How can I make OS X recognize new file extensions? In Finder.app, you can hit Enter to edit the name of the currently selected file or folder.

OS X will automatically select only the file name part, not the extension:

This is very useful, because that way you can just start typing the new name, without worrying about accidentally changing the file extension.

However, this only seems to work for “known” file types. If you try it with an unknown extension, the whole file name (including the extension) gets selected:

I tried mapping an application that can open all .bar files via ⌘+I → “Change All”, but I still get the behavior described above.

Where is the list of “known” file types stored? Is there a way to make OS X recognize new file types?

UTIs and Launch Services

  Where is the list of “known” file types stored?

The official term for "file types" is
Uniform Type Identifiers
(UTIs), and the database of UTIs is maintained by
Launch Services.

Using the Terminal,
you can view the contents of the Launch Services database using the lsregister tool, which is stored at:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister

Instead of specifying that long path every time you want to run lsregister, you can temporarily add its directory to your PATH:

PATH=/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support:"$PATH"

and then you can run lsregister by simply entering:

lsregister

To view the contents of the Launch Services database:

lsregister -dump

Declaring New UTIs

  Is there a way to make OS X recognize new file types?

This Apple article,
"Declaring New Uniform Type Identifiers",
provides useful information on how to do this. Here's the complete process:

1. Create a dummy application

Create a dummy application to register with Launch Services:

Open AppleScript Editor (located in OS X's Utilities folder).
Save a new empty script somewhere (eg: on your Desktop), setting its File Format to Application.

2. Open its Info.plist file

Locate your new dummy application in the Finder.
Right-click on it, and select Show Package Contents from the popup menu.
Open its Contents folder.
Open the Info.plist file in a text editor (eg: TextEdit).

3. Add your new UTI

There's a choice of two keys:

UTExportedTypeDeclarations – for your own custom filename extensions.
UTImportedTypeDeclarations – for filename extensions which already exist but aren't recognised by OS X.

Choose the key which is most appropriate for your needs.

Then in the Info.plist file, before the final two lines (</dict></plist>), add this code:

<key>KEY</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>UTTypeIdentifier</key>
        <string>IDENTIFIER</string>
        <key>UTTypeTagSpecification</key>
        <dict>
            <key>public.filename-extension</key>
            <array>
                <string>EXTENSION</string>
            </array>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</array>

making the following changes:

Replace KEY with your chosen key (either UTExportedTypeDeclarations or UTImportedTypeDeclarations).
Replace IDENTIFIER with a suitable reverse-DNS identifier:

Exported – Something like com.mycompany.mytype
Imported – For id Software's
Doom WAD format, a suitable identifier would be com.idsoftware.wad

Replace EXTENSION with the filename extension (without the leading dot), eg: wad.

This is the minimum code necessary for Launch Services to accept your new UTI.
You can also add the following optional properties:

UTTypeConformsTo – See the Appendix below.
UTTypeDescription – A user-visible description, which will be displayed in the Finder.
UTTypeIconFile – If you add an Apple Icon Image
file to the Contents/Resources folder in your dummy application, and add its filename in this property,
then files which have your new filename extension will use this icon.
UTTypeReferenceURL – The URL of a reference document describing this type.

Here's a complete example showing all the optional properties:

<key>UTImportedTypeDeclarations</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>UTTypeIdentifier</key>
        <string>com.idsoftware.wad</string>
        <key>UTTypeTagSpecification</key>
        <dict>
            <key>public.filename-extension</key>
            <array>
                <string>wad</string>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <key>UTTypeConformsTo</key>
        <array>
            <string>public.data</string>
        </array>
        <key>UTTypeDescription</key>
        <string>Doom WAD file</string>
        <key>UTTypeIconFile</key>
        <string>DoomWAD.icns</string>
        <key>UTTypeReferenceURL</key>
        <string>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_WAD</string>
    </dict>
</array>

4. Register your new UTI with Launch Services

Run this command in the Terminal:

lsregister <PATH_TO_APP>

replacing <PATH_TO_APP> with the path to your dummy application, eg:

lsregister ~/Desktop/MyDummyApp.app

If you now create a file with your new filename extension, and then select it in the Finder
and hit Enter, the Finder should automatically select only the filename part, not the extension.

If you view the contents of the Launch Services database:

lsregister -dump

you should find your new UTI listed:

type    id:            50364
        bindableKey:   12608
        generation:    1
        uti:           com.idsoftware.wad
        description:   Doom WAD file
        flags:         imported  active  apple-internal  untrusted
        icon:          DoomWAD.icns
        conforms to:   public.data
        tags:          .wad

If you later want to unregister your new UTI, pass the -u option to lsregister:

lsregister -u ~/Desktop/MyDummyApp.app

Appendix: UTI hierarchy and conformance

OS X declares a hierarchy of UTIs which are listed here:
System-Declared Uniform Type Identifiers.

Here are a few UTIs in the hierarchy:

public.content

public.text

public.rtf
public.html
public.xml
public.plain-text
public.source-code

public.c-source
public.c-header
com.sun.java-source

public.image

public.jpeg
public.tiff
public.png

public.audiovisual-content

public.movie
public.audio

Each UTI "conforms to" its parent UTI:

  For example, the UTI public.html, which defines HTML text, conforms to the
  base text identifier, public.text. In this case, conformance lets applications
  that can open general text files identify HTML files as ones it can open as well.
  (ref)

When creating a new UTI, it's a good idea to set the UTTypeConformsTo property to one
of the existing UTIs.

For example, if your new UTI is a type of source code,
then you should set the UTTypeConformsTo property to public.source-code,
so that it can be opened by any applications which can open
public.source-code or public.plain-text or public.text files.


Are there more robust tools than Automator to extract text from multiple PDF? There is an action in Automator that allows you to programmatically "Extract PDF Text", but it fails when fed a moderate amount of files (25 to 100). Worse, it fails without logging anything helpful except for a message that "Automator Quit Unexpectedly".

Does anyone know of an equivalent command for doing this in Applescript? I am looking for tools where I have more control over things like logging and error handling so I can be more efficient in processing PDF files into a text format.

I don't know how it compares against other options, but you could use pdfotext. It can be installed with brew install xpdf.

do shell script "/usr/local/bin/pdftotext /usr/share/doc/bash/bash.pdf -" without altering line endings

Calibre also comes with some command line utilities:

/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert /usr/share/doc/bash/bash.pdf /tmp/output.txt

Related questions:

How to convert a pdf file into a text file?
PDF to TEXT open source command line tool
How to extract text from pdf in script on Linux?


In the workout app, What is the difference between an outdoor walk & and an outdoor run Device: Apple Watch (Series 3)
OS: Watch OS 4.3

What is measured differently between the two workouts? Don't both detect movement by GPS coordinates?  Based on movement + age, height, weight, heart-rate it should be able to compute calories burned.  Right?

So why do we have two different workouts?  Apple workout apps page doesn't provide the answer.

Based on movement + age, height, weight, heart-rate it should be able to compute calories burned. Right?

Not to a great deal of accuracy. A fit person's heart will tend to beat slower than an unfit person's heart even if they're the same age, weight and height.

Knowing your stride length will improve the accuracy. The page mentions calibration. The walking calibration may be kept separate from the running calibration.


I created a new folder on the terminal and is not shown in the finder I came across this issue in my new mac book pro. I created a folder using iterm and I have some content on it (I cloned a git repo). When I go to finder I don't see it.

So maybe I'm not in the right folder... but I tried to create the folder in the finder and I get the "folder already exists" error but still I don't see it.

Im using mojave 10.14.1

One of the most probable cause for this to happen is that you inadvertently entered a name which the Finder isn't able to display correctly (or doesn't display to protect us from the complexity of the underlying Unix filesystem).

To check this hypothesis, please from iTerm go into the parent directory of the one you created let's say its name is foo bar and enter:

ls -aBdl 'foo bar'

The -B option will display any non printable character as a \xxx where xxx is the octal value of the non printable character.
This option is very helpful to deal with filenames which cause problems to shells and graphical interfaces like the Finder.


Mac Pro cd drive stuck open I just got a brand new mac pro. I opened the cd drive with the eject button on the keyboard, and then went to close it the same way, the cd drive goes in, but the metal gate doesn't come back up. What can i do?

It's likely the case will have to be replaced. I've fixed this before by lightly tapping on the area below the gate, but it's a recurring thing.

You can also slide the optical drive housing out and take a look at the mechanism that raises and lowers the gate. Try manually pulling it up and down a few times.


Apple Music play count not syncing between iPhone and iTunes I'm running Apple Music on my mac and iPhone. I have an album in My Music, so the plays should be syncing, but the play count is not being effected by music played on my phone. Is there any trip to let the play count sync between devices? I know that the "love" are device specific, but I thought that play count should sync because it worked before Apple Music.

Thanks

I can only get it to sync when I plug my iPhone to iTunes and sync it manually.


How can I reduce the volume of music on my iPhone? Some songs on my iPhone are quite loud. I've got the volume on the lowest step, but it's still too loud.

I'm using Apple's in-ear headset; perhaps it's simply louder than the regular one. At least I can play music at a much lower volume with it, so the "perceived" volume of the songs is louder.

I have already turned on "Sound Check" in the Settings. That helped some already, but not enough.

How can I reduce the volume even further?

Without resorting to using an audio program to normalize the tracks  (which you might eventually have to do if you want to make it “the right way™”), you can select the track(s) you want to lower in iTunes and CMD + i to “get info”, go to the Options tab and manually reduce the track’s volume.

You can have multiple track selections and the adjustment will apply to all the selected tracks.

I am not 101% sure if this is carried over the iPhone/iPad (although it should). If that’s not the case, you will need an Audio Editor like Amadeus Pro (there might be others, I happen to have that one and it’s very good, but might be overkill for what you need).

In your favorite editor, open the mp3 (or whatever format you have) and find the Audio Effect usually called Normalize and lower the dBs:

If you have to modify a lot of tracks, Amadeus Pro has a nice Batch Processor which is some sort of “automator” home made.

