Can I use VNC over VPN on my new iPad? I've gotten an new iPad with 4G (yay!) and I've set up the VPN connection to connect to a VPN which I'd like to use to connect to my computer. However, I've noticed that my once VPN is on, my iPad doesn't do much except show an indicator in the status bar.

Is it possible for me to connect to my iMac which is behind a firewall via VPN? Do I need an app to see my screen, or is there something which supports it on iOS "out of the box"?

Yes - there are two ways to get through a firewall. So from the VPN perspective, you will want to be sure your client app and VPN pass bonjour packets so the remote iOS device can see the Mac that is advertising it's VNC screen sharing capabilities. AirPort hardware does a good job of proxying the VNC capabilities of sleeping macs and will even wake them up in response to incoming requests for screen sharing.

No - there is no iOS VNC client so your "out of the box" experience will involve going to the app store or otherwise installing an app like Screens or whatever other VNC app you prefer.

I can speak for screens working in a mixed VPN / NAT port forwarding combined network where Lion server has configured the VPN and controls the AirPort. I do use the screens connect software and location service when I am not using VPN since that allows me to locate my macs similar to Back to My Mac does using iCloud. The screens solution really works well for me with or without VPN or needing iCloud integration. You don't need the screens connect in most cases when VPN is set up, but it's nice to have and doesn't interfere with VPN either.


How to send the right-click event to a tab-chosen control from an application or service? This is what I want to achieve: to not need to touch the trackpad/mouse at all.

Why? I'm at least 10x faster on keyboard.

I want to use TAB (or other hotkeys where appropriate) to select a desired GUI element (or select some text in an editor), and then to send the right-click event to it - by virtue of a keyboard shortcut. Without touching the mouse, nor the trackpad.

This shortcut can evoke a service, or an app, daemon, angel, whatever :-) I don't care how it's done.

Any ideas? Do you know of any apps that can simulate mouse events?

If you simply want to select GUI elements with keyboard, use Shortcat. It allows you to search all the visible GUI element and select it from your keyboard input.

Another tool you can use to simulate mouse event (such as right click) is Keyboard Maestro. It’s an app to create macro for all kind of events in Mac (from simulating keystrokes, mouse position, and even manipulating clipboard history). You can create almost all kind of interaction with Keyboard Maestro.

By combining those two apps above, you should be able to leave your mouse and trackpad. After all, you are a Keyboard Maestro.


How do I set the Safari's homepage? How do I set the homepage of my Safari 8.0.7 or, even better, customize it?

On the keyboard, press ⌘, (command-comma) or go to Safari → Preferences...

Choose the General tab and set a home page in the Homepage field.


My Mac switches to speaker after locking the screen When listening to music, after locking my MacBook Pro (ControlShiftPWR) and leaving, when I come back after 5 mins, I can hear the sound from the external speakers and nothing from my headphones. I have to unplug and replug to get it back to normal.

Anyone experienced this behaviour before? I'm running Sierra 10.12.1.

Yes, make sure that under System Preferences -> Sound that the default device (Headphones) is selected. After setting this, my Mac was remembering that I was using headphones after unlocking the screen.


How can I tell what version of Recovery HD OS is running while I'm booted to the recovery software? How can I tell the version of OS X (and the build) that runs on Recovery HD while I'm running in that mode? The Apple menu has no "About" menu that shows that information when you're running normally.

The easiest command is to use Terminal - it's under the Utilities menu - and type the sw_vers command:

sw_vers

The output will be the version and build that runs when you boot to Recovery which can be different than the version installed on your main bootable OS X partition.


How can I read the log when I fail with VPN I have a Macbook Pro and I'm trying to get VPN from home to work. It refuse to work. I have turned on verbose logging, but how can I read the log ?

Whether you choose L2TP over IPSec or PPTP for your settings, the log file is located at:

  /var/log/ppp.log

If you want use terminal to view your log file you can do following:

  vim /var/log/ppp.log

  tail -f /var/log/ppp.log       (if you
  want see end of file)

  less /var/log/ppp.log  (if your log
  file was huge and want to see page by
  page)


iphone Album Covers randomly come up imusic app when trying to play music I have playlist on my iphone 5c saved in imusic (imported from itunes).  Right in the middle of an important presentation, without touching anything, the screen went to a checkerboard of album covers, and no matter how I scrolled or what I did this screen would not leave and I did not have access to use my playlist (which I had up and ready to go).  The presentation music had to be played at very exact times. It had worked fine before. Very frustrating.  Not sure what and why this happened.  Anyone have suggestions to avoid this happening again?

Landscape in the iOS Music app will show the grid view of your music.
To exit, rotate your device to portrait.


Open command doesn't like non escaped characters even between quotes? Is it me or the open command does only accept escaped characters in parameters ?

It tried open "~/Library/Messages/Attachments/87/07/079C263B-0586-48C6-B721-3C6AABAC76DF/Messages Image(1020754653).jpeg"

which returns The file /Users/Kyro/Library/Messages/~/Library/Messages/Attachments/87/07/079C263B-0586-48C6-B721-3C6AABAC76DF/Messages Image(1020754653).jpeg does not exist.

When actually open /Users/Kyro/Library/Messages/Attachments/87/07/079C263B-0586-48C6-B721-3C6AABAC76DF/Messages\ Image\(1020754653\).jpeg works quite well.

Edit : Running Mavericks here.

It's not open, it's the fact that ~ only works when it's not in quotes. ~ isn't actually part of a standard file path, it's a shell metacharacter that the shell replaces in contexts where it looks like the beginning of a path (and quotes suppress this). Here are some examples:

$ echo ~
/Users/gordon
$ echo "~"
~
$ ls ~/Library
Accounts        Fonts Disabled      Printers
[...]
$ ls "~/Library"
ls: ~/Library: No such file or directory

Note the last command above: since ~ is inside double-quotes, it doesn't get replaced by the path to my home folder, and then ls just treats is as a normal filename (that happens not to exist). The same thing is happening in your open command.

Since the file you're actually trying to open has other shell metacharacters in its name, what you should do is partially-quote the path: leave the ~ outside the quotes, but make sure the filename part is inside quotes. Something like this:

open ~/"Library/Messages/Attachments/87/07/079C263B-0586-48C6-B721-3C6AABAC76DF/Messages Image(1020754653).jpeg"


iPad Pro 10.5" down to 92% battery health after 6 months of use (update: 84% after 1.5 years) I bought an iPad in January 2018 (this was written in July 2018). The coconutBattery app indicates it was manufactured in August 2017. It has gone through 63 charging cycles and the battery health is already down to about 92%.

Meanwhile, my iPhone X, which was manufactured in October 2017 and which I started using in November 2017 is still at 100% battery health (in truth, a few mAh above design capacity), despite 138 charging cycles.

Such rapid degradation seems out of character. None of my previous iPads (or iPhones, or MacBook Pros, ...) showed anything like this so quickly. If it continues like this, the battery will barely last for 2 years until it reaches the 80% health indicative of end of life.

I'm wondering if Apple usually replaces batteries (or the whole unit) in such a situation. Also, is there an "official" (Apple-blessed) way of obtaining the device's battery health? I don't think they will consider info obtained with coconutBattery as valid. I know about the beta Battery Health feature in the Settings app, as it's available on my iPhone, but apparently not for iPads.

UPDATE Jul 22 2019: the battery is now at 178 cycles at only 80.7% health. Technically it’s a few percent over the 80% limit, but when it drops below 80% I’m calling Apple to see if they’ll offer me a free replacement, seeing as a battery with less than 2 years of usage and less than 200 cycles shouldn’t be nearing its end of life.

By the way, sometime near the end of last year, or the start of this year, I started to care for my devices’ batteries in a way that most would describe as OCD-like, after doing some deep research in scientific journals for the main factors that prolong battery lifetime. I’ve rigged a USB connector, sitting between an Apple original iPad charger and an Apple original Lightning cable, with the proper pull-up resistors to charge at 500 mA (seeing as low C-rates are better for the battery). About 90% of the time my iPad is charged exclusively through this, and for most of the rest of the time, at 1 A. Only very rarely do I charge it using a 10 W or 12 W charger, and I may have tested it a few times with USB-PD using an original MacBook Pro USB-C charger and an Apple original USB-C to Lightning cable.

Most importantly, I’ve been manually stopping the charge at 60 to 70% most of the time as well (I have let it slip to the 80% to 90% range a few times, and even more rarely, to 100%). This is universally accepted advice to prolong the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries. Like I said, one would be hard pressed to find a person that charged this iPad with as much care as I did, and all the research indicates this iPad’s battery should have easily lasted for thousands of cycles. Yet, this still happened, so I’m pretty sure I have a lemon in my hands.

My next step is to try to perform a full charge, followed by a full discharge (all the way until the iPad shuts off on its own) and another full charge, without any partial charges in between, just to see if this is a calibration issue with the battery gas gauge IC. I’ll report back once this is done.

UPDATE Jul 26 2019: did a full discharge cycle followed by a full recharge cycle. Battery health improved somewhat, to ~84%. There's also a lot of variation. For instance, with the charger connected and at 100% charge (so it's no longer accepting charge), over the course of a few minutes, I've seen the health change from 84.1% to 83.6% and then climb back to 83.9%. I definitely think this battery is somehow defective.

The battery health (beta) feature is currently only supported on iPhones as far as I know. However, a battery condition diagnostic can be run by apple support over wifi either by AppleCare over the phone / online chat, or of course in store at a genius bar.

If the battery has degraded to that percentage of original capacity, according to coconut, it's always a good idea to verify this with the diagnostic tools that apple support use.

iPad batteries are not replaced at Apple stores due to the nature of their manufacture being sealed units. Most 3rd party (and usually not apple authorised) repair places that offer this service will not replace with apple certified batteries and this will therefore invalidate any warranty status you probably still have if it was brought new in October 2017.

As far as I know the current capacity of your battery will be considered within specification as it's only 80% and lower that is considered failed or consumed. Batteries that pass this condition test may not be eligible for in warranty service from apple.

However, it may be on it's way to early failure if coconut stats are accurate. To quote www.apple.com/batteries/service-and-recycling/; "iPad Owners
Your battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles. The one-year warranty includes service coverage for a defective battery."

It could be that your battery may be defective if it has degraded to 92% of original capacity after only 63 charging cycles. Again verify this with apple support, but also consider if usage or environmental factors may have contributed to this seemingly rapid degradation.

