How can I make my MacBook Pro screws stop screwing around? The title might be a bit misleading, but it's precise: the screws keep screwing out by themselves!

It's quite random and I'm not even sure how I've managed to never lose one so far. Most of the times it's the bottom ones who try to run away, some times are the side ones. The top ones, 3 of which are much bigger, never joined the dance and always stayed right where they belong.

What always happens is that I feel them getting out when handling the notebook and then I just screw them back with my nails until I get ahold of a screwdriver. What I wished to happen is they simply stay there, keeping the lid in its place as they were meant to be and quit acting up on me!

Anticipating some comments:

The screws look all right and fine to the point that doesn't make me think I'd need replacements. This is a behavior I expect more people have with their MBPs so I'm also looking for shared experiences (the photo shows the same MBP model, by the way) here. And then again, maybe all I need is replacing them. But do I?
There are no Genius bars here in Brazil and I'm not willing to go on apple stores searching for something Apple probably doesn't care about <-- I'm looking for practical solutions like the one accepted there. And trying to understand what could be causing this weird issue.

The first time you unscrew the screws on your computer, you'll notice there's some blue gunk around the threads.  That's Loctite.  It's essentially a sort of superglue for screws to help them stay in.  The glue adheres the threads to the casing, but isn't strong enough that a decent screwdriver and some wrist action can't break it.  I'd probably recommend finding an appropriate bottle of Loctite and then dabbing a bit on the screws and then screwing them back it.  That should keep the suckers from comin' back out. :)  I'm not sure about prices in Brazil, but in the US a bottle of Loctite (or something similar) should only cost you a few dollars.


Can I disable macOS Sierra's sticky window edges? In macOS Sierra, the window edges are sticky and grab the edges of the display, the top of the Dock and the bottom of the menu bar when being moved around.

This is very useful most of the time, but sometimes I would like to disable it. Whilst it is possible to move the window away from the edge and move it back again which seems to override the sticky edge functionality, I'd like something to prevent the initial grab in the first place.

Is there a way to disable macOS Sierra's sticky window edges?

Hold down option when dragging. Will disable "sticky" edges as needed, when needed, without disabling it all the time by default.


Question about Mail. How to limit amount stored locally. Where is mail stored? I'm new to Macs and have a question about my MacBook Air OSX 10.9.1 and mail.  I'm getting a "Startup disk full" message* and one thing I highly suspect is the mail.  Even if it's not the culprit, I'm curious how things work.  I set up the Mail Application to get email from my Gmail and two Yahoo accounts.  As far as I can tell when I look at the Mail App, all my email I've ever received is there for me to look at.

Is the MacBook really downloading all the email?
How do I limit the email it downloads locally (to 2 weeks old and newer for example).

Where is the email stored on hard disk and can I delete it (without deleting on the Google and Yahoo Servers).

In the worst case, I'd be willing to simply remove the accounts from Mail and go back to simply looking at them through Safari. Will this remove the email from my local machine?  If not, how do I do it?

I have attempted to research this and found some ideas on not storing mail locally.  See for example:
http://www.cnet.com/news/tip-change-mail-settings-to-save-hard-drive-space/

However, when I look at my system, I don't see this option and I'm guessing this is for an older version of MacOS.
Thanks,

Dave

*My general question about disk storage is: Newbie question on getting back hard drive space

Mail will be stored in ~/Library/Mail. Gmail and Yahoo typically use IMAP, which means the messages are held on their server until you delete them. Doubtful that this is what is eating up a big chunk of your drive space; my Mail folder weighs in at just under 9GB for nine accounts, one of which has messages going back 8+ years. There are a few options in Mail/Preferences/Accounts on how to handle mail storage, but nothing that will limit the time period for what mail messages are stored locally. Removing the accounts from Mail then expunging any of their associated files will clear up some space, but I'd be looking at other places for what is using disk space. Movies and music are big space hogs, for example.


GUI for managing automounting of fileshares? I have a bunch of MP3 files on an SMB share. They play great if I use Finder's Connect to Server to mount the disk first, iTunes thinks they have names like /Volumes/musicshare/foo.mp3. But if I reboot and launch iTunes first the files are as if they don't exist until I manually remount the volume in Finder.

How do I arrange for my network share to automatically mount after a reboot? Searching for answers turns up a lot of information about hand-editing autofs configuration files. I'm new to MacOS but an old Unix hand and am OK editing files in /etc. But it feels like the wrong way; does MacOS have a user friendly way of automounting network shares?

Mount the share that you want and then open "System Preferences - Users and groups - Login items"

Click the + symbol to add a new login item and then select the network share from the window that opens. The volume should open on every login.

Check the box next to it to hide the item. This should keep the Finder window from appearing.


How do I make git credential-osxkeychain work correctly when I'm connected to a machine via SSH? I setup a build machine to check out sources from Github by caching the login credential in the keychain using instructions from: https://help.github.com/articles/caching-your-github-password-in-git/

Using SSH to connect to the build machine and run the instructions provided fails silently, asking me for a password for each git clone command.

Using VNC to connect to the build machine and run the instructions provided prompts me the first time, as expected, but not for any subsequent git clone commands, and successfully adds the credential to the keychain.

How can I configure the credential helper and/or keychain to make this work over SSH without a VNC connection?

You can use ForwardAgent option in ~/.ssh/config, if it is allowed on server by option AllowAgentForwarding (in sshd_config).

Or just simply with a switch -A to ssh. It will forward connection to your agent to the server and you will be able to authenticate to github.


Wifi Connected but internet not working The wifi is connected to my Mac but the internet isn't working. On my phone, it is perfectly fine.

I have tried:

using a personal hotspot from my phone to my computer but the internet still doesn't work.
in recovery mode, the internet works.
Restarting Router (although I don't think the problem is there)

Any help would be much appreciated as I have a lot of work due :0
Thank you in advance!!!

Edit (links to wifi tab):

Typical advice I give in this situation is to check your TCP/IP Settings under the wifi connection in your Network controls in System Preferences. Make sure you're using DHCP and no DNS servers are hard coded. Also make sure you don't have some kind of proxy software or VPN running on your computer.

Edit: try connecting your phone via USB and choosing that connection when you turn on hotspot and see if it works

Edit2: original poster posted a screenshot showing a hard coded DNS server. I recommend clicking on all hard coded DNS servers, clicking minus, and removing them.

edit3: the other issue may not be the wifi, but the modem to your internet provider.


Mac mini Server Password Locked I purchased a large inventory of office furniture with IT equipment. The Mac mini server I received is password locked and I can't get in.

When I start the computer I have an option for Admin or Guest User. The Admin account is password locked and the Guest User account wont let me do anything.

How do I access the Admin account without a password?

Since you have no idea what is installed on the Mini, I'd personally reformat and reinstall from scratch rather than using the existing install. Easy to do and lots of information on the process that will come up with a quick search.


Can Apple give an option to check cellular data usage for every bill cycle? How can i find on iphone 11 pro the cellular data usage for every bill cycle?

As an addendum to bmike's answer, this may be entirely provider-dependant.
On O2 UK, I have no option to view my usage per bill cycle, only since last manual reset. My provider has an app to view usage [& many other provider options].
The Euro-equivalent to 'Cellular', Mobile Data show the overall usage since last reset, plus a long list of usage per app below.
It is not tied to the provider's billing cycle at all.
I do, btw, have my provider's profile correctly installed; this is not a configuration error. The blue 'Network Provider Services' links through to their home page, for those who don't have their app.


Why doesn't /usr/libexec/java_home recognize JDK 1.8? I am trying to install a JDK 8 on OS X Mountain Lion (to experiment with the new lambda features).

Starting point

A machine recently updated from OS X 10.6 to 10.8, with

$ sw_vers
  ProductName:    Mac OS X
  ProductVersion: 10.8.2
  BuildVersion:   12C60

$ ls -l /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/
  Home@ -> jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home/
  jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/

$ ls -l /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/
  1.6.0.jdk/

and this folder from the OS X 10.6 era:

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/

In ~/.bashrc I've set

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/Home

So I have

$ java -version
  java version "1.7.0_09"
  Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_09-b05)
  Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.5-b02, mixed mode)

$ /usr/libexec/java_home
  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home

How I installed JDK 8

Downloaded the .tar.gz file from http://jdk8.java.net/lambda/ and unpacked it into

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home

(I created the folders jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home manually)
Changed the symlink /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/Home to point to jdk1.8

Now I have

$ java -version
  openjdk version "1.8.0-ea"
  OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-ea-lambda-nightly-h2135-20121203-b67-b00)
  OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0-b05, mixed mode)

$ echo $JAVA_HOME
  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/Home

$ ls /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
  Home@ -> jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home/
  ...

But the java_home utility doesn't seem to care:

$ /usr/libexec/java_home
  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home

It doesn't even know that there is a JDK 8 available:

$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8*
  Unable to find any JVMs matching version "1.8*".

Question

I'd like the /usr/libexec/java_home utility to find my installed JDKs, so I can use something like this:

alias setjdk17='export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7*)'
alias setjdk18='export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8*)'

and get rid of the Home symlink. Does anyone know

how I can properly install JDK 8?
how I can make /usr/libexec/java_home recognize it?

You need to also copy the Contents/MacOS directory and Info.plist from the 1.7 SDK and adapt them (by changing the version strings in it).

Then you can:

$ export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home
$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0-ea"
$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8*
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home

Note that this is a hack and I didn't try anything else than start java... I was just building on your tip of creating the package.


How can I start Bluetooth tethering using the command line? I'd like a quick way to start tethering using my iPhone, hopefully just using the keyboard. Using the bluetooth menu, I can choose the Connect to Network option in the submenu for my device, but is it possible to automate this?

Ultimately I want to assign this to a shortcut in (the very awesome) Alfred.app, but anything using the command line or AppleScript will work.

Is this possible? Thanks!!

It doesn't look like there is a direct AppleScript dictionary for working with Bluetooth this way.

You could use GUI scripting though, which basically uses the accessibility feature of the Mac OS to select menu items, etc.

