I don't want to use Apple's Mail.app on macOS - Any unintended consequences? Mail app is using 10GB on my laptop (High Sierra 10.13.3). I don't use it at all; I usually use the web interface and occasionally Thunderbird for my Gmail account.

This is the only Mail-connected account in Internet Accounts. If I were to uncheck it in Internet Accounts for my Gmail account so that I can delete the cache and free up some space, is there the possibility of any unintended consequences? For example, will I somehow stop getting email reminders of things in my BusyCal calendar? Or some other possibility that I am unaware of?

It is safe to remove your Gmail account from Mail.app without any unintended consequences, as all the Gmail data is stored on Google's servers.

Also, there’s no harm in never setting up any mail account in Mail.app for macOS. The system does want to have a default mail app, so if you click a mailto://hi@me.com link, it will open Mail.app. Mail will then try to onboard a new account, but you can end that action easily by not choosing to continue.

Simply removing a Gmail account from Mail.app won't delete any of your Gmail data (although performing any action on any of the mail or folder will reflect the changes in Gmail). This is the same for any purely cloud based IMAP mail services (iCloud as well as Gmail) where deleting the local cache leaves the server copies of all mail intact.

The only small caution is if you save mails locally and delete a copy from the server - maybe make a quick backup of your Mac or export your local mails to an export file or folder just in case you fear you’ll delete those and want them back.


Personal hotspot hosts count incorrect on iPhone Sometimes when I share my Internet network from my iPhone 6 Plus to other devices via Wi-Fi, the status bar shows '3 connections' when I really know that I only have 2 connections: sometimes I get one phantom connection to my iPhone (I guess) via Personal Hotspot.

Why does this occur and how can I prevent it?

Yes indeed if your phone is connected to the computer not necessarily in order to sync, it counts it up.  You can easily check by looking at the blue bar with the count on it, unplugging the phone and waiting for the change. Then plug it back in.  It confused me as well because I plug my phone onto a desk stand for charging so I hadnt noticed.  One day the office internet was out and I shared my hotspot to my laptop and noticed the count of 2.

You might also have a device lying around that you might have forgotten about, like an iPad in your car near your window or an old phone in your desk drawer.  That happened to me once :-)


I can´t receive an app transfer on iTunes Connect I´m trying to receive an app transfer on my iTunes Connect account, but I can´t be able to do that, because the form to accept the transfer is throwing me this error:

  The phone number must be in a valid format. Preface the phone number
  with ‘+’ followed by the country code (for example, +44 844 209 0611)

It is impossible to continue and I don’t know how to get more help.

If you are unable to initiate the transfer after reading the how-to, contact developer support.
If you don't see that a transfer in has arrived when the sender sees it processed, contact developer support.
If you have gotten the software to accept the transfer and you just need to wait a day for any bulk processing, then wait a day.

Last resort, https://developer.apple.com/support/


How do I sync an iCal calendar across Lion, Lepoard, and iOS 5? My Dad wants to be able to sync his iCal calendar across a Lion MBP, a Leopard MB, and an iPad running iOS 5. Since the Leopard MB doesn't support iCloud, I can't use that. How can I sync an iCal calendar across all these devices?

I've tried to use Google Calendar, but with no success. Maybe it's the way I'm importing it, but I can't get the colors to show up correctly in iCal. When I link iCal to Google Calendar, I want the calendars to look the same in the sidebar. It is a bit confusing with out a screenshot, but I will post a screenshot as soon as I have my Dad's laptop.

I suggest you use Google Calendar (CalDav). You can import these into iCal (both on iPad and Mac). It sync automatically too, so you can have all iCloud-benefits.

I use it with my girlfriend (who is, sadly enough a windows user) and with my company PC. It works like a charm!


Is there a way to get past versions of an app in App Store? Say you're running Snow Leopard, and there has been a 10.6-compatible version of an app, but the newest version requires Lion or greater. Or, say an app recently received a UI overhaul, and you'd like to buy the version that came before it was changed (perhaps the folder structure changed and broke your applescripts, or you just liked the old one better).

App Store only shows the most recent version of the app, so is there a way to get it to show an older version? I know, you can sometimes try buying directly from the developer, but that's not always an option, and it'll become even more rare as time goes by.

It's not an option as far as I know. If it's an app that you purchased previously, you should be able to roll back using Time Machine (you're using Time Machine, right?). You might also have to roll back the settings files in your Library folder if you want your old settings back.

But if you are looking to purchase a new app you are stuck with the most recently available one.

The good news is that apart from Apple's own software, most developers choose to offer their software directly as well.


Will it notify my mom if i turn my phone on? I got my phone taken away and i found it in my moms dresser turned off. She uses Find my Friends on me so will it notify her if i turn it on? She also pays the bill if that has anything to do with it.

Potentially.

If your mom selected the 'notify when at this location' switch, your phone will notify her when it comes online at your house. It is highly unlikely that this is enabled, though.

However, this will show your phone as online, so if she happens to check Find my Friends while your phone is turned on, she will be able to see it on the map.


Rescuing a hard drive with ddrescue After following a few forums, I was able to rescue my hard drive with ddrescue. It took almost 24 hours, to rescue my files into a .dmg file. When it was completed I double clicked on the dmg file, and I get no mountable file system.

Can anyone help, my first born pictures are on this hard disk, and I would truly be quite upset if I can not retrieve them.

Try to manually mount it:

Open Disk Utility.app
Click File > Open Disk Image
Select the .dmg file.

This should allow you to mount/open the dmg file and install its contents.


Why isn't my ipad saving videos I was emailed? I have an ipad mini and a freind recently emailed me a video.
When I go into the corner and click save video it then does not appear in any of my photo albums.I have been trying for ages and it is very important at I save this video.

Did you check in the Camera Roll? It isn't going to be in an album if you save it on your iphone from your iphone.


Time machine missing backups? Yes, time machine missing backup folders/files has been asked before and gone unaswered. I can't touch those threads as a new, reputationless member.  It's very dissapointing to discover missing folders and files from full time machine backups.

I look forward to answers on this. This is by far one of the most disappointing feeling about Apple and a well recommended way of backing up.

Imac(21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
Processor 2.5 Ghz Intel Core i5
Memory 8GB 1333 DDR3
Mac OS 10.7.5

Folder missing folders and files:

/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/

It is a nasty bug of OSX 10.9 and 10.10 . Some workaround is described here: Time Machine is skipping files and folders. How to fix? by Pete.

... I see you are running 10.7.5. So maybe Apple ruined Time Machine already with Lion. I personally never had the issue with 10.6.8, then directly upgraded to 10.9 and then later discovered missing files in my backups. So you can confirm if the above workaround also helps with OSX 10.7.5 Lion.


Is there any metadata stored in Contacts.app contacts that would store when a contact was created or last edited? I'd like to view my contacts in order of last added in order to remember a few people who's names I now forget but meet this year when busy. The standard Select All… Copy… Paste into numbers as provided here doesn't have fields for record creation date and record edit date.

Wondering if an Applescript or other tool on macOS would make it possible to get this data along with contact data?

You can use AppleScript to get the creation date and modification date of any contact in the Contacts app. Here is an example script that works on the entire Contacts file. At the end, you have a tab-delimited result called "the_text" which you can copy and paste into Numbers or Excel or whatever.

set the_text to ""
--
tell application "Contacts"
    set the_contacts to every person
    repeat with a_contact in the_contacts
        tell a_contact
            set the_name to name
            set long_creation_date to creation date
            set creation_date to short date string of long_creation_date
            set long_modification_date to modification date
            set modification_date to short date string of long_modification_date
            set the_text to the_text & return & the_name & tab & creation_date & tab & modification_date
        end tell
    end repeat
end tell

return the_text

The creation date of a contact is the full date, with time. So is the modification date. They look like this:

"Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 2:11:34 PM"

By asking for the "short date string" of those dates we get dates that look like this:

"7/6/17"

That format may be more useful for you for sorting purposes than the full long date with time.


USB-C power delivery safe? so I bought a USB-C hub for my MacBook Pro 2017,
specifically, this one:

https://www.aukey.com/products/usb-c-to-4-port-usb-3-0-hub-with-hdmi-port-usb-c-charing-port-cb-c58

it has a power delivery USB-C port, and I'm wondering if it safe for my Macbook to always use that port when I have the hub plugged in (so I can use the other USB-C port on the mac for other purposes) or it is better to plug power directly into the Macbook? any technical differences?

This should be perfectly fine, as it's exactly what it's designed to do. The port in question is a USB-C Power Delivery port and the 2017 MBP supports USB-C PD.

Note this hub is not the charger - it is merely providing the means for your 2017 MBP charger to be used to charge your MBP via the hub. As you're still using the Apple charger that came with your MBP, the actual power being delivered directly to your Mac should be the same, so in that sense there should be no technical differences.


MacVim -- how to make Ctrl+A go to beginning of line, Ctrl+E to the end of the line I'm trying to switch to MacVim as my main editor, and I'm liking it so far, except for one issue:

I got really used to the Mac shortcuts control-A to go to the beginning of a line, and control-E to go to the end of a line.

However, these two don't work in MacVim (control-A does something weird -- it seems to increase the last number in a line by 1 or something, and control-E seems to scroll down the screen by one line).

Any way to make these two shortcuts go to the beginning of a line / end of a line respectively instead?

Add the following to .vimrc or .gvimrc:

:" Map Ctrl-A -> Start of line, Ctrl-E -> End of line
:map <C-a> <Home>
:map <C-e> <End>


Recover Meteor JS MongoDB from Time Machine Backup I have recently recovered my Mac with a Time Machine Backup from the beginning of August. Today I ran an existing Meteor JS project and saw that the MongoDB documents were pretty outdated (latest document was from May 25th!).

Do you have any clue how to recover the missing documents? I have made a few backups between May and August but I would like to recover the latest.

