Any way to auto download or sync all Google+ photos to my Mac? Is there any way to automatically download or sync all photos backed up from my phone to Google+ to my Mac?

I know there is an upload tool, but I want the reverse.

Can they be viewed from Picasa somehow?

You can automatically download your photos from Google Photos (I believe Google+ photos end up there, correct me if I'm wrong) fairly easily. It requires a few different steps to get it set up though. Once it's setup, the sync is done for you.

First you have to install the Google Photos Uploader for OS X.
Next you have to install the Google Drive sync app to sync your Google Drive on your Mac.
Next open Google Photos via your browser and go to settings. From within settings, enable the Google Drive option.

Open Google Drive from your browser and select the Google Photos option. Ensure the settings pane for Google Photos on Google Drive has the Create Google Photos folder enabled.

Lastly, ensure the newly created Google Photos folder in your Google Drive is selected on your Mac's Google Drive settings for sync.

At this point, your photos will sync from your mobile device and desktop to Google Photos, be linked to Google Drive, and sync back down to your desktop for you to pull in to what ever app you want.

Note, as pointed out by @Jer, this will count against your Google Drive storage whereas if you just stored them in Google Photos, you can make use of the unlimited storage. I pay $10 a mo/ for 1TB of Google Drive storage and this works great. I organize all my photos into subdirectories, tag them and manage them via Adobe Lightroom, with Google Drive automatically syncing them to Google Photos on my phone. It also lets me easily select a folder I've organized via Lightroom and share it with other people via Google Drive, instead of having to build out albums and share via Photos.


Can a Macbook 4,1 use 64bit architecture? I have a Macbook 4,1 running Mac OS X 10.7, and I need to install the MESA program, that only works on 64bit machines. Running uname tells me that my mac is working in 32bit mode, and a quick search online told me that it should be able to run as 64bit, which is what I need.

$: uname -m
i386

Following Apple's advice, I tried to get my computer to boot up again in 64bit mode, and verified it with uname again, to discover I'd failed. So, my question is, can my macbook work in 64bit mode?

If you simply have software that needs to run as 64bit then yes it is compatible, if you have software that needs a 64bit kernel (rare) then no it is not compatible. From looking at the website where it shows system requirements it shows it needs a 64bit capable CPU, which is what your MacBook has, same CPU as my iMac. As you can see below on my Late 2006 iMac with 2GHz Core 2 Duo running 10.7.5 with a 32bit kernel and all 64bit processes.


Windows 7 startup problem in bootcamp My windows 7 partition has a startup problem. The system will not start, even in safe mode, it gives me an error. If it were a windows machine, I would probably put in a startup disk, but I do not have one. I can read the files on the drive from the mac side, but the system will not start in windows. It worked great before this but it must have gotten a virus. help

Just an idea: maybe try making an image of the Windows partition with WinClone and then try to restore it - it will offer to recreate the "boot files" - if I remember correctly. Maybe there is a shorter way, this experiment will take a few hours... like I said, just an idea, double check if WinClone really offers to recreate the boot files.


This volume can not be resized I'm trying to create a partition but the Disk Utility says it cannot be resized, and the + button appears greyed out. Why is that?

As per this Apple support question:

  You cannot dynamically resize an ExFAT partition, like you can an HFS+ partition on a GPT volume.  It's a limitation of the ExFAT file system, I believe.  You'll have to destructively repartition and reformat.

So, you have to reformat the entire drive. Remember THIS WILL DELETE ALL OF THE DATA ON THAT DRIVE, so make sure you move all of your files off before you do this. Let me know if this answer wasn't clear or you want help walking through the steps to do this.


Switching to #x application in the dock I would like to hit cmd+X to switch to (or launch, if it's not running) the #X application in the Dock, without hardconding that application.

I.e. if my third application in the dock is the Terminal, I hit cmd+3 and I switch to the terminal, but if I then move Adium to that position, cmd+3 automatically opens Adium.

Can this be done on OSX 10.8 (or 10.9)?

Even better, though that's not required, if in case I hit the combination of the already active application, it hides it instead.

You could save one AppleScript for clicking each Dock icon:

for i in {1..9};do echo 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "Dock" to click UI element '$i' of list 1'>~/Library/Scripts/Focus\ Application\ $i.applescript;done

Then use FastScripts to assign shortcuts to the scripts.

I find it easier to just assign keyboard shortcuts for applications though.


Why is fsck_hfs slow on *journaled* HFS+ Sometimes my external drives get uncleanly detached, and at the next connection a disk check is necessary.

What surprises me now is to see a slow disk check process on a journaled filesystem. According to the manual, that requires the -f option, but that seems incorrect. Isn't the point of journaling that you never need a full disk check?

In detail, macOS started fsck automatically with -y:

$ ps auxw|grep fsck
root              3792   1.1  2.3  6429668 389400   ??  U     2:09pm   0:05.10 /System/Library/Filesystems/hfs.fs/Contents/Resources/./fsck_hfs -y /dev/disk3s2

Then I interrupted the process and re-run it by hand without -y for greater control, as I usually do:

 sudo fsck_hfs /dev/disk3s2
** /dev/rdisk3s2
   Executing fsck_hfs (version hfs-407.50.6).
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
   The volume name is MyPass4T-TM2
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.

FWIW, this is on a journaled HFS+ sparsebundle, that I use for Time Machine, hosted inside an external filesystem (ExFAT).

Great question.

Apple only journals filesystem changes and not the data, so when a full filesystem check is initiated, the catalog file, extents file, superblocks, and allocation counts are manually checked / cross checked / and optionally rebuilt or refreshed. The journal saves no time to check a volume - it only saves time if you lose power or connection when a filesystem metadata modification is being made. So, you might run fsck less often, but it doesn’t shorten the run time of fsck

Every single hard link is referenced / evaluated on the sending and receiving side.

This process is highly IO intensive, so if you have spinning disks, you could have weeks to check a 20 TB volume on a RAID if multiple disks are involved.

One nice benchmark is to check how many files are present on the volume in the information tab and watch Activity Monitor to see what the read and write IOPS and data rate are. Then you can compare that to the protocol (USB C and 3.0 and Thunderbolt are faster than any realistic storage you might have) so you know the progress is limited by the drive and not CPU or connection.

In your case, the sparsebundle adds negligible overhead, but Time Machine is the real crippler. It uses hard links so every single file may be referenced dozens or even hundreds of times. I have some Time Machine volumes that will never finish a fsck in that I won’t let then run for the weeks needed.

Instead, I let them be read only - set them on a shelf and only ever would get files off them or wipe them when I know I don’t need any files back from them.

Repair Time Machine sparsebundle that will no longer mount

Some people perform heroic surgery on Time Machine data to revive it. I prefer to buy another $100 drive and start over every 6 to 18 months, adding new fresh destinations and aging out my older destinations when they get close to filling.


Why is lsof on OS X so ridiculously slow? I can't figure out why lsof on my Mac (10.8.2, MacBook Pro) is so slow.

On my Mac, lsof takes more than a minute:

$ touch /tmp/testfile
$ time lsof /tmp/testfile

real   1m16.483s
user   0m0.029s
sys    1m15.969s

On a typical Linux box, running Ubuntu 12.04, lsof takes 20 ms:

$ touch /tmp/testfile
$ time lsof /tmp/testfile

real   0m0.023s
user   0m0.008s
sys    0m0.012s

The problem persists if I run lsof -n (to avoid DNS lookups). Further, I tried checking which system calls are made by lsof using dtruss, and found that it's calling proc_info tens of thousands of times:

$ sudo dtruss lsof /tmp/testfile 2> /tmp/dump
$ cat /tmp/dump | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head
10000 proc_info(0x2, 0x1199, 0x8) = 1272 0
 6876 proc_info(0x2, 0x45, 0x8) = 1272 0
 2360 proc_info(0x2, 0x190D, 0x8) = 1272 0
 1294 proc_info(0x2, 0xFF, 0x8) = 1272 0
 1152 proc_info(0x2, 0x474, 0x8) = 1272 0
 1079 proc_info(0x2, 0x2F, 0x8) = 1272 0
  709 proc_info(0x2, 0xFE, 0x8) = 1272 0
  693 proc_info(0x2, 0x1F, 0x8) = 1272 0
  623 proc_info(0x2, 0x11A, 0x8) = 1272 0
  528 proc_info(0x2, 0xF7, 0x8) = 1272 0

Any ideas? I've run these tests and obtained the same results using both the version of lsof included with OS X (4.85) as well as the latest version from ftp://sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/Mirror/lsof/ (4.87).

(For the curious, the reason I'm frustrated by this performance is that when I drag images to Evernote, it runs lsof in the process of copying the file, causing my system to hang for a full minute every time I try to insert an image in Evernote.)

As my experience, from Mac OS X 10.7(Lion) to 10.11.5（EI Capitan), the lsof always hang.

To solve to problem, append -n option.

lsof -n

According to manual of lsof, the -n option:

inhibits the conversion of network numbers to host names for network files.
Inhibiting conversion may make  lsof  run faster.  It is also useful when host
name lookup is not working properly

EDIT 2018-04-25: If it is still slow, you can try

-O to bypass  the  strategy it uses to avoid being blocked by some kernel operations
-P to inhibits the conversion of port numbers to port names for network files
-l to inhibits  the  conversion of user ID numbers to login names

The ultimate way to find out why so slow is to run "Instruments" tool (from upper right corner Spotlight Search icon) to do a "System Trace" on /usr/sbin/lsof then see graph and sys calls.


How does one make a command line authoritative DNS query using macOS Mojave native host name and address resolution mechanism(s)? The man files for dig, delv and host all contain:  "macOS Notice The [dig | delv | host] command does not use the host name and address resolution or the DNS query routing mechanisms used by other processes running on macOS."

I've only found this, apparently, non-authoritative mechanism answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/70583/246634

The dscacheutil man page does not document that one can make an authoritative DNS query using dscacheutil.

