How to type numbers while using pinyin input on a non-qwerty keyboard? I'm using the pinyin input on an AZERTY Macbook Pro keyboard and when I try to type a number, it prints the associated symbol instead (i.e. for "1", it prints "&", for "2", "é", etc.).

I've tried in combination with the Shift key, Fn key, Cmd key but it always only print the symbol and not the number.

Any idea how to make this work?

Could you use the numpad keys under fn? For example fn-J is numpad 1 and fn-K is numpad 2.

Edit: You might also use a private.xml private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <inputmode_only>CHINESE_SIMPLIFIED, CHINESE_TRADITIONAL</inputmode_only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_0, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_0</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_1, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_1</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_2, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_2</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_3, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_3</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_4, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_4</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_5, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_5</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_6, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_6</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_7, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_7</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_8, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_8</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::KEY_9, VK_SHIFT, KeyCode::KEYPAD_9</autogen>
  </item>
</root>


How do I downgrade from Yosemite 10.10 to Mavericks 10.9? I have the new Yosemite. How do i downgrade to the last version?

I really don't like it. Lost Yahoo messenger and a lot of extras I had on my old operating system.

Backup Mavericks using Time Machine first (if possible)

  Follow these steps to get a copy of Mac OS X Mavericks:

  Open the App Store.
  Enter your Apple ID and Password and click Sign In (if App Store requests it).
  Click Purchases.
  Scroll down to find Mavericks.
  Click Download.

  Now that you have downloaded the Mavericks file you will find it inside Applications.
  Revert to Mavericks by creating a Mac OS X USB boot drive.

  How to make a bootable Mavericks install drive

  You can use this file to turn an 8GB USB Flash into a Mac OS X Mavericks boot drive. With this USB Boot Drive you can wipe the hard drive on your Mac, and install a fresh copy of Mac OS X Mavericks. If you have your Mavericks Time Machine backup, it can be used to reinstall all your files and programs (otherwise you’ll need to setup your Mac from scratch using the files you backed up to an external drive or cloud storage solution).

  Using a Mac OS X Mavericks boot drive to perform a fresh Mac OS X installation

  Shut down your Mac (Choose Apple > Shut Down).
  Insert the Mavericks USB Flash Drive into your Mac.
  Startup the Mac while holding down the Alt key.
  Choose the USB Flash Drive Volume.
  Choose Utilities > Disk Utility on the Install Mac OS X window.
  Select your main Volume in the sidebar. Now click Erase > Erase (warning, this removes everything on the volume).
  Click Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
  Tap Continue on the Install OS X window.

Check out this MacWorld article. It explains each step in detail.

Note: In some rare instances, it may be necessary to format the Macintosh HD partition before installing Mavericks. **This will erase your entire hard drive ** so be sure to back up any files you need before going this route. I've outlined the steps to do this below:

1.) Boot the Mac from the USB you made using the steps above.
2.) Open Disk Utility and erase the drive entitled (Usually) "Macintosh HD". You can rename it whatever you like.
3.) Install Mavericks.


Dictionary not remembering my selected dictionaries When I select a word and use Define, I have to readd the same dictionaries that I've previously enabled. At first I thought each app had its own preferences, but it forgets every time, regardless of the app.

I noticed that changing the interface language will also decide which dictionaries are enabled by default (and thus not forgotten).

With English as the interface language I get the New Oxford English dictionary and the Apple Dictionary (what's this?). Like this, the Japanese dictionaries I want are always forgotten.

With Japanese as the interface langauge, I get the two Japanese dictionaries and the Apple Dictionary, but the New Oxford is suddenly disabled. Enabling the New Oxford will now be temporary, and I'd have to reenable it every time.

I'm running iOS 7.0.2. How can I make my settings stick?

Even a reset doesn't work for me, but it seems like only the Notes app has permission to actually write to the dictionary settings, so you can solve this by:

Open the Notes app
Highlight a word and select Define
Touch the cloud icon for the dictionaries you want to enable
Open any other app and now those dictionaries will remain enabled


iPad won’t connect to some apps online iPad Pro (11-inch) (2nd generation) on 14.2 (18B92) gives a "cannot connect" error on many apps, but not all.
It will connect to:

Local WiFi.
Stack Exchange.
Mail.
Safari.
App Store.

It will not connect to:

Facebook
Covet
Ookla Speedtest
Merge Mansion

or even Apple Support (see error below).

Any suggestions why some apps see the Internet and some don’t?
Already tried:

Reset WiFi on iPad.
Reset Network Settings on iPad.
Reset Xfinity Gateway.
Power down and restart iPad.

Removed the VPN that she did not remember installing and the problem went away.


Seeing MacBook password I am wanting to know if it’s possibly to see a MacBook password without changing it.

Is this possible?

In most cases, no you can’t get at the plain text password on macOS.

In one case, if you know the keychain password and it’s different than the log in password, unlock the keychain and look to retrieve the Mac password from any item where it’s stored.

The only way to reverse engineer would be to obtain the password hash and crack it brute force.

What type of hash are a Mac's password stored in?

You can always make a new admin account or write over a new password, but that will change things since you don’t know the current password.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860


Cannot access any websites { other than google, yahoo, gmail, youtube and facebook (http type) } on macbook air A week ago I had installed avast antivirus plus avast vpn for about an hour. That exact moment I encountered this trouble for the first time.
Then I uninstalled avast by clicking on the uninstall avast icon.
The problem still persisted.
Then  I didnt switch on mac for a day.
When I did the problem was gone and mac was back to normal. And i started downloading el captain on appstore.
Then I switched it off and restarted after sometime. The problem returned and the downloading showed error.
Then again after 2 days I tried same technique and the internet was alrite. But after i switched it off and restarted the problem began again.
I am not able to view any websites other than the above mentioned ones. Nor am I able to download any apple apps or update them on appstore.
I have tried Pram, safe boot, Nvprm etc.....
(I can view websites in safe boot mode but not in normal mode)

Can anyone please explain to me .. how to solve this???

Assuming the actual issue lies in the fact that Avast has messed with some of your connectivity settings, I recommend re-installing the software, followed by performing another uninstallation.

  (((Avast has some pretty good instructions letting us know that throwing it into the trash does not uninstall the software for Avast (I know your explanation mentioned you clicked on uninstall, but I'm just  covering basics here).)))

Avast Official Instructions:

Click the Avast Menu bar icon  on the top-right of the screen and
select Open Avast to open the Avast user interface,
...alternatively, open Finder, go to Applications, and double-click
the Avast icon.
Then click Avast in the Menu bar on the top-left of the screen,
select Uninstall Avast,
...and when asked to confirm the uninstallation, click Uninstall.

Source (has pictures to follow).


Activating the Apple Thunderbolt Display speakers when Macbook Pro is docked Sometimes, I don't get access to the Display Audio that my Thunderbolt Apple Display provides when I dock to the machine with my MacBook Pro.  The clunky way to solve this, is a reboot.  I've tried using the Apple Preferences (Sound), but that fails to provide the option, unless I reboot.  Here is what my system_profiler shows as available Sound/Devices after the reboot (and when the Apple Preferences does give me the option to select the bigger Thunderbolt display):

Devices:

    Built-in Input:

      Input Channels: 2
      Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
      Current SampleRate: 44100
      Transport: Built-in

    Built-in Output:

      Default System Output Device: Yes
      Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
      Output Channels: 2
      Current SampleRate: 44100
      Transport: Built-in

    Display Audio:

      Default Input Device: Yes
      Default Output Device: Yes
      Input Channels: 1
      Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
      Output Channels: 2
      Current SampleRate: 44100
      Transport: USB

Any ideas how to 'wake-up' the Thunderbolt connection to recognize the third item (Display Audio) without resorting to a reboot? Ideally, that would at least activate it as an option in the Apple Preferences menu.

Here's a picture of the Preferences:

I've experienced this annoyance too. Rebooting can be very inconvenient when I have a lot of work open. Unplug/plugging the monitor doesn't seem to help. After reading the answer above, I started to log out, canceled it and for some reason the display audio option was restored. Woohoo! I'll repeat same procedure next time and see if this was just luck.


How to disable app relaunch and window restore in El Capitan on reboot? How do I disable  both the "relaunch apps after reboot" feature as well as the "reopen windows at relaunch" feature?  When I reboot (be it after a hard reset or reboot command) I want to be presented with a blank desktop and not everything I had open before.  Also, when I open an application, I don't want the dozen things I was working on previously to open all at once.

If you are looking for a way to permanently disable this feature so you don't have to remember the extra "uncheck the box" step every time you turn your machine off, you can simply deny OS X access to the file it uses to store your session state.

In a terminal,

# Make the file owned by root (otherwise the OS will just replace it)
sudo chown root ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow*

# Remove all permissions, so it can't be read or written to
sudo chmod 000 ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow*

If you wish to undo this change later and re-enable the feature, perhaps because you've suffered brain damage and now find boot-looping amusing, simply delete this file and the OS will recreate it.

# Re-enable El Capitan's obnoxious "relaunch all the things" behavior
sudo rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.loginwindow*


New Tab with ⌘-click in Sierra with sticky keys Prior to MacOS 10.12 Sierra, with Sticky Keys enabled, I could type ⌘, have it be "stuck", then click a link in a chrome browser tab and the link would open in a new tab. Now in Sierra, the same behavior opens the link in the same tab, even though the sticky key icon is visible. The only way to get ⌘-click to open in a new tab is to actually hold the key down while clicking (which defeats the purpose of sticky keys).

Is there a way to restore the old behavior?

I haven't found a way how to restore the old behavior however there appears to be a new (probably inconsistent) system:

For example, if you press command it is used only for one click (somehow not in browsers). A second press on command locks it and now it works in browsers too. The third press on command unlocks it and you are in the same situation as before.


macOS: App icon remaining in Dock even after closing app Every time I connect my iPhone to my MacBook, the system launches iTunes which I don't use. After I close it, the icon remains in the Dock and I have to right click and remove it. I don't move the icon in the Dock and I don't touch the Dock at all in this process.

