Speed up transfer of 145 GB to USB 2.0 drive I have about a day to move my 145 GB Aperture file from my 2009 iMac to a USB 3.0 drive. However, my iMac doesn't have USB 3.0 yet.

According to Finder, the transfer is expected to take 2 days. So I tried splitting my library into smaller ones per year, however that won't speed up the process.

What can I do to actually speed up the process?

You could speed things up by connecting the iMac to a newer Mac in target disk mode (connected over Firewire) and then try the copy letting the new Mac do the faster copy.

However, the estimate might be over inflated and once you get over copying the small files, the actual transfer might only take 5 to 8 hours even if the Mac is running mostly idle.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+to+transfer+145+GB+at+a+data+rate+of+10+megabytes+per+sec

While the transfer is running, you can see both the instantaneous transfer rate in terms of data rate and IO rate. If your data rate are low, it could be the files are small or fragmented and you actually have hit an IO rate limit or that there are hardware issues slowing down the transfer.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+to+transfer+145+GB+of+data


Any way to never update an iOS device / not download the image? I have an iPod touch for development that I'm keeping on 4.3.  However, it has downloaded the seed for 6.0.  Is there anyway to tell it not to download 6.0 and to recover the memory that the seed is using?  It's a fairly substantial amount for an 8 gig device.

What do you mean it has downloaded the seed? iOS 4.3 does not have an OTA update mechanism, so there's no way it could have downloaded the update.

I think it is possible to remove the OTA files, it they were downloaded, but only if the iOS device is jailbroken


MacPorts to automatically install dependencies I installed 6 packages in one command, and it prompted me 6 times.  I’m using Mac ports on macOS Catalina 10.15
The following dependencies will be installed:
Continue? [Y/n]:

Is there any command-line option to suppress the following prompt?

MacPort's port is reasonable documented so on of the normal ways to find help
e.g.

man port

port help

will give the way

-N
Non-interactive mode, interactive questions are not asked

So run
sudo port -N install <portname>


How to play videos stored in iTunes playlist on iPhone4 to play in car stereio( Sony XAV-622)? iPhone4
Sony XAV-622

How to play videos stored in iTunes playlist on iPhone4  to play in car stereio( Sony XAV-622) ?

According to the Features tab of the product page on the Sony website, you need to buy a Sony adapter cable, model RC-202IPV. It is not included with the stereo, it's a separate purchase.

Judging from the Specifications tab of the product page on the Sony website and from pictures of the adapter cable, it looks like you just plug the RCA end of this adapter cable into the stereo's AUX A/V input and plug the USB end into the USB port of the stereo (the USB supplies power to the iPod).

I don't own this and I haven't looked through the manual, but just from looking at the info I mentioned above, it seems obvious that you would then use the stereo to select the AUX A/V as the input source and then control everything from the iPhone.


How do I stop .dmgs from automatically mounting? I'm trying to find the best means of stopping dmg files mounting in OS X 10.6.  I was shown a system where 'no mountable filesystem,' would pop up whenever a user tried to mount a dmg but I can't recall how it was achieved.  I'm currently using parental controls but it keeps getting circumvented.  Any help appreciated.

As Administrator user, remove read access from /System/Library/CoreServices/DiskImageMounter.app (and /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app to be on the safe side) for "Everyone" (in the Get Info dialog in the Finder).


Tool for determining performance bottleneck I am using my early 2011 MacBook Pro for iOS development, Photoshop work, and the like, and it is at times quite sluggish. Is there a tool that I can just run for a day, and then look at the statistics it produces to identify the performance bottleneck?

I am considering either buying more RAM (I have 8 currently, would get 16) or an SSD (I currently have the stock HDD).

The tools I would use are:

Activity Monitor
Instruments (run from Xcode)
vm_stat 900
io_stat 900
top -u -s 900
sysdiagnose - shift+control+option+command+. (or run sudo sysdiagnose)

The two stat commands and top all run in a terminal window and snapshot 15 minute intervals of activity. The stat ones log the statistics. I'd run the sysdiagnose command sparingly, perhaps once at the start of the period, once when the OS seems exceptionally slow and once at the end.

The easiest to manage is Activity monitor and I'd focus on making sure nothing is occupying the CPU that you don't feel should be taking a lot of resources and the balance of RAM - what percentage is wired what percentage is wired+active.


Why can't browsers resolve localhost? I've got a program on my machine listening on port 8080 to respond to HTTP requests.  But when I try to go to http://localhost:8080/ in a browser...

Chrome says:

  The localhost page isn’t working

  localhost didn’t send any data. ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE

Firefox redirects the request to www.localhost.com:8080 which of course isn't correct.  My research suggests that it is doing this because it can't find localhost.

Safari says it can't open the page because "the server unexpectedly dropped the connection."

However, if I go to http://127.0.0.1:8080 the page loads correctly.

Therefore, it would seem that for some reason OS X isn't properly resolving localhost to 127.0.0.1.  If I try to ping localhost from the command line, it works, but my understanding is that name resolution works differently in different places.

I have read various issues where localhost doesn't resolve e.g. from ping, but I am not having that problem. All the cases where localhost were not working in the browser appear to not have solutions related to the actual problem I am having.  I have also seen places where people have mentioned that localhost does work in the browser, so I am wondering what I am doing wrong here.

From comments
If I try the IPv6 address for localhost http://[::1]:8080/ then I get the same errors as using localhost.

First check name resolution with the system resolver:

dscacheutil -q host -a name localhost

If you get an output like:

name: localhost
ipv6_address: ::1

name: localhost
ip_address: 127.0.0.1

the system resolver works correctly.

Stop your node.js app, create a simple node.js server by using this file with an arbitrary name (e.g. multiserver.js):

var http = require('http');
function handler(req, res) {
  res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
  res.end('Hello World\n');
};
http.createServer(handler).listen(3000, '127.0.0.1');
http.createServer(handler).listen(3001, 'localhost');
http.createServer(handler).listen(3002, '192.168.0.5');
http.createServer(handler).listen(3003, 'host.example.com');
http.createServer(handler).listen(3004, 'LocalHostName.local');

(replace the IP of the :3002 server by an IP of your host (ifconfig), the host.example.com of the :3003 server by the output of echo $HOSTNAME and LocalHostName by the output of scutil --get LocalHostName)

and start it with

node ../multiserver.js

Now test your "multiserver" with Google Chrome by entering http://name:port (don't forget to prepend http://).

The first two ports should work with both "names" (127.0.0.1/localhost). So entering either http://127.0.0.1:3000, http://127.0.0.1:3001, http://localhost:3000 or http://localhost:3001 should all yield "Hello World".

Also check the nine permutations of the next three ports and names (e.g. http://LocalHostName.local:3002 or http://192.168.0.5:3004) which should also all yield "Hello World" if the hostname/DNS are set up correctly.

If all this works, your express/node.js app is faulty.


Cannot draw in iPad Notes app using a finger I have an iPad Pro, 2nd generation with the iPadOS version 13.5.1 and I would like to draw or print on a page in the Notes app. I don't have an Apple Pencil but I should be able to do this with my finger. Below is a screenshot from my iPad of my attempt.  This question was asked before but the answer doesn't work for me.  Nothing I can do draws on a page. I've searched the web and found this site and this one that says this is possible but the descriptions don't work. Does anyone know how to make this work? It works fine on my iPhone 11 Pro.

Found the solution!!! It’s in the settings.  Toggle off “only draw with Apple Pencil” ... simple yet hidden solution. Hope this helps everyone :-)


iOS / iPadOS mouse scrolling not working I´m currently checking out the mouse support in iPadOS 13.4 on my gen 3 iPad Air. Scrolling does not seem to work anywhere. Is this by design or do I need to configure something to make it work?
According to the iPadOS features, it supports 3rd party Bluetooth mice

Mouse and trackpad support
iPadOS supports Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad, as well as third‑party mice using Bluetooth and USB.

I tested it with the gen 2 Magic Mouse and I`m also using the Apple Smart Keyboard.

The scrolling feature appears broken since I have the same issue. A workaround is to move the cursor to the area you want to scroll. Press and hold down the mouse button and move the mouse forward or backward. This will scroll the area you selected.


Blocking websites on OS X I would like to block some websites on the guest account, so my cousin cannot browse things that are not safe for my computer.

You can do this using Parental Controls on the Guest account. See Apple's KB article regarding this for the procedure:

OS X Mountain Lion: Filter inappropriate Internet content

  Manage a user with parental controls

  Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, and then click Parental Controls.
  Click the lock if it’s not unlocked, and enter an administrator name and password.
  Select a user in the list of users, and then click Web.
  In the Website Restrictions section, select the Internet restrictions you want for Safari.

  To allow Safari to access Internet content without filtering, select “Allow unrestricted access to websites.”
  To filter inappropriate Internet content or websites, select “Try to limit access to adult websites automatically.”

  To allow or restrict specific sites, click Customize.
  To limit access to only specific websites, select “Allow access to only these websites.”

  To add a website to the list, click Add (+) below the list, choose Add Bookmark from the pop-up menu, enter a bookmark name and webpage address, and then click OK.

  To add a bookmark folder, click Add (+) below the list, choose Add Folder, and then type a name for the folder.

  To remove a bookmark or bookmark folder from the list, select it and click Delete (-) below the list.

But to fully protect the computer from potential harm from Internet regardless of account used one has to block any downloads and installations without explicit approval. (I do that to protect my self from my self :)

Each browser has they own set of tools that can be used to protect user and computer. Loots of good add-on's in Firefox.

As an example for Firefox you would use a add-on ..Block downloads,

lock down bookmarks/addons/downloads with a password.


iBookstore and Kindle I bought a book in the iBookstore to read on my iPad, but the iPad isn't that easy on my eyes. I recently bought a Kindle because my grandson said the e-ink would be better for reading. Is there a way to convert the iBook to a format I can read on my Kindle?

You will have to change the file format.
This might be helpful to you http://calibre-ebook.com/.

Also this is a good resource: http://www.epubor.com/read-ibooks-on-kindle.html.

