Repeated crashes of 'suggestd' I've been running OS X 10.11 without issues since it was released — until today, when suggestd began repeatedly crashing (from every few minutes, up to every 30 seconds).

What is suggestd and how do I disable it (since it's only function appears to be to crash)?

Process:               suggestd [23293]
Path:                  /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSuggestions.framework/Versions/A/Support/suggestd
Identifier:            suggestd
Version:               1.0 (354.10)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           suggestd [23293]
User ID:               501

OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11 (15A284)
Report Version:        11

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        3  Dispatch queue: com.apple.NSXPCConnection.m-user.com.apple.rtcreportingd

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'RTC config incorrect - no backends found;'
abort() called
terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

I turned off Contact's new "Show Contacts Found In Mail" feature (Contacts > Preferences > General > "Show Contacts Found In Mail" or "Show Contacts Found In Apps" in later versions of macOS), and that seems to have shut down suggestd crashes in my log. That also deleted ~/Library/Suggestions/harvestqueueold, which was previously filled by what looked like a bunch of temporary files. I'm going to try turning it back on now and see if the crashes resume.


How to determine whether the thermal paste needs re-application? How can I determine whether the heat sink is no longer firmly heat-tied to the CPU?

This appears to be the case for a seven year old MacBook, but I'd like to confirm without going to the trouble of re-applying the thermal paste just to find out that the old CPU (a core 2 duo) will indeed trigger the fan even for simple tasks.

I am looking for a recipe such as: Running a given process on a MacBook with a core 2 duo in a room with ambient temperature of 20C will not trigger the fans for at least 10 minutes.

In retrospect it's solvable. I can now run various jobs on each new MacBook and determine which processes trigger the fan. The same recipes should continue to work for the lifetime of a machine. If you have a core 2 duo and you can describe a specific testing recipe, please do.

Notwithstanding what Buscar says -

If you suspect the paste, change it.
For the sake of a fiver you'd then be certain.

I actually change the paste on all the graphics cards in the building every year, as part of a full strip & clean; though I only do the CPU coolers if I don't trust the existing application.
On non-Macs, cheap PCs, often the original paste is cheap & inefficient & simply changing it for good stuff can make a world of difference.


Songs bought from iTunes and those manually added show up in different albums in Music app There was an album with 5 songs, 3 of them was uploaded to the band's BandCamp, 2 were not.
So I just downloaded the 3 free songs and added them to iTunes library, and bought the other 2 from iTunes. Now, when I added them to my iPhone, They are split into 2 different albums with the same name.

I believe there is something to do with the "Copyright" field in the ID3 of those songs.

Any workaround?

Select all the tracks and choose File>Get Info. Re-enter the correct information for Album, Artist, and especially Album Artist. Click on the sorting tab and delete anything in all fields.  Click on the Options tab and set 'Part of a compilation' to 'No'. Click 'OK' and see what you got.


Mac Keynote: How do I add another bend point to a curved connector line (arc)? I am using Keynote 7.2 in Mac OS Sierra. I want to add a curved connection line (aka arc or curve) to my presentation but with multiple bend points. How do I do that?

Specifically, I am choosing "connector line" from the top menu.

I then want to add another green bend point to make the line curve multiple times. How do I do that?

The tool to use for this is the Draw with the pen tool.

This tool is found at the top right of the shape picker window.

To add a new point, drag a midpoint to divide a line and add a new point.  See the illustration below.


my Mac Pro was stolen and had Adobe Master suite on it. is there a way to delete that program on the stolen lap top and install it on a new one? My Mac Pro was stolen...I still have the computer ID..can I delete the adobe CS on that computer so I can install it on a new MAC Pro?  I have the CS on my Mac Desk and I would like to install it on my new Mac Pro?

You can't actually delete it on the computer that is gone.

The problem you may have is that Adobe CS requires product activation which ties the software to that particular computer.

Adobe allow you to activate CS on two computers so you should be fine to install on your new computer if it's not the third you've done, which from your question it seems it would be.

If you have already done it on two computers you will have to get Adobe to deactivate CS on the old computer. To do this phone Adobe Customer Support. There's no software way around this with the version of CS you have (people with a volume license don't have this problem.)

Check out the Activation FAQ :-

http://www.adobe.com/eeurope/activation/faq.html


Two persons independently using one MacBook Pro Is it possible for such a setup as the following: Hooking one MacBook Pro up with two separate monitors, two separate mice, and two separate keyboards, allowing two different persons to work independently on their monitors, sharing the computer's performance?

Perhaps this is a strange request, but it would actually be useful for me in certain situations. With enough adapters, simply connecting the computer to the necessary monitors, mice, and keyboards should be possible; however, the interesting part is how to allow to share the computer's performance and sending independent data to the two monitors.

no, in fact you cannot SIMULTANEOUSLY use a system with two separate users logged in simultaneously on two different monitors.

several other options may allow something similar:
1 user logged in on the display.
2nd user logged in via SSH to terminal as any available user..

However this won't allow the computer to drive 2 displays - the 2nd user would be able to do terminal commands only, and could in fact overide any actions done by the first user (depending on permissions, user account, etc)...


macOS Catalina: Preview > Print... > Save As PDF, not really working I upgraded (whatever that means) to macOS Catalina.

If you visit https://apple.stackexchange.com using Safari and do a Print... and select Save as PDF, then you can create a pdf file. All is well so far. Now, using Preview, open the pdf file that you just created, and say you want to print pages 2-3 (or the entire document, it does not really matter) as a new pdf file. On my end, this is not working. I get an error message: Print. Error while printing.

Do you know of any resolutions, or should we just wait for the next update of macOS to solve this?

I have experienced a problem similar to yours.

Unfortunately for us, there seems to be no solution, but "the answer" to our questions was revealed in my telephone call to Apple Care. During this support call, a "second-level" tech support person stated:

  "Apple doesn't actually support PDF files with Preview. There is nothing we can do to help you."

UPDATE/EDIT:

A subsequent call to AppleCare got me to a different support person who was not afflicted with an attitude. Apple subsequently reviewed a copy of my PDF document, duplicated the behavior I saw, and collected some "system data" from my Macbook. I finally got the results of this, and Apple has indicated they have found an issue that will be addressed in a future update.


How do I select a new SMTP "Primary Server"? On my iPhone (iOS 11.2.5), I had to change the SMTP server for my e-mail account.  I was able to add the new SMTP server, which appeared under "OTHER SMTP SERVERS".  I was also able to turn off the old SMTP server (which is shown under "PRIMARY SERVER", so I only have the new SMTP server active.  I am able to send mail successfully.

My question is: How do I switch my Primary Server to be the one that is active?  Does it even matter?

I haven't figured out a way to rearrange the servers so that a different one is the Primary, but I was able to work around it by simply tapping on the Primary server entry and change the details so that it points to the server that I want.  That way, the one I am actually using is the Primary.

As Christian said in the comments, it doesn't matter, because if I only have one server actually turned on, that is the one that Mail will use.


I am using iphone 6 and my battery Max capacity is 1118 mAH and design capacity is 1751? I am using iphone 6 ios 9.3.3 my battery Max capacity is 1118 mAH and design capacity is 1751 ?

Why its Max capacity is is not 1751 what to do to fix it.

Your battery is worn out

Batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries loose the ability to hold charge as they age. The biggest indicator of how old a battery is is not just the age but the charge cycle count, which is the number of time the battery is charged to 100% and discharged again back to 0. Note that this doesn't have to happen all in one charge but is cumulative.

Apple has some good information on it here.

645 charge cycles is a lot. The current estimate of the lifespan of an iPhone battery is  300 - 400 charge cycles There is nothing you can really do to fix this except use the iPhone in such a way to maximise the remaining life of the battery. More information can be found here.


VPN send but not receive data My VPN service works perfect until last friday and still working on a DD-WRT router. I'm using OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion. Here is the log output http://pastebin.com/QZyz3eSf

Others connections works fine also another VPN connections.

All started playing with this

  How to auto connect to VPN upon login/boot? - Ask Different http://s.cipr.es/OT1Ues

I fix it playing with ~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/


Tile *Previous* Window Side-by-Side with Current I'm well aware of Moom, BetterTouchTool, BetterSnapTool, Divvy, and Spectacle, and have thoroughly read this question's answers.

I don't think any of the above can:

with one keyboard stroke, tile the current window and the previously-focused window side-by-side.

Moom allows application-specific configurations; all the others allow manipulating only the current-focused window.

This is something I find that I'm doing over and over again, for example: switching from a PDF to my browser to type some info from the PDF into my browser; I'd like to quickly show them side-by-side so that it's easy to copy over, say, an address.

It can be done via AppleScript.

I might be able to fudge some kind of script for you in a day or so, but take a look at:

http://tom.scogland.com/blog/2013/06/08/mac-raise-window-by-title/
(mostly for how to make the script non-specific to an an application) and  https://macosxautomation.com/applescript/firsttutorial/04.html
(for relative window indexes).

I don't unfortunately know the scripting terminology for placing windows side-by-side, so either someone else can take a crack at it, or I will in a couple days.


How to restore a time machine backup of a USB drive to a new USB drive? One of my external USB disks died. I want to restore the time machine backup to a new (bigger) external USB disk.

I could just copy the latest backup to the new disk, but I want to keep the backup history, so that time machine uses the new disk as a replacement for the old disk (with all the backup history).

I found a solution that does use the existing backup. The trick is to use sudo tmutil associatedisk (see man tmutil).

My old disk was mounted under /Volumes/USB-old and the new disk is mounted as /Volumes/USB-new. My backup is under /Volumes/backups. (If your old and new disk have both the same name, you have to follow all of the steps, because the name of the disk is not sufficient to associate an old backup with a new disk)

Stop time machine to do backups (in the preferences)
Restore the old data to the new disk:

sudo tmutil restore /Volumes/backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBookPro/Latest/USB-old/* /Volumes/USB-new

(note this does not restore files starting with . at the top level)
Tell time machine to associate the new disk to the old backups:

sudo tmutil associatedisk /Volumes/USB-new /Volumes/backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBookPro/Latest/USB-old

Start time machine to do backups

Now time machine does not try to backup the entire new disk. Instead, it creates incremental backups based on the old snapshot.

However, it seems not possible to go back in history using Time Machine.
I have tried to associate all old backups with the new disk without much success:

for dir in `find /Volumes/backups/Backups.backupdb/MacBookPro -maxdepth 2 -name USB-old`; do
    echo sudo tmutil associatedisk /Volumes/USB-new $dir
done


How do I get my iphone to show up in iTunes 11 consistently? I upgraded to iTunes 11 today and my iPhone rarely shows up in iTunes. It almost never does through wifi (even though wifi syncing is on) and if I connect it with a USB cord, I have to restart the iphone for it to recognize that it is connected.