Note that I am very aware that applications may be on the dock unless they are fully closed. In this case, not only is the app closed but the Activity Monitor does not list the process running.

Staying in the Dock also happens with other applications after I start them, but not all applications. Skype opened itself on reboot and after closing that application, it remained in the Dock. I also verified it is not listed in Activity Monitor. I removed the option to launch Skype on start and that one won't spin up each time, thankfully. But if I launch Skype manually it has the same behavior, it will place itself persistently into the Dock after it is closed.

How does an application put itself in the Dock? Is there a way to turn that off? Is it a setting?

macOS Mojave introduced a feature to show recently launched app's icons in the Dock, even after quitting the app. To a new user of macOS, even if they have been using earlier releases of macOS for a while, this may give an impression that either the app is still running, or the icon got persistently added to the Dock. To disable Dock from displaying recently launched app icons in the Dock, go to System Preferences app → Dock and uncheck Show recent applications in Dock. This setting is enabled by default in macOS Mojave.

While this was not the reason in this particular case, some other reasons this may happen are discussed below:

A macOS app is generally (well in majority of cases) programmed to show it's icon in the Dock when it's launched. (There's an exception to this general rule, an app can be programmed to run and show their icon only in the Menu bar).

Unlike other desktop operating systems, a macOS app generally doesn't quit when you click on the close button (shown in red below):

Clicking the close button generally close the app window and doesn't necessarily quit the app. The app keeps running. (I said generally, because some app are programmed to quit when the close button is clicked).

The way to quit an app completely is either to use Menu bar command App Name → Quit App Name, or to use the universal keyboard shortcut Command + Q. This will always quit the app and remove it's icon from the Dock (if the icon wasn't present in the Dock before app was launched, and you haven't enabled Keep in Dock from the app's Dock icon's context menu).

If an app icon is not present in the Dock before it is launched, it doesn't automatically gets added to the Dock when the app is run.

Another possible scenario where the app icon remains in the Dock happens when you have manually rearrange it in the Dock. Once an app icon is moved to a new location in Dock, the Keep in Dock option in the Dock icon's context menu gets checked. This is by design.

As far as automatic launch of iTunes is concerned when an iPhone (or any other iOS device) is connected to your Mac, you can turn this off. Launch iTunes and open iTunes preferences by using Menu bar command iTunes → Preferences... or using keyboard shortcut Command + ,, go to Devices tab and check Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically.


Why does my iPad send me immediately to the App Store instead of Safari? I tapped on Safari and suddenly it sent me to the App Store. I tried going back to Safari but it just kept going to the App Store. It just wants me to buy random apps that I don't want.

Safari was likely last opened to a page that had an iTunes link in it, forwarding you to the App store (similar to ads that people accidentally click on in Games). Try fully closing out the Safari session by double-clicking on the Home button on your iPad, then swipe Safari up from the Multitasker. Then, make sure the session won't reload by going to Settings -> Safari -> Clear website data and history. It will blow your Safari history away but should clear whatever site it has open as well. Note, bookmarks won't be affected by that process :)

Or try to follow a link from Mail, Twitter etc (whatever opens in Safari), then open the "all tabs" view in Safari and close the 'tab' with the auto-forwarding.


App order for multitasking gestures A recent update brought multitasking gestures to my original iPad. I hardly use them because swiping left never works and swiping right seems to launch random apps. What are the rules behind them?

Apps for the multitasking gestures are sorted by the time you last opened them, with some exceptions (see below).

For example, from your home screen open Mail, Safari, and Music, in that order. At this point, if you swipe from right to left, it will switch to Safari because that is the app you opened before Music. If you swipe from right to left again, you will go to Mail, because it was opened before Safari. Then swipe from left to right to go back to Safari, and repeat to go back to Music. Now, go to your home screen and open Safari. It has now been opened most recently, so swiping from left to right will give you the bounce effect. Swiping from right to left will open Music, and repeating will go to Mail.

An app is moved to the front of the swiping list when you open it from your home screen or from the multitasking bar. It will not change position in the list if you open it using multitasking gestures or notification center (unless it is a notification on the lock screen), unless it was not previously open.


Can I SSH pictures directly to the iOS Camera Roll? I want to upload a picture directly to my iPad (without syncing or downloading from email). I want to SSH into my camera roll (/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE), upload an image there, and be able to see it in my Photos app (Camera Roll). When I do this, the pics do not show up. I even followed Apple's naming convention (i.e IMG_001.png).

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!
Thomas

Your going to have to change some sort of index file that the iPad uses to keep track of what photos are in the camera roll.  The file is probably in some sort of proprietary Apple format, the details of which are not available to the public.  You might look in to the format of the file that controls the music library, which is also not public but the details are available around the internet thanks to persistant hackers.  I bet the Photos file format is similar, with Albums swapped out for Playlists.  But I'm mostly guessing.

Good Luck!


What is in an IPSW file? I know that an IPSW is an iOS firmware restore file. When you want to install a beta firmware, Apple ships these. This website stores all old iOS versions in that format.

What exactly is in an IPSW file and in what format?

Can I view the files in it? Do I use a hex editor, or something else? Is an IPSW like a zip file (like .app or .bundle), or is it binary encoded or encrypted?

The IPSW file type is primarily associated with 'iPhone/iPod' by Apple Inc.. This is a firmware update file for the iPhone. The file is a renamed .ZIP file. If you unZIP it you will see a file called MANIFEST.PLIST and a file without an extension but with a version number in the name, e.g., Firmware-14.5.3. This file is the firmware image.

Source http://filext.com/file-extension/IPSW


Create Service to search websites (with query)? I would like to create a Mac Service where I could search on some websites, from applications like Scrivener. For example (with "{query}" for where the word should be):

https://www.google.ca/search?q={query}&safe=strict&biw=1280&bih=636&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjnysHu8NDPAhVEax4KHRwxB1AQ_AUICCgB

OR

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords={query}

I already have the URLs, like the websites above, but I just need to know how to create the service in Automator.

Set the service to receive selected text, then add a Run Shell Script action with the following content, setting the shell to /bin/bash and passing the input as arguments.

for query in "$@"
do
    open "https://www.google.com/?q=$query"
done

Replace the URL with your desired URL, where $query is where you would like the selected text to be inserted in the string.

Also, that's all you need for a Google search — don't bother with the additional session parameters.


Cannot access my Documents I updated my iMac to 10.14.5 and seem to have some problems.

The folder “Documents” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.

The permissions look OK (not sure what default should be)

~$ ls -lad Documents
drwx------+ 735 ian  staff  23520 22 May 09:53 Documents/

Finder says I have Read & Write access

EDIT1

I used Finder to give everyone Read only access, and now I can open it.

EDIT2

~$ ls -leO@d Documents
drwx---r-x+ 737 ian  staff  - 23584 25 May 11:39 Documents/
 0: group:everyone deny delete

EDIT3
I used Finder to revoke everyone access, and now I can access it normally.

~$ ls -leO@d Documents
drwx------+ 737 ian  staff  - 23584 25 May 11:39 Documents/
 0: group:everyone deny delete

I just needed to restart my iMac (after a power failure) and found Pictures was similarly affected.

Finder Get Info says I have Read & Write access, but it was blocked

I used Finder to give everyone Read only access, immediately restored No Access and now I can open it.


Updating OS to 10.7.3 with slow internet My internet connection is very slow, and I need to update my OS to 10.7.3. Can someone give me step-by-step instructions as in how to download from another computer and install it on my MacBook?

Download the 10.7.3 combo update from here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1484

Burn it to DVD (or split it and burn to 3 CDs).

Run it on the target machine.  It must already be running 10.7.0 or later for this update to install.

If you want to update other Apple software offline, this page has links to many of the common Apple updates:

http://support.apple.com/downloads


Certain Apps crashes in Catalina I last few days I noticed that some Apps are crashing and/or reporting unexpected quit. Photo Booth does this after few seconds (crashes) and RStudio reports unexpected quit and gives a crash report after normal Quit (Cmd+Q).

I am under the latest macOS Catalina, and I am using the latest RStudio 1.2.5033. (I cannot see details of Photo Booth as it crashes too quickly.)

Is anyone experiencing the same? Any fixes?

Without considerably more information, it's impossible to pinpoint the cause.

However, PhotoBooth is an Apple-supplied app that comes with the OS, so it should not crash under normal conditions. The likelihood is that you've got something installed which is causing both these apps to crash.

I would recommend using EtreCheck, which is an excellent app that gives you a report of the 'state' of your system. It highlights third-party additions that are potential sources of problems, particularly if they are old and no longer compatible with a new OS.

You can upload the contents of the report here (or somewhere list Pastebin) if you need more help.


Keychain error -25308 while trying to add drive to Time Machine I am trying to configure my Mac to use a time-capsule for Time Machine. After entering in the Time Capsule password I get the following error:

  Keychain error -25308 occurred while creating a System Keychain entry
  for the username "Bob" and URL
  "afp://Bob@TimeCapsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/TM"

  You can try using the Keychain Access utility to edit or repair your
  System Keychain

I've tried repairing my keychain, using the Keychain Access utility:

Repair started
Checking keychain configuration for Bob (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/Bob
Checked login keychain
Checked password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Checked settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Checked default keychain
Checked contents of ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
No problems found
Repair completed

I even got desperate enough to wipe the drive and reinstall Mavericks, and it still occurs. I get the same error if I try and set it up to use a NAS instead of the time-capsule.

The time-capsule works for another Mac in my house. I've tried wiping the keychain and starting from scratch. Nothing works.

Does anyone know what I need to do to fix this?

I was having this same problem. According to discussion at this thread on Ars Technica, it’s caused by a bug in iStat Server. Are you running this?

