How to disable Game Center process (gamed) on OS X 10.11 El Capitan? It seems I can't edit the plist file from LaunchAgents — even if I sudo, I'm prevented from any deletion/alteration.
Do I have to necessarily disable SIP to do this?

Disable the LaunchAgent (not LaunchDaemons) and reboot your machine (without sudo):

$ launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.gamed.plist

In case you want to enable it again at one point:

$ launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.gamed.plist


Hide username from menu bar In Mountain Lion, my full name is displayed at the right of the menu bar (between the time and the search icon, to be specific). As it takes a lot of space, I was wondering if there is a way to hide this?

Open System Preferences
Select User & Groups
Select Login Options (not Login Items)
(Click the lock to make changes at the lower left corner of the window)
Uncheck "Show fast user switching menu as ...


Trying to access Safari developer tools prints "Access not allowed (-1723)" I am trying to create a script which lists me all available open simulators to inspect in safari developer tools but when I run the code I get the below error. At the end this script should open the inspector tool for one simulator device. My guess it that in general this is not allowed but I gave the terminal the accessibility rights so yeah I have no idea.

listDevices.applescript:122:168: script error: „"Simulator" of menu "Entwickler" of menu bar 1“ kann nicht gelesen werden. Zugriff nicht erlaubt. (-1723)

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Safari"
        name of every menu item of menu item where its name starts with "Simulator" of menu "Entwickler" of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell

I do not have a menu item that starts with Simulator; however, using Experimental as in Experimental Features, the following example AppleScript code did retrieve the names of the menu items on the Experimental Features menu item of the Develop menu in Safari. (My system is set to US English.)

tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Safari"
    set menuItemNames to get name of every menu item of menu 1 of ¬
        (first menu item whose name starts with "Experimental") of ¬
        menu 1 of menu bar item "Develop" of menu bar 1
end tell

return menuItemNames

So if you change "Experimental" to "Simulator" and "Develop" to "Entwickler" I'd imagine it would work for you.


Can I manually sync/refresh data from iCloud I have a MacBook Air with the Xcode app that I use to add data to an array in one of the files.
The file is saved to the desktop.
I also have a MacBook Pro with the Xcode app that I use to add data and code throughout.
The file is also saved to the desktop.
I can't understand why or when the iCloud is syncing because sometimes I add the data to the MacBook Air and then when I open the file on the MacBook Pro I can see it update/refresh.
Sometimes I close the file on the MacBook Pro and open it up again so it can refresh the new data from iCloud.
The problem is that sometimes I can't do anything to update/sync/refresh the data to appear on the file on the MacBook Pro.
It changes from day to day and because I haven't been able to figure out why this happens, I want to know if there's a way to manually refresh the data from iCloud so it syncs to my MacBook Pro when I want it to.
Please advise if there's a way to do this.
Thanks ✌

I had a similar problem when saving/copying from one device and trying to access those files from a different device wouldn't show up/sync on iCloud when trying to access the file from other devices.
What finally worked for me is, whatever app/program/filemanager I used to save the file to iCloud I had to close the app so the computer doesn't think the file is still open. Since I have been doing that, I have no problem accessing files from my iPad/iMac/PC.


Disable Safari Top Sites on Mavericks How can I disable the Top Sites on OS X ver 10.9.5? I have deleted the cache and locked Safari so that new windows images do not get saved.

I know how to Delete but need to know how to Disable the Top Sites in Safari.

In Finder paste following in the Go To Folder

 ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/

Right click on the  Webpage Previews Folder and select- Get Info

In Get info window select Locked.

From now on Safari will not save Top pages in that folder any more.


Frontmost USB port stopped working properly on a MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011 I bought my Macbook Pro new this year in Jan 2012; it is the 13" Core i5 SKU. The USB port furthest from the screen on the left does not work with storage devices, though I have tested it with a USB Mouse and it seems to work. However on hard drives, USB keys, and an Arduino it doesn't work.

I cannot sync my iPod touch with it either.

Does anyone know what this may be?

Just reset PRAM and it will start working again. It has done it for me many times.


Finder can not delete files I am using 10.9.5. I started having this problem recently.

I can download a file into my Downloads folder using the browser, save a new file on the Desktop using a text editor, or create a new folder with a right-click. And I can delete them using the Terminal.

But I can not delete them with CMD+Backspace. I hear that deleting sound, but the file remains there. Also, when I right click the file, there is no Delete option.

Here is the ls output:

-rw-r--r--@ 1 mustafa  staff     9B Mar 31 23:24 testfile.txt

Are you sure you have the correct permissions for the files you are trying to delete? Deleting from the Finder and deleting from the Terminal prompt are vastly different things that each may use different permissions (ACLs versus Unix-like permissions).

Right-click the file in the Finder, and select Get Info. Then, click the triangle next to the Sharing & Permissions panel. Make sure you have the permissions you need there (i.e., "Me" has Read & Write).


Will reinstalling Lion erase all my documents and applications? I am planning to reinstall my operating system because it has many glitches. However, I am totally new to this and I would like to ask you what actually happens when you reinstall Lion? Do all your files remain or not?

Lion does not offer any customizations during the installation process. Thus a reinstallation is about as smooth and as linear as possible.

You restart your Mac holding the OPTION key when you hear the tone. You will then be greeted with various partitions you can use instead of the main Lion partition.

Should you wish to simply reinstall Lion, you would select the Recovery HD partition. Once loaded, you just need to follow the prompts and install it over your current Lion installation.

The new installation will replace all the core system files, but leave your user profile and data complete untouched. Your music, documents, even passwords and bookmarks, and applications will not touched; none of your personal information will be deleted (nor will it backup your old system, as was common in older OS X versions). It is a seamless process that simply rolls Lion back to the default installation build. There will be nothing lost and no disk spaced wasted on old system files.

You can read about the process over at Apple.

Note: It was the case that older builds of OS X allowed various types of reinstallations (like Archive and Install or a complete erase), but these have been omitted in Lion, greatly simplifying the process.


iMac login screen only half displayed When I booted up my iMac yesterday, I was confused to find my login field had seemingly moved upwards, so that only the bottom half was showing. The lower half of the screen was just black. Is this a screen calibration problem? The display corrects itself once I log in to show a normal desktop. I've tried rebooting.

Reference:

iMac 27", Late 2013

Running OS X El Capitan v.10.11.2

Screenshot of the problem is attached below:

I'd start with the standard "troubleshooting toolkit" ...
do all, in this order.

Reset the SMC (instructions depend on Mac model)
Reset the NVRAM

At the boot chimes, hold  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   P   R
Keep holding all 4 keys until you hear the chimes again, then release

Verify & if necessary Repair disk, using Disk Utility.
Fix permissions.
Before El Capitan this could also be done from Disk Utility, now it needs to be done from Terminal.
Verify permissions
sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /
Repair permissions
sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /
Reset Home folder permissions & ACLs
This has also become more complex since El Capitan because of System Integrity Protection, but is still possible by booting to Recovery Mode...

At boot, hold  Cmd ⌘   R  at the chimes
At the recovery screen, open Terminal from the Utilities menu.
Type in resetpassword and hit Return\Enter. A Reset Password window opens.
Select your username from the drop-down menu labeled Select the user account (NOT System Administrator/root).
Click the Reset button at the bottom of the window in the Reset home folder permissions and ACLs section.
Quit the Password Utility and go back to the main recovery screen.
On your keyboard, press  Cmd ⌘   Q   and restart your computer (or Select   > Restart from the menu bar). It's very important that you don't hold down the power button to exit the recovery session, or the ACL reset won't be performed.

Start in Safe Mode

Start or restart your Mac.
Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold  Shift ⇧
Release  Shift ⇧   when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.
Leave a few minutes after login for caches to rebuild, then reboot normally.

Update to - or if already installed, then re-apply - the latest available combo updater for your current OS, not the usual delta update from App Store.

Note: You can always search the latest combo update at http://www.apple.com/us/search/os-x-combo-update?src=serp & hone further by adding the version you're looking for in the search box at the top.


MacBook Pro: OS battery indicator doesn't match hardware battery indicator I recently upgraded my MBP to Lion, and now the battery indicator in the menubar at the top of the screen constantly shows "(Charged)", even when the indicator on the side shows almost empty. Any ideas on what's going on or what I can do to fix it?

Edit: It does have an internal battery.

If your MacBook Pro has an internal battery - seek service as they are supposed to self-calibrate and not need any sort of maintenance.

For reference: Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

If your model has a removable battery, those are older and the Mac needs you to periodically run a calibration where you charge it to full and leave it connected to power for two or so hours. Then disconnect power and run it down over a day or two - never connecting to power. Eventually, it will go to sleep and then you leave it for 4-5 hours in sleep to finally reach the low voltage shut off.

This will recalibrate the sensor for full and empty and perhaps fix the OS reporting a different charge level than reality. As the battery ages, the "guess" to how much charge capacity is left at a certain voltage level changes. This calibration run should be done every 6 to 10 months if you care to have a more accurate OS battery estimate. Of course, if there is a failure in the battery or the hardware - that will prevent this from working and you will again be seeking service for a repair.

If you are not near a support center - you could try the discharge run on a newer Mac with the newer battery.


Cannot delete icon on menu bar I cannot delete an icon from my menu bar.  If I click the command button and drag it off of the menu bar, it shows a circle with a line through it, which is an indicator to me that this action is not possible.  It is from the Malwarebytes program which I deleted, and the program is definitely no longer functioning.  Is there another method of removing this icon?

Only first-party menu bar apps can be ⌘-dragged off the menu bar. To remove third-party menu bar apps, you should refer to the specific app settings. For Malwarebytes, you can turn off the menu bar app from Malwarebytes preferences → Hide application icon. To properly uninstall Malwarebytes if you no longer want the software, open Malwarebytes, and go to "help" > "uninstall Malwarebytes".