Check out www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/ to see if there are any pointers or tips that might help, otherwise contact apple support to log your battery issue whilst still within warranty. This will give you, and them, better options in the future if issues persist or worsen.

Hope this helps.


I put my phone on airplane mode before I sent a text but it's still trying to deliver I accidentally sent my boyfriend a video, I had the ugliest laugh in it and I'd rather have him never hear it. I quickly put my phone on airplane mode but I never got the option to cancel the message like I used to. If I just delete the text will it never deliver or is that not how it works?

Yes, you can simply delete the video message that was in progress of being sent and it will not be delivered.


How can I recover 'iTunes Library (Damaged)'? My iTunes library has disappeared and looking in the Music/iTunes folder, I see an 'iTunes Library (Damaged)' file. All of the music appears to still be there, so I am guessing it is just the database that is damaged. Is there a way to recover the library, like from the xml file? There is also a folder with Previous iTunes Libraries that are a couple months old. Can I just copy and rename one of those files?

Apple's documentation on recreating your iTunes library if it is corrupt:

iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists

Last Modified: April 07, 2011


Mail.app stopped showing To: recipients in my header All of a sudden Mail.app is no longer showing in the header who is receiving the email, be it a group send or even an individual (me).  It is there but you have to scroll over that line to see the names. They just are not showing like they used to. How do I resolve this so the recipients are always seen?

I have the same intermittent problem. So far, the only solution I've found is to reboot my Mac. Cycling the Mail app doesn't work. (MacBook Air, MacOS 10.9.4)


How to use a 3 TB hard drive on a MacBookPro7.1 I have bought this hard drive: Seagate ST3000DM which is a 3TB 3.5" hard drive. When I connect it via a USB2 docking station, here is what OS X sees:

Disk Description :  ST3000DM 001-9YN166 Media   Total Capacity :    801.57 GB (801 569 726 464 Bytes)
Connection Bus :    USB Write Status :  Read/Write
Connection Type :   External    S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : (removed)   Partition Map Scheme :  Unformatted

Is there a software solution to this problem ? I have seen solutions that imply to buy a USB3 docking station but MacBookPro 7.1 only have USB2 ports.

Is there an hardware solution that don't imply buying a NAS, which is about two or three times the price of the disk itself ?

I'm concerned that the Partition Map Scheme shows up as "Unformatted".

I suggest you run Disk Utility and format the drive with Mac OSX Extended (Journaled) format to see what happens to the Total Capacity and to set the PM Scheme (which should be GUID).


iOS S/MIME Signing Issues When I try to send an email using an installed S/MIME certificate on iOS, I get an alert that says:

  Unable to Sign: You can't send signed messages because a signing identity for the address could not be found. Go to the advanced settings for this account and choose a signing identity.

I have a signing identity chosen in the S/MIME settings for the account, and I have tried exporting my private key from my Mac's keychain many different times. The certificate/key match the address I'm sending from. Am I doing something wrong?

Not all certificates are supported by iOS, it depends on the encryption method.
I had issues with the free Comodo S/Mime certificates and switched to the free S/Mime certificates from Startssl.com, they work fine


How to change the default opening application for a file created by touch? I create a file by touch myFile in the Terminal.

When I open this file in the Finder, it opens with TextEdit. But TextEdit is not ok for me, because it automatically transforms the character ' into ‘, which is not satisfactory for coding.

Thus, I want to always open these files with Sublime for instance.

But, when I CMD+I this file to change the default opening application for such files, I get an error message.

Is there a way around?

Are you appending a file type when you create it, or is it truly "myFile" and not "myFile.txt" or similar? You can't set a default program for a file with no set type. For any other file type, you should be able to change the default program.

Not a fix, but a workaround: open -a SublimeText myFile to open it in the program you specify, rather than the default program set for that file type. You can also control-click on files in Finder and use "Open With" or just drag the file directly onto the app icon in the Dock to do it faster.


Time Machine was never set up I can't find a disk to back up Time Machine files. According to this I need an external HD.  I have imac 10.6.8.  Various directions seem to say I can find a disc on my computer except I get no prompt for that.  By the date, Airport, and Time Machine etc,I clicked on "Browse other Time Machine disc, and underneath "Open Time Machine preferences".

This contains Time Machine backup disk but it is empty.

Your iMac has only a single disk in it, and that is the one you will be backing up. You cannot use the same disk to back up to. You need to get an external device to hold the backup data: either an external disk (that connects to your iMac via USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt), or an Apple Time Capsule appliance (which also acts as a wireless network router). Once you have one of these, and it is connected to your iMac, you should be able to select System Preferences -> Time Machine pane, after you switch Time Machine on.


Use One User Account for Snow Leopard and Lion (Partitioned) I'm thinking about partitioning my MBP (late 2008) to dual boot Snow Leopard and Lion. I found an article about running both OSes, and using the SL user account for both SL and Lion.

Should I trust it? Is it safe?

Unfortunately, at the moment Lion is still in pre-release phase, so I would not deem it to be safe nor trustworthy (until its officially released).   Even Apple's own guidelines for installing pre-release operating systems to testers/developers say to install it on a non-critical hard drive in case there are problems.

If you want to test it out, I would install it on a completely separate hard drive.  And without any critical data.


Rails reporting error: Failed to build gem native extension I have installed up-to-date command line tools, and followed steps on other threads with this subject. I know this seems like a duplicate, but I don't see any answers to my issue here:

Jacobs-MacBook-Pro:~ jacob$ sudo gem install rails
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing rails:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking if the C compiler accepts ... *** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more details.  You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
--with-opt-dir
--without-opt-dir
--with-opt-include
--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
--with-opt-lib
--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
--with-make-prog
--without-make-prog
--srcdir=.
--curdir
--ruby=/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/bin/ruby
--help
--clean
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/mkmf.rb:434:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/mkmf.rb:549:in `block in try_compile'
from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/mkmf.rb:500:in `with_werror'
from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/mkmf.rb:549:in `try_compile'
from extconf.rb:80:in `nokogiri_try_compile'
from extconf.rb:87:in `block in add_cflags'
from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/mkmf.rb:597:in `with_cflags'
from extconf.rb:86:in `add_cflags'
from extconf.rb:336:in `<main>'

Gem files will remain installed in /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.7.2 for inspection.
Results logged to /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.0.0/gems/nokogiri-1.6.7.2/ext/nokogiri/gem_make.out

First, check if you have Xcode installed
Second, if you already have Xcode in your Mac, use this command:

CC=gcc rvm install-version

Example

CC=gcc rvm install-1.9.3

Reason for this error in Mac OS is that your Ruby is not able to get the C header files

Hope, this works on all the Macbook's.

Its working on El Capitan, ruby 1.9.3, rails 3.2, mysql 5.7


How can I see the sleep time(s) of my mac for a specific date? Is it possible to see when I put my mac to sleep on a specific date?

Found the answer in this so question:how to find out the start time of last sleep

Luckily the date I had in mind wasn't too long ago so I was able to use

pmset -g log|grep -e " Sleep  " -e " Wake  "


Connecting 2 external displays to 1 port on my Macbook pro Have a macbook pro with Intel HD 4000 graphics card.

Right now, I connect two external Dell monitors, with each monitor going to a separate thunderbolt port.

It is a pain to connect both of these of these every day, and I can get their order mixed up sometimes. Is there any solution that would allow me to just plug in one thing to connect my external monitors?

I saw the DualHead2Go Digital ME does this, but at a steep price, what are some other options?

Related question: Can two external displays be driven from one Thunderbolt port?

My 2011 MacBook Pro has only a single DisplayPort connector which drives a 24" external monitor, then I use a USB to DVI converter and connect two additional 24" external monitors for a total of three external monitors. The DisplayPort monitor is fast, while the two USB to DVI converter monitors are much slower but sufficient for email and web browsing tasks.


How can I install NumPy / SciPy on Lion? Macports?
Binary?
RVM-esque tool?
Other?

I will be using NumPy/SciPy for a computer vision project, so I want to do it once and do it right.

do it with the scipy superpack, by Chris Fonneback. It's very easy, automated and it works (using it right now!).

It also takes care of installing Fortran for you, which is mandatory for the python libraries to work.

PS: If you have Lion, Numpy is already part of it.


Can two iOS developer accounts use the same paid bank account I have two questions regarding using multiple developer accounts.

I have two iOS individual developer accounts. Can the two developer accounts use the same bank account?

If one of my developer account get terminated by Apple for some reasons, does it affects the second account?

Things may have changed since I set up my developer accounts, but based on my experience from years ago, yes this is fine. Payment is taken through the Apple Store, so you can just provide the same payment information when purchasing both programmes.


Apple TimeCapsule 2TB (2013) real life expierience; store data next to backups? Im having an old 2008 time capsule to store the backups of my system. Im planning to buy the new 2013 time capsule soon but need to know if it supports the following:

Backup data ( music, movies ) *beside the system backups without messing with them or
deleting them in any way?

I have tried this with my 2008 model but it would sometimes wipe the data.
Anyone can confirm this works correctly?

Also is the new wifi module really 3x times faster as claimed and in result backups your data a lot faster?

Time Machine is the software that runs on your Mac so that won't change at all with the new device.

I would run a few manual backups from the command line on your existing Time Capsule to see what amount of data you are backing up and how long it takes:

 date; tmutil startbackup --block; date

Once you have a feeling for what your speeds are, you can start to determine what the bottleneck is. If your Mac takes too long to send the files itself due to a busy filesystem and CPU - no external upgrade will help. If you are waiting on the hard drive in the Time Capsule - that too is the same technology and you should expect minor speedups as the controller seems to be marginally faster in the new Time Capsule. Only if your bottleneck is the network speed between the Mac and the Time Capsule will the faster network make a difference for the time spent backing up.

The new antennas are working very well for cases where we have one or two machines at the edge of the wireless range - but we don't have many of the new Air that speak 802.11ac yet so although some speedup is possible - it's not as dramatic as the benchmarks show except in some limited circumstances.


iPhone has addresses - will that first sync remove them? We have an older iPhone (8GB, 1st gen, jailbroken) that my girlfriend got from a friend (now on sabbatical, so no tech support). It's running iOS 3, the last version possible on a 1st-gen phone - I think her friend  saw her old nokia and took pity on her.

