Performance Tweaks/Tools for MacOS (Macbook Pro) I am using a Mid2010 Macbook Pro (2.5 GHz i5, 8GB RAM, regular HD (no SSD) and still on MacOS 10.9).

I am fully aware of the fact that, as the computer gets older, it may get a little slower due to more space used on the HD, more applications installed etc. etc. However, I feel that in the last few months I feel like the performance has degraded more than it should be. What do I mean by that? Well, it takes longer and longer for me to boot the Mac, applications take longer to start and it happens more and more often that they simple freeze for a short moment. Lately, I even had to use a cold reboot by pressing the on/off button long because the whole system froze when I was simply watching some videos.

Now, I am looking in how to get a little bit of the performance back, i.e., either some tips that I can directly use in the OS or some tools which help me. Unforunately, googleing them brought up a whole bunch of differerent tools, not all of them looking extremely reliable. I'd be grateful if some of you have a couple of tips for me.

Thanks

Onyx is a great app to help you clear out a lot of the clutter you may have accumulated over the years and speed you up a bit. Be careful though, it's a powerful tool so make sure you know what you're doing with it before you do anything.

As for boot time, make sure you don't have a lot of daemons loading at launch. One easy way to check is to go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > [Your User] > Login Items and remove anything listed there that you don't need launching at startup. Anything with a default document icon means it doesn't exist and can be safely removed. Ideally, the only item that should be listed is iTunesHelper, but if you don't use any iOS devices, then you can remove that too.

Another few places to check for daemons and login items is "~/Library/LaunchDaemons/", "~/Library/LaunchAgents", "/Library/LaunchDaemons" and "/Library/LaunchAgents". If you see anything listed for software you don't use anymore, trash it. Certain other apps load daemons in to here too that you might not need; Adobe is a big culprit here with their Flash Player updater, Adobe Reader updater, and AAM. If you're unsure, leave it where it is.


Dragging file at the Dock creates a copy of a file? When I drag and drop a file from Finder to Dock, it creates a copy of the file somewhere? I would like to create some type of link as I know from Windows. Until now I created a link (context menu -> Create a link) and used a this link instead of using original file. What procedure is correct?

Dragging a file/folder into the Dock just creates a reference there, it does not duplicate the file/folder. In your case you can omit the "create a link" step.

The reference to said object is stored in the $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist file under the persistent-others key as a Dictionary labeled Item N where N is the next available number starting from 0.  Among the information stored about the object is its pathname so the object can be opened when its Dock Tile is clicked.

    <key>persistent-others</key>
    <array>
            <dict>
                    <key>GUID</key>
                    <integer>86167247</integer>
                    <key>tile-data</key>
                    <dict>
                            <key>arrangement</key>
                            <integer>2</integer>
                            <key>displayas</key>
                            <integer>1</integer>
                            <key>file-data</key>
                            <dict>
                                    <key>_CFURLAliasData</key>
                                    <data>
                                    AAAAAACkAAMAAQAA0HpGVwAASCsAAAAAABuw
                                    VwAxxNoAANB6bMcAAAAACSD//gAAAAAAAAAA
                                    /////wABAAgAG7BXABsCdgAOABQACQBEAG8A
                                    dwBuAGwAbwBhAGQAcwAPABoADABNAGEAYwBp
                                    AG4AdABvAHMAaAAgAEgARAASABNVc2Vycy9w
                                    c2UvRG93bmxvYWRzAAATAAEvAAAVAAIACv//
                                    AAA=
                                    </data>
                                    <key>_CFURLString</key>
                                    <string>file:///Users/pse/Downloads/</string>
                                    <key>_CFURLStringType</key>
                                    <integer>15</integer>
                            </dict>
                            <key>file-label</key>
                            <string>Downloads</string>
                            <key>file-mod-date</key>
                            <integer>3497684167</integer>
                            <key>file-type</key>
                            <integer>2</integer>
                            <key>parent-mod-date</key>
                            <integer>3497684167</integer>
                            <key>preferreditemsize</key>
                            <integer>-1</integer>
                            <key>showas</key>
                            <integer>1</integer>
                    </dict>
                    <key>tile-type</key>
                    <string>directory-tile</string>
            </dict>
    </array>


How do you clear SSL leaf certificates mappings to particular domains I visit my website using Chrome on macOS Mojave, for example, qa.abc.com, and the SSL leaf certificate is from customer-test.ssl.fastly.net. I recently updated the CNAME record in my DNS for qa.abc.com so that it should point b3.shared.global.fastly.net. When I visit qa.abc.com, it resolves the SSL certificate at customer-test.ssl.fastly.net instead of b3.shared.global.fastly.net.

You would think clearing the cache might do the trick, but nope, whether it's Chrome's incognito mode or clearing its cache, still the same. Then I checked on both Safari, Firefox, and even tried to run the following command in my Terminal:

echo | openssl s_client -connect qa.abc.com:443

with the result being:

---
Certificate chain
 0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=San Francisco/O=Fastly, Inc./CN=customer-test.ssl.fastly.net
   i:/C=BE/O=GlobalSign nv-sa/CN=GlobalSign CloudSSL CA - SHA256 - G3
 1 s:/C=BE/O=GlobalSign nv-sa/CN=GlobalSign CloudSSL CA - SHA256 - G3
   i:/C=BE/O=GlobalSign nv-sa/OU=Root CA/CN=GlobalSign Root CA

If I jump onto my brother's Windows 10 machine on the same wifi network, the website correctly pulls the SSL certificate from b3.shared.global.fastly.net. If I access the site via my iPhone 6, it's correctly pulling from b3.shared.global.fastly.net. If I browse on my MacBook via tethering on my iPhone 6, it still shows up as customer-test.ssl.fastly.net.

So, we know that:

It's not related to the browser, since all browsers are affected the
same way, including openssl at the command line
It's not related to the network, since other devices on the same network work fine.

I suspect that the mapping between a SSL certificate and a domain is cached somewhere at the operating system level.

Other things I've tried but did not work:

Rebooting the computer by shutting it off and powering it back on
Look for any expired certificates in Keychain Access (yes, already enabled viewing hidden expired certificates), but found nothing related to my website or Fastly, and did not find anything wrong with any of the Globalsign certificates.
Tried to delete CRL and OCSP Cache for GlobalSign, but it's not relevant because /var/db/crls/crlcache.db, /var/db/crls/ocspcache.db, nor ~/Library/Keychains/*/ocspcache.sqlite3 exist in macOS Mojave.

There's no caching of SSL-certificates like this. It is not a caching issue on the client.

The problem here is with the server - it presents the wrong certificate (from your point of view).

The reason that some clients see one certificate and others see another is most probably due to CDN and/or load-balancing, which means that you're not really hitting the same endpoint. It sounds likely that the server is using persistent connections (aka sticky sessions) which means that your MacBook sees one thing, but your iPhone and Windows 10 machine another thing.

This is something you need to solve at the server level. It hasn't got anything to do with your Mac as such.


Can not update Skype and Telegram in my iPhone I can not install latest versions of Skype and Telegram in my iPhone last day. I have updates in App Store, click update, update was downloaded and installed. But I still have old version of application and App Store still offer to install updates again.

For example, I have Skype version 8.37.98. App Store offer me to install version 8.38.

What I have already trying to do:

Remove Skype from iPhone and install it from stratch. Version 8.37.98 was installed and instanly App Store offer me to update it to 8.38 with the same result. How ??? Where iPhone get this old version ?
Reboot iPhone. Log out and log in in my AppleId - still same result.
Have found old version iTunes for PC and trying to install Skype using it. The same result! My PC have found version 3.18, download it without error and say that it is version 8.37.98 and I can update it again.

Two additions:

I can update other applications.
I can update Skype on my iPad to version 8.38. This point makes me think that the probleb is not global and I need to fix something in my iPhone.

Do you have the same problem? Is it my problem or it is global problem?
What do you recommend to do?

Updated:

I have found information that the same issue have different people from different parts of the world.
Telegram in the Twitter said that the problem in the Apple side.

Updated2:

Look like the problem is fixed now for both applications.

Apple's stores are actually complicated layers of caching and edge servers, so the power off is a good way to get the phone to re-connect to a different "store server".

I would continue to do that or find a somewhat different network to try. For example, if you have another phone with a data plan - tether to that hotspot instead of using WiFi or find a different WiFi.

I don't think it's local to your device - but if you did suspect that still after exhausting the things you can control and waiting it out, you could back up the device and wipe all contents and settings. Then sign in and download only the two apps.

If you still have issues on a newly wiped device, then the store support team is really your next move. If that works, then you know it was a store caching setting - wipe the device again and then restore from the backup and things should be good to go.

Excellent notes and troubleshooting, I think you're close to a solution to these two apps not behaving in the store app for you.


View PDF on iPad from Windows 7 over WiFi I have a home fileserver running Windows 7. I have a directory with PDF files. I want to view the PDF files on my iPad 2 over WiFi and not locally store them on the iPad. Is there any app which can help me? I tried to read the Goodreader docs and could not find much information without buying it on the iPad. Can someone help?

Run a web-server on it.
Look here and choose one you would like or even here for smaller ones

Then put PDF in web server directory or designate current one in webserver configuration.

After that you'll be able to use just Safari to read that PDFs


How to download orginal photos from iCloud Photo Library to PC? I'am an iPhone + PC (Windows/Ubuntu) user. Nowadays, I'm used to download photos from iPhone to local folder, sort them and then backup them by myself (by syncing to remote disk and burning onto bluray discs also).

I like an idea of iCloud Photo Library + optimizing a storage on iPhone. For me, this also means that original photos are moved from iPhone storage into cloud, so I won't be able to download them via USB.

So, will it be possible (and easy and comfortable) to download all new photos (100+ at once) from iCloud Photo Library to local disk on PC? I mean a) download and keep on iCloud (copy), b) download and delete from iCloud (move)?

Go to https://www.icloud.com/#photos.
Go to Albums -- All Photos folder.
Click Select Photos on top-right of the page.
Select first photo and Shift-select last photo.
You should see all photos are selected now.
Click Download in top-middle menu.