Yes - use tmutil to see if the files you are missing were even backed up:

tmutil isexcluded /path/to/the/folder

If you don't have them backed up, you'll have to redo the work. If you did have them backed up, you can copy files using terminal from the destination to your desktop:

cp -rp /Volumes/Backup/Backup.backupdb/host/2015-08-25-000102/Macintosh\ HD/path/to/the/folder ~/Desktop/


Can I increase CPU power of my rMBP 13 by plugging to another computer (target disk mode or other)? I own a MacBook Pro 13" (early 2015). It has a dual-core i5 2,9GHz processor, 8go DDR3 RAM and 512Gb hard disk.

The computer performs well in general. I use it exclusively for web development. My memory usage is quite good, I have a memory pressure around 55% in general.

However, several times in a day my CPU hang up during heavy tasks:

debugging,
indexing in the IDE,
database backup,
and several other docker manipulations.

I was wondering if there is some way to increase my CPU power while working at office.

I read about connecting the MBP to an iMac and booting it in "target disk mode". It appears I can run my system using the hardware of the iMac.

However, it looks like this is rarely used, and I didn't find some good user reports on using it.

So, some questions:

Does it perform really well and really better ?
Can I have a lost of performance because of the use of the thunderbolt port ?
Is it safe ?
Does sofwtare complains about switching from one system to another ?
Are there any other alternatives ?
Does the performance gain can be better than simply upgrading to an early MBP 15 inch ?

To answer your questions quickly:

Yes
No
Very likely
Probably
Not really
Maybe

Explanation:
Note that this is assuming you are booting the laptops SSD drive from the iMac. Basically this operation allows you to use the internal SSD as an external hard drive. If you boot into this drive from another computer, you are now using the resources that the computer you are working on offers. (If you go to about this Mac, you'll see the specs of the iMac you are now using.) This is definitely possible to do, and because thunderbolt speeds are at least 10Gbps (faster than the read/write speeds of the PCIe SSD), the thunderbolt cable will not be a bottleneck. It is very likely safe to do, although you should ALWAYS have a current backup in case something goes sideways. Most software should be ok with the switch, as the SSD's ID is still the same, but it is something you should test out by trying. Again, have a backup in case something goes wrong. Your only other option would be to get a new computer. The performance gain by getting the higher end 15" MBP might work, but iMacs will likely have more power than any laptop because there is more cooling space and less power worries, so Apple can put faster processors in.

TL;DR: if you have an iMac available, that is a great idea! If you'd have to buy an iMac to make this happen, you might want to explore other options.

Please let me know if something was unclear or you have any questions/comments/clarifications about my answer.


Not seeing hard disk in Disk Utility in Internet Recovery Mode System specs: 2010 MacBook Pro Mountain Lion.

It all began with the grey screen and spinning wheel..... there were no prior symptoms indicating problems, plenty of available memory... etc.

I have fsck'd in more ways abd more times than you might be able to imagine
I have used Disk Utility from the Recovery HD in the start up manager and it reported permissions problems.... but also said the hard disk was okay.

Now there is no option to boot from any volume in the start up manager. Only Internet Recovery Mode works, which is how I am writing this.

I clicked on reinstall Mountain Lion, but it reports that it can not and that I must contact Apple Care.
There is no Apple Care where I am located, and I do not have a phone that functions here either.

I looked in Disk Utility and all I see is the greyed out superdrive and then Disk0 base system OS X.
I do not have an external hd or another Mac, and I do not have backups of my files and I would prefer to keep them.

Please let me know why OS X Mountain Lion will not install.

Based on the evidence I believe your hard drive has failed, and needs to be replaced.
You don't have to take it to Apple, there may be authorized repair centres near you.


How to export photos from the new Photos app in full quality? I noticed that the new Photos.app reduces image size on export. If I drag & drop a photo from the Photos library, the size is reduced by at least 50%.

How do I get rid of this behavior and recover my original photo file?

File > Export > Export Unmodified Original...

will export a full size image to the folder of your choice.


accidentally deleted the admin account on my MacBook MacBook Air, 10.13.6 High Sierra.

I tried changing the name of the user on my macbook and accidentally deleted the administrator account. The current user is my user but it says standard under it, there is no admin account on the computer.

I searched on google and I found a solution.  Now, when I shutdown and press Command+S a wall of text appears.  This text is scrolling so quickly that I can't enter any other command.

Here are the commands I found:

First command:
mount -uw /

Second Command:
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

Third Command:
reboot

I also found a solution on this site however, I get the same result with the text moving quickly.

Also, I think I need to mention that my Mac has a problem with wi fi and won't connect when it is not logged in.

What can I do to fix this problem?

The steps you list are for OS older than 10.13. Follow the Apple reset password steps for good results.

How do I recover the administrator or root password on OS X?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201573

Also, I would consider fixing the actual problem. macOS will not let you delete the admin account. You have to have a broken system or run some scripts that could damage anything in addition to the account. Unless you know precisely how you lost your account, it would be better to just back up and reinstall a clean system over top of the existing data and programs.

Same advice when you reset the password, get a backup and be ready to reinstall - perhaps an erase install - your system wasn’t healthy before and getting admin won’t remedy that unhealthy system.


How to run a non-brew app on startup in macOS Sierra I had to install an older version of Elasticsearch (2.3.3) from source.  The binary is located in /opt/local/elasticsearch-2.3.3/bin/ I created the following file

/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.elasticsearch.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>org.elasticsearch</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/opt/local/elasticsearch-2.3.3/bin/elasticsearch</string>
        </array>
        <key>UserName</key>
        <string>root</string>
<!--         <key>GroupName</key>
        <string>staff</string> -->
        <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
        <string>/opt/local/elasticsearch-2.3.3/bin</string>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</plist>

I then issue the following command:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.elasticsearch.plist

When I inquire with sudo launchctl list | grep elastic it returns org.elasticsearch.  But when I check if elasticsearch is running with ps ax | grep elastic it is not running.

Is there something wrong with my .plist file?

Elasticsearch mustn't be run as root. So remove the plist from the launchd database, move the plist to /Library/LaunchAgents (or ~/Library/LaunchAgents), create /opt/local/var and modify it slightly:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>VAR</key>
        <string>VAL</string>
    </dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.elasticsearch</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/opt/local/elasticsearch-2.3.3/bin/elasticsearch</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.elasticsearch.stderr</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.elasticsearch.stdout</string>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/opt/local/var</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Then check /opt/local/elasticsearch-2.3.3 and its subdirs for proper permissions, add EnvironmentVariables if necessary (or remove the key & dict) and load the plist.

If everything works properly you may remove StandardErrorPath and StandardOutPath and their strings.

You may also run it as daemon but with a different user then (i.e. your user name) - depends on your needs/environment.


How to make a Mac mini and MacBook Pro work together (one keyboard for two Macs)? I have one MacBook Pro and two monitors (One monitor and one TV. Both of them are connected to my MacBook Pro).

I use this MacBook for business and development work. I would like to simultaneously use this MacBook for development work and one Mac mini I do not have yet for business work.

I want to be able to use the keyboard + Trackpad of my MacBook Pro for my MacBook and my Mac mini. I also want to display the Mac mini output on one of my two monitors (not on the built-in MacBook Pro display).

Any idea how I could set this up?

Synergy is amazing! You can check it out at http://synergy-foss.org/ it's pretty great software! I use it in my office to use one Keyboard and Mouse for a bunch of machines I have. Even works between OSX, Linux and PCs.

Check out the site... http://synergy-foss.org/ It is a free download! It's pretty awesome stuff. Hope this helps!


Hide month in menu bar in OS X On my MacBook Pro the date is shown like this:

I'd like to remove the word 'Chaitra' from the menu bar (Chaitra is a month of the Hindu calendar). How can I do that?

To change the format of the date, you want to go to your "Language and Text" settings. Click on the "Region" tab at the top, then go to the section under "Dates":

Click on the "Customize..." button, then you should see a whole drag and drop section where you can change how the date is displayed:


Get pages and iMovies free I got macbook pro late 2013 and normally Pages and iMovies they are free for mac after 2013 but when I got to app store I can't get them for free.
Any help here or how to get them free ?

You can check the app store in the purchased section to see if the apps are there, normally if you're using a brand new mac you should be able to find them there. If you bought a second hand mac I don't think you'll be able to get them for free (legally).

There is something i tried a long time ago i'm not sure it's still working, you need to download the iWork ’09 trial Install it, open all of the apps (pages,numbers and keynote), quit the apps, launch the appstore and then update them.

I have no idea how to get iMovies for free.


TODO manager with hierarchical TODOs? I use KDE4 on my Linux machines, one of the tools I use a lot is KOrganizer. I love its TODO list which supports hierarchical (nested) tasks.

Could someone recommend a similar application for Mac? If it could synchronize with CalDAV server, that would be great. So far I failed to find any such tool.

This might be more than what you're looking for, but OmniFocus is the best solution that I'm aware of that meets your stated requirements.

It does do nested tasks.  If you're a fan of Getting Things Done, OmniFocus will feel pretty familiar to the workflow described therein.  If you're not into GTD, OF still works, although the terminology might not feel quite so obvious.

It supports WebDAV, not CalDAV.  If you're running your own CalDAV server, you might be fine here.  If sync (not necessarily CalDAV sync) is your real goal, the Omni Group has an Omni Sync Server that's available to all of its customers, and it works well.

There are also OmniFocus apps for iPhone and iPad, which have generally good reviews.


Photos Library Space Usage I started cleaning up my Mac and I've noticed that the Photos App's Library was using roughly 72,5GB (info I see in ~/Photos). Long story short, I had around 8.000 items in there from the last 2,5 years; and, in there, there were duplicates, failed photos and videos, junk received via messages, etc.

Anyway, spent about 4h cleaning and checking everything up and I ended up deleting around 3.000 items. After this, the Photos' Library shows that is using 70GB which seems a bit absurd to me (3.000 * ~5MB = 15.000MB).

As a result, it seems I've managed to clear only 2,5GB of space, which seems far too little for 3.000 items. I made sure that I've deleted all the items from "Recently Deleted" as well.

Is there any way to free some space? Maybe Photos has a 'clean space' trick that I am not aware of, or it has some kind of mechanism to even recover permanently deleted items.

A late thought… which might depend on how much 'organisation' you'd be willing to lose.

If you right-click the Photos Library & select Show Package Contents, then inside there, the Masters folder contains just the photos. All of them, but nothing else.
Everything else inside the library package is 'organisation'.