Can a standard user upgrade OSX versions or does it have to be an admin user? I administer several macOS computers, which are a mixture of macOS 10.11.6 and macOS 10.13.6.

10.13.6 is the current maximum version of macOS we can go to without getting software compatibility issues.

I have a local admin account on each computer and the individual users are setup with standard user privileges.

Ive noticed on the standard user accounts they keep getting a notification to upgrade to Mojave 10.14. I think one of them clicked this by mistake as in their applications folder they had the Mojave installer.

Is it possible for a standard user to start the upgrade or will they be blocked by requiring an administrators password ?

In order to make any "deep" changes to macOS it will ask for an Administrator username and password.

The only way a non-admin user can get around this limitation is by knowing the username and password of an admin user.

So no they can't use that app to upgrade their systems.

They could however copy the app off and make a bootable USB installer on another Mac and then boot their work Mac from that USB to upgrade it, depending on how technical they are. or how determined.


What is answering at port 80 when httpd is down? Since OS X Lion, web sharing isn't available from the System preferences.

So I shut it down using sudo apachectl stop. Doing this, http://localhost/~Username doesn't answer any more and all httpd are down (a least ps -e | grep httpd return none of them).

But using my browser http://localhost still returns a "It works!". Who then is answering at port 80 ?

Nothing. Your browser is likely returning a cached response. Try Shift+Reload or clear your cache and reload. Then, you should see no response.


Using Preview with an old PDFkit With Mojave, I use to open multiple pdf at once with the old Preview9.0.app  (version of Sierra)

It doesn't work anymore with Catalina because of a conflict between Preview9.0.app and the new PDFkit framework.

Is there any way to embed the old PDFkit framework in Preview9.0.app ? Or redirect PDFkit calls to the old one ?

I'm sure it was possible ! Cormiertyshawn895 dit it ! Thanks to him ! https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive/issues/1


Will deleting photos from the Camera Roll also delete them from albums? If I created a new album and placed the photos I wanted in it. If I delete them from photo stream & my camera roll will they be deleted from the new album as well?

Yes, photos are not copied to the albums, just referenced, so if you delete the photo that the album references the photo from then the photo will be deleted from the album too.


Delete folder with specific condition I need a script to delete a folder, only if the folder does not contain media files with extension avi or mp4.

If all folders to be removed are directly under the containing folder and all mp4 and avi files are directly under the kept folders:

for d in */;do ls "$d"|grep -Eq '.*\.(mp4|avi)$'||echo rm -r "$d";done

If the mp4 and avi files can be in subfolders of the kept folders:

for d in */;do [[ $(find "$d" -iname \*.mp4 -o -iname \*.avi) ]]||echo rm -r "$d";done

If the folders to be removed can be in subfolders of the containing folder:

find . -type d|while read d;do ls "$d"|grep -Eq '.*\.(mp4|avi)$'||echo rm -r "$d";done


Yosemite: how to save PDF cropped by Preview I use Preview to crop a PDF file but it says that the content outside the selection will not be deleted, i.e. they are just hidden, and when printing there do appear.

How to save the cropped PDF?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

My impression is that it's not straightforwardly possible, unless you delete all other pages (which can be done quickly with the miniature view) and then saving. You can then revert everything back. You could also crop the one page, and then print it to pdf with ⌘-P. Just select PDF > Save as Pdf and select only the one page you cropped.


how can you draw inside a shape in preview app? If try to draw anything inside a shape it gets selected instead, the cursor turns into hand from pen. So basically how can you draw shape on/inside another shape?

Remove the fill of the object (i.e. select the diagonal line to the left of the black and white colour line - see image below) but leaving an outline, draw inside, or on top of it, then add the fill again.

If it's a complex fill, save it first, by clicking "Show Colours..." and adding it there.
Note: this will not group the two layers drawn and they will have to be moved individually, or by selecting them both (with the shift key).  If grouping is expected, I refer to @benwiggy's comment to use a dedicated drawing application.
PS. If flattening the image is of no consequence, consider theonlygusti's comment, or the linked to previous answer to this question.


When using a USB-C monitor with power delivery, does constantly having it plugged in damage the battery? By my assumption, the USB-C port on the monitor will charge the device even on full charge. Is this correct? I believe this would damage the battery over long periods of time.

No, having it constantly plugged in won't damage the battery.

The MacBook contains power management circuitry that ensures that the battery is not "overcharged".

So having a USB-C monitor that charges your MacBook plugged in at all times is no different from having an ordinary charger plugged in at all times.


Mac doesn't show right information in Storage For some reason my Mac doesn't show a space taken by iCloud. I have 0.8 of 5.0 gb available on it, but it doesn't show a blue section. I used to have it. What can I do to return it?

iCloud storage isn't included in your Mac's storage at all - because it isn't on your Mac.
It's in a separate area in System Preferences > iCloud…


netsh equivalent in OSX In Windows, I enjoy the ability to toggle the "LAN" NIC between a known static IP and DHCP from the command line interface (CLI) via .bat files:

netsh interface ip set address name="LAN" static 192.168.1.88 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.20 1

netsh interface ip set address "LAN" dhcp

What would be the OSX CLI equivalent?   When configuring network devices, I find myself frequently toggling between DHCP <==> Static IP configurations on the CLI.

There seem to be plenty of examples of performing this task via the GUI, however, this does not lend itself to frequent toggling between DHCP and a target static IP.

The ability to toggle between states from the CLI is convenient.  It may be the pinnacle-of-convenience to invoke a toggle-script to a Safari \ Firefox button.

A netsh counterpart for manipulating network settings would be the networksetup command, but to achieve what you want, the easiest would be to define two separate network locations in GUI, one with static IP, the other one with DHCP. Then execute:

# scselect
Defined sets include: (* == current set)
   02080D27-B377-4942-BB3A-CF0C8F049F9E (static IP)
 * 0F27B96E-9B5A-4FAE-B639-C374BD77C1A6 (DHCP)

Take note of the GUID and execute the following to switch:

# scselect 02080D27-B377-4942-BB3A-CF0C8F049F9E

You can write a more friendly script with grep and sed to suit your taste.


Transfer non-purchased Kindle e-books I have an old iPad mini with the Kindle app that my brother downloaded e-books on. Now I have a new iPad mini 4 and I can't seem to transfer the books to it.

I haven't bought these books on Amazon because they were downloaded from my brothers computer.

There's no way you'll be able to transfer the e-books from the old iPad mini to the new iPad mini 4. You'll at-least need access to the Amazon account that was used to sign into the Kindle app on the old iPad mini.

Kindle allows you to read personal documents and e-books which have been uploaded to the Amazon personal document storage service (without purchasing any e-book or paying anything). The content can be synced into the Kindle app installed on any supported device. But you'll need the login information of the Amazon account at a minimum.

Even if you manage to backup the old iPad mini and restore it onto the new iPad mini 4, the Kindle app will be installed alright, but you'll still need to log into the new iPad mini with the Amazon account credentials which was used to setup the iPad mini.

Once you manage to register the new iPad mini 4 by logging in, you'll have access to the entire library of e-books and personal documents linked to the Amazon account.

To make it clear, the Amazon e-books and personal document content is no way related/linked to your Apple ID and no corresponding data is store in iCloud/Apple's servers.


How does an Apple device gets recognized as external storage on PC? When I connect any apple device to my PC - it gets recognized as an external storage and I can access all the files (Update:Not all the files - but just pictures) on the device.

How is this possible? Do all the laptops and desktop motherboards come with an Apple authentication chip and drivers ?

I am working on a device which needs to read music files from Apple devices - so I am wondering whether I need to apply for MFI program. If the apple devices work as generic USB device without any chip and special drivers, then it serves my purpose.

iPhone will present itself as a digital camera to a USB host so you can use camera software to import photos, such as iPhoto.


Cannot use or update WMware Fusion in Mountain Lion I was using VMWare Fusion 3.0 in Snow Leopard before upgrading to Mountain Lion. Now I cannot open or upgrade VMWare Fusion, the icon is blocked, and if clicked, a pop up comes out and if click help, another popup telling me that nothing is available.

How to upgrade and use VMWare fusion again?

The latest version of VMWare Fusion is version 4. If you want to use VMWare on Mountain Lion, unfortunately you can no longer use the old version. This VMWare blog post says:

  Does VMware Fusion 3 work with Mountain Lion?

  No. VMware Fusion 3 was released in October 2009 and was optimized for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.  VMware Fusion 3 is no longer being updated for newer versions of Mac OS. Customers wishing to run VMware Fusion on Mountain Lion should use VMware Fusion 4. A free 30-day trial is available for current VMware Fusion 3 users. The trial can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/go/tryfusion


Adding templates to mail software in OSX Lion I have downloaded a couple of stationery templates for Apple's Mail application, but I don't know how to add them to the software so I can use them when composing messages. Anyone know how?

These stationery files must follow strict Apple rules, meaning they have to be created in certain ways. If you bought them from Apple they will be fine, however, they should have told you where to place those files.

Having tried unsuccessfully to create my own, I at least learned where to  keep them. Here is the path where the files should be placed:

(your) Hard Drive:Library:Application Support:Apple:Mail:Stationery:Apple:Contents:Resources:Photos:Contents:Resources:Air Mail.mailstationery

Air Mail is just one of the Apple stationery packages. Yours might be called Thai Forest.mailstationery.

Hope this helps.


Unable to Adjust Size for pdf in Preview As shown in the screenshot the "Adjust Size" is disabled and grayed-out for the given PDF:

So how do we reduce the size of a pdf in preview (or even skim?)

I did not find out how to do this in preview or skim: so a "real" answer would still be awarded.

However there is a workaround when printing: the print dialog for my HP laserjet has a "Scale" that can be applied. This took care of my immediate need.


