Bash script with lock folder problems for large files My script is:

#!/bin/bash

    # Path to a lock folder
LOCK_PATH="/Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/copy.lock"

trap 'rmdir "$LOCK_PATH"; exit' 1 6 15

if mkdir "$LOCK_PATH"; then
    echo "Lock file did not exist and was created, Copying..."

        # Perform commands
    cp /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/*.mov /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/AME_Processing/
    cp /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/*.mov /Volumes/PROOFS_TV
    rm /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/*.mov

        # Remove the lock
    rm -f "$LOCK_PATH"
fi

My Output is:

Lock file did not exist and was created, Copying...
cp: /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/*.mov: No such file or directory
cp: /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/*.mov: No such file or directory
rm: /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/*.mov: No such file or directory
rm: /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/copy.lock: is a directory
logout
[Process completed]

rm -f does not remove the lock folder for some reason...

I would like this script to run automatically via Cron every 60 seconds. If a large file is being written though I don't want it to run until the file write is complete.

Im realizing more of what can be done with bash and I want to automate more processes as well.

Fixing the Lock Removal

Try using rmdir to remove the lock folder:

rmdir "$LOCK_PATH"

Debugging Paths

To debug the cp paths, try this command in Terminal.app:

open /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/

Does the expected folder open? Play around with the path until open displays the expected folder in the Finder.

To debug the lock folder, try running the script in two Terminal.app windows. Do they both try and copy? Trying adding an else statement to see if mkdir is working as desired:

…
else
    echo "Lock exists."
fi

Debugging Shell Scripts

Take a look at How to Add Error Checking to Your Shell Scripts to help identify any problems.

Hard Links

Mentioned in comments below is a new constraint: other applications may be writing the files as this script is running. This script can not block other applications changing or writing to the affected folders.

If a file is being written to, then the cp will only see and copy a partial file. The next time the script runs, the file will likely be fully available and copy correctly. This may or may not be acceptable.

If the copy occurs on the same physical volume, the copy can likely be avoided. In place of a copy, consider creating a hard link with the ln tool:

ln <source_file> <target_file>
ln [-Ffhinsv] <source_file> ... <target_dir>

The link does not copy any data and is almost instant. Changing either the original file or the newly hard linked file will be reflected in both.

Try creating a hard link by hand before attempting to change the script:

ln /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/movie.mov /Volumes/PROOFS_WATCH/AME_Processing/movie.mov


Why would a python3 script not find a module when run in Automator? I am trying to automatically run a python script using automator. This script
python3 ~/Desktop/python/gmaps.py
works fine in terminal but not when I try to run it through Automator , I get a "module pyperclip cannot be found", even though it is found fine when running from terminal.

I can not figure out what would cause the path to be different. Is there a guide to command line plus Automator ?

Solved:
I'm not sure why it worked, but running pip3 install pyperclip in the automator window installed it in the correct location for it to be used.


Benefits of using MacBook Pro with discrete graphics I'm trying to choose between MacBookPro Late 2013 with discrete graphics card and MacBookPro Mid 2014 with integrated graphics. Judging from GPU benchmark GeForce GT650M has a minor performance advantage upon Intel Iris Pro. Also Late 2013 Model has 2,3 GHz comparing to 2,2 GHz on Mid 2014. The problem is a cost: at my location i can buy this Mid 2014 model for 2300$ and Late 2013 one for 2650$.
My question is: are there any less or more significant benefits of having MacBookPro with this discrete video? I'm ready to pay this 350$ but i don't think 5% of graphics performance worth it.

You already have the answer to your question.

As far as I see it, the dGPU will be only beneficial for demanding games, heavy 3D work...

If you're planning on using Solidworks, Maya, Lightwave, or any 3d creation or CAD application get the Iris pro one. It is significantly faster for those tasks and not that far behind the GT650M-750M for gaming

The iGPU, will reduces the complexity of your system. Eliminates the graphics mode switching. Less power consumption, prolongs the battery life.

On the math side:
 $2300 vs $2650 is 8.6% or $350.

What can you do with $350?

Buy some software (Games) you always wanted.

Buy USB stick, or External Drive for back ups.

Keep it for rainy days :)

On the other side:

The $350 is not for the GeForce GT650M alone. Check the system specs in more details to find the differences you care about.

My vote would be for the iGPU since it comes with newer model that brings other engineering improvements with it.


How to make DVD from iMovie Apple has decided to exclude iDVD from Lion, and I haven't found an easy way to make a DVD that can be played on my DVD player created in iMovie.

I found this question

However, there is no clear answer there.
I dont have iDVD, and I cannot get it, but I still want to be able to create a DVD.

Does anyone know how this can be done?

You can export your movie to a format of your wishes (.avi, .dv, ...) and then you can burn this on a disk with a suitable software suite (Roxio Toast or with the built in software of Lion/Mac OS)

EDIT: for free, software, I would recommend you use Burn


Does anyone know of a Thunderbolt 2 (not type C or thunderbolt 3) to usb 3 micro b cable? I am looking to use my existing WD harddrive but use thunderbolt 2 instead of the usb3 A connection. I have looked for cables but all I find is type c ones.

Thunderbolt is a wholly different connection protocol from USB--it's more like external PCI-Express--so any such cable would need a USB controller built-in. It's almost certainly possible to miniaturize this into a single cable, but I doubt the demand ever existed for a commercial part to make sense; additionally, performance would still be limited by USB's capabilities. Your best bet is probably a Thunderbolt "hub", for instance this USB and eSATA model, or a larger dock such as this one.


Chrome Mac - NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID About This Mac: OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 & MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013).

While trying to access GitHub · Build software better, together. (using Google Chrome Version 41.0.2272.43 beta (64-bit)), I'm getting following error:

  NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

I'm able to access same site using Safari and/or Firefox.

Chrome is reporting that DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA root certificate had expired on July 2014. This issue can be address by following these steps:

Manually deleted my local copy of DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA

(open Keychain Access, select keychains:login, select category: certificates, search for DigiCert, right click, delete)

Downloaded the real cert(s) from DigiCert Root Certificates - Download & Test | DigiCert.com

Root Certificate Authority that the sites use:

DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA

Intermediate Certificate Authorities that the sites use:

DigiCert SHA2 Extended Validation Server CA
DigiCert High Assurance CA-3

Added these certs to Keychain Access simply by double clicking them
If that doesn't work you can manually import via File > Import.

Use following link to test it:

DigiCert Root Certificates - Download & Test | DigiCert.com


Is it possible to see what was 'illegal' about my app? I've recently had an app of mine accepted for distribution on the iOS App Store. As usual, I selected to allow for publication on all App Stores. The app was approved and the app was available to download on all the international app stores.
Approximately 24 hours later, I received the following message in the Resolution Center:

We are writing to notify you that your application, application name, will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines :
22.1 Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users. It is the developer's obligation to understand and conform to all local laws
While your app has been removed from the China App Store, it is still available in the App Stores for the other territories you selected in iTunes Connect.

Is it possible to see what it was about the app that was regarded as illegal?
I'm not aware of any content of my app that would be regarded as illegal, especially as my app was only removed from the China App Store rather than internationally, and nothing illegal was 'picked up' in review.
The app in question is Free Bitcoin (iTunes link).

There is no way to gather more insight, other that what Apple tell you directly. Only Apple will be able to answer your question for more information.

Ask the Apple iTunes Connect team via the Contact Us details:

  App Review

  Find out the status of your app and submit general questions for the App Review Team.

Ask the Apple Review team via the appeal process:

  App Review Board

  The App Review Board provides the opportunity to appeal the rejection of an app if you believe that the functionality or technical implementation was misunderstood. You can submit additional details to the App Review Board to help them determine if your app should be reconsidered. Sign in to submit an appeal.


Running Lua Code on the Mac? Hey, all.  This is a question that seems painfully obvious and not worth asking all of you, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to run lua code on the mac.  I have a folder full of .lua files that should run to make a simple command-line compression program, and I made sure to install lua using homebrew, so I don't know what I am still missing.

I hope someone knows how to do this, as I can't find anything online to help me.

Now you've installed lua with Homebrew, you can now use the lua command:

lua /path/to/file.lua


Recommendations for networking an encrypted OSX Extended format drive I have a 2TB external USB drive.  I formatted it using OSX Extended encrypted.

I'd like to have it available on my local network preferably without having to have it permanently connect to one of my Macs.  My router (from EE) doesn't support it.  Infuriatingly, neither does my Apple Time Capsule.

  AirPort base stations don't support encrypted formats or disks formatted as APFS, ExFAT, or NTFS.

Other than connecting it to a Mac, how can I have it available on my network?  Is there a router or other network device that would allow me to access the drive?  I have a Synology NAS but I don't believe it will support the drive format either.

If it makes a difference, it's not a backup drive.  I use it to store personal documents that I'd prefer to have encrypted.

I don't believe an off-the-shelf router or networking device exists that contains this feature.

If you want to do it without connecting it to a Mac, you can use the libfvde program to mount the drive on a Linux system and use that to make it available on the network.

I haven't tried it with a Synology NAS, but as the Synology DSM is Linux-based and allows installing third party programs, it should at least in theory be possible to install libfvde here, mount the drive, and make it available on the network.

