Buying new Apple OS's Historically, if you wanted to get the new Windows, you should always wait until Service Pack 2 if you want a stable OS.

So, how is it with Apple OSes? Should we get Lion right away or wait for 10.7.2 or something? I'd bet most people (specially fan boys) will say to get it now. "Simple".

edit: What you guys have to say now that Lion has been around for a while? Is my current accepted answer still the rule? I see sooo many bad reviews as never before from any apple release (other than Final Cut X).

As an IT-service company we use several OSes. We use Freebsd on our internet servers, and Linux, Windows and OS X on desktop clients. I'm personally an OS X user since 10.1(Puma) and have never used Mac OS 9 (I have a strong unix background).

OS X's stability and upgrading smoothness is unmatched by either Windows or Linux! Only Freebsd is comparable.

We usually upgrade live servers with freebsd and clients with OS X immediately after release, and have never had any problems. (I mean any.) This is probably because we don't use any "special" applications, just common Apple products like iWork, iLife, and Omnigroup products, etc.

OS X (the system) runs immediately without any flaws. There can be some problems (as @boehj told above) with third party applications, but 95% of the applications usually work without problems, because developers build them in advance. You can already see applications that are Lion-ready.

So, if you are not a hardcore OS X user, ofc, you can wait a while "to make sure", but from my experience: it is enough check how your application run under Lion (by visitng the developer site) and if they are ok, simply upgrade & go. :) Forget the "windows service-pack" syndrome :).

As Kerri said above - ofc, backups are good. Not just when upgrading, but "just because". In 10 years I have never needed to restore anything because of an upgrade. Ofc, we restored when we moved from PPC->Intel and when switching to new Mac models, but never "just because the upgrade went wrong". I'm pretty sure that apple decided selling Lion ONLY as a download via the AppStore (without media) that the upgrade process would be well tested.


can .webloc file icon show a useful web page preview? Assuming Finder --> View --> View Options --> Show Icon Preview is enabled, is it possible for a .webloc file icon to show a preview of the referenced web-page?

I think the browser would have to do this, when I drag from the browser URL box to the desktop.  But so far, with multiple popular browsers, I see nothing but not-very-informative standard icons.  For example, the Safari compass.

Does any popular browser support this, say,  through a preference setting or an add-in?

Motivation:  I can now sort through a bunch of TextEdit files by putting them in a folder, view them as icons, and using the Finder option to increase the icon size until enough is visible -- document "shape" and larger text. Why not .weblocs?

Obviously, the browser-created .webloc file name should be useful, but often it is not, and --when I'm collecting a bunch of .webloc files for reference use-- it is a bit of a pain to have to edit the name of each.

Obviously the icon content would be a snapshot at the time of collecting the .webloc.  I assume there is no way to see the current content.  OK by me.  Thinking about the potential for just a minute, this possibility seems at minimum creepy ... to very undesirable, unless completely under user control.  Well, anyway, the kinds of reference pages I want to collect and sort through generally don't change much.

TIA

I did finally locate an application that provides the solution you are looking for.  The application isn't hands-free initially as it is a command line program.

setWeblocThumb generates custom icon consisting of a preview of the web page that the webloc file points to.  It does not do this universally.  You'll need to

point it at folders that you'd like it to watch
Assign a folder action to the folder that you'd like setWeblocThumb to watch and have it run setWeblocThumb.

It's fairly straightforward, but is a bit more than simply downloading and installing an application.  The good news is that it's free.


Free up space used by Notes Notes is using up over 13GB on my iPhone. Is there a way I can see which notes are taking up space and compress, archive or delete them?

I think it’s also taking up the same amount of space on my Mac thanks to sync. Is there a  general way to use Notes that is more intelligent about the space being used?

Most likely media files take up most of the space. It would be cool, if you could access the attached images directly in the file system to compress them. Alternatively an option to compress or archive directly in the Notes App would be great. Unfortunately neither is possible in the current version of Apple Notes. Of course you can delete your notes in the Notes App. To free up space, you need to delete them afterwards from the "Notes App Trash" which is called "recently deleted".

Before you delete, I would recommend to export your notes and switch to a note taking app that stores media files separately. Further you could avoid attaching large images to Notes in the future and use a separate App for scanning and archiving documents.

Personally I use Bear for my notes and Scanbot to scan and archive documents. Both Apps make it easier to compress and archive larger files, since you can access and manipulate media files directly.

To my knowledge there is no perfect solution to export all content from the Apple Notes App. Though the free App Exporter might be worth a try, since it does a good job converting text and image attachments from the Apple Notes App into Bear compatible markdown format. Beware that Scans and PDFs are not exported by this tool, which might be a dealbreaker.


Does the Macintosh classic have the signatures of the original Mac team? I am huge fan of Apple, and I just bid on one a 1990-era Macintosh Classic. The bid is going higher, but I only want it if the computer has the signatures of the original Mac team.

It's before I was born, I wish I was born in that era. But please let me know if anyone knows whether this model has those signatures. I am 100% sure the original Macintosh (128k) had those signatures.

No. The signatures were really only in the 128K. Each time some the case saw some minor modification, some of the signatures would be cut off in part or in whole. The 512K Mac contained some of the signatures, and the Macintosh Plus contained a few less. At some point, the signatures disappeared entirely.

The Macintosh Classic was an entirely new case design, though, six years later. There were no signatures on it.

Also, not being fully satisfied, I found a picture:

Cracking Open the Apple Macintosh Classic


Can't enable password protection in Notes app I'm following the advice here where I want go to settings and set a password. If I do this I get

  Update Notes
  For the configuration of the password protection open "Notes" and update your notes. (tranlated)

What should I do here?

iOS 9.3.2 is installed. Also the is no lock note option if I tap the share button.

On one of my updates I didn't switched to the new Notes system, where you can draw and so on (because of incompatibilities). Now I want to switch:

Open Notes app.
Go back to folder
Tap the update button (on the top left, same height as iCloud)
Tap on update now
It takes some time and you see the number of notes he "converted"
Styling is differently. Now you can set your password.

Be careful when updating because there are some incompatibilities (MacBook must have OS X El Capitan, problems with multiple iCloud accounts on the same phone, ...). Don't know why Apple didn't make it work with both versions.


"-bash: ls: command not found" I installed the most recent update to OS X Lion (10.7). After I did that, my terminal won't recognize normal commands. I typed ls and got:

-bash: ls: command not found

I figured I'd try to add usr/bin to my path, but I can't find .bash_profile to edit it since typing edit .bash_profile won't work. I can't set the Finder to show all files since my terminal won't recognize the commands necessary to do that.

what do I need to do?

Since two commands are missing something “stomped” your path.
Before doing anything big, kicking off a backup might be prudent.
The default path on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) is something like this:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

If you reset the path by typing the above into a shell window, and then typing export PATH it should manually let you test s local fix that window only.
This breakage is almost always something you need to fix in your dot files. For bash, edit and fix .bash_profile and/or .bashrc by undoing a recent change it just setting the $PATH you need again. The usual error is assigning a new path and not referring to the previous value of the variable on the right hand side of the =


Mac has same IP as another device until I restart the Airport We just installed the airport and when we turn on some of our Macbooks, they get the same IP as another device so we have to restart the Airport to get new IPs for the computers and for it to work on all of them again.

Restarting the airport once a day becomes annoying. Any way to get around this?

The fault when a computer asks for a DHCP address and then gets one lies with the other device not releasing that address when its lease expires or the router for handing out the lease improperly.

The number one cause of the router handing out wrong addresses is when you reboot the router.

To fix this - determine how long your lease is set using AirPort utility and change the range you are sending out addresses. For example - if you were sharing 192.168.1.1 change things to start sharing from 192.168.1.200 and up. Then once the lease time has passed after this restart - use a network scan tool to find all the devices that have not renewed and adopted 200+ addresses.

Those are your problem children so you can either hand them a static IP or fix their software.

Once you have that, you can return to the range of addresses you wish to lease out.

Or if you want to make a bigger change - switch the Airport to use 10.x or 172.x addressing and really break things for the non-compliant devices.

Note - each device needs to release and renew their address after you reboot, so power off WiFi or restart everything - don't forget about all the printers, internet connected appliance, home automation lights and switches, etc... They tend to be forgotten. If you don't have a network scan tool, look into using http://brew.sh to install nmap. It's powerful and well updated and runs on many versions of OS X.


Can I extend Alfred with a command-line program to clean up the desktop? I'd like to have something that I can run from Alfred or the command-line that can run "clean up desktop".

What is a command-line program or apple script that will cleanup the desktop?

Preferably there would be an option to do it by name or some other system (i.e., at least all the options that are available when right clicking the desktop).

You have to use clean up window of desktop instead of clean up the desktop.

tell application "Finder" to clean up window of desktop by name


Why does F4 not work in MacOS X (Touchbar macBook, or macBook Air)? I'm using iterm2 together with tmux and I need the function keys. Ever since I got the TouchBar Macbook Pro and upgraded to HighSierra, the F4 key became disfunctional in iTerm2 and emacs.

The F4 key is used to cycle through the open tabs in tmux forwards
The F3 key (cycle backwards) and in fact all other F keys work as expected
The F4 key worked before the HighSierra / Touchbar upgrade.  I used Time Machine to migrate, so no configuration changed.
The F4 also does not work with on an external Magic Keyboard, indicating a software / mapping issue.

I suspect that some change in High Sierra makes macOS not pass the F4 key on to applications, but I'm not sure.  I have checked that no system wide keyboard shortcut is assigned to F4. What else could I check?