A great writeup on how to start with GUI AppleScript is available on MacOSAutomation.com.

GUI automation can be difficult if you have a constantly changing list of things, but if you commonly have a list of bluetooth items connected that stays the same you should be ok.

You could then call this AppleScript through Alfred.


MacBook taking a long time to wake from sleep after Sierra Retina MacBook Pro takes a long time to wake from sleep, MacBook Pro: long time to wake from sleep, what could it be?, and Takes a long time for my macbook pro to wake from sleep do not answer my question.

I have experienced multiple slow-downs of waking from sleep on my MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016) running macOS Sierra 10.12.1 (16B2555).

This is the usual dock I have. It's pretty much the default, but I always have Terminal, Discord Canary, TextEdit, and Google Chrome open.

In case this is relevant, I recently changed my settings to never sleep on a timer. It only sleeps when the lid of my MacBook is shut.

Anyways, now we can get into the actual problem. My screen turns on, but doesn't have any content. After about 40 seconds, my MacBook is usable.

Have you tried resetting your System Management Controller?

To do this on your MacBook, follow these steps:

Shut down your computer (a full shut down, not just logging out)
Keep the power cable plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

If that doesn't help you could also reset your NVRAM as follows:

Shut down your machine (a full shut down, not just logging out)
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).


Alert volume (not system) consistently reset to zero for unknown reason Several times a week I find that, despite my volume being set to a reasonable setting, I receive no alert sounds (slack, messages, etc). Every time, the alert volume is set to 0. See picture below. When I see this, I crank up the alert volume and all is well.
My best guess at the moment is this has something to with hooking up my laptop to my work desk. I use it in clamshell mode, so I hook up the display port cable and my headphones, etc before the machine is fully awake.
Has anyone else run into this problem? Any thoughts on what I should be looking for?

Try completing an NVRAM / PRAM reset. This is the part of the computer that often holds these values in memory and can sometimes become the source of this type of issue....

Reboot your computer.
Hold Command + Alt + P + R
Wait until you hear the startup sound/chime a second time, during this time the computer will reboot.

If the computer does not chime a second time but instead boots up you've not pressed the shortcut quickly enough, you can press it as soon as you've pressed reboot, and sometimes need to use a wired not wireless keyboard for this.

Verify of the issue is resolved.

Further details on Apple's website


missing windows keyboard buttons on rMBP I need the Home, delete, insert and all the other buttons found in a typical windows keyboard. I don't know how to access them on my MacBook pro. The only one I know is fn-delete for delete. Is there a comprehensive list anywhere? I've searched thru the questions here but non really answer my question. There's similar ones including how to use windows type keys on OS X. But my question is Windows, and only windows related.

Apple has a support page on this: Boot Camp: MacBook Pro built-in keyboard mapping in Windows.


Mid 2007 20" iMac — Faint vertical lines on display, is this a serious problem? I was given an old iMac to toy around with. Its working well, but it has faint vertical lines on the display visible on solid colors. I've done some googling and haven't found an answer exactly what this is.

Attached is a pic I took with a camera. The vertical lines are most visible in the black space on the bottom right.

 The lines in the white space are something my camera picked up, not a problem.

Is there any way to stress test this and determine the stability and/or seriousness of these artifacts?

I wouldn’t be concerned you could use the Mac for a week and then note for yourself if the situation is stable or if you want to start saving money to get it repaired.  We have machines like that that we use for timeclocks of people punching in/out - they’ve  been stable for years with graphics glitches similar to that.

Keep toying around and figuring out how you can make the best use of this regift it would be my advice. I wouldn’t spend any money repairing it.  Save your budget so you could buy a new display if you actually need one.  Get one that would work with both the Mac and a low-cost computer like a raspberry pi.


LastPass on Safari not autofilling if auto fill is unchecked I'm trying to migrate from Chrome to Safari and I'm having trouble with the LastPass extension.

What is annoying me is Safari always asking me to save my passwords in its own password storage mechanism, which I don't want to use. As far as I know, if I don't want to receive these alerts asking to save passwords I have to uncheck the option to auto fill user and password in Safari's Preferences>Autofill. But if I do that, the auto fill feature from LastPass stops working...

Is there a way to fix this?

This is an ongoing issue.

Open Preferences in Safari and select the Extensions tab
Select LastPass in the left-hand column.
Click "Uninstall" and confirm it
Go to https://lastpass.com/misc_download2.php?tab=mac#maclpmacosx
Scroll down to "LastPass for Safari" and click on "Download".
Go to your downloads folder and double-click on lastpass.safariextz.
Safari Extensions Preferences should open with a dialog box stating "Would you like to install ..."
Click on "Install from Developer" in the dialog box.
A dialog box will appear stating "Are you sure you want to install the extension LastPass..." and click on "Trust" in that dialog box.
LastPass will now show in the left-hand column of the Extensions Preferences and it will show that the version is 4.9.0.37.
A new Safari tab or window will open and at the bottom will be a "Log In" link. Click on it. This may not leave you logged in, but at this point you should be able to log in as you normally would.
You can then go to LastPass Preferences and set the preferences to your own liking.


iPod not syncing from iTunes library I have ~350 GB of music. I recently bought a iPod Classic (160 GB).

When I try to sync the iPod with my computer, it produces a "Not enough space" error, and copies no music to the iPod.

I would expect it to sync some portion of my library, and ideally rotate the synced portion every time it is connected.

Is this normal behaviour, or is something broken?

If it is normal behaviour, is there any way to make itunes sync a random subset of the music in my library, until it fills the iPod?

I believe that you can create a smart playlist, limit it to 160 GB (chosen randomly), and then choose to sync only that playlist. At least you can do something like this with an iPhone.


How can I disable the firewall on OS X after forgetting how I set it? I have enabled an option on my mac to ask for permission every time I open an network application, But I can't seem to find out how to turn it off.

Where would I disable the below dialog?

As the dialog explains, you can turn off the firewall in the Security preferences pane (or Security & Privacy, on newer versions of OS X).


Where is the iWork shape library stored? I created a Custom Shape Library via iWork and would like to share it within my company. Where is this library located so I can copy/paste it to all other users?

I already found where custom templates for Pages and the color palettes are stored. Yet I struggle to find the library.

The shapes are stored in the property list at

~/Library/Group Containers/74J34U3R6X.com.apple.iWork/Library/Preferences/74J34U3R6X.com.apple.iWork.plist

in the array TSDUserDefinedShapeLibraryPathSourcesKey.


Why does the 2021 Mac have a lower Ghz processor than the 2017? When I look at the 2017 specs it seems the 2017 provides
3.4GHz
3.4GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz)
3.5GHz
3.5GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz)
Configurable to 4.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz)
3.8GHz
3.8GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz)
Configurable to 4.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz)

Where as the 2021 processor starts at only 3.1Ghz and goes up to the same processing of 3.8Ghz:
3.1GHz
3.1GHz 6‑core 10th-generation Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz

I take it you are concerned that in some way a lower GHz indicates less powerful CPU.  But let's look in a little detail at the GHz values and the different 'generation' of CPU.  I will just consider the lowest specs, that is

2017: 3.4GHz quad‑core Intel 7th-generation Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz)
2021: 3.1GHz 6‑core Intel 10th-generation Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz.

Firstly there is 3-generations of Intel's Core processors between the two.  Without attempting to be specific, we can assume some improvement in efficiency for the same speed processor.
For mostly single-threaded applications (e.g. browser, word processor) the Turbo-boost value is important.  Here we see in increase in processor speed from 3.8 to 4.5 GHz.
The processor load will increase as more applications (and background tasks) are running and as the type of application moves to those being multi-threaded which can use many processor cores.  Such applications include photo and video processing.
At maximum load, all 4 cores (2017) or all 6 cores (2021) will become fully utilised.  When fully utilised the processor speed may reduce to 3.4 GHz (2017) and 3.1 GHz (2021). If we multiply cores by GHz (3.4x4 and 3.1x6) we can see that that the newer processor is capable of considerably more work - the lower speed is outweighed by the increase in core count.
In practice both CPUs will probably run a bit faster than 3.4 and 3.1 GHz when under full load unless the ambient temperature is high.
In summary we have three things making the newer CPU outperform the older one:

Newer generation of processor;
Single threaded speed (maximum Turbo Boost);
Core count (even though base speed is lower).

You also might like to know that, as a power saving measure, both processors will reduce their speed when under a light load.
And, of course, there are considerably higher performance CPUs available for both 2017 and 2021 iMacs if that is desired.
Finally you might like to browse Geekbench results for the two processors:

2017
2021

These show a modest improvement in single threaded performance and a greater improvement in multi threaded.


Buying used Macbook Pro, checking if it's linked to previous owner If I buy a used Macbook Pro from 2015, how do I check if it is registered to the seller, i.e. linked to his AppleID? I checked through the "Check coverage" Apple support site (Check coverage), and the first point is a green check mark, the remaining two are yellow exclamation marks saying that it has expired. How is this to be understood?

Also, what other things do I need to check to make sure that I do not end up with a Macbook linked to someone else? I want to be able to link it to my own ID as if it were new. I've read that one of these things is that "Find my mac" is deactivated, how can this be verified?

There is no link you can’t undo or clear to an old account other than Activation Lock and a firmware password.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208987
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455

You need the owner to give you a bill of sale and cooperate with both the above procedures. Get their support in writing or escrow your funds till you can validate things.

All the other steps for preparing a machine for sale protect the seller and don’t inhibit your full use and control of the Mac when you take possession of it. You will want to erase the Mac and be sure you never lose your firmware password since you can’t bring the original proof of purchase and prove the Mac is yours to have Apple unlock it.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065


How to get custom favorites icons in Safari 8 on Yosemite? I am wanting to add custom favorites icons (i.e. new tab page) for my website in Safari 8 on Yosemite. I have tried the open graph tag og:image with both png and jpg formats. I have also looked over the source of several sites that had the custom icons in my favorites page, including a site that appeared to update its icon, and I still cannot find the right way to include these icons. Any help? Thanks.