What could the problem be? (iphone is not jailbroken and has latest iOS and Itunes is just updated) and how could I fix it?

This happens to me, too.  The computer is connected by ethernet to the wifi router.  Sometimes exiting iTunes and the re-launching works to get iTunes to see the iPhone.  (And connecting the iPhone to the computer by cable always works.)


What does adding PATH to .bashrc do? I'm following this guide to install Linux commands onto my OS Terminal: https://www.topbug.net/blog/2013/04/14/install-and-use-gnu-command-line-tools-in-mac-os-x/ and I see that the second line tells me to add a line to my .bashrc file, which I have to create since I don't have one. Can anyone explain to me what this does? As well as the PATH command in general?

When you run a command in bash (or any other Unix shell), the shell searches for this command in a number of directories. The list of directories is stored in the variable called PATH, paths are separated by :.

The command in question extends the already defined $PATH by two additional paths:

/usr/local/bin which is the usual place user-provided commands get installed to
The output of $(brew --prefix coreutils)/libexec/gnubin which points to some utility commands required by brew

To see the current value of PATH, run echo $PATH in Terminal.


I think there are leftovers from previous OS X versions on my HD, how can I find/delete those? I've got two Macs, one of them is a few versions newer than the other. They are both currently running the latest version, but the older Mac has lots of OS and system files that the newer one hasn't

I did a search using the following keywords: mac remove old version

The most promising result described three applications that could work for you.

I suppose that backing up to Time Machine, doing a clean install, and then restoring from Time Machine wouldn't work. The backup would include all the garbage files that you were seeking to be rid of.

Maybe it would be doable to do a clean install, but then only restore selected applications from the backup?


Can non iPhone iOS devices (iPad specifically) be used to dial short USSD codes for carrier information? My data carrier provides USSD code to check the voice & data balance in the sim & iPad3 doesn't seem to have a way to dial them.

So how can I send USSD codes without jailbreaking my iPad? Is it possible at all?

USSD codes are like this: *123*1# for data balance.

Nope, not possible! The USSD code would be sent over a voice call of sorts, but there's no phone app on the iPad. The cellular access is strictly for data (at least without jailbreaking).

You'll just have to find a different way of checking your data balance! You could just keep track manually by going to Settings -> General -> Usage -> Cellular Usage. That will allow you to reset your usage statistics and then keep tabs on how much data you've used up to that point.


macOS Sierra - iMessage corrects me despite spellcheck is turned off Good day!
iMessage on my mac fixes my typos as I type despite the fact that I've disabled spell check in settings.

Here is how it looks:

Is there any way to fix that? Thank you in advance.

In Messages, go to Edit > Spelling and Grammar and make sure the items for automatic correction are UNchecked.


Safari clear cache on quit Is there any way of convincing Safari to clear the cache when it quits? If not from Safari's options, then maybe an extension that does this?

I would use private browsing instead, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work well for me (some sites say they can't use cookies, and a lot of functionality is broken with this enabled).

The menubar app Cookie can clear exactly what you want to clear at quit, at timed intervals, or both.

Can also clear thosenefarious Tracking Cookies, as well as non-favorite cookies, Flash and other databases -- and do this for all your browsers.

Not part of the company--just think especially with Tracking, it's a must have. SweetPea Productions, trial available.


How can I get full resolution out of different generations of cinema displays? I have a newer thunderbolt display and an older Apple Cinema HD display hooked up to my retina macbook pro (15 inch, early 2013, 1 GB GeForce GT 650M graphics card). The older one is going through a mini-displayport interface to a dvi cable hooked up to a thunderbolt port, while the newer one is on thunderbolt.

However, I've only been able to get as high as 1280 by 800 resolution out of the older monitor. Is there a way to get it to display at a better resolution?

Open sys pref- display

Hold the Option key before clicking the Scaled radio button

Now you will see all resolution profiles that are supported for the display.

Something like I have for my Sharp TV


Backing up entire drive (10.4.11) to FAT32 external for complete wipe I'm quite inexperienced with OS X, despite being a fairly competent Windows techie, so I definitely need some help with this ancient family computer.

It's an old Mac Mini, has a lot of photos, music, etc., but it's gotten so unbelievably slow over the years that my gut is telling me a complete wipe would be the smartest solution.

Processor 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory 512 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

I have a terabyte-sized FAT32 partition on this USB external hard drive, and what I want to do is back up the entire disk so I can wipe the drive and install (preferably) a more recent edition of OS X.

Disk space isn't an issue; all I need is that files can be plucked from the backup later as necessary without restoring the entire thing.

The last time I tried to make a backup with just the command line it managed to start recursively copying the backup into itself, so I really am hopeless doing this alone.

Can anyone help me out?

FAT32 isn't up to faithfully preserving Mac permissions, links and metadata. If you cannot repartition the drive as GUID/HFS+ it would be best to make a Disk Image on the FAT and back up to that image.

If your drive was 120G and had at least 10G free space you should be fine with settings like this to create the image. The sparse image is nice since it only fills as files are copied but it can expand to the size specified if needed.

Then you could then use Disk Utility to "restore" the data from Macintosh HD to the mounted image file. The HFS+ data would all be properly encoded and stored in one big file on the FAT drive. I don't know file size limitations on FAT anymore so that would be the one flaw in this plan if you needed an image larger than could be stored on the drive as formatted.


Sync iPad on a different device I would like to stop syncing my iPad with my MBP & start syncing it with my iMac instead; when one connects an iOS device with a machine other than the one they previously synced with they get a message saying that they should erase & sync their device. Is there a way to sync my device to my iMac without erasing all my data first; PS. the MCP & the iMac share the same library.

I tried many different approaches but none of them worked, had to erase & sync


Does there exist any Apple hardware "Cloud Computing" solutions? I have a program which uses Mac OS X's Grand Central Dispatch queueing technology to handle multi-core programming.  However, I notice that, in the near future, Microsoft is expecting to roll out cloud-based multicore programming where you can run your parallel programs on a ridiculously large (8,000+ core) setup with a pay-by-the-hour setup.

Are there currently plans for Apple to offer similar iCloud-based "Big Computing" in the near future?  Is there already something like that which exists that I am unaware of?

No - Apple stopped selling both its enterprise storage Xserve RAID as well as its enterprise server Xserve in February 2008 and January 2011 respectively. Even the workstation-class Mac Pro has only seen incremental updates over time so the only way to get "into the cloud" with Apple as of late 2012 is by developing software that uses their iCloud API and service.

The only credible rumor of Apple product is the very vague announcement to the "Pro user community" from a short email by Tim Cook that promised that Apple are "working on something really great" for later in 2013. Whether that is going to be new (and perhaps cloud-based) hardware or software or just a re-design of what we've already seen is left to a lot of rumor and speculation at present.


Thunderbolt 3 compatible with Apple Thunderbolt Display Is it possible to connect a Thunderbolt 3 equipped Mac (I know there isn't one at present) with the 2011 Apple Thunderbolt Display?
I'm just curious. Maybe there's an adapter which works?

Looking at the Thunderbolt 3 FAQ, it states the following which should apply to all Thunderbolt-labeled Display Port displays.

  Thunderbolt 3 ports are fully compatible with DisplayPort devices and cables.

and

  Products built to Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 specifications will work with Thunderbolt 3 via an adapter.


Change in specs for the 'new' AppleTV? As of today, with the announcement of 'new iPad' (not iPad 3), they squeaked out the update/new AppleTV.

Does anyone have any actual details what changed? As it looks like a very nasty UI update (which I don't plan on updating to as I still have my ATV2 which is jailbroken).

I looked over the store, and checked specs, but I cannot for the life of me see any difference of the 'new AppleTV' except for the software?

Did I get it spot on? Is it just a software update? Or is there something hardware wise that I would get by purchasing a new $99 unit?

via ars technica (http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/03/hands-on-and-questions-answered-third-gen-ipad-third-gen-apple-tv.ars):

The device looks the same as the second-generation device and, in fact, the new interface that Apple touted during the event will also be coming to the second-generation version via software update. The only thing new about the third-gen Apple TV is the ability to output 1080p (the second-gen can play 1080p movies but only outputs 720p) plus a more direct link into iCloud for photo syncing. If all you want is the new and improved interface (which I do like, as an Apple TV fan), you'll be able to get it from Apple on your second-gen device without having to pay anything.

We asked whether the third-gen Apple TV had the same A5X processor as that in the new iPad (as was previously rumored), but an Apple spokesperson told us that it has a "single-core version of the A5" and it's not the same as what's in the iPad. The CPU is capable of handling 1080p HD video. The spokesperson also claimed that users "only need an 8-10 megabit Internet connection" in order to take advantage of 1080p movies from iTunes, but speaking as someone with experience with the second-generation Apple TV at a mere 720p, this depends highly upon your individual ISP. (Insert grumbling about Comcast here.)

And despite rumors that Siri would come to the third-generation Apple TV (and continued insistence by some publications), there were no indications that Siri was anywhere on the new Apple TV interface. We are confident in saying that Siri is not currently available on the device, though that could certainly change with a software update.


Tabs don't open in the background any longer in Safari Whenever I right click on a link in Safari and click "Open Link In New Tab" it leads me directly to it/ immediatley takes me to the new tab. Before, ever since I got my macbook, whenever I opened a link in a new tab it left it running in the background. It was more convinient for me and it was faster.

PS: And before you ask, yes I have tried fixing the "Tab" setting in Safari Preferences

You can follow these steps
1. Open preference in safari
2. Click on tabs.
3. Uncheck the option "when a when a new tab or window opens make it      active".

Hope this will works.


Are there any iPhone apps which can display/edit OPML documents? I'm looking to view/edit OPML files on the iPhone/iPad. Is there an app that can do this?

Depends on what you want to do exactly but since OPML is just another Markup Language you can use any text editor or maybe one that's also able to highlight XML. You could also try online tools such as google docs, tho I couldn't myself. Here's another way to read only OPML using iGoogle.

I'll also give a shot and guess what kind of OPML you'd be using and suggest this app.


