How to completely disable Ubiquity (iCloud syncing?) in Mavericks or above? I'm trying to debug a strange problem that is causing a Mac to unpredictably switch off instantly without warning. Looking at logs, the entries most recent before this last happened were to do with ubiquity, which I gather is to do with iCloud syncing (specifically, mmcs_engine_create, which I can't find any relevant info about), and TALagent, which I think might have been monitoring the live-ness of ubiquity.

The user doesn't use iCloud, so I'd like to completely disable it and related services to see if that stops the issue recurring. I've found guides on how to disable iCloud in Lion but the steps don't apply to Mavericks or above, and I'm struggling to find steps (it seems like Apple don't want to encourage users to disable iCloud, presumably because they hope to encourage its adoption).

Looking at answers to How to completely uninstall iCloud?, it suggests simply signing out of iCloud to "disable" it, but the user in question has never signed in to iCloud, so there's nothing to sign out of (yet the logs show Ubiquity still periodically runs).

(Mavericks answers would be ideal, but upgrading the OS might be an option, though I'd have to work around other compatibility issues, so Yosemite answers would be better than nothing)

There isn't an "ubiquity" you can simply disable IMO. I would exhaust other avenues of solving this problem. Random shutdowns are irritating, but the best thing I have is to train the user to:

Get sysdiagnose each time it happens. (or right after the reboot / when the problem is noticed)
Log the date and time of the error on a piece of paper

Establish that you will review the results every 10 instances. Once you have 10 to 30 reports, you'll know quite certainly if there is a pattern or if there isn't. Also, you'll have enough logs to report a bug to Apple or open a ticket to get AppleCare (or whomever you pay for support) to look at the details and get a fix/suggestion. Without data, you'll be chasing phantoms and get so desperate you'll want to cut out the guts (or hopefully just an unused appendix) of an OS in hopes it will help.


Does iOS 9.3.5 prohibit iBooks syncing via iCloud? Is there anything that would prevent me from syncing iBooks with iCloud in iOS 9.3.5 on an iPad 2?

I have a working iCloud account in good standing, with three devices connected: an iPhone SE (MP832B/A running iOS 12.3.1), a MacBook Pro (17" Mid-2010 running 10.13.6, build 17G7024) and an iPad 2 3rd generation (MC705B/A running iOS 9.3.5 build 13G36). I have 5GB of storage on the iCloud account, about 2.3GB of which is iBooks in EPUB and PDF formats. The account is at less than 50% of used capacity overall.

My MacBook Pro and iPhone SE both sync iBooks without issue, new arrivals and removals typically take place within the iBooks application on macOS 10.13.6. Any changes are reflected on the other device within a short time, and work as expected.

My iPad does not make any attempt to download iBooks stored in my iCloud account. I am signed into iCloud, I have enabled iBooks in the iCloud Drive settings, and when I open iBooks on my iPad I am asked to sign in…which I do, with the same account as my iCloud account (i.e. there is no disparity between the account used in iCloud and iBooks specifically.

I have reset the iPad numerous times, no change. I have logged in and out of iCloud repeatedly to trigger a download, no change. What else would be worth trying?

iOS 9.3.5 is too old to sync correctly. See @ankiiiiiii's comment and the linked thread.


Update iPhone 4S before activation I work in an IT department and I am moving large amount of people from their iPhone 4 to a new iPhone 4S. What currently happens is the person who is getting an upgrade comes in, activates the handset and I can then update it. I then add everything that they need on the phone from the iphone configuration utility and the appstore which involves them needing to be there to enter usernames/passwords.

This is all fine apart from it takes quite a bit of time out of the person's schedule. I feel it would be a much better approach if I was able to update all the phones beforehand and then have the recipient activate the phone. This would save on the large amount of time that is spent waiting for the phones to update, which is important when the recipients have very little time spare as they have incredibly busy schedules and getting the time required can be quite a squeeze.

Is there anyway I can update first or am I out of luck?

Note: We are using Windows so the Apple Configurator isn't an option

You are forced to activate the phones OTA or via iTunes before you can sync apps over the 30 pin connector or access iCloud or the App Store on iOS.

You can put the devices into recovery mode and update the OS from iTunes to get part of the way there.

Just because you're a windows shop, don't assume you won't come out ahead getting the configurator and a computer to use as an appliance for saving you valuable time in setting up the devices your employees are using. I understand not wanting to fight a battle with limited time, but this might be a nice time to branch out and come out ahead in experience and tools.

If I were in your situation, I would have each employee make iCloud and ensure the device is backed up to iCloud to do the migration. You can be there to guide them, but they are responsible for moving their data and settings to their new devices. (Your comment about data privacy means iCloud is clearly not something you want so I understand that with sensitive data but perhaps others can rely on that when they have a similar problem)

You can update all the new devices to iOS 5.1.1 and they can get help from you if they can't get their devices up to that level or backed up before they arrive for their exchange.


What must I check after I got my new refurbished MacBook Pro 13"? My friend wants to buy new refurbished MacBoook Pro 13" mid 2014 MGX72 in Malaysia. He's afraid of defects. So he needs advice on how to check whether it has problem or not. If it has, he must report it as soon as possible to the Apple Reseller where he bought it in Malaysia, before going home to Indonesia.

I know this site is not for a question of which Mac I should buy, but I ask about technical advice on how to check a new refurbished MacBook Pro 13" after I got it, so if it has any problem I can detect it and report it soon, so I won't have any problems when I'm home.

What I currently know is only check whether the display doesn't have dead pixel, and checking the battery (is it running up to around 9-10 hours as promised and calibrate it).

What else should I test?

A simple answer, start the MacBook and hold down the D key when you hear the startup chime. This will start the built-in diagnostics and any problems that are found will be listed here. Apple link here.


How to remove configuration profiles (.mobileconfig files) using MDM? I am trying to remove a configuration profile that I previously installed on a device, using MDM. I am able to get the list of the installed profiles using the ProfileList command. I have no issues when trying to remove an old .mobileconfig file on a supervised device, but when I attempt to remove the same .mobileconfig file on a non-supervised device, I get the following error: The profile “xxxx” is not managed by MDM.

Despite this, Apple's documentation states that removing profiles using MDM is only possible if the profile has been installed through MDM (which is not the case for supervised devices).

My Question is: Is there a way to remove an old configuration profile that I previously installed on a non-supervised device that also hasn't been installed through MDM, using MDM? (to me, it makes sense that I should be able to, because at the end of the day, I distributed that profile on other people's devices and I am the owner of that .mobileconfig file...)

Thanks in advance

Distribute the same profile with identifier say 'apple.mdm.MyProfile1' through MDM and remove the same identifier using RequestType RemoveProfile.


iCloud Keychain refuses to setup on Catalina I'm running the macOS Catalina public beta on a partition of my 2012 MacBook Air. I've been trying to get iCloud Keychain to work (the only thing holding me back from upgrading my main partition), but when I click Set Up it asks me to setup 2FA, then, when I deny (because I don't have an iPhone yet and it would be really annoying) it says "Are you sure?" and then when I say yes it just says "Setting up" which continues for eternity. I've checked on my other device (2011 iMac running High Sierra) and there are no popups or anything. Video of my troubles.
I have come up with three hypothesise:

Keychain now requires 2FA
It's a bug
I am being stupid

If it turns out to be the third one, what am I doing wrong?
System specs:

If you see an error like this and cannot continue, one easy fix is to sign out of iCloud and then sign back in.

I'm still perplexed and not sure what ithe dialog wants to Upgrade since my password contains all the correct characters and I already have had two-factor auth on my account since it came out. :D

Also, if the date / time is off, you might check that if you get iCloud errors or can't sign back in once you sign out.


iTunes home sharing, between 2 iTunes accounts, but 2 way? The situation is that I have an iTunes library and account and my girlfriend also has an iTunes library and account in her name (on a separate machine).

While there is some overlap in our libraries we would like to be able to add music from the other's library to our own, can iTunes home sharing be used for this? Whilst maintaining separate iTunes accounts?

(I have only ever used home sharing to sync 2 libraries using the same iTunes account)

You can use separate iTunes accounts, but the HomeSharing account must be the same. You will need to authorize each other's computers/devices with both iTunes accounts in order to play back content purchased under the other account.


How to link notes in macOS Notes application? Is it possible to link to another notes in macOS Notes Application? For example I want to add in link to "Note2" from "Note1". So I click on the link, it will take me to that note.

If you click on the “Add People” button in the top right corner, it will take you to a version of the iOS Share Sheet. Choose “Copy Link” and then select “Copy Link” again in the top right corner.

It will upload the note to your iCloud and give you a URL. Still trying to figure out how to get the “ID” from the link to use mobilenotes:// (since that would be easier).


How to remove MacOS and install Ubuntu I have an Intel based Macbook pro and I want to get rid of MacOS. Now this video by At Tech says you can just boot from usb which has Ubuntu and then clean hard disk i.e. Erase disk and install Ubuntu this is all you need
Now my question is: On Startup will my macbook automatically boot me in Ubuntu or I need to install some custom recovery like refind or something else?
model: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) - https://support.apple.com/kb/SP704

The Grub boot files installed by Ubuntu are compatible with the Mac Startup Manager. While the Mac should automatically boot Ubuntu, you can also select to always boot from Ubuntu by holding down the option key at startup, then selecting the icon label EFI Boot. After doing so, the Mac should boot Ubuntu by default.
I assume here your MacBook Pro is a newer model that would capable of 64 bit EFI booting Ubuntu and have at least 4 GB of memory. If not, then you should update your question.
I also assume here your Mac does not have the T2 chip. If your Mac has the T2 chip, then you have to remove Secure Boot and allow External Boot. Some releases of Ubuntu can not be installed on the internal drive of newer Intel Macs. If this is the case with your Mac, then you will need to install to an USB drive.
You can install the rEFInd boot manager if you wish, but consider this. The firmware on the Mac logic board contains a boot loader and boot manager. Ubuntu will by default install Grub, which is also a boot loader and boot manager. (Although in this case, the boot manager will operate silently.) Installing a rEFInd as a third boot manager is not necessary.