Update: The issue can be confirmed with the keyboard viewer, a program that allows to display all keys pressed. It clearly confirms that all keys except F4 are registered by the system while F4 is not.

I have seen elsewhere that some key combos stop working until you reinstall iTerm2. If you have homebrew and cask installed, you can use brew cask reinstall iterm2.

(I'm so unsure about the efficacy of this that I would have posted it as a comment, but I can't comment yet)


Why can't my iPhone connect to the mail server anymore (and how can I fix it)? A few days ago my iPhone stopped downloading new emails.  The Mail app now brings up an error:

Cannot Get Mail
The connection to the server failed.

Though it can't connect to the server to download or send emails, it can connect to verify my username and password:

This email address is working just fine using my laptop.
Some things I've tried that didn't fix the problem:

going into airplane mode and back out
restarting the device
reentering my mail account settings
deleting the mail account and creating a new one

Some specs:

iPhone 5
iOS 7.1.2
email provider: Yahoo
service provider: AT&T

Settings → General → Reset → Reset Network Settings.


Growing black portion on the screen of 2017 MacBook Pro. What could be the cause? I bought my MBP 13" 2017 (without TouchBar) in late 2018. So far, so good, but after I started using it by plugging in an LG 23" monitor (as a second display), a black pixel stripe started showing up at the bottom of the screen on the MBP Retina display (even with when unplugged to the LG monitor) and its grown larger ever since. The Mac is out of warranty, so the only way would be to replace the entire screen assembly. Would this solve this issue? I'm guessing that using a MBP that doesn't have a graphics card with a second monitor is not a good idea...

That definitely looks like a screen (LCD) issue.  Whether  it's on the MacBook or it's the LG, the screen is damaged and must be replaced. However, I'm assuming it's the screen on your Mac...

  The Mac is out of warranty, so the only way would be to replace the entire screen assembly.

Yes.  You would be correct; the only way would be to replace the screen assembly.

Macbook Pro screen display problems
Part of display not working, changing display region for macbook pro

  I'm guessing that using a MBP that doesn't have a graphics card with a second monitor is not a good idea

Connecting an external monitor to a laptop (not limited to Macs as PCs use the same Intel processors) that has a port specifically to do that wouldn't cause any damage whatsoever to your laptop.

Damage happens and it could be from any number of reasons - a manufacturing defect to physical impact with something.  But most definitely, it's not because you connected an external LCD to your Mac.


How can I find exactly what files are included in my last Time Machine backup? I find that my Time Machine backup never passes an hour without backing up files, even if I haven't used the Mac.  I've excluded .Trash and Downloads under my user folder.  A typical hourly backup is 60-70MB, and I want to know exactly what files are being backed up here so I can possibly exclude them too.

After backing up, the Indexing of the Backup takes an extremely long time, and I don't know which is the cause and which is the result, or if this is unrelated to my mystery files being backed up.

You could try BackupLoupe: it will give you the size of each backup, the backed-up files and catalog the backups with colors to quickly identify the big ones.

There are also lists of files excluded by rule or that you add manually to exclusions:

On OS X, what files are excluded by rule from a Time Machine backup?


Can I assign a language for each iMessage contact? I write iMessages in different languages, depending on who the message goes to. Text input is very difficult if auto-completion/correction is using the wrong dictionary. Is there a way to assign a language for my contacts, so that iMessage will pick that up? Or if not, is there at least a quick way (without leaving the app) to switch languages manually?

I don't think automatic switching is available at the moment but a quick way to switch manually without leaving the app is to enable multiple keyboards. You can do this is Settings -> General -> Keyboards.
Your keyboards will now have a globe button next to the 123 button to enable fast switching by tapping the globe and you can hold it down and select the desired language :)
Having the keyboard in a different should change the dictionary and autocorrect features automatically.

Hope this helps


Can't achieve a higher than 1920x1080 on AOC U3477Pqu, powered by late 2011 Macbook pro...? My late 2011 Macbook pro comes with an AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB graphics card and Apple state it:

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp644?locale=en_US

Having recently bought the AOC U3477Pqu I have so far only managed to achieve 1920x1080 via a mini-displayport to DVI adapter.

AOC U3477Pqu - http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/pc-monitors/pc-monitors/aoc-u3477pqu-quad-hd-34-ips-led-monitor-with-mhl-10028876-pdt.html

I thought maybe an end to end displayport cable might help me achieve 2560x1600 so I purchased a mini-displayport to displayport cable but the monitor does not even receive a signal.

AOC customer service and Currys (the retailer I bought it from) say I should check my graphics card (which I've done, as above).

Can anyone suggest something else I could try?

PS: I know the monitor can achieve 3440x1440 and I'm planning on building a PC to make use of this but of course I'd still like to be able to use my Mac with it...

Thanks in advance for any help.

Your Mac has DisplayPort 1.1, which does not have enough bandwidth for 3440x1440@60Hz (DisplayPort 1.2 on newer Macs can do 3840x2160@60Hz), and a passive DisplayPort to DVI adapter can only do single link DVI, which is not enough for the advertised external resolution of 2560x1600. Apple sells a Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter for $99 (it costs more than a passive adapter because of the active circuitry required; it uses a USB connection to power that circuitry). If your monitor has single link DVI, even that won't help you, and even if it helps you, you won't get the full resolution from your Mac on that monitor over DVI or DisplayPort without reducing the refresh rate.

It's conceivable that you could get 3440x1440@30Hz over DisplayPort, but your experience thus far with DisplayPort doesn't bode well for that. Some monitors allow you to choose between DisplayPort 1.1 and DisplayPort 1.2 in the configuration menu (I needed to change that on my first UHD display), but even if your monitor allows that, it's not clear that it would help; aside from the bandwidth issue, there's also the unusual aspect ratio.

I have not found specifications for your monitor which distinguish DisplayPort 1.1 versus 1.2, or single link versus dual link DVI, but the specified maximum resolution and refresh rate strongly suggest DisplayPort 1.2. I have a 3840x2160 display with a dual link DVI input which cannot do its native resolution over DVI; I believe that tops out at 2560x1440 (though I suppose it's possible a different dual link DVI output could improve that).

I recommend DisplayPort 1.2 for your PC's video output, when you build it.


How to save files to Google Drive in Finder? I read a previous post on this topic: "How to you get the “Share with Google Drive” contextual menu option in Finder?"
How to you get the "Share with Google Drive" contextual menu option in Finder?

I followed the steps indicated in your response, but I got stuck at step 3 because "Finder" is missing from my the Extension Menu. I use a MacBook Pro.
Kindly advise.

Thanks a lot

The Google Drive is located at the root level on your mac. You could just use Spotlight to open the Google Drive folder and move or copy files directly to it. Or just go up levels in the Finder until you get to the root directory.

In my Finder sidebar window, under Devices, I have Macintosh HD as one of the devices. Clicking on this takes tou directly to the root directory. There you should see Google Drive.

Or you can use "Save As" and go up several levels until you see your Google Drive folder and save your file there.


Manage Guest Account via Profile Manager I have enabled the guest account for all of the iMacs and Macbooks in my school. I would now like to use Profile Manager to trim down the dock for the Guest user, set a custom homepage for Safari and configure Safari to launch new windows with the homepage.  I am struggling to find a tutorial for accomplishing this.  Any tips?

This is not possible.  Apple's Profile Manager is lacking in many areas, and this is one of them.  Apple does not provide any tools or documentation for managing the guest account on multiple remote computers, or creating a profile to define and/or configure them.
Update: It has been about half a year since I posted this answer and in that time I have gained more insights into managing macs in a school environment.  Here are my thoughts:

If you are managing student-facing macs in a school, your number one strategy should be to migrate to chromebooks. Cheaper, more secure, and a thousand times easier to manage.

If manage macs, you need to use something like Jamf to manage them.  Apple Profile Manager is lacking.

Even with a mac management service like Jamf, using the Guest user account for students is a challenge.  You will need to create your own "pseudo" guest user, and just manage it with scripts so it is always clean for the next student.


Install Yosemite file I need the file that says "Install OS X Yosemite." My mac can't download it  because it is unsupported. Is there any way I can get the file.
Thanks

One way around downloading any version of OS X that's not supported on the physical hardware is to download it in a virtual machine, on the unsupported system, that's running a version of OS X that supports the downloading of the version of OS X being downloaded. I did this using VMware Fusion.  The virtual hardware presented in the virtual machine allowed for this as the App Store did see the physical hardware and the virtual hardware presented was adequate for the OS X version being downloaded.

I had to do this with downloading OS X Mountain Lion in a virtual machine on a physical machine (MacBook Pro 15-inch Core 2 Duo) which only supported up to Mac OS X 10.7.5.  I needed to do this to create a USB installer of OS X Mountain Lion to be used on a MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013 to create an image of the SSD before the OS had been run directly from the SSD for the first time.  In other words to create a factory sealed image, so-to-speak.

Otherwise you'll need to do as Tetsujin suggested, "...get someone else with a newer Mac to DL it for you...".


iPad DropBox client side encryption I have just gotten the New IPad - my first foray into the world of Apple.  I'm eager to make the most of it that I can, for both personally and for work.

In order for me to be able to use it for work, I really need to find a solution that works seamlessly with DropBox to provide client-side encryption for my files.

Despite searching for hours (days) and downloading and trying all manner of offerings, I just can't find anything that works.  The closest I've seen so far is BoxCryptor, but that only works if I manually upload the file via the BoxCryptor client.  I want something that will work seamlessly so that Notebooks (or EverNote, etc) think they're using DropBox directly, but the files are being encrypted / decrypted just before they enter or leave DropBox.

Any clues?