MacBook Pro Boot loop Since this morning my 2018 MacBook Pro has been stuck in a boot loop. When I start it up, I hear the chime (sometimes I see the apple logo) and this repeats.
SMC and NVRAM reset didnt help. I can't start my MacBook in Verbose mode and can't start the Apple hardware test. I can start my system in Recovery mode but as soon as it finished downloading it will get stuck in the loop again. I also tried to boot macOS from a stick but as soon as I select the stick as boot device, it gets stuck in the loop again.
I dont know what to do now. Does anyone haven any ideas how to proceed?

it looks like a hardware issue, i would take it to Support. i experienced something similar once, and the problem was my Charger, i bought one that was not original and the beginning worked, but after sometime it was causing problems, i happened to have an original one close to me, i tested it and it worked.


Can I extend the iPhone's maximum ringtone duration? I'm wondering if there is a way to extend the maximum duration of a custom ringtone i make for my iPhone past 30 seconds.

This is a way to trick the iPhone (iOS 6.0) into making ringtones longer than the ~40 second maximum:

Note: This may now be a moot point since you can select songs for the default alarm, but the one advantage is it allows the phone to vibrate when it is a ringtone and the vibrate alert is enabled.

  Summary: Add a short 15sec .m4r song to iTunes. Replace the source file with the full length .m4r version, then drag it from the Library to your iPhone. iTunes will be expecting the short version but will copy the whole thing without error.

Prerequisites: Create two .mp3 versions of the song. One the full length, the other a short version <30sec.

Detailed instructions:

1) Create two folders. One with the full length version of the song. The other with a 15s version.

2) Add the short version to the iTunes Library via File>Add File to Library

3) Convert the short version to AAC, then search for it in Music. Once you find it, right click to Show in Windows Explorer. Rename the file extension of the short song to .m4r. Keep the Window Open.

4) Move the .m4r version to the short folder in Step 1.

5) Remove the AAC listings in the Music Library.

6) Repeat the AAC conversion for the full version, following Steps 3-5 while working from the full length folder. This is to prevent confusion. Use file size to help separate if needed.

6) From the short folder in Step 1, drag the .m4r into the Library section in iTunes.

7) Rename the short .m4r file extension to .m4r_short

8) Copy the full length .m4r into the short directory.

9) From within the iTunes Library, open Tones and then drag the song to your iPhone. The entire full length song will copy without any errors.


Why does Airport Extreme disable LAN interfaces in client mode? I have configured my wireless airport extreme to use client mode (hint: if this is not available in "manual configuration", start the assistent and it will appear in the menu ...).

This is working fine and I can access APX via my default wireless connection. However, I have a few systems attached to the LAN ports and these are not accessible.

I read that the APX is disabling the LAN ports in this configuration (why?) - is that true? Someone knows a way to have this configuration running in bridge (or routed mode, I don't care ...) mode?

Thanks a lot

sven

Short Answer

This is a security-related limitation of the 802.11 standard. The 802.11n-capable AirPort Express has a fancy feature to work around this limitation, but the AirPort Extremes and Time Capsules do not.

Long Answer

The IEEE 802.11 standard requires the Access Point (AP) to require each wireless station (STA) to authenticate and "associate" to the AP before the AP can process real network traffic from the STA. STAs are identified by their wireless Media Access Controller (MAC) address (a.k.a. "AirPort ID", hardware address, etc.).

Simple network bridge devices don't change the MAC addresses on network frames.  So if the AirPort Extreme tried to simply bridge traffic from the wired Ethernet devices on its LAN ports, those frames would still have those wired devices' source MAC addresses on them, and since those MAC addreses had never authenticated and associated with the AP, the AP would drop those frames for security reasons. Because this mode of joining an AP doesn't allow the Extreme to bridge frames from wired clients on its LAN port, the Extreme disables its LAN port to help users get the hint.

The 802.11 spec provides a standard way around this. It's called Wireless Distribution System (WDS). But WDS was under-specified in the 802.11 spec, lacks several important mechanisms, and various vendors' implementations aren't guaranteed to interoperate. So Apple chose to only officially support WDS between Apple AirPort Extreme, Express, and Time Capsule devices. So this isn't a solution for you if your AP is non-Apple. It's possible you could set it up manually and it may happen to work just fine, but Apple won't help you if it doesn't.

With the 802.11n-capable Extremes, Expresses, and Time Capsules, Apple provided an Apple-enhanced version of WDS that they just call "Extend the network", to provide the needed protocol mechanisms that bog-standard 802.11 WDS lacks. But again, no third party devices do this, so it's just and Apple-to-Apple thing.

The 802.11n-capable AirPort Express (note: not Extreme, just Express) has one special advantage here. It can do something an 802.11 engineer might call "Proxy STA" mode, where it not only joins a third-party AP was a STA, but it also spoofs the MAC addresses of all the wired Ethernet devices out its LAN port and performs 802.11 authentication and association as a proxy for those wired Ethernet devices, which allows the Express to bridge frames from those clients without the AP dropping them for security reasons. To the AP, all those MAC addresses looks like separate wireless clients; it has no idea that the Express is actually proxying for them all.


IPhone 4 Transfering Pictures I am upgrading my phone from the 4 to the 6 and trying to back up all photos and videos and everytime I move a photo from the Camera Roll to the Photo Stream to upload to the Cloud and the erase from the Roll it also erases the same picture from the photo stream.
It defeats the whole purpose...Help !

When, upgrading, I always just backup my old iPhone to iTunes and restore the iTunes backup.  That gets all pics including the camera roll.

I just recently upgraded from a 5s to 6, and I still have the very first pic I took with an iPhone on July 11, 2008 and that is how I've always done it.

Note: backup in iTunes is not the same as syncing with iTunes.  Click the phone icon to find the backup button.


Is there any way to change language input icons on macOS? Some languages like Spanish and Russian use the country flags for language input, while others like Chinese and Japanese are not. So I would like to change language input icons such that all languages have the country flags for aesthetics. I also want to set different icons to different input system on Japanese.
Is this possible on macOS?
(I use Big Sur Beta 2 but a solution on Catalina is totally fine.)

The only way to do this as far as I know is to create custom keyboards with a app like Ukelele, where you can create any icon you want for a layout.  But Ukelele cannot make custom keyboards for complex "input methods" like Chinese and Japanese.


Using imovie, how can I create a short highlight films from a long movie? I have an hour long video that I have from a trip and I want to create a highlight film (around 5 mins)..  Using Imovie, is there any particular feature to do this.  I see there are the movie trailers but those seem much shorter (around 30 seconds) and I don't see a way to make it longer.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If you like the movie trailer format but you want to customize the length of the clip segments, you can convert the special movie trailer project into a normal iMovie project by going to (File>Convert Trailer to Movie).

Video Tutorial about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lBbqgqgTVA

Otherwise you need to edit your project manually. A trick to limit the length of a project is to first insert a blank image into your project and to make it the length you want your video to be. Then you can start adding clips to your project by dragging the clips over the blank image (if it doesn't cover the clip completely select the cutaway function). This method can help your project stay a certain time length.


Display dialog with current iTunes album cover I would like to display with AppleScript a dialog that shows my current title, artist and album. In addiction to that the icon of the dialog should be the album cover of the current album.

Is that possible?

Yes it is. Here is what I came up with. It's late so it's a bit rough I'm afraid...

download Pashua - a free tool for custom dialog boxes
copy app and Pashua.scpt to Applications folder
Paste following code and adjust to your liking.

EDIT: Artwork code taken from this answer.

#
# Start of code
#
global f, a

tell application "iTunes"

    tell artwork 1 of current track
        set d to raw data
        if format is «class PNG » then
            set x to "png"
        else
            set x to "jpg"
        end if
    end tell

    set a to album of current track
end tell

set f to (((path to temporary items) as text) & "cover." & x)
set b to open for access file result with write permission
set eof b to 0
write d to b
close access b

-- Get the path to the folder containing this script
tell application "Finder"
    set appPath to (path to applications folder)
    #set thisFolder to (container of (path to me)) as string
    set thisFolder to appPath as string
    if "Pashua:Pashua.app:" exists then
        -- Looks like the Pashua disk image is mounted. Run from there.
        set customLocation to "Pashua:"
    else
        -- Search for Pashua in the standard locations
        set customLocation to ""
    end if
end tell

set customLocation to ""

log "customLocation: " & customLocation
log "f: " & f
try
    set thePath to alias (thisFolder & "Pashua.scpt")
    set pashuaBinding to load script thePath

    tell pashuaBinding
        -- Display the dialog

        try
            set pashuaLocation to getPashuaPath(customLocation)
            set dialogConfiguration to my getDialogConfiguration(f)
            set theResult to showDialog(dialogConfiguration, customLocation)

        on error errorMessage
            display alert "PashuaBinding: An error occurred" message errorMessage as warning
        end try
    end tell
on error errStr number errorNumber
    display dialog errStr
end try

-- Returns the configuration string for an example dialog
on getDialogConfiguration(pashuaLocation)

    if pashuaLocation is not "" then
        set img to "img.type = image
              img.x = 0
              img.y = 50
              img.maxwidth = 128
              img.tooltip = Album Art
              img.path = " & (POSIX path of pashuaLocation) & return
    else
        set img to ""
    end if

    return "
# Set window title
*.title = Currently playing...

# Introductory text
txt.type = text
txt.label = Track/Album Info
txt.default = Album: " & a & return & "
txt.height = 10
txt.width = 300
txt.x = 150
txt.y = 130
#txt.tooltip = This is an element of type “text”

db.type = defaultbutton
#db.tooltip = This is an element of type “defaultbutton” (which is automatically added to each window, if not included in the configuration)
" & img
end getDialogConfiguration

#
# END of CODE
#


Command in bash shell script to find path to that script? Is there a command to go inside a bash .sh script that will provide the full path to the directory containing that script?

See the answers on Get the source directory of a Bash script from within the script itself. The accepted one recommends

#!/bin/bash

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" >/dev/null 2>&1 && pwd )"

but reading all the answers gives a lot of alternatives (and insights into how shells work).


Mac to HIteker Tv through HDMI Recently we have moved my HDMI cable to use on a different TV and when I brought it back to my room and used it to connect my MacBook Pro to my Hiteker TV, my mac recognizes the TV but the Tv doesn't recognize the Mac, it says no signal. I've tried putting the cable in the other HDMI port and the same thing happened. I have also unplugged it while both are on. Please help.

OK, we are beating around the bushes here, so to make progress this is for your Information and not a answer to your problem.

The MTC26T42 is a Nvidia HD Audio, not a display!

Here is what you should look for (example for my Samsung TV) connected via Thunderbolt to HDMI-HDMI.

This is from the About this Mac (notice it says Television: Yes.)