I was, and can confirm that the work-around solution posted there of removing iStat Server and deleting the iStat Server entry in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist has worked for me.  The relevant entry looks like this:

<key>DefaultKeychain</key>
<array>
   <dict>
      <key>DbName</key>
      <string>/Library/Application Support/iStat Server/iStatServer.keychain</string>
      <key>GUID</key>
      <string>{87191ca3-0fc9-11d4-849a-000502b52122}</string>
      <key>SubserviceType</key>
      <integer>6</integer>
   </dict>
</array>

Bjango, the developer of iStat Server, has further posted on the Ars Technica thread that a new version of iStat Server is now available.  I have not independently verified that this addresses the problem, since the above work-around had already taken care of my issue, but their release notes say simply “Fixed a Keychain issue.”  Both the new version and the release notes can easily be found at the iStat Server link above.


How To Changing Printer Scaling on Mac OS X 10.8.2 I am currently having an annoying problem where anything I print in Mac OS X 10.8.2 is scaled to 3%, and I cannot seem to change this through the printing menu.

I've attached a picture of my printing presets which shows that the scaling is stuck at 3%, though I cannot reset the scaling from this menu. The presets window shows the "scaling" option under "Copies & Pages" but this does not show up in the printing drop-down menu... so I'm stuck.

Does anyone know how to change this setting?

Here is what I did.

In for example TextEdit...

I used the Page set up!

In there you can adjust the scaling

Now go to the print and check you settings in show presets, current.


I want to upgrade the hard drive in my Mac Pro 1,1 2006 2x2.66GHz Xeon I was given a Mac Pro 1,1 2006 2x2.66 GHz Xeon.  It currently has OS X 10.6.8.  I do not have the original Snow Leopard installation disk.

It currently has the original 250GB hard drive, and I wish to replace it with a SSD. I'd also like to upgrade to OS X 10.7 Lion - the latest version that supports this model. The OS upgrade is not absolutely necessary, but I figure that I may as well upgrade the OS if I can.

I have no data or software on the current drive that I need to keep.

I've looked for but could not find information on the Internet that will guide me on the procedure to replace the current hard drive and install a compatible OS.

Can anyone refer me to a document that will guide me, or perhaps suggest the appropriate course of action?

Acquiring Snow Leopard 10.6

Should you need the physical disk, you can order the Snow Leopard 10.6 installation disk directly from Apple, from this page: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

Acquiring Lion 10.7

Likewise, you can order Lion 10.7 from Apple, from this page: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion.  Note that you will not receive physical disks, but an email with a content code for the Mac App Store that you can use to download the Lion 10.7 upgrade.

If you had not already purchased Lion 10.7 through the App Store (before July 2012), you will no longer be able to locate it there; Apple has removed it and Lion 10.7 can no longer be purchased for download through the App Store.  As you're using 2006-era hardware, you will not be able to upgrade to a newer OS version than Lion 10.7.  See this MacWorld article for additional information.

Upgrading the Hard Drive

This fantastic article shows how to replace the hard drive on a Mac Pro machine.  Follow the steps, and you will have the new hard drive functional in just a few minutes.

The basic steps are:

Make sure that you have a compatible SSD (check the compatibility chart for the SSD vendor)
Get your small Phillips head screwdriver ready in advance
Follow proper anti-static procedures (static kills computer equipment)
Open and remove the side access door, using the latch on the rear of the machine
Choose an empty hard drive bay, make sure that it's unlocked, and pull it out
Connect the SSD to the tray using the 4 Phillips head screws
Slide the tray (with SSD) back into place in the machine and make sure that it is properly seated
Replace and close the side access door

At this point, you will have the original hard drive and the new SSD installed and ready for use.

Transfer Content to New Hard Drive

You can use the Disk Utility program to transfer the content from your previous Snow Leopard hard disk to the new SSD.  Detailed instructions can be found in this article.

The essential steps are:

Boot into Recovery Mode (hold ⌘ R during boot)
Launch Disk Utility from Recovery Mode
Select the disk partition
Choose the Restore pane on the right side of the window
Select the target partition (the new SSD)
Click the Restore button to start the cloning process

Be prepared for the process to take a considerable amount of time, especially if the original hard disk has a lot of content; all of that content needs to be moved.

Upgrading to Lion 10.7

This is a great point to do the upgrade to Lion 10.7, because you now have a backup copy of the original hard drive and can safely restore if any problems occur.

LifeHacker has a great article that covers the upgrade process.

These steps can be summarized as such:

Check your machine's compatibility against the specs
Update your OS X system and apps before you start
Open the App Store, go to Purchases, and enter your Lion 10.7 content code
If you cannot see the Lion download at this point, hold the ⌘ key and click the Purchases tab again and click Download
After the download is complete, click the Continue button on the installation window
Agree to the license terms, choose your SSD volume, and provide your Administrator password when prompted
The installation process will begin, and may take some time as your system is upgraded
Once installation has completed, restart your machine
Update your OS X system and apps to the current compatible versions

At this point, you should have a fully functional Lion 10.7 installation, ready for use.

Cleaning Up

Once the SSD has all of the content from the original hard drive, the hard drive may either be removed or used as a secondary storage location.  Remember that this is a 12-year-old hard drive, and operational lifetimes for hard drives are typically in the 5-8 year range.  If there are any issues at all with the hard drive, you're better off removing and disposing of it (many electronics stores will properly dispose of it for you).

If you decide to keep the original hard disk, this can give you quite a lot of available disk space, but you should erase or repartition it for 2 main reasons:

to prevent boot-time confusion about which volume (disk) is primary
to reclaim the storage used by the content that is now cloned to the SSD


How to add paragraph symbol I send a friend w/o a Mac some paragraphs & they disappear in the sending, so I'd like to include the paragraph symbol at the start of each paragraph so she can see where they go. How do I do that in Pages 5.2.2 on a Mac?

You can enable "Show Invisibles" from View > Show Invisibles or ⌘ Command+⇧ Shift+I to see these "invisible" characters in Pages. These are invisibles that appear when the selection highlight goes over their area, and disappear when unhighlighted. For identification purposes they're usually colored blue.

To add a non-invisible paragraph symbol (or any other delimiter of your choice), ⌃ Control+⌘ Command+Space should bring up a "Characters" window, from which you can double-click on any character to add it to the current text field.

The characters under this window follow their Unicode specification, so some names might seem a little weird (e.g. "Place of Interest Sign" for "⌘").  The name for the Paragraph symbol is "Pilcrow".


Annoying blank window in MacVim - how to get rid of it? Whenever I start MacVim, a window opens that is not a buffer and doesn't seem to do anything - it doesn't react to any input at all, even - and that is the annoying part - the Mac OS X close button doesn't do anything. The window is just there and silently stares at me.

I already tried installing MacVim from scratch and completely deleting all .vim* configs, to no avail.

Any ideas?

Seeing how you have tried to delete all the normal preference files relating to vim settings, ~/.vimrc, ~/.vim there is one more thing to try and that is the Mac Os App specific preference files for MacVim. One good candidate is the MacVim plist file named org.vim.MacVim.plist. A corrupted version of that file may be causing the random window to appear.

First thing quit MacVim.

Then delete the MacVim related plist files.

You can use the terminal and the following command to help find the MacVim preferences related files. find / -name ".vim."

The org.vim.MacVim.plist file should be located at:

/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/

You might also want to delete:
org.vim.MacVim.LSSharedFileList.plist

If the extra 'dead' window problem still exists when you reopen MacVim, then try deleting additionally some more files, this time some Cache and Lion Saved State Related files, along with other related files. Again Quit MacVim before deletion of any of the files, to prevent re-saving of the corrupted state of the program.

I observed the following other MacVim related files in the find search results, that you can try deletlting to attempt to resolve the issue:

/private/var/db/BootCaches/<XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX>/app.org.vim.MacVim.playlist

/Users/<username>/Library/Caches/org.vim.MacVim

/Users/<username>/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/org.vim.MacVim.savedState


Cannot format newly installed HD in MacBook Pro mid 2012 13" I Just replaced Mac HD with HGST (a Western Digital co) TravelStar 500gb. I accessed DU using start+option key and start+command R key, but still cannot format. In DU I used the Erase tab, clicked the erase button, waited while it cycled, about 10 minutes, but did not format. Message was cannot erase. I followed steps in many forums. Can anyone tell me what else I need to do.

If you are in internet recovery you should be able to format the drive as it downloads a minimal system on a RAM disk (from what I have heard...) and boots from that.

That error needs some more diagnostic info in order to help. Do you still have the old drive you can put back in and boot from? Then an external case to put the new drive in? If so do that and see if you can format it that way. If not report back with some more details.


Search for alias not finding files I am running Yosemite on a Mac Pro Mid 2010.

When I moved to an SSD for my boot drive, I started using Symbolic Linking so some apps would store their data on a regular HD. So, for example, I go to my library folder and in Application support there's an Evernote alias. It works flawlessly, and I've done this for many apps that don't offer an easy way to store data elsewhere.

Now, my data drive is approaching its limit, and I have a larger drive coming. I'd like to be able to redirect the links to the new drive, and tried searching for "kind is alias" but that doesn't show the links. The Evernote alias doesn't get found in a search, nor do any others I know I've set up.

TL;DR - How do I perform a search to show me Alias files I've created? A normal search, even for alias files I've just created, don't show up in a search.

Did you use the Alias command from the finder when you created the links, or did you use ln -s in the terminal? Unix symbolic links are not quite the same as an Alias although they serve similar purposes. From the name of the service you installed, it's probably a good assumption they were using Unix symbolic links.

In that case, you'll probably want to use the find command in the terminal, e.g.: find /Users/yourhome/Library/ -type l

Assuming that this was the service you installed, it looks like they're calling symlink from the standard C libraries, which in turn is going to use Unix symlinks, and not Mac OS aliases.


How do I disable or get rid of the startup sound my Mac makes? Everytime I turn on my Macbook Pro it makes a start up noise. This is annoying since there is no volume or ability to turn it off. I just don't want the sound to play at all.

How do I disable this startup sound?

You can use StartSound.PrefPane which basically just sets the volume to 0 when you shutdown and then turns it back up after login.