You could test creating an entire new Library by

copying the Masters out for safety
Launch Photos whilst holding  Opt ⌥
choose a new Library
Importing the Masters folder you just moved out.


iMovie titles line spacing Is it possible to adjust the line spacing on title screens (specifially: scrolling credits) in iMovie 10?

I can find some references on how to do it in previous versions of iMovie (see e.g. font panel here) but I can't seem to find the right setting in iMovie 10.  The fonts window doesn't show the spacing control, even when resized.

I found that I could put the text into another editing application (I used TextEdit) and adjust the line spacing there and it remained when I pasted into the title. Presto magic-o!


Restoring iphone 6s with broken home button I am trying to restore an iPhone 6s with a non functioning home button. iTunes tells me in order to restore it I need to click "trust this computer", however the iPhone says "iPhone is disabled, connect to itunes." , so there is no way to even unlock it to trust it. What should I do?

Its iOS 10, right?
You may try going around: go to Camera, take a shot, then go to photos and tap on the left top button to see all photos. You should be prompted to enter password and after entering you're in. A message to trust computer should pop up.


How fast is 256GB to 128GB on mid-2013 MacBook Air? I've tried finding the comparison reviews of the performance differences between 128GB and 256GB PCIe SSDs of mid-2013 MacBook Air 11" and 13" (which now have been carried over as the early-to-mid-2014 MacBook Air 11" and 13", too), but some comparisons don't even mention which SSD they've tested, and others only present a single size for the mid-2013 Air models.

How much faster is the 256GB SSD compared to the 128GB on mid-2013 MacBook Air?

Sandisk/Marvell drives are about ~500MB/s write and Samsung drives are ~700MB/s write speed. Both have around 700MB/s read speeds.

It's important to note that while these are different, under regular use it's very unlikely that either will have any sort of performance implications. Benchmarks tell very little about day-to-day performance.


How full is my iPhone voicemail box? I want to be able to know how full my voicemail box is before it starts rejecting caller's messages. Is there a command that does this?

Depending on what carrier you have you can try the following:

If you have visual voice mail you should be warned when you are at or near the limit in Phone > Voicemail
Try calling your own number. Most carriers use that to access your voicemail. If it asks for a password, it will most likely default to the last 4 digits of your phone number. Once connected it will most likely tell you if your voice mail is full. You can also delete messages from there.
If the above option does not work, call your carrier and ask how to access your voicemail.
If all else fails you call from a different phone (house phone or friend) and test it out. You could also use a spoofing service and call your own number.


Mac pop up notifications getting cut off on the right Recently all of my pop up notifications are getting cut off so I can only see half of it, like the computer thinks my screen is wider than it is, as you can see in the picture:

I have a 2019 15 inch MacBook Pro, with Mojave 10.14.6.
I also have a monitor attached which is a LEN P27u-10 Display but this issue still persists even if I detach the monitor.

From comments… based on nothing but guesswork, try the old "switch it off then on again" with a slight twist.

Try changing monitor resolution temporarily, maybe also reboot after you change it. Leave the external disconnected whilst testing.


Internet download manager alternative for OS X? I was a longtime windows/linux user and just purchased a Mac, everything is great except that I need a good download manager for Mac which works like Internet Download Manager for Windows, I know some things would be different but I am specifically looking for following feature

ability to resume downloads
automatic capture of downloads from browsers such as firefox

I use Downthemall in firefox right now but it is not as reliable as it was on Windows.

Not free but my favorite is Speed Download. I went through a few free ones and ending up buying this on a MUPromo special and it was worth every cent.

It supports resume, password protected sites, and can even FTP if you need it too. It also allows you to share files with other users on the network.

I have to admit, though, since moving to the Mac, my failure rates on downloads without a manager has drastically dropped if you're on a decent internet connection.


External monitor suddenly stopped working at 2440x1440 on OS Lion 10.7.3 I have a 27" iMac and I'm using Samsung SyncMaster SA850 as a second monitor (connected via a displayPort cable with a mini DisplayPort adapter).

Everything worked fine until yesterday - the Samsung screen turned black and now it only works with max resolution 1280 x 1024 (native is 2440x1440). I think I upgraded Lion 10.7.2 to 10.7.3 (I don't remember for sure though).

When I connect the monitor to an iMac with 10.7.2 everything works fine. And another iMac with 10.7.3 has the same problem as me.

Any ideas what could be wrong, please?

Thanks!
Tomas

It sounds like you could have inadvertently set (or had set) HiDPI mode.

I cann't remember (or find with the time I have) how to set this, but I'll throw this answer up and make it Wiki so anyone can edit it if they do remember :)


How do I install fuse-ext2 to use with OSXFuse I'm trying to make Ext4 disk readable on mac OSX 10.10.5. I've already installed OSXFuse, I read on this site that I also needed to install fuse-ext2. I downloaded fuse-ext2-master.zip and unzipped it. It seems to contain source code files but no installation program. How am I supposed to use these files?

The build from source how-to is available at the git homepage of fuse-ext2. Please use the lines below though, because I had to make slight changes to get it working (e.g the libtool download source has been moved).

At least the appropriate xcode-command-line-tools and OSXFuse have to be installed.

Download the source from github and unzip the file. Then open Terminal.app and enter

cd ~/Downloads

assuming the fuse-ext2 file was unzipped there.

First you have to download, make and install several tools (m4, autoconf, automake, libtool, e2fsprogs). Then you can build fuse-ext2. This is all done using Terminal.app.

export PATH=/opt/gnu/bin:$PATH

mkdir gnu
cd gnu

# m4
curl -O http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/m4/m4-1.4.17.tar.gz
tar -zxvf m4-1.4.17.tar.gz
cd m4-1.4.17
./configure --prefix=/opt/gnu
make -j 16
sudo make install
cd ../

# autoconf
curl -O http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.69.tar.gz
tar -zxvf autoconf-2.69.tar.gz
cd autoconf-2.69
./configure --prefix=/opt/gnu
make
sudo make install
cd ../

# automake
curl -O http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/automake/automake-1.15.tar.gz
export PATH=/opt/gnu/bin:$PATH
tar -zxvf automake-1.15.tar.gz
cd automake-1.15
./configure --prefix=/opt/gnu
make
sudo make install
cd ../

# libtool
curl -O http://ftp.hawo.stw.uni-erlangen.de/gnu/libtool/libtool-2.4.6.tar.gz
tar -zxvf libtool-2.4.6.tar.gz
cd libtool-2.4.6
./configure --prefix=/opt/gnu
make
sudo make install
cd ../

# e2fsprogs
curl -O https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tytso/e2fsprogs/v1.42.12/e2fsprogs-1.42.12.tar.gz
tar -zxvf e2fsprogs-1.42.12.tar.gz
cd e2fsprogs-1.42.12
./configure --prefix=/opt/gnu
make
sudo make install
sudo make install-libs
cd ../../

# fuse-ext2
cd fuse-ext2-master
export PATH=/opt/gnu/bin:$PATH
./autogen.sh
CFLAGS="-idirafter/opt/gnu/include -idirafter/usr/local/include/osxfuse/" LDFLAGS="-L/opt/gnu/lib -L/usr/local/lib" ./configure
make
sudo make install

All lines without a # have to be entered in Terminal and then executed by hitting the Enter key. You may use copy and paste.

An easier way is to install brew and use these instructions below (also in Terminal).

brew doctor #repair everything you are warned about!
brew install homebrew/dupes/m4
brew install e2fsprogs automake autoconf libtool
cd ~/Downloads/fuse-ext2-master
./autogen.sh
CFLAGS="-idirafter/$(brew --prefix e2fsprogs)/include -idirafter/usr/local/include/osxfuse" LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix e2fsprogs)/lib" ./configure
make
sudo make install

After finishing either of the two methods all necessary files are installed (including a prefpane) and you should be able to r/w ext2/3/4.


How can I tell whether an iOS game/app saves its data to iCloud? I'd like to delete a game off of an iOS device but I would prefer to not lose my progress in case I want to return. Is there any way of checking whether the game/app puts the game save either in iCloud or another external service?

You can see a list of apps using iCloud storage from the Settings → iCloud → Storage → Manage Storage menu. But even if your app is listed, there's no way of checking exactly what data is saved.


Photoshop not recognised as default app after OS update I just upgraded my system software and all my graphic design photo images now say I can't open them and I should click get info on the finder, which I do and they still won't open.
These are photoshop files that I have worked on in the past.

OS X Yosemite, iMac

Go to the file in Finder. Right click, and select 'Get Info'. This will open up a new window with all the file information. There are different sections in this window. Scroll down (or collapse the sections) until you get to the one titled 'Open with'.

There should be a drop down select menu that shows which program will be used to open the file. The default program will say "(default)" after the program name. Use this menu to select Photoshop. If it's not one of the options in this list, click 'other' to select it manually. If these are Photoshop files, OS X should recognize that Photoshop can open them, but if it is greyed out, select "All Applications" from the "Enable:" drop down menu.

Back in the file info window, below the program select drop down, it says "Use this application to open all files like this one." Click the button that says "Change All" (directly beneath this text) to make the selected program the default.

If any part of this doesn't work, my guess would be there is an issue with the Photoshop installation. Check that you can still use the application with other files. Reinstall the application and try this again.


OS X Yosemite resolution "jump" when logging in When I start my MacBook Pro Retina, the resolution is the non-scaled option. But on my user account, I have selected the 1680x1050 scaled option. This means that when i login the resolution "jumps/flashes" from non scaled to scaled.

Is there a way to make the login screen the same resolution or is there another solution?

Press and hold the Option-Command-P-R keys immediately after powering on. This will reset the login screen resolution


Big Sur Add trusted certificate via command line (Safari Can't establish a secure connection) I am trying to have Safari stop preventing me from visiting one of my dev machines with an invalid cert.
I am trying to use the solution in this thread but install it using the CLI:
   security add-trusted-cert  -r trustRoot  -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db /tmp/test.cert

I am still receiving the "Safari Can't Open the Page because Safari can't establish a secure connection to the server" error.
I want it to be applied to the user so I don't want to do the -d flag.  And I know I am correctly downloading the cert because if I add the certificate and trust it through the OSX GUI, it works fine.
Another interesting note is that this solution works for my Brave and Firefox browsers, so it's just Safari that is giving me grief, but even safari works when I add the downloaded cert via the GUI.