This one is from the system preference -Display

And this is information from the ColorSync Utility.


Can my external monitor charge 16" MacBook Pro over USB-C while using it? I am planning to use my new 16" MacBook Pro with an external display which is equipped with a USB-C output. I use the setup generally in extended display mode, and sometimes in clamshell mode.

I am planning to use a single, USB-C 3.1 cable to both drive the display and keep the MacBook connected to power. I'll be actively using the machine while it's connected.

My questions is, since the new 16" MacBook is equipped with a larger battery (100-Wh), and comes with a denser power brick (96 Watt), will the output from the monitor be adequate to charge the MacBook? If it depends on the monitor type, how do I determine if the output would be adequate?

It depends entirely on the monitor type. Some monitors support power delivery, some do not. You'll obviously want one that does support power delivery.

Next comes the rated power - it differs from monitor to monitor how many watts of power they can delivery over the cable. The size of the battery in the laptop doesn't matter here - the only thing that matters is that the monitor can deliver more watts than the laptop uses on average while connected. If it can deliver more, those watts are used to keep the battery charged. Ofcourse - the larger the difference (up to a point), the faster the charging will happen.

How many watts your laptop is using on average depend on your usage. I.e. if you run it almost idle, only checking mail a few times per day - it won't use much. If you're running complex 3D renders all the time - you'll use a lot.

If your monitor supports power delivery with a wattage around the 96W that the included power brick gives - then you should be OK. Note that the standard currently has a limit of 100W, so you can never go above that. For most people 85W is plenty, and for many less can also be good enough.


How to disable startup connection to a 'dead' server? My mac (OsX 10.7) try to connect to a disabled server at startup.
How to remove /delete this auto connection (that fail each time) ?
Thanks

My guess would be that there is a login item for the dead server. To Remove it access Systems preferences via:

 -> System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Choose your user -> Login items ->

Select the Dead Server and press "-" to remove it.


photostream with no iphone I no longer have my iPhone, but I wanted to know if there was anyway I could access the pictures that I uploaded to Photostream before I got rid of the phone. Or are they all completely lost?

If you have a Windows PC, you can download iCloud Control Panel from Apple. Once installed, open iCloud Control Panel and enter the same Apple ID and password as you used on your iPhone. Any photos taken within the last 30 days (or up to 1000, whichever limit was hit first) will be downloaded.

If you're on Mac, have OS X v10.7.3 or later, and have iPhoto '11 (v9.2 or later), go to System Preferences > iCloud and again, sign in with the same Apple ID and password as your iPhone. Open iPhoto, click on Photo Stream in the left column, and click Turn On Photo Stream when prompted.


Keyboard shortcut to unhide or unminimize a window in OS X I am asking this question because I feel it belongs on apple, not superuser. Also the perfect answer is not checked off there.

You hide a window using ⌘ + M. However even ⌘ + ⇥ to that window does not help as the window is minimized. How do you unminimize?

A very quick keyboard method to un-minimize a specific window or un-minimize all of an app's minimized windows is this:

Command ⌘+Tab ⇥ to the app with minimized windows, but don't release the Command ⌘ key.

While still holding Command ⌘ down, tap Down ↓ or 1 (easy 1-handed access) to enter App Exposé. Once in App Exposé, all keys can be released.

To un-minimize all windows, select any window with arrow keys, then press Option ⌥+Return ↩.

To un-minimize a specific window, navigate to the window you want with the arrow keys, then press Return ↩.


7TV installed itself on AppleTV 4K I just opened my AppleTV 4K and I found an app called 7TV installed!

Any ideas how that could happen?

I never downloaded it.

Location is Germany

On tvOS 10 and later you can enable the feature called "Automatic Downloads" - it sounds like this is what you did.

When "Automatic Downloads" is on, the Apple TV will automatically install apps that you have on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, that are compatible with Apple TV. The key is that the same Apple ID account is added to the Apple TV as you have used on another device.


How to make a bootable Yosemite Drive under El Captain (not installation drive) I have installed El Captain on my MacBook Pro and I want to make a bootable Yosemite Drive. Could anyone help me with that?

You can't simply open Install OS X Yosemite.app and install Yosemite somewhere if your Mac is booted to OS X El Capitan. The installer app will obstruct this. You have to use a detour:

Download the Install OS X Yosemite.app from the App Store. The Yosemite installer must be "purchased" previously. You will find it in your purchase list then and you can re-download it. Create a bootable installer thumb drive:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app

You may have to replace the proper path to Install OS X Yosemite.app and the name of your thumb drive in /Volumes/MyVolume in the above command.

Reboot to the bootable installer thumb drive. After starting the installation you will be asked where to install Yosemite. Choose an empty partition which mustn't contain an El Capitan operating system. You may also install to a second thumb drive (> 16 GB).


External Storage solutions for 2017 MacBook Pro Easy to Use on Public Transport I'm getting a 15" MacBook Pro but only 256 GB storage. I will need an additional 1-2 TBs fast storage, used for Virtual Machines or Video Editing. I don't mind using an external drive, the challenge is I will use on a 2 hr commute each way by train.

I am wondering if there are any existing products that allow storage to clip on underneath the laptop or screen, etc rather than hange off the side.

I would recommend buying a Samsung T5 SSD. They're available in 1 and 2 TB capacities, and they offer fast storage that you can use for video editing and/or virtual machines.

The product itself does not offer a clip-on feature - but I don't think such a product exists on the market.

However the product is in itself very light (51 gram) and small (7.4 x 1.05 x 5.73 cm). I would suggest buying a simple adhesive velcro tape and apply that to the T5 drive and your MacBook Pro. This would allow you to clip-on the storage when needed.


How can I reset my bash configuration? When I open Terminal it shows this:

Last login: Fri Apr 1 17:04:59 on ttys000
-bash: export: /opt/local/bin': not a valid identifier
-bash: export::/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/X11/bin': not a valid identifier
Josh@Macbook-Pro~$ export

I installed something yesterday and modified bash_profile. Now I cannot do anything in Terminal. Even "ls". It returns…

bash: ls: No such file or directory

How can I fix it?

Sounds like it's screwing up your PATH, so the shell can't find any of the usual commands.  In this case, you can still use the commands by specifying their entire path (e.g. /bin/ls instead of just `ls), or just reset your PATH manually:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/X11/bin

(Note that that's based on the error you gave; there may be some directories missing.)

If .bash_profile is the only thing messed up, it's probably easiest to just disable it:

/bin/mv .bash_profile bash_profile_disabled
/bin/mv .bashrc bashrc_disabled

... and then open a new (clean) Terminal window, and then look through the file to see if you can undo the damage before renaming it back.


How can I make Text to Speech use different voices for different languages? I am learning French and sometimes need to use Text to Speech to fix my pronunciation. As English is my second language, I also sometimes use Text to Speech with it.

The problem is that the English voices do not have correct French pronunciation, and vice versa. I have to open System Preferences to switch between the two every time.

How can I automatically switch between the voices according to the language of the text selected to be spoken? If there is no way to do that, how would do it using Automator/AppleScript?

Here is a possible answer from another forum:

https://superuser.com/questions/468130/mac-os-x-quickly-change-voices-for-text-to-speech


AppleScript for counting messages in Inbox fails with "Can't get mailbox" Here is my first attempt at an AppleScript program, which met with ignominious defeat:

tell application "Mail"
    tell mailbox "INBOX"
        count messages
    end tell
end tell

It compiled, but when I ran it, I got the error message

error "Mail got an error: Can’t get mailbox \"INBOX\"." number -1728 from mailbox "INBOX"

Can someone tell me what is wrong, and if there is a short introduction to AppleScript, written for someone used to programming?

Your mistake is understandable in what you expect should be the syntax.

Each account has it's own mailbox named "INBOX"

In Mail the mailbox  inbox  is the reference to the top level inbox that shows contents of all other inboxes named "INBOX"

2 examples:

Example 1

tell application "Mail"
    set inboxes to first mailbox of every account whose name is "INBOX"
    set messageCount to 0
    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in inboxes

        set this_item to item i of inboxes
        if this_item is not missing value then
            set thisCount to (count of (messages of this_item))
            set messageCount to thisCount + messageCount
            log thisCount
        end if
    end repeat

end tell
log messageCount

Example 2

tell application "Mail"
    set messageCount to (count of (messages of inbox))
end tell

log messageCount

Both return and log the same total.

But example 1 also logs the individual count of each "INBOX"

A good place to start is to read through:  AppleScript Fundamentals


How can I sign up for a non-free iCloud account (having exceeded the 3 free ones) I have an iPad that has exceeded the 3 free iCloud accounts but I'd like to sign it up for iCloud (and I'd be willing to pay), but how do I do it.

When I get the prompt that says I have exceeded the 3 free ones there is no option to pay for one.

Signing up on another device may solve my problem but simply stores up problems for the owner of that device as it uses one of their 3 free registrations which is simply storing up issues for them in the future.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

Why not just upgrade one of the existing accounts?

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12796

or see this for deleting unused iCloud accounts

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-remove-your-apple-id-completely-shut-down-your-itunes-store-icloud-other-accounts-3474388/

(too much info to précis here, unless votes/comments would suggest it worth it)


Unlocking new Mac not working with Apple Watch I've grown accustomed to the convenience of being able to unlock my MacBook Pro with my Apple Watch, but I just got a new Mac Mini, and no matter what I do, it is not unlocking it for me.

I have checked "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac" in System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General.  And I am able to use my watch to unlock (e.g.) settings in the Privacy tab of that same System Preferences pane, like Accessibility settings.  I just can't unlock the computer itself.

What could be wrong? Why would this work on one computer and fail on another (newer) one?

It seems as if this setting is not honored for OS-level access until after a reboot.  It surprises me that Apple failed to note that in the UI.


Using email addresses in App Store screenshots An app we're working on has a field to accept email addresses. For a screenshot, we want to show something in the field.

Some concerns:

Can we use non-Apple domains? (e.g. outlook.com, gmail.com, yahoo.com) Or will Apple reject them?
Can we use Apple domains? (e.g. icloud.com)
Can we use obviously generic e-mail addresses? (e.g. friend@icloud.com, co-worker@gmail.com) Or does that open us up to lawsuits for misuse of personal property?
Should we just put in an email but blur parts or all of it? For example, leave the @ and .com unblurred?

What have others done? Would be interesting in seeing what has been approved recently.