How does one make a command line authoritative DNS query using macOS Mojave native host name and address resolution mechanism(s)?

The way to do a command line DNS query using macOS Mojave's native host name and address resolution mechanism is through dscacheutil like this:

dscacheutil -q host -a name www.google.com

This will use the native mechanism so that the response will come from cache, if it is cached, and if not it will be looked up through standard address resolution (i.e. typically from a recursive DNS server) and the answer will be placed in cache.

I suspect that you already know of this method, and thus have added the word "authoritative" to the title of your question to specify that you want to lookup the address directly from the authoritative DNS server instead of through a recursive DNS server for example.

Unfortunately this makes the question a kind of oxymoron - i.e. it doesn't really make sense. Because if you're using the native address resolution mechanism like most normal macOS programs, you're not just making a query to an authoritative DNS server - you're interacting with a cache and its address resolution policy.

If you want to make an authoritative query from the command line on macOS Mojave, you can do that by the following command for example:

dig @a.r06.twtrdns.net www.twitter.com

This means that the query goes directly to the authoritative DNS server. Ofcourse this bypasses the standard way of resolving names, so this doesn't interact with macOS Mojave's native address resolution mechanism.

I hope this answer your question even though it doesn't try to answer the impossible "both at the same time". But perhaps you meant something else, which wasn't clear in your question. Perhaps you're looking to query the cache and recursive servers through the native address resolution mechanism, but only to get at the authoritative section of the DNS reply (if any DNS reply is involved at all ofcourse) - or something like that.


Unexpected Colour differences (MacBook Pro, OSX 10.11.6) I wrote a postscript file including a blue (0,0,255) RGB and a yellow (255,255,0) RGB shapes.

When viewed (in Preview) and according to the apple DigitalColor meter set to "native colours" mode, the colours are different:
     yellow becomes (252,255,54)
     blue becomes (43,0,251)

To be sure the problem does not come from a bad postscript conversion, I used imagemagick to convert the postscript file into a raster image (png, tiff, gif,...). The so converted rasters show the same colour changes when viewed in Preview/Photo/finder. On the other hand, when imported in inkscape (i.e. X terminal), the colours of any of them are correctly displayed --- again, according to the DigitalColor meter.

How come?

Should I change the setting of the color display to get it right? How?
Should I use another colour picker? Which one?

While I don't know the exact details, the Digital Color Meter that comes with macOS is affected by the color profile settings in System Preferences > Displays > Color. Changing the display's color profile from Color LCD to P3 to Adobe RGB to whatever causes a solid color to read differently under the same Digital Color Meter profile selection.

A photo editor with a dropper tool, specifically Photoshop, always selects the same color values, regardless of the display's color profile.


App to text for free to Hong Kong I'm traveling to Hong Kong and I want to install an app on my iPhone which will allow me to text for free to non-smart phones in Hong Kong (specifically, to this provider: +852-90207 XXX). Is there any app or service that would allow me to do this?

Regular texting costs money. Not a single company in the world will offer you unlimited texting across nations, simply because they have to make costs as well.

There are plenty of alternatives to text for free between smartphones (iMessages, WhatsApp, FacebookChat, BiteSMS, Text Free,...) but you'll need a Smartphone and a internet connection.

But I'm sure if you can afford yourselve an iPhone, you won't die of starving when paying for a 10c text to Hong-Kong ;-)


Cannot install Xcode 7 I recently upgraded to El Capitan and it broke my Macports as well as some of the compilers I use, so I'm trying to upgrade Xcode from 6 to 7.

First, I tried the ordinary way; i.e. click the "upgrade" button in the App Store. However, clicking it greyed it out for about 10 sec, and then it ungreyed as if nothing happened. It didn't show the usual "installing, 45 min remaining" progress bar that the App Store usually showed.

Then I went into /Applications folder and manually deleted the Xcode app and then emptied the trash. In Finder, I had the "details" view set up, so I could see date modified, size etc. For the size field for the Xcode icon/entry, it actually had a progress bar that was about 5% filled for some reason. I wasn't sure what this meant, but I deleted Xcode anyone. I only realized after deleting Xcode that this icon was not my previous Xcode version 6, but it was the App Store actually trying to install Xcode 7. I was confused because, as I noted above, when I clicked the update button in App Store, it didn't show the progress bar, it just momentarily greyed and ungreyed.

However, I then restarted my computer, and now when I go to App Store, the Xcode update doesn't appear in my Updates "panel" at all. I searched for Xcode in the App Store, and there's a button that says "install". I click it and nothing happens. I also tried searching for Xcode on google, and the page simply tells me to go to App Store. I guess my other options are to install the Xcode 7.1 beta, or re-install a previous version, say Xcode 6 from an installation file, but I would prefer to install the current stable version (although from App Store reviews it seems like the current Xcode is none too popular).

Anyone know how I can do this now? It seems like the app store process for installing Xcode 7 is majorly majorly screwed up, at least for my particular machine.

Okay, solved: I just clicked the "Purchased" tab in my App Store, and it looks like it was installing the entire time.

This was extremely confusing, because for some reason there was absolutely no indication in the Updates tab that Xcode was installing or downloading (as there usually is for updates), so I didn't even realize that it was installing. There was also no indication in the "App Search" Panel where I got the page for Xcode with the install button on it, i.e. when I clicked the button, the only thing that happened was the button changed to "installing", and there was no progress bars or statuses anywhere in sight, so I wasn't sure if it was actually installing or just hanging.

I just realized, since I DELETED the entire Xcode the very first time, when I'm installing Xcode it doesn't count as an Update, so that's why it does not appear in the Updates tab. I guess when I searched for Xcode in the App store, and clicked Install, it was installing in the Purchased tab.


iOS 7: How to turn off camera's burst mode? In the stock camera app, iOS 7 has added a new burst mode feature that takes multiple photos in succession for as long as the shutter is pressed. Is there any way I can turn this feature off and have the app behave like the old one?

According to this article, there is no way to turn off burst mode.

  This can be quite handy for catching just the right shot. However, for those of you that had learned to stabilize your camera by holding down the shutter button instead of tapping it, this can result in a lot of unexpected pictures. This feature appears to be enabled full-time whether you want it or not, so we'll all need to simply learn to adapt. Or delete. A lot.

Here are a couple of alternatives:

Tap the shutter button instead of pressing it for long
Use third party camera apps


How to open new Finder tab without showing parent directory structure on the left? After upgrading from macOS High Sierra to Mojave, I can’t open a new window or tab in a specific folder without showing all the directories from root downwards. I hoped that it would change after upgrading to Catalina but it didn’t happen.  I am using column view.

What can be done to make it show only the folder's contents from the beginning, not the previous folders?

How I would like to see it:
 It opens the folder "my tickets" straightaway. I don't have to see the previous folder structure.

What currently happens: When I get to folder "my tickets" and right click it to open in new tab, it opens all the directory structure again. There's no point in opening it in new window.

Overview

What you may require is to 'root' the folder that you need into the sidebar.

Is it as simple as dragging the folder that you want into the sidebar? If not I may have misunderstood your question.

There is probably a way to default this behaviour by using default write com.apple.finder.plist <somevariable> -bool true (or similar) but I would not be able to tell you the particular variable without spending a deal of time on it. Apple prefer you to use the GUI in a lot of cases, but editing the plist files generally grant you more granular control over the system.


'True' Thunderbolt to DisplayPort or DVI cable? Is there a native Thunderbolt to DisplayPort or DVI cable?

I understand that Thunderbolt is downwards-compatible to Mini DisplayPort, however I'm looking for an adapter cable using the Thunderbolt port in a native fashion;

Background: I want to run two displays off a Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock 2, however it doesn't allow the Thunderbolt port to run in Display Port mode and using the HDMI port at the same time..

So I'm looking into some kind of adapter from (native) Thunderbolt to a non-Thunderbolt display without using the Mini DisplayPort compatibility mode..

Any hints much appreciated!!

I took a look at Belkin's website on this particular product and they clearly state that it "Supports dual displays & 4K cinema resolution."

Now, there is no "Thunderbolt" to DVI/HDMI because Thunderbolt is an extension of PCIe.  So, in a very basic sense, this would be like trying to plug your monitor in directly to the logic board and not go through the video adapter; it cannot happen.

However, Thunderbolt "multiplexes" the DisplayPort signal on that single cable.  You are going to get both.  Now, if you use a a Thunderbolt compatible cable, you can daisy chain additional TB devices off your monitor, albeit at a reduced data transfer rate.  This is why monitors are the last in the chain.  If you use a non-TB cable, you will only get display and no TB signal.

EDIT:

It was really bugging me that this didn't work because I was close to reccomending this product for a friend and I wanted to do my due diligence.  I found this on their support site:

So, basically, in order for you to get dual displays, you need a native Thunderbolt Display like these.

If you do go that route, remember you will need a Thunderbolt/Thunderbolt 2 cable


Can I track my stolen iPhone 5 if the SIM is removed and the thief tries to hook it up to iTunes to restore it? Can I track my iPhone 5 if the thief removed the sim card but tries to use iTunes to factory reset it? Could I track it if does not have a network connection without the sim?

If you had it set up with Find My Device via iCloud, you can log into iCloud.com and find it, erase it, and even see the last place it had network access at.


Is there a way to get OSX Finder to search through .ts (textscript) files? I really like using OSX's finder to quickly find a particular file and its content based on search, I need to work on in my web projects. We often have 100s upon 100s of separate files and I need to quickly find files quickly.

OSX's Finder works on .html and .scss files wonderfully on my system. However, it doesn't seem to want to search inside of .ts files. Is there a way to enable this in OSX?

Unfortunately Quicklook and Spotlight need to know how to look into a ".ts" file. Sounds like they are (essentiually...) a text file but you need a way to tell macOS that.