Unwanted GRUB on macOS High Sierra While installing Linux Mint 19 to a USB, I managed to get GRUB installed on my Mac hard drive. I can still boot to the macOS if I hold the Option key down.

How can I remove GRUB and revert my Mac hard drive back to booting with macOS?

I am fully backed up and if necessary can reformat and restore.

Assuming you did not create any new partitions on your Mac, then Grub will only exist in the hidden EFI partition. If there is no evidence of Grub in the Startup Manager menu, then you can just leave the Grub files on the EFI partition.

You can make macOS the default by holding down the control key before selecting macOS in the Startup Manager menu.

If Grub does appear in the Startup Manager, then you can fix this by removing the EFI/BOOT folder from the hidden EFI volume. To make this volume visible in the Finder, execute the following command.

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1


How can I uninstall PHP 5.4 and 5.5? I'm new to PHP and Apache and I think I've messed some things up that I don't know how to fix. After following a tutorial I managed to update to PHP 5.5, and then started having problems. I went to downgrade to PHP 5.4, but then I had more problems, so I tried to re-update to PHP 5.5 and now it's saying it's already installed. However, when I reload my my_phpinfo.php (localhost address) in Firefox, it only shows that I'm running PHP version 5.3.15 which is what I started out with originally.

Can someone give me step by step instructions on how to go in and delete all the PHP 5.4 and 5.5 files I've updated so I can just start over with a clean slate and re-download PHP 5.5 and start again?

I'm assuming that the deployment/install script was put at /usr/local/packager/packager.py when it was installed. Apparently, you can use this script to list the packages that are installed:

/usr/local/packager/packager.py list

Unfortunately, the script that you used to install PHP doesn't appear to have an uninstall feature. However, you should be able to remove the installed content that was installed from /usr/local. It is probably a good idea to examine the contents of the /usr/local directory first to confirm the contents:

ls -al /usr/local

From what I can see, the script is installing the software with prefixes like "php5-*", and is linking to the 'current' version of that software using a symbolic link named "php5". The commands below will unlink the symlink, and remove the installed versions of PHP that were installed using the script mentioned above:

sudo unlink /usr/local/php5
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/php5-*

To remove the supplemental configuration file that was installed with the updated PHP software, you may be able to remove the config file at /etc/apache2/other/+php-osx.conf:

sudo rm -rf /etc/apache2/other/+php-osx.conf

Then restart Apache:

sudo apachectl restart

Note: the /usr/local folder shouldn't have much inside of it unless you've installed 3rd party software there. You may find a few PHP installs there that have names like "php5-5.3.x...", "php5-5.4.x...", and "php5-5.5.x...". The rm command above should remove any variants of this naming scheme. Removing the additional Apache configuration file should allow Apache to start normally after the module has been removed.


How can I mirror one Mac's screen to another? Here's the situation: I have a MacBook Air that I'd like to mirror the display (and audio) of to a Mac Mini, via WiFi.

It is completely possible to mirror the MacBook Air to an Apple TV (using "AirPlay Mirroring"), but I'd like to know if it's possible to do the same thing between two Macs, even if it means using third-party software.

More detail: the Mac Mini is connected to a screen only, there's no mouse & keyboard attached, so a solution that involves manually starting some software on it (e.g. Remote Desktop) is no good; I'd like something that just sits quietly and takes over the screen when it receives something from the MacBook.

You can install the program "AirServer" on the Mac Mini to be able to AirPlay the display directly to it:

http://www.airserver.com/Download


Move item from iCloud keychain to normal keychain Is there any way that I can move an iCloud keychain item, in particular an internet account, to a normal keychain? Moving items between keychains usually works with drag and drop, but I cannot drag an item from iCloud keychain to another keychain. I can start dragging, but the items then disappears from my cursor. I am also happy with a command line solution.

I am using OS X 10.11.2 (El Capitan).

From comments, it appears Apple may have forgotten to include drag & drop - or maybe it's intentional…

Either way - you can right click Copy, then change to the Login keychain & right click Paste.

You can then delete the original.

You will need to re-grant access to Safari by inspecting the item [double click] selecting the access tab & adding Safari to the list of programs.


iOS 11.3 & iTunes 12.7.3 - any way out? I've been resisting moving to iTunes 12.7 as Apple have removed functionality & are insisting on far greater reliance on OTA than I am happy with.

iTunes 12.6.3 was touted as the 'opt out' version which kept Apps locally yet was capable of handling iOS 11.

As of iOS 11.3 this appears to no longer be the case & it is insisting on updating to iTunes 12.7.3 [even though I'm aware 12.7.4 is out] in order to update the iOS.

Is there any way round this; or does 12.7.3/4 restore any of the old functionality?
I remember the trouble I had originally reverting to 12.6 after falling for the 12.7 'upgrade' last year & don't want to have to repeat that if I can avoid it.

< rant> I really am becoming quite disenchanted with Apple & their insistence on dumbing down each successive version of both Apps & OS < /rant>

I suppose I'd also be happy with "Use 12.7.4, it really is better because..."

I may have found a workaround, rather than a solution...

I kept iTunes 12.6.3 & did the iOS 11.3 update OTA.
iTunes can still sync/backup & still keeps the older apps features operable.

I imagine this workaround will fail the first time I need to set up a new iDevice or restore from a backup.


Log file that `sudo last` accesses? The bash command last (needs sudo) prints out logs, which contain information on when different users log in/out of the shell.

I have been looking for the file that stores this information, that last would access. I have checked /var/log/system.log and other files within /var/log.

I have looked everywhere on the internet as well, and cannot find the location.

I have, however, confirmed that the file is within /var/log, because when I did rm -rf /var/log/, sudo last showed empty output until the next time I logged in.

Which file is it? Thanks.

(I am using OS X Mavericks if it makes a difference.)

The file (executable) in question is /var/run/syslog

If we execute man last we get

SEE ALSO
     lastcomm(1), utmpx(5), ac(8)

We can find utmpx in the /var/run directory  Utmpx is a user accounting database of current login information.  The key here is this statement found in the man page for utmpx

  Traditionally, separate files would be used to store the running log
  of the logins and logouts (wtmpx),
       and the last login of each user (lastlogx).  With the availability of the Apple system log facility
       asl(3), these separate files can be replace with log entries, which are automatically generated when
       utmpx entries are written.

So, utmpx is generating log entries to the OS X's syslog function.   Execute the following command:

syslog | grep 'login\['

And you will get a list of all login events since the OS was installed (truncated)

May 26 17:03:12 Allans-iMac login[5572] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 5572 ttys003
May 26 17:26:15 Allans-iMac login[5572] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 5572 ttys003
May 27 10:10:57 Allans-iMac login[5196] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 5196 ttys002
May 27 10:10:58 Allans-iMac login[4741] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 4741 ttys001
May 27 10:11:18 Allans-iMac login[6253] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 6253 ttys001
May 27 10:25:45 Allans-iMac login[6281] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 6281 ttys002
May 27 17:17:15 Allans-iMac login[6281] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 6281 ttys002
May 27 17:17:21 Allans-iMac login[6253] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 6253 ttys001
May 28 13:40:06 Allans-iMac login[7123] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 7123 ttys001
May 30 09:11:25 Allans-iMac login[1213] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1213 ttys000
May 30 09:11:25 Allans-iMac login[1220] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1220 ttys001
May 30 09:23:19 Allans-iMac login[1220] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 1220 ttys001
May 30 09:23:19 Allans-iMac login[1213] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 1213 ttys000
May 30 20:57:16 Allans-iMac login[1695] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1695 ttys000
May 30 20:57:39 Allans-iMac login[1695] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 1695 ttys000
May 31 22:33:30 Allans-iMac login[2592] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 2592 ttys000
Jun  3 16:46:28 Allans-iMac login[2592] <Notice>: DEAD_PROCESS: 2592 ttys000
Jun  4 20:44:43 Allans-iMac login[1789] <Notice>: USER_PROCESS: 1789 ttys000

For additional user accounting info, we can use the command ac

Executing man ac gives us

    NAME
     ac -- display connect-time accounting

SYNOPSIS
     ac [-d] [-p] [-w file] [users ...]

DESCRIPTION
     A record of individual login and logout times are written to the system log by login(8) and launchd(8),
     respectively.  The program ac examines these records and writes the accumulated connect time (in deci-
     mal hours) for all logins to the standard output.

So, according to man ac login information is written to the system log.  Executing ac gives us "If no arguments are given, ac displays the total amount of login time for all active accounts on the
     system."

$ ac
total     2477.23

To break it out by user:

$ ac -p
testguy      0.04
_mbsetupuser     0.39
allan     2476.74
root         0.07
total     2477.24


Is there a way to open terminal rather than terminal emulator? I mean the system terminal, without the need for window manager and emulators...

On linux that was achievable via ALT+Fx, but it's not like that for OS X.

sounds like you want single user mode?

Hold s while booting the computer.


Install Xcode 4.2 on OS X 10.8 Is there a way to install Xcode 4.2 on OS X 10.8?

I need to compile some Firemonkey projects on my MBP (latest without retina) and I have OS X 10.8 installed and through normal means it's not possible to install Xcode 4.2.

No, you can't run Xcode 4.2 on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

Xcode 4.2 is available as a download from the developer site at Apple:

but it needs Lion.

On Mountain Lion, Xcode 4.2.x will show an error message similar to this, as mentioned here or here:

This installation of Xcode 4.2.x requires Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

If you need Xcode 4.2 you will need to install Lion, preferably on an external harddrive to avoid overwriting your current Mountain Lion installation.


How can I simulate light to heavy disk access and light to heavy CPU usage? I have a Mac Mini server that seems to exhibit various issues while there's either a medium to heavy CPU load or disk access. I'd like to test this out by intentionally triggering varying degrees of CPU usage and different kinds and intensities of disk access. Are there any tools or techniques out there that can:

Load the CPU to a certain percentage, i.e. peg one or more cores of the CPU at 50%, 75%, 100%, etc.
Simulate medium or heavy disk access of varying kinds, including situations like lots of random seeks or continuous reads / writes

The best configurable tool I've found to simulate light to heavy disk access for testing purposes is filebench.