Good Luck


Bangla fonts are broken in iMovie I can write Bangla in iMovie but when I watch it as a video or, export it the fonts are broken. How can I fix it? Any help would be great.

I wrote two Bangla words like the first image and they are changed to following screenshot.

During editing:

After editing:

It worked http://www.ekushey.org/?page/osx_fonts.

Full discussion is here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/33855238?ac_cid=op123456#33855238


macOS catalina, Apache Benchmark (ab) not working, dyld library not loaded I just got this error trying to install ab on my Catalina macOS:
brew install homebrew/apache/ab
Error: homebrew/apache was deprecated. This tap is now empty and all its contents were either deleted or migrated.

not sure what to do...
Actually what I want to do is to make ab work:
I found out that ab (apache benchmark tool) is already installed on macOS, but it doesnt' work:
$ab
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/libssl.1.0.0.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/ab
Reason: image not found
Abort trap: 6

I found the solution on this post, https://github.com/kelaberetiv/TagUI/issues/635
brew uninstall openssl; brew uninstall openssl;
brew install https://github.com/tebelorg/Tump/releases/download/v1.0.0/openssl.rb


How to tell the mode (Transparency, noise cancellation or none) of airpod pro when it connects to the Apple TV? I can connect the audio of my AppleTV to my Airpod Pro.

However there is no obvious which mode the Airpod Pro are in from the Apple TV user interface.

I tried to use Siri to find it out, but it only says I can use the remote to control volume.

Is there any way I can find it out, other than playing music loudly from another source so I can tell by taking off the ear bud?

Since the AirPods don’t have a mode until they are in your ears there’s no mode before you have them live.

Once they are live that data isn’t exposed on AppleTV. I would recommend using the switch control on your AirPods to cycle the mode until you know what mode they are in by listening.


Using ethernet for iMac and Wi-Fi for other devices I now use Wi-Fi for my iMac and for various other devices. Can I set up the iMac to use ethernet directly w/o Wi-Fi involvement and have the Wi-Fi continue to connect for iPads, TV and smart phones? Concerned about security as I do banking and other financial stuff only on the iMac.

Usually it's no problem to use the ethernet interface instead of the Wi-Fi interface, if the router/access point contains one or several ethernet connectors:

Install an ethernet cable between your iMac and the router. Depending on your router you might have to enable/configure its ethernet interfaces.
Open System Preferences -> Network.
Configure IPv4 of the ethernet interface by choosing DHCP or Manually. If you've chosen "Manually" enter an appropriate IPv4 address, netmask, gateway and DNS-server
Click on the gear in the lower left corner -> Set Service Order..., drag the ethernet interface to the top of the list and click OK.
Optionally you may deactivate Wi-Fi by highlighting it in the left pane and then "Turn Wi-Fi off"
Then hit Apply


Wireless display from one laptop to another Here is my setup:

macbook pro retina physically connected to 2 external monitors, and keyboard+mouse.
17 macbook on its own

What I want to do:

I'd like to somehow use one of the external monitors connected to laptop (1) to display the screen of laptop (2).

The idea is that I don't want to have to connect/disconnect anything.  I want to be able to, on demand, use 1 of the displays connected to (1) to display what is on (2) without physically adjusting cables.

Is this possible?  Bonus points if someone can suggest a software kvm style solution so that in addition to using the monitors connected to (1), I can also use the mouse + keyboard connected to (1) to drive (2)

click "System preferences > sharing" and enable the screen sharing.
on screen sharing preferences copy the Adress that is like this "vnc://..." save to a txt file and send to the other computer through airdrop.
open safari on the other computer, paste the addres and press enter, the screen of the first computer will apear.

You don't need any software, doing this steps you will control bouth computers with 1 mouse and 1 keyboard :)


Rootless custom scheduling of Time Machine backups It has been asked how to customize the backup schedule of Time Machine, but the solutions in the answers only seem to work in releases of OS X that weren’t “rootless”, i.e. before 10.11 El Capitan (or was it 10.10 already?). The recommended tool Time Machine Scheduler also doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2013.

Is there a solution to adjust the backup intervals for current (2015+) versions of OS X?

You can use any of the existing solutions from the existing question Custom Scheduling of Time Machine backups by disabling System Integrity Protection first using csrutil disable in Terminal from the Recovery HD. Once the changes have been made, you can re-enable SIP by running the same command but using ‘enable’ in the place of ‘disable’, also from Terminal in the Recovery HD.


Third party USB Ethernet adapter won't wake up I have a mid 2015 Retina MBP 15" and regularly use multi screens and hard wired ethernet. So I've bought a third party HandAcc USB ethernet adapter with Realtek 0x8153 chipset (the device also includes a 3 x USB port hub).

Waking up after sleep the USB hub seems to be working, but the Ethernet has disconnected and won't reconnect without hot (un)plugging. This is particularly annoying if I have hard drives connected to the hub as they will disconnect (seemingly still working after waking).

Has anyone had this or a similar problem and found a decent solution?

You cannot allow the Mac to sleep. That is the fix. If you do, just make it standard operating procedure to unplug and re-plug. Been using Mac Pro's for music production for many, many years. This is not a problem, it is just how they work. Same as you can't hibernate a Mac, and you can't wake one up from LAN.
What seems to work on various systems (sometimes)is to have a Mac USB Keyboard directly connected to the computer and then have your items connected to the keyboard's ports. You need a powered HUB for you can't draw power from the keyboard.


My Time Machine is backing up in /private/var/folders/ My MacBook Pro (10.15.7) is backing up parts of the drive I didn't expect. I have been cleaning up and excluding directories, but this time I found something I thought was excluded by default:
private/var/folders.
To examine I have been using 'Timedog'. Here is a piece of today's output:

Again, as far as I know and as referenced here, the standard exclusions
/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist

include ('exclude') private/var/folders/ under the "contents excluded" category, meaning that the folder container is backed up but nothing inside. Clearly here we have 42.6 MiB of content.

This is an attempt at a (partial) answer. It is too long for a comment.
Apple makes changes (mostly minor) to Time Machine without notification or  documentation. I believe that the question and answers here are too old to be reliable for recent versions of macOS.
The StdExclusions.plist does not exist inside the backupd.bundle on macOS 11, so that is no longer a mechanism for exclusion.  I don't know if it exists in macOS 10.15.7. And even if it does exist, whether it is used.
Mike Bombich of Carbon Copy Cloner specifies what is excluded by CCC and says that it excludes only part of /private/var/folders.  He lists these as being excluded:

/private/var/folders/*/*/C
/private/var/folders/*/*/T

Of course, that doesn't directly imply that Time Machine is doing the same, but it is a pointer.
On my Mac some files are from /private/var/folders are included in Time Machine.  My Time Machine snapshots include just these:

/private/var/folders/*/*/0/...

This is all largely circumstantial regarding Time Machine, but does suggest that the exclusion mechanism is more complex (or should I say hidden) than most of us expect.
Just to muddy the waters, I have to admit that the exclusions.plist file included in the root of every Time Machine (macOS 11.2) snapshot does list /private/var/folders as being excluded!
Finally, my advice is never to attempt a cleanup of system exclusions if there is any likelihood of wanting to do a full restore.


Exclude IPod from play count in iTunes Is there a way for avoiding the update to my play counts when I sync my iPod?

A forum post from 2005 suggests that "Manually manage music and videos" prevents play counts from syncing, but this may have changed in the last 6-7 years. This option is found on the Summary page when the iPod is selected in iTunes.


How can I create a custom colored icon font? How can I create custom colored icon font as Apple did for emoticons?

I'd also need a font making tool that imports .svg images.

For font making the common OS X tools are FontLab, FontForge, and Glyphs.

I understand the Color Emoji font uses png color bitmaps in two sizes in a proprietary “sbix” table, but have not yet seen info on how to make that table.


Macbook Pro Mid 2012 Black Screen and No Picture On External Monitor. GPU problem? My 15" non-retina Macbook Pro Mid 2012 is having some issues. The screen suddenly went out on me as I was using it. There is absolutely no picture going to the screen, so it isn't a brightness issue. I have also tried plugging into an external monitor, and no picture shows up on that either. I am sure the computer is powering up properly, as I can hear applications running in the background.

I have reset the SMC and PRAM numerous times. As far as I can tell, there has been no damage to any parts of the logic board.

Does this mean my GPU is shot and my computer could function properly if I replaced it, or are there other parts I should be inspecting?

Bad news, your GPU is shot.

Good news- you might be eligible for a free repair by Apple.


Is the retina iMac's GPU powerful enough for its huge display? The retina iMac has a display with the huge resolution of 5120x2880. While I'm pretty sure the included GPU (AMD Radeon R9 M290X) must be definitely powerful enough for everyday use, I wonder if under full-screen stress it would still be performant, considering I would also add a second monitor (a normal 1920x1080).

I mostly use it to develop both 2D and 3D games with Unity, but I'd also like to be able to at least try the Unreal Engine.

So, the question is: is this graphic card powerful enough to handle this high res and still have good performance?

This is the article you're looking for: The iMac and its 5K display... as a gaming machine? from ArsTechnica.

Nevertheless R9 M9290X is one of the most powerful mobile GPUs on the planet. That should be pretty powerful on development workflows (I'm a UNIX dev too and do development on GPU, mostly for crunching numbers though).

Edit: 280X was a typo, but I looked to the charts for desktop and mobile parts and 280X and M290X. Frequencies doesn't differ much, but memory bandwidth does. Also texture fill rate is 30% lower, but pixel rates are similar. Processing unit numbers were not directly available, but it looks 20% to 30% slower on real world, not 50%. This doesn't make it smoking hot, we're talking a lot of pixels here, but probably the card wont't be bogged down by the display.

What kind of development work you want to do? Level design? Hi-poly modeling? Engine development?


How do I transfer files fast over two network shares? I have two shares (A, B) on the same volume on a synology NAS. I'm have the two shares mounted in finder, but when copying or moving files it takes forever, even with SMB3 on. I can of course use Synology's file browser which takes seconds, but the issue is that I can't easly open and preview files - I would like to use Finder if possible or at least an app for Mac that would allow me to open the files.