  The powerful batch processor allows you not only to convert large numbers of files between any of the supported formats, but you can also instruct Amadeus Pro to apply any sequence of sound effects.

See how I have added a Normalize −15dB to the “actions”.:

note: I don’t work for HairerSoft or Amadeus. There might be other editors (some freeware) that do the same thing, but the idea is the same. I know this one does it and excellently because I have it. :)


Is it legal to install one copy of Final Cut Pro X on six different Macs owned by six different people? I am wondering if it is legal and/or possible to buy a copy of Final Cut Pro X and then share the disk and the cost with five other people?

No. This would violate the license agreement between you and Apple when you purchase the software.

Second, there is no such thing as an installation DVD for Final Cut Pro X. You would have to purchase it as a download and install and register it through the Mac App Store, and I don't think you would be able to use your single Mac App Store log-in account on six computers owned by six different people who are not family members of yours.


Activating my locked iPhone after wrong passcode I can't use my iPhone any longer after my son wrongly entered my passcode to unlock my phone and I am finding it difficult to activate it after his action. How can I get it working again?

Unfortunately, in order to restore an iPhone that was disabled by failed passcode attempts, you will lose all data. Anyways, here's the article which shows how to accomplish this.


Can you determine exactly when iMac was disconnected from power? (This is not just question about when a normal power failure occurred)

My 2017 iMac was stolen today during a break-in, but the internal hard drive was dead so it was running off of an external SSD. They unplugged everything including the external drive and left it behind. I'm trying to figure out if there is a system log that keeps an ongoing record with enough time resolution to figure out close to exactly when the power was unplugged.

I can't boot it up, but I can look through the file system on another Mac. I was able to find a couple of plist files updated most recently, but it only gives me a several-hour window and I'd like to get more accurate if possible. I'm was running Catalina and I'm not able to find anything more recent in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

Are there any very low-level system processes that might have a record? Something like cron (though I wasn't running any scheduled jobs)?

You would need to look through the system log for the last "Shutdown Cause" code.

There won't be anything in cron because it was deprecated in favor of launchd.  However, launchd (or cron) wouldn't be of help because those logs show when things are started or error out, seldom do they show when things are shutdown - especially if powered off properly (no error)

To search the log, use the following command:

$ log show --predicate "process == kernel" | grep -i "shutdown cause"

See this answer for further details on how to search the log.


Not booting after replacing the SuperDrive with SSD I am having trouble after replacing my iMac's SuperDrive with a Solid State Drive (SSD).

I kept the original Hard Disk Drive (HDD) in place. I configured the SDD as the main startup disk and I transferred all the libraries in HDD.

The malfunction is that in the process of rebooting the iMac turns off.

Booting into safe mode the Disk Utility shows the new SSD drive is full, although before rebooting it has used only 90GB out of 480GB. I do the same procedure again, clean install of macOS 10.12, and again the same problem. Any ideas please for solution of this malfunction?

I have to say that if I do not reboot the iMac, it runs excellently, and the SSD drive has the same empty capacity 90GB used out of 480GB.

iMac 21" 2009/late. SSD Kingston 480Gb / macOS 10.12, Sierra.

I configured the SDD as the main startup disk and I transferred all
  the libraries in HDD.

How exactly did you transfer the libraries?!
Note, that Disk Utility.app (if used) does not create a bootable HDD backup!

There are different ways to clone/transfer the entire content of your previous installed main HDD. The following applications will allow exact and bootable drives/disk images.

Option 01: Carbon Cloner creates a bootable drive/volume

Option 02: CloneX4 allows you to make a bootable copy of your startup disk, as well as if you want to change your hard disk. Clone X will create a perfect bootable copy of your startup disk, or of any of your other disks. Clone X automatically handles all settings needed to make a correct bootable copy.


When does the arp cache get emptied? does anyone know when the arp cache in OS X Lion gets emptied? Or which automatism causes it to get emptied? Is it a time period, which can be set somewhere?

Thanks!

According to arp(4) on an OS X Lion system:

 The ARP cache is stored in the system routing table as dynamically-created host
 routes.  The route to a directly-attached Ethernet network is installed as a
 ``cloning'' route (one with the RTF_CLONING flag set), causing routes to individual
 hosts on that network to be created on demand.  These routes time out periodically
 (normally 20 minutes after validated; entries are not validated when not in use).

You can manually manage the ARP table using the arp command.


Which app was removed by iOS 10 update? When updating from iOS 9 to iOS 10 on an iPhone 6S Plus, I noticed an app icon disappearing from a custom folder with all the iOS native apps inside. I couldn't remember which one it was, and some serious googling didn't reveal anything, either. I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with HomeKit/Home.

Does anyone know for sure?

You're right Christian, I didn't even notice it but the gamecenter app has been removed.
It is stated under gamekit in the IOS 10.0 releasenotes
Apparently it won't be missed by many :)


Sync contacts with mountain lion mac contact list How do I sync mountain lion contact list to yahoo contact list?

This is explained in detail on the yahoo! help page.

I'll post the original text from the help page here:

  Description

  This article explains how to synchronize your Mac OS Address Book app to Yahoo! Contacts on your Mac for versions of Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") and newer.

  Resolution

  You can sync Yahoo! Contacts with Mac Address Book.

  Note: Only Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") and newer support the sync feature. To check what version of Mac OS X you've got, select the Apple | About This Mac.

  How to sync your contacts with Mac Address Book:

  Open the Mac OS Address Book app.
  Go to Address Book | Preferences.
  Select Accounts | On My Mac.
  Check the checkbox for Synchronize with Yahoo!.
  Tap Agree for the Terms of Service.
  Type your Yahoo! ID in the Yahoo! ID box.
  Type your password in the Password box.
  Tap OK.


Can I use a mSATA drive to create a Fusion Drive in my iMac? I have a Samsung MZ MPA1280/0D1 128 SSD mSATA drive.

Can I use this to create a Fusion Drive in my 2011 iMac 27" and, if so, what cable will I need in order to connect the mSATA drive properly?

Apparently with this iFixit upgrade kit you can add a second SATA drive:

You'll have two drives as well as a functioning optical drive. All you need is an extra 2.5" SATA drive (not included).


How do I delete network interfaces I am still a little new to the macOS world, so my question might be easily solved.
I have been doing some networking with my MacBook Air and noticed some things I did not understand/thought that they should be different.

When I run ifconfig I see many network adapters, and with many I mean way more than I anticipated.

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
    options=1203<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TXSTATUS,SW_TIMESTAMP>
    inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
    inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether c8:69:cd:af:4f:bc
    inet6 fe80::1832:448c:e682:a8a8%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x5
    inet 152.67.132.28 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 152.67.132.255
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active
en1: flags=922<BROADCAST,SMART,PROMISC,SIMPLEX> mtu 1500
    options=60<TSO4,TSO6>
    ether 9a:00:05:1b:4b:3f
    media: autoselect <full-duplex>
    status: inactive
p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
    ether 0a:69:cd:af:4f:bc
    media: autoselect
    status: inactive
awdl0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1484
    ether fa:1f:bf:37:c7:35
    inet6 fe80::f81f:bfff:fe37:c735%awdl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active
bridge0: flags=8822<BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6>
    ether 9a:00:05:1b:4b:3f
    Configuration:
        id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0
        maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200
        root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0
        ipfilter disabled flags 0x2
    member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER>
            ifmaxaddr 0 port 6 priority 0 path cost 0
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
    media: <unknown type>
    status: inactive
utun0: flags=8050<POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 2000
    inet6 fe80::4974:b78a:7731:c82a%utun0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xa
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
utun1: flags=8050<POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1380
    inet6 fe80::9ffc:672f:768f:f232%utun1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xb
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
utun2: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1380
    inet6 fe80::733c:91be:79df:7b4b%utun2 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc
    nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>

lo0 and en0 are clear to me but the others are not.  However, What are the different internet connection types used by ifconfig and ipconfig? and Unexpected interfaces in ifconfig have cleared a lot of this up for me.

However, when I started writing this I only had utun0 and utun1 and now utun2 has appeared!

What I'd like to know is: Can I disable/remove them since I seem to not use them? If so, how?

ifconfig delete doesn't seem to work and ifconfig up/downhas no effect.

These are for the most part physical network adapters which exist within your computer. Even if you remove them all from System Preferences --> Network, ifconfig will still report them all.

Here's the default list for a MBP 2011 17 inch:

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
    inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=10b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,AV>
    ether c8:2a:14:33:ca:46
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect (none)
    status: inactive
en1: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether e4:ce:8f:2g:c7:aa
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect (<unknown type>)
    status: inactive
en2: flags=963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX> mtu 1500
    options=60<TSO4,TSO6>
    ether d2:00:1d:b8:61:60
    media: autoselect <full-duplex>
    status: inactive
fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078
    lladdr c8:2a:14:ff:fe:cb:96:16
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect <full-duplex>
    status: inactive
p2p0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
    ether 06:ce:8f:2f:b7:aa
    media: autoselect
    status: inactive
bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6>
    ether ca:2a:18:23:ea:00
    Configuration:
        id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0
        maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200
        root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0
        ipfilter disabled flags 0x2
    member: en2 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER>
            ifmaxaddr 0 port 6 priority 0 path cost 0
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: <unknown type>
    status: inactive
en4: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=4<VLAN_MTU>
    ether 08:6d:41:e6:e7:46
    inet6 fe80::a6d:41ff:fee6:e748%en4 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc
    inet 192.168.1.13 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex,flow-control>)
    status: active

I ran ifconfig both before and after deleting almost all the network connections. The results were exactly the same.

This is the default configuration with six listed interfaces

This is the default configuration with six listed interfaces

As I mentioned the ifconfig output was exactly identical whether the interfaces had been deleted or not.