My MacBook Pro uses an extraordinary amount of RAM I bought my MacBook Pro about 1.5 years ago (with 4 GB RAM) but these days I think it uses an extraordinary amount of memory; when I open Firefox & Adium & Thunderbird & iTunes & last.fm it uses 3.84 of my 4GB RAM. I must say I installed several 3rd-party software packages on my laptop (maybe on start up they run some process of itself) is there any tool that exists to help me tune my laptop and find what processes run functionless in background, or is there any guideline to help me fix this problem?

It's probably just been a while since you restarted your computer. When you close a program, the memory it was using doesn't go back to "Free", it gets marked "Inactive". It's still available for use by other programs, though:

Inactive memory
This information in memory is not actively being used, but was recently used.
For example, if you've been using Mail and then quit it, the RAM that Mail was using is marked as Inactive memory. This Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory.  However, if you open Mail before its Inactive memory is used by a different application, Mail will open quicker because its Inactive memory is converted to Active memory, instead of loading Mail from the slower hard disk.


External keyboard stops working after some time on MBP 2020 (Catalina 10.15.5) The problem is as follows. I attach an external keyboard to my MacBook Pro 13 inch 2020 running Catalina 10.15.5 using an Apple dongle. After a while, (this could be 10 minutes or an hour or so) keystrokes are not registered anymore. The keyboard still lights up so there is power going to it.

I don't know if it is relevant, but the only things attached to the MBP are power and an HDMI cable (plugged into the same dongle as the USB keyboard).

Steps to reproduce:

Attach external keyboard (although the same happens with a usb mouse and usb microphone)
Use the keyboard for about 10 minutes to an hour
Notice that keystrokes are not registered

How to solve temporarily: A full reboot (so no sleep)

Steps I tried to fix without reboot:

Reset SMC
Reset NVRAM (I have tried these since every apple support page I saw mentioned them).
Made sure the keyboard still works on other devices
Tried another non-Apple dongle on another port
Tried the same Apple dongle on different port. The interesting about this one is that the display that is attached to the MBP using the same dongle is not recognized as "detached" so macOS still thinks it is attached.

The only other relevant observation I could make is that in the system report the keyboard is still listed under USB.

I hope I have mentioned everything, if anything is missing please let me know.

To answer my own question:
The problem is not related to either my dongle or my keyboard. The problem seems with USB 2.0 support on the MBP 2020 models.
Currently there is no fix yet (18-06-2020). See link below to an article that describes the same problem.
https://9to5mac-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/9to5mac.com/2020/06/17/users-reporting-usb-2-0-compatiblity-issues-with-2020-macbook-pro-and-macbook-air/amp/?usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D&amp_js_v=0.1


Stop TextEdit from using iCloud save Every time I save a TextEdit file 'SAVE' always goes to iCloud, even though I have been saving to another folder. Can I stop 'SAVE' from doing this?

I run OS X 10.9.4

Saving to cloud is easy to disable in system preferences:

Go to the iCloud Preference Pane
Select iCloud Drive
Click on "Options"
Check and uncheck the apps you want saved in iCloud.

This was tested on Yosemite and a Macbook Pro 2015


MAC High Sierra password stopped working This happened today, and I am writing this in case someone else have the same issue.

I have a corporate MAC, have separate password for Corporate and local password for the MAC.

Everything was fine, today the password stopped working, I was sure it is the password, won't work.

What didn't work...

Single User Mode -> Setup Assistant -> New User -> Login as new user -> sudo passwd <myusername>. Threw an error about authentication method not acceptable.
Tried to reset from Users and Groups. The Reset Password button was not even there.
Tried entering wrong password multiple times to trigger Apple ID reset, nothing.
Command+R for Recovery mode didn't even take me to Recovery Mode.

Machine Specs:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6.

So, here is what worked!

I went to Directory Utility.
Directory Editor
Compared the Authentication Authority for working user and locked user.
Noticed this new entry on the top: ;LocalCachedUser;/Active Directory/xxxx:5D79515xxxx3B24B.
Removed the entry and rebooted.

Voila, everything is working fine!


Upload pics to iCloud from old iPhone not primary iPhone I purchased an iPhone 5S and it was turned on at time of purchase.  However, I did not completely back up all photos to iCloud from old iPhone 4.  I cannot get the iPhone 4 photos to upload to iCloud in order to put them on new laptop.   Help

Transfer them directly to the laptop, using iPhoto [Mac] or Photo Gallery [Win]


El Capitan Spotlight returning no results for natural language searches After upgrading to El Capitan, I wanted to try the natural language search feature in Spotlight, but for me Spotlight behaves exactly like in Yosemite, it doesn't exhibit any of the new features. For example, no results are coming back for searches like "Weather in Cupertino" or "Documents I've worked on last week". Do I need to enable the new functionality somehow?

To answer my own question, Spotlight suggestions are only available in specific countries: https://www.apple.com/osx/feature-availability/#spotlight-suggestions


iPhone won't connect to wifi My iPhone will not connect to my wireless router, even when I put the password in.

How do I troubleshoot this problem?

Checking the obvious - you can connect to WiFi on another computer right? The iPhone frequently over-reports the strength of the WiFi connection, so you can see 2 or 3 bars but not actually connect because it times out.

Try holding the iPhone vertically with your fingers at the top and bottom - the WiFi receiver is in the side, so when you hold it with your hands at the sides, it reduces WiFi reception.


Sort column view in open/save panel I can sort (without using sections) in list view just fine, by clicking the column header. But I can't find any way to do this in column view, as there's no equivalent to the View Options panel (the View menu varies depending on the app).

Note that the Arrange By button works differently, so it is not a substitute. It controls the sections of files, while Sort By controls the sorting within those sections.

I'm open to things like defaults commands, but I'd rather not install external software if I don't have to. (But if you have something that works, by all means put it here!)

In the "Open" dialog there is an icon that pops up a menu that allows you to choose the sort order.

In the Finder you can either use the same pop up or right click and the context menu has "Arrange By".


My Wi-Fi connection works on all Linux systems but none of the OS X distributions But even on Linux, the Wi-Fi works unsatisfactory dropping from time to time, and performs poorer than other devices at longer distances from the router. However I can still bear with it because with certain routers it works quite fine.

The OS X (Mavericks and Yosemite) on the other hand does not work at all with any router. Not even with the router at the Apple store. It simply doesn't connect. Even if it accidentally connects, it drops immediately after I try to load something.  I even tried to downgrade the driver and it didn't work either. It seems plausible to me that the problem lies in the driver itself, what can I do now?

The computer is a MacBook Air 11" Mid 2012.

The could be a couple of things going on, hardware or software. Let's eliminate software.

Go to /Library/Preferences and look for the ones that start with "com.apple.network" I have three of them. Delete them and reboot.

Now go back into your network preference pane. Any VPNs you set up will be gone and you should have the default list of all interfaces with network capability. Select the WiFi interface and configure that as you like.

What I am thinking is possible that you have a damaged preference file associated with networking (hopefully I didn't miss any preference files...). Doing this will give you a clean slate with network settings.

If that doesn't do it, you may have a hardware issue, which means time for an Apple Genius appointment.


How do I save the Numbers document I'm working on? Using Numbers 3.6.2, and would like to save document to finish later. Where do I save it? (Saving to PDF is permanent)

You can save it anywhere you want.  Just do Command-S or go to File --> Save and it will bring up a dialog box.  You can use the default location or any other folder/location you want.

You can even save it to your iCloud account from the same dialog.  See the image below.


Why do external drives spin up for webpage rendering? I recently went to some webpage in Chrome and noticed that my external harddrive had to spin up before the page would render.  Does anybody know why OSX does this?

I've noticed it in a few other programs when I get to a file/open dialog, but rendering in Chrome?

In Activity Monitor.App you can see for each process Open Files and Ports. You can do the same things with Instruments.app which is part of the Xcode/Development bundle.

You should dig it that direction, it can be that Chrome loads something for your external Volume.


macOS Sierra Download Time Est 33 hours I have tested my network download speed (hit 132 Mbps, but that was to server within 100 miles), changed the DNS server address to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, restarted my macbook, but the download time will not change! Please tell me there is something else I can do to fix this. I expected some extra download time with everyone upgrading, but this is ridiculous -- it is 2016, right?

Thanks

Servers are busy, try at another time of day, not when America is awake & the EU are all home for dinner.

I got mine in about 40 mins, at around 8am, GMT

It has nothing to do with what DNS servers you use. Once you're connected, DNS is not even relevant. Your own ISP's DNS would normally be faster anyway, as it's [theoretically] optimised for your connection.

Rebooting your router/modem & all network hardware, then your Mac may help a bit, fresh everything up.


iPhone 4s not charging 9/10 times iPhone 4s, my iPhone 99% of the time won't charge arms the battery is power-draining. Started happening at random, going from good - absolute hell while i was at work. One time out of the many times I've recently tried, it charged about 10%  after hours and hours on the charger. tried 3 separate chargers (3 separate brands), tried draining 100% and charging back up etc. could the battery be shot? I can switch the battery out in a simple minute, but I don't want to go out of my way and buy a new battery at my shop if it won't work

Battery certainly could be bad, but there are some other common areas of failure.

If you shine a light into the 30-pin connector, check for any physical obstructions such as pocket lint, scraps of paper, I've even seen staples and gum. If you spot it, try to use compressed air to get it out.

Also look for any burnt (blackened) pins which could explain it.

Lastly look for signs of liquid. Liquid LOVED getting into those docks. Signs of liquid include corroded (green) pins, or tripped (red or pink) liquid contact indicator. The liquid indicator is in the center, under the connector plate.

Barring any of those things, it's most likely either the battery or the charging circuitry.