I didn't get filebench-1.5-alpha3 to compile properly. So download an older installer package (filebench 1.4.4) from FileBench ported to Mac OS X or direct link.

Install the app. You may have to disable SIP and - in Sierra - Gatekeeper to do so. The package will be installed to /opt/filebench.

To start the app in interactive mode enter in Terminal.app:

/opt/filebench/bin/go_filebench

Now choose a workload at the prompt - preconfigured workloads can be found in /opt/filebench/config (e.g. fileserver.conf):

filebench> load fileserver

Set a working directory and other variables (most have default values):

set $dir=/tmp
set $filesize=612458

and a run time in seconds:

run 600

To create your own workloads visit filebench Wiki and check the WML link.

To "simulate" CPU-load install prime95 and configure it.

In my virtual environment (Sierra - 2 CPUs/4 GB memory) running go_filebench alone already creates a total CPU-load of 70% (go_filebench: ~140%). So I don't have to start prime95 additionally. In your environment you may have to start it though.


Migration Tool VS CCC I have a 2010 Mac Pro. Still running Snow Leo, as there are still quite a few programs that are PPC and I'm not prepared to update all of them.

My current boot drive is 1.5TB and I'd like to swap it out for a new 3TB. From past history I'm looking between the Apple Migration tool and Carbon Copy Cloner.

The migration tool will mean a full install to the new drive, and then migrating, while CCC just a full copy. Seems the migration might be more effort but might help leave some garbage behind. The current system has been slowing down, and I'd imagine a new OS install would help get it back to the "new Mac" speed.

Any thoughts on these two methods and my goal? i.e. a speedy-fresh install with all my software moved from the older drive.

Indeed, there are some differences between cloning the disk and Migration Assistant.
As you mentioned, MA will not migrate all the files, which can be both good and bad…

Corrupt system files won't be copied if you use MA since you are installing a completely new OS, then copying certain files over.

However, be warned that since they won't be copied over, any modifications that you've made will be lost. This can be mitigated by manually copying over any system files that you've modified1.
Incorrect preference files will still be carried over, but only if they're specific to your account.

Most system-wide preference files will be reset, which can be useful if you have system-wide problems, but may cause some extra effort if you have specific changes that you've made.

This can be mostly mitigated if you know which global preference files you have modified, since these can be copied over1.
Because CCC doesn't reinstall OS X, the Recovery HD will not be changed.

This means that it won't reset it if you have problems with your Recovery HD or for any other reason, although you can manually copy your Recovery HD using CCC which can be useful if you've made changes to your Recovery HD that you wish to keep.
MA should not copy any system-specific preferences, which can be useful if you are migrating to a different computer, but since you are migrating the same computer, this should not be a reason to decide one over the other.
CCC will leave you a fully-bootable OS, which is much quicker than re-installing OS X then using MA separately.
If an app relies on an HD's unique identifier stored in a certain preference, CCC will not correct this.

Since MA will reset almost all system-wide preferences, any such preferences will not be maintained, and will revert any settings to match the current installation.

In conclusion…

If you want the speediest possible Mac, with all your data and almost all your settings, Migration Assistant is the best way to go.
If you want the simplest migration or want to ensure that all your settings are copied over, use CCC or another disk cloning tool.

1 This is where looking through your backups of system files & preferences before you changed them can really help, because you did make backups, right? :)


APFS Container Resize error code is 49153 in High Sierra I am trying to resize my partition using the following

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 450g ExFAT Ubuntu 50g

However I am getting the error:

APFS Container Resize error code is 49153
Error: -69606: A problem occurred while resizing APFS Container
structures

I followed the instructions listed on this thread: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46424915/apfs-container-resize-error-code-is-49153 but they are not working for me. I also turned off automatic backups and rebooted my machine and still nothing. Any ideas on how to proceed?

This is how I sorted the error

Reboot the machine
Go into the 'Time Machine' pane of the System Preferences
Right/Ctrl click the Time Machine drive icon
Click 'Don't use {drive name} for Time Machine'
Run tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999999 for the last time in Terminal
Resize the disk.


How to delete Health data in iCloud only? So, I've decided not to store my health data in iCloud anymore, for various reasons. I just want to have it on my iPhone and on my iPhone backup on my Mac.
Here's what I have tried so far:
So I turned off Health in iCloud on my iPhone and hoped it would delete all the Health data from my iCloud account. It didn't though, here's a screenshot:

It seems like it only stopped backing up new data but the old data remains online.
So I tried to delete it via the iCloud settings on my Mac, which gives me this prompt:

(Note: There is no Health folder in Finder iCloud Drive).
Is it safe to click delete or will it also wipe all my data from my iPhone and Apple Watch Health apps?
And if this operation deletes it everywhere, where can I delete it on iCloud only?

Health Syncing in iCloud will not appear in iCloud Backups or in iCloud Drive. It is stored directly in iCloud rather than in iCloud Drive or other sub-service.
If you turn off the Health switch on your phone, then you have disconnected the local Health repository from the cloud. You can safely delete your Cloud health data after doing this.
Health data is stored End-to-End encrypted, unlike backups. The article you linked to refers to iCloud Backups, a different system. When you turn off the Health switch, it will start backing Health up to the non-end-to-end encrypted iCloud Backup. You must also turn off the Health feature in iCloud Backup to avoid this.
--
The phrasing on the Mac is different and likely flawed. The same delete button you've shown on the phone makes it clear that you're only deleting it in iCloud, not per-device.


If we format and re-install OSX through recovery, will it install the latest version? If we format and re-install OSX through Recovery Mode, will it download and install the latest version of OSX or use the existing version? I'm asking this because I noticed that it is downloading some files during the re-installation.

Have a look at the following links:

About macOS Recovery

How to reinstall macOS

From the latter link:

  Start up from macOS Recovery

  macOS Recovery installs
  different versions of macOS depending on the key combination you press
  while starting up. Hold down one of these combinations immediately
  after pressing the power button to turn on your Mac. Release when you
  see the Apple logo or a spinning globe.

  Command-R - Reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac, without upgrading to a later version.1
  Option-Command-R - Upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.2
  Shift-Option-Command-R - Reinstall the macOS that came with your Mac, or the version closest to it that is still available.
  Requires macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later.

  If you're selling or giving away a Mac that is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, use Option-Command-R to make sure that the
  installation isn't associated with your Apple ID.
  If you haven't already installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later, Option-Command-R reinstalls the macOS that came with your Mac, or the
  version closest to it that is still available.


Sierra frozen at login screen - keyboard and mouse unresponsive After rebooting my MBPr, it is now frozen at the login screen showing the list of users.  I'm unable to move the cursor or use the keyboard.  Booting in safe mode does the same thing.  A few days ago, I updated Sierra to 10.12.4, so it might be related to that.  Right before the problem happened, I was pruning old third-party Launch Agents and Daemons, but I did not delete any from Apple.  That might be related, but I don't know for sure, since I very rarely reboot the computer.

I reset NVRAM.

I deleted /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist.

I used Disk Utility in recovery mode to repair the startup disk, but no problems were found.

I looked at /var/log/system.log using Terminal in recovery mode, and I see many lines related to Installer, so is it trying to install something, or is this a normal part of recovery mode?

Small sample of the log is below, and the full log is on pastebin. Sierra's new log command doesn't work from recovery mode.

May 15 16:10:08 MacBook-Pro Installer Progress[151]: Register process 491, phaseName Install Springboard, uuid 35F782F8-715E-41FF-9AF6-DB016B483C68
May 15 16:10:08 MacBook-Pro Installer Progress[151]: Connected processes = {
        "35F782F8-715E-41FF-9AF6-DB016B483C68" =     {
            "Phase Name" = "Install Springboard";
            "Process ID" = 491;
            UUID = "35F782F8-715E-41FF-9AF6-DB016B483C68";
        };
        "A9879B21-4872-49FC-AC94-E8F7985A5F61" =     {
            CompletionHandlerKey = "<__NSMallocBlock__: 0x7fe35dcf0580>";
            "Phase Name" = "Language Chooser";
            "Process ID" = 468;
            UUID = "A9879B21-4872-49FC-AC94-E8F7985A5F61";
        };
        "D963D32E-BA49-4ADD-8359-79B93262F438" =     {
            CompletionHandlerKey = "<__NSMallocBlock__: 0x7fe35b70eb50>";
            "Phase Name" = "Launch Progress Window";
            "Process ID" = 465;
            UUID = "D963D32E-BA49-4ADD-8359-79B93262F438";
        };
    }
May 15 16:10:08 MacBook-Pro Installer Progress[151]: Saving completion handler for phase Install Springboard
May 15 16:10:08 MacBook-Pro Installer Progress[151]: The Progress UI has been hidden
May 15 16:10:08 MacBook-Pro Installer Progress[151]: Saving completion handler for phase Install Springboard
May 15 16:10:08 MacBook-Pro Installer Progress[151]: Unregister process 491, phaseName Install Springboard, uuid 35F782F8-715E-41FF-9AF6-DB016B483C68

I appreciate any advice, but if you simply tell me to reinstall MacOS, I will downvote the answer, because I want to actually find the problem.

Booting to Single User Mode showed some valuable troubleshooting information.  It turns out I had some bad third-party kexts installed in /System/Library/Extensions.  Removed those and now all is well.


Is it expected to have visual glitches while constantly moving one window from a retina monitor to a non-retina one? It's a new macbook pro retina with gt750m, mid 2014

I'm moving firefox constantly from one monitor to the other, it glitchces similar to #50956 and #81021 - Doesn't seem to happen with Chrome however I didn't push/try further

The retina screen renders everything differently, so a re-rendering occurs at each switch, doing this consecutively causes this very temporary glitch

Since it's a new/week old macbook pro, I'm wondering whether it's a hardware or a software issue

Tested further, happens always with firefox, never with chrome, I also recall a similar momentary glitch during a genie effect once, happens on both monitors, the glitch is confined to the program/animation, so I'm hoping it's a software issue, all temperatures are always very low, below 50C

Disabling hw accelleration at Firefox prevents the issue, so the question is, is it a hardware issue or a hardware incompatibility issue, I would be glad if someone with a late-macbook/gt750m/external-lcd can test the behaviour

If I can direct your attention to this thread on the apple support forums

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5547471?start=0&tstart=0

There seem to be issues like this across many different platforms and in many different circumstances. Having read every post on this issue in the forum linked I'd have to say that the energy efficiency softwares and firmwares between all of the different devices result in random and irritating UI lag. Not really a solution though.