If you'd like to go deeper networksetup gives you more human readable output. For instance networksetup -listallhardwareports yields:

Hardware Port: Ethernet
Device: en0
Ethernet Address: c8:2a:14:33:ca:46

Hardware Port: Apple USB Ethernet Adapter
Device: en4
Ethernet Address: 08:6d:41:e6:e7:48

Hardware Port: FireWire
Device: fw0
Ethernet Address: c8:2a:14:ff:fe:cb:96:16

Hardware Port: Wi-Fi
Device: en1
Ethernet Address: e4:ce:8f:2f:b7:aa

Hardware Port: Bluetooth PAN
Device: en3
Ethernet Address: e4:ce:8f:2f:b7:ab

Hardware Port: Thunderbolt 1
Device: en2
Ethernet Address: d2:00:1c:b9:61:60

Hardware Port: Thunderbolt Bridge
Device: bridge0
Ethernet Address: ca:2a:14:33:ea:00

VLAN Configurations

While you can't add or remove hardware ports with networksetup, you can enable and disable devices with networksetup -removepreferredwirelessnetwork <device name> <network>

You can get a full list of the available networksetup commands with man networksetup and some nice examples.

If you really want to disable the hardware completely so it doesn't show up, get out your Torx screwdrives and a solder gun. Why would someone want to do so? For the same reasons, one might disconnect iSight Camera or the microphone. If you aren't going to use an interface (particularly a wireless one), it's a constant security hasard.

For VMware and other virtual machines, you'll want to remove their .kext extensions which install virtual interfaces. While I'm on board for disconnecting microphones and video cameras, I don't think removing network interfaces would help much as your computer is vulnerable as soon as it's online. If I did want a truly secure computer, I'd make sure it simply had no networking hardware inside or on the motherboard. This probably means stepping back a few generations.

This kind of secure box should then be kept in a physically secure location. I know a lawyer with a safe room in his office where just such a computer stands. It never touches the internet or any other networking device. If he wants copy out of it, he doesn't use a removable device such as a USB card or a floppy drive. He prints. If he wants a digital version, someone scans and OCR's the printed output.


macOS Catalina creates "Relocated Items" on every update I am running two new Mac's that both were delivered in 2020 with macOS 10.15 Catalina installed (2017 iMac Pro delivered in 2020 and the new 2020 MacBook Air).

On update from 10.15.4 -> 10.15.5 both of these Macs created Relocated Items and wiped out my the contents of my /etc and /var directories.

My understanding is that this behavior is not expected for Catalina -> Catalina updates. The documentation on Relocated Items seems to apply mostly to Mojave -> Catalina.

On the iMac Pro, I was also redirected to the full setup procedure because /var/db/.AppleSetupDone was moved. This was also moved on the MacBook Air, so I'm not sure why I didn't see it there as well.

My conjecture is that this has to do with my use of synthetic.conf to create a link from /p that points to /Volumes. This is to map directories between system when I connect to a smb drive on a linux computer. But I can't see why this would cause any issues as it is supported mechanism.

Why I think this may be related. The relocated items show in the directory: /Users/Shared/Relocated Items/Security/System/Volumes/Data/rivate which seems like a misspelling of "private" without the "p", which is my only clue. (Although, this seems like it would indicate something surprisingly sloppy in the coding...)
Also /Volumes/System/Data/private contains etc and var which are precisely the folders that are causing me problems.

Other software that is impacted includes MacTex 2020 (which installs its paths in /etc). This also wipes out all the printers I install (because they put stuff into /etc as well).

Possibly related...

Setup Assistant Runs on Every Restart

I ran the permissions to see if this has any impact on my next update.

Any ideas would be helpful!

I also experienced this problem over several Catalina and Big Sur updates.
I too had a /p link defined in /etc/synthetic.conf
I too noticed the rivate misspelling.

So before updating to macOS 11.4 today, I rebooted in recovery mode and removed my synthetic.conf. The update then installed normally, without blowing away my /var and /etc directories and without running the new installation setup. I conclude that having a /p link does cause this problem.


command + delete in terminal Often, when I'm typing in a super long command(usually ruby on rails console code), I decide that I need to do something else first and therefore, have to delete the command which I just typed(but not executed) on the terminal. Is there a shortcut to do this? command+delete and option+delete do not work. The down arrow works sporadically.

If it helps, I'm on The El Capitan Developer Preview 3 but I've noticed this behaviour on Yosemite as well.

If you are using emacs keybindings (default for bash, zsh, pry (ruby interpreter), python and many more), ^u (control + u) might be what you want - it erases everything prior to your cursor. If you want to stop writing the command and forget what you did, use ^c (control + c), which is, by the way, a SIGKILL(9) signal (see man signal).

By the way, the keybindings not only work on OS X 10.11, but also on all Unix-like systems I've ever seen.


Can I control my iPhone from my Mac? I want to play mobile games on my Mac. How do I do that? I have been seeing a lot of iPhones controlling Macs. Where is the Mac controlling the iPhone?

You cannot do it. iPhone are deisnged in a way so that you can't control them externally. Emulation is impossible, iPhone is locked from being reverse engineered. You can still emulate Android apps (many of iOS games are available on Android too) and you would not even need an Android phone. The best program for doing so is BlueStacks: http://BlueStacks.com/


Google authenticator iOS app crash / fails to load after iOS 14.2 update When I tap the app, it immediately crashes. I don't want to delete and reinstall the app because I am scared to lose my tokens.

You have to reinstall the application without deleting it:

Go to Settings > iPhone Storage
Find Authenticator
Tap "Offload App"
After the process tap "Re-install App"

This provides to remove and install the application part, not your data/tokens. Your data remains.
I tried and succeeded on iPhone XS iOS 14.2.


New MacBook Pro 13" Red spot on the screen I purchased a brand new 13" MacBook Pro from Pakistan,Asia 2 days ago.

The screen has a red spot near the middle. What could be the cause of this?

And what shall I do in this case? Has anyone encountered a similar issue?

Looks like the anti-glare coating on your MacBook's screen is damaged. You should take it back to the store and ask for service or the anti-glare coating replacement.


easy way to manage VMware ESXi on Mac OS X I'm a VMware guy, running a dozen of ESXi ... and i'm also a mac user and I've had it with launching VMware Fusion to boot my Win7 to work on vSphere client...

Am I missing something? Sys Admins and Solution Architects are using Linux/Mac more and more ... Is there anyway that i can do that without having to rely on rdesktop and other unreliable workarounds?

If you've got access to vCenter, then you can administer your servers via the vCenter Web Access page. Otherwise, if you have any Windows VMs then you could install the vSphere client in there and remote-desktop into it as a standalone application.


Copy new files only - is this possible? Basically want to merge two folders I have a folder on Drive 1 called Music, and it is 100GB. I have a folder on Drive 2 called Music, and it is 116GB. It's the most updated version. How do I copy the Music folder from Drive 2 to Drive 1 without having to rewrite every single file?

This is a classic use case for rsync:

rsync -av /source-path/source-dir /destination-path

rsync will copy only new and changed files to the new location.

It is important to understand how a trailing slash on the source argument functions.  If there is a trailing slash then the contents of /source-path/source-dir will be copied to destination-path.  If there is no trailing slash then source-dir itself will be copied to the destination and its contents will be another level down in the destination hierarchy.

So if you want to replicate one path to another include the trailing slash as follows:

rsync -av /sourcepath/sourcedir/ /duplicatpath/sourcedir/


Ditto command and wildcard on Catalina? I've learnt a bit about ditto and tried this:
mkdir testingdir

ditto myfile.css testingdir

which seemed to work.
How could I ditto one file , e.g. myfile.css to several folders within testingdir, e.g. dir1, dir2, dir3 using zsh on Catalina?
Learning about ditto and tried Google'ing but am not sure.

You need to use a for loop for this (works in both zsh and bash):
for target in "dir1" "dir2" "dir3"; do
    ditto -- "myfile.css" "testingdir/$target"
done

If the target directories are actually called dir1 etc you can use wildcard expansion
for target in dir[1-3]; do
    ditto -- "myfile.css" "testingdir/$target"
done


Hard reset and restore of iPad from a 2nd desktop computer? I'm maintaining a series of iPads used in kiosk context for a client. Occasionally the  iPads become 'locked' and require a hard reset and restore from my Mac which was used for the original deploy.
My question is, can I somehow allow the unlocking and restore on a 2nd desktop (the client's) Mac? Isn't the iPad 'tied' to just one Mac, the one used for the original deploy? Or am I mistaken?

If you are resetting these things and then restoring then from a saved local backup that second part is tied to your Mac.

You can reset an iPad to its "factory fresh" state from any Mac/PC, but you might not be able to reset an iPad to your desired "factory fresh eco_bach kiosk" state from any but yours.


Reset SMC: Can I use "SMCFlasher.efi -reset 1"? I'm in a situation where I don't have working internal shift+ctrl+alt-keys and thusly unable to perform SMC-reset.

Related to others' issues with SMC-updates, there are instructions for re-flashing the firmware using rEFIt and utilities extracted from the official updater. One of the steps are:

SmcFlasher.efi -reset 1

With the description

  First need to get the SMC into the right state.
  "SmcFlasher.efi -reset 1".
  Your MBP fans should now quiet down.

Source

This is indicative of an SMC-reset.

Does anyone have experience with using this command? Does it in fact reset SMC, or is it a potentially destructive command?

I can verify that this procedure does indeed reset SMC. It will give a warning-message, but this is unrelated. Fans, charging and everything else goes back to normal, as with a keyboard-triggered SMC-reset.


Jailbreak iPhone 5 with 10.1.1 Someone stole my phone today so I went and got a "new" older phone.  An iPhone 5.  It came with iOS 10.1.1 installed and I was wondering if there is a jailbreak for this?

I've been looking on Google and have tried a few different methods but they all seem to be fake and only install a "Cydia demo".

Can anyone point me towards finding a legitimate jailbreak or is non available?

Edit: You can now use h3lix by tihmstar to jailbreak 10.x on all 32 bit devices(computer required).

At this time you cannot jailbreak the iPhone 5 on iOS 10.1.1.