Do you get notifications for new email from your other Gmail accounts? I am new to iOS and from Android I am used to getting (g)mail notifications for all of my accounts. I have 4 connected to the Gmail app, though I only get notifications for the main one (the one I added first and is on default everytime I open the app). I checked the notification setting but there is nothing to configure. Is there a way to get notifications for every account?
I've seen one post here from about 8 years ago but I'm not sure if it is still relevant. I use the newest iOS on iPhone 12

I just tested with two Gmail accounts I use. On my computer, I sent a message from account #1 to account #2, waited until I heard the tone on my iPhone and saw the notification on the screen, then sent an email from account #2 to account #1. Both times I heard the tone and got a lock-screen popup.
In Settings > Gmail I have this configuration:


Using My Mac as a webserver for my VMware VM So, I have my Mac running VMware Fusion and I have a Windows XP VM running.

Currently the VM Network setup is NAT, my Mac is already setup as a web server.

I'd like to be able to access the Mac from the vm via the web browser (for some testing).

If the VM is set to use NAT is there a standard IP address I can use from the VM to get to the Mac regardless of what network I might be on?  I might be at work and have an IP address of 10.1.. or I might be at home and have an IP address of 192.168..

What are my options?

Update:
At work I am on an AD domain

When I switch to Bridged networking I can see my Mac from the VM using my Mac's IP address.

I was hoping (and thinking) there would be an IP address that I could use regardless of where I am at.

Have you tried 'machinename.local?' (eg mymac.local)

I have a similar setup (and many many variations thereof) and usually the Windows VM can see the Mac via the address 'millie.local', where millie is the machine name.

If you go and look at the 'Sharing' tab of the System Preferences program, you should see what '.local' name your machine will appear as.

This doesn't work so well with Server 2003 (and presumably Server 2008) as .local has a different meaning with Windows AD networks, but it ought to be fine with XP.


iOS Calendar: What is the meaning of Time Zone Override? I have had issues in the past with time zones and alarms when traveling, but I think I have it solved. I have just one more point of confusion.

Current versions of iOS have the option Time Zone Override for the calendar. Mine is currently set to Off, which I think is the default. The setting can be found in Settings > Calendar > Time Zone Override

The question is: What does the setting Time Zone Override actually mean? Does it in any way affect events which have a time zone or are marked as floating.

More specifically, when I am in a different time zone, how does this setting affect the following possibilities:

Time Zone Override: Off, Event time zone set to home
Time Zone Override: On, Event time zone set to home
Time Zone Override: Off, Event time zone set to floating
Time Zone Override: On, Event time zone set to floating

Floating events

These kind of events happen always at the same time of day. An event called "Wake up" set for 6 AM and with the time zone set to Floating will always occur at 6 AM.

If you are in LA, it will occur at 6 AM, if you are in Hong Kong, it will also occur at 6 AM.

The time zone in Settings > General > Date & Time is relevant for floating events.

Regular events (Time Zone set to GMT+1 with DST)

You are in London and create an event "Process emails" for 4 PM (time zone set to London, GMT+1).

Turn on time zone override and set it to New York. Your event will now show up at 8 AM (GMT-4).

To answer your specific scenarios

Time Zone Override: Off, Event time zone set to home

  An event at 6 AM will be displayed at 6 AM

Time Zone Override: On, Event time zone set to home

  An event at 6 AM will be displayed at 1 AM (London to NY)

Time Zone Override: Off, Event time zone set to floating

  An event at 6 AM will always be displayed at 6 AM, no matter where you are.

Time Zone Override: On, Event time zone set to floating

  An event at 6 AM will always be displayed at 6 AM, no matter where you are.


Mountain Lion on Macbook Air Just got a MacBook Air, and it is running OSX 10.7.4.

Is it possible to upgrade to 10.8 (Mountain Lion)?

Are there any benefits to doing so?

What is the process?

Yes

200 new features: http://www.apple.com/osx/

You download the OS via the App Store, which you'll find in your applications folder. If you bought your Mac recently you may be eligible for a free upgrade. Check here: http://www.apple.com/osx/uptodate/


Share shell script: file permissions question I'm on Mountain Lion 10.8.5 and recently I've made a small shell script which just shows a message on the screen. To run it, I had run

chmod +x test-script.sh

and then using sh ./test-script.sh ran it successfully. So if I want to send this to friends, do they have to run chmod again? If so, how can I prevent it?

You can instruct your friends to run it using sh ./test-script.sh. That would not require a chmod +x to be done.

If your friends also use OS X, another alternative is to package it as an app with Automator using the Run Shell Script action and share that with your friends. In this case the user can run it just like any other application on the system.

See Creating Shell Script Actions in the Automator Programming Guide.


Modifying "User interface sound effects" with applescript Good morning all,
I would like to be able to turn the system sounds on my mac off (and back on) with an applescript activated as an extension for Alfred.

I have little knowledge of applescripts but I have found that I can open the system preference pane. How do I check and uncheck the "Play user interface sound effects" and "Play feedback when volume is changed" check boxes?

The start of my code is as follows

tell application "System Preferences" to activate (reveal anchor "effects" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound")

Thanks guys

System Preferences and the Sounds prefpane don't have direct ways to script this. But you can use regular UI scripting in AppleScript:

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "effects" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        if value of theBox is not 1 then
            click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
        end if
    end tell
end tell

Or if you want to set a certain value rather than just toggle the checkbox:

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "effects" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        set theBox to checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
        if value of theBox is not 1 then -- or "is 1"
            click theBox
        end if
    end tell
end tell

You can also explicitly say checkbox "Play user interface sound effects" of ... instead of just checkbox 1, but I'm not sure how this behaves with localizations.


Drag and drop won't move ALL selected files between Finder windows Here's what I'm doing:

open a Finder window with source directory (500+ files).
open another Finder window with target directory.
select all files in source directory using ⌘ - a
grab selected files and hover target window
press ⌘ so files are moved instead of copied
release mouse button

But only cca 85 files are moved. Rest is left in source directory (while still selected). The same happens when copying files.

Is this something I can change (number of files moved)? An error/bug? Some app interfering with drag & drop behavior? I'm left with using Terminal to move my files, which besides being annoying isn't really possible when file selection is not a simple ⌘ - a.

I know this is late but I've found a fix.

First, open disk utility and run first aid on your disk.

Second, shutdown the computer fully and disconnect all USB devices.

Third, Press the power button and hold command-option-p-r until the Mac reboots again. This will reset the PRAM.

I hope this fixes your issue like it did for me!


Is there a Safari Extension that automatically tracks my daily time usage on Safari? I am looking for an extension in Safari that automatically tracks my time in Safari.  Specifically, I want:
1)  When I start Safari, the timer automatically starts/resumes.
2)  When I stop Safari, the timer pauses.
3)  The timer would reset every day or at a frequency I specify.

The basic idea is that I can track my daily usage on the internet at work, so that I don't spend too much time goofing off.

I don't think there's anything in the official Safari Extensions gallery.  There is WebWatch and My Work&Time, but the former doesn't satisfy criteria 2 and My Work&Time is not automatic.

I'm running Safari 5.0.5 on Windows XP.

Its not a Safari specific solutions, but Slife works pretty well to do what you're saying.

http://www.slifeweb.com/

Not only will it monitor how much time you spend on Safari, but also on everything else.  So now you can get an entire picture of what you do during the day.


Can't install Homebrew on MacBook Pro, password field won't input I need to install Homebrew. I am unable to input the password when prompted in the Terminal - nothing happens when I type, only when I hit enter. I follow the instructions specified in the book I'm reading (Byte of Python). First, I enter:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

I get:

Press ENTER to continue or any other key to abort tests
MacBook-Pro:.ssh kevinadler$ organization21
bash: organization21: command not found tests
MacBook-Pro:.ssh kevinadler$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
==> This script will install: /usr/local/bin/brew /usr/local/Library/... /usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1
==> The following directories will be made group writable: /usr/local/. /usr/local/bin
==> The following directories will have their group set to admin: /usr/local/. /usr/local/bin
Press ENTER to continue or any other key to abort
==> /usr/bin/sudo /bin/chmod g+rwx /usr/local/. /usr/local/bin
WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.
To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.
Password: Sorry, try again. Password:

Any ideas how to enable me to enter my password?

Correct. The password does not show up its appearance, but you just type it correctly anyway, and then it'll bring you to the next "Intallation successful". Good luck.


if iPhoto came with my Mac, can I still get free updates after Mountain Lion? Since:

I got iPhoto included with my MacBook Pro, not from the Mac App Store
Mountain Lion is replacing Software Update with the Mac App Store

Will I still be able to get free iPhoto updates with Mountain Lion?  How would that work?

Yes! When you open the App Store's Updates tab, you'll see a special dialog allowing you to accept the apps such as iPhoto that were bundled with your computer. If you accept them and enter your account info, the licenses will be automatically associated with your account. In the future you'll be able to receive updates exactly as if you had purchased the apps.

(The details probably depend on which computer you have and when you purchased it. But if your computer is a relatively recent model then you probably will have access to these apps. If you want more details you may need to contact Apple.)


Password error at Mac OS Today I gave my MacBook to my brother. He asked to change name and password. So, I changed all my info. And when I want to unlock to make changes, it shakes (probably error). But I can log in. Can I reset a password without data loss?

If you use multiple keyboard layouts on your Mac - or if you ever did - it's possible that the layout you think you're using at login or while logged in is not what you think it is. Try turning on Accessibility and using an onscreen keyboard at login. See if the letters for your password are what you think they are.

I live in France/Switzerland, so a common occurrence is people not aware that their keyboard layout is US, UK, French (France) or French (Swiss). So inevitably, there are lots of "y" and "z" inversions. Sometimes "a"/"q" and "z"/"w" as well.

Additionally, if there are any other Admin users on the system, use one of them to unlock the Users & Groups System Preference.

The last option is to reset the password using System Recovery.


How to get Mac Mail to show different Gmail addresses in the reply to field? I have a primary gmail account: me@gmail
My employer set up email that forwards to gmail as a different identity: me@mtk.org

Me@gmail downloads to my Mail inbox on Mac. I can reply to messages sent to thus account from my Mac.

