Late model MacBook Air 13 I’m very new to OS X.  Just bought my first Apple – Macbook 13.  I downloaded “ObsidianMenuBar” to change the menu bar to a black background.  It worked but now some of the letters are white and some remained black and thus invisible.  I’m told I need to install the “WhiteUIServer.menu” but I don’t have a clue how to do this.  Can someone kindly stir me in the right direction?  Sorry for showing up with hat in hand asking for help…

From the Obsidian Menu Bar page:

To give the Clock, Battery and Fast user switching menu items readable
text, copy WhiteUIServer.menu by Alex Zielenski to somewhere on your
harddrive and open it. Also add it to System Preferences> Users & Groups>
Login Items to keep the text tray.

"Somewhere" on your hard disk could be, say, in your Documents folder. Basically any place that you know where it is and are unlikely to muck with it later, e.g., move it. When you've placed it where you want it to be, double click it.

Last, add it to your account's login items: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2602

That article is a bit old, but the basics are the same in later versions of OS X.


A1181: How to run ASD or AHT on this macbook? I have Lion installed on this 2007 macbook. OS was installed from A1384 USB drive.

How do I run AHT (or ASD) on this macbook? I tried hitting / holding "D" during normal bootup and it will start normally. When inserting the stick it will run into Install screen with no options or menus for AHT/ASD.

Is there a source for a CD/DVD to burn with those tools?

The only official source, if you have lost your original OS X DVDs is to purchase one from the Apple Store

Later models have the Hardware Tests built into ROM, earlier ones must use those on the DVD.

If you've got a [physical] Apple Store near you, they're usually quite obliging for that kind of thing.


Xcode 12.3 is not responding a few seconds after opening it I updated to Xcode 12.3 on my MacBook Pro 2018 13" yesterday and face a strange problem right now.
Problem: Every time I open up Xcode, it will first work fine. However, after a few actions / seconds, the screen freezes and the circle loading indicator is displayed. The app does not respond anymore and I have to force close it.
More Information:

The freezing is Xcode specific. I can use all other Programs while Xcode is frozen and the circle is spinning. It doesn't seem like a resource problem.

This not only happens with existing projects. I created a new one and encountered the same Problem.

I alredy reinstalled Xcode, but that does not solve the problem.

I already deleted the ~/Library/Developer Folder (like a few other posts recommended) and installed the components on Xcode start again. Still the same problem.

Has anyone an idea on how to solve this problem?

This is a recently reported bug with Xcode 12.3. I am not aware of any response from Apple yet, but you might be able to fix this issue by turning off the over-the-air test device builds.

Top Menu: Window > Devices & Simulators
Uncheck "Connect via Network" for each physical device

I recommend filing bugs with Apple and watching the forum thread about this.
You also revert to Xcode 12.2.


macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg doesn't exist on my system I am trying to install gem packages.

I am missing the macOS_SDK_headers_for_macOS_10.14.pkg file from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/. I found the link to download the .pkg, but I need an Apple Developer account, which costs $100 a year.

Is there anywhere on my system besides /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/Packages/ that this file can be found? If not, is there a source where I don't have to pay $100? I just want to install a gem! I did try to use the locate command by the way.

Please consider using Homebrew to install rbenv instead of using system Ruby. Then configure it to your liking and get the gems you need. Please see this Homebrew, Ruby, and Gems article for details.

To install Homebrew, if you have not yet, or if you had trouble with it, please follow this Install homebrew on MacOS Mojave  article or find a similar for your version of MACOS. The important thing is to agree to Command Line Tools License Agreement that may popup (or stay hidden?) in the middle of the install, and may prevent you from finishing the install.


How do I get my iOS calendar to sync automatically? The iCloud calendars in my iOS Calendar app do not sync manually (for at lest a couple years now). In order to get them to sync, I need to trigger a manual sync by selecting the list of calendars in the iOS app, and dragging down and releasing. This reliably works to trigger a sync, but I see no setting in the app to sync automatically. Sometimes changing or adding an appointment in the iOS app will also trigger a sync, but not always.

Is there a way to get iCloud calendars to sync automatically with the iOS Calendar app?

I have tried rebooting all devices. Logging off iCloud and logging back in, and restoring and rebuilding the installation on my iOS device. Nothing helps.

I had the same problem.  I remembered that I was having battery problems, so I switched "Fetch" to manual mode.  Even though iCloud is setup as PUSH, the calendar seems to be overridden by the "Manual setting for Fetch.

Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendars - Fetch New Data - Change Fetch from Manual to one of the durations.

Once I did this, and made a calendar change on the Mac, it was immediately reflected in the calendar on the phone.


How to digitally sign a PDF with a X.509 certificate I'm looking for a tool to digitally sign PDFs with the private key of my X.509 certificate.

macOS' Preview app only copy a scan of my handwritten signature into a pdf...

PortableSigner is a tool to digitally sign PDFs with X.509 certificates.

It's a Java app so the installation of a compatible JRE is required (according to the website: 1.6 and 1.7).


Automatically answer phone call on iPhone Is it possible to set up my iPhone to automatically answer phone call for me?

I work in an environment where I constantly receive a number of incoming phone calls. To make it physically less straining, I use my iPhone connected with my EarPods. It's a hassle to pick up the iPhone and slide on screen, or to reach out to press the button near microphone of my EarPods to answer the call.

I would also like to have a mechanism to configure the duration of time my iPhone rings before the call is automatically answered.

I generally answer every call that I receive, irrespective of the caller. However, it would be nice to have the ability to know the name of the caller if the caller is a contact saved in my phonebook.

I am using an iPhone 8 running iOS 12.0.1.

Is it possible to set up my iPhone to automatically answer phone call for me?

Yes, there is a built-in accessibility setting that you can use for exactly this task.

On your iPhone, in Settings app, navigate to General → Accessibility → Call Audio Routing (Last item under Interaction section) → Auto-Answer Calls. Tap on the switch shown against Auto-Answer Calls to enable it. (The setting is turned off by default)

Once enabled, you'll get the option to configure the duration of time to wait before a call is automatically answered. You can set any time interval from 0.0 seconds to 60.0 seconds in steps of 1.0 second.

  I generally answer every call that I receive, irrespective of the caller. However, it would be nice to have the ability to know the name of the caller if the caller is a contact saved in my phonebook.

To hear the caller name announcement, you can use another built-in setting. Go to Settings app and navigate to Phone → Announce Calls (Under Calls section) and select one of the available options s desired.


Understanding "sending hex code" Recently I've installed iTerm2 and customized key mappings.

For example, I wanted Command+Delete to remove the entire line. In order to achieve this I created a new key mapping where Command+Delete maps to Send hex codes: 0x15.

Could someone point me to the source where it is explained what sending hex code actually achieves.

It just sends the corresponding bytes to the shell. Same thing as "send escape sequence" but with different notation - the raw data otherwise represented by symbols and characters. It's then up to the shell to interpret this (usually through readline and .inputrc bindings, or equivalent) into commands.

In your specific example, 0x15 means Ctrl+U, the standard binding for backward-kill-line. So when you bind Command+Delete to send that, it works because you are just piggybacking on the standard bindings.


Are there third-party keyboards that have the Apple layout? Apple keyboards are different than PC keyboard because the Command ⌘ and Option/Alt ⌥ keys are switched. This causes a workflow disruption for me, because I use keyboard shortcuts for everything. I can't really use a Windows keyboard for my Mac, because of this problem.

Here's the Apple keyboard:

And the Windows keyboard:

Are there any third-part keyboards that have the Apple layout?

Yes, there are several companies producing keyboards with Maclayout, e.g. Logitech: http://reviews.logitech.com/7061/4741/logitech-dinovo-keyboard-mac-edition-reviews/reviews.htm, and also Keysonic: http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-News-PC-Hardware-Keysonic-ACK-540-MAC-RF-Spezialtastatur-fuer-Apple-Rechner-3364609.html


Publicly sharing an iCal calendar to allow web viewing When using iCal in Snow Leopard, I shared a calendar.

I had two options for this - either a privately shared, editable calendar, or a publicably shared, view-only calendar. I used the latter option, and was provided with two URLs - one of which allowed my friends and colleagues to subscribe (via their own iCal or other software) and the other of which was an ordinary web address, that allowed them to view my calendar in their web browser.

It's this latter type that I'm now trying to set up in iCloud, but I can't seem to find an option to do so - neither in iCloud itself nor on iCal running on Lion.

Any ideas, please?

In iCal, click the "Calendars" button in the upper-left corner, just under the traffic light. Right-click on the calendar you want to share, then select "Share Calendar..." This will open a new dialog, allowing the choice you mentioned between sharing read-only with everyone, or editable with invitees; make your selection and hit "Share".

Once the calendar is shared, again click the Calendar button and right-click the calendar you just shared, this time selecting "Copy URL to Clipboard".

(There's also a "Stop Sharing" option, in case you ever change your mind.)


How do I avoid selfcontrol to stop just by changing time settings on mac? I loved selfcontrol, until stupid me found a way to go around it simply by changing the time settings. Then its the easiest thing to stop selfcontrol. Do any of you have an idea how to make this impossible? Password protect time settings and through the password away? Or... Anything, thanks!

You could try and contact the Developer. Tell them about this get around.

Ask them if they could find a way to avoid it.

For example:

Have their app check a online clock instead of the system clock.

That works like the Time and Date System preference which uses  Apple Americas/U.S. (time.apple.com.)

Suggest that since you are able to connect to the net ( which I assume is the problem ) then access to the online clock is essential for the app to allow you to browse.

If the app cannot connect to the online clock it will not allow you to browser for a set period.

And after that period example 2hrs. It will allow you 10 minutes grace to connect to or select a different clock in your time zone.
 And then stop for another two hours if it is still unable to connect to a clock.

The normal rules will apply if it can connect within the ten minutes grace.


Does Adding Memory to My MacBook Pro Void My Warranty? I would like to add memory to my MBP, but I am worried that if I do this myself I will be in jeopardy of voiding my warranty.  Is there an authorized way to have memory added that will not void my warranty?