Cannot write on TimeMachine data disk - told "Don't have enough permissions to write to '/Volumes' - files say (unknown) read&write Cannot write on TimeMachine data disk - told "Don't have enough permissions to write to '/Volumes' - files say (unknown) read&write, staff read&write, everyone read&write

Details: I have a brand new laptop but am using an old AirPort TimeCapsule - I've been able to download files directly to it from my previous Mac, but not this new one. What should I do? I'm using uTorrent to download files.

I can't seem to add username to the Sharing & Permissions - and can't figure out how to change the Information / Access of the TimeCapsule drive either?

So I assume you don't keep anything valuable in there (those files will NOT be backed up). I also suppose you connect to the TC share using SMB or AFP or the Finder windows sidebar: just check the credentials with which you are connecting (clic on TC in side bar, clic "Connect as..." in top bar). I never had any luck trying to change user permissions on a share from another machine. I believe you should check AirPort Utility/File Sharing/Secure Shared Disks/With accounts looking for user credentials, following these instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202254. Hope this helps.


How to transfer movie from android to ipad I have a movie on my android external sd card. I would like to transfer it to play on my ipad. What is the simplest way to do this?

I have a very slow internet connection but both computers are on the same wireless LAN, if that helps.

I think this can help

Download Shareit app on both the devices.
Click the send button on your android device and receive button on the iPad.
Select the file you want to send and it creates an hotspot and click
the receiver's name

Usually, this sends the files with blazing speed if it's a movie so it should be completed in 1 or 2 minutes.
Hope this helps.


How to install Mac OS X from Windows on MacBook Air? I have OS backup .dmg installation file. The problem is I have Windows 7 on my MacBook Air, and I do not have access to OS X to use Disk Utility to burn/restore the OS X image.

Is it possible to burn/restore .dmg file on usb stick from Windows?

You dont need accessing it from windows.

Boot the computer holding the [option] key and choose the OSX recovery. Inside it there you'll have a very basic osx with its own Disk Utility to restore your DMG image to another USB.


How do I confirm extence/non-existence of hard drive on an old iMac? How do I open the case on an original (purple) iMac.  I want to verify whether or not there is a hard drive in the computer.  What safety precautions should I observe?  Apple profiler, run from the install disk does not find a hard drive, but I want to be sure. It's a PPC G3.

If this iMac of yours is, as i believe, a revision C iMac (revision A and B were all Bondy Blue), then there you can find a guide on iFixit.com about how to reach and replace its hard drive.


The full list of available options of Dock If I want to change some Dock preferences (for example delay before appears of Dock) I should type in terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.1;

I tried to find all available options for Dock and find this link in Apple Developer documentation. But it doesn't contain a description of autohide-delay.

I conclude that that list is not complete. Because it also doesn't contain options I know:

-autohide-time-modifier
-autohide-delay
-tilesize
-mcx-expose-disabled

Where I can I find the full list Dock preferences?

Apple does not publish this and it’s considered the equivalent of a private API for developers. When Apple wants to test a new feature, they first expose it with hidden switches and then after it’s been tested and doesn’t cause issues, then it may become an official setting. Until it’s publicly documented, these change from build to build and sometimes can cause things to not work.

The only listing of these is by people who disassemble the code and then publish their work. You’re not missing any resource here, as this is undocumented and doesn’t always stay stable, so the effort to document these is quite high from a labor perspective.


How to Uninstall Office for Mac 2016 How can I COMPLETELY uninstall Microsoft Office for Mac 2016

Did you try the most obvious link?

Tested and I can confirm that it works.


How to force Mac screen resolution? Whenever I connect my Mac FireWire-to-HDMI to a large-screen TV, the resolution on my MacBook Air 11″ becomes larger and more content fits on the screen. In other words, everything scales down and it looks great. I'd like this resolution to be forced at all times. This option is only available when the MacBook Air is output to a larger HDMI screen.

Here is what the settings panel looks like with the desired resolution:

The setting you wish to adjust is the built-in display correct?  Your screenshot is for the external.

To change the built-in display on a retina screen running Yosemite:

Unplug your HDMI (as in normal use)
Go the the Display preferences ( > System Preferences)
Set the display to Scaled and More Space.

Play a bit with it to get the look you desire.  Note: this may affect performance.

When connected:


Where can I find an iPhone 4S skin image? We need to build a static web page with an iPhone on it containing animated views to showcase our app. To start with we need an iPhone 4S skin, better to be a white one to hold the rest of images, so I was wondering where can we find such skin. Can anyone help?

By snooping around in the iPhone simulator app bundle, i came up with this in
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/Resources/:

It's higher quality, already has the middle (screen area) cleared out, and the aforementioned folder even includes a sprite for the pressed home button


the credit you entered is invalid while changing app store country I have 3 credit cards, AMEX VISA and Master, all of them are assuringly valid in Japan, but when I tried to switch country back to Japan, it always said "the card you entered is invalid." whichever I used.   I don't have any unpaid bills or else, just changed the country to update some apps not displayed in Japan's app store.
Anyone can give me an explanation or how can I get out of this?

Thanks in advance.

The credit card used must be issued in the country of the app store, in your case Japan. It's not enough to have the card accepted in the country (most cards are accepted globally).


New photos app, upload from library? I got the new Photos app + iCloud photos library going. It's great

But if I want to send an email from, say Gmail, and include a photo from my computer..

I can't choose from my photo library

The photos folder simply cannot be chosen when browsing local folders

So I have to first drag the photos to the desktop, for example, and THEN choose these files from gmail, and delete them afterwards

Is there not any other easy way to do this?

Thanks

Solved

When browsing which picture to add to a mail (Gmail in browser, for example), there is a "photos" button down to the left

Clicking that, will show all the photos


How do I set the finder view to only list files and folder by name and not group by date modified? I'm using Mojave.
I like to have all folders displayed in list view and sorted by name.
I set the finder view options to sort by name, unchecked "Use relative dates" and clicked "Use as Defaults".
But if I go to upload a file, the finder groups files and folders by date modifed (today, yesterday, May, April...).
Is there an easy way to change this so that I can only see it listed by name when I go to upload?

Yes, at the top left of a Finder window, on the Toolbar, there are four icons for sorting files, and by default has the word View under them.
The second icon will show files in list view, and you can then click on the Name column to sort the files by name, as seen in the image below.


How to start an application when a specific disk is mounted I store all my music on an external drive.  I have iTunes set to start when I login.  However, iTunes always starts before my encrypted drive has mounted, and so iTunes complains it can't find its library.

I've tried writing an Applescript which repeatedly checks to see if a drive is mounted, and when it is launches iTunes.

tell application "System Events" to set diskNames to name of every disk
set iTunesDiskName to "Media"
set iTunesDiskIsMounted to false
set iTunesLaunched to false
if iTunesDiskName is in diskNames then set iTunesDiskIsMounted to true

repeat while iTunesLaunched is false
    if iTunesDiskIsMounted is true then
        tell application "iTunes" to launch
        set iTunesLaunched to true
    end if
    delay 5
end repeat

This does work to launch iTunes if I run it with the drive mounted. However if I run it with the drive unmounted, it keeps running and never detects if the disk is subsequently mounted.

What am I doing wrong?

I didn't downvote wch1zpink's answer, but it's very much not the way that I would solve the problem.

Having an app run an AppleScript every 5 seconds is a very inefficient way to handle this situation, especially since Mac OS already has a built-in feature to do this, namely, launchd.

Save this as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.tjluoma.itunes-on-mount.plist (you can change the "com.tjluoma.itunes-on-mount" part to whatever you want):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.tjluoma.itunes-on-mount</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>test -d /Volumes/Media &amp;&amp; open -j -g -a iTunes</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Volumes</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Then either reboot your Mac or do

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.tjluoma.itunes-on-mount.plist

in Terminal. Then, anytime /Volumes/ changes, launchd will look to see if /Volumes/Media exists, and if it does, it will launch iTunes.


Can I charge my iPhone using the USB-A port of my "AV Multiport adapter"? I have a macbook 12', with "AV Multiport adapter":

the USB-C port is used for charging
the HDVI port for the monitor
and the USB-A is used to charge my iPhone (and to work with xCode).

I'm using the iPhone cable (USB-A to lightning plug), that is provided with the iPhone charger.

Is this configuration fine? Or am I going to damage the iPhone battery?
I guess I have lower performance, but that's not an issue for me, as long as it works fine.

Yes, this is totally fine.

Of course, your MacBook will need to be on for it to deliver power, and how fast your iPhone charges may depend on what else your MacBook is doing at the time, but this is totally safe and will not damage your devices or batteries.


How to get the Reset Password mac OS notification to disappear I recently reset my Apple ID the other day, and ever since my Mac always prompts me with a notification to reset my password from my device. It was annoying me so I eventually re-reset my password just to get it to go away, but it's still showing up.

Any ideas?

I would try to disconnect and reconnect the Mac from your iCloud account and such services, to see if that stops the notification from showing up.


curl not working in El Capitan I receive this error message when trying to run curl from the terminal command line:

  /usr/local/bin/curl: line 61: /usr/local/bin/sed: No such file or directory
  /usr/local/bin/curl: line 65: /usr/local/bin/sed: No such file or directory
  /usr/local/bin/curl: error: `/Users/xxxxx/.libs/curl' does not exist
  This script is just a wrapper for curl.

curl used to work on Yosemite but it has been awhile since I used it.  Any help in fixing this error would be greatly appreciated.

I tried using the curl provided by AMPPS download and changing my path to hit that curl first. Curl works but then has problems with every sites certs. Tried downloading the cacerts file from http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html and specified the file but still same problems.

I really need curl back in any form. Thank you in advance.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

The errors shown suggest that you installed curl (v7.48.0 or much older) via homebrew or with another custom installer. The system's own original curl (v7.43.0) is located at /usr/bin/. Additionally it seems that curl is not installed as keg-only. This means that the homebrew curl is soft-linked to /usr/local/.

You may either update and repair brew/curl, modify curl.cfg to reflect proper paths or modify your PATH variable.