Michael

I use a program called 1Password for secure encryption of files (and other data) and it almost does what you ask.

On my Mac client - it can attach arbitrary files to any entry and securely encrypt them before they get stored into Dropbox, but that isn't the primary purpose of the tool. It has an iOS client that can see files attached in this manner, but not really open them, send them to other programs and it also doesn't let you file things.

So - what you ask is clearly something that could be programmed, but isn't something where there are several well-known solutions and people will just propose several. In fact, there may not be a single solution that uses Dropbox despite how popular and prevalent it has become.

I would suggest you consider Box.net which seeks to be a more enterprise secure version of Dropbox - especially if no-one else has a better suggestion than mine for securing your files before they hit Dropbox.


Disable Growl Notification When a Certain App is Running Is there a way to disable Growl notifications automatically when a certain app is running, Quick Time for example. I don't want to get the notifications while watching a movie.

Full credit to @ghoppe over at Super User for this excellent answer.  I'm only duplicating it here because a moderator on Meta suggested that it would be appropriate to do so.
Please note that this solution will suppress Growl when VLC (media player) is running.  To make it work for another application (e.g. QuickTime), you'll have to modify the Applescript.  If you've tried yourself but still need help, I would suggest posting a question about it over at Stack Overflow.
Original answer follows:

Enter in Applescript Editor, save as application, when saving check the box "Stay Open". Use this new applescript application to launch the VLC application.
Description: It will launch VLC, turn off growl notifications, check every 2s to see if VLC has quit, if so it will turn growl notifications back on and then quit. As a bonus, it will use growl notifications to notify you when growl notifications will be turned on or off.

global Growl_was_Loaded
global VLC_is_Loaded

on run
    set Growl_was_Loaded to isAppLoaded("GrowlHelperApp")
    set VLC_is_Loaded to isAppLoaded("VLC")
    launchVLC()
    idle
end run

on idle
    set x to isAppLoaded("VLC")
    if x and not VLC_is_Loaded then
        launchVLC()
    else if VLC_is_Loaded and not x then
        set VLC_is_Loaded to false
        if Growl_was_Loaded then
            tell application "GrowlHelperApp" to launch
            growl_notify("Growl notifications have been turned ON")
        end if
        tell me to quit
    end if
    return 2 -- wait 2 seconds
end idle

on launchVLC()
    tell application "VLC" to launch
    if Growl_was_Loaded then
        growl_notify("Launching VLC… Growl notifications have been turned OFF")
        delay 1
        tell application "GrowlHelperApp" to quit
    end if
    set VLC_is_Loaded to true
end launchVLC

on isAppLoaded(app_name)
    tell application "System Events"
        set app_list to every application process whose name is app_name
        if the (count of app_list) > 0 then
            set x to true
        else
            set x to false
        end if
    end tell
    return x
end isAppLoaded

on growl_notify(msg)
    tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
        set the allNotificationsList to {"Growl Toggler"}
        register as application "Growl Toggler" all notifications allNotificationsList default notifications allNotificationsList
        notify with name "Growl Toggler" title msg description "" application name "Growl Toggler" icon of application "Automator"
    end tell
end growl_notify


Clearing local storage in safari on iPad I need to clear the local storage for safari on my iPad, what I found by googling says to go to Settings > Safari > Databases  but databases is no where to be found in my safari settings.  The screenshots show it right below accept cookies but it's not there or anywhere else on the page (or sub pages).  Any ideas?

When no database exists, the Database Menu isn't shown ;)

Try log in your google account or other webapp that uses localStorage to see it...

Or create a HTML file with a script tag containing (on same domain obviously) :

localStorage.clear();


Getting old photos from Camera Roll to Photo Stream I have over 7,000 pictures on my iPod Camera Roll. I recently signed up with iCloud but only the pictures I take after signing up with iCloud go to my Photo Stream. How do I get the first 7,000 pictures onto my Photo Stream?

I want all of my photos to be available on any iOS device where I sign in with my iCloud account.

I'm doing this by using Photos on a Mac. I connect the phone to the computer and Photos lets me import and then delete the originals.

Once that is done, the Photos app pushes them up to the iCloud Photo Library and the phone has free space to re-download the photos over time.

If you have a PC or don't want to use Photos, you can transfer the photos using iTunes and then use a web browser to upload the photos to iCloud.

Having a computer to do the upload is working much better than having an iOS device which goes to sleep and uses battery instead of wall power.

I've gotten 15k photos into the cloud so far with 10.10.3 and it's been solid for a day. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Also, as Buscar웃 astutely pointed out - your iCloud Photo Library can grow to arbitrary size but the Photo Stream has limits - 10,000 photos per 24 hour upload period / 25k per month. These limits are only in effect if you don't store all your photos in the iCloud Photo Library using iOS 8.3 or later. Then, you are limited by your total storage space and bandwidth as far as I can tell so soon after release of the product.


How to define an array with a single `defaults` command? I want a domain com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 to contain the following array:

(
        {
        HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2;
        HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0;
    },
        {
        HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0;
        HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2;
    },
        {
        HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0;
        HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10;
    }
)

I can achieve it by deleting the current value and running three -array-add commands:

defaults -currentHost delete -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0
defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array-add '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; }'
defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array-add '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; }'
defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array-add '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; }'
defaults -currentHost read -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0

What syntax can I use to define the array in a single command?

If I run the following script:

defaults -currentHost delete -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0
defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array '(
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; } )'
defaults -currentHost read -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0

I get an array within an array:

(
        (
                {
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2;
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0;
        },
                {
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0;
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2;
        },
                {
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0;
            HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10;
        }
    )
)

If I try with -plist instead of -array I get an Unexpected argument.
If I run the following script:

defaults -currentHost delete -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0
defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array '
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; }'
defaults -currentHost read -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0

I get a syntax error defaults[22044:679428] Could not parse: ... Try single-quoting it.

Question again: what syntax can I use to define the array in a single command?

-array takes individual array elements as individual arguments.

defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 -array \
  '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; }' \
  '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; }' \
  '{ HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; }'

The ‘\’ are used to keep the shell waiting for the next line, so they can be omitted if written on one line. You don't need to use delete first: unlike -array-add, -array replaces the entire array with the new contents.

If you don't want to do it this way, here's an alternative: you can pass the data structure as a string. This is closer to the examples in your question and works the same.

defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-628-0 '(
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 2; },
  { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 0; HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 10; } )'


Best file system for an external hard drive sharing between OS X and Windows I would like to buy an external hard drive that I'll use on Mac OS X and on Windows, but I don't know the best file system for it (reading and writing on the both system).

I know I can used FAT32 easily, but I have files bigger than 4 GB so I can't use this file system.

So, I think for NTFS or HFS, but I know I can use on the two systems with software, but I don't know the fastest one to transfer files. Also, I don't know if I can use ext3 or ext4.

If someone knows one of the best way to use an external drive on Windows and Mac without used FAT32, please tell me.

Which versions of OS X and Windows do you need it to work with?  If they're recent enough, ExFAT is probably the best answer.  Support for it was added to OS X sometime around 10.6.5 and AIUI it's built into Windows 7 and available via updates for everything since Windows XP.

BTW, if you're formatting via the Partitions tab in OS X's Disk Utility, be sure to use Options button to select the MBR partition scheme.  If you use the Erase tab, just select the disk (not the volume listed under it) and it should automatically use MBR partitioning.


MacBook Pro Kernel Panic on Boot - even without a hard drive installed My (Discrete, not Unibody) MBP (2007-ish) just started to kernel panic on boot.

Pulled the HDD, which boots via USB on my Mini - hopefully ruling out a HDD or data/OS issue.

I've disconnected the Airport card as well as removed the memory SO-DIMMs and booted with one at a time.  Still kernel panics.

Tried the Apple Hardware Installer/Diagnostic DVD and it froze near the end (logic board testing...)

Wasn't able to get it to boot to try Tech Tool Pro diagnostics.

All signs are pointing to a logic board failure - am I missing anything?

I don't think you're missing anything. This all makes sense if you assume a dead logic board.
What makes you think that isn't the problem? Seems like plenty of evidence for it to me.


GarageBand not opening on MacBook Pro When I try to open GarageBand it comes up with the error message 'GarageBand quit unexpectedly' as pictured.

When I try to reopen it it bounces around for a bit and then comes up with this message again.
I have tried re-installing and deleting preferences, neither of which worked. I am using a MacBook Pro, 10.10.5
Can anyone help me?

This may seem obvious and standard computer practice, but restarting my computer worked - the most simple and easy solution that the Internet never recommends or even mentions.


When printing photos to the Canon TS960 printer from iPhone/iPad using AirPrint, the printer thinks the print job is a CD label When printing *photos to the Canon TS960 printer from iPhone or iPad using AirPrint, the printer thinks the print job is a CD label and asks me to 'Place a printable disk on the multi-purpose tray'.  How can I fix this?
*Printing anything but photos works normally.  Also, the issue is specific to iOS devices and doesn't happen when printing photos from my MacBook.

Things like this happen because the Media Type definition in the printer is mis-configured.
In this case "Photos" isn't using a tray with photo paper, it's looking for a CD Label because somehow in the printer the media type for photo became "CD Label"
The User Guide is usually the best place to start with when addressing issues like these and it will be under the section to do with paper settings or handling


How to Partition hard Drive + install previous OS (10.7.2) on one, while leaving 10.8.4 on other I am having to do this to make my Presonus Firewire 26x26 work since they do not have updated drivers past 10.7

Bought the Macbook Pro in 2009 - it came with Snow Leapord. Hard Drive started to fail about 7 months ago so i had it replaced and the new OS that was installed don it is 10.8.4

i followed these instructions to a T:

http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/os-x/how-to-and-why-you-might-want-to-partition-your-macs-hard-drive/

BUT>>>the weird thing is - it did SEEM to Partition the drive into 2. I named the new one. It shows / recognizes that it did it in the disk utility window where you make that all happen........BUT.......is DOSE NOT show / get recognized in STARTUP DISK, WHEN BOOTING up the Computer, or when i attempt to install the older OS (10.7.2) onto the new partition.