I think answered my own question and wanted to post it here in case anyone else runs into this.  In my case not only was it a self signed cert, but I was using a local host name which did not match the hostname on the certificate.
Therefore using the following command worked for all browsers tested:
 security add-trusted-cert -e hostnameMismatch-r trustRoot -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db newcert.pem


Move folders using Terminal by referencing a CSV file I have a CSV file containing the following two columns:

Column A: From Directory (e.g. /Volumes/Backup Plus/Salesforce/Order Test/OR-1000049439).
Column B: To Directory (e.g. /Volumes/Backup Plus/Salesforce/Opportunity Test/Q-DNYE20180508-2308).

I need to write a script in Terminal that will loop through the CSV and move the directory from Column A into the directory from column B. The end result would be the OR-1000049439 folder residing inside the Q-DNYE20180508-2308 folder). There are roughly 13,000 rows in which I need this to occur.

Can someone please help me on how to do this?

Here is a copy of the first few rows in the CSV file:

I need the folder in A2 to end up in the folder on B2.  I need the folder in A3 to end up in the folder on B3, etc...

Brians-MacBook-Pro:Data Migration briangannuscio$ Head OrderFileV2.csv
/Volumes/Backup Plus/Salesforce/Order Test/OR-1000050081,/Volumes/Backup Plus/Salesforce/Opportunity Test/Q-RGORD20170207-1526

Brians-MacBook-Pro:Data Migration briangannuscio$ File OrderFileV2.csv
OrderFileV2.csv: ASCII text, with CR line terminators

There are many ways to tackle this task. Below is an approach using the Go language. I expect others will soon be along with alternative tools and languages.

If this is a one-time task, expect to spend time handholding the process.

If this going to become a regular automated task, spend time now to get the script or tool right.

Things to be aware of:

Appreciate that the csv file format is not fully standardized.
Know that Excel has a reputation with the csv format.
Does any file or folder name contain a quote, space, or comma?
What happens if folders are listed but missing on disk?
What happens if a folder for moving is listed twice?
What happens if a folder for moving already exists at the destination?

  Back-up your data before running any answers.

csv-move

The csv-move tool requires UNIX/LF line endings. Converting the line endings is a problem solved elsewhere.

Ready to use binaries of csv-move are available in the latest release. Below is an extract of the code:

// Read from stdin - expects LF line endings
r := csv.NewReader(os.Stdin)
r.FieldsPerRecord = 2

for {
    line, err := r.Read()
    // ...

    // Perform the command
    cmd := exec.Command(mvPath, "-vn", line[0], line[1])
    if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("move failed: %s", err.Error())
    }
}

Test your CSV file can be parsed as two entries per line:

./csv-move < input.csv

Once tested, and you are happy with the printed move commands, perform the move:

./csv-move -move < input.csv


Focus navigation with arrows keys There is a handy option in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts named "Use keyboard navigation to move mouse focus between controls".
It basicly allows to change focused control with Tab/Shift+TAB. In windows there is option to do this with arrows. Can I somehow make such behaviour on macOs?

Tab is used for moving between controls and arrow keys are used to move within the control group.
For example if your focus is on tabs control in 'Keyboard' window ('Keyboard', 'Text'... 'Dictation') then you can move between them with left/right arrows. Or if if you are on 'Shortcuts' tab you use tab to move into left pane, move there with up-down arrows, reach desired selection ('Accessibility' on your screenshot), use tab to move to the right pane and use up-down arrows to move there (and use space to tick / untick options).


Keynote - How do I get rid of the default background images? So.  I'm using keynote to build slides for church music overheads.  This means I need to build a different slide deck for each song we sing, so that we can change out the songs from week to week.

The baseline file size for a keynote presentation is about ½ MB, which is huge once you get a library of up to 40-50 presentations.  And it's completely unnecessary, because all I have is simple text on a solid background.

I did a little digging, and the culprit is the default background images for slide masters that I'm not using.  Eliminate these images from the package contents, and my baseline file size drops to under 100K, which is to say, reasonable.

The problem is that Keynote really wants those images to be there, and it puts up an error message every time.

Recommendations?

So you went to your Keynote presentation document file and used the Finder to "Show Package Contents" then you deleted the image files you found in there. That would cause problems. Try this:

Open a new Keynote document and select the Theme that you want to use as the basis for your presentation. Now do...

View -> Edit Master Slides
Delete all Master Slides that you don't need.
If you need a Master Slide with an image, replace the image with a small place holder image. For example, a JPG file with a solid color.
Remove the Back Ground Image from All Remaining master slides, and remove any other unneeded elements from the slides.
Click the Done button at the bottom of the Master Slide editing screen
File -> Reduce File Size (which will probably do nothing)
File -> Save Theme...
Give it a name such as "Church Music"

Now you can create a new presentation using the "Church Music" theme. Your theme will be on the "My Themes" tab of the theme browser. After you save, you can now view the presentation's Package Contents to make sure that there is no unused items. Keynote will generate a variety of slide previews and other images which you need to keep, but these should be very small. If there is stuff that you really don't need, you might try re-editing the Themes Master Slides.


How can I swipe with three fingers to go back and forth in my history while browsing? I just recently started using Mac OS X Lion.
Everything is working very well but I do miss the swipe of three fingers which made me go back and forward when I was browsing.

There is a new feature in Lion that uses the three finger swipe to jump between applications. I have tried to turn that of, but still no result.

Any Ideas of how to get the old three finger swipe back?

I looked into it and here is what I found.
In Lion the swipe to navigate is grouped in System Preference > Trackpad > More Gestures under the "Swipe between pages" option.
Under that option, you get
A) Scroll left or right with two fingers
B) Swipe left or right with three fingers
C) Swipe with two or three fingers

Option A is the new navigation method featured in the new Safari during the WWDC keynote.  It is the new feature in Lion.  You SCROLL left to go FORWARD, right to go BACKWARD. You get the cool page flipping effect with this but developers need to update their code to support this feature.

Option B is the original swipe to navigate method used in Snow Leopard after the introduction of the Magic Touch Pad.  You SWIPE left to go BACKWARD, right to go FORWARD.  Many cool apps support this feature only at this stage.

Option C is the best of both world.  Try to use it and play around in the new Safari... it is a bit confusing to navigate with both 2 fingers and 3 fingers swipes in the opposite directions :p


How do I navigate to Mouse & Trackpad in Accessibility Settings with AppleScript? I used Accessibility Inspector to try and help me figure this out but I wasn't quite able to get it. I'm navigating to the Accessibility pane but after that I am having trouble navigating to Mouse & Trackpad, or any other menu item for that matter.

tell application "System Preferences"
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"

    -- part that I am having trouble with
    tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1
    select row 1
    end tell

end tell

You don't need UI Scripting to be able to do this.  System Preferences has an applescript dictionary that allows you to open up specific preference screens (panes) and specific items in the table (anchors).

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "Mouse" of pane id "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
    activate
end tell

Will open up the mouse and trackpad section. I found this by looking at the AppleScript dictionary for System Preferences, and some googling took me to an excellent discussion of using these commands.


Can't reinstall macOS on iMac I accidentally unmounted and erased the Macintosh HD in disk utility and restored to the OS X Base System, and now I can't reinstall macOS. The only disk that shows up in disk utility is the OS X Base System. Please Help!!!

use Command+R For Internet Recovery To the version you were using and Command + Shift + R for internet recovery (to The latest version). When you will go to internet recovery a disk utility option will be there and u can configure , format your hdd there and install new os


Error message, "hpPlugInInit.kext was installed improperly" I recently bought a MacBook Air and transferred my system information and user data via Migration Assistant. I used to get error messages on my old computer like this:

  The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/hpPlugInInit.kext”
  was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling
  it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update

I hoped that this would go away with the new computer. (No, that's not why I bought it but it was supposed to be a good side-effect!)

But now I'm still getting this error message when installers are running. I don't have any HP printers, but I did at one time. How can I get this error message to stop? According to the HP support website there is an uninstaller I can run, but I don't have any such uninstaller.

Manually deleting hpPlugInInit.kext under /System/Library/Extensions/ gave me a solution.


iPhone boot loop after installing biteSMS Currently on iOS 9.1, iPhone 6s Installed biteSMS (8.0.3 I think) via Cydia to see if it will work and after respring, I got stuck in boot loop screen. Restarted the phone, no luck, still stuck. Cannot restore on Itunes to 9.1 b/c those are not longer signed as of December. The error is b/c of biteSMS and I'm wondering what I can do. Tried editing hosts file, no luck. If all else fails, I'm guessing I'll have to restore and update to 9.3.1 :( Any help appreciated.

If you want to avoid having to restore your phone just in order to remove a bad cydia tweak, turn off the phone. Turn it on and as soon as Apple logo appear, hold Volume Up button until your phone boots. It might not work for everyone and for some folks, Volume Down works as well. If nothing works, unfortunately, you will need to restore.


Macbook Pro 2012 shutsdown suddenly at 25% battery I have a Macbook Pro Unibody Mid 2012 and used the battery for only 118 cycles.

Since a few weeks ago whenever I'm on battery and it reaches <25% my Macbook shuts down immediately (no warning, no saving, so all my work is gone if I let it happen)

I'm okay with battery losing 25% of its capacity! but shouldn't this be from the top? I mean it can just reach to 0 faster, or display warnings!

Battery is really working, it still holds for ~3 hours, and I just can't replace it yet (and also no warranty, no apple shop near me)

  Is there an application out there which can change my battery sensor functions and set 25% = 0% (I mean it works just like a normal Macbook with less capacity available on battery)?