Remaining icon in PreferencePanes I succesfully removed some unneeded fuse apps but 'fuse-ext2' icon remained in System Preferences pane. If I right-click and ask for Remove I get an error message:

  The “fuse-ext2” preferences pane could not be removed because an error occurred.

How to remove this icon?

Thanks!

If you navigate to the two folders below, you should be able to delete the file using Finder:

~/Library/PreferencePanes
/Library/PreferencePanes

Just use the Finder go menu and select Go to Folder... for the above locations.


Need tighter connection with my Time Capsule as external drive I am not familiar with the right jargong or semantics but will try to explain it as well as possible.

I have a Time Capsule which I use as an external drive to save media. I use a MacBook to access the data.

My problem is that my MacBook isn't always "fully" connected to my Time Capsule.

So what do I mean by fully connected? When I use Finder to access some file in the Time Capsule there is a considerable lag at first. So it is obvious that my computer is connecting or starting up the Time Capsule to browse its library of files.

Why is this a problem? I could live with the small lag, but the problem is that every time another drive is activated my Crashplan software search through all my drives to backup files. I really don't want this action activated this way.

Your Time Capsule has that "lag" because the drives spin down (goes to sleep) if there has been no activity for a certain amount of time.

This is also the reason that it gets disconnected after a certain amount of time.  The drives go to sleep for two reasons:  one, it's to save power; there's no point in spinning drives that aren't being used, and two it's to maximize the life of the drive.

I wouldn't recommend this method for sharing and/or storing files as the TC was meant for backups.  If you need storage for your files I would definitely recommend a NAS like the Synology or an external Thunderbolt drive.  I personally use the Synology with my Mac and have no problems whatsoever.

"Hack" to Keep the Drives Spinning

Since the drives spin down when there is no activity for a given amount of time, a quick and easy hack would be to access the drive for some minor operation to create activity.    A simple bash script would work perfectly:

#!/bin/bash
# Script to create activity on time capsule to prevent drives going to sleep
# It creates an empty text file named tempfile.txt then removes it

touch /Volumes/<Time Capsule Volume Name/tempfile.txt
rm /Volumes/<Time Capsule Volume Name/tempfile.txt

exit

Save that bash script as keepalive.sh or something that makes sense to you in a easily accessible location like a "Scripts" subdirectory in your Documents folder.  Make sure it has the "executable" attribute by issuing the command chmod +x keepalive.sh.

Now, using crontab you can easily set this script to run every X mins, hours, days, etc.

Open crontab for editing by issuing the command crontab -e
add the following line to your crontab file:

*/15 * * * *   /bin/bash        /Users/<username>/Documents/Scripts/keepalive.sh
The time is set for every 15 minutes.  If the lag is still present, you will need to adjust that value to something smaller.  Just use crontab -e to edit.

NOTE:  most likely your "editor" environment variable defaults to vi (default).  It's not difficult to use, but it's definitely not intuitive for new users.  Use nano instead by invoking the crontab editor with this command (pay attention to case):

env EDITOR=nano crontab -e

You will then be able to use Ctrl"Key" combinations (i.e. Ctrl"S" for "Save").  The commands will be at the bottom of the screen.


Iphone 5s Activation no Sim card installed? hi i buy iphone 5s in uk but my mobile not Activate. That error is saying no sim card installed. now I'm in India i don't have sim card how to activate my Iphone. That Iphone not asking Apple ID.

You need a SIM card to activate an iPhone.


Automator Help: copying and renamig files from one static folder to one created dynamically I am curious to see how can I achieve this action.

So far, I created an automator that asks 3 questions: a ticket number, the name of a project and the type of project.

That creates a series of folders with the name "ticket x - project a (project type) - assets", and a subsequent set of more folders that change the last bit to accommodate recordings, lists and so forth.

We are good there. But now, I have a separate folder that always lives in the same location, with some formats that I need to place inside those newly created folders, and hopefully rename them (later).

I can Get Specified Finder Items to locate the first format, but when I want to Copy that Finder Item to the folders, I encounter that all those paths to the folders I created dynamically cannot be accessed, because the Copy Finder Items TO: does not take existing variables, only new ones.

So, can I save those paths somehow and then pass them to the recipient folder? It's the same when renaming. I can only pass text to the dialog box, not a variable that I just created.

Any ideas?

From the Copy Finder Items "To:" menu, select "New Variable" and give it an appropriate name. Then after that, you can use the Set Value of Variable to set the value of the newly created variable. Note that you must do this above your Copy Finder Items action so that the variable is set before the copy operation happens.

Example workflow:


Transfer MKV files to VLC player on iPhone using Airdrop I Airdropped a folder containing MKV files from my Mac to my iPhone. Where can I spot them on my iPhone 8?

I am not able to see the Folder with the files. They don't seem to appear in VLC app as well.

How do I wirelessly (such as using AirDrop) transfer files to VLC player on my iPhone from my Mac?

First of all, let us see what happens when you transfer MKV files to iPhone via AirDrop.

If you are successfully able to complete the file transfer of MKV file(s) from your Mac to iPhone, you will see an alert like one of these:

If you choose to save it to iCloud Drive, you will be able to see them after installing Files app for iOS by Apple.

Once installed, open Files app, tap on Browse tab and select iCloud Drive to view the file.

However, it turns out that it is not serving the purpose that you are looking for, i.e. to transfer the files using AirDrop to VLC media player app on your iPhone. Transferring via AirDrop doesn't appear to be achieving the intended purpose.

However, there's an easy and very similar approach you can take to archive the desired end result. VLC iOS app has a feature called Sharing via WiFi. Launch VLC app on your iPhone, tap on the VLC icon at top left corner and tap on Share via WiFi. You'll get an IP address as shown:

Make sure your iPhone and Mac are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Now, simply access the IP address shown in any Web browser on your Mac and you'll get this:

Simply drag and drop the desired files that you wish to transfer to VLC app on your iPhone into the browser window. Keep an eye on the progress indicator:

Voila! your files now show up in VLC app on your iPhone.

Do note that for the file transfer to complete successfully, you'll need to make sure that the VLC app keeps running in the foreground on your iPhone and it doesn't go into sleep mode.


How do you type Theta on a Mac? I know option o comes out to ø? So I have been using that as my theta.

But I would love to know how to type Theta for a mac?

Γο το Συστεμ Πρεφερενψεσ/Λανγθαγε & Τεχτ/Ινπθτ Σοθρψεσ, σεαρψη φορ Γρεεκ, αδδ ιτ.
Νος υοθ μαυ τυπε θ φρομ κευβοαρδ.

   Go to System Preferences/Language & Text/Input Sources, search for Greek, add it. Now you may type u from keyboard.

Or you may just use Find and replace function in Edit menu to change ø to θ afterwards.


How to maintain focus on app window with AppleScript I am trying to launch my scanner application using AppleScript.  I have it launching the Printer app and I know how to send the keystroke command but when the Printer window  opens it does not have focus in Finder so the keystroke I am sending is not working unless I already have the printer window open and in focus. How do I set the Finder focus to my window so it will hear the keystroke?

Here is my code:

tell application "System Events"
  tell application "Canon MX510 series" to activate
  key code 20 using command down
end tell

Try sending the Activate command outside the System Event tell, that would be the standard method.

tell application "Canon MX510 series" to activate
my testAppRunning()
tell application "System Events"
    key code 20 using command down
end tell

on testAppRunning()
    set test to 0
    repeat while test = 0
        log test
        tell application "System Events" to set test to count (every process whose name is "Canon MX510 series")
        delay 2
        --/*we do this even if active because it doesn't naturally come to front*/
        try
            tell application "Canon MX510 series" to activate
        end try
        if (test > 0) then exit repeat
    end repeat
end testAppRunning


How can I resolve a situation in which my Mac keeps crashing while working with a specific video file? My MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar keeps having a kernel panic whenever I attempt to use a specific video file I recorded with my Atomos Shogun Flame. FCPX imports and uses all of the other files from the same shoot fine. However, if I try to play, create a proxy, or do anything that involves handling this file after import, my computer reboots.

So far I've attempted to re-encode the file using Adobe Media Encoder, but FCPX still has issues with it. I've tried importing the file into Adobe Premiere but the system still crashes (i.e. it freezes, turns off, then reboots). If I put my SSD back in the Atomos Shogun, and watch the entire file, it plays perfectly fine.

I've also attempted transferring the file from the SSD to my internal drive, as well as to my RAID prior to importing it, but that causes the same issue.

Is there a tool that I can use to fix this file so my computer won't crash while using it? Or is there something else I can try to get around this issue?

The Shogun Flame has limited file management capabilities, so I am unable to do anything on that end. I haven't purchased Apple Compressor, so Adobe Media Encoder is the primary tool I have to convert files.

No-one here is going to be able to give you a 100% definitive answer on why a specific video file is causing a crash (especially without full details of the file in question and without access to it), except of course to say it's most likely corrupted in some way.

Some things to try include:

Booting your MBP into Safe Mode and trying to import the file again.
I know you've tried re-encoding the file using Adobe Media Encoder, but perhaps you could try encoding the file into a totally different format first. Ideally you would try doing this within the Atomos Shogun Flame directly, but I'm not familiar with that device and don't know what export/editing functions it has. If none, have you got any other software to try converting it?
Another thing to try would be to manually copy the file from the SD card onto another card/drive (or to your Mac) without going through an import process. If that succeeds, then try importing the file (or converting it into a new format) from the new location.
Open the file using Quicktime Player and, assuming it opens okay, use Quicktime's export function to export it (with a new filename). Then see if the newly exported file can be imported into FCP and edited fine.
Take a look at your FCP preferences to see if changing how it deals with situations like dropped frames will make a difference.