This is not related to OS X, so I’ll let the moderator move this question to other network. But I’m still going to answer this. The one you’re talking about is Apple Touch Icon which can be implemented by using the markup below:

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="57x57" href="/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="114x114" href="/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="72x72" href="/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="144x144" href="/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="60x60" href="/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="120x120" href="/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="76x76" href="/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="152x152" href="/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png">

There are multiple sizes because it needs to support Retina and non-Retina display.

Source: CSS Tricks


Mac Calendar does not sync to google - error CalDAVMoveEntityQueueableOperation I have setup my calendar (Mountain Lion) to sync with google calendar, and it loads all items in without problems. But when I change something locally, I get an error message:

Access to “New Event” in “XXXXXX” in account “Google” is not permitted.

The server responded:
“403”
to operation CalDAVMoveEntityQueueableOperation.

This happens whenever I do local changes, confirm an event or add a new event.

Everything else is working nicely, including contacts.

Googling did only yield information about this error in relation to iCloud, which I am not using for calendars.

It could be something simple as your account settings.

Lets check if your password is missing from the CalDAV account setup.

(iCal->Preferences->Accounts->yours@you.com CalDav->Account Information->password).

Enter your password even it it shows something there just to make sure it is correct one.

then Go Offline then Go Online under the Calendar menu and to synced it up.

Also go to the Google calender settings and make sure sync is enabled.


Sync contacts between 2 Apple IDs and multiple devices My husband and I sync contacts across iPhones, iPad, MacBook Air and iMac. The base account was his, so in my contacts/settings/default account some years ago, I entered his Apple ID. Now, whilst my cloud syncs info entered on iMac and MacBook Air to my iPhone, it no longer syncs from the iPhone.

My husband's entries, meanwhile, sync to my iMac/MacBook Air, but not to my iPhone. Entries I make on my iPhone now go nowhere other than staying on the iPhone. I have tried changing the default account in my iPhone/contacts/settings to iCloud but that doesn't help. It feels as though a previous 'fetch and push' between the two IDs no longer functions via the iPhones.

How do I setup a system that achieves the desired result?

This is always a complicated question and the answer is usually a puzzle that boils down to a per/user-setup basis.

Before I can give you a proper answer, I'm going to need some clarification on your setup. I will need you to correct me and/or fill in the blanks on any assumptions I may make about your setup.

Can you please elaborate on

  so in my contacts/settings/default account some years ago, I entered his Apple ID.

Where did you enter his apple ID? In your iPhone, on your iPad, iMac, MBAir etc.?
Does that Apple ID continue to be on the device it was originally entered in?

Furthermore, (correct me if I am wrong),it seems like your setup goes as follows:

Your husband and you share a "household" ipad, macbook air, and imac. Then, each of you have your own seperate iPhones. True/false?
On each of your phones, you and your husband are both logged into icloud (Iphone>Settings>Accounts & Passwords>Accounts>icloud address) using your individual "WifeiCloudaddress@icloud.com" and "husbandiCloudaddress@icloud.com" accounts. True/False?
On each of your iPhones, under the "Iphone>Settings>Accounts & Passwords" screen, there are no other accounts that your phone is linked to, ONLY, your icloud accounts. T/F?
On each of your iPhones, under Iphone>Settings>Accounts & Passwords>iCloud>yourname, you have the "Contacts" ticker ticked to on (should be green". T/F?
On your ipad, macbook air, and iMac, under "System Preferences>iCloud" you are logged into icloud as "husbandicloudaddress@icloud.com". T/F?
On your ipad, macbook air, and iMac, under "System Preferences>Internet Accounts" you are logged in with "husbandiCloudaddress@icloud.com" as the primary icloud address, and below that "wifeiCloudaddress@icloud.com" as a secondary icloud address. T/F?
Neither of you are not syncing contacts on any of your devices through gmail,outlook, or any other cloud services are you?

There still may be more details that I need to know but they aren't coming to me right now. If you think of any other specifics (extra accounts/family sharing, gmail,outlook,etc.), please elaborate and let me know.


Eclipse: switch between editors keyboard shortcut Is there any keyboard shortcut like ctrl+tab for switching between open editors in Eclipse except for the advertised cmd+F6?

Is there a way to customise it?

If I get right you want cmd+option + (→ or ←)

And also you can change any shortcuts by going to Eclipse Preferences (cmd ,) and chose general in left side window and select key then scroll to find your desired shortcuts.


Bootcamp failing with "cannot create partion" and corrupting APFS container My issue is similar to this one, Bootcamp says Disk Could Not Be Partitioned on Catalina Version 10.15.2
I'm on a 2019 iMac i9 27" with a 3TB Fusion that's been formatted with Catalina and APFS from the beginning, but I have successfully installed Bootcamp and removed it. Now I'm trying to play games that don't work in a VM and want it back.
Bootcamp is failing to create the partition and corrupting the APFS container as it unwinds. Actually, it's creating the partitions but gacking at some point. The question above has the fsck_apfs commands I've been looking for, but I'm looking beyond that.
What if, prior to reloading, I created the APFS container AND a smaller HPS/NTFS/FAT32 partition for Bootcamp Assistant to use? A "sacrifice" disk if you will.
Does it matter if the partition is created first, in the first sectors of the drive or at the end behind the APFS container?
This time, I plan to only do a MacOS install and not a recovery to test if this works. If so, I'll either restore directly to it or blow everything away again and do a full restore from the ground up with the extra partition.

My issue turned out to be Fusion drive issues that necessitated doing a diskutil resetFusion and blowing EVERYTHING away, recreate the APFS container, and reload. Painful, but I now have a Windows partition running. And yes, Bootcamp Assistant totally ignored everything but the APFS container.
Closest thing I could find to my issue: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207584


significant eye sight drop from using Macbook Pro retina I've been using the Macbook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, late 2013 model) for 1.5 years now, and I've noticed my eye sight has dropped significantly since then. The time I spent on computer was the same as before (about 14 hours/day, I'm a programmer). Before this, I was using a desktop with mid-tier screen, and had no problem. Now my eyes get easily tired and strained after 30 minutes of looking at the Macbook screen.

If you have experienced similar problems, I would really appreciate if you can share any advice about it, and possibly solutions? My work is on programming, it hard for me to switch to another career :s

Thanks!

For me it's glassy screen coat and huge brightness. Just lower the brightness and make smaller resolution also use night shift


Make QuickTime player ignore mouse gestures and touches I like my Magic Mouse, but I often touch it "incorrectly" while watching a movie in QuickTime Player, and QTP then moves the video position forward or backwards or makes a pause or ... . It can be annoying :-(

I'd like to make my QuickTime Player ignore mouse gestures and touches. Is it possible?

You can try BetterTouchTool that will give you much more control.

There is a setting that will allow you to add per-application rules:


Has the WiFi KRACK vulnerability been patched for iOS? There is a new vulnerability in WPA2 called KRACK (short for Key Reinstallation Attack), as described in The Guardian article:
 'All WiFi networks' are vulnerable to hacking, security expert discovers'

According to the article:

  The vulnerability affects a number of operating systems and devices,
  the report said, including Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD,
  MediaTek, Linksys and others.

Have there been any security releases for iOS fixing this?

Updates released 31 October 2017

Apple has released updates that include a fix for the KRACK vulnerability for macOS, iOS, tvOS and watchOS. To get the updates:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 and security updates for Sierra & El Capitan -
Launch the App Store and select the Updates tab.
iOS 11.1 -
Go to Settings > General > Software Update
watchOS 4.1 -
Launch the Watch app on your iPhone, then go to General > Software Update
tvOS 11.1 -
For Apple TV 4 (and 4K) go to Settings > System > Software Updates and Select Update Software.
For Apple TV (2nd/3rd generation) go to Settings > General > Update Software

It's Apple's policy to not comment on security vulnerabilities until they are patched, and even when they do, they are often quite vague about it.

  About Apple security updates

  For our customers' protection, Apple doesn't disclose, discuss, or
  confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and
  patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the
  Apple security updates page.

However, with a little detective work, we can gain some insight. Looking at the CVEs assigned to this particular vulnerability,* we can get listing of the issues that should be addressed by Apple when they decide to issue a security patch:

  CVE-2017-13077: Reinstallation of the pairwise encryption key (PTK-TK) in the 4-way handshake.
  CVE-2017-13078: Reinstallation of the group key (GTK) in the 4-way handshake.
  CVE-2017-13079: Reinstallation of the integrity group key (IGTK) in the 4-way handshake.
  CVE-2017-13080: Reinstallation of the group key (GTK) in the group key handshake.
  CVE-2017-13081: Reinstallation of the integrity group key (IGTK) in the group key handshake.
  CVE-2017-13082: Accepting a retransmitted Fast BSS Transition (FT) Reassociation Request and reinstalling the
  pairwise encryption key (PTK-TK) while processing it.
  CVE-2017-13084: Reinstallation of the STK key in the PeerKey handshake.
  CVE-2017-13086: reinstallation of the Tunneled Direct-Link Setup
  (TDLS) PeerKey (TPK) key in the TDLS handshake.
  CVE-2017-13087: reinstallation of the group key (GTK) when processing a Wireless Network Management (WNM) Sleep Mode Response frame.
  CVE-2017-13088: reinstallation of the integrity group key (IGTK) when processing a Wireless Network Management (WNM) Sleep Mode Response frame.

Also, this ZDNet Article - Here's every patch for KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability available right now (Oct. 16, 2017) indicates that vendors are responding quickly and Apple has confirmed that patches are in beta.

  Apple confirmed it has a fix in beta for iOS, MacOS, WatchOS and TVOS,
  and will be rolling it out in a software update in a few weeks.

*Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®) is a list of common identifiers for publicly known cyber security vulnerabilities. Use of "CVE Identifiers (CVE IDs)," which are assigned by CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs) from around the world, ensures confidence among parties when used to discuss or share information about a unique software vulnerability, provides a baseline for tool evaluation, and enables data exchange for cyber security automation.