Moving files from one share on a host to another share on the same host will always be faster when initiated from the host itself, and will always be slow when transferred from the host to a client (and back).  Regardless of whether you use Finder, or mv or cp or Carbon Copy Cloner, if the data has to traverse the network, it will be orders of magnitude slower.

There are some technologies that allow a copy or duplicate command on the same share to be initiated by a client and performed server-side instead of copying the whole file down to the client and then back.  I believe SMB supports this, but it it won't work across different shares, even if they're on the same host.

Long story short, your network will always be the bottleneck compared to the disk controller's native speed (~88MBps for Gigabit Ethernet vs. 200-600MBps for SATA). If you're running 100Base-T on your network instead of Gigabit, you'll be 10x slower than that (8MBps).

To (pre)view anything on the Mac, you'll always have to transfer it (or enough of it) to the Mac over the network.  For large items, I'd recommend using the Synology's interface to move or copy items between the different shares.


How do I assess how "normal" my battery is? OS X assesses my battery as "normal" under System Information > Power.

I understand that at some point this is going to change to some kind of "we recommend you replace the battery" message.

I am wondering if I can see this coming.

Coconut battery reports that 'current capacity' / 'design capacity' is 96%.

Is this number the way that OS X itself determines whether the battery is still "normal"? If yes, what is the threshold at which the battery will be deemed abnormal?

Yes, you are going about this the right way to determine your battery's remaining capacity and life.

When a battery reaches over 1000 charge cycles, it is considered "consumed", aka it's lived out the expected life cycle and any degradation in capacity is totally expected. This is never covered by warranty. A consumed battery may still hold some charge, and in some cases a lot of charge, though that is rare.

A battery would be deemed "failed" and OS X would report it if it holds less than 80% of its factory full charge capacity. If this would happen within the first year, then it would be covered by warranty. This is the way OS X and diagnostics determine the health of the battery when the complaint/concern is poor battery life.

The battery Can also unexpectedly fail if the thermal sensor in the battery goes bad. But this is something that's impossible to preventively pick up with software.


iMessages no longer working after Yosemite upgrade I just updated my MacBook Pro (Early 2011) to OS X Yosemite, now iMessages is no longer working. I turned it off/on on both my computer and my iPhone, reset my Keychain, and a bunch of other stuff. Nothing worked.

How can I fix this ?

After an hour long call with Apple, I was finally told to reset my default Keychain, and after a reboot, that worked. We diagnosed this as the issue because every time I rebooted, iCloud/FaceTime/Messages would ask for my password again, even though it had supposedly saved it.

This also came right after I had just reset the default Keychain to solve not being able to connect to my wireless network.


Meaning of "send as sms when imessage is unavailable"? I want the option to "send as sms when imessage is unavailable" to turn off. But if it's on, does that mean it sends as SMS when imessage is unavailable on MY end (the sending end), the receiving end, or both? Example: while I had this option on, if I texted a friend whose phone was on airplane mode or off, it would go through as sms and not imessage. With this option off, if I imessage someone and their phone is on airplane mode/off, would it send as SMS because imessage is available on my end? Or keep it as an undelivered imessage because imessage is unavailable on their end??

This option means when a user with iMessage doesn't have an Internet connection or iMessage is disabled.

For example:
One day while chatting with a friend via iMessage your friend goes into a tunel and disconnects from the Internet, your iPhone detects that your friend is off-line. If the option "send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable" is enabled,
the messsage will be send as an SMS. If the option "send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable" is disabled, the message will only be sent as an iMessage when your friend comes back online.


Microphone is not working in iPhone 4s I know this question is a poor one but I don't know what happened to my iphone i am using it from past 2 years but its microphone suddenly stopped working and i am having problem in recording voice notes and calling. But mic is working in Videos. I am not understanding the problem. It is my one of the favorite phone that's why i don't want to get rid of it.

Here is list of problems i am facing in my phone.
 1. Having problem while calling
 2. Not having problem while recording video
 3. Having problem while recording a voice note
 4. Microphone starts working when i switch my call to SPEAKERS.

I hope everyone understood my problem. Waiting for the possible easy solution.

It sounds like one of the two mics on your iPhone 4 has failed.  One is used for phone calls and the other is used to pick up ambient noise for noise cancellation and is also used during speakerphone calls and video recording.

If you replace the Dock Connector, that'll get you a new ambient mic.


Is there any way to get rid of the TOC page with iBooks Author? I'm making a picture book with iBooks Author. Each page is one simple image. That's all there is to the book.

So I don't need the TOC. Is there a way to get rid of the TOC?

You could try this.. Open the document, select the inspector, select the TOC tab. Highlight each section and press the minus key. See the images... You'd have to preview it on your iPad, and mine is not here right now.


How to play internet radio stations in the Music app on iOS 13? I read several posts, that it should be possible to listen to internet radio stations from TuneIn in Apple Music (e.g. https://www.audioxpress.com/news/tunein-and-apple-bring-the-world-s-radio-stations-to-apple-music-and-all-siri-enabled-devices). But It does not work for me - neither Siri (language: German) nor typed search for radio stations yields any result.

My question: how can I listen to internet radio stations (e.g. hr3, srf3, ...) using Music on iOS 13? I have an Apple Music subscription.

If it is relevant: I am in Switzerland.

My guess is that it has something to do with your location. I'm in the USA and when I searched for "hr3" in the Music app it immediately showed that station you are looking for as a result. Maybe TuneIn only works with the Apple Music app in some countries?


Ethernet LAN speed too slow on one machine I have a LAN that has 4 Macs and a router / switch to connect them all.

My Ethernet LAN speed on my iMac is pathetically slow. I additionally have a MacMini, MacBook and G4 in my LAN, they all go way faster. For measuring I used a 220GB file to copy from one machine to another. While between the MacMini and MacBook this estimates to take about an hour, when copying to my iMac this measures at about 15 hours.

I then unplugged the cable from the iMac and plugged it into the MacBook to check if it might be a cable, and the speed was fine. So the cables seem to be fine.

I then connected the MacBook directly to my iMac bypassing the router and the speed was fine too, so the iMac port seems to be fine.

So, I’m thinking it’s something in the settings. On the iMac, I have two partitions, one running 10.11.6 and one running 10.6.8. On both systems I got the same results. When looking at network Utility, it shows Gigabit.

I reset the router and switch, restarted the iMac and am out of ideas right now.

This problem has the feel of a data packet size mismatch causing fragmentation with corresponding delay. Possibly combined with the machine hardware for some reason being set up for half-duplex communication.
For more information about packet size you can use the ping command from terminal with different packet sizes as described in this article: https://community.hpe.com/t5/Networking/What-detail-symptoms-will-I-be-getting-if-MTU-size-mismatch/td-p/6909407
Compare the ping results between the fast and the slow computers on the same physical connection.


Change the Screen Saver "Start After" options in Mountain Lion In Mountain Lion, I'd like to remove some options in the screen saver timing. I'd like to remove the "Never" option and some of the longer options for all accounts on the system. Essentially I'd like to require a screensaver, any screensaver.

Is there a way that this can be accomplished?

If you're using Open Directory and OS X Server, you can push manifests to the client machines using Workgroup Manager (MCX). This, of course, depends on what version of OS X Server you are using. My familiarity is with Lion Server, but documentation exists for MCX and Directory Services in other OS X Server versions.

While I am not sure you can eliminate the options for screensaver timing, you can force the client machine into a specific value using the plist and MCX.

Helpful Links:

How to Manage Settings Using the Preference Editor
This link is for Leopard, but it is relevant to how OS X Server and MCX handle screensaver settings.


Problems with VS Code application icon I have downloaded VS Code on my new Mac mini, but the icon seems to be some random dots. My Mac mini has the M1 Chip.
Here is a picture of the icon in Spotlight:

A few steps I have tried:

Restarting the Mac
Reinstalling VS Code
Trying with a different user
Contacted Apple Support, response was, "it is not our product (vs code) so we can no fix it"

Is there anyway to fix this?

There are two possibilities:

The OS is displaying the image file incorrectly.
The image file itself is corrupt.

If you can find an application that uses different routines to display the image file, then you may be able to rule out the first option, if you can get the image to display correctly in a third-party app.
Otherwise, it's an issue for the developer.


iCloud: Untrust a saved Web browser I recently accessed iCloud Website using a device that I don't personally own and generally use.

After successfully logging-in by entering my Apple ID/Password and the Two Factor Authentication code, I was asked if I would like to trust the browser, so as to skip entering Two Factor Authentication code every time I login, I complied. (It isn't a public device and there is no possibility of unauthorized access)

This gave me the of flexibility to easily login in with just my Apple ID and password when I don't have any of my trusted Apple device around to get the Two Factor Authentication code.

Now, I am done using the device and will be returning it to the original owner. How do I untrust the Web browser?, i.e. require it to ask for Two Factor Authentication code next time a login is performed using my Apple ID? Also, is there a way to see a list of all similar trusted browsers and untrust them?

It appears that a cookie (probably X-APPLE-WEBAUTH-HSA-TRUST) is stored when you choose to trust the browser. Clearing cookies should essentially disable this functionality and require a 2FA code to log in again.

When you sign out of iCloud using the browser (Click your name in the top right corner and Sign Out), you are also presented with this dialog:

If you uncheck Remember me on this browser so I don't have to verify my identity next time. and sign out successfully, the browser will require a 2FA code the next time you log in.


Keychain: Application still requesting access with entry created via "security add-generic-password" I'm adding a Keychain entry programatically onto a machine via the security command as such:

security add-generic-password -a "username@exchange.server.here" -s "Exchange" w "P@ssw0rd!" -T "/Applications/Microsoft Outlook"

It looks great, just like one generated one when you set up Outlook! However, I still get the "Microsoft Outlook wants to access key Exchange in your keychain" prompt when the user opens Outlook.

Have I missed a step here somewhere? I was of the impression that -T allowed applications to access a keychain entry unprompted?