Mac Preview: Search only in current page When I search in Preview using cmd+F, I am redirected to the first page of the document.
However, many times I am just trying to find the nearest appearance of a word inside the page I am reading.
Is there a way to go around this?

I always hate being the bearer of bad news but unfortunately this is the expected behaviour of the Preview application and there is no setting to change it.

Some 3rd party PDF viewers do include the functionality that you're looking for though. May I suggest one called Adobe Acrobat Reader? It does exactly what you want it to do by default (without having to mess with any settings), it's by a reputable software company, and it's free. I just double-checked to make sure it still functions the way I remember and current page searches are working flawlessly for me.

Note: If you remember to set it as your default PDF viewer after installing it (it will prompt you) it will also automatically open each time you attempt to open a PDF file; no fumbling for the right application every time!


share IKEv2 VPN connection via internet sharing (High Sierra) I am able to select non-IKEv2 VPN connections as network interfaces to share via "Internet Sharing", but am unable to share the IKEv2 connection.  How do I share the IKEv2 connection via internet sharing on High Sierra?

This can be done using pf.  Using Murus (GUI-interface to pf) static NAT, share internet via your network interface, and also share the VPN interface (mine was ipsec0).


Approval for iOS app store reviews? Apps have solicited my input, so after spending time to make a review, it seems my reviews are not posted.

Do reviews submitted for Apps have to be approved by either the developer or Apple?

Yes, reviews submitted apps must be approved by Apple, in order to make sure that there it's not spam or contains swear words or such.

The reason that you are unable to see your comments, is likely that you have to wait awhile. Devs don't get to pick which reviews are down and which aren't. Also, if your review was for an earlier version, it, obviously, won't appear in "Current Version Only".


deleting app from terminal from the /Applications folder, I can launch apps on my Mac using the open command in the terminal like this

open xcode.app
open firefox.app

Is there a way to delete apps from the terminal? This question/answer doesn't provide the answer to this question

This isn't built into OSX, but a guy wrote a cli tool called trash that is cross platform and is intended as a safe alternative to rm. As it seems it should, it moves the target to the trash rather than deleting it immediately.

There is more information and instructions on how to install at the trash github page


How can I change my Apple ID password on my iPad 2? I just upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS 6. I am trying to access the App Store for the very first time ever (trying to get the free iBooks app). It keeps telling me I'm using the wrong password. I did not enter a password during the upgrade to iOS 6.

I think the problem has to do with the fact that the original password I entered (in iOS 5) is still stored somewhere on the iPad 2 because, using my notebook computer (not a Mac), I can sign on to Apple ID maintenance site using the new password I set up there.

I tried setting my Apple ID on the web (via my notebook) to the one I think is saved on my iPad 2, but it says it's not complex enough (it had two identical characters in a row).

How do I change the Apple ID password that (I think) is stored on the iPad 2?

I have made a few changes to the iPad settings, but not many because I am just starting to use it.

Go to settings > iTunes & App Stores > Apple ID: Select sign out, that will clear your stored password...Then you can enter the proper information.


Hard drive renamed after restart, apps can't see it I shutdown my computer when I left work and when I got home turned it back on.  When it booted back up the second drive (in the dvd drive bay) had a strange name like A[]\tr/sj or something like that.  My desktop background was the stock Mavericks background.  Google Drive, Skydrive, and Dropbox all complained they couldn't find their respective folders since they were all on the drive that got re-named.

I restarted again, same thing.  After the second reboot I just renamed the drive and restarted again.  Once it booted up everything was fine.

Any idea what could have caused this or what it may be a harbinger of?

I would run basic permissions & disk checks, just to be sure, but it wouldn't be the first time I'd ever heard of someone [or their cat] accidentally renaming a drive by leaning on Return & a few keys, without being aware that the HD was selected at the time.

If you find no disk corruption I'd work on that assumption for now - but I'd also make doubly sure of my backup strategy, on the chance it's a sign of an imminent failure.


LaunchAgents zip/tar not working in plist? I created the plist for a  'custom' backup agent (via LaunchAgent). The (zip) program is called, but I keep getting a 'zip error: Nothing to do!' in my logs.
I assume it has something todo with permissions. I did add sh and zip to my Full Disk Access security settings. But it did not help.
On a side-note, when I move the zip command in a shell (sh) script, it works.
I would like to know why using the zip command directly doesn't?
Running the command for the terminal works also without issues, like so:
/usr/bin/zip /Users/username/Backup/test.zip /Users/username/Documents/*.pdf

LaunchAgent script:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.myuser.DailyBackup</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/zip</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/username/Backup/test.zip</string>
        <string>/Users/username/Documents/*.pdf</string>
    </array>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/my.backup.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/my.backup.err</string>
    <key>Debug</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>10</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

From man launchd.plist
ProgramArguments <array of strings>
This key maps to the second argument of execvp(3) and specifies the argument vector to be passed
to the job when a process is spawned. This key is required in the absence of the Program key.
IMPORTANT: Many people are confused by this key. Please read execvp(3) very carefully!

So you need to use
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/zip</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>zip</string>
        <string>/Users/username/Backup/test.zip</string>
        <string>/Users/username/Documents/*.pdf</string>
    </array>

It still won't work though because launchd doesn't expand wildcards and zip doesn't either. It's easier to use launchd to start a shell script which does all the work then.


Mac Pro 2,1 Only Shows Flashing Question Mark After Update So, I have an older Mac Pro 2,1 that I received.  Had a fresh install of Mavericks and nothing else.  It worked fine, with exception to slow redraw speeds on the screen.  When I got it plugged into a network for the first time, it said there were updates, so I let it do the updates.

When I returned to the machine, it was simply sitting at a white screen.  After waiting several hours with no change, I turned the machine off, and rebooted.  I was met with the flashing question mark on a folder icon.

The Mac has the Apple RAID card in it, and 4 1TB drives.

Pressing any of the startup commands during boot does nothing; I still get the flashing icon.  CommandR doesn't work.  C doesn't work.  The only two that do anything is CommandOptionPR (reset NVRAM) and Option (Startup Disc select).  However, even when using those two, they still result in a flashing question mark icon.

Any clues?  I'm wondering if the RAID card went bad or something.  It was complaining of a bad battery.

A flashing question mark means it can't find system software, however, it is able to find the boot volume.  If the boot volume is on the RAID array, then it's not the RAID card.

Try booting from installation media to see if you can see the drive.  If you can see the volume and mount it, you can recover your data.

As for the RAID battery, it keeps the last last set of write commands in the controllers memory in case there is a power failure.  I would replace it because you lose that safety net if the battery has no charge, but it's not the cause of your issue.


How do I stop Safari from occasionally downloading "mlingos9.html"? When I'm browsing with Safari, a download of a file called "mlingos9.html" is started on some sites and I end up with several of these in my download folder. How do I stop Safari from doing this?

It's a problem with a specific web page — this one.

It specifies the content type application/octet-stream in the HTTP response headers, which is usually used for files meant to be downloaded — and that's what your web browser does. HTML web pages usually use text/html or similar HTTP headers, never application/octet-stream.

If you were browsing web sites with similar topics that might link to this web page, and you clicked a link, or the web page was included in another web page using a frame/iframe, that's the cause for the downloads.


Why does Mac OS include both ABC and US keyboard layouts when the two perform the same functions? The ABC and US keyboard layouts on Mac OS appear identical in layout. Is there any reason why Apple chose to include two identical keyboard layouts that perform the same functions?

As per this Apple Discussion:

You should use US or ABC.  ABC is just the same as US but you don't have an American flag.  Some users outside the US may find that preferable.
ABC-Extended (formerly called US Extended) is much like US or ABC, but it lets you type a whole lot more accented characters via option key shortcuts.  If you have a need to type Chinese pinyin with tone marks, then ABC-Extended is the one to pick.

Apple also provides ABC QWERTZ and ABC AZERTY keyboards, which are the same as the ones called German and French, but without the German and French flags, for users who prefer that.


What is “Low Data Mode” on my iPad’s connection to my iPhone as hotspot? I have my iPhone configured to act as a hotspot, providing internet access via cell data.
When connecting my iPad as a WiFi client to that hotspot, the Settings panel notes “Low Data Mode” below the name of the connected hotspot. Indeed, while using the iPad, the internet connection seems much slower than on the iPhone.
My carrier, T-Mobile, does limit the amount of fast data delivered via “tethering”. Is this “Low Data Mode” note a sign of that limit being reached?
I have never not seen that subtitle, so I am left uncertain.

According to this source Apple introduced a new feature to reduce and limit cellular and Wi-Fi usage. This feature is called Low Data Mode. You can use this feature on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to limit the mobile data used in background mode by apps.

Different apps use different ways of reducing data usage in Low Data
Mode. In general, here's what you can expect:
Apps might stop using
network data when you're not actively using them.
Background App
Refresh is turned off.
The quality of streaming content might be
reduced.
Automatic downloads and backups are turned off.
Services such
as iCloud Photos pause updates.
Built-in iOS apps and services adapt
to Low Data Mode in the following ways:
App Store: Video autoplay,
automatic updates, and automatic downloads are turned off.
Music:
Automatic downloads and high quality streaming are turned off.
Podcasts: The frequency of feed updates is limited, and episodes are
downloaded only on Wi-Fi.
News: Article prefetching is turned off.
iCloud: Updates are paused, and automatic backups and iCloud Photos
updates are turned off. FaceTime: Video bitrate is optimized for lower
bandwidth.

See Apple support page, Use Low Data Mode on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Please note that Low Data Mode is automatically enabled when you are connected to a Personal Hotspot.


First Generation Macbook Air Firmware Locked I have a first generation Macbook Air, and the firmware is locked.
I tried taking it to an Apple store, and they recommended swapping the Logic Board.
Is there anything I can do to reset the password?

I've solved it using MacOS installer. There is 'Firmware password' application in Utilities (top menu). Just use it.