Settings for iPhone 5S Text Message comes over as email I have an iPhone 5S and was messing with my settings and cannot figure out what I did.  Whenever I text another iPhone user, my message comes over in gray instead of blue, and it comes over sent from my email instead of an iMessage.
I checked my settings and my iMessage is on.  I don't know where to come from here.  Can anyone walk me thru the process to correct this glitch?  Incidentally, this just started happening after I updated to the iOS 9.3.2.

Thanks,

Messages are always received in grey, regardless of if they are iMessages (from a phone number or email address) or text messages.

But to get the messages sending from your number, not your email:

Go to Settings
Scroll down and tap "Messages"
Scroll down and tap "Send & Receive"
Make sure only your phone number is checked off in the "Start New Conversations From" section.
(It may also be worth unchecking your email address(es) from the "You Can Be Reached By iMessage At" section as well... though I don't think this should be required).


Mac mini ethernet speeds not gigabit? I've been writing a script for my Mac Mini (2014) that does a speed test and logs the data to a database. All that works great, but the results were a lot lower than I was expecting.

I have a gigabit connection and my Mac Mini is hardwired directly to my Airport Extreme. I was expecting to see something around 900 Mbps, but it was more like 500 Mbps. I would usually blame my ISP at this point, but I decided to run the test from my Macbook Pro as well. My laptop was spitting out in the upper 900s consistently. My setup between my Mac Mini and my Macbook Pro are identical, both hardwired (with the same cable) to my Airport Extreme.

I looked up the specs for my Mac Mini and it says that it's 10/100/1000BASE-T
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp710?locale=en_US

I'm confused, why am I getting such drastically different results?

Mac minis ship with 5400 RPM spinning hard drives. Even if you’re using a Fusion Drive configuration, its solid state portion is likely taken up by more-frequently accessed files.

So assuming your downloaded data gets written to some temporary file, your benchmark is running off the mechanical drive. Add to that the overhead of recording logs to a separate database, which will further decrease your storage performance.

On the other hand, Apple laptops all ship with SSDs. An SSD should easily keep up with a Gbps connection.

The most probable scenario is your Mac mini is being bottlenecked by its hard drive.


corrupted library (?) preventing ipad upload to icloud photos My ipad was not downloading photos from icloud photos, and was stuck uploading xxx photos. I tried turning icloud photos (and photo stream etc) on and off, and restarting the ipad, with no change in behavior. I then turned off icloud photos, deleted every photo off the ipad, turned it on and noticed that now, it says it is uploading 5 photos. These photos appear to not exist (the library is empty, the deleted files album is empty, and i have removed all albums, and are not visible either using image capture or windows) and I presume this is the source of my sync problems.

I then backed up the ipad, and restored from backup, and the problem persists.

I have one thing left to try that I can think of - restore as new and re-install from scratch - but this will be painful. Can anyone suggest an alternative?

Thanks

Chris

I can only tell you that I have the same problem, but on my iPhone. The only time I get it to work is when I turn iCloud entirely on and off. Yet – after a successful sync with all images and videos everywhere, the sync problem reemerge. Your mileage may vary. Try a complete iCloud off/on (and – I would recommend – a reboot in between) and see what happens.


Is AFP slated to be removed from future versions of macOS? I have seen forum posts out in the wild that suggest that AFP is "dead". I have seen this question and this post that states SMB is now the "default" protocol for Apple sharing.

I am using FreeNAS and it allows you to select either AFP or SMB shares. I mostly use Mac clients, so it would seem that AFP would be the obvious choice, but if AFP is going away in future versions of macOS, then I don't want to be stuck with shares I cannot access and/or file systems I have to migrate from AFP to some other system.

So what is fact and what is fiction about the future of AFP? Will it stop working in future versions of macOS? I don't see how this is possible since Time Machine requires it. Can I safely use AFP without worrying about it "dying" on me?

Apple Filing Protocol is deprecated1, not "dead".  There's a big distinction and that is being deprecated, it's still included and still works at the time of last development but it has been superseded by something else - in this case SMB2.  It also means there will be no further development.

  Will it stop working in future versions of macOS?

There will come a point in which Apple no longer includes support for a particular protocol or service.  Only Apple will know this for certain.

  Can I safely use AFP without worrying about it "dying" on me?

AFP is not going to die the same way cron didn't die when Apple went to launchd.  If you are running AFP today, you will have AFP tomorrow.  It won't be "upgraded out".  That said, Apple can decide tomorrow that future versions of macOS will no longer come with AFP; that won't break your existing macOS installation.

What all this means is that as a deprecated protocol, manufacturers are going to stop including support for AFP in new products (like NAS devices) and systems admins should begin making plans to switch over to newer technologies.  Also, being deprecated, it's no longer the default file sharing protocol meaning you will (eventually) have to take explicit steps to enable/connect to AFP shares.

It's important to note that AFP does not support the new APFS (Apple File System) so newer versions of macOS (Sierra going forward) will not have the ability to serve AFP shares.2

  You can share APFS formatted volumes using the SMB network file sharing protocol. The AFP protocol is deprecated and cannot be used to share APFS formatted volumes.

Though, they will probably include the AFP client so it can continue to connect to legacy devices/systems.

1 Deprecated refers to a software or programming language feature that is tolerated or supported but not recommended. A deprecated attribute or feature is one that may eventually be phased out, but continues to be used in the meantime. Deprecation also helps to ward off backward compatibility issues, giving users time to migrate and begin using the newer recommended feature. The deprecated feature will continue to work in the current environment, but will show a warning message that the feature being used may be removed in future releases.  Source:
  Techopedia.

2 Source:  9to5mac.com - Apple File System (APFS) announced for 2017, scales ‘from Apple Watch to Mac Pro’ and focuses on encryption


How to diagnose a graphic looking bug? I got the following strange image on both low corners of 2 application windows:

Firefox (22)
Preview (MacOS X)

This strange image is following the windows corners when I move them.
This is occuring on a MacBookPro6,2 (mid 2010), running MacOS X 10.6.8 fully updated.
This image can be captured (cmd ⌘+shift ⇧+4).

Context

The mother board and video card were replaced by an Apple Store.

Since I got it back 3 days ago, this MBP has been up and running and heavily tested. It went through many graphical use without a problem during 3 full days.

This event happened a few minutes after an exit from hybernation
where the battery was totally exhausted.

Graphic cards:

Intel HD Graphics: rev 0x0018
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M: rev 0x00a2

This problem occured arround 08:20. Here the nearby content of /var/log/kernel.log:

Aug  6 22:48:49 my__MBP kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en1
Aug  6 22:49:26 my__MBP kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'FR'.
Aug  6 22:49:26 my__MBP kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140
Aug  6 23:03:31 my__MBP kernel[0]: hfs: Initializing the journal (joffset 0x3000 sz 0x80000)...
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate image path: /var/vm/sleepimage
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: sizeof(IOHibernateImageHeader) == 512
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: Opened file /var/vm/sleepimage, size 4294967296, partition base 0xc805000, maxio 400000 ssd 0
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate image major 14, minor 2, blocksize 512, pollers 5
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_alloc_pages flags 00000000, gobbling 0 pages
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_setup(0) took 0 ms
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).
Aug  7 08:00:13 my__MBP kernel[0]: System SafeSleep
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_page_list_setall start 0x450cb000, 0x450ea000
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_page_list_setall time: 397 ms
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: pages 988881, wire 137387, act 328832, inact 12950, spec 0, zf 9189, throt 0, could discard act 130843 inact 255304 purgeable 25377 spec 88999
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_page_list_setall found pageCount 488358
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: IOHibernatePollerOpen, ml_get_interrupts_enabled 0
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: IOHibernatePollerOpen(0)
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: writing 486856 pages
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: encryptStart 541a70
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: encryptEnd 4e56560
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_machine_init: state 2, image pages 137257, sum was 7d2d0110, image1Size 9911400, conflictCount 403, nextFree 996
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_page_list_discard time: 265 ms, discarded act 130843 inact 255304 purgeable 25377 spec 88999
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: IOHibernatePollerOpen(), ml_get_interrupts_enabled 0
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: IOHibernatePollerOpen(0)
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_machine_init reading
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: PMStats: Hibernate read took 9038 ms
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: hibernate_machine_init pagesDone 488202 sum2 c5a58d42, time: 9038 ms
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: Wake reason =
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: System SafeSleep Wake
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: Previous Sleep Cause: -60
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: Previous Shutdown Cause: -60
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: com_apple_driver_AppleUSBCardReaderUMC:: Stop::Controller Reset
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: en1: 802.11d country code set to 'X3'.
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: en1: Supported channels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 132 136 140
Aug  7 08:19:17 my__MBP kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 000000009833 0x5ac 0x8403 0x9833

Looks like an issue with GPU drivers. I have such issues on other machines with other versions of OSX time to time. Most of them are likely addressed in next versions of OSX.

I would start with checking Console.app. Various subsystem might log some useful information.


Trouble to opening t.co links I have trouble to open links from Tweetbot in Safari on the Mac. it just waits loading with the t.co domain.

On iOS I don't have this problems!

Is it because I use uBlock as an adblocker? I can not reproduce this problem. After opening the link a second or third time it usually works.

It is possible that it has something to do with uBlock. Have you tried disabling the extension temporarily? Try that and see if the problem persists, if it doesn't, then that is your answer. You might just need to whitelist the domain t.co.

If it doesn't solve the problem, then you might need to try something else. Is both your Mac and iOS device on the same WiFi network? There could be a firewall or something blocking the Mac from connecting to the domain, while the iOS device is on cellular data.


Creating a project inside XCode In fact I want to port my wxWidgets-based application over to Mac using OS X 10.8 and Xcode 5. My application at this point will consist of the main executable and couple of dylib's.

So, after opening the XCode and going to the "File->New", I see there are "Project" and "Workspace" submenus.

I'm at a loss to:

presume I need to create a workspace, and then in there create 1 project for the main executable and 1 project for each dylib library.
forget about the "Workspace" and just start with the project for my main binary and then continue with another project on the same level for the library

Could someone shed some experience please?

This is an example of where a simple C++ command line application and dynamic library are created. The version of Xcode is 7.2.1 which requires at least OS X 10.10.5 execute, but can generate applications that only require OS X 10.7 or newer.