P.S. Already tried installing Yosemite, and resetting SMC

When not on Battery:

Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 5653
Fully Charged:  Yes
Charging:   No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5653

Health Information:
Cycle Count:    118
Condition:  Normal
Battery Installed:  Yes
Amperage (mA):  0
Voltage (mV):   12529

When on Battery

Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 5545
Fully Charged:  Yes
Charging:   No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5696

Health Information:
Cycle Count:    118
Condition:  Normal
Battery Installed:  Yes
Amperage (mA):  -1149
Voltage (mV):   12361

Every battery in a MacBook has a battery processor, which, from time to time, should be recalibrated. Like this:
1. Fully charge your Mac
2. Use it until it dies
3. Once dead, wait at least 5 hours, no less, then plug it in and charge it to 100%, without using it.

The battery percentage reading on your Mac should now be more accurate.

If this doesn't fix it, don't but a new MacBook or give away this one, your MacBook just needs a new battery.


Why does my iPhone speak certain emoji in a Japanese accent? My language settings are only set to English, but my iPhone speaks certain emoji (like ♂ and ♂) in a Japanese accent when I select them in a message and tap Speak. Can anyone explain? Here's a visual example of what I see when I select mixed words and emoi:

It's possible you have a non-English language selected in Speech settings?

  Choose a voice for Speak Screen and Speak Selection

  Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech. Enable Speak
  Selection or Speak Screen, or both. Select Voices. Choose the one
  voice and dialect you would like both Speak Screen and Speak Selection
  to use.

Ref: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202362


iMovie export to Ogg Theora? After I finish editing a movie with iMovie '09 under Mac OS X 10.6.4, is there a way to export the final product to Ogg Theora format? OR, is there a way to convert an already exported movie to Ogg Theora easily?

As part of Dive Into HTML5, Mark Pilgrim gives two options:

Encoding Ogg Video With Firefogg
Batch Encoding Ogg Video With ffmpeg2theora

One or both of those should work for you.


Apache bonjour module and Sites folder template I just upgraded to Lion and because I do web design, first thing I did was turning on Web Sharing to get Apache running. While checking the logs I found that the Bonjour module can't find a file and warns me about this:

mod_bonjour: Cannot stat template index file '/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/index.html'

So I listed the files under that location and it seems the whole Sites folder is gone. I found out later that Mac OS X doesn't include that folder under your user account by default.

I'm still wondering how to stop this warnings. Is it safe to create a directory under this system location? I wouldn't like to do that.

I tried commenting

RegisterUserSite customized-users

under /etc/apache2/other/bonjour.conf thinking the error was due to the bonjour module trying to compare my index.html with the system template to activate my personal site but it didn't work.

Any ideas?

Thank you!

I was getting the same warning.
I did the following:

sudo mkdir "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/"
sudo touch "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/index.html"

apache now starts without the warning


How can I unmount a drive every time I reboot? As relates to an answer to a previous question, I'd like to unmount a built-in hard drive every time I boot up. (Or alternately arrange for it not to be mounted). How do I do this?

The following Hint on Mac OS X Hints details a way to do this. Basically you'll create (or modify) the file /etc/fstab and add a line similar to:

UUID=F0E430C1-5558-3BB3-9FA9-6904B663FEEA  none  hfs  rw,noauto

The actual UUID will vary, you can find the UUID for your disk in system.log:

  In Mac OS X Panther, Disk Utility and the diskutil command doesn't display the UUID value. But if you look in the system.log file, when the disk is mounted, you can see something similar to this (line breaks added for narrower display):

 … localhost diskarbitrationd[87]: disk1s9   hfs
   77F3E84D-E0ED-3194-96A5-BED10893FFF4  FireWire HD
   /Volumes/FireWire HD
 … localhost diskarbitrationd[87]: disk1s10  hfs
   F0E430C1-5558-3BB3-9FA9-6904B663FEEA  Mac OS X Disc
   /Volumes/Mac OS X Disc

  The string before the volume name is the UUID for the disk.


How do I get archive to work in Mail.app in Lion? I can't get archive to work on Lion. When I choose archive in Mail.app it creates a folder called Archived. That's not what I want. When I choose delete it doesn't remove the message from my inbox. It is just greyed out. Right now I leave the messages in the inbox and archive them from my iPhone, which works great. Please help me get this working.

If you're okay using Mail's delete function as archive, then simply go into Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Gmail > Mailbox Behaviors and deselect both of these options:

[ ] Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox

[ ] Store deleted messages on the server

Screenshot:

Then when you delete a message in Mail, you'll be archiving it.

Reference here:

https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78892


Why does Siri need to know "which John?" for a reminder or calendar event? Me to Siri: "add to my calendar Tuesday noon meeting with John"

Siri: "which John?"

...and then you can't proceed without picking a contact from the list. I'm afraid Siri is going to send a calendar invite or something to whichever contact I pick. I try to avoid using names now, or use funny names I know aren't in my contacts. Why does Siri need to know "which John"? Just add it to my calendar!

Siri can add attendees to calendar events. When creating an event, saying ‘with John’ will add John as an attendee to the event, shown in the event attendees section in the Calendar app later. If you have multiple Johns, it'll ask which one you mean so as to not get it wrong. There isn't a way to disable this functionality as it's part of Siri's calendar functions.


What's the difference between Minimize and Hide, between Maximize and Fullscreen, and what are all the keyboard shortcuts for these? What’s the difference between Maximized and Fullscreen?  Minimized and Hidden?   Where did my window go?   How do I get it back?

As a newbie convert from Windows my ideas about what can happen to windows (small w) are not in sync with MacOS, and I find MacOS concepts confusing.  I would like (and created my own) “compare and contrast” guide to these things and how to use them.

Undoubtedly there are inaccuracies in my own answer to this question, that I hope will attract corrections from more knowledgeable people.

After learning all the things below I am documenting them here for comparison and contrast.  This may seem idiotic to experienced Mac users but to a Windows user it will clarify a lot.
This is not exhaustive documentation on all these features.  It focuses on the confusing aspects, the contrasts, and how to undo mistakes.
There is a great and more exhaustive comparison of Minimized vs Hidden in this question: What are the differences between minimizing and hiding an application?
Maximized
A maximized window is expanded so that its contents can be fully displayed, but with the Dock and Apple Menu still showing.
The exact behavior is app dependent. For example, Safari will usually only expand in height, not in width, while Preview and the Finder will usually expand  to fit the entire current screen. You maximize with ⌥ alt+MouseClickGreenLight.  Same action to undo. Note that clicking the green light (without ⌥ alt) on a maximized window will Fullscreen it. Pay attention.
Fullscreen
A Fullscreen window is moved to a new Desktop/Space where it occupies the entire screen without a Dock or Apple Menu or even the window's own traffic lights.  To do this click the green light or use ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F.  To undo, ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F again or hover the mouse at the top edge of the screen for a bit and the Apple Menu and traffic lights will appear.
Minimized
A minimized window is moved to a small icon at the right or bottom end of the dock (depending on the dock's orientation).   Do this with ⌘ cmd-M or the yellow light.   Undo this by clicking on the window in the dock.  Note if you switch to an app by clicking on its main icon in the Dock or with ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab, its minimized windows won't open, and if it only has minimized windows you will make the app active but will not open any windows.
Hidden
An app and all its windows can be hidden.  They appear nowhere.  Do this with ⌘ cmd-H.  When you hide an app, even the windows that were minimized in the Dock are hidden.   Restore a hidden app by clicking on its main icon in the Dock, or ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab to it.  When you restore a hidden app its minimized windows will still be minimized.   You can also hide all apps except the active one with ⌘ cmd-⌥ alt-H.  You can't undo that in one action.
Closed (Killed)
A closed or killed window is permanently deleted.  Do this with ⌘ cmd-W or the red light.  Exactly what this does and how to undo it (if possible) is application-dependent.   If you close an app's last window, it may or may not Quit.
Quit
You can close all an app's windows and stop the process with ⌘ cmd-Q or with Quit from the Dock or Apple menus.   Some apps will quit if you close their last window, some will keep running.  You can identify a running app from the dot next to its icon in the Dock.   It may have no windows or only minimized ones.  If there is no dot, that means it is not running but the icon has been locked in the Dock for convenience.  There is no Undo - If an app has open windows when you Quit it, they may or may not be restored by the app when you restart it.
Switch
The active application occupies the Apple menu at the top of the screen and usually one of its windows has the keyboard focus and is in front.   Switch to an app by clicking one of its windows, clicking it in the dock, or with ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab.  Switch between windows of the active app by clicking them or with ⌘ cmd-~ tilde.  You cannot switch to a minimized window, you have to click that in the Dock.  If you switch to an app that is running but has no windows or only minimized windows, it will appear in the Apple menu but nothing else will happen.
Here is a cheat sheet you might like to print:
Switch App     ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab
Switch Window  ⌘ cmd-~ tilde
Hide App All  ⌘ cmd-H
Hide Other Apps ⌘ cmd-⌥ alt-H
Minimize Window ⌘ cmd-M or Yellow
Kill Window ⌘ cmd-W or Red
Kill App ⌘ cmd-Q or from Dock/Apple menus
Maximize Window ⌥ alt-Green
Fullscreen Window ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F or Green
UnFullscreen ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F or Hover Mouse at top
Addendum
I'm adding a few extra bits here at the end that I think would overcomplicate the answer but are worth mentioning.
The Dock setting Minimize Windows to App Icon changes the Minimize behavior described above so that Minimize works a little more like Hide but only for specific windows.  Minimized windows do not appear in the Dock.  I think that if you choose this setting, minimize various windows, then hide various apps and then unhide some ..... you probably end up in a state where you have no idea what windows exist where.  I'm not sure how you would employ this setting in a useful way or how I would describe it in the main answer without making the answer too complicated.
The Dock setting Show Indicators for Open Apps if disabled means the dots described above under "Switch" will never appear, and you would have no visual way of distinguishing running apps with hidden windows from not-running apps with icons locked in the Dock.  I suppose if you chose to have zero locked icons, the dots would be redundant so you could gain back a few pixels by eliminating them.
For people with multiple monitors, the Mission Control setting Displays Have Separate Spaces is not default but I use it and some of the details above may be based on that.  I can see these differences:
Differences with Displays Have Separate Spaces

With separate spaces, windows cannot straddle both monitors.  Each window is on one monitor, and if parts of it go off the edge they disappear.  With one space a window can straddle monitors.
If you Fullscreen a window without separate spaces It will occupy all of the monitor in which its upper left corner resides, and all other monitors will go blank and be temporarily disabled.  If you then switch back to the main space the other monitors will come back into play, so long as you are not in a space with a Fullscreen window.
Maximize is the same with or without separate spaces. The window is resized to use the current monitor for maximum effect.
Combining these, the only way to have a single application occupy all of your monitors is to use one space (not separate) and resize the window manually from its corners.