Power off frozen Macbook with a touch-bar I have a MacBook Pro with a touch-bar, and thus no physical power button.

I have tried holding my finger on the touch id button, but to no avail.
It has been frozen for several hours (on the screen of just apple symbol with loading bar) while updating
I want to try to power it off/power it back on again to try to unfreeze it.

Is there some keystroke or button that can power it off?

The TouchBar mac with Touch ID sensor is a physical power switch, so pressing and holding it will shut down the machine as long as two things are true:

The button physically registers your push.
The SMC is listening and will initiate the power shutdown.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201150

Barring those, if you press for 20 seconds gently yet firmly, you may have to wait for the battery to discharge and then charge. Watch your backup in case the machine needs hardware service or a reset of the SMC / restore or revive of the T2/SMC.


Inflated Music Size on iPhone when Syncing Frequently when I sync my iPhone to my iMac, the size bar will report that the amount of music on my phone is nearly double what it actually is (confirmed with a manual check). The phone will usually report that it is over capacity, but I can still copy applications and more music to it (as I should be able to). This doesn't happen on every sync, and sometimes when the sync is completed, it will shrink back down to the correct size. It's a major annoyance and makes it hard for me to see how much space I actually have used/free on my phone.

I have found that it is related to iTunes Match. If you turn off iTunes Match on the iPhone, the iPhone will no longer register as over capacity.


MacOS Mojave disappear after successful download I just download the Mojave from mac app store and after success download the Installation file disappear from Application folder and Launchpad!
I do twice download it and same happened.  its not like a small file to download it, its 6 GB and I can't understand why this happens.

How can I figure out what's deleting this or get a good download?

The download performs a check to be sure the package is complete and not tampered with. I wonder if that's deleting what it thinks is a bad download and some bug or system modification is stopping you from getting the typical user alert telling you that the download is being deleted without the option to save it.

First steps, check the console app and look at /var/log/install.log

If there's no helpful item - you could always get with Apple support to troubleshoot. I often look at other logs like system.log but there can be thousands of entries so if you are looking at all the machine logs for the first time, it might be painful to search for or see the item that's relevant.

If you're game, these are the sorts of files and locations you'll move to if your App Store itself is broken and it's not a server side issue with the account or just a bad network where you can't get a reliable download of that large a size. I've had overseas networks where they mess with SSL certificates or just corrupt the data horribly that cause this.

Mac App Store Download Failure - Clear Cache?


How can I unpack a .deb on Mac OS X without installing it? I have a .deb file that I want to unpack and examine, but not install. I'm currently looking for where i can download dpkg for OSX, but can't find it. If you have a link, please share.

ar is already installed on my mac on OS X. So just do

ar -x path/to/deb/file.deb

that's it. No need to install other software.


Why so many homebrew package name with underscore Just want to know why so many homebrew packages with underscore, are they beta release?

Usually I don't install any packages with underscores, just want to know the reason behind it.

Few example

luajit (2.0.3 < 2.0.3_1)
macvim (7.4-73 < 7.4-73_1)
mysql (5.6.10-boxen3, 5.6.13 < 5.6.21)
node (0.10.32 < 0.10.33_1)
ossp-uuid (1.6.2 < 1.6.2_1)
osxfuse (2.7.1 < 2.7.2)

Thanks

The underscores in the version numbers indicate Homebrew specific changes or revisions. It means the upstream software hasn't changed, just that the Homebrew formula has been revised in some way.

Taking node as an example, the current release version of Node.js is "0.10.33". However the Homebrew version number has been updated to "0.10.33_1" (in other words, revision 1 of 0.10.33) because the formula was updated to point to a newer version of npm (one of node's dependencies) as you can see in this commit. So it is still the same version of node, but the Homebrew package itself has a new revision.

Similar the luajit package is updated to 2.0.3_1 in this commit where the lua dependency is updated to a newer version. lua itself hasn't been changed, it is still version 2.0.3 but the Homebrew formula has been updated.

Long story short it's perfectly safe to update to releases with an underscore. They don't indicate beta releases.


Slow Macbook Pro Early 2008 Running on Mountain Lion (Possibly due to GPU Failing) I have a Macbook Pro (Early 2008) running on Mountain Lion with a Samsung SSD. Just a few days ago i've noticed significant lag when switching desktops or using any intensive video program and generally the whole desktop experience feels really "heavy".

I run the AHT just today and i've got this error "4vdc/1/40000003" which is allegedly a problem with my video card and also after checking the GPU temparature, it's constantly on 78 celcius.

What should I do? Is it definitely an issue with the Graphics Card or The hard drive?

Yah this is one of those errors that likely mean a hardware failure and generally speaking the only way you are repairing a failure like this (unless you are into completely disassembling your Mac) is via an Apple Store or an AASP (Apple Authorized Service Provider).

Failing all the suggestions above you may need to (first: make a backup) make a Genius Bar appointment and let a tech that does this for a living run some diagnostics. I believe such diagnostics are free, if they can do them in-store.

If they can't do them in store they'll tell you and give you the cost. An AASP might be able to beat the price. you could call them with the Apple Genius Bar diagnostics for a ballpark estimate.

Unfortunately there is no great solution to this one. Unless you can afford something new...


AirDrop iphone to MacBook At work I airdrop files with coworkers all the time but I often need to move photos from my iphone 5 to my laptop but I can't figure out how.

If I select the images and open the send page which lists options to send my text, email, Facebook, etc.  it lists airdrop above all the other options but it doesn't seem to be clickable.

I have airdrop open on my mac.

Quote from Apple page http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5887?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

  You can't use AirDrop on iOS to share with OS X users, and OS X users can't use AirDrop to share with iOS devices.

Airdrop between iOS and OS X will be available from iOS8 and Yosemite.


How to Install .NET Framework 4 on Windows 7 Bootcamp I am trying to install the Microsoft .Net Framework 4 on a Windows 7 bootcamp partition on my MacBook Pro. It always fails. I have tried installing it via the web platform installer and also the standalone download, but neither works.

This is the error message from the standalone .Net Framework Installer log:

Exe (C:\c6966332def2afc3e143c2e5079951\Windows6.1-KB958488-v6001-x64.msu) failed with 0xc8000222 - (null).
Final Result: Installation failed with error code: (0xC8000222) (Elapsed time: 0 00:01:02).

Does anyone know how to get this to work?

Well, I figured it out. I left out in my question that I was using VMware to access my bootcamp partition, where it didn't work. When I rebooted into "pure" bootcamped windows 7 the install went perfectly.


Rainbow cursor every time on safari I have a new MacBook Air M1 and whenever I enter password in webpage in safari browser a rainbow cursor appears and safari gets stuck ,but the remaining   apps work perfectly fine, but the safari gets struck for about 10-15 seconds and I can't do anything in safari expect force quit for that period.  Is this normal with safari ?

The rainbow cursor indicates that the application in question is blocked because the system watches for it saying it’s ready for things like keyboard input.
The page you are visiting is causing an entire app to block so that’s a problem for sure if you need that page to work before it gets fixed. It’s normal and expected the system lets you know one app is blocked, so you can go do other tasks in other apps and eventually force Safari to quit when you tire of waiting for it.


Is there a way to charge a purchase to the account owners credit card rather than the organizer accounts credit card? With family sharing the docs say ALL purchases are charged to the organizers credit card.

Is there a way to charge a purchase to the account owners credit card rather than the organizer accounts credit card?

For an "adult" in the family to use their own credit card they would need to be removed.

  Ref: HT201079 Section: near bottom of page, above "*Age may vary by country".

The "adult" could make purchases using gift cards redeemed to their personal iTunes ID, though this won't stop subscriptions or gift purchasing from being charged to the "organizer".

  Ref: HT201079 Section: First paragraph and "Making Purchases".

It's not possible to remove the credit card from the "organizer" account completely, but you could update the "organizer" card to the desired card, then change it back after the purchase. This would only work for non-subscription content. If subscription content is purchased and the card is changed after, the card on the "organizer" account at the time of renewal would be charged. The renewal may also be interrupted.

Do be careful to prevent any unwanted purchases to the card on the "organizer" account, from any other family members including the "organizer", during any temporary changes.

  Ref: HT203905 Section: bottom of page "If your part of Family Sharing"

Family purchases and payments
Reasons for not seeing "none" in iTunes Store payment options

Accepted payment card type on "organizer" account may vary depending on 'child' account being present and any accounts with Ask to Buy enabled.


iPad wont charge in India I am not sure why my iPad will not charge in India which I got in US. Did the power fluctuations kill the charging part or do I need to charge it in some other way? How do I test or find out the reason why the iPad wont charge?
It was charging well for a year and now it does not.

I am using the charger for iPad and not the iPhone. Help me. Thanks.

I have found the same problem. Despite using Apple charger and lead the iPad thinks it's a copy and delivers the prompt that my charger or lead is incompatible. I believe the problem is that the voltage in India can waiver because this only happens at peak power usage times.


Cannot place phone call using Mac OSX El Capitan I have iOS 10 installed on my phone.  As far as I can tell everything is configured properly.  A number of support documents out there for iOS 9 list verifying that "Use cellular data" is enabled on the phone in FaceTime settings, however this is not an option in iOS 10.

I did verify under Settings > Cellular that FaceTime was indeed enabled.

Everything I've read online is that since Yosemite, I should be able to place phone calls to any telephone number using features from that release such as is outlined here: https://9to5mac.com/2014/10/19/make-phone-calls-from-your-mac-and-ipad/comment-page-1/

Unfortunately, most numbers in my Contacts app have the dial button disabled.

Both devices are on the same Wifi network (phone and macbook).

Update:  I was able to resolve this by logging out of iCloud on my Mac in System Preferences and then logging back in.  My device did not show up on Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices until I did this.

It's impossible to FaceTime to a non-Apple device. They both must have the Facetime app. (Middle East countries doesn't have the FaceTime app.)

Think of it like a Viber call: both parties need the app before one can phone the other.