Part I: Create the Workspace, Projects and Source Code Files.

Using the Finder application, create a folder. In this case, I
created the folder named "simple" in my "Documents" folder.
Launch the Xcode application. If the "Welcome to Xcode" window pops
up, close the window. From the menu bar, select the
File->New->Workspace... item. I used the name "simplews.wcworkspace", which I selected to place in the "simple"
folder.
From the menu bar, select the File->New->Project... item. Select
"OS X Application", then "Command Line Tool". Click the "Next"
button.
For "Product Name:" and "Language:", I used "simple" and "C++",
respectively. Click the "Next" button.
Under "Add to:" select "simplews". Click the "Create" button.
From the menu bar, select the File->New->Project... item. Select
"Framework & Library", then "Library". Click the "Next" button.
For "Product Name:", "Framework:" and "Type:", I used "simplelib",
"None (Plain C/C++ library)" and "Dynamic", respectively. Click the
"Next" button.

  Note: I choose a dynamic library. If you need a static library, substitute "Static" for "Dynamic". You can also change this after
  creating the project. (Look for "Mach-O Type" under "Build
  Settings".)

Under "Add to:" select "simplews". Under "Group:" and "simplews".
Click the "Create" button.
From the menu bar, select the File->New->Group item. On the
created folder, replace the name "New Group" with "simplelib".
Highlight the "simplelib" folder. From the menu bar, select the
 File->New->File... item. Select "OS X Source", then "C++ File". Click the "Next" button.
For "Name:" use "simplelib.cpp". Make sure the "Also create a
 header file" is not checked off. Click the "Next" button.
Verify the "Group" is the "simplelib" folder and under "Targets",
 "simplelib" is checked off. Click the "Create" button.
Highlight the "simplelib" folder. From the menu bar, select the
 File->New->File... item. Select "OS X Source", then "Header File". Click the "Next" button.
For "Save As:", use "simplelib.h". Under "Group" select the folder
 "simplelib". Under "Targets", make sure "simplelib" is checked off.
 Click the "Create" button.

Part II: Configure Project Dependences

Project "simple" has to be able to find the headers from project
"simplelib". Highlight project "simple", then "Build Settings".
Change "Header Search Paths" to "../simplelib". An illustration is
shown below.

  Hint: Click on the image or open in a new window for a better view.

Project "simple" has to be able to link to the library created by
project "simplelib". Highlight project "simple", then "Build
Phases". Under "Link Binary With Libraries" click on the + sign and
add "libsimplelib.dylib. An illustration is shown below.

Remove the library search paths added by step 2. Highlight project
"simple", then "Build Settings". Under "Library Search Paths",
delete paths "$(inherited)" and "$(PROJECT_DIR)lib/build/Debug". An
illustration before the deletions is shown below.

When finished, "Library Search Paths" should show no paths as shown
in the image included in step 1.

  Note: The dependency of project "simple" on project "simplelib" should be detected automatically. Therefore, the step to include one has been omitted.

Part III: Build and Run the Application

Ask Different is not about programming. However, I will include the code that I entered.

simplelib.h

#ifndef simplelib_h
#define simplelib_h

class sample
{
public:
    static void print();
};

#endif /* simplelib_h */

simplelib.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include "simplelib.h"

void sample::print()
{
    std::cout << "Hi from simplelib!\n";
}

main.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include "simplelib.h"

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    std::cout << "Hello, World!\n";
    sample::print();
    return 0;
}

To build the application first select Product->Scheme->Simple
from the menu bar. The sets the focus on application project
"Simple".

  Note: The check mark does not always move after making a selection. This has been a bug for quite some time.

Next, select Product->Build from the menu bar.
Finally, select Product->Run from the menu bar. The output is
shown in the image below.


In Yosemite Mail, setting Signature to None does not remove signature like in Mavericks Trying to understand if changed behavior in Yosemite is expected or a bug.

In Mail.app in Mavericks, when I compose a new email, my signature would default to being there. If I then set Signature to None, Mail would automatically remove it from the mail body.

In Yosemite, setting Signature to None does not remove the signature. In fact, if I set Signature to None then back to my signature and repeat, it keeps inserting new copies of my signature.

It seems like Yosemite doesn't keep track of where it inserted my signature the way that Mavericks did. Does anyone know how to get the previous behavior?

It seems that this has finally been fixed in El Capitan (I'm currently using Mail 9.2 on OSX 10.11.2).


How to prevent iPhone from muting ringtone by side switch? The software side configuration of the side switch on iPhones (unlike iPads) was in one of the last iOS betas, but didn't make it through.

Is there any other trick to prevent an iPhone from being accidentally muted via the side switch?

Although convenient, I don't need the side switch to lock screen orientation - I just don't want to miss calls because it switched to "mute" in the pocket.

Apart from applying glue, that is.

Simply put, you can’t.

The best you can do is to make sure Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Vibrate on Silent is switched On. You can’t otherwise override the hardware mute switch.

You joked about applying glue, but a hardware solution does exist in the form of a case. With many iPhone cases, including Apple’s own Leather and Silicone Cases, surround the hardware Mute switch. Recessed in such a way, it becomes harder to switch off by accident.

Or you can also get an WATCH…


Mac dualboot with Kali Linux: jack with red light I have a MacBook Pro late 2011 and I have installed Kali Linux in dualboot.
Apparently there is nothing going wrong with my jack but I have noticed that a red light is constantly turned on in the port.
How can I solve it?

This is a long standing linux driver issue.  I installed linux on my first macbook back in 2008.  The optical audio light was never on before and it never went off after I ran linux.  Even after wipe and reload of OS on a new hard drive.  You can complain to the ALSA developers but you probably won't get anywhere.  I never had audio problems because of it, everything worked fine except that light was on.  You easiest solution is to ignore it or put a plastic plug in it.


Custom Themes for Mac OS X Lion For older Mac OS Versions like 10.4 or sometimes 10.5 you can find lots of themes, which change the whole UI.
Now my problem is that I'm using Mac OS Lion (10.7.3) and I want to change the UI, because I don't like the current one very much. I looked around in the web, but I couldn't find anything.
So is it really like that, that there isn't any other, alternative UI for Mac OS Lion?

I found Crystal Black, which seems to be the only theme for OS X Lion that's available.

It is not free, and costs $8.


Are there any non-Apple multi-touch trackpads on the market? I love the Apple trackpad with its multi-touch gestures. I want to buy a MacBook Pro primarily because of this. I am a student though and it seems to be very expensive for me. Hence I was wondering if any other company except for Apple provides a trackpad, or is it only available on Apple devices?

Also if this is the case then is there a software that can be used to mimic the Apple trackpad on an ordinary laptop? I am using Synaptic but is not the same. I know that software support and hardware support (which Apple provides) provides different user experience with the latter being more adroit, but what is the best I can get?

i want a hardware and software package. Are there any drivers in windows that will understand the trackpad movements?

Yes. Bamboo tablets made by Wacom are an option: they allow multi-touch and stylus input on a pretty large surface, but are more expensive than a magic trackpad: the cheapest I believe costs $75 USD. Wacom is a company that builds touch devices for graphic designers and consumers. Perhaps you want to give a look to their website:

http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Bamboo/BambooTablets.aspx

In case though, you want to use the Magic Trackpad, Windows drivers for Apple devices are downloadable in the form of Bootcamp Updates from the Apple Support page. Alhtough the trackpad is supposed to be Mac-only, after a bit of googleing I found a couple tutorials explaining how to use it with Windows.

Here is a blogpost I found, and a webpage with instructions:

http://www.mannis-world.de/blog/?p=15

http://www.labnol.org/software/apple-magic-trackpad-with-windows/14158/

About using multitouch with any other laptop: I don't think this is possible, for it requires hardware features not present on most laptops.

Hope it helps!


Password request for file delete Mountain Lion Server I've recently set up a new server environment in our small graphic design / video production studio.

The setup involves a Macpro running mountain lion server, with 56tb Raid 6 Proavio unit attached via SAS. The macpro has Small Tree gigabit ethernet cards allowing 12 workstations to be connected at any one time, allowing all users to access the same storage pool (the proavio raid). In terms of performance, the setup works fine. We've had 4 users editing full Hd compressed video across the ethernet network.

The problem i'm having is that in the OSX server prefs for the shared storage, I need to set the permissions to "ignore permissions on this volume" for users to be able to read / write to the drive.

I don't have a strong IT background (i'm a designer) but I have the feeling that the setup is incorrect in some way.

In addition to this bug, i'd also like to set up the system so that only the administrator of the server can delete files from the shared storage (password required). The reason being that we work with freelancers and interns who are not always safety savvy....!

Any light that can be shed on this by you brilliant people would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

J.

You seem to have two opposing goals. You would like that users can freely share and modify each others files, but preventing them from deleting them by mistake.

The probably best way to achieve this is to user ACLs (Access Control Lists). ACLs allow for additional, more fine-grained permissions,  see http://support.apple.com/kb/PH8010 for some official Apple docs. In this case you would have to turn off the ignore permissions on this volume setting.

Unfortunately this is rather technical, and probably requires you to at least initially set it up with the Terminal.app, although some of this can also be done in the Server.app, but it will allow you to set up so that everybody can read and write to a directory and it's files and to prevent non-admins from deleting a file. Note: it probably will not prevent someone from destroying the file reducing it's size to zero, thereby de facto deleting the file, so do not get fooled into a false sense of security.


Where is the default Mac screen saver location? Where is the directory to the default screen savers on Max OS X Lion?

The defaults screensavers are in /System/Library/Screen Savers.


How to wipe an iMac that can't be turned on? I have a 2008 model iMac that just can't be turned on. When it died, it shorted the house's fuse with it. Is there any way that I can wipe out the hard drive (without much effort) before throwing it away?

Opening the case and removing the hard drive is not an attractive option. I've read an iFixit tear-down and the hard drive is located behind the screen, which requires me to have plenty of tools to remove it.

Note: there is a similar question with the exception is that my iMac has a Firewire port. I wonder if that makes a difference, since it won't power on in the first place.

