Upgrade to Yosemite: kextd close to 95% CPU I just gave in to the App Store's constant nagging about upgrading to Yosemite. Aside from an unhappy Chrome, there is this kextd process that's constantly running close to 95% CPU. This results in the fan also running constantly and my battery being drained.

Things I tried but didn't work:

removed all the .plist files
upgraded to 10.10.1 when it came out this morning
called Apple support who had me delete a cache file (/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache/loadedkextmt.plist)

The process doesn't start straight at boot, but maybe 10 minutes later during use.

How can I get this kextd process to quiet down?

I had this same issue and I found this message repeatedly on the system logs:
com.apple.kextd[8095]: Kext net.semaja2.kext.insomnia not found for client path request.

Closing InsomniaX quickly solved the issue for me.
Will do some more research on how to properly fix this in order to have InsomniaX running.

EDIT: After uninstalling InsomniaX and upgrading to the latest build the issue has been resolved.


Apple keyboard on Windows PC: will CMD buttons work as CTRL? I use mac at home, but at work I have to use Win7 PC. It makes me crazy to switch between mac/win keybard everyday, so I want to buy mac usb keyboard, but, will CMD buttons work as CTRL in windows 'out of the box'?
I can use some mapping software, but it would be much better just to plug it in and use.

Command button will act as Windows button, Control as Ctrl, Option as Alt. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202676 section "How Microsoft Windows Function keys are mapped to Apple keyboards".


How do I open multiple instances of an app? I have a *.app

If I open it, from the dock, or from Finder, it opens.
I want to open ANOTHER second running instance.

If I open it, from the dock or from the Finder the second time, now it simply focuses it.

One Windows and Ubuntu you can simply hold CTRL and click it and a second instance will open. How do I do that on OSX?

NOTE: I tried the open -n trick and it doesn't work.

Because OSX is just unix, you can use a terminal to run the original binary that's stored in the *.app directory. A la

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit &

Keep in mind some applications use databases to store their data which may cause conflicts or loss of data.

If you don't want to use the terminal, then you can make a shortcut icon that runs this command using the built in Automater app


SSD upgrade and Lion I have Lion installed in my system (macbook pro 17 mid 2010).
I have also created a Lion DVD using a guide I've found while surfing the Internet.
Tomorrow I will receive a ocz agility 3 240gb ssd drive.
What is the best way to move all of my work to the new ssd drive?
I am a developer and I have numerous ide installed (like netbeans) and servers like glassfish.
It would be a complete disaster if I had to reinstall things, so I am wondering what is the best way to transfer the operating system and the installed applications easily.
Thank you.

Superduper, if you can connect the SSD as an external HD before installing it.


How do I examine my iPad for malware? Lately I occasionally get redirected to other websites when I load some news websites.
It could be a banner redirect I guess, but I suspect something more sinister.

The iPad is NOT jailbroken and runs the latest iOS 5

Last three incidents were

clicking a link in an email from linkedIn which linked to an article on Forbes.com. When the article loaded, it was replaced (or a link popped up in a new window - not sure now) with a site that was surely not a forbes advertiser.
using the twitter app, I clicked a tweet from spitsnieuws.nl, it opened a pane inside the twitter app with the article, once it had loaded, it was replaced with a site surely not a spitsnieuws advertiser.
this URL got replaced after load. So I'm pretty sure it is an ad server issue
http://www.java-forums.org/java-applets/30447-java-print-service-applets-ie.html
another URL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168061/French-electrician-stranded-Moroccan-desert-rebuilt-wrecked-car-motorbike-drove-civilisation.html

I can only imagine both situations were safari or embedded safari, but I do not know how the official twitter app loads web pages into its own pane

Googling for malware on iPad has so far turned up nothing.

Suggestions? I can of course revert to factory default, but it would be useful to know what I had encountered.

Looking at the dsn settings, they start with 10. so local to my network - none of my other devices (iPad3, iPhone4/4S, iMac, macBook (yes, I'm a fanboy) ) on the same network shows this behaviour.

For now I have cleared cookies and application data. I will try to reproduce.

If your device is not jailbroken the odds of malware on iOS are basically 0, at least for what you're describing. There is currently no way anything could be installed without going through the App Store. Even then, a malicious app could only access its own files in its own sandbox. So, no installed app on iOS could modify anything outside of it.

This is also why you won't find any app scanning your iPad for malware. A malware scanner would need access to all system files but no app on iOS could do that (except for Apple's own apps).

This sounds more like a problem made by the particular websites themselves.


Automator: Issue with nested folders Can anybody explain how can I do this:

Add to context menu in finder element nested folders which contains of :
nested folders
 - template one
     - template two
     - template three

and each element will create a nested structure of folder in current directory.

So, if I choose in nested folders->template one, it will create in current directory nested structure of folders with template one.

What I did?

I made new Service for Automator.
Add action 'Create new Folder'

Everything works fine, but I can't understand how to tell Automator to create nested empty directories.
What Automator did instead?
Suppose I choose folder '/pathToFolder/ParentFolder/SourceFolder'.
If I select 'Folder' and hit 'makeNewCustomFolder', Automator would create a 'CustomFolder' like this:

'/pathToFolder/ParentFolder/CustomFolder' - on the same level of 'SourceFolder'.

But also Automator copy content of 'SourceFolder' into 'CustomFolder'

The way to create nested folder structures is probably AppleScript, not Automator. I don't think Automator can create nested folder structures as easily as AppleScript.

The following AppleScript creates a folder structure of the form

- My first folder
  - A folder within my first folder
    - Another folder within both of those

within the frontmost folder in Finder. Here it is:

try
  tell application "Finder" to set FOLDER0 to (folder of the front window as alias)
end try

tell application "Finder"
  set folder1 to make new folder at FOLDER0 with properties {name:"My first folder"}
  set folder2 to make new folder at folder1 with properties {name:"A folder within my first folder"}
  set folder3 to make new folder at folder2 with properties {name:"Another folder within both of those"}
end tell

I've deliberately tried to keep it basic. All the structure is declared in the second tell block, and hopefully it should be easy to see how to extend it. If you want to test if before attaching it to a service, copy and paste it into AppleScript Editor (in the Utilities folder).

This script is fairly naive, and throws an error if the folders already exist. If that's a case you might be working with, then this question on Stack Overflow explains how to modify a script like this and only create folders that don't already exist.

If you want to create lots of folders with similar names (folder001, folder002, ..., folder999), then this forum thread on Apple Insider may be helpful.

You then want to bind this to a service in Automator (which I see from the question you know how to do). The service should receive folders in Finder, and you use the Run AppleScript action to run the script.

Once you've got that service installed, you can right-click on a folder in the Finder, and there'll be a service which creates this structure for you.

To get the different templates, I can think of two methods.

You could create multiple services ("Create nested folders 1", "Create nested folders 2", …). But that seems rather messy. Again, AppleScript is our friend. We can make a dialog that looks like this appear:

and which option we choose dictates which folder structure gets created. Here's the relevant code:

set choice to choose from list {"template1", "template2", "template3"}

try
  tell application "Finder" to set FOLDER0 to (folder of the front window as alias)
end try

if choice is "template1" then
  -- create some folders
end if

if choice is "template2" then
  -- create some different folders
end if

if choice is "template3" then
  -- create a third set of folders
end if

Replace the lines starting with -- with the folder generating code that we discussed above. The list in the first line gives you a list of choices, and then you create an if block for each choice that generates the appropriate folder structure.

If you use this AppleScript in Automator, then the procedure is exactly the same, except now you get the choice when you run the service in Finder.


Thunderstrike 2 Mac Malware and other serious Apple exploits: how to effectively check? As lowendmac in February 2018 reported, the Thunderstrike Mac Malware had been patched in 10.10.2, but it effectively has to be checked as some users and Macbook (Pro) models "never had the protective EFI updates installed". I am wondering which other best-practices are there to check for EFI infection and other Malware on OSX.

I am specifically searching for self-verifiable things (not third party program), such as lists of known malware, EFI checksums and shell scripts.

Is there actually some USB-ISO to test if the EFI is okay?

There are several tools available from Howard Oakley’s site that I would recommend that you look at.

SilentKnight – a new generation with fully automatic security checks

  [C]heck whether your Mac is up to date automatically. Checks EFI firmware, security settings and data files, and has both a summary Help page and a detailed reference. Update handles firmware checks in Sierra more leniently now it is unsupported.

silnite – a command tool which performs the same checks as SilentKnight

  If you’re managing Macs on a network, this is an invaluable way of checking EFI firmware, security settings including SIP and FileVault, and security data file updates. A choice of two levels of detail, which can include checks against my database of current versions, and reports to stdout in either text or JSONised XML. Can also download and install waiting updates. Update improves firmware checking.

LockRattler – a quick check of your security systems

  LockRattler checks your Mac’s basic security systems are active, reports version numbers of security configuration files which are active, the latest updates installed, and makes it easy to check for and install updates. Ideal for checking that SIP is enabled, and it has Apple’s latest silent security updates.

Those three tools can be found at https://eclecticlight.co/lockrattler-systhist/.

All are available for free.

He has other free tools which can all be found linked to https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/.

I realize these are 3rd-party tools, but they are also the best ways that I know of to actual accomplish your goal of checking to make sure things are up-to-date.


Hotkey switching between spelling dictionaries I'm often using 4 languages for writing texts. Now, each time switching languages with:

⌘+:
and changing the language in the popup

Is possible somewhat /applescript, shell-script, anyhow :)/ define a global hotkey for my 4 languages? Something like

⌘+alt+⇧+1 - selects English
⌘+alt+⇧+2 - selects Czech
etc..

Ps: and no, the automatic language detection maybe works for few languages, but not for me.. :(

You could assign shortcuts to scripts like this:

tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where frontmost is true)
    set shown to title of windows contains "Spelling and Grammar"
    if not shown then keystroke ":" using command down
    tell (window 1 where title is "Spelling and Grammar")
        delay 0.1
        tell pop up button 1
            click
            click UI element "Deutsch" of menu 1
        end tell
        if not shown then click button 1
    end tell
end tell

It's probably not possible to use the setLanguage: method in NSSpellChecker in DefaultKeyBinding.dict.


