hardware integrity I spilled water on my Macbook Air last week. The technician had to remove the battery because it wasn't charging. Without battery, the computer runs fine.

I'm thinking of purchasing another battery, however, I want to ensure that the problem is effectively the battery and not something else.

How can I test the battery and determine whether that's the cause of the problem, so I can decide whether to purchase another one or not?

Hopefully, without another Macbook Air. I can't insert my battery into a working Macbook Air because I don't own another one and I don't know anyone who does.

There are some apps on the app store that do similar things. Here's a free one I found: Battery Health, but it might not be the best (it was just at the top of the list and looked good).

But guessing from things I heard before, it was probably a part of computer circuitry that was damaged, and most likely the apps won't be able to tell if the problem is really the battery or the computer.

Three other suggestions that might help:

1) Carefully use a volt meter to check the battery (this probably won't work though, because computer batteries are really complicated with lots of different electric pins, and you may end up braking the battery even more).

2) Go to an Apple store and ask them if you can put the battery into one of their computers, or try one of their batteries in your's. If (like me) you don't live near on of those kind of stores, you can try asking around in your local computer repair stores.

3) Gently clean the electronic connections of the battery with a q-tip and 100% isopropyl alcohol. 100% is best, but it's really had to find. So some slightly lower percentages might be alright too. If possible, make sure the battery is completely drained before trying this as it can cause a short circuit if there's power to it. You can also clean your computer's connections with it just to be sure that there is no dried-on gunk preventing contact between the battery and the computer.

Hope this helps :)


When accessing my Windows DFS share on my Mac machine, it shows empty folder I have a domain server mydomain.com and a DFS server which is part of mydomain.com. DFS server has a share with namespace //mydomain.com/Datashare, which points to a TestData folder inside the machine. TestData has few files 1.txt,2.txt.
When i access my DFS share on a windows machine it mounts the share and shows the folder TestData with files 1.txt and 2.txt.
When I access same share on my Mac machine it mounts the share and dispalys TestData folder. however it does not show any file inside this folder.
Someone discuss a solution of setting same search domain on Mac machine as AD sets on windows but that solution does not work for me.

In Mac AD domain join does not add any search domain that might be needed to access domain services. after adding search domain for AD Domain, system was able to show files inside DFS shared folders.


Wifi access mechanism IOS Could someone explain to me how exactly an iPhone detects a Wifi hotspot? I mean i want to know the exact working of it. How does it know of all the networks that are present in the location? How often does it check for the networks ?

The 802.11 specification has a standard for Beacon Frames that get sent periodically to broadcast all the details about a particular hotspot.

All Apple hardware for Wi-Fi implements this specification and the radio just has to listen for beacon frames over a period of time and present those options to the software.

I don't have a analysis or trace of the specific chipset within any iPhone, but my experience is that the device joins known networks within a second or so of coming into range of a network that is saved and set to be auto joined. Also, it would clearly start listening for beacon frames as soon as you turned on Wi-Fi from exiting Airplane mode, starting up or waking from sleep.


Where can I find specific Apple firmware like early 2011 SMC 1.69f3 I would like to load a specific firmware from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
My research shows the MacBook Pro early 2011 SMC 1.69f3 seems to be stable. I use links on apple website shows "page not found" when clicked on the update 1.5. Can someone please help me provide the SMC 1.69f3.
Are there places to download this software?

For most people, I recommend always going forward, never backward. I’m sure someone has squirreled away copies, but I don’t have any source I trust to get old firmware.
There are ways to flash firmware without Apple’s loader process - How to downgrade SMC firmware

As you notice, since the updates now happen when you install macOS updates and
upgrades the older Apple page is archived and not maintained or migrated to the new hosting support sites.
In the case you seek to down level, I've not ever seen that work. I’m not saying you couldn’t be the first case to achieve that, but the issues tend to be failing hardware and not that the newer firmware has some bug Apple doesn’t then fix with even newer patch.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, just my experience is this hasn’t helped in the past. I hope you prove me wrong in this case and can report success getting the code and that it helps as you expect. Documenting it publicly and the checksum of known good firmware will be a service to everyone.
Keeping “obsolete” or “vintage” gear in full operation makes me very happy and is a worthy goal.