You can download libfvde here:

https://github.com/libyal/libfvde


Delete cookies in Safari manually I tried deleting Cookies in Safari manually, by deleting ~Library/Cookies, ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and ~/Library/Safari.

The folders gets deleted, but the next time I launch Safari all cookies are restored. I am logged in all websites.

What did just happen? Why can't I delete cookies?

Yes, there is a way to effectively remove all cookies from Safari via the terminal as well, preventing the auto-restore phenomenon you described. I wrote a simple shell script some time ago to achieve this.

I tested this on macOS 10.12.3 and Safari 10.0.3 and it works.

Warning: The tests I did weren't as thorough, meaning: some of the files deleted by this script might not actually be necessary in order to achieve the removal of the cookies, you should trial-and-error your way around it to narrow it down if you like. I personally use the script 'as is', but in your personal situation that might mean you'll lose some data that you actually wanted to keep.

Copy this into a simple shell script and run it (be sure to also copy the 'killall' command):

rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/History*
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/Auto*
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/LocalStorage
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/Downloads.*
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/Databases
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/SearchDescriptions.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/WebFeedSources.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/Last*
rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/Recently*
rm -rf ~/Library/WebKit/com.apple.Safari
rm -rf /Library/Cookies
rm -rf ~/Library/Cookies
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches
rm -rf /Library/Caches
rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java/Deployment/cache
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari.*
rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.useractivityd.dynamicuseractivites
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/*SpotlightNetHelper*
rm -rf ~/.oracle_jre_usage
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharekit.recents.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Saved*

killall -KILL nsurlstoraged


rsync in cron on Catalina no longer working I have various rsync entries in crontab that worked reliably right up until the moment I upgraded to Catalina.

00 04 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsync --archive /Volumes/FOO me@remote.example:BAR

Here rsync is installed via brew install rsync (and it is still the correct version post-upgrade). And it doesn't much matter where rsync is going: from a remote server to my local disk, from one local disk to another local disk, from my local disk to a remote server. The jobs simply do not work.

Copying/pasting the exact command out of crontab and running it directly does work, though.

Adding -vv to the cron job, I see that the list of files being evaluated simply isn't complete. Whole directories are excluded. Some files are listed... some files are not listed.

This requires adding cron to the Full Disk Access list.

Open System Preferences : Security & Privacy : Privacy : Full Disk Access

Both rsync and cron must be included on this list. Before Catalina, listing only rsync would work. On Catalina, rsync by itself only lets you run rsync by hand. For it to work within cron, cron must also be on the list separately.

(In the Full Disk Access preference pane, hitting Command+Shift+G will allow typing /usr/sbin/ in order to then choose cron)


Japan iTunes gift card with US Apple ID? I'm using US Apple ID and got a gift card from Japan.
I can't redeem it. How can I redeem the gift card?

You can switch the country of your iTunes account, but only if you have a valid Japanese credit card with a billing address in Japan.

Note that by doing this, you will no longer be able to update apps purchased in the US store, unless they are available in the JP store and you download them again from that store. (It should be free to download them if available, but they may not be available in the JP store store.)

Unless you are going to be living in Japan, it's probably better to try and sell the JP gift card and keep your account country as US.


What is the button in the upper right of windows? Some Mac applications have this button in the upper right. What is it called? Is there a keyboard shortcut for it?

In the case of MacVim, the button toggles the toolbar of colorful icons you see on the left. Saves some space on the screen. Is that what the button does in all applications?

Yes, it toggles the toolbar in all applications. In many applications, it's shortcut is Option+Command+T, but this is not true for all (Preview uses Command+B).


Macbook Pro low battery warning to instant recharge My Macbook Pro (Mid 2012, OSX 10.10.2) sometimes gives the Low Battery warning, then immediately after dismissing the notification the battery pops back up to about 25% battery, still showing a red battery icon.

It is above 20% but is still red.

What could have caused this, is it an error in Yosemite OS X, or is it a reserve battery power I did not know about, or is it something completely different

That is your battery it self, acting up.

Following the SMC reset I would recommend a single (one time) deep discharge.

The deep discharge will reset the Battery values reported.

Just leave your computer running till it shuts down by it self due to low power.


How to decide which is the better browser for me: Google Chrome or Safari? Consider that it is often said that...

Safari is more battery/CPU efficient.
Most people will never run across a web site that runs better on Chrome than on Safari (excluding Google explicit sites).
Memory consumption is dramatically better with Safari vs Chrome
Excluding extensions that have security risks, Safari has a comparable list of available extensions.
Safari fares much better in terms of security. Google Chrome is comparable to user-installed malware.
Incredible developer tools like Instruments (just enable the "Develop" menu)

See Chrome loads very slowly while Safari very fast

Safari vs. Chrome for Mac: 10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Chrome (2016)

In light of that I do not understand why anyone would want to run Chrome instead of Safari.

But browsers change a lot and often.
Websites with old opinions do not.

How do I find out if these assertions are really true for my current setup?

I use Chrome for work related stuff with its list of bookmarks etc

And Safari for personal stuff including banking

So if (and that is a big if) I let someone do a quick search on my machine at work then they are in chrome...

Nothing to do with memory use - and that is not an issue as my macbook pro is sufficiently powerful.


Copy window between multiple Spaces in Mission Control? When I open Mission Control, I see that I can drag windows between Spaces and that moves the window to that Space.

What I want is to copy the window instance so I can interact with it on any of the Spaces.

This is very common functionality for virtual desktop programs on Windows (like Dexpot), where for example I can have my email program always available as I move around to different desktops. I'd like to do this same thing with Mission Control.

You can't get one window of an app to follow you to all Spaces - but you can, if you have shortcut keys setup to swap Spaces, grab the menu bar of the required window, hit the shortcut & 'take it with you' to the new Space.

If you don't have it set up already, System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts…

One thing to note - if you do that with Finder windows, it can break the 'click desktop to go back to Space 1' functionality, til you relaunch the Finder.


Where can I download Bootcamp drivers for Windows 8 Macbook1,1? I have been looking for Windows 8 Boot Camp drivers for my first generation MacBook Pro. Where will I be able to find said drivers?

Apple does not support this officially, but I've used the windows 7 one and installed Windows 8 without any problem.

I can start my Windows bootcamp without any issue and Windows 8 runs like a charm.


iPhone/iMessage question If I lost my iPhone and suspended the number but iMessage from my laptop, do the iMessages I send from the laptop continue to be sent to my phone?

The people I iMessage are getting the messages as my number--which I suspended. I'm confused because I don't want someone to find my iPhone and have all of my messages and information along with my apple ID.

I have not tried to contact Apple yet but that will be my next step.

iMessage is connected with your iCloud E-Mail-Address as well. So if somebody unlocks your iPhone, this person will see all of your messages.

This Apple Support document describes the ways necessary to stop iMessage on your lost phone:

  If you didn't turn off or deactivate iMessage before switching to a
  non-Apple phone, other iOS devices will still try to use iMessage to
  send text messages to your phone number.

  If you still have your iPhone, follow these steps to turn off iMessage
  and deregister your phone number:

  If you transferred your SIM card from the iPhone to a non-Apple
  phone, put it back in the iPhone.
  Make sure that you're connected to the cellular data network.
  Tap Settings > Messages and turn iMessage off.

  If you don't have access to your iPhone, or if you can't deactivate
  iMessage from your iPhone, please contact Apple Support. Support for
  this issue is free.


Remove link to something that is not a folder in the Finder sidebar Somehow I managed to have a link to a document in my Finder sidebar (Mac OS X Snow Leopard, 10.6). It does show up under my “Places” category on the left. I can move it around and it sticks where I put it, but I can’t remove it from the sidebar.

If I perform a right click on it, the only option it gives me is “Open Sidebar Preferences...”, while that menu on a folder also gives me the option to remove it from the sidebar. I can not simply pull it away using drag and drop. It can not be focused, so I can’t even hit Cmd+Backspace or Fn+Backspace (for Del).

Any ideas? I want to remove it from the Sidebar and I guess I need to tweak some properties file. What to do?

This behavior got changed with the 10.6.7 update - apparently to avoid accidental deletion from the sidebar. Now the behavior is consistent with removing system icons from the menubar.

Hold the ⌘-key while dragging the icon away from the sidebar to remove it.


Update required when turn on Mac (Yosemite) I recently install Yosemite, I then found that every time I turn my computer off and turn it back on, it would ask for my password for an update (Update Required) it would then go through an update with a progression bar and then boot as normal. I have been on the App Store and checked if I require any updates for anything and it just says I am up too date. Any suggestions on how to make this stop or what it is actually doing would be most appreciated.

I do not have the Yosemite, but on Mavericks you can turn off the Auto Updates in System Preferences.

Open App Store in syst pref and disable the automatically check for update.

After restart you can enable it again to see if it is working now as it should.

If not use Disk Utility and repair the disk permissions.


Installing Windows 7 without DVD/Flash Drive - step 6: no permission? I am following this guide, but cannot add the virtual hard disk at step 6. I get a 'No permission' pop-up.

How do I grant myself permission?