In newer versions of OS X you now have to add a partition teamid

security set-generic-password-partition-list -S teamid:UBF8T346G9 -s "Exchange" -k YOUR_USER_PW

If you 'allow' Exchange or whichever app to use the password and then inspect it

security dump-keychain -a > blip.txt

You can see the teamid and then use that in the command above. For instance for Sequel Pro:

    class: "genp"
    attributes:
        0x00000007 <blob>="Sequel Pro : mydb (5180261558162063037)"
    ...
        entry 3:
            authorizations (1): partition_id
            don't-require-password
            description: teamid:Y48LQG59RS
            applications: <null>
    ...

Now when you script this trusted password you can use:

    security add-generic-password -a "me@localhost/mydb" -s "my db" -p thepasswordtomydb -T "/Applications/Sequel Pro.app" -U
    security set-generic-password-partition-list -S teamid:Y48LQG59RS -s "my db" -k your_user_pw


How can I mirror my mouse and keyboard across multiple displays? I want to duplicate actions performed on my main screen on a second screen i.e. mouse clicks and keyboard input.

I have one iMac, with two similar displays. On both displays, I have opened two same programs with near pixel-perfect identical positions on the screens.

How can I achieve this? Does such a task require a programmer?

As an example:

Let's say, I open the Chrome browser, logged-in with my Google username ,on the main screen. On the screen display attached to my Mac, I open another Chrome browser window, this time logged-in as my friend's Google username.

What I want is for anything I do on the first browser (mouse clicks and keyboard) to be done on the second browser, on the second monitor.

This is not possible.

What you are attempting to do is mirror without mirroring.

Forgetting the secondary display for a second, you can't type or (mouse) control more than one window at a time.  It's the window that has focus that accepts input.  Think about it...you can move your mouse anywhere across any open windows, but you have to take focus of the window (click or hover depending on your settings) before you can interact with it.

Even moving the mouse in two separate windows is impossible.  Your mouse works on a coordinate system (X,Y).  You can see what it's (X,Y) value is by pressing CmdShift4 (screen capture).  There is no way to have a secondary coordinate value to "mirror" it on another window.

Adding another display won't help, either because unless you are mirroring the display (and since your example used different chrome browser profiles) you would be extending the display and the available (X,Y) coordinate system.


Outlook-iPhone and private email How can I send private email from my iphone to an Outlook user so his delegates cannot see the email?

You can setup the permissions of the Delegate so they can not see private items. Here's a KB article about granting permission to them:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249324

The trick is now finding a way to get your iPhone to add the "Private" flag to your message. I don't have an iPhone so I can't help you there. Just edit the properties of your message and see what you can change.


Cannot force quit an application, which is not listed in processes but wont let computer shut down I was running a computationally intensive code from Rstudio, and it stopped responding. I used forcequit on the app, and tried to restart my computer. Although Rstudio wont show on ps -ax, mac refuses to shut down saying "Rstudio" is still running. When I right click on Rstudio in dock, it says "Application not responding", I think it tried to start itself and failed somehow. On DiagnosticReports I have a .hang file created after this.

My question is, how do I force quit an application when option+command+escape, or right click > Force quit does not work, pid is not listed and cannot see it running in Activity Monitor.

What might be wrong?

sudo reboot worked, I am not sure if this causes any background issues but everything seems okay now.


What properties must an iPhone case have to avoid antenna issues? I have an AT&T iPhone 4, which may have antenna problems when held in some positions (i.e. the "grip of death").  To help with this, Apple gave away bumper cases which worked around the problems when the phones were new.  Unfortunately, my old iPhone case broke, so now I'm looking at new cases.

What properties must my new case have to be to avoid these problems with the iPhone 4's antenna?

A piece of non-conductive scotch tape is all that is required to prevent your skin from bridging the gap in the metal band and changing the impedance of the antennas.

As long as your skin doesn't short the external metal band, you are good to go, so even extremely thin gloves that are dry would work without any case whatsoever.

For more reading, see:

PC World: Apple Responds to iPhone 4 Antenna Problem
Apple PR: Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4
Apple Support: iPhone 4: Antenna or reception issues
Antenna Engineer Blog: Apple iPhone 4 Antennas...


dot-app wrapper for Windows programs Several months ago, I was interested in a Windows program "Azuon."  They had instructions on how to install it on Mac OS by getting a "wrapper" from somewhere else.  Sort of like WINE or CrossOver but it put everything needed inside the .app bundle.

I'd like to use the same technique for some other programs, but I can't remember the name of the thing.  I went back to Azuon's website to find out, but they have since done the packaging themselves and no longer cite the other site.

Where is this "embedded WINE" code, or what is its name?

If only I had searched for fifteen minutes instead of ten....

It's "Wineskin" at http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php

Now to figure out how to use it....


Searches in Safari and possible virus Warning, a virus?

I have made a search in Safari address bar. I put marqueting (marketing in catalan language) I have been redirected to a page that says:

(Now I am in Spain and this is my translation of the message, as far as I know:)

    WARNING!

    Mac OS X 10.12.5 is infected with viruses and other malicious applications.
Viruses must be removed and damage to the system must be repaired.

    You need to run the virus removal procedure immediately.

    ** If you leave this site, your Mac OS X Sierra will remain damaged and vulnerable **

    The address is (only the beginning):
    http://mac-shield.com-secure.download/result/e3fk6/?sourceid=

I suppose that the message itself must be malicious. I post it just to be sure and to help and prevent others. Why it happened just making a search? how to solve it, should just ignore it? How to avoid that in future searches?

This is a scam site.  You'll be ok as long as you didn't fall for their tactics and download and install their software.  There's nothing to remove from your system if you didn't install anything.

The info below is from a 2011 article on Bleeping Computer so that tells you how long this type of phishing scam has been going on.

  Mac Shield is a fake rogue anti-spyware program that for the Mac OS
  operating system from the same family as Mac Guard. This infection is
  spread through spam, hacked sites that have poisoned the search
  results for image search engines such as Google Images, and hacked
  sites that infect you when you visit them. When you click on images
  belonging to the hacked sites, you will automatically be redirected to
  a page that shows an advertisement that pretends to be a fake online
  scanner.

I'm not sure why you got this result page in the first place.  Are you using your normal internet gateway and service provider?  A free Internet cafe or something similar?

Make sure you clear Safari's cache and browser history.


Filling the inputs of SecurityAgent if they exist? I am trying to automate the export of my keychains (system and user), and while my script works if I remove the set values, it does not after adding them.

The error I am receiving is

System Events got an error: Can’t get text field 1 of group 1 of window 1 of process "SecurityAgent". Invalid index.

It seems that I am asking for something that doesn't exist? Here is the modal

And here is the code.

tell application "System Events"
    repeat while exists (processes where name is "SecurityAgent")
        tell process "SecurityAgent"
            set value of text field 1 of group 1 of window 1 to "adminuser"
            set value of text field 2 of group 1 of window 1 to "adminpass"
            click button "Allow" of group 1 of window 1
        end tell
        delay 0.2
    end repeat
end tell

If possible I would like to detect if there are fields prior to attempting to set so this can work with or without password prompting

This worked

set appName to "username"
set appPass to "password"

tell application "System Events"
    repeat while exists (processes where name is "SecurityAgent")
        tell process "SecurityAgent"
            if exists (text field 1 of window 1) then
                set value of text field 1 of window 1 to appName
                set value of text field 2 of window 1 to appPass
            end if
            click button "Allow" of group 1 of window 1
        end tell
        delay 0.2
    end repeat
end tell


Can I still boot into Single User Mode if I disable the shell for root? It's been suggested that, since the root account now appears in the accounts database on macOS 10.13.1+ by "default" (by accident it seems), it might be a good security measure to disable shell access for that account.

Will doing so disable the ability to boot into Single User Mode?

As @fd0 already commented, "single user mode uses /private/etc/passwd for login authentication, not Open Directory":

pse@Mithos:~$ grep ^root: /etc/passwd
root:*:0:0:System Administrator:/var/root:/bin/sh

but

pse@Mithos:~$ sudo dscl . -read /Users/root UserShell
UserShell: /usr/bin/false

So single user mode will happily read the content of /etc/passwd and start a root shell with /bin/sh even if you set the shell to false with dscl.


Slow Wi-Fi internet connection with Mac Mini We have two Apple computers next to each other on one desk: a Mac Mini and a 27” iMac (both late 2012) and both running macOS Sierra 10.12.3.

We have a Wi-Fi router in the next room (about 9 metres away from furthest machine). It's a Virgin Super Hub 2ac.

The iMac connects on 5G and works well – it rarely drops out and is quite fast (DL 49.37 Mb/S).

The Mac Mini connects on 2G (will not connect on 5G – it almost immediately defaults to 2G).  It is often (but not always) painfully slow in connecting to websites (particularly in the evening). It makes it almost impossible to use. DL speed this morning was 18.96Mb/s.

This is very frustrating. I have spoken several times to both Apple and Virgin. Both have seemed helpful at the time. Virgin have adjusted some settings remotely which seemed to work initially but problem returned. Virgin claims the Mac Mini is not able to pick up the 5g signal because of its specification.

Is this true? Do we have to buy a new computer to replace the Mini?

Virgin claim the Mini is not able to pick up 5g signal because of its specification. Is this true?

No, this is not true. Both the Late-2012 iMac and Late 2012 Mac Mini have the same specifications in terms of Wi-Fi.

  Do we have to buy a new computer to replace the Mini?

No. If it was me, I would share the internet connection from the iMac to the Mac Mini via an ethernet cable. This should be easy enough since they're on the same desk.

To do this:

Connect the iMac and Mac Mini via an ethernet cable
On the iMac:

go to System Preferences > Sharing
in the service pane on the left, highlight Internet Sharing
in the Share Your Connection From drop-down select Wi-Fi
in the To computers from list tick the Ethernet port
in the service pane on the left, tick the Internet Sharing checkbox

To ensure the Mac Mini is using this connection instead of the 2g one, you can either switch Wi-Fi off or choose to change the preference order of your connections in the Network preferences pane so that Ethernet is listed ahead of Wi-Fi.

Once you've set this up, you should have a fairly good connection on the Mac Mini.