Are TimeMachine backups password protected? If someone was to steal my external hard drive would they need to input my password to be able to read the TimeMachine backup data on there?

Not by default.
By default Time Machine Backups are not encrypted. They are stored in a sparse bundle disk image with the name of the computer which the backup is from. You can open this image and browse it without a password.
You can easily enable encryption for Time Machine backups if they are connected via USB/Firewire. It's more complicated if you access your backup disk using ethernet/Wi-Fi. How can I enable encryption for my Time Machine backup?


Native resolution not available on lg ultrawide with mac mini (2012) I'm aware of displaying more resolutions with the option key like in this answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/149152 but after upgrading to 10.10 the resolution of 3840x(i think)1080 of the lg ultrawide is not available anymore. The display is connected via thunderbolt. It changed after the upgrade, before it was no problem. The max resolution available is 2560x1080.

It requires a kext swap to an older graphics driver. They're probably trying to phase out older mac mini models with the release of the new ones.

Duplicate: Lost ability to choose 3440x1440 resolution after Yosemite upgrade


What is the procedure for replacing the battery on an iPhone? What is the procedure for replacing the battery on an iPhone?

iFixit has excellent text and video guides for replacing the battery on all models of the iPhone.  Here's their iPhone 4 battery replacement guide.


Cannot disable parental controls for Admin user I wanted to put parental controls on my computer before I learned that administrator users can't have parental controls (makes sense to me now). But somehow I still managed to enable parental controls for my administrator user, and it didn't give me any warning message.

I can tell that enabling parental controls really did work because some websites are blocked. This persists even after rebooting my Mac.

Now I want to turn off parental controls, but I can't do it. When I try to turn it off in System Preferences, I get this error message (video):

  You cannot enable parental controls for an administrator account. Create a new user account, and then enable parental controls for the new account.

So how can I turn off parental control for the Admin user?

I found a solution thanks to @nohillside,
I created a new admin user, loged out of the old one and loged into the new one but I was not able to downgrade the old admin account to standard, so I did this :

dscl . read /groups/admin GroupMembership

then

sudo dscl . delete /groups/admin GroupMembership Anakojm

Then I restarted my mac and created a stantard user with the same name (Anakojm) and I get this message :

  A home folder named Anakojm already exist use it ?

Then I clicked yes and disabled parental control, and upgraded it again.


Windows 10 on MacBook Air After installing Windows 10 on MacBook Air, can I expect it run like a normal Windows laptop? Will all the software run normally ?

It depends on how you run Windows and the amount of RAM you have in your Macbook Air (4GB or 8GB)

If you're running Windows through virtualization software like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion, indeed expect performance issues.  The system has to run 2 OS'es and definitely on a 4GB Macbook Air this might require some serious disk swapping (granted, swapped to a quite fast SSD indeed).

However if you're talking about Bootcamp, I'd expect quite the opposite: it'll run better on your MacBook than on a similar spec'ed PC laptop.
Apple has done a great job on supplying the correct hardware drivers and your system will probably run like a charm - even with the 4GB version.

As you know 'Ask Different' is a Apple oriented stack, and it will be difficult to find people - including me -  endorsing it.

You might be one of these 2 types of users:

Type 1.
You've worked on Windows for your whole life and, while you love the outer design of the Macbook, you don't feel ready to move to OSX.
Today, most of the software available on Windows has similar solutions available on OSX.
I've been there. and strongly suggest you do the same as I did.  Go for OSX, cold turkey.  It will feel awkward first, but I promise you won't regret it.  Risk is high you're going to hate Windows later.

Type 2.
You're working on OSX but you need software not available on OSX.  In our organisation we do have Macs equiped with Windows via VMWare Fusion just because there are no alternatives:

ArcGIS: while we use QGIS on OSX internally, we still need ArcGIS because our partners use it.
Specific analyzing/flashing/config & maintenance toolsets for certain hardware
Specific webbased tools only available for Internet Explorer (certain java tools and ActiveX components)
Chances are low any of these will ever be available under OSX but the day they are available, VMWare will go, that's for sure.


Siri: Reminder Tied to Multiple Locations I've been wondering if there is a good workaround to solve the following problem with Siri.

There are some stores in my area that have multiple locations, for example Walmart.  I have added Walmart as a contact in Siri, along with the two addresses.  However, every time I ask Siri for something like, "Remind me to pickup X while at Walmart", she always asks me to pick a particular address.  Is there a way to create the reminder tied to BOTH addresses?

My current workaround is to create two reminders, one for each location, but that is far from ideal.

I'd like to expand this to cover other categories, such as "Grocery Store", "Home Improvement Store",  etc, but creating multiple reminders quickly becomes too much of a hassle to manage.

I'm sorry to say that but the reminders only work for one location each. You may be able to achieve the effect of using multiple geofences (the underlying technology) using a third-party program (e.g. Checkmark) but I have not tried that myself. Integration with Siri is not possible at the moment of this reply (no Siri API for third party developers available).


How can I remotely control my iMac user desktop from a Windows computer? I know the IP address of my iMac and I have been able to ssh into the computer successfully, but I want to be able to control the desktop remotely from my Windows machine as well.  How do I enable my iMac to do this?  Is there a special program I need to use on my Windows 7 machine to do control the desktop remotely?

You can use VNC to remotely control your Mac. There's instructions around here to turn on the built-in OS X VNC server (it's pretty straightforward), and a Windows VNC viewer (I linked to a Google search because I don't know a particular good viewer for Windows because I don't use VNC on Windows).


Why is my AppleScript not working? Making an AppleScript but for some reason it isn't working. Any ideas why not?

delay 1
set volume 1
say "Hello " & (do shell script "whoami") using "Whisper"
say "Do you want to play a game?" using "Whisper"
display dialog "Do you want to play a game?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button 1
if the button returned of the result is "Yes" then
-- say "Bwahahahaha!"
else
-- display dialog "Big mistake" & (do shell script "whoami")
end if

Works for me, but I had to set volume 6 to make it audible.

"Big mistake" should be "Big mistake " -- that space matters.


Uninstall Insignia Adapter Drivers I recently bought a Insignia USB to Ethernet adapter  I proceeded to install the drivers and it has caused me nothing but trouble since.

When I try to sign in to my profile, it opens into a window asking if I would like to use

WiFi network (this option is not selectable)
Local Network
My computer does not connect to the internet

No matter what option I select it states that a piece of software has not been installed and I need to try later after it is installed. It then gives me the option to Shutdown or Continue (which does nothing)

I am able to sign in when I start up in safe mode so I am able to access my files if I absolutely need to but my question is how can I find and uninstall the drivers that are causing all of these problems?

It's likely your EFI partition is broken because the driver tried to make inappropriate changes to EFI.

On boot, Touch Bar attempts to boot its own OS from the EFI. If it can't boot correctly, EmbeddedOSInstallService will attempt to fix it so your Touch Bar can function again, by copying a ‘known good’ OS from:

/usr/standalone/firmware/iBridge1_1Customer.bundle
/Library/Updates/PreflightContainers

If there isn't a good OS here, Setup Assistant will ask you to connect to the internet so one can be downloaded and EFI repaired.

Make sure your internet connection is suitable per https://support.apple.com/kb/HT207567.


Mac has lost its Dock and menu bar My friend's Mac has lost its dock.

It boots up, apparently fine, she logs in, but is then confronted with a blank screen - as in a desktop background image but no desktop interaction elements.

The dock does not appear, nor does the bar at the top. The problem is similar to Windows when Explorer crashes and you get no OS chrome.

By randomly pressing keys we've been able to make iTunes appear and from there we can get into settings etc. but still no Dock.

Spotlight doesn't work either!

Why might this have happened and how do we fix it?

Specs: MacBook7,1, Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549), Darwin 10.8.0.

It would be useful know if there are any default keyboard shortcuts that handle things like 'launch Finder' or 'open Applications folder' - this would be extremely useful as it would make the Mac usable should this happen again.

You can use spotlight (⌘-Space) to do most anything. ⌘⇧A opens Apps folder, ⌘⇧H opens Home folder.

To fix your problem: Try opening the Terminal app (launch via Spotlight). Then type killall Dockand press return. That will attempt to kill the Dock process and relaunch it.

If that doesn't work you can check Activity Monitor (launch via Spotlight) and search for the Dock process to see if it's running at all, and if so, if it's hanging.


How do I delete apache from OS X Yosemite? How do I delete apache from OS X Yosemite? I want to start with a new unaltered configuration so I will also need to know how to install the latest version.
Following other posts to delete/reinstall apache I already tried the "apt-get" and "get" commands but they couldn't been found.

In this case you don't need to delete apache as you should not touch any executable under /usr/bin as Apple controls updating of this (i.e. could install it again). apt-get etc are not OS X or Unix commands but one packaging system for Linux.

Any install of apache will put it in a different place to where Apple puts it.

To install Apache if you want to use a packaging system look at Macports, Homebrew or Fink. (if deb is the packaging you know then look at Fink)

Otherwise the easiest installs are using MAMP, or use Apple's configuration in OS X Server

What you use depends on your knowledge and what you want to use it for and to use the correct tutorials i.e. not that that assume Linux


When does the warranty period start for an Apple iPhone 4s? I have an Apple iPhone 4s that is brand new and not activated. Has the warranty period already started for this phone or does it only start after activation?

As far as I know Apple stopped selling the 4s last fall. Therefore the person/reseller you bought it from might have twisted the truth. Where did you buy it? In the U.S.?

You can verify the warranty service and support coverage on: https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

Apple Warranty starts on the date you buy it (date of purchase). Not on the day you start using it.

Apple:

  WHAT IS COVERED BY THIS WARRANTY?