One of the commands, given in step 5 that prevents this error message from occurring, is repeated  below.

sudo  chown  $USER  bootcamp*.vmdk

This command changes ownership from the root user to the current user. In your case, I assume the current user is named Nick. To verify you entered this command correctly, you can enter the command below. Here I assume your current directory still is ~/Documents/VirtualBox.

ls -l bootcamp*

In your case, the output should appear as shown below.

cd ~/Documents/VirtualBox
ls -l bootcamp*
-rw-------  1 Nick  staff  37376 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp-pt.vmdk
-rw-------  1 Nick  staff    682 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp.vmdk

From your comments, I assume this is what you currently would get.

cd ~/Documents/VirtualBox
ls -l bootcamp*
-rw-------  1 root  staff  37376 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp-pt.vmdk
-rw-------+ 1 root  staff    682 14 sep 15:43 bootcamp.vmdk

This output shows you are not the current owner of these files. Additionally, the + character indicates you have added extended security information such as an access control list.

Another one of the commands, given in step 5 that prevents this error message from occurring, is repeated  below.

sudo  chmod  go+rw  $PARTID

In step 5, a warning is given, which is repeated below.

  Note: This access granted by the chmod command will only last until OS X is rebooted.

BTW, the command without the variable is given below.

sudo  chmod  go+rw  /dev/disk0s4

One way, to verify you enter the chmod command correctly, would be to enter the following command.

ls -l /dev/disk0s4

In your case, the expected output is shown below.

brw-rw-rw-  1 root  operator 1, 4 14 sep 15:38 /dev/disk0s4

The most likely causes of your problem are given below.

You are not using the default bash shell.
You did not enter the chown command.
You did not enter the chown command correctly.
You were the root user when you entered the chown command.
You added extended security information to the file entries.
You did not enter the chmod command.
You did not enter the chmod command correctly.
You rebooted the operating system.


How to avoid newly downloaded iOS apps to be automatically downloaded in another device Say I download App A in my iPhone. The app will be automatically appeared in my iPad. How to prevent that from happening? I want to download separately because different devices have different needs.

Thanks

In each devices settings, you can disable automatic downloads in Settings -> iTunes & App Store and then disable "Apps" in the "Automatic Downloads" section. This will stop apps from automatically being downloaded onto your iPad. You will need to install the specific apps you want on the device manually through the App Store.


How can I remove email addresses from Mail's autocomplete? How do remove or erase the emails that I use befor on iPad email, they are not on my contacts. As soon I start typing one email address I get a bunch of old address..how can I erase or remove that.

I've had this same concern and from what I understand Apple does not provide a method to accomplish this cleanup. There are many threads in Apple Support discussion board and they always end suggesting to email Apple the request for this ability.

However, if you own a PC, this gem popped up:

Can't delete Unwanted Email addresses, Auto-fill in saves them all !


Microsoft Publisher: Mac Equivalent? Microsoft Publisher is an excellent piece of software on Windows. Does a Mac equivalent of Microsoft Publisher exist in its own entity ?

What exactly are you trying to create?
You may be going to great expense and, yet be able to accomplish what you need with Pages. Pages is available on the Mac App Store and quite robust.


Enlarging or reducing desktop view and making paragraphs I have a Facebook friend who is stating my posts appear huge to her. I use a pc and had thought she had one too. So with little known I told her how to make the text she was seeing smaller by using the Control and - keys. She said it didn't work.
She runs all her text together on Facebook so I asked her if she could put paragraph breaks in so I might be able to read her extreme long messages. I use Shift and Enter on my pc.

So how do I tell her how to do this on her Mac?

It should be the same in the Mac, you can also tell her to zoom in with the trackpad

But this looks to be a problem with Facebook itself, according to this reddit post some posts appear bigger than others because of the number of characters. If they have 35 characters or less, the font size is bigger.


How can I enter safe mode with the built in keyboard broken? Recently I noticed that my mac’s storage is almost full. It showed that “System” took up more than 200 GB. I thought that was ridiculous and googled for a bit.

I found that one solution is to boot my mac in safe mode. Apparently after booting in safe mode “System” will take up a sensible amount of storage.

The problem is, the built in keyboard on my mac is broken (the power button is still ok). I once took it to an Apple Store and they said that one of the wires/connector thingys disconnected or something like that.

So I connected a wireless keyboard via USB (in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, I plug a little USB stick into my mac and the keyboard talks to that via infrared or something like that) and tried to press the shift key with that keyboard.

However, safe mode just won’t boot this way. The progress bar always stuck at 100% and it just wouldn’t show the login screen. I later learned that apparently you can’t boot in safe mode when accessories are connected.

So how can I boot my mac in safe mode?

Note that these options are not available:

fixing my mac’s built-in keyboard
buying a new mac

Side note: I do a lot of iOS development on my mac and uses git for all my projects (20+ repos). For the developers out there, is it true that those files take up a lot of space and are classified as “System”?

Although this might be either a layered problem or an XY-Problem:
There are a few things to consider here.

The broken keyboard.

Using a directly USB-connected wired keyboard should work. This registers boot key combinations.
Using a directly connected wireless bluetooth keyboard – like a Magic Keyboard from Apple – should work, but it is a little bit finickier. If not done before the situation arose, it might be difficult to pair the Bluetooth keyboard with the Mac though.
A Bluetooth dongle should not work. the dongle is likely not properly operational in the crucial time frame (this  seems to be the current approach so far.)
In all cases it might be a good idea to disconnect all other peripherals anyway.

The exact problem with the internal keyboard is hard to see from the information given. But if it is indeed "one of the wires/connector thingys disconnected or something like that" then it might be worth a shot to open the MacBook and reseat the connector (although that seems bizarre as this would have been quite an easy fix for the AppleStore to apply). Nevertheless, if you cannot insist on the Store to do that for you, and if you cannot resist to do that by yourself: ifixit Step 33 shows the – from your description – most crucial part (be careful and read the entire guide at least three times before taken up a screwdriver for the first time.)

The non-booting Mac with "storage is almost full"
SafeMode is only so powerful:

  Apple: What is safe mode?
  Safe mode (sometimes called safe boot) is a way to start up your Mac so that it performs certain checks and prevents some software from automatically loading or opening. Starting your Mac in safe mode does the following:

  Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

  Loads only required kernel extensions
  Prevents startup items and login items from opening automatically
  Disables user-installed fonts
  Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

  The gains from deleting the caches are sometimes substantial. But SafeMode is no magic bullet either.

If the keyboard solutions above fail you might try to boot from another drive (you didn't indicate whether just Shift doesn't work or Option is defunct as well). When booted from another drive you might have much more control and higher gains in accessing your drive and delete some stuff on it.

In older Macs with more standard interfaces for the SSD it might be an option to remove the internal SSD and put it into an external enclosure, and then boot from yet another drive. that other drive should be picked up automatically even if nothing is selected or selectable, if it is bootable at all.

Conclusion

Try a wired USB keyboard. Any one. Shift should be a universal
constant across all models.


After asking to be remembered to return a call, geofence won't go off When someone called me, I tapped on the "Remind me later" button, I called back without the phone telling me, but I noticed that the geofence icon won't shut off even after resets. Why is this happening and how can I prevent it from draining my battery? According to the Location Settings the service that is using geofence is the location based alerts.

To disable the reminder, open Reminders.app and check the "Call [person]" reminder.

With location based reminders, they will go off every time you enter (or leave, depending on the setting) the area until you mark them as completed.

Very much a side note, but in iOS 9 you can now keep tabs on what apps are draining your battery. So if you are concerned about battery drain, go to Settings -> Battery and validate (or invalidate) those concerns.


Where are the POSIX message functions (msgsnd, msgrcv, etc) man pages in Mac? I wanted to view the manual pages for the POSIX standard message functions: msgsnd, msgrcv, etc. All of them are defined in sys/msg.h and code using them works. But the manual pages are nowhere to be found, neither in my computer (Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3), in my friends' (OS X Lion) or in the developer pages of Apple in Internet.

Where can I download that manual so I can access it right from terminal?

You can download them from http://manpages.ubuntu.com.

For example, to download man page msgsnd (3):

Search for msgsnd in the Google Custom Search field on the right hand side:

Click on the newest man page in section 3:

Download the linked .gz man page:

Copy it to the man directory:

If you want to keep system and additional man pages apart, copy it to /usr/local/share/man/man3/:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/man/man3/
sudo cp ~/Downloads/msgsnd.3posix.gz /usr/local/share/man/man3/

and add:

export MANPATH="/usr/local/share/man:$MANPATH"

to /etc/profile, if you wish the new man page to be available system-wide, or ~/.bash_profile, to be available to your user only (see man man, that is, man's man page, for more information on MANPATH.)

Open a new Terminal window or tab for changes to take effect.
Otherwise, copy the man page to /usr/share/man/man3:

sudo cp /Users/jaume/Downloads/msgsnd.3posix.gz /usr/share/man/man3/

Enjoy:

man 3 msgsnd

MSGSND(P)                POSIX Programmer's Manual                MSGSND(P)

NAME
       msgsnd - XSI message send operation
(...)


clang static analyzer I'd like to use scan-build. The official site says there are pre-built binaries for it, but fails to provide any links to them:
https://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/installation
How do I install clang-analyzer?

