ssh fails with ssh_dispatch_run_fatal invalid format During the last years I've had various problems with MacOS SSH, but those were quickly resolved searching the net. This is now something different.

This is Mojave -system with lates updates (10.14.4). I do think though that this did begin even before updating with the latest patches.

$ ssh -V
OpenSSH_7.9p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3

The error I get is:

$ ssh <host> -v
---8<----
debug1: no key from blob. pkalg ssh-rsa: invalid format
ssh_dispatch_run_fatal: Connection to <host> port 22: invalid format

I've tried running without defined config-file, running with different options, but with no help.  From other systems, such as Arch Linux (OpenSSH_7.9p1) and CentOS7 (OpenSSH_7.4p1) ssh'ing to the same host works well. Especially the same SSH version working on an arch linux tells me that this is something apple-related.

So what is happening now and how to fix this behaviour?

It may be that your keys are corrupted, as this issue is seen after some hardware failures. Try backing up and removing /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* and generating the missing keys with ssh-keygen -A.


iMessage conversations changed to Bonjour; how do I change them back? Within the iMessages app on OS X 10.8.2 all of my iMessage conversations have switched to Bonjour. So instead of showing the usual blue bubble it's red and people's phone numbers are shown instead of their contact name.

If I go to an individual conversation and click on the down arrow I have the option to change the messaging service from Bonjour to iMessage.

If I click iMessage the phone number is replaced with the contact name and photo from my contacts, but any previous conversation is gone. If the person then subsequently sends me a message the conversation history comes back.

This method does not work for group chats. If I click on a group chat that includes the same phone number I do not get the iMessage option.

Is there a way to mass change all of my iMessage conversations from Bonjour back to iMessage so I don't have to do it one-by-one?
Is there any way to change the group chat back to iMessage?
Is there a way to recover conversation history without waiting for a contact to send me a new message?

This happened after I took my Mac to the Genius bar to get some hardware fixed. When I got it back everything was fine except for iMessage being messed up as described above.

Update: There's a similar question on the Apples Support boards, but the solution did not work for me: com.apple.ichat.Subnet.plist did not exist.

In addition to unselecting Bonjour, which I agree was insufficient, I found that under Messages > Preferences, my Apple ID had been deselected.  Once I re-selected it, I could then identify the phone numbers and email addresses I wanted to use with messaging.

I suspect my original cause was my daughter's wanting me to turn off messaging for her email address (she is young and so her stuff is under my Apple ID) and somehow that turned off the MacBook's messaging entirely, not just her address.  Curiously, my iPhone was affected.

I also suspect I selected Bonjour in a futile attempt to fix messaging on the MacBook.  Hope this is helpful.


Automator: Safari: Display Webpages, but no entry area? I'd like to have Safari automatically open up a webpage when an action is run, but with this action, it appears there is no area where I can enter the particular webpage that I want Safari to display (e.g. macrumors.com, ...).

Thanks in advance.

You need something to give the action an input. The Display Webpages action doesn't request for user input by default, since it could use the value of a variable, etc as the URL.

Use an action such as Ask For Text before the Display Webpages action. Note that the Ask For Text action doesn't parse URLs, so you'll need the http://.


High pitched noise. Macbook pro retina The problem is - high pitched noisy tiny sound that u can hear only using more or less quality headphones. I use yamaha rh-5ma. And it's not the problem of headphones because I have different ones (sennheiser 555) and I can test in with different players like iphone or whatever. You won't hear this sound connecting standard iphone's earphones because the problem I hear is too faint for Apple's headphones to reproduce since they are lower quality than my preferred headphones.

So to make this sound on your mbp connect your headphones and then start to play something (youtube/itunes/anything that makes sound and basically activates the sound card) and then stop it. You'll hear this high pitched noise. The moment of start/stop playback can cause some different pitched artefacts. On different machines it goes in different way. Like in my MBP I have it in right ear but it's pritty annoying to ignore it. Like a tiny moskito. In different mbp i tried it it was less amplified but in two channels (left and right).

The problem is that not everyone is able to hear this sounds because not everyone hear this high frequency. (approx 14-17khz, can't really measure it because don't have that precise recording device).

What can I do to know if my Mac has a problem that can be fixed?

If your amplifier in your Mac is making audible noises, you should take it in for service. These very new machines should all be under warranty and at the genius bar, they should be able to test your headphones on another Mac and your Mac to be sure yours is normal.

Many audiophile insist on external DAC when there is noise from the CPU or other components since many properly built and functioning computers have noisy amplifiers. Yours should be as good as the rest of the population but perhaps no better than the rest. Just like all LCD displays are not perfect, there are some things you just have to live with, but without hearing your specific Mac it's hard to tell if your expectations are too high or if your hardware is less performant than a typical Mac of that design.

The best way to get Apple to examine any problem is to ask them to examine your specific problem. Especially if you can show noise being generated no matter the signal being played - that would point to a faulty amplifier / grounding issue / crosstalk interference issue as opposed to a problem with a particular music file or genre of music and the Digital-to-Analog chipset that was chosen by Apple. A repair or swap can fix the former, but you can't expect them to redesign the line if you don't like how it was made in the first place.


How to call a specific subroutine of an AppleScript from another AppleScript? I understand that it is possible to trigger an .scpt file that is saved somewhere on my computer from within a different .scpt file.

Can I call a specific subroutine of that .scpt file from a different .scpt file? I want to skip over the entire script, and only run the code that is found in one, specific subroutine

I understand that I can simply copy the subroutine into its own, dedicated .scpt file and accomplish what I want that way. This method is demonstrated in this answer. However, I would prefer not to have to do this, for the sake of convenience.

In addition, is it possible to also pass variables to that subroutine? My current need does not require this ability, but I am still curious.

AppleScript's load script

AppleScript's load script command will do what you want.

Example

On your Desktop, save a .scpt file containing the following saySomething handler:

on saySomething()
    say "hello"
end saySomething

Then within another script you can call saySomething:

set myOtherScript to load script (alias ((path to desktop folder as string) & "external.scpt"))
myOtherScript's saySomething()

The returned object from load script is a script object. Once loaded, the script object is treated as local and can have its local handles called, including with parameters.

See Can I put shared applescript code in a separate file and load it in various scripts? for more examples.


MacBook Air doesn't recognize headphone anymore I have a MacBook Air, mid 2012 running the macOS 10.12.4 beta. Since recently, my headphones stopped working. If I plug them in, the computer still uses the internal speakers. And if I go to system preferences, I still doesn't recognize my headphones. I've searched the web for this problem, and I saw that some other people have the same problem. I can only fix this by restarting, but that's very annoying.

Can anybody please help me?

Restarting the OS X audio subsystem might fix the problem, without the need to do a full reboot. You could try running the following commands in Terminal

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext
sudo killall coreaudiod


Changing Adaptive Undo Shortcut in System Preferences I am aware that one can go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts, and easily change any menu bar shortcut, like Undo, for all applications. This used to work great for me! However this no longer works well in Catalina update, because the Undo command in the menu bar is now smart/adaptive and changes based on what you last did. See below:

Question: What is the new menu bar command for "Undo" that encompasses all variants of "Undo".I already tried, "Undo...". Is their a wildcard like, "Undo*"?

Unfortunately the keyboard shortcuts definition doesn't support wildcards, so you'll need to bind every individual menu entry separately.

It might be easier though to switch the meaning of Cmd and Ctrl in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard and leave the shortcuts themselves on Cmd.


How can I download the installer for macOS Sierra 10.12? I have a MacBook Pro running El Capitan that I need to upgrade to Sierra 10.12 (not High Sierra) for development reasons.

I have previously upgraded my personal computer as follows: El Capitan -> Sierra -> High Sierra.  Knowing that, I should be able to see the previous version in the App Store as outlined in this answer.

However, I don't see Sierra in my Purchased tab in the App Store:

Was Sierra 10.12 completely removed from the store (including previous purchases)?

Apple now has a page up and live store links to download Sierra after High Sierra was announced.

Apple makes Sierra available even after High Sierra is released.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

The link to the installer on the Mac App Store is: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?ls=1&mt=12

If for some reason that article or link are gone, you may need to have an Apple ID that previously downloaded 10.12 Sierra - then it will be in purchased and a quick download. If you feel it’s missing, check with Apple Store support and your “purchase” receipt emails / purchase history. This is a change from older releases where you had to make sure and get an installer purchased before general release.

If Sierra legitimately isn’t in your purchased list, and for some reason the KB above gets pulled at some point:

You might be able to take your Mac to Apple Service and have the OS loaded.
You might be able to use Internet Recovery to install the OS that came with your Mac - so you’d need to buy or have a Mac that shipped with 10.12.
Find someone you trust to make you a bootable Install macOS Sierra installer drive - a 8 GB USB drive works well for this.


Why is `/etc/sysctl.conf` not determining my `kern.maxfiles` setting? I've been having a persistent "too many open files in system" error on my machine (OSX 10.7.5).

When I run sysctl kern.maxfiles and sysctl kern.maxfilesperproc, both output 2048.

This article says those settings default to 12,288 and 10,240, respectively. It says you can permanently change the settings by editing /etc/sysctl.conf.

I've done that. The contents of that file are now:

kern.maxfiles=12288
kern.maxfilesperproc=10240

The permissions on it are -rw-r--r--, and it belongs to root in the wheel group.

This file has no effect on what my system is doing. After restart, if I check the maxfile settings, they are unchanged.

Is there something else controlling these settings, making my defaults lower than what they should be and overriding my explicit settings?

How can I fix these settings?

Update

I've since tried, to no avail:

Lower Limits

Setting them to 4000 and 3500 in case the system ignores settings over a certain threshold.

Using /etc/rc.common

I put the following, not in /etc/sysctl.conf, but in /ect/rc.common:

sysctl -w kern.maxfiles=4000
sysctl -w kern.maxfilesperproc=3500

Using my shell's configuration file

I put the same commands as above in my .zshrc, but they don't work without sudo.