According to the App Store review guidelines, you're responsible for ensuring you own all rights to whatever you put in the description or screenshots.  You can put email addresses in the screenshots but, of course, you need to own those addresses.  You also must be prepared for the onslaught of spam and other email those addresses will receive once the address is displayed to the world.

Common sense would tell me that you should blur at least part of any address you display.  You want to show potential customers an accurate representation of what your app can do.  If that involves displaying an email address, I think you're ok and as long as you blur parts of the address I don't believe Apple will reject it.  If the address is something like xxxx@apple.com or xxxx@yahoo.com, then you should expect a rejection, in part because you're implying that Apple uses or endorses your app as well as you're using a registered trademark.  That is in the review guidelines so it's pretty much a guaranteed rejection.

Just make-up an email address and blur the parts you indicated, you should be ok.


OS X Contacts (Mountain Lion) with CardDav - "CoreDAVHTTPStatusErrorDomain error 500" I've recently setup a CardDav account with a hosted Atmail Cloud account. It works perfectly on iOS, and seems to pull in some of the contacts, however every time Contacts re-syncs I am getting the following error:

    9/20/12 5:19:24.622 PM Contacts[785]: [CardDAVPlugin-ERROR] -_handleCompletedAction: Error Domain=CoreDAVHTTPStatusErrorDomain Code=500 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (CoreDAVHTTPStatusErrorDomain error 500.)" UserInfo=0x7ff1a6409cb0 {CoreDAVHTTPHeaders=<CFBasicHash 0x7ff1a61475b0 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{type = immutable dict, count = 8,
entries =>
    0 : Case Insensitive Key: Server = <CFString 0x7ff1a66096c0 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "Apache/2.2.15 (CentOS)"}
    1 : Case Insensitive Key: X-Powered-By = <CFString 0x7ff1a64bc030 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "PHP/5.3.3"}
    2 : Case Insensitive Key: Connection = <CFString 0x7ff1a64aa4a0 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "close"}
    3 : Case Insensitive Key: Content-Type = <CFString 0x7ff1a661ccb0 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "application/xml; charset=utf-8"}
    6 : Case Insensitive Key: Date = <CFString 0x7ff1a4efb270 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:19:24 GMT"}
    8 : Case Insensitive Key: Content-Encoding = <CFString 0x7ff1a64a7220 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "gzip"}
    10 : Case Insensitive Key: Content-Length = <CFString 0x7ff1a6149f80 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "187"}
    12 : Case Insensitive Key: Vary = <CFString 0x7ff1a665dd70 [0x7fff73a56fd0]>{contents = "Accept-Encoding"}
}
}

Is this a problem with the CardDav server or Contacts? Anyone run into this issue before?

The response says the the error is when communicating with the 3rd party server (since the Mac isn't CentOS obviously) and that there was an error on the server side (type 500)

The 5xx range of HTTP response codes are for server side errors, basically there was an error, we couldn't do anything and we are closing the connection.


How can I install Teams on iOS 9? I am using an iPad 2 and I need Microsoft teams for classes. But it says that teams needs iOS 11 or later. I tried installing it from purchase history but it still doesn't work. Is there anything I can do?

No. An application is (broadly) a list of instructions to the OS. Each new OS contains new instructions that applications can use.
MS Teams requires instructions that are only found in iOS11 and later. Your OS doesn't recognise these.
Some apps do keep older versions on the App Store for older OS/hardware to use: but I don't know the history of when Teams was ported to iOS.
An iPad2 is 9 years old. While you can always keep using the same software for as long as the hardware works (I'm surprised the battery's still going!), if you need newer software, then you have to have hardware that's closer in age.


Can you see old messages on a SIM card free phone? Can you still see old messages on an old SIM card for an iPhone 4? Mine died a few months ago, AT&T techs took out the SIM card when they gave me my new phone, but now my parents are trying to "fix" my old phone to be nosy! Yikes!

Assuming you didn't wipe your phone before removing the SIM card, your messages (and everything else) will still be on the phone. If your phone is still registered in "Find my iPhone" and has network connectivity (either through a new SIM card or through WiFi), you can wipe it from your iCloud account. See iCloud: Find My iPhone overview and iCloud: Erase your device for details about the procedure.


mysql command not found after pipe I installed mysql with homebrew.

mysql --version
mysql  Ver 8.0.11 for osx10.13 on x86_64 (Homebrew)

and

which mysql
/usr/local/bin/mysql

but when I try to use it after a pipe, I get the following error

unzip -p dump.sql.zip | mysql
zsh: command not found:  mysql

Why is that and how can I fix it?

You have an extra character before mysql that looks like a space, but is not a space. You have to fix that before running the command. This problem occurs when you press the space bar while you are holding the Option key.

$ # Option + Space
$ unzip -p dump.sql.zip | mysql
zsh: command not found:  mysql
$ # Regular Space
$ unzip -p dump.sql.zip | mysql
...
expected output
...

Another example:

$ # Option + Space
$ echo "hi" | less
-bash:  less: command not found
$ # Regular Space
$ echo "hi" | less

hi
(END)

Another option is to eliminate the space after the pipe entirely:

$ echo "hi" |less

hi
(END)

Option+Space = \xc2\xa0 (UTF-8)

Space = Regular Space


Unable to install entrprise app through iTunes in windows machine As per apple new update in iTunes app install via iTunes option is removed and if you want to install app you need to use Apple Configurator 2 to install app through system.

But Above Tool is for MAC user only what about Windows user how can i distribute my app to windows users?

Any Idea how to install iPA file through windows machine ?

  Note : Due to security reason my company not allowed to use any third
  party site like Diawi.

Help me to find out way to install my app through windows machine.

Thanks in Advance!

Apple have very quietly released iTunes 12.6.3 - compatible with iOS 11 & still containing the App Store.

Apple KB: Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes

You need the direct link, it apparently does not appear as an update.
Mac link.
Windows 32 bit link.
Windows 64-bit Link.

If you've already been using 12.7 you may have luck importing your 12.7 lib  to a clean 12.6.3 Library, as outlined on MacRumors, but I had no joy.

I ended up restoring a backup of my Library [just the catalog not all the tunes] from a time before i updated to 12.7.


iMac 27" late 2009 running OSX 10.10.4 - please explain time machine to me? I hope you can explain this to me.  I have a 1 TB hard drive on my iMac.  I bought a 2TB external drive for time machine.  It says that it makes backups hourly, daily, and monthly...and then deletes old backups when the disc is full.  Well, I had to wipe my external hard drive and start over tonight because I just kept getting the message that time machine couldn't back up my computer because it was full.  Is my 2TB external drive too small?  It's double the size of my computer hard drive...
Thanks for your help.

Two TB should be more than enough. It's a good idea to start with an empty HDD, so if you had any data on it; that could be the problem is. It could also be because the drive was configured for Windows OS.

If you want to use the HDD as time machine and to store other stuff you should partition it. It's simple just open Disk Utility, select the disk, go on partition tap, and the plus button. Make sure the format is Mac OS Extended, then make the new partition of about 1.5 TB. After it's done, you should see two drives connected. The old one (0.5 TB) should still contain all your data from before if it was less than 0.5 TB. You can just format the new one if you like. Then just restart the Time Machine process; from Time Machine Preferences Pane > Select Drive.

You also configure which file you don't want to backup, things which you can just download again, from the options button in Pref Pane.


Keyboard has a strange software related Issue I have an Issue wIth my Apple keyboard where the "I" key does not work In lowercase mode.
When I checked usIng the keyboard vIewer, It shows that the lower case "I" Is trIggerIng a  double ⌘ (command key)
I have trIed a dIfferent keyboard (I use an apple bluetooth keyboard and have trIed replacIng It as well as usIng a separate USB keyboard)
I have an IMAC 10,1 runnIng OS X 10.6.8
Any and all advIce welcomed

The most common cause of one key not working is that it has been set as the trigger for something, most often either Speech Recognition or Text to Speech.  Double check the settings in your system preferences/speech.


We’re unable to validate your product’s purchase date I recently bought a MacBook Pro ordered at Apple Online store. When attempting to check the service and support coverage status, I am presented with a webpage that says that the product’s purchase date can not be validated. I am asked to provide a date of purchase.

This is a custom configuration and the unit actually got shipped over a couple weeks after originally placing the order. As I understand, this date would be used for 1-year warranty coverage, my question is:

What's the valid date of purchase that I should provide here:

The date of placing the order?
The date of actually receiving the shipment from Apple?

I want to make sure that I receive the full 1-year long warranty coverage (as promised by Apple).

What’s the harm in providing the evidence you have that’s best for you?

Apple typically starts the warranty when you complete the purchase and the authorized seller ships the device. That’s when you “bought it” and you control the shipping costs and times in reality, not Apple.

Also, don’t worry about a day or two. If you have issues at the end of the warranty you can arrange service on the last day and then ship it - get another 90 days coverage and even if you present your device a week after expiration, my experience is Apple covers these days / week periods in your favor anyhow.

This form pops up when the date Apple thinks it sold it is too far in the past. If this left the factory recently, this form just starts your coverage today, so already Apple is a little cautious so I wouldn’t put a date here that you don’t have evidence to corroborate in case when you list the receipt date, they ask you to upload a scan of the delivery confirmation.

Unless your local law says warranty starts when you receive the gear, the proper transfer of warranty starts when you pay for the goods, not when you receive them.


Why Does My MBA Close All My Apps After 5 Mins Idle? Sometimes if I walk away from my MBA without locking the screen and I return I'll be faced with a login screen. Once I login all my apps I had open are now closed.

Sometimes I'll close my MBA lid and when I open it again some time later I'll log in and it'll prompt with a bunch of dialogs asking to quit all the apps. I can halt it by hitting cancel.

EDIT Update: The problem has gotten worse. I used to be able to lock my screen Ctrl+Shift+Power/Eject and it'd prevent it from closing all apps. But not even that is doing the trick any longer. I'd try locking then closing the lid and that still does not work.

This is even happening when I'm plugged into a power source.

Output of Console where I believe the MBA killed all apps.