Setting the default browser Is there any way to set the default web browser from within Mac OS?

I currently run Firefox 4 Beta, and haven't been able to find anywhere within the browser to set it as the default - possibly because it is a Beta. However, this makes Chrome start up as soon as I click a link from somewhere other than within FF, which is a tad annoying.

Open Safari
⌘, to open Preferences
On the General tab there's a pull down that says 'Default web browser', the the one you want from the list


My contacts are disappearing on their own I have Iphone 7. Today, I got a call from my friend but instead of the saved name (yes his number was saved in my contacts) his number was displayed. So, after talking to him I tried checking why the name was not displayed, I found that his contact was no more in my contacts (only "siri found in apps).
What could be the reason? Is there any chance that I got something malicious in my Iphone?

In my personal experience, the issue might be an iCloud syncing problem or somehow the main group in your Contacts app has been unselected.
To check to see if all of your Contact groups are selected, open the Contacts app and tap on the groups button on the top left corner.  You should see a checkmark next to the groups that are selected.
If this is not the issue, then you might want to go to iCloud.com to see if your contacts are at least stored on the cloud.
To answer your last question, yes there is a chance that something malicious could be occurring but it is very improbable unless someone managed to hack your Apple ID.


How can I run a script when the room brightness has changed? How can I run a script when the room brightness has changed? In particular I want to run a script when the lights have been turned off in the room that my Macbook is in.

Lilt will do this.

http://www.jonn8.com/lilt/

I used to use it to change my desktop picture from a light to dark one  when the ambient light changed :D


Default macOS certificates not trusted and not verified by third party When I start a new Mac OS system from scratch, inside the keychain application I notice there are 3 certificates that are not trusted or not verified yet. I know I can double click each one of them and make them trusted for the entire system.

But my question is what are those certificates for? What is the purpose of these certificates and should I make them trusted? or not?

One certificate is located inside the Keychain under the Login section: member: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxx (expire in one year from the current date) (this certificate has not been verified by a third party)

The other 2 certificates are located inside the Keychain under the System section: com.apple.kerberos.kdc and com.apple.systemdefault (expires in 2040) (this certificate has not been verified by a third party.)

com.apple.kerberos.kdc is a self-signed key used for Kerberos authentication when you log into another Mac in your local area network, log into Back To My Mac, log into iCloud or MobileMe, or use Apple screen sharing.

It is necessary for automatic negotiation and encryption of the username and password for these functions. It's not signed by a CA because it's not unique to a particular computer, which is why it's "not trusted". If you delete it, you will not be able to automatically log in to any of those services, even if you tell the system to remember your username and password in the Keychain.

I believe, though I'm not sure, that com.apple.systemdefault is used to automatically log you on to the computer if you have automatic login available. It also isn't signed by a CA because it's the generic encryption key that is used to protect your system password. Deleting this certificate could cause problems with logging on to your compute; I recommend leaving it alone.

In addition, regarding your first query check this two blog:

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/04/01/back-to-school-studentd-and-classroom-in-mojave-10-14-4/

https://eclecticlight.co/2019/03/30/mojave-10-14-4s-strange-new-security-certificate/

  Although run from a system LaunchAgent property list, studentd is run
  as the user from login. If you log into a user account which doesn’t
  yet have one, it creates a security certificate in that user’s login
  keychain, with a name starting with ‘member:’ followed by two UUIDs.
  The first of these is that user’s UserIdentifier given in
  ~/Library/studentd/AdHocConfiguration.plist, thus is that student’s
  identifier for the purposes of studentd. That certificate isn’t
  trusted, but trust is obtained later if the user connects that Mac to
  a Classroom system.

Also, note from Apple:

  Apple also confirms that it’s related to studentID and classroom.app.
  Also that is won’t be generated in future versions of macOS.

It’s Apple software and doesn’t appear to have any impact on your Mac. I hope that solves the mystery for you and reassures you that it isn’t anything more sinister.


MacBook Pro that runs Snow Leopard I want a MacBook Pro that runs Snow Leopard.  I think I need an early 2011 MacBook Pro to be able to run Snow Leopard. Where can I get a new or refurbished early 2011 MacBook Pro.  I don't think a later model will allow Snow Leopard to be installed.

Apple lists all software versions that run on models here:

Mac OS X versions (builds) for computers - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159

So you could focus on models that shipped with Snow Leopard and perhaps look at even older models that meet the minimum system requirements for Snow Leopard.

Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard - Technical Specifications  - http://support.apple.com/kb/SP575


What Math/Calculator software is available for the iPod touch? I just saw Pi Cubed, and now I'm thinking, what Math/Calculator apps are available for iPod Touch?

The best calculators for iOS:

Wolfram Alpha
PCalc
Calcbot
Soulver


Finder on Mac Always On I've always wondered why the Finder application on Mac computers are always on and why there's no way to quit out of them. Does anyone have an idea or supposition about why it is? Are there any consequences if the Finder is not always on?

Having Finder closed shouldn't cause any problems.

You can add a Quit Finder ⌘Q command to the Finder menu...

Copy and paste the following command into Terminal, then press enter.

defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem 1; killall -HUP Finder

Note: When Finder is closed and an external disk is plugged in it will still be available to applications through the File > Open, File > Save, etc. commands.

To remove the Quit Finder ⌘Q command from the Finder menu...

Copy and paste the following command into Terminal, then press enter.

defaults delete com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem; killall -HUP Finder

One of the nice benefits of having Finder closed, is it hides the clutter of files and folders I have on my Desktop. Sometimes I just don't want to be distracted by what's on my Desktop, so I quit Finder.


How do I delete data on my iPad Mini 3? I would like to start over on one of my games. But each time I deleted it and downloaded it again, my data was still there. I’m not sure how to get rid of it. It is updated.

If you are on iOS 12, go to Settings -> [your name] -> iCloud -> Manage Storage

iCloud page:

Then click on your app in the list.

Then look for your games data in the list.

Then click on it and click delete data:

This should clear all backed up data for the app. Then reinstall the app.

Alternatively, you can try and look for a setting in the game to reset your progress.


Is it possible to set up rules in Mail that do not appear in the rules list? I'd like to set up a few rules in Mail.app but not have them appear in the list of rules in Mail's preferences. Is there any way to do this?

Not that I know of. However, depending on your email provider, you may be able to set up server-side rules, which wouldn't appear in Mail.app and would be applied before your Mail.app rules.


How to copy paste Xcode warnings? Is there a way to copy paste the content of this warnings in Xcode ?

Yes.  If you go to the Issue Navigator (cmd-4), you'll see a list of build warnings and errors.  You can select one from the list and hit cmd-c.  You'll get something like this:

  /Users/dave/Developer/Cocoa/EmptyFoundation/EmptyFoundation.m:180:15:{178:2-178:6}{178:2-178:7}: warning: conversion specifies type 'unsigned long long' but the argument has type 'NSUInteger' (aka 'unsigned long') [-Wformat,7]


How can I answer to a call with Airpods I bought a pair of Airpods for my iPhone 7. When I have them connected I can't answer calls, but I have to disconnect them to be able to answer. How can I fix the problem?

Siri can notice when someone is calling you. You can answer the call tapping twice your Airpods. Then, you can tap them twice again to close the call.
If tapping twice doesn't work, go on Settings > Siri and verify "Access when locked" is activated.


Why does HTML mailto link open Brave browser? I'm a web developer working on macOS "Big Sur".  I've noticed recently that if I create a web page in Visual Studio Code that contains an HTML anchor tag with a "mailto" href attribute and I launch a local web server using the Live Server extension, if I click that link, my Brave browser opens up.  What I would expect is that the Apple Mail application would open.

  smith@mac.com

Is this a macOS problem or should I blame the Visual Studio Code extension?

mailto: links open in the system's default Email Reader. You might have this configured as Brave.
On macOS you change the default Email Reader from Preferences inside the Apple Mail app. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201607
In Chrome, there is also a setting to determine which website (e.g. Gmail) handles the protocol, I assume Brave works similarly: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9308783?hl=en


Can the Airport Express base station be extended? I'm thinking of replacing my home router (an older D-Link box) with the latest gen Airport Express base station.

I currently have an older Airport Express unit (like this) that I want to use in another part of the house to extend the network, but not sure if the latest Express units can be extended...

Or do I need to get the Airport Extreme to function as the base?

Looks like the answer is Yes.

From Apple Forums:

  The AirPort Express can only "extend" a wireless signal....using
  wireless only....from another AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule, or
  AirPort Express.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4650868?start=0&tstart=0


Workaround for Mavericks Bluetooth/Wi-Fi interference? I have this problem: I normally have Bluetooth enabled so I can make use of my speaker system and Magic Trackpad on my mid-2012 11" MacBook Air (2.0 GHz i7, 8GB).

However, when it's enabled, Wi-Fi association does not complete well, either on boot or wake from sleep.  In my case, the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar oscillates a bit and generally gives up.  Clicking the icon again may or may not show my network; if it does, I can click it and it will usually associate, though occasionally it complains that association failed.  This happens on all networks I regularly use—one, a Buffalo AP, the other, a Linksys.

If I turn Bluetooth off, I can associate just as quickly as I ever have with no issues.  I generally don't even see it trying to associate; it's done before I'm logged in.

This appears to be a Mavericks problem, as the folks in the linked Apple discussion are speculating.  I know I never had it under ML.  Unfortunately, I don't know exactly when I started having the issue, but it seems like it became prevalent around the time I bought the Magic Trackpad.  This seems odd, though, since the Trackpad is tens of miles away on one of the networks I'm having issues with.

Is there a workaround that would allow me to leave Bluetooth enabled so I can much more easily use my Trackpad?