Over on Stack Exchange there was an answer to a similar question that might be of help to you. It does involve a project on GitHub and may involve some programming skills on your part to make it work with ".ts" files, but it seems like a start, at least...


Safari Switch to Last Active Tab OS: Sierra

Safari: 10.0.3

It looks like the functionality to switch to the last active tab is not supported natively. Are there any extensions that can be used for this purpose? Furthermore, is there an extension that would give me a tab manager?

Note that I am unable to switch to a tab through the keyboard using the "Show all tabs" natively. The only solution that I found is through the use of Shortcat app.

I had to switch to using Opera for the time being for its awesome tab manager. With the addition of Vimium I can completely rely on the keyboard for all navigation (only partially supported with Safari through Vimari).

My only issue with Opera is that it isn't integrated with the default autocorrect/spellcheck engine, making life difficult for me.

Any suggestions for a tab manager/last active tab switch in Safari and/or a way to integrate Opera with the autocorrect engine is welcome (the latter, I think is dependent on this Chromium issue).

Have you checked out Recent Tab List? It's a Safari extension that allows you to manage open tabs and recently closed tabs in Safari.

You can reopen closed tabs quickly, as well as switch to open tabs. It also provides search functionality, so you can search for a tab. This is particularly useful if you have many tabs open across multiple windows.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with this extension.


Why my RAM runs at 800 MHz in 4 slots of my mac pro instead of 1066? I've got a Mac Pro 4,1.

I had two KVR1066D3Q8R7S/8G planks in it and it ran on 1066 Mhz.

Now I've bought two planks of KVR1066D3Q8R7S/8GI (the same with "I" at the end - stands for intel certification). I've got 32 Gbs, but the system says they run at 800Mhz.

Why? Is there a way to fix it? Is it because I use four slots instead of a triple setup? Will 3x8Gbs perfom better than 4x8 or is it better to have more RAM?

UPD1:
If I use either three of the sticks, they all run on 1066, when i insert the fourth one, everything drops to 800 Mhz.

UPD2:
That's what I have found here:

  Single-processor
  computers have four
  memory slots. Depending
  on the model, you can
  install 1 GB, 2 GB DIMMs,
  or 4 GB DIMMs.
  The processor’s memory
  controller has three
  memory channels. DIMM
  slots 1 and 2 have their
  own channels; slots 3 and
  4 share a channel.
  For optimal memory
  bandwidth, all three
  memory channels should
  be used, and memory
  should be balanced across
  the three channels.

  Note: Populating slot 4
  slightly drops maximum
  memory bandwidth,
  but depending on the
  applications used, overall
  system performance may
  benefit from the larger
  amount of memory.

But it is still confusing. I thought the bandwidth that is being described is overall bandwidth not like all chips are dropping to 800 Mhz...

I believe this issue is caused by the fact that the Nehalem based Xeon processor you have is one of the "Triple Channel" variants, meaning that when you install the fourth stick of RAM you are forcing the memory into the non-channel diversified mode, similar to using 3 sticks of memory in a dual channel system.

This is supported by the fact that you're experiencing the issue only on the 4th stick as well as a fairly large amount of of the supporting documentation surrounding the MacPro and the processor itself.


Boot Camp 5 drivers will not install in Windows 8 I have a Macbook Pro Early 2011 and I had Windows 7 installed on it through boot camp.I recently upgraded to windows 8 by using an upgrade CD. When I upgraded I had Boot Camp 2.3 installed and that was not working with windows 8. So I downloaded Boot Camp 5 Drivers and tried to install them but every time the installation fails because it says that it requires windows 7. Is there some way to work around this? Or do I need to go back to windows 7 then install the drivers then go to 8?

According to Apple BootCamp 5 page, you must install the BC 5 drivers before upgrading to Win 8. I think you have to go back to Win 7 and install the drivers then upgrade to Win 8.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5628


My iPhone show delivered for hours for a message, then shows read but read from hours before I sent a message to a contact at 2:46 PM, and for hours it showed delivered. When I checked the message at 9 PM it shows it was read at 2:46 PM.

I tried searching for the answer on Google with no luck. Did the person turn their read receipts off then back on? Does anyone know why that would happen?

A common cause for this is simply that the contact received the message, but didn't have enough signal (cell or WiFi connectivity, or phone in flight mode, or similar) to be able to send the read-receipt back.

The read-receipt then comes through much later when the phone regains its connection with Apple's servers.


What's the problem with this Karabiner complex modification? I added the following rule to .config/karabiner/karabiner.json by importing a similar rule and changing the previous key code to "option". But the rule has no effect. Is there a problem with this rule?

"complex_modifications": {
    "parameters": {
        "basic.simultaneous_threshold_milliseconds": 50,
        "basic.to_delayed_action_delay_milliseconds": 500,
        "basic.to_if_alone_timeout_milliseconds": 1000,
        "basic.to_if_held_down_threshold_milliseconds": 500,
        "mouse_motion_to_scroll.speed": 100
    },
    "rules": [
        {
            "description": "Simultaneously press Option + Del to get a ForwardDel",
            "manipulators": [
                {
                    "from": {
                        "simultaneous": [
                            {
                                "key_code": "option"
                            },
                            {
                                "key_code": "delete_or_backspace"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    "to": [
                        {
                            "key_code": "delete_forward"
                        }
                    ],
                    "type": "basic"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
},
[...]

The rule is supposed to delete "c" in "ab|cd" if "|" is the cursor and upon pressing [Option] + [Backspace].

I used a simple rule for turning [Caps Lock] into [Option]. This rule works.

Also - is there a simpler method for reloading a changed karabiner.json than closing Karabiner-Elements and starting again?

option should be defined as a modifier key. simultaneous is used for non-modifier keys. Besides, you'd better separate your mappings into a file from .config/karabiner/karabiner.json,

~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/delete-forward.json

{
  "title": "Delete Forward",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Simultaneously press Option + Del to get a ForwardDel",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "key_code": "delete_or_backspace",
            "modifiers": {
              "mandatory":[
                "option"
              ]
            }
          },
          "to": [
            {
              "key_code": "delete_forward"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Go to Karabiner-Elements Preferences -> Complex Modifications -> Rules, Click "Add rule". Then you'll see the new created rule from this separate file.


Are there personal finance applications offering both an iPhone and a mac version? With the demise of Cha-ching, I find myself in need of an application for managing my expenses which I can use on both platforms.
It should work in Europe, and maybe have a decent UI.


wget gives error "dyld: Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libnettle.4.dylib" When I try to use wget, I am getting this error message:

$: wget
dyld: Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libnettle.4.dylib
  Referenced from: /opt/local/bin/wget
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

I have reinstalled wget using homebrew (brew reinstall wget), I updated and upgraded my homebrew, however this hasn't helped.

In my /opt/local/lib/ folder I cannot find libnettle.4.dylib, however I do find /opt/local/lib/libnettle.6.dylib. I tried to solve the problem by simply symlinking from /opt/local/lib/libnettle.6.dylib to /opt/local/lib/libnettle.4.dylib. This didn't help either, but got me a new error message:

$ wget
dyld: Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libhogweed.2.dylib
  Referenced from: /opt/local/lib/libgnutls.28.dylib
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

When I run brew info wget, I get this output:

wget: stable 1.17.1 (bottled), HEAD
Internet file retriever
https://www.gnu.org/software/wget/
/usr/local/Cellar/wget/1.17.1 (9 files, 1.6M) *
  Built from source with: --with-debug
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/wget.rb
==> Dependencies
Build: xz ✔, pkg-config ✔
Recommended: openssl ✔
Optional: libressl ✔, pcre ✔, libmetalink ✔, gpgme ✔
==> Options
...

How can I fix this?

I think you have both MacPorts and Homebrew installed. MacPorts installs by default in /opt/local, whereas Homebrew installs in /usr/local. Since the command you are actually running is /opt/local/bin/wget, you probably have /opt/local/bin before /usr/local/bin in your PATH environment. Check it with:

$ echo $PATH

In such a case, any software installed with Homebrew is not used at all, if not called with its absolute path. So, try launching Homebrew's wget with its absolute path:

$ /usr/local/bin/wget

If it is working in this way, put /usr/local/bin as first folder in your PATH environment, by modifying ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile file.


How can I get started with FaceTime on a Macbook Pro? I just bought a Retina Macbook pro about a week ago and I have been trying to use facetime.  When I go to select a contact, it dials them but stays in the connection position.  It just doesn't seem to make the facetime call.

I checked system preferences and I have noticed that Facetime isn't listed.  Shouldn't it be listed there since this is brand new?  How do i get it on my system preferences?  Do I need to turn it on?   I do have an Ipad that I do use and it works just fine.  I've even tried going to iCloud on the Mac and I don't see Facetime there either.

Is there a way to get this up and running?

FaceTime is stored in /Applications/Facetime.app and all the settings and preferences you need are available from within the application's preferences and help menu.

Here is a nice troubleshooting article that might help.

http://www.apple.com/support/mac/facetime/

Also, since you have a new mac, you should have 90 days of paid support to get you up and running. That support is really helpful for getting oriented since it's hard to expect a new user to know where to look for details on new hardware and potentially new software.


External display : why 59Hz instead of 60Hz on Macbook Pro 15" mid-2012 @ 2560 x 1440 via DisplayPort I connected an LG 27UD88-W to my 2012 15" Macbook Pro via DisplayPort.
However, it does not seem to connect at the expected 60Hz for the 2560x1440 resolution, but instead it shows 59Hz.

One could argue "oh well, you won't notice that 1Hz" but that is not the point.
I like to understand things.

Does anyone have an explanation for this?

You can pretty much always attribute this one to a rounding error in the way the information is displayed to you. The actual refresh rate is somewhere very near 59.97Hz, leading whatever function they've run the number through for parsing to only display the whole number digits, and not perform any actual rounding.