If you watched the video by EverythingApplePro, he said that the jailbreak currently doesn't work on iPhone 5(because it is a 32-bit only jailbreak). Right now, even if the jailbreak did work on iPhone 5, you won't be able to install anything YET.

Be on the watchout for a jailbreak for iPhone 5, but there are low chances of the iPhone 5 getting a jailbreak(on 10.1.1). I recommend the Youtube channels iCrackUriDevice and EverythingApplePro. It is recommended you stay on 10.1.1, because that has the most possibilities for a jailbreak.


Native 5k resolution in Windows 10 on retina iMac Is it possible to run the native 5k resolution on my retina iMac when using the official Windows 10 bootcamp? Right now, it seems to be capped at 4k. I have the 4.0 GHz i7 with the m295x GPU.

It is as of TODAY - well, for me at least. I have been stuck to 4K for as long as everyone else had, but early this morning the Apple Update utility asked to install a new version of Bootcamp drivers. I let it do its thing and... voila. Native 5K res on the next boot!

Don't know if it had anything to do with Microsoft's own November Update for Windows 10, but I am truly happy it did happen at last (I had given up hope to be honest). Just make sure that you do NOT let a later version of AMD's drivers overwrite these, as it's likely to return the resolution to 4K. I know I won't.


Error while connecting to computer I restarted my ipad becasue cannot access to my email accounts, went off showing a no stop wheel and connect to my computer a message comes "unknown error QxE8000065

You will need to restore your iPad.  Hold down the top and bottom buttons till the screen goes black and you see the Apple symbol.  Then follow the instructions on this page http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1808  to restore your iOS.   I think once you do this and re-sync your ipad a lot of your problems (that you have posted about on here today) will be resolved.


Bose® MIE2i mobile headset 's volume control stopped working with IOS8 Bose® MIE2i mobile headset worked great with my iPod Touch since iOS7.. for last one month. After I upgraded to iOS8, it stopped working (Volume control).

But I tested with my iMac, it still works as expected. It doesn't make sense to me. A software upgrade impacts this? I have raised a complaint to bose as well. Just curious, it took 9.3K indian rupees for me!

Update: Looks like am not the only one impacted! - Apple Community

So far we concluded it is a iOS- 8 issue.

My online chat with Bose support came with same result, it is not a Bose problem.

It is not officially confirmed by Apple, but sure they are working on a fix already.


Unknown item "Nike + ipod" in Settings I wish to know what the purpose of item "Nike + ipod" is in the Settings app on my iPhone?

It's ready for you to connect to a Nike exercise wristband.
It's a core structure & can't be deleted. It's been there since about iOS 4/5.

If you update to iOS 8.2 you'll find there's a new app too, ready to connect to your shiny new Apple Watch… if you ever think of buying one…. again, a core app, can't be deleted.


iOS 7 Change Carrier name/logo without Jailbreak I know it was possible in iOS 6 to change the carrier name (or logo) displayed in the status-bar.
Is there any way to do so in iOS 7, without jailbreaking the phone?

You can use Carrier Editor

  CarrierEditor allows you to customise your iOS device’s carrier logo
  Works on Mac OS X 10.6 or greater on any iOS without a jailbreak, but limited to devices that support a carrier.

  CarrierEditor generates a modified version of a carrier update onto your desktop and you simply use iTunes to install it.


Numbers shortcut to jump to next non-empty cell I have just purchased my first Mac and am having problems with Numbers. I want to jump to the next cell in a given direction that is non-empty (or jump to the end of a contiguous chunk of cells that are non-empty). In Excel (on Windows, anyway), you can do this with Ctrl + An Arrow Key. For example, in this little spreadsheet:

    A    B    C    D
1   x              x
2        x         x
3   x    x    x
4   x    x    x    x

if you selected cell A1 and pressed Ctrl+↓, you would jump to A3. If, instead, you pressed Ctrl+→, you would have gone to D1. If you were in A3 when you pressed Ctrl+→, it would take you to C3.

On my Mac, Control + Option + Arrow Key does what I want in Google Spreadsheets. I tried that combination in Numbers, but it  adds a row or column, instead.

Surely there is a way to do this in Numbers; I just can't figure it out. Are there keyboard shortcuts like this in Numbers? If not, is there a way to map a keyboard shortcut to this functionality?

use this AppleScript ▼

--finds next next blank (or non-blank) cell in column
--select starting cell, and run
property searchFor : missing value
tell application "Numbers"
  set t to front document's active sheet's first table whose selection range's class is range
  tell t's selection range
  set currentRow to its first cell's row's address
  set searchCol to its first cell's column's address
  end tell
  tell t's column searchCol
  repeat with i from currentRow + 1 to count cells
  if cell i's value is searchFor then --add not if want to find non-blank
  set t's selection range to cell i
  return
  end if
  end repeat
  end tell
end tell

from  →
how do I move/find the next non empty cel… - Apple Community_2019-09-25


Can any one tell about what kind of issue I am seeing in my Macbook pro 10.12.1, i am seeing verticle lines in one part of screen? When i tried to take screenshot of issue, it is not getting captured.Screen is turning black and then white

It's a hardware fault in the screen. Your MacBook Pro needs its screen replacing.


What is the Home Folder under /Library/Java for? I installed Java 1.7 from the oracle site.  Looking at my folder structure, there is /System/Library/Java and /Library/Java.  Under /Library/Java there is a Home symlink that goes to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home.  I had to point my IDE (IntelliJ) to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home which is a little weird in that there is a Home directory, but that Home is not the same Home as is in Library/Java.

Did I mess something up in my install? Is this symlinked Home gonna mess me up at some point?

The symlinked Home goes to Java 1.6 (which is what I believe Mavericks ships with?), but I have access to 1.7.

No you didn't mess anything up.  My Java 7 is in the same location as yours.  The Home symlink will not mess you up.

BTW you can add this to your .bash_profile to set your java home environment variable

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v1.7 2>/dev/null`


Reclaim unaccessable harddrive space on mojave I installed Mac OS Mojave on a new partition for a clean system. As I tried to merge the APFS container of the old Mac OS with the new APFS container with mojave (following the top comment of this How can I merge primary APFS partition with other empty APFS partition?) I encountered the following problem:

Although my SSD has 500GB storage the accessable storage is only 200GB big. When I try to resize any of the two containers with the command diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 150g I get the following error.

The disk utility app shows this

Using the disk utility app from recovery mode (pressing Cmd + R at startup) yields the same result.

Im out of ideas how to fix this..

Just faced with the same problem. I have Yosemity, separated drive without any OS and Mojave on one SSD 250. And I cant add this free space to my Mojave. only to Yusemity. If I'm not mistaken the problem is that your OS is situated on the end of the disk. I dont know how to describe it correctly, so imagine it takes not 0-50% of SSD, but 51-100%.
IMHO its bullshit, but OSx developers sometimes doing things stupid AF.
Sorry for offtop, so you need to move this drive to the beginning of your SSD and then you can enlarge its space.
Honestly, I haven't fount the sollution yet, and I suppose I will not even search, cuz' its friday's evening=) But I suppose you'll manage that)
I hope it will help you, good luck!


Do not show iMessages on iPhone when using Messages on Macbook Is it possible to somehow temporarily disable iMessages on iPhone when using Messages app on Macbook, I don't like my iPhone to vibrate and wake up on the table all the time when someone sends me a message when I'm chatting through Messages app on Macbook?

I notices, that sometimes it vibrates for 1-2 messages and then it stops for the rest of conversation, but now it's showing almost every message on iPhone

The function of iMessage is to push your messages to all devices. To turn this off, go to Settings > Messages and disable iMessage. However, this is certainly not automatic, and may remove your cache of message from your iPhone.

As a commenter mentioned, keeping the app open on the iPhone will minimize your annoyance.


Connecting new 2014 Mac Mini and 2009 Mac Book Pro thru one VGA display Is it possible to connect my mac Book Pro running 10.8.5 and a new Mac Mini running 10.9.2 Mavericks into one Apple VGA display, so as to be able to switch between desktops?

Both MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini have Mini-DisplayPort on them.
You can connect the Mini-DisplayPort to an Minii-DisplayPort-to-VGA converter and then,
connect VGA cable on it to a two-port VGA DDM KVM switch, such as ConnectPRO's UR-12+.

I had been using this configuration for years without problem.


What does ~/Library/Application\ Support/Knowledge/ folder do? After upgrading to MacOS Sierra, a new folder ~/Library/Application\ Support/Knowledge/ emerged, I'm not sure what it stores

I already tried to google for it, but only got results for Application Support folder.

Any ideas?

knowledge-agent

/usr/libexec/knowledge-agent writes its databases to
~/Library/Application Support/Knowledge and /var/db/CoreDuet/Knowledge.

This is Siri's proactive knowledge functionality. Siri will read data from the services you enable in System Preferences → Siri → Siri Suggestions & Privacy, writing data it finds useful into the database.


Macbook Pro 17" Thunderbolt won't output to LCD I have a Macbook Pro 17-inch Early-2011 model. It is running 10.7.5 and no matter what I do, it does not want to output to an extra display using Thunderbolt (and a Mini Display port to VGA adapter).

Is there anything I can do for my Macbook to detect the extra display? I have tested with a fairly old Fujitsu LCD and a brand new LG one. None of them are detected in Displays.

I have tried:

activating display in Clamshell mode by sleeping (closing lid) and waking MBP up with external keyboard -> NOTHING
download GFXStatus and switching to discrete mode -> NOTHING
tried booting into Clamshell mode -> NOTHING
downloaded all available firmware updates and software updates for Thunderbolt, every time being reminded that I either need 10.8 installed or an earlier version of Lion (10.7.4).

Your help is appreciated.

Based on your hard labor so far :) and that the problem is not the cable.....it is time to try the:

1) Restart the computer in Safe Mode with display attached (shut down and restart while holding down shift key).

The display will show up without distortion.

2) Change the display to desired preferences (dimensions and refresh rate).

3) Restart computer.

================================

Since you mentioned the messages during the download, lets consider following.