No - a simple and properly done RAM replacement does not affect warranty coverage. You can have Apple do the work, or an authorized service provider to do the work or hire someone. Just understand what is covered if something happens before you pay for service.

When someone breaks a mac when it's used in a way not intended, that can result in a denial of warranty service. Also - using aftermarket parts that then damage your mac can also land you in hot water. Luckily with RAM, as long as you don't physically break the mounting brackets, usually the worst thing that happens is your mac is unreliable or panics until you get proper RAM.

The user manual for each Apple product will clearly explain which parts are user replaceable and which are not. You can look up your manual online if you care, but no portable machine other than the MacBook Air has ram that is not user-replaceable.


accountsKeychainExport inside Keychain - malware? After few months I opened Keychain Access and suddenly there is a new keychain which points to non existing file with path /private/var/folders/14/vvg4hynx6n3dkcv78dll_c5r0000gn/T/accountsKeychainExport~~~JRuSmO/accountsKeychainExport.keychain
I open keychain few times a year.

I protect myself with Little Snitch but I run my Mac (10.14.6) with sip disabled (developer here).

I am looking for any explanation/things to check on my system or if I should revoke all my certificates and passwords.

Checked running processes + "launchctl list" and all is clear.

PS: I have recently traveled to China.

Have you recently exported your developer profile using Xcode?

I had a similar (non-existent) keychain entry on my computer, and errors about the missing keychain started appearing in my console on September 21st. It just so happens I setup a CI build agent a few hours before that, so I'm thinking that's the source of my random keychain.

For more definite proof, I just had my friend export his developer profile with Xcode. I checked his Keychain Access before and after the export and can confirm that a new (non-existent) keychain named accountsKeychainExport appeared after exporting his accounts in Xcode. I saw the same result on my laptop as well.

As far as removing the keychain, I've found that simply making the directory and creating an empty file at that location will allow you to remove the keychain with Terminal:

$ security list-keychains
    "/Users/rpendleton/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db"
    "/path/to/invalid/keychain/folder/accountsKeychainExport.keychain"
    "/Library/Keychains/System.keychain"

$ mkdir -p /path/to/invalid/keychain/folder
$ touch /path/to/invalid/keychain/folder/accountsKeychainExport.keychain
$ security delete-keychain /path/to/invalid/keychain/folder/accountsKeychainExport.keychain


Late 2006 iMac Issue: Logic Board or Hard Drive? I have a question. I have a late 2006 17" White iMac, and it is having issues. I don't know if it has a bad hard drive (again..), or if it has a bad logic board, and I have no idea how to check it. I have taken this thing in many, many times for this same issue, but Apple just tells me it is a bad hard drive and just replaces it. Yet this issue continues to happen, and happen, and happen. I've been through 3 hard drives within the last three years or so.

Heres the symptoms:
~Won't stay on longer than 10 minutes without getting the beach ball/pinwheel of death (as I have begun to call it)
~Or, it will freeze completely (if music is playing, the last note it was on will just endlessly repeat.
~Screen will randomly go black with no way of getting it back. Only sign of life is a slight glow.
~Hates more than one application open at a time, and especially hates Firefox/Safari/really any Internet browser...
~Has bars and speckles of randomly coloured pixels in the display.
~Sometimes will not finish booting sequence.

What I have tried:
~ I tried installing a light version Ubuntu, as I had no money for the newer versions of OS X. The problems only became worse. (As in, the keyboard/mouse no longer worked, everything was crashing, nothing would stay open, etc.)
~Following a million different tutorials that are supposed to "fix" the problem, to no avail..
~I replaced the hard drive. This didn't work, and now I don't even have any sort of picture (I do have the slight glow like I mentioned earlier) when attempting to boot from a disc. I have made sure three times now that I replugged in everything that I unplugged, and everything is where it should be.
Is there any chance left for this poor Mac, or should I get my hard drive back and be rid of it? It is not under warranty, nor do I have any money to be able to buy a new logic board, and/or any idea on how to replace my existing one. I am not paying $700 to Apple for them to fix it either, as that is outside of my budget.

Any/all help with this is highly appreciated, and Thanks! (:

If the hard drive replacement method has continued to fail, I'd guess that either: A) The hard drive is not actually broken, or B) The computer somehow makes the hard drive go bad. I've taken that model of iMac apart before, and the inside is fairly cramped for space. That leads me to think that your processor may overheat and "hang", causing it to go black, or stop doing whatever process it's on and spin the "beach ball". If you really want to keep using your 9 year old machine, I'd suggest taking it to a repair shop that can repair Macs. They may find that it has a faulty processor or cooling system for the processor, or something else. I'm not sure how much that would cost, but in my opinion, it may be time to upgrade. Since you don't want to spend the price of a new Mac, you could look into purchasing a used computer. It's hard to transition to a Windows or Linux machine for some people, so if you've gotten used to Mac OSX, stick with it. I've seen advertisements for aluminum iMacs from 2008 or so for as little as $400 at local computer stores. If you're comfortable with Craigslist, you could look for one there, and it may be cheaper. However Craigslist doesn't have warranties. Read a little about purchasing a used computer before you do so.


Disable Command-M to minimize window On my keyboard layout, the M key is right next to the W key:

This can be problematic at times because occasionally I will accidentally press Command-M instead of Command-W, causing the window to be minimized rather than closed.

Since there's no keyboard shortcut to un-minimize a window (well ok, no easy keyboard shortcut), this is even more annoying because then I have to switch to my trackpad to un-minimize the window and then try again to close it.

Is there a way to disable the Command-M shortcut for minimizing a window?

You can disable it by editing ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist:

defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add 'Minimize' '\0'

To apply the changes you have to reopen applications. If the shortcut was assigned to nil, pressing L would trigger it in Audacity.


Replace or add graphic card on Macbook Pro Is that possible to replace the existing graphic card of a Macbook Pro (Mid 2010, Mini DisplayPort, GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M) for a graphic card that could support 2 screen output?

Or else is it possible to add another graphic card in (or outside) the Macbook so that I can use another display.

What I am trying to do is have dual external screen (Macbook Pro docked and closed).

I have tried DisplayLink USB to DVI adapter but it's really choppy and unusable for me (photo and video editing). I can't even watch a video on it, you can even see the difference when moving the mouse (and I have a i7 quadcore processor -_-). I thought it was an external graphic card, I had no idea that the processor would be doing the job instead (and very poorly).

Furthermore I don't want to spend $200 or $300 to try the Matrox DualHead2Go and finally consider that the fact that it's one big "screen" extended over 2 screens (and not 2 real screen separed) is annoying (i'm really afraid this is would be a pain).

So I'm looking for a real solution for Macbook Pro dual external screen.

Change my graphic card? (I don't even know where the second video output would go...). Or add another graphic card externally? (USB? does that even exist?)

Unfortunately, there is not a cheap good or ideal way to do this.

The graphics card is a key integrated part of the logic board on the MacBook Pro, there really is no separation of it from it to do an upgrade, short of replacing the entire motherboard, and even then you would be limited to what was available at the time for that generation of MacBook Pro.

See that orange highlighted square, thats the NVidia GeForce pictured below:

Honestly, the Matrox route is probably the most affordable workable solution to this problem.

This MacBook Pro also lacks an ExpressCard/34 slot or Thunderbolt so you really can't go the route of an external graphics card. And even if you could you would be talking over $500 USD just to get the external PCI express chassis, for example Magma's ExpressBox 1 starts at $829 for just one external PCI Express slot, you would still need to spend another ~ $200 to buy a mac compatible graphics card.

Your last option is to maybe reevaluate if this MacBook Pro is the right machine for your needs. Would a newer model MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt solve this problem, maybe maybe not. If you don't have two Thunderbolt Displays, you are kind of still out of luck hooking up dual displays to even a Thunderbolt MacBook Pro, with out the need for expensive external adapters.

Would an iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro better suit your computing needs, complimented with a basic MacBook Air or iPad of some kind for your mobility needs.


Is there a way to detect what program is stealing focus on my Mac? I've got a problem with some app on my Mac stealing the keyboard focus (the current window's title bar becomes inactive). However, it is not actually putting up any windows or menu bar of its own, and it does not respond identifiably to keyboard shortcuts.

Is there a way to determine what application has the keyboard focus even if it is one of those which has no menu bar or Dock icon? I know of one built-in feature that almost does this; the Force Quit dialog, if invoked from the keyboard, will open with the focused application selected. However, it only lists normal has-a-dock-icon applications, so it doesn't help in this case.

This started occurring around the time when I upgraded from 10.8 to 10.9; I suspect that one of the apps I already had installed, or upgraded along with the OS, is newly misbehaving.

I am open to solutions involving a small amount of programming (or AppleScript, say), use of developer tools, etc.; but not ones like “Uninstall things until it goes away” because that would be excessively disruptive at the moment. I'd like to definitively identify the application and file a bug report or fix its configuration.

My research has only turned up a couple of threads requesting the same on Apple Support Communities which did not contain an answer.

You can find the app that steals focus by saving the following code in a find_focus_stealer.py file and running it via python find_focus_stealer.py in a terminal.

Start running the script – it will print out the name of the active app every 3 seconds. Keep working as usual, wait for the problem to occur, and after a few seconds see the output in the terminal. You’ll have your culprit.

In my case it was a Symantec Antivirus background app (SymUIAgent.app).

#!/usr/bin/python

from AppKit import NSWorkspace
import time
t = range(1,100)
for i in t:
    time.sleep(3)
    activeAppName = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().activeApplication()['NSApplicationName']
    print activeAppName

Credits to iMichael_ in this Apple Discussions thread.


Safari Downloader+ and Streaming Media Using Safari Downloader+ on iOS 8.

How can I prompt download for streamable media?

Direct links to files work without any problems whatsoever, but streamable media doesn't prompt anything more than streaming (in what seems to be Apples QuickTime player).

Stream media have the download disabled.

You would need a special Safari add on to record/download them.