Mail sent to @mtk.org Also downloads to the mail inbox on the Mac   BUT I CANNOT reply to these messages from the mtk email - it does not show up as an option in to select in the From drop down menu in Mail.  It would not be appropriate for me to reply to these messages from my personal Gmail address. Work email needs to be responded to from the work address

How do I get the MTK email address to show up in the drop-down menu on the Mac so that I can reply using that address?

I use Gmail for Work along with Mac Mail and how I got around this was by opening:

Preferences > Accounts
Then in the Email Address field I put a comma after the address that was there and then added the other address I wanted to be able to reply from. For me I added 4 different ones just by separating with a space and comma like this:

me@gmail.com, me@mtk.org, sales@mtk.org

Now, when I compose an email, there is a a drop down menu that allows me to choose which address I want to send my message from. The only caveat here, is that all of my addresses end in the same business name and it sounds like yours don't. I don't know how your boss has gmail for work set up, but this is easy to change and worth a try! If it doesn't work you can just go back to how the account was setup before, no harm, no foul.


Is there an app that streams music and adds it to your library? I generally switch between my 4S and a Windows Phone; however, it isn't practical to have a Spotify paid account and a Zune Pass, although I much prefer the desktop software of the latter. I love the way a Zune Pass lets you download music and adds it to your phone library. Spotify (on ios and windows phone) keeps the music contained to your app and is way too playlist focused for my tastes.

Is there anything for iOS that interfaces with your library?

No. Apple currently does not allow third party applications to add music to your library, so it can only come from the iTunes store or your computer. Applications may let you choose music already in your library and let you control that music, but cannot add music directly.


Can I publish a podcast at Apple for only one country The subject says it all: Can I publish a podcast at Apple for only one country? Where can I find documents regarding this?

Thanks.

Well, I've searched several sources: it looks like Podcasts are always international.


Numbers for macOS: how to update a column of entries In Numbers for macOS I have a column of entries, each entry (field) is just a single word. How can I update the whole column such that each entry will look like that instead:

<img src="field_content.jpg">

You can do it by adding an extra column and using a formula in this column. Press = key on the keyboard to open the formula window and enter the formula:

Then press the green button and copy paste the formula in other cells:

You can copy and paste the data into the original column afterwards (but use "Edit" - "Paste Formula Results" command this time).


Ipod Classic 160GB shuffle issue I just bought one of the last Ipod classics and for some reason when its in shuffle mode (songs - artists or playlists), it shuffles to the next track in the middle of the current song. odd? is there a solution?

thanks!

Could be drive or file damage.

I had something similar happen on my old classic. The 'fix' was to wipe & restore - which took a long time [24h maybe], but worked.

One thing I've noticed about the classic with the slide-lock switch, don't attempt to sync with it locked.


Phishing Mail AppleID I got the following phishing email from “Apple”:

  Your ApрIe ID ( xxx ) was used to sign in to other device. Date and
  Time: 16 August 2017, 04:28 PM (GMT+10) Operating System: Linux

  If you have not logged in recently and feel someone is logged in to
  your account ,go to ApрIe ID ( Verification your account ) and update
  your account.

  ApрIe Suρρort

The “Verification your account” text contains a hyperlink to https://t.co/ccFy4cn8jr?=redirect.

When I click that link I get redirected to what looks like the official Apple website. How is this possible? Has the t.co link been adjusted/modified/redirected to protect people from going to the malicious website?

When I submit the HTTP request I receive the following response:

<head>
    <noscript>
        <META http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=https://appleld.apple.com.3c8fcfcffe480bc910-verify.info/?adu">
    </noscript>
    <title>https://appleld.apple.com.3c8fcfcffe480bc910-verify.info/?adu</title>
</head>
<script>window.opener = null; location.replace("https:\/\/appleld.apple.com.3c8fcfcffe480bc910-verify.info\/?adu”)</script>

Visiting https://appleld.apple.com.3c8fcfcffe480bc910-verify.info/?adu correctly triggers a “Malicious site detected” warning, unlike clicking the original t.co link.

What is happening here? Why does clicking the t.co link take me to the legitimate Apple website, when I should instead be redirected to a phishing website? Is it possible I am done any harm here caused by cross site scripting? Or is it only redirecting to a fake website?

That is not the legitimate Apple ID website. Notice the lowercase l in the URL in place of an uppercase i. Not only that, the actual domain is something-verify.info rather than apple.com.

In this case appleld.apple.com is merely a subdomain, and since anyone can register anything as a subdomain on their own site, they should have kept that i instead of replacing it with an l. The URL might have looked slightly less suspicious.

Report this email as spam/phishing, and if you entered your credentials on that site, immediately head to the real appleid.apple.com and change your password.


AppleScript: Wait for Safari page to fully load I'm using this script for Google Chrome to pause the script until the page is fully loaded:

tell application "Google Chrome"
        repeat until (loading of front window's tab 2 is false)
            1 + 1 --just an arbitary line
        end repeat
        loading of front window's tab 2
    end tell

This don't seems to work with Safari, any equivalent?

1. AppleScript source property

You could try using Safari's source property, which is "" until the HTML code gets loaded into it (which can only be done once the page is loaded).  Note, however, that this doesn't necessarily imply that the page has been rendered:

tell application "Safari"
     .
     .
    repeat while document 1's source = ""
        delay 0.5
    end repeat
     .
     .
end tell

The source property is reset to "" even between page loads/reloads.

2. Reload button UI element

If you want to know that a page is loaded and rendered on screen, then a reliable method is to determine whether the button in the URL bar is a "reload" button (page loaded and rendered), or a "cancel" button (page still loading/rendering):

tell application "System Events" to repeat until exists (buttons of ¬
    UI elements of groups of toolbar 1 of window 1 of ¬
    process "Safari" whose name = "Reload this page")

    delay 0.5
end repeat

3. JavaScript readyState property

If you have Allow JavaScript from Apple Events ticked in the Develop menu, then you can access the readyState property of the document:

tell application "Safari"
     .
     .
    tell document 1 to repeat
        do JavaScript "document.readyState"
        if the result = "complete" then exit repeat
        delay 0.5
    end repeat
     .
     .
end tell

The document.readyState JavaScript property returns one of five values:

uninitialized: Has not started loading yet
loading: Is loading
loaded: Has been loaded
interactive: Has loaded enough and the user can interact with it
complete: Fully loaded


Macbook Pro 2014 shuts down at random intervals Thanks @fbara for suggestion to add more details

Device: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

OS: 10.11.6 (15G1004)

pmset -g log from one of the times it occurred

  UUID: (null) 2016-09-07 20:15:11 -0700 Start                  powerd
  process is started 2016-09-07 20:15:11 -0700
    Summary- [System: No Assertions] Using Batt(Charge: 81) 2016-09-07
  20:15:11 -0700 Assertions             Kernel Idle sleep preventers:
  IODisplayWrangler 2016-09-07 20:15:43 -0700 Assertions            PID
  104(hidd) Created UserIsActive
  "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle" 00:00:00  id:0x0x9000001f5
  [System: PrevIdle DeclUser kDisp] 2016-09-07 20:16:52 -0700 Assertions
    PID 261(Google Chrome) Created NoDisplaySleepAssertion "Playing
  video" 00:00:00  id:0x0x500000223 [System: PrevIdle PrevDisp DeclUser
  kDisp]

Please make sure you also check your Macbook for excessive dust inside!

I have a Macbook pro which shutdown randomly (and gave the shutdown cause -128 error, and also the reference code PPT004 - the battery requires service). When I cleaned the build up dust it started functioning normally again!

I just removed the backplate and used a can of compressed air to clean it. Check https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Laptop to see how you can remove the backplate of your model.

PS: Try not to touch any parts inside, because of static discharge


Sharing internet from macbook to iphone I've got a problem with sharing internet connection from my macbook pro to iphone.
I've shared Ethernet connection in System Preference and managed to connect to the network from my iPhone but has no internet connection on the iPhone
I assume that the problem is because my macbook's Ethernet connection uses proxy. I tried to enabled auto in proxy setting on iPhone but it didn't help.
So the question is how to set up internet connection sharing under conditions described above. Thanks in advance.

If you can access the Internet successfully on your Mac, you can share it to your iPhone. Your Mac just essentially acts as the router. So make sure you can access the net successfully on your Mac first. Then go to Sharing and turn on Internet Sharing, choosing to share the Ethernet connection via the Airport. Now connect to the adhoc network that's been created using your iPhone.


After an OS update, should you remain logged in? My recollection of past behavior of OS X updates is the following:

Update downloaded from within App Store. System reboots.
System installation (gray background, apple symbol, est. time to completion)
Login prompt screen

After updating to 10.11.3 today, however, there was no login step. After the gray installation screen, there was a brief black screen, and then my desktop was instantly restored. I was already logged in--as if I weren't logged out at all for the reboot, in fact--already reconnected to wifi (but severed from my VPN due to the reboot), and already connected to the App Store.

My basic question is, is this default behavior?

Addendum: am I taking crazy pills, or was this not the usual behavior before?  Is it due to a setting I can change (so I can require the login screen after a reboot regardless of the reason)? I guess I find it unsettling that a user account is "auto-logged" into following a reboot, even if that user initiated the system update that triggered that reboot.

You can disable automatic login from the User & Groups control Panel...

System Prefs > Users & Groups
Click the lock & supply your password to unlock
Login options - set Automatic Login to Off


The "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notification will not go away on Mojave? If I forgot to plug in my Mac to the power and came back a couple of hours later, it may show "Disk Not Ejected Properly" notifications (two of them on Majave).
But the notification display a "Show" and clicking on it has no effect. Clicking on the notification has no effect. So these two notifications are blocking all the view of other window content because they always stay on top of every other window. (they are blocking the tabs of Google Chrome)
How can they be removed?  Or else I have to close most everything and restart the Mac, which is a pain just due to this bug.