See /etc/launchd.conf

For some reason, I had this in /etc/launchd.conf:

limit maxfiles 2048

This apparently overrode my settings in /etc/sysctl.conf, either by being considered more important or by being executed later in the bootup process.

After I removed this and rebooted, my settings from /etc/sysctl.conf had taken effect.


Is it possible to stream from Safari to Apple TV with a MacBook Pro late 2008 with OS X 10.9.5? I have a MacBook Pro from late 2008 running OS X 10.9.5. Is it possible to stream contents, playing in Safari, to Apple TV?

Unfortunately, the graphics card in your Mac doesn't support AirPlay as its too old. I have the same problem with my mid-2010 MBP. You can see the list of supported hardware here.

While there is software that will enable this functionality (like AirParrot), I have found it severely under performs on older hardware and isn't really usable. You're welcome to give it a go though. :)


Time Machine - How can I backup only Documents folder I'm trying to backup Documents folder only. Folder contains 10GB. Entire User folder is about 50GB.
When trying to exclude all folders (included hidden ones ), I get to 48GB of backup storage required.
What do I do wrong ?

The estimates are often off to be conservative, make sure enough space is there to not run out if the estimate is not perfect.  Just exclude every folder and allow a token empty one to back up. After several intervals, the estimate will be better and you can add documents back by removing it from the exclusion list.


How to use Thunderbolt Display with Laptop I am currently using my 2015 MacBook Pro with my thunderbolt display. I want to buy a new laptop (HP) but I realized that I would have some problems to connect it to the Thunderbolt display. The new HP I want to buy has an HDMI port. I have browsed on internet where I could find a HDMI male to Thunderbolt 2 female (because I have an integrated Thunderbolt cable with the display) and there is nothing even on Amazon. I could only find adaptators with Thunderbolt male. I have searched for another way to connect the display with my new PC. On the backside, there is a Thunderbolt 2 port. Can I use this port to connect a Thunderbolt 2 to HDMI adaptator ? If you know another way I could use the integrated cable, please tell me.
Thanks

There are two ways of connecting to the TB Display: either using the built-in 'male' cable, or the TB port on the back. Both are "miniDisplayPort" connectors, and can function as 'dumb' video connectors if you can get some connection from your laptop (USB-C, HDMI, etc) to a miniDisplayPort connector (either male or female).

If you are connecting via a non-Thunderbolt connection, then you won't get all the Thunderbolt goodness of the speakers, extra ports, webcam, etc.


Can QuickTime Pro convert .mpg to .mov? I am thinking about purchasing QuickTime Pro for Windows, but I have not been able to find a list of video file formats that it takes as input.  Does QuickTime Pro for Windows convert .mpg files to .mov?  Thank you!

It does. Here you can find a list of all the import and export formats QuickTime Pro 7.7 supports.


How to recover User ID snapshot file? I have accidentally changed my user ID picture on my Macbook Pro (running OS X 10.7.5). The original user ID snapshot is very dear to me and I can't find the original file saved anywhere. Is there a way to reset/recover the original User ID snapshot? I have tried to find it under Library/ User Pictures/ but only the pre-installed icons seem to be showing here. Any help would be much appreciated.

Execute this command in Terminal and see what happens:

dscl . -read /Users/[user_shortname] JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p > ~/Desktop/any_file_name.jpg

Ex:

dscl . -read /Users/U92 JPEGPhoto | tail -1 | xxd -r -p > ~/Desktop/U92.jpg

Gleaned and distilled from this AskDifferent page.


does the iphone do RGB sub-pixel rendering? I've heard of RGB Sub-Pixel Rendering.

I'm wondering does the IPhone 3 have this capability (or is it that each pixels are only 1 color) ?
What about the IPhone 4?

No, they don't:

  ...sub-pixel anti-aliasing is, ultimately, a clever hack that will eventually fall by the wayside as display resolutions improve.


ThalysNet or other accesspoints destroy my browsing experience I tend to travel a lot around Europe, and I don't necessarily think about removing Wifi from my MacBook Air. I also keep dozens of tabs open.

Every single time I take the Thalys, or I get into some Hotel "pay-per-use" Wifi network, my MBA stupidly loads the accesspoints' login-or-register-with-credit-card-number page. While I ignore it, I do lose the pages I had open, since the damn things rewrite the URLs.

For example:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/somenumber/somequestion

is turned into:

https://portal.thalysnet.com/?hostname=stackoverflow.com

which means I don't know what the page was about, since I might have a dozen SO tabs open at the time... all called this :/ .

Is there any way I can block "URL rewriting" on the Mac, unless specifically authorized by me?

Disable "Ask to join new networks", when selecting Wi-fi in the Network preference pane. You might also need to explicitely forget those networks if you joined them in the past, by clicking on "Advanced..." and removing any undesired network.

Once you are connected to these networks, there is no way in changing this behavior. As every request passes through their access point, they can modify it in every way they want (and return a redirect response instead for example).


Can't remove ACE from directory My applications folder has an ACE entry which prevents me from deleting its contents (not even as root, with sip disabled).
My problem is, that the command

sudo chmod -N /Applications

tells me, that I have no permission to do this.
I couldn't believe it and tried it in both single user and recovery mode, to no avail.

Output of ls -leO:

drwxrwxr-x+ 148 root    admin  uappnd,nodump,opaque  4.9K Jul 31 08:55 Applications/
0: group:everyone deny delete

Is there any other possibility to fix this except from reinstalling the OS?

The proper command to remove the ACE from the folder in SIP-disabled mode is:

sudo chmod -a "everyone deny delete" /Applications

You can also remove (or add) ACL entries by number/index:

sudo chmod -a# 0 /Applications


Lost & Found - BRICK This could be an interesting Question.

I Found and iPhone 5S, I handed it into the police. After 2 Months they returned the Phone, no one claimed it. I have a Sticker on the back of the phone with police details on it.
So in our country, that is proof of ownership. I am now the new owner of this phone.
BUT.....It is a brick, as the security has been enabled.
I have a start up screen that looks like a brand new phone and I must enter an iCloud account and password.
I do not have this information.
I have contacted Apple Help USA, They say I need a court summons ??? WHAT!!!
I contacted Apple technical Support, ( basically they said NO )
SO. the Question is....
Is there a way around this?
( I am happy to send a photo with the police details on it. To prove ownership.)
Thanks
Anthony

Unfortunate that the original owner could not be found.
Apple has deliberately designed the device to be linked to an individual. Without that individual's involvement, the security will not be bypassed by Apple without a court order.
Consider returning the phone to Apple for parts recycling:

Recycling an Apple product should be as easy as using one.
The Apple Renew program lets you recycle your device online. We’ll make sure it’s recycled responsibly or given a chance to be used again.


How to make inactive when I close application window by Command + W When I open an Excel file from Finder and close the Excel window by Command+W. The active window remain Excel.

Is there a way to make Finder active window when I close Excel?

If I close the Excel window by Command+Q, the Finder become active but I prefer to keep Excel in memory.

I'm not sure you can really have both…

Telling Excel to close a window doesn't tell Excel to quit. It doesn't actually tell it anything other than you closed a window. It sits there waiting for you to tell it what to do next; it can't guess what your next action is going to be.

Of course, if you Quit it, then it goes away & the last-used app will be frontmost.

Clicking the desktop is the quickest way to bring the Finder to the front.


Why my messaging services consume a lot of data recently? I found a similar question. But mine is regarding with Messaging Services. As you see the total data used is about 4.5GB. 4GB of them is used in recent two months. The Messaging Services is using about 2.4GB. I want to know why and how to disable Messaging Services because my phone is running in a private 4G network and we never use iMessage or Text Message etc.

First, you can check iMessage apps that appear in App tray in Messages (or look for a button with App Store logo beside the text field).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206906
Are there any? If yes, you must check them.
Second, if you say that you "never use iMessage", you can turn it off in Settings.


What is the iPhone's standby policy regarding WiFi and 3G? I have an iPhone 4s with the latest iOS.

It seems that when I wake it up from standby, it switches from 3G (or EDGE) to WiFi. Judging from that, I suspect it turns off WiFi when in standby, and only uses it when activated.

However, I don't know if that's purely coincidental, because a few friends of mine couldn't confirm it.

If switching to 3G data on standby is intended to reduce power usage, I would actually disagree, since often, a stable WiFi connection uses less data/power than 3G/EDGE with bad signal (which is the case in my apartment). Furthermore, I don't want to use my mobile carrier's data plan for doing background syncing/pushing, which my phone is doing 90% of the time when it's just sitting on the desk.

So, long story short:

When does the iPhone switch back to 3G even if it has WiFi signal?
Can I modify this behavior somewhere?

As you've noticed, the iPhone switches off WiFi when it sleeps and uses 3G. This is by design. The 3G radio consumes less battery power.

  When does the iPhone switch back to 3G even if it has WiFi signal?

As soon as you wake the phone it will being re-enabling sleep-disabled services like the WiFi radio. If you were previously joined to a wireless network that is still within range your phone should re-join that network a few seconds after you wake it up. Here is where problems can crop up - a burp in your router or temporary interference can prevent the WiFi from rejoining and if your data coverage is fast enough, you may not notice you are now on paid 3G data. Especially if you are streaming video or playing a game and the menu bar is hidden.

If will switch back to 3G if you tell it to forget the current Wi-Fi network it's joined to and have it set to no auto-join any other known network in range. Or shortly after you put it back to sleep.

  Can I modify this behavior somewhere?

All of the Wi-Fi behaviour is set using the Settings app, under the Wi-Fi menu.

You can turn the Wi-Fi radio off completely here. This will stop the phone from searching for wireless networks altogether and you'll be running completely on cellular data services. (See #1 in screen shot)

You can set what the phone does if the Wi-Fi radio is on, networks are detected, but it is not currently joined to any of them. In this circumstance the phone can prompt you to join a network or do nothing and let you manually join a network if you so desire. (See #2 in the screen shot).

You can also manually chose a network here. And, if you're currently joined to a network, you can click the > arrow next to its name to get the details and, if you want to, "forget" the network and disconnect from it.