For more resources see following:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/69883/46541

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/72914/46541


Can't login to Lync for Mac 2011 I am unable to login to my corporate Lync 2010 server. I'm up to date with Microsoft updates to Mac Office 2011. I've tried automatic and manual configuration. I've tried with and without Kerberos authentication. I know I have proper credentials because I can login to the Windows version of Lync from a Windows session in Fusion.

Is anyone else using Lync for Mac 2011 on a corporate network? Anyone experience this issue and find a fix or a workaround?

I was able to resolve this issue in two steps.

I imported the root certificate from my corporate Lync Server to my MacBook Pro and configured it as Always Trust(ed) for all options
I generated a kerberos ticket on my MacBook Pro using the terminal command kinit

The level of trust on the root cert maybe overkill, but it works. I have to regenerate the kerberos ticket periodically otherwise I am not able to sign-in to Lync, but I resolved this with an Automator app that runs the kinit command when I login to my MBP.

Hope this helps someone down the line. Cheers!


Apple's MFi licensee Accessory with classic Bluetooth communicate with app We have license MFi accessory which let us connect with iOS app. accessory uses Bluetooth® Version 2.1 SPP pro le HID Pro le Apple iAP2/MFi

So my app should be using external framework to connect to classic Bluetooth device.

I've read about FAQ and rest of details. It's confusing and I did not get a 100% answer to my only question.

Since we have to create app which communicates to MFi accessory , via Classic Bluetooth do we need to enrolled for MFi license because we have to use external framework? Or we do not have to enrolled for MFi program and can directly use framework with SDK accessory offering as it is MFi license accessory?

We have helped multiple MFi device guys with their BT needs.
Our new BT53 has the very latest iAP2 protocol pre-loaded into the module.
You do need to be an MFi member to allow you tp purchase the Apple CP before you can take advantage of our BT53 with iAP2.
We're seeing speed BLE speed = speed is about 30,000 bps
Our IAP2 FW can run about 500,000 bps.


The password for the keychain access is apparently not my login password- please explain I am unable to lock the Keychain Acccess on either of two macbooks. The login password is not accepted on either one.

Is there a special step/process for setting up a keychain password - and it is not synced with the login?

If you have iCloud keychain sync enabled the "local" keychain will not have your account password any more.
If you reset your account password using the recovery drive the keychain password will be the old account password.

If you know your old password, use that password to update your existing login keychain:

Open the Keychain Access app, which is in the the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
From the Edit menu, choose “Change Password for Keychain 'login.'”
Enter the old password of your user account in the Current Password field. This is the password you were using before the password was reset.
Enter the new password of your user account in the New Password field. This is the password you're now using to log in to your Mac. Enter the same password in the Verify field.
Click OK when done, then quit Keychain Access.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201609


Time Machine not "remembering" external hard drive backup after not being connected for some time I use Time Machine on my MacBook Pro (late 2011, macOS Sierra) to back up my internal hard drive and an external hard drive containing heavy files such as video, etc. This worked great for about a month: each backup would contain separate folders for my internal drive and external drive, even if my external drive was not plugged in (as it most often is not, since that drive is mostly used for long-term storage).

However, today, when I added a file to my external hard drive and plugged in my backup drive, it began backing up the ENTIRE contents of the external drive again... which, I hadn't noticed until now, was because the backup files stopped including my external hard drive and would only show my internal hard drive. So, I'm very confused, and I'd rather not have to waste some 400 or so GB of space on my backup drive with this copying of data... Anyone know what might be going on here? It seems to me like Time Machine somehow "forgot" I had a second drive to back up... And yes, I checked the "Exclude" list in Time Machine preferences (Can Time Machine back up an external hard drive in addition to internal one?).

Once a backup interval happens where the external is skipped, you might end up with two copies. Getting partial recognition of unchanged files to have them deduplicated would require a lot of scripting to recreate hard links across several folders.

I usually set that drive on a shelf and buy a new one. Once the new one has sufficient backup history, you could check for deleted files or just wipe the "broken" drive. The risk of not realizing a file was corrupt or deleted is slim but exactly what a backup is designed to do.

In the end, you'll need to evaluate the cost of a new drive and the cost of potentially losing a file you could have recovered and minimize your risk and budget costs.


Webcam and SMC problems Whenever I open up FaceTime/Photo Booth/Discord etc., they come up with an error that my (internal) webcam cannot detected. The way I fix this is to reset the SMC , which does work but only for a few minutes, and then we are back to square one.
I have tried sudo killall VDCAssistant and sudo killall VDCAssistant to no avail.
I am running macOS Mojave, 10.14.3 on a mid-2012 MacBook Air

Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this?

Try this: quit all apps attempting to use the camera, Finder -> Utilities -> Terminal (you'll likely be asked for your password, this is normal):

sudo killall VDCAssistant
sudo killall AppleCameraAssistant

…and reopen a camera app. I had an old MacBook Pro with a twitchy camera, and this solved it.


To install GNU time in OSX? BSD time gives this kind of output

9990

real    0m4.371s
user    0m1.548s
sys 0m2.167s

GNU time gives then again this kind of output

9990
1.56s user 1.46s system 82% cpu 3.648 total

Brew search gtime gives nothing.
GNU time is probably in some C library, however, I am not sure which.
There is no apparent package for it.

How can you install GNU time in OSX?

I think what you are looking for is available as...

  brew install gnu-time

Which you can then call as...

  gtime ...


Cannot partition SSD in Bootcamp or Disk Utility I'm running macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 and I want to install Windows 10 with Bootcamp. But it always fails when creating the partition and I cannot for the life of me get past it.
It says: "Your disk could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk. Please run Disk Utility to check and fix the error."

I've tried:

Running First Aid from Disk Utility
Try to partition manually with Disk Utility, same failure
Decrypting my disk
Restarting in Single
User Mode and running "/sbin/fsck -fy"
sudo tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999999

Nothing has worked. Any ideas, please?
Here is my diskutil output.

    $ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.1 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            251.4 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 22.3 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US... +4.7 GB     disk2

And diskutil apfs list:

diskutil apfs list
APFS Container (1 found)
|
+-- Container disk1 6D0381A1-68AF-4E33-A6D3-ECDB285D9F04
    ====================================================
    APFS Container Reference:     disk1
    Capacity Ceiling (Size):      500068036608 B (500.1 GB)
    Capacity In Use By Volumes:   252932173824 B (252.9 GB) (50.6% used)
    Capacity Available:           247135862784 B (247.1 GB) (49.4% free)
    |
    +-< Physical Store disk0s2 AC53B293-957E-4004-8ABC-7E2104DB9762
    |   -----------------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk0s2
    |   Size:                       500068036608 B (500.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s1 AFAF63F4-73FF-3CCF-80D9-AD3ACBDC0DDC
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s1 (No specific role)
    |   Name:                      Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               /
    |   Capacity Consumed:         251164803072 B (251.2 GB)
    |   FileVault:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s2 FF92EB09-8D74-4029-9C2C-CC60961C02A9
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s2 (Preboot)
    |   Name:                      Preboot (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         22347776 B (22.3 MB)
    |   FileVault:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s3 DFEF113D-100A-44AA-B892-C58C18D93F34
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s3 (Recovery)
    |   Name:                      Recovery (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         509820928 B (509.8 MB)
    |   FileVault:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s4 A8C5EAE5-BBB9-424D-8975-CA54DE4CCBB1
        ---------------------------------------------------
        APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s4 (VM)
        Name:                      VM (Case-insensitive)
        Mount Point:               /private/var/vm
        Capacity Consumed:         1073762304 B (1.1 GB)
        FileVault:                 No

Many users have posted problems similar to yours. In every case, APFS in involved.

Below are the instructions for installing Windows 10.

  Note: To get a better view of the images shown below, either click on an image or open an image in a new window.

(In your case, you can skip this step.) Remove all Windows related partitions that may have been created by previous attempts to install Windows. When finished, the output from the command diskutil list disk0 should appear similar to what is shown below. Other users should assume their sizes will be different.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.1 GB   disk0s2

The command below will create the 150 GB "BOOTCAMP" partition on your internal drive. If you want a different size, then make the appropriate subsitutions. The space occupied by this partition will be used for installing Windows.

  Note: The two sizes given in the command below need to equal the size of your disk0s2. In other words, 350.1 + 150 = 500.1.

sudo  diskutil  apfs  resizeContainer  disk0s2  350.1G  FAT32  BOOTCAMP  150G

Use the Disk Utility application to erase a 16 GB or larger USB flash drive. Enter the settings shown below in the popup window. When finished, do not remove the flash drive.

Use the Boot Camp Assistant to download the Window Support Software. Look for the "Action" pulldown on the Boot Camp Assistant menu bar. On my Mac, these files were downloaded to the ~/WindowsSupport directory.

  Note: You can not download the Boot Camp Support Software for your Mac computer from any Apple website. You must use the Boot Camp Assistant to download an officially copy of this software.

Mount the Windows iso file and copy the contents to the "WINSTALL" volume. You will need the use the cp command from a Terminal application window. Below is the exact command I usually use. The string ESD-ISO is the name of the mounted ISO file from Microsoft. If necessary, make the appropriate modifications.

cp  -Rv  /volumes/ESD-ISO/  /volumes/WINSTALL

  Note: This command will take a while to complete. Be patient!

Copy the Windows Support Software to the "WINSTALL" volume. Below is the exact command I usually use. If necessary, make the appropriate modifications.

cp  -Rv  ~/WindowsSupport/  /volumes/WINSTALL

Continue starting at step 3 of my answer to the question Boot Camp Assistance is stuck on create a partition?


How to change a key combination without using Karabiner? I have used Karabiner to change a key combination but the problem is, it doesn't work exactly as I want.

For example, using Karabiner, I have mapped alt← to cmd← and vice versa. But what Karabiner does is, it "tricks" the OS to make it think that I have pressed alt←, whenever I press cmd←.

This isn't the behaviour I want. The behaviour I want is, whenever I press cmd<-, I want the system to think that I have indeed pressed cmd←, but instead of moving the cursor to the beginning of the line, I want it to move it to the previous word.

It is possible to do this maybe messing with some system files and stuff?