From the main page:

The analyzer is 100% open source and is part of the Clang project. Like the rest of Clang, the analyzer is implemented as a C++ library that can be used by other tools and applications.

Emphasis mine
Download the Clang project and the analyzer will be included.


Do non-Thunderbolt monitors work with a DVI-D adapter on a Thunderbolt MacBook Pro? I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011). I want to hook two Dell monitors to it. They have VGA and DVI ports each.

I will be using the current DVI port on the MacBook Pro.

Will the Thunderbolt port work with a non-Thunderbolt monitor if I find a Thunderbolt to DVI-D adapter?

I have the same MBP.  It only has a single displayport/thunderbolt output, which can drive a single monitor.  The only way for it to drive multiple external displays is to use a daisy chained Thunderbolt display, or an adapter that drives multiple displays from a single input (Matrox makes one) or possibly a usb driven adapter.


Can I force Safari to show the toolbar in login windows? When I buy something on a website, Safari often opens a popup window for payment (e.g. for logging into PayPal).

This popup doesn't have a toolbar, which means my password manager extension (1Password) is not visible and I can't autofill anything. In the menu bar, there's no command View->Toolbar. How can I get the toolbar to show up?

Use the 1Password autofill keyboard shortcut Command + \ to fill the login information.

You don’t need the toolbar visible in order to invoke 1Password. Heck, you can even get rid of the 1Password extension from the Safari toolbar and work solely with this keyboard shortcut.

This keyboard shortcut is set by default by 1Password.


Unlocked iPhone replacement If an iPhone is locked, then unlocked and then replaced for a refurbished one in an Apple Store, will the new one remain unlocked?

Locking has to do with the device itself, not your SIM card or cellular account. So you would need to have the new device unlocked as well. Assuming, though, that you qualified to have the initial device unlocked (per whatever terms and conditions your carrier specifies), you would presumably be able to have the new one unlocked without any problem.


Could the Java Updater (com.oracle.java.Java-Updater) be the source of all my kernel panics? In the past few months I've been getting more kernel panics than usual. This is on my late 2012 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 Mac Mini, running OS X Yosemite (OS X 10.2.2) with 16 GB of RAM.

Looking at the console logs following the last panic, I can see that immediately before the crash, com.oracle.java.Java-Updater had been spamming my log. Here's a sample:

3/20/15 11:58:45.317 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.oracle.java.Java-Updater[77795]) Could not find and/or execute program specified by service: 2: No such file or directory: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Java Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/Java Updater
3/20/15 11:58:45.317 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.oracle.java.Java-Updater[77795]) Service setup event to handle failure and will not launch until it fires.
3/20/15 11:58:45.321 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.oracle.java.Java-Updater[77796]) Could not find and/or execute program specified by service: 2: No such file or directory: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Resources/Java Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/Java Updater
3/20/15 11:58:45.321 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.oracle.java.Java-Updater[77796]) Service setup event to handle failure and will not launch until it fires.
# CRASH HAPPENS HERE!!!
3/20/15 11:58:46.037 PM sample[77799]: assertion failed: 14C109: libxpc.dylib + 75491 [876216DC-D5D3-381E-8AF9-49AE464E5107]: 0x8d
3/20/15 11:58:46.037 PM sample[77799]: assertion failed: 14C109: libxpc.dylib + 34510 [876216DC-D5D3-381E-8AF9-49AE464E5107]: 0x8d
3/20/15 11:58:46.065 PM sample[77799]: assertion failed: 14C109: libxpc.dylib + 34510 [876216DC-D5D3-381E-8AF9-49AE464E5107]: 0x8d
3/20/15 11:58:47.076 PM sample[77799]: assertion failed: 14C109: libxpc.dylib + 34510 [876216DC-D5D3-381E-8AF9-49AE464E5107]: 0x8d
3/20/15 11:59:17.000 PM bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1426910357 0
3/21/15 12:00:33.000 AM syslogd[17]: Configuration Notice: ASL Module "com.apple.AccountPolicyHelper" claims selected messages. Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.

From what it looks like, com.oracle.java.Java-Updater had sent around 77,000 message like this before crapping out.

I'm out of ideas — both regarding whether Java is actually responsible, and if so what to do. I need Java for a few programs I run, so deleting it isn't an option, unfortunately.

These message aren't being produced by Java. Launchd is part of OS X that manages scheduled jobs, amongst other things. The messages you are seeing here are launchd trying (unsuccessfully) to launch the Java Updater. It appears that the Java Updater is either partially or completely missing from your machine.

If you check the folder /Library/LaunchAgents/ on your Mac you should find a file called com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist. This file instructs launchd to run Java Updater once a week at a specific time.

If you need Java I would recommend uninstalling Java and then installing Java again from scratch. If you are using the Java Development Kit rather than the Java Runtime you can find uninstall instructions here and the install here.

Having said all this, I wouldn't expect this to cause kernel panics. This is simply a piece of software being repeatedly called to run and repeatedly failing. As klanomath mentioned you might want to check the kernel panic logs. You can find them in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. They'll be called something like Kernel_DATE-TIME_COMPUTERNAME.panic.


Is there a better way to travel internationally with an iPhone (3GS/4 specifically)? I've travelled to Europe and Asia quite a bit with iPhones with no problems (I live in the US), except for the fact that making calls anywhere outside the US is crazy expensive and of course I wouldn't dare turn on data roaming for fear of the thousand-dollar bill.

These days, though, is there not a better way? Can I not go into a shop in the UK and buy a pay-as-you-go micro-sim for 30GBP and call/data away? Is my iPhone (3GS and 4) permanently and forever locked to AT&T unless I jailbreak it, even with a different sim card?

I'm willing to jailbreak my 3GS to accomplish this mission, but I'd like to hear from someone with real-world experience before doing so.

Thanks!

As you've pointed out, US iPhones are locked to AT&T. Fundamentally, that's your only real issue here. If you can unlock your iPhone, then your suggesting of just picking up a micro-sim and using it for data and calls works perfectly. In the UK, we can buy iPhones unlocked, and get our network operators to unlock them.

What you described is exactly what I've done when travelling abroad, but it's entirely reliant on having an unlocked device to start with. From there, you should be good to go. In the UK, there's a massive range of low-cost, pay as you SIM only options to choose from. O2 do a big range of SIM only deals, including micro-sim plans (see here).

The other option to consider is, if you're looking to upgrade to an iPhone 4 anytime soon, buy it abroad, from the UK, unlocked, and then you won't have to jailbreak it in the future. UK and European iPhone models will work perfectly well in the US, and they come with a global warranty as well.


iPhone Taskbar close all applications Is there a way to close all application in the taskbar at once?

No.

You have to manually remove each one.


How can I divide a range of cells by another range of cells and then sum them up I have a table like this

how can I do the same thing in Numbers like this

the screenshot comes from excel, if I do the same thing in Numbers, I will get a complain like this:The range E3:E7 can’t be used as a single value.


Does T-Mobile's network in the US allow an iPhone 3GS work as well as the iPhone 5? Buying an unlocked iPhone makes it cheaper to find a iPhone 3/3GS than a 4 than a 4S than a 5. Please assume that I know and am aware of all the other benefits of newer hardware like cameras, running iOS 6 (in the case of the iPhone 3), more RAM/faster CPU so that cheaper hardware will likely be both older and slower. However, functionally with the network connectivity, is there a difference?

But for someone that will only call, text, use maps and very lightly use Safari, my thinking is that I shouldn't spend any extra money and get the oldest phone for a friend that is constrained to T-Mobile.

Does the T-Mobile network / infrastructure only work with 3G or am I incorrect in thinking that newer phones don't work any better with T-Mobile's 2012/2013 network frequencies?

No He will be stuck on IOS 4 most popular apps have support for ios5 or higher
I have a 3g 16gb too old espically for a newbie. Get the 3GS unlocked version if you want to be cheap/ most bang for bucks. He wil be stuck on EDGE until Tmobile finishes adding 3g Support for unlocked iphones. They have done a few cities google which ones
16/32gb 3GS is the best in my opinion. Favcetime and stuff is impossible over 3g unless you can find a ip4 off contract for sub 200 dollars then get tyhat i used  4 different iphones on tmobile 2g 3g 3gs ip4 been with them since 2001


Can't sign in with MS Lync Since I updated OS X to 10.8.5 a week ago, I have issues signing in with Microsoft Lync: the program crashes every time. I never had issues before so I thought the latest OS update caused the issue, however all my colleagues can use Lync as before.

I installed all Microsoft updates as well ...

Lync returns the following error details

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2013-10-22 09:06:43 +0000
Application Name: Microsoft Lync
Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.Lync
Application Signature: UCCP
Application Version: 14.0.0.110823
Crashed Module Name: libsystem_c.dylib
Crashed Module Version: unknown
Crashed Module Offset: 0x000026c0
Blame Module Name: Microsoft Lync
Blame Module Version: 14.0.0.110823
Blame Module Offset: 0x01f098f7
Application LCID: 1031
Extra app info: Reg=English Loc=0x0407
Crashed thread: 0

Any ideas? thx!

Solved this today. I'm not sure what finally solved it but this is what I did ...