He erased the phone prior to her getting it, and she's spent some considerable time manually adding phone numbers. Now she'd like to back up her addresses and put some music on it so I downloaded and installed iTunes on her PC (XP) but I was concerned that the first sync might remove her addresses.

• She's got no prior installs of iTunes or an iPhone, so nothing to overwrite
• I don't see a way to back up addresses to the SIM, only get them from the SIM
• It's on XP (I use a mac) and so where would addresses sync to?

This should just sync and go, right?

Bonus question:
I don't think she's got anything running her contacts on, and worse - she's only using a Hotmail account. Does the  iOS3 allow the phone to sync with any external systems like Gmail?

Thanks!

She shouldn't lose any contacts by syncing with itunes. She might easily end up with duplicates, though, if the same address is in both places. As I understand, every item in the address book is equipped with a UUID. When you delete a record on one device, the UUID is put in a list of deleted records, and so the corresponding record is deleted on other devices during a sync. But that is supposed to be the only way records are deleted from syncing.

Disclaimer: The above is what I have inferred from observation. I haven't seen it in any authoritative documentation, so there is a possibility that it is not entirely accurate. Use this advice at your own risk.


How to build a simple app that turns text to m4a files I'm learning Chinese and want a way to quickly generate and save words and phrases to m4a files.

I've managed to do pretty much what I want in terminal, but I can't seem to figure out how to make an app out of it. Here is the code I've used in terminal:

cd ~/Desktop/test
say -o "whateveriwantittosay.m4a" "whateveriwantittosay"

How do I make an shell or Apple script that when opened prompts me for whateveriwantittosay, then creates the file? And maybe even asks me again for a new file.

Thanks!

Simple Automator Application :

Create a new Application
Add a Ask for text action
Add a Run a sheel script action
Select Pass input as Arguments
Copy the following script (Assuming ~/Desktop/Test exists)

=>

cd ~/Desktop/Test
say -o "$@.m4a" $@

Save your application. It's ready to use.


In the new Photos OSX app, where is the machine-readable photo information stored? In iPhoto, there was an AlbumData.xml file with information about all the photos like title, filename, etcetera. I was planning to use it from within a Python program to automatically export photos in certain albums to my website.

With the new OSX Photos app, I cannot find an AlbumData.xml or a plist file with the same information. The ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Database/apdb/ directory contains serveral .apdb files, which are sqlite databases. I inspected the schema in two of them but didn't find any list of photos. (Note: "apdb" stands for "aperture db", so it seems Apple re-used quite a bit of aperture in the new Photos app.)

So... I want to get my hand on the filenames of my photos, their titles, which albums they're in. Where is this data stored?

(Googling is very hard because of the generic 'photos' search term...)

The "list of photos" is in the RKMaster table.

cd ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Database/apdb
sqlite3 Library.apdb
select modelId,fileName,imagePath from RKMaster;

Do .schema RKMaster to see the other fields of the table.


Can you power on a MacBook with a wireless keyboard? Is it possible to power on a MacBook using a wireless keyboard?
If that sounds strange, I'm asking because I use a Bose radio as the sound system and the radio fits nicely on top of the laptop.

No, you cannot power on a laptop (or desktop, for that matter) from a wireless keyboard (or a wired USB keyboard).

You can, however, wake the computer from sleep with a wireless keyboard.


OS X adds "incorrect" DNS servers "on top" of correct ones OS X (latest version of High Sierra) is doing something strange when I try to connect to my campus wireless network.

On a regular basis, it is adding an incorrect DNS server (10.0.0.255) "on top" of the list of DNS servers that actually is appropriate for my campus network. I have to go in and manually delete the incorrect server, which appears by itself; when I do so, the full correct list shows up and everything returns to normal.

How do I prevent OS X from doing this automatically?

Firstly, I'm going to assume that your wireless IP address is provided by DHCP (Domain Host Configuration Protocol), in addition to DNS settings from the same DHCP server.

It’s not clear how  10.0.0.255 is not a valid and correct DNS as opposed to the DNS handling many requests and responding slowly.

If the DNS of 10.0.0.255 really does not work, you may want to check with the campus wireless providers. For all you know; you could be connecting to someone pretending to be the campus wireless; and also failed to setup their fake AP correctly.

You could also just manually enter the one correct DNS in your settings which will remove the second response and wait until the network gets fixed.


Why the weird lag in Screen Sharing app when using the LG Ultrafine 5K monitor? Hardware:

Late 2016 MacBook Pro w/ TouchBar
LG Ultrafine 5K display

Setup:

Screen Sharing app connected to remote instance in the cloud

Problem:

Very slow response to keystrokes.  There is no problem in other applications.   The problem goes away if I disconnect the external display.  The problem does not go away if I switch from WiFi to a hardwired Ethernet connection.  I had thought this might be the monitor's shielding problem interfering with WiFi but no, it happens without WiFi.  Truly perplexing!

Apple's implementation of VNC ScreenSharing often falls short, with significant lag regardless of whether Adaptive Quality is selected or not. A more robust 3rd-party solution like (the free) VNCViewer will provide you with fine-grained compression control, allowing workable VNC sessions over the tightest of bandwidth (e.g. through a shell tunnel to a remote server with really low upload speeds).


Is it necessary to disconnect the battery when installing new RAM in the early 2011 MacBook Pro? I want to install additional RAM to my early 2011 MacBook Pro.

I originally was only looking at the official Apple guide, but then while searching for a better screwdriver I found the iFixit guide, which tells you to disconnect the battery.

Is this necessary? Apple's guide doesn't mention it.

I just did it without disconnecting the battery and it works fine, so disconnecting the battery is not needed.


Mavericks Tag colors Does anyone know how to make new tags with custom colours?

It is clear how to change colours to a predefined set of available colours, but I have no idea how to change to a custom colour. (With the colour picker? Changing templates?)

You can't.

The seven colours are unchangeable, because this is needed to provide backwards compatibility with earlier versions of OS X (where they were called labels, you could only have one, and you couldn't change the colour).

If you want a detailed explanation of why tags were implemented this way, and why that restricts the tag colours to the default, then I suggest reading page 9 of John Siracusa’s Mavericks review.


Do MacBook Pros with TouchID contain TPMs? I'm considering a touch bar Macbook Pro, but the majority of the time it will be in Boot Camp. I need to use Bitlocker, so if the machine doesn't have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) I need to enter a second password every time going to Windows which is frustrating.

Historically, Macs have not included a hardware security (TPM) chip, but the Touch ID sensor requires hardware that serves a similar function. (Apple's name for what a TPM does is "secure enclave" and the TouchID sensor comes with one of those) Is that hardware exposed as a TPM to Boot Camp, or will I continue to need to enter Bitlocker passwords on these new MBPs?

Apple's iOS secure enclave is almost certainly the "flavor of TPM" that is built into the MacBook Pro. I would say it's a very, very long shot that it would be exposed to BootCamp or other virtualization apps, but there is of course hope when you have API for third party apps to get at the fingerprint sensor from macOS.

You are correct that this is the first time Apple has included this hardware on the Mac so maybe some time in the future you can expect the functionality you rightly desire. For now, I'd plan on yubikey or manual password entry.


Time Machine backup to Airport Extreme AirDisk I thought it was NOT possible to use the USB hard disk attached to the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) as a backup destination for Time Machine backups. This was mostly due to Google results as well as this Apple article.

I did the following (no hacks, nothing, just straight up!)

Formatted a 1.5 TB hard drive as 1GB + 0.5GB, both HFS+ Journalled on a GUID partition scheme (did this on my Mac)
Attached it to my 5th gen AEBS.
Back on the Mac, I navigated to the AirDisk volumes via Finder to mount it (i.e. Finder => AEBS => the HFS+ volumes)
Opened Time Machine (on Mountain Lion, 10.8.3) and hit select disk. I saw that Time Machine was asking me if I could use the USB disk attached to the AEBS for the backup destination!!

I went ahead and picked it and the backup is running just fine (images below).

EDIT: Well well, I didn't notice this before but TM seems to think it's backing to a Time Capsule! I don't recall doing anything special to either my Mac(s) or the AEBS. The AEBS was recently upgraded to the latest firmware (7.6.3 or 76300.7 it toggles when the version is clicked)

For a second confirmation, I went to my other mac (also Mountain Lion) and the same result - TM allowed me to choose that AirDisk for backup. Interestingly two separate sparse bundles were created on the on the AEBS Time Machine AirDisk volume, one for each Mac's TM backup instead of trying to cram both into a single sparse bundle. Not sure if that was because I enabled encryption (which I did) on the TM backups.

  Question: Is the [AEBS + USB/AirDisk + Time Machine] combo finally, officially supported? On Mountain Lion or something? I couldn't find documentation along those lines but
  since we're talking about backups, I just want to make sure I'm not
  following an unsupported mechanism.

Disk selection dialog:

And the actual backup itself progressing:

Question: Is the [AEBS + USB/AirDisk + Time Machine] combo finally,
  officially supported? On Mountain Lion or something? I couldn't find
  documentation along those lines but since we're talking about backups,
  I just want to make sure I'm not following an unsupported mechanism.

It was not supported as of Mountain Lion (see OS X Mountain Lion: Disks you can use with Time Machine) but according to the newest KB article (Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac) it is now officially supported:

  Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of your Mac. To use it, you
  need an external storage solution, sold separately:

  External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac
  Time Capsule or macOS Server on your network
  External hard drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme base station on your network

I couldn't find any information about whether this functionality was added as an Airport Express firmware update or was introduced with a specific OS version (or both), and thus I can't provide a firmware/OS version support matrix, but from
Backup disks you can use with Time Machine the minimum requirements seem to be:

AirPort Extreme 802.11ac model
Yosemite (OS X 10.10) (the earliest OS that references the article above, see OS X Yosemite: Back up your files with Time Machine)


yosemite mail remove self from cc list When I select "Reply All" using Apple Mail my email address automatically gets added back in the original field it appeared in the original message; i.e. if I was CC'd on an email, my address will appear in the CC field when selecting "Reply All".

I've already unchecked the setting in preferences to "Automatically CC myself".  How can I prevent receiving a duplicate email in my inbox for every email I send using the "Reply All" option?

The default behavior for Mail is that it doesn't cc you when replying unless you've flipped the toggle to cc you on every reply.

But you can get weird mismatches that cause Mail to not identify your own address. This just happened to me with my work Exchange account. I moved to Mail from Outlook and Mail cc'd me on every response.