Copying Time Machine sparse bundle on NAS Do to corruption problems with Time Machine on my Drobo NAS, I have decided to have two shares housing the TM backups so that they back up in a rotation.  I have already completed the initial backup to TM_A, but it takes over a day.  To save time, I want to duplicate TM_A to TM_B.  I want to use the Drobo to handle the copy it's self and avoid the slow down of using the wifi network to send data from the Drobo to my Mac and then back to the same Drobo.

However when I SSH into the Drobo as Admin and look inside the shares, the sparsebundle is a directory, yet not a directory I can enter.  Using either CP or Midnight Commander, copying only copies the directory, but not the full sparsebundle.  How do I copy the entire sparsebundle, files included, and not just the directory?

Setup:

NAS: Drobo 5N
Computer: MBP running 10.13.5
Backup disk 1: TM_A, 500 GB allocated
Backup disk 2: TM_B, 500 GB allocated
Connection type: Wi-fi

After 2 days of fiddling around, including adjusting the .profile files for easier access to Nano, Midnight Commander, and other programs that are installed with the Drobo but to run you have to navigate to their bin drives, I am now copying the sparsebundle in full.

Even though I am SSHed in as Admin, you cannot see inside the bundle unless you are also Root.  Once Root, you can see inside the bundle, and the copy will include everything.  I am using MC for the copy and moving at 3.35 MB/s.  During this time Time Machine is turned off to prevent changes in the middle of the copy.

I would suggest doing the copy inside of Screen, which virtualizes terminal inside of itself, allowing you to run commands as normal, but then if you lose your SSH connection, on reconnecting you can resume your screen without loss of progress or data.


Where is BSD.pkg on OS X 10.9? I want to extract BSD.pkg file and pull some apache configuration file to cover my apache http.conf file.

I locate in /Library/Receipts/, But the BSD.pkg file is empty.

This pkg is also in the "OS X Install ESD" this one should not be empty.

to get it just download mavericks from app store

make a right click and show package contents there should be an "OS X Install ESD".dmg

mount it

now you should find BSD.pkg under -> /Volumes/OS X Install ESD/Packages/BSD.pkg


How to update a MacOS installed in an external SSD beyond Sierra My 2015 MacBook Pro 13's internal SSD died during an update yesterday. When I try booting it says there are no drives to boot from. I used Internet Recovery and there is no sign of the internal SSD anywhere.
So, I plugged in a brand new 1 TB external SSD, it installed El Capitan and it worked perfectly. I updated it to Sierra without issues but when I try to update it further to High Sierra and beyond I get a message saying the disk doesn't have a firmware partition. I google this issue and it seems that MacOS versions released after Sierra require a working internal storage disk in order to install. Is it possible install the High Sierra in a USB stick and use that to run the installer?
Edit: It was running Mojave when it died, I had noticed that it was running much slower than usual which is why I tried updating it.
I was also wondering if it is possible to install Windows 10 in a different partition of the same external SSD since the stuff I need for work runs on it, however I can't get bootcamp to work without a internal SSD either.

Below are some possible solutions.

Replace the internal drive. This website shows replacement drives and links to installation videos.

Use another Mac with a working internal drive to upgrade the external drive to High Sierra or Mojave. Once completed, you Mac should boot from the upgraded external drive.

Try upgrading directly to Mojave, thus bypassing High Sierra.

Use an virtual machine to update to High Sierra. Here, the virtual machine would have a virtual internal and a physical external drive. Once the upgrade is complete, you should be able to boot from the upgrading external drive using the physical Mac.

Many answers explaining how to install Windows 10 on a external drive have been posted here at Ask Different. You could start with this answer. Since you have El Capitan installed on the external drive, you probably will have to adapt an existing answer.


How do I change the virtualbox "Host Key"? I'm not using an apple keyboard and don't have a Left ⌘.  Can I change the "Host Key" to be the Right ⌘?  How?

The GUI setting is under Preferences -> Input -> Virtual Machine:


Copying Xcode.app from App Store to another computer (under different Apple ID) I don't want to re-download the 1.4GB of file, and the app itself is free. We're both Apple developers. Is there any way I can copy mine to his machine?

This is the current version of Xcode that doesn't download the "Install Xcode" file.

(I have not tried, but perhaps trying to click "Buy", and then stopping the download, replacing it with my copy will work? Just a shot in the dark, seems very complicated.)

You can simply copy Xcode to the other machine. There is a chance it will just work. Otherwise, when you try to launch the app it should ask you to sign in again, and if you sign in with an Apple ID that has already downloaded Xcode, you'll be good to go. (So your idea is right — you can start downloading it, then cancel and replace it with your own copy.)
More details: apps have the option to validate their receipt on launch. If the app is running on the wrong machine, it quits with an exit code of 173.

This exit status notifies the system that your application has determined that its receipt is invalid. At this point, the system attempts to obtain a valid receipt and may prompt for the user’s iTunes credentials.
If the system successfully obtains a valid receipt, it relaunches the application. Otherwise, it displays an error message to the user, explaining the problem.

However, plenty of apps don't bother, and will launch without issue when moved to a different computer.


Will using higher wattage chargers degrade iPhone battery more quickly? I’ve been using an 8+ for exactly 3 years and have been using the usb 5W wall charger that came with the box. I’ve never used any other charger, and has always charged by phone with 5V/1A. However, the phone seems to be charging more slowly over time, and I’m thinking to buy a replacement.
I have iOS 14 installed, and battery health is at 80% after 3 years. (~7% decrease per year)
Will suddenly using a third-party 12W wall charger (5V/2.4A); or any higher wattage charger of other brands; cause my 3 year-old battery to decrease in battery health at a faster rate? Should I get a battery replacement before switching to a faster charger? Also, will my phone be overheating as a result of higher wattage and amperage, and will that be a concern for an 8+?
Thank you in advance for your time and answers.

No.
The power rating of a charger has no bearing on the life of the battery nor the consumption of power by the device.  A higher wattage charger only means it can supply up to the specified amount of current, not that it will push that amount of current to the device.
Current is drawn, not pushed.
Regardless if this is an "intelligent" charger like a USB charger that conforms to the Power Delivery specification (USB-3.1 or higher) or an "old fashioned" charger, it's the device that draws the current from the adapter.
Chargers and power adapters are rated in watts which are calculated by multiplying the voltage (how much) by amperage (how strong).

For instance, a "quick charge" USB phone charger charger outputs 5V @ 2.4A, or 12W.  If you use a laptop charger like the USB-C charger for the MacBook Pro rated at 96W, it will only draw 12W of current because that's all the phone can pull.  However, if you connect the same phone rated at 12W and connect it to a charger that only supplies 5W, either it will charge slowly or it may damage your charger and possibly your phone.
This is where the "intelligence" comes with with respect to USB-C and Power Delivery.  The new USB-C chargers will negotiate with the devices as to what can be supplied.  In the simpliest sense, the device "asks" for power and the charger "responds" with what it can deliver.  This way, the device won't draw more than the charger can supply.
On the old fashioned devices (non-intelligent), there's no negotiation.  The device will attempt to draw the power it needs.  If the charger has the appropriate capacity, it will supply it.  If it doesn't it might pull more current than it can handle, potentially burning up the charger and/or damaging the device itself.
Further Reading
Various forms of this question has been asked previously.  Below is a small sampling for additional reading.

Is the Macbook 12 inch's USB-C charger interchangeable with other USB-C chargers or devices?
12V - 0,67 A USB Wall Charger for iPod Classic
Can I charge my headphones with the MacBook 12" charger?
Other than speed, is there a reason that a 10W iPad charger shouldn't charge a new MacBook Pro 2016?
Danger of damaging 13" macbook pro by charging it with 85w charger?


Can home and end keys be mapped when using Terminal? The Home and End keys on a MacBook Pro can be emulated with Fn + ← or fFn + →.  Or when certain settings are changed, with the ⌘ Command key instead of Fn.
None of these works in Terminal.
As I frequently need to go to the beginning or end of the line and would also like to jump forwards or backwards by word.
How can I jump around on a line in Terminal?

To answer the one about how to get the beginning or end of the line, it appears that by default Terminal maps these keys to it:

shift+home → beginning of line, equivalent to the "home" key in normal terminals
shift+end → end of line, equivalent to the "end" key in normal terminals

If you want home and end to work the "normal" way (and not require shift), go to [Terminal menu] → Preferences → Profiles tab (or settings on some versions of OS X) → Keyboard sub-tab.

Then modify/add these keys to be the following "send string to shell"

home: \033[H
end:  \033[F

You can get the \033 part by hitting the escape key within the edit dialog input, if you need to add it.

Then home and end will work like normal again (phew).

Also note that "alt + ←" and "alt + →" by default in terminal map to word left and word right, another handy combo to remember.

In later versions of Mac OS X, if the terminal screen shifts up or down when you press the home/end key, the home key may need to be set to \033[1~ and the end key to \033[4~ to get the results you want (no shift needed).

Feel free to modify this answer to add more useful key bindings, as it is a community wiki.


Airdrop Over Wired Connection? I often shoot a photo with my phone and then want to see it on my Macbook Pro. Sometimes the iPhone is actually supplying the Net connection for the MBP, so I cannot use AirDrop! What's the easiest way to get a single photo from my phone to my Mac without sending a message to someone?

Open Image Capture or the Photos app on the Mac and connect the phone over USB. That's the easiest way to pick one photo to import.

Other methods involve setting up sync or some apps to do the syncing if AirDrop is not reliable enough for your needs. (you're not alone there on depending on it - wireless interference that can be reasonable encountered these days can render AirDrop less than reliable in my experience)


MacBook autocorrects "The Bible" to "the Bible" What I'm trying to do is have the flexibility to write the following sentences:

  The Bible says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave
  His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish
  but have everlasting life." (NKJV)

or

  Let's look at what the Bible says in John 3:16. "For God so loved the
  world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
  should not perish but have everlasting life." (NKJV)

My problem is that my MacBook always autocorrects the string "The Bible" to "the Bible" no matter its location in the sentence. This happens in TextEdit as well as Safari so it's not just a Safari thing. I've checked the Text tab under Keyboard in System Preferences and "the Bible" isn't there. I've also checked ~/Library/Spelling/LocalDictionary and it's blank. I've tried right clicking the selection to bring up the little menu to Add Spelling or Unlearn Spelling but I don't see those options.