My keyboard on MacBook got stuck - do Apple Stores fix it without Apple Care? The delete key on my MacBook (mid-2017 12' model) seems to have got stuck and often it won't respond to my pushing on the key.

So I temporarily swapped the delete key for the backslash but I rather want to fix it. But I find it is incredibly hard to fix it on my own, so I consider bringing it to the Apple Store.

But my MacBook is neither covered by the Apple Care program nor was purchased in a country where I'm in now. Is it possible to fix it up at the Apple Store and does the fix of the stuck keyboard get me charged (if so, approximately how much)?

It doesn't matter where you live. Apple Care covers your computer no matter what. If you just recently bought the computer in-between July 8th of this year and last year then you can get the key repaired for free.

If not, then try to find a repair service near you via this link. Apple has licensed resellers all over the world and most of them also do repairs. If your computer is badly damaged, they are going to send it in to get it repaired and you may end up paying a whole lot of money and you won't have your laptop for several weeks.

Alternatively, you could try to fix it yourself. This is highly risky if you don't know what your doing and you could end up permanently damaging the computer. I don't know what model your laptop is, but if it is 2016 or newer, it has the butterfly 2 mechanism in the keyboard. I know from personal experience that this style of keyboard tends to get stuck really easily when dust and grit get underneath the keys. I just blow it out and that has worked every time.

If your laptop is 2015 or older, you have the butterfly 1 mechanism. If your key is stuck it could be legitimately damaged. I would recommend at least trying to blow it out with some high-powered air. If that doesn't work you will need to take it to someone to get repaired.


Where does App Store download files to? I just re-downloaded El Capitán off of the App Store for the purposes of transferring it to another machine via USB.  When it was done downloading, it automatically launched the installer asking me to click on continue to start installing El Capitán.  I do not wish to reinstall, so I quit the installer, but now I cannot find it.  Where would the App Store have downloaded it to?

When finished, it puts them in the Applications folder.

OS installers are all called "Install OS X [OS Name]" which might not be what you expected, if you're looking alphabetically for instance for El Capitan.

Prior to completion they are squirrelled away deep inside /private/var/folders & not easy at all to find.


Why would a Wi-Fi network not support Wi-Fi Calling? Currently my Verizon Wi-Fi Calling on iOS 9.3 works fine at home but not at work (which I control so I can modify it). The two networks have different base stations and routers but I haven't yet found anything different enough between them to account for the non-working Wi-Fi Calling on my work network.

In the article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 at the bottom in the Get Help section it states in point 3:

  Connect to a different Wi-Fi network. Not all Wi-Fi networks work with Wi-Fi Calling.

Is there a list of what is required to make a Wi-Fi network support Wi-Fi Calling? I have yet to find anything other than the ports listed on https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202944 about what is needed for a Wi-Fi network to support Wi-Fi Calling.

Does anyone have pointers to more documentation or know what needs to be enabled for Wi-Fi Calling to work? Are there any debugging methods I can try out there?

UPDATE: I didn't end up making any changes on the network and now the Wi-Fi Calling is active. I'm just going to go scratch my head for a while and assume it was an upstream issue I hadn't had a chance to diagnose. Thanks all for the replies and information.

What's now often called Wi-fi calling is actually GAN (Generic Access Networking), so you can prioritize the UMA packets; according to Apple's link you shared above, that is port 500, using IKEv2 over UDP.

"Some types of network traffic (like DNS and IPsec-encrypted) need to be permitted by the network," to get UMA to work, according to a Wikipedia user.

Also, there are conflicts with Apple's Continuity and Wi-fi calling, so it is possible some settings on a Mac or other device at your work are blocking it.

To go deeper, you could find troubleshooting documentation directly into the GAN/UMA protocols.  The site I wanted to reference quickly, Umatoday.com, was down as I tried to access it now.


Song stops playing when adding to library (Apple Music) In iTunes on my MacBook Pro, when I am listening to a song and click on the + to add it to my library, it stops playing.

I don't have the same issue on my iPhone. Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong? I don't see any posts on here or elsewhere on the internet about this?

Is there a workaround?

iTunes version 12.7.0.166
macOS Sierra 10.12.6

After looking around this is a known bug and there currently is no workaround.

On this Apple Discussion a lot of people are reporting it so you are not alone.


How to properly install freetype2 devel package? I wish to install freetype 2 dev package so I can use the fontconvert tool in Adafruit-GFX-Library

Here is what I get

$make fontconvert
fontconvert.c:22:10: fatal error: 'ft2build.h' file not found
#include <ft2build.h>
         ^~~~~~~~~~~~
1 error generated.
make: *** [fontconvert] Error 1

The community says that it because I haven't installed freetype 2 dev properly
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GFX-Library/issues/224

(I used brew install freetype to get freetype ?1?)

Tried to follow these instructions:

https://opensource.ncsa.illinois.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=61604031

But it just created a folder with all the files - I think that they should be located at another directory - but don't know where..

Found that I needed xcode to install all dependencies (prompted me when I opened xcode). It seems to be working now..


Can I bypass the error 3194 when downgrading from iOS 6 to 5.1.1 on a locked Verizon iPhone 4S? TLDR: When downgrading from iOS6 to 5.1.1, even with a standard .ipsw file and modified .hosts file (or TinyUmbrella), I get the error 3194 in iTunes. Help?

I recently purchased a used iPhone 4S which is locked to Verizon. This is a problem, as I'm in Canada, and the international Verizon plans are expensive. I need to unlock.

The second problem is that the phone came with iOS6 installed on it. Although I was told that it was a beta, I was also told it was official (Grand Master build), and in any case, I managed to (somehow) wipe out and reinstall the official iOS 6 from iTunes.

Since I don't have the original OS, I downloaded 5.1.1 4S from Redmond Pie. Unsure if this was the stock iOS, I downloaded it (again) from another source, and the two binaries are the same -- leading me to believe that this is an original iOS 5.1.1 image.

Steps I took to install iOS 5.1.1:

Close iTunes
Turn off the phone
Edit the .hosts file (to add the Cydia IP, or remove it, or launch TinyUmbrella)
Save changes (if applicable)
Open up iTunes
Boot my phone in recovery mode (shows a "plug in to iTunes" graphic)
Let iTunes figure out my phone is in recovery mode
Shift-Click "recover" and select the image
Watch until it reaches the step about verifying the ipsw file is from Apple
Observe an error 3194

To spell out my permutations explicitly, for step #4, I have tried:

Adding the IP for Cydia
Commenting out the IP for Cydia
Removing the IP for Cydia
Running Umbrella 6.00.0000 and 6.00.0001

I'm not sure what to do next to downgrade.

Unfortunately, iOS 5.1.1 is no longer being signed by Apple.
Basically, Apple provides a digital signature to iTunes when you try to restore a firmware.  If the signature isn't provided, you're unable to restore because Apple only signs the most current version of the firmware for the device you're using.

The Dev-Team Blog says this about downgrading an iPhone 4S to 5.x:

  iPad3, i4S owners will always be able to RE-restore the current 5.x OS that's already on their device. So if you're at 5.1.1 when the window closes (and you've saved your blobs), you'll always be able to RE-restore to 5.1.1 again. This makes the 5.1.1 jailbreak a lot less fragile - you don't have to worry about messing up your install with funky extensions or getting into a boot loop, because you can always RE-restore from 5.1.1 to 5.1.1 again (or from 5.0.1 to 5.0.1 again, etc). But once you fall off the 5.x train by restoring to 6.x, you'll be stuck there until the next jailbreak.

So it looks like you're stuck on iOS 6 for now.

Regarding unlocking, your best bet is to contact Verizon.  There may be a fee required before they'll unlock your phone, if they do.


How can I use my SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive with my 12" MacBook I can access the drive on my iPhone, iPad and Android.

I am having trouble figuring out how to get it to work with my Mac

I am using Yosemite and I've done the latest firmware update on the drive

Per the SanDisk Getting Started Guide, There are two steps to get your Mac connected:

Connect to the SanDisk WiFi Network.
Browse to http://www.sandisk.com/myconnect

Directly from the Getting Started Guide:

These instructions work with PC or Mac.


Mission Control view programme icons missing. How can I get them back? When you hit F3 on the keyboard, Mission Control is opening, displaying all active windows in a miniaturized version neatly ordererd. When my Mac OSX 10.8 was newly installed some month ago, there were programme icons displayed together with every mini window in Mission Control. How can I get these icons back?

This is how my Mission Control looks like:

This is how it is supposed to look like, with programme icons:

You have the "Group windows by application" option turned off – this tiles every window individually so that nothing overlaps (this is how Exposé used to work in OS X 10.5 Leopard and earlier).

When "Group windows by application" is on, the tiled windows are stacked in groups based on which application they belong to, and the application icon is overlaid on the group, as in your second screenshot.

To enable "Group windows by application", go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Mission Control and check the box.


Turn off auto-hyperlinking in Notes app for macOS A lot of my notes have links in them, but I don't want them to automatically be changed into hyperlinks after pressing space or enter.

I'd like them to remain as plain text without having to manually remove the link by right-clicking.

How can I turn this feature off? I'm guessing there might be a way to do this in terminal but I'm not sure where to start.

Here is the solution:

Open your note.
Go to Edit then Substitutions and uncheck Smart Links

It will resolve your open query.

Also, uncheck Smart Copy/Paste to be more precise and if necessary.


A programmatic method for disabling all sharing services? I'm seeking a programmatic method for disabling all the sharing services on a Mac. My preference is for an AppleScript or a shell script.

I'd like to have the services shown in the picture below disabled when I execute the script. The solution should be compatible with Alfred, Keyboard Maestro or any other global productivity tool.

The services I'd like to disable are:

I could come up with the following with some googling:

File sharing (on/off)

do shell script "/usr/sbin/AppleFileServer" password "x" with administrator privileges
do shell script "/usr/bin/killall AppleFileServer" password "x" with administrator privileges

Internet Sharing (on/off)

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.InternetSharing.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.InternetSharing.plist

(I would prefer terminal commands or batch scripts to apple scripts. Here's an apple script solution for those interested.)