After digging in the aforementioned Apple discussion, I discovered at one point that an Apple technician recommended to one of the participants that they should remove their com.apple.Bluetooth property list.  I did so:

$ sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

and rebooted.  When the reboot was complete, Wi-Fi was working flawlessly with Bluetooth on.  I lost pairings to all my Bluetooth devices except my Magic Trackpad.  I added back my speakers and all remains well 24+ hours later.

UPDATE: Adding my portable speaker seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back.  Had to repeat these steps and then leave it unpaired to keep Wi-Fi working.


How to change resolution of external monitor from main monitor on Macbook Pro? I have a Macbook Pro with the four USB-C / thunderbolt ports, running High Sierra. I have a USB-C to DVI cable. I have tried an old 1680x1050 monitor connected it which works fine. However another 2560x1440 monitor does not; it just doesn't display anything when connected, the same as having no signal. That monitor works fine when connected to a PC at full resolution with a DVI to DVI cable.

I'm pretty sure this is because the resolution is too high for the cable. When I change it to mirror the displays in the System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement settings, I can control the resolution of the external monitor from the main laptop screen and set it to 1920x1080 and it works fine. However, as soon as I set it back to not be mirrored, the setting for the external monitor goes back to being displayed on that monitor at the max resolution where I can't see it.

Maybe I should have got a better cable, but being able to change the resolution for the time being seems like it should be really simple, but I don't seem to be able to do it.

Thanks

Try clicking on 'Gather Windows' button in the bottom right corner. It will bring the resolution choices onto the built-in screen. Then you can choose one that suits. If you hold down option while clicking the 'scaled' button, it will bring up all available resolutions.

I have a third party screen, but Mac picked it up as an Apple screen with unusual resolutions and all I could see were grey streaks. Once I gathered the windows and changed to a suitable resolution it worked fine.


iPad 1 update from 5.1.1 to 7.1 How can I update iPad 1 from iOS 5.1.1 to iOS 7.1?

I tried checking for updates but I get a message "your software is up to date".

You can't install iOS 7 (or even iOS 6) on an iPad 1.

Source: http://www.apple.com/ios/features/

The last version of iOS capable of being installed on an iPad 1 is iOS 5.1.1 and since this is the version that you are currently on there are no updates available.


What contributes to my iPhone iCloud backup size? Settings lists my phone's iCloud "Backup Size" as 2.2 GB (excluding other phones and general "Documents & Data") though all of its apps turned "on" for backup below don't even approach 0.5 GB when summed. What else is contributing to this unexpectedly large number, and how can I reduce them?

Per Apple, this is what is backed up:

Purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books
Photos and videos in your Camera Roll
Device settings
App data
Home screen and app organization
iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
Ringtones
Visual Voicemail

Things like purchased content, Messages.app, ringtones, and voicemails are not actually explicitly listed in the backup screens for you to see how much space will be used. This would account for the difference.


How to add still image to audio file to convert it into video? I am using QuickTime Player. From initial research it seems i would need QT Pro to do it. Is there a free opensource tool i can use for a simple task like this?

On opening the audio .m4a file in QT the Edit Tab options like copy paste etc are coming out to be disabled.

There are many open source video editing softwares that you can use to make a video from a still and a song.

These are some of the best open source video editing tools that you can use.

Blender
Kdenlive
Avidemux

Also here is a full tutorial to create video from still image and from audio file.


How to close the emoji palette using the keyboard shortcut? I know that there is a keyboard shortcut that lets you open the emoji palette while you are typing, but I could not find any shortcut that lets you close the palette.

So right now, whenever I finish adding my emoji I manually close it by tapping on the top-left red X button. This is quite troublesome, so is it possible to close it via the keyboard shortcut?

I use Mojave on 2017 MacBook 12'.

The behaviour is somewhat awkward.

Even the Menu option doesn't toggle it on/off, only on.

If you simply double-click your emoji without doing anything else, it doesn't even bring the window to the front...

..so, the only real option is after you open it, click its header bar [while you're over there anyway to grab your emoji]
It will then respond to  Cmd ⌘   W  the same as any other window.

 Of course, if you forget, it will close the window you were working in  :\


Can't read/write via `dd`: got /dev/disk2: Permission denied (to Physical device) I can't do anything via dd with my Physical devices agreed.
I can only work with partitions like disk2s1, but can not read from whole disk like  disk2.
Can't find where is the root of problem.
Steps:

Check disks: diskutil list
Unmount: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

Then
$ sudo dd bs=4m if=/dev/disk2 of=~/Desktop/PiOS_full_root.img
dd: /dev/disk2: Permission denied

What causes this problem? why dd sends this error from sudo

there are similar topics around. What've tried, but doesn't works:

“dd: /dev/disk4: Permission denied” error when making LiveUSB on Mac OS X

and many others. nothing is helps.

I check system preferences and gave full disk access to iTerm2 (doesn't help)
unmount via diskutil unmountDisk and diskutil unmount
Change USB ports (many people said because of the physical lock of sd card.
change disk / rdisk naming - result the same
Lock\unlock state doesn't affect it (it's microUSB, put without adapter into the microsd slot)

Any suggestions, what to check, and how to fix it?
Here is the log:

~ ❯ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     437.8 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 80.6 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                528.5 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.2 GB    disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.9 GB    disk2
   1:             Windows_FAT_32 boot                    268.4 MB   disk2s1
   2:                      Linux                         15.7 GB    disk2s2

 ~ ❯ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
Unmount of all volumes on disk2 was successful

 ~ ❯ sudo dd bs=1m if=/dev/rdisk2 of=~/Pi_Backup.img
dd: /dev/disk2: Permission denied

 ~ ❯ ls -lhdO /dev/disk2
brw-r-----  1 root  operator  -   1,   9 Jul 11 17:39 /dev/disk2

Update: another interesting thing: I chack disk in disk utility -> Get info -it's not writable!
But if I mount boot partition disk2s1 - I can write there!

I realize that exactly the same setup is working on other MacBooks and even with another admin user on this laptop. So no matter, what kind o issue it is: I think it's something related to my personal setup and setting, not to the system in general. So I will close this question for now.
If someone get the same problem: try to do the same steps as I  described above or in the end: change the machine or user on your one if there is a chance to do this.

make sure that diskX is unmounted via diskutil unmountDisk and diskutil unmount
Change USB ports
if it's SD card: blow with air into the slot (many people said because of the physical lock sensor of sd card.
make sure, that you work via sudo. (just in case, you can check it via which sudo command)


Midnight commander freezes when lynx navigation is used in a quick fashion As a wrote in the title I use MC on Mac because I just like it and it is a very effective tool, especially with lynx-like navigation. But it gets frozen randomly when I use it basically running through a directory structure. I don't know any other tool which is as effective as MC can be. Finder is not my way in this case.
The phenomena is independent from terminal app. It happens in iTerm2 and Hyper too.
The other thing I experience with MC is that it starts slowly, it takes 3-5 seconds to start. I don't know whether the two are related.
Is anyone experienced similar and has any idea what to do to MC avoid freeze.

The solution is describe here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/57439/slow-start-of-midnight-commander For me the mc --nosubshell worked.
Both problem are solved. MC starts verz quickly and no sign of freezes when I use Lynx-like navigation quickly.


MacBook Air warranty from Canada I am about to buy MacBook Air from Kuwait, and I wonder if I can purchase warranty from Canada since am living in Canada and am a student of a University there?

Yes the warranty on Apple products is generally international, however you should not that some types of AppleCare are not just warranties but also insurance and the insurance component may have additional restrictions.

In the case of the MacBook Air AppleCare this is not an insurance product so it is international in countries that Apple offers service within.


Skype is showing up in Launchpad twice — why? How do I fix it? Skype is showing up in Launchpad twice. It's been acting like this for a while but if I remember correctly I think it first started when I let Skype auto-update itself a while back.

Any ideas why Skype is showing up twice?

How can get rid of the extra Skype instance?

I have searched my hard drive using spotlight including "system files" for an extra application bundle. None exists.

When click either of the Skype icons in Launchpad they both seem to launch the same application (Activity Monitor confirms this — they are at the same path).

Well, a bit more research and I may have found a solution.

* Proceed with caution. Backup files. Be smart. This worked for me YMMV. *

The Easy Solution

The most straight forward way to fix this problem seems to be to delete the SQLite database that stores Launchpad's data. To do this simply open the following folder,

~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock

and delete any .db files you find in there. They'll have a file name that looks like this,

58357ED0-F8D5-4EB3-9A1F-E6B71B0A001D.db

Then open terminal and type this command followed by return:

killall Dock

But be careful, you will lose any icon groups you created in Launchpad. I didn't like this solution for that reason so I while this worked to get rid of the duplicate icons I used the following solution on my machine.

The Hard Solution

I opened the above mentioned folder and located the above mentioned file and then opened that file in SQLite Database Browser by dragging the file onto the icon for the db browser.

Once I had the file open I clicked Browse Data and then selected Apps from the Table menu.

I then scrolled through the list of apps until I found one of the duplicate records for Skype and selected it.

With the duplicate record selected I clicked Delete Record.

I then quit SQLite Database Browser and acknowledged that I wanted to save my changes.

Then I switched to terminal and typed this command followed by return:

killall Dock

And Skype's doppelganger was thereby vanquished from my Launchpad.


Why does my AirPort Express keep disappearing? I have an AirPort Extreme (n, 1st gen.) and several AirPort Expresses (g), all connected through their Ethernet ports to my network. The Extreme is used to "create a wireless network" and one of the Expresses is used to "participate in a WDS network", while the others have their antennas turned off. Every few weeks, the Express that is extending the network (along with its signal) vanishes from the network and needs to be powercicyled to reconnect. Why would this be happening?

Save configuration and replace it with another one from those that have their radios disabled. Maybe this will be enough of a solution.

Why would this be happening? I don't know but it's either power supply or its OS crashing. Or both.


OS X: Specifying custom command line invocation of program as application for opening files on double click I'm primarily a Linux user who recently acquired a MacBook Air and I'm currently desperately trying to find out whether there's an equivalent for Linux's desktop definition files, where you can define an application by its command line invocation, with an optional placeholder for the file that X11 will pass to it when a file of file type associated with that application is double-clicked.