Here is a picture of the problem as I'm typing.

Here is a picture of my text replacement settings.

Here is a picture of the right click drop down menu.

Here is a picture of the Show Spelling and Grammar window.

My laptop details:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) with a fresh install of High Sierra. I'm currently on macOs High Sierra 10.13.5 (17F77).

This is (sort of) expected behavior because the name of the book is not The Bible but rather Bible or Holy Bible or King James Bible, etc.

When referring to it, you say/write the Holy Bible.

So, this isn't a "spelling" issue where you can add this to a dictionary rather it has to do with grammar.  Unfortunately, it's trying to anticipate what you're typing and erroneously making the correction.  You either have to go back and manually change it back or click the "X" when it pops up so it doesn't make the change.

There's a good reference on capitalization rules and it appears what the grammar check is attempting to follow.


Mouse cursor jumps to top of screen at random times At random times, my mouse cursor jumps to the top of the screen in the middle of the status bar for no reason at all. This used to happen on my previous install of El Capitan but stopped when I did a clean reinstall. Now the exact problem is happening again.

This seems to happen mostly when I am running in clamshell mode, connected to an external display while using my Magic Mouse. But this doesn't seem to be the issue since it resolved itself when I reinstalled.

I installed the Microsoft Office 2016 suite, Live Interior 3D Standard, Firefox, Skitch, and LaTeX recently. Could these be causing these issues? Is there any way to see "recently installed daemons" of some sort? New LaunchAgents, for example?

In my opinion, you should clean your Magic Mouse and your desk (dust, hair, ...).
I don't think it is software-related.


What counts as data/storage on iphone 4s? My phone has told me that my data/storage is hitting the limit. My question is what exactly makes up this data/storage? Is it the notes I keep on it? Saved texts?

I've seen the categories and how much room they take up including photos, audio/music, apps and data. Do I just need to go in and delete stuff to make more room?

Yes, to view the current storage being used, you can navigate to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage.    From here, you can see which apps are taking up a lot of space, how much space your photos / music are taking up, etc.

Once you know what's taking up all your space, you can delete things as needed.

Also, note that in older versions of iOS (depending on which you are currently on), space taken up by Messages was not shown here.


Should I buy a trackpad? I've never really been a huge fan of trackpads but after playing with the official Apple Magic Trackpad using Lion, I have to admit, I loved the full screen swiping and using two fingers to swipe Chrome web pages.

I'm a programmer by trade and do VERY minimal art work using Pixelmator.

What are your impressions of using Apple's multitouch trackpads?

I have both the Magic Trackpad and the Magic Mouse, and IMO the trackpad works really well for browsing, navigating in the general system, and is a very natural way to interact with the computer.

That being said, it is not precise enough to be used when you need to do
photo/video editing, and in those rare occasions I use the mouse.

I also do programming, but barely use the mouse/trackpad when I'm coding.

Pros:

Very easy to navigate in pages (Web browsing, preview, etc.)
Enable one to use the built-in gestures, and that make a huge difference in day-to-day computer usage
Ideal for an "HTPC" usage of your Mac : I frequently casually use my Mac from the couch, and not having to move a mouse is a definitive plus.

Cons:

Precision
Doesn't fully replace a mouse
You'll miss the gestures as soon as you'll use a different computer.


Safari lost half my extensions and passwords after a system crash The crash was logged into console
and it caused logout from my system.
After I've logged in again Safari lost most of my passwords and extensions.

I've already looked at this and it didn't help.

I'm using iCloud Keychain and I've checked on my phone - the passwords are still there. I also looked into ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/ and all my extensions are still there, just not visible in safari preferences.

I've tried using Time Machine on ~/Library/Safari/ but it also didn't work.

I have to say that this is very annoying since it happened to me at least 3 times in past 2 years.

1) What can I do to restore all my iCloud passwords?

2) What can I do to restore all my Safari extensions without installing them again one-by-one?

3) What can I do to stop this from occurring again?

I guess 3) is too much to ask for, but I need at least a reliable procedure that can restore everything to the state it was before.
I'm also not the only person affected by this problem - my cousin turned to 1-Password exactly because of this behaviour.

As you may have noticed from my question, I was very determined to find a solution and finally I found one. If you have a Time Machine setup then you're lucky. All you need to do is to restore those 4 folders (remember to select all the contents from the backup) to the time before the crash.

~/Library/Safari/Extensions/

~/Library/Keychains

/Library/Keychains

/System/Library/Keychains

(Probably not all are needed, but this worked for me)

Restart and open safari to check that everything is on place. Re-enable Keychain if it was disabled (mine was enabled, but turned to disabled in this process). Enjoy.


Mac Automator: combine images in PDF and resize I not too familiar with Automator for Mac. I am trying to create a quick action to combine several images in a single PDF file and reduce its size with a quartz filter. The actions does indeed create the pdf but it does not reduce its file size. This is what I did:

If I create two separate quick actions (one to create the pdf from images and another one to reduce the size of a pdf file) and apply them sequentially they work correctly. But not combined into a single action. What am I doing wrong?

I think the problem is that Automator passes the incoming files to each action in turn. It doesn't pass the created PDF file in the first action to the 2nd action.
So you need to add a "Get Specified Finder Items" action to 'get' the PDF that you've just created, and pass it through the workflow.
Of course, none of this addresses the problem of the fixed name and location of the finished PDF.
I have written python scripts to be used in Automator workflows, which individually convert images to PDF and apply Quartz Filters (saving the file in the same folder with a unique name); it wouldn't be too difficult to modify them to do both.
https://github.com/benwiggy/PDFsuite/tree/master/Automator_Scripts


Partition corruption, still can see files in single user mode, would like to retrieve files The problem started after forcing the mac to shutdown. Since then, when trying to boot, it stays stuck at the grey apple with spinning wheel.
I've tried a few generic things to be able to access my data on my internal drive without success.
I first tried booting on the restore partition from mountain lion, but the same apple with spinning wheel issue happens, which makes me think that it's the partition that's corrupted and not the Volume.

I've tried booting the iMac in Target mode and do the following:

1) I've tried using Disk Utility to repair the disk, but when trying to "Repair Disk" on the hardware item (not the volume one), the output gives:

Verifying and repairing partition map for “AAPL FireWire Target Media”
Checking prerequisites
Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map
Error: Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup

2) Data Rescue and Disk Warrior hang when I open them and when the Target disk is connected, but don't when I disconnect it.

What make me thing that some data can be saved is the following

3) Using single user mode, I can navigate through the different users’ folders, I can even open their text files.
doing the fsck -fy command outputs: The Volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK.

When doing the /sbin/mount -uw / command, it outputs

SATA WARNING: Enable auto-activate failed
disk0s2: I/0 error.

followed by a few lines of gibberish followed by:

hfs: cat_delete() failed to delete thread record on volume Macintosh HD
hfs: Runtime corruption detected on Macintosh HD, fsck will be forced on     next mount
hfs_remove_orphans: failed to start transaction
hfs: hfc_btree_open: hfs_getnewvnode error 2

So I can’t mount the internal drive and I can’t seem to be able to mount an external drive to copy my files to it.
It seems that there’s no network connection in single user mode (unless I’m missing something), so I don’t believe I can send the data through networking and my laptop refuses to mount the Target disk.

There are some important documents I would like to save and I was wondering if there was some way to access the files on the hard drive the same way single user mode does it?

Thanks a lot for any answers!

If you have some understanding of partition layouts, you could try using my disk editor iBored (http://apps.tempel.org/iBored/) to check the drive and its partition, search for the partitin start, then maybe copy just the partition data to a disk image file or to another disk's partition. All this can be done in iBored.

You could also try using iBored to erase the initial partition blocks (and save those blocks to a file first, so you could later restore them), to see if Data Rescue is then able to read the disk without hanging.

Also, you describe that in Single User mode, you tried to mount the (damaged) root disk as writable - that's not possible, clearly (since the volume is damaged). But have you tried to mount an external disk in writable mode? If that works, you could easily copy your files over then.


Hide Applications from other Spaces in Application Switcher With System Preferences->Mission Control->"When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application" disabled, I would really like the application switcher (cmd+tab) to hide applications from other spaces.

Is this possible in Mavericks or is there a third-party application that provides this? Note, I would prefer the application switcher to remain as it is, just hide the applications only active on other spaces.

Windowflow - free for a limited time and gives some options for different spaces and such.

Witch - 12,99 € and has an option that will only show apps in the current space.

WindowSwitcher - 3,59 € and it comes very close to your needs, check it out.

As far as an native solution to your problem: I don't think there is a setting or command that makes the application switcher behave like this.

Definitely check out WindowSwitcher I honestly think it is what you are looking for!

p.s. prices were correct at the time of posting.


Paste To Match Style App Shortcut I have to copy and paste a lot of stuff and it bugs me when the formatting is copied over, In pages there's a way to paste using the destination formatting but the keyboard shortcut is 4 keys long which annoying.

Is there anyway to change the in-app shortcuts or generally just swap them around so cmd + V will paste and match the style?

I've already looking in system preferences but I can't see anything like this

App Shortcuts defined in System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → App Shortcuts override the default shortcuts.

Therefore, you can set up the shortcuts so that Paste is ⌥⇧⌘V and Paste and Match Style is ⌘V, as this will override the standard shortcuts.


Make Apple Hardware Test work on Mid 2009 MBP with OS X Mavericks I had some graphics issues after running Bluestacks to run WhatsApp. The screen flickered until I shut down the app and I got worried. So wanted to verify my system using AHT.

I got a AHT .pkg package from an Apple forum thread to make Apple Hardware Test work on my mid-2009 MBP (no more AppleCare available) running OS X Mavericks. It used to run Snow Leopard - Apple staff upgraded to SL before giving me the MBP).