The resolution for my specific case was that my contact card had my name entered as firstname lastname, while my Exchange account in Mail showed the name as lastname, firstname. When I changed the display name in the Mail account to match how it displayed in my contact card, Mail stopped ccing me.


Is iPad a multi-tasking device? Is the iPad 2 a truly multi-tasking device? e.g. Can I listen to some kind of audio formats (not via iTunes) in the background while surfing on Safari ?

iOS devices could always play play audio in the background. From iOS 4, 3rd party apps may also run in the background, but the multitasking ability is restricted. Applications which aren't running are frozen to save CPU and battery life. However there are 7 background API's which may execute in the background :

Background audio
Voice over IP
Background location
Push notifications
Local notifications
Task finishing
Fast app switching

See here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_(Apple)#Multitasking


Can't open bootable copy of old Imac with Mountain Lion on New iMac with High Sierra I made a bootable clone of my iMac with mountain lion using Carbon Copy Cloner.
This bootable clone opens fine on the old Mac.
I tried to open it on my newer Mac with High Sierra, but when I click on the drive I just get a circle with a bar through it and it doesn't load.
Is this because there is a different OS?
The reason I want to clone the old hard drive is in case that Mac dies and I would like to be able to access the old data and run the older OS as I have software on it the won't work on the newer OS.
Is there a way to do clone that drive so that it loads with mountain lion running on my newer Mac?

To be absolutely certain we'd need to know precisely which Mac your newer one is, but the general rule is:-

You cannot boot a Mac to an OS older than itself.

The drivers for the yet-to-be-invented hardware simply did not exist in the older OS, so it will not boot from it.

Solutions may be
1. Spare older hardware in case of failure of the original
2. A Virtual Machine made from the older OS - Parallels or VMWare etc.


Identifying mail marked as junk; marking and unmarking mail as junk I use several different macs to read my mail from an imap server. Each has developed its own junk mail filtering rules. I'd like to merge the rules, and keep them merged.

Is there a way to merge the rules from different systems?
Has anyone done anything similar? If so, how?

A manual approach that would achieve the desired result would be to enter, from each system, the junk mail folder, identify those messages that are not - on that system - marked as junk, and mark them as junk. This requires some way to identify those e-mails that are not marked as junk. I've been unable to find a mail rule query that allows me to do that.

Is there a mail rule query to identify mails not marked as junk?

Another manual approach, which I can use moving forward, is to create a custom junk mail action that, in addition to marking the mail as junk, adds a MailTags keyword with the system name. I can then, periodically, find all mail in my junk mail folder that is not appropriately tagged and manually mark it as mail. (While not convenient it is not so inconvenient that I wouldn't periodically do it.) This requires a mail action that marks mail as junk. I've been unable to find a mail rule action that marks mail as junk.

Is there a mail rule action that marks identified mail as junk?

Finally,

Has anyone any practical (i.e., not so cumbersome as to be unusable in practice) alternate suggestions?

Thanks very much for any and all help and suggestions.

Best

Sam

Many mail servers have their own spam filters and will add a special header to the message to indicate spam (some are yes/no, others will use a number system where higher numbers indicate the more likelihood the message is spam)

Select a message and Select View -> Message -> Raw Source from Mails menu to see all the headers and info. You may see something like this (highlighted):

Based on what you find, you may set up a rule based these headers. (in Mail -> Preferences -> Rules, you may need to add the header in mail (see img))

Repeat this for each Mail client.

As for Mail.app's custom heuristics... That's a bit trickier, but if you are consistent they should end up pretty close on each machine. (I tend to trust my server's filtering more anyway)


Contacts.app command line interface Is there a CLI front-end to the Contacts.app (formerly Address Book.app) database?

Example:

mycontacts --email '*@google.com' # to get Googlers

The closest thing to a generic solution is the CLI package contacts by Shane Celis. The source can be found on GitHub, and is also available as a formulae on Homebrew. The homebrew package can be installed using  with the following command:

  brew install contacts

There are other options that may also work for you. Contacts just stores info in a sqlite database so you can access it with the sqlite command. You could create a custom script to accomplish a particular task if you want.

Scott Stevenson had a tool called abtool up that was popular for a while, so you could try searching through the source on GitHub. In particular, since the app by Shane Celis appears unmaintained (while still functioning well), there are some who are building replacements.


Copy all highlighted text in Preview I have a book I'm reading in Preview (PDF) and I had highlighted some vocabs. I would like to copy those vocabs into an excel sheet. Is there anyway to do this without manually copying them one by one?

Unfortunately exporting highlights in bulk is not implemented in Apple Preview (yet).

What you can do:

Show all notes and annotations from preview in a list like this (press option+cmd+4). But you'd still need to copy them manually. With this list you just get an overview and can jump directly to them within Preview.
Try the App Highlights, which provides your desired functionality. I doubt it can read the highlights from preview though. Might still be worth a try to verify if it works for you and if you want to use it for this functionality in the future.


How to identify codec (AAC vs ALAC) used in an m4a file Given that the m4a format is merely a container, and can contain music encoded with a lossy (AAC) or lossless (ALAC) codec, is there a simple way to determine which codec was used for a given file?

When I use the file command on an .m4a file, I get back a generic response of "ISO Media, Apple iTunes ALAC/AAC-LC (.M4A) Audio" for both AAC and ALAC files. I can think of two other approaches off the top of my head that don't require either the heavy hand of iTunes or installing new software :

Open the audio file in question with QuickTime Player. Select "Show Movie Inspector" from the 'Window' menu (or press ⌘-i) to see the file's size, data rate, and the codec used in its creation.
Use the afinfo (audio file info) command in Terminal.app to get a more information than QuickTime Player provides. Here's some sample output:

$ afinfo /Users/admin/Desktop/01\ The\ Guns\ of\ August\ 1.m4a

Num Tracks: 1 Data format: 2 ch,  44100 Hz, 'alac' (0x00000001) from
16-bit source

4096 frames/packet

Channel layout: Stereo (L R)

estimated duration: 18702.930431 sec audio bytes: 1006059541

audio packets: 201367 bit rate: 430332 bits per second

packet size upper bound: 12334 maximum packet size: 12334

audio data file offset: 48

optimized audio

824799232 valid frames + 0 priming + 0 remainder = 824799232

For any readers unfamiliar with using the terminal, it's quite simple, and you won't break anything. Open Terminal, and type in--or cut and paste from below--the word afinfo followed by a single space:

afinfo

Next, drag an audio file over to the Terminal window and drop it in. You will see the file's path get appended to the afinfo command. If dragging the icon caused the Finder to become the active process, you'll need to click on the Terminal's window to wake it up before the final step of pressing enter to run the command. If you like, you can get information on more than one file at a time by dragging and dropping multiple icons instead of just one. When you're finished, just quit Terminal.app as you would any other program.


Macbook Air Hardware Fault Somebody has given me an Apple Macbook Air 1.1 to fix. Unfortunately I have very little experience with Macs.

Symptoms are:

*Computer runs incredibly slow to the extent that I have never seen one so bad. Boot up time is about 15-20 minutes then once logged into the GUI every move is agonisingly slow.

*Battery does not work/charge or is not being recognised

*Fans running super-fast

*When run in verbose mode very many I/O errors on disk0s2 are seen during startup

Things I have tried:

Reset VRAM - no change
Reset SMC - no change except keyboard backlight started working (didn't even realise there was one)
Checked available disk space - About 40GB out of 80GB available
Tried to run in safe mode - no change
Tried running Apple Hardware Tester at startup (by holding down D, also tried Option+D) but cannot seem to access it, possibly because the system is running so slow.
Used disk utility to repair hard disk - no errors/problems found
Checked SMART status of hard disk with Disk Util from the command line - SMART status reported as "verified".

Since there are continuous I/O errors but SMART status returns as OK should I presume that the motherboard is on its way out seeing as other things like battery are also not working? Or could there still be an issue with the hard drive / SSD?

There are only two causes of repeated I/O errors:

A logical failure of the drive due to a corrupted Filesystem
A physical failure of either the drive or a periphery component (connecting cable).

S.M.A.R.T. Status is not a reliable indicator for drive failure and is prone to false negatives.  Remember, it’s a firmware function built-in to a drive checking itself.

Steps:

Boot into recovery mode. Use the repair disk function of Disk Utility to check the boot volume (disk0s2) from your recovery partition.
Use third party software such as Techtool Pro to scan for bad blocks on your HDD.

Best bet:

Here is your machine. More than likely, it’s a hardware issue. Specifically, either your drive is failing or the PATA cable is failing. The Apple Hardware Test, even if you were to access, does not test your HDD’s integrity. It would test, however, the input cable to the logic board (the PATA cable) - this is a much cheaper fix.

Bottom line: You can’t troubleshoot a hardware issue. Backup your data while the drive is still alive. Get a definitive diagnosis from Apple free of charge, and proceed from there.  Once you know exactly what the issue is, decide whether you want to get the HDD/cable replaced by Apple, use a DIY option for a cheaper price, or purchase a new machine entirely.

BOL.


How to remove adware on macOS Sierra 10.12.1? I recently came across an adware on my Mac. I've uploaded a video on youtube. Pay attention to the very redirects! I used to have this on El Capitan as well, then I clean-installed Sierra. After about a month this is what I get:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBcPDWpB3XA&feature=youtu.be

I've tried updating to the latest version of the OS which is 10.12.1 right now. I've tried Malware Bytes, MacScan and similar software; but they don't find anything.

I've tried resetting safari, used App Cleaner to delete all the related files. Also, no fix.
I've tried changing my DNS servers and still no fix.
There's no plugin or extension on my safari.

So, how can I get rid of this adware?

Backup your data and let Malwarebytes do the job.


How do I stop my Mac from ringing when I get a phone call on my iPhone? Yosemite has a new feature where my Mac rings when I get a phone call. Annoyingly, it continues to ring for 30 seconds or so, even after I've answered the iPhone.

How can I turn this sound off? I'd like to continue to have this feature available on my Mac: I'd like to be able to start calls from my Mac and I'd like to see the little alert that says "Accept / Decline" when the calls come in, but I want to turn off the ring sound on the Mac so I can answer my iPhone without having the other person hear endless ringing in the background.

Easy Peasy.