Some movies show a magnet-like device to clear out hard drives. I wonder whether that's doable in real life?

Well, if you've totally written off the Mac, including the hard drive, why not just destroy it?

Hammer etc

I mean, literally destroy it such as taking a hammer to it in the back yard. Then you can just remove the hard drive and destroy that as well. You may want to lay down a sheet or something first, and be sure to wear safety glasses, but this will do the trick.

External enclosure

Another advantage of the 'hammer' approach is the option of destroying the outer shell and removing the hard drive and continuing to use it by inserting it inside an appropriate external enclosure.

Bath

If you're not keen on the above approach, another option is to fill a bath tub with enough hot water to submerge your iMac. Be sure to mix two (or more) cups of salt in it and place the iMac in it overnight. Then you can just throw it away the next day.

Magnet

In terms of whether using a magnet in real life to scramble your data is doable, you would need a sufficiently strong magnet to achieve the result you want. Ideally you would have to get a hold of a Neodymium magnet, as this will have the strong magnetic fields necessary to erase or scramble the data.


Secondary click and primary click at the same time? Is it possible to do this without owning an external mouse or having the latest multi-touch trackpads?

I need to do this for games originally made for windows, but either run through wine or ported to mac. For the most they doesn't just require this, but also to hold both down for a specific time.

I'm using a MacBook Core 2 Duo, which doesn't have a highly customisable trackpad settings.

No you can't. The trackpad only has one physical button, so it cannot detect a primary and secondary click at the same time, neither can any Apple mouse for that matter.

But, two-button mice come cheap...

Alternatively, perhaps the game allows custom keybindings, or has alternate keyboard shortcuts available.


New programs must be launched twice in 10.7.3? I noticed recently that new programs (newly installed or downloaded) are not opening on first try on my MacBook Pro, or on my wife's MacBook. Both are running 10.7.3.

On first launch, new programs take a very long time to start. When they do show up in the Dock, they either bounce for a long, long time and then immediately exit, or finally stop bouncing and show up as if closed (I still have the little highlight turned on so I can see what is open or closed). When clicked, the icon disappears from the Dock. When I re-launch the app, it opens instantly with no issues - it is just the initial launch that seems screwy.

Have not been able to figure out what is happening with this, as my searches elsewhere haven't turned anything up. Any ideas? Related to some kind of sandboxing? It's not a huge issue but it is kind of annoying.

This may be another case of Lion being a quiter. And utilizing OS X Lion's Auto Termination and additionally OS X Lions Sudden Termination feature.

  Lion will quit your running applications behind your back if it decides it needs the resources, and if you don’t appear to be using them. The heuristic for determining whether an application is “in use” is very conservative: it must not be the active application, it must have no visible, non-minimized windows — and, of course, it must explicitly support Automatic Termination.

A program that is "taking to long to start" seems like a perfect candidate for the OS to kill.

Also it makes perfect sense for when you come back the second time and they start up, since Lion would have saved state on the program.


How can I enable rEFIt boot volume choice after waking up from hibernation mode? There are pretty clear answers to the question 'How to put my Mac into hibernation mode voluntary', but there is still an issue for me.
I use Bootcamp Windows and rEFIt to select which sistem to load. But when I wake from the hibernation mode I have no option to choose - just Mac OS is loading. How can I enable boot source choose after waking up from the hibernation mode?

Here seems to be a good explanation of the process.
Might be a tad old though :)

http://blog.yasmar.net/2006/05/make-refit-and-safe-sleep-play-well-together/


How to remove or disable a default keyboard layout? Is it possible to remove or disable one of OS X Lion’s default keyboard layouts?

I’m using a custom keyboard layout, and now that I managed to set it as the system-wide default keyboard layout, I’d like to be able to uncheck or remove the built-in “U.S.” keyboard layout that came with OS X. Here’s a screenshot — note that the checkbox is disabled:

In OS X 10.9, this preference pane has been redesigned, but still there’s no way to “remove” the built-in “U.S.” keyboard layout:

Since I never use the U.S. keyboard layout, I’d love to get rid of it, i.e. remove it from the Input menu in the menu bar. How can I do this?

Update: Daniel’s answer doesn’t really answer this question, but it does offer some valuable information regarding this problem:

  Mac OS X seems to require at least one keyboard layout that the system recognizes as a “Latin character” layout to be selected.

Assuming this is accurate information (thanks, Daniel!), the question could be rephrased as follows:

  How to make OS X consider a custom keyboard to be a Latin character layout?

Update: I just came across something that might help.

For macOS 10.8 and later:

Change the current input source to your custom keyboard layout.
Open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist (in 10.9) or ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox.*.plist (in 10.8 and earlier). You can convert the plist to XML with plutil -convert xml1.
Remove the input source or input sources you want to disable from the AppleEnabledInputSources dictionary. If there is an AppleDefaultAsciiInputSource key, remove it.
Restart.

For macOS 10.7 and earlier:

Enable an input source that is not like your physical keyboard layout from System Preferences (I used Afghan Dari).
Run f=~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox*.plist; plutil -convert xml1 $f; open $f -e.
Remove other input sources except the temporarily enabled keyboard layout and your custom keyboard layout.
Log out and back in.
Remove the temporarily enabled keyboard layout from the property list.
Log out and back in.


Why is Mac-to-Mac screen sharing just hanging? I have my iMac set up with:

Firewall off
Screen sharing on for specific user, no general VNC password
File sharing on (with liberal access)

I want to connect to it's screen from my MBPro. Whenever I try to start a screen sharing session from the MBPro to the iMac, either via Finder's screen sharing dialog or by calling the Screen Sharing app directly, it just hangs. And hangs. And hangs. And eventually the "Connecting..." window just quietly disappears and no screen is shared.

I checked Keychain to make sure there isn't a bad password set for the iMac and, nope, nothing there. I'm not being prompted for a user name or password from Screen Sharing when it runs.

I don't have a central user authority on my network. Each Mac has its own local user settings. But the user names and passwords are identical.

I can connect successfully using Jolly's Fast VNC. It actually finds the iMac via Bounjour broadcast. But this software, technically, is not free and I'm perplexed as to why the built-in Mac approach isn't working for me.

Update: here are the screen sharing settings on the iMac.

And this is what I have set when you click on the 'Computer Settings...' button:

Jolly's Fast VNC continues to find (via Bonjour) and connect to this machine without any issues. I have to give it my user name and password for the iMac when I want to connect. Finder, on the MBPro, can connect to the file shares (using my iMac user name and password) just fine. Clicking 'Share Screen' in the Finder window wakes up the iMac -- the display turns on and what not. But the connect times out.

Are there log files for Screen Sharing on the MBPro I can look at to debug this? What about log files on the iMac for Screen Sharing? Something that might shed some light on why Screen Sharing says it's connecting and then just mysteriously stops?

Since the Screen Sharing feature seems to be the only one unable to connect, the best way to diagnose its behavior is by using the application directly.

Please, launch screen sharing located in:

/System/Library/CoreServices/ScreenSharing.app

The application has no visible "UI" so don't expect a fancy Cocoa interface. Instead, once you have loaded it, all you'll see is this "poor" icon in the Dock:

Click on it and then go to Preferences in the Mac menu bar. You should be presented with:

Notice the second option to only encrypt passwords and keystrokes. That's fine, but as you can see, there's no option to skip encryption altogether. Some VNC versions have incompatibilities with encryption, but this would be rather shocking since you're talking about OS X vs OS X.

In any case, once you have the settings like that, try connecting, again, in the menu bar: Connection -> New (or ⌘cmd + N).

A simple dialog appears asking you to enter the Host's name. Following your screenshots, try: 192.168.1.99 and hit enter.

We'll see what happens from here. Also, have the Console.app open on both computers, to see if there are any System messages going on (or anything related).


How to have my iPad use Win 2008 server's internet connection? I have an iPad that is connected to my network's wireless router. However, this router is connected to my Win 2008 server, which is itself connected to the internet. The iPad is unable to connect to the public url for the exchange server on the server and has erratic internet access, where Windows laptops are provided with faultless internet access, even when they are not a member of the domain.

How do I solve this?

It sounds like a dns issue to me.  You'll want to have an internal dns server that knows to route *.example.com to your server's internal address and forward everything else to a public dns server like 8.8.8.8, and make sure your dhcp service hands out this dns server.

It could also be an ipv6 issue, as Apple products are configured to very strongly prefer ipv6 whenever they can.  If you have partial ipv6 support somewhere on your network (very possible to have without even knowning) it could be confusing the iPad.


Signatures in iMessage Is there a way to add a signature to automatically show up in the text box in iMessage. I know that you could create a keyboard shortcut to type in everytime you text but there are two problems with that: every time you would use that shortcut normally (without the intentions of using the signature, the signature would come up), and I would need to put in the signature's shortcut every time I text.

I'm not sure it can be done automatically, but...

I'd just use the shortcut method.

I use 'mynm' to trigger mine - it's not something I'm likely to ever use for another purpose. Same for myeml myphone myaddy etc

Substitutions can even do emojis or multiple-line text with Return key - so long as you copy-paste them into the shortcut, not try to type them 'live'

You'll find it's easier, long-term, to type a few letters at the end of your message than fight it every time you don't want it to happen


Is the case insensitive comparison broken for mdfind? I use mdls and mdfind within scripts to automate playing music files.  Recently I've noticed certain files missing from the expected search results and I have tracked it down to a case senstivity issue.

I'm using query syntax similar to kMDItemTitle == '*[search term]*'c.  The trailing 'c' character used to provide a case-insensitive search.

Online documentation  offers kMDItemTitle ==[c] '*[search term]* as a possibility, but that also fails to work.