You can change the text editing bindings for Cocoa apps with DefaultKeyBinding.dict. This will work for almost all applications where the ⌘ command+← left and ⌘ command+→ right worked before. (The only way it wouldn't work is if the application creator reimplemented those shortcuts from scratch, which is doubtful as it would be much easier to just use the versions that come free with a textfield.)

If the directory ~/Library/KeyBindings/ does not exist, create it.
Create the file DefaultKeyBinding.dict in that directory with contents like this:

{
    "@\Uf702" = moveWordBackward:;
    "@\Uf703" = moveWordForward:;
    "~\Uf702" = moveToBeginningOfLine:;
    "~\Uf703" = moveToEndOfLine:;
}

The @ refers to the Command key, ~ is Option, \Uf702 is Left, and \Uf703 is Right. The selectors on the right-hand side are the same ones used in the default file, /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict, but switched around to match what you said in your question.
Restart an application for the changes to take effect in it.

Here's an in-depth guide to the Cocoa Text System that should help explain what's going on.


How do I disable quarantine on Lion? I've been tearing my hair out trying to get rid of the quarantine "Do you want to open this?" warning because I don't like it.

The well documented way (defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO) does NOT work.

Also, I've used the Secrets Preference pane and that doesn't work either. As soon as I uncheck the box and close the pane and reopen, it's still checked.

(I've tried rebooting right after these methods, no dice.)

Never tried to disable the behavior entirely, but you can always remove the quarantine from a file with xattr. For example:

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ./*

I think of it less as a moron check than it is a safeguard from browser vulnerabilities that might otherwise download and something without your knowledge.


Time Machine backup to a networked (no Airport or Time Capsule) drive I followed this tutorial to backup with Time Machine to a hard drive shared on the network (no Time Capsule, Airport).

However, when I go to Time Machine and click select backup disk, it simply opens Airport Utility and tries and fails in its search.

Does this method no longer work (Mavericks)?

Any alternate method to backup over network? I tried to create a system image from Disk Utility and save it to the networked drive, but met with a write permissions error -61.

I don't need Time Machine necessarily, just a system image before I do a factory restore on my Air. The SSD is nearly full, so I can't save the image locally. I don't have a big enough external drive either.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I have been using OSX Server to do what you are attempting to do. Works pretty well over  wifi network. Not a free solution and probably overkill for what you're after.


Incorrect external monitor resolution detected, true resolution not available I have a BenQ EX3501R monitor connected by HDMI to my MacBook Pro, which is a Early 2015 model.

The issue being that OS X gets the resolutions completely wrong - the monitors native resolution is 3440x1440 but it switches it to 6720x3780!

Alt-clicking the 'Scaled' radio box does not list the correct resolution.

For further confusion, a Mid 2012 15' MacBook Pro connecting to the same monitor via the same HDMI cable works fine. The only notable difference is that one has a GeForce chip, where as mine is Intel Iris.

Both are running latest Mojave 10.14.1

any ideas of a way to proceed?

It might be the Monitor profile used by Mojave that needs repair.

Open the Color sync Utility in the Utility Folder

Verify you Monitor is showing correctly under devices.

Use the Profile First Aid.


Why am I getting Universal Clipboard popups when I'm not typing anything? I was just in the Weather Underground iOS app on my iPhone.  I was not inputting text, I had just opened the app so it was showing me weather conditions for my current location.  After the app finished loading all the weather info, I got the "Pasting from [my MacBook's name]" dialog that I usually see when I'm trying to paste something I copied on my MacBook.  I believe this dialog is part of Handoff/Universal Clipboard.

To reiterate, I wasn't inputting text in the Weather Underground app.  I was not pasting.

Does this dialog mean that the Weather Underground app read my clipboard?  Or is there some other explanation for why I would get this dialog when I'm not obviously trying to paste?

Perhaps I'm a bit late to the party here, but I am suddenly concerned about the privacy of my clipboard in iOS apps, particularly when that clipboard might actually be coming from my MacBook.  And weather apps are no stranger to privacy problems.

You are likely correct. If you get a UI that says that the system is "Pasting from [my MacBook's Name]", then this likely means that the application in the foreground of your iPhone is reading from the universal clipboard.  It is unlikely that it is being read by another program in the background. So it is likely that Weather Underground is attempting to read from the Clipboard.

See:
* https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/copy-and-paste-between-devices-mchl70368996/mac

My suggestion is that you test by doing the following:

Repeatedly copy something on your macbook, kill the Weather app, then exercise the weather app.
Take your Macbook off the network and repeatedly run and kill the Weather app.


How can I install os on a mac mini with a mac os x install DVD I have a mac mini (model that has no DVD slot with 4gb ram & 500gb HD) and a mac-mini-mac-os-x-install DVD disc. I tried to install os on it with an external DVD drive but it booted up with an apple icon in the center of the screen and nothing else.
Please help.
Thanks in advance.

A Mac Mini OSX Install DVD supports the particular release of Mac Mini with which it was released, not all Mac Minis. The fact that your Mac Mini does not have a DVD slot suggests that it likely did not ship with that install DVD. Additionally, in general, Apple hardware does not support installing versions of Mac OS X older than the version current when the hardware was released.

This may be the source of your problem.


How do I add locally hosted DNS server while preserving default LAN DNS My question is very similar to How do I add custom DNS server and preserving default DNS of ISP in OS X Mountain Lion however I am looking to filter and resolve all dns requests via my resolver, so adding a domain specific file to /etc/resolver/ won't work, unless there's a way to target all domains (https://serverfault.com/a/164215/203355 seems interesting but doesn't seem to work in my testing).
I don't want to use a hard-coded public dns as the upstream dns for my local resolver because I have a dnat rule on my local network to redirect all dns traffic to my pihole, however when this rule is in use, the traffic appears to the pihole to be from the router and messes up my analytics.
My current setup is:
dnsmasq has resolv-file=/etc/resolv.conf in its config so that it uses the DHCP provided dns as its upstream (after doing filtering).
I have a file /etc/resolver/root which contains this:
nameserver 127.0.0.1
domain .
search_order 1000

scutil --dns lists my 127.0.0.1 resolver (as #8), the order value is the lowest in the list, though resolver #1 (from dhcp) does not have an order value.
resolver #1
  nameserver[0] : 10.0.1.204
  if_index : 11 (en10)
  flags    : Request A records, Request AAAA records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)
[...]
resolver #8
  nameserver[0] : 127.0.0.1
  flags    : Request A records, Request AAAA records
  reach    : 0x00030002 (Reachable,Local Address,Directly Reachable Address)
  order    : 1000

I don't know if unbound can use the DHCP provided dns server as an upstream any easier than dnsmasq but I could switch if that would be easier. Otherwise I'm just trying to configure the macOS resolver system to prioritize my local resolver.

I eventually devised this script to keep a separate resolv.conf file for dnsmasq that is updated on network changes.
#!/usr/local/bin/bash

mkfifo P
exec 3>P # open file descriptor 3 writing to the pipe
scutil < P | fgrep notification | \
    xargs -L 1 bash -c 'echo "nameserver $(ipconfig getoption $(route -n get default | fgrep interface | awk "{print \$2}") domain_name_server)" > /usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.d/resolv-dnsmasq.conf'
echo -e "n.add State:/Network/Global/IPv4\nn.watch" > P

I may need to add in a dnsmasq restart too, depending on testing results.


If someone changes their number and you never stopped sharing your location, would the new person with that number see your location? I have shared my location with someone and it might be possible that he will change his number. If I don’t stop sharing my location with that associated phone number, will a new person with the number be able to see my location? Or is it still connected to the original person’s iPhone?

That information is actually not passed through the network using the phone number as the identifier. It's run through iCloud and is tied to Apple ID. The new person with the same phone number won't see your location.


Backing up to an existing Time Machine sparsebundle I have been using OS X Mavericks Server Time Machine Backup service to backup my laptops. I recently had to move my backup sparsebundles to a new drive. I've reconfigured Time Machine server to point to that new drive and I see my backups in Time Machine server console.

However, when I point my laptop to the Time Machine server, my existing sparsebundle "MightyMac" does get used. Instead, my laptop starts a brand new backup as "MightyMac1".

How can I force my laptop to use "MightyMac" and preserve the historical backups and prevent a new backup file from being created?

As it turns out, I needed to make the user whose account is being used to authenticate to the Time Machine mount point from the remote laptop the owner of the MightyMac.sparsebundle file. I discovered this by comparing the permissions on the new sparsebundle it created with the old one I wanted to backup to and found the new one was owned by the remote user and the old one was not.

After I made the remote user owner of the old sparsebundle Time Machine backed-up to the old sparsebundle file.


How to install macOS back after installing Fedora? I installed Fedora on macbook by wiping macOS, now I want to install macOS back, how can I do this? Before wiping I made a full backup of macos installer, but how to use it, I couldn't able to figure out.

I know how to do it from macbook with createinstallmedia command, but I don't have another macbook nor my friends have. What's the solution now?

Thank you.

Since you don’t have a recovery partition, the first thing I’d recommend is trying to install macOS from Internet Recovery.

Your model of MacBook Air should be able to boot directly from an internet connection. First you need to be somewhere where you will be able to access the internet - however this works best with Wi-Fi networks using WEP and WPA security.

Follow these steps:

Ensure your MacBook Air is fully powered off
Hold down the CommandOptionR keys and press the Power button
Keep holding down the keys until you see a spinning globe with the message Starting Internet Recovery
Soon you’ll see a progress bar - be patient as this may take a while
Eventually the OS X Utilities screen will appear
Click Reinstall OS X
Follow the prompts

If for some reason this doesn’t work, let me know.


Changing Webcam Feed from EpocCam to Built-In Webcam I am trying to run a program that accesses my webcam camera. I have used Epoccam before then I deleted it. However, while using the program it tries to access Epoccam camera instead of taking the webcam feed from built-in webcam. How can I change/select the configurations of webcam feed ? I tried to reset SMC, to make my default webcam as built-in webcam but it didn't worked.

See https://www.kinoni.com/support-and-instructions/#Uninstallation for details on how to uninstall EpocCam.