Install the latest Mountain Lion Update which was published today
Completely uninstall Lync as described here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2691870
Reinstall Lync + do the Lync update to v14.0.6
Change my password - as my old one contained a German special character.


Mail crashes permanently - can't open it anymore I have a question and need a bit of help.
I do have my complete mails on my Mac since 2012. Now today Apple Mail crashes when I opened it. I looked up where the files are and I do have more then 105 GB of mails in the Library.
Now - YES - I could delete all folders - which would take away all my infos from the past.
I can't get in and archive or do anything.
Is there any fix to that or do I need to start new ??

First, try rebuilding your Mails' Envelope Index..

To do this:

log into your user
make sure Mail is NOT running.
pull down "Go", click (near the bottom item) "Go to Folder", and insert this in the window:  ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/
Look for:  Envelope Index
Delete it (drag to trash).. DO NOT EMPTY TRASH YET...
restart Mail.  It will tell you that it needs to rebuild the account.. this could take seconds, minutes, or hours..... do not interrupt it...

This is the fastest/best way to rebuild your Mail account...


How do I reset the settings of an app that only shows in the menu bar? (Chatty - facebook messenger) My problem is that I toggled a setting which told the app to only show in the menu bar but now I can't access the settings at all. I want to reset the settings for the Chatty mac app but I can't find out how to do this. I have reached out to the developer too but I've not had a response as of yet.

I have tried right clicking and all sorts of alt, cmd and shift combinations on the menu bar icon yet nothing comes up like any other app.
I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling but it remembers my settings and also my login information.
Lastly I tried looking for a settings file in Library\Application Support etc but cannot seem to find anything.

If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks in advance.

The standard hotkey for accessing an app's preferences/settings is ⌘ and ,.

Please test this to see if it solved your problem.


OSX default file permissions when copying/saving files Every time I save a file from a web browser or copy files from our local server to my machine, the default permission "for everyone" is set to none.
I'm a web developer. Files that are non-readable will not be displayed when accessed from an Apache server.

That means I always have to go through every file manually and change their permissions.

Is there a way to tell OSX that all files should be readable?

From the terminal you can use the chmod command to change permissions. In this case the command would be chmod a+r *. This would change all files in a folder. If you want to do this from the Finder, you would have to create a service. You could then select a group of files and change all of them at once. The instructions are given below.

Open the Automator application.
Select "Service" and click "Choose".
Drag the action "Run AppleScript" to where it says "Drag actions or
files here to build your workflow".
Set "Service receives selected text in any application" to
"Service receives selected files or folders in Finder".
Replace the code

on run {input, parameters}

    (* Your script goes here *)

    return input
end run

with

on run {input, parameters}
    try
        repeat with currentfile in input
            try
                do shell script "chmod a+r " & quoted form of POSIX path of currentfile
            end try
        end repeat
    end try
    return input
end run

Save service as "Readable by All".
Quit the Automator application.

The service should have been saved in the ~/Library/Services folder under the name Readable by All.workflow. If not, move it there.

Now when you highlight one or more files using the Finder application, you can right click and select "Readable by All" to change the permissions.


New iPhone 6s lost the new photos after synching to iTunes (restore old back up of iPhone 5s) I have new iPhone 6s with lots of holiday photos. After synching to itunes, with only intention to sync the contacts, iTunes prompt me 2 question: Set as new iphone and recover old back up. I chose the latter, and lost all my new photos.

I have tried few software to recover data directly from ios, itunes back up. None of it working. I disabled icloud, so theres no back up in icloud too.

Is there anyway to recover my lost photos?

Whichever you chose, you should have done it the minute you got the new phone, then the transition would have been seamless.

There's now no way to recover the intermediate data, unless it it was also backed up on iCloud.


How do I delete other available networks from network scan list? My Macbook Pro (v10.6.8) is constantly automatically connecting to a neighbor's wifi - event though I've never connected to that network, and I have my own Wifi connection prioritized.  The system is constantly scanning for Other Networks and lists all of my neighbors' network ahead of mine.  I frequently need to reset the connection.  How do I remove the list of available networks, OR disable the system from scanning the neighborhood, OR lock the Wifi connection to my in-home network? Thanks!

You could check your "Preferred Networks" and make sure your WiFi Access point is listed first.

To do this Open the System Preferences and select "Network" then Select the WiFi network and click the Advanced button:

With the WiFi tab selected from the Advanced sheet you should see a list of your preferred networks, Add, Remove, Reorder as you see fit.


Can I get iPhoto's albums to work like folders instead of labels? My wife has been trained for years with the desktop metaphor of a file living inside one (and only one) folder.  iPhoto uses the "label" paradigm that Gmail has where photos can live inside multiple albums.  But she hates that.

She wants to start with a folder full of all of her photos and then be able to segregrate them into different folders (or albums) so that when she is done, the original folder is empty.  And she can be sure a photo isn't duplicated anywhere.

Can I make iPhoto work like this? (besides copying photos and then deleting from the original album)

No - iPhoto is a database and it handles all storage of original photos as well as the edited version of the photo. Albums are pointers to photos that exist in events. You can think of events as somewhat inflexible folders since there is a one to one correspondence between photos and events, but not photos and albums.

You might have a look at PhotoMechanic which stores all photos in the filesystem and you can leverage familiarity with that idiom to not be surprised by a photo appearing in an album but be stored elsewhere.

Since iPhoto doesn't really duplicate photos when you place a photo in one album or another, it's not clear if there is a worry about duplicates or a an actual workflow issue that will systematically create duplicates of your photos.

You will have to make a call on how much time to spend learning a new program versus becoming comfortable with how iPhoto works - but most people can quickly learn to avoid actions that preclude having iPhoto duplicate photos without you being aware of the duplication.


Replacing Yosemite RED/ORANGE/GREEN window buttons with standard Mac OS X icons? I've tried Yosemite on my MacBook Air (testing machine). I think it is ugly, bland, and the most un-Apple-ish OS that Apple has ever released. One of the most irritating design aspects is the RED/AMBER/GREEN window buttons (Close/minimise etc) which look to me like they were designed by a child.

Are there any tricks or methods for replacing the Yosemite rendition of these Mac OS X buttons with the usual ones we are all familiar with?

There are some applications that allow you to change the theme in OS X.

However they might need a little time to be updated for the new UI in Yosemite.

For example Flavours which is being updated but isn't quite ready yet.


Uninstalled CleanMyMac still shows notifications I had installed CleanMyMac before, and have already uninstalled it.

However, I got the notification saying "It's time to clean your mac".

How is this possible and how can I avoid this?

The interesting thing about uninstalling CleanMyMac is that the best application for the job is, in fact CleanMyMac.

If you set it to uninstall itself, it will tidily clean up its own leftovers before finally quitting & trashing itself.

It is, in fact, probably quicker to re-install it, then get it to uninstall itself than to pick apart where the leftovers are.

Ref: MacPaw FAQs
How To Uninstall CleanMyMac 2?  &
How to Uninstall CleanMyMac 3


Cannot run refind-install from Recovery because "/usr/bin/env: bad interpreter" I have managed to change the present working directory to the folder containing downloaded rEFInd files. I have booted to Recovery Mode. The refind-bin-0.11.3 folder was downloaded to my Downloads folder.

I came across a new problem: ‘bad interpreter: no such file or directory’.

How can I fix this problem?

I suspect the ‘refind-install’ script has a shebang pointing to /usr/bin/env, such as

#!/usr/bin/env bash

The Recovery environment doesn't have a /usr/bin/env, so attempting to access that path returns the error that there's ‘no such file or directory’ there.

You can manually choose a shell to execute a script with by passing the script to the shell:

bash ./refind-install

Alternatively, you should be able to edit the script to point directly at the shell. Replace the first line in the script with something like this, presuming the line above is what's in the file.

#!/bin/bash

Note the space has been removed.

I have `/usr/bin/env` in my "Macintosh HD" but not in the recovery partition. Is this normal?


Can't relaunch/use finder on a 2019 MacBook Pro The finder app on my new 2019 MacBook Pro is unresponsive and if I relaunch it then nothing happens.

It's a newer MacBook and thus the power button is the touch ID button. I tried to power off the MacBook by holding down the touch ID/power button but that doesn't work.

I also let the battery run out hoping that that would power down the machine but it appears to only go to sleep.

So how can I fix finder on this new touch ID MacBook pro that I can't seem to shutdown.

..and of course I can't shut it down via the apple logo in the upper left.

When you relaunch Finder, are you doing this from the Force Quit Applications menu? If you haven't done this, try pressing command+option+esc keys and the Force Quit Applications menu should pop up, then relaunch Finder from there.

If this fails, you can also try force a reboot by pressing Control+Command+Touch ID/Power button keys.

If this also fails, and you have access to Spotlight, search for the Terminal app. Once in Terminal, you can force a reboot by typing sudo reboot. It will prompt you with your password, but it won't show in the terminal window as you type it. Just hit the return key when you've finished typing your password and it should force your MacBook to reboot.

Hope this helps.


TextEdit issue opening file Right clicking on a file -> Open With -> TextEdit. Instead of opening the original file, TextEdit creates a copy of it and opens that one.

As an administrator, I have both read & write permissions. I don't see anything relevant in the App's settings.

Any ideas how to fix this?