Here are some exmaples from my command line:

⇒ mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.audio" && kMDItemTitle == "*Thrill*"'
./Music/Sia/Cheap Thrills (feat. Sean Paul) - Single/01 Cheap Thrills (feat. Sean Paul).m4a
./Music/Michael Jackson/Thriller [Bonus Tracks]/17 Voice-Over Session from Thriller.m4a
./Music/Michael Jackson/Thriller [Bonus Tracks]/04 Thriller.m4a
./Music/J.J. Cale/The Road to Escondido/08 Hard to Thrill.m4a

⇒ mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.audio" && kMDItemTitle == "*thrill*"c'

⇒ mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.audio" && kMDItemTitle == "*THRILL*"c'

⇒ mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.audio" && kMDItemTitle ==[c] "*THRILL*"'

It's working for me (Sierra). Specifically, the form you're used to works:

$ mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.audio" && kMDItemTitle == "*ciao*"'c
...[non-album tracks]/Bella ciao.mp3
...Unreleased/Bella Ciao.mp3

I had no luck with the other form (... "==[c] ... "). The docs you linked to were from 2011; I found references from 2014 that use "your" form so it looks like the online docs are old and wrong! Unfortunately this suggests there's something wrong with your system, rather that with your queries. Sorry, I'm not sure what the next step would be.


How can I rip audio CDs and normalize them at the same time? I am a veteran Windows user (sorry!) who typically rips audio discs with CDex or EAC. CDex includes the option to normalize volume levels during the ripping process.

I am trying to find a program to rip audio discs on a Mac, other than iTunes, and am coming up empty-handed. I have found XLD and Max, both of which seem to be highly recommended and feature-rich, but neither seem to offer normalization.

I don't want to have to run audio tracks through a separate program before compressing to MP3 (or any other format).

I'm aware that Mac is a superb platform for professional audio, with industry pros using software like Logic and Pro Tools in production environments, but I find it a bit frustrating that CD ripping software for Mac seems to often lack this feature.

Am I just not finding "the one", or is there some reason that normalization is not common among these rippers? What software (free or not) should I be using for CD ripping which meets the following requirements:

Normalizes volume levels
Names files based on database lookup (such as freedb)
Supports MP3 compression (LAME for example)
Accurate rips with moderate error-checking

Normalising, as such, is not really helpful when importing from commercial recordings, as the Mastering engineer will have already made sure the tracks are correctly normalised, whilst maintaining the relative levels between each component track.

The only way to truly level-match would be using compression & limiting algorithms, which really ought to be left to a professional, & is beyond the scope of Ask Different.

The way to do this at consumer-level is to use iTunes for playback [& also would be by far the simplest for the initial ripping, as it is capable of all your bullet points] & switch on Sound Check in Prefs > Playback.

This allows iTunes to measure the apparent loudness of each track or album & automatically adjust the playback levels on the fly, enabling more comfortable listening without levels jumping around track to track.

This is done by a system known as ReplayGain
See 'Alternatives' at the end of that wiki page for a brief explanation of why normalisation & recompression are not ideal solutions.

However, iTunes has traditionally done this on a per-track basis, not a per-album basis, which can make quiet tracks in the middle of an otherwise loud album jump out at you far too much.
This trait is reported to be fixed in recent versions, but once a track has been analysed, iTunes will not go back & fix it later.

To get around this, you may need to employ something like iVolume which is capable of resetting the iTunes data, then recalibrating. It will also allow you to specify whether any album or compilation should get individual or global adjustment.
You can also manually tweak any individual track/album manually.


Can you batch rename files if they contain certain criteria? I have a list of filenames containing country codes, for example:
File1_BG.srt
File2_CS.srt

I'm looking to rename them based on the country code to:
File1_BG.srt becomes Facebook.BG_bg.srt
File1_CS.srt becomes Facebook.CS_bg.srt

From the Finder, select all the files you want to rename, and under the file menu select rename. This brings up a pane with options to rename. For your files, you can put .srt in the find box and replace with _bg.srt. Then you can replace 'File1' with 'Facebook'. This will quickly rename the files for you. Looking around the rename panel, under the first pulldown on the left is the option to reformat. This option may come in handy as well.


Fast user switching is greyed out I am an administrator to my MBP, and should be able to turn on fast user switching to let more than one user stay logged in at the same time, right? But this is what I get:

What I'm missing?
$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.15.7
BuildVersion:   19H512

It looks like your MacBook Pro is registered to a organization and managed via a MDM Server. Thus you are not allowed to make adjustments to system preferences. Get in touch with your System Administrator.


What versions of OS X are affected by Heartbleed? What versions of OS X come default with the affected versions of OpenSSL?

All Internet traffic right now is clogged with the same generic information in regards to the Heartbleed bug, without any attention paid to Macintosh in the environment. I am looking for information on Mac OS X client as well as Mac OS X server. Right now it's impractical for me to check all the Macs in the environment for their specific version of OpenSSL, but I already have the Mac OS X version information for the affected machines.

No versions of OS X are affected (nor is iOS affected). Only installing a third party app or modification would result in a Mac or OS X program having that vulnerability / bug in OpenSSL version 1.0.x

Apple deprecated OpenSSL on OS X in December of 2012 if not earlier. No version of OpenSSL that is vulnerable to CVE-2014-0160 (a.k.a the Heartbleed Bug)

Apple provides several alternate application interfaces that provide SSL to Mac developers and has this to say about OpenSSL:

  OpenSSL does not provide a stable API from version to version. For this reason, although OS X provides OpenSSL libraries, the OpenSSL libraries in OS X are deprecated, and OpenSSL has never been provided as part of iOS. Use of the OS X OpenSSL libraries by apps is strongly discouraged.

Specifically, the latest version of OpenSSL shipped by Apple is OpenSSL 0.9.8y 5 Feb 2013 which does not appear to have the bug from newer versions of OpenSSL back ported to the code for Apple's version of the library.

The PDF of this documentation has some clearly written advice for developers and some sections that's useful for professionals or the security minded user as well.

OpenSSL for Mac Developers and PDF version of Apple's Cryptographic Services Guide

Considering this, the only remaining issue would be additional software that were built against OpenSSL, e.g. several in Homebrew (brew update followed by brew upgrade) or MacPorts (port self update followed by port upgrade openssl) to update to the patched 1.x version of openSSL.

Also, you could use mdfind/mdls to check on files named openssl in case you have other applications that bundle that library as Apple recommends rather than depending on the "safe" version Apple still ships with OS X.

for ff in `mdfind kMDItemFSName = "openssl"`; do echo "#### $ff"; mdls $ff | grep kMDItemKind; done


Do companies have IT "spyware" on corporate iPhones? I have an iPhone through my company. From my understanding, Apple does not allow any software onto their i* devices that does not come from the app store. I got into a discussion with a coworker about how IT can track the phone. Is there any keyboard loggers, or other spyware that could be installed which would allow a company to track employees actions outside of the traditional email client?

I know text messages show up on a monthly bill through the carrier. If texting through Google voice, I'm assuming that would be unreadable, since it is a third party app and uses a data connection?

Companies can choose to provide in-house apps to employees through the iOS Developer Enterprise Program without listing them on the Apple iOS App Store.

What you're asking about mainly falls into the realm of MDM (Mobile Device Management). One of the popular MDM solutions on iOS is Afaria, from SAP. Installation of the MDM app is made a mandatory requirement by some companies in order to allow employees to connect to corporate email (and other services). An MDM solution can be used to setup apps, accounts, impose corporate policies/restrictions on specific features and also enable remote wiping of the device through the provisioning of profiles.

Due to the application sandbox restrictions imposed by iOS, the MDM application does not have complete control over the device to snoop across every other application on the system and the OS. It cannot log keystrokes, network communication or data from the apps you use.

Read through the iPhone in Business page for details. Here are some relevant snippets:

  While IT can interact with iPhone and iPad devices through an MDM server, not all settings and account information are exposed. IT can only manage corporate accounts, settings, and information provisioned via MDM. The user's personal accounts can’t be accessed.
  ...
  ...

  Examples of what an MDM server can and can't see on an iOS device.

  MDM can see:

  Device name
  Phone number
  Serial number
  Model name and number
  Capacity and space available
  iOS version number
  Installed apps

  MDM cannot see:

  Personal mail, calendar, contacts
  SMS or iMessages
  Safari browser history
  FaceTime or phone call logs
  Personal reminders and notes
  Frequency of app use
  Device location

A few more points to note on this topic:

Apple may expand on the device monitoring and policy enforcement features in future releases of iOS.
One important prerequisite imposed by companies for allowing access to corporate email (and other resources) in exchange for installing MDM on the device is that the device must not be jailbroken. Companies that take security seriously would not allow (at least in their policies) jailbroken devices that could be vulnerable to all kinds of attacks (including, but not limited to, disabling or crippling the MDM app  and/or the MDM policies pushed to the device).
Of course, if a device is jailbroken, then any malicious app could access and gather a lot more information than standard MDM solutions available now (however, no commercial enterprise solution would ask for the device to be jailbroken as a prerequisite).


Trying to install Xcode on Yosemite 10.10.5 I'm trying to install Xode 7 beta 6 version on Yosemite. I used the command 'Xcode-select --install' in terminal. It says 'xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, use "Software Update" to install updates.' But i'm using latest version of OS X. What should i do? Please help me...

You are trying to install Xcode 7 on OS X 10.10. There's your problem. If you read the developer website, it would tell you it can only be installed on OS X 10.11. No exceptions. My advice would be to either: a) use a new computer to test Xcode 7 and El Capitan, b) Use a new partition for that, or c) Wait for the official releases within a month or so.


How can I extract audio files from an app? Is there any way I can extract audio files from an iOS app?  Would jailbreaking be required?

This would be relatively easy on Android, but I cannot figure out how to get the app onto a PC.

The reason I want to do this is simply because I have an iPad app that has some very nice alert sounds, which I would like to use for my desktop alert sounds, phone notifications and terminal bell (personal use only).

Use Apple Configurator 2 to update the app on your iOS device, but before disconnecting the iOS device, copy the iOS app out of the Configurator's temporary directory.  See:

How do I download an iOS App (IPA) file to my Mac after iTunes 12.7 update?

for how to find this directory.  If the media assets of an app are not encrypted or obfuscated, you can sometimes find them by unzipping the .ipa file.