In terms of why the iMac is getting the 5g signal and the Mac Mini isn't, it could be as simple as the iMac causing some sort of obstruction (especially if the iMac is the one closer to the Wi-Fi router).

However, I have found more often than not many devices will connect to a 2g network in preference to a 5g network. While 5g provides a faster connection, it isn't as robust as a 2g connection. So, if distance is an issue (not likely in your case) or if there are physical obstructions impacting the signal, a 2g network is often better.


Do you know if there is anyway to turn off the iPod Touch pinging NTP server? We have a bunch of iPod Touch devices deployed in an Enterprise environment, they are pinging NTP server and it looks like it is for accurate time keeping. Is there anyway I can turn off the devices pinging the NTP server? We are hearing from the network guys that pinging is slowing the network down. The real problem we are trying to solve is the WIFI Drop, for some reason these devices are dropping 5 to 8 times a day and the network guys are saying that this is due to the iPod Touch devices pinging the NTP server. Is that traffic so high to cause WIFI drops?

Easy. Go to Settings > General > Time & Date > Turn off Set Automatically.

This will allow you to set the time on the iPod manually AND stop it from pinging Apple's NTP server (time.apple.com).

More on that here.


External monitor CPU usage If i close my Macbook Pro laptop whilst it's connected to an external monitor of lesser resolution, will I have more CPU processing power as it's pushing fewer pixels?

Yes you will. If you look at this thread - the CPU / GPU can actually do enough work that other tasks are artificially slowed down by assigning CPU to the kernel_task so that it can idle and lower the heat being generated.

Lowering the pixels needed to be displayed by disabling the integrated LCD will allow all the processing to show the main monitor. The only downside is if your Mac needed the display open to cool off the system (the new MacBook for example have no blower so closed mode can impact cooling more than other models).

CPU usage is too high with Yosemite and an external monitor


Installing OS X Yosemite from compressed DMG file in VMware Fusion I would like to install OS X Yosemite in VMware Fusion 7.0.

If I select the DMG file my university is providing, VMware is unable to boot from the DMG file.

The image is a compressed DMG.

Properties:
    Encrypted: false
    Kernel Compatible: true
    Checksummed: true
    Software License Agreement: false
    Partitioned: false
    Compressed: true

Is there a way to make VMware Fusion boot from a compressed DMG?

I tried to convert to DMG to "uncompressed" or ISO with no improvement. I always get:

EFI VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive (IDE 1.0) ... unsuccessful

In the VMware log file I only see:

2015-08-12T09:44:42.586+01:00| vcpu-0| I120: CDROM: Connecting sata0:1 to '/Users/corti/Downloads/Yosemite (uncompressed).dmg'. type=2 remote=0
2015-08-12T09:44:42.587+01:00| vcpu-0| I120: CDROM: Checking initial physical media state...
2015-08-12T09:44:42.587+01:00| vcpu-0| I120: CDROM:  initial physical CDROM state is 1 (sense)

It doesn't matter what type the DMG is as VMware Fusion cannot install OS X Yosemite by booting it or even booting the Install OS X Yosemite.app downloaded from Apple as that's not how it works in VMware Fusion.  VMware Fusion must first make an Installer Image from the Install OS X Yosemite.app and install from the Image it creates.

Have a look at: Installing OS X 10.10 Yosemite as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion (2082109).

  To install Mac OS X 10.10 in a virtual machine using the Yosemite app
  download:

  Select File > New from the Fusion menu bar.
  Select Install from disc or image and click Continue.
  Drag and drop the Install OS X Yosemite application into Use operating system installation disc or image dialog box.
  Click Continue.
  Fusion should automatically discover the Guest Operating System. If not, ensure that the Operating System is set to Apple Mac OS X and
  that the version is set to Mac OS X 10.10. Click Continue.
  If you want to modify any of the settings, such as memory (RAM), CPU, or hard disk size, click Customize Settings and specify the
  non-default values.
  Click Finish. The installation starts.
  When prompted, select Reinstall Mac OS X and click Continue.
  Click Continue.
  Agree to the license agreement and follow the prompts to begin the installation.

  After the installation completes, you must install VMware Tools on the
  virtual machine. To do this, first eject the Mac OS installation disc
  image from within the new virtual machine. For more information, see
  Installing VMware Tools in a Mac OS Guest
  (1032440).


How can I lookup the IP address of a Bonjour host? Normally, if I want to point to a Bonjour-capable host on my local network, I can use its local network hostname, hostname.local, as in:

$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for all programs. I get DNS lookup errors when I try this notation in Cyberduck, for example.

So I tried the usual ways of looking up hostnames so I could just type in its IP address. First try, thanks to muscle memory was whois:

$ whois raspberrypi.local
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 0 objects.
%
% You queried for raspberrypi.local but this server does not have
% any data for raspberrypi.local.

Duh. Of course this of course didn't work because the Internet has no idea who my local machine is. I tried some more:

$ nslookup raspberrypi.local
Server:     1.1.1.1
Address:    1.1.1.1#53

** server can't find raspberrypi.local: NXDOMAIN
host -a raspberrypi.local
Trying "raspberrypi.local"
Host raspberrypi.local not found: 4(NOTIMP)

Oops. That's also asking the Internet. How about…

$ host -t NS raspberrypi.local
Host raspberrypi.local not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Still no luck. Help me out folks, how can I lookup the IP address of another machine on my local network if all I know is its Bonjour hostname?

Update: Apparently, Cyberduck gives the misleading DNS lookup error if you accidentally type the username into the Server field, as in pi@raspberrypi.local instead of raspberrypi.local. ♂ It's still a valid question, but not a great premise.

Use dns-sd

It's the Multicast DNS (mDNS) & DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD) tool for BSD.

$ dns-sd -Gv4v6 <hostname>.local

For my example, I write:

$ dns-sd -Gv4v6 raspberrypi.local

And get the IP (redacted) in the address column:

DATE: ---Wed 19 Jun 2019---
14:23:40.213  ...STARTING...
Timestamp     A/R    Flags if Hostname               Address         TTL
14:23:40.531  Add        2  5 raspberrypi.local.     <redacted MAC>  120
14:23:40.548  Add        2  5 raspberrypi.local.     10.1.2.3        120
14:23:40.838  Add        3  5 raspberrypi.local.     <redacted MAC>  120
14:23:40.838  Add        2  5 raspberrypi.local.     10.1.2.4        120

Hostnames and IP addresses have been changed to protect the innocent. I found this answer by looking for other questions about finding Bonjour machines.


If I remote wipe my iPhone, can I still locate it remotely? If I lose my iPhone, and I use remote wipe to prevent my confidential data from being stolen, then can I still use Find My iPhone to locate it on a map?  I'm assuming not (since it resets to factory settings), but I wanted to double-check.

No, you won't be able to. It tells you that on icloud.com, before wiping your iPhone:


Wifi AWUS036NH working in 10.9 but with no Internet I have got a Mavericks (10.9) installation on a Mac and a AWUS036NH WiFi card. There are several drivers to get WiFi card working. There is one of them in this page (http://store.rokland.com/pages/support) and another in the bear extender page, device that uses the same chipset.

The thing is that I installed the driver and the tool that is installed does the wifi connection to the router, its says that its connected but when I use the browser or other application, there is not internet.

Airport is disabled.

I dont know what can I do.

Try following these instructions. Condensed version is below.

Turn off Wi-Fi.

Open Finder, press Command+Shift+G then enter the path below and click Go:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

Find and delete the following files (some may not exist):

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
com.apple.network.identification.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist

Reboot.


Unremovable directory I have a problem with a seemingly unremovable directory/bundle. I moved Spotify.app from /Applications to the Trash and later tried to empty the Trash.

The empty trash progress bar shows up but then nothing happens anymore. No error message, no progress.

Then i tried to remove the directory with the following commands

rm -rfv ~/.Trash/*
sudo rm -rfv /home/<user_name>/.Trash/*

Both never return, can not be aborted with ^c and provide no output at all. I considered some filesystem corruption, rebooted in recovery mode and ran the disc repair. It found an error and fixed it, but the problem did not go away and i still have the same behavior.

Another potentially related problem is wrong meta information in the Finder. Since some weeks ago i repeatedly find files where the Finder shows no filesize, type, creation date, modification date.

Any ideas how to remove the directory or what might be the problem?

I was able to remove the directory in single user mode.

Before that i tried to remove the contents of the directory one by one and found that Spotify contained two Growl libraries one of which could not be removed. The library did not even show up with ls -l in single user mode.


Is it possible to use Macbook with 0% health? Is it possible to use macbook pro if the battery is at 0% health?
It is 1% at the moment and work fine when plugged, but what about if it goes to 0% ?

It doesn't matter when you plug it in. You can even remove (not advised though) the battery and still use it when the adapter is plugged in. I can imagine the battery does not work properly (or even work at all) when it hits the 0%


How to turn on modal window auto-appearing when program needs your attention Can I make modal windows appear frontmost? I want to see alerts and modals from applications in the background.

I am new in the Mac world. I have a small utility for the Mac that shows a modal window after some time. Basically, it prints some very useful information for me.

I am expecting that this modal window will appear while I am working on different things (surfing on internet, reading emails), but instead of seeing the modal window the application annoyingly bounces it's icon in Dock; obvioulsy which means that my software needs my attention.

The same thing happens with iTunes, communicators, Safari, etc.

Modal dialogs aren't something you can guarantee will show. The OS allows users to use multiple displays, multiple virtual desktops, pin apps to all displays, no displays or a specific display.

Notification center is the correct tool to send a notice to a user so I would redesign your script/tool/app to make use of notification center.

Also, without seeing some bare stub of what you have already, it's really hard to suggest you how to implement a change. Just as on Stack Overflow - if you have a problem with a tool or a script here, please show your work and ask a follow on question to explain exactly what you desire to happen and what you have so far.