From Apple:

This could occur when a self-powered Thunderbolt device (other than a directly-connected Thunderbolt display) is connected to a Thunderbolt port while installing the update.

To resolve this issue:

Shutdown your computer.
Disconnect all Thunderbolt devices.
Wait 10 seconds.
If you are using a Mac mini with a Thunderbolt display, reconnect the Thunderbolt display directly to your computer via the Thunderbolt port. Do not connect other Thunderbolt devices at this time.
Restart your computer.
If the Thunderbolt Firmware Update 1.2 is offered, download and install it and restart your computer when asked. If the Thunderbolt Update is not offered, the update has installed correctly.
Reconnect all Thunderbolt devices.


Youtube's HTML 5 player freezes all the time, how do I disable that and force flash on Safari I hate Flash but Youtube's HTML5 player stinks on Safari.

See this video it freezes all the time on Safari (El Cap). I watch movies from this guy, almost every movie he posts freezes on Safari. It is annoying as hell.

Any way to solve that?

Just download YouTube App from App store. It runs better when you watch videos on YouTube official App.


Sending unknown callers to voice mail automatically? It's gotten to the point with spamming phone calls here on the West Coast of Canada that I'd like to set up my iphone to automatically send any caller who's not in my contact list to voice mail.  Is there any way to do this?

You can use "Do not disturb" mode judiciously. You can set the DND period to be effectively 24 hours, and add a contact group to the list of people who you will accept calls from. That works well for me. If someone calls you a second time, they will be allowed through - which works because the spammers generally only try once.

I agree that spamming has become downright silly.

Check with your carrier...they may have the ability to auto-block known robo caller numbers.

The problem I've been experiencing is that they spoof the number they're calling from and it's always different.

Good luck!


How does one view pictures fullscreen on iPhone 5? There is an annoyance in the iPhone 5 that the camera sensor is 4:3 but the phone display is 16:9. This makes photos not cover the entire screen.

Apple has now begun running a Thanksgiving commercial where they show the person viewing their photos and it takes up the whole screen of the phone.

Is there some setting configuration that I can change to display pictures fullscreen?

You can see the commercial here.

Double tap on the photo to make it full screen. Alternatively, you can see toward the end of the commercial, a simple swipe to the left or the right brings up subsequent photos full screen without the overlay of controls on the top or bottom.


Help finding out what Icon represents I'm just looking for some help finding out what the below icon represents?

Reverse image searches with tineye.com and Google Search by Image return no matches. This is not a widely used image with a common meaning.


Format the External Hard Drive from Hell I have an external drive that is basically completely screwed. It’s just for backups, and I have redundant backups, so I don’t care about losing the data, I just want to completely format it and get it working again. (I highly doubt it is a physical issue with the drive)

This is basically the state the drive is in now:

The drive has two partitions
One partition will mount, but cannot be unmounted, even forcing through Terminal
The other partition will never mount
Whenever the drive is connected, Disk Utility will stop working

I managed to get the drive to respond and unmount by killing the process fsck_hfs


Change Apple ID from "only valid for purchases in" another country I've an iPhone 7 Plus. I already created my Apple ID in Sri Lanka. Now I live in Japan. I want to set my App Store country/region to Japan. How do I do it?

You can change your App Store country with the Support document by Apple which is given below. Please note that all your current subscriptions will be cancelled.

On your device, tap Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store.
Tap your Apple ID.  If you're not signed in, sign in with the Apple ID and password that you use with the iTunes Store.
Tap View Apple ID. You might be asked to authenticate your Apple ID.
Tap Country/Region.
Tap your new country or region, then tap Next.
Review the Terms and Conditions and Apple Privacy Policy, then tap Agree if you agree.
In the prompt that appears, tap Agree.
Select a payment method and enter your payment information.
Enter your billing address and tap Next.

Change your Apple ID country or region


Is there enough room inside a MacBook Pro 16" to fit a slim Tile? I'm thinking of upgrading sometime in the future to a 16" MacBook Pro. As someone who keeps my Mac with me on the go, I'm very cautious and alert, but still want to plan for the possibility that it might get taken.
I'm wondering if there's enough room somewhere under the bottom cover to fit one of those ultra slim Tile tags. It would go completely undetected long enough for the laptop to be tracked down, even if Find My Mac wasn't able to phone home.
As janky as it sounds, any smart thief would sit and try around T2 and macOS to disable things, or avoid connecting to the internet. But a random Tile stuck inside the battery compartment is the last thing most of them will think to look for, especially if it blends in with things.

No, you can’t fit them.  I have a 2014 MacBook Air and my wife’s friend has those tile key dongles. I folded a piece of paper until it was about the same thickness.
I opened the back and tried to find a place to fit it. Even by the battery where I thought there would be room made the back cover not fit. I was using paper which is more flexible than the plastic tile and I was afraid it would break something. I would definitely not do this
If you want to still use the tile, maybe you could hot glue it to the outside. I like hot glue here because it will stick good and when you want to remove it, it won’t hurt the Mac. I know this because my daughter hot glued rhinestones to her MabBook lid and it didn’t do any damage.


Make CMD-Delete a keyboard shortcut in Apple Mail to move a message to the archive? The delete key moves mail to the trash in Apple Mail, which is fine.

But is there a way to make CMD-delete the keyboard shortcut to move the selected message to the archive?

I know there is the shortcut CMD-Ctrl-A , but that is too slow for me.
(I spend about 3 hours a day on mail.)

I tried to define the shortcut in System Preferences / Keyboard / shortcuts, but it wouldn't allow me to do it (when I type the shortcut in the "Shortcut text field" , I get the "doh" sound).
I also tried Alt-delete and Ctrl-delete, none is allowed.

If you install Karabiner Elements you can add a custom config file in ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications called cmd_delete_archives_mail.json for example,

{
  "title": "Map CMD-Delete to Archive in Mail.app",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Map CMD-Delete to Archive in Mail.app",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "key_code": "delete_or_backspace",
            "modifiers": {
              "all": [
                "fn"
              ]
            }
          },
          "to": [{
            "key_code": "A",
            "modifiers": {
              "all": [
                "left_control",
                "left_command"
              ]
            }
          }],
          "conditions": [
            {
              "type": "frontmost_application_if",
              "bundle_identifiers": [
                "^com\\.apple\\.Mail$"
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

For me, fn + backspace is delete which is why I wrote it with modifier keys. Maybe you won't do that (maybe your keyboard has a forward_delete key)


Checking button text with applescript I'm trying to automate CCleaner, so far I can start the application and click the button that starts the cleanup job, however I'm relying on a delay to determine when I should move onto the next portion of the script.

tell application "/Applications/CCleaner.app" to activate

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "CCleaner"
        click button "Run Cleaner" of window 1
        delay 10
    end tell
end tell

I don't particularly like this approach and would prefer to detect when CCleaner is finished running (it may be much sooner or later than the 10 second delay).

While CCleaner is inactive, the button text is "Run Cleaner"; when CCleaner is active, the button text is "Cancel".  Can someone advise how I check the text on the button?  If I know how to do that I can do something like this:

tell application "/Applications/CCleaner.app" to activate

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "CCleaner"
        click button "Run Cleaner" of window 1
        delay 10
    end tell
end tell

repeat
    # ?
    # ? if button text is "Run Cleaner" then exit repeat
    # ?
    delay 1
end repeat

# do more stuff

You can check every button of the window and wait until one is titled like you want :

property btnTitle : "Run Cleaner"

set btnFound to false

tell application "/Applications/CCleaner.app" to activate

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "CCleaner"
        click button btnTitle of window 1
        delay 1

        -- Start checking every seconds if window 1 contains a button titled "Run Cleaner"
        repeat while not btnFound
            repeat with btn in buttons of window 1
                try -- Some buttons don't have title which would return an error if not in try
                    if (title of btn is btnTitle) then
                        set btnFound to true
                    end if
                end try
            end repeat
            delay 1
        end repeat

    end tell
end tell

if btnFound then
    -- Do more stuff
end if


Terminal displays directory of previous SSH location even when not running SSH I am using the terminal app to ssh and when I do, it conveniently tells me (at the very top) what and where I am logged into for example:

user@computer:/home/user/directory/

and so forth. However, when I exit the ssh session and am sitting nicely at my local directory, it still tells me the directory path of the place I was previously logged in to.

Is there any way to have it tell me that information only when I am actually logged in to a remote machine? I have already gone to Terminal -> preferences -> profiles -> window and I only have "Dimensions" checked.

Taken wholesale from this SuperUser.com question and answer...

The issue is that the shell on the remote host is configured to send an escape sequence to set the terminal window title. This is a fairly common setup. The solutions mentioned in the blog post you linked to are correct.

The simplest and most direct solution is to configure that same remote shell to reset the window title when it logs out. e.g., if the remote shell is bash, put this in ~/.bash_logout:

printf '\e]0;\a'

Alternatively, if you'd like to have your local shell update the window title with something useful, anyway, then do that. When the ssh connection ends, the local shell will set the window title to something else instead of leaving the stale value. e.g. put this in ~/.bashrc:

PS1='\[\e]1;\s\$ \W\a\e]2;\u@\h\a\]'"$PS1"

This puts the user and host name in the window title (which is typically what remote shells are configured to do), and also sets the tab title to show the shell name and type (normal user or root) and current working directory.


Can Time Machine be used as a Drobo system I came across some products by Drobo that let you use an array of external hard drives seamlessly. Would Time Machine be able to do something similar?

For example, suppose I have HD1 with photos and connect HD2 (empty). Will Time Machine replicate some of HD1 data into HD2? If not, what is a reasonably cheap alternative to Drobo?

Time Machine just takes all the volumes mounted and copies them all to one destination volume. On Mountain Lion, you can have multiple destinations, but they get written to in round robin style (so any one backup set goes to one drive as opposed to mirroring the data on all destination volumes).