I also tried installing the older OS via a DVD.......nope!

Weird thing : in the FINDER Side Bar it shows up as a DEVICE????? why???

AND : when i click on "install MAc OS X Lion" it says ""This version of Mac OS X is too new to run “Install Mac OS X” from Mac OS X 10.7.""

Please - Any help figuring this out would be much appreciated and super props to the internet computer that can help me with this! If you in Portland OR and can help resolve this ill buy ya a drink! I can not use studio software until .....Thank

I assume you are trying to install using the OSX Installer app. This will not work; you MAY be successful making a bootable USB (you will find instructions by googling).

Even this may be confused by the later recovery partition, and would probably overwrite it.

Your best option may be to install on a new external HD.


Where are Logic instruments located in High Sierra? Trying to locate the logic instrument pack on my HD. Earlier versions had them in Library/app support/Logic, but no such file exists.

/Library/Application Support/Logic/

How to find your root Library folder:

Open your startup disk in Finder, either by clicking the name of your startup disk (e.g. Macintosh HD) in the sidebar, or by pressing ⇧⌘G and entering /.

You should have these 4 folders. Open Library.


How to send 'print' key with RDC (Remote Desktop Connection)? I use Microsoft's RDC on Mac. I need to click on print key to have some screen capture, but Mac Keyboard doesn't have one.

How do I send print key with Mac through RDC?


Remove faint imprint of stickers from space grey macbook Removed some stickers from the lid of my space grey 2017 MBP. Managed to remove the sticky residue using some rubbing alcohol but there is still some discolouration where the stickers were. Any tips on solving this or is the discolouration permanent?

The space grey coating is anodized and possibly dyed.
What your photo illustrates is differential weathering effects upon the aluminum surface. Where the stickers were is the original color - you actually are asking how to reverse the weathering or basically re-anodize or dye the layer of chemically modified aluminum alloy so that the exposed portions match the unchanged. An equivalent process would be to  somehow catch up the protected portions to match perfectly to the rest of the Mac.
Basically, you’re not likely to “fix” this just like tattoo removal in some cases isn’t able to restore the unpigmented condition of some skin types and ink combinations.
Back to the Mac - once you’ve used a solvent to remove the residue of any adhesive or remnants of vinyl or whatever other material you introduced, the actual oxidized layer may be permanently changed.


Is there a way to turn off the ‘Are you sure you want to open 25 items?’ warning in Mojave? Ever since upgrading to Mojave, every time I try to open 25 or more files using either cmd ⌘ + ↓ or cmd ⌘ + o I get this warning:

Opening a bunch of files at once is something I do a lot so I would like to disable this, but wouldn't know where to look for a Terminal command to do it.

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

I seem to have found a workaround which will bypass the "Are you sure you want to open 25 items?" Dialog box in Finder.  This following AppleScript code will open the selected files in the front most Finder window, without the warning.

tell application "Finder"
    set frontmost to true
    set selectedFiles to get selection as alias list
    open selectedFiles
end tell

You can create a new Automator quick action and add a "run AppleScript" command to the workflow... with the AppleScript code. Then name and save the file. I named my Automator quick service "Open More Than 25.workflow"

Now you can assign your own keyboard shortcut in System Preferences … which will run the "Open More Than 25.workflow", bypassing the "Are you sure you want to open 25 items?" Dialog box in Finder.

Now anytime you have selected files in Finder, pressing that new keyboard shortcut will open the files without the annoying "Are you sure you want to open 25 items?" Dialog box.

Here it is in action using the new "Quick Action"

Here it is in action using the new keyboard shortcut.

If your newly created keyboard shortcut does not work when trying it with the selected files in Finder, it probably means the keyboard shortcut you created is already being used with something else. If so, go back and assign different keys to your keyboard shortcut.


Administratively, how can you purchase multiple licenses from the Mac App Store? I need to purchase 10 licenses for an app found on the Mac App Store (not iTunes). How do I go about purchasing those 10 distinct licenses and then deploy them to their respective machines?

Administratively, it might be easiest to use the gift feature to purchase all the 10 apps at once and file your expense reports. You are then free to use that account to redeem one copy - or pass off one (or more) of the redemption codes to whatever deploy accounts you use.

Currently, the iOS app store has more volume purchase options:

App Store Volume Purchase Program for Education
App Store Volume Purchase Program for Business

I would join one of these if you can and inquire if/when it would extend to the Mac App Store for OS X. (Nothing speaks louder than action).

In the mean time, you can use gifting to separate the payment from the redemption and hand out the redemption codes as needed to the actual accounts you use to deploy the apps. I haven't had any issues with one account on 15 macs to ease the administrative burden. Do make sure to buy enough copies before adding new macs to keep things within the terms of the license. My reading (and I'm not a lawyer) is a person can install their apps on macs they control and own with no limit (not 5 or 10) and businesses/organizations are to buy one license per machine. I don't see a technical or moral reason to actually redeem each copy (especially if you secure / never further distribute those redemption codes).

I personally can't wait until a unified volume plan arrives for the Mac App store - discount or not, having it centrally managed and downloading a spreadsheet to track things is so useful as we're more constrained with time and expertise than the cost of the software at present.


How to fix macOS Big Sur Dock after having customised it on Catalina for uBar I had a sweet setup for using uBar for favourites and the MacOS Dock for seeing open applications before I upgraded to Big Sur.
I had used commands from this Ask Different question: Is there a way to completely disable Dock?
Even after I upgraded to Big Sur, everything for working fine perfectly. I toggled some Dock settings in System Preferences and now I'm unable to get the auto-hide working. It is inconsistent now. It doesn't always auto-hide and gets in the way of other windows by covering
them.

I only want to access the Dock using Cmd+Opt+D
I know the Dock will show up in the Launchpad and ^+Up and that is fine.

How do I fix this?
I tried commands from the same question for restoring dock as well, and restarted the MacBook Air multiple times.
Please help.

I executed commands from this HowToGeek article to reset the Dock and restarted the Mac; which didn't help (yet). I had used both the commands - "The Simple Fix" killall Dock and "The Slightly Less Simple Fix" defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock.
Then I relaunched the Finder as recommended in the same article and now I'm back to my fantasy setup.
Sorry for the bother, I hope this helps others as well. I had to set preferences for dock again. On Big Sur we no longer need to follow the Terminal commands from the Ask Different question mentioned above.


Show Icon in Safari Pinned Tabs As you can see above, some of my pinned tabs show official icons (circled in yellow), while others are pinned with the first letters of the respective website titles (circled in red).

My personal website is www.saphryn.com, pinned on the far left. What should I tweak so that my logo shows in the pin?

Notes that might help:

My site is developed on the Wix platform.
As shown in the screenshot below, my logo/icon shows up in the suggestive search within the Safari omnibar.
Safari shows the first letter of the any website name if there is no logo that corresponds with the site when pinning it.
If the sight is bookmarked (as opposed to pinned), Safari will prioritize the first letter of the bookmark title over the actual website name.

Any ideas?

Creating Pinned Tab Icons

  Pinned Sites allow your users to keep their favorite websites open,
  running, and easily accessible. You can set the icon that the user
  sees when they pin your site by providing a vector image.

Providing the Vector Image

  Use 100% black for all vectors with a transparent background in SVG
  format and add the following markup to all webpages that the icon
  should represent (replacing "website_icon" with your own file's name).

<link rel="mask-icon" href="website_icon.svg" color="red">

  In the example, the color attribute sets the display color of the
  image. That attribute can specify a single color with a hexadecimal
  value (#990000), an RGB value (rgb(153, 0, 0)), or a recognized
  color-keyword, such as: red, lime, or navy.

So if Wix is not providing the option, you have to set it programmatically by editing your HTML code ;)

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/pinnedTabs/pinnedTabs.html


Right-click a html file and print it? I've went ahead and created the Automator workflow that let's me have a "print this file" right-click menu in Finder.

It works fine for pdf and txt files, but if I try the same on a html file, the printer spits out a blank page. Obviously the file needs to be rendered by a browser first, then printed, but is there a way to do this?

It's not an option for me to convert this to pdf, the contents of the document are randomized with javascript. I would want to preserve this, I do not want identical content to print every time.

If this could be added to the same right-click menu item, that would be good. If it has to open Safari in the background or something like that, that's not a dealbreaker, though I'd like for it to close itself after printing.

Chrome is the default browser (and almost always open) if that matters.

This is pretty easy to do through automator and the "Watch me do" actions. Here's what I got to work however you'd likely replace your input with however you're getting the file in your setup

Display Webpages opens the HTML file in the default browser (in this case chrome) and then we enter Command-P and then Enter which brings up the print dialog and then prints with the default settings because the print button is the initial highlighted button. This will work with whatever fancy javascript you've got and you can optionally add a wait period between launching the file and sending the print keys to allow it to fully render/load.


Creating an automated HFS+ compressed folder I would like to set up an automated way for archiving files in OS X Lion. By archiving I mean using HFS+ compression feature on a specific folder, and make every file that I move into this folder automatically compressed. I'm thinking of using this to archive large files that I don't use often, but without having to manually create compressed archives and having to extract them in case I need them.