Run provided uninstall script from Terminal:
sudo /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugIn.plugin/Contents/Resources/uninst.sh

If the script does not work you can also type the following commands
in Terminal:
launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/com.kinoni.epoccam.daemon.plist
sudo launchctl stop com.kinoni.epoccam.daemon
sudo launchctl remove com.kinoni.epoccam.daemon
sudo rm -r /Library/LaunchAgents/com.kinoni.epoccam.daemon.plist
sudo rm -r /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/VirtualMic.driver
sudo rm -r /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/EpocCamPlugin.plugin


mac asking password after cd in terminal Recently my mac has started asking me for a password after I use cd in Terminal.app (haven't tested other term apps).

strangely though, if I press ctrl-C when the passowrd is asked, the question goes away and I'm left in the dir I was cd-ing to (as one would expect).

how can I find out what this password is needed for or how to stop this?
I'm using zsh

EDIT:

The terminal asks for a password at random moments, for random directories. Not a clue as to any pattern. The output is basically:

cd ~/Downloads
Password:

I think this started happening after I installed JewelryBox.app

You can run set -x to make zsh print a trace of every command it executes. When a command is executed by a function, the function name is printed. Run set +x to stop printing traces.

If something is happening when you use the cd command, it can be because this is an alias or function. Check with type cd.

Zsh has a built-in feature to hook onto the cd command, so wrappers around the built-in command are rarely used. If the function chpwd exists, zsh runs it immediately after changing the directory. Check what the chpwd function does with which chpwd.

There are also hooks that run before and after every command: the preexec and precmd functions. Furthermore, all these hooks have an array version, which is an array of function names. Check these arrays with echo $chpwd_functions, and if there is a function, look at its code.


Can OneNote display all notes sequentially in one window for quick browsing (like Evernote)? OneNote on OS X displays one note in one section of a notebook at a time. Is there a way I can get it to display all notes in a section in one big vertically scrolling window, like Evernote does?

I don't like having to click on each note in the section to view only that note.

Unfortunately, no.  One Note is setup much like a spiral bound notebook where you can categorize your notes, make note groups, etc.  That's is one of the differntiating features of One Note over Evernote

  User interface: OneNote looks and feels like a digital version of a
  paper notebook, complete with tags and notebook sections. Evernote is
  more like a filing cabinet, with a simpler notes interface yet
  powerful tagging capabilities.

Lifehacker - Note-Taking Showdown: Evernote vs. OneNote (2016 Edition)


Very large file located within ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.lminhtm.tempmonitor/db.realm I am on a Mac Mini with a 1TB SSD. After a few years my SSD is running out of space, while I keep all my user data on an external drive. My system is loaded with Multimedia Apps Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro X, Garage Band and many others.
When trying to find the file(s) that can be removed on the SSD, using CleanMyMac X function of Space Lens, I bump into a very large file in /Users/username/Library/Group Containers/group.com.lminhtm.tempmonitor/db.realm. This file is a whacking 378GB!
Through Google searches I can’t find any mention of this file.
Does anyone have a suggestion?

Group Containers are basically Containers, which are sandboxes for applications to store date (user data, caches, logs, etc), except the Group part means that it's at a developer level. This could be used to, for instance, keep a user logged into the same account across multiple apps made by the same developer. That said, it could be used for anything, which is what this appears to be.

You could check with the developer, in this case: https://github.com/lminhtm. Otherwise, I'd make a backup and delete (or just move it to a different location), then test any apps you have from this developer (maybe this one?).


"xcode-select --install" versus retrieving the dmg from Apple's developer website I would to ask a question closely related to already existing posts (How to install command line tools without error that is not currently available on Software Update server? and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19691701/failed-to-install-command-line-tools-on-osx-mavericks) but with the help of which I still could not fully solve my problem.

I have a MacBook Pro running Mac OSX 10.9. When I run xcode-select --install  from the terminal, the command fails with an error message Can't install software because it is not currently available from the Software Update Server (see second linked post for screenshot).

It was suggested by many to simply download the command line tools package from the developer website, which I have done (already had an account). My question, is the second procedure strictly equivalent to running xcode-select --install? I have suspicions that the paths to the different libraries and headers are not defined in the same way when downloading and executing the dmg.

I am running particle physics software called root and compiling with the available C++ interpreter fails with "Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64" error, probably due to the use of standard libc++ instead of libstdc++. Strangely enough this problem does not appear on another computer (running same OSX 10.9) where I was able to run the xcode-select --install command.

Is there any way to solve this error message when running xcode-select --install? People have suggested this could be due to the fact that command line tools are already installed but I have both tried deleting command line tools by hand (sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools) and even a clean install of Mavericks but no luck.

Are you sure they are installing the same version?

At the command line on both machines run cc -v - the latest version seems to be Apple LLVM version 5.0 (clang-500.2.79) (based on LLVM 3.3svn).


iMac doesn‘t start up My iMac doesn’t start up. The loading bar doesn’t fill up and then, after 10 minutes or so, it shuts down. I tried to get in the recovery mode, but there is the Macintosh HD drive grey and it says „not active“.
Any help or advice on how to solve it?
Thanks

(I haven‘t saved my files on a external hard drive and I don‘t want to lose it)

Macos 10.13

Update:  So i think it tries to repairs the volume repair volume and then some error messages one says invalid number of threads and then it tries again and then something fails and it shuts down.

This is an attempt to write a canonical answer for drive error/faults and the importance of backing up data.

The Symptoms

  My iMac doesn’t start up. The loading bar doesn’t fill up and then,
  after 10 minutes or so, it shuts down.

This is just one of the symptoms of a possible hard drive crash.  It could be that it boots but is horribly slow.  It could also boot and perform well, then suddenly crash (kernel panic).  It could make horrible noise, or it could be as quiet as the day you bought it (SSD's of course).

In this particular case, it attempts to repair the volume, fails, then shuts down.  This definitely points to a failed drive.

What to do...

Stop using your device and remove your drive.  If you ever hope to have a chance at recovering your data you need to stop attempting to boot from it.  Most of all, don't try to "stress" it in the hopes of making things better.

A Word on Backing up Your Data

Ironically, the last item mentioned is the most important:

  (I haven‘t saved my files on a external hard drive and I don‘t want to
  lose it)

Whether you are using an iMac, a MacBook Pro, a PC or even working on an IBM mainframe, the very first thing you need to consider is backing up your data.  Everything fails. Period. Whatever it is, at some point in time, it will fail. What we cannot predict with any certainty is when it will fail

Your operating system can be easily reinstalled.  It may take a few weeks to tweak your settings just so, but that doctoral dissertation, picture of your family from last holiday, or file with the original recipe Coca-Cola will be gone - forever (generally speaking).

Backup is a very inexpensive insurance policy.  You can recover your data, but at a very high cost.  Would you rather pay $100USD for an external USB drive or thousands to a data recovery service?

Is it practical to backup your data now?  Probably and personally, I would avoid using the drive until I could get set up with a fully functioning machine before I begin my data recovery attempts.

Replacing a Failed Drive

The specific iMac model wasn't referenced, but it really doesn't matter in the context of this answer. It could be a spinning hard drive or an SSD inside an iMac, Mac Pro, or MacBook.  The drive has failed and it must be replaced.

iMac - must remove the glass to access the internal hard drive.  All Intel iMacs (at the time of this writing) have user serviceable drives - they can be replaced.  SSDs are normally proprietary, however.

Pre-2012 iMacs used magnets to hold the glass and screws to hold the LCD.  The removal is fairly straight forward.
2012 and later iMacs have the glass and LCD fused together with the assembly fastened to the body with adhesive.  This must be cut to access the internals

MacBook Pros

2012 and earlier MacBook Pro's used off-the-shelf standard 2.5" HDDs.  Removal of the bottom cover allows access to drive and memory.
2013-2015 MBP's used a "proprietary" PCIe SSD that was also accessible after removing the rear cover
2015 and later MBP's have the SSD soldered to the PCB.  It is no longer a user serviceable part.

"Rebuild" your Mac

To begin the process of rebuilding your Mac, you need to start with a clean slate and a fully functioning machine.  You can't rebuild you car's engine or transmission while you're still driving it and you can't rebuild your data while operating on a faulty system.

Here's what you need to do:

Buy a USB drive for Backup
Install a new drive
Re-install macOS and your Applications.
Make a backup

The Recovery Process

Get a USB to SATA enclosure/adapter to connect to your failed drive
Obtain recovery software and attempt the recovery process
After you have recovered all that you can, make another backup
Set up a backup strategy and schedule

Each one of these items has been address separately on this site and at many times linked back to Apple's own site (i.e. Using Time Machine).

One very important thing to note is that iCloud is not backup; it's file synchronization.  Meaning if you delete it on one device, it's deleted everywhere.


Are there solutions to block pornography on iOS and watchOS? I need an effective solution for preventing my ability to see porn and immodest content on both my iPhone 11 Pro Max and iWatch 5 cellular.

Once that is accomplished:

I do want to otherwise  retain maximum functionality on these devices.
Also this solution needs to have Some measure of uninstall protection

What software or service can help with this content blocking?

On iOS there is a setting for "Content and Privacy Restrictions Go to Settings -> Screen Time ->  Content & Privacy Restrictions.  Under this setting, there are many types of content restrictions which you can apply.

Many browsers also have content restrictions.


"You can’t sign in at this time" when signing into iCloud I recently upgraded my fairly new MacBook Pro to OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). I started the Notes app, hoping to see my notes, but they weren't there. I clicked on iCloud in the Settings app and typed my Apple ID and password, and a dialog box showed saying "You can’t sign in at this time. Try signing in again.".

I am sure I am typing the right Apple ID and password because I can log in from my phone, and I can log in from the iCloud website.

I tried deleting my ~/Library/Application Support/iCloud/Accounts directory as described here and that didn't seem to do anything.

I tried the procedure described here and that didn't work either.

Why is this happening? What can be done about it?