Drobo functions as a RAID - redundant array of independent disks - and OS X supports software RAID so you could combine several physical drives into one logical drive. The traditional RAID doesn't expand or shrink on the fly like Drobo does, but it also doesn't have some of the downsides of Drobo's implementation as well.


iPad app for reading and writing guitar tablature I'm looking for an iPad app for guitar tabs reading and writing. I'd prefer that one had an auto scroll feature.

For reading tabs, I like Songsterr Plus, have heard good things about TabToolkit too. For writing tabs, Progression and Guitar Script supposedly both quite good, haven't tried either of them myself, though.


How does Playlist sharing work? I have many playlists synced from my Mac to my iPhone and recently I 'shared' one of these playlists with a friend via the share card on my iPhone (sent to his phone via iMessage).

To my surprise he was able to listen to all the songs on the playlist, even songs that I know aren't available on iTunes (so only available on my Mac). I'd like to know how this feature works.

FYI both of us have Apple Music.

I'm not sure how fully this will answer your question, but in the absence of something official from Apple it's probably the best guess there is.

Essentially, when one subscribes to Apple Music and also activates the iCloud Music Library, iTunes effectively syncs what's in your library with what's on Apple's servers. Music you have which is not available on iTunes is actually uploaded so that the servers have a way of sharing that music across your devices.

Typically users can share their playlists with other users and, assuming they're both subscribed to Apple Music, there is no issue with this as both subscriptions have access to the music already available on Apple's servers.

Now, what's happened in your case according to your question is that even songs that I know aren't available on iTunes (so only available on my Mac) were accessible by your friend who was able to listen to them all. This isn't surprising if the songs in question are already available on Apple's servers separately, but you're implying that they're not usually available, and that's where things get a little murky.

I have personally manually imported music into my iTunes library (on my Mac) which as far as I could tell were not available on Apple's servers. However, some of them do get synced and are then available on all my devices, while others never become available to any of my devices (outside my Mac). What I can't account for is what differentiates these songs?

For example, I may search for ten songs on Apple's servers which do not come up on any search results. I then manually add them to my iTunes library and the whole syncing process (by virtue of the iCloud Music Library) takes place. Why it is some of them become available to my other devices, and some are not, I cannot say. However, the ones which are not available are still listed in the playlists on all my devices, even though they cannot be played (outside of my Mac). Trying to play them on other devices results in a "Item Not Available: This item can't be played" message.

If I check on iTunes (on my Mac) these songs have the symbol that represents either Waiting or Not Uploaded (they have the same icon - see here). So while they can be played on my Mac, they're not available on my other devices because they weren't able to be matched or uploaded (and therefore they cannot be shared with others as well). Sometimes these resolve over time, sometimes they just seem to stay that way.

While it would be easy to assume this is some sort of bug, I think it's more likely that if a song which is not usually available on Apple's servers is nevertheless matched, the servers are then able to discern if the track can be played or not (because of some other licensing agreements, etc). However, if the song cannot be matched (which could just mean they weren't uploaded), then they can't be shared.

In a nutshell, the very act of having Apple Music and also iCloud Music Library activated means that all your songs, even the ones not normally available on Apple's servers, are synced to iCloud (even if it means having to actually upload them). This then makes them available (rightly or not) to other subscribers with whom you may share your playlists.


What makes a song 'explicit' in Apple's eyes....? What causes Apple to mark a song as explicit...?

I would have thought that the criteria would be sexual references or swear words, but e.g. Aerosmith's "Dream On" is classified by Apple as 'explicit'.  I have read the lyrics three times, and I still have no idea why....

Looking up the iTunes User Guide, it defines "Explicit" as

A label—issued by media producers—that alerts consumers to content that might be inappropriate for children.

So, it appears that they are going off the RIAA's definition of "Clean/Explicit"
Additionally, I was able to find a  iTunes Users Guide for PC that goes into more detail:

The restrictions available depend on which store you use. In the U.S. iTunes Store, you can prevent anyone using your computer from previewing or buying:

Items with a Parental Advisory Label (from the Recording Industry Association of America website)

Movies that don’t have a specific rating (from the Motion Picture Association of America)

TV shows that don’t have a specific rating (from the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board)


Windows virtual machines with transparent mouse capture? I've tried VMWare and VirtualBox and both have an intentional "mouse capture" process wherein the keyboard and mouse control is passed into the VM, and then has to be explicitly released to get back to the Mac desktop.

Are there any VMs, or configuration methods, that allow a Windows VM to behave like any other window?  I.e., meaning that:

When the mouse is over the VM window it is assumed to be operating in the VM,
The mouse can be dragged out of the VM onto adjacent desktop without clicking a "release" key
The keyboard is captured and released by the VM based on whether the VM window is the "top" or "active" window on the Mac dektop

Install the Guest Additions.
The Guest Additions from VirtualBox provide the seamless mouse pointer integration in which it auto captures/releases the mouse pointer.

Mouse pointer integration
To overcome the limitations for mouse support that were described in Section 1.8.2, “Capturing and releasing keyboard and mouse”, this
provides you with seamless mouse support. You will only have one mouse
pointer and pressing the Host key is no longer required to "free" the
mouse from being captured by the guest OS. To make this work, a
special mouse driver is installed in the guest that communicates with
the "real" mouse driver on your host and moves the guest mouse pointer
accordingly.

You can "insert" the Guest Additions CD from the Devices Menu in Virtual Box.  On the "CD" it will have installers for various operating systems.


Messed up color profiles in Mountain Lion For some unknown reason, my color profiles are messed up in way that whenever an application (e.g. pixelmator, Preview, Xcode, etc.) tries loading Adobe RGB 1998 color profile (probably any other color profile too for that matter), that application will crash miserably.

I sent a report to apple, but so far have received nothing. What pixelmator support told me, is that for some reason "ColorSync Utility" won't show up Adobe RGB 1998 profile under "System" section, although AdobeRGB1998.icc file is in "/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/".  Therefore applications that try loading it will fail to do so, resulting in a crash:

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   com.apple.CoreGraphics          0x00007fff8ffc25a2 color_space_create_adobe_rgb_1998 + 23
1   com.apple.CoreGraphics          0x00007fff9019abf1 CGColorSpaceCreateAdobeRGB1998 + 22
2   com.apple.CoreGraphics          0x00007fff8fddf6dd CGColorSpaceCreateWithName + 828
3   com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b07b9a7 +[NSColorSpace specialColorSpaceWithID:] + 83
4   com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator   0x0000000100089c7e 0x100000000 + 564350
5   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x00007fff8eeba47a _CFXNotificationPost + 2554
6   com.apple.Foundation            0x00007fff8ac5a846 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 64
7   com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0cb60d -[NSApplication _postDidFinishNotification] + 292
8   com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0cb346 -[NSApplication _sendFinishLaunchingNotification] + 216
9   com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0c8532 -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleAEOpenEvent:] + 566
10  com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0c812c -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleCoreEvent:withReplyEvent:] + 351
11  com.apple.Foundation            0x00007fff8ac7412b -[NSAppleEventManager dispatchRawAppleEvent:withRawReply:handlerRefCon:] + 308
12  com.apple.Foundation            0x00007fff8ac73f8d _NSAppleEventManagerGenericHandler + 106
13  com.apple.AE                    0x00007fff8dfa6b48 aeDispatchAppleEvent(AEDesc const*, AEDesc*, unsigned int, unsigned char*) + 307
14  com.apple.AE                    0x00007fff8dfa69a9 dispatchEventAndSendReply(AEDesc const*, AEDesc*) + 37
15  com.apple.AE                    0x00007fff8dfa6869 aeProcessAppleEvent + 318
16  com.apple.HIToolbox             0x00007fff922028e9 AEProcessAppleEvent + 100
17  com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0c4916 _DPSNextEvent + 1456
18  com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0c3ed2 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
19  com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b0bb283 -[NSApplication run] + 517
20  com.apple.AppKit                0x00007fff8b05fcb6 NSApplicationMain + 869
21  com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator   0x0000000100002854 0x100000000 + 10324

I am wondering if anyone else has had this, or a similar problem, and what is your suggested fix?

Eventually I had to fresh install Mac OS X to fix this.


Safari swipe gesture with a non multitouch mouse I love the swipe gesture but I recently switched from a Magic Mouse to a gaming mouse which is non multitouch. For the back command, Safari only offers a straight keyboard-only shortcut or the multitouch swipe gesture.

For the back command, how can I create a hybrid keyboard+mouse shortcut, like alt-left click? It has to be left click + some one-hand keyboard stroke.

I forgot to mention, I am left handed therefore I need key strokes on the left hand side of the keyboard.

To make this work you have to use a third party tool: Karabiner.

In the example below hitting the left alt key once generates one back command in Safari (only). An additional mouse click is not needed.

You can use the left option/alt key as usual otherwise.

Download, install and open Karabiner
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences
Open the tab Misc & Uninstall
Hit the button Open private.xml
Open the file private.xml with an appropriate editor
Enter the customized keycode

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>Option_L to Option_L</name>
        <appendix>(+ When you type Option_L only without other modifiers, send Command+[ in Safari)</appendix>
        <identifier>remap.altL2altL_backward_nomod</identifier>
        <only>SAFARI</only>
        <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::BRACKET_LEFT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R</autogen>
    </item>
</root>

Save the file
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences the tab Change Key
Hit the ReloadXML button
Enable the remapping. It should be listed at the beginning.

If you want to use the right option/alt key instead of the left one just replace OPTION_L by OPTION_R and altL by altR everywhere in the private.xml file.

The above keycode customization is only valid for the en_US input source (and probably en_GB, en_CA etc).