My new Sennheiser G4ME ZERO headset won't send audio to my Mac I recently purchases a Sennheiser G4ME Zero to replace my Steel Series Siberia V3. The Siberia's microphone worked just fine along with the audio. When I plugged my G4ME Zero in the audio output worked great. When I tested out the microphone, my Macbook didn't receive any input. I plugged in my old Siberia to see if it was a hardware problem with the Mac but it showed up as a working external mic.

I've tried switching out cords, blowing out the input, and just plugging in the microphone portion to the computer but it still won't work. Is it a hardware problem with the headset or what?

If you are using a MacBook with a single 3.5mm jack, you need to make sure you are using the TRRS cable from Sennheiser. That's the one that will have 3 narrow bands on the shaft of the jack (separating the four metallic connections stereo/left, stereo/right, microphone, and ground). Is that how your Siberia works? Single cable?

Also be sure that the "boom arm" is not raised up as that will mute the microphone.


Last Import stuck in iPhoto Events folder after migrating to Photos app I've just updated to the new Photos app on OS X and migrated my iPhoto library to the new app. While getting used to all the changes, I've noticed a problem: it seems that the Last Import album is stuck in the iPhoto Events folder for some reason. (Does the iPhoto database consider Last Import to be an "event"?)

I can tell that the lone album is Last Import because:

I've moved all other albums out of the folder, but it still says that there is one album left inside, even though the view shows that it is empty inside.
When I go back to the top-level album view, the iPhoto Events folder is shown to contain one album thumbnail unlike the inside view. The thumbnail within the folder matches the thumbnail of Last Import.
When I move photos out of Last Import and import a different set of photos, both thumbnails update.

Now here's the bigger problem: if I delete the iPhoto Events folder now, I will lose the Last Import album permanently with no apparent way to get it back through the UI or the application's preferences. (I imagine I can get it back by editing either the app's plist in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Photos/Data/Library/Preferences or one or more files in the package, but I'm not sure where to look.)

I've tried

importing new photos to see if Last Import will reappear, but it doesn't.
repairing the Photos library using the same method as iPhoto (hold Command ⌘ and Option ⌥ when opening the app), but it doesn't help.
repairing the iPhoto library before migrating to Photos, but it doesn't help either.
undoing the deletion, but it just brings back both Last Import and the iPhoto Events folder.

I have re-imported the original iPhoto library for now so that its original state is preserved. What can I do to separate Last Import from the iPhoto Events folder so I can safely remove the latter?

I created a fresh new iPhoto library, populated it with some photos, and migrated that library to Photos, but I could not reproduce this problem. So it looks like another problem with my original iPhoto library. Great.

So I decided to look directly in the Photos library database to see what was going on. The Photos library database can be found in ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Database/Library.apdb; this is an SQLite database that can be opened using the command-line sqlite3 tool, or any GUI you prefer.

If you're about to follow the steps in my answer past this point, remember to back up the library file before proceeding.

The schema for RKAlbum contains a folderUuid column that associates an album with a folder (in RKFolder). In the Photos library that was migrated from the fresh iPhoto library, the Last Import album looks like this:

sqlite> SELECT name, folderUuid FROM RKAlbum WHERE name = 'Last Import';
Last Import|LibraryFolder

But in the Photos library that was created from my original iPhoto library, the album looks like this:

sqlite> SELECT name, folderUuid FROM RKAlbum WHERE name = 'Last Import';
Last Import|cQeJj7YPRmSxHysWN+ql4w

Notice that folderUuid here is a generated string and not 'LibraryFolder'. Obviously, this is an arbitrary folder — specifically the iPhoto Events folder that is created as part of the migration process. And sure enough:

sqlite> SELECT uuid, name FROM RKFolder WHERE uuid = 'cQeJj7YPRmSxHysWN+ql4w';
cQeJj7YPRmSxHysWN+ql4w|iPhoto Events

As an immediate workaround, changing the column directly seems to work:

sqlite> UPDATE RKAlbum SET folderUuid = 'LibraryFolder' WHERE name = 'Last Import';

Now opening Photos and deleting the iPhoto Events folder leaves Last Import intact. Importing new photos doesn't cause any further problems; the Last Import folder behaves as it always did, and should.

Out of curiosity I decided to find out what was causing Photos to place Last Import in the iPhoto Events folder in the first place.

Turns out, in my original iPhoto library, the folderUuid of Last Import was not 'LibraryFolder', but 'AllProjectsItem' — the same as the original Events category:

sqlite> SELECT name, folderUuid FROM RKAlbum WHERE name = 'Last Import';
Last Import|AllProjectsItem
sqlite> SELECT name, folderUuid FROM RKAlbum WHERE folderUuid = 'AllProjectsItem';
Events|AllProjectsItem
Last Import|AllProjectsItem

This is not the case in the fresh iPhoto library:

sqlite> SELECT name, folderUuid FROM RKAlbum WHERE name = 'Last Import';
Last Import|LibraryFolder

Fixing the incorrect column in the original iPhoto library database (with the same UPDATE statement as above) seems to fix the Last Import folder when migrating to Photos as well. I think I'll go with this instead since it corrects both the old and new libraries.

Like in my previous question, I don't understand why or how my original iPhoto library reached that state in the first place, or why repairing/rebuilding the library didn't help at all. Was I bitten by a rare bug in iPhoto? Was I using iPhoto incorrectly? Either way, I'm lucky that I know a thing or two about SQLite and was therefore able to fix this on my own — if in the unlikely event someone has run into this very same issue, I hope this post will be helpful to them.

Once again, be sure to back up the entire library first.


macOS System Integrity Protection Configuration I was looking to lock down the configuration on some macs, and wanted to know if there is any way to change the files and folders that SIP protects.  I know it can be disabled, and its current rules viewed, but is there any way to add your own protected directories?

Thanks

It is possible to add your own protected directory to SIP:

Boot to Recovery Mode and disable SIP
Reboot and create a directory structure.
Flag the whole folder or single files or folders:

sudo chflags restricted /example
sudo chflags restricted /example/example.app
sudo chflags restricted /example/subdir/file

or a folder hierarchy:

sudo chflags -R restricted /example

If you want to exclude a subdir after using the -R option you have to remove the restricted flag there:

sudo chflags norestricted /example/subdir

Boot to Recovery Mode and enable SIP

Now the folders example, example.app and the file /example/subdir/file are protected. You still can add or remove files to/from /example/subdir.

The restricted flag has no effect if SIP is disabled - the usual POSIX/ACLs permissions apply. With SIP enabled the files/folders are protected.

It is also possible to add, remove or change SIP-protected files and directories via an installer package which is signed by Apple’s own certificate authority. Since a normal user /customer usually doesn't have access to this certificate authority, this possibility is eliminated.

An earlier version of this answer asserted that it is required to modify the file /System/Library/Sandbox/rootless.conf and add something like:

                                /example
                                /example/example.app
*                               /example/subdir
                                /example/subdir/file

This is wrong! Simply flagging a file or folder as restricted is sufficient to protect it.


Add to Home Screen without creating PWA I was recently reading about Progressive Web Apps and out of curiosity opted to re-add one of my regular news blogs to my home screen. I then promptly deleted my previous home screen bookmark of the same site. Well, the new link opens the site in a non-standard Safari view, without any of Safari's UI (no address bar, can't open other tabs, no forward/back, etc).

I much prefer to open web links directly in the browser. Only I can't figure out how to add this site back to my home screen as a 'dumb' link instead of a PWA. Is there a way to add web links to the home screen that will avoid using the PWA view?

The website is https://www.universalhub.com

I actually found a work-around for this by referencing an answer on another question.

Short answer: yes!
I faced the same issue and basically tricked my iPad, you simply turn on airplane mode, you don't hit the redirect, you store the "server not found" page on the home screen and you are done :-)
Hope you can now resolve your 4 year old question.

The only addition to this method is that now on iOS 12 you need to turn on airplane and turn off wifi in order to drop all network connections.
Big thanks to Von Lion


Selective file sharing in a public coffee shop Two friends and I are sitting at a coffee shop. I would like them to browse the family pictures that I keep in ~/Family-Pictures. We don't have any cables or cords and for unimportant reasons, both friends need simultaneous access that one folder without my giving them my password. I also dont want anyone else in the shop getting at my mac or its contents.

How can I set up my mac to share with two other computers?

You can share a folder by selecting it in the Finder, press CommandI (Or select Get Info), and check the box that says "Shared Folder". You will need to enable file sharing in System Preferences if you have not already done that.

Your second and third questions have a single solution that could solve both problems. Unless the users have accounts on your machine, you are correct that you would be making the files available to anyone on the network. However, you could create a peer-to-peer network that only your friends have the password to join. Go to the WiFi menu and select "Create Network." Assign your network a name and password, and give that information to your friends.

Be sure to disable sharing when you are done, or else members of other, more public networks will be able to read your files.


Reset iCloud password How do you reset iCloud password in order to make changes to your account? I am trying to backup my iCloud storage on my iphone.

Go to iForgot and there you can reset your password using your email or security questions.


Install windows (bootcamp) without CD or USB Flash Drive I'm currently trying to install windows on my macbook (13in, 2011), but without any success.
My CD drive is dead (as a matter of facts its ruining any cds I put in it), and I simply cant boot via USB. Im running Mavericks. I've tried enabling USB burning on bootcamp assistant and codesigning it, and it worked for Windows 8, I could even boot, but couldn't install it on the bootcamp partition. As soon as I get to the screen in which to select the partition, windows refuses to install, with some error code. I've also tried formatting this partition as ntfs from inside the windows installer, but it doesn't work also. After I did that, whenever I restart my macbook, I get an error message saying "No bootable device found" or something like that, and I can only get back to OSX by holding option and selecting it manually. After All of that I've tried windows 7, and this time the bootloader (when I hold the option key) doesn't recognize the usb anymore.
So, as nothing works, how can I install windows? (It's for gaming purposes).
Maybe I can make a small partition, burn the windows installer to it and boot from that?
It sounds like a plan, but I cant find how to burn a .iso to a partition anywhere.

This might seem like a long shot, but it was also the only option for me to install Windows into my Bootcamp partition a little while back.
It's also the only option for a Mac that used to have an optical drive but no longer does, since for some reason these devices are no longer able to boot from USB.