The notification being there covering the screen and won't go away can be really troublesome.
It can be solved by moving the mouse to a "blank screen" hot corner. (set it up first).  And then when you wake the Mac, that notification can be dismissed.
So this is a solution, and would save Apple $27 / hour to hire a contractor to fix this bug for a day.


Where'd my camera app go? I looked at Camera app gone (not deactivated in restrictions), but it doesn't solve my problem.  A full shutdown/reboot did not help.  Camera app and Facetime both disappeared about the time I did the latest iOS update.  Restrictions are off.  If I turn restrictions on, Camera and Facetime are both greyed out.  I do have an Exchange account linked, but my sysadmin doesn't have Camera locked out (and other people here are still able to use it).

Is it because it's an iPad2?  Did Apple drop support for iPad2 cameras in the latest OS update?

Finally figured it out.  I had an expired set of "AirWatch" MDM profiles on it that were blocking the camera.  Removed those and the camera came back!


Deleted usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib -- computer won't start Long version:

I mistakenly deleted usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib and now the computer will no longer start (it just stays in startup mode indefinitely). Would the solution be to reinstall the operating system? The computer came with Snow Leopard and have since upgraded to Mountain Lion. If I reinstall the Snow Leopard version (given that's the one I have a disk for) am I in danger of losing anything on the hard drive?

Short version:

I actually have the correct version of libxml2.2.dylib saved on the Desktop, so if I could get into the computer I may be able to fix the problem.

If you still have the Snow Leopard Installation DVD you should be able to solve the issue by booting from DVD and then open Terminal to copy the missing file from your desktop (which will be in /Volumes/however-your-disk-is-called/Users/Dash/Desktop) back into the correct location (/Volumes/however-your-disk-is-called/usr/lib/).


Brew - sshpass security i come from linux and i know that for automatize shh logins we can use sshpass.

Looking for the sshpass command on MacOS i get this message:

machine0:~ roberto$ brew search sshpass
We won't add sshpass because it makes it too easy for novice SSH users to
ruin SSH's security.

So what is an alternative to reproduce the sshpass behavior with minimal effort?

I need sshpass to store multiple ssh sessions in my iTerm profiles:

Even though Homebrew has blacklisted sshpass, you can still install it through third-party formula such as hudochenkov's:

brew install hudochenkov/sshpass/sshpass

There are several things to consider before doing this though:

It's a third-party formula which may not be updated as routinely as the brew core, so you could potentially miss out on key security updates.
SSHPass has been blocked for a reason, it's bad practice and there's likely to be a solution other than SSHPass - the page for SSHPass even states that:

  Most user should use SSH's more secure public key authentiaction instead

  Sourceforge


File Path on my NAS changing on Reboot Hey guys thanks in advance I can't find help for this anywhere outside of an old thread mentioning mDNSresponder causing the problem needing to be replaced with DiscoveryD.

They only recommend updating from Yosemite but I'm already running El Capitan.

Some background:
I have a Seagate NAS I auto connect to on my Mac via the log in items.

I keep it accessible in my dock and the file path appears not to change

However in my Torrent / Usenet clients the file path seems to increment everytime  the server disconnects / reconnects

Transmission

If I go to browse the previously mounted volumes booty-1 / booty-2 etc. are all just empty. Only the latest iteration contains my data and I have to choose these manually.

You can imagine how frustrating this must be! Would really appreciate whatever advice you can give, can't imagine I'm the first person to run up against this problem.

Unmount all volumes mounted on /Volumes/booty-1, /Volumes/booty-2, /Volumes/booty-3 etc.
sudo rmdir /Volumes/booty-[1-9]
Reboot your Mac or restart your NAS, whatever is more convenient


How to restore a late 2009 iMac after disk replacement My late-2009 iMac will get a new hard drive this week (thanks to Apple's replacement offer. Backup is on Time Machine so I'm not worried about data loss right now.

The system I get back from Apple will contain an empty hard disk only. So to restore  I'll have to boot with the original installation DVD which is Snow Leopard 10.6.4. and somehow upgrade my way up to Mountain Lion again.

What is a fast way to get back from there to a Mountain Lion setup? Ideally a recovery partition would be created as well during the process.

If you have some extra disk space to spare, I would recommend you to make an additional backup with SuperDuper (free for basic functionality, which is all you need in this case!):

You will create a bootable backup, from which you can then boot after you get the repaired Mac back. Test this backup by booting from it once (important) and play around a bit to see if everything feels as it should (improves gut feeling).

Then, you would use SuperDuper, which obviously also is on the backup you have just booted from, and use it to "backup" back to your freshly installed, empty hard drive.

UPDATE: To create the a recovery partition, you can use this useful hint from How can I create or recreate a Lion recovery partition?.

Upsides of this method: You can immediately boot from your external disk, where the bootable backup sits, and you do not have to freshly install Lion, then upgrade to Mountain Lion, and then restore from the Time Machine backup. Hope this helps!


Why is 1280x800 the best resolution for my MacBook Pro Retina 13"? When I go to display settings on my rMBP 13", it says that the "best for retina" resolution is 1280x800.

But when I go to display settings on a 13" MacBook Air it says that the native resolution is 1440x900.

Why would Apple put different display panels on two computers that are the same screen size?

The explanation on the Preferences panel is wrong and confusing. The Retina display doesn't actually run at 1280x800. Instead it just "looks like" it does.

A 13.3 inch screen running at 96dpi (pixels(dots) per inch) has a resolution of about 1280x800 and the 8pt font and other on screen elements are big enough for the eye to see. When you run a 13.3 at retina resolutions 2560x1800 the fonts are much much smaller and hard to look at, so OS X makes them as big as they were at 1280x800 but more detailed. You get to see the same thing as one would at 1280x800 but at much greater detail 226dpi instead of 96dpi.

Resolution is just a big "carpet" of dots, you have a fixed amount of them and you can make the dots bigger to cover more area. For example a 3840x2160 4K TV that is 48 inches wide diagonally has about 90 pixels per inch comparable to a normal desktop monitor. A 15 inch Retina Macbook Pro has 2800x1800 (a little less than the 4k tv) but they are packed smaller and closer together on a much smaller surface area, 15 inch wide instead of 48.


Purchasing an iPhone 6 in the United States - Using it in the United Kingdom I would like to purchase the new iPhone 6, but as I travel a lot between the US and the UK I have to make sure I buy a model that works well in both places. The idea is to buy an unlocked device so I could switch between American and British SIM cards.

I have come across a few articles that state there could be issues with connectivity as the model of the phones sold in US differ from those in the UK. A few of the articles are listed here.

MacWorld (read the second section of the article).
Reddit
Reddit

In essence, they say that the main issue is bandwidth. Different models tune into different bandwidths and not all carriers support the same bandwidth.

This page on the Apple website shows the different models, the bandwidths that they are suited for, and the carriers and the countries that support them. It says that the model A1586 (GSM) and model A1586 (CDMA) support the following LTE bands

1 (2100 MHz)
2 (1900 MHz)
3 (1800 MHz)
4 (AWS)
5 (850 MHz)
7 (2600 MHz)
8 (900 MHz)
13 (700c MHz)
17 (700b MHz)
18 (800 MHz)
19 (800 MHz)
20 (800 DD)
25 (1900 MHz)
26 (800 MHz)
28 (700 APT MHz)
29 (700 de MHz)
38 (TD 2600)
39 (TD 1900)
40 (TD 2300)
41 (TD 2500)

They also say the these bands are supported by the following UK carriers

3
EE
O2 (including Giffgaff)
Vodafone

Here we see the specification of the iPhone 6 model sold in the UK which says the following LTE bands are supported:

LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25)

Which brings me to 2 questions:

If I buy a model A1586 (GSM) or model A1586 (CDMA) will I have good
connectivity in both the US and the UK?
Is there a difference between the GSM and CDMA model?

You must buy the GSM model if you plan to use it in UK. There you could only buy this model because all carriers across Europe using GSM technology. If you visit UK Apple Store, you can only buy that model. Check Tech Specs.

If you are on US, you need a sim card from a carrier that use a GSM network like AT&T or T-Mobile. Check this article if you want to read more: CDMA vs. GSM: What's the Difference?.


How to see progress of download started in the terminal When downloading software via the terminal is there a way to see the download progress?

I kicked off a download via the terminal and I can't tell if it's progressing or stuck.

Another option is to install wget (e.g. with Homebrew), which has more user-friendly defaults than curl, including displaying an ASCII-art progress bar.

For example:

> brew install wget
> wget google.com
Saving to: 'index.html'
...
index.html                      [ <=>              ]  10.32K  --.-KB/s in 0.001s

2016-05-17 12:55:06 (8.08 MB/s) - 'index.html' saved [10563]


How can I stream all audio from my Mac to my Android phone? I'm sick of switching my headphone jack from my Mac to phone and vice versa. Is there any way to stream all audio playing on my Mac to my Android phone, so I can hear any audio from either my Mac or my phone through the same pair of headphones, at the same time?

Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil will do what you want. Run Airfoil on your Mac and the Airfoil Speakers app on your Android device.

Alternatively, there may be free solutions. The protocol used by Apple devices to send audio to e.g. AppleTV and Airport Express devices is called Airplay and has been reverse-engineered by projects such as Shairport. There may be an Android app which emulates this protocol to make your phone into an Airplay destination. However you'll have to search carefully as the more common implementation is to enable the Android device to send audio to the AppleTV etc.


Windows 10 Boot Camp on Mac mini Fusion Drive is running very slow. How to replace HDD / upgrade disk to SSD without reinstalling OS? Hardware:
- Mac mini (late 2014)
- Core-i5
- 8GB

Logical drive:
- Fusion Drive 1,15TB

Physical drives:
- 128GB PCIe
- 1000GB HDD

Partitions and systems:
- 250GB HFS+ macOS High Sierra
- 850GB NTFS Boot Camp Windows 10

Scenario:
macOS is running fine but Windows startup takes many minutes. Overall system performance is also unacceptable. Need to quickly replace 1TB HDD with an SSD without unpairing a Fusion Drive nor reinstalling any OS. How to do it?