Apple mentioned that Snow Leopard normally ran AHT from the second CD, but I do not have that nor do I have a backup. I tried all options like command-D and D and even alt-D (they talk about these here as well), but none worked so I decided to go this path.

Now when I restart and press D I see a brief flicker and then my Macbook Pro turns off. Fortunately it still runs, but I want this to work of course. Why is this happening? Are these kinds of errors logged somewhere?

There are tools to access the EFI Bootloader and perform diagnostics, add partitions and so on using rEFIt as mentioned here on SO. I might give that a shot to see how it all works.

it is d you have to hold down to run the Harware Test from the Second DVD that cames with your Mac when you Buy it. I don't know how it is on the Macs that don't have a Disc-Slot. Maybe Apple has added the Hardware Test to the Recovery Partition.

Keep in Mind what do you do if the Check brings up a Failure? - And all the Time you maybe need to figure out what exactly is the Failure from a cryptic Error code!! - I highly recommend you ro bring your Mac to a local apple retail store so they can check it for you it will cost something but still less then the time you will be spending to do it yourself.


APFS technical documentation Is any technical documentation available for Apple's new File System. By technical, I mean File System's internal structures, File allocation block etc.
If Apple has not released any documentation, did someone tried to reverse engineer it?

Apple File System Developer Documentation

  Apple File System is a new, modern file system for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It is optimized for Flash/SSD storage and features strong encryption, copy-on-write metadata, space sharing, cloning for files and directories, snapshots, fast directory sizing, atomic safe-save primitives, and improved file system fundamentals.

See also Apple's File System Programming Guide.

Additionally, this blog APFS – A Backup Software Developer’s Perspective  makes mention of APFS already being reverse engineered.


How to move my OmniFocus data from old Mac to new Mac? How can I move my data entered into OmniFocus 2.12 on macOS from my old computer (or hard drive) to my new computer (or hard drive)?

Should I just locate and move a data file? If so, where is that data file stored, in what folder?

I am not using Apple’s Migration Assistant. I want to do this move manually.

Quoth OmniGroup:

  The database file now is in a sandboxed container. The easiest way to get to the file is by opening the backup folder through 'File' → 'Show Backups…'. The data file is in the same folder as the Backups folder.

From: https://discourse.omnigroup.com/t/where-does-omnifocus-2-keep-the-database-file/4211/2


Cannot "Enter Time Machine" from Mountain Lion Upgraded to Mountain Lion yesterday. Time Machine backups continue to run without any reported errors. (Backups are to a HD shared by a Lion Server on the network).

Problem is When I choose Enter Time Machine (or double-click on the Time Machine application icon) nothing happens. No window. No error. No...nothing. I do notice that the remote HD mounts in the Finder... but that's it.

I've reviewed a similar question which appears to be Lion (or perhaps Snow Leopard) related. But this is not acceptable as I don't want to erase my whole backup and start anew...as I can't afford to toss my only Lion backup.

Anyone know what's up? And how to get my TM working properly under MLion?

I had to reformat the external drive I use for Time Machine. It said there was a permissions problem, that it was Read Only - which it wasn't, and a look at the Info for it confirmed it was Read & Write. Still, I just erased the drive and started again. Works fine now.


Does Yosemite Upgrade Destroy Bootcamp? I use Mavericks with Bootcamp on my iMac.
If I upgrade Yosemite via AppStore, what happens to Bootcamp?
Can I start it as usual or will the Bootcamp partition become unusable?

Bootcamp is not affected by an upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite.


I have a Macbook Air, early 2014. How do i get 3840x2160 resolution output? I am getting only 1080p on my 4K TV, via thunderbolt to HDMI adapter. I want to know how to get more resolution output.

That Macbook Air is only capable of 2560 x 1600 maximum resolution, according to Everymac

  Although Apple only reports that this model can support a single external display up to 2560x1600, Intel reports that this model can simultaneously support two external displays up to 2560x1600 "daisy chained" via Thunderbolt.

There's a possibility you are limited to 1080p by the HDMI cable. make sure it's HDMI 1.4 capable.


How to record system sound from macbook I'm trying to record system sound from my macbook while simultaneously record the screen.

Is there an option for this?

Thank you

You can make screen recordings using QuickTime (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH5882?locale=en_US) or 3rd party software such as ScreenFlow (https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm)

I prefer ScreenFlow because it's so customizable, is more akin to movie editing software than anything, and the exported video files can be compressed in many different ways. It also supports recording your iPhone/iPad screen.


macOS Sierra, Security, and Tex Live Utility After a fresh install of macOS Sierra, I installed the macTex distribution without any GUI programs. After that, I installed the latest release of the Tex Live Utility to update my tex distribution via a nice GUI. However, I cannot start the Tex Live Utility because macOS complains about that the program has not been signed by a verified developer. After I tried opening, there is a button under System -> Security to open the program anyway, but I keep going to see the same error message. This worked with another piece of software but with Tex Live Utility, this approach fails. Any idea on how to solve it?

They have released a fixed version.  You can update to the newest Tex Live Utility from the command line tlmgr update --self


Can I efficiently make a pdf out of 10 jpeg images? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I combine two or more images to get a single pdf file?

In Lion, how can I efficiently combine 10 jpeg files into a single pdf in which each image is a page? I have preview.

You may want to watch this YouTube video - it shows the scenario that I believe you're looking to solve - it uses Preview to create a multi-page PDF.

The steps are:

Open your images in Preview
Select Print from the File menu (or ⌘P)
Click on the "PDF" button in the Print dialog and select "Save as PDF..." from the dropdown
Provide a file name and Save


How do I open MS Word and MS Excel documents with Google Docs as default? Is it possible to use Google Docs as the default document viewer for MS Word and Excel files?

Currently, you have one thing against the feasibility, and that is Google Docs (even offline mode) is designed to work with the document you uploaded to Google Docs cloud (Remember why Google wants you to put everything on the cloud?)

If you don't feel like going to Google Docs and start uploading files manually, you can use Cyberduck, to batch upload all your documents all at once, and then you can use Google Docs to access the documents.

Note that I put bold on "currently". Who knows if Google might release a true offline mode where it can read your documents off your local hard disk, and seamlessly upload it to Google cloud.


Is there a full-featured Mac email app that natively implements labels (instead of folders) and archiving? I love Gmail's features, but I'm increasingly wary of having my entire email history depend on Google. Every Mac email app I know of, other than Sparrow, insists on being based around IMAP folders. Different clients integrate with varying levels of smoothness with Gmail, but at their cores they still use the file-it-or-delete-it paradigm.

Sparrow, of course, was designed as a lightweight Gmail client. It understands Gmail's labels, and it understands archiving, but it depends on the Gmail web interface for lots of core email features (filters, etc.), and I don't know how much of its Gmail-ness is lost if you use it with regular IMAP accounts.

What I want in an email app is this:

Native Mac app
Implements labels itself for all supported account types, not just Gmail
Allows archiving as the default "I'm done with this" action, even for unlabeled mail
Handles any discrepancy between these features and the underlying email protocol (IMAP, POP, whatever) under the covers with as little leakage into the interface as possible
Has all the usual power features that exist in other apps like Mail and Postbox
For bonus points, stores email on disk in some format that isn't a complete binary black hole

In general, I want my email to act like Gmail but live on my computer; and no matter what happens on any server anywhere, as long as I have a backup of this app's archive files, I should be able to move them to another computer, install this app on it, and have 100% continuity with zero fidelity loss. It's okay if the app DOES use Gmail as a back-end, as long as I don't lose any data fidelity if Gmail's entire database disappears.

(Making such a setup work with mobile devices is a whole other problem, but I'll gladly deal with that tomorrow for this app today.)

So: I think what I've described is sufficiently difficult (dare I say "unfeasible"?) that it doesn't exist yet. I would love to find out that I'm wrong. Am I? If not, what's the closest thing to this setup that can be had on the Macintosh?

I have two backup recommendations. Although these are not apps you'd use to manage your mail, they do backup your account to your system so you can use whatever management client you like (e.g. Sparrow, Mail, etc.).

I use getmail by Charles Cazabon to back up my entire Gmail account silently in the background. The emails are backed up into a large .mbox file, accessible by any number of mail clients. This also makes it easy to move your entire account from one machine to another, or to restore. The program says it works with any IMAP account - support folders, labels, etc. I only use it with Gmail.

A second backup option is Gmvault. There's a Windows GUI installer but for OS X one still needs to go to the command-line. Again it backs up your Gmail account (the sync option) and stores the emails locally on the file system. Emails are stored individually as .eml with an accompanying metadata file. You can manipulate those files as you like without messing up the gmvault functionality. There's also a restore option, and it's suppose to handle IMAP discrepancies with Gmail well, although I've never encountered any problems there that (of which I'm aware).


Does Profile Manager support nested device groups? We have a Mac OS X Server running on 10.10.5 with Server 5.0.15. We are using Profile Manager to deploy some basic configuration settings.

There are five Macs besides the server: three MacBook Pros, two Mac Minis. I set up the following device groups:

Desktop Macs
Mobile Macs
Company Macs

The three MacBook Pros are in the Mobile Macs group, the two mac Minis are in the Desktop Macs group. Company Macs has the other two groups as its members.

However, it seems that the settings for Company Macs are not being propagated to the clients. Activity for the group shows "Push Settings: Succeeded"… but it shows that even for a client machine that has been powered off since before I made the settings change. My other machines do not show any Profiles for the Company Macs group, only the specific group they are assigned to.

Even more curious: when I remove the nested groups, and simply assign the laptops to Mobile Macs and Company Macs group explicitly, the Company Macs profile is still not pushed out.

Should this work with nested device groups? I don't want to wipe Profile Manager and start over if it's not intended to work this way (but then why is it even an option to add a group to another group?). My hunch is that something is corrupt with the Company Macs group, since it's not pushing the profile even for Macs manually assigned.

Yes.

The problem was that a process on the server or the client did not like one of the settings payloads in the "outer" group (Directory in my case).