Use Disk Utility to create a FAT partition a little larger than your wanted Windows partition.
Install rEFIt.
Reboot twice for rEFIt to install properly. As soon as you see the rEFIt boot menu when starting, it's good. Here you choose the 'Partition Tool', with which you'll change the MBR (Master Boot Record). (On a side note: You can easily uninstall rEFIt by renaming the directory at the root of your harddrive)
Install VirtualBox, Parallels or VMware. I did this with VMware back at the time, but all of these should work as long as you're able to mount the virtual harddrive like any removable disk.
Use the virtualization software to install Windows into a virtual machine at the size of your wanted partition (not what you made it above, but a little smaller than that). You can of course install from an ISO here, making the state of your disc drive irrelevant. Kill the virtual machine as soon as it reboots the first time after finishing the installation, stopping Windows before being able to configure itself.
Use the virtualization software's features to mount the virtual harddrive.
Install a tool called WinClone.
If your virtual drive is mounted, WinClone should be able to see this in the tab 'Image'. Pull this into an image onto your harddrive.
Now choose the 'Restore' tab in WinClone and restore this image to your Bootcamp partition.
Now you can reboot and boot into your Bootcamp partition with rEFIt, which is no longer of any use from this point on, but you can keep it around as well. Windows should now continue configuring itself and finish the installation.

I stumbled across this solution here in the Apple Support Community and posted about it here a while ago on a German Apple User Forum, if that turns out to be of any use to anybody.


MBP 2015 with Iris Pro Only and External Monitor I'm about to buy a MBP edition 2015 (15'').

There are two models:

model having only Intel Iris Pro  (without dedicated graphic card)
model having Radeon graphic card

I don't play video games, and I do not use 3D/video softwares.
Mostly programming softwares.

However, I want to use an Apple Thunderbolt screen of 27'' as external and additional monitor.

Should the model having only Iris Pro be enough to handle this monitor (multiple-displays)?

Graphics and Video support

Intel Iris Pro Graphics
2.2GHz - 256GB

Intel Iris Pro Graphics
2.5GHz - 512GB

Intel Iris Pro Graphics

AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching
Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native
resolution on the built-in display and up to 3840 by 2160 pixels on up to two
external displays, both at millions of colors

Thunderbolt digital video output

Native Mini DisplayPort output
DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI output supported using Mini DisplayPort adapters (sold separately)
Support for up to 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz on a single external display (model with AMD Radeon R9 M370X only)

HDMI video output
    Support for 1080p resolution at up to 60Hz
    Support for 3840-by-2160 resolution at 30Hz
    Support for 4096-by-2160 resolution at 24Hz

retrieved from https://support.apple.com/kb/SP719?locale=en_US


How to prevent songs from getting uploaded with iTunes match? Is there a way to manually exclude songs from getting uploaded to iTunes match?

(take a copy of your songs) delete the songs you don't want on match, re-add them but change the type (right klick, info) to audio-book hence iCloud don't upload audiobooks

To be clear - the AudioBooks that are incorrectly marked 'music' cannot have their identifier edited (when already uploaded to cloud), as the Get Info> Options> Media Kind is greyed out. You must save the audio away from iTunes, and when you reload it, you can change the option before it's uploaded.


How to execute python script by terminal? I wanted to learn Python, I installed some software. I created a little execution files and none of them will execute. So I've checked my terminal and type basic things like Is, cd etc. None of them work

:Users me$ cd
:~ me$ cd
:~ me$ cd /
:/ me$ Is
-bash: Is: command not found
:/ me$ cd ~
:~ me$ cd desktop
:desktop me$

If I type echo $PATH, here the result:

  /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

I read many things about how to fix it but I don't understand. For example:

I don't know how to find the User Folder
I don't know how to get to the bash.profile

Bear in mind that I am very new to this.

If you want to list all files/folders in a directory, you should type ls not Is. It is L, not i.

To learn python, you won't need to reach ~/.bash_profile unless you need to change versions. Just use which python or  python --version and use the syntax for the version that appears. Or use online compilers for quick testing.

Suppose you have your file learn.py at Desktop, you type cd ~/Desktop, type ls to confirm, and then to run the file as a script, type python learn.py. To enter python console, type python and use it.

Wherever your file is, you could type cd in Terminal, then drag your file into Terminal window and press Enter. Terminal will resolve the path for you.

For further help, refer to Stack Overflow.  :)

If you want to see bash profile, open Finder, type command + shift + . to reveal hidden files and then command + shift + G and type ~/.bash_profile in "Go To". But don't edit it unless required.


Which key is Num Lock on an Apple keyboard in Windows? I have an extended keyboard as in the image below

When connecting to a Windows machine, which key is Num Lock?

For future reference, the key on this UK keyboard does not say Clear, it has an image of a horizontal rectangle with an X through it ⌧ but it is the same key and provides the same functionality in OS X.

Under Boot Camp, it's the Clear ⌧ button, according to Apple's documentation.

That makes some sense, at least, because that key is where Num Lock normally lives on other keyboards.

(Note: I don't have the same keyboard to test with, but I'm guessing this document isn't actually Boot Camp-specific; it's just a guide to how the keys are mapped under Windows.)


Two iPhone 4S Configured with same email ID I had a iPhone 4S which was setup with a Gmail ID and later I returned it to my employer, since it was given by them. I have a new personal iPhone configured with same email id.

When my employer tries to configure old phone for somebody else, they face an issue that device is mapped to my Gmail ID. They are unable to configure it for new person.

What can be done to resolve issue?

In your former iPhone:

Tap Settings > iCloud. Scroll down and tap Sign Out. In iOS 7 or earlier, tap Delete Account.
Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Contents and Settings.

  In iOS 7 or later with Find My iPhone turned on, you'll need your
  Apple ID and password.

Additionally,

  if you're using iCloud and Find My iPhone on the device, sign in to
  icloud.com/find, select the device, and click Erase. After the device
  has been erased, click Remove from Account.

Get your former employer to set up the old iPhone with other Apple ID.

Check this article on Apple Support for more information.


iPhone Heating/Slow/Quick battery drain after repair I have 2 iPhone's

1st is 6s+ 16GB

2nd is 6s+ 64GB

I use 2nd as my primary device but also carry 1st as the camera sensor of the 2nd has failed a few months ago
So on Saturday, I decided to replace the camera(i.e put the camera of 1st in 2nd)

It succeeded but after that, till now my iPhone has become slow like hell!

The battery drains even when the phone is just kept

And today ........

I was playing head ball 2 on my iPhone and the battery just went from 88% to 0% after 3 matches of 90 seconds and my phone got switched off.

I contacted apple support but they are just like "REPLACE THE BATTERY"

Can anyone tell me the issue

ps: I m using the latest iOS13.5.1

Nothing at all in your description contravenes the Apple diagnosis of swapping the battery. Part of battery service is that they can inspect for other damage and re-quote you if you need something other than a battery.

You didn’t mention if your device was stable enough to run the battery diagnosis from Apple Support. If that ran, I’d be even more sure they know what they are talking about and the chance they’re wrong grows less.

Your symptom of battery charge level varying more than 10% in any 300 second period is very clearly a faulty circuit or faulty battery. There really aren’t other options. The diagnostic will show full charge capacity, so you can calculate the max current draw divided by the capacity if you’re skeptical Apple’s diagnosis makes sense.

Let’s talk about water instead of charge for a moment. If my math is correct a FINA competition pool is 2,500 m^3 so let’s assume your battery has exactly that much mAH. Figure the size of the pipe to drain the pool when it’s new. Now a few years later, it can’t go from 80% full to 20% full in 5 minutes. If you measure that sudden drop in water level, the pool either has a massive leak or your measuring device is massively off. There’s no other option that’s reasonable.

The circuitry defines the measurement in iPhone battery, the hardware defines the max charge and max draw. The battery either works as expected or has faulty chemistry / circuitry and behaves out of bounds. That’s the main reason why a battery that’s not used up gets asked to be swapped and also why the diagnostics can point to the correct next step.


Does syncing iphone to a new computer erases notes linked to the gmail account? I have an iPhone with a bunch of items in the notes app I don't want to loose.
The notes are linked to a gmail account.
I want to switch iTunes library for that iPhone. Going from a PC to a mac.
iTunes wants to do an "erase and sync". Will that erase my notes as well? Or just the music?

The erase and sync function is only for items synced from the previous computer in regards to media.
Outlook would have been the only application on a PC that would sync your notes.
So if you haven't used outlook on your PC, then you should be fine to erase and sync.
Also, if they are through your gmail account this will be unaffected even if they are erased, because by signing into the gmail account it will sync the notes over the air which is separate from any syncing with a computer.
Best wishes!


Terminal prompt changed So, I was trying to add Laravel to my list of executable commands and, somehow, I fudged up my iTerm 2 (and regular Terminal) and now they both appear like this.

MacBook-Pro%

That just looks ugly. How do I change back to what it once was? With the Git indicator, folder name, colors, etc.

nano .bash_profile

Then add:

export PS1=" "

Between those quotation marks, add any of the following between the quotation marks of export PS1=" ":

\d – Current date
\t – Current time
\h – Host name
\# – Command number
\u – User name
\W – Current working directory (ie: Desktop/)
\w – Current working directory with full path (ie: /Users/Admin/Desktop/)

Also you can customize the look and feel of terminal, or restore the defaults in Terminal > Preferences > Profiles

http://osxdaily.com/2006/12/11/how-to-customize-your-terminal-prompt/


How can I retrieve passwords from old keychain after a new install? Possible Duplicate:
  Move items from old keychain to new keychain

Having reinstalled a clean Snow Leopard. Is there a way to access the old keychain - I still have the old time machine backup -  and copy all the wifi account information to my new keychain?

You can copy and paste individual passwords between keychains using Keychain Access. You need, of course, to know the password of the old keychain. Presumably, that is your login password on your previous account.


Any better way to move app library path to external drive than using symbolic link? I am running MacOS 10.14.5. I used symbolic links a lot to free up my internal drive. My internal drive is almost full and I need to free up some spaces again. Normally, the symbolic links solution work very well even for many apps. But there is one app which can not recognize the symbolic link I created. So I am wondering how to workaround this issue? I have to move this app's library directory to external ssd drive, it uses 50% of my internal drive.