New Macbook Pro 2012 Operating System onto new SSD? A friend has just bought a brand new Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion OS. We are going to install an SSD to replace the standard HD that it shipped with, however, it looks like Apple don't ship with the OS on DVD any more. They have informed him there is a backup of the OS on another partition of the drive that his MBP shipped with.

My question is, bearing in mind this MBP hasn't been used yet - there is nothing to back up, we just want to install his fresh OS on the new SSD drive, what is the best way to go about this?

Macs that shipped with Lion or newer come with a recovery feature which is part of the EFI firmware, so that if the hard drive fails, or you install a new hard drive without OS X, the computer can start recovery directly from the internet over a broadband connection.

To start Recovery, hold down the Command + R keys while booting. The interface is pretty straightforward after that and you should be able to figure it out.

Apple also has as support article on OS X Recovery, and one on which models can support internet recovery through a firmware update.


Very high kernel_task CPU usage after updating to Yosemite 10.10.4 I updated to 10.10.4 on July 1, and ever since I've had very high CPU usage - roughly 270%, i.e. two and a half of four processors - by kernel_task.

It appears on login for about five minutes, then drops to 0.  If I start Safari or Chrome or Parallels, it reappears, and this makes me wonder if it's related to the network.  I know there were DNS changes in 10.10.4 - could it be related?

I have:

Tried running without external displays (there are several bugs about high CPU usage with an external monitor)
Removed all login items, and all automatically starting apps
Removed all items in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/StartupItems
Checked I don't have anything odd installed. The only thing was flux, and I removed it.  I do still have Crashplan installed but ensured it was set to only work twice a week - which is not today. I also have and use Parallels Desktop 10 (latest update), and sometimes it seems the high CPU usage is related to starting it. However, quitting it does not restore CPU usage to normal.
I don't think it is heat-related; the CPU temperature is the low end of normal, and fans are running normally, and the laptop has good airflow and I can't feel "hot" air coming from it, only normal temperature air.
Booted in safe mode. This was fine and I had normal CPU usage. This makes me think it must be a kernel driver or similar issue.
I ran EtreCheck, which shows the only kexts loaded are com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7), com.parallels.kext.netbridge (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7), com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7), and com.parallels.kext.vnic (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7).
However, my battery health is 'Check Battery' - could that be related? Despite the health status, it has done 590 cycles and this model is supposed to only be consumed at 1000. Odd; not sure why that would be / what it means.
System.log: nothing obvious. I sat watching it for several minutes and didn't see anything added to it. Scrolling back showed lots of messages, but nothing that seemed like fast repeated failures or anything that might explain constant CPU usage. I browsed the other logs as well and didn't spot anything.

Examining Activity Monitor, all CPU usage is shown as in kernel_task itself, not any descendant apps.

I have an early 2011 model 15" MBP, which up until 10.10.4 Yosemite ran really well on.

Any ideas on how to analyze and resolve the issue?

PS: Although the weather is hot (it's 35 degrees C - Europe is having a heatwave) it is unlikely to be this issue since smcFanControl shows a steady 65-67 degrees C, the low end of a normal temperature range. Both fans are spinning at 6000RPM, but that too is normal. Ambient temperature today and yesterday is the same as it was before I installed 10.10.4, but the high CPU usage of kernel_task occurred only when 10.10.4 was installed.  That's the key difference. Something in relation to 10.10.4 causes high CPU usage.

As far as I am concerned kernel_task was always trying to tell me that the computer is running hot. It seems to be a strange countermeasure which occupies the CPU with a low energy No-Op task which prevents it from doing "hotter" things. So you should be looking for that "other" process eating up the rest of your CPU time.

However I noticed very high CPU usage of Safari ever since I update do Yosemite 10.10.4. The browser visibly (in Activity Monitor) starts several processes now and two of them (Safari Networking and nsurlstoraged) routinely take up a lot of CPU, especially Safari Networking often takes more than 50% of one CPU. It seems to be less constant now, so maybe there is some "trickle down" effect on this one.


iMessages Not In Sync My iPod, iPad, and Mac are all used for sending iMessages. However, when I send a message from one device and have a conversation with someone else, the sent and received messages don't usually appear on the other devices. This makes for strange breaks in the conversation thread when switching between devices. What could be a reason for this?

Just yesterday, Brian X Chen posted a similar problem. The solution he suggested is to uninstall Messages Beta on your Mac.