Or use the full path to the original curl: /usr/bin/curl


iPhone 5 will not ring, it only vibrates I have my iPhone 5 set on "Vibrate on Ring" and the volume is not on mute, but when someone calls, it only vibrates. I've included it in Notifications Center, but that doesn't seem to do anything. Do Not Disturb has also been turned off. When selecting a ringtone it will not play, it only vibrates. How do I fix this?

Get some compressed air (don't just blow into it) and blow the headphone jack clean of any dirt, lint, or other debris. A toothpick might help clean it out, too.


Show limited reminders/notifications on iPhone lock screen (iOS 13)? I'd like to be able to show on my iPhone lock screen notifications that I have upcoming events today, timed reminders, and suchlike, but without showing the actual details of what they are. However, I can't work out how to do this.

The "Today View" screen (swipe from the left) doesn't seem to respect the Notifications "Show Previews" setting (ie, "When Unlocked") and shows the calendar event or reminder titles regardless (rather than just (eg, "Event at 15:00"), which is definitely not desirable from a privacy perspective (eg, if your phone is stolen or lost, someone else would be able to see this information, which should be private).

The Notification Centre doesn't seem to be very much help: although it does only show limited information when my iPhone is locked (good), it seems to entirely forget about upcoming events apart from when the set notification time arrives. I'd like to have that reminder of upcoming events or reminders constantly available (albeit with details only visible when unlocked), so that I don't forget about them (that's why my phone is supposed to be remembering these things for me!).

(I've also just spotted that although I have Badges enabled for Calendar, the Calendar icon doesn't seem to show them, which would also be a useful memory jog, if it was working?!)

Is there some way that I can adjust the settings to do what I want?

Settings > Reminders > Disable banners, but leave sounds on.
Your iPhone will make a sound and vibrate when you the set time or date comes, but nothing will slide from the top screen. From there, you can prevent the notifications from appearing in Notification Center. If you want to see the reminder, you'll have to open the Reminders app.


Volume Keys not working with HDMI audio on mac OSX Lion? I have a mac mini 2011 with OSX Lion. And I have connected my monitor (with integrated speakers) through hdmi port. The sound is working fine, but the volume keys on the keyboard don't work.
When I press one of them the volume image appears on the screen but with a prohibited signal.

Is there a way to fix this and make my keyboard keys change the system volume?

By the way, they work very well when I use another audio output device

See a solution here for the problem - http://www.vanetta.net/2012/07/enabling-hdmi-audio-controls-on-2011.html

Requires the free third party app - https://code.google.com/p/soundflower/ but it works perfectly.


Macbook Pro intermittently unresponsive/dark screen after waking from sleep I'm having an intermittent problem in which my Macbook Pro has been working fine for several days and many sleep/wake cycles but then it has a problem waking up from sleep. The disk spins up and the computer seems to be running, but the screen backlight doesn't light up and the computer is unresponsive.

I've tried closing it for a while and opening it again; pressing option-cmd-esc; pressing the start button one or more times; pressing other keys randomly. None of these resolves the problem. The only response I get is that sometimes pressing keys gives the "ping" error sound that the Mac produces when you hit an inappropriate key when a dialog box is open.

My rough guess is that this has been happening about once a week or so, but I haven't been keeping close enough track to figure out if I've been doing something similar just before each time this problem occurs.

Holding the start button down turns the computer off and then I can restart and the computer works fine again. But I sometimes lose the unsaved portion of my work and reopening all the files I was working with can be time consuming. All in all, it would be nice to find a better solution than a forced restart.

Does anyone have any ideas about what might be causing this? Is there a way to recover without having to do a forced shut-down and restart?

My computer is an Early 2011 Macbook Pro Core i5, 8GB RAM running Snow Leopard.

You may want to rule out a graphics card issue, which impacted select 2011-2013 MBPs:

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

And if you haven't done so already, run Apple Hardware Diagnostics:

https://www.lifewire.com/use-apple-hardware-test-over-internet-to-diagnose-problems-2259973


Problem with scripted account deletion syntax I'm working on an account cleanup script module that can handle the hidden and unhidden accounts we're creating in bulk on new MacOS systems.

We've kept the logic simple to start.

However I keep getting an error: line 4: [: missing `]'

I have the space...what am I missing? I tried syntax checks and it passes muster.

#!/bin/bash
USERNAME=administrator

if [ dscl . -list /Users | grep -v '^_' | grep $USERNAME ];
    then
    echo "Deleting user account $USERNAME"
    dscl . -delete "/Users/$USERNAME"
else
    echo "The admin account $USERNAME does not exist here"
fi

if [ -d "/$USERPATH/$USERNAME" ];
    then
    echo "Deleting leftover user account folder $USERPATH/$USERNAME"
    rm -rf $USERPATH/$USERNAME
fi

if [ -d "/Users/$USERNAME" ];
    then
    echo "Deleting leftover user account folder /Users/$USERNAME"
    rm -rf /Users/$USERNAME]
fi

[ (and [[) expect an expression, not a command; so you can't directly run commands inside a test.

When you put a pipe in your condition it terminates the evaluation started with [ which makes ] to be treated as an argument to the last grep.

Try putting your condition inside $() like so:

if [ $(dscl . -list /Users | grep -v '^_' | grep $USERNAME) ];

That way the expression (including all the pipes) is going to be executed first and return its exit code to be used in your evaluation.


How to Attach Picture to Existing Email How do you attach a picture to an email you've already started composing? Instead of going to the picture first and sending it that way. I want to be able to attach it while I'm writing an email.

I am assuming you are using iPhone 4 from your tag.

Press Home button
Go to the Photos app
Long hold on the picture that you want to attach to the email. A 'Copy' pop up will appear, copy.
Go back to Mail.
Paste your photo into Mail.

Note that the photo will be in full size and might make the size of your outgoing mail quite large.


Hide/Block System Preference Panes? I have just discovered that System Preference panes such as Mouse and Keyboard cannot be locked, this is a problem as one user could log in change the strings and then another user would log in and could become confused as to why they have changed.

Is there anyway of blocking or locking these preference panes? I need access to them as an administrator but I want all other users not to have access just like any other preference pane.

I'm pretty sure the Mouse and Keyboard preference panes are per-user settings: if one user logs in and changes settings, a different user's login shouldn't be affected.

If you still want to disable the preference panes, check out Diablotin. You can use that to disable preference panes (among other things) and it can be locked with a password.


iTunes Shared Library missing artist artwork When accessing an iTunes library shared over the local network, why do the usual artist images not appear? The album artwork appears just fine.

This problem is seen in all iTunes versions after 12.4.
It doesn't depend on a local network. Apple will not help you or anyone.


App store debit card purchasing I purchased an app on app store using my VISA debit card, the app cost is 1.88 dollars. my fund in my debit card is only 1 dollar, the purchase was completed/succesfull, how could that be possible? and what would happen next? will apple collect the amount when I added fund to my debit card?

EDIT:

in my purchase history, there is a message says We were unable to authorize your payment card for this purchase. Please update billing info. there is also a message like:

  Amount you owe is 1.88 USD

Thanks!

You may have overdrawn/gone into your overdraft. If your card does not have an overdraft facility, be careful, the amount of money you overdrew can get charged horrifically (at least it does here in the UK).

Not sure what Apple policies are or the time they allow to fully pay if off if they haven't collected the full money though.

Hope this helps!


I have a 2009 MacBook Air, bought a year ago - will I notice much of a performance improvement if I buy the latest version (Late 2010)? Does the SSD make that much difference? The processor is not much beefier, what are the other factors I should consider/which have an impact? Anyone made the same upgrade and happy with a significant improvement? Or am I just wanting a new shiny thing?

The flash storage makes a huge difference (a fresh system boots in about 15 seconds, apps will start instantly etc.), and the new MBA does not need to throttle the CPU when it gets hot. So you will probably notice a big improvement. See Macworlds benchmark results, for example.


Mountain Lion: Not joining preferred WPA2 Wifi network My Mac Mini (2011) has always auto-joined networks worked fine until a few days when he stopped  auto-joining my preferred WPA2 Wifi network when I start it up. When I click Join Other Network and then  Show networks my wifi appears. When I double click it I have to enter my password than my mac joins it. But next time I start my Mac, I have to do that again.

How can I get auto-join to start working again?

Well, now i can answer my question self.

Go to Keychain Access and remove all airport passwords for this network from Login and System keychains.

Then create a new password in System. Enter as password the network password. Item Name and account name: name of the network. Click add. Then double click the new item in list. Change kind to 'airport password'. Then click Access Control and select Allow all applications to access this item.

Restart your computer if it doesn't joins automatically join it manual, next startup it will works fine again.


Access Exchange's public folders in Mail app on Lion? Lion's Mail app smoothly setup my connection to our company's Exchange server. However I cannot see the pubic folders anywhere.
Any hints how I can integrate them into Mail?

Krumelur

Mail.app used to be able to see Public Folders on Exchange, but no longer has this ability.

Outlook 2011 and Entourage both support this feature.


Prevent "Sleep / Stand by" in iBooks Does anyone know how to prevent the iPad from going to sleep / stand by when in the iBooks app?

I'm using the iPad as a music stand with my charts, but while I'm playing the song, the screen goes black... this (as I'm sure you can imagine) totally blows.

I'm not sure how to prevent sleep only in the iBooks app, but if you find yourself in a situation where you don't want your iPad to go to sleep, go into Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock and select "Never". With this option selected, the iPad won't go to sleep without user input.


Why does Finder need me to authenticate its every action? I have to enter my password to create, delete, or move any folder or file. It sure is getting annoying. Why is this happening?

This is happening in a new user account that I created today. It has administrative privileges, and I have deleted the old one. (The authentication problem didn't happen in the old account.)

Sounds like a permissions issue.

Press Command+I while the highest level folder you want to be able to access.  At the bottom of the info dialog, be sure the lock is unlocked.  If the user name you wish to access the files from is in the list, be sure it is set to Read & Write.  If it is not in the list, press the plus sign at the bottom of the dialog.  In the dialog that opens, select the user name you wish to access the files from and press OK.  Then, be sure that this user has Read & Write access.

If this doesn't solve your issue, please let me know.