Here's a shell script that turns off the services, but I'm working on finding a more direct solution:

#!/bin/sh
osascript << HERE
tell application "System Preferences" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click menu item "Sharing" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
    delay 2
    tell window "Sharing" to repeat with x from 1 to 11
        if value of checkbox 1 of row x of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 is 1 then click checkbox 1 of row x of table 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1
    end repeat
end tell
tell application "System Preferences" to quit
HERE


Completion for git commands I recently switched from using an Ubuntu box for the last 7 years to a Mac. I have read other posts like Switching from Ubuntu to OS X and I'm lost and What is the difference between iTerm2 and Terminal?

Why don't iTerm2 and Terminal complete the arguments for a command?

Eg. If I do gi+Tab, it autocompletes this word to git which is good. When I add a space and try remo+Tab, why don't I get it autocompleted to remote like in Ubuntu. I have to type everything manually after the word git. Same for other commands.

Am I doing something wrong, or missing something?

(Please note that I am not talking about the cmd + ; shortcut which autocompletes previously typed entries in iTerm2.)

A solution when switching from ubuntu is to use homebrew, a package manager for Mac OSX. In particular, for git, you will have included a number of additions including bash completion. This will be true for other programs which are faliliar for developpers, like make.

In 2 steps:

install with ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"
Run brew doctor to get your path set up properly
Install git and bash completion: brew install git bash-completion
Add the command return in the previous step in your .bash_profile.
Restart your bash sessions once the new tools and configuration are written to your file system.

More on this howto.


How do I set Mail.app not to send the recipient names as they appear in my address book When I send mails to addresses from my address book, the recipients in the address bar are shown like name <nick@domain.tld>. Can I somehow prevent that name part, so that only the actual mail address is shown and not the names, as I name them in my personal address book? I kind of feel like it's not for the public how I name my contacts.

While composing and email you can click the arrow in the address and choose Edit Address or double-click the address to edit the information. By deleting the name and leaving just the email address (it should look something like < someone@somewhere.com >) should do the trick. I couldn't find a way of having this changes done permanently, though.


In Finder and Terminal — can not delete a folder, (Error = "Directory not empty") Anytime I've run up against this in the past, I was always able to figure it out, and usually via the command line. I'll list all the commands I tried so far, followed by other things I've tried below that.

Commands I've tried so far, and were also ran as root using sudo su root:

rm -rf <folderName>
rmdir <folderName>
ls -@RelO (shows folder is empty)
ls -Rail (shows empty)
ls -ri (shows empty)
xattr (I finally removed the extended attributes of this folder, as ls -la showed an @ at the end of the permissions.

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 mike  staff      96 Jan 23 23:29 iPhoto Library

As mentioned, in addition to these Terminal commands, I...

Booted into Safe Mode (still says "Directory not empty")
Booted into Recovery Mode, then ran csrutil disable to turn off System Integrity Protection, and rebooted as normal. Then, from Terminal (again, via sudo su root), ran all of the same commands. It keeps saying "Directory not empty".
Booted into Single User mode, navigated to the folder, and ran the above commands (was sure this would work). It still reads, "Directory not empty"
Not copied, but moved this to a thumb drive (command key + drag to volume), a message read, "Was able to move folder, but can't delete existing one".

You may have noticed this is my old iPhoto Library file. Just so you know, I've finally (after many years) consolidated my newer "Photos" library, so I wanted to get rid of this, as it's almost 90 GB. And yes, I did 'right-click' to "Show Contents", then was able to get rid of everything inside of this folder, but can not get rid of the top-level folder.

I have never been stumped like this (I'm a Mac tech for 23 years). This is quite the forced feeding of some seriously humble pie.

Hi David and Igor — Issue is resolved, but the solution is not something I'd have considered as even being a relevant one, but I wanted to post it here for whoever this might help in the future (as well as put closure to Igor's / Dave's possible curiosity. And once again, thank you guys for all your suggestions.

For a completely different (separate) reason, I logged out of iCloud (on the Mac — not iPhone or iPad). Went through all the usual items (saved my stuff locally), etc., and somehow - when I logged back in, my trash was empty!

One of the things I wanted to share here with this forum / group, is that I learned something I hadn't known previously: Since the incarnation of iCloud, the PATH to my "Trash" folder no longer is (what it's always been)... /Users/myHomeDir/.Trash — instead, it was now: myHomeDir$ /Users/mike/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com\~apple\~CloudDocs/.Trash/  — and I only learned this after searching that first path several times, both while logged in as myself (in Terminal), but also, while booted into Single User mode. Nowhere in either of those means, was my Trash directory located. But when I drag and dropped that  from my trash... to my terminal - that was the path it gave. (and confirmed this while logged into Single User).

Go figure... sorry for the lengthy post, but wanted to be thorough in my resolution for anybody this might help. But all this said, I guess that since the advent of iCloud, this is now the default location for everybody's Trash folder? This presents an entire new thread of questions for me (Apple's implementation of their folder hierarchy, since iCloud) - but no questions specifically at the moment.


Moving a folder copies it, no longer moves it I changed permissions on a folder to allow another user of that same computer, so they could access it while logged in.  I wanted to then move that folder (formerly in Pictures folder) to the Shared folder.  Now when I attempt to move the folder, it will only copy it.  I've tried resetting the sharing/permissions to what they originally were using the info panel, Sharing & Permissions, but it doesn't change the the fact that every time I try and move them, the computer just duplicates them in a new location.

Is there a way to fix this or to reset permissions (since I'm assuming that's what the issue is) to a default state for that user?  I'm running Mavericks.

Do you have write permission to the parent folder of the folder? If you don't, you can force moving the folder by holding command while dragging it.

You can see if you have write permission to a folder by running ls -led /path/to/folder:

$ ls -led Desktop/untitled\ folder/
drwxr-xr-x+ 2 lauri  staff  68 Nov 21 08:46 Desktop/untitled folder/
 0: user:test allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

If the output includes lines for an ACL like above, try removing the ACL with sudo chmod -N /path/to/folder.
If the owner in the third column of the first line is not you, try running sudo chmod $USER /path/to/folder.
If the owner is you but you don't have write permission, or the first column looks like dr-xr-xr-x+ instead of drwxr-xr-x+, try running sudo chmod +w /path/to/folder.


In iTunes, is there way to switch easily back and forth between tracks in two different playlists or library parts (say podcast and music)? Use case: I often want to toggle between a podcast and a music playlist in iTunes. Say, while ironing I listen to a podcast, later when I do computer work I switch to music, then when unstacking the dish washer I want to go back to the podcast and after this, music is on again, etc, etc…

Is there a script or plugin for iTunes, which remembers track, position and library/playlist, so that I can switch back to it? Or is there another convenient way to achieve this?

It sounds like you are referring to something like a Smart Playlist. Smart Playlists organizes your songs more, based upon song type, last listened to, skip count, etc.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1801


I want a twitter feed to alert my iPhone On my iPhone, I'd like to get a push alert when there's a new tweet from a twitter account.  How can I achieve this?

boxcar, which is a beautiful little app, offers this functionality. It's a free download from the app store.


How to count the number of files and folders in iCloud Drive? I have subscribed to a 2TB iCloud Drive account and uploaded several 100k files from a Windows 10 PC. During the upload, that took several days, the PC crashed and restarted for some unknown reason. And iCloud Drive also once told me that its database was currupted, but somehow continued and is now ready uploading all(?) files.

But I want to be sure and would like to
1) count the number of files and folders in iCould Drive and
2) get a list of all file and folder names in iCloud Drive

Is that possible using a PC, Mac, iPhone or iPad?

Using the macOS Terminal Application

First change the current directory to the root of the iCloud drive by entering the command given below.

cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com\~apple\~CloudDocs

Next, enter one or more of the commands given below.

List of folders and files

 find . -name "*"

List of files

 find . -name "*" -type f

List of folders

 find . -name "*" -type d

Count of folders and files

 find . -name "*" | wc -l

Count of files

 find . -name "*" -type f | wc -l

Count of folders

 find . -name "*" -type d | wc -l

To get a list of all files and folders sorted in lexicographical order, enter the following command.

ls -RlAa

Since the folders . and .. occur in each folder, you may wish to omit these folders by using the command given below.

ls -RlA

Using the Windows Command Prompt Window

First change the current directory to the root of the iCloud drive by entering the command given below.

cd /d %userprofile%\iCloudDrive

Next, enter one or more of the commands given below.

List of files

 dir /s /b

List of folders

 dir /s /b /a:d

Count of files

 dir /s /b | find /v "" /c

Count of folders

 dir /s /b /a:d | find /v "" /c

To get a list of all files and folders sorted in lexicographical order, enter the following command.

dir /s

Notes

iCloud is implemented differently on Windows and macOS operating systems. Some folders and files will appear in one operating system but not in the other.
The files and folders displayed may differ between the operating systems. I have found with macOS, some file names also differ between what is displayed by the Finder application and the Terminal application.
The counts of the files and folders in a folder may differ between the operating systems.
The lexicographical order is handled differently by Windows and macOS. Windows is case-independent and macOS is case-dependent.


Why can you not set a Siri button for an external remote on Apple TV? On the latest generation Apple TVs, you can add external buttons and set which button does what. The Siri button never appears. Why does it not appear?

The remote does not have a microphone to detect voice, like the Siri Remote does. It is currently unknown if you can make the Siri button programmable on a remote with a microphone.


Can you add a specific link to IOS homescreen? I have a vbulletin forum I frequent in which I'd like to place a link to the "new posts" search on my homescreen.  Anyone familiar with vbulletin knows this is a url with search.php?do=getnew , once you access that URL it redirects you to a search ID which is cached for easy access later.  Thing is, you can't add that to your home screen as it wil just pull up the old search results rather than returning the newest posts.  I'd like to add a link to the new posts link on my homescreen but it seems there is no way to edit the homescreen links.

Short answer: yes!

I faced the same issue and basically tricked my iPad, you simply turn on airplane mode, you don't hit the redirect, you store the "server not found" page on the home screen and you are done :-)

Hope you can now resolve your 4 year old question.