I called Apple Support. We tried several things. Eventually, I started Keychain Access, and under the "Keychain Access" menu, clicked "Preferences". In the Preferences, I clicked the "Reset My Default Keychain" button. I had to re-enter my Mac and iCloud passwords. Everything appears to be working fine now.


iTunes song iPhone 4S If I delete a song I got in iTunes from my iPhone 4S (IOS 6.3) do I have to pay again to download it? I have never sync with a PC or MAC, so it exists only in my iPhone.

In the iTunes app on the phone, there is a "Purchased" tab. In there, you should be able to see everything that you have previously purchased, and download them anew.


Why my MacBook Air terminal uses sh-3.2# instead of my username#? In my MacBook Air Terminal, I have the following prompt:

Zoos-MacBook-Air:~ zdm$

When I type sudo su and then enter my root password, I usually get the same prompt with the # sign as follows:

Zoos-MacBook-Air:~ zdm#

Recently I noticed that when I typed sudo su and then entered my root password, the prompt changed to:

sh-3.2#

How to change it back to usual?

I don't know why it changed, but you can override sh-3.2# or other default shell prompts by changing the $PS1 variable. To do that, simply run the following command (including the space after the dollar sign):

export PS1='\h:\w \u\$ '

This will replace your shell prompt with Zoos-MacBook-Air:~ root$. However, this change is not persistent and will be gone when you exit or close the Terminal. You can make it persistent by editing root's .bash_profile file. Run the following command while you are in a root shell to modify that file:

echo 'export PS1='"'"'\h:\w \u\$ '"'" >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PS1='"'"'\h:\w \u\$ '"'" >> ~/.profile

or

echo "export PS1='\\h:\\w \\u\\\$ '" >> ~/.bash_profile
echo "export PS1='\\h:\\w \\u\\\$ '" >> ~/.profile

This will make the change persistent.

Tests were made on iOS 11 with root shell, but everything in this answer works on macOS as well.


How to play or pause multiple instances of VLC simultaneously? I have 3 open VLC windows and whenever I see movement in one I need to pause all of them at once. Ideally I'd like a keyboard shortcut to do this. I tried AppleScript but I'm not familiar with the language and I can't see how to iterate through all processes of an application and tell each one individually.

This will check for all instances of VLC and pause any of the instances that are currently playing something. Let me know if something unexpected happens! To create the shortcut, follow these steps:

Open Automator and create an Service, with a single Run AppleScript action, containing the following code:

tell application "System Events" to repeat with VLC_instance in (application processes whose name is "VLC")
    tell the menu "Playback" of the first menu bar of VLC_instance
        if the menu item "Pause" exists then
            click menu item "Pause"
        else if the menu item "Play" exists then
            click menu item "Play"
        end if
    end tell
end repeat

Set the service to receive "no input" and to work in "VLC" or "any application", if you want to ensure you can use the shortcut from anywhere. Save it with a name of your choosing.
Now, go into the Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard preferences in System Preferences, and click on Services. The newly created service should be at the bottom, under the name you chose. Click on the service, then click on "add shortcut", and specify a shortcut to your liking.
You may have to allow Automator access in Accessibility in the Privacy tab of the Security and Privacy preferences.

That's it! You should now have a service set up, tied to the shortcut you chose that can be accessed from anywhere.


Jogger mode on iOS 9.0.2 - Disable track shuffling when shaking the iPhone There must be somewhere a "Jogger mode" option. When enabling the "Jogger mode", shaking the iPhone won't result in shuffling the playlist. (It is pretty practical during jogging, since you won't keep on shuffling your playlist during running.)

Could you please help me, where could I find this option? I would like to enable it, but I can't find it in the settings on my iPhone 5c (ME501DN/A) with iOS 9.0.2.

Thank you very much.

The mentioned "Shake to Shuffle" feature is gone since iOS 8.4, so enabling or disabling it doesn't make sense anymore - so the option for this is also gone from the Music options screen. (Thank you Tetsujin for the tipp.)

On iOS 8.1 one can find it in options under the Music category. It is right the first option in the Music options category. You can enable or disable it here. (In English it is called "Shake to Shuffle", but I am using the iPhone in German, so is called "Schüttelfunktion" here (= "Shaking function").)


Is it possible to detect/assign faces in iPhoto for iOS? With the new iPhoto out for both the iPhone and iPad, I was wondering whether it allows face detection and assignment on iOS or is it still OS X-only feature?

iPhoto for iOS doesn't do facial recognition nor tagging.


How Do I Permanently Disable Hot Corners on Mac? I have a work computer, and every time I turn it on and log in, hot corners are enabled where when I move my mouse to a corner inadvertently, it locks my screen. This happens all the time in the middle of my work.

Every time, this annoys me, and I go into System Preferences and set all the hot corners options to none. But, the next day or whenever I restart my computer, they come back! I am wondering if anyone knows how to permanently disable them so I don't need to manually disable them every time I restart my work MacBook.

Is there a terminal command or something I can set to stop Hot Corners settings from resetting back on constantly? I'm guessing my company has defaults that they apply that override the settings on restart.

Yes, there are some terminal commands to set your default setting to "none".

Disable top left hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-tl-corner -int 0

Disable top right hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-tr-corner -int 0

Disable bottom left hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-bl-corner -int 0

Disable bottom right hot corner:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-br-corner -int 0

In the “wvous-XX-corner", for the XX, tl is top left, tr is top right, bl is the bottom left, and br is the bottom right.

For the numbers at the end, “0” is nothing, “1” is disabled, “5” is start screen saver, “2” is Mission Control, “3” is Notifications”, “4” shows the desktop, and so on.


Screen Time - How do you allow specific websites for Safari? Most of the posts I've seen around this saying it's not possible are a couple of years old; have there been any new changes with how Screen Time works with Safari? I've been unsuccessful in finding a way to permit specific websites for my daughter's iPad, so I'm constantly getting requests for all of the different sites she needs for school that day.
I know one option is to use a different browser, but how does that affect content restrictions? Does using a browser other than Safari in any way also circumvent the protection from accessing sites that contain adult content?

You should be able to access Prevent web content in Screen Time. See my summary below or follow a step by step guide here.
iOS can automatically filter website content to limit access to adult content in Safari and apps on your device. You can also add specific websites to an approved or blocked list, or you can limit access to only approved websites.
Follow these steps:

Go to Settings > Screen Time.
Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enter your Screen Time passcode.
Tap Content Restrictions, then tap Web Content.
Choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites or Allowed Websites Only.

Depending on the access you allow, you may need to add information, such as the website that you want to restrict.

Source


How to clean up duplicates in iTunes library? How do I remove duplicate songs from my iTunes library?

Is there an easier way than just ⌘ Command + Click every other song in the list?

Apple doesn't have anything natively to select duplicate files so, unfortunately, you'll have to resort to a paid solution like Dupin or you could try Randy's Träume's script.

I haven't used either so I can't vouch for how well they work, but forums I found relating to this problem point to Dupin frequently so that might be your best bet if you don't mind spending a little coin.


What environment variables are set in .profile for OS X? I accidentally overwrote my .profile file and I believe deleted my environment variables. To be honest, I don't really understand how the operating system handles environment variables. My rough understanding is that there are configuration files like .profile which the operating system looks at, or runs, automatically and sets the environment variables that way. But how does the system know which config files to run? Are there default config files? Is .profile a default config file in OS X? If .profile is one of these default config files, is there a way for me to retrieve it or else the environment variables that it sets by default. What are the default values for .profile in OS X?

In your terminal that still has the variables write printenv > with_profile.txt. This will dump all available variables into with_profile.txt. Open a new terminal window and write printenv > without_profile.txt.

Start python and write:

with open("with_profile.txt") as w_profile, open("without_profile.txt") as wo_profile:
    w_profile_vars = {line.strip() for line in w_profile}
    wo_profile_vars = {line.strip() for line in wo_profile}
    for var in w_profile_vars - wo_profile_vars:
        print var

That should print the set of missing variables one by one.

P.S.

~/.profile is not there by default (not on Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan for sure). Hence it's possible that you overwrote nothing, unless you had created the file yourself a long ago.


App that allows iPhones to share information while overseas without a plan (and no data) I need an app that allows a number of iPhones to exchange information between each other during an event that there may be no WiFi available while myself and two buddies travel overseas.

None of us plan on 'roaming' while overseas on our current plan, we strictly plan to either stick together, or communicate through wifi. But what happens if we get separated in a city and need to communicate when wifi is not available, like a walkie talkie function

Traveling in Europe.

Thanks for all the suggestions!
-Pad

You could try something like FireChat. I have not tried it personally, but it is touted as "a new way to chat: 'off-the-grid'." It uses iOS 7's mesh networking capabilities to achieve this.

  Now you can chat with people around you – even if there is no Internet
  connection or mobile phone coverage.

  Whether you’re on the beach or in the subway, at a big game or a trade
  show, camping in the wild or at a concert, or even travelling abroad,
  simply fire up the app with a friend or two and find out who else is
  there.

[...]

Instantly chat with anyone around you on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Works even without any Internet connection or mobile phone coverage

Use the "Nearby" mode for off-the-grid communications, up to 200 feet of your location
Multi-hop capabilities extend the range of peer-to-peer communications


How can I diagnose a superdrive that won't read disks? My MacBook (Snow Leopard) seems to be unable to read DVDs and CDs. When I insert a disk (DVD or CD, I've tried a couple of each), the drive spins up, and (it sounds like) moves the laser back and forth a few times, then ejects the disk. I haven't tried blank media.

I've searched around the nets, and it looks like I may be experiencing a relatively common problem, but I don't want to jump to conclusions. Unfortunately, all the threads I've found are filled with "me too, me too", and not a lot in terms of actual help.

What tools can I use, or tests can I run, to try to diagnose (and perhaps even solve) the problem myself before I give up and replace the drive?

Try running the Apple Hardware Test.  If I remember right, reboot holding D.  If that doesn't work, reboot while holding D, with an OS X disk in.  Of course you'll need to have an external DVD drive for that to work.


HFS+ partition formatted few days ago I wanted to split partition but obviously I can't read and I chose "partitionDisk" option, basically I did:

diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk1 GPT JHFS+ New 100g

That was a mistake. It didn't ask me anything about erasing data, but still its terminal so I don't blame it.
Now I've got an empty partition, but I want to recover the old one.