E.g. on Linux, I can set .txt files to be opened with a specific command line invocation of emacsclient like so:

emacsclient -c -a "" %f

where %f is the placeholder that will get replaced by the path to the actual file you double-click on. (In general, Linux file managers allow you to specify this command line in the File info window.)

Is there any simple way to achieve this on OS X? I've tried tinkering with AppleScript, as well as Google around for a solution, but to no avail. I probably still need to build up my Apple-technology-related knowledge and vocabulary, so as to be able to ask the right questions with the right words -- so please bear with me...

To my knowledge, there is nothing to automatically run any script on double-script (I am most likely wrong). The best solution I've found is Automator. It's preinstalled. You want  to create a service, which will place scripts into a context menu (right-clicking on file). For your actions, you want to find the action "Run Shell Script". From there, you can have it receive input from Finder, such as file paths and directory paths. If you pass input to stdin, the variable you will use in the shell script is $@.

if [[ ! -d "$@" ]]
then
    emacsclient -c -a "" $@;
    exit
fi

I do not know if that script is entirely correct, but it should put on you the right track.


Does Yosemite's Continuity use WiFi or Bluetooth to carry Voice? Regarding the ability for 10.10 to be paired with an iPhone to make phone calls:

does the Mac act as a bluetooth headset, -or-
 is bluetooth just for "pairing", and the voice actually goes over wifi (voip)?

From ArsTechnica:

  Unlike Handoff, the feature [phone calls] doesn’t appear to use Bluetooth at all, and unlike AirDrop, it doesn’t require your device to support peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connections. Unlike so many of the other Continuity features, this one looks like it should work fine even if you’re using an iPhone 4S with an iMac or MacBook Pro from 2007.

  Given what we know about how it works and about other features being added to iOS 8, the ability to take and make phone calls from a Mac or iPad is likely an extension of the voice over IP (VoIP) capabilities that power FaceTime Audio in iOS 7 and OS X 10.9.2. Rather than sending voice over the Internet between two Apple devices, it appears to be communicating between two devices on your local network to deliver voice calls.


How to get all my apps and data off iPhone 4s to new 5s I just recently bought an iPhone 5s but haven't set it up yet. Is there a way that I don't have to redownload everything onto my new phone?

Yes, you can. As long as your iPhone 4S and iPhone 5S are using the same version of iOS. So first thing to do: Make sure your iPhone 4S has the same iOS version installed as your iPhone 5S. I would recommend upgrading both of them to iOS 8.

When that is done, backup your iPhone 4S to your iTunes.  After you do that, then connect your iPhone 5S and choose to restore it from a backup. And that backup being the iPhone 4S backup you just made.

The other alternative if you do not have a lot of data is to backup your iPhone via iCloud and restore your iPhone 5S similarly.


Limit Time Machine size in Big Sur In setting up a new Time Machine, how can I limit how much disk space Time Machine has access to? I am only interested in answers relevant to Big Sur's change to AFPS for Time Machine.

Before 10.13, a command exists to set a maximum size in Terminal

After 10.13, I believe you can only cap Time Machine by partitioning your external drive.

I have no reason to expect this has changed, other than hearsay this summer. I am asking this question because I cannot find any sources that directly address the issue of limiting Time Machine's size in Big Sur. The change in file format seems like a big enough update that it could change how Time Machine operates.
I am looking for an answer that "definitively" answers how to limit Time Machine in Big Sur. Even if the answer is the same as in Mojave and Catalina, that is still valuable information.
With Time Machine's support of APFS destinations in Big Sur, how can I limit the size of Time Machine data on the external drive?

You can use the same strategy you would use with any of the other drive formats, namely creating a new partition.
Create a new APFS partition (aka container) with a single volume (as opposed to creating a new volume within an existing APFS container.) Time Machine will expand the volume such that it uses the entire container, but it cannot use any space not belonging to the container in which its volume resides.


What free VPN server to use that would work with iOS? iOS supports 3 VPN solutions: L2TP, PPTP and IPSec and currently I'm using PPTP connecting to a Ubuntu server.

Also, there are several problems: PPTP configuration has to be tunned on both ends in order to make it work and also I heard that PPTP can be broken in just 4 hours.

Is any other better solution for setting up Apple compatible VPNs that would not require buying some commercial software.

For years I've gone through this cycle of trying to set up a home VPN (running on OS X or Ubuntu) that'll support client connections from both my Mac and iPhone/iPad, and hours later I give up in defeat. Six months pass and I think, "it can't really be THAT difficult" ... and the cycle repeats.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago I finally got everything working. Some genius posted exactly what's necessary to get VPN set up for iOS and it also worked with my Mac:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1645473&highlight=openswan+iphone


How to replace internal HDD with SSD in Mac Mini? I'm a complete nube to Mac (bought Mac Mini 10/Apr/15). So far I have cloned OSX from Internal HDD to USB SSD which is to become my Boot Disk. The HDD is solely to hold a recovery partition, and Data i.e. Photos, Docs Music - how do I achieve this?

Boot holding the option key and select the SSD to boot. You can also use system preferences to set it as the default boot drive.

Once the machine will restart (or power on from off) and boot to the SSD, use Disk Utility to erase the HDD and enjoy your new Mac.


KERNEL PANIC recurring after reinstall for Macbook Pro OS X 10.6.8 We reinstalled operating system at apple genius bar due to 3-4 previous crashes. Updated and timemachine restored files but it has started crashing again. Is it a firefox problem? Has the problem been reinstalled by timemachine backup? please advise, best twelvemouths

ERROR REPORT:

Interval Since Last Panic Report:  146898 sec
Panics Since Last Report:          3
Anonymous UUID:                    3B32906B-6924-46B7-BD6B-B86DFE1A2A26

Wed Jul 29 22:32:19 2015
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x2abf6a): Kernel trap at 0x356f3ad9, type 14=page fault,
registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x00000030, CR3: 0x00101000, CR4: 0x00000660
EAX: 0x23d58000, EBX: 0x00000027, ECX: 0x23d5912c, EDX: 0x00000000
CR2: 0x00000030, EBP: 0x35092b88, ESI: 0x00000000, EDI: 0x07bcf800
EFL: 0x00010206, EIP: 0x356f3ad9, CS:  0x00000004, DS:  0x3509000c
Error code: 0x00000000

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)

No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbfff5918
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
         com.apple.ATIRadeonX1000(6.3.6)@0x356c0000->0x3571bfff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.2.1)@0x35143000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.2.1)@0x351e6000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x2e99a000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: firefox

Mac OS version:
10K549

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.8.0: Tue Jun  7 16:33:36 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1504.15.3~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro1,1 (Mac-F425BEC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 21686133350263
unloaded kexts:
(none)
loaded kexts:

Bluetooth: Version 2.4.5f3, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD7500BPVT-00HXZT1, 698.64 GB
Parallel ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-857
USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8501, 0xfd400000 / 6
USB Device: USB2.0 Hub, 0x05e3  (Genesys Logic, Inc.), 0x0606, 0xfd300000 / 2
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x1006, 0xfd330000 / 3
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x0250, 0xfd332000 / 5
USB Device: iP4500 series, 0x04a9  (Canon Inc.), 0x10c4, 0xfd310000 / 4
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x0218, 0x1d200000 / 2
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8240, 0x5d200000 / 2
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8205, 0x7d100000 / 2
FireWire Device: Hard Drive FW/USB, LaCie, Up to 400 Mb/sec

------------------------------------------------------------------------

First try 'verify disk permissions' using Disk utility and verify/repair disk. Also, have you tried with Apple Hardware Test?

The instructions for Hardware Test are detailed here:

Using Apple Hardware Test


Will I automatically get lifetime FREE updates if I buy an iPhone app? If I buy a paid iPhone app, will I be able to get free updates for the rest of the lifetime of that app or should I pay later for the updates?

What's the norm? Can you perhaps give 1-2 examples?

Not entirely. The App Store doesn't allow for paid upgrades of the same application, say v1.0 to v1.1. But there is little to stop a developer from releasing the next version of an app as a separate purchase, v1.1 to v2.0.


Deleted all photos/apps on iPhone 4s but settings shows 3.1 GB of photo storage used I am trying to get the iOS 8.3 update on my iPhone 4s and I have deleted all my apps and photos including the recently deleted. I then went to my settings and my non-existent 'photos' are taking up 3.1 GB of my storage. I don't understand.

This may have been caused by a bug in iOS 8. I had the same problem and just now solved it by doing the following:

Go to Settings, then General, then Date & Time.

Untoggle "Set Automatically". (We'll toggle it on again in the end.)
Set the time several months back in time. I set it a year back.
Go to the Photos app. The Recently Deleted album will still say that it has 0 photos, but if you actually open it, you may see that there are actually many in there! You can then click "delete all" and you will have cleared up that space.
You can now go to Usage in settings to see that space has been cleared up. If there is still some, try setting the time back and forward and see if you discover more photos in the Recently Deleted album.

That worked for me. I cleared up 8GB of "deleted" hidden photos.


Can Numbers use 8 hour long days when converting from days to hours? Using Numbers 3.6.2, I am using cells formatted as "Duration" in days. I then have a SUM cell that sums all the durations and shows for example "64d" (Suppose in cell D1).
I then do in a new cell (D2 for example) the following formula: =D1 and change the display days to hours. It shows "1536h".

But I want to use days of 8h (a normal average working day). How can I do this?

If I change the formula to =D1*8, then I get 8 times as many days which is certainly not what I want.

Changing the formula to =D1/24*8 does the trick.


How can I disable Window Minimize animation I'm about ready to throttle someone if I can't figure this out.  I have been working  to disable all animation effects throughout OSX (10.9.2).  since I got my new laptop about 3 months ago.  I think I have most of them figured out, but I'm at a loss when it comes to disabling the minimize window application.  The dock gives three options, none of which is acceptable for me.  How can I disable this extremely aggravating behavior?