How to get to previous calandar entry's after the date has passed When entering calandar events on my calandar I sometime need to go back and see what date I made a call or went to an event. All entry's prior to today date have disappeared. How can I get back to previous events so I can see what day they happened?

Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Sync >

Choose a longer timescale


iPhone 6 back up to iPhone 7 without photos/videos I have an iPhone 6 and have just got an iPhone 7.
Due to such low memory on my iPhone 6 when I do an iCloud backup to the new handset I don't want my pictures/videos to transfer over with everything else like apps/messages etc. But I want my pictures to be saved on iCloud to view in the future.
Please help.

If you have iCloud Photo Library enabled your photos are already in the cloud and will not add to your backup size.

But you still need enough cloud storage for all the photos & videos and the backup of your other data.

For example my iPhone backup is 1.6GB but my photos in iCloud Photo Library are over 80GB in size.

If your cloud storage is too small for the iPhone 6 backup you could use use a computer with iTunes to do the transfer to your new phone. Just do a iTunes backup with the iPhone 6 and then restore the iPhone 7 from iTunes.


What's the rule of thumb for interacting with inactive OS X window content? I have to admit I'm a bit mystified in trying to understand one particular part of the OS X user interface: interacting with content in "inactive" windows.

For example, let's say we have Chrome & Safari each taking up 50% of the viewable screen estate. We're "in" Chrome and want to click a link in Safari - why the need to click twice? (once to activate Safari, again to interact with the link)

In other operating systems, clicking anything that's viewable will generally "just work". I can understand Mac OS shielding a user from having to account for their every errant click, but it seems that OS X's "interface" elements only require one click (hitting "play" in iTunes, closing a tab in Firefox, etc.), which are ironically the actions that carry the most dramatic consequences if clicked accidentally.

Is there some method to this madness or am I forever to have to click and anxiously wait to see if I need to click again?

Sit, my children, and let me tell you of the world and its tricks...
Scrolling
You can basically always scroll inactive window content. I can't even think of a case where this isn't true. (This also means that scroll-to-navigate works in Lion.)
Dragging
In many cases, you can drag content from inactive windows/apps without focusing the app. For example, you can drag a file from Finder or a message from Mail.
Clicking
When you click a button that's on a window, it usually "accepts first mouse events" — meaning your mouse-down will both focus the window and act as a mouse-down event on the button. Then when you let go, the button will carry out its duty.
(Also note: in the case of the close/minimize/zoom widgets,

you can actually click them without focusing the window.)
(Second aside: in toolbars, it's not uncommon to disable some buttons while they're inactive, so you don't accidentally click them — take Mail's delete button, for instance. However, this functionality is slightly broken in Lion, because if you start clicking (so the window focuses) and then drag, you can actually still activate the button.)
However, this mostly only works for buttons. As you've noticed, when you try to click a link (or select text, or another similar action), you have to focus the window first by clicking, and only then can you interact with the content.
The Great Workaround
(or the rule of thumb, as you say; hehe)
To get to the point: In most cases, when you hold down ⌘ Command, you can interact with inactive window content. You can hold down ⌘ and select (and even drag) text in the background, drag things around (including scrollbars!), click buttons, and more, without activating the window.
"But wait!" I hear you say. "Holding down ⌘ opens links in a new tab!" Ay, there's the rub:
When you hold down ⌘ and click a link in Safari or Chrome, it will work without activating the window... but the link will open in a new tab.
And to my knowledge there's no Great Workaround for that, unless you want to disable ⌘-clicking in your browser.
There you have the facts — make the workflow you will of them!

An update, quoting some content from Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (this is just for reference, not to prove a point):

Avoid providing click-through for an item or action whose result might
be dangerous or undesirable. Specifically, avoid enabling
click-through for an item that:

Performs a potentially harmful action that users can’t cancel (for
example, the Delete button in Mail)
Performs an action that is
difficult or impossible to cancel (such as the Send button in Mail)
Dismisses a dialog without telling the user what action was taken (for
example, the Save button in a Save dialog that overwrites an existing
file and automatically dismisses the dialog)
Removes the user from the
current context (for example, selecting a new item in a Finder column
that changes the target of the Finder window)

Clicking in any one of
these situations should cause the window that contains the item to be
brought forward, but no other action to be taken.
In general, it’s safe to provide click-through for an item that asks
the user for confirmation before executing, even if the command
ultimately results in destruction of data. For example, you can
provide click-through for a delete button if you also make sure to
give users the opportunity to cancel or confirm the action before it
proceeds.
Think twice before supporting click-through for items that don’t
provide confirmation feedback. Specifically, consider how dangerous
the action might be, and determine how difficult it will be for the
user to undo the action after it’s performed. For example, the Mail
Delete button does not provide click-through because it deletes a
message without asking for confirmation, which is a potentially
harmful action that can be difficult to undo. On the other hand,
click-through for the New button in Mail is fine because its resulting
action is not harmful and is easy to undo.
Ensure that items that do not support click-through appear disabled
when their window is inactive. The disabled appearance helps users
understand that these controls are unavailable. For example, the
delete and mark as junk buttons in the inactive Mail window shown
below do not support click-through.


Lyrics for any iOS music? There are loads of iOS apps for song lyrics, but it seems that they all make me play music in THAT app if I want to see the lyrics.

But almost any iOS music app lets me see the artist and song title in Control Center/Lock Screen.  So why can't there be an app that just looks at that info and automatically searches the web for the lyrics using the given artist and title? There are of course several open lyrics search engines on the web usable via API.

Is there an app that does this?
If not, is it technically possible in iOS for an app to read the currently playing artist and title?

Any app that plays songs from the device library can read song title, artist, album and a lot more, this is included in the Apple Framework.
Lyrics can be read as well, so long as they are included in the meta data of the song file. Most songs don't include this information, so the lyrics meta data is empty.
If you subscribe to Apple Music, it will load lyrics for songs you have purchased.  An app called Get Lyrical can also look up and install lyrics.  Finally, you can type or paste them yourself in the Get Info window.
The only other way to get the lyrics is to load a separate file such as an .lrc  This is why apps that show lyrics require you to play the song in them, because they have written some code to display .lrc file contents, or the meta data if available. .lrc files can also contain time data so can sync the playback to the lyrics, meta data does not normally do this.


What can be done to fix a 2011 iMac that will not boot past the white screen? I have now tried opening the iMac and removing the cables to the SSD, it still gets stuck on the white screen. I tried again, removing the cables to the HDD as well and the same thing occurs.

No idea what to do from here.

I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting and this problem sounds like mine except that I have an iMac, not a MacBook.

While using Windows 7 (via Bootcamp) I shutdown my 27 inch 2011 iMac. After it was shutdown I pressed the power button to turn it back on, it proceeded to play the startup sound and then froze on a white screen. There is no cursor or anything else on the screen.

I tried unplugging all cables, including the power, reconnecting only the power and attempting to turn it back on with the same result.

It does not respond to any key combinations. Holding Alt while it boots does not bring up the disk selector. Holding T does not put it into Target Disk mode. Holding Cmd-Opt-R-P does not have any affect. Holding Shift does not put it into safe mode. Holding Cmd-V does not bring up verbose boot.

I made a copy of the OS X Recovery Disk onto a USB but am unable to use it as the Mac won't boot from it (and won't bring up disk selector to select it).

It was working fine minutes before I shut it down and then suddenly refuses to boot and I am at a loss as to what to do. Sadly, there are no Apple Stores or Genius Bars in my country, so feel free to point to any and all self-help resources I might use.

Here is what you know from your excellent details:

The keyboard isn't working since all of the shortcuts get handled from the firmware in the Mac.
The Mac can't find any bootable OS X due to corruption or hardware failure

Why the keyboard isn't working isn't yet clear. I would disconnect everything including the power and then remove both RAM sticks - noting which was on the top and which was on the bottom.

Next, plug the Mac in and power it up with nothing connected. You should get three beeps indicating the POST (power on self test) detected no RAM. If you have severe hardware problems, it won't know the RAM is missing and you'll know you need to get inside to fix it.

Assuming this works, power it off after waiting to see if it boots in 5 minutes time (really wait that long for the Apple logo to show up). While you are waiting listen carefully for rhythmic noised from the hard drive. It shouldn't keep seeking past the first 45 seconds and if so - you will know the controller or the drive is faulty. It should spin quietly after a few minutes or be reading the drive if it's corrupt and the hardware / OS is trying to fix things.

Next - power it off by the button and put the "top" piece of RAM in the "bottom" slot and repeat. Lastly - if you get to the white screen at this point, try another keyboard (command-s or shift held down are the best options here for troubleshooting) to see if you can isolate the failure further.

I tried to make some assumptions about what is wrong and you can edit the question or ask another with the step that fails referring to this question if you want to isolate things further before attempting a repair.


Troubleshooting screenshot script BACKGROUND

An Automator script to save a screen-capture to a file was developed (by someone more clever than myself).  For some reason it does not reliably (rarely) saves the screenshot to the file.  Code is presented below.

The screen capture cursor consistently performs when called: the screenshot is captured to memory.  In contrast, the screenshot is not consistently saved to the file as coded below

QUESTIONS

How can the root cause of the save issue be diagnosed?
Are there any obvious bugs in the code that cause the save issue?
Is there a permissions issue?  How to confirm / test?

CODE

on run {input, parameters}

    --  # Screen Shot to Clipboard and File

    --  # Clear the clipboard so the 'repeat until isReady ...' loop works properly.

    set the clipboard to ""

    --  # Copy picture of selected area to the clipboard, press: ⌃⇧⌘4
    --  # Note that on my system I need to keystroke '$' instead of '4'.
    --  # I assume this is because the 'shift' key is being pressed.