Here's a tiny python script you could try: a little python "script" I've adapted from a brief search of SO:

import Foundation
import objc
import AppKit
import sys

note = objc.lookUpClass('NSUserNotification')
center = objc.lookUpClass('NSUserNotificationCenter')

def notify(title, subtitle, info_text, delay=0, sound=False, userInfo={}):
    notification = note.alloc().init()
    notification.setTitle_(title)
    notification.setSubtitle_(subtitle)
    notification.setInformativeText_(info_text)
    notification.setUserInfo_(userInfo)
    if sound:
        notification.setSoundName_("NSUserNotificationDefaultSoundName")
    notification.setDeliveryDate_(Foundation.NSDate.dateWithTimeInterval_sinceDate_(delay, Foundation.NSDate.date()))
    center.defaultUserNotificationCenter().scheduleNotification_(notification)

notify("AskDifferent", "you can program now", "Here we go... ", sound=True)
sys.stdout.write("Notification sent...\n")

It works on El Capitan without needing any extra files or downloads afaik. Again, there are dozens of options and languages, so it's more about what you want to do long term and if you're comfortable with modifying scripts.


How to update some application to latest version with homebrew-cask? I noticed some packages provided by homebrew-cask uses a url of the latest version and a version number of "latest" such as dropbox and chrome. Thus they will never be upgraded with brew upgrade. Is there any simple way to update such packages using homebrew-cask?

And if I call brew cask install dropbox again, it shows there already exist some cache of old version, which I feel so dumb.

Try this command:

brew cask install dropbox --force

Please consider logging a bug over at homebrew-cask about your concerns with updating this kind of cask.


Apple Mail keeps crashing frequently after RAM problem Update: while waiting for a response I managed to solve the matter, first by running mail from a different account (it worked flawlessly); and second by running Onyx - it has the feature of rebuilding mail envelope index - which resolved whatever issue my system had. Anyway.

Thank you for the helpful suggention.

I am having a problem with Apple Mail. Following a bad RAM problem on my PowerMac G5/10.5.8 Apple Mail 3.6 started to crash frequently, shortly after I open it, or whenever I try to do anything with it, for example when selecting a message or attempting to send a mail. Each time the spinning beachball appears, and mail crashes.

Restarting, permissions repairs and the use of Disk Utility, DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro hasn't helped.

I have included a crash log below:

Process: Mail [782]
Path: /Applications/MAIL/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
Identifier: com.apple.mail
Version: 3.6 (936)
Build Info: Mail-9360000~1
Code Type: PPC (Native)

Parent Process: launchd [66]

Date/Time: 2015-02-13 21:42:38.367 +0100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.8 (9L31a)

Report Version: 6

Anonymous UUID: A75D0409-433A-44F1-9D38-E34AED349277

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)

Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000ce6f7b80

Crashed Thread: 11

Thread 11 Crashed:

0 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x93acd610 CSStoreGetUnit + 56
1 com.apple.LaunchServices 0x920c55d8 CSStringCopyCFString + 92
2 com.apple.LaunchServices 0x920e2acc CSStringBindingCopyCFStrings + 120
3 com.apple.LaunchServices 0x920e2864 _LSCopySchemesAndHandlerURLs + 156
4 com.apple.MessageFramework 0x00960b2c +[URLifier _urlMatchesForString:startIndex:matches:] + 1820
5 com.apple.MessageFramework 0x00960024 +[URLifier urlMatchesForString:] + 348
6 com.apple.mail 0x0004cc44 0x1000 + 310340
7 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x940159a8 __invoking___ + 168
8 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x94015230 -[NSInvocation invoke] + 128
9 com.apple.MessageFramework 0x009f49ec -[MonitoredInvocation invoke] + 392
10 com.apple.MessageFramework 0x009f461c -[InvocationQueue _drainQueue] + 656
11 com.apple.Foundation 0x90ad9d84 __NSThread__main__ + 1004
12 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93438f70 _pthread_start + 316

------

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000ce6f7b80
Crashed Thread:  10

Thread 10 Crashed:
0   ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore  0x93acd610 CSStoreGetUnit + 56
1   com.apple.LaunchServices        0x920c55d8 CSStringCopyCFString + 92
2   com.apple.LaunchServices        0x920e2acc CSStringBindingCopyCFStrings + 120
3   com.apple.LaunchServices        0x920e2864 _LSCopySchemesAndHandlerURLs + 156
4   com.apple.MessageFramework      0x00960b2c +[URLifier _urlMatchesForString:startIndex:matches:] + 1820
5   com.apple.MessageFramework      0x00960024 +[URLifier urlMatchesForString:] + 348
6   com.apple.mail                  0x0004cc44 0x1000 + 310340
7   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x940159a8 __invoking___ + 168
8   com.apple.CoreFoundation        0x94015230 -[NSInvocation invoke] + 128
9   com.apple.MessageFramework      0x009f49ec -[MonitoredInvocation invoke] + 392
10  com.apple.MessageFramework      0x009f461c -[InvocationQueue _drainQueue] + 656
11  com.apple.Foundation            0x90ad9d84 __NSThread__main__ + 1004
12  libSystem.B.dylib               0x93438f70 _pthread_start + 316

Since you had a faulty RAM, the first target of corruption is the whole filesystem. It is a good point to have eliminated this possibility of huge trouble.

If your problem does only appears within Mail this could mean that one of the files Mail had to write back was corrupted (in RAM).

To confirm this hypothesis:

make a backup
quit Mail and make a local backup of your Mail library (the following are shell commands to type within Terminal):

cd ~/Library
mv Mail Mail.backup

start Mail, create you a minimal account configuration
and send yourself an E-mail

If Mail doesn't crash, the problem stands within one of your Mail library file

If Mail still crashes, report it.
quit Mail and put back in place the library you backed up at step 2:

cd ~/Library
rm -rf Mail
mv Mail.backup Mail

If step 3 confirms that the problem stands within your Mail library,
and if your mailboxes aren't too big, you could then make a rebuild of them:

launch Mail
select

Mailbox > Rebuild

be patient, don't corrupt its rebuilding task, open the activity window:

Window > Activity


Reinstalling macOS but not option of "Restoring from Time Machine backup" shown I am struggling to restore my system from a MacBook Pro of one generation to a more new one.

What I have tried:

I restart the system in recover mode: "cmd + r"
I choose the proper backup version from my Time Machine hard drive
I "Accept" but id doesn't allow me because is a different model and it recommends to me to choose "Reinstall macOS" and wait for the option of restore from Time Machine during the reinstallation process ("You can't restore this backup because it was created by a different model of Mac")
I choose "Reinstall macOS" but after 30 minutes of install process not option about using an existing Time Machine backup asked
I am expecting to see the "Setup assistant" but at the end of reinstall process my system restarts with the old installation (with the old Users and everything)

I have tried this process several times, always with the external disk with the Time Machine version connected, but always the above same result.

What can I do to make my Time Machine backup appear when installing macOS?

I’ve always had luck just installing the os version I want. Then when the setup assistant runs, connect to the Time Machine backup and proceed to select what you want to restore.


iPad apps randomly going gray screen or Home Apps on my iPad 2 are randomly switching to a gray or black screen or dropping me back on the Home screen.

I am on a slow wifi connection
All accessibility features are turned off
Battery is charging normal and is fully power
Problem happens whether charger is connected or not
Problem affects all apps

How can I diagnose and/or solve this?

I'm less interested in "just reset / reboot" and more interested to know how it happens and / or if there's a remedy.

The iPad 2 is an old device. This lends itself to many crashes.

What you are describing are app crashes. It happens on all devices, but much more frequently on older devices. Since the apps have been updated for never iOS versions, like iOS 10, the iPad is not technically supported by the apps that you're trying to use.

Also, having some extra storage space never hurts, so try deleting some apps to clear up some space.

Beyond deleting apps, the only advice I can give you here is to upgrade to a newer device. Your device is 6 years old, which is a long time for mobile devices.


How to change the contact photo in mountain lion? I have iPhoto library in which all my photos exist. I want to pick a photo from iPhoto library and apply it to a contact. But I don't find any such option in new Contacts app (picking a photo form disk). It seems very simple thing to do but yet I cant find a way. Please can you me how can I do it?

As they removed the option to load a picture from disk in the Contacts.app, you can instead drag it from iPhoto or your harddrive into the contact you edit.


Upgrading my 2007 iMac I was considering purchasing a new Mac Mini as a way of upgrading my 2007 iMac.  If this is not possible, I'll probably just purchase a new iMac.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

You won't be abble to use the iMac as a screen.

The Target Display Mode is only supported by iMacs since the late 2009 models.


How to remap a few keys for chrome/google docs? I'm using Cmd-Option-1 .. Cmd-Option-5 to go to different desktops, on Moutain Lion.

Besides changing my global defaults, how else could I enable the google doc shortcuts for Cmd-Option- to set a paragraph style?

I want some sort of program that will take Ctrl-Option- in chrome and send chrome Cmd-Option-num (and not change desktops).

The only option I can think of would be to change the default shortcuts to something like ⌃⌥⇧⌘+numbers and save this as private.xml in KeyRemap4MacBook.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<item>
<name>test</name>
<identifier>private.test</identifier>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_1, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_1, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_2, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_2, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_3, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_3, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_4, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_4, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_5, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_5, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_6, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_6, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_7, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_7, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_8, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_8, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_9, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_9, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_0, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND, KeyCode::KEY_0, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_SHIFT | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
</item>
<item>
<name>test2</name>
<identifier>private.test2</identifier>
<only>GOOGLE_CHROME</only>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_1, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_1, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_2, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_2, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_3, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_3, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_4, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_4, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_5, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_5, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_6, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_6, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_7, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_7, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_8, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_8, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_9, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_9, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::KEY_0, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION, KeyCode::KEY_0, VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND</autogen>
</item>
</root>

See the source for the keycode constants and predefined settings.


What is the reason the iPhone wipes after a couple of failed password entries? My mac has a feature called FileVault. In theory - if you don't have the password, you can't get access to the files. (Encryption).

To me - this feature should be sufficient on the iPhone to not need wipes.

By wiping - I mean the feature under Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Erase Data.

What I see if that after a couple of failed password attempts, the password entry goes into warning mode, then it goes into complete wipe mode.