Convert an already recorded stereo track to mono in Garageband I have a guitar track that I accidentally recorded in stereo.  I can't find anywhere in garageband to change it to mono after the fact.  Is this possible?

Panning the guitar track to the right silences the track, but if it's panned all the way to the left it's full.

Any ideas?

This was driving me mad, but I now use an very smooth way based on JHerran's answer. It has the virtue of only requiring Garageband and is quick.

N.B. I assume your track has a single region: if not you will have to shift-click to select all the regions in the track that you want to convert.

Click on the track that you want to convert. The single region should automatically be highlighted.
Command-D or >Track>New Track with duplicate settings to create a new track
Command-V to paste the original regions to the new track
Shift-Click on the original region(s) to highlight it again
Command-J to join the regions, select "Mono" for the mix-down
The mix-down will replace the original stereo track - you can now click on the temporary track and Delete it.


What is going wrong when Mountain Lion download does not start? I purchased Mountain Lion on App Store and start downloading. It shows an icon the the task bar and a progress bar on the Mountain Lion logo.

But it just doesn't start download. It has been one hour since it started but the progress bar is still empty.

What is going wrong?

There are two things that come to mind:

The store is so busy that it's not sending the data to your computer to start the download.
The usual things have failed and you can jump start it by following some steps on troubleshooting an App Store download.

Here are the self help steps:

Mac App Store: How to resume interrupted downloads


Can't write to /usr/lib I upgraded to OS X El Capitan and tried to install a new app (MPLAB X from Microchip) but I got an error because it couldn't copy a library to /usr/lib even when it asked for root password. I tried to manually copying the library using sudo cp libSEGGERAccessLink.dylib /usr/lib but it says cp: /usr/lib/libSEGGERAccessLink.dylib: Operation not permitted.

Is this a permission issue? How can I write to /usr/lib?  ls -ld /usr/lib returns:

drwxr-xr-x  263 root  wheel  8942 Oct  2 15:49 /usr/lib

It is a new feature of OS X 10.11 (El Capitan): SIP.

  System Integrity Protection (SIP,1 sometimes referred to as rootless2) is a security feature of OS X El Capitan, the operating system by Apple Inc.

...

  Among the protected locations are: /System, /bin, /sbin and /usr (but not /usr/local).

System Integrity Protection on Wikipedia

It can be disabled:
Stack Exchange thread

In summary, from the Recovery partition, open Terminal.app and run: csrutil disable

...

Update: SIP has been expanded in High Sierra (macOS 10.13)

KB on Apple's Support Site


OS X El Capitan no sound output device found Every time I start my Mac, there's no output device listed in system preferences > audio. In order to fix this, I have to reset SMC several times. I also tried to reset NVRAM. However, if I turn off the Mac and start it again the next day, the same problem appears again.
This problem first occurred, after I installed soundflower. But I uninstalled it already.
I'm using Mac Mini late 2012 with common Logitech loudspeakers.

When I run Apple Hardware test, it outputs this result:
4hdd/11/40000000: Sata(0,0)

The very first thing I would do is run an Apple Hardware Test.

When you turn on the computer, before you hear the startup chime, press and hold the D key.

Also, there is one item to double check and that is if you uninstalled Soundflower completely.

Use an app like  AppCleaner to ensure that you've got everything associated with the app.  Best of all, it's free.


Select the availability date for the first release of an iOS app The first version of my iOS app got approved by Apple and is now in "Pending Developer Release" mode. I just set a "future release date" under iTunes Connect Pricing and got this message:

  You have selected an Available Date in the future. This will remove
  your currently live version from the App Store until the new date.
  Changing Available Date affects all versions of the application, both
  Ready For Sale and In Review.

Will the automatic release date work or do I need to release the app manually? (I read on Stackoverflow that it may not work for the first release of an app)

If you set a date for release it will be release on that day, otherwise it will be in pending release until you push the release button...


Changing Keyboard/Input Source order on MacOS I'm using quite a few input languages on my Mac (10.14) and found out that whenever I open a new app, the default selected language will be Chinese (Pinyin as shown on the photo below). And I believe it has to do with the order that my Input Sources are selected. I would like to put the English keyboard (U.S. International) language as default, however, there is no way of simply pull it to the top. I hope somebody can give me suggestions on how to do it. Thanks!

It is impossible to re-order them. To fix it, you want to tick Show Input in menu bar. This will cause a little icon to appear in your menu bar with your language:

(The icon might  be different depending on the language set). If you click there you can change the language to U.S. International - PC.

If you still want to use another language for a specific app (say you want to use English for all apps except Safari where you want to use Russian), you can either:

Change the language in the menu bar
Keep Automatically switch to a document's input source checked which will remember your last language for that application


Remove expansion triangle in list view in Finder? I personally prefer list view without the expansion triangle, unlike Finder question: missing expansion triangle in list view

I am able to get it to work by selecting an "arrange by" option, but it does not apply to all folders. How can I apply this as the default? Is there a terminal command or something for it?

Set up the Finder window with your desired settings, then press ⌘J and click Use as Defaults.


Bootable cloud backup services? After investigating Box, Dropbox, Crashplan, Mozy, Carbonite, backblaze.com I'm struggling to find a service that offers all the following:

Backs up files to the cloud, that is accessible 24/7 on mobile and
web
Can mail a bootable backup of your system on demand
Works with macs

Does any service like this exist?

My own solution to this problem, for both Macs here is

Local Time Machine backups, hourly, on-site
Backblaze once a night [best for my data plan]

That way, even if the building burns down, my maximum data loss is one day.
Backblaze is accessible from any web browser & files can be downloaded on demand; or if the data is huge, can be mailed on HD. It doesn't, however, contain the OS itself, only your data, prefs, settings etc.

Additionally, I swap out the Time Machine drives once a year, when I do any major upgrade - 10.10 to 10.11 etc.

I also make sure I have at least one clone of the current boot drive, though I don't keep it up to date on any regular basis. It will contain enough historical data - old installs I've lost the disks for, audio plugins where the authorisation site no longer exists, etc.

I also make sure to have Recovery Partitions on more than one drive.

A further step would be to have an additional Time Machine drive, which normally lives off-site.

I just checked - Backblaze is also available for iOS & Android - though it's not something I've ever really investigated.


alias youremail@me.com(icloud) from a custom domain (like Google Apps fyd) Similar to how Google Apps for you Domain works with your own domain (by using the mx record settings). How would I setup icloud email to achieve this?
Custom domain is not suppored out of the box (and maybe will never be...?) so I could hack, like in the days before GAmail, when everybody forwarded to gmail.com:
Setup GAmail to forward all email to icloud. But then icloud should change all sender headers from me.com to my domain. Are there other consequences of importance? Or is this not recommended at all?

Alternatively, maybe the best route is to use me.com as a personal domain, and your GAmail as businessmail, and use them side by side. I believe mail.app can have a mailbox for each?

For users happy with push GAmail over imap on their devices, does icloud mail offer any advantages? A 3th solution is to just switch off icoud email, and only use icloud's other services...

iCloud is just IMAP under the hood.  It's not possible using the default configuration to use an email address that is now supplied by iCloud (whether using the old me.com or the new icloud.com), but it is possible to configure in a non-standard way to achieve the same effect, but it does require the use of a 3rd party SMTP server to achieve this.

Basically, on your device, setup iCloud as normal.  Then amend the preferences and turn off Mail and Notes
Then, in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars choose Add account > Other > `Add Mail Account
Enter your Name, the email address you wish to use, the password of your iCloud account and a descriptions along the lines of Custom iCloud Mail then Next
Leaving the top details as you entered them, and ensuring you stay on the SMTP tab, not POP, enter the following in the Incoming Mail Server fields:

Host Name: imap.mail.me.com
User Name: Your iCloud username as the full email address
Password: Your iCloud password

In the Outgoing fields, enter the details of your SMTP server, you may use gmail server addresses in here if you have a GMail account, or use a paid hosting company like I do.
Click Next, and it will attempt to verify the details.  Hopefully it will all work fine, and put a load of ticks next to all your inputs

That's pretty much it, you now have iCloud configured normally for everything except mail and notes, and mail should send through your own servers allowing you to use what you like as your email address for return purposes.  Don't forget to forward all your mail to your iCloud account.  Sent mail will still remain in your iCloud sent mail folder, regardless of the fact that is is being sent through a 3rd party server so there is no need to bcc yourself to keep a copy, unlike with some other solutions.

One last thing, why include notes and exclude them from iCloud?  Because notes are just mail items stores in a special IMAP folder.  Turn them off in the new manual account you created, and you will see the Notes folder appear in Mail.app.  Turn it on, and that folder is hidden and the notes are shown through the Notes.app instead!  However, you will end up with duplicates, unless you turn off your iCloud version of the same folder.

Things to note, you can use this setup for pretty much any normally unsupported mail client, including the one in iOS4 etc in say in iPhone 3G


Issue with floating windows and Spaces This problem has been bothering me since I switch to Snow Leopard.  When I use applications that have some floating windows (Maya 2011, Adobe After Effects), Spaces seems to bring the floating windows along for the ride.  The main application window stays in it's appropriate space.  When using an app like Maya, this could be 5-10 windows.  A workaround is to click the desktop twice and then jump to a new space, but that is getting old. This was never a problem in Leopard.

Thanks,
Mark

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a general solution to this problem. I think each application can behave slightly differently with spaces - either by design, or because the developers haven't configured things properly.

This thread suggests that an earlier version of Maya works better with spaces, for example, while others report that the current version works fine.

However, from my experience with different applications on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion, each application can behave differently. I also know that (at least prior to Lion), developers could instruct different windows to do different things when switching spaces.

My best recommendation would be to contact the developers of these applications, and suggest a better way of handling certain windows. You should also check through the application's preferences beforehand, as some applications may allow you to customise the behaviour.