If you use e.g the portuguese input source (pt_PT) then you have to choose the proper KeyCodes: to get the [ you have to press alt7. Then the line:

<autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::BRACKET_LEFT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R

has to be changed to:

<autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::KEY_7, ModifierFlag::OPTION_R | ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R

If you want to add a second custom keycode (hitting left cmd key once generates one forward command) use:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>Option_L to Option_L</name>
        <appendix>(+ When you type Option_L only without other modifiers, send Command+[ in Safari)</appendix>
         <identifier>remap.altL2altL_backward_nomod</identifier>
         <only>SAFARI</only>
         <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::OPTION_L, KeyCode::BRACKET_LEFT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R</autogen>
    </item>
    <item>
        <name>Command_L to Command_L</name>
        <appendix>(+ When you type Command_L only without other modifiers, send Command+] in Safari)</appendix>
        <identifier>remap.cmdL2cmdR_forward_nomod</identifier>
        <only>SAFARI</only>
        <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::VK_LAZY_COMMAND_L, KeyCode::BRACKET_RIGHT, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R</autogen>
    </item>
</root>

The special KeyCode VK_LAZY_COMMAND_L instead of COMMAND_L doesn't break the function of cmd_left+Some_key: so you can navigate forward in Safari and print the page with cmd_leftP without going forward once more!


how does an app recognize the phone? I recently used an app to enter a voucher code and then redeem it to get free stuff. But it only allows 1 code/ phone. I was wondering, what do the iOS apps use when identifying a phone/user?

There are a number of methods an app can use to uniquely identify a device or user.

Transitory (persistent whilst app is installed)

Unique identifier generated by the app and saved in a property list or other equivalent storage in the app sandbox's Library or Documents folder.
Hashed login or equivalent to determine user.
CFUUID (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/CoreFoundation/Reference/CFUUIDRef/index.html)
identifierForVendor (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIDevice_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/occ/instp/UIDevice/identifierForVendor)

Permanent

MAC address of device (not recommended by Apple for these purposes).
Advertising Identifier (can be reset in Settings; https://developer.apple.com/LIBRARY/ios/documentation/AdSupport/Reference/ASIdentifierManager_Ref/index.html#//apple_ref/occ/instp/ASIdentifierManager/advertisingIdentifier).

Deprecated

UDID (http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/4133288/apple-to-finally-stop-accepting-apps-that-use-outdated-udid-device-identifier-may-1st)


Is ~/Applications new with Lion? I've seen a number of references to a folder at ~/Applications, including in a comment on this question. This prompted me to open my home folder on my Lion installation to have a look, and sure enough, there it is, complete with its own folder icon. Checking another machine which is running Snow Leopard showed no such folder.

So, am I right to assume that this is new with Lion, and is the recommended location for self-installed apps? I never have liked cluttering up the system Applications folder with extraneous software, and for that reason store most non-bundled apps in a self-created ~/My Apps folder. That has the advantage of being assignable to the Finder window sidebar without ambiguity, which is more than can be said for ~/Applications.

Finally, as I write this I wonder if the thinking behind ~/Applications is that apps stored there will appear in Launchpad?

~\Applications isn't created during the installation of the OS, you have to create it by yourself. Once you create it, it is recognized as an "application folder" and the Finder will show the proper icon for the folder.

It has been like this since Tiger, at least. I'm not aware if Lion creates it automatically as mine was already there when I upgraded to Lion.


Why are network speeds reported by Activity Monitor different than the ones reported by speedtest.net? When I run a test on speedtest.net, I get 90Mbps for download and 35Mbps for upload.
Looking at Activity Monitor I see 50 MB/s and 17.5MB/s.
My understanding is that 1Mbps equals 0.125MB/s.
Why is there a discrepancy?

It's using a totally different averaging method.
It's not examining the exact start & stop point that Speedtest is, it's just doing an average over the past 5 seconds.
I got 217mbps Speedtest, 20MB/s Activity Monitor. It took it at least 2 updates to even reach that, by which time Speedtest had just about finished.
Switching Activity Monitor from its default 5 second update to just 1 second* & the values just about match - I was getting 217mbps Speedtest with 27MB/s Activity Monitor (roughly).
Also bear in mind you are comparing a one-trick pony - an app dedicated to providing line speed results - against one that's more a general overview of what your entire machine is doing.
After comments
As there was still a discrepancy at 1s sampling, try to eliminate sources of error - switch from WiFi to wired Ethernet; remove any VPN connections; test another account or Mac.
*View menu > Update Frequency


DCHP Reservation on AirPort Extreme I was wondering if it's possible to have the same IP for 2 different MAC that is on the same machine. For example having the ethernet and WiFi MAC address for my MacBook for the same IP address.

It is not possible. Once it is set in the AirPort Utility to one MAC address, it won't allow you to assign it to another MAC address. You'll get an error.

This makes sense because you can have the Ethernet and Wi-Fi enabled at the same time.


Can you use a single thunderbolt port to power two extended displays in clamshell mode? Looking at cables that split a thunderbolt port to two hdmi ports, they all say that for windows you can have monitors in ABC mode, i.e. both external monitors act as extended displays, but for Mac they will only work in ABB mode, that is the two external monitors will mirror each other.
I am wondering if this is still the case when the MacBook is closed. Can it then drive two extended displays from one port?
If it matters the MacBook in question is the a MacBook pro 16-inch, 2019 with AMD Radeon Pro.

I think you've confused Thunderbolt and USB-C.
The problems with these "display splitters" that work as "ABC" in Windows and "ABB" in Mac is that they're USB-C cables. They require demux functionality in software that macOS doesn't have currently.
However if you have an actual Thunderbolt cable then it is fully possible to do "ABC" with a single cable.
The MacBook Pro's lid being open or closed makes no difference at all in this.


Cannot boot into Ubuntu installed on an external SSD after installing Windows with Boot Camp I have a MacBook Pro running macOS Mojave and an external SSD with Ubuntu installed on it. The way I swapped between macOS and Ubuntu was by pressing the Option/Alt during boot to choose between Macintosh and EFI Boot (when the EFI Boot was selected it booted Ubuntu automatically).

Now I have installed Windows with Boot Camp and the EFI Boot has disappeared. Now I can only choose between Macintosh or Boot Camp.

How can I boot into Ubuntu with the external SSD again?

This is the output of running diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         180.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                70.8 GB    disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +180.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            121.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 46.7 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.7 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *240.1 GB   disk2
   1:                 Linux_Swap                         8.0 GB     disk2s1
   2:                      Linux                         40.0 GB    disk2s2
   3:                      Linux                         192.1 GB   disk2s3

Grub was installed on the EFI partition of the internal drive. When you installed Windows the BOOTX64.EFI file was overwritten. The shimx64.efi file usually is a duplicate of the overwritten file.
Since the boot files for both Windows and Ubuntu are sharing the same EFI partition, the simplest solution would be to install the rEFInd boot manager. There are many ways to install rEFInd. Below are two different ways. Once you have installed rEFInd, you will probably want to edit the refind.conf file to remove duplicate entries.
Install rEFInd to the EFI partition.
This is the default. You will have to temporarily disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) to install this way. The instructions are given here. To edit the refind.conf file from macOS, you will have to mount the EFI partition. The mount command is given below.
sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

To unmount, enter the command given below.
diskutil unmount disk0s1

Install rEFInd to a HFS+ partition.
You have to use the Disk Utility application or the diskutil command to create a small "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" formatted partition to hold the rEFInd files. This way does not require you to disable SIP to install. Also, you can select rEFInd as the default directly from the Startup Manager (by holding down the option key on startup). The installation instructions are given here.
Create Another EFI partition for Grub.
An alternative solution, which does not require rEFInd, involves using the
Disk Utility application or the diskutil command to create another EFI partition. You can then copy the /EFI/BOOT and /EFI/ubuntu folders to the new partition. Afterwards, you will need to overwrite the /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI file with the EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi file in this new EFI partition. This solution would allow both Windows and Ubuntu to appear in the Startup Manager. If you use this solution, you should consider changing the label to something other than EFI Boot and using an Ubuntu icon. Basically, you have to adapt steps 5 and 6 of this answer.


How to suppress the Delete From All Devices confirmation in the Photos app? I installed Yosemite 10.10.3, which comes with the new Photos app. Seems nice so far...

When deleting a photo on my MacBook, a warning message is shown:

I don't need to see this every time I delete a photo. I can't see any settings to suppress this message - are there any known workarounds?

Command+Delete avoids the confirmation dialog.


Accuracy of "Data Sent/sec" in Activity Monitor on MacOS Catalina I have a 2018 MacBook Pro i7 running MacOS Catalina 10.15.3. I'm uploading a 4.88 GB video to YouTube, using the YouTube Studio web interface in Google Chrome 79. My MacBook Pro is connected to my 5 Ghz SSID on my TP-Link EAP245 (Generation 1) access point, which is connected via gigabit ethernet to my Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X, which connects to my Netgear CM1000 cable modem. I don't have any VLANs or special routing rules configured.

According to the Network tab of Activity Monitor, I'm uploading data at roughly 10 megabytes per second (MB/sec). However, my Internet service is only supposed to support 35 megabits per second (Mb/sec), which comes out to about 3.5 megabytes per second.

I'm reasonably confident that there is no other major data transfer occurring in parallel with my YouTube video upload.

I can use the Python-based glances utility to observe that only a single network interface (my en0 Wi-Fi adapter) is pushing out approximately ~80 Mb/sec, which roughly matches the 10 MB/sec. that I'm seeing in Activity Monitor. When I'm not uploading a video, the idle utilization of the en0 network interface is only a few KB/sec.

My MacBook's en0 network interface is using the default MTU of 1500, according to ifconfig. All my other network devices use the default MTU.

In addition, according to my router's traffic monitor, I'm actually pushing out 44 Mbps (35 Mbps slightly over-provisioned).

Question: How can I explain the discrepancy between a 3.5 MB/sec. Internet service, versus the ~10 MB/sec being indicated by Activity Monitor in MacOS?

The main reason is that Activity Monitor shows the sum of data sent/received on all network interfaces, whereas your router only shows the data actually routed through it.

This means that there is traffic that your router does not see, and thus does not count into its statistics. This could for example local area network traffic directly between your MacBook Pro and other devices on the local area network reachable without routing. Another very common example is the loopback network interface, found on all Macs, which offers communication internally within the same computer (i.e. between different processes/programs running on your Mac).