Btw, the path I plan to move is at ~/Library/Containers/xxxx.

Thanks a lot.

PS: I am wondering if I can create a .sparseimage file and then put it at external drive. And add it somehow to /etc/fstab to mount it at a specific location. Not sure if this will work. I am checking this way now.

OK, finally I solved this problem. My solution:

Use Disk Utility.app to create a new blank image with sparseimage type and save it at the external ssd drive.
Then mount the sparse image at the target location, such as hdiutil attach /Volumes/<externalssd>/file.sparseimage -mountpoint ~/Library/Containers/<target_path>
move all the original files to the mounted point.

That's all. By the way, you need to quit the app first and rename the target directory to something else before mounting the image obviously.

One more tip: you should make sure the target directory you want to move will not have any broken symbolic links after this workaround by running find . -type l -ls command.


Transcend Jetdrive vs OWC Aura I've just bought a used 2012-era MacBook Air (model MacBookAir5,2).

I'm considering upgrading the SSD using a Transcend Jetdrive or an OWC Aura.

Going by their specs, both devices are the same. Right now the only difference I can see is the cost and time needed for shipping, but I'm more interested in knowing if there are long term benefits of one over the other technically wise in terms of speed/durability/other.

How can I determine the better SSD - not the cheapest?

While I'm a big fan of OWC normally, I would go with the Transcend Jetdrive 725. That's what I just ordered for my Mid-2012 Macbook Pro Retina.

The main reason I did not go with the OWC Auro drive is I've had a couple of friends who've upgrade their systems to the OWC Auro drive have problems. While they were both happy at first, at least one of them had their OWC Aura drive, for a Mid-2012 Macbook Pro Retina, die after 6 months of use. The other friend complained about their Macbook Air running hotter after the upgrade (not sure if they screwed up their upgrade) and having drive issues as a result. There are also other stories floating around the web about the OWC Auro drives failing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_sK0336Hto.

The Transcend Jetdrive 725 comes with a 5 year warranty for the same price as the OWC Auro, which only has a 3 year warranty. The OWC Auro Pro version does have a 5 year warranty, but is more expensive than the Transcend at that point.

Plus, the Transcend 725 drive now has TRIM support under the latest Mac OS (thanks to Apple). On the other hand, OWC recommend that you DON'T enable TRIM support with their drives.

  "In fact, enabling TRIM could actually hurt the performance and reliability of your OWC SSD, rather than help it."

I hope this helps in your decision making process.


Why doesn't the 'rm' command dump file in Trash? Using the rm 'filename' command, i have noticed that the file isn't actually deposited into the trash.
I realise that this isn't completely removing the file from the computer, however im perplexed as to why it would not appear in the trash?

In short:

Why doesn't the 'rm' command deposit file in trash.

rm is a standard Unix command and Unix does not always have trash. At the programming level the BSD API does not have a system call to trash a file, Apple supplies those at a higher level.

Also  you need a command that deletes files e.g. to remove them from trash and rm happens to be it. You need another command to put a file in trash.


How to correct macOS Sierra photos people identification So, just playing around with photos, and my kids baby pics are crossed over. When they were you they were both bald so it's hard for photos to correctly distinguish them.

How can I correct this in Photos?  In the list, right or option click did nothing. Pic info didn't show much.

Found out maybe 10 minutes after I posted this.

Go to your photos.  Find the one with the bad tagging.  Make sure Face Names are shown (go to View menu), edit as needed


Applescript remove Missing value and unwanted data I created a script to return some credit card informations from an internal website

                                CC
Info

                    ", "

                            Visa (9999)

                    ", "

                            Visa (8888)

                    ", "

                            Visa (7777)

                    ", "

                            Visa (666)

                    ", "

                            Alipay

                    ", missing value, missing value, missing value}

I have two issue with my script,

I can't get rid of the first link with is not a CC numbers
tried :
set myRawData to items 2 thru -1 of myRawData as string
but don't seems to work.
I don't manage to remove all the missing values.
Can I remove some entry from the list that contain "none" ?

Here is my full script

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell active tab of window 1 to set myRawData to execute javascript "var outPut=[]; var arr=document.getElementsByClassName('sortable fraudScoringTransactionCCSummary');for (var i in arr) {outPut.push(arr[i].innerHTML)};outPut;"
end tell

## set myRawData to items 2 thru -1 of myRawData as string -- not working
set myNewList to {}

repeat with each from 1 to count of items of myRawData
    set itemOnMyList to item each of myRawData
    if itemOnMyList is in myRawData and itemOnMyList is not in myNewList then set end of myNewList to itemOnMyList
end repeat

## not sur
##set myNewList to items 2 thru -1 of myNewList  -- not working

set countHowManyCC to count myNewList

return countHowManyCC

Using the returned output information posted in your OP while adding the missing opening curly brace and a opening double quote {" so as to have it compile as a list, the following example AppleScript code filters out the first item of the list as well as the items containing missing value in order to return a count of items that represent the data.

set myRawData to {"
                                CC
Info

                    ", "

                            Visa (9999)

                    ", "

                            Visa (8888)

                    ", "

                            Visa (7777)

                    ", "

                            Visa (666)

                    ", "

                            Alipay

                    ", missing value, missing value, missing value}

set myRawData to items 2 thru -1 of myRawData

set myNewList to {}
repeat with i from 1 to count myRawData
    if item i of myRawData does not contain missing value then
        copy item i of myRawData to end of myNewList
    end if
end repeat

return count myNewList

The following example AppleScript code adds a second filter to handle items containing "none":

set myRawData to items 2 thru -1 of myRawData

set myNewList to {}
repeat with i from 1 to count myRawData
    set thisItem to item i of myRawData
    if thisItem does not contain "none" then
        if thisItem is not missing value then
            copy item i of myRawData to end of myNewList
        end if
    end if
end repeat

return count myNewList

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any error handling and is meant only to show one of many ways to accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


What is Master Device in MIDI? So, what is the "Master Device" in Multi-output device? Cause I'm trying figure out how MIDI Aggregate Devices work, I need to now what is it.

MIDI system needs to know who is the master.

It is for the master volume adjustment when you have multiple output devices.

Each output device can have its own volume adjustment preset, but the master volume will control overall Volume.

The MIDI has 2 options to set up:

The Create Multi-Output is self explanatory.

The Aggregate is:

  You can combine several audio devices to use as a single device, known
  as an “aggregate device.” By aggregating devices, you can increase the
  number of discrete audio inputs and outputs without purchasing more
  expensive multichanneled audio equipment. For example, if you have an
  eight-channel audio device and a two-channel audio device, you can
  combine them to work as a single ten-channel audio device.

  For the aggregate device to work correctly, the sample rates of the
  combined devices in the aggregate device must be set to the same
  sample rate.


Do the 2013 Time Capsules work as a NAS drive? Can I partition the 2013 Time Capsules to use some of their storage as a network drive?

No. The internal drive gets shared as one volume. You would need to layer user access controls to set up folders for different uses within the same share.

But you can attach an external drive to the USB port and access that as shared storage from any peripheral on your network. Those show up as separate volumes when you use the stock Apple firmware on the Time Capsule.


Why don't songs in iTunes appear in Music on the iPhone? I have some songs in iTunes on my Mac (under 'My Music'). However, when I go to 'My Music' in the iOS Music app I don't see them. I do see 'Songs of Innocence', which I don't see on iTunes on the Mac.

Both devices are logged in which the same Apple account and signed up for iCloud.

I expect the same songs to appear in each place, but instead they are totally different.

Is there some setting I need to change to fix this? Or am I completely misunderstanding?

Many thanks,
Tom

If you want your music to be uploaded to iCloud, you must sign up for iTunes Match.

Make sure you're running the latest version of OS X and iOS. (El Capitan - iOS 9 are the stable releases right now, although you can get the public beta of macOS Sierra and iOS 10).

Then make sure the Apple ID you've entered in the Music App on iOS is the exact one on the Mac's iTunes. If it didn't work, make sure both devices have been connected to the internet since setting the Apple ID.

By the way, "Songs of Innocence" is an album by Irish rock band U2, which was a 'gift' from Apple to you. If you want it removed, see this.

Of course, connecting your iOS device to your Mac can help you sync them. This webpage has got a table which lets you know how to do deal with some of these similar problems.


How do I remove many system roots from Apple System Keychain? The Apple keychain application will not let you remove system roots, it will only allow you to disable them. It will only allow you to disable them one at a time. For each one, you need to go through 3 UI panels and type your password. Is there a way to either automate this or do it all at once? I do not like Apple's current selection of system roots.

Backup keychain before trying anything.

Listing root certificates:

sudo security dump-keychain /System/Library/Keychains/SystemRootCertificates.keychain

Just look in a dump for a names or SHA-1 hash values of certificates that you want to get rid of and write them down.

Now you can delete that root certificates using security delete-certificate command.

  Usage: delete-certificate [-c name] [-Z hash] [-t] [keychain...]

-c  Specify certificate to delete by its common name
-Z  Specify certificate to delete by its SHA-1 hash value
-t  Also delete user trust settings for this certificate The certificate to be deleted must be uniquely specified either by a

  string found in its common name, or by its SHA-1 hash. If no keychains
  are specified to search, the default search list is used.

For example you can delete chinese root certificates using this command:

sudo security delete-certificate -Z 8BAF4C9B1DF02A92F7DA128EB91BACF498604B6F /System/Library/Keychains/SystemRootCertificates.keychain


iCloud server side wildcard mail rules I couldn't find any information on how to set up wildcard rules in iCloud mail. I want to forward mail from any sender of a certain domain to another address.

What exactly is the syntax of the message is from field?

@domain.com or *@domain.com?

Do I need to set up another rule to remove these messages from the inbox?

Thanks

For these cases I just use

  from domain.com

with

  move to folder

as the action. You don't have to delete it from the Inbox afterwards, the move takes care of that.