System Preferences > Notifications > FaceTime > uncheck 'Play sound for notifications'

Alternatively, you could just turn on 'Do Not Disturb' from the Today/Notifications widget easily when you need it by clicking on the notifications button in the menu bar and scrolling up the 'Do Not Disturb' setting will scroll into view


iCloud password reset How do I change the Apple iCloud password that is synched to a computer no longer available to me?
I am trying to backup my contacts to my new computer.  I have loaded the latest iTunes application on my notebook.  updates my iPhone 4S iOS8.  The mobile icon doesn't appear in iTunes.  The folder shows up in the drive tree.

So I am trying to backup everything to an iCloud account however I can't access it.

If you do not have the password for an iCloud account, and also do not have the means to reset it via appleid.apple.com page, then you can't do anything with that iCloud account.

Also, it seems you have a couple of issues: iTunes not recognising your iPhone?

PD: Why would you want to backup everything to an iCloud account you can no longer access?


Error while using setfile to set icon for dmg created via hdiutil in mac I have created an app & signed using "Developer ID Application: x" certificate. then using hdiutil i created the dmg

hdiutil create -size 1.5m -format UDRW myapp.dmg -srcfolder ./myapp/ -fs HFS+

to set the drive icons when i execute the below commandsit throws the error

# custom drive volume icon..
#cp drive_icon.icns /Volumes/myapp/.VolumeIcon.icns
#SetFile -c icnC /Volumes/myapp/.VolumeIcon.icns //(throws error -5000)
dev:Unexpected error. (-5000) on file: /Volumes/myapp/.VolumeIcon.icns

I thought it would be related to size and increased the size of dmg from 1.5m to 4.5m but that also not helps, image size is 291kb and the overall app size is 666kb.

I created the .app in build machine (mac 10.10 xcode6.2), and tried creating this hdutil in our codesigning server (mac 10.11). can anyone tell me where it went wrong.

In the man page I see setfile is deprecated is there any other equivalent command to do

Thanks and Regards, Saravana

found another way to set icon.
Right click the DMG file and click "GetInfo"
Drag and drop the icon file to the icon location present in the GetInfo dialog box.
it sets.

Thanks and regards,
Saravana


Can't get picture from my mid '09 13" MBPro to a Vizio TV using a display port to HDMI adaptor I have a Monoprice display port to HDMI adaptor and am connecting my Mac Book Pro to a 42" Vizio LCD display. The Displays system prefs show the Vizio display, but it shows "No Signal". If I toggle the input select on the Vizio, the MBPro, and the Vizio, will flash to black intermittently, but never stabilize and show a signal. I've changed HDMI cables. Could it be an issue with the Monoprice adaptor? I also downloaded SwitchRex X, installed it on the Mac, and it shows the Vizio resolution to be 1080p, but still no signal/picture on the Vizio.

I have MBPro and MacMini with some noname (fitTek) DP to HDMI adapter and it works fine.

Try to configure resolution to be optimal for External display or to extend it (use as two monitors).

To be honest I always tried over my Onkyo Receiver- never tried directly into TV


OS X: fsck_hfs unable to fix volume directory count I'm running fsck_hfs on a very large volume. Unfortunately, there's an issue it appears to be unable to fix -- it reports it, loops back to start with Rechecking..., and reports it again, ad infinitum.

** Checking catalog hierarchy.
   Invalid volume directory count
   (It should be 513997 instead of 513998)
   Incorrect folder count in a directory (id = 27444570)
   (It should be 1 instead of 0)

I've tried adding the -r ("rebuild catalog btree") flag to fsck, but the issue still recurs.

The volume is probably locked, so you should retry what you are doing after booting into either the Recovery HD parition (Command-R while booting) or with a OS X install CD.


Shortcut to Change to a Specific Font Is there a way to change to a particular font style using a single function key? For instance, I would want to be able to change any font to "Helvetica Bold 16" every time I press F5 if rich text is selected, regardless of application.

You should try and follow the instructions in this answer, How to create Automator Service to change font of selected text?, I checked it and it works. Follow the assign a shortcut to a script link, https://superuser.com/questions/153890/assign-a-shortcut-to-running-a-script-in-os-x/264943#264943, then change Menlo to Helvetica Bold and 18 to 16 in the script provided there. Hope this helped. You can comment here if you run into issues and maybe I can help.


iPhone 6s plus black and didnt have visual after screen replacement this lately, i just accidentally broke and smashed my iphone and the screen was shattered, the ribbon of home button and the lcd also the 3g front camera was snapped. I decide to buy some replacement for these part and install them. After i get the parts and firstly i check for the iphone whether it still alive or not, i connect the iphone to the itunes and i found the iTunes detected my device but i cant access because it need to unlock first. so i tried to connect the LCD and i found that the LCD was black and didnt have any visual. i wonder is it damage from the new LCD it self or it was from the logic board it self? i was worried if i get the new lcd and it still didnt work. i also try to put my simcard and the iphone still can receive the call, is this really means that my phone still can be saved? (plus, when i on the phone and connect to the itunes without lcd screen, i found the panel on upper side which sit directly under the lcd socket was little bit warm, is it normal?)

Here is our overall answer how to revive a phone that is frozen and you can’t operate the screen, can’t turn it off or can’t turn it on.

iPhone 7 is frozen and I can't turn it off

Once you’ve exhausted these steps, you will need to repair the part that’s not working and if you’ve repaired the screen already, it might be a more costly piece or a cable that’s failed.


Who sets the BROWSER environment variable in macOS? I noticed I have BROWSER set to open in my environment variables, but I can't figure out where it gets set by the system.

When I run env I get this output:

USER=xxx
PATH=xxx
LOGNAME=xxx
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=xxx
HOME=xxx
SHELL=xxx
__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING=xxxx
TMPDIR=xxx
XPC_SERVICE_NAME=xxx
XPC_FLAGS=xxx
BROWSER=open
EDITOR=nano
[...]

It doesn't seem like something on my user configuration, is it standard to have BROWSER=open in macOS (10.15.3)? Where can I find the configuration file that sets it?

BROWSER is not set by default on macOS. Where exactly it is set depends on the shell you are using and its specific configuration:

bash: /etc/profile, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bashrc
zsh: /etc/zshenv, /etc/zprofile, /etc/zshrc, /etc/zlogin, ~/.zshenv, ~/.zprofile, ~/.zshrc, ~/.zlogin

Besides the configuration files itself the variable may also get set in a script sourced from one of them.


How to know which one is used when charging a MacBook Pro with usb-c from multiple power adapters? There is this great question: What happens if you plug more than one charger in the new MacBook Pro (2016)?

It doesn't tell me how to find out from which source the MacBook is charging though.  Right this moment I have a power bank and a MacBook charger (small, not proper wattage) connected to my MacBook Pro and my battery is at 3%. I'd like to know which one I can unplug.

Is there a way to know which port is giving the power? I'm looking for a precise answer, e.g. from a command line tool. It'd also be good to know with exactly how much Watt it's charging.
I don't want to rely on whatever is indicated on the charger.

The one that has the most power is the one that does the charging

From Apple's support page Connect with Thunderbolt 3 on your new MacBook Pro (that was linked in the question), it states that

  If you connect multiple power supplies to your MacBook Pro, the one that provides the most power will be used, regardless of the order in
  which you connected them.

You need to check the specs of the power bank and the charger.  How many watts to each have.  To get this info, use the simple calculation:

Volts = Watts x Amps

If you power bank give you 5V at 2A it's capable of delivering 10W.  If your charger is capable of 12V at 5A then it's capable of delivering 60W.  The one with the most is charging your Mac.

Most likely, your power bank is nowhere close to an AC adapter - that's the one you should disconnect.


I'm streaming a basketball game and one computer, but I want to simutainiously share to another computer in the house I'm streaming a basketball game on one computer, but I want to simultainiously share to another computer in the house. Is this possible?

Thanks

VNC connection is rather slow and without audio. I would recomment NoMachine if You want to stream video and audio. It works really well especially on LAN. It uses video codecs and smart compression mechanisms to keep the stream fluid. Interface is not as good as native Apple app though.
It's free for private use.


How to check the VPN setting created by an app on an iOS device? Many VPN apps would create VPN profiles on the iOS device. Unlike VPN profiles create by the user, they cannot be edited, and therefore the user cannot see the setting of said profile. With a jailbroken device, is there a way to hunt down such profile and read the setting in file?

Yes you can on a jailbroken iPhone using an app called OpenSSH.

It will allow you access to all the system files and in normally conditions you can simple change the extension to .txt and open it with textedit for example.

What you’ll need:

A jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch with Cydia installed.
OpenSSH Cydia Package.
Wi-Fi and Internet access on the device.
Mac/PC on the same Wi-Fi connection
Suitable FTP/SSH clients like Cyberduck, Transmit etc.

Here is the guide on CultofMac

Also a link to the OpenSSH Cydia Package

Basic Instructions:

install the OpenSSH package

(click, Install, Confirm, Close, Back)

open Wi-Fi from Settings
click your network's
read the "IP Address" field

(example: 192.168.1.100)

open Terminal on desktop

(open Spotlight, search for "Terminal")
Or if you're on Windows, you can use a desktop terminal application such as PuTTY(http://www.putty.org/).

run "ssh root@[insert IP Address]"

(example: ssh root@192.168.1.100)

wait a few minutes (just once)

(it's generating some crypto keys)

accept new computer host key

(if it doesn't ask you, that's fine)

log in with password "alpine"

(you should change this now)


Mac App Store updating problem I've recently upgraded to Mac OS Yosemite, but the App Store won't let me install app updates. It says "Sign in to the App Store to download apps." I'm already signed in though, and the sign in box that pops up won't let me change the Apple ID to mine. I've restarted, logged out, logged in again, and it still won't work. I'd assume that this is because they were installed with a different Apple ID. Can I uninstall and reinstall the apps without buying them/losing data? Will installing the apps myself again without updating get the updates and stop telling me about them? Or is there any way to install these updates? Also, they're for the Apple apps like iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, but nothing other than those Apple ones.

Thanks!

You can log out from the App Store after you click "Account" at the Quick Links sidebar (inside the "Feature" Tap)
  You can log out and change the Apple ID inside the OS X settings
  You need to log in with the Apple ID you bought the apps with
  You can delete certain apps and keep the files. Like iPhoto keeps its Library inside the Pictures folder in your Home directory
  You have to buy the Apps again if they cost money if you want to update them with your other Apple ID


Message tone played multiple times on receiving message/notification on iOS 5 I've an iPhone 4 and I've installed iOS 5 on it. Since then, whenever I receive a text message or an app notification, the tone plays like "tre..tre..tre..tre..te..tre..tre...tring". Sometimes it takes a whole 5 to 7 secs for the sound to be complete.