Is there any way to to such thing? I tried with testdisk, but it's kinda hard to use this soft, tried also deeper search, I saw there about 100 of rows with multiple partitions, but couldn't preview any because of HFS+ I guess.

However I believe the last option would be to use Photorec and recover files one by one...

Is someone could help I would be grateful.

You could email tech support for Photorec (and others) to see if they can recover from this particular situation. If they say no then your only recourse is a data recovery specialist like OnTrack.

Generally formatting/partitioning a drive does not wipe the data just the partition map and catalog, so it is possible that this might be recoverable.


Apply iOS update to multiple devices I am in the process of downloading iOS9 for my iPhone5S on iTunes. This is taking 90 minutes. I also have an iPad and my wife has an iPhone4 and an iPad (she syncs these to her MacBook).

Is there any way of using the single download to update the 4 devices.

Sorry, Apple doesn't have a universal iOS installer to download and install to multiple devices.


How can I get rid of this icon in my menu bar? I have this icon (which I never use) in my menu bar:

What is this icon for and how can I get rid of it?

Looking at the position, it seems to be an app from Apple.

Press Command and drag & drop it out of the menu bar.


In Numbers make Y axes show smaller values I have a table making a line graph with very small numbers that vary from 0,000149 to 40, and when I make a line graph out of this table of numbers the very small numbers are crunched in a horizontal line and only show up if they are bigger then 1, how can I make the numbers that are smaller then 1 appear better on this graph?

I'm new to Numbers so I appreciate any help, thanks!

This is a general problem with charting. You are seeing when a linear scale can’t show the range of values clearly.

Change the line axes to use a logarithmic scale


"Backup Disk Not Available", Time Machine can't find Time Capsule any more I have a 2 TB Time Capsule and it was used by Time Machine for many months.

Some days ago the Time Capsule was disconnected from its power supply and today is now connected again.

Time Machine reports the error "Backup Disk Not Available".

The Time Capsule lights are green, AirPort Utility is showing this device with green lights also.

Time Machine knows how much space is available on that device. However, it is not able to use this device for listing older backups or to create a new one.

I can't see this device in Finder, although I couldn't see it there when everything works fine. Airport Utility reports an IP Address for this device and I can ping it.

What to do now? Is it possible at least to mount it to access the files on it?

I had a similar effect a few days ago.
I was able to select the disk (see your last printscreen) again and from then on it worked flawlessly... Can you select your disk again?


Mount Error when attempting to mount a network server I've been attempting to mount a network server on my computer. I can do it through Finder, but this is inconvenient since I can only connect with one username at a time. I read that mounting via Terminal would allow me to connect with multiple usernames at the same time. I found this post: How can I mount an SMB share from the command line? where the command to mount is

mount_smbfs //user@SERVER/folder ./mntpoint

but whether I do that or mount -t smbfs instead of mount_smbfs I get the same error:

mount_smbfs: mount error: [mountpoint path]: Input/output error

Someone even mentioned getting the same error in that post I linked to above, but no one answered him.

Edit:
For the sake of being complete, here's my actual input and output (with the username and password replaced). I even created a new directory /Volumes/testShare to test it with.

Jamess-MacBook-Pro:Volumes magavendon$ mount -t smbfs //[user]:[password]@172.25.206.80 /Volumes/testShare
mount_smbfs: mount error: /Volumes/testShare: Input/output error

And the mount_smbfs command:

Jamess-MacBook-Pro:Volumes magavendon$ mount_smbfs //[user]:[password]@172.25.206.80 /Volumes/testShare
mount_smbfs: mount error: /Volumes/testShare: Input/output error

You probably need to do mkdir ./mntpoint first.

For example:

mkdir /Volumes/home
mount_smbfs //tom:tomspassword@fileserver/home /Volumes/home


How can I find out what is reading and writing so much data on my MacBook? In the 20 or so days that my retina MacBook has been turned on, in Activity Monitor I can see that around 2 TB of data has been written and 1.2 TB read. Most of the written data seem to come from kernel_task, with about 800 GB written to disk. However, altogether the processes in Activity Monitor add up to only 1 TB written (not 2 TB, which is the total data written). What's even stranger is that the sum of the read data adds up to about 250 GB, which is much lower than the 1.2 TB read that Activity Monitor shows. When observing Activity Monitor, the data read or written per second goes to around 100 MB/sec even 15 seconds or so.

How exactly can I figure out what is eating my disk like this? I'm afraid that if this continues, my total read/write amounts will go up to nearly 40 TB in a year, and eventually wear out my SSD more quickly than it should.

This happened to me once. I used Daisy Disk to figure out where the disk usage was coming from.

In my case, there was a problem with the coresymbolicationd cache, which was growing indefinitely, and continuing through reboots and reinstalls of the latest Combo Update.

After deleting /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.coresymbolicationd, everything returned to normal.

Next time this happens, I recommend taking a look with that utility.


Connection of ESP32/ ESP8266 not recognized using MacBook Pro I’m trying to connect those devices, with no success. When I’m using Linux machine I find at ‘/dev/ttyUSB0’. From googling around I understand it is a Mac issue.

Appreciate any guidance

I had the same problem. There are a series of questions you need to go through that might change your solution.

1st of all, which board are you using? There are several versions of the ESP chip, which are well documented in the arduino-esp8266 docs

2nd of all, I've read some forums that say that the USB cable has to be good quality, otherwise the board will not successfully connect. I don't know too much about good usb cables, but I do know that the shorter the better as far as signal loss is concerned

Lastly, which driver did you install? I installed the SiliconLabs driver. It's important to note that in their readme (something I neglected to read until after 5 hours of troubleshooting) it explains that Mac blocks the driver from running until you give it permission. So, when you install the driver, the installer will need to get permission to run, but ALSO the driver itself will need to get permission to run. So, once you install the driver, go to System Preferences -> Security and allow the driver to run.

I found out that you can verify that the driver was installed, you can run kextstat in the command line to list out all of the "kernel extensions," including the driver, that are installed on your mac.

These steps should help you get your board to show up in /dev/tty.* and also in the ports menu in your Arduino IDE. Or at the very least, these steps should help you debug at which step of the setup process something went wrong.

Once you see your board in the ports menu, don't forget that in order to upload code, you need to set the board to flash mode (I forget to do that a lot).


Taskbar Icon for New Mail I'm running Mac OS X 10.9.1 using the Mail app (v7.1) to interact with my exchange email account.

Is there any way to configure the Mail app to show an icon in the task bar whenever I have new mail?

I have the pop up notifications and the red number in my hidden dock and alt-tab screens, however, I would really like to just have a non-intrusive little black mail icon on the task bar when I have unread mail. This is default on Windows with Outlook, I just haven't found any Mac apps that will replicate it yet.

Any ideas, suggestions, tips?

This is currently not possible solely with OS X and Mail.

However, third-party apps such as Mail Unread Menu can add an icon to the menu bar.


Some Applications stay in Dock after closing After i cloes the Applications the Instances still be shown and can't be force closed.

Same with the Dock only if I kill my Dock in my Terminal it reduces the symbol to 1.

Also the processes don't show up in my activity monitor.

Would be great if anyone could help me!

I don't think it' malware. I have the same problem after installing 10.11.5.
I found a (not so nice) workaround:

When the app is still running: Save all changes and force quit the Application

When already quit the app: Open the Activity Monitor and force quit the Widowserver Process. You'll be logged out. Now restart the mac (don't just log in again) and you can use it without having the icons in the dock.

I think it's an 10.11.5 issue.


Lion Mail "Show Format Bar' button missing In Lion Mail there is supposed to be a "show format bar" button at top right of a new mail window. It is not there for me. How can I get it to show?

You have to customise the toolbar and add the format button.

Drag the format button to the bar:

And when you compose a new message, you can click on the format icon:

And the bar will appear.


Can I Pair an Apple Wireless Keyboard with multiple iOS devices (not simultaneously) without ‘forgetting’? I just want to be able to switch my Apple Wireless Keyboard (latest) between my iPhoneX and iPad Pro without having to forget the last used device.
Both iOS devices are running the latest iOS. Not sure if inherently possible, or by app or hack.

The keyboard does support been paired with multiple devices at the same time. However, there's no "switch" to toggle between devices - neither a physical switch nor a software switch in an app or similar.

The only way to make sure the device you want to use is the one currently communicating with the keyboard is to ensure that it is the only one within Bluetooth range.

If your phone stays in your pocket, it is not that practical to get that device out of the range of the keyboard. A "hack" is then to simply disable Bluetooth on the device that you do not want to use with the keyboard with currently. When you want to switch devices, disable Bluetooth on the current device, and enable it on the device that you want to switch to. The keyboard usually switches over in the matter of seconds.

If you wanted to use Bluetooth for something else on either device, the above hack won't work.

There's no other solutions through third party apps or similar.


Broken battery - downgraded performance I have old MacBook Pro that has a dead battery.  It is not charging, and displays always 0% battery charge.
OS X is downgrading performance when battery level is close to something about 5% or 10%.
Is that possible to turn off this feature, to be able to use its 100% performance without exchanging battery to new?

On the older MacBook Pro models, it's not a software function that reduces power.  It's actually a hardware requirement, managed by the SMC to utilize both mains and battery to get full performance.  With a dead or missing battery it would actually "downclock" the CPU.
MacBooks Run Slow Without Battery*

If the battery is removed from a MacBook or MacBook Pro, the computer will automatically reduce the processor speed. This prevents the computer from shutting down if it demands more power than the A/C adapter alone can provide.

With newer MacBooks and the release of Catalina's Battery Heath Management feature, you can control (very limited, albeit) whether or not performance is affected.
However, in your case, you would actually see better performance if you removed or just disconnected your battery because the charging circuitry is using current that could otherwise be used for processing to try and charge a battery that will not hold a charge - in effect, you have a power "drain" on your computer which is compounding the issue.