02/05/15 20:39:10.664 com.apple.usbmuxd[26918]: _SendAttachNotification Device e4:98:d6:19:53:0c@fe80::e698:d6ff:fe19:530c._apple-mobdev2._tcp.local. has already appeared on interface 4. Suppressing duplicate attach notification.
02/05/15 20:39:10.664 com.apple.usbmuxd[26918]: _SendAttachNotification Device e4:98:d6:19:53:0c@fe80::e698:d6ff:fe19:530c._apple-mobdev2._tcp.local. has already appeared on interface 4. Suppressing duplicate attach notification.
02/05/15 20:39:11.416 Xcode[27046]: <DYMobileDevice: 0x7fa25c656030>: failed to acquire service transport reservation: Error Domain=DYAMDErrorDomain Code=-402653150 "The service is invalid."
02/05/15 20:39:27.286 warmd[32]: [_bootcachectl_playlist_for_file:3197] Unable to generate playlist for file: 2 No such file or directory
02/05/15 20:39:27.287 warmd[32]: [_bootcachectl_playlist_for_file:3197] Unable to generate playlist for file: 2 No such file or directory
02/05/15 20:39:27.306 warmd[32]: [_bootcachectl_playlist_for_file:3197] Unable to generate playlist for file: 2 No such file or directory
02/05/15 20:39:27.339 warmd[32]: [_bootcachectl_playlist_for_file:3197] Unable to generate playlist for file: 2 No such file or directory
02/05/15 20:39:27.339 warmd[32]: [_bootcachectl_playlist_for_file:3197] Unable to generate playlist for file: 2 No such file or directory
02/05/15 20:39:27.340 warmd[32]: [_bootcachectl_playlist_for_file:3197] Unable to generate playlist for file: 2 No such file or directory
02/05/15 20:39:48.880 sharingd[26933]: 20:39:48.879 : Starting Handoff advertising
02/05/15 20:39:50.522 locationd[57]: Location icon should now be in state 'Active'
02/05/15 20:39:52.355 locationd[57]: NETWORK: requery, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, items, fQueryRetries, 0, fLastRetryTimestamp, 444803043.5
02/05/15 20:39:52.926 locationd[57]: Location icon should now be in state 'Inactive'
02/05/15 20:39:52.930 Console[27129]: Failed to connect (_consoleX) outlet from (NSApplication) to (ConsoleX): missing setter or instance variable
02/05/15 20:39:53.462 sharingd[26933]: 20:39:53.462 : Starting Handoff advertising
02/05/15 20:39:55.464 sharingd[26933]: 20:39:55.463 : Stopping Handoff advertising

Looking true your log, I would say it is your Sophos acting up.

SophosUIServer

Uninstall it and live without it.

It does not do any good anyway AFIK.


How to enable privacy requirement for apps myself My zoom mic stops working this morning and it turns out that there is a new privacy requirement from my new Mac OS (that I just upgraded today) for Zoom, for both of its mic and camera usage.

However, the problem is Zoom says there is such new privacy requirement, and prompts me to go to the Privacy Settings, but having tried that many many times, my privacy requirement for both mic and camera usage are still blank.

I've already restarted my MBP.
Now my zoom is not working as expected.
ProductName:       Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.15.7
BuildVersion:   19H512

It was OK when the BuildVersion was 19H2.
UPDATE:
Giving the situation that zoom knows and prompts me to change that privacy setting, I have a feeling that the problem is the incompatibility between zoom and my new Mac OS. And now I can proof it, because I just found out that my mic is not only not working for zoom, but it is also not working for my MS Team too, while they both worked perfectly yesterday.  Zoom at least knows and prompts me to change that privacy setting; whereas MS Team doesn't even realize the situation and never prompts me anything, just gives up working.
So, this is not a zoom problem any more, but New Mac OS problem, with all my apps, even for Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, when visiting screenapp.io.
UPDATE 2:
Following up on How do I reset Camera and Microphone permission on macOS Mojave?, here is my situation:
$ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: enabled.

$ tccutil reset Camera
tccutil: Failed to reset Camera

$ tccutil reset Microphone
tccutil: Failed to reset Microphone

$ sudo tccutil reset Microphone
tccutil: Failed to reset Microphone

Is there any way I can fix it myself?

$ tccutil reset Camera
tccutil: Failed to reset Camera

Just realized that it has nothing to do with the OS update, because of the above failure, as I realized that I had changed my HOME folder. Right after having changed it back the problem is solved.
Sorry & Thanks everyone!


Can't change folder permissions I'm running Mountain Lion and I have a folder in ~/sites that has a red icon on the folder  and I can't open it because 'access is denied'.

What I've tried:

Get Info > unlock with admin password, change 'everyone' privilege to 'read write' but won't change so tried 'read only' but still 'access denied'
Terminal > sudo chmod -R 0777 ~/sites/lockedfolder
Terminal > sudo chmod -R 0777 ~/sites
Terminal > sudo chmod a+rwx ~/sites/lockedfolder
Terminal > sudo chmod a+rwx ~/sites
Disk utility > repair permissions and steps 1-5 again but no luck

All users now show 'read write' access in get info window but still  and no access...

What can I try next?

In addition to the Unix file permissions, there are old HFS file bits. To unlock your folder try:

Terminal > SetFile -a l ~/sites/lockedfolder

OR

Terminal > chflags nouchg ~/sites/lockedfolder

Alternatively, you could do a Get Info in the Finder, and uncheck the "Locked" checkbox from that window.


Need a formula for a conditional formatting of a cell based on another cell's data I'm trying to highlight a cell based on another cell's data

Example:

  A               B
 100% (green)     1
   0% (red)       1 or greater
   0% (white)     0

So I need to conditional column A so that if it shows 100% Green, 0% with a 1 or greater in B Red, and if it's 0% with a 0 in B white.

Any Ideas?

Sounds like Conditional Format is what you are looking for.

Select the cell which have to be formatted and choose Format->Conditional Format in the menu of Excel.

For more information have a look at: use a formula to apply conditional formatting


Mac slow after migration I just restored my old Late 2009 27" Quad core iMac, from Time Machine to a Late 2012 21" i5 iMac, and at certain points it is very slow and laggy. For example when I try to open Photoshop, or just randomly when I am on the browsing the Web using Google Chrome.

Nothing seems to be using too much of the CPU or the RAM, but maybe I need to do some kind of system clean. I already installed the newest OS which seems to have helped.

Can anyone please let me know what might be the best solution, or general steps which should be taken in this case.

It can take a while for a Mac to reindex all your files after an OS upgrade. Leave it powered on and mostly idle for a day or two, especially if your disk is nearly full. That will give it time to complete its background tasks.


iTunes Match - No More Backups Needed? I subscribed to iTunes Match the other day (it just came to the UK) and was thinking - now that iTunes Match is backing up my library, ratings, playcounts and all that awesome stuff, I no longer need to include it in my time machine backup, right? It's matched 99% of the songs in my library and I'm not going to miss the others a great deal - I use Spotify very heavily as well, and if I don't need to backup my music (~100gb) I no longer need a larger backup hard drive :D

No, you don't need a backup any more. iTunes Match stores nothing in the Cloud, it activates your songs in the iTunes Store, and only the songs iTunes doesn't have are uploaded to the Apple Server.

But if your HDD suffers damage, you have to download all your 50 GB again.


Is there any app to always display time in touch bar? I would like to know if there's any way to always display current time in the touch bar in latest MacBook Pro.

When using browsers and other applications in full screen, I'm unable to view the top status bar by default.

Here you go.

Download from here: https://github.com/nihalsharma/Clock-Bar/files/1801968/Clock.Bar.app.zip
Repo: https://github.com/nihalsharma/Clock-Bar
Medium: https://medium.com/@nihalsharma/clock-right-on-the-touch-bar-fd3ed4b392b2
Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/clock-bar
You can install the app directly through brew install --cask clock-bar


How does battery life compare with OSX vs Windows 7 (or 8.1) on an Macbook Air? Does anyone know how long the battery life is on an Macbook Air with Windows 7?

With OS X Mavericks, the operating system was designed with some focus on power management. The benefit of Apple making the hardware AND operating system is that they are able to control an manage power way more effectively than Windows is on any machine. It also depends on if you're using BootCamp or a virtual machine like Parallels or Virtual Box. BootCamp should theoretically be more power efficient as you aren't running BOTH OS X and Windows at the same time.


Mouse cursor goes crazy! This is driving me insane... All of a sudden my mouse cursor starts jumping and clicking around by its own. It doesn't look like somebody is remote controlling it. It rather is jumping around randomly, executing clicks or context menu commands just without any obvious aim.

This usually happens while I am working a while with the MacBook sitting on my lap. My feeling is that battery level could play a role here since the problem occurs only when the battery got drained down to below 50%. But it is just an impression. Could also have something to do with temperature, although I do not do CPU heavy stuff (just browsing).

I could do nothing against it. I switched off WLAN and Bluetooth. No fancy touchpad driver is running (though I had one running some time ago, called magicprefs).

There are some similar cases around the web but I did not find any solution yet.

Any help would be WOW,
rainer

PS MacOS X, most recent Mountain Lion, MacBook Pro 13"

unfortunately I´m experiencing the same thing since yesterday.
I don´t even touch the mouse  but the mouse keeps moving in a 3 to 5 seconds interval.

Did you proceed with this problem?

What I found so far:
- It is not the mouse (Magic Mouse) nor Bluetooth. Switching off both doesn´t change anything.
- It´s not in my account. Switching to another account is not the cure.

I´m really embarrassed, but I solved the problem here.

Yesterday my mouse battery was empty and I connected an old microsoft mouse with a cord because I ran out of loaded batteries. After reloading batteries I continued using Magic Mouse. But I didn´t disconnect the cord mouse but put it into a box. And since than I had tis problem. Removing the cord mouse solved the problem.


Which Macbook Pro Hi-Res screen is better for editing photos? The Apple shop lists glossy and antiglare options for their Hi-Res screens and I'm not sure what the difference is, and in particular which one is better for editing photos.

This is 80% what calavera already said, and I'm only posting it for a few additional details that wouldn't fit into a comment. Translation: Accept calavera's answer instead, if you're thinking about accepting mine.

Glossy is generally considered better for accurate color gamut (I believe that's the proper term). Closer to "real life", full representation, etc. If you're professionally serious, I would still recommend picking up a color calibration kit, but you'll likely have less tweaking to do for accurate representation.

Anti-glare is exactly what it says, and exactly as calavera put it, it doesn't reflect the sun, room lights, generally light sources nearly as strongly, so you can use it nearly anywhere without having to re-orient/re-angle yourself. But, as a side effect of this, colors are dulled, a bit washed out.

Photo editing, video editing, anything that is geared for visual presentation pretty much demands a glossy screen, as opposed to something with just a visual interface (surfing, audio editing). Of course, with Apple making the anti-glare the "special order", it's there for people who need it, but otherwise people get the better choice in the majority of situations, by default.