I came across the tool afsctool (brew install afsctool), which can, via command-line, apply HFS+ compression to a folder and all files in it. But I believe it does not activates compression of future files moved to the folder.

Moving files manually and running a command line instruction repeatedly is inconvenient. Therefore I'm guessing I would need to used automator/AppleScript to execute this in two steps:

Create a script that allows moving any file to a specific folder. Ideally an option named Archive accessible via right-click on the file.
Run a command line instruction afsctool -c <folder>, to activate compression on all new files just moved to the folder.

I have no experience using automator or AppleScript, so I would like to know where to start, especially regarding how to add actions to Finder, and how to run a command line tool from a script.

Updates

@kopischke guide works well. The script itself, I made based on the answer by @mark, but using afsctool -c <folder>, instead of ditto. Here's the script:
It should be put in ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in these_items
    try
        set this_item to item i of these_items
        tell application "Finder"
            set the file_name to the POSIX path of this_item
        end tell
        set cmd to "/usr/local/bin/afsctool -c " & file_name
        do shell script cmd
    on error the error_message number the error_number
        display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1

    end try
end repeat
end adding folder items to

Since afsctool at MobileMe is no longer available, there's diimdeep/afsctool at GitHub, currently 1.6.4.

Also afsctool in MacPorts where they're aware of the MobileMe issue but maybe unaware of the source at GitHub.

There are two parts to the answer to your question.

How to add a Finder context menu item to “Archive” files: this is easy to achieve by creating an Automator Service (Mac OS X Automation has a good overview of what the Automator services introduced in OS X 10.6 can do):

Launch Automator, choose “Service” when prompted for the kind of workflow you want to create.
Choose “Files or Folders” in the “Service receives” drop down (approximate translations – I’m on a German system). Optionally, set “in” drop down to “Finder”.
Add a “Get Selected Finder Items” action.
Add a “Move Finder Items” actions below that and set it to your target folder.
Save your service in the default location (~/Library/Services) as “Archive”.

you now have a new service menu and context menu entry (depending on the number of services active: either on the first menu level, or in the “Services” submenu) called “Archive” that will move the selected file or folder to your target folder.
How to automate HFS+ compression of files added to your target folder: there are several ways to achieve that. You could, of course, simply add that step to your archiving service. The disadvantage of this approach is that no compression will be applied if files or folders are ever added to the folder outside the service, of course. A better approach would be to have everything in the folder be compressed automatically, without reliance on the the entry vector or user interaction.

One way is, as you have discovered, to have a compression utility run every time a file or folder is added to your watched folder:

the way to launch a shell utility in AppleScript is the do shell script command – see the linked documentation;
the inbuilt way to leverage filesystem events in an AppleScript is to use Folder Actions, which call AppleScripts on changes in a watched folder. What events the script reacts to are defined by the script itself, through the handlers it provides (for instance, the script in Mark’s answer has a handler for adding folder items – meaning it reacts to newly added files; see the Applescript Language Guide for the full reference). Folder Actions configuration is found in the services menu of folders in Finder (in the context menu, too).
a turbocharged alternative to Folder Actions is Paul Kim’s Hazel (commercial software), which adds rule based processing and a plethora of criteria for filesystem event handling that go far beyond what you can achieve with simple Folder Actions – you might want to investigate Hazel if you plan on doing more or more complex stuff along the lines of what you are planning now.

An alternative to the whole scripting approach is using LateNiteSoft’s Clusters – another commercial software, that does nothing but automatically apply (and re-apply, where needed) HFS+ compression to the contents of watched folders.


How to convert .wav to .mp3 and maintain iTunes presence? I have a bunch of .wav files (from synced CDs) that I would like to convert to .mp3 files in order to save space. I found this link which works to batch convert .wav to .mp3, but unfortunately iTunes does not automagically recognize the new .mp3 files.

I would like to know if there is a way to batch convert .wav files to .mp3 files and have iTunes maintain its metadata of those files. (Of course, this all could have been prevented by syncing the CDs as .mp3s in the first place. Oops.)

FLAC to iTunes also seems like it might be useful, but I'm dealing with .wav files and would need to convert them all to FLAC files before using this tool, and I'm not sure how to do that without losing metadata.

Thank you!

Select the songs you want to convert
Use the option under File > Convert > Create MP3 Version

This option is disabled if you are actively syncing a CD.


What is the best application to run Windows on a Mac? I've been looking around for reviews for the best way to run a Windows on a Mac. I've come across Bootcamp, Parallels, VitrualBox, and VMFusion. I am wondering what seems to be the most efficient, one with the least problems, and why use it over the others. If there are others I haven't mentioned let me know.

EDIT

I have a MacBook Pro just bought it a few weeks ago, and at the moment I would only use the Windows side for a few games.

Your question is like that old Sesame Street song, "Which one of these things doesn't belong?".  Bootcamp is a way to run Windows via dual booting, which means that when you are running Windows you are not running OS X.  This is good for when you need maximum performance (e.g. Windows gaming) but very inconvenient when what you need is to be able to run Windows and OS X applications at the same time.

The other solutions you mentioned are all virtualization solutions that run Windows on top of OS X, letting you run a mix of applications.  Of these, I agree with Wheat that Parallels and Fusion are both very good, and it's really hard to say one is better than another.  Try them out (there are trial versions) and see which you prefer.  Or just go with pricing; I run Parallels because I got a good price on it as part of a software bundle.

Virtualbox, on the other hand, is free and good at the basics, but it is MUCH less integrated into OS X.  For example, it does not map your OS X documents folder into the Windows document folder to enable seamless sharing of data between the two environments.  My take is that Virtualbox is good if you simply want to play around with Windows on a Mac, but if you have a real-world need for doing so, you're much better off spending the money for Fusion or Parallels.


Cap energy consumption of processes on macOS Most of us probably already had this situation: One is tight on battery and trying to save as much energy as possible. Then suddenly a process goes wild and drains the battery by 10 or more percent within minutes.

Is it somehow possible to cap the energy a process is allowed to use within a certain time interval?

I think that what you are probably looking to do is keep the multipliers locked to a low value, and/or disable turbo boost.   The former is probably not feasible given the largely proprietary nature of Apple's environment.  Perhaps someone can correct me.

However there is an app out there that will turn off turbo boost

Intel also had a utility to monitor the CPU, not sure if it still works... see this answer


After loading 5-10 websites, Safari and all other browsers stop trying to load pages After the recent macOS update, I am running into a problem where after browsing to about 5 different URLs, Safari is unable to load any sites. It doesn't matter if I use one tab or multiple tabs. This is not a network issue as I can still ping, etc. from the command line. In addition, it doesn't matter if I use Safari, Chrome, or FireFox. Once the problem starts with one it impacts the others as well. If I reboot the Mac then it resets.

Here is one of the weird things about it: Let's say I open Google in one tab. I then open another tab and after a few sites I can't navigate, in the tab with Google the search sometimes still loads a new page, but the suggestion auto-complete will still work, for terms I've never typed before so it is not something in the history. This indicates to me that it is not a network access issue as it is clearly still going to Google.

If I open Dev Tools and go to the network tab, then click a link or type in a url, nothing happens; the browser doesn't even seem to be trying to issue an HTTP request anywhere. The progress bar goes about 15% and hangs there for the page load.

This only started happening after the last macOS update.

Other things I've tried so far:

Checked to ensure I have enough free space on HD
Flushed the DNS Cache and cleared history
Disabled DNS pre-fetch
Tried a different DNS server like 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8
Confirmed that the network still works
Confirmed I have no proxy, no browser addons/extensions
Confirmed no VPN

I am looking for some more suggestions or things to check besides the basics you see in every web article. It really doesn't seem like a network issue. Is there some system-wide service that would impact requesting or rendering of websites regardless of the browser?

Edit: Turned out the SOCKS proxy got re-enabled by something and this was causing another bug, when this was disabled then the other problem and the above problem went away.

The solution is this case was to disable the SOCKS proxy.


App to run Chrome web extensions on iPad I have now moved from Android to iOS. In Android , I used Yandex Browser in which I can use Chrome web extensions. But in the Yandex Browser iOS app f, I can't download chrome web extension.

Does anyone know of a browser on iOS that allows the use of Chrome web extensions?

Unfortunately, there is no such browser. The reasons are the App Store review guidelines, which forbid the execution of downloaded code (such as web extensions).

Your best bet is to download browsers with lots of features built-in like iCab or similar and hope it covers your use-case.

Otherwise, maybe you can achieve what you want by having a desktop browser running somewhere and connecting to that using screen sharing from your iPad…


Best file system for USB stick for backup purposes I bought a 128GB stick to back up my MacBook Air (Time Machine). This way I don't need to re-format my external HDD I use for backing up files from my Windows machine. Since I won't be using the stick with my Windows machine I thought I might format it with a "better" file system than exFat. Would you recommend formatting it to HFS+?

From Apple KB : Backup disks you can use with Time Machine

  Formatting a backup disk for use with Time Machine

  The most common format for a Time Machine backup disk is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

  Time Machine also supports Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted), and Xsan formats.
  If your disk uses the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition type, some partitions might not be available for use with Time Machine.

In short, use a Journaled HFS+ partition on a GUID[GPT] formatted disk for best results.


Messages app on Mac syncing text messages but not iMessages I am encountering problems syncing iMessages with my Mac. I can send and receive text messages and iMessages on my iPhone. I cannot send and receive iMessages on my Macbook, but I can send and receive text messages on my Macbook.

My Messages app on Mac was working perfectly until I deleted items in my Keychain. I repaired and verified my Keychain afterwards, too. I did do a hard restart and removed all my accounts on my Mac and added them back. I also deleted my iCloud account and re-added it.