At first, I thought it's because of the beta; but I guess they should've fixed it by now as it is already some Beta 3 if I'm not wrong!

Does anyone know any settings change/fixes that can fix it?

Ok, I had the exact same issue after updating to IOS 5, SMS tones sounded like a stuck record and very garbled. Solution is back-up your iphone then do a complete restore and at the end set up as a new iphone NOT backup from previous. The back-up can cause glitches when 1st updating from 4.3.5 to 5. Then unplug and plug back in and right click your iphone and do a "restore from back-up" after the setup as new iphone. Hope that helps for you as it did for me.


List of PowerPC apps I'm breathing life again into an "old" MacMini G4 1.5Ghz. Instead of searching each and every one of my favorite apps to check whether there's still an old version that runs on PowerPC / OSX 10.5.8, I was trying to search some kind of "software still running on PowerPC"-list. Something that would gather links to (or would mirror old installers of) the latest PPC-compatible version of a big list of commonly used apps. Something like iUseThis but for old versions, or with an advanced search to target only PPC apps.

Does this exist? My google-fu has come to an end here.

Or if it does not exist, do you think it'd be worth providing such a service by writing this kind of database myself? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one interested in resuscitating old Macs.

Only as a hobby project since PowerPC market is dying.

Try this filter on the base that once was Version Tracker.
Also you may use Universal Apps List from Apple through Wayback Machine


How to mass-delete text messages by partially matching phone number on iPhone? Is there a way via an app on iPhone or Mac, to select and delete messages originating from a phone number that matches a pattern?

Specifically, I get many text messages every day from my ZWave deadbolt lock. The number the device uses starts with "1-100", but the remaining digits are always different (but sequential). This makes the messages not cluster together into a conversation which could be easily deleted.

Alternatively, maybe there exists a way to group multiple senders based on a range of numbers, as I can't foresee the actual value of the numbers.

Any ideas?

EDIT:
This one-year-old thread asked a similar question about matching a pattern within a message from same sender. There were no answers, and I wanted to see if there had been any new developments in this direction?

I haven't heard of an App that can delete text messages at all, but I can see it's usefulness in a situation like this.

Furthermore, I don't think there exists a solution to group senders with (partially) unknown numbers, if you new the numbers an ugly and time consuming solution would be to add all possible numbers to one contact, then all messages should hopefully be kept in the same conversation. Your only solution right now seems to be to manually delete the messages :(


Mac is mirroring my monitors through miniDP So I have two DELL u2415 monitors connected to USC-C to Dual Display Port adapter. The problem is when I go to displays it shows both my u2415 monitors as one under arrangement and they are just mirroring each other. I think it could be because the adapter is plugged into only the 1 usb-c. Could it be that I need two adapters and for them to not share the same adapter?

Surely there is a way as the adapter was advertised saying it would work.

Anyone had any experiences with an issue like this?

The adapter in question only supports Windows 10 - it won't work on a Mac.

Connecting two displays via one of the Thunderbolt 3 connectors on the MacBook Pro 15" with TouchBar is usually done via daisy-chaining through the display. This is only supported by Apple for Thunderbolt displays - not DisplayPort monitors.

The cheapest  way to connect your monitors is to use two ports, as you mention. However it is not necessary buying two of those expensive dual-display adapters. Instead you can use a simple USB-C to DisplayPort cable. For example this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B01J6DT070/ref%3Das_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1484165396&sr=8-1&keywords=usbc%20displayport%204k&linkCode=ll1&tag=radianexuscor-20&linkId=a1ef8c98169f6005d21382dca77d66e4&utm_source=tr.im&utm_medium=no_referer&utm_campaign=tr.im%2FCable_Matters_USBC_DP&utm_content=direct_input

Buying two of these ($15.99) will allow connecting the two monitors to your Mac.

Hopefully you can return your adapter for a refund.


quad boot MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) -- will 10.11.6 -> 10.12 affect boot/partitions/etc? Possibly this question cannot be answered, or maybe it will be deemed an opinion...? But, I recently had a Windows 10 update that forced me to reinstall all 4 OSs and again set up the perfect balance of boot loaders I wanted (Debian is the first one - I am not using rEFInd anymore, nor want to).

So. As it may be difficult to know what the upgrade does, can I protect this boot stuff on /dev/disk0s1 ? Would copying it (dd maybe?) and then replacing what is there be sufficient? Or would I also have to backup my gpt partition table (gdisk) too? Other things?

I can provide other information if necessary, but here is a question I have yet to address about something else that contains a lot of info about my laptop: https://superuser.com/questions/1296542/out-of-the-blue-linux-mint-makes-the-unmount-and-mount-sounds/1297114#1297114

TIA!

You do not have Window Recovery Environment partition so you probably deserve to get clobbered during your next major Windows 10 update. Also, there is no Microsoft Reserved partition, but that is not unusual on Macs.

Installing Linux Mint without a swap partition seems like a dangerous move.

I would assume gdisk would display type 8300 and 8200 for linux and swap. You show the legacy value of 0700.

I assume you using GRUB as your boot manager. I would recommend the Mac built in Startup Manager. This would require multiple EFI partitions. Or a better alternative would be multiple small HFS+ partitions, each with a silent rEFInd installed.

Before any major upgrade, I suppose backing up the values in the GPT is a good idea. You could use the gpt command to write the GPT to the EFI partition as a text file. Also, I suppose you could copy the files in the EFI to a dmg file.

An upgrade fro 10.11.6 to 10.12.x would probably not present any major problems. Upgrading to 10.13.x can cause issues if your /dev/disk0 is a SSD. It has been reported that the macOS boot partition is converted to APFS when /dev/disk0 is a SSD.

Also, keeping a USB Windows 10 installer handy is a good idea. You never know when a change to hardware or software to require a rebuild of the BCD file.

If you need further clarification, please comment.


How to launch an application after a specific Disc was mounted using Automator I'm newbie in Automator. There are many examples for simple actions.

But I could not find examples or documentation for launching some applications after a specific disk was mounted. It will be very useful at work.

Has someone done this?

Elaborating on ShooTerKo's answer on Stack Overflow (the one Volodymyr Kulyk links to) I've written the following script that continues the Workflow if the triggeringVolumeName is found. That way the actual launch (or any other Workflow action) can be moved outside the Applescript:

Create a new Automator action of type Folder Action
Choose the Volumes folder of your system as input by clicking Other... in the Choose folder dropdown, pressing Cmd+Shift+G and typing /Volumes
As first action choose Execute Applescript
Use the following script and change YOUR_VOLUME_NAME to match your needs:

on run {input, parameters}

    -- define the volume name and the application to start
    set triggeringVolumeName to "YOUR_VOLUME_NAME"

    -- walk through all newly mounted volumes
    repeat with aMountedVolumeAlias in input

        -- get the volume name from the given alias
        tell application "System Events" to set mountedVolumeName to name of aMountedVolumeAlias

        -- compare the volume name with the defined trigger name
        if mountedVolumeName is triggeringVolumeName then

            -- continue workflow
            return input

        end if

    end repeat

    -- if repeat finished without match, cancel workflow
    error number -128

end run

Add other actions to the Workflow, e.g. Ask for Confirmation, Copy Finder Items or Launch Application


How to configure Archive folder for Outlook in iOS Mail I have an Office 365 email account configured as an Exchange account on my iPhone with iOS 13.
When I archive an email, it is moved into the "Archive" folder (in English) even if my account is configured in Italian so that the official archive folder is spelled "Archivio" in Outlook. Everytime I archive an email on iPhone, the English folder is created and the email is moved there.
How do I configure where to archive the email (eg: the right name of the archive folder)?
Thank you.

Unfortunately, this is a function of Exchange, not the Mail.app or macOS.

The Exchange server is looking for a folder called "Archive" on the server itself so when you rename the folder, it can't find it so it creates a new one.  Then Mail syncs with the Exchange server bringing the "Archive" folder back.

You'll have to file a bug report with Microsoft or just tolerate the English spelling of "Archivio."


iPhone 6 Wifi AC Speed I wish to get a 802.11ac wifi router that will get the most out of my iPhone 6. I have looked but can't find any specifications that say which would be the best match. Routers all seem to have an AC rating AC1750, AC3200 for example which I understand is total Mb speed for both 2.4G and 5Ghz. Where in the iPhone 6 specifications does it say what the speed is so I can find an equally capable AC router?

According to http://www.apple.com/iphone-6/specs/, the iPhone 6 supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi‑Fi. So any router supporting the same standards should (and usually will) match your phone.

For potential speeds, see

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/01/iphone-6-wifi-compared-to-iphone-5s/
http://www.iclarified.com/44330/iphone-wifi-speed-test-80211ac-iphone-6-plus-vs-80211n-iphone-5s-video
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2014/09/iphone-6-plus-vs-iphone-6-vs-iphone-5s-speed-test.html

but keep in mind that maximal throughput depends on a lot of factors like packet/file size, router model, interference, distance between device and router etc.


How to add reminder to ios 5 Reminder app from my PC? How to add reminder to ios 5 Reminder app from my windows 7 PC? or it will much better to sync Reminder to google calendar. I like location based reminder of Reminder app.

As far as I know there would be two ways.

1. Outlook

Reminders is synced through iCloud, so you should have iCloud installed on your PC. Here is an easy guide provided by Apple. You only really need to follow up to step 2 to sync Reminders; step 3 is to keep your Purchased Music from iTunes in sync too.

Reminders is synced through "Calendars and Tasks". You'll need Outlook 2007 or 2010 to sync.

2. Web App

The other option I can think of is adding your reminders directly to iCloud through the Web App. This is done by going to the iCloud Website. Sign in with the Apple ID you use on your iOS device and click on the "Calendar App" once signed in.

You should see your Reminders on the Right Column. If you don't, go to the Action Menu (the cog icon on the top right corner) and select Show Reminders. You can add new reminders by clicking on the Action Menu > New Reminder, or double-clicking on the bottom of your reminder list.

Syncing With Google

About syncing with Google, this other thread might be useful.