Why do you need wipes and encryption? (My work makes encryption the default and locks it in so you can't change it with a policy).

Where this gets concerning is when your kids are playing with your phone, not knowing that they're deleting all your photos.

My question is: What is the reason the iPhone wipes after a couple of failed password entries? (ie why offer this feature at all when the phone is completely encrypted?)

As the other answer by Rash Mendis pointed out, the reason why your iPhone wipes all data after 10 failed passcode attempts is probably because you enabled said option 'Erase Data' as shown in the screen shot.

The motivation behind this is to prevent a thief from accessing your data too easily. I imagine there are still a lot of devices using only a four-digit-code to lock the iPhone, and this is all what prevents anyone from accessing your private messages, contacts, Facebook account, whatever. If your data would not be wiped after some failed attempts, all a thief would need is enough time for (max.) 10.000 attempts (probably less), and your data is compromised. It is quite easy to assume that a criminal would get your data in not too much time.

With the erase option on, you have at least a reasonable chance that albeit your phone was stolen, your data might not be accessed. It is basically the same rationale as with entering a wrong credit card PIN; after three (?) attempts your card gets locked.

And finally, if you are certain that your passcode is secure enough, you can still disable the erase option (which I would not recommend, anyway).


Is it safe to remove read, write, and execute permissions for 'others' recursively on home directory? I would like advice on whether it would be safe to block users not in the appropriate group from accessing my home directory. I have some servers running on my Mac (10.9) under a different account, and wish to decrease the consequences of a hacker exploiting one of them by preventing this account from accessing any of my personal files.

I am intending to use file permissions for this, but I am concerned that this may break something, by blocking system processes from doing what they need to. I would ideally like to block all but root and my primary account from accessing my primary account's home directory, with chmod -R o-rwx ~.

Does anyone know whether this would cause any problems, and also whether it would be effective in preventing other accounts (that may not sudo, and are not admin in System Preferences, these may be the same, not sure) from accessing these files, excluding an EoP vulnerability?

That depends on what is running on the server. If you have a web server running and serving other user's content from their home directories than the web server would not be able to read those files.

When making this decision the group that the users belong to is also important. If all users are members of the staff group for example and if the home directories have read and execute permission for that group than other users will still be able to access those directories.

However in general it should be safe and probably even the preferred method.


Scroll to old messages while in edit mode I noticed that when replying to a text message I can access and scroll through previous message from the person I am replying to so I have a good view of the conversation history and can e.g. copy some text from it.

However after typing more than 7 lines of text I can no longer go back to the the message I am replying to.

Is there a way to access conversation history in that scenario, or is it simply a design feature saying "keep it short"?

Tap the Edit button, the keyboard will then hide letting you see the previous text message.

Just be careful to Cancel and not Clear All ;)


How to open a file using Applescript? Seems to be a very simple question, but i cannot find the answer in the many many documentation that is around on Applescript.

I have a non-scriptable application for which i want to open a file using the File Open dialog in the application. This is what i came up with so far:

tell application "CubicSDR"
    activate
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell process "CubicSDR"
    set position of window 2 to {-1920, -296}
    set size of window 2 to {1635, 500}
    click menu item "Open Session" of menu "File" of menu bar 1
    ......
end tell

Then i have tried to select a file, open a file, click a file, nothing seems to work.
This can not be as hard as it seems considering that this is such a common operation.
Does anybody have a code sample i can work off?

Here you go:

tell application "Mail" to open "Library:Desktop Pictures:Small Ripples graphite.png"

Replace "Mail" and the file with the app and file you want to open your file with, respectively.


AppleScript: Check if "System Events" has loaded When an Active Directory (AD) user logs in, my AppleScript fires and attempts to put their AD home directory in the sidebar for easier access when opening and saving documents.

It works great, but about 10% of the time it fails because "System Events" hasn't loaded.  I've tried adding delays using:

do shell script "sleep 2"

But that doesn't solve the problem.  I've put the delay up to four seconds, and although it helps, it's certainly not ideal.

It would be a lot easier if I could somehow detect when the "System Events" process has loaded.  Does anyone know how to do this within AppleScript?

The System Events process does not start at login, so the delay might be needed for some other reason. System Events also teriminates automatically if it is not used for a few minutes.

It probably won't help, but you could try launching System Events at the start of the script:

launch application "System Events"

You could also try using a launchd agent like this to launch a System Events process at login:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>test</string>
  <key>Program</key>
  <string>/System/Library/CoreServices/System Events.app/Contents/MacOS/System Events</string>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key> <!-- run at login -->
  <true/>
  <key>KeepAlive</key> <!-- run the program again if the previous program terminates -->
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

You can normally use something like tell application "System Events" to exists process "Finder" to check if a process exists, but it obviously requires talking to System Events. In this case you might also use a shell script like this:

repeat 100 times
    do shell script "ps -eco comm= | grep -x 'System Events'; exit 0"
    if result is not "" then exit repeat
    delay 0.1
end repeat

ps -e is identical to -ax (include processes from all users and processes without a controlling terminals), -c prints command names instead of absolute paths in OS X, and -o comm= prints only command names without the header row. You can replace the shell command with pgrep -x 'System Events'; exit 0 in 10.8 and later.


Is a 2008/9 Mac Pro cluster a viable option to a 2018 iMac? So I can decide whether to use a small cluster of older Mac Pros or a single modern iMac assume I have a problem which will execute adequately in G gigabytes of RAM, and that the problem can use parallel execution.

What performance gain might I expect from parallel execution on a single Mac if the memory requirement is multiplied by a factor N, I have c cores and more than N * G gigabytes of RAM?

Since you won’t be running an abstract workload - making abstract generalizations won’t be super useful but my experience is you always want to get the most modern CPU and Mac to run your workload since the processors of the last 2-3 generations have the best compiler optimizations and the amount of work that can be done per CPU cycle increases far more than a back of the envelope calculation would show.

Let’s assume you already have both the iMac and the Mac Pro - your time will be better spent working to tune the workload for your iMac or have it run in the cloud rather than run on a bunch of old Mac that need management / orchestration / etc.

If you haven’t purchased hardware, I’d say neither your equiment is the best. If you have a workload you can run on GPU you would need something like bitcoin mining rigs or go to the cloud again and instead spend your money on a MacBook and displays and learning / consulting and not hardware.

To come back to your specifics:

RAM is never the real bottleneck - RAM makes up for a less optimized solution, but you need storage and a smart algorithm to get out of the way of CPU and storage bottlenecks.
if you have a massively parallel CPU load - get it on dozens to hundreds of CPU that you rent or are super low cost and run Linux or some OS you can orchestrate with chef or puppet or ansible or some of the newer cloud tools to let software define the OS configuration (google cloud / amazon cloud / https://bosh.io/docs/ / https://www.spinnaker.io/ )


Use Logitech g15 multimedia keyboard with Apple Logic 9 That's what I'd like to do: use my Logitech g15 multimedia keys (stop, pause etc) with Apple Logic 9.

Download the Logitech Control Center for OS X. It will allow you to set all the setting for your keyboard, including the stop, play, pause, and volume up/down buttons.


What's triggering my Finder's CPU binges? A few times a week, the Finder on my Macbook shoots up to around 100% CPU use, and the fans start blasting.

I've done everything I can think of - repaired permissions, rebooted, trashed preferences, turned off "show preview" in view options, audited the Activity Monitor for unnecessary processes, scoured the Console for errors, restarted the Finder, and a lot more. Eventually it subsides, and I assume that the source of the error was the last thing I changed.

But it's doing it again now, and I am at a loss. I wish there was a way to "get inside the Finder's head" and see what it's doing. I've tried running a sample of the Finder process in Activity Monitor, but honestly I don't know what it's doing, much less how to interpret the output.

That's really my hope: that someone can explain a better way to investigate CPU spikes like this, not just in the Finder, but any runaway process. There are certainly plenty of details that might help you all diagnose this specific case, but before I spew out even more probably-irrelevant information, I thought I'd see if anyone has general tips for diagnosing this sort of thing.

This is my first Stack-anything post btw, so please be gentle. Thanks in advance!

"I wish there was a way to "get inside the Finder's head" and see what it's doing. I've tried running a sample of the Finder process in Activity Monitor, but honestly I don't know what it's doing, much less how to interpret the output."

Taking a sample in Activity Monitor is exactly that: getting inside the Finder's head to see what it's doing. While it may seem like greek, I or others here can interpret it for you. Just post it, or make it available for download or viewing (as they tend to be pretty big).

What version of OS X are you using? In OS X 10.5.x and prior, I believe multimedia content ran within the Finder itself, rather than delegating it off to an agent/helper type process, so then the CPU usage may appear higher. For example, previewing a QuickTime movie might make the 10.5.x-and-earlier Finder spike to 60% CPU, while in 10.6 it might be split to something like 10% CPU for the Finder, 30% CPU to the QTKitHelper background process.

Otherwise, I've sometimes seen the code the Finder uses to calculate the size of the contents of a folder cause temporary CPU spikes. (You'll notice something like TSomething::HFSSizerSomething in the stack trace of a sample). Usually it seems insistent on finishing its calculation even if the view you had open that warranted the calculation has since been closed.

In any case, seeing the sample should help pinpoint the issue along with knowing what context led up to the spike. It'll be easier to explain what taking a sample is doing once we have it in front of us to look at.


How do I send imessages to non-iphone users on my macbook os x, if I don't have an iphone? How do I send imessages to non-iphone users on my macbook os x, if I don't have an iphone?

I have macosx so i can send imessages without an iphone currently and this works fine. But i also want to send messages to my family members, who don't have iphones.

Create contacts for your non-iPhone users in Contacts.app, then iMessage should use SMS to connect. If you use iCloud Contacts, then they become available on all devices on which you use iCloud:

Below, an SMS conversation with a friend who has an Android phone, viewed on my Mac:


How to get non Hi-Res image in Skitch? I have a Macbook Pro Retina.  When I capture an image in Skitch, it is always twice the size.  I shrink them back down via Preview for social media.