This does lead to some interesting effects though. Some applications will do this and end up with a V-Sync rate that's not actually synced (They fake it and do framerate lock instead, leading to 59fps when you actually need 59.97fps exactly.)


How to script number pad key We use an auto login script using ARD to avoid visiting each station in our lab. Mountain Lion no longer works so that a cursor appears at the login screen. I've tried numerous scripts to activate the cursor to no avail. Pressing 5 on they numerical pad will do it as will a generic mouse down action. To avoid having to do this at each computer, how can I script one of these actions in an osascript?
thank you in advance.

Try using the key code command:

osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to key code 87'

See Events.h for the key codes. Here are the key codes for all numpad keys:

65 KeypadDecimal
67 KeypadMultiply
69 KeypadPlus
71 KeypadClear
75 KeypadDivide
76 KeypadEnter
78 KeypadMinus
81 KeypadEquals
82 Keypad0
83 Keypad1
84 Keypad2
85 Keypad3
86 Keypad4
87 Keypad5
88 Keypad6
89 Keypad7
91 Keypad8
92 Keypad9


Outlook Mac 2011 regularly crashing I installed Outlook 2011 and imported a pst file form my old Outlook program. Outlook continues to crash and gives me the following error. It also gives me double "sent" messages for every one I send out, and won't send/receive automatically even though I have that feature on.

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2013-09-24 14:05:44 +0000
Application Name: Microsoft Outlook
Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.Outlook
Application Signature: OPIM
Application Version: 14.3.7.130812
Crashed Module Name: libsystem_c.dylib
Crashed Module Version: unknown
Crashed Module Offset: 0x0003cdb3
Blame Module Name: OutlookCore
Blame Module Version: 14.3.7.130812
Blame Module Offset: 0x000541ea
Application LCID: 1033
Extra app info: Reg=en Loc=0x0409
Crashed thread: 8

Rebuild the Outlook for Mac 2011 database to resolve problems as recomended by Microsoft

Usually the maker (Microsoft) recommends the first thing to do is to REBUILD the database

That is a multiple step procedure and lengthy process so be ready for some work.

How to rebuild your identity database

Step 1: Quit all applications
You must quit all applications before you continue with the following steps. To quit an application, click the  menu on the toolbar (top), and then select Quit. If you cannot quit an application or do not know how, hold down the Command and Option keys, and then press Esc on your keyboard. Select the application in the Force Quit Application window, and then select Force Quit. Click Force Quit to quit the application.

Note You cannot quit Finder.

When you are finished, click the red close button in the upper-left corner to close the window.

Fore Quit Applications window

Step 2: Determine the amount of space available on the hard disk
Before you perform any database maintenance, make sure that you have at least three times as much hard disk space available as the current size of your Outlook identity. For example, if the identity is 1 gigabyte (GB), there should be at least 3 GB of free space available on the hard disk (not including the space that is needed for virtual memory).

To determine the size of your identity, follow these steps:

n the Finder, click Go, and then click Home. Open the Documents folder.
Open the Microsoft User Data folder.
Open the Office 2011 Identities folder.
Click the Identity folder.
On the File menu, click Get Info, and then click Get Information. Note the size of the database.

When you create an Outlook identity, hard disk space is allocated for the data that the identity receives as you work. When you add and delete messages, appointments, tasks, and notes, the database can develop wasted space.

Step 3: Discover and back up the current identity
To back up your identity, follow these steps:

In the Finder, click Go, and then click Home. Open the Documents folder.
Open the Microsoft User Data folder.
Control-click or right-click the Office 2011 identities folder, and then select Duplicate. A copy of the folder is created.
Quit all applications.

You have created a backup of your identity (or identities) and are ready to continue.

Note This backup can be used by third-party database recovery software, which generally work better on non-rebuilt identities.

Step 4: Rebuild the database

Quit all applications.
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard, and then start Outlook 2011.

Note You can also browse to the Database Utility by opening the Application folder and then opening the Microsoft Office 2011 folder. Open the Office folder, and then double-click Microsoft Database Utility.app.
In the Database Utility window, select the database that you want to maintain, and then click Rebuild.
The Rebuilding Main Identify window will open and show the progress. When the operation is completed, you will receive the message "Your database was rebuilt successfully."
Click Done.

Select an identity

Start Outlook and see whether the problem is resolved. If the problem is not resolved, go to the next step.

Step 5: Create a new identity
If you are using Outlook in more than one capacity, such as at home and at work, Outlook may be configured to have multiple identities. Each identity stores separate sets of e-mail, address books, tasks, calendars, account settings, and more.

If Outlook has multiple identities, one of the identities might be damaged. Try to use a different identity to determine whether this is the problem. If an identity is damaged, you must create a new identity to resolve this problem.

To create a new identity, follow these steps:

Quit all applications.
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard, and then click the Outlook icon in the dock. The Microsoft Database Utility will open.

Note You can also access the Microsoft Database Utility by opening the Application folder and then opening the Microsoft Office 2011 folder. Open the Office folder, and then double-click Microsoft Database Utility.app.
Click the plus [+] sign to add a new identity, and then type a name for the new identity. For example, type New identity.

Create a new identity
Set the newly create identity as the default. To do this, select the newly created identity, click the Action button, and then select Set as Default.

Set an identity as the default

Quit the Microsoft Database Utility, and then restart Outlook and see whether the problem is resolved.

If the previous steps did not resolve the issue, the Outlook database most likely is damaged beyond repair. If there are no viable backups available and there are no other sources of the data (such as another computer or a handheld device), you will have to start from scratch because the data is not recoverable. To start from scratch, you have to drag the Office 2011 Identity folder (only if there are no other identities) to the Trash, and then restart Outlook.


Activity Monitor suddenly showing all cores in Dock icon After upgrading my MBP from Mavericks to Yosemite, the "CPU History" option of the Activity Monitor only showed one aggregate graph.

After reinstalling Yosemite from scratch, I suddenly have 8 tiny graphs, one for each core, which I find too tiny to be useful. Is there any way to switch the Dock icon of Activity Monitor back to the single graph?

I saw this on a fresh install on 10.10.4. To fix it, close Activity Monitor and then:

defaults write com.apple.activitymonitor IconType -int 4


Installing Python 3.5.6.1: python contains a recursive dependency on itself: I am trying to install Python 3.5.6.1 with:

$ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/f2a764ef944b1080be64bd88dca9a1d80130c558/Formula/python.rb
$ brew switch python 3.6.5_1

But this gives the following error:

==> Consider using `brew extract python ...`!
This will extract your desired python version to a stable tap instead of
installing from an unstable URL!

######################################################################## 100.0%
Error: python contains a recursive dependency on itself:
  python depends on sphinx-doc
  sphinx-doc depends on python

How can I install it ?

You can download any python version directly from the python website and install it manually. As you're trying to use a specific version, I'm guessing that you're not planning on upgrading it later. That way you can keep both versions if you want.


Is there a config option to maximize widows that are minimized when you select them via cmd+tab Is there a config option so maximize widows that are minimized when you select them via cmd+tab?
I understand why this might be not possible, since technically the selection involves the app, not the window. And you might have multiple windows in various states of maximized/minimized. And you don't necessarily want to maximize all minimized windows...
BUT, that said, I often just have one minimized window of an app open, and it would be very useful for it to maximize itself when I select the app with cmd+tab.
Thoughts?

I am not certain that this addresses the problem but still: after you ⌘+⇥ to desired application then without releasing ⌘ press ↓ (down arrow) or ↑ (up arrow). This will display all windows of this application. Those which are minimized are displayed in smaller size. You can navigate to desired window using arrow keys and then press ⏎ to bring it up.


Can't create new notebook in Microsoft OneNote for Mac When I try to create a new notebook in OneNote for Mac, I receive the following error:

  Cannot Create This Notebook

  The location may not be available at
  this time, or you might not have permission to save files on it. Also
  try using fewer characters in your notebook name.

Simple solution just found it:

Go to onenote.com and log in.
Make a new notebook from the webpage.
Then wait a minute or two.
Then quit OneNote.
Then re-open it and try it again. Should work.

Seems to be a problem with university-sponsored 365 accounts.


SU* keys in plist files I've noticed that most applications that I use have common keys in their plist files that start with SU. Examples are:

SUHasLaunchedBefore
SULastCheckTime
SUScheduledCheckInterval

What does SU stand for? What do these keys mean? How do their values affect my preferences?

Sparkle

These keys are used by the open source Sparkle framework.

  Sparkle is an easy-to-use software update framework for macOS applications. It delivers updates using appcasting, a term used to refer to the practice of using RSS to distribute update information and release notes.

SU stands for Software Update. The project publishes documentation for currently supported property list (plist) keys.


How to automatically copy new photos from an iPhone to a Windows PC when plugged in? I prefer backing up and syncing my photos locally vs using iCloud and as such I have been trying to automate the process of locally syncing newly taken photos on an iPhone to my PC but have not been able to find any obvious solutions. One of the additional challenges is i'm looking for a solution that would work for sometimes alternating imports of two (or more) different iPhones.

Preferred Solution Should:

Automatically copy any new photos (and video) from the Camera Roll to a pre-configured folder after the phone is plugged in
Keep the original filenames as they are on the phone
Keep photos from different phones separate (ideally just sync them to a different folder)
I'm looking to sync from iPhone -> PC only as i can already sync edited photos and albums from PC -> iPhone via iTunes
Use native/free/scripted functionality

I can live with:

Having a couple of mouse clicks to start or approve the transfer
Doing the transfer over WiFi instead
Don't mind if the folder structure from the phone is replicated or the photos are copied flat

Currently i manually do a copy via Windows Explorer and just tell windows to not copy any existing files but this is not very efficient and i have to remember to do it every time i plug the phone in.

Closest solution i have found that doesn't quite work for multiple devices is to use the Import functionality in Windows Photo App. This is also the listed method for importing pictures on the Apple Support Page

A non free solution i think may work is to use something like MTPDrive which exposes the phone as a drive  and then script a SyncToy/copy script when the drive is available.