BTW: I don't think you can add locations on Outlook or the Web App. I could be wrong, but I don't see the option.

Hope it helps!


Outlook 2011, where are located messages placed in "On my computer"? I'm using Outlook 2011 under OS X Mavericks.
I moved some messages to my Exchange account to folders located in the section "On my computer".

I need to know where these messages are physically located on my computer.

You should check out your personal folder (user) and navigate to:

Documents
Microsoft User Data
Office 2011 Identies
Main Identity

Please note that Outlook 2011 does not use a .PST file format


Can I use the LastResort font in a web page? I've read that Apple has a hidden system font, called "Last Resort", that's used as a last ditch effort to show a unicode character in some cases.

I'd like to use this font in a web page, to debug unicode issues. Is this possible?

I've tried using:

font-family: "LastResort"

in CSS, but it didnt seem to work. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Note I originally put the attribute "font-face", which I've changed to "font-family", and have been using in my local tests.

I suggest you use a different font which has the actual numbers of the characters and not just symbols like Last Resort.  Here is one, but it does not cover higher ranges of Unicode where many emoji are.  Another which seems to cover more characters is GNU Unifont.


Can I use Alfa long distance Wi-Fi with AppleTV AirPlay? I'm told by Apple Support I cannot use my MacBook with OS X 10.9.3 with AppleTV AirPlay, so will be using it with just my Samsung TV and a 2nd TV (not a Smart TV Though,) for a family member who is living downstairs he has early lung cancer, & is just discovering computer world, and is in love with YouTube, so I am upstairs with a NetComm modem (TPG) and am thinking of getting a  Alfa long distance Wi-Fi. Is this OK, please?

The Alfa WiFi signal booster will work with many WiFi radios, if it is the right model and has the right driver for your OS.

If you are going to need the WiFi signal booster Antenna (Alfa long distance) will depend on your location.

Your Alfa antenna has to come with OS X drivers like this model:

http://www.crucialwifi.co.uk/Alfa_Network_AWUS036NHR_V2_bgn_LongRange_USB_Adapter_rtl8188ru/p740998_3940899.aspx

Normally a "well placed" wifi extender/repeater would be enough to bring your wifi signal to the floor below you. I have Netgear N300 for my wifi network around the home. Just plug it in wall socket in the stairwell somewhere. You need to know that the wifi speed will be cut in half, but still will be enough for Videos streaming from youtube etc.. if your original is strong.


Can a Mac be controlled using an API? I'm developing a plugin for Hubot (a scriptable chatbot) to take a URL, and display it on a Mac Mini connected to a TV in my office.

However I'm not actually sure how feasible this is. Hubot is able to send messages to APIs using HTTP. Is there a known method of allowing a Mac to listen for requests over HTTP, and then run a command (an applescript or shell script perhaps)?

Python is shipped with Macs, you can just use SimpleHTTPServer to respond to HTTP requests.


Truecrypt install fails - 3 out of 6 hunks FAILED The first is just to show you where the installation is at this moment:

  n102:~ hendrikwindel$ brew info truecrypt
  truecrypt: stable 7.1a
  http://truecrypt.org/
  Conflicts with: fuse4x
  Not installed
  From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/commits/master/Library/Formula/truecrypt.rb
  ==> Dependencies
  Build: pkg-config ✔, nasm ✔
  Required: wxmac ✔, osxfuse ✔

And now occurs the issue:

  n102:~ hendrikwindel$ brew install truecrypt
  ==> Downloading ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/other/tc/truecrypt-7.1a.tar.gz
  Already downloaded: /Library/Caches/Homebrew/truecrypt-7.1a.tar.gz
  ==> Patching
  patching file Main/Application.cpp
  Hunk #1 succeeded at 36 with fuzz 2.
  patching file Main/CommandLineInterface.cpp
  patching file Main/Forms/Forms.cpp
  Hunk #1 succeeded at 263 with fuzz 2.
  Hunk #2 FAILED at 305.
  Hunk #3 succeeded at 1443 with fuzz 2.
  Hunk #4 FAILED at 1468.
  Hunk #5 succeeded at 2894 with fuzz 2.
  Hunk #6 FAILED at 2951.
  3 out of 6 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file Main/Forms/Forms.cpp.rej
  patching file Main/Forms/MainFrame.cpp
  patching file Main/Forms/SelectDirectoryWizardPage.cpp
  patching file Main/Forms/SelectDirectoryWizardPage.h
  patching file Main/GraphicUserInterface.cpp
  patching file Main/TextUserInterface.cpp
  patching file Main/UserPreferences.cpp
  patching file Platform/Unix/Process.cpp
  Error: Applying DATA patch failed

I have no idea what could be wrong. There is only a short prehistory. But I think it isn't connected with this issue.

Bad News

The Truecrypt Formula on Homebrew has been removed due to bugs, and probably uncertainty in the community regarding truecrypt's safety.

There also used to be a homebrew cask which was removed due to installation bugs.  However, it was also moved to homebrew-unofficial and scheduled for removal.

For more information about the 3rd party audit, and why Truecrypt is still safe to use, please see the links mentioned here.

Good News

I have created a Homebrew Tap for Truecrypt 7.1a which fixes the installation problem, and works on OS X 10.10 Yosemite!

Installation

First, make sure you have installed homebrew-cask if you haven't yet:

brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask

Then, run the following in your command-line:

brew tap trinitronx/homebrew-truecrypt

Usage

Note: For info run:

brew cask info truecrypt

Once the tap is installed, you can install truecrypt!

brew cask install truecrypt


How to manage multiple Bluetooth mics on an iPhone? My car has Bluetooth integration, yet even when parked with the radio turned off, so long as the engine is running, the car's mic takes precedence over the very nice Bluetooth dictation mic I'd prefer to use. How can I force my iPhone to choose the dictation mic when parked without unpairing from the car?

There is an order of precedence for Bluetooth devices connected to iPhone. See iPhone Bluetooth Pairing on StackOverflow:

    What determines precedence is the order they are connected for that session. The last connected device has the highest precedence and is the one used.

Therefore, to ensure the dictation mic is used, connect it after your car connects. If it's already connected when the car connects, you would need to disconnect the dictation mic and reconnect it. (Turning it off and then on again should accomplish this, but without knowing what device it is, it is impossible for me to state this with any certainty.)


How to bypass password prompt with vnc connection from terminal Previously, screen sharing to Catalina (10.15.7) from Big Sur (11.1) using terminal:
open vnc://[user]:[password]@[host].local
would open a screen sharing session without having to enter a password.
After the Big Sur 11.2 upgrade, Catalina now displays the login screen and asks for the password.
How can I correctly pass the password to the screen sharing session and bypass the login screen?

I've noticed that too but couldn't figure out how to properly pass credentials into VNC either.
The docs for screen sharing say that if both machines are signed into the same iCloud account, then a screen sharing session will begin. Otherwise a username password prompt is displayed. I didn't see much difference between the Catalina and the Big Sur versions of the page unfortunately.
If you want a work around, I hacked together some Apple Script that will open up the screen sharing app, fill in hostname, username/password, then re-enter the password on the remote machine and press enter:
tell application "Screen Sharing"
    activate # start Screen Sharing if not running yet
    tell application "System Events"
        key code 51 using {command down} # Delete whatever is in the textbox
        keystroke "192.168.1.1" # host you want to connect to
        key code 36 # press enter
        delay 1 # wait a moment for the next screen to appear
        keystroke "username" # username
        keystroke tab
        keystroke "hunter2" # password
        key code 36 # press enter
        delay 2 # wait to connect to the target machine
        key code 51 using {command down} # delete anything in the textbox
        keystroke "hunter2" # typing the password on the remote machines textbox
        key code 36 # hitting enter to log in
    end tell
end tell

To use throw the above code into a file called file.scpt and run it via osascript file.scpt. You need to give the Terminal app the Accessibility permission within the Security & Privacy section of the Settings app.


Safari web browser do not find strings on a page in the common way How to switch Safari to a normal web page searching instead of finding only whole words?

Ex: there ase some words on a page: hello_world, ask_different. When I search for hello, world, ask, different - i search perfectly. But when I'm trying to search ello, ifferent, etc. - it gives me nothing.

The find banner was set to match the starts of words by default in Safari 5.1:

This makes it default to Contains:

defaults write com.apple.Safari FindOnPageMatchesWordStartsOnly -bool false

You have to quit and reopen Safari to apply the changes.


Safari 14.0 WebGL disabled? Safari 14.0 does indeed have WebGL enabled (see the screenshots) but I'm not able to view any WebGL pages. I seem to remember WebGL did work at some point in the past but it's totally broken now in Safari 14.
Are there any solutions to this or can other users confirm Safari 14 works at all with WebGL?

In some cases WebGL is disabled in the Safari preferences.
AFAIK there is no UI to edit the setting. So you may need to edit the Safari property list file. It is located at
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

This is described in the following post:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251723774?answerId=253458486022#253458486022
The .plist can be edited with the “defaults write” command in Terminal, but this will work correctly only if Terminal has full disk access, as described in this article:
https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/containers.html


Does reseting iOS device revert to earlier version of OS I'm reading that you can use iTunes revert an iOS device to 'original factory settings', but this is hard to believe. Will it actually allow you to return to the earliest version of the OS that was installed on the device, or will it just give you a fresh install of the latest OS that was installed on the device?

In my experience, iTunes just gives you a fresh install of the latest OS. It has to use the same OS that is installed on your device because while reverting back to the old changes - it can not physically look up the information for the iOS that originally came with your device. When you update your device, your iPhone saves over the old iOS settings so there is no way it can revert back to those changes.


Apple Server - how to exclude a subdomain? A client has an internal Apple Server setup in their office that manages their domain (let's say it is example.com).

I have setup a subdomain of example.com (test.example.com) on Google Apps as I want to use email addresses under test.example.com for an app that I am building. The reasons for needing GMail aren't important - but I need it.

The problem arises when someone from their office tries to email bla@test.example.com.

For some reason the Apple server seems to be saying - "I am setup to manage example.com and hence all subdomains of it. I have looked - but I cannot find a subdomain of test.example.com - so the email is undeliverable".

How can I get the apple server to ignore test.example.com and all of its email?