Fully charged MacBook Air turns off when power cord removed

Battery is draining with "Power source: Power adapter" in macOS Catalina

Macbook pro Mid-2012 not booting on battery. Not responding to power button

You need to replace your battery with a quality unit

* Tom's Hardware, Marcus Yam, Marcus and Ngai, Amos; December 01, 2008.  https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-macbook-pro-battery-benchmarks,6643.html


Does iTunes 10.5.0.142 not support the original iPhone? I have the original iPhone and I cannot seem to get it recognized by iTunes 10.5.0.142. I followed the troubleshooting advice at http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/assistant/itunes/, but it did not seem to help. Is it no longer supported by iTunes?

iTunes does support the original iPhone, there is no where it is written in the requirements of iTunes 10.5 that says that iTunes requires this version of iOS or this particular iPhone or even iPod in order to sync with it. All Apple music devices should be supported unless other wise noted.

The only point where it may matter is if you have updated to the latest version of iOS from a newer version of iTunes (e.g. greater than 10.5.0.142) and then are attempting to use that updated iOS on an older version of iTunes 10.5.0.142 in this case.

In that situation there may be issues communicating between the two due to apple changing protocols or who knows what else between versions of iTunes and iOS. I suggesting updating to the latest version of iTunes, and then contact Apple or their discussion forms if the problem persists.


reduce passwords I must type How can I reconfigure my MBP to require me to type username & password only once, going all the way from shut down to functional?

I think industry-standard naming is confusing in this area: the term "login" is ambiguous, sometimes meaning "the username," sometimes meaning "the username and password," and sometimes meaning "the act of entering username and password into the system." I will try to use these terms consistently:

username means the string which identifies the user
password means the string which proves the human at the keyboard is the claimed user
credentials means the pair of strings (username, password)
login means the act of entering credentials

I have seen various similar MBPs exhibit different behavior in this regard: some do it as desired (one login); some require two logins; some require three. I have learned, through search and experiment, that the "3" case can be improved to "2" by ensuring that the account password matches that of the keychain item which is (also) named "login."  So far, so good.

I tried essentially the same trick to eliminate the second login: I made the FileVault 2 credentials match the account credentials. On one computer, this worked: I can now log in to this computer via a single typing of credentials. But on another computer, this did not work: all credentials are the same, yet it takes two logins to get in.

I believe OS X normally keeps all these credentials in sync, so the fact that they were out of sync to begin with may be significant. Unfortunately, in considering the computer that works as I want, it is impractical to recover the history of how it got there, due to limited expertise of the owner.

This is pretty simple.

In System Preferences

go to the Users & Groups Preference Pane
click on Login Options
click to unlock (bottom left) if needed and authenticate
verify Automatic Log in is on the user you wish to use
go to the Security & Privacy preference Pane
enable your user for FileVault
reboot

You will select your user from the picker and then enter your password one time and then you should be logged in. If you have a bad user, you can add a new admin user, let it unlock FileVault - remove the problematic user but do not delete the home folder. Then rename the /Users/whatever (deleted) to be the short name you wish and re-create the user. Be sure the keychain is unlocked when that new user password is set up when you log in. Authenticate the new user to FileVault and remove the "new admin" user from above.


Exit Man opened from the touch bar So in terminal there is a fun feature now, as you can open a man page of the current command by using the touchbar. I failed to close the man page though. The usual q did nothing as well as esc or CTRL-C. Does anyone know how to close it?

It might have to do with the order of keys that you were typing that prevented q from working when you were trying to find the key to exit out of the manual.

If you press the ESC key it writes to the screen and the last line goes from END to ESC. If you then press q it doesn't close the manual but it will switch it back to END. Press q again and it should exit you out. Keep pressing q.


How to migrate several usb Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule? I have several Mac each with its own USB hard drive, holding a Time Machine Backup.

I am wondering if I can move all of them to a Time Capsule. I have seen tutorial about single time machine backup, and as I understood, it's not a standard or official procedure.

But I didn't see any tutorial or advice for moving more than one backup.

Don't know if it's relevant, all the backups have been made under Lion, then Mountain Lion, and Time Capsule will backup ML machine.

Finally, I decided to give a try by myself. I had no particular problem, I just followed the well known procedure of backup to Time Capsule, interrupt, and restore the USB drive to the Time Capsule sparsebundle related to the machine.

All my previous backup, have ben recognized.
However, for 500GB of data I had to wait for two days to be completed.

Apparently, by matching the two .sparsebundle size, the data seemed to be transferred in a reasonable time from 4 to 7 hours. For the rest, it just seems that disk utility stopped doing nothing for the rest of the time.

Even the USB drive went in stand by mode for almost two days. Then, after two days, it just stop informing that the restore went fine.


iPhone app for easy dictation and sending Here is what I want:

I click a button in the app, and I start dictating. When I am done I press OK, and it either sends the sound-file directly to a predefined email or at least prompts me to do so.

Think of it like dictating something and sending the wav/mp3 of it to an assistant straight away.

Does an app like that exist? I tried Googling for dictation apps etc, but could not seem to find a good match.

If you don't mind an extra step, Voice Memos does almost exactly that. It comes with iOS.

Run Voice Memos
Tap record (left button)
When you're done tap stop then list (both are the right button, in other words double tap)
Select the memo and tap Share


How do I change the Apple ID on iPhoto? I gave my Macbook Pro to my partner, after reinstalling OSx on the laptop. My info was deleted by me before reinstalling the OS, but my Apple ID still shows up in iPhoto.

Open App store and click on sign out.

Now sign in with new apple id.

Be aware that the iPhoto belongs to your apple id.

The new apple id will not work with updates to iPhoto without paying for it.


Create an auto deleting folder I download a lot of PDFs, jpegs, PNG etc that are only needed for a few hours. Is there a way to make a folder which allows me to access the items but periodically self deletes (sends everything to the trash folder) or tag them in such a way that individual files will delete themselves after a given time limit?

I use hazel to set up rules for a folder.  The rules include delete after a time, move to a  dated folder.


What is ipsec0 interface? I am noticing an interface on my system called ipsec0 but I can't figure out what is creating it.

I have no VPN software installed or VPN connections configured on the system. Back to my Mac service is disabled as well.

Below is the output from ifconfig

ipsec0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 50000

The MTU of 50000 is very strange as well.

On my Mac the ipsec0 interface has an IPv6 address that is part of the /64:

2607:fb90:13c0:e82::/64 which is owned by T-Mobile as seen from the whois:

CIDR:           2607:FB90::/32
NetName:        TMOV6-1
NetHandle:      NET6-2607-FB90-1
Parent:         NET6-2600 (NET6-2600-1)
NetType:        Direct Allocation
OriginAS:       AS21928
Organization:   T-Mobile USA, Inc. (TMOBI)
RegDate:        2009-07-14
Updated:        2012-02-24
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET6-2607-FB90-1

Since it is an ipsec tunnel, we can find out what the endpoint address is by looking for traffic on our main outgoing interface (tcpdump on en0 for example), which is where we find out 208.54.40.75 is the endpoint address, which we can whois again and get back:

NetRange:       208.54.0.0 - 208.54.159.255
CIDR:           208.54.128.0/19, 208.54.0.0/17
NetName:        TMO2
NetHandle:      NET-208-54-0-0-1
Parent:         NET208 (NET-208-0-0-0-0)
NetType:        Direct Allocation
OriginAS:
Organization:   T-Mobile USA, Inc. (TMOBI)
RegDate:        1999-08-10
Updated:        2012-02-24
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-208-54-0-0-1

So now the interesting part, what is opening this connection and what is it used for?

A handy command for this is named lsof which lists open files. We can pass it a couple of flags, and get back just what is listening, along with what process is listening.

lsof -a -i -l -P | grep 2607:fb90:13c0:e82

At which point we see something like the following:

ntpd        198        0   32u  IPv6 0x1c220855d5c2b5a1      0t0  UDP [2607:fb90:13c0:e82::]:123
CommCente   249     1001   26u  IPv6 0x1c220855d59e9a91      0t0  UDP [2607:fb90:13c0:e82::]:5060
CommCente   249     1001   27u  IPv6 0x1c220855d3b35a61      0t0  TCP [2607:fb90:13c0:e82::]:5060 (LISTEN)

That second number that is listed is the PID (process ID) for the process that has the open connection, so we can get more detail for what other connections are open by using:

lsof -a -i -l -P -p 249

This will output something like the following:

COMMAND   PID     USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
CommCente 249     1001   15u  IPv4 0x1c220855d68c85a1      0t0  UDP 10.64.1.100:500->m4b2836d0.tmodns.net:500
CommCente 249     1001   20u  IPv4 0x1c220855d336be89      0t0  UDP 10.64.1.100:4500->m4b2836d0.tmodns.net:4500
CommCente 249     1001   26u  IPv6 0x1c220855d59e9a91      0t0  UDP [2607:fb90:13c0:e82::]:5060
CommCente 249     1001   27u  IPv6 0x1c220855d3b35a61      0t0  TCP [2607:fb90:13c0:e82::]:5060 (LISTEN)

We can see that this has an open connection on port 500 and 4500. Port 500 is used for key exchange when using an ipsec based VPN, and 4500 is used for ipsec tunnels to traverse NAT, see this page for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAT_traversal#IPsec

And then information about the process itself:

ps auxwww | grep 249:

xistence          249   0.0  0.2  2582352  29932   ??  S     2:07PM   0:03.34 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreTelephony.framework/Support/CommCenter

So based upon this we can make a couple of assumptions:

The tunnel endpoints are owned by T-Mobile
It has to do something with CoreTelephony which seems to be a library used by Apple to implement phone calling on iOS (and now OS X): https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Reference/CoreTelephonyFrameworkReference/index.html
Based upon 1 and 2, and knowing that I have enabled Wifi Calling in FaceTime and on my phone, I can be fairly certain that this ipsec tunnel is used to route calls to my laptop.

As soon as I start a FaceTime Wifi-call while running tcpdump on the ipsec0 interface I see the standard SIP protocol (which is what FaceTime uses to make calls).

tl;dr: ipsec0 is used for Wifi calling.