[Added] This started happening after I had to restart the system by...pulling the plug on it. I had a hanged-up app (not TextEdit) that would ignore the Force Quit command; in fact, it wasn't even listed as a process so I had nothing to kill to begin with.

[2nd Edit] If I start TextEdit first, and open the file from within, it works. I'm thinking that this may be a LaunchServices issue.

I discovered that having the Stationery pad checked under a file's properties will cause this behavior on purpose. This will create a new copy of an existing file every time it is opened, no matter the program doing so. (I suspect this flag became corrupted due to me having to "hard reset" the system.)

Of course, after all was said & done, I was able to find an explanation here.


Camera not working again on mid 2013 Macbook Air after the second 10.8.5 upgrade As mentioned here, the first 10.8.5 upgrade made the camera unavailable for Skype. This being totally unacceptable to me, I applied the fix that was around on macrumours, I backed up the AppleCamera.plugin under /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/, deleted it, and put the 10.8.4 version of the file there. This fixed it until yesterday, when I applied the second 10.8.5 update. The update didn't complain about anything, but now the camera doesn't work again. I've tried using the backed up file, the 10.8.4 again, and the new version that a friend who didn't apply the fix got from the new update (which I didn't). His AppleCamera.plugin is 2.3MB in size, while mine is 2.2MB or 2.4MB (backed up / 10.8.4).

I'm sure everyone who applied that fix is now with the same problem, but I can't find anyone mentioning anything anywhere. Help!

So, if I understand correctly, you did these steps:

Upgraded to 10.8.5
Found the camera didn't work in Skype
Backed up /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/AppleCamera.plugin
Put AppleCamera.plugin from 10.8.4 in its place
Camera worked
Upgraded to 10.8.5 Supplemental Update
Camera broken again

The Supplemental Update does include a copy of AppleCamera.plugin (see below), so one quick thing to try:

Put your copy of AppleCamera.plugin from step (3) back into place
Download the 10.8.5 Supplemental Update again.  You can get it as a DMG file from Apple DL1686
Re-run that update (double click the .pkg file in the DMG)

By the way, you can see what files are contained within the update: double click the .pkg file, then choose File > Show Files from the installer.


How do I view the transaction list for my debit card on Apple Pay? I just got the iPhone 6 and I started using Apple Pay. I added my Bank of America debit card and an American Express credit card. Now whenever I use my Amex one, I get a notification as soon as I use it, and my last transaction is showing with the amount and the location, and I could also open a list to show the most recent transactions. My debit card doesn't do that at all. No notifications, no dollar amount, just says "Dallas, TX --" and doesn't put the dollar amount. I went into settings and into my BofA card and there's not even a "Card Notifications" slider so I can turn it on. Is there any way to bypass or fix this?

BoA does have the mobile banking app.

  Mobile Banking Alerts

  Stay on top of your accounts

  AlertsFootnote 1 are customizable and can keep you informed of just
  about everything that happens with your account. Stay in the know
  about direct deposits, personal information changes, bill due dates
  and more. Even find out when your account balance gets low so you can
  make a deposit to help avoid overdraft charges and other fees.

  Information Icon Alerts are available exclusively in our iPhone, iPad
  and Android Apps.


iPhone reports 2 Hotspot connections even though only one of my devices is connected I connected to an iPhone Hotspot with a MacBook. I got internet access. Within 15-sec, the iPhone said there was a second Hotspot connection. I toggled Hotspot, reconnected, and still 2 connections. Finally, I turned off Hotspot, changed password, and re-connected the MacBook. A second connection did not happen.

My initial password was not easy to guess p:Fucrj346Q!. I've never been in this location before. What could have caused the iPhone to report having 2 connections initially?

note: I'm at a hospital where there is an enormous number of magnetic / electrical / radioactive based monitoring equipment.

Other devices (including iPads, iPods, Macs, and other iPhones) connected to the same iCloud account as your iPhone will, if in WiFi range, automatically connect to your iPhone's hotspot when it's turned on (according to this Apple Support page and my personal experience). That means if any of your other devices are lying around, they will automatically connect to your iPhone's hotspot using iCloud.

tl;dr: Other devices tied to the same iCloud account might automatically be joining your iPhone's hotspot network.


Pointing devices not properly recognized and won't left/right click after upgrade to Mountain Lion Have loved my Magic Trackpad since it first came out. Since upgrading to Mountain Lion, the system fails to recognize the Trackpad after a reboot. I need to pull the batteries, reload them, and power the Trackpad on... then the Mac sees it. But even then, it won't accept any clicks, it just moves the cursor around. I also tried an old fashioned USB mouse... it needs to be unplugged and plugged back in, but like the Trackpad, that allows cursor movement, but it also won't accept clicks (which makes me believe it is not a Trackpad problem). The machine is a MacPro 3,1 dual quad-core (2008).

My workaround in the meantime is (I think) going to be to remove my wife's user account, then I don't need to click to choose the user. But it is extremely annoying.

Anyone else come across this and have a fix?

Go to System Preferences, then click on Trackpad.  You will have to add the use three fingers to swipe box, as well as unclicking the natural scroll box in the scroll/zoom tab.  Hopefully this helps.


Why can't I create a directory under /opt without sudo? Mac 10.11.5 (El Capitan) here. I just tried creating a directory under /opt:

myUser$ mkdir /opt/bupo
mkdir: /opt/bupo: Permission denied

Why would I need to prefix this with sudo and then authenticate myself in order for this command to work? If I were to use sudo mkdir /opt/bupo, then what user would actually be creating + owning this bupo/ directory, would it be root?

Only the root user can write to the root of the file system. So, it is safe to assume that the /opt directory is owned by root. The default umask would make that directory read, write, and executable to the owner;
read and executable to the group; read and executable to others/everyone.

If you use sudo mkdir /opt/bupo the directory would be owned by the root user.


How to extract data from the iphone backup on the PC I have a huge amount of image files on my Whatsapp, which are locally stored on the iPhone.

I do not see any way of moving these specific files from the iPhone to the PC, whereas of course from android this is as simple as connecting a USB cable between the two.

I have this iphone backup located in
C:\Users\%user%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup\%some code%\
but the folder and file structure is seemingly encoded in a way only itunes/apple can decode.

Is there a way to extract an arbitrary file from the iphone?
Thank you.

Well, I´m not a pro-windows user here, but I do use some good old USB connection from my Iphone and my work computer using Autoplay

So, if you did save your images locally into your device, you should be able to get them from there !

Otherwise you should change the parameters of Whatsapp to save your image into your Photos and then try Autoplay.

As you said, it is as simple as connecting a USB cable between the two.


Why can't I update to iTunes 10.6 via Software Update on Lion? I'm currently running OS X version 10.7.4 and iTunes 10.3.1 -- I noticed iTunes 10.6 has the coveted full-screen mode, but I've updated everything in Software Update and there is still no mention of any upgrades to iTunes. Is it possible my hardware doesn't support iTunes 10.6? I'm using an early 2008 Macbook with an Intel GMA X3100, but that shouldn't make a difference to iTunes. Any other possible reasons why I wouldn't be able to update?

I don't know whether Apple delivers these upgrades via Software Update at all (maybe just the minor ones). But you can easily download the current version of iTunes directly from Apple's iTunes page.


What is the last macbook or macbook pro model that had a replaceable battery and hdd? I was thinking of buying a used macbook or macbook pro and plan to replace the battery and HDD

As far as I am aware you can replace the battery and HDD/SSD on most MacBook Pro models. Have a look at the manuals on iFixit.

MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Mid 2014:

You can replace the battery like this
And the SSD like this.

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012:

I think the last HDD MacBook Pro. No retina display, but you can replace the optical drive and use a 2nd HDD/SSD instead.


Command Line method to backup using two Time Machine disks Does anyone know of a command line method to select the active Time Machine disk? I would like to alternate between two backup disks for redundancy. I would like this to be automated, presumably via cron, perhaps launchd.

There is an AppleScript method to swap disks, but I am doing remote system administration and cannot rely on GUI scripting. I would presume there is sufficient control of Time Machine using the defaults command, but am not sure how to achieve this yet.

Note: The restore component of backing up like this has not yet been tested.
Get the ID of the attached drive
defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine BackupAlias

Eject, plug in 2nd drive, make it the Time Machine drive with the GUI, repeat.
Write (rather than read) the ID:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine BackupAlias '<00000000 014e0002 ....>'

source & thanks to Christian Stocker. Key comments from that post:

http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/defaults.1.html "WARNING: The defaults command will be changed in an upcoming major release to only operate on preferences domains. General plist manipulation utilities will be folded into a different command-line program."

Also the property DestinationVolumeUUID should be set.


ssh-keygen -R saying (wrongly) no matches found I've come across the not-uncommon issue where ssh keys on a host have changed, so they don't match what's saved in my ~/.ssh/known_hosts file. When I connect (in this case via an Ansible playbook), it freaks out with "WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!", yada yada yada.
The usual fix for this is to run ssh-keygen -R <host-ip-or-name>, which deletes the offending entry. In this case the host is an ip:port combo, so I tried to run it like this:
ssh-keygen -R [xxx.xxx.xx.xxx]:yyyyy
Instead of updating known_hosts, I get a message returned that says:
zsh: no matches found: [xxx.xxx.xx.xxx]:yyyyy
I tried running it without the port, just in case (ssh-keygen -R xxx.xxx.xx.xxx). That gives a "host not found" error.
What am I doing wrong?