I'm open to any suggestions, hacks, patches, utilities, or dark magic rituals that will change this behavior.  I'm not interested in people telling me that it can't or shouldn't be done.  This is my personal computer, and I should be able to dictate it's behavior.

While Yosemite doesn't provide an option to prevent the minimise animation, it does provide an option to use the "scale effect", rather than the "genie effect". I find this animation to be much quicker and much less distracting.

See System Preferences -> Dock


Trying to install Command Line Tools without Xcode In the past it used to be easy to install CommandLineTools without Xcode. Now I cannot get it to install correctly. Please note: this is not a development question but an installation of software question.

There are many discussions of similar issues, but none exactly what I am seeing.

A short answer to my question would be "it is no longer possible to run CommandLineTools unless full Xcode is installed". I am hoping that is not the case.

I have tried many variations on all the suggested steps, along with attempts at clean uninstallation and starting over. I have gleaned a lot of steps from the following sources:

http://osxdaily.com/2014/02/12/install-command-line-tools-mac-os-x/
http://railsapps.github.io/xcode-command-line-tools.html
https://macpaw.com/how-to/uninstall-xcode-on-macos
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27438457/xcode-6-1-how-to-uninstall-command-line-tools

And likely more pages that I did not record.

I have installed Xcode, uninstalled it, installed and uninstalled standalone CommandLineTools, used xcode-select --switch, and more, all in various combinations.

The result is that when full Xcode is not installed, when trying to run a command, I get the following error message or similar, depending upon the command:

  xcode-select: error: tool 'opendiff' requires Xcode, but active developer directory '/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools' is a command line tools instance

With full Xcode, the commands work.

In many places in the threads mentioned above, people complain about having to have 6GB of unwanted code; this is no longer incorrect. The current version of Xcode is now 10GB.

My main use of the CommandLineTools is to support MacPorts. As a bonus I like opendiff in some cases where my main tools are farther out of reach.

Is there a solution to this issue?

EDIT: I see that Apple now provides a direct way of installed Command Lines Tools only as Command_Line_Tools_macOS_10.13_for_Xcode_9.4, but it is only for High Sierra. While I am still a hold out to the upgrade to HS, it will be only a very short time before I do this upgrade. Hoping that is the line of least resistance.

Maybe things have changed since this question was originally asked but I had no trouble downloading command-line tools from here:

https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

(I did this after deleting XCode to save about 13 GB of disk space).


Cannot pass contents of Chrome address bar to Automator workflow For some time now, I have been using a keyboard shortcut to grab the selected text inside the address bar in Google Chrome and pass it to a Service (now called a Quick Action):

Sometime last week, I noticed that this workflow no longer receives input from the Chrome address bar. If I paste the address bar contents into Notes and select it, or select it inside Firefox and then press my keyboard shortcut the workflow still runs.

How can I access the contents of the Chrome address bar via my workflow?

This works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave and Google Chrome.

Adding this following code to a run AppleScript action in your workflow, should work for you. The command copies the selected text to the clipboard

delay 1
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
delay .5
set theURL to the clipboard


Is there a keyboard shortcut that I could use to set a task priority in Reminders.app on a Mac? I know that if I want to create a new task in Reminders and I write something like:

  Buy milk tomorrow at 3:00pm

Reminder.app understands by itself that the date and the time of execution of the task will be tomorrow at 3:00pm and it will set both of them for me. So I don't need to select the task, push the "i" button, check the option "Remind me on a day" and set a time and a date.

My question is quite simple, and is this:

Is it possible to do the same for priorities ?

I mean: I'd like to write something like:

  Buy milk !!

and see the app that understands that the two exclamation points on the task mean that it has an higher priority. I tried to use different sentences and AFAIK there's no way of telling Reminders to set the priority for me, without having to manually set it. That would be super-handy for me.
But I might be wrong, and this is why I'm asking you if there's any way to avoid having to go in the options of each task and set the priority.

Thank you and best regards

I'd recommend using Keyboard Maestro for just such an operation. This is perfect for a KM macro.

EDIT: I tested the following and it works well.

Create the following AppleScript:

tell application "System Events"
    display dialog "New Reminder…" default answer ""
    set reminTitle to text returned of result
    set thePriority to 13
    set lastChars to reverse of characters -3 through -1 of reminTitle
    log lastChars
    set i to 0
    set j to 0
    repeat 3 times
        set i to i + 1
        if item i of lastChars is "!" then
            set thePriority to thePriority - 4
            set j to j + 1
        end if
    end repeat
    set reminTitle to text 1 through (-(j + 1)) of reminTitle
    if text -1 through -1 of reminTitle is " " then
        set reminTitle to text 1 through -2 of reminTitle
    end if
    tell application "Reminders"
        set newremin to make new reminder
        set name of newremin to reminTitle
        set priority of newremin to thePriority
    end tell
end tell

Then assign the AppleScript to a Keyboard Maestro shortcut.

When you run the macro, you will be prompted to enter the reminder. Use one exclamation point to set "Low" priority in Reminders, use two to set "Medium", and three for "High". Using no exclamation points will set to priority "None". Note that using this does eliminate Reminders' ability to parse due dates.

The resulting entries into Reminders.app will be...


Have TM treat a clean install as a new machine (keep the old backup) I want to do the opposite of this question: Clean Lion install, keeping Time Machine history?

I backed up my computer, erased the disk, and made a clean install of Yosemite. I want to make sure that the old (Mavericks) backup never gets automatically erased; if there isn't enough space on the backup disk I want the backup to fail, not overwrite the old one. How can I be sure that it won't be deleted? Would it be safe to move the Mavericks backup out of Backups.backupdb? Ideally, I'd be able to treat it as a second machine. In the linked question com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist is mentioned; it would be nice to generate a new one.

You've already done it. By erasing the disk you changed its UUID, so TM already considers the new disk completely unrelated to the old one.

The only problem you may run into is that if you ever do a full-disk restore from one of your old backups, TM will patch things up so that the restored disk (which now has yet a third UUID) is considered the one that all the old backups were from. It will now be the new backups that it won't ever erase.

Which come to think of it is probably exactly what you want.

In case that's confusing, let's take a specific example. You have a disk with UUID#1, and in March you begin letting let TM make a bunch of snapshots with it. TM remembers that they're snapshots of UUID#1. Then in June you erase the disk, so that it now has UUID#2 and let TM start taking snapshots of it. TM regards your snapshots from June onward to be snapshots of a different disk from a different computer. It won't touch the March-April snapshots.

Then in August you do a full-disk restore from one of your April snapshots. Part of a full-disk restore is to erase the disk, so it now has UUID#3. But at the end of the restore, TM will patch up the backup so that the March-April snapshots now appear to have been of the disk with UUID#3. The May-June snapshots, of the disk with UUID#2, are now the protected ones that TM will not touch.

Personally, though, I'd let TM start backing up to a new disk. That makes it easier for you to keep track of which backup is of which disk, and reduces the risk that you'll lose the old backups to a drive failure. Drive failure seems to be the biggest threat to a TM backup. If you aren't using the old backups, you don't need to have them mounted all the time.


Monitor hard drive usage history? On Mavericks, is there a way to monitor hard drive use history?

To be clear, I do not only want to know how much space I am using on my hard drive. I would like a history of my hard drive space usage over time.

Is there a feature built into Maverick that would allow me to do that? Or any additional app?
If there is, will this built-in feature/app be able to recover information from my past use, or will it only start to record my usage once I set it up?

I know that I could record my usage manually, but I'd rather have it done automatically.

EDIT : as far as the frequency of observations is concerned, I'd be satisfied with something ranging from every day to once a week.

How about something simple in your crontab?

@daily (date; df)>> ~/drive_usage.log

Which will, on a daily basis, append to the file drive_usage.log in your home directory with the date and time the job ran.  Change @daily to @hourly or @weekly if you want different sampling rates.

Sample output:

Thu 13 Feb 2014 22:15:22 GMT
Filesystem                                             512-blocks       Used  Available Capacity   iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1                                              487900160  332696088  154692072    69%  41651009   19336509   68%   /
devfs                                                         382        382          0   100%       661          0  100%   /dev
map -hosts                                                      0          0          0   100%         0          0  100%   /net
map auto_home                                                   0          0          0   100%         0          0  100%   /home
/dev/disk4                                             1952177496  322984856 1629192640    17%  40373105  203649080   17%   /Volumes/Samsung Time Machine
//paul@calliope._afpovertcp._tcp.local/paul%60s%20home 7689113744 6353779112 1335334632    83% 794222387  166916829   83%   /Volumes/paul's home
//paul@pollux/paul                                      125522808   65564368   59958440    53%         0 18446744073709551615    0%   /Volumes/paul

If you want more information you might want to use something like fs_usage(1) which provides a truly astonishing amount of detail and must be run as root.


Is there a way to auto-upload photos to Flickr on Mac? I'm using Dropbox as my primary auto-upload tool from iOS, and I'd like to streamline the process of getting photos to Flickr. Rather than using the Flickr iOS app's built in auto-upload, I'd like to only upload the photos once (via Dropbox) and then have something monitor the Camera Uploads folder on the Mac for new files.

Is there a tool that monitors a folder on a Mac and uploads any newly added photos to Flickr with privacy set to private?

For an OS-independent solution, the following IFTTT recipe looks like it will do what you need.

Upload to dropbox - push through to flickr

In a nutshell, the recipe monitors a specific folder in Dropbox (the recipe uses "/Flickr", but you can change that) and uses the "Upload public photo from URL" action on the Flickr channel to upload the image.

There are a number of recipes that use Dropbox and Flickr, so even if this one isn't exact (and you don't want to customize) you should be able to find one you want. Here's another possiblity: Move Dropbox photos from Camera Uploads folder to flickr gallery.


Scheduling Application to Modify Its Settings How does one go about scheduling "settings" to change on applications given certain criteria? For e.g., I am using Adium, and between the hours of 8am and 5pm, I would like that status to set to "Available", and outside of these hours go "Invisible" or "Away".