I have also disabled iMessages on my iPhone, then re-enabled it. Also de-paired and re-paired my iPhone and Macbook connection for iMessages. I still get the same behavior.

Does anyone have any idea what to do? I have googled and tried everything...

Anytime I send an iMessage through the Messages app, I get the "not delivered!" notice. Is there an error log I can check for iMessages that might give me hints?

Thanks.

The messages app on the Mac has it's own preferences. Check if you're iMessage account is set up there and has a password set – perhaps you deleted it through keychain. If that doesn't help remove it with the minus and re-add the account.


Toggle hot corners with a script Hallo I am annoyed that hot corners won't be disabled when I am playing a fullscreen game. So I want a quick way to toggle the settings. I found this command

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-tl-corner -int 1

Unfortunately it doesn't change anything.
What can I do?

wvous-tl-corner is the top-left hot corner. Use ‘tl’, ‘tr’, ‘bl’, ‘br’ for each corner respectively, and use -int 0 to disable that corner.

To find the integer for activating the hot corner of choice, make the change in System Preferences, then use defaults read com.apple.dock wvous-tl-corner.

Don't forget to restart the Dock too after writing using defaults: killall Dock.


printing an email attachment on apple computer in pdf preview help i opened a file attachment and am trying to print from an apple computer. it's in pdf preview. it's looks huge on the screen but tabs and all are inline. but when i click print and it shows a preview of what is about to be printed, it's completely skewed to the right and extremely large. And this is exactly what prints out. help??? how can i make this attachment print correctly.

In the preview there is a button called Actual size.

That will show you the actual size, and it might be very large pending the file.

In the Preview print menu, you can check the Scale to Fit, and it will fit to your paper size section above.


How to select images from my Desktop in Keynote? In Keynote 6 you can edit images on master slides to serve as Media Placeholders. I've created a theme for our company that has several slides with Media Placeholders configured like this.

Problem is that when someone adds an actual slide and clicks the media button on the placeholder a window pops up which apparently reads someones iPhoto library and only shows those images. Most of the images we use in our presentations are on the company NAS however so storing them in iPhoto isn't really practical.

How can I add folders to this media browser or make it so that when someone clicks the placeholder button, he can have a default Finder browser so he can select images from any location on his Mac?

I had the same problem, but couldn't get it to work over this dialogue. It's kind of weird that you can only use images from Library Files over that button.

The solution is to go to "image in the "Format" band on the right of Keynote. There is another button to "replace" the image. You can choose any file from there...

Hope that helps, since I'm from Germany I don't know the exact denotations in the English version. If you cannot find the right button, just let me know ;)


Why are the terminal color brighter than the ones I set? I've changed my terminal's color but, as always, the color I set are rendered brighter than they really are.

Here's the proof, I set the exact same color on ST and on my term, you can clearly see the term is brighter.

Any clue why ?

Try changing the color profile to the profile used by your display before specifying the values:


Files that iWork needs are missing My iWork/Pages stopped working by it-self and the following error is showing:

Files that iWork needs are missing.
To restore the missing files, use the iWork Installer to reinstall iWork.

Temporary I've installed OpenOffice.

Any suggestions how to fix the problem?

First of all, please check your disk for any errors. Please run Repair Disk in Disk Utility (on your Macintosh HD). If the errors are bad, probably you need to restart your Mac and then hold CMD+R until logo appears, then you should re-run Disk Utility.

You can also try some 3rd party software for recovering the files for iWork like Stellar Phoenix Macintosh.

If this doesn't work, please open Console to check the logs or do it manually from the Terminal:

$ tail -f /var/log/system.log

and run Pages/Numbers again.

This should point you to the specific error which you can look for.

If you don't have any errors and your disk is clean, then you can try to Reinstall it via App Store:

Here's how to reinstall an application from the Mac App Store:

Open the App Store application. (It's on the Dock, or in the Applications folder.)
Hold down the Option key and click Purchases.
An Install button appears next to the missing application.
Click Install.

The "missing" application won't be missing for much longer. It's now downloading to your computer! When the download is finished, you'll be able to find the application in Launchpad and the Applications folder.

Source:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/412

Another method you can try is the suggestion from this thread:

Open App Store, go to Purchases page, re-download thee apps. You will first need to drag the iWork folder to the Trash.

If you still can't download it from App Store, you can try from re-download it from torrent (you should have a proper licence).
But if you'll download the older version and it still doesn't work (which will show some missing frameworks, file images, etc.), then you'll have to do the upgrade first via App Store.

If none of above will work, try to remove cache and setting files from your Home Folder:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iWork.*
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpd/Generated/com.apple.iWork.*
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iWork.*
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.iWork.*
~/Library/Application Support/iWork

You can list them by the following command:

find ~/Library -iname \*iwork\*

Advanced troubleshooting

If none of above will work, then you can try to debug wtf is going on by:

First run in Terminal dtruss command to listen for e.g. Pages execution:

sudo dtruss -fn Pages

Run e.g. Pages

Dtruss should show you some debugging stuff.
If there is too much going on, you can log it to the file by:

sudo dtruss -fn Pages 2>&1 | tee dtruss.log

To filter only file operations, you can try:

sudo dtruss -f -t lstat64 -n Pages

or the easiest way by running OSX pre-defined dtrace script:

sudo filebyproc.d | grep -i iWork

This would give you some idea what files could be wrong/missing during the start.


Dual display with MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) and would like to set up two 24" Acer monitors so I can have an easier working life. The monitors support CDMI, DVI and VGA, I am new to MacBooks, so I'm not sure where to go or what to do, anything you can advise will be wonderful.

Thanks in advance :)

Your Mac technically can only support it's own internal display and one external display.  However, there is a "hack" that you can use to get a 3rd screen (2nd external monitor)

What you will need:

mini Display Port to DVI cable/adapter
USB to DVI adapter

There's a YouTube video with someone using this method with 3 external monitors (total of 4 screens) so this is entirely doable.  Keep in mind that the bandwidth on USB is nowhere near the bandwidth of DisplayPort so there will be some lag when it comes to intensive video type applications.  In other words, don't expect excellent results if you are gaming.


Encrypted USB disk not shown in Finder after unlocking I have an encrypted USB stick. I put it in the USB slot on my MacBook Air, then I input the passphrase but nothing happens: the USB doesn't show up on Finder and doesn't mount.

I can see the USB stick in Disk Utility and when I run First Aid on it I receive an error.

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Untitled                120.5 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650 MB     disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS HDD                    +120.1 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 5C2DFE14-9CA0-471D-A048-74B0DD09A04C
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.1 GB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Rotschild               7.7 GB     disk2s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk2s3
/dev/disk3 (external, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                 Apple_HFSX Rotschild              +7.3 GB     disk3
                                 Logical Volume on disk2s2
                                 CEC0286A-19BD-4390-9A16-E05AED538CA2
                                 Unlocked Encrypted
$ diskutil mount Rotschild
disk3 is a CoreStorage Logical Volume which failed to mount
$ diskutil mount disk3
disk3 is a CoreStorage Logical Volume which failed to mount
$ diskutil mount disk2s2
disk2s2 is a FileVault or Fusion Drive physical volume; use "diskutil coreStorage list" to find its logical volume, which you can then unlock (if necessary) and mount
$ diskutil coreStorage list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (2 found)

I just had to solve this issue this morning. I though the USB was ruined but it turns out it was something to do with btrees caused by a write error. Tech Tools Pro identified it and fixed the issue. I also have Disk Warrior 5 and probably would have worked as well.


Macbook Air will not connect to Wifi even though other Macs work fine with same Wifi I'm having some issues and I feel as though I have literally tried everything. I am at a complete loss on what to do.

Situation:

I had multiple Mac computers including this one for a while. All working fine with router.

Then I replaced my router because it was getting slow and dated, the new one I got worked fine at first, but then started to drop connection every other day and even sometimes every day. I replaced the replacement router, then my macbook air had ridiculously slow connection speed. It would take google 5-10 minutes to load. But my iMac computer worked fine. I didn't change anything, nor do anything different to either computer except get this new router. The router even managed to corrupt my time machine. So I called up the ISP and they worked me through the issues, so now everything is working fine EXCEPT my Macbook Air.

I have tried starting from scratch with the router, with the Time Machine, I have rebooted all devices. But the internet remains the same. It's good on my iMac, my phone, my TV, but not the macbook air. I wanted to call Apple, but it costs $60 to talk to a someone which is not affordable for me. I am really frustrated with this.

I went through all the changes with my Airport Utility. I even reset my Macbook Air to factory default settings. Still I have the same issue.

What can I do to troubleshoot this problem?

Have you tried going to the Network preference pane in System Preferences, clicking on Advanced, then Wi-Fi, and deleting all the Preferred Networks? I seem to recall having the same problem a few years ago, and deleting the networks fixed it.


files locked in public folder when sharing via file sharing i share files with a friend from his macbook to my mac mini over my wireless connection.

i set my public folder as a shared folder & turned on file sharing in my system prefs.

my friend can copy files to my public folder, but when i try to open them they are all read-only (showing as "nobody - read & write, staff - read only, everyone - read only).  not sure why it says "nobody".

user permissions are set to read & write for my user, staff, and everyone for the public folder in system prefs.

i even tried adding a new sharing user for him with a password. he can connect fine & copy files fine, but when i try to open them they are read-only.  the folder itself and all files inside are set to read-only.

how can i make these files come over as read-write for me, so i don't have to set the permissions manually for every file?  thanks!