Diagnosing system lockups I am having a problem with my MacBookPro5,1 (more background below): the system will randomly lock up, with the following symptoms:

Screen freezes up, no corruption
System does not respond to keyboard or mouse input
System does not respond to pings over the network
No kernel panic message appears on screen
No messages in the system log

I have so far been unable to reproduce the problem at all. It happens both when I am actively using the computer and when it is idle; both when the screensaver is running and when it is not; and it doesn't seem to be related to any of the peripherals plugged in (though AirPort occasionally acts up). The system passes memory tests (memtest86+ and the provided Apple Hardware Test) so that doesn't seem to be it either. Is there anything I can do to obtain more diagnostic information?

Background. I recently had to replace the main logic board, after experiencing a problem where the laptop would not power up at all. Since then I have been experiencing random freezes and I would like to know if there's anything else that might need replacing, or if I should ask for another replacement for the main logic board while the repair is still under warranty.

Ask for another Logic Board diagnosis and/or replacement. There's really only three things that could ever cause failure this integral to the whole system simply halting all activity:

Bad Processor
Bad Memory
Bad Logic Board

No matter what the result is, while you still have coverage after the recent replacement, something obviously is still wrong, and you should absolutely exercise your ability to have this re-diagnosed.


How do you edit Internet Accounts in shell? I created two IMAP accounts in Mail app.

However I had to enter two wrong email address/passwords to be able to manually set my hotmail as IMAP.

e.g. one is sdsd@erer.com

When I view them in accounts it shows it as sdsd@erer.com
I have already edited Accounts.plist and corrected but that doesn't seem to be the right place.

Where do I go?

I found what I needed in
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.mcc.accounts

It's an XML file and it has 4 occurences of each wrong email. Updated and it works fine in Mail.app


Can I configure and start TIme Machine from the commandLine I have a problem with my MacBookPro, the left click button on (any) mouse and the trackpad doesnt respond to any clicks, so the only thing that works properly is the keybaord.

I havent been able to solve the issue so I am taking my labtop to an Apple store on Friday, but I fear they may need to send it away and may wipe the disk so Id really like a backup of the machine.

But although I have backups of my most immportant docs I have never used Time Machine and dont have a backup of the whole thing. So Id really like to do a backup but I cannot seem to configure anything in the Time Machine preferences with only the keyboard, is there a commandline equivalent that I can use ?

As of OS 10.7, you can control Time Machine from the command line. The command line tool is called (and is called with) tmutil. Open up the Terminal, which is located in your /Applications/Utilities folder. It will be easy to get there if, From the Finder, you type Shift+Command+G, which brings up a sheet where you can type the destination path to the Terminal (copy and paste this): /Applications/Utilities.

After the Terminal opens, and at the prompt, type man tmutil, which will get you the manual page for tmutil outlining all the commands and options available. It's quite extensive, and more than can be covered in a single answer, but examples might be:

  Turn on Time Machine backups:
  tmutil enable

  Set the destination to be used as backup:
  tmutil setdestination... (this has options that can be added to specify destination information and type)

  Start a full backup to a drive:
  tmutil startbackup -d /Volumes/Name_Of_Your_Backup_Disk

You must carefully read this manual all the way through and understand the terminology before beginning. The manual is also available online at Apple's manpages reference area. You can read it here, and there is a good primer on Simon Heimlicher's site with much better examples than what I've given above.

As with all command line tools, USE CAUTION. You will have to run most of these as root as well, which means that you're granting yourself power to do lots of potentially nasty things to your computer. In the case of tmutil, though you're unlikely to do much damage as you have to correctly specify a destination before it'll actually do anything. Probably the greatest hazard would be if you'd already set a destination you could accidentally erase it; since you have no destination, though, that's not going to happen.

Good luck getting your backup going and with getting your machine fixed!


Caffeinate : prevent screensaver (Catalina) I'm running this terminal command on Catalina hoping to keep the system awake and prevent the screensaver to start (without having to disable the screensaver in system preference).
caffeinate -d -i -u -s -t 39600

I might have added too much parameter and misunderstood them but it's don't seems to work?
Also, I assume the terminal window need to remain open?
Thanks in advance.

Frame challenge…
Why not just use the Hot Corners in the Screen Saver prefs instead.

Push the cursor into the top left & no more screen saver, which will also keep the Mac awake.


How to move windows on Mac as in windows from keyboard? I'm an ex windows user and I loved to move windows clicking on the windows logo button and using arrows.

Is there something similar on Mac?

You can use Better Touch Tool app to assign keyboard shortcuts to move windows similar to Windows style.

You can get BTT here: http://www.bettertouchtool.net

Here's sample setting:


How to take back control of screenshot functionality from Dropbox? I have dropbox installed and it forces all screenshots to be saved to a Screenshots folder inside the Dropbox directory.

I have checked the options that are available when you press Command + Shift + 5, but it still says screenshots are being saved to Desktop. This is however in practice not the case.

Dropbox has hijacked the process. How can I take back control, short of uninstalling dropbox, which I do not wish to do?

If you go to the Import tab in the Dropbox preferences and uncheck "Share screenshots using Dropbox," it fixes this.


Unable to Extend Macintosh HD partition to use Free Space After a failed Linux installation I'm unable to extend my Macintosh HD logical volume to recover unused space. I'm on v10.12.6 of macOS Sierra. Trying to remove the "Free space" partition in Disk Utility results in a message of

  The requested size change for the target disk or a related disk is too small. Please try a different disk or partition, or make a larger change.

Since it's a ~20GB change I'm not sure that's the problem. I've tried using the Disk Utility First Aid tool on the physical disk and logical volume.

I'm nervous about using the diskutil coreStorage resizeVolume command since a) it doesn't seem to use the /dev/disk0s2 identifier and b) I've read that it's unsupported (but does show up in diskutil coreStorage on my version of macOS).

Attached are the Disk Utility and diskutil list output for more info.

Try booting from recovery or install media and following the same procedure. Usual caveat: make a full backup of things just in case.

I've had the same situation as you and it worked for me, the only difference was my drive was Time Machine rather than a boot volume. The route I took was make a bootable USB drive with DiskmakerX[1] rather then in-built recovery partition on the Mac.

[1] http://diskmakerx.com


How to fix VirtualBox that can't open since Mountain Lion upgrade? I've a lot of softwares on my Mac, so, I've forgot to check some of them before upgrading MacOS to Mountain Lion (from Lion)

Since Mountain Lion, VirtualBox throw this message when I try to open it:

  You can't open the application "VirtualBox.app" because it is not supported on the type of Mac

What is the better (not the simpler but really the better) way to update VirtualBox without breaking anything?

Can I install the latest version over the old one?
Or must I uninstall completely the old one and reinstall it form scratch?

Or anything else?

Which are the problems I can expect?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[EDIT] in reply to the comment:

The VirtualBox.app details declare version: 4.1.8

For the Mac, it's a

15 inch, Late 2011

Processor  2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory  8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics  AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB
Software  OS X 10.8 (12A269)

There should be no problems upgrading to the latest version of VirtualBox. You can just download and run the installer to upgrade, no additional uninstall steps are required.

You can also update automatically from the "VirtualBox" menu, by choosing "Check for Updates...". It should find a newer version, and prompt to download and install.


Mac mini set to never sleep, but seems to be sleeping anyway (does not respond to network) I've enabled SSH into my mac mini (late 2012 running OS X 10.9.3), and have the energy saver settings set so that the display sleeps after 10 minutes, and the computer is set to never sleep.

If the mac goes unused for a while, then I try SSH into it, the SSH connection is refused. If I go bang on the keyboard or mouse to wake up the mac, then the SSH connection is accepted and it works.

This appears as though the mac is ignoring my energy saver settings and is in fact sleeping when it shouldn't be.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? Is there anything to look for in console to verify if it is actually sleeping?

Thanks

I'm going to assume you rebooted after saving those energy settings. I've had the same problem and only ever found a work-around: [caffein] (http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/) will keep your computer from going to sleep (I believe later versions have the ability to let he monitor sleep while keeping the CPU itself active). This may be slightly more convenient in that you only need to click the menu bar icon to let it sleep rather than opening up energy settings all the time.


Does Time Machine check that old backed up files are present and not corrupted? My only copy of my (large) iTunes library (and all my personal files) is on my MacBook, and I was thinking about using Time Machine to back it all up to an external hard drive (a Western Digital MyBook plugged into the USB port on my Airport Extreme).

My question is, when Time Machine makes a copy of a file (say, a song) to the hard drive, since that file never changes I'm guessing it will never get updated by Time Machine.  But will Time Machine regularly review the file to make sure it had not become somehow corrupted?

I've had trouble with hard drives going bad in the past, and I would hate to be trusting Time Machine for a months and months only to find out that some hard drive partition got corrupted and the file was actually gone long ago.

Any thoughts?

If you hold the "Option" key while clicking the Time Machine icon in the menu bar, there is an option "Verify Backups".

If the Time Machine icon is not in your Menu Bar, go to System Preferences, Time Machine, and tick the "Show Time Machine in Menu Bar".

I can't see any other way to get to the "Verify Backups" other than through the item in the menu bar.


Show current calendar week in menu bar? Is there a way to get macOS to display the current calendar week in the menu bar, maybe as part of the date or as an additional information elsewhere in the menu bar?

I use Itsycal by Mowglii (I'm not affiliated with the company or software).  It's free, open source, and allows you to format the displayed date/time many different ways.


How to make installation disk/pendrive of Mountain Lion in Windows 7? I would like to install Mac OS Mountain Lion in my Intel Core i3 processor.

I have:

a Mac OS .DMG file
Windows 7 OS

Is it possible to make installation disk of Mac OS in Windows 7

Use transmac to open the .dmg install file and open the "shared support" folder contained inside. Find the file labeled "installESD.img" and burn it to your pen drive in the format "MAC OS Extended (Journaled)"

Voila, bootable pen drive.


What are the wireless display options for MacBook Air? Are there any viable Wireless display solutions for MacBook Air (with Thunderbolt port). I know I can connect to HDMI-compatible TV or Monitor using cables and convertors. Is there any way I can avoid using wires?

First thing that comes to my mind is DLNA since so many TVs support DLNA. But that is just for streaming videos and not for normal laptop usage. I am curious to know any solution exists?