2010 MacBook Pro 8 gb ram When my 2012 mbp went down with a bad ram stick, I installed Windows 8.1 on a bootcamp partition on my wife's 2010 mbp.  I got my laptop working, not longer needed to borrow hers and attempted to remove the bootcamp partition. It is gone but when ever she reboots, she has to remember to hold the option key or she automatically boots to a black screen.  I assume something didn't get properly uninstalled and its attempting to load Windows bios but it doesn't exist. Is there a way to fix this?  There is no time machine or back up pre bootcamp installation to restore to.

I would Recommend installing windows 10 only and getting rid of the mac partition completely. There are tons of online tutorials on how to do it. BUT if you want to use the partition and have that be the default when you hit the option key to choose your startup disk, HOLD CONTROL before you select it that you’ll notice that upward-pointing arrow—the one that points to the selected disk—will change into a circular arrow instead, indicating that the chosen disk will not only be used to start your Mac this time, but that it will also become the default boot disk.


Spilt coffee on Keyboard, washed/dryed but 2 keys still not working, any cure? I spilt coffee on an apple external wired keyboard. Taking the advice of other threads on this matter I washed it thoroughly and dried it, twice. However 2 of the keys are still non functional. Does this mean it is permanently busted? Or can I still fix it somehow? Or can it economically be fixed by an apple support shop or similar??

What model is it? Take off the back to get to the logic board and membrane and clean each with isopropyl alcohol, I repair Apple stuff and as long as the board and membrane are dry before you power them, the alcohol shouldn't hurt anything. If the key's still aren't working, don't throw the keyboard away, sell it for parts on eBay. You might make a little bit of money and someone might be happy to buy it just for keys and the case.


Changin IRC default client on Mavericks I installed Colloquy and then LimeChat IRC clients. I realized Colloquy opens automatically when clicking on a link like irc://irc.freenode.net/kolab
How can I changed these links to open in LimeChat?

You can set defaults using something like RCDefaultApp (old but free & still functional)

Use the URLS header & set your default app by finding the protocol in the URLs list & selecting the default in the drop menu on the right.


How do I recover purchased music on my iPhone 4? I replaced my iPhone 4 today and used iTunes to restore all of my settings, contacts, calendars and apps. Everything but my music was restored- including my purchased items. I have tried the iTunes Store on iTunes and on my iPhone and I feel like I'm missing something- is there another step that I should be taking when restoring to retrieve my music?

It appears there are multiple ways. The first, is outlined by Apple here.

Automatic Downloads and downloading previous purchases are not compatible with iPhone 4 (CDMA Model). Automatic Downloads and downloading past purchased music and TV Shows is supported only in the US and is not compatible with iPhone 4 (CDMA Model). Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store. Downloading past purchased TV Shows requires iTunes 10.4 or later.

It details the following methods:

Open the iTunes Store on your device.
Make sure you are signed in with the same account used for the
    original purchase.
Tap Purchased from the bottom navigation bar.

From the Purchased tab, tap the artist name for the content you
    intend to download again.
Once you've located the music you are looking for, tap the download
    button.

Note: To download all songs from a purchased album, tap on the Album's toggle button to switch to Album view.

Once you redownload the music to your phone, they will transfer to your iTunes library when you sync the device.

And an alternate method using the new iCloud service can be found here (it's of note that when I tested this method, I could redownload books and apps but not music; your experience may, however, differ).


decrypt incoming mail server password Apple Mail I have a mail account where the incoming mail server password is set, but the outgoing not.
I can't remember why the password is not set on the outgoing mail server, but I would like to use it now + I would love to actually know the password, since I would love to continue using the mail account.
I created and saved that password with the Keychain and then lost it due to data loss on iCloud Keychain (and they do not do backups).

No, I can't recover the password via the mail service provider.

Is there a way to recover it from Mail since it's set for the incoming mail server?!

In nearly all configurations, the sending and receiving password are the same.  If the incoming password shows as set in MacOS Mail, then it is in your keychain (because that is where those passwords are shown)

Go to "Keychain Access". tool in the Utilities folder of /Applications and click on "Passwords" in the left sidebar. This will show all of the stored passwords to you.  You can search for the mail server hostname in the top right search bar to narrow down the choices.  Once you see it, double click on it to open the details and click on the "Show Password" checkbox.  Once you supply your login password, it will show you what that password is.

After that, it is a simple matter of adding that password into the Account settings within MacOS Mail.

Good Luck!


Removing dark borders from UI elements, including windows and buttons I have somehow managed to configure my Mac to display dark borders around windows, toolbar buttons, and other UI elements, as you can see in the screenshots below:

All apps are now showing borders like this. How can I remove them?

You have turned on ‘Increase contrast’ in settings.
Open System Preferences, search for ‘contrast’ and unselect ‘Increase contrast’:


Allow application to control computer (assistive devices) on Mavericks via Terminal? I'm currently working on automated instalation of Mavericks 10.9. I have NetBoot set up. Everything works OK untill I want to execute Applescript. Since the release of new version I need to manually enable those scripts. Is there a command that I can use in shell script to add app to Assistive Devices list? Or maybe there is some plist that has to be edited for it to work?

The settings are stored in /Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db:

$ sudo sqlite3 /Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db 'select * from access'
kTCCServiceAccessibility|com.apple.ScriptEditor2|0|1|0|��

kTCCServiceAccessibility|com.red-sweater.FastScripts|0|1|0|��

kTCCServiceAccessibility|com.apple.AccessibilityInspector|0|1|0|��

kTCCServiceAccessibility|com.slate.Slate|0|1|0|��

kTCCServiceAccessibility|com.apple.Automator|0|1|1|
kTCCServiceAccessibility|com.googlecode.iterm2|0|1|1|

The schema, as given by sudo sqlite3 /Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db '.schema access', is:

CREATE TABLE access (service TEXT NOT NULL, client TEXT NOT NULL, client_type INTEGER NOT NULL, allowed INTEGER NOT NULL, prompt_count INTEGER NOT NULL, csreq BLOB, CONSTRAINT key PRIMARY KEY (service, client, client_type));

On my installation the last four columns (client_type, allowed, prompt_count, and csreq) are 0|1|0|\xfa\xde\x0c for applications that were added after the "example.app" would like to control this computer using accessibility features dialog was shown and 0|1|1| for applications that I added by dropping them to the list in System Preferences.

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.universalaccessAuthWarning.plist contains a list of applications for which the warning dialog has been shown:

$ defaults read com.apple.universalaccessAuthWarning
{
    "/Applications/Automator.app" = 1;
    "/Applications/Automator.app/Contents/MacOS/Automator" = 1;
    "/Applications/FastScripts.app" = 1;
    "/Applications/FastScripts.app/Contents/MacOS/FastScripts" = 1;
    "/Applications/Slate.app" = 1;
    "/Applications/Slate.app/Contents/MacOS/Slate" = 1;
    "/Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor.app" = 1;
    "/Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleScript Editor" = 1;
    "/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Accessibility Inspector.app" = 1;
    "/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Accessibility Inspector.app/Contents/MacOS/Accessibility Inspector" = 1;
    "/Applications/iTerm.app" = 1;
    "/Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/MacOS/iTerm" = 1;
    "/Users/lauri/Desktop/aa.app" = 1;
    "/Users/lauri/Desktop/aa.app/Contents/MacOS/applet" = 1;
    "com.apple.AccessibilityInspector" = 1;
    "com.apple.Automator" = 1;
    "com.apple.ScriptEditor.id.aa" = 1;
    "com.apple.ScriptEditor2" = 1;
    "com.red-sweater.FastScripts" = 1;
    "com.slate.Slate" = 1;
}

I couldn't figure out how to actually allow access for assistive devices for an application though. I tried for example running these commands:

sudo sqlite3 /Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db 'insert into access values ("kTCCServiceAccessibility","com.apple.ScriptEditor.id.qq",0,1,0,"'$'\xfa\xde\x0c''");'
defaults write com.apple.universalaccessAuthWarning com.apple.ScriptEditor.id.qq -bool true
defaults write com.apple.universalaccessAuthWarning /Users/lauri/Desktop/qq.app -bool true
defaults write com.apple.universalaccessAuthWarning /Users/lauri/Desktop/qq.app/Contents/MacOS/applet -bool true
sudo killall tccd

I also tried restarting to apply the changes and setting the last four columns to 0,1,1,"".


xcode 6.4 + OX X 10.10 Yosemite - Problem with all simulators Anyone experiencing problems with Xcode 6.4 simulators? at first I though it was my fault and I was looking to find which part I messed up in my code, but when I go an actual device to test my project everything seemed fine. What I did is upgraded to to 6.4 yesterday evening and since then I have this problem. Tried to update 10.10 OS X but this didn't fix anything

Resolved the issue. As I am running two monitors I was trying to open a new tab in safari, while Xcode simulator was selected. Cmd T triggers the simulator to run in slow motion for further testing. Nothing to do with the new Xcode or OS X update


Output Macbook audio to iPhone or iPad This question is a duplicate, I know.

Duplicate: Send audio output of MacBook to iPhone for remote listening

However the age of this question and answer is about 5 years. Mac OS and iOS updates change and so do software.

The question is again, how could I output my audio from my mac to my iPhone or iPad? The App Airfoil was suggested in the the question above however I'm sure there are better or newer alternatives.

I did check https://alternativeto.net/software/airfoil/ however I don't know how reliable this site is.

My preference of method would be over WiFi, or USB connection but anything is better than nothing.

Detailed Device Specs

iPhone 5s iOS 10.3.3

iPad 3rd Generation iOS 9.3.5

NOTE: as suggested from Streaming iMac's Audio to iPad, this open source alternative was available however it hasn't been updated. https://github.com/trenskow/AirFloat (requires iOS 9.2.1 and self-compiled with Xcode from a Mac)

Macbook Pro Retina (Model 10,1) Mid-2012. macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Even if a suggestion doesn't fit the older models above, they are welcome for others that this may help!

Thank you Ask Different community!

I'm wouldn't be so sure there are better alternatives. AirFoil is still updated regularly, and as its a rather rare need to stream from a computer to an iDevice (and not an AppleTV, HomePod, Miracast, Chromecast, Bluetooth speakers), it's a safe a reliable bet. You could also take a look at the AirSquirrels programs, (Reflector, AirParrot, etc.), but I'm not sure they actually do what you want precisely.


How do I manually throttle the CPU usage of an app? When I export a file from iMovie, it usually takes a long time but uses a lot of CPU, and my computer gets very hot(around 180-190ºF), even with my fan controller maxing it out. Would I be able to slow this down so that it wouldn't put as much load on my computer? Or really for any app where it might be doing some intensive thing in the background. I get a little nervous having it working so hard for such a long period of time. I was hoping there would be some terminal command or other local way to do this,  Thanks.