The default permissions for newly created (/copied) items allow read and write access only to the owner (whoever created it), read-only access to everyone else. The best way around this is to create an access control entry on the folder, and set it to be inherited to items created in (/copied into) it. 'Course, the Finder doesn't give you access to the inheritance controls, so you have to go to the command line:

chmod +a "group:staff allow list,add_file,search,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,writesecurity,chown,file_inherit,directory_inherit" ~/Public

Note that this gives read & write access to all accounts in the staff group (which basically means all user accounts); if you want a bit more control, create a group in System Preferences > Users & Groups, and add just yourself and your friend's account to it, then use "group:yourgroupname" in the above command. Also, the inheritance only applies to items as they're created, so it won't apply to files and folders already in your Public folder; if you want it to apply to existing items, add chmod's -R option (chmod -R +a ...)


Best way to connect a MacBook Pro to a projector I recently purchased this projector that has HDMI, VGA, and S-video inputs. Also, I have one of the first versions of the MacBook Pro, from around 2007/8. Currently I have connected both devices vía VGA using the Apple DVI to VGA adapter. The thing is that even at 1440x900, I have trouble making out text.

This is an 1152x870 picture taken with iPhone:

I was wondering if one of the Apple DVI to HDMI adapters will help to get a better image? Would a clone be okay?

HDMI will provide a higher resolution. You don't need to use any sort of special 'Mac' or Apple produced cable for this -  DVI to HDMI cables are widely available and affordable from the Internet retailer of your choice. Just hook it up and you're good to go.

(N.B. while HDMI is capable of carrying Audio as well as Video, the DVI output on your MBP does not output sound. If you'd like to connect your MacBook to the projector or some other external audio device, you'll need a separate, but again, quite standard, audio cable to do so.)


What iOS apps allow free calling to the UK? I travel a lot, so often rely on WiFi for calling. On the iPhone, I use MagicJack to get completely free calls over WiFi/VoIP to US numbers. I'm looking for a similar app to enable me to call UK numbers for free on the iPhone. Does anyone know of one?

Note:

I'm talking only about apps that allow completely free calling to regular chargeable numbers - primarily landlines but ideally also mobiles - the Apple app stores are full of apps that allow "cheap" calling.
Suspicious apps that require credit card numbers upfront, etc., aren't as interesting.

Skype provides a free iPhone app and allows free calls to UK freephone numbers 0800 etc. As for a service that allows totally free calls to chargeable UK numbers (either on iPhone or otherwise) for an indefinite period I can't say I have ever heard of one.


Do non-smartphones exist that are able to sync with any OS after Mountain Lion? Currently I have a Nokia 6300 and a Mac with Mountain Lion installed. Calendar and Contacts sync through iSync via Bluetooth without a problem.

I'm thinking of upgrading to Mavericks or Yosemite, but as these newer OS'es miss the syncing services necessary for iSync to work I wouldn't be able to connect my Nokia anymore.

I don't want to buy a smartphone just so it will sync with my Mac, so therefore I'm looking for a "dumbphone" that can sync with my Mac on Mavericks or Yosemite.

So my question is:

Does a dumbphone exist that will be able to sync contacts and calendars with a Mac on Mavericks or Yosemite? It's fine if a third-party application is needed.

Sync Mate 4 was best to support Nokia S40 sync over Bluetooth.

Yet it is not working under 10.9 or 10.10. And their new version 5 dropped support for S40 altogether.

So going further probably the only way is to setup Virtual Machine with older OS of your choosing and run it from time to time just to sync.


vba split() not working in Mac Word 2004 I was trying to run a Word macro on a Mac. That macro contains the split() function. When I run this it is throwing an error saying function or sub not defined.

StrArr = Split(InputString, ":", -1, vbTextCompare)

I searched on the Internet and found that Mac Word 2004 is supported by VBA 5 and split() is introduced in VBA 6 only. I'm unable to find the proper solution for this, please help me.

Office for Mac 2004 is too old. You need to upgrade to Office 2011, which has the function you want:

  Office for Mac 2011 comes with VBA 6.5, ported from Office for Windows.
  Source - Apple Store Q & A

(I'm assuming VBA 6.5 didn't remove the split() function from 6.0.)


Unzipped files mystery location? I used the Terminal to unzip a file by typing Unzip then dragging the file to terminal. The file unzipped successfully and a few GBs were used from my SDD. However, I have no idea where the files are !!! I can't find them in the same folder of the zip file.
Where would they be ?

Maybe in your Home folder? It's the default folder the terminal points to. Try to open it through the Go menu in the finder.


I just installed a 240GB SSD in my 2017 MacBook Air, and it will not connect to the internet over my Wifi. I used Command-Option-R on power-up. When I power up, all I get is a spinning globe that quickly has a triangle with an exclamation point and the message 'apple.com/support -3403F'. I cannot connect to the internet to start the OSx download process. How can I get to the point of using Migration Assistant on the MBA and my old MacBook?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Honestly it sounds like the system never gets far enough to enter internet recovery mode. A sign that there is likely a hardware issue. There are a lot of possibilities but a few spring to mind.

New SSD not seated properly or something got in the connector
Bad new ssd
System damaged when the replacement was done
Incompatible SSD

First I would take the new SSD out, blow the contacts clean with canned air and closely examine the connectors on both ends. Then replace it carefully, making sure everything is seated properly and try again.

I would verify that what you got is what you ordered and that it is indeed compatible with your system. Please include the make/model of SSD in your question. We may be able to help make that determination.

Put the old drive back in and verify it works, if so -sigh of relief- you didn't brick your Mac. If your replacement SSD came with an external USB case you could put it in the case and plug it into the Mac and verify it works. If it doesn't, return it. If it does, call the vendor's tech support. Tell them the symptoms and see what they can do. Possibly replace it, maybe with a different model.


Finder doesn't launch when a specific user logs in There are three user accounts on a system running Yosemite 10.10.1.

When a specific user logs in, Finder does not start.
The keyboard shortcut for Force Quit (⌘-⌥-esc) works, but Finder is not on the list.
The keyboard shortcut for restart (⌘-⌃-⎋) also works.
Finder does start when either of the other two users logs in.
In the affected account's ~/Library/Logs folder, I noticed SystemUIServer_2015-01-14-135204_ComputerName, including the following, which may or may not be relevant:

Crashed Thread:        2

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000010db8cca0

VM Regions Near 0x10db8cca0:
    VM_ALLOCATE            000000010db65000-000000010db69000 [   16K] r--/r-- SM=S/A
-->
    VM_ALLOCATE            000000010db8d000-000000010dbd6000 [  292K] r--/r-- SM=SHM

How is Finder normally invoked at login, and what is the best approach to troubleshoot more deeply? I realize that deleting and replacing the user account entirely would resolve the issue, but I would like to learn what is happening and how to resolve it directly.

First, make sure the user is the owner of their home directory.  In Terminal, sudo ls -lFad /Users/(username) and that the permissions are set at least "rwx" for the owner.  Likewise, for the /Users/(username)/Library/ folder.

There are temporary cache files in /var/folders/(two letters)/(more characters)/ for each user.  You can find the specific one for your user by doing sudo ls -lFad /var/folders/*/* and searching for the one which is owned by the user.  Moving this entire directory someplace else (like, /Users/Shared/temporary/) may allow the user to log in successfully; but, I doubt it.  A cache corruption should be fixed automatically.  But, in the interest of completeness, I'll list it here anyway.

There are some files in the user's Library/ folder which (if corrupted) might cause the login to hang.  This list is arbitrary and not guaranteed to be complete, but it is a list of the most likely suspects.  You could move these (or, even, all of the preference files) and systematically replace them to see what is causing the hangup, assuming the login works when the files are moved away.

Files in ~/Library/Preferences/

.GlobalPreferences.plist
com.apple.BezelServices.plist
com.apple.dock.plist
com.apple.dock.db
com.apple.finder.plist
com.apple.loginwindow.plist
com.apple.QuickLookDaemon.plist
com.apple.systemuiserver.plist
loginwindow.plist

Files in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/

.GlobalPreferences.(long string).plist
com.apple.windowserver.(long string).plist

Files in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

(could be anything)

Files in ~/Library/LaunchDaemons/

(could be anything)

Again, this may or may not solve your trouble; but, it is a good starting point.


Set keyboard shortcuts for launching programs Possible Duplicate:
  Can I create a shortcut to open a specific application on OS X?

On all my other machines, I can type CtrlAltW to launch a web browser, CtrlAltE for an email client, etc.  I have looked but haven't been able to find how to set this up on my mac.  Can this be configured on a mac? Preferably without external software.

This can be achieved by using an Automator service and assigning it a shortcut in the Keyboard System Preference pane:

Launch Automator and select “Service” as the type of new workflow to create.
Set the workflow to take “no input” in “all applications”.
Drag a “Run program“ action from the “Utilities” category into the workflow, set it to the app you want to start via a keyboard shortcut.
Save the service under a memorable name.
Go to Keyboard Preferences → Shortcuts (in System Preferences, or chooses “Configure Services” from the “Services” submenu in the Apple menu).
Select the “Services” category, locate your newly created service and assign it a shortcut (make sure it is checked to be active).

Voilà – you have a global keyboard shortcut to start your application. Rinse and repeat as needed. Note Automator services are pretty laggy when first started during a session, but reasonably responsive after that.


What should my home folder permissions look like? I'm trying to figure out the best permissions configuration for my home folder in Sierra.

Would executing this make sense:

sudo chown -v -R $(whoami) ~/* && sudo chown -v -R $(whoami) ~/.*;
sudo find ~/.* -type f -print -exec chmod -v -R 640 {} \;
sudo find ~/.* -type f -print -exec chmod -v -R 750 {} \;

I'm looking for everything to work, but I want to restrict access as much as possible. My permissions were set to read-only to "Everyone" (no idea why).