On Mavericks, in the Finder in List view, column widths keep changing I'm on OS X Mavericks. In Finder, I use the "List" view. In this view, since upgrading to Mavericks, the column widths keep changing. Basically, the Name column expands to fill the window up, when you resize a Finder window. But worse of all, they are then fixed at that new width. So for instance, I open a folder, such as ~/Downloads, then increase the width horizontally to the right. I close this, then open ~/, which is the original width size. I then open the ~/Downloads folder, and now the columns are wider than the window.

Is there any way to stop this from happening? Does this only happen to me? I already tried resetting my com.apple.finder.plist file, but since Mavericks now caches plist files, the file just gets re-created instantly after deleting it, so that doesn't work anymore.

I was so sick of this, so I decided to write a fix once and for all.

You can use the following AppleScript to resize the column widths when you notice the column is too wide. It works by resizing the Finder window really large, then back to it's original size, triggering a fluid layout resize.

tell application "Finder"
  tell the front Finder window
    -- get the current bounds of the finder window
    set b to the bounds
    -- create a really wide window
    set the bounds to {item 1 of b, item 2 of b, 3000, item 4 of b}
    -- set window back to its original size
    set the bounds to b
  end tell
end tell

This will probably be most useful if bound to a keyboard shortcut, I personally bound it to CMD + E using BetterTouch Tool.

If you're after more detailed information regarding this, you can head over to my blog post about it here: https://christianvarga.com/fix-finder-name-column-width-bug-osx-mavericks/


Does the use of SSD give one a dramatic performance boost? I use Mac book pro 15", and it's time to buy a new one.
For HDD, now I see a new option of SSD, which is pretty expensive.

I can expect shorter boot-up time and faster access of files, but I'm not sure if it's worth the money.

Does the use of SSD give one a dramatic performance boost?
Is buying SSD from Apple a good idea? It seems the price difference between HDD and SSD is more than the price of SSD in retail.

I disagree with Randolph's Answer. If anything, the article says exactly the opposite of the "good performance for a while" part.

  What we found was the exact opposite: an OS that doesn't appear to be affected by SSD performance degradation

And I don't have Apple's SSD. I have an OWC on a Mac Pro and haven't had any performance degradation since I brought it, about six month ago. Before that, I had an Intel drive and also never had degradation problems under OSX. I changed the drive because my 1st drive was too small. That Intel-M drive is running on a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium.

So far, it has been proven that OS X doesn't suffer from the lack of TRIM support; what we don't know if that's because the OS/FileSystem is doing something different or because there's TRIM support hidden and not reported.

In any case, getting a SSD is really a performance increase. I only use it for the OS and some minor things, the rest sits on a mirrored SATA RAID, but this is a Mac Pro, so things are different.

On small Macbooks, the usage of SSD is like day and night and I haven't seen performance degradation over the course of a Year.

Maybe there is one, but if that's the case, it's so slow that by the time is significant, you'll be either changing the drive or the whole computer.

I've been using SSD since late 2009.

I recommend you don't get one from Apple, as they tend to overcharge. Get one of the many SSD's alternatives like Corsairs, Intels or the OWC I have, which I heavily recommend.

But the SSD market is in a constant evolution, so read before you buy.


Faces from Aperture synced over OS X and iPhone in their Contacts? I have faces in the images of Aperture. I would like to use the faces there for my Contacts in OS X and iPhone. How can I get this syncronization thing working?

I do not know of a built-in solution. The Faces feature allows multiple photos to be associated with the same person and thus requires the user to choose which face to use for each contact.
You can use the (paid) third party app Ensoul Contacts from the Mac App Store to achieve this (check recent reviews and decide):

Easily match Faces with your Contacts and enjoy bigger and more beautiful Contacts Photos on your iPhone.
Quickly assign large and beautiful personalized images to all your Contacts from a Mac instead of boring one-by-one image matching through your iPhone's address book interface.
Ensoul Contacts boasts a unique and powerful AutoMatch Faces feature, which allows you to associate iPhoto or Aperture Faces with your Contacts in a click of a button.
Ensoul Contacts allows you to easily navigate through iPhoto, Aperture and Photo Booth libraries, as well as use images from any locations available on your Mac.
In just seconds, transform ordinary snapshots into the contact images of your dreams. Crop, zoom, rotate and modify the colors and textures of your pictures in a variety of ways!
As soon as you set a new contact photo, it gets automatically updated within your Contacts application and is instantly pushed to your iPhone by means of iCloud sync.

See: Ensoul Contacts on Mac App Store


MacBook Air screen problems I have a MacBook Air 13 inch laptop since 2011.  Quite recently the screen had problems.  It start flickering, changing colors, and vertical lines appeared in the middle of the screen.  All these are starting when I move the screen backwards, forward or when I am lightly pressing with the fingers the top of the screen.  This is also the only way to re-adjust to normal operations.
Any recommendations?

These symptoms all point in the same direction, there are some hardware issues. Perhaps a loose contact somewhere, moisture on the main board or display controller, etc. The fact that they happen or increase when moving the screen further back, all just add weight to the above analysis.

Your best bet is to take your laptop to an Apple Store or Apple Service Provider and let them have a look.


Why does AddressBookSourceSync request connections to myriad different servers? I've recently installed a new version of Little Snitch, and it informs me that the process AddressBookSourceSync wants to contact a server. I understand the process is for syncing Contacts. What I don't understand is why it should be connecting to servers such as:

cnet.com
fda.gov

and a raft of others that seem to bear no relation to my contacts (no one in my contacts has email addresses or anything else relating to CNet of the FDA).

Is this process doing more than just syncing contacts?

I'm running 10.8.4.

It isn't actually connecting to those sites it is connecting to Akamai server that host content for several sites. If you click on the "Show details button" You'll see that the reverse DNS name is for an Akamai server.


What happens to a blocked caller? So I can block callers from iOS 7 now (Settings > Messages > Blocked) and I'm told it blocks voice, iMessages, and FaceTime. What happens when they try to contact me? Are they told the number is disconnected or do they get some kind of recording? If they call, does it ring indefinitely? Same for FaceTime? Do their texts bounce back or are they sent thought I never see them?

As someone posted in your question, it's not true call blocking in that the call still connects to your service but the phone silently rejects it without any indication to you. Since it still hits your voicemail, it's not really blocked, just not answered (more like Do Not Disturb)

I just tried this with my wife's phone. When she called, she initially hears a single ring but then it is immediately bumped to voicemail.

As I mentioned you aren't made aware of this, and to the caller it just appears that you've instantly declined the call.

With regards to SMSs, you can still send them SMSs and they can even see when you're typing the message, however, you won't see them typing, nor will you receive any texts from them. On iMessage, it actually appears to them that you have received the message.


How do Aperture stacks work in the Photos app? What happens when an Aperture stack is imported into photos? It seems that all of the images in the stack get imported as individual images with no relation to one another. Can that possibly be right?

Here's what I know about Photos Version 1.0 (209.52.0):

Albums you make in Photos are only sortable by date ascending or manually (drag the photos in the order you wish)
Shared Albums are not sortable - last in on the bottom
The All Photos album isn't sortable - last in on the bottom (and imports are multi-threaded, so don't expect photos to be arranged in any order like they were on the filesystem when you let the app loose on an import of more than one photo.)
Burst photos seem to stay grouped (most of the time) and Aperture stacks do not ever stay grouped.

Basically, the rule is you don't even have a sort option enabled and when you do, it's one direction by time so you get one default sort to sometimes enforce in Photos 1.0


Why does Apple ship bash 3.2? For several years I have been wondering why Apple ships new OS X releases with old version of Bash.

I came across the question Update bash to version 4.0 on OSX where there is a mention of problem with the fact that new bash is released under GPLv3. Is it true? If so, what problem has Apple with this license? There isn't any other GPLv3'd software in OSX?

Yes, newer versions of Bash are released under GPLv3
This question brings out armchair lawyers that argue points for and against GPLv3. Simply put, GPLv3 conflicts with Apple's Licensing Policies (among other licenses). None of these licenses prevent you from downloading the source code and compiling a newer version of Bash. On a historical note, Bash was not originally offered as a shell in OS X.
Apple does not supply any software under the GPLv3 license.


Storage not displayed properly in "About this mac" section Please refer to the image to see how Storage is showing me the space division.

Its showing amount of space available correctly but the division below is incorrect as you can see it is showing 249.72 GB for Apps and I only have 249.78 GB total space.

What can I do to correct this?

Edit :

Hi guys, thanks to everyone who responded and provided there inputs to solve my problem, really appreciate it. I don't know how but the space division is showing correct division now (I guess) , here is the snapshot of what is currently displayed :

I am not sure how it got corrected, the only thing I did was restart and immediately there was no change, but then I had some work and came back to the macbook again and saw the above scenario. Still not sure what does other signify and I am pretty sure that the space allocated to apps is wrong, is there anywhere I can check other than storage about how much space is allocated to Apps?

I had a similar problem, and rebuilding my Spotlight index solved it for me.

Simply restarting my computer (a less time costly operation), has also worked in the past.


Photos: Move images from iCloud to local storage without losing metadata (albums, tags, etc)? I'm looking free space in my iCloud storage my moving images to local storage only.
I know I can export the full size images, delete them from Photos.app, then re-add them to Photos as referenced photos. But doing this will lose all the metadata in Photos (albums, tags, etc), not to mention moving them to the top of my recently added all-photos list.
My beloved and lamented Aperture had the Relocate Originals command which would move a managed photo to external storage, but Photos doesn't seem to have this. Is there any AppleScript or Swift-accessible system api command that can?
Any way to do this short of writing my own migration tool to save all the possible metadata, then re-add it to the deleted-then-reimported-as-referenced photos?
Cheers!

Assuming your photo library is complete ("Download Originals" is checked), I'd recommend the following process:

Close out Photos
In Finder, navigate to the Photos library (~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary)
Duplicate the library (Right click > Duplicate), then open it by double clicking

This shouldn't double the amount of space used by the device since the system will link the original files together until one is modified

You will be able to confirm disconnection from iCloud.
Delete photos from the non-iCloud copy that you want to keep in iCloud.
Delete photos from the iCloud copy that you want to keep local only.
Empty the recently deleted on the local copy to save space

Unfortunately, you cannot repeat this process and merge local libraries. If this is for archival purposes, I'd recommend planning on using a new target library for each period of time or event you're archiving.