A1342 MacBook, Late 2009, 10.10.5, 4GB RAM

You could try AppTamer (not free, trial version available). From the AppTamer website:

  Some applications, particularly web browsers and older apps, continue
  running tasks or animating ads even when they're idle. That uses
  valuable processing (CPU) power, which leaves you with:

  Less CPU power for the application you're using, Increased heat and fan
  noise, Reduced battery run-time

  Find the culprits and get them under control. With App Tamer, you
  simply do this:

  Launch App Tamer and click on its icon in your    menubar, Click on an
  application that's    using a lot of CPU, Tell App Tamer to slow or stop
  the app.


Microsoft Teams Camera Shows Black Screen Having tried a Mac Mini and MacBook Pro, Microsoft Teams shows a black screen in the video preview during calls. Others on the video call see the same black screen.

This issue has manifested on the MacBook with built-in camera, and with a Mac Mini using an external Logitech C922 camera connected via USB.

On iPhone and iPad using the Teams app, the same user can make video calls perfectly.

How can this be fixed?

The problem can be seen in Teams device settings.

Make a test call. This gives us a big clue as it highlights the video camera is unavailable due to permissions.

Fix by enabling in System Preferences under Security & Privacy as follows.


Internet connectivity drops intermittently on El Capitan I've got the following setup: A 2010 MBA and a 2013 rMBP, both running El Capitan (same issues on Yosemite though), connected to an AirPort Express 802.11n (1st Generation), which is connected via an ethernet cable to a Cisco router/modem. Airport is running in bridge mode.

10-20 times a day, internet connectivity will drop for between 10 and 90 seconds. iPads and iPhones never have issues, only the macs. The wifi connection is fine, it's just internet. Generally, only one mac loses internet connectivity, the other mac remains connected.

I'm pinging an external server, the modem and the airport continuously. During downtime, the external server is unreachable, but both the airport and the modem remain reachable.

What immediately restores the connection is clicking "Renew DHCP Lease" in the Network Preferences.

I tried to programmatically renew the DHCP lease as soon as downtime was detected (sudo ipconfig set en1 DHCP), but that seemed to confuse the wifi connection status in the menu bar.

I'd like to solicit tips to pin down the problem in more detail, or to solve the problem entirely. (Cutting out the Airport and using the cisco router/modem directly produced similar problems).

UPDATE:

My connection goes down every 15 minutes, like clockwork. When it's down, the DHCP entry for my laptop disappears from the list of DHCP entries in the web interface of the Cisco, even though it was not about to expire.

I run into the same issue with El Capitan on a mid-2014 MBP 13". Did run a wireless diagnostic and captured the drop, the RSSI value seems to change the most but I don't know what that could mean or if it's actually part of the problem.

Turning wifi off and back on fixes it.

10/08/15 12:34:31.0430  Link Quality Changed : rssi=-59 dBm, txRate=117 Mbps
10/08/15 12:34:44.0550  Link Quality Changed : rssi=-62 dBm, txRate=104 Mbps
10/08/15 12:34:45.1200  LAN: WiFi interface can ping IPv4 router 192.168.0.1 . . . YES —— [1/1 (0% loss) min=2.1 max=2.1 avg=2.1]
10/08/15 12:34:54.4610  WAN: WiFi interface can ping DNS server 17.254.0.50 . . . YES —— [1/1 (0% loss) min=24.5 max=24.5 avg=24.5]
10/08/15 12:34:54.4610  moto / ch1 [RSSI=-62 dBm, Noise=-95 dBm, SNR=33, Tx=78 Mbps]
10/08/15 12:34:54.4610  AWDL: Disabled [0 ]
10/08/15 12:34:55.0640  Link Quality Changed : rssi=-62 dBm, txRate=52 Mbps
10/08/15 12:35:08.0790  Link Quality Changed : rssi=-61 dBm, txRate=78 Mbps
10/08/15 12:35:09.5260  LAN: WiFi interface can ping IPv4 router 192.168.0.1 . . . YES —— [1/1 (0% loss) min=4.1 max=4.1 avg=4.1]
10/08/15 12:35:17.6310  WAN: WiFi interface can ping DNS server 17.254.0.50 . . . NO —— [0/1 (1% loss) min=0.0 max=0.0 avg=0.0]
10/08/15 12:35:17.6320  moto / ch1 [RSSI=-58 dBm, Noise=-94 dBm, SNR=36, Tx=78 Mbps]
10/08/15 12:35:17.6320  AWDL: Disabled [0 ]
10/08/15 12:35:17.6320  UNEXPECTED DROP DETECTED!!!


What does the "aapl,panic-info" output from "nvram -p" mean? When I run nvram -p I get the following:

$ nvram -p | cut -c1-30
aapl,panic-info %f0%b0;=F%8d%e
BootCampHD  %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03
boot-image  %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03
SystemAudioVolume   W

The line with panic-info is actually ~9000 characters long. What does this mean? Should I be worried, as the word 'panic' implies?

The line panic-info is the details of the last kernel panic registered and stored by the system.  If you do a PRAM (or NVRAM) reset, those details will be removed.

For example, I just ran nvram -p and I had no panic-info line because I did a PRAM reset since my last kernel panic.  I can't even remember the last time I had a kernel panic.

Hope that clears it up for you.


Screenshot of selected area with shadow? Is it even possible?
I understand it's possible for a window, when you press space after Cmd-Shift-4.
I want shadow on my selected area screenshot, so it doesn't blend with the rest of the page/email/text/etc?

This page seems to be on the topic but still doesn't have an answer I'm looking for.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X

Grab doesn't generate the shadow when a Window is copied, it copies the shadow that the OS has already applied to each window.

However, If you want to apply a shadow to your screen shots it can be done with extra steps using other applications.

If you have Keynote or Pages installed, you can replicate it with a few steps.

Open Keynote or Pages (instructions same after this point)
Select a template.  The background does not matter but white shows your work better
Drag or paste in your screenshot.  Note: Using control+⌘+shift+4 you can send your screenshot directly to the clipboard.
Apply a drop shadow to your image
Select and copy just the image and paste it into your email or desired location.

See images below:

Original Screenshot:

Keynote modification:

Result:


How can I play MTS videos from my Sony camera on my Mac? My family has used a Sony Cyber-Shot camera for several years. A few months ago, we replaced it with a newer model Cyber-Shot. To our dismay, however, the videos the camera records are not in the old familiar ".mov" format, but rather are in some strange ".mts" format that does not open when we double it.

Is there a way to enable iMovie, iPhoto, QuickTime, etc., to play said video files (and copy them from the camera automatically, as happened with my previous Cyber-Shot?

I use ClipWrap to rewrap the .mts file. then it can play without any problem.


Launch of terminal after system login takes around 60 sec, is there a way to speed it up? Here is my .bash_profile

export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"
export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"

export PS1="\[\033[36m\]\u\[\033[m\]@\[\033[32m\]\h:\[\033[33;1m\]\w\[\033[m\]\$ "
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxBxDxCxegedabagacad

alias ls='ls -GFh'
alias cat='ccat'
alias chrome='open -a Google\ Chrome'
alias brave='open -a Brave\ Browser'
alias db='open -a DBBrowserforSQLite'
alias sublime='open -a Sublime\ Text'

.bashrc is empty

Successive terminal window launch or new tab openings are quite fast.

Do you have several apps that launch during login? This could cause the delay you are experiencing. Go to system Preferences and click on Users and Groups. Once this opens click on the tab "Login Items" and you see a panel that looks like the following:

The app names that show up in the window are apps that are set o launch at login. The can prevent these from starting up by selecting one of the names and click the minus sign in the +- box indicated in the image. Removing many of these will speed up you login time.

If you do this be sure to unlock this panel by clicking on the "lock" icon so your changes will be saved.


After El Capitan update, I cannot sign in to anything with my Apple ID: '"This action could not be completed. Try again" I updated OSX last night to El Capitan and after the update, and restarting my iMac(2014) a few times, I cannot sign in with my Apple ID.

The initial restart gave me the error: "This action could not be completed. Try again." I assumed I had forgotten my password, so I went through the procedure of resetting my password. I was then allowed access.

When I then tried logging in to another service requiring an Apple ID (Mac App Store in particular), I get the error "This action could not be completed..."

Restarting my machine does nothing. Should I revert to an older version of OSX?

Execute the following commands in Terminal:

sudo mkdir -p /Users/Shared
sudo chown root:wheel /Users/Shared
sudo chmod -R 1777 /Users/Shared


Disable shape detection in Preview's annotation tools When I try to draw a line on an image using Preview's annotation tools, it doesn't remain as I drew it but instead the line is drawn linear. How can I set it to be preset as nonlinear?

So looking to the images, I don't want it to be set like this:

Instead I want it to be preset in this way, instead of clicking the actual function everytime to make it nonlinear.

It's currently not possible to disable the shape detection used by default in the markup tools.

If your drawing is recognized as a standard shape, it’s replaced by that shape; to use your drawing instead, choose it from the palette that’s shown.

Source: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH20218
You can provide feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html


Why do I need a credit card when I am downloading a free app from the app store on a iPad mini? I am trying to download a free app but it keeps telling me to provide a credit card. I try to avoid it but it won't let me and I don't have a credit card.

How can I use App Store without a credit card?

I don't know of any way to set up an existing Apple ID for use with the App Store without supplying a credit card (or other payment source) (unless it's an iCloud account, I think -- it's not completely consistent). Don't ask me why this is, it makes no sense to me. There are a couple of ways to set up a paymentless account though:

Create a new Apple ID account as part of the purchase of a free app (see Apple Support article HT2534). You'll need to sign out of your current Apple ID, then start purchasing a free app, and tap Create New Apple ID when asked what ID to use.
This means that your App Store "purchases" will be under a different Apple ID than whatever you have set up under your current ID, but since they're free apps anyway, that's not too big a deal. If you want to purchase non-free apps later, you can always add a credit card (or iTunes gift card or whatever) to your old Apple ID and do those purchases under it, but it may be a bit alloying to have to maintain multiple identities. Note that the new Apple ID will have to be linked to a verified email address (other than the one your current ID is linked to).

Add a credit card to your current Apple ID, "buy" a free app, then change the account's payment type to "none" (see Apple Support article HT1918). Since you never actually buy anything, the card never gets charged. I haven't really experimented with this option, but AIUI you can continue to purchase free apps under the account even after the credit card is removed.