The easiest way to do this is via Applescript. The commands you need are both single line. To make Adium go online the Applescript code is:

tell application "Adium" to go online

To make it go invisible, the Applescript code is:

tell application "Adium" to go invisible

Pretty simple. You can also tell Adium to go away. Open the Applescript Editor App in your /Applications/Utilities directory and create two Applescript files; one has just the command to go online and the other the command to go invisible/away. Save them as .scpt files with appropriate names.

That was the easy part. The next question is how do you trigger the right script at the right time? You essentially need to create the following two scheduled tasks:

"run adium_invisible.scpt at 5pm everyday"

"run adium_online.scpt at 8am everyday"

The default way to do this, built into OS X, is to use the UNIX 'cron' daemon. It's documentation can be found here. If you find the cron interface intimidating, there is a GUI app you can use to set tasks up, called Cronnix.

You'll still need to understand the timing syntax that crontab files use though. Wikipedia can get you up speed on that. Inside your user crontab you want to create two scheduled tasks. They should look like this:

0 8 * * * osascript path/to/adium_online.scpt

and

0 17 * * * osascript path/to/adium_invisible.scpt

osascript is an Apple specific command that lets the shell call and run an Applescript. You give it the path to the .scpt file as a paramater. Once you have the two cron tasks set up you should be good to go.

If editing the crontab file by hand, and not using Cronnix, don't copy and paste these verbatim, as tabs are required between the hours, minutes, days etc., not spaces as I have here.

Also, you could create cron tasks that use osascript and pass the Applescript directly like this:

osascript -e 'tell application "Adium" to go online'

However, storing the Applescript commands in a separate file gives you flexibility in the likely event that you need to change what commands get run later on. You can add to or remove from the .scpt files without needing to interfere with the crontab file.


How do I convert an .mkv video to iPad format with subtitles? I have a .mkv video with SSA/ASS subtitles & I want to convert it to .mp4 so I can watch it on my iPad. The video converts without errors but the subtitles are not there. How do I fix this?

I know relatively easy and free way that I will share

Subtitles have to be converted to SRT format. You may do that with Jubler.
Then I'm using Handbrake to convert to h.264 with soft subtitles. Here is the guide.
Alternatively you may use MKVTools to convert video without reencoding (in case it's already in h.264) to save time and after that add subtitles with Subler. You may try to import SSA subtitles (I don't have such on hand now to check if SSA will work with Subler so please report back if it will)


MacBook Pro 13" TouchBar 2017 won't sleep I have a really huge problem with my Brand new MacBook Pro 13".  When I close the lid and I open it after serveral hours the battery is completely empty. So the Mac obviously won't sleep and do working in the background.

So after that I checked the logs in the Console App and I found an process that will running every 1-2 minutes and obviously that will empty the MacBook battery.

This process is called diagnosticd and does the follwing on console in short:

Jul 21 09:49:20 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Streaming server Reconnected
Jul 21 09:49:20 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Cancelling the existing xpc
Jul 21 09:49:20 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Disconnecting the client connection
Jul 21 09:49:20 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Send_stream_Request, connecting to Streaming server
Jul 21 09:51:39 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Streaming server Reconnected
Jul 21 09:51:39 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Cancelling the existing xpc
Jul 21 09:51:39 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Disconnecting the client connection
Jul 21 09:51:39 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Send_stream_Request, connecting to Streaming server
Jul 21 09:52:52 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Streaming server Reconnected
Jul 21 09:52:52 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Cancelling the existing xpc
Jul 21 09:52:52 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Disconnecting the client connection
Jul 21 09:52:52 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Send_stream_Request, connecting to Streaming server
Jul 21 09:53:59 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Streaming server Reconnected
Jul 21 09:53:59 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Cancelling the existing xpc
Jul 21 09:53:59 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Disconnecting the client connection
Jul 21 09:53:59 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Send_stream_Request, connecting to Streaming server
Jul 21 09:55:14 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Streaming server Reconnected
Jul 21 09:55:14 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Cancelling the existing xpc
Jul 21 09:55:14 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Disconnecting the client connection
Jul 21 09:55:14 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Send_stream_Request, connecting to Streaming server
Jul 21 09:56:22 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Streaming server Reconnected
Jul 21 09:56:22 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Cancelling the existing xpc
Jul 21 09:56:22 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Disconnecting the client connection
Jul 21 09:56:22 Buzz diagnosticd[691]: Send_stream_Request, connecting to Streaming server

That will only happen when I have an active Wi-Fi Connection and the lid is closed.
For me It looks like some process will keep the diagnosticd process alive and working. I reinstalled the MacBook 3 Times, nothing works.

Have anybody an idea how can I see more about diagnosticd and the process that will keep this deamon alife?

Had anybody else the Problems?

I really hope you can help me...

At the end, Apple changed my brandnew MacBook Pro. The result, no more Problems


What happens to an iTunes season pass for a TV show if the show is cancelled before the end of the season? I know the basics of the Season Pass from the iTunes store for current TV shows - you can buy the pass in either HD or SD. Episodes that are currently available will download immediately, and future episodes will enter your download queue as they become available.

It looks like there is a slight discount for buying by the season, which I definitely like. I'd like to be able to do the season path math, but I do not know how to determine how many episodes for a season. A typical network season airs 23 episodes for a given show. So The Good Wife in HD, for example, costs 52.99 for Season 3. If 23 shows are delivered the cost is 2.30 per episode a discount of .69 per episode, or a savings of 15.78 on the season. But what if it is cancelled after only 10 episodes? Did I just pay 5.30 per episode? Will I get a refund?

I know this situation is unlikely on a show like The Good Wife, but it possible on this show and even likely on some new shows. Please do not answer with speculation, if you have personal experience with this issue, or can find an apple support document on this topic (my google search was not fruitful) I would appreciate it.

I have asked this question of Apple Support and I will post their answer if I do not get a definitive answer here.

It is stated in the terms and conditions that you get a credit for the pro-rated shortfall should the studio fail to deliver the quantity of episodes you purchased.

Retail price means the price you paid divided equally by the episodes promised and not whatever a la carte pricing might also be available outside the bundled pass price.


Getting Time Machine backups working with an Iomega Home Cloud Edition NAS I'm getting some strange behaviour from Time Machine since upgrading to Moutain Lion using the Iomega Home Cloud Edition NAS as the end point for the backups.

Getting the first backup to complete took some effort and the problem I'm facing now is that automatic backups don't start.

When I right click the menu bar icon and select Back Up Now I get the following error from Time Machine:

  Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “iomega”. The backup disk
  is not available.

If I go in the Time Machine preferences however and do the same thing by right clicking the drive icon, the backup starts just fine.

What's strange is that the backup drive is properly mounted and there are 2 separate behaviours depending on where I start the backup from.

How can I get Time Machine backups working automatically with this setup?

It seems that TM is looking for an other/older backup drive.
You can check it in TM preferences, under select disks panel.
If you have 2 entry disk, remove the one you don't use.


2nd Gen iPod (iOS4.x) using iPod keyboard Does anyone tried cramming a second gen iPod touch with iOS4 into the iPad keyboard sold by apple?  I've seen this but I'm not sure what the difference in architecture is between the iPhone that the Wired article is talking about and the iPod that I own.

The original article by Andy Ihnatko can be found here: The iPad Keyboard Dock works with the iPhone 3GS! According to one of the commenters there:

  The iPad keyboard dock also works with my iPod touch 2G (8GB) running iOS4. Great!

But personally, I'm not sure how or why this would be a better solution than a Bluetooth keyboard.


Clean install- erasing disk vs erasing volume I just created a bootable flash drive with El Capitan on it. I restarted my computer and went into disk utility to erase. I see that there is the disk 'APPLE SSD ...' That is 251GB, and there is the volume within it 'Macintosh HD' that is 249GB. If I want to do a clean install which should I erase? And what is on the 2GB leftover that is not taken up by the volume? Any comments are greatly appreciated, thanks.

A discrepancy between the drive size and the size of the boot partition is not unusual. Some of this missing space is consumed by the following:

The hidden Recovery partition
The hidden EFI partition
Space used by the file system on the OS X partition
Space used by Core Storage (This is optional depending on your Macs
hardware)

When you have booted from the flash drive, you can erase your disk to maximize the OS X boot partition space by repartitioning the drive. You should create a single "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" partition. The required hidden partitions will be created automatically. If you have single SSD drive, then you are not required to use Core Storage unless you need encryption.


How do I connect my MacBook Pro 15" (2011) to an HDTV? I just bought a brand new MacBook pro 15-inch model with highest specifications in this June. It is running 10.7 Lion.

How do I connect my MacBook to HD TV? It looks like it has only the "Thunderbolt" connection for "Apple" monitors.

So should I buy this (first variant):

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H1824ZM/A/Moshi_Mini_DisplayPort_to_HDMI_Adapt er?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng&mco=MjI2OTg1MTU&s=priceHL
and this http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC838ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng&mco=MTk0MjUwOTU&s=priceHL

or just the second variant:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H2775ZM/A/Mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI-Cable-5m?fn ode=MTY1NDA3Ng&mco=MjA4MDc2MDY&s=priceHL

P.S.: this writes

  "Use to connect your Mac with Mini DisplayPort - Mac mini (Video only),
  MacBook (Post May 2010), MacBook Pro (Post March 2010) to a TV or
  Monitor with HDMI connections"

So does that mean that it is not suitable for 2011 MacBook Pro model?

You may want to check out Monoprice. They have a ton of adapters, cables and other accessories, which in my experience have all been of good quality, for much cheaper prices.

They have the specific MiniDisplayport or Thunderbolt to HDMI Adapter you need for under $7. They've got a pretty extensive collection of cheap HDMI cables to go along with it as well.


Can you unlock a Mac that was locked from Find my iPhone & prevent it from being erased? Okay so quick run down, my Macbook Pro was stolen a few months ago. When it got stolen I immediately enabled the lock feature from Find my iPhone, & after a few weeks of waiting with no answers, I got bitter & also clicked the erase feature. Out of the blue, however, someone called my mother & said they found a computer on the side of the road with her name & number on it. So my mother got it off these people, brought it home while I was away, & turned it on. This brought up the lock screen with the "enter pin" & the message I put on it to the thieves.