My home folder's permissions look like this (drwxr-xr-x+):

However, folders inside my home folder (like Desktop) look like this (drwx------+):

Ultimately, the best permissions for your home folder are likely the defaults. As long as everything inside your folder is restricted, you'll be okay. Apple also doesn't recommend changing the permissions for your home folder. If you really want to, though, you can try it out and just use the following Terminal command to reset the permissions:

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`


How to give one time only camera access to Skype app I want that everytime a videocall starts on skype, MacOS asks for my permission to give access to Skype. I don't want to give permanent camera access to Skype.

I am on macOS Catalina 10.15.5

You can just give it access for that one call and then revoke its access after.

To change the camera permissions on a specific app who has requested for it:

Settings > Security & Privacy > Camera Tab and then click the check mark next to the app you want to change permissions to.

You may have to click the lock icon on the bottom left corner to change these settings.


Native way to speed up/remove desktop switching animations I want a native (and therefore free) way to speed up a specific animation. My research covers these questions and links on this that have gone unsolved for High Sierra and no answers there cover this natively.

How do I speed up the animation time for switching between desktop spaces?
Speeding up switching between multiple desktops (speed up or remove transition)
How do I speed up the animation time for switching between desktop spaces?
https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/issues/711

What used to work, defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0.1 does not work, and has been confirmed to not work by myself (as well as many of the above comments and posts).

People tend to get referred here, which only offers a paid program as a solution. I have searched and searched for a free solution, none found. Any hints, help, open source mission control replacements, anything? This thing is slow enough my workflow is getting hampered (I'll switch back and fourth a lot comparing data).

I'm really hopeful for some guru who can figure this out. How can we implement this for free?

Try going to System Preferences - Accessibility - Display, and tick Reduce motion.


infection in ~Library/Application Support/Mobilesync/Backup/xxxxx ClamX is finding phishing infection in the Backup folder on my MacBook Pro with 10.7.

~Library/Application Support/Mobilesync/Backup/xxxxxxxx

Does this mean that either my iPhone or Mac is infected?

I realize I can delete these files, but is that enough?

What's the risk and what's the resolution?

It does not mean that your Mac or iPhone is infected and you should not delete the file.

From Wikipedia:

  Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

So ClamAV has found a spoofed email stored somewhere in your iPhone Backup. Unless you clicked on the the links in the email, that's no problem.

However, if you delete the file, you will break the backup of your iPhone.

The best solution is to either:

tell ClamAV not to scan the folder; or
tell iTunes to encrypt your iPhone backups so that ClamAV won't be able to scan them.


Deleting files with applescript messes up Finder's CoverFlow I wrote myself a little script to delete JPG+RAW files by just reviewing my JPG (who loads faster thant CR2).
I've put the following code in an Automator service bound to a keyboard shortcut.
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
    set myFile to item 1 of input
    set {dispName, nameExt} to the {displayed name, name extension} of myFile
    set extLength to length of nameExt
    set nameWithoutExt to (characters 1 thru ((length of dispName) - extLength) of dispName) -- with the . at the end
    set rawfile to ((parent of myFile as string) & nameWithoutExt & "CR2") as string

    set fileIndex to index of myFile

    delete every item in {myFile, rawfile}

    select file fileIndex of window 1
end tell
end run

It works well but it seems to mess with Finder's cover flow : The pictures are not deleted in the coverflow. As you can see i'm a the bottom of the list and coverflow show more picture than there are in the directory (as multiple deletions reduces the size of the list but not the size of the coverflow).

Any idea why ? Is that maybe a bug in Mavericks ? Or am I missing something ?
Edit : Well I just got the same behavior using Command+<-. Maybe a bug of Finder in Mavericks ?

have a look:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23487157#23487157

or

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5471251

Its an issue from Mavericks (Finder)


What generates this message to update? I'm on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and iOS 14.1.  This AM when I connected my iPhone to Mac, I got this pop up.  It is not something I see re: regular updates - never gotten it before.  I just X'd through it and continued as usual. I recently synced the other week with all the same software and didnt get it.  Have not made any os or ios updates or changes to warrant message.  I did use the Learn More linkbut did not get any useful info from Apple other than then saying its needed to connect - which is is NOT as i X'd through it and was able to connect.  What is it for?  Whats it mean?  Anyone else get one?

Not a definitive answer, but anecdotally…
It's happened on every Mac here that is linked to an iOS device, on first connect after 14.1/14.2 [we held off 14 for a while]
Why, idk, but yes, something changed [or is about to change once you do update to 14] in the phone/pad that needs a macOS/iTunes update.
No Catalina here, but his happened on both High Sierra & Mojave Macs. I had assumed, prior to your question, the it was because we weren't up to date on macOS itself, but it seems not to be the case.


Rent foreign language films in iTunes It’s now pretty well-established that you cannot change the language of the iTunes store unless you also change your billing address.

Fair enough.

But the language setting also dominates the contents of the store completely. I.e. I cannot download films that, though available in the US, have not (yet) appeared on DVD in Germany (having a German billing address).

This is annoying.

But it gets worse: apparently I also cannot rent/buy the original version of most DVDs that are available.

When I buy a DVD in Germany, it always also contains the original voice track. No reason not to include it, after all. Since most film translations are sloppy and generally just incredibly poorly done, and since even the well done translations necessarily lose some of the finer nuances, I always try to watch the original versions of films of which I understand the language, and I know a lot of people who do the same.

So this must be a common request.

Is there any way to rent/buy the original version of the available iTunes films?

Short (and only) answer: No, you cannot rent or buy movies in other languages. I share the same problem in Spain, movies are dubbed in spanish.

Matrix sounds hilarious in spanish, trust me.

There's no way to change that. The only solution is -like you've said- switch to the US Store, but that requires billing address changes and all the hurdles involved in that.


problem with messages I got a message from my bf on my iphone and could reply as normal, but when I sent a picture, a new thread was added in my inbox. The same thing happened when I deleted both of the threads and wrote a new message. The one I sent was there and when he replied, another thread was suddenly in the inbox. Why does this happen?

When you open your Pictures app, select the picture you would like to send, and then select send in an email, it doesn't know that it "should" be part of the previous thread. It is a new email. If it was added to the thread, then technically, any email that you send to him should part of the same thread. Unfortunately, even if you type the same Subject in as the thread, it will still not show in that thread.


Applescript to set non focus tab in safari I made a script to find an tab based on it's URL and set a new URL (the tab is not focused)

tell application "Safari"
    set topWindows to every window whose name is not ""
    set numWindows to the number of topWindows
    set didFind to false
    set targetUrl to "https://www.apple.com"

    repeat with x from 1 to numWindows
        set numTabs to the number of tabs in window x
        repeat with y from 1 to numTabs
            set tabUrl to the URL of tab y of window x
            if tabUrl contains targetUrl then
                set didFind to true
                tell window x to set current tab to tab y
            end if
        end repeat
    end repeat

end tell

set myLink to "https://www.apple.fr"

tell application "Safari"
    tell front window
        set URL of tab y to myLink
    end tell
end tell

The correct tab is found, the index is found, but it's seems to always open the URL in a the latest tab instead of the existing tab

how can I fix this?

set targetUrl to "https://www.apple.com"
use currentApp : application "Safari"
set _T to a reference to (every tab of every window of currentApp whose ¬
    URL contains targetUrl)

if (count _T) > 0 then return viewTab(_T)
end

to viewTab(aURL)
    set [aURL] to aURL
    set W to the first window of currentApp whose tabs contains aURL

    set current tab of W to aURL
    activate currentApp
    set the index of W to 1
end viewTab

Source


OS X Mavericks vs Yosemite Performance I am using a 2013 MacBook Air and considering to upgrade from 10.9 to 10.10. Is there a performance gain after the upgrade? Is Yosemite faster than Mavericks, say, regarding UI responsiveness?

Quick answer: NO. Yosemite isn't faster than Mavericks.
I don't say that the performance is worse. The oldest is the computer most noticeable is the difference. But, on a 2013 computer, it should be the same, or nearly the same, on both machines. Anyway, there are things you can do to improve it (How to Improve OS X Yosemite Performance).
What I noticed, is that is quite more efficiently on batteries.


How can I keep B&O Z2 consistently connected to Airplay? I use this excellent airplay speaker and iOS device for streaming music from Spotify. Unfortunately, the connection to Airplay reverts (timeout?) to the iPhone 6 Plus speaker after a short time. I would like it to connect by default to the Z2 and stay connected. Any ideas?

I haven't been able to accomplish this without additional equipment. It seems that the networking in the Z2 is faulty. I instead connect an AirPort Express aux port to the Z2 aux port and airplay to the AirPort (after enabling airplay in the airport settings). The AirPort streams perfectly without dropping the connection and the Z2 still sounds great over aux. It'll stay connected as long as you're on the same wifi network.


macOS Sierra 10.12 ghost window space After installing macOS Sierra 10.12, I have started seeing these ghost windows across the top of the screen. Unfortunately they are appearing at random and I can not determine if this is the OS, a specific application, or a general bug of some kind.

Has anyone else come across this and a way to fix it without rebooting your Mac?

Example:

Updates

I have tried restarting finder...
It seems to occur after the screen saver is initiated but I can not confirm...

Plan of Attack

Next time is occurs I am planning on running through all of these commands.

Force quit Finder.app using this method:

Terminal: "killall Finder"

or

hold the Option key and right click on the Finder icon in the dock. Select "Relaunch"