  Apple Inc. of One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, U.S.A. 95014 (“Apple”) warrants the
  Apple-branded iPhone, iPad or iPod hardware product and accessories
  contained in the original packaging (“Apple Product”) against defects
  in materials and workmanship when used normally in accordance with
  Apple's published guidelines for a period of ONE (1) YEAR from the
  date of original retail purchase by the end-user purchaser ("Warranty
  Period"). Apple’s published guidelines include but are not limited to
  information contained in technical specifications, user manuals and
  service communications.

  Source: US-Warranty http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/ios-warranty-document-us.html

If you bought it at Apple and you are not happy with the sale, Apple usually gives 14 days to return the device.

If you do not need it I would suggest returning/selling the device or otherwise start using it. ;-)


Java issue with osx...installed latest but java apps not working I have an odd issue on my MAC. I installed java 1.8 sdk so I can use some Java applications however when I run any java based apps, they look real weird or I can get an error saying to use the latest java.

When I am on the command line and I type in java -version it shows 1.8

Any ideas on why my java apps don't seem to work?

The odd thing is if I run the application from a disk image (before i move to the applications folder) it works completely fine.

The easiest solution is to update with "Java for OS X 2014-001" at the below link. Fixed a similar Java issue on all three computers I have.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?viewlocale=en_US


Is it possible to change Dock icons on a per-user basis? Can you make the Dock icon for an app appear different? Obviously you could copy the whole app or symlink parts of it, but I don't want to have to create a symlink for every single file in the Resources directory.

I tried pasting an icon into the "Get Info" window of an alias or symlink, but that just triggered the bell noise.

The bell sound suggests you do not have the right to alter the application. A command line approach will allow you to gain the appropriate rights.

AppleScript App Trampoline

For a per-user approach, consider creating an small trampoline application using AppleScript. Using AppleScript Editor, create an application that launches your desired application.

The AppleScript can be as little as:

tell app "/Applications/Original.app"
    activate
end tell

You can apply a custom icon to your trampoline application and place this application in the Dock. When launched, the trampoline application will in turn launch the original application.

Command Line Approach

The approach below will change the application icon for all users.

Try setting a custom icon on the application using the command line tool SetFile and super user rights, sudo.

See How can I change a file or folder icon using the Terminal for a few approaches for setting an icon via the command line. Below is the most highly rated response:

# Take an image and make the image its own icon:
sips -i icon.png

# Extract the icon to its own resource file:
/Developer/Tools/DeRez -only icns icon.png > tmpicns.rsrc

# append this resource to the file you want to icon-ize.
/Developer/Tools/Rez -append tmpicns.rsrc -o file.ext

# Use the resource to set the icon.
sudo /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a C /Applications/MyApp.app

# clean up.
rm tmpicns.rsrc
# rm icon.png # probably want to keep this for re-use.

I have appended sudo before the SetFile command to elevate your rights.


How can I install es_AR locale on OSX El Capitan? I'm trying to install a locale on OSX (El Capitan) and I can't figure it out.

I've been googling for hours now.

In Ubuntu is as simple as locale-gen and dpkg-reconfigure.

I'm coding a PHP application that uses es_AR as a locale and I can't get my number formatting right.

Works fine in Linux systems.

$ locale -a | grep es
es_ES
es_ES.ISO8859-1
es_ES.ISO8859-15
es_ES.UTF-8

You would set that up in the Languages and Region setting in System Preferences

Under the advanced tab, you can set your number formatting


Cannot add free space into macOS partition because "the disk for one of the specified operations could not be found" How can I merge free space into the active partition "Macintosh HD"?

ADMINs-Mac:~ admin$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *107.4 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            42.6 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

I have tried the following:

  An internal error has occurred and he disk for one of the specified operations could not be found. This may be a temporary issue, try again.

Michael's command may solve the question of how to delete free partion.

Can't resize partition on VMWare Mac


Delete all photos from iCloud web I tried to sync my photos... what a huge mistake. I knew this would be a disaster before I started but I had to go attempt anyway.

Luckily I had backups of my multiple photo libraries because it completely obliterated all my organization, uploaded thousands of duplicates, won't let me delete anything..

I'm nuking everything and starting fresh.

I have all my libraries restored from 3rd party backups but the problem is I have all these photos in iCloud Photos web.

Is there some kind of automation/javascript I can run in the console to select all photos?

I can't do it from offline because those libraries are so messed up now beyond repair. The only way to do it from the online version is control+clicking every photo. So stupid

Ok I found out the easiest way, total time takes about 10 minutes...

First, move or delete all your old photo libraries in Photos app for Mac. I deleted mine because I had 3rd party backups, obviously you shouldn't delete them if you don't. If you move it and it still doesnt show up, just hold the Option key while you start Photos.

Open it fresh, and it will say it can't locate your library. Click "Create New".. name it something like GARBAGE or DELETEME.

Then, go to settings and click 'set as system library', and also enable iCloud sync in settings (make your settings look like photo below). This will download all the photos fresh to this library (which doesnt have existing files so you dont have to worry about duplicates and such).

It will say "Updating X photos", make sure you wait for this step to finish.

However, when it starts saying "Downloading 10,000 photos" then you can move to the next step, you dont have to wait as long as it gets past the 'updating' step.

Select all with command+A, then delete. Go to your trash and then delete again by clicking Delete All.

It will still be stuck saying "downloading 10,000 photos" although they should now start deleting from iCloud (It took about 5 mins for me before it started removing them)

Once its done removing from iCloud web, just close Photos, and delete the temp library on your harddrive. From there, hold option when you start Photos and choose 'create new'. Youll be starting with a 100% fresh iCloud now.


How to block and unblock the media ports in MAC OSX 10.9? I am working on a test project that requires me to block all media ports on my Mac OS X 10.9.

The instructions I'be veen given are "Chinese" to me :-) I have no idea how and where to start, let alone how to unblock them after I manage to block them...

Thanks so much!

Instructions available:

[User]-iMac:~ [User]$ sudo ipfw add deny udp from any to any dst-port 50000-65535
00100 deny udp from any to any dst-port 50000-65535
[User]-iMac:~ [User]$ sudo ipfw list
00100 deny udp from any to any dst-port 50000-65535
65535 allow ip from any to any

Maybe you can use Little Snitch instead of trying to figure out the commands.

HTH


Can I import an image to use for annotations or a signature in the macOS Preview app? I use the Preview app (within macOS) and I'd love to add a traditional stamp to some documents.  I note that under Tools > Annotate > Signature > Manage Signatures... I can use either the trackpad or camera to add signatures.

Is there a way to import pictures (or even better, vectors) to my signatures without using the trackpad/camera?

I don't think there's any other way than just printing the photo out and then add it with the camera.


How can I connect to one server using two user names - at the same time? I am struggling to find a way to allow users to connect to two different shares on a server at the same time. It seems like it should be possible, but no matter what I try I am always forced to disconnect one user to connect as another.

I have tried using aliases like this:

afp://user1:password1@ServerName._afpovertcp._tcp.local
afp://user2:password2@ServerName._afpovertcp._tcp.local

The first one connected works, and the second one ignores the name/password when connecting and just offers to connect as the first user again.

Is there a user friendly way to make this work?

You can always cheat and use a different protocol for the second connection.  OS X works with SMB.


What does the search domain in the network preferences do? I'm setting up my DNS to go through my employers DNS server and have entered the addresses they provided. They say it's a dynamic DNSSEC provider. I kind of understand this. But I noticed that under the search domains section to the right, there is an entry. What does the search domain for DNS do exactly? I would think my query, would go to the name-server I specified, and they would return the IP. How does this work exactly?

This has actually been answered in quite a bit of detail over on sister-site superuser.com, here.


There is no login.keychain file in my High Sierra.Cant build titanium My KeychainAccess.app never creates the login.keychain file. So, I can't build titanium Application. If I create a new PC account there is no login.keychain file. If I reset default keychain there is also no login.keychain file.

appc ti build -K ${HOME}/Library/Keycahains/login.keychain

You have the wrong path for the login.keychain file.

You need to look in ~/Library/Keychains/ which means that your Titanium command becomes:

appc ti build -K ${HOME}/Library/Keychains/login.keychain


How do I adjust the tap-to-click sensitivity on the Magic Trackpad or the built-in MacBook trackpad? I have the tap-to-click feature enabled on my Magic Trackpad and find that it works very well for the most pat. However, I think it tends to be a little too sensitive at times. Is there any secret adjustment for reducing the tapping sensitivity of the Magic Trackpad? I assume that the same setting will also apply to the built-in trackpad on MacBooks.

Unfortunately the sensitivity of the tap-to-click feature on the trackpad may not be adjusted through the default system software at present. It may only be turned off altogether.

However if you download BetterTouchTool it will allow you to adjust tap sensitivity, among other things.


How to show bluetooth headphone battery in macos? Hovering over the device doesn't show the battery level.
When connected to the iPhone, I was able to get the battery level in the widgets screen.

How do I know when I have to charge the headphones?

You can write your custom script on these lines
https://romig.dev/blog/mac-os-quirks-bluetooth-device-battery-low/  using ioreg I/O Registry, code for a implementation is available here on Github https://github.com/aromig/scripts/tree/master/check_battery
You can also use plugins like Akku https://github.com/jariz/Akku


Find My iPad setting prevents restore I'm trying to restore my iPad because the screen passcode was changed and cannot be remembered correctly. When attempting to restore from an iTunes backup, an error message says to first turn off Find My iPad in iCloud settings. I cannot access any setting in the iPad because of the screen lock passcode. Is there another way to do a reset or full factory reset while screen-locked?

Try setting the iPad in recovery mode:

connect the iPad to your computer

turn it completely off

press the power button (top button) for three (3) seconds

without letting go of the power button, press the Home button

keep them pressed for ten (10) seconds

after the ten seconds, let go of the power button without letting go of the Home button

keep pressing the Home button until a message pops in iTunes saying

iTunes has detected a device in recovery mode, you must restore it before you can use it.

restore the iPad

Try doing this a few times if you dont succeed the first time.


iTunes movies HD Rental advertised as 5.1 surround, but only plays in stereo "The Revenant" is clearly labeled on the iTunes store as 5.1 surround. But after purchasing and playing the HD Rental (yes it was fully buffered) it only output in stereo on Windows 10.