The Windows Photos App solution will be the most efficient for you. It'll offer exactly what you requested and you can be assured that it'll not mix up photos or have duplicated copies since its intelligent enough to label these photos.

Or you can use the file explorer.
iMore has a great breakdown of the steps you should take if you want to save your photos. As well as other options.

https://www.imore.com/how-transfer-your-iphone-and-ipad-photos-windows-10#app


How can I disable Intel Turboboost and Hyper-Threading? The title pretty much sums it up but I need a way to disable Turboboost and Hyper-Threading. I am currently on macOS Catalina and I am able to edit system files because I have SIP disabled. I am ok with the solution not being permanent (meaning that it resets upon reboot). I have used https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6262465 as a reference and it didn't work for me. Most of these solutions on the internet have stopped working after OS X Yosemite.

Please only answer this question if you will be providing a solution, not telling me to leave hyper-threading on.

By the way, this question is not a duplicate because most other question only ask how to do it on OS X Yosemite and below when Apple had tools to do this.

I found a way to do this. It does result in a 40% performance drop.

Apple has documentation that disables Hyper-Threading with the following:
Boot into macOS Recovery
In Terminal: nvram boot-args="cwae=2" and nvram SMTDisable=%01
Click  and Restart.

To revert this, reset the NVRAM.

Here is the official documentation: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210108


powerbook g4, dead screen and beeps I've a powerbook g4, it should be the "PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)" named here. It was on the table where I work to gather dust.

The screen is dead, but I clearly listen the boot up sound follower by a noise and 3 beeps. I've tried to connect the computer though the DVI port without success, the screen doesn't show anything. Is there any hope to get it working?

thanks

The three beeps is an indication that for some reason it's not been able to successfully pass the RAM check part of the POST, or a bit more seriously that the logic board is dead. First step is to open it up, pull the RAM and boot it, if it makes one beep then it's the RAM so reseat it and see if it works. If it makes three beeps again, then it's a new logic board.


HomeSync / Mobile - Settings & keychain missing I've recently rolled out an Open Directory domain in our office. The domain has been set up so user profiles are synced with the server via HomeSync, so we could use FileVault2 to encrypt the machines.

I recently got a new workstation and connected it to our domain. Upon logging in using my network account, I found that none of my settings or keychain were there. Thinking the settings sync might be a feature of HomeSync, I imported our workgroup profile which has HomeSync enabled on it. When logging back into the machine, HomeSync did it's thing and copied my user profile to the local machine but it wasn't until I logged in that I realised that my settings and my keychain STILL hadn't copied over.

Is there something I need to do to ensure that settings centralised for each user?

Server and clients are running 10.8

Despite the ~/Library folder being in the configuration, it still wasn't being backed up. I deleted the profile, recreated it and everything appears to be working. I'm moving away from HomeSync anyway, as it doesn't listen to exclusions properly and seems to make it's own mind up a lot of the time.


In Messages 7.0.1 on the Mac, is it possible to delete specific messages in a chat session? I'd like to delete specific messages from a conversation in Messages 7.0.1 – is this possible? The messages in question originated from iPhones where you can tap "Edit" and select individual messages for deletion, which I've done, but I can't find a way to delete them from Messages on my Mac (where they appear because I have iCloud syncing turned on form Messages).

I found out how to do it: single click on the message/picture you want to delete so that it is highlighted. Then, right-click and you will be given the option to "Forward...", "Copy", or "Delete..." the message. Click "Delete...".

Note: Doing so will ONLY delete that message from Messages on your Mac. If you want to delete the same message on any particular iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), you have to delete it on each device individually.


How to remove files from a sparsebundle file (previous Time Machine image)? I have a sparsebundle file that I pulled off of an old Time Machine backup disk. I'd like to save the file if possible, but remove the media files from it (movies, music, etc.) because those are elsewhere.

However, I cannot seem to figure out how to get it to be mounted RW and/or how modify the image in any way.

bash-3.2$ hdiutil pmap geek-imac.sparsebundle

MEDIA: ""; Size 2 TB [3902834784 x 512]; Max Transfer Blocks 2048
SCHEME: 1 GPT, "GPT Partition Scheme" [16]
SECTION: 1 Type:'MAP'; Size 2 TB [3902834784 x 512]; Offset 34 Blocks (3902834717 + 67) x 512
ID Type                 Offset       Size         Name                      (2)
-- -------------------- ------------ ------------ -------------------- --------
 1 EFI                            40       409600 EFI System Partition
 2 Apple_HFS                  409640   3902162960 disk image
   Free                   3902572600       262151

I can mount it

bash-3.2$ hdiutil attach  -readwrite geek-imac.sparsebundle -shadow
/dev/disk3              GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1            EFI
/dev/disk3s2            Apple_HFS                       /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

Everything seems ok

bash-3.2$ hdiutil info
framework       : 480.60.2
driver          : 10.13v480.60.2
================================================
image-path      : /Volumes/Media-External/Old Time Machine Backups/geek-imac.sparsebundle
image-alias     : /Volumes/Media-External/Old Time Machine Backups/geek-imac.sparsebundle
shadow-path     : /Volumes/Media-External/Old Time Machine Backups/geek-imac.sparsebundle.shadow
shadow-alias    : /Volumes/Media-External/Old Time Machine Backups/geek-imac.sparsebundle.shadow
icon-path       : /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework/Resources/CDiskImage.icns
image-type      : sparse bundle disk image (shadowed)
system-image    : false
blockcount      : 3902834784
blocksize       : 512
writeable       : TRUE
autodiskmount   : TRUE
removable       : TRUE
image-encrypted : false
mounting user   : geek
mounting mode   : <unknown>
process ID      : 15146
/dev/disk3      GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1    C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
/dev/disk3s2    48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC    /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

bash-3.2$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 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)
/dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/Media-External (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
/dev/disk3s2 on /Volumes/Time Machine Backups (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners, mounted by geek)

But I cannot remove files

bash-3.2$ rm -f /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb/geek-imac/Latest/Macintosh\ HD/Users/geek/Movies/movie.m4v
rm: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/geek-imac/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/geek/Movies/movie.m4v: Permission denied
bash-3.2$ sudo rm -f /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups/Backups.backupdb/geek-imac/Latest/Macintosh\ HD/Users/geek/Movies/movie.m4v
Password:
rm: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/geek-imac/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/geek/Movies/movie.m4v: Operation not permitted

How can I remove files from this sparsebundle image and/or convert (or even copy) this to a sparsebundle that supports modification?

So the comment @GordonDavisson gave above got me thinking about permissions and with a little extra searching I ended up finding this answer to  How can I delete Time Machine files using the commandline

I ended up doing the following

% du -sh geek-imac.sparsebundle
711G    geek-imac.sparsebundle

% hdiutil attach geek-imac.sparsebundle
/dev/disk3              GUID_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1            EFI
/dev/disk3s2            Apple_HFS                       /Volumes/Time Machine Backups

% cd <to appropriate folder>

% sudo /System/Library/Extensions/TMSafetyNet.kext/Contents/Helpers/bypass rm -rf *.m4v

%  hdiutil detach disk3
"disk3" unmounted.
"disk3" ejected.

% hdiutil compact geek-imac.sparsebundle
Starting to compact…
Reclaiming free space…
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Finishing compaction…
Reclaimed 172.2 GB out of 1.3 TB possible.

% du -sh geek-imac.sparsebundle
539G    geek-imac.sparsebundle

I had not heard of bypass before, but will keep it in my toolbox for future work.


Logging out and in resets modifier keys to defaults Open Keyboard Preferences
Set modifier keys (I like to reverse option and command)
Log out
Log in
Modifier keys have been reset to defaults

I just upgraded from 10.7.5 to 10.8.2, might be related.

Every time I open Keyboard Preferences, I see the following in my console:

  System Preferences[570]: [BluetoothHIDDevice][initWithHIDDevice] Unable to get Object ID from IORegistry

.. so that might be related.

Uninstalled Intellitype
Restarted in safe mode (hold shift)
Use Disk Utility to Repair Permissions
Restart

Seems to have fixed the problem.  Perhaps some config file wasn't writable?  Who knows ..


Where is subpixel rendering handled? I recently learned about subpixel rendering, and was fascinated by how it works. On my mac, I can turn it on and off in system prefs - general - LCD font smoothing, which implies to me that it is handled by the OS, not by individual applications. My first question is, is this assumption correct? How is subpixel rendering handled? On my friend's computer with a retina display, the LCD font smoothing did not seem to add colors to text like on mine. Do retina displays handle it differently?

Since I was curious about the process, I tried turning it off and back on again. I noticed that some applications took a while to accept the changes, but restarting usually applied them. However! I've turned LCD font smoothing back on, and it works everywhere except this website. This is true in Chrome and Safari. What's the deal with that? Did I mess something up, or does the website somehow prevent subpixel rendering? How and why?

For those of you who are still curious, I ran across this site, explaining how to turn subpixel rendering on and off for a webpage. Make sure to check out the demo page. I still don't know how it's handled at the OS level, but I'm guessing that to get any farther I'd have to actually learn about how fonts are rendered, and I don't think I'm prepared to do that. It also looks like there is a debate in the community over whether subpixel antialiasing is better than pixel antialiasing. Here is the case for subpixel rendering.


How to get the color burst wallpaper frames In the Apple commercial, it shows the color burst wallpaper having different frames. Is there a way to achieve this effect on a Mac (MacBook Air) without a Touch Bar? Can I get the other frames downloaded?

The pictures in that advertisement do not come preinstalled on the MacBook Pro with (or without) the Touch Bar and do not seem to be provided by Apple separately. It appears that those images were used solely for advertising purposes and are not available. There are three similar "color burst" images with combined colors (See pictures).