Copying data from unbootable Macbook I have a Macbook unibody c. 2012 that will not boot (a coffee spill did it in).  I suspect the hard disk is ok and I would like to connect it to another machine to try to copy data off.  I'd like a "casual" interface, ala USB or firewire, as I may not have a similar laptop to use as a bootable host (I do have an older, non-unibody Macbook, however).

Is there some cabling I can procure that could allow me to do this?

tone

You can use this iFixit guide -or the one for your specific MacBook, if this isn't- to remove the hard drive, but in short:

Remove the lower case
Disconnect the battery (with care, as you may break the connector)
Remove the hard drive

Then put your hard drive on a USB 3 case and you're ready to plug it to any Mac or HFS capable Windows or Linux machine to recover your data.


Startup Manager not showing Bootable USB drive I am trying to create a fresh install of OS X on a MacBook Pro (2009 - A1278 - El Capitan 10.11.6 - 2.26Ghz - 8GB DDR3 - 240SSD) so I can sell it.
My problem is, I have created a USB bootable drive with Yosemite, which does not show in the Startup Manager.
I have formatted the USB to Mac OS (Extended Journal) and made 1 Partition in the GUID format. I used the file command in Terminal from Apple (for Yosemite) which all appears to be working. I tested the USB on my 2011 iMac and can view it on that Startup Manager. However on the MBP 2009 running EL Capitan I am not given the option to boot from.
Can anyone help?
P.S I upgraded the HDD to a SSD and cloned an old version of my El Capitan off my Time Machine Backup I had.

The USB drive should have an EFI partition, which contains files needed to make the drive bootable, in addition to the MacOS formatted partition containing the actual system to boot. The below command should handle all of that for you though.

I have formatted the USB to Mac OS (Extended Journal) and made 1 Partition in the GUID format. I used the file command in Terminal from APPLE (for Yosemite) which all appears to be working. I tested the USB on my 2011 iMAC and can view it on that 'Startup Manager'. However on the MBP 2009 running 'EL Capitan'I am not given the option to boot from.

I'm not sure if the below command is what you refer to here. Running the command in Terminal where you have "Install OS X Yosemite.app" in your applications folder should create a bootable USB drive.
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume '/Volumes/MyVolume' --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app
Be sure to replace /Volumes/MyVolume with your USB drive which you can find with ls /Volumes
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
If you've already tried the above solutions which I assume to have, try resetting the PRAM:

You can reset the pram by doing the following:

Shut down the Mac.
Locate the following four keys: option, command, p and r. You'll need them in the next step.
Power on the Mac, then immediately hold option, command, p and r. You need to do this before the grey screen appears.
Hold down the keys until you hear the startup sound twice, then release them.
Plug in the bootable USB stick, restart the Mac, and hold option.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/163327/383607


Full screen YouTube still shows Dock and Menu Bar Whenever I bring a video to fullscreen on YouTube (on Chrome or Safari), the video will go to fullscreen but the dock and menu bar remain visible, covering the top and bottom parts of the video. They used to be hidden when I went to fullscreen, so I don't know what happened. How do I fix this?

If none of that works, open Terminal and enter killall Dock.


Late 2015 iMac 27 freezes than crashes and restarts - often and apparently randomly I purchased this late 2015 iMac 27 with built in 8GB of memory in September of 2016.  Shortly thereafter I replaced the original memory with Adamanta 32GB (4x8GB) Apple Memory Upgrade for Late 2015 iMac 27" DDR3L 1867Mhz PC3-14900 SODIMM 2Rx8 CL13 1.35v RAM from Amazon.  I also cloned my internal drive to an external SSD drive, and use that as the startup disk.

Everything worked fine along with significantly better performance.  I did however, start experiencing freezes, and after 20 seconds or so, a reboot.  These appear to be random, although mostly while using a web browser - usually Safari, and they continue to this day.  I may go a week or so without a crash, but sometimes I get several in one day.

Not sure if this would have happened without the third party additions as they were done about a week after purchase.  I suppose I could reinstall the original memory, and possibly clone back to the internal drive and see what happens.  But the computer is still under warranty, and I purchased Applecare+ (something I wouldn't have done in the past, but my own experience with a MacBook Pro and friends' experiences with Apple products, it seems they're not what they used to be) so I figured I'd take it straight to the Apple Store.  I saw this site and decided to give it a try before I do that though.

I'm running under El Capitan version 10.11.6.