The problem was actually the zsh shell. Given the [xxx.xxx.xx.xxx]:yyyyy syntax, zsh was interpreting the []s as a globbing pattern. That's why I was getting a "zsh: no matches found" error.
In the old Bash shell, this isn't a problem, and the command I gave runs perfectly.
The solution in zsh is to quote the whole hostname, like this:
ssh-keygen -R "[xxx.xxx.xx.xxx]:yyyyy"


Is it advisable to replace the internal HDD of an old Mac mini by a Solid State Drive? I have an old Mac mini 1.1 updated 2.1 (2.0Ghz CPU/4 GB RAM).

My problem:
Flash videos use all CPU resources and my Mac gets very hot.

My question is: Is it advisable to buy a Solid State Drive and put it in and use it or is it time to sell my Mac mini?

Can someone please upload a video showing a working Mac mini with an SSD? How does Flash on it and an app stress test.

Since the decoding of Flash videos primarily stresses CPU and depending on the codec and the video card the GPU an SSD doesn't help much (assumed you have enough RAM).

Another caveat is the internal HD Interface of the Mac mini 1.1/2.1: Serial ATA (1.5 Gb/s) which roughly equals to a max. throughput of 150 MB/s. Modern SSDs provide up to 600 MB/s / 500 MB/s (read / write). As a consequence you will lose up to 2/3 of the possible bandwidth by attaching the SSD to your internal interface.

So better save the money and get a more recent Mac.


How can I get iTerm out of fullscreen mode? I must have hit some keystrokes which got me stuck in full screen mode and there are no resize icons when you over mouse at top of screen even though the task bar shows up.  How do I get out of full screen without restarting iTerm?

This was probably how I got stuck there in the first place.  You can toggle full screen mode with the ⌘ Command⏎ Enter keyboard shortcut.


Any productivity tip for using OS X with only one arm, like Windows its sticky key? Google mostly returns Apple's accessibility API and other programming resources.

But I'd want to know, for example, what is Mac OS X version 10.7.4 equivalent of 'sticky key' in Windows.

Any other productivity tip for using OS X with only one arm?

In System Preferences, click Universal Access then Keyboard:

You'll find the options for sticky keys in there.


Can iTunes Match recognize songs recorded from analog sources (line-in, cassette, vinyl LP, or FM radio), or only digitally-extracted CD audio? This question about converting cassette music for an iPod inspired me to ask:

Can the iTunes Match service provided by Apple recognize songs recorded from an analog source, such as recording via analog line-input from a cassette player, an LP turntable, or any other device's line-out .. say, even FM radio?

Has anybody tried a variety of analog sources with iTunes Match?  Was there any success, mixed or otherwise, or no success?

What is publicly known about the iTunes Match analysis process or algorithms, and knowing how those may function, is it reasonable to expect that the service would work on an analog recording as well?  Other than quality, is there something inherent to music extracted/ripped digitally from a CD that lends itself to easier analysis for matching?

UPDATE:  I found this thread at Apple Support communities which contains strong anecdotal evidence that audio recorded from vinyl LP can be matched.  I'm still interested in knowing if other sources can be matched as well (cassette, FM radio, etc.)

Analog Source over Line-In → iTunes Match:  It works!  Kind of.

I just ran my experiment.  While I don't have a cassette player handy, I did have the means to make a reasonably good quality analog recording to try with iTunes Match, as follows:

I used this old CD player:

And this excellent CD:

I plugged the CD player into my Windows* PC's blue audio input (line in) with this cable:

I recorded the entire CD using EAC's "Record WAV" feature. Then, I split up the resulting single, large WAV file into individual WAV files (using EAC's "Process WAV" menu item.)  I judged the track boundaries by eye/ear, and I ended up within a second or two of the actual track lengths reported elsewhere.
I compressed the WAVs into MP3 using EAC w/LAME.
I renamed and copied the resulting MP3 files to my Mac.
I added the MP3s to iTunes, and then added them to iCloud.  After a few minutes, iTunes Match finished doing its thing, and 10 of 11 tracks were Matched.  Proof:

Summary

It doesn't appear that a strictly digital-sourced (i.e. ripped) MP3 input is required for iTunes Match to succeed (somewhat) at matching.  However, I did make sure line levels were appropriate during recording to avoid clipping, and though my recording was analog, the source is high quality.

What I still don't know is if iTunes Match would work with audio cassette, LP, or FM-sourced audio.  Does anybody care to run a follow-up experiment? :-)

* (my apologies for using Windows for the recording part of this experiment. I'm not yet familiar with audio recording/editing on the Mac.)


Hands free auto repeat. Hidden feature or stuck key? I have a new MacBook Pro. Twice so far I have pressed a key and removed my hands from the keyboard, yet the key continued to repeat.  Once it was the delete key (fn-Delete, the backspace function), and another time it was the g key.

Just want to know if this was a simple matter of the key getting stuck, or if I accidentally pressed some other key combination that causes this to happen.

Rather than an exorcist, I'd take it to an Apple Store, because the keys should not repeat unless you let them pressed. There are various factors than can cause this behavior, but if the machine is relatively new, there shouldn't be any reason for this to happen. Most of the ideas come from a Software malfunction, some utility misbehaving or such.

I suggest you create a new user and work a few hours/days from there to see if it happens again. If it never happens, migrate your data to this new account and problem fixed. If it keeps happening, rush it to an appstore and see what happens. It's not common. Good luck!


Remove my full name from startup screen Whenever I open the computer the login screen shows up with my account picture and full name. Is there any way to remove it or replace it with the account name or something like that?

You can change the Full Name for a given user account. From Apple:

  Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
  If the lock icon in the corner of the window is locked, click the icon to unlock it. Enter the admin name and password, if prompted.
  From the list of users, open a shortcut menu by Control+clicking the user that you want to rename. Choose "Advanced Options" from the
  shortcut menu.
  Change the name in the "Full name" field, then click OK.

Changing the Full Name here will change the name shown on the login screen you described. DO NOT change the short name (or anything else for that matter). Read the warning if you are tempted to change anything other than the Full Name:

Given this warning I would highly recommend making a backup before performing any changes.

I can confirm that updating the Full Name (and nothing else) here will not prevent you from logging in. However, there is always the chance that this will have other unintended consequences. If needed, you could take these steps again to revert back to the accounts original Full Name.


iPhone connects to WiFi but drops Internet connection I am able to connect to WiFi alright, but the Internet connection drops off after about 60 seconds.

In the routers console, the assigned IP address is shown which matches with one on the device.

In the current connections list in routers, the iPhone is listed.

After 60 seconds of connection to the WiFi, when the Internet connectivity drops off, the IP address in the connections list in the router for the iPhone changes to 192.2.28.112 and the host name changes to Static IP. I am unsure why this is happening. The mac address for the listed item matches with that of my iPhone.

All the iPhone network settings are at default. I have tried restarting the device and resetting network settings on both the router and the iPhone.

The model is an iPhone 6. I have had this problem ever since the day I bought it. I have faced similar issue with one of my friends computer. All the other devices never face any issues with the WiFi.

Current router settings matched with the one recommended by Apple. There are no special items such as MAC filters enabled in the router.

This is abnormal behaviour, and therefore probably a bug in either your wireless router or iOS, more likely your router. It seems to assign your iPhone a static IP after some time for no visible reason (although you haven't used a setting to tell your router to do that).

A list of what you should try, try one after another if it still does not work:

Check for firmware updates for your wireless router. That rules out any known issue to the manufacturer, where fixes are already available.
Reset your wireless router to factory defaults, as that rules out any issues with configuration (intended or unintended).
Tell your iPhone to "forget" your wireless network, and connect to it again, supplying the password. That way, you're ruling out any issues with configuration files with your particular network.
Make an encrypted backup of your iPhone using iTunes if you want to be able to rollback any of the following changes.
Reset your iPhone's network settings (In Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings). You'll have to reconnect to all wireless networks again, as it also deletes passwords, but it makes sure that no issues exist in configuration files regarding general network configuration.
Do a factory restore on your iPhone. If it works now, try restoring the backup and check if the issue is still fixed.
If it still does not help, you might consider calling Apple support (although there is not much more they can do).


One click switch between Windows and MacOS I am looking for a solution that would allow me to quickly switch between my Mac and Windows machine. Both are sitting on my desktop and it is a pain to change the keyboard, mouse and display cables each time.

I have both computers plugged into the same monitor but I still need to change the source on the display.

Is it possible to solve this reliably somehow?

What you need is a KVM [keyboard, video & mouse] switch
Which type would depend on your choices of input & output on both your machines.


find video codec from terminal I'm writing some shell scripts that automatically convert some video files. Except I don't want to run the conversion on files that are already h264 encoded. Is there a way I can tell via a terminal command whether a video has a certain codec?

This won't work for .avi files (at least it didn't for one I tried), but for .mp4 or .mov files, it should.