You could use a Nyrius Wireless AV Sender. If you're looking for a small, slick unit to get your presentations displayed while visiting clients it probably isn't for you. If you want to get content from your Macbook Air onto your wall-mounted display at home without stringing a long HDMI cable across the room it might be just what you want.

An alternative - look at this youtube video showing how to do it with an intermediate iPad, maybe not so practical. It uses an app called iDisplay for $4.99. In that it seems to be doing the same kind of function as Air Display which I use and would recommend over anything else.

Second alternative - AirFlick from Erica Sadun - allows you to make your Mac an AirPlay source so you can mirror its display to an AppleTV, just as if it was an iPad. This won't be as easy as we might expect of Mac software, Erica is an awesome hacker but doesn't employ a team of graphic and web designers to make beautiful lick able software.


Why did iMessage stop working after upgrading to iOS 8.2? After updating to iOS 8.2 I got a message saying "Your SIM sent a text message." Then I tried to send someone an iMessage and it sent an SMS instead even though that person is able to send and receive iMessages.

I guess the message is for security purposes(citation?) and for some reason it turned my iMessage off. Turning it back on fixed all my issues.


what is the app for seeing text being typed on a messenger i know of a app which pops up a dialog at the top right corner of the screen, when a user in on skype and the other person is typing something.

this is not specific to skype, but for any messenger that is installed on the mac.

i know that the name of the app starts with c but i am not sure if the name is crawl or cawl or something else....

i would really appreciate if someone can help me.

thank you in advance.


Is it possible to manage the iCloud keychain? I like to know if it is possible to manage the iCloud keychain, means, deleting elements. I tried the under the OS X keychain app in the iCloud tab but after a clean install of OS X, everything was restored. So, is it possible or not?

As described in Apples iCloud FAQ: To delete the Keychain completely, you have to deselect Allow approving using security code in the iCloud Account details under system preferences. After that, turn off the Keychain usage on every device that is using it. This will delete the complete keychain. Turning on the Allow approving using security code will result in a clean keychain.

If you want to edit items stored in the iCloud keychain you can do so via the Mac OS X keychain app or from your iDevice in the Safari preferences.

Mac OS X example: On the left, select iCloud and delete / edit items on the right.


How to change number of threads used in Homebrew builds? I'm trying to install Inkscape using Homebrew but the build process takes too long, and it's CPU intensive. So I'd like to pass the number of threads that would be used for the build command. Than way, at least I can use the computer for other tasks while the build process take place.

This is what I ended up using:

$ HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS=1 HOMEBREW_VERBOSE=1 brew install caskformula/caskformula/inkscape

HOMEBREW_MAKE_JOBS is the number of threads that wold be used in the build process by make and HOMEBREW_VERBOSE is set to one to turn on verbose mode for all tasks performed by Homebrew.


Photos.app is not syncing when using hotspot. How to treat hotspot as a regular Wi-Fi on macOS? Recently I started use hotspot as my home internet. I have unlimited data and high speeds 160/40 Mbps. Everything works well except Photos.app. It just doesn't sync even a single photo.

I contacted Apple support, but it's just a big facepalm.
They asked me to test this problem with other iPhones and MacBooks.
I tested with over 5 devices, as I expected the result was the same.
I wrote them and provided steps to reproduce the problem, but their answer was:

  Thank you for the Response. Since the issue is happening on more than 1 iPhone, as I discussed when we spoke on the phone the first time, Its due to the computer needing a stronger connection other than hotspot. There is no need move forward with troubleshooting at this point due to the same thing happening on all the Apple products you have tried.  As discussed, we would have continued troubleshooting only if the issue didn’t persist on another Apple product, because then it would have shown that its device specific and this it is not because its all the Apple products you have tried. Thank you for understanding.

So that's why I am looking for the answer on how to treat hotspot as a regular Wi-Fi on macOS.

macOS 10.14.5; iOS 12.3

So, finally I got the workaround to solve this issue.

You need to setup a VPN connection for that.
Probably you can use any VPN connection, but I used OpenVPN and used Viscosity as a client.

You can install OpenVPN either locally or using remote server using this bash script.

After connecting to the VPN it assumes that it connected to the real internet not a Wi-Fi hotspot. I assume that it's because it cannot access iPhone router IP address. So theoretically blocking iPhone's local network could work as well.


Make applications accessible to specific users? I have an "Artist" user and a "Developer" user.

I'm wondering if there is a way to make system wide applications only accessible to certain users.
For example, I would like Pixelmator to only be accessible by the "Artist" user and for XCode to only be accessible by the "Developer" user.

Is this possible? Should I just chmod o-rwx TheApplication.app and place the users and apps in specific groups?

I'm wondering whether you could just move/install the required applications to a ~/Applications directory (e.g. /Users/Artist/Applications), rather than /Applications. That way, particular applications in the local applications directory would only be available to that logged in user.

Alternatively, you could always enable Parental Controls on the "Artist" account, then restrict the set of apps that user could run. The caveat being, that user account could no longer be an administrator.


Keynote 6 Hijacking Launch Services? I find Keynote 6 in Mavericks to be both a step backwards and a step forwards from Keynote 5. It has some neat new transitions and all, but the iOS-ification (simplification) of the interface, as well as the removal of some key items in the Export to Quicktime command (can't set the exported movie to loop; exports into .m4v format, for instance,) make me want to throw it in the bin. What I am most concerned about, however, is that once Keynote 6 is installed, it appears to hijack the launch services app/doc binding.

When I click on a Keynote document, (version 5 or 6,) Keynote 6 opens as expected. If I 'Get Info' on a Keynote 5 document and use Open with: to select Keynote 5, (either by selecting Keynote 5 from the pulldown list, or by choosing Other... and selecting Keynote 5 from within the /Applications/iWorks folder, that document will open in Keynote 5. This is normal and expected.

Disturbingly, the Change All... button, which is supposed to set the app/doc binding for all .key files, does no such thing when I set a doc to Keynote 5! No .key documents open in Keynote 5 after I execute this command.

Even more disturbing is that at some random time, the specific .key files I individually associated with Keynote 5 will lose this association and revert to opening in Keynote 6!

I've rebuilt the launch services database, verified permissions, etc. This was happening before 10.9.2, as well. I'd like to keep Keynote 6 installed, but it just doesn't seem to play nice.

Any flashes of insight as to why this is happening?

SOLUTION

After installation, move the new iWorks apps onto another volume. This prevents the Launch Services 'hijacking' from occurring, allows the use of the new apps, and shuts down the inane update request from Software Update. I've tested this on three separate Macs, and use a Time Machine external drive as the repository for the new apps. Laptop users without perpetually mounted external drives may wish to add the apps into a disk image and mount the image only when needed.

This solution provided by user benwiggy at Mac OS X Hints.

ADDENDUM

With the release of Yosemite, this problem now recurs. Putting a bounty on a REAL SOLUTION!

I don't have a complete answer, but I have seen this as well - as long as Keynote 6.x is installed, I can't set the Open with... to Keynote 5. I've been deleting Keynote 6 from Finder, but unfortunately it comes back every time a Software Update is performed, so it's only a partial solution.


Why many startups use IAP for their iOS apps, while they could direct the website to buy premium? Many startups offer their premium version both via website and IAP. Lumosity is the example of such app.

I know IAP is made for such cases, but since you can upgrade your account on their website, why do they use IAP and pay commision instead of redirecting to website to buy premium?

Is it mandatory in iOS app that you have to support IAP for premium version even though user can upgrade his account via the website?

I'm curious because in IAP commision is 30% while costs of operation on website are much lower.

I mean, does these startups pay 30% to Apple just to allow users to unlock it from the app, instead of showing the message "Please visit our website to upgrade to premium version"

What if someone has upgraded lumosity through their website - he doesn't have to use IAP, he just logs to the app and new features are available right away.

Does that mean the following? I run a SaaS product with price tag 50$/month. If someone pays me via my website, I'm lucky, my operational costs are low. If someone decides to upgrade via the iOS app - I have to accept 30% commision fee.

Yes, it's mandatory. Per the App Store Review Guidelines:

  If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app purchase. Apps may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than IAP.

Some services absorb the IAP premium on behalf of the user, but I've certainly seen some services that just charge 30% more to subscribe/upgrade within the app, than they charge if you do it directly on their website.


Strange icon next to the dock In the past few days I've seen a strange "box" coming up next to the first icon on the dock on some Macs here at the office. The same box can be found in the CmdTab menu.

This happens only on some of our Macs, which have the same version of OS X (10.10.2) and the same AppleID - but other Macs with the same OS X and AppleID don't seem to show the same behaviour.

When the cursor is over the icon, it says "From Mac". The only 2 icons that have appeared there are Chrome and Mail. Clicking the Chrome icon opens a webpage on Chrome that someone else in the office opened recently, and that's a little bit creepy.

I tried to Googling it, but without success... I'm sure it's an AppleID related issue, but I can't find a name for it, and hence I can't disable it.

What is that, and how can I get rid of it?

This is called "Handoff" and is a feature that Apple introduced with OS X Yosemite and iOS. It is designed to allow you to quickly switch from your Mac to your iOS device but can also work between different Macs.

In this case, it would allow you to switch over to the exact environment that is running on the other Mac. This could be useful if one was working on an iMac, and then picked up their MacBook Air to continue their efforts on a Pages document, for example. Obviously the functionality extends to a number of programs.

To disable, open System Preferences and click General. Uncheck the "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud Devices" option.

For more information: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18754?locale=en_US


iBooks Store: How do I know what format is used? I see a technical book on the iBooks store which looks interesting. The description tells me everything except:

What format (PDF, ePub etc) is supplied?
Does the book have DRM?

I don’t know whether the answer is always the same, but how can I find out about the book on the store?

Books from the iBooks Store are always in the .ibooks or .epub format. It is never PDF.

Books from the iBooks Store can be DRM-protected, but they don't have to be. It is up to the publisher of the book to decide.

To check for DRM you can select the book and choose "Get Info" from the Files menu. If this shows "Purchased book" it is non-DRM, if it shows "Protected book" it is DRM-protected.