    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "$" using {control down, shift down, command down}
    end tell

    --  # Wait while user makes the selection and releases the mouse or times out.
    --  # Note that the time out also acts as an escape key press of sorts. In other
    --  # words, if the user actually presses the escape key it has no effect on this
    --  # script like it would if pressing the normal shortcut outside of the script.
    --  #
    --  # As coded, the time out is 5 seconds. Adjust 'or i is greater than 10' and or
    --  # 'delay 0.5' as appropriate for your needs to set a different length time out.
    --  # This means, as is, you have 5 seconds to select the area of the screen you
    --  # want to capture and let go of the mouse button, otherwise it times out.

    set i to 0
    set isReady to false
    repeat until isReady or i is greater than 10
        delay 0.5
        set i to i + 1
        set cbInfo to (clipboard info) as string
        if cbInfo contains "class PNGf" then
            set isReady to true
        end if
    end repeat
    if not isReady then
        --  # User either pressed the Esc key or timed out waiting.
        return --  # Exit the script without further processing.
    end if

    --  # Build out the screen shot path filename so its convention is of
    --  # the default behavior when saving a screen shot to the Desktop.

    set theDateTimeNow to (do shell script "date \"+%Y-%m-%d at %l.%M.%S %p\"")
    set theFilename to "Screen Shot " & theDateTimeNow & ".png"
    --  # set thePathFilename to POSIX path of (path to desktop folder as string) & theFilename
    set thePathFilename to "/Users/user/Documents/Captures/" & theFilename

    --  # Retrieve the PNG data from the clipboard and write it to a disk file.

    set pngData to the clipboard as «class PNGf»
    delay 0.5
    try
        set fileNumber to open for access thePathFilename with write permission
        write pngData to fileNumber
        close access fileNumber
    on error eStr number eNum
        try
            close access fileNumber
        end try
        activate
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with title "File I/O Error..." with icon caution
    end try

    --  # Hide the file extension as is the default.
    --  # Convert the POSIX path filename to an alias.

    set thePathFilename to POSIX file thePathFilename
    set thePathFilename to thePathFilename as alias
    tell application "Finder"
        try
            set extension hidden of thePathFilename to true
        end try
    end tell

    return input
end run

For the benefit of other readers, it's worth noting that Finder has builtin keyboard shortcuts that will allow you to:

⌃⌘⇧3: take a screenshot of a selection and save it to clipboard;
⌘⇧4: take a screenshot of a selection and save it to a file.

You can modify these shortcuts in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Screen Shots.

I've put a suggestion in the comments about how to begin diagnosing the original script.  But, as I would have written the script slightly differently if I wanted (for some reason) to avoid using the builtin Finder keyboard shortcuts, I went ahead and wrote it:

    set screenshots to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.screencapture location"
    set timestamp to do shell script "date +'%Y-%m-%d at %H.%M.%S'"
    set type to "jpg" -- or "png"
    set filename to ["Screen Shot ", timestamp, ".", type] as text

    do shell script "SCREENCAPTURE -ioac -t " & type
    set [imgdata] to (the clipboard) as list

    tell application "Finder"
        set screenshot to (make new file ¬
            at POSIX file screenshots as alias ¬
            with properties {name:filename}) as alias

        write the imgdata as class of imgdata to the screenshot

        reveal the screenshot
    end tell

System info: AppleScript version: "2.7", system version: "10.13.4"

For one, the script is shorter, and shorter scripts provide fewer places where things can go wrong.  Currently, this script works fine on my system.  Therefore, you can try it on yours see if it works; if not, Script Editor will report where the errors are occurring and what they are, e.g. whether it is a file permissions error, etc.


Sonnet eGFX and LG UltraFine 5K I am trying to connect 3 screens to a 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro. An LG UltraFine 5K plus 2 additional 4K screens.

I am considering adding a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Puck Radeon RX 560 to my setup to reach that particular goal.

Now, my question, will I be able to connect the 5K directly to the MacBook, as I do now, on one the Thunderbolt busses, and 2 x 4K to the Sonnet on the other bus?

I don’t have the unit to test, but would connect all the displays to the puck since it’s likely going to be the only active GPU.

The good news is it supports 4x 4K displays through one cable from the Mac to the puck - so a quick call to the vendor to clear your case (or Apple) might let you know.

I would worry about the LG display since it can’t take DP or HDMI input which is all the puck puts out, so you might need to connect it to the Mac and either hope it can drive it over TB3 or the integrated GPU can run the internal screen and 5K while the EGPU takes over the two 4K.

Sorry this isn’t definitiave, but I wanted to relay the research I have on this and clarify the issue on connectors according to the official specs:

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HMT22ZM/A/sonnet-egfx-breakaway-puck-radeon-rx-560-external-gpu


How to drag and drop between guests in VMware Fusion My host is Mac OS X 10.6, and on my VWware Fusion, I have Windows 7 and Windows XP as my guest. I can drag and drop files between my guest and my host, but not between my guests (cannto drag and drop files between Windows 7 and Windows XP). Is it possible?

No you cannot as of, and up to VMWare 4 drag and drop files between VMware guests directly. VMware's tools are only noted to support drag and drop between the guest and the Host Operating system (a.k.a. the Mac in this Case), there is no mention of guest to guest support for drag and drop as noted in the VMware fusion documentation.

Moving and Copying Files and Text Between Virtual Machines and Your Mac
You can drag files and folders to move and copy them between your virtual machines and your Mac.
You can move text by copying and pasting or cutting and pasting.
You can also drag images between Windows applications and Mac applications.
You can drag Outlook attachments from a Windows virtual machine to your Mac.
You can drag files in a virtual machine directly onto Mac applications.
You can copy and paste images and formatted text between a Windows or Linux virtual machine and your Mac.
These features require VMware Tools.

That quoted above is likely why drag and drop is not working between your Windows 7 and Windows XP guest virtual machines and that is because it is simply not supported.
A quick fix is to drag the files to the Mac host first, then drag to the other VM. Otherwise setting up File Sharing between the VMs may be the best way to transfer files directly between VMs without having to go though the host first.


Mac bind to windows domain with wrong name I'm fairly new to the world of Mac. I've had the administering of around 100 macs thrust upon me (previous guy left, little documentation. Only things like the images he used, no documentation of whats in them Merry Christmas to me! :( ) As far as I can tell, they had no Administration system in place. The solution was basically get everything the way you want it on the master, disable updates and things, clone to other machines. Repeat every several months/ year or so (based on image dates)

Anyway, my manager wants me doing things differently. I'm working on integrating the Macs into our AD somewhat. When I bind them to our AD with a name like M109831-TED117 it  shows up in AD as m109831_ted117. While the capitalization isn't an issue, the underscore is very inconvenient.

We are on a Win 2008 DNS server. this is Binding Mac clients ranging from 10.5-10.7 and I tried both Directory Utility (like here http://blog.pluralsight.com/join-mac-to-windows-domain) and through the comparable dsconfigad commands

tl;dr

When binding to AD why does my dash become an underscore?
Put in name M109831-TED117 when binding and it shows in AD as m109831_ted117. can this be changed?

I thought it could be a machine based GPO that was applied to either the Mac clients or the DNS server.

However, I did a little digging and found this:
http://www.bu.edu/tech/files/2009/10/AD-OD-10.6-1.pdf

Look on page 6.  It specifically mentions about OpenDirectory and how it renames dashes to underscores. It looks like the change is coming from the Mac end of things. Why?    I found this regarding OpenLDAP which is what Open Directory is based on:
OpenLDAP Hyphens within attribute names considered as separate tokens

It appears to be a software bug.


How can I check how often I have used my new MacBook? I am a new Mac user and I want to check how often I have used my Mac since I bought it? On Windows I would check the Event-Logs but I am lost on MacOs.

I hope someone can help me with this.

In the Utilities folder in Applications is the console tool. It serves the same purpose as Event Viewer on windows and you’ll have the same needle in the haystack experience on macOS as someone is in Event Viewer the first time they launch either.

Since macOS is Unix, you might get all the details you need from the command-line.

last

That command reads the wtmp file which you can read up about online here and elsewhere for what a console log in is. The pmset command is also useful if you like to look for sleep/wake events which aren’t the same as logging in.

Welcome to mac and happy learning!


How to copy my files from "On my ipad" to my Mac? In the finder, when I connect my iPad PRO 2020 (up to date) to my iMac (10.15.6) I can see the folders and files of differents apps, but not the "On my ipad" folder.
Is there a (simple) way to see it (and access it) in the finder or in the terminal ?
Thanks.

As far as I know, you can't see the "On my iPad" folder, however, the easiest way I found was using iCloud or use the app Documents by Readdle


How to keep original "date created" when copying via Terminal? There are many questions online asking how to make the commands rsync and cp go about copying a file while keeping the "date created" attribute the same as the original instead of the time of copy. I understand this is Mac's added information and is separate from the file's metadata "date created" attribute. Anyways, as I played around with rsync -a, it did everything I wanted except, as everyone online notes, it changed the "date created" to the time of copy instead of original make. With rsync and cp it changes due to "a change to the inode". Command-c command-v, however, keeps the "date created" time the same.

Here's my question: How is it that Cmd-C Cmd-V keeps the date created attribute the same on the copy, yet no command in the terminal will yield this result? If Cmd-C Cmd-V can do it, it seems there has to be some command in the Terminal that replicates this?

There are many reasons why one would rather use RSync instead of cp. RSync's default version on MacOS is 2.6.9, which is more than 12 years old as of today, and has several known bugs, and this is one of them. Apple won't include the updated versions on the new releases of the Mac OSX because of GPL3-related stuff.

To address this issue:

Install homebrew in your Mac, if you don't have it already

  /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install the new version of rsync available on brew:

  brew install rsync

Certify that your rsync version is at least 3.1.3:

  fabiosl@macpro ~ $ rsync --version

Copy your files using the --times and --crtimes

  rsync -times --crtimes /sourcedirectory /destinationdirectory


Connecting 2017 MBP with DisplayPort Cinema Display I have a MacBook Pro 2017 13" with High Sierra. Is it possible to somehow successfully connect a 27" Cinema Display with Mini DisplayPort to my MBP with an adapter?
I have read from some people that it worked and from some others that it didn't work.
Can you guys tell if it is possible? Because I have the opportunity to get a 27" Cinema Display for quite a cheap price (but only tomorrow because the person is there for a visit tomorrow).
Would be kinda sad if I would purchase a Monitor for 460 Euros just to find out, that these two devices are not compatible and probably never will be in the near future because there is and will not be a working adapter for this specific case..