I backed up all my data first so I could try a couple of methods before I found the right one described below.

I carefully replaced the original internal Apple HDD with the same capacity ADATA SU800 1TB SSD. Lack of a special T6 Security Torx Screwdriver was a little problem but I luckily could brake out security pins from the chassis screws, making all of them a regular torx (though I strongly recommend buying a proper screwdriver on eBay as well as the logic board removal tool instead of my laundry wire hanger, especially if your Mac is still covered by a warranty). A detailed instruction of disassembling a Mac mini is available on iFixit.
When the SSD was already inside (I didn't touch a PCIe disk at all), I attached the old HDD as an external drive through a USB enclosure and booted up from an external optical drive with an Acronis True Image HD bootable DVD (you can try another such third party software but I found that cloning a Boot Camp Partition with the Apple Disk Utility doesn't work well).
Then I cloned the whole HDD with the "as is" option to the new SSD without automatic resizing! (SSD was a little bit bigger so I tried that but the result of such attempt was a Fusion Drive malfunction, no access to a Recovery Partition and impossibility to update macOS because of an error). Still don't try any action with a PCIe partition!
After complete operation, disconnection of external drives and restart, the mini instantly started up exactly the same as before the disk replacement. Both operating systems are running properly but many, many times faster.
Finally, just in case boot in a macOS Recovery Mode and perform a Disk Repair of a Fusion Drive and a Macintosh HD partition as well. Excluding one possible warning about some small capacity mismatch, all operations should finish successfully and you should be able to update macOS to the latest version without error.


Can't erase SSD on main bay I have a MacBook Pro mid 2011.
I've installed a SSD on the main bay, removed the optical drive and installed a caddy with the a regular HDD on it.
The OS was installed on the SSD.
This setup works fine!

Last week I had to force a shut down by pressing and holding the power button. After that, my system didn't boot.
(a question mark apperars)

I install El Capitan again on my HDD and right now I'm trying to format/erase/restart my SSD.

If I change hard drives places (putting SSD in the caddy and HD on main bay) it works… I can erase the SSD, reformat, etc, using Disk Utility.

But with the HDD on caddy and the SSD on the main bay, my mac dont recognize my SDD and I can't erase, or format it.

My goal here is to reinstall El Capitan on SSD using it on the main bay because its faster and have a better performance.

Does anybody have an idea about it?

First, make sure it's not just a regular connectivity problem. I used to have an older MBP that displayed the same symptoms every now and then (with the stock HDD). Whenever it threw question-marks or missing file-system symbols at boot-time; I'd just pop it out, blow it like an old Nintendo cartridge, and pop it back in. If that's not the problem;

Make sure your AC adapter is plugged in and connected to your Mac.
Turn your Mac on, by hitting the power button, as per usual.
Press and hold:  ⌘ Command+R until you see the
 Apple logo or the OS X Utilities.
First off; you can try repairing and/or erasing your drive etc. via the Disk Utility.
Finally; if all else fails, just select Reinstall OS X and follow the prompts.
The installer requires Internet Access. You can choose a network from the Wi-Fi Menu.
(top-right).


Search for files in external storage in Finder (and if possible, Spotlight as well) I have an external drive connected to my computer, as well as a home server.

I'm trying to search for a file that is on the server, but when I do a finder search, it only looks into the internal drive. I've tried it with my external drive, and same thing happens -- it does not look there.

You can add the Volume to your Spotlight index.

Go to System Preferences then to Spotlight.

Click on the Privacy tab Click the + button and browse to your
external drive to add it
Now, remove the drive you just added by selecting it and clicking
the minus "-" button. (Yes, I know, crazy right! But this tells
Spotlight that the Volume exists.)
Close Spotlight Preferences.

Source: Apple Support - Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes.


Is there any way to force the Mac to not to log me out after ten minutes? With this setting on the Mac Mini:

The screensaver comes on the screen turns off after ten minutes or so. This has just happened three times running.

Is there another setting which makes the Mac keep me logged in, with applications running?

Cleverly, it shuts down Apple Music, which loses its place (usually -- while reproducing the bug I left Safari foregrounded on the draft of this question, and the Mac was stopped short of killing Apple Music by the edit page's "discard" prompt -- but the screensaver still came on, with password). When I log back in, it's off the track I was listening to when the Mac lost the plot, and back on the default urgent advertisement for Taylor Swift.

Your power saver settings might be overriding this. Set them such that display is not turned off for a longer time.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202824

Additionally, you should check "Logout after n minutes" in Security and  Privacy-> General -> Advanced.


What do I need to set up two DVI monitors on a 2011 Mac mini? As a software developer who recently bought an iPhone, I knew it was just a matter of time before I started dicking around in the iOS apps space. Today Apple released a new line of Mac minis and I am going to buy one. I'd like to just buy a KVM switch and flip between my current two monitor PC setup and the Mac. What kind of adapters do I need for the Mac mini to be able to take two DVI outs?

I've been told that I can use a mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter with the Thunderbolt port then just a HDMI to DVI in the HDMI port, is that possible?

I've been told that I can use a mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter with the Thunderbolt port then just a HDMI to DVI in the HDMI port, is that possible?

That's what I do with a 2010 mini (MDP instead of TB).

Yes, it works perfectly.

The tricky part comes if you want three monitors. For that, you need to be sure to buy the video-boosted Mini model that has discrete graphics, or use a (slow) USB video adapter for the third screen. But for two, any modern mini is fine out of the box.


Monitor is not recognized via a KVM switch I'm unable to get my MacBook Pro to connect to my LG monitor via a KVM switch. A direct connection to the monitor works. The KVM does report the correct EDID information (as testing via Linux), but on OSX I can't see the display at all when connected this way.

macOS Sierra 10.12.15
DisplayPort->DVI Adapter (Apple)
LG W2443T
UNICLASS 4-Port DVI

I've used the command ioreg -lw0 -r -c "IODisplayConnect" to get information about the connected monitors. When connected directly I see both monitors. Via the KVM only one appears.

Is there some way to force the OS to find/use this external second monitor.

The KVM shows a connection to the MacBook (blinking light stops blinking). The keyboard/mouse connection work fine.

The issue appears to be an incompatibility in the DVI Cable types. I was using a DVI-D dual link cable and swapped it out for a DVI-D Single link one. My monitor is connected to the KVM also with a DVI-D single link.

I presume somehow the MacBook was detecting dual link support, though the KVM does not support it I believe. By switching the cable I guess I forced the entire chain to be recognized as single link only.


Can you please explain how the terminal prompt works? I've got a question about the prompt in Mac's Terminal.
I opened Terminal and was installing GIT. I don't know anything about Unix or how to use Terminal, so please forgive my ignorance. (I know that Terminal is very powerful, though. And it's easy to screw things up!)

The prompt reads as follows:

Macintosh-2:~ myname$

What does the Macintosh-2 mean? I've never seen this in front of a Terminal prompt.

Do you think that my mac is okay? What happened to the standard prompt?

It's your computer hostname. You can see and edit the value in "System Preferences -> Sharing -> Computer Name".

The prompt of the default shell (bash) can be changed by overriding the PS1 environment value.

# will show >
export PS1='>'

# will show the hostname followed by a space and >
export PS1='\s >'

These values are entered in a file called .bash_profile located in the root of your home directory (e.g., /Users/yourname/ or ~/). The period before the file name effectively hides it. You can read more about unix hidden files here.

You can see the complete list of special characters (e.g., \s) in the manual page of bash (your default shell).

Type man bash in the terminal and scroll down to the PROMPTING section. And if you'd like to unlock their potential, head on over to Prompt Magic and play around.


While moving files in Finder, how to prevent the files from hiding the target folder? When you want to move a group of files in Finder in column mode, you first select the group, then drag the group to a target folder. The problem is that the files hide the target folder, and in column mode, you have to put the mouse cursor over the file name. Sometimes, the files fade a little, get out of the way, and a red label with the total number of files is displayed. I don't know when this happens, but this solves the problem, because nothing is displayed near the cursor. Also, sometimes the files are not moved away from the cursor, but there is still a red label displaying the number of files.

Is there a way to force the dragged files to be always displayed in a compact, faded way, with the red label indicating the number of elements being moved ? If it is not possible, when does this happen exactly ?

After selecting the group of files. Position your cursor (not the item in column) inside the column area where your target folder is located. Wait for a few seconds for the list of selected items to fade away right to the mouse cursor.

Instead of using column view, I recommend DragonDrop to make moving files between folders easier.


Write a function in zshrc that can take a parameter and can handle flags I usually need a chrome page opened to localhost:3000 when I am developing. So, I just run the following cmd:
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --app=http://localhost:3000

Since I use this frequently and sometimes my port changes. I want to write a function in zsh where ch will open chrome in localhost:3000 while ch 2500 will open chrome in localhost:2500.

So far, this is what I have managed to do:

ch () {
    command "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome"
}

This opens a new chrome window but displays an error/warning in the console: /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleGVA/AppleGVA-9.1.12/Sources/Slices/Driver/AVD_loader.cpp: failed to get a service for display 3

But when I add a flag:

ch () {
    command "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome --app=http://localhost:3000"
}

Nothing happens and I end up getting an error:
ch:1: no such file or directory: /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome --app=http://localhost:3000

The reason it does not work with the added flag is that you added the flag within the double quotes, essentially telling zsh that it is part of the command name. The only reason any quotes are needed is that the path to and name of Google Chrome contain whitespaces. Whitespaces are used by zsh (and any other Unix shell) as separator between words. Quoting a string tells zsh that it should be interpreted as a single word, no matter how many whitespaces (or other syntactic elements) are in it.