So now that I have it back, which I thought was never going to happen or I wouldn't have enabled the erase option, I'm wondering if there's any way to unlock it from this screen but prevent it from wiping the hard drive. I thought about bringing it to an Apple Store before touching it again, but I bought it 5 years ago & don't have the proof of purchase anymore. Yeah it's got my mother's name & number on the bottom, it still shows up in my Find my iPhone, & it has my phone number on the message I put on the lock screen, but I'm pretty sure without a receipt, they can't prove it was mine so they won't be of any help, correct?

If I take it somewhere it can't connect to the internet, will I be able to enter the pin & get into the computer without it starting the wipe, because it'll be offline? Or will it start the wipe anyway immediately after being unlocked? I'm in completely unknown territory here so I'm trying to tread carefully before doing anything else with it. I'd just really like to get my files off of it, because all of my papers from college are on there, as well as personal photos & stuff. Is there any way to unlock it without starting the wipe? Trying to look on the internet is basically hopeless because it's such a specific question, & I'm not entirely sure how the erase feature works. Anyone with knowledge or experience would be greatly appreciated at this point.

According to the literature, what should have happened is that the erase command should have removed the PIN and the message you sent.  Instead, they shouldn't appear and the system should start wiping the drive immediately.  Looks like it didn't get the erase command or wasn't online to receive the command.  I'd AVOID turning it on anywhere it could get online.  Contact Apple support or take it in.  If you have a Time Machine backup, you could try the PIN and restore if necessary.


Where are Services stored? I created a service using Automator and noticed that it created a .workflow file in ~/Library/Services. Is this the same file that handles the service that I see under (Application's Name) > Services?

If so, does that mean that I can add or remove .workflow files directly in that folder and have it automatically appear in the Services menu? Or do I need to restart in order for that to happen?

Services are in ~/Library/Services and yes, that is the file that handles the service you see in the services menu. Yes, you can add or remove them and they will automatically appear or disappear from the Services menu. Restart is not necessary.


iMac USB Ports Stopped Working I have an iMac, and because I program I prefer to use the extended USB keyboard.

Just as the batteries to my wireless mouse died, my USB keyboard inexplicably stopped working.  I've been using this keyboard for months through previous mouse battery failures without incident.

Here's what I've observed:

The USB keyboard works fine when connected to my MacBook Pro. (The keyboard works.)
My iPhone charges when connected to the USB ports of the iMac. (The USB ports work.)
The USB keyboard works fine when connect to the USB port of my secondary Thunderbolt display, but only one of the three ports. (?)
When the USB keyboard is connected directly to the iMac, sudo dmesg produces two lines like this:

AppleUSBHubPort[...]::FatalError - Port 2 of Hub at ... reported error ...
while doing setting port power

Where's what didn't work:

Rebooting in safe mode: sudo nvram boot-args="-x"
Deleting the Bluetooth wireless keyboard device and rebooting
Rebooting while holding Command-Option-P-R

I have an iMac running OS X 10.8.2 with a secondary Thunderbolt display.

Hinted by similar discussions in related forums, I figure it's bad contacts.
I fixed my issue by gently squeezing the keyboard USB to make it tighter. Be careful not to break it though. Just a gentle squeeze, so that it's about 0.5-1mm tighter should be all that's needed.

This would explain why new keyboards work fine for a while and why extension cords only help for a while only as well.


How do you install a graphics card on mac pro 1,1? Howdo you install a Radeon 6000 series graphics card on mac pro 1,1?

There's nothing to install since OS X has the drivers predelivered. You pull out the old one and stick in the new one. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Pro+Graphic+Card+for+Mac+Pro+(Early+2008)+Replacement/14161


FaceTime HD Camera not working on MacBook Pro 2016 I have a MacBook Pro 2016 (with Touch Bar), yesterday I installed Snap Camera (by Snapchat) and it worked while I was on a video call. Afterwards, when the call had ended the green camera light got stuck on.

I force quit all apps but it stayed on, I then restarted the Mac and the light persisted through the whole reboot. So I then shutdown the Mac and it turned off.

Since then, camera has not worked. I reset the SMC, PRAM and am currently waiting for macOS to reinstall (didn't wipe data).

It sounds like there is a hardware issue to me, but just seems like a funny coincidence that it occurred immediately after finishing a video call where I had just used Snap Camera for the first time.

My Apple Care has now expired, so guess I'm out of luck? Anything else I can try?

This probably isn't a hardware issue. Third party apps can cause issues with Apple hardware. Do you have Bootcamp installed? If you do, does it work in Windows 10? Try changing your privacy settings.


Accessing certain files on external HD without entire backup from External HD How do I access certain files without backing up my Mac from entire backup from portable hard drive? My external hard drive is full. It has the same capacity as my Mac internal hard drive. I' did a wipe on my internal hard drive to keep it running. When I plug my external up, it does a complete back up, fills my internal drive and makes my computer error out because my internal HD is now full.

How do I upload certain files on my external to my Internal HD without having a full backup? or better yet, How do I delete/remove files on my external HD without it completing a full backup to my Internal HD?

If you made your backup using Time Machine, you can restore files from a specific data by selecting the file and then clicking the restore button.

Enter Time Machine

First we need to enter Time Machine. We can do this in 2 ways:
1. Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar (it's located in top right corner) and choose "Enter Time Machine"
2. Open Time Machine from the Applications folder.

Restoring a file

Once we've entered the Time Machine, browse for the file(s) that you want to be restored. You can choose a different backup time from the right side of the screen.

When you selected a file, you can press the space button to have a preview of the file.

Once you are sure you have the correct file(s), click the "Restore" button in the bottom of the screen.

Source: Apple Support


DC++ software for Mac? DC++ and Strong DC++ are powerful applications for the PC.

I would like to know if there is an appropriate software for Mac OS X (Lion preferably) which can connect to hubs in my network.

Direct Connect lists a couple of applications that support DirectConnect protocol. Amongst those are at least 3 native mac clients:

MLDonkey
ShakesPeer
Jucy

None of those, maybe with the exception of MLDonkey, seems to be very actively maintained though.


What is the name of the Automator application process? I want to kill the process of the Automator application, but i can't find the name of it in the activity monitor.

The Automator.app's main process is called "Automator".

You should be able to Force Quit it from the Apple menu, or from right-clicking its Dock icon.

Of course, Automator workflows that are still running will be entirely separate processes.


Will a 45 W MagSafe Charger work for MacBook model A1181 (2007)? Is a 45 W MagSafe Charger going to work for MacBook model A1181 (2007)?

...or I need 60 or 85 W charger?

Does 45 W MagSafe only work for MacBook Air or also for other Apple Macbooks?

Apple says 60W. Page 7 of this pdf manual.

45W is just for the MacBook Air


How do I enable preview of URL in a popup? I just noticed that when I hover with my cursor over a link, I don't get the url. I tried in maximized (full screen) and normal mode, and it doesn't show up in a popup or in a bottom bar as it does on Firefox. It's a bit annoying of course. I know about snowleopard's behavior, has Apple changed their stance or is still an external plugin the best solution?

If you enable the status bar you can see the target URL without plugin. You might prefer the plugin still though.

To enable, go to the View menu and click "Show Status Bar".


Auto-fill username and password in Fluid.app webapp I'd like to have my Fluid.app webapps auto-login to various sites (Gmail, DropBox, etc.) using passwords stored in AgileBits 1Password.app.

I'd appreciate directions or suggestions on how to go about this, if it is possible.

1Password only integrates with a browser that supplies an API which Fluid does not see this thread on AgileBit's website and Fluid does not seem to be able to read any OS APIs to get stored information

Patrick Welker has used using Keyboard maestro to copy around but this uses Apple's keychain, I have not tried this


App Store reports updates but no updates are available It's one day that the AppStore icon and application of my iPhone 5S reports that there is one update to be done, but, in fact, no updates are available.
I already tried to switch the iPhone off and on or reopen the app, but nothing changes.
 Why does this happened, and how can I fix it?

Why not why can't they update it seems like this is a scam so that apple can get more money what do you think


Why can I not set Safari keyboard shortcuts? Conflicts with secondary, unlisted Back/Forward commands I use ⌘← and ⌘→ to move between tabs. I want to transfer this setting to Safari.

The default Safari keyboard shortcuts shown in the menu bar list ⌘[ and ⌘] for Back/Forward:

Despite those keyboard shortcuts, Safari also seems to use CMD-Left and CMD-Right for Back/Forward.

I can set my desired keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts:

This now works, partially. If the current tab has no Back/Forward history, the browser will navigate to the next or previous tab.

BUT, if the current tab does have Back/Forward history, my custom keyboard shortcuts do not work. Safari instead uses the default (but not listed in the menu bar) Back/Forward commands.

Why do these secondary keyboard shortcuts exist in Safari? Where can they be customized? How can they be removed?

macOS 10.13.6, Safari 12.0

It seems like this is a widespread issue. I tried redefining shortcuts such as creating new windows, but although the shortcut appears in the menu bar it doesn't actually work—Safari uses the default extension. This happens for other Safari menu bar items as well.
Sadly this doesn't seem to have been fixed even on Safari 14 (shipped with macOS Big Sur).
In order to overcome this strange limitation/bug, I use BetterTouchTool to set up custom keyboard shortcuts, and it works pretty well.


How can I restore macOS on a MacBook if all the data on the hard drive is wiped/corrupted? I want to be secure against a worst-case scenario because I'm about to start tinkering with my SSD (going to try installing Linux). What backup methods would allow me to perform a clean reinstall (I'm not interested in keeping files, just a working macOS system) of macOS if I were to destroy all the data on the hard drive? Based on research on the web, it seems that a bootable USB would do the trick, but all methods seem to rely on the cmd+R recovery mode combination, and I assume that that requires a hard drive that will at least start up.