Yes
The current 2017 13" MacBook Pro page at Apple.com says it includes:

Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports with support for:
Charging
DisplayPort
Thunderbolt (up to 40 Gbps)
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps)

So you should be able to plug in a video cable to drive a Cinema Display that uses DisplayPort.
Adapter: USB-C to Mini DisplayPort
The missing piece is a USB-C to Mini DisplayPort adapter. I do not see any for sale on Apple.com. I do see several available at Amazon.com costing around USD $ 20-40.
Be aware that you need a Mini DisplayPort not a full-size DisplayPort.


What does a "o" symbol instead of "3G" or "E" mean? Possible Duplicate:
  iPhone data connection types

I sometimes get a "o" icon instead of the "3G" or "E" icons when I loose my connection to the network. Why?

Could this be due to a jailbreak?

You are connected to GPRS/1xRTT since other network connection types are not available.
iOS 5.1 status icons
On GSM (All but Verizon):

3G = UTMS/HSDPA
E = EDGE
o = GPRS

On CDMA (Verizon):

3G = EV-DO
E = no equivalent - not possible
o = 1xRTT

(iPhone User Manual on Page 12)


Troubleshooting Slugglish Post-desktop Startup I have a mid-2010 MBP, with 8gb RAM and an aftermarket 7200RPM hard drive, running Snow Leopard 10.6. I have been using this SL install for about 10 months, and the desktop is barely usable for 3-5 minutes after Finder appears.

I've pruned my LoginItems down to the minimum (which is still a lot...) but I'm betting there's some cruft elsewhere that I can trim.

Googling the issue reveals tons of moronic clean-up-your-mac for idiots guides. Can someone provide a more technical synopsis of OSX' startup process? What are some other optimizations I can perform to speed up startup? Is there a way I can delay startup processes over a larger interval to minimize hard-drive thrashing?

My goal is to have a a usable session within 10-20 seconds of Finder/Launcher appearing. I really don't want to reformat just to get performance back.

Thank you!

Tom

First thing I would do is isolate the problem to either your user account or your OS install. To this end, just create a new user and try logging in as that user after a fresh boot. If the system is sluggish also under this account, at least part of the issue must be outside your main user account.

From the "moronic clean-up-your-mac for idiots guides", I suppose, you have already learnt about LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons, both for individual users in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, and for the entire system, in /Library/Launch{Agents,Daemons} and cleaned those out?

Bear in mind that applications are really trying to be helpful in adding those back whenever you launch them.

As an alternative to purging the files, you could try disabling them via launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.launchdaemeon in Terminal, because this adds them to a launchd blacklist that applications will have a harder time to override. From man launchctl:

 unload [-w] [-S sessiontype] [-D domain] paths ...
          Unload the specified configuration files or directories of con-
          figuration files.  This will also stop the job if it is running.

          -w       Overrides the Disabled key and sets it to true. In pre-
                   vious versions, this option would modify the configura-
                   tion file. Now the state of the Disabled key is stored
                   elsewhere on-disk.

Finally, some really archane applications add their daemons to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist. You can open this file in Xcode and check if it has any entries that you want to get rid of.


Slow Macbook Pro - Very low %Idle number My Macbook Pro started acting very strange from one day to another. I started researching a bit and found someone who suggested that i might have high processor utilization. I checked my Activity Monitor and saw that under the tab "CPU" the "%Idle" numbers were very low but i couldn't see which app was causing it. What can i do about this? I do not know a lot about computers so any kind of help is appreciated!

Your system processes are 81.46%. In the overview, in the top bar of the window, you selected "My Processes". If you change that to "All" you'll see which process is taking up all your CPU power.


Microsoft Outlook 2011 for MAC, could not send email? I am getting "Mail Delivery Failed" messages for some of the
emails sent.

As I am replying an email, I am sure that there isn't any misspelling on the recipient's email address.

A typical message below.

On 22/06/2015 9:47 am, "Mail Delivery System"
 wrote:

  This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

  A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
  recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
  ...

Any help would be very much appreciate.

Thanks in advance.

It is possible that the mail was sent from a disposable e-mail address. If that's the case then mail sending will be failed.


How to find all emails Mail thinks are Junk? How do I search for messages that Mail.app thinks are Junk emails?

I would like a search query that finds all the of the Junk emails without requiring them to be moved into a Junk folder. I am running macOS 10.12.

Here is a sample image showing a message marked as Junk. Look at the message left hand side top of the image.

In the Preferences of Mail.

You can choose how Junk mail needs to be handled. If you activate 'Move it to the Junk mailbox' it will be moved to the Junk box automatically.

It is the Junk list with all the emails that are seen as junk email by Mail.


A1398 2015 - inadequate fan behaviour/noise I'm toasted. My long-awaited purchase disappoints me extremely.

I'm a quietness-freak. One of the main reasons to get Macbook Pro 15" 2.8, R9 M370X was Apple's tendency to keep hardware hot but quiet, and it's speakers.

Despite that the fans on it are mad. While you're using CPU only it's about "ok", but I had to undervolt and limit the TDP to ~35W to make the noise about reasonable. Speeds are down. Temps - 50-60C on idle, up to 80-85 on load.

When R9 M370X is involved performing even lightest things it goes insane though. GPU may simply be active but doing nothing, I play YT video and fans ramp up to 50% while CPU is no more than 70C and GPU ~65C.

So, 1-st problem - fans start to be much more aggressive when dGPU is on.
When I do something (even lightest) in Cinema 4D it may be ~65C CPU and ~60 GPU it goes full blast. Than at least a minute after I stopped working it goes on before calming down. Even when it's 55C already it still goes.

So, second - fan speeds are much excessive and aren't adequate to temps.

Than I tried MacsFanControl (TG Pro, doesn't matter) to lower the speeds. Despite I managed to get ~70-80C on load a minute later CPU went 800ghz flat! And nothing makes it speed up, I have to give the control back to system, it spins 6000rpm for a couple of minutes and than recovers. In Windows it's the same.

So, third problem - inadequate and unavoidable artificial throttling.

I'm getting mad. I can't bare this noise. Even lightest photo editing in C1 makes it shout out loud despite it's pretty cool, not speaking of C4D which is my main tool.

Fans are clean, paste is new (MX-4)
Is this a normal for this model? Does 2014 GT 750M does the same? How to f*** make it work silently, or at least reasonably?

Help me please. It doesn't give the performance nor comfort I bought it for, I'm so sad...

I understand how frustrating this can be when you set your expectations and they don't quite line up with what reality is giving you.

In my comments, I stated "If you want complete silence with performance, you bought the wrong product - you need a desktop with much more efficient cooling."  I know you're not expecting complete silence, but you've got the wrong product for the job you're asking the machine to do.  Here's why...

The most top of the line MacBook Pro from 2015 comes with an Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a discrete GPU, an AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2 GB of dedicated VRAM

The GPU VRAM recommendations from Maxon Cinema 4D for the for the Cinema 4D R21 and S22 is 4GB.

  We recommend at least 4 GB VRAM for GPU rendering

So, the Mac that you've selected only has half of the minimum recommendation for this particular piece of the software.  You Mac has no other choice other than choice but to spin up fans to cool off due to the extreme load they now have to deal with.

So, yes, these are problems, but unfortunately, it's not a problem with your Mac nor can it be fixed.  Unfortunately, the 2015 MacBook Pro is not the right fit for your particular need.


Can't connect to LAN and internet at same time I can't connect to a local network with ethernet and internet through WiFi at same time on macOS. The normal reordering solutions don't work. Here is the first few lines of routing table:

➜ netstat -rn
Routing tables

Internet:
Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire
default            10.100.8.1         UGSc          165        0     en0
default            10.125.32.1        UGScI           8        0     en7

The first entry is my WiFi network through which I can normally access internet, and second is the restricted local ethernet connection.

Currently whichever one is set higher in priority works and it seems like I should be able to somehow get it setup to have them both function simultaneously. To clarify, by function I mean I can access intranet sites on ethernet and access regular internet through WiFi.

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 8c:85:90:cd:ac:f9
    inet6 fe80::9b:9439:d9a8:cf6f%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x8
    inet 10.100.10.27 netmask 0xfffff800 broadcast 10.100.15.255
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active

en7: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=4<VLAN_MTU>
    ether a0:ce:c8:17:94:d3
    inet6 fe80::1c6f:20f:65a0:5374%en7 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x11
    inet 10.125.32.139 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 10.125.35.255
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
    media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
    status: active

This is usually caused by having the wrong subnet masks specified for the networks.

In your case with IP-adresses 10.100.8.1 and 10.125.32.1 you'll probably the subnet mask set to 255.0.0.0 (/8) for both networks - that is incorrect.

Change the subnet masks so they are for example 255.255.0.0 (/16) instead, and you'll be able to route normally.

Remember to only set a default gateway in the subnet associated with the interface you actually want to use as an Internet connection.


How can I know the top dowloaded apps in my country How can I know the top downloaded apps (by category, say games, messaging, etc.) from the App store in my country?
How can I access Apple's Kids App Store?

How can I know the top downloaded apps (by category, say games, messaging, etc.) from the App store in my country?

Open the App Store app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, navigate to the Apps tab and scroll down to access the section where you can see the overall Top Free Apps and Top Paid Apps as per the recent download statistics across all the categories.

The data is shown for the country associated with your iTunes and App Store account and it differs between the App Stores from different countries.
You can further scroll down to access the Top Categories section and can tap on the See All link to see all the major app categories.

You can then tap to navigate into a desired category to view the Top Free Apps and the Top Paid Apps in that category. The below example shows Top Free and Top Paid apps from the Education category.

How can I access Apple's Kid's App Store?

There is no separate Kids App Store, but Kids is available as one of the category within Top Categories. You can browse to the Kids category to see curated kid friendly apps.