Is there some way to make Skitch capture in non Hi-Res mode?  Or is there a tool that can quickly reduce these images by 1/2?

There are a lot of re-sizing apps on the Mac App Store that will allow you to drag an image onto a Dock icon and such. "Resize This" was the first one I found via search.


iMessage Weird Behavior I have multiple mobile devices (2x iPhone, 2x iPad) in my home, all which share the same iTunes account between them.  When iMessage is used to exchange messages between two of the devices (e.g. the two iPhones), the messages appear to be sent from and received by the same identity.  The only way I have found to correct this by turning off iMessage on one of the devices and only using SMS.

Is there a way to associate iMessage with a different iTunes account than other apps on the same device?

If you go into Settings > Messages, you should be able to choose which email addresses you get iMessages to. It's under the Receive At option which let's you input additional email addresses.

Additionally, you can even sign out of your iMessage account without affecting the iTunes account by tapping on the name of the account you are currently signed in as (on the same screen).

Here's what it looks like on an iPhone:


Manually clear dns cache on mavericks My DNS cache is broken for a few websites (most notably codeship.com) so I need to clear it.

As instructed on numerous websites I've run

dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

in various permutations, including rebooting, but it has no effect.

When running dig I get no ANSWER SECTION, but I don't know how to interpret the rest of the info.

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> codeship.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 15470
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;codeship.com.          IN  A

;; Query time: 54 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.1#53(192.168.1.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Dec  1 23:37:49 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 30

Please check RFC1035, DNS protocol and Understanding the dig command.
If the status is SERVFAIL (Server failure. The name server was unable to process this query due to a problem with the name server) you won't get an ANSWER section.

I don't think the problem is on your side.

In 7 attempts querying several name servers i only got one answer:

dig @208.67.220.220 codeship.com
; <<>> DiG 9.8.5-P1 <<>> codeship.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 36214
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;codeship.com.          IN  A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
codeship.com.       0   IN  A   54.243.124.75
codeship.com.       0   IN  A   54.225.96.71
codeship.com.       0   IN  A   54.221.223.218

;; Query time: 6126 msec
;; SERVER: 208.67.220.220#53(208.67.220.220)
;; WHEN: Tue Dec 02 02:03:36 CET 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 78


Bootcamp won't run on OSX in RAID0 I have my MacPro booting into Lion off a 3 disk (software) RAID 0 array. I want to dedicate a fourth drive to Windows 7 via Bootcamp. However it won't run at all on my system, exiting with a 'RAID is not supported' message.

Is there a way around this? Or a reliable, easy-to-use third-party bootloader like grub or similar I can use to set-up a dual-boot?

Preliminarily, these guides may help:

http://alexgarlock.com/macbook-pro-2011-raid-0-with-bootcamp/

http://huguesval.com/blog/2012/02/installing-windows-7-on-a-mac-without-superdrive-with-virtualbox/

Read the top one first - and yes I know it's a bit confusing the way he writes it (it doesn't make complete sense to me either, but at least points in some direction).  And yes, they don't completely answer your specific question, but they do provide helpful guidance in the form of pointing you towards the right direction...and perhaps a bit more.

Actually, I'm just about to try all this in a few minutes - I'll try to relay the outcome.

Then, if I get bootcamp to work in RAID-0 mode...the final challenge is hacking the EFI boot that your Bootcamped windows is stuck with - so I can emulate a bios setting in the EFI that allows me to switch to AHCI mode in bootcamp.  I've successfully done this before, and it turned bootcamp into a POWERHOUSE.  The difference was sickening.

If any users are interested in also doing the above I suggest you start here and read as much of the thread as you can.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/126089-howto-boot-macs-with-intel-chipset-in-ahci-win7-vista-xp-linux/page-7#entry1498839

Assuming I get there...the tricky part will genuinely be stacking both of these ridiculous things simultaneously.

I havn't yet found anything anywhere that addresses or even mentions my above proposed "bootcamp-super-stack" about stacking a RAID-0 running in AHCI mode in Bootcamp.

Let's see how this adventure turns out.


Enable guest user and location services with profile manager Is there a way to enable the guest account and location services with profile manager via built in setting or custom ad on?

Yes. Look for the "Login Window" option in Profile Manager.


How to recover photos from an iPhone 3G? I used an iPhone 3G from May of 2009 until around the spring of 2013, at which time I upgraded to the iPhone 5. I've always been a prolific iPhotographer :) and recently pulled around 12,000 photos off my iPhone 5 for backup and to free up disk space. I've kept the old iPhone 3G, though, and suspect it has thousands of pictures on it that need to be removed from the phone and backed up on my cloud, my laptop, and an external hard drive. However, Apple no longer makes available the OSX that supports and grants access to an iPhone 3G through iTunes. I can't hook it up to my laptop (Dell XPS 15Z, if it helps to know what I'm running, with Windows 7) and access the pictures to manually move them off the phone.

How do I recover pictures from an iPhone 3G? Is there anything that can be done?

Is there anything that can be done? As it is, I can't get my computer to even see the 3G, much less charge the phone through the computer or allow me to access the phone's drives and my pics. I'm currently charging the 3G via wall plug/USB, which I think will allow me to look at my photos on the phone itself once the phone is juiced up ... but I really just want to recover and transfer my images off the iPhone 3G for safekeeping.

I did search this site prior to posting and could not find my exact question. Please don't hesitate to VTC if I've accidentally submitted a duplicate.

Mac - iPhoto

Windows - Photo Gallery, part of Microsoft Essentials.

Both will offer to import photos from any connected iPhone

BTW, by default an iPhone will not appear as a device on the desktop, only in an app ready to 'talk' to it, iTunes, iPhoto etc.


How to set up encrypted Time Machine backups to a remote drive? I have an external drive which I used to do encrypted TM backups to, via a direct USB connection (i.e. the entire drive became encrypted - Lion).

I would like to switch to wireless backups but without allowing the data to become accessible to other people in my network.

I thought about attaching the encrypted drive to a Mac server on the network and to somehow back to there - the problem is how do I get the unlocking of the drive to occur only on my local machine? (I can't allow other users who log into that server to access the files on the drive if it were to be unlocked by the server)

I don't think that you can do quite what you are proposing (have the external drive connected to the server and only accessible to your local machine. That said, Time Machine at least used to be able to create a new encrypted disk image on network shares and back up to that. (In fact, under Leopard this was the only way to create an encrypted backup volume for use on a local drive.)

Unfortunately, I don't know whether the Time Machine service on your Mac Server will store your backup in a per-machine encrypted disk image like Time Machine on Leopard would. Maybe someone else can answer that piece.


Dual boot MacBook Air 2012 with Windows 7 - now boots directly into Windows So I attempted to set up dual boot (Boot Camp) on my new MacBook Air (Mountain Lion) with Windows 7 and failed spectacularly in the process. The Mac just boots straight into Windows now. There's no boot menu and I can't seem to find a way to boot to Mac OS X.  Hoping someone here can help.

Here's how I got into this mess:

Created a bootable Windows 7 USB key with an x64 Windows 7 ISO using Windows USB/DVD download tool.
Ran Boot Camp on the Mac, unticking the option to create a bootable Windows disk.
Chose a partition size of 64 GB for the Windows partition.
At this point I think the Mac tried to reboot itself, but as I was typing in a browser window at the time I seem to have cancelled that by mistake. So (and this is where I think I went wrong), I manually rebooted with the Windows USB stick in the USB slot.
The Mac rebooted and the windows stick took over, and I chose to install to the 64GB partition I made in Boot Camp.
This all went fine, but the Mac now boots straight into Windows, but seems to be missing drivers for lots of stuff, most importantly the wireless network card.

I can't see any way to get back to Mac OS X.  I've subsequently read about a tool called rEFIt that I was perhaps supposed to run before Boot Camp, but I haven't done that to date.

Is there any way to trash the windows partition and get back to Mac OS?

Shut down your MacBook, then hold down Option ⌥ key and turn it on. You will see a boot menu, choose OS X. When logged in into OS X, click System Preferences > Startup Disk, and choose which OS to start by default.

To set up Boot Camp drivers, download them via Boot Camp Assistant (WindowsSupport) folder, write the installers to a USB stick, and run from within Windows.


Account on external HD Simple question (I could try, but I haven't done that yet): is it possible to create a full account that entirely resides on a removable HD? The use case is that I have a machine at work on which I don't want to install personal stuff, yet I have a personal account that I need to access from time to time (with my personal email, for example, or some apps I purchased). So I'm imagining that when I really need the personal account, I would plug in my removable HD, and otherwise, the machine stays the office machine, without any of my stuff.

You have two options depending on your needs:

You can have you OS and all your data installed on an external drive and then boot from your external drive by connecting your drive, and booting your mac while holding the option/alt key and select your external drive
The second option is to move you home folder to the external drive; this is done by many users who have a combination of an SSD and a HHD but you can do something similar depending on your needs. Here is a very straightforward tutorial on how to move your home folder to an external drive


Connecting camera to the iPad2 I want to connect a camera (web cam or just regular digital camera) to the iPad and download the pictures from the camera and showing it on the iPad. I need it to be live - take a picture with the camera and than download it from the camera into the iPad. any suggestions?
Is there a way to connect the camera to the iPad and connect the power supply of the iPad at the same time (the iPad should be connected to power supply all the time).

if it is not possible is there any other tablets which can make these requirements?

Thanks in advance,
Shahar.

Yes this is possible with the iPad2 see iPad Camera Connection Kit

and also with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Galaxy Tab™ Adapter (USB)


Maximise window in OS X only using App Store extention We know maximise a window in OS X (like we do in Ubuntu Unity or MS Windows) is not currently possible.

Are there any third party extensions available from OS X App Store to achieve this?

(I don't want to install applications that are not in App store for security reasons.)

Get Divvy - Window Manager app for your specific use case.
It will let you maximize windows in the more traditional sense of taking all the screen space. It's solid, secure, reliable and can do many, many other things in addition to maximizing. There are many others on the store, but if you search this site for Divvy - you'll see it has wide acclaim and utility.
You could do worse than choosing Moom as well.

https://manytricks.com/moom/