I'm starting this answer to talk through possibilities and will edit along the way:

As of Snow Leopard 10.6 apples MTA is Postfix you can find their docs here:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MailServicesAdmin_v10.6.pdf

http://www.postfix.org/documentation.html

1) On the OS X server, at a terminal, dig mx test.example.com  What are the results? If it's the apple server, you need to change DNS records to point to gmail.  (possibly on this same os x server, as it may see itself as authoritative for this domain)


iMessage: How do I search for keywords in an individual message thread? I have a 5-year conversation going on with my wife on iMessage.

Every once in a while I want to find something like a restaurant she messaged me about.

I want to search for the word "restaurant" and find ALL the times she used that word, meaning only within HER messages.

How can I do that?

I know about the universal iMessage search, but that's not what I'm after. It shows me only 1 instance of the word "restaurant," not all of them.

The archive of all the messages is in ~/Library/Messages/chat.db. It's a SQLite database. There are some SQLite viewers that will make it fairly easy to sort this data and either allow you to search it or selectively export some of it to CSV. Alternately if you search for "sqlite to csv" you'll find some more information on exporting it. Unfortunately this is a big weakness of iMessage.


how to "store" a specific keyboard shortcut on mac touch bar? it is possible to configure the touch bar to launch cmd + ctrl + shift + 3 from the touch bar via the "Customize Control Strip..." setting.

I would also like to store the keyboard shortcut cmd + ctrl + shift + 4 in the touch bar, so I can launch it from there.

so far I was unable to find a way to do so. any suggestions on how to achieve this?

Yes, you can assign custom shortcuts to the Touch Bar.

For this you need a separate application called BetterTouchTool (BTT).

With BTT installed

open the app
Click "TouchBar" to assign a TouchBar setting
Click "TouchBar Button"
Enter a Name below "Touch Bar Button Name"
Click below "Custom Keyboard Shortcut"
Press your desired key sequence


Downgrade a Mac App Store app? Is it possible to downgrade a Mac App Store app?  One of my apps has an update showing today, and I want to know if it's a one-way street.

For example, if I make a copy of the app before upgrading, and then do the App Store upgrade, and then delete the upgrade and move the original back, will I be back where I was before the upgrade?  (Or does it keep track of versions elsewhere, so things would get screwed up if I tried this?)

Or is there an easier way?  Are downgrades a native feature of the App Store, so I don't have to do anything special myself?

This can only be answered properly if you ask about a specific app. However, for the vast majority of apps there are three things you need to be aware of:

the app bundle

Inside the Applications folder (or wherever you've moved it to), you will find the app. If you have a backup (eg: with Time Machine) of an older version, simply restore the old version.

Technically, this is the only thing you need to do. But it won't always go smooth, so continue reading.

the settings

Almost all apps will write to a file ~/Library/Preferences/com.developer.AppName.plist and some will write to other locations inside ~/Library (a common one is Application Support).

Depending on what the developer has done, these files may or may not need to be reverted to a backup that you made before upgrading the app (again, Time Machine is probably the best way to revert these files).

Most of the time, it should be fine. Personally I would try using the old version without reverting these files, and if you do run into problems - then revert them.

(note: the paths have changed a bit for apps that use the new sandboxing model... perhaps someone can edit my answer to describe how)

your documents

Any document you've edited in a newer version of the app, might not be fully compatible with the old versions. For example Microsoft Word 2003 documents do not always open perfectly in Microsoft Word '98, depending what features you used.


Kernel Panic loop on iMac and no startup mode works Hello so my iMac (late 2015) has been giving the following on startup:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff8013b9654e): dessert failed Buildroot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreStorage/CoreStorage-540.30.1/core/btree/btree_tmpl.h
Debugger called: <panic>
Backtrace (CPU-2), Frame : Return Address
* some bunch of hexadecimal addresses here *
Kernel Extension in backtrace:
HID: legacy shim 2
HID: legacy shim 2
[HID] [ATC] AppleDevicemanagementHIDEvenetService::processWakeReason
Wake Reason
System uptime in nanoseconds: 141914740

What I have tried

Rebooting with CMD+R - Still in the loop
Rebooting with Option+CMD+R - Still in the loop
Rebooting with Option+CMD+R+P - Managed to connect to WiFi then a loading bar for 10 minutes then back in the loop.
Rebooting with Shift+Option+CMD+R - Still in the loop
Rebooting with Option - I only get the Macintosh option. A bootable USB doesn't even show, even though I tried it on another Mac and it works like a charm.
Rebooting with D - Did the diagnostics, got "No issues found" and I was prompted that my Mac would startup in Recovery. Then I get stuck in the loop again.
Rebooting with N - Flashing world icon and that's it.
Rebooting with CMD+F - Thunderbolt icon and that's it
Rebooting with CMD+V - Vaultmode a bunch of scipt terminal lines, then back in the loop.
Rebooting with Shift - Not useful

I could not seem to access my iMac elsewhere. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

I would bring a second OS like recovery and erase it or bring this Mac in target disk mode to attempt a data transfer or erase/repair.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
https://www.prosofteng.com/blog/using-target-disk-mode-to-recover-macintosh-hard-drive

It’s possible you have a hardware issue, but why not exhaust some extra steps before you attempt to erase the drive entirely and confirm it’s hardware or you just needed an erase?

When you follow the links above you can consider a data transfer and then do the erase. If no OS including internet recovery works, your kernel panics will be hardware to resolve and not software.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200553


Restoring messages from backup not working I tried restoring the folder ~/Library/Messages, and ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iChat, but when I opened Messages every single Message but the last was gone for every conservation. Can I bring back my Messages somehow?

The messages themselves are stored in the database file, ~/Library/Messages/chat.db. After that file is definitely in place, try rebooting your computer.

In my case, once that file was in place it would only show 1 message from each of the conversations, but after rebooting, all of the messages showed up.


My ipad mini shows 66% power but won't charge My iPad mini shows 66% power but will not charge.  Is there a power level it must drop to so it can charge?  This true fromAC or USB.

to answer one of your questions, No. you should be able to charge your iPad (or any iDevice) at any time.

Second, eliminate your wall unit as a variable. Try another iPad charger and see if it charges.

(note, USB 3.0 ports on Macs seem to be able to charge iPads, but I haven't discovered a PC port that will actually charge an iPad, don't rely on USB for diagnosis)

Finally, the iPad mini came out late last year right? It's still under warranty, back up if you can and setup an appointment at the apple genius bar and they'll swap out whatever item is not functioning for free.


2018 Mac book pro doesn't go to sleep sleep after being idle The new 2018 MacBook pro has no setting to go to sleep after a set amount of time of inactivity. Often I'll leave my laptop for a few hours, the display will be off but the laptop will have drained all or most of it's power.

In past Apple machines I've seen

Which has the "Computer sleep" option.

I'm missing this option, and my settings pane looks like this.

This is really irritating, because unless I explicitly put my laptop to sleep (and because it's at a desk I generally don't close the lid). I'll find it, generally in the morning, completely discharged.

How do I get my MacBook pro to turn off like older laptops did after a set period of time.

I'm taking a wild swing at this - it's a bit of an educated guess, as I don't own a Mac laptop.

The top version is for desktops, where power management is not so critical.
The bottom version is for laptops.

"Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when display is off" is what is keeping it awake.


Using custom hardware keyboard layout on iOS I have an iPad Pro with the Apple Smart Keyboard, which works well. I usually use it with the Colemak hardware keyboard layout, which comes built in to iOS.

I know that it is possible to install apps which give you custom virtual keyboards. Is it possible to do a similar thing but for hardware keyboard layouts?

In my case, I have a custom layout that I use on my computer to type the special characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and it would be nice to be able to use it on my iPad too.

(Please note that I am not asking how to install third-party virtual keyboards; I specifially want to install a hardware keyboard layout.)

Creating a hardware keyboard layout for iOS require you to assemble a .uchr file for the layout. This format is documented in the Unicode Utilities reference for the Carbon API. Such files could at one time be created with the klcompiler tool in the Font Tool Suite (!), except that it created big-endian output (probably from the PowerPC time) and iOS required little-endian output (more typical of the ARM processor), and this tool has since been retired from the Apple Download Centre, since it was 32-bits only (and there are only 64-bit versions of macOS remaining).

To install such a layout, it should be put in the /System/Library/KeyboardLayouts directory, which is not writable by the mobile user, but only by root. In addition, it is undocumented how new layouts are registered with the system - iOS does not scan this directory for new files as macOS does. A hack around this was to overwrite one of the existing layouts, e.g. USBKeyboardLayouts.bundle/uchrs/Colemak.uchr, and then select this one to activate it, but this would of course violate the checksum integrity of that layout.


GPG key generation - timeout on OSX due to lack of entropy I'm trying to generate a series of GPG keys gpg --gen-key but coming up with the same error that there's not enough entropy to generate a set.

We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
jsdgpg: agent_genkey failed: Timeout
Key generation failed: Timeout

I can't seem to find any solution specific to OS X. Is there a way to generate more random numbers and avoid the timeout?

I'm using OS X 10.12.6 and gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.1.

Perhaps you could just rm -rf ~/.gnupg. It works for my situation. I just force stopped the first time I ran gpg --gen-key, which might lead me to this agent_genkey failed: Timeout error.


What is the actual difference between sh and bash? Based on what I've read online, sh is essentially an alias for bash; running a shellscript with sh will behave the same as if it's run with bash.
In my experience this is not entirely true, as newlines are processed differently. What exactly is the difference between sh and bash, and as zsh is now the default shell does anyone know if sh will change in future versions of Mac OS?
Consider the following code:
sh -c "echo \"Hello\nWorld\""

This should produce the following output:
Hello
World

However when run with bash:
bash -c "echo \"Hello\nWorld\""

The newline is not output:
Hello\nWorld

Thanks in advance!

The long answer on this has already been written, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5725296/difference-between-sh-and-bash.
The echo builtin is one (of several) things where sh and bash differ. To get bash to handle \n as a control character use echo -e.
$ bash -c "echo -e \"Hello\nWorld\""
Hello
World

As for the definition of sh on macOS, see man sh (e.g. on Big Sur):
sh is a POSIX-compliant command interpreter (shell).  It is implemented by re-execing as
either bash(1), dash(1), or zsh(1) as determined by the symbolic link located at
/private/var/select/sh. If /private/var/select/sh does not exist or does not point to a
valid shell, sh will use one of the supported shells.

So basically executing sh will execute whichever shell /private/var/select/sh points to in "sh/POSIX compatibility mode".