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

You used a different type of RAM than specified by Apple. It's a small difference, but it is possible that it caused the effect you are describing. You purchased this RAM:

  DDR3L 1867Mhz PC3-14900 SODIMM 2Rx8 CL13 1.35v RAM

Apple's site specifies this RAM:

  PC3-14900 Unbuffered Nonparity 204-pin 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM

What's the difference?
It's DDR3 vs DDR3L.
The "L" stands for low powered. Standard Apple RAM, and replacement RAM from sites such as OWC, operate at 1.5V. Your DDR3L RAM operates on 1.35V.


esc button OS X needs to be released on every command In terminal I use escB  or escF  to jump through the words.

If I want 2x back I've to do escB twice. Otherwise I just start typing F or B in Terminal.

The modifier keys ctrl / alt /cmd work differently e.g. I can hit control and than hit AAA EEEE multiple times without a need to release control button. So go to end of line twice would be ctrlEE and this would work (don't mind the fact that this is pointless end of line is end of line)

Is there a way to achieve same with esc modifier?

selecting Use option as meta key allows alt/option to be used instead of esc.


Permanently set audio output to headphones I am pretty sure I have a faulty audio jack on my 13-inch, early 2011 MacBook Pro, given that I've spilled some liquid on it a while back.

Ever since, it's been bad at detecting whether headphones are plugged in or not, and recently it got worse, to the point where it almost never detects them being in and always plays audio through speakers instead.

Is there a way to simply force audio to always go to headphones, whether it thinks they're plugged in or not? I almost never use the speakers anyway, so this would make my life significantly easier while I wait for the new MacBooks to come out.

To clarify a bit: I've tried a bunch of solutions that attempt to repair the hardware, but I've given up on that. I'm just looking for a way to force the driver to send stuff to the jack regardless of what it thinks is happening.

There are a few things that could have happened to your headphone jack.

You may have a stuck headphone port switch, in which case you'll need to try to pop it out using one of these methods:

Insert and remove your headphone plug a few times to reset the switch
Blow compressed air into the headphone port to clean it out
Gently insert a stick, like a cotton swab stripped of cotton or a toothpick, into the port and gently move it around to dislodge the switch

Above: The official headphone port switch diagram for a Mac computer.

Your MacBook could also have trouble detecting the sound output device. Try option-clicking the Sound icon in the menu bar and slecting your headphones in the Output dropdown, or navigating to System Preferences > Sound > Output, and then selecting your headphones from the list.

If these tips don't work, it's a good idea to bring your MacBook into the Apple Store to have somebody look at it.
If you have AppleCare, this kind of thing should be covered by warranty. If not, you may have to fork over a bit of money. It's up to you to decide if that's worth it or not.

  In conclusion, there isn't any built-in way to force the audio to always go to the headphone jack besides selecting them in System Preferences or from the menu bar.


Delete Key Repeat on macOS Sierra 10.12.0 Broken Holding down a key on the keyboard does not cause it to repeat correctly.  The key will repeat, but only after 2 seconds or so.  In some cases it doesn't repeat at all.  There are a few suggestions floating around in forums but none seem to correct the problem.

Settings in preferences are ignored:

Interestingly, key repeat does seem to work in Terminal, but that's the exception.  It's broken in Notes, Mail, TextEdit, etc.

Any ideas?

This bug was fixed by Apple in macOS 10.12.1, released a few hours after I wrote the above ...


Why can't I find PackageMaker? As far as I know, the PackageMaker should be part of "Auxiliary tools for Xcode" and can be downloaded from https://developer.apple.com/downloads. However I cannot see the "Auxiliary tools for Xcode" download (using free developer account).

What am I missing?
Is it because of the free account?
Where can I find the PackageMaker?

Download Auxiliary Tools for Xcode - Late July 2012 from http://developer.apple.com/downloads - it works on OS X 10.11 fine.


How to have Gnome-like ALT + TAB window manager? In Gnome using ALT + TAB you get a window manager to navigate to the child windows of Firefox or Google Chrome:

In macOS holding CMD + press TAB gives similar window manager but you cant navigate to the child window's of Firefox or Google chrome:

Is there any similar macOS tool like Gnome's?

I hear https://bahoom.com/hyperswitch but not sure if it's like Gnome. Is there some more similar so that I can pick up the best similar and share the experience.

OSX 10.12.6 with third party app: https://bahoom.com/hyperswitch/get
Following is possible.