Completely disable the power button on my MacBook I have a MacBook Pro Retina, Mid 2015 running macOS Sierra 10.12.2.

I want to completely stop my power button turning off, sleeping or restarting my device; I have already tried other solutions such as running this command:

defaults write com.apple.loginwindow PowerButtonSleepsSystem -bool no

but all that does is change the behaviour to opening a window with a default action of shut down!

I just want to stop other people, or myself, from purposefully/accidentally using it to turn off my computer. It's a button I've never used, apart from when I first bought my MacBook sometime two years ago.

I still need the button to be able to turn on the device, obviously.

DanHollis solution is good, but it merely disables the button in software. I'll tell you how to completely disable the button.

You will need:

Center hole punch. 1/8" recommended.
A hammer, preferably light-weight so you have very fine control of your swing.

Step One

Align the CHP over the power button. The 'Center' in Center Hole Punch is instructive - you need to make sure you're exactly over the switch itself. Done correctly, this will remove the switch without affecting any other components in your MacBook.

Step Two

Swing the hammer. Sounds simple, but it's not. Make the swing fast and accurate, but don't put much force behind it. The point here is to strike quickly enough to punch out the switch itself, but not with enough force to penetrate deeper and actually damage something. Done right, the CHP will strike through and permanently disable the switch. Too fast or forceful and you'll break the computer. Too slow and you'll just turn the computer off.

Results

Your power button is now completely disabled. If the need arises, you can start the computer by manually shorting the contacts the switch connects to. On my desktop I can do this by arcing the pins with a knife, but the MacBook won't offer you the internal space to do that. I leave this as an exercise to the reader.

Suggestions

You might want to practice your hammer swings before doing this for real. I suggest practicing on a meaty part of your leg. The objective is to swing as fast as possible without feeling pain. If you swing too hard, it'll hurt. Too soft, and you'll just be tapping your leg. However, if the hammer bounces back and it doesn't hurt, you're doing it right. Just practice until you're confident and you'll do fine.


How to test my video memory on a 2010 13" MacBook Pro? I have MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2010, NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M

Recently (but right after installing OS X Lion) I've encountered artifacts on my screen. It's quite often and I can't say if the problem came from Lion (which brought me also problems with sleeping and few freezes, which I never had on Snow Leopard)

So is there any good way how to test my graphics card? or just it's video memory?

MBP 13" 2010 with NVidia GT320M uses shared video memory, so any ram test would be sufficient. My recommendation is to test using memtest86+. If there are problems - try removing one of the sims and run with half of your memory.


iPhone asks for Apple ID password on third party app launch after iTunes sync I've just synced my iPhone with iTunes to get some Music on the iPhone. After doing so, the iPhone wants my Apple ID password, when I try to launch a third party app. All Apple apps (Photos, Safari, Notes, etc.) work fine, but all third party apps require me to sign in to the App Store first. I mean once; as soon as I signed in once to the App Store, all third party apps start to work again.

On my iPhone I use the same Apple ID as in iTunes.

This is the popup when I'm not connected to the internet:

By the way, this is by far not the first launch of "FBReader".

And when I'm connected to the internet it looks like this:

I can't even do this on the iPhone, because my password manager doesn't work of course! I need internet and a second device to get my iPhone working again.

Is this expected, normal behavior? Is every Apple user suffering this?

Or is there something fishy on my device(s)? I suspect that this is a copyright mechanism that runs amok because the iTunes sync cripples my iPhone.

Some time ago, I've changed the Email address of my Apple ID. Before that, this never happened. However, this was some time back and since then many updates to both my iPhone as well as my Mac happened.

I can't answer the part about if what is going on is fishy but I have a similar experience when I log in iTunes with a DIFFERENT account than my phone but this is apparently not your case.  As far as the second part of the question no this does not happen to everyone.


What can be done about the calendar app closing itself on an iPad? I have been using my calendar fine but this afternoon when I click on the tile it briefly opens (1 sec) and then closes itself. I have waited 30 mins, I have turned iPad off & back on and still no joy.

This is how applications crash on iOS - so you may want to check your settings to see if your iPad is sending crash reports to Apple.

Settings App -> General -> Diagnostics & Usage

You can also look in the Data submenu from the above screen and scroll down to look for LatestCrash.plist and see if the date matches when your iCal quit.

In general, it's not possible (even as a developer) to read these reports without access to the iCal source code and you have some short term things you can do to isolate the issue further.

First is to remove any notifications (turn of WiFi and cellular data) and reboot the iPad. If iCal crashes, then it's due to the calendar data on the device and not some external cause. You can then remove your calendar information, account by account to clear up which account has the data corruption that is causing iCal to have a problem. Worst case, you will have to connect your iPad to a computer (iTunes) and force a sync to erase the calendar data on the iPad and replace it with data from the computer to clear the data that is causing the crash.

Apple will likely fix the crash (even with bad data - the program should handle it and let you know an event is broken or ignored and why) in the upcoming updates - but you can report the crash to add weight to this particular bug getting fixed.

You can also take an overkill (but faster) approach to erase all content and settings on the iPad and set it up again.

It's unlikely the data will come back corrupt from your calendar sources (or the backup) but if it does, at least you'll know a bit more about how to isolate which calendar is causing iCal to have problems.


Is the 3G network used by the iPad the same as the 4G network used by the iPhone? Both my iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are running iOS 5.1. Both are AT&T models. When not connected to Wi-Fi, the network indicator on the iPhone shows 4G while the iPad shows 3G. Does the iPad use a different network?

I'm not looking to stir up religious fervor over the semantics of 4G vs. 4G LTE. I'm just trying to find out if my iPad and my iPhone have the same data connection capabilities or not.

iPhone 4S supports HSPA+, while iPad 2 doesn't.

HSPA+ is technically not 4G, but is being advertised as 4G by networks like AT&T and T-Mobile in US. Pre-iOS 5.1, Apple wasn't calling HSPA+ a 4G network, but they have started calling it 4G now to match AT&T's other "4G" phones that are using the same signals and protocols as the iPhone.

If you are in HSPA+ supported area, you should hopefully get better speeds on iPhone 4S.


VirtualBox NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) mac, cant find a solution I am running VirtualBox but get the error  NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) on an MacBook Pro 2020 with an M1 chip
I have tried everything uninstalling Virtualbox, enabling SIP in recovery mode, installing the Virtualbox again. Only thing I haven't tried is allowing Oracle in Privacy --> General since I don't see it there.
The following is the exact log I get.
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
MachineWrap
Interface:
IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}

Virtualization only works when running the same CPU on the server and the VM.
Currently out of the 3 main VMs only Parallels has a release for the M1 and that can only run ARM based operating system e.g. Linuxes and a pre release Windows. That Windows can run Intel Windows executables. Vmware have announced they are working on a version for ARM. I don't think Oracle have said anything for VirtualBox
There are other emulators that can run Intel executables on the M1. Crossover (and thus I suspect wine) can run Windows Intel binaries. Qemu can emulate and virtualise so can run Intel CPU bases OSs on an ARM machine.
Rosetta2 can run Intel binaries on Apple M1 but not all. Virtual machines need very low level support from the CPU and kernel that Rosetta cannot provide - so that is why you get that error.


Macbook freezes every few seconds when monitor input is switched I have a macbook pro running 10.11.5 El Capitan.  I have it connected to two external monitors -- one using HDMI, and the other using thunderbolt to HDMI.  These two monitors are also connected to another computer using DVI cables.  I'm also using the audio output jack for the macbook.  When I switch the monitor to use the DVI input for the other computer, several things happen on my macbook

The mouse and keyboard input freezes for about 3-5 seconds every 3-5 seconds.
Video freezes intermittently, roughly corresponding with the mouse and keyboard freezes.
Audio works fine without any freezes until I switch the monitor back to the HDMI input for the macbook, then it is completely muted and the volume control is greyed out until I unplug and replug in the external audio jack.

Is there a way for me to share a monitor with another computer without having these freezing problems?  I would like to avoid having to disconnect and reconnect cables unnecessarily.

This happens on just about every computer when you are adding or subtracting output monitors. I suppose it has to do with how the(in this case internal) GPU processes the new output. 2 extra monitors is also a big feat for a Macbook's GPU!

The only way I am aware of achieving what you want would be through remote desktop. However that has it's own caveats as I'm sure you already know.


Google Voice Indicator I would like to know when an inbound call originates from the GV number (versus the iPhone's carrier number).  Is there a procedure that allows one to configure the iPhone to indicate the call is a GV call?

UPDATE: Assume that the GV is for a business and the inbound calls are from unknown phone numbers.

As far as your phone is concerned a Google Voice call is no different than any other call, so your only options involve Google Voice settings:

Set Make and receive calls = Prefer Wi-Fi and mobile data. This will make your phone treat the calls as VoIP calls which explicitly say the service they're using. This is how I use Google Voice and the quality is typically better than using the carrier service, which I have also used extensively in the past. Also iOS 12 improved the way VoIP calls are handled in the UI to make them work just like regular calls when your screen is locked (same phone UI as a carrier call).
If you want to use your carrier service,  you can change the incoming caller ID to show your Google voice number instead of the caller's number. This way you always know it's a Google Voice call, but you won't necessarily know who it's from. This is also why I prefer option 1.


IOS 7.0.4 Sprint 15.5 Unlocked, Data-Network not working I am using iPhone 5 16GB, IOS 7.0.4 Unlocked Sprint USA....my service provide is Airtel below are the problems I am facing: Network: Yes,Data Network: No,APN Setting Not Showing, carrier: sprint 15.5.
Can anyone guide me or help me plss...I am trying to find a solution to the problem.

From my understanding you can only use an unlocked sprint iphone 5 on tmobile with edge network connection. Here is the info that I have found.