Note: The photo quality have been degraded by 70% to allow for them to be uploaded.

If you would like to get the Photos you can make a feature request at https://www.apple.com/feedback/.


What is the keystroke code for space bar in applescript? I am trying to create a applescript which utilises the keystroke spacebar I have this code

tell application "System Events"
    keystroke {Space}
end tell

But When I play the script "space" just doesn't work. I don't receive an error message or anything
(the whole code opens a recording software within the script that when spacebar is pressed recording stars but the script doesn't start the recording.)

Make Applescript press LShift

This post shows how to hold a modifier key left shift and send it to system events, but is the syntax above correct to press the space bar?

Your sample code works properly on my machine (running OS X 10.11.6).

If keystroke space does not work on your machine, try the following:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 49 -- space bar
end tell

Here is a list of key codes for your reference:

Source:

Complete list of AppleScript key codes


How can I stop 'bin' items from appearing when searching Mail.app? Whenever I search for a particular message, the results throw up tens of seemingly related messages/part messages from what appears to be the "bin" folder.

What exactly is the bin folder (junk, spam...)?
How can I stop these messages from appearing in my searches (or anywhere else for that  matter)

Per http://productforums.google.com/d/msg/gmail/ZHgilTVP7ts/bpIWgcLAzrUJ

  The Bin holds deleted messages, so it should not normally contain all of your received and sent mail. If it does, there is a problem. Apple Mail does not handle drafts on the server well, and leaves the fragments behind. To avoid that, change the setting in Apple Mail to save drafts locally, not on the Gmail server.


Upgrading macbook pro to mavericks - performance question My MacBook Pro:
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz, Mid 2009)
Memory: 8 GB
Currently run Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and also in a partition I have 10.8.x installed.
The most of my work is being done in 10.6.8, which I feel, it performs faster overall.I feel 10.8 to be a bit heavier in a bunch of operations..., so I haven't make the full switch to it.
But time has come and I started considering to fully migrate my working environment to a newer OS X version.
The question is, will Mavericks operate faster than Mountain Lion on my MacBook ? Will my hardware be able to run 10.9 efficiently ?

The question is, will Mavericks operate faster than Mountain Lion on my MacBook ? Will my hardware be able to run 10.9 efficiently ?

Yes. Mavericks has the same system requirements as Mountain Lion, but offers huge gains in energy efficiency, memory management, graphics performance, etc. And it's free!

If you're already in the process of moving over to Mountain Lion, I can't think of any reason not to jump directly to Mavericks instead.


Microsoft word 2011 not correcting words in OS X I am using Microsoft Word for Mac 2011.

Recently, I have noticed that the application is not highlighting my typos and spelling mistakes, neither autocorrecting it.

I have checked some online helps but nothing is helping at all.

Anyone using Word on Mac facing the same issue?
Any resolution?

OS: Yosemite
Office 2011

The solution to my question is here:

Go to Tools > Language... > Select your preferred language. For me it was English(US)


Fix a DIY Fusion Drive A few weeks ago, I took out my early 2011 13-inch MBP's optical drive, put my 500GB HDD in the optical drive area, put a 120GB SSD where the HDD used to live, and made a DIY Fusion Drive according to the instructions at Macworld's website. I got amazing results at the time (a formerly-1:21 boot time became 0:18!), but a few weeks later, I tend to get rather un-Fusion Drive-like speeds. I've seen Fusion Drives duplicate a 4GB file in 21 seconds (source), but a test run I did just now took 1:31. What can I do to restore my Fusion Drive to its youthful glory once again?

What make SSD?

Samsungs may need a firmware update & performance restoration to prevent slowdown [scary, done in DOS, using very inadequate instructions from Samsung, I've not yet braved it]...

...or you could try TRIM Enabler which may go part way towards speeding it up again.


iOS 11 default quotation mark changed to ‘ ’ and “ ” Before iOS 11, the default quotation marks were the ASCII ' and ", but now they are changed to ‘’ and “” (curly quotation marks). I have to long press the quotation mark key on the soft keyboard to type the normal ones and have no way to type them on a Smart Cover.

I’m a programmer and I have to use ' and ", is there any way to change them back?

I suspect this problem is linked to my language and region settings, I’m in China and my iPad language is English by the way.

It's in Settings | General | Keyboard | Smart Punctuation.


No X button on App Store downloaded apps icons in Launchpad "jiggle mode" I can't seem to uninstall Mac App Store purchased applications.

I know that holding down the Option key or clicking and holding on the app icon to make the icons start jiggling so you can uninstall the app by clicking the “X” shown in the corner of icons only works for apps downloaded from the Mac App Store.

But I my case, not even apps downloaded from the Mac App Store show the "X" button when in jiggle mode.

Has anyone experienced the same problem ? How did you solved it ?

UPDATE:
When I delete the app from the Finder, the app's icon remains in the launcher, undeletabe, only it doesn't find the missing app.

You don't have to use Launchpad to remove applications. Just deleting the application bundle is still a supported way to remove or uninstall an application. If you also want to remove settings or cache files, delete the directory in ~/Library/Containers/. App Store applications are not allowed to install kernel extensions or preference panes, and any executables for helper processes are inside the application bundle and not in an Application Support directory.

When you remove an application from Launchpad, it is "uninstalled" by using uninstalld from Uninstall.framework, but in practice that only removes some support files (like ~/Library/Containers/*/Data/Library/Caches/) addition to the application bundle. Other support files like preferences files or sometimes even sqlite files for user data are not removed. See this question.


How does do not disturb in iOS 6 differ from the physical silent switch? In iOS 6, we now will have a Do Not Disturb feature that prevents the phone from making sound when it receives notifications.

How is this any different from using the silent switch? Or is it just that it can be scheduled, unlike silent mode?

Do Not Disturb stops all notifications from occurring (so your screen won't light up). Silent will still cause the screen to light up, vibrate if enabled etc. The notifications will still be shown in notification centre.

If you receive a call while on do not disturb the caller gets a call failure and you will be shown a missed call on the recent list as opposed to silent where it will still ring (screen change etc) and you can choose to answer.

Do not disturb will allow certain selected calls to come through (you can customise this in notifications in settings). It can also be scheduled which is what I have been using most.

There is a section on Apple's iOS 6 page but it is not great.


Set service keyboard shortcut and have change take effect programtically I have the following script to set a services shortcut:

set serviceName to "(null) - VimAnywhere - runWorkflowAsService"
set libPrefPath to POSIX path of (path to preferences folder from user domain as text)
set plistFile to "pbs.plist"
set plistPath to libPrefPath & plistFile as text
set mainPropertyItem to "NSServicesStatus"
set keyBindingKey to "key_equivalent"
set keyBinding to "^@v"

tell application "System Events"
  set gp to (get property list item serviceName of property list item mainPropertyItem of property list file plistPath)
  tell gp
    set value of property list item keyBindingKey to keyBinding
  end tell
end tell

do shell script "defaults read > /dev/null"

This sets a keyboard shortcut for a service I have defined in the appropriated property list and it even displays properly when viewing in System Preferences. The problem is, the change doesn't seem to take effect. Invoking the keyboard shortcut has no effect.

How can I set this shortcut and have it take effect immediately (completely through shell/applescript)?

The changes made by the AppleScript are applied for me after I quit and reopen applications. Same for this command:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete NSServicesStatus:"(null) - VimAnywhere - runWorkflowAsService"' ~/Library/Preferences/pbs.plist 2>/dev/null;defaults write pbs NSServicesStatus -dict-add '"(null) - VimAnywhere - runWorkflowAsService"' '{key_equivalent = "~@v";}'

I don't know any way to apply the changes without reopening applications. Running /System/Library/CoreServices/pbs -flush or terminating pbs doesn't seem to work.


Why is iTunes account showing up in system services but I don't have an account I don't have a iTunes account.

Why is iTunes account showing up using cellular data in the system services view of used data?

Go to iTunes and App Store in settings app and turn off "use cellular data".

The App Store use is bundled with iTunes use in that category.


Using AppleScript to open Mail by MessageID Using the AppleScript below I am unable to open the message ID. This same message ID is in a note in my Reminders app and clicking on the link works correctly there.
set emailID to "message://<DB43DAF1-7B87-4DE5-99DB-EC11CB0F6FF7@gmail.com>"

tell application "Mail"
    open location emailID
end tell

I get the pop-up error

The operation couldn't be completed.
(MCMailErrorDomain error 1030.)
Mail was unable to open the URL "(null)".

I've researched that error code but the answers don't seem applicable. Also, when removing the word "location" from my AppleScript, Mail will open but with a blank new email.
Any help getting this script to actually open the email with that ID would be greatly appreciated.

Mail is not smart enough to just tell it to open a document by just its message id in the manner you're trying to do it. You need to tell Mail where to look for it, as in what mailbox it's in.

The following example worked for me when MessageID was set to one in my Inbox using its proper message id however in this example I'm using the message id shown in your OP.

set MessageID to "DB43DAF1-7B87-4DE5-99DB-EC11CB0F6FF7@gmail.com"

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    open (first message of inbox whose message id = MessageID)
end tell

Note that the example code above is limited in that it doesn't gracefully trap an error, so the example code below adds a try statement  with an error statement to handle an error gracefully.

set MessageID to "DB43DAF1-7B87-4DE5-99DB-EC11CB0F6FF7@gmail.com"

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    try
        open (first message of inbox whose message id = MessageID)
    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " Number: " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1
        return
    end try
end tell


Continue managing external drive backups on a different computer I have an external drive with data on it that is shared on the local network. There's another external drive that's daisy chained where backups are stored.
The computer that was originally managing the backups with Time Machine has been replaced and the drives have been moved to another computer.