So, first of all you need at least a 16 GB USB Drive.  Formatted as Mac OS Extended (use disk utility). And you need to open up the Mac App Store and download the macOS Mojave (or any version supported by your Mac) Installer.

Then follow this guide: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

After that you can eject your USB Drive.

Then when you need to reinstall macOS you shutdown your computer. Then hold down the option key then press the power button while holding down the option key until you see a boot picker. Then insert your USB Drive you created above. Use the arrow keys to select it then press enter. Then click disk utility and select your internal ssd and click erase. Then quit disk utility and click install macOS and follow the guide there.

Now your on your way to a working macOS install. Enjoy!


MacOS: two hard drives, one empty I was trying to recover my Mac from a backup but something went wrong (the recovery was very slow) so I ended up installing a clear MacOS. However, I did something wrong with diskutil, and now have two disks in the system:

Untitled - 3 TB
Apple SSD128E Media - 121 Gb, empty

I know that I have only one Fusion drive of 3 TB on my Mac.

What is the second drive or volume for? Is it part of my Fusion Drive? Should I and how do I delete it?

I have also noticed that in Recovery Mode where is no local source of MacOS for recovery so I had to do Internet Recovery (and it was MacOS Snow Leopard I believe). Could these two issues be connected?

It looks like your Fusion Drive got split. Apple has some instructions here explaining how to fix it. I have copied the instructions here, but they made be easier to read and more up to date at the link above.

The fix will permanently delete all data on these drives, so make sure you have a good backup before you proceed!

In your case, you may want to get to a newer version of macOS Recovery as Mojave and above have a single, simple command to fix this issue.

To boot to the newest version of macOS recovery that your system can run, do the following:

Shut down your computer.
Hold down Option + Command + R to
boot into the most up-to-date version of macOS Recovery online. This
will likely be the Mojave or Catalina version of macOS Recovery.

If you booted to Mojave or Catalina recovery, here's what Apple says to do next:

  When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose Utilities > Terminal
  from the menu bar.
  Type diskutil resetFusion in the Terminal window, then press Return.
  Type Yes (with a capital Y) when prompted, then press Return.
  When Terminal indicates that the operation was successful, quit
  Terminal to return to the macOS Utilities window.
  Choose Reinstall macOS, then follow the onscreen instructions to
  reinstall the Mac operating system. Your Mac restarts from your
  Fusion Drive when done.

Alternatively, if this fails, or if you are on High Sierra recovery or earlier, you can follow the High Sierra and earlier set of instructions which are a bit more complex.

  Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery. Release the keys you see the Apple logo
  or spinning globe.
  When you see the macOS Utilities window, choose Utilities > Terminal from the menu bar.
  Type diskutil list in the Terminal window, then press Return.
  Terminal displays a table of data about your drives. In the IDENTIFIER column, find the identifier for each of the two internal,
  physical drives that make up your Fusion Drive. Usually the
  identifiers are disk0 and disk1. One of them should be 128GB or less
  in size. The other at least 1TB in size.
  Type the following command, replacing identifier1 and identifier2 with the identifiers you found in the previous step. Then press Return.

  diskutil cs create Macintosh\ HD identifier1 identifier2

  Example: diskutil cs create Macintosh\ HD disk0 disk1

  If you get a disk unmounting error, enter diskutil unmountDisk identifier, using the first identifier you gathered previously. Then
  enter same command again using the second identifer.

  Type diskutil cs list, then press Return.
  Terminal displays additional data about your drives (volumes). Find the string of numbers that appears after ”Logical Volume Group”
  for the volume named Macintosh HD. It's a number like
  8354AFC3-BF97-4589-A407-25453FD2815A.

  Example:
  +-- Logical Volume Group 8354AFC3-BF97-4589-A407-25453FD2815A |   ========================================================= |   Name:         Macintosh HD

  Type the following command, replacing logicalvolumegroup with the
  number you found in the previous step. Then press Return.

  diskutil cs createVolume logicalvolumegroup jhfs+ Macintosh\ HD 100%

  Example: diskutil cs createVolume 8354AFC3-BF97-4589-A407-25453FD2815A
  jhfs+ Macintosh\ HD 100%

  When Terminal indicates that the operation was successful, quit Terminal to return to the macOS Utilities window.
  Choose Reinstall macOS, then follow the onscreen instructions to reinstall the Mac operating system. Your Mac restarts from your Fusion
  Drive when done.


How can I get Launchbar to open the Wireless Diagnostic app? I use Launchbar Version 5.5 (1008) to start programs from the keyboard and can't figure out how to start one specific app that comes with Mountain Lion 10.8.4 Build 12E55.

Has anyone figured out how to launch the /System/Library/CoreServices/Wireless Diagnostic.app by assigning a custom shortcut or custom indexing rule?

I suspect the fact that the app needs an administrator password to run is messing up the indexing or the launching of the app, but can't be sure. To get Launchbar to index the CoreServices, I added the path /System/Library/Coreservices to the Specific Places and it finds other tools in CoreServices but not the one app I want.

I also tried letting the index rule Search Everywhere and selected Include applications inside the Library folders.

I emailed the developer and got a very clear reply. The application has a white list to avoid putting unknown CoreServices into play, so the steps I took to index that folder were for naught. The 5.5.1 update to the app fixes this one tool.

If you can't update or want to learn how to index this file manually, read on...

I needed to instead use the Launchbar Custom List function to explicitly index the services I desired.

Also, the developer has a practice of updating the white list once Apple's update can be tested, so unless you need something like I did right after a new OS is released, just waiting for a LaunchBar update might also solve this problem in the future.


Fan of my MacBook Air is Running at High Speed and Making Noise I have this noise problem recently. Everything was good a few weeks ago.

Reset NVRAM & Reset SMC

If that doesn't help you might want to open up your MacBook (or get it opened up by a technician) to check for dust or other clogging. An Apple Certified Service Provider will also have the ability to do a hardware test, the fan itself could be the problem as well.


Can I get a new iOS on my 1st generation iPod touch? I've got a 1st generation iPod touch that won't run anything over iOS 3.1.
Is there any way to put something newer on it?

Unfortunately, there is no way to do that. Due to hardware limitations new iOS versions only run on newer devices which typically have faster processers, more RAM, and/or better graphics controllers, depending on the device.


What are some good screencapturing applications? Possible Duplicates:
  Creating a professional looking screencast?
  Recommendations for video editing + screen capturing software
  Camtasia, Screenflow, or “Other?”

What are some good screencapturing applications for OS X? I am specifically looking for an application that records in HD video. I have used QT Player X, but I'm wondering if there are some alternatives out there.

I'm partial to Screenflow. It works well, it's easy to use, and it's good for both capturing the screen, capturing audio (or even video via FaceTime camera) of you narrating the screencast, and can handle mixing the different sources of input. At $99, it isn't cheap, but it does work well. I use it for demo videos for my students.


My text messages are still on my iphone5, even though I removed the sim card. Will I lose the texts when I install a new sim card? My text messages are still on my iphone5, even though I removed the sim card. Will I lose the texts when I install a new sim card?

I want to keep my old text messages. They document old events and conversations with friends.

I now have a new iPhone and want to give this one to my daughter.  What happens when she puts a new sim card in?

I'm trying to save the texts via screenshots, but it's taking a long time and she needs to use the phone.

Thanks for any help.

No, previous messages are stored locally on the device, not the SIM card, so installing a new SIM card will not remove the previous messages.


How to see colors in Xcode? I'm interested in replacing written-out colors with their actual representation. The example is shown below is on Apple's website, and I can't seem to find a way to do it within Xcode. I'm afraid that something so useful might just be a marketing gimmick.

If not, how do I do what's to the right of

c.circleColor    =
c.lineColor      =

This is an Xcode Playground.  That's important because it's the only place (with the default settings) that you can display these colors.

EDIT (June 23, 2016): After reviewing the WWDC material on new features in Xcode, images are also supported.  This is done via image literals.

This is taken from Apple's Playground Help:

  Open the source editor for the playground page that will contain the literal.
  Place the insertion point at the location in the code for the UIColor or NSColor.
  Choose Editor > Insert Color Literal.
  A color literal is added at the insertion point, and the color picker opens.  The screenshot shows the color literal just inserted for the tintColor property of imageView.

  Use the color picker to choose a different color for the inserted literal. In the figure below, imageView.tintColor has been changed to Aqua, which updates the color of the resulting image.


Play folder or file in iTunes without adding it into library Is there a way to play a file or folder in iTunes without adding it into iTunes library?

I have quite large collection of music that i want to listen to but not necessarily keep. So i want to be able to listen to some music files in a given folder (be it a complete album or just a collection of various songs) and once i'm done listening and close iTunes i want  all the files that i just listened to be gone from iTunes library.

I want to be able to do it with iTunes, because I can control iTunes with apple remote and with alfred remote.

And if it is not possible, maybe there is a workaround to achieve similar results?

http://www.macworld.com/article/1049828/listenonly.html
may be out of date of course ... this link takes you to an article that seemingly explains how to do what the OP requires ...

  Make sure you can see the iTunes window, specifically the Source
  column, along with the song you wish to listen to. Hold down the
  Option key and drag the song file into an empty spot in the Source
  column. iTunes will create a new playlist containing the dragged song,
  but it will not add it to the library. When you’re done listening,
  just delete the playlist. The original file will be untouched, and
  once the playlist entry is gone, iTunes will no longer be aware of the
  song, either.


OS X Photos removes 5 photos when converting to iCloud Photos When I try to convert my local Photos.app library to iCloud, the amount of photos in the library decreases from 686 to 681. I have tried to convert my local library multiple times but the problem keeps happening. I have found one of those 5 photos, but the file doesn't seem to be damaged.

The library was created in OS X 10.10.3 and I am currently running 10.10.4. Is this a bug in the app? What can I do to prevent these photos from getting deleted while enabling iCloud Photos?

After contacting AppleCare, it seemed I had a database error. The problem was forwarded to the iCloud engineers and has now been fixed.