  Sprint/Cricket/Virgin Mobile iPhone 5 can only be unlocked for T-Mobile / Simple Mobile and may only get Edge. It may also have issues with data/mms so you may or may not get internet or MMS (picture messaging). This is happening to some Sprint iPhone 5 devices and we are working on a fix. THERE ARE NO REFUNDS IF YOU HAVE A SPRINT iPhone 5 and experience issues with data/mms.


Are macOS Photos supposed to be synced to iPhone Photos automatically? I have an iCloud storage of 2 TB. I added a lot of photos on my Mac to the Photos library. They are synced to iCloud automatically and I can see the upload progress.

Same on my iPhone, I activated iCloud Photos, photos taken on the iPhone are being uploaded to iCloud.

Now, while I can see photos taken on the phone on the computer, the opposite is not true.

Photos added from the computer are not showing on the iPhone. Is this expected behavior? If so, how do I ensure that any picture added to the Photos app on Mac will be shown on the iPhone too?

After waiting enough time it finally synced photos to the phone too, thanks all!


Speed Up Podcasts on iPod Classic I'm looking for a way to listen to podcasts at 2x on my iPod classic. I know this is not supported out of the box.

Is there an alternative firmware like rockbox, that supports syncing with iTunes and double playback speed or - which I assume is likelier - a Mac app that allows me to easily speed up the mp3 files. With easily I mean it should support editing in batch and replacing the files automatically, ideally started with a script directly in iTunes.

(I do know about audacity, but I want something a little more automated)

There's no such way to do that, actually. So, you have two possibilities:

Adjust the tempo before add the podcast on your phone (using Audacity or something similar), you can have a look on this Super User post to understand how to do it.
Convert the podcast into an audiobook format. You can adjust the actual velocity of your audiobook going into "Settings > Audiobooks"

Besides that, I can't see no other way to do that, sorry.


Where is the Display Calibrator Assistant on my hard drive? I'd like to use the Display Calibrator Assistant without going through the process of opening the system preferences.

Does anyone know where the program is located on my hard drive?

I've done a search for various keywords without being able to find it.

The app can be found at this path:

/System/Library/ColorSync/Calibrators/Display Calibrator.app

To run directly from Terminal type:

open -a /System/Library/ColorSync/Calibrators/Display\ Calibrator.app

This will pop-up a small window on every monitor you have connected.


Open farthest right tab in Safari In Chrome, one can press cmd+1 to open the first tab, cmd+3 to open the third tab, etc...  Safari has replicated this behavior now but has not replicated cmd+9 which takes the user to the far right tab even if there are dozens of tabs in the window.  Is there a way to map cmd+9 or another key mapping to that action?

That was a fun question to tackle! Follow the instructions below and paste this code in step 1.8:

set n to 0

tell application "Safari"
    repeat with w in windows
        try
            set n to n + (count tabs of w)
        end try
    end repeat
end tell

tell front window of application "Safari"
    set current tab to tab n
end tell

This will tell Safari to change to the right most tab. Then, to map it to a key shortcut, just follow the steps listed here by Monomeeth which is shown below. The code was adapted from here

In summary you will need to use:

Automator to create a service that runs an Apple Script
System Preferences to assign a keyboard shortcut to the service

Below are the steps involved for each.

1. Create a service using Automator

Launch Automator (usually found within your Applications folder)
Go to File > New
Select Service and click Choose
In the top right hand of the window that appears, ensure that "No input" is selected from the Service receives drop-down list
Ensure the In drop-down list is showing "Any application"
In the second column containing the long list, find "Run AppleScript" and double-click on it
This will add the Run AppleScript window on the right
Now, replace the (* Your script goes here *) with the script you want (the one I provided above)
Save the service using a meaningful name (e.g. RightMostTab).

Now to the next step.

2. Creating your shortcut

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts
Select Services from the sidebar
Find your service (it'll be in the list on the right-hand side)
Add a shortcut by double clicking on the service name
Now go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy
Select Accessibility in the sidebar
Click on the + sign (you may need to unlock the padlock if it's locked)
Add Automator.
Add Finder (to find this you will need to navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app).
Exit your System Preferences.

Let me know how it goes!


How can I set external display as primary and turn off internal display without connected MagSafe power cable? When I connected MagSafe power cable to Mac and close lid, secondary display become a primary and dock migrate to it. But when I disconnected MagSafe power cable - the primary and secondary monitors both are turn off.

How can I set external display as primary and turn off internal display without connected MagSafe power cable?

I has Mac OS X 10.9.3

Unfortunately, according to the Apple support website, this is intended behavior. MacBooks do not support video output to external displays when running on battery power - you'll need to plug in the MagSafe cable.


What is the purpose of /home on a Mac? On Linux, (which I am used to), /home is the place where home folders live.

On a Mac, home is some kind of crazy mutant:

$ mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

Other than to be non-conformist, is there some purpose to this auto_home mount point?  Considering how it mucks up things that come right out of the box, there must be some wonderful thing that it accomplishes, but I can't figure out what that would be.....

It predates Linux and was in NeXTStep from 1989.

Linux is not Unix and does not meet the Unix specification.

auto_home is the place where in a networked environment your home directory is mounted via NFS.

Any decently scripted process won't be affected by /home - if it is what else has it got wrong?

The Unix standard way to find your home directory is $HOME environment variable and home directories are not all of the form /home/X, in fact I have worked at places where the home directories have had different paths at their root i.e. some users had home directory /home/X  and others /user/Y


Calendar icon Captcha My Calendar icon seems to have changed to something that looks like a Captcha prompt. What goes? Can I make it something recognisable by a human being?

Have you tried restarting the dock?
Restarting the computer?

It looks like the icon got corrupted.

My caveat is "When in doubt, cycle power".

If cycling power does not fix it you may try disk utilities>repair disk.

After that you may have to restore iCal from a time machine backup or reinstall iCal.


Is there a way to track my look ups in the OSX dictionary? I am a non-english native speaker and therefore use the OSX's built-in look up service (three-finger tab and cmd+L in the spotlight search field) quite a lot.

I was wondering if there was a way to keep track of or record the words I have looked up? (Applescript perhaps?)

EDIT: When I three-finger tab it also gives me definitions from wikipedia. Could I utilise this, i.e. track the requests Dictionary.app sends to wikipedia.org, to track which words I look up?

You can't do this with the normal three-finger tap, but if you make an Automator service with some Applescript, you can trigger it on a keyboard shortcut. (Note: This shows a full dictionary window, not a nice popover. I don't think there's a way to do it like that.)

To make this service, open Automator.app, in the /Applications/ folder.

Choose Service.

Then, in the Library on the left, search for AppleScript, and drag Run Applescript over.

Here's the script to paste in.

on run {input, parameters}

    set logPath to "Desktop/words.txt"
    --You can change the path in quotes
    --to the file you want to store the
    --words you look up.

    set lookUpWord to quoted form of (input as string)
    --This sets the word to the selected text, from input.

    do shell script "cd; echo " & lookUpWord & " >> " & quoted form of logPath
    --This appends the word to the log file.

    do shell script "open dict://" & lookUpWord
    --This opens the word in Dictionary.

    return input
end run

Click the hammer to compile. It should look like this:

The last thing to do is assign a keyboard shortcut.
Save the workflow (I called mine "look up"), and open System Preferences.
Go to Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services.

Select your service (It should be under Text), then click "add shortcut" and type the shortcut you'll be using to trigger it.

I like to use command ⌘+control ^ and a letter, because those are almost guaranteed not to be already in use by an application.

That should work! Just select a word by double-clicking, then type your keyboard shortcut to use it.


iOS 7 change folders' background I'm on iOS 7 and I'd like to make the folders' background transparent so I can see the wallpaper behind it. Is there a way to do this?

No, there is no setting to customize any aspect of how folders look or behave.


Disk Could Not Be Partitioned - First Aid not helping I am trying to install Windows by Bootcamp on my MacBook Air (2017) 128 GB. I am using the newest macOS, so High Sierra. Unfortunately I am getting "Disk Could Not Be Partitioned" error. I tried to use First Aid and "/sbin/fsck -fy" from Single User Mode and there aren't any errors.

What can I do to fix my problem?

I had very similar problem. After contacting Apple Support and following their instructions, I've reinstalled macos (instructions here). This is not a wipeout reinstall, but do make a backup.

After the reinstall partitioning worked like a charm.


iPad calendar only sees 2 of 4 GMail calendars, what have I configured wrong? I have 4 calendars in my GMail Calendar account, two of these have been imported, they are shared by other people.

Basically, I have this:

My personal calendar
Week numbers for norway (since GMail Calendar doesn't show week numbers)
One imported from an organization I have some work for
One with TV Shows I follow every week

When I connect my GMail account on my iPad, the first, and the third, is shown, but not the second, nor the fourth. I'd like the fourth as well on my iPad.

I've looked through the configuration for all the calendars on my GMail account, but I can't see anything that differs from the one that is listed, and the one that isn't.

What else should I look at?

You can set up a CalDAV account to sync all your Google calendars. The following information is provided by Google and can be found here:

To sync with your device, follow these steps:

Open the Settings application on your device's home screen.
Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Select Add Account...
Select Other.
Select Add CalDAV Account.
Enter your account information:

In the Server field, enter [ google.com ]
In the Username field, enter your full Google Account or Google Apps email address.
In the Password field, enter your Google Account or Google Apps password.
In the Description field, enter the name you'd like to appear on the account.

Select Next at the top of your screen.

After you've completed setup, open the Calendar app on your device and syncing will automatically begin.
By default only your primary calendar will be synced to your device. You can sync additional calendars by visiting the following page from any web browser:

https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect
(Google Apps users can go to https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/your_domain/iphoneselect, replacing 'your_domain' with your actual domain name.)

Select the calendars you'd like to sync, and click Save. The selected calendars will display on your device at the time of the next sync.


When streaming movies online, should I keep the computer on the charger? I watch a lot of movies streaming online. Should I keep my computer on the power cord, or should I charge the unit completely, remove the power cord, then wait till it gets to a low battery and plug it in again?

My main concern is that if I keep it plugged in, it will degrade the life of the battery, but if I keep plugging and unplugging, it will cycle through the battery life anyways.