The Problem
When I select the backup drive for time machine, it attempts to duplicate all the files again since it doesn't recognize the previous backups since they were made on a different computer.
I have tried using tmutil inheritbackup and tmutil associatedisk but have been hit with a couple errors.
$ sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/BACKUP_HD/OLD_CPU
Unexpectedly found no machine directories for "/Volumes/BACKUP_HD/OLD_CPU" during collision check.
$ sudo tmutil associatedisk -a /Volumes/DATA_HD /Volumes/BACKUP_HD/OLD_CPU/Latest/DATA_HD
Not a snapshot volume.

Attempting to manage the backups on the new computer ends up trying to duplicate the data again, which is less than ideal.

A simple solution I found is to switch the new computer's name to the old one through System Preferences > Sharing .

Not quite the solution I'm looking for, but it works.


Is there a way to make pasting into Terminal safe? I paste filenames/etc into Terminal all the time, and occasionally the contents of the clipboard isn't what I expect.

Often the result is several hundred lines of text (eg, source code) pasted into the command prompt, triggering god only knows what nastiness.

Is there some way to prevent bash from blindly executing whatever I paste in? I wish it would just paste the text, and let me decide after if I wanna execute it.

Assuming you are using bash: If you activate emacs shortcuts with set -o emacs you can also use Emacs to edit the command line:

Type Ctrl-XCtrl-E at the prompt to start Emacs
Paste and edit your clipboard content into the Emacs buffer
Use Ctrl-XCtrl-C to exit Emacs and automatically run the command(s).


Toggling between chunk of input in iterm2 with "Alt + arrow left/right" writes "[D" instead jumping from chunk to chunk I just started to use iterm2 on MacOS and find that it has really nice features especially for splitting terminal screen. However, when trying to toggle between chunk of input in with "Alt + arrow left/right" (which works in standard Terminal) writes "[D" instead jumping from chunk to chunk. Do you know how I could do to successfully jump from chunk to chunk?

Go to Iterm2 Preferences Profile Keys. Click on "load Preset..." drop down-menu Natural text editing and chose "Natural Text Editing"

after that, the command "alt + arrow left/right" should function properly


Finder keeps freezing I have a late 2013 Mac Pro (running Yosemite) and have had some problems with a frozen finder recently. When I select a tif/pdf/jpg file it freezes up on me and I have to force quit it. It freezes before it is able to splay the thumbnail of the file I have selected. It sometimes also freezes safari when I click on links or download something, although its a much more frequent problem for my finder.

Any help to get around this is appreciated, its a really annoying problem!!

Edit: spotlight also now freezes but my activity monitor is suggesting all is well

Check the Task Manager to see if anything (like Finder) is hogging Memory or CPU cycles, and check the disk activity as well.


Chromecast receiver for OSX Is there a working Chromecast receiver for OSX. ie I could send audio or video from a phone or another PC to stream on there laptop?

I know there were some experiments previously, but not sure anything is working now.

Several options include:

Reflector 2
AirServer Universal

And if you feel brave and are able to compile Python, LeapCast may be an option.
Hope this helps.


Looking for an Evernote alternative with password lock I am looking for an Evernote alternative with the following requirements:

Cloud syncing
iPhone and iPad app
passcode lock (with encryption) - Yes, Evernote can encode notes, but only from the desktop client. And I would prefer 1 global lock rather than encrypting all my notes one-by-one
Evernote's rich text editor sucks and cannot be turned off, but I prefer plaintext
An OS X native app would be great (but I don't mind if it's web only for the desktop)
Nice to have: lists (like Wunderlist)
Nice to have: private sharing with friends / colleagues / family members

Have you come across such an app?

I guess SimpleNote meet your requirements.

It does sync to the cloud.
The iOS app is universal
You can lock the app with a passcode
It's plaintext only
There's no SimpleNote desktop app per se, but there's a public API and a lot of great software use it that you can find here.
And there's also a web app
There's no list, but there are tags.
You can share your notes.


Disk Utility "restore from" list does not include any volumes I want to copy a volume from an old MacBook Pro to a new one.  I mounted the old one using Target Firewire Mode.  I made a new APFS volume on the new machine.  When I tell Disk Utility that I want to restore to the new volume, the list of volumes to restore from has nothing on it.  Why?  Is it because the old volumes are HFS+ format, rather than APFS?  Will I be able to make a disk image, and then restore from that?

I tried the route of making a disk image and restoring from that.  I got an error message saying that an APFS volume can only be restored from an APFS volume.  So apparently I must find another way to copy all the data.


Hide password text on iPad I've recently bought new iPad 3 and I'm new to use an iPad. I'm trying to find a way to set password asterisks by default while currently when I type password each character is display for 2-3 seconds. How can I set password at asterisks by default?

Characters are not displayed for 2-3 seconds if you keep typing. Typing a new character immediately masks the old one.

It is not possible to hide all typed characters behind asterisks at all times.

The solution? Just keep typing :). The last character you typed is there in case you're wondering if you made a mistake. But only for a few seconds.


Is there a way to email photos from the Yosemite photos app, ideally with layout options? iPhoto allowed you to email photos from within the app, letting you choose a nice layout (like a birthday card, etc).  I can not find any email capability from within Photos; any tips on emailing from within Photos is appreciated.

Not directly, as far as I'm aware, but you could make a greetings card, then save as PDF…

Select photos to add - 13 pics appears to be the limit for the automatic layouts.
File menu > Create card
Choose flat style
Select a theme, then Landscape or portrait
Once selected, 'Options' under the card lets you choose number of photos & layout
The Options 'inspector' is context-sensitive, so depends on what you select as to which editing options you see - number of photos - colour, crop & zoom etc.

When finished, right click anywhere in the card & 'Save Card as PDF'

Attach to email.

This has the advantage that it doesn't need the HTML that would need to be embedded in the email to achieve this without PDF, so it becomes portable, outside email.

Photos will also save this layout permanently, for if you ever need it again, or until manually deleted.


Change window of an app while Drag & Drop Is it somehow possible to change the window within an application with ⌘+< (sorry, German keyboard here, I guess it's ⌘+` (?) on English keyboards) while Drag & Drop something? While it works between different applications it seems not to work within one application with multiple windows. It's especially annoying with small screens and a lot of overlapping windows.

Example 1: Mark text in browser, drag it, ⌘+TAB to terminal (mutliple windows), ⌘+< to the terminal window you want to drop the text. This works.

Example 2: Mark text in browser, drag it, try to ⌘+< to another browser window. This does not work. Same thing with drag & drop of files between two (overlapping) finder windows. It is possible to do this if you use Exposé, but that's quite slow compared to ⌘+<.

It's a really annoying thing which bugs me since years and it's still an issue with OS X 10.8.

Finally, with OS X 10.10 Yosemite, this works as expected!


MacBook 2015 (model A1534) Compatible with 2016 Retina Display (model A1534)? Here's the scenario- My friend destroys his 12" 2015 retina display macbook (model A1534) and I tell him I can replace the display for him if he buys a new display assembly. However, the display he purchased to replace the old one is a newer, 2016 rose gold edition (still model A1534, though). There are minor differences in the display cables but nothing that hinders the new display from hooking into the logicboard. However, when it is all set up the screen remains black after the start-up chime.

Is is possible that these two parts are incompatible, or must it be the case that I've done something wrong during reassembly (or the new display was Dead on arrival)? Specifically, I am looking at the MacBook 12" Retina Timing Controller (TCON) Board Flex Cable, if anything is inhibiting the computer from working it is probably a connection difference with this cable, which is still being used from the original, as the new one did not come with one.

Else, I am wholeheartedly open to suggestions/advice on how to proceed.

http://imgur.com/a/AUvD2< Pictures of the setup and differences between the models.

Just an update, I ordered a new Retina Timing Controller (TCON) Board Flex Cable and replaced the old one and the computer is back to perfect condition.  I thought this would be the case since I had a lot of trouble removing it from the original display assembly AND since after the original damage the screen was still getting power (light), but unable to display anything, however after going back and putting the original, damaged display on after the new one didn't get any power, the damaged one wasn't getting power either.


Intelligent storage system I have a Macbook with 256GB as I'm studying I have a huge amount of documents piling up, taking more and more space. Most of them I'd like to keep, still often I don't need them so often.

Is there a program that remembers how often I use a file/folder and if it's untouched for a certain amount of time it get's zipped and after some more time it'll be uploaded on the Cloud. I'd like to see then like all my files and folders but some are marked as zipped or uploaded.

Let's say you have one that is uploaded then when clicking on it it'll be downloaded without me noticing really and the process restarts again.

Apple's iCloud drive will do the first and last steps (not the intermediate zipping)

See Apples site section "Store your files in iCloud and save space on your device"

However it will cost as given here

I would also note that most docs are only megabytes if that unless you are using videos or large data sets for computing. So it might help to say what documents.


Turn Passcode Off grayed out Context

I have recently acquired a series 1 Apple Watch. When I first started setting it up, I added a passcode out of habit. Now I want to temporarily disable the passcode as I'm continuing to do a lot of setup off of my wrist and it's getting tedious having to enter the code over and over.

The Problem

The option to "Turn Passcode Off" is grayed out on both my iPhone (in the Watch app) and on the Apple Watch itself. How do I enable either button in order to disable the passcode?

Exchange mail and configuration profiles (generally installed by a workplace or school) can also enforce a passcode. To disable the passcode in this case you'll have to either remove the profile or the account.


I can’t start my computer after installing update I have an 2010 iMac running High Sierra. Recently I got a notice that there was an update to my system. I’ve installed a few and they worked fine. I installed this latest one tonight but my iMac will not restart using this new upgrade. When I try to start my computer it loads a small part of the system and then just sits there with no advancing of the slider. I have tried starting in safe mode but no luck. I tried restarting in recovery mode but my recovery disk is apparently not working.
Is there any way to start my computer? I am leaving it in the startup mode all night to see if it will eventually load but I’m not very optimistic. Is there another way to get it to startup? I thought I had a backup disk but that method doesn’t seem to work.  I am completely out of ideas and my computer is a brick.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Start from Recovery & re-install the OS.
This will lay a fresh OS over the old one without affecting anything else on the Mac.
I've had this happen several times on different Macs with High Sierra security updates.