One way to do this correctly is:

ch () {
    "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome" --app=http://localhost:${1:-3000}
}

Here only the path to Google Chrome is quoted, while the flag is separate.
The keyword command is not necessary. It would only tell zsh to use an external command instead of a function or alias of the same name, which is most likely not a risk here (The alias or function would have to be named "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome")
${1:-3000} is substituted with the first parameter ($1) passed to ch. If it is undefined or has a null-value (e.g. "") "3000" will be substituted instead. So running

ch 2500

will open Chrome on http://localhost:2500, but running

ch

will open Chrome on http://localhost:3000.


Accidently deleted some small sized partitions when installing WIndows(Bootcamp). OSX Partition wont boot I tried to install Windows 8 into my Mac via Bootcamp. I booted into the Windows 8 Installer and had issues formatting the drive that I partitioned for the OS.

Like an idiot, I deleted all of the partitions on my hard drive, except my main OSX partition. I believe the partitions I deleted were 600MB, 3MB, 1GB(Not sure if they were this large). But im certain I deleted one that was 600MB.

After exiting out of the Windows installer, I booted up  my Mac again only see the Windows partition as an option. When I go into recovery mode, I see the partition still there, but I cant really interact with it. Does anyone know what I need to do to make my OSX partition bootable again? I went into DU(Recovery Mode) and tried mounting through DU but nothing happens.

The image shows my "diskutil list" output. My OSX partition is disk0s1. I am stuck and don’t want to lose my data/am trying to boot into my machine again.

The snap shot of the distutil output helps, but I would have also included the output from the commands:

sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

Either command would give me the exact start and size of disk0s1. I have read that the EFI partition is not necessary  to boot to OS X. My recovery flash drive does not have an EFI partition and I can boot using it. To create the image you posted, you had to boot your computer and that image does not show a EFI partition either.

The image shows me two things wrong. First, you are suppose to have a GPT partition scheme and what is shown is MBR. (Yes, I know, the letters MBR do not appear in the picture.) Second, the "0xAC" appears where there should be either "0xAF" or "Apple_HFS". This means you probably have a Core Storage partition. I assume you have installed Yosemite.

Assuming your partition is still intact and is a Core Storage partition, then do the following.

First: Run the above commands to get the start and size of the slice. Post something, if you can not understand the output.

Second: Reset the partition scheme back to GPT. Enter the commands:

sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0
sudo gpt create -f /dev/disk0

Third: Restore the desired partition. Assume start and size represent the integers from the first step, enter the commands:

sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0
sudo gpt add -b start -s size -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

At this point, you should be able to enter the ls command to see a directory listing. If not, check the disk utility to see if the partition is mounted.

Fourth, try to boot the computer. You may need to hold down the option key at startup.

If you can access the partition and even boot the computer, you are not out of the woods yet. You will probably need to backup your stuff and reload the computer from scratch. Yes, reloading can be avoided, but that is the subject for a different question.

Also, you probably want to change the Core Storage partition back to HFS+. See if you can get the computer to boot, then we can address this problem.


Execute command on launch of custom Terminal Window in OSX10.5+ I'm trying to find a way to automatically launch a command when Terminal is run, but:

Have the Terminal window close after command has returned control to it / after (using &) after command has started launching.
Not have the user change any settings themselves / not have the settings changed globally.

I have found (mainly from a relatively very comprehensive write-up on http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/unix3/mac/ch01_03.htm) the ability to create a .terminal file and edit the contents (plist) to contain xml like the below.

    <key>ExecutionString</key>
    <string>ssh xyzzy.oreilly.com; exit</string>

However:

Given the date of other postings (on google) showing this functionality
The fact that the procedure which I eventually found to create custom Terminal windows, was subtly different from the instructions in the article above
The fact that (at least with OSX10.5) they are now .term files (and complain that the file is not executable if changed to .terminal)

... am guessing that some version of OSX, post all the information I can find on this technique, changed this functionality. Is this correct in any version of OSX 10.5+?

Also, is there still a way to launch a command automatically in a custom terminal window (or similar, that isn't AppleScript / Automater / etc)?

ExecutionString was changed to CommandString
Use it in the same way. When you do a Shell > Export Settings… it outputs a .terminal file. In my file it is located immediately after

<key>BackgroundSettingsForInactiveWindows</key>
<true/>
<key>CommandString</key>
<string>/blah/blah/blah/blah.sh run</string>

(MountainLion 10.8.5)

So then you would run the following command from terminal or a script…

open ~/Documents/blah.terminal


External monitor showing greenish shadow I've got a macbook pro 2011 and am using a mini-display to dvi adapter to hook up a ViewSonic monitor (Viewsonic VX2450WM-LED 24-Inch).  Problem is this greenish shadow showing up for certain hues of white, I'm not sure what it is or how to fix it.

I've tried multiple mini display to dvi adapters and DVI cables with no change.  As far as I know DVI is the best I can do on this monitor, and I've tried all the display color settings possible (including calibrating) and nothing gets rid of the hue.
Any idea what causes this?

Determining the cause of display issues is generally a basic troubleshooting task, performing substitution on components until the faulty component is determined:

replace cables (you've already done this)
use the monitor on a different computer
use a different monitor on the same computer

In this case, you've used a different monitor on the same machine and found that when using the same cables, the different monitor is not showing the color changes, therefore the monitor has the issue.


Folders wont remove from finder sidebar (El capitan bug) I have a folder in my finder sidebar under favourites.

I moved, then also renamed, the folder that points to (without removing it from the finder sidebar).

Now I want to remove it from finder favourites (via right click, remove from sidebar), but finder won't let me, this seems to be disabled.  What should I do?

Hmmm...  I just tried to remove a folder that I hadn't removed or renamed, and the situation is the same.

What worked for me was going to finder/preferences/sidebar, and unchecking then re-checking my user name folder (the offending folders did not appear there), which had the effect of making the offending folders disappear.


How to delete all voice memos stored on iphone in one go? The Voice Memo app makes deleting several/all memos rather cumbersome as there doesn't seem to be an option to select all at once. SO how to delete all voice memos stored on my iPhone in one go?

If you don't use iCloud to sync your voice memos you can delete the Voice Memo app (same as any other app deletion) and redownload it from the App Store. This will delete any Voice Memos stored only on the phone.


How to compile an app on Xcode without developer account as you know from Xcode 7 and onwards it's possible to compile an app for your device.

Yesterday I tried to compile Kodi on Xcode 7. It says it's possible to compile with Xcode 7 without any developer account in the readme too..

Here is the problem though. I previously had a developer account. Now it's expired.

So when I open up the Xcode I saw that my account is already there with description "Free"..

When I click View Details.. though:

So, there is a iOS developer certificate. But no provision profile. And when I try to compile it says "No matching provisioning profiles found: No provisioning profiles matching an applicable signing identity were found."

It's not possible to fix this error too.. Even when I click Fix Issue in General tab, it says "An App with identifier "org.xbmc.kodi-ios" is not available. Please enter a different string."

How could I create a provisioning profile for this app? Actually for all apps with "*" ?

Is it possible that I could start over this process somehow?!? It may be because I had a developer account before ( and I still have as a member but that's not active )

How could I self sign this app?

Try changing the identifier to something unique to you, like "net.plato.kodi-ios" and then try having Xcode fix the issue.
I eventually got Kodi to compile on my own after tweaking some of the provisioning settings, but I have active developer profiles and haven't ever done anything with the free account.
There have been limits on the number of free apps you can sign. See this link to stack overflow if you run into errors.

Xcode Error: Unable to install app (Error Code: Code: -402620383)


How to download iPadOS 13 simulator for Xcode? I have application in Xcode and I need to test it on iPadOS 13. But I can not find any hint how to set up iPadOS simulator. I can run iOS 13 on simulator but I want to try my app on iPadOS 13 simulator. Is there any way to achieve this?

Xcode 11.3 supports developing apps for iOS 13.3, iPadOS 13.3, tvOS 13.3, watchOS 6.1, and macOS Catalina 10.15.2.

So make sure you have Xcode 11.3, which is available for

  a Mac running macOS Mojave 10.14.4 or later.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode_release_notes/xcode_11_3_release_notes?language=objc

Also, make a simulator if not already there in Window menu →  Devices and Simulators window. Choose device and it should show available iOS/iPadOS. If not present, hit "Download more simulator runtimes" and see if it shows up in the list.

https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/devf225e58da
https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/deva7379ae35


Why can I set VLC as my default browser? I have Yosemite 10.10.2 installed; in my System Preferences > General, my default browser selection allows me to choose VLC. Why does this happen and can it be removed?

It's probably because VLC supports generic http URLs.  If you want to experiment, proceed with caution.

First, make a backup copy of /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/Info.plist and put it in a safe place.

Then, using a text editor such as emacs or vi (not TextEdit.app !), remove the following lines:

            <dict>
                    <key>CFBundleURLIconFile</key>
                    <string>generic</string>
                    <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
                    <string>http url</string>
                    <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
                    <array>
                            <string>http</string>
                    </array>
            </dict>

This should be enough to convince the OS that VLC should not be used as a browser; although I don't know what (if anything) will break in VLC.  You may need to reboot in order to see the effects of the plist change as well.

If things are unstable after that, you can restore the backed up Info.plist file to /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/Info.plist in order to return to the way things used to be.


Any issues upgrading a MacBookPro4,1 (Early 2008) to Lion? I have a MacBookPro4,1 (Early 2008) with the following specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
4 GB RAM

I know that this model is supported by Lion but I'd like to know by people who has already performed the upgrade if:

they've noticed a performance degradation after the upgrade
if there are any other gotchas when upgrading

I upgraded my MacBook Pro 3,1 (late 2007) with 6GB RAM to Lion. There are no specific problems, but note that the trackpad cannot use multi-touch gestures. Also, the networking circuitry in my MacBook Pro does not support AirDrop, so I can't use that. I noticed inconsistent behavior with keyboard backlighting on my model with Lion, but since I have never seen the need for that feature, I just disabled it altogether.