The Netflix app outputs 5.1 surround correctly, and so do games, and so do 5.1 surround sound music downloads played through VLC, so I know my set up is correct.

Am I missing a setting? Also, can I get a refund?

This is a long-term issue for Windows 10.  I've seen problems with all 5.1 sound going back 18 months.  Most posts I've seen say to try this:

Go to your Windows Sounds settings
Under Playback, select Speakers and go to their Properties
Under Enhancements, deselect the Disable all enhancements checkbox
Activate the Enable Speaker Fill checkbox and click Ok

If that doesn't work, try this:

Go to the sound settings
Select your device
Properties => Advanced tab then select 24bit, 96000Hz from the dropdown


Suppress vibrate when docked? When I dock my iPhone in the charger (desk stand), it briefly chimes to say it's charging. If it's on silent, then it vibrates instead of chiming. When I go to bed and put the phone in the bedside charger, the noise from either is very annoying.

I want to suppress the vibrate-on-charge. How can I do that?

It's already jailbroken so suggestions in that genre are fine too.

The only way I've found to deal with this on a non-jailbroken phone is to set the side switch to the non-silent setting, plug in headphones and then dock the phone. The chime sound will only play through the headphones and the phone will not vibrate.


Animate text in final cut pro: knocking previous text further from centre How can I animate a sentence in final cut pro,

where each word in the sentence slides in from the right (violently), slamming into place in the middle of the screen, knocking the previous word further to the left (but not off the screen, it just stops when the new word stops.)

I hope that can help you understand what I'm going for, I can't find any examples of this effect even though I'm certain I've seen it before and often.

The Apple tool for that job is Motion and it can make plug in for iMovie or just do the work you want. Adobe Premiere Pro probably does what you want, but instead of a one time $50 charge - that is $20 a month subscription. You do get a free trial of Premiere so you could make sure it would work for your project.

You could possibly find someone who already knows motion to make you a plug in or find one that works for your needs, but the general solution to making custom text animations is to use Motion or the Adobe CC suite tools for video

https://filmora.wondershare.com/imovie/top-5-imovie-plugins.html


How can I generate a rendered preview of selected markdown text or files? I would like to be able to pop up a window on my Mac displaying a rendered HTML preview of selected text (ideally a completely chromeless window like that used by QuickLook, but an ordinary Web browser window could work if necessary, but the less chrome the better).

What tools are available to do this?

To view a HTML file (I'll leave you to work out exactly how you want to format it and parse the markdown etc) in a chromeless window similar to quicklook you can use the automator actions Get Urls From list > Safari Popup.

This will open the URL (which can be a local file://~/etc) in a box as follows (the following screenshot shows facebook - as you can also set window size and user agent in the safari popup options - I choice iPhone size and Mobile Safari agent to show how you can create a quick and dirty Facebook app using automator in 10 seconds).  Clicking OK or cancel closes the app as it's the last Automator step, but you could easily extend it so a canel stops the workflow, but OK continues the actions, which may me to copy the file to an upload folder or whatever.


Can't restart because OS X thinks an app is open I was working with Xcode and it stopped responding so I force quit, reported the error, and tried reopening the app.  When reopening the dock hung too so I ended up having to restart the dock with killall -KILL Dock.  Unfortunately now OS X thinks Xcode is running but hung.  Long pressing the icon in the dock or going to the force quit screen clearly show the app but selecting "Force Quit" does nothing and the app does not appear when I do ps -e.

Is there any way I can get OS X to realize the app isn't running so I can open it or safely restart the OS?

This bug occurs occasionally for me, and the ‘safest’ workaround I've found which I use is to quit all other open apps, then quit (not force quit) WindowServer. This logs out the current user without taking regard for apps which desire to interrupt this process, or apps which the OS still believe are running.

According to an Apple Support Communities thread, this problem is caused by the kernel:

  If "killall -KILL process_name" or "kill -KILL process_pid_number" does not kill the process, then that process is hung in the kernel, as a kill signal cannot be delivered until the process returns from kernel space to user space.

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/message/26762830?tstart=0#26762830

…but I'm not certain how accurate this is. Certain apps seem to exhibit this behaviour more often than others and I am yet to find a link as to what the actual cause of the problem/bug is.


How come Dropbox gets an icon in Finder sidebar? How come Dropbox gets a non-generic icon in Finder's sidebar, when other directories like Google Drive and Sites (native in OS X before Lion) all have the same generic one?

How can I customise the icons used by the folders in the sidebar? OS X used to show individual icons of all folders there — not any longer.

As you've noticed, recent versions of OS X only display generic folder icons in the sidebar. So why does Dropbox get special treatment?

The short answer is that Dropbox uses undocumented API to accomplish this. In non-technical speak, it's a special hack that's installed by the Dropbox application.

Some curious folks on StackOverflow found the specific mechanism used by Dropbox: good ol' mach_inject. The same bundle provides both the toolbar item and the sidebar icon.

If you're curious, the resource files live here (at least, on my system):

/Library/DropboxHelperTools/Dropbox_u502/DropboxBundle.bundle/Contents/Resources

Clearly, Dropbox goes to great lengths in order to integrate seamlessly into the Finder. Lacking similar treatment, other ordinary folders have only generic icons in the sidebar.

Edit 10/1/2015: As of Yosemite (10.10), there is a new, sanctioned Finder Sync API for integration, as doovers points out in another answer. In El Capitan (10.11), System Integrity Protection will not permit the old mach_inject-style approach.


MacBook Pro 13" wont connect to wifi My Macbook Pro was broken and I had to fix it at a Apple support.

Afterwards, I noticed that the wifi symbol is not showing up on top of the upper task bar.
I opened system preferences and went to network, & noticed that the wifi and the bluetooth tab is gone, it shows only ethernet and firewire, so I set a service order and no wifi tab pops up, only the ethernet tab and the firewire tab.

At the lower left corner of the Network page in System preference, there's a "+" button.
If you click it, you will have a drop-down window asking you how you'd like to create a new network service.
From there you should be able to select "Wi-Fi" as its interface, and give that service a name.
Then click "create", and you should have the "Wi-Fi" tab back.
Then in the Wi-Fi tab, at the bottom there's checkbox "Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar", check it and the Wi-Fi symbol will be in the menubar.

After all these steps you should be able to connect to Wi-Fi networks just as you usually do.


What exactly is the difference between Badges, Alerts, and Sounds? I specifically want to know what the difference is between badges and alerts in the Notifications options in the iPhone 4.

Could you provide screenshots of each case?

Badges are the little numbered icons, like the one that appears on the Mail and SMS apps when you have new messages.

Alerts are popup messages like this:


Missing operating system can’t install new Os The MacBook Pro was brought to me with a windows 10 bootcamp but the Mac OS portion is corrupt so it only boot to windows. When i was unable to install Mac OS Sierra on the hard drive so I removed the hard drive from the MacBook and format it in another MacBook with Mac OS extended journal format. When I insert the hard drive back to the MacBook this is the error I keep getting “Missing operating system” now I can’t install any Os on it. Any help will be appreciated

Actually this is pretty easy, if you have a network connection of some sort. Wired ethernet is generally more reliable and faster, but you need the cable and possibly an ethernet adapter, depending on the model of MacBook you have.

Boot your Mac while holding the ⌘ Command and R keys. In a minute or two you will get to the macOS recovery screen which will allow you to log into WiFi (if you are not already using ethernet) and reinstall macOS.

The system will query Apple's servers over the internet and download the latest version your Mac supports. Depending on how fast your network connection is, this could take quite a while.

It will prompt you to reboot when the installation is complete. And you will have macOS installed on your Mac.

Apple has the official details here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314


Do cheap iPad Lightning to USB camera adapters work? Do cheap iPad lightning to USB adapters (from websites such as eBay) work or can a get a genuine Apple adapter for a lower price somewhere? I do not want to pay at least $39 AUD for one. My iPad mini is jailbroken and I wish to use one to symlink apps to a USB flash drive because I only have a 16GB model and I'm always trying to find things to delete to free up space. Is it worth the money for an Apple branded adapter?

The reason the adapters from apple have such a high price is because the product have a chip inside that will make sure the product keeps working. Cheaper product often don't have such a chip. It is possible that those products work, but they can stop working at a random time.

There are products from other companies that are also supported by apple because they pay a licence to develop such products.

Every product that has the "made for iPod, iPad and iPhone" logo on it's cover are supported by apple.


old iPod touch 1.1.4 youtube app hasn't worked since Sept 2011 or so I've been happy with my jailbroken iPod touch and didn't want to upgrade beyond 1.1.4. However, since late last year, perhaps September, the YouTube application hasn't worked, giving the uninformative error "Cannot connect to YouTube". Likewise I cannot reach Google using SSL, only straight HTTP. The error with https://google.com/ first successfully redirects to https://www.google.com/m, but then gives this error:

  "Error 502 (Server Error)!!1"

(sic) with the colored Google logo and

  "502. That's an error. The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request. Please try again in 30 seconds. That's all we know".

But it is not temporary, and I believe the two problems are related. I've edited the Cookies.plist file and cut out the google.com and youtube.com cookies, no help. I'm wondering if it has something to do with root certs, but don't know the plist for those. Any ideas?

Actually I suspect your problem started when the YouTube API 1.0 was dropped by google.

Google notified developers that the YouTube API was deprecated in 2008. Since they keep deprecated APIs running for 3 years, 2011 would be the time they turned the switch on it. It would make sense if all apps and webpages relying on the YouTube API v1.0 failed when they shut it down. They had a lot of problems with YouTube in september 2011 (example with 502 errors). So it's reasonable to say that your iPod will never be able to connect to YouTube if you keep using the early 2008 iPhone OS 1.1.4.

Google released the YouTube Data API (v2.0) around march 2008, after the iOS 1.1.4 was released.

I fear the only solution to get your 1.1.4 device to play YouTube properly would be to get Google to turn the old API back on... Or simply update your iPod :(