My question is essentially: Should I keep it on the charger when doing something that would cause the battery to drain faster than normal?

To get the most out of your MacBook's battery, follow the Notebook Battery advice from Apple: unplug and use your battery until empty about once a month, then charge back up to full. Your question expands a bit on another question on the site about general charging:

Should I disconnect my MacBook Pro's power cord when the battery is fully charged?

In your case, streaming video is usually a high power usage event that can drain a battery in 4 or 5 hours. You will therefore be more likely to have a higher recharge cycle count than someone that isn't using as much power. For that reason, I would try to keep it plugged in when running. Everything is a balance, and it would be hard to reach the 1000 recharge cycles design lifetime of the new batteries in Apple portables - but as long as you are once a month draining it down, you might be better off keeping it on power the rest of the time it runs just in case you reach that limit before you are done with using the Mac.


Why is the Amazon iOS App allowed by Apple? Today a customer asked me how it comes that there is an iOS app for purchasing from Amazon while this seems to violate Apple's App Store review purchasing guidelines (Apple Developer login needed).

I could give him no answer to his question – it seems that there is a small number of allowed ways to do purchases in apps that Apple permits, even if they do not get a revenue from them.

What kind of purchases does Apple allow in an app that do not go through their purchasing system but through a custom one?

By my reading, it doesn't.  Which rule do you think it violates?

Section 11 covers In-App Purchases, which Amazon's app doesn't use, and which are only required for "content, functionality, or services in an App".  Amazon doesn't let you buy anything to extend their app.

Amazon's app also doesn't allow purchasing ebooks, which is their only product (AFAICT) that might be covered by section 11.  They have a note at the bottom of all ebook pages that says "This mobile application does not currently support Kindle downloads, however you may add the item to your Wish List and purchase it using the browser on your device".

Finally, section 20 explicitly prohibits allowing the user to purchase a lottery ticket, which suggests that there is nothing unacceptable about other real-world purchases.  Lots of other apps allow them, too, like eBay.


OS X 10.9.1, Mail 7.1; Mail: Mail rules reset with restart I am trying to use junk mail custom actions to add additional tags to mail identified as junk. I also unset the "Sender of message is in my Previous Recipients" option. I am finding that each time I close and then restart Mail my custom actions are reset and, also, the "Sender of message is in my Previous Recipients" option is set back to on. This happens reliably.
* How can I reliably diagnose and/or fix this problem?

Uncheck the box marked Documents & Data in the iCloud preference pane.
Then try to set up the rules and test it again.


How long does the new Testflight Beta review process usually take? iOS app reviews generally take around a week or so. Since Apple now requires that new TestFlight beta apps go through the beta review process as well before we can send it to external testers, I have been wondering how long  this process will take.

I have just submitted an app for a beta review. What is the timeframe that I should expect the approval (or denial, for that matter) of the beta app to take?

Yesterday at 6 pm I uploaded my beta build for review and it's status was waiting for review. This morning the status had changes to "In review" but now, 13h later it's still "In review". I will update this post if my app build had been approved.

EDIT: A day later in the morning it was approved. The total proces from uploading to being reviewed took 1 and a half days.


Possible to give Finder back focus after opening and closing file (e.g. in editor)? When you open a file with finder (by pressing cmd-o) and subsequently close the file in whatever application opened it (e.g. TextEdit for a .txt file) by pressing for example cmd-w, the application still has the focus.

Is it possible to always have the Finder get the focus back (like on Windows)?

I don't know of any way to get OS X to behave like Windows in this case, but if the document you open is the only window open in that application, you can quit the app with Cmd+Q instead of just closing the window. If you need to keep the app open after closing the window, you can press Cmd+Tab to quickly return to the Finder once you close the window.


How do I remove/delete a (possibly corrupt) partition from macOS High Sierra? I have a partition (disk0s2) I can't seem to get rid of. The size is very tiny around ~3KB. Disk Utility is unable to remove/erase or repair this partition. Also, the '-' button seems to be disabled. Can anyone help me with a terminal command to get rid of the partition?

I solved this by using the command:

diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" %noformat% disk0s2


iMessaging an iPhone from an iPad I am trying to iMessage an iPhone 4S using its phone number. When I press send, the sending progress runs to ~90% and pauses. Then, after about 1-2 minutes, a red exclamation point appears. This happens every time. My WiFi connection is great. What's the problem? I have a 16 GB iPad WiFi running iOS 5.

Why not try iPhone's email address? As far as I know, iMessage is registered by e-mail, not phone number.


Copy files searched with find command using xargs command I'd like to copy the files searched using find command into the current directory. I am executing the following command-line:

    # find linux books
$ find ~ -type f -iregex '.*linux.*\.pdf' -print0 | xargs -0 echo
    # Expected output on STDOUT
../Books/LinuxCollection/Linux_TLCL-17.10.pdf ../Richard Blum, Christine Bresnahan - Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible, 3rd Edition - 2015.pdf ..

I wish to copy the files to the current directory using the cp command. Here is the command that I entered:

$ find ~ -type f -iregex '.*linux.*\.pdf' -print0 | xargs -0 cp .

However, I get an error as shown below upon executing the above command:

usage: cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvXc] source_file target_file
       cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvXc] source_file ... target_directory

I have also tried to resolve the issue by using command substitution. Here is the command that I tried:

$ cp $(find ~ -type f -iregex '.*linux.*\.pdf' -print0) .

However, I get another error as shown below upon executing the above command:

cp: Blum,: No such file or directory

How do I accomplish the desired result using the xargs command?

xargs appends its input to the command, so you are basically running cp . source_file. Use

find ~ -type f -iregex '.*linux.*\.pdf' -print0 | xargs -I '{}' -0 cp '{}' .

instead.


iTunes stuck on "installing" when installing .ipa files I have downloaded an .ipa file (a free game). when I trying to install it form iTunes to my device, it is stuck on installing:

It is very uncommon to download / install a IPA file - free of charge or not.

The IPA files are usually used for known & registered devices (e.g. beta testers) - if your device is not registered and your device is not included in the IPA profile file, then installing the IPA file will fail.

This is kind of the Apple philosophy / protection: either you have a "deep" contact to the developer who includes your device (maximum is 200 devices as far as I know), or you jailbreak (?) your device, or you use the official AppStore and trash the IPA file.


How can I reinstall OS X without a valid App Store connection? I have a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro that was used by a "less than responsible" user.  As such, it seems to have become infected with malware that rewrites all SSL certificates.  These certificates cannot be validated by OS X which is what alerted me to the fact that there is a problem.

My issue is that I cannot access the App Store to initiate a reinstallation of OS X.  Since the MacBook Pro can't validate the App Store SSL certificates, nothing loads.

So, I'm stuck.  What steps should I take to reinstall OS X or restore access to the App Store?

Update: Cmd + R on boot doesn't seem to work (perhaps due to the Malware).  Also, the OS version is 10.9.5 (Mavericks).

use Cmd + Option + R to go into internet recovery then follow these steps https://support.apple.com/en-nz/HT201314


Weird page flicker on macOS 10.15.2 with chrome 79 (latest) I'm getting weird screen flickering on apple.com specifically. I can't seem to find another website where chrome has this issue, it's quite weird!

I've tried running incognito so my extensions would not interfere, but it doesn't change anything. Running on an external monitor or the retina display does not change anything, happens either way. I have tested Safari and FireFox so this appears to be Chrome specific.

I've recorded my screen, please see my video, it shows what happens. Mainly around the top area near the bookmark icon and navbar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKqssSvJwqs

Chrome version : Version 79.0.3945.130 (Official Build) (64-bit)

macOS version: 10.15.2

I understand this is a little strange. I even asked a friend with the exact same macOS version and Chrome version, he does not have that issue at all so it might not even be a bug in either.

What might cause this and how would I fix it?

So after encountering a few other websites that caused me some trouble

Like any of the following (and apple.com)

https://obsidian.md/
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/ipad/
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-determine-graphics-card-windows-10

I was able to fix it by enabling hardware Acceleration

Go to Chrome > Settings > Advanced > Enable Hardware Acceleration

I opened a chromium bug report https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1094727


Tag all files required by OS My hard drive is close to full, so I am trying to delete old and unused files. I am worried that I may delete files that the operating system needs, but I don't recognize. Is there a way to tag all of the files that are required by the system, so I can ignore them while cleaning up storage? I'm thinking in terms of a program or some code you may have made/come across.

Currently using MacOS Sierra version 10.12.4

macOS Sierra comes with SIP (System Integrity Protection) which protects all important files from getting removed. So an additional tagging is not really necessary.

In finding disk space hogs some of the answers to How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space? might be helpful.


CTRL + CMD + SPACE brings up Characters window instead of Emoji window I'm in Mavericks. When using messages to chat with someone, I used to be able to press CTRL + CMD + SPACE and a little Emoji window would popup and I could choose from an Emoji or type the name of an Emoji to filter the window.

A few days ago, something changed. I don't know what. Now, when I pretty CTRL + CMD + SPACE, a separate "Characters" window pops up in the middle of the screen. It contains Emojis along with hundreds of other type of special characters. It's WAY slower than the emoji window and you can't type the name of emoji's immediately without first clicking into the search field. Anyways, its way worse than it was before.

How do I get the little Emoji window back in Messages? What did I do to change this?

I think you just need to Collapse the Character Viewer by clicking the button next to the search field.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13867


How to remove an application update file? I was updating Xcode and macOS High Sierra at the same time. The OS restarted and then Xcode was in update "paused" state. I tried but couldn't restart/resume it so I deleted the app hoping it would be fixed. Now the app is removed but I still have that icon in my Launchpad.

How can I remove this?

You can try these steps:

Open Launchpad, press and hold the Option key. If you see a cross icon towards the top left side of the app (Xcode) icon, click on it.
Make sure that Xcode is really removed by checking for its absence in /Applications directory. Then restart your computer.

Either one of the two steps should remove the icon from the Launchpad. You can install Xcode afresh thereafter.