This means basically that you cannot equate a number from the sum in Activity Monitor and any sort of "my internet connection is used at this speed".

If you want to figure out what exactly is the cause of the discrepancy - i.e. even if you say that you're "reasonably confident" that there's no other data transfers, there actually must be other data transfers - you can identify them by measuring or sniffing the traffic on all your network interfaces seperately. An easy to use tool for this could be "Wireshark", which will allow you to sniff, dump and do statistics on data transfers on all network interfaces, including WiFi, cabled ethernet, VPN virtual interfaces and loopback interfaces.

The only explanations that can fit your observations, if you're correct that there are no other data transfers, are that either (1) Activity Monitor is flawed and does not display the correct values, or (2) your data transfer comes with an extreme amount of overhead. Both explanations seem very unlikely.


External SSD or HD. Performance compare to internal SSD? I have MacBook Pro 2015 with 128 SSD and want to have some extra storage.

The possible solutions I know are (all external): HDD, SSD, Flash.

Are there any information about the performance of using any of the solutions comparing to my internal SSD?

An external HDD is going to be ~100 MB/s, an external SSD closer to ~500MB/s, the SD card expanders (such as tardisk or transcend jetdrive) have read/write speeds only slightly slower than that of the HDD (~75MB/s). However, the SD expander has the advantage of not actually being external (it sits flush to the edge of the MBP and occupies the SD card spot). Your internal SSD likely has speeds close to ~700MB/s. Network attached storage will only be as fast as your connection. If you have an "N" network, your speed will max out at ~35MB/s, with an "AC" connection or gigabit Ethernet you should have no problem getting full ~100MB/s speeds.


How to map media keys to "short jump" in vlc? I am trying to edit the behavior of the media key "<<" on a macbook keyboard.
There is a way to map the "rewind" button to the "short jump back" function in vlc? How does mac os deal with media keys under the hood?

Actually mapping any key in a specific application is built into macOS.

system preferences > keyboard > shortcuts > App shortcut

Once you are there click the + and select VLC from the Application menu at the top, then type in the EXACT menu name. Exact is important it has to be capitalized correctly and if it has "..." at the end remember that is not three periods its an ellipsis which you get by pressing Option;. Then click in the Keyboard Shortcut field and tap the key you want to assign. In your case that would be F7.

This can generally be done for any Application that does not have a keyboard shortcut already assigned. If there is one already assigned you may have to remove that first.


How do I disable Mojave's Finder quick actions for images? I have a few folders with a large number of images that I typically sort by modification date.

Sometimes I'll accidentally trigger one of Mojave's new Quick Actions, such as rotating the image. This incidentally updates the modification time, moving the image to the top of the list. Even undoing the action won't restore the old modification time.

They are shown in a bar at the bottom of the preview pane. Next to them there is a handy "More..." button, with a Customize option. This links to System Preferences, where it looks like you can easily disable the ones you don't want.

However, this does not disable the keyboard shortcut, which is what I tend to hit by accident.

How do I disable either these actions, or the shortcuts triggering them?

keyboard shortcuts are usually managed in System Preferences > Keyboard, under the Shortcuts tab.

You don't say what the shortcut is, but a quick test reveals that it's Command R. (The Edit menu flashes, but there's no corresponding menu item.) Command Alt R goes the other way.

You may be able to assign that key press in the Finder to some other (rarely used) menu item or service, and see if that stops it.


How do I troubleshoot screen capture utilities only capturing one side of audio? I use screen capture utilities like Movavi and Snagit on my MacBook Pro 2019 (Big Sur) to record software demos. When using a headset or any other microphone connected to a USB port, the recorded audio is in stereo.
When I use any external audio interface (PreSonus Studio 24C or Behringer U-Phoria UM2) as the captured audio source, I only get one side (the left side) of the audio. Using either interface with an application that doesn't capture the screen in any way works perfectly, clear audio from both sides.
I'm certain that the audio interfaces are working properly. For instance, I can record my voice just fine using Vector 3 (or any other audio recorder) and the audio interface, and it's clear stereo.
I need to use an audio interface because the mic I need to make a good recording needs an interface in order to work with my MacBook Pro. I haven't had a lot of luck troubleshooting this, even through contacting support from Movavi and Snagit. I'm trying my best to go through all possible system settings and configuration tweaks that I can - is this a common problem with screen capture scenarios? I was about to chalk it up to a third-party bug, but this seems to persist no matter what utility I use, yet the audio interfaces work perfectly fine with any other software that isn't doing a screen recording and I'm a little baffled as to why.

The task as asked is in effect "how to sum two inputs to one, stereo to dual mono?" one side being the mic/line etc, the other side being just silence.
If you could persuade QuickTime, or any other recorder to record only mono audio this would be one way. If you need additional music etc that must be in stereo, then somehow you need to persuade the Mac itself to sum both yout input channels to mono.
I cannot seem to find any way to achieve that with the Mac itself, nor much of the commonly-available audio routing tools - Audio Hijack, Loopback, Audio-Midi setup etc, testing with Aggregate inputs & everything I could think of.
All I did manage to achieve was to sum before sending to the Mac. In my case, it needed the input software of my Line 6 interface. Setting the input to only one of the 2 potential channels Line 1, Mic 1 etc, then the software itself was doing the sum to mono for me & the Mac would then be happy to place it in the centre of the stereo image.
Setting the input to Stereo Line/Mic etc would send to just one side or the other.
Presumably, this would be considered 'expected behaviour' for a stereo source, though it does look like if you use the Mac's headphone input or a webcam etc, then it already 'knows' there is a single mic, not stereo.
Interface image, just as an example -

 I didn't take the time to clean the 'amplifier' setup to be straight clean, so it still looks more like a guitar amp & pedals. That doesn't affect the routing, only the audio quality]


Thinkpad keyboard & scrolling I have got an Thinkpad external keyboard with my mac. The keyboard has some mouse buttons and trackpoint. The trackpoint mouse function with two mouse button works fine but scrolling with middle button + trackpoint isn't. Is there any chance to configure scrolling with trackpoint? I have Logitech mouse with scroolwheel, that works out of the box. I use Yosemite.

Thanks

I do not own this keyboard, so I can only cite others.

In this Topic some users talk about their experience. It seems to depend on the exact version of the keyboard, that you are using.

USB-Version:

  I was able to get the center mouse button scroll to work by installing USB Overdrive. You select "middle button" and change it to "move to scroll"

Bluetooth-Version:

  My Lenovo Compact Bluetooth wireless keyboard (Part Number# 0B47190) paired via bluetooth with both my MacBooks quickly, and the middle button used with the red trackpoint on the keyboard scrolls in every situation I can think of (web browsing, doc editing, evernote, MSOffice, Keynote, Pages, etc.) without any addition setup or extra programs like UsbOverdrive.  It just works.


US keyboard layout on macOS Sierra switches backtick to other key on external keyboard I'm using a US keyboard layout on two Swiss (CH-de) hardware keyboards. On the builtin MacBook Air keyboard it works, while on an old external Apple keyboard (M7803) I've the problem that the key which usually produces a backtick (`, i.e. the one left to the z on a US keyboard) doesn't work, producing a § instead.

Showing the Keyboard Viewer displays the backtick in its proper place (clicking it with the mouse also works), but as soon as I type a character, the keyboard layout shown changes (having no key left of the z) and the backtick moves to the key left of the number 1. Actually pressing the key left to the 1 actually produces a backtick, so I guess I could get used to that...

But what's going on here? Why are the ` and § keys switched on the internal and external keyboards? The odd behaviour of the external keyboard started appearing only when I upgraded from El Capitan to Sierra.

Turns out this was caused by Karabiner, I commented on this issue there.


Is there a workaround when Finder spends forever "calculating size"? Has anyone else had the issue of it taking forever to calculate the size of a folder? I have a folder of about 500 GB on an external USB drive, and it seems to never finish "Calculating Size" when I click on "Get Info," so I have no idea how to find out the exact size. Does anyone know of a workaround or how to prevent this?

The amount of time it takes is proportional to the number of files in the folder.  If there are a lot of files, it will take a long time to calculate.

You can also try doing it from the Terminal like so:

du -sh /path/to/folder


Upgrading from Yosemite to El Capitan, but not Sierra We have an older iMac (Model A1311, Mid 2011). It has been running Yosemite. We have run into some of the WIFI issues associated with Yosemite.

Is it possible to upgrade to El Capitan but not Sierra?

El Cap has been out longer. Its my wife's computer, its older, and I really don't want to be debugging Sierra until a few  more "dot" releases come out.

You don't have to upgrade to macOS Sierra if you don't want to.
Already "Own" El Capitan
If you have already "purchased" El Capitan, then it will show up under the "Purchased" tab of the App Store.  By "purchased" I mean the "free download" that Apple provided.

Download from the AppStore
Per Apple Support, you can download El Capitan directly from the AppStore

Go to an Apple Store
If you still can't download, you can take a visit to an Apple Store near you, or you could have a friend download it (if they already purchased it) and make a USB installer.


How can I restore a supervised device from iCloud I have an iPad that I want supervised. I can get it supervised but if I restore from a non-supervised backup, it removes the supervision.

Is it possible to restore a device from iCloud AND keep it supervised?

No — restoring from iCloud will remove the supervision. There's no way round that, other than re-supervising the device afterwards.


Apple Mail shows plain text instead of HTML email I have a gmail account setup as IMAP in Apple Mail and recently some new emails coming through have displayed the plain text version instead of HTML. If I check the same email through gmail.com it shows the HTML fine but back in Mail I can't even change it to HTML under View -> Message -> Next Alternative.

This solution did not work for me:
defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool FALSE

I'm running Apple Mail 5.2 on Mac OS 10.7.3

I have just found that the same email message will show HTML when viewed in the All Mail Folder but not when viewed in the Inbox.

I opened ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist in Xcode and searched for PreferPlainText.  It seems to want either YES or NO as a value.

I set it to NO and saved, then relaunched Mail.app.

HTML (Rich Text) mail is back.