Copy specific files and keep the subfolder structure I got a folder with a large amount of files with different suffixes in several sub folders.

My automator workflow works as follows:

Ask for Finder Items
Get Folder Contents (sub folder option checked)
Filter Finder Items (for a specific file-suffix)
Copy Finder Items

This works like a charm. But all files are copied in the same root destination folder. I need to keep the the sub folder structure. For Example:

sourceFolder
    subfolderA
        fileA.jpg
        fileB.xls
        fileC.xls
    subfolderB
        fileC.jpg
        fileD.xls
        fileE.xls

Expected result (filter for file suffix .xls):

destinationFolder
    subfolderA
        fileB.xls
        fileC.xls
    subfolderB
        fileD.xls
        fileE.xls

Current result:

destinationFolder
    fileB.xls
    fileC.xls
    fileD.xls
    fileE.xls

Update

I'm a developer. So a shell or AppleScript will be also accepted. :)

rsync -avh --include='*/' --include='*.xls' --exclude='*' path/to/sourceFolder/ path/to/destinationFolder

Note the / at the end of the source path, it's important. This solution would add all empty directories, if you don't want them, look at the option --prune-empty-dirs.

With brace expansion you can actually include more filetypes at once, rather than having

--include='*.xls' --include='*.pdf' --include='*.txt'

you can use

--include='*.'{xls,pdf,txt}


Applist upgrade available on Cydia? Can someone tell me what this is ?? Can I remove it ?

It says : Allows developers to query the list of installed apps and provide a preference pane based on that information

update This is given in the the app's info.

Applist
1.4.2
Author Ran Petrich
Allows developers to query the list of installed apps and
provide a preference pane based on that information
Exports depslayidentifier, displayname, icone and smallicon
via a remote messaging center that its easy to write a prefs pane
that presents a list of apps.

I have a feeling it has something to do with Activator, and maybe removing this will delete Activator as a whole.

I don want developers scooping around my installed apps...But  what happens if I remove it ?

edit

Haven't found anything about it yet .. Can anyone help me ?

Applist is a small code library that allows jailbreak app developers to get limited information about the apps that you have installed. Ryan Petrich is a reputable developer, and many popular jailbreak apps use this library. To name a couple, Activator and SBSettings use it. All jailbreak apps have access to everything on your device, so if you're worried about privacy, I'd suggest restoring your device to factory settings. Applist is a dependency to these apps, so if you uninstall it, it'll uninstall them, too. Applist is harmless, so just keep it.


How to permanently archive Time Machine backup? I have an external hard drive where my Time Machine backups are located. My OS is El Capitan.

I would like to permanently archive this entire TM backup and move it to another hard drive, and it would be best to archive these backups to a compressed disk image.

I have tried to archive the Backups.backupdb folder with SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner. CCC copies files to DMG but Backups.backupdb is only 161 GB in size, and CCC has supposedly copied 190 GB, which has me thinking something is wrong.

I have not yet tried to create a ZIP archive or a DMG (using Disk Utility).

How can I create a DMG to archive Backups.backupdb to another hard drive?

More info:

Thanks for help.

I tried to make DMG using Disk Utility.

After 6 hours, Disk Utility got error: Operation failed with status 2.

Creating "TM BU" dialog, "hide details" window was empty during 6 hours.

I used read/write format because i'm planning to index DMG with Spotlight after DMG is created if that's possible.

sudo mdutil -i on '/Volumes/TM BU' user name "name" password "password" with administrator privileges

Then if possible convert read/write DMG to compressed.

I would recommend using hdiutil to image the disk.

First, run diskutil list in the Terminal to see the identifiers for each disk. You'll want to note the identifier for your Time Machine drive (format is /dev/disk#).

Then, in the Terminal, use:

/usr/bin/hdiutil create -srcdevice /your/disk/identifier -format UDZO name.dmg

Where /your/disk/identifier is the /dev/disk# corresponding to your Time Machine drive, and name.dmg is the name of the output DMG. The UDZO format is the default compressed disk image format. The disk image will be a replica of the entire USB drive.


Apple Time Capsule won't extend wireless network I am running a Wifi network with a fritzbox 7360 and all my apple devices (apple tv old and new, MacbookPro, mac mini, iPhone, iPad) can connect just fine. Recently I bought apple time capsule 3TB which won't join my local wifi for unknown reasons. I ran several resets, checked configuration and read all I could found on the internet. Connectivity and placement seems fine as well (I checked with other devices).

Below are my settings. Can somebody help?

Joining and extending WiFi networks is only supported with Apple devices. The TC won't join your fritzbox WiFi. You can cable it in however and it'll function as a backup device.


Double contacts after syncing with Outlook I have duplicate contacts in my iPhone, not knowing their source or how to safely delete them.

I synced my iPhone contacts with Outlook via iTunes. I have 220 contacts in Outlook. I estimate 100 of these are duplicates in the iPhone i.e in both the Contact and Phone app. They are apparently exact duplicates.

The strange thing is that the duplicate ones do not get synced to Outlook so there are no duplicate contacts there.

I don't know which of two contacts is linked to the respective Outlook contact, so I fear that simply deleting one contact may delete it in Outlook as well, which would be bad.

Does anyone have any ideas on the cause and cure for this behaviour?

I fixed this by manually setting the "middle name" to "A" on all Outlook contacts, then synced with the iPhone, then manually deleted all contacts without an "A" middle name on the iPhone, then removed the "A" middle names in Outlook and then synced with the iPhone again.

Drawbacks: lots of manual work and loosing the middle name content (luckily not used in my contacts).

Using the middle name is good because it is shown in list view on the iPhone, so one can quickly see what must be removed without looking at details.


Monitor which website my applications are trying to connect to I am looking for a way to monitor my network so I can know which website that specific application is trying to connect to.

Little Snitch

Whilst it's mainly a firewall, it alerts you when an app connects to a certain domain, and lets you allow/block the connection.

Alternatively, you can allow all connections and just monitor them.

Rubbernet

Rubbernet is also a good alternative, providing the additional feature of remote monitoring of Macs on a network.


What does the "Charging is not supported with this device" error mean? Sometimes when I plug my iPod touch into a dock or cable I get the message Charging is not supported with this device.  What's that mean?  Did Apple change the pin configuration of the dock connector?

Is the charger one designed for an older iPod with charging on the firewire pins in the dock connector. The spec has changed in more recent devices to only charge from the usb power pins so it is detecting the older configuration and giving you this message


Using Sierra to make telephone calls When I try to call my iPhone from my Mac having upgraded to Sierra, it keep on asking for my password ... what pass word?

Your Mac uses your phone's cellular connection to place the call. What's happening is that your are calling yourself, which most mobile operators parse as dialing into voicemail. What you hear is a request for your voicemail PIN. If you dial your own number from your iPhone, you'll hear the same request.


Cmd+Tab for apps that are running but closed in Yosemite Is there a way to reopen apps that are minimized or "closed" but still running when using Cmd+Tab?  For example if I close mail, then Cmd+Tab to mail, it does nothing.

The alternative is to try and remember to Cmd+H to hide a window vs. closing it, but seems odd that it appears in Cmd+Tab at all if selecting that app does nothing and you have to open it from the dock anyway.

If you close the window and with the red X then it is closed. If you minimise the window the it should open. So try minimising it instead. Also, when you closed the window and the application still is running then there sometimes is a keyboard shortcut to reopen the window. Remember that you need to be 'focusing' on the application to be able to do keyboard shortcuts that affect that application. To see which application you are  'focusing' on is shown in the upper left corner of the screen.

EDIT: Tried this with the OS X Yosemite built-in mail.app and I was able to reopen the window of the application by pressing the key combination Alt+Cmd+N when I switched to it via Cmd+Tab. This was in tested in Yosemite, remember that it may differ with other versions of Mac OS X.


Free Tool for diagramming I am looking for a free tool for drawing diagrams (either for OS X or online). My goal is to keep for myself a clear trace of the organization of my project. Something like OmniGraffle.

Any ideas?

Actually, I want to design a class diagram.

yEd is free and is available for OS X, Windows and Linux.


The Safari app has disappeared from my iPhone? I can't find the safari icon on my iphone 4?  I have tried resetting home screen layout and that doesn't work.  My restrictions button is 'on' and it asks for a password for this button.  I don't have a password.  Can you help? Thanks,

Sounds like you have got restrictions turned on, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is these restrictions that are causing you an issue, you could have turned these on long ago and forgotten what password was setup (for sure, someone has turned this on and a password is required as part of this process).

If the missing safar is due to restrictions, then there is simply no choice other than recalling the password, or possibly restoring the phone from an old backup on the chance that the backup pre-dates the turning on of restrictions.

But icons often go missing for other reasons due to a particularly mean bug.  You can reset your homescreen layout to restore missing icons when this happens, (warning, it will reset the location and grouping of all your icons when you do this) by going to  Settings > Reset > Reset Home Screen Layout.

One final note, you may have simply moved it somewhere daft into a folder or something by accident - can you find Safari in Spotlight search?


iPad fails to appear in Finder over Wi-Fi I just updated my MacBook Pro (2018, 15") to macOS Catalina (10.15), and my 11" iPad Pro to iPadOS (13.1.2).

Since then, I haven't been able to connect the iPad to the Mac in the Finder over Wi-Fi, although my iPhone works fine. (This means that iOS devices are shown in the Sidebar.) The Mac and the iPad are both connected to the same network, too.

So, for instance, I can't sync the iPad in Music and Sidecar doesn't work as the iPad just doesn't show up in the window. Both of these things work over USB.

Does anybody have insight as to what might be going on? Thanks!

Relaunch the Finder. For that Option-click on the Finder icon in the Dock, then click Relaunch.