How to Downgrade From iOS 11 Beta to iOS 11 Without Factory Resetting My iPhone is really starting to act up on the iOS 11 beta and I was wondering if there is anyway to downgrade from the iOS 11 beta to the regular version of iOS 11 without having to factory reset my iPhone.

It's been a while since I did this but if I remember correctly, go to beta.apple.com on your phone and login. Go to the IOS section and un-enroll your device from the beta program. It should then allow you to download the non beta updated version of IOS 11.

It is likely the same build that you are running now. I am not sure if beta builds have extra debugging code in them or not. If this does not fix it you may need to back up the phone, erase it and restore from backup.


iTunes connect: I can't add new bank account or changing existing? Ok I recently closed my bank account and opened a new one that has the same routing number but different account number. Apple tried to make a payment to my account but it was declined because it's closed and I got a notification.

I need to add the new correct number but there is no option to in the Banking/contracts section of iTunes - and I cant change the number on my existing account here:

What do I do to update the bank account number?

I stumbled upon the setting by chance.

"Agreement, Tax, And Banking"
stay on the "Agreements" page
click on "Paid Apps"
You will the see a "Bank Accounts" section with an "edit" button to update your bank details

Not very intuitive, I agree that it should be under the "Banking" page and not in a sub page under "Agreements". Hopefully this saves people a call to developer support to locate the path to changing bank accounts.


Carrier SIM card and unlocking issues... I recently purchased a used iPhone 7 to upgrade from a 5s. The new iPhone was on AT&T and I use Verizon, so I knew it needed to be unlocked before I attempted to use my current SIM card in it.

I also wasn't sure what the process would be for switching a SIM between phones (smart phones are a rather new territory for me, the 5s being my first), so I took both phones into the Verizon store, and asked what needed to be done. I was told that as long as the phone was unlocked, all that would need to be done would be switching the SIM card. The 7 had just been paid off in the AT&T store minutes before I took it to Verizon, so the information had apparently not yet been sent to it to unlock. Therefore, when the Verizon SIM was put in, it gave the SIM Not Supported error.

While the person at the Verizon store had the AT&T SIM out, he asked if I still needed it. I naively said no. So, that being said, I now have an iPhone 5s that still works on Verizon and an iPhone 7 that, more than likely would be carrier unlocked if it still had its AT&T SIM card; which is my problem...

How do I go about getting my 7 unlocked now that it doesn't have the rather important AT&T SIM in it? The friend that I purchased the 7 from did send AT&T an unlock request last week and hasn't heard back from them yet.

To recap... I have an iPhone 7 that probably would be carrier unlocked; however, due to a naive action by me, it is not... What do I do now?

Unlocking an AT&T iPhone requires more than just AT&T to send the unlock command.

If they have granted the unlock request, they should have sent you an email telling you what to do:

Back up your phone to your Mac or PC. Then wipe and reset it (settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content And Settings) and then restore from that backup.

You should turn off find my iPhone first.

Once it has erased go through the setup procedure it will ask you how you want to set it up. Select the option to restore from an iTunes backup. Plug it into the computer you just backed it up to and restore the phone.

You are now unlocked.


Can one Mac mini run twelve displays? At work we have two Mac minis and each can run six monitors (twelve total).

I want to use only one Mac mini. How can we do this?

Update:

We have tried using a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis.

We discovered some limitations of OS X and Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis: Graphics Cards - FAIL

Mac OS X does not yet support video pass through. We tried multi-channel graphics card in a three-bay PCIe expansion chassis. FAIL. So not all graphics cards will work. When talking to Magna we learned that this is supported in Windows, but not Mac OS X. Maybe WWDC will announce further functionality from an OS end.

Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis: USB Graphics - FAIL

Utilize more USB graphics cards with USB 3 capable PCIe Cards. We discovered that the USB 3 PCIe cards developed by CalDigit does not support anything but hard drives. They said they will support a more full USB 3 spec in a couple of months when their next release comes out, but didn’t guarantee USB graphics cards.

USB Graphics Cards: Partial Success

USB graphics card makers are advertising the support of six USB graphics cards on one computer. Add HDMI and Thunderbolt. That makes eight displays from a Mac mini.

Why?

Because it is there.

Because the cost is right.

It is cool.

Hopefully a replacement for the linear processing of information like unto a PowerPoint presentation.

What?

Twelve 1080p LED monitors
Two Mac minis
FileMaker Pro
Eight USB-to-DVI dongles
Two HDMI ports
Two Thunderbolt ports

Not if you’re trying to do something different on each display.

If you’re just looking to mirror the same content on twelve displays, then it should be okay: you just need a bunch of DVI splitters such as this one on Amazon.

To elaborate somewhat: the Mac mini is probably the least powerful Mac you can buy today (putting aside refurb models). It only has an integrated graphics processor, and while the Intel HD Graphics 4000 is better than some of the graphics cards Apple has used in the past, it’s still no substitute for a proper graphics card.

If we look at the Mac Pro tech specs page:

  Support for up to six displays

  Connecting more than three displays requires installation of two ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics cards.

Even though it hasn’t been updated properly in several years, the Mac Pro still outstrips the Mac mini considerably. You might be able to fiddle it somewhat and get an extra display or too on top of what Apple cite, but I think twelve would be a struggle on a Mac Pro. Doing it on a mini is probably impossible.

Another comparison: the Verge tested a Retina MacBook Pro, and were able to drive three external displays with it (four total). That’s one of Apple’s most modern Macs, and it was struggling:

  There’s certainly a performance hit overall, and when trying to play four separate videos at once on all four displays (one of which was the 4K footage), we did notice the frame rates begin to drop.

Note that three external displays is more than Apple specifies for that machine. (Two running at 2560 by 1600 pixels.)

Driving twelve individual displays on a Mac mini is almost certainly impossible. I would guess that you probably can’t get a Mac from Apple today that will do it, even with a lot of work.

You can add graphics processing power, but eventually it won’t be your graphics that are the bottleneck. Trying to draw windows across twelve 1080p displays (nearly 25 million pixels) will strain what the window drawing tools in OS X are capable of. I suspect memory and CPU power would rein you in.

(That’s not to say that you can’t get computers that will drive twelve displays: you can buy such machines for trading floors, or maybe build a Hackintosh that will do it, but I’m fairly sure Apple don’t cater to that market.)

Also, what on earth are you trying to drive twelve displays from a single Mac mini for? If you really need to drive twelve displays, you need to buy several machines.


Apple Music doesn't display song's lyrics from MP3 ID3 tag How can I display lyrics on Apple Music?

Here's my steps:

I edit MP3 tags through kid3 app.
I add lyrics to my MP3 file into the Tag 2 ID3v2.3.0 with encoding ISO-8859-1 (I've also tried UTF-8 and UTF-16):

I save my MP3 file and send to my iPhone (iOS 11.4);

What I expect as a result: lyrics are displayed in music app.

What I actually get: no lyrics displayed.

I use kid3 to add lyrics to mp3 files, which the iOS Music app can then show. I can take you through how I do it with macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 and iOS 11.4.

The information you have supplied looks correct. Like your example, I use kid3 to write Tag 2:ID3v2.3.0

The text encoding I use is ISO-8859-1 (which I understand is basically ASCII, is compatible with UTF8, and is fine unless you have non ascii characters in your lyrics).
Furthermore Language is set to eng.

Having saved the lyrics into the file with kid3,  check in iTunes if your song contains your lyrics.
Right click on the track in iTunes, select Song Info, and select the Lyrics tab. The lyrics you added in kid3 should be visible, and the Custom Lyrics box in the bottom left hand corner should be checked.
If the lyrics are not present then delete the song/album from the iTunes library, re-import it, and check the lyrics are visible in iTunes before proceeding.

Next delete the song/album on your iPhone. Then transfer across the new copy from iTunes to your iPhone.

On your iPhone bring up the album containing your song:-

Tap and hold on the track name until a menu appears, then swipe up to show the bottom of the menu list - Lyrics is often right at the bottom and can even be partially or fully hidden when the menu first appears.

The lyrics should then be visible:-

Having said all this, I personally find viewing lyrics from mp3s with the Apple iOS Music app to be extremely poorly designed, and much prefer to use other 3rd party apps such as Cesium.


how do I switch option + f to [next word] instead of ƒ on macos high Sierra I want to switch option + f to [next word] instead of ƒ. How do I do that?

For example in the bear text editing app, I’d love this affordance.

How can I change the key mappings or make this a shortcut on macOS?

Or for example I would like to delete a word with option + d, instead it prints out the useless ∂

All those shortcuts you mention work with control+_. So either you can remap your option key to behave as control, or make yourself habitual of using control.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236

Swap CMD and Alt only on external keyboard
How do I remap a key in macOS Sierra, e.g., Right Alt to Right Control?


Can the Growl update message be stopped without removing Growl? I've recently migrated to Mountain Lion. Every now and then I get a Growl notification saying that a new version of Growl is available. The new version is a paid app, which I don't want to buy, but I can't find a way to disable the update message. It's particularly annoying because unlike a normal Growl notification, this one doesn't go away until you explicitly close it.

If there isn't a way to disable this intrusive advert I will simply remove Growl from my system - but this would be a shame as the current version is still somewhat useful. (Not every program I use supports the new message centre.) So does anybody know of a way to disable this specific message?

From the Growl FAQ page:

  How do I disable the update checker in 1.2.2 and below?

  The update checker in Growl 1.2.2 and below will run automatically every 24 hours. The update checker in 1.2.2 admittedly is not great, and is one of the reasons that Growl is now in the App Store.

  For those who wish to continue to run Growl 1.2.2, you can do so but will likely benefit from disabling the update checker.

  To disable the update checker, follow these steps:
  - Open System Preferences
  - Click on Growl
  - Click on the About tab at the top
  - Please make sure that you are using 1.2.2. If you are not, please update to 1.2.2 available here
  - Uncheck "Check for updates automatically"
  - Close System Preferences, you are done

Since the older version is going to become less compatible over time I would honestly suggest just paying the $4 and upgrading to the latest version that integrates all Growl notifications into message centre, even for apps that don't support message centre.