To list a file's codecs:

$ mdls -name kMDItemCodecs "/path/to/some/file.mp4"
kMDItemCodecs = (
    "H.264",
    AAC
)

To find files that are movies, but don't have the H.264 codec:

mdfind "kMDItemContentTypeTree == 'public.movie' && kMDItemCodecs != '*H.264*'"


Terminal has gone weird after screen sharing I used screen sharing on my Macbook Pro to remote control my friend's iMac.

Unfortunately, now my Terminal now says:

kellys-iphone-2:~ James$

Why is it now saying this all of a sudden? Where has kellys-iphone-2 come from? Should I be worried?

Thanks.

The default prompt in Mac OS X is derived from System Preferences -> Sharing -> Computer Name. If that is set correctly and you still see kellys-iphone in new terminal prompts, your terminal environment variable PS1 has been set in either .bashrc, .bash_profile or some other local file.

You can check which files set PS1 like so: grep PS1 ~/.*

Side note: If you see a line like this:

[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

which just means "if this is not an interactive shell, disregard the rest of this file" - so that's not the droids you're looking for.

That should reveal a file that has a line akin to this:

export PS1="\u@\h\w$ "

Or, if I'm right:

export PS1="kellys-iphone-2:\w "

Edit that file/line to reflect what you really want. More info about custom prompts in OS X


Return vs. AppleCare I received a set of AirPods Pro for Christmas. I've noticed the right AirPod produces noise almost like a white noise machine whenever I put it in Transparency Mode. It's distractingly lopsided. Looking on the internet, it looks like people are exchanging AirPods Pro that do that and successfully getting ones that don't do that. Assuming the gift was purchased within Apple's extended gift exchange period, would I be better off exchanging it or using AppleCare to get a replacement? I was trying to figure out if I'll end up with a refurbished one if I go through AppleCare.

I would always go through Apple service regardless of what you think the timing is - if you think the product needs repairing, the service wing is the best place to get that service and not returns.

Apple service parts are often of higher quality than the new since some new parts can have manufacturing anomalies and the service parts are tested to a much higher standard - after all, Apple knows that thousands of people are going to get a device that needs exchange immediately (DOA) and they know the service part has to be better than the new in the box experience.

(Also, Apple service is designed to get you service where Apple sales is designed to Make the sale / take your money. Why seek support from the sales floor when that phase of the transaction is concluded?)

As a class - I’ll take a refurb / repair / known good service part over a new in the box one any day if given the choice. I know refurbished has a bad rep from companies that do a crap job of quality. Apple wants you as a customer for life, so why would they stock the service department with something that won’t make you happy. You’re already bummed you need service and you don’t think Apple hasn’t stacked the deck so they can delight you better from service than new?


How can I see the system status during boot? I would like to monitor the messages generated when I boot my Mac, similar to what you on a *nix box. Is there key-combo to press/hold that will let me do this?

You have to press cmd + v upon startup to see the boot output. Press this right after the chime.

If you want to make that permanent, you should probably do something along the lines of:

sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

To undo the above:

sudo nvram boot-args=

in the Terminal. (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)

note: I haven’t tested the above commands, but I’m sure a google query will help you there if you want to make it permanent.


How do I invoke a service using Applescript? I'm using Circus Ponies NoteBook which doesn't support Applescript methods.  It does support creating services that can clip the current selection into a NoteBook page.  This allows me to select text and use the context menu to paste the text into a NoteBook page.  I'd like to do the exact same thing from an Applescript script.  Is there some way in Applescript to get a handle to an existing service, and send it a message?

Automator services can be run with the automator command line utility:

do shell script "automator ~/Library/Services/test.workflow -i input -d variable=value"

I couldn't get it to work with the service used by Circus Ponies NoteBook though.


Why is my iPhone 4S showing so much "Other" data in iOS 7? I've upgraded to iOS 7 on my iPhone 4s, cleared photos, cleared and turned off Photo Stream, deleted large apps, books, etc… and this is the 4th time I've installed iOS and started from scratch since the release of the new OS update, and yet I still get minimum of ~10GB of this "Other" data on my phone which doesn't let me include the data and files I want to have on my phone.

Any ideas or suggestions?

When you say that you've installed from scratch do you mean you restored the device and set it up as a new device without restoring from a backup? If not, try that.

The "Other" category for iOS storage contains a number of things including email, caches, settings, and so on. For >10GB of data I would guess its email attachments or the like.

If you have tried to set up the phone as a new device in iTunes, try resetting the iPhone from the phone instead:

Settings → General → Reset → Erase All Content and Settings

Once the phone reboots go through the setup on the phone, and then check your usage in:

Settings → General → Usage

That will tell you how much storage is available. It should be a more palatable number then what you've been seeing.


The shared library "Cloud Music Library" is not responding. (503) What is an error? I cannot log in to itunes store at all. What is wrong?

Re: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/210759/85275

"According to Apple Support System Status, now, the iTunes Store Service may be unavailable for some users."


Replacement for CGSession --suspend? I used to cause my iMac to put up its lock screen from shell scripts. It was dead simple:
'/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession' -suspend
In MacOS Big Sur, /User.menu/ is not at that location, and I cannot find a file named CGSession. What is the equivalent command line in Big Sur? I would like to avoid using root privilege for this task.

User.menu is but one of many missing on macOS Big Sur, namely Battery.menu, Bluetooth.menu, Clock.menu, Displays.menu, Eject.menu, IrDA.menu, UniversalAccess.menu, User.menu, and Volume.menu.
Assuming you have not changed the system default keyboard shortcut for Lock Screen, ⌃⌘Q, the following command in Terminal will lock the screen:
osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to key code 12 using {control down, command down}'

The first time I executed that command it failed and I was prompted with two dialog boxes, the first being:

After clicking OK, the second one was:

Clicking Open System Preferences took me to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility, where I clicked the check box for Terminal after unlocking the pane.
I then executed the command again in Terminal and it locked the screen.
After unlocking the screen, I then created a shell script as lockscreen in /usr/local/bin, e.g:
cd /usr/local/bin
sudo nano lockscreen

Added the following code:
#!/bin/zsh

osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to key code 12 using {control down, command down}'

Then pressed ⌃X followed by Y and then Enter, and back a the prompt:
sudo chmod +x lockscreen

I then executed the lockscreen command and it too worked, and without having to make any additional security changes. It also works when calling it from other shell scripts.

Note: If you prefer to use a osascript shebang, instead of zsh, use the following code:
#!/usr/bin/osascript

tell application "System Events" to key code 12 using {control down, command down}


How can I make a soft link in Lion? I realized today that an alias is not the same thing as a soft link in Lion. I made an alias of a folder in my Dropbox folder and moved the alias to my Desktop.

When I try to cd into this alias in terminal, the terminal notes that the alias is not a folder. In Ubuntu, I can, however, cd into a soft link.

How can I create a soft link in Lion? It would be convenient for me because I write python scripts that rely on soft links.

You can create soft links (a.k.a. symbolic links or symlinks) from the terminal, the same way as in any other Unix system.

I'm not familiar with Dropbox so I'll make up an example assuming that there is a folder Dropbox in your home directory:

cd ~
ln -s ~/Dropbox/aFolder Desktop/aFolder

Note that ln takes the link to create as its second argument; think of it like cp.

Also, a warning: if you create a soft link with a relative path, for example

cd ~/Desktop
ln -s ../Dropbox/aFolder aFolder

then the link will be relative to its location at the moment, not to the current directory when you created it! So, for example, if you moved it into ~/Desktop/Folders then it would be pointing at ~/Desktop/Dropbox instead of ~/Dropbox.


On High Sierra, how to make a writable disk image open a window automatically? I have some read-write disk images (some .dmg format, some in .sparseimage format) that I want to automatically open a Finder window to their base folders when I double-click them.  Up to now, I have been able to do that using the bless command, like:

sudo bless --folder dirPath --openfolder dirPath

but that no longer works as of High Sierra.  Is there an alternative?

It appears that Apple fixed this problem in High Sierra 10.13.4.


iPhone 4 doesn't prompt password verification when attempting to connect to AirPlay I'm trying to connect to an Airplay device in my class from an iPhone 4 (MD197LL/A) running iOS 7.1.2 (11D257), and when I select the device I would like to mirror to, it only displays the animation of the button being clicked, and displays the blue checkmark as if I had sucessfully connected.

However, the screen doesn't mirror the device, nor does it prompt for me to enter the passcode or display the it on the screen. Not only this, but it also doesn't show the one bar drop-down mirror switch when I select the device.

I am on the same network as my iPad 3 (MD329LL/A) running iOS 8.4 (12H143), which does prompt me to enter a passkey and displays it on the sceeen.

Note: It does this for every single device on the network, not exclusively the one I'm trying to connect to.

I spent a while recently pondering what I think is the same issue.

Eventually I found that AirPlay Mirroring requires an iPhone 4S or later.

So audio should play wirelessly from the iPhone 4, but screen mirroring won't work.

Hope that helps.


xhost on MacOS Catalina I am trying to work with Docker and a gui application and I need to use the xhost command.

I believe it used to exist but I don't see it. I also believe it is related to Quartz but running Quartz doesn't magically make the problem go away!

If XQuartz was installed previously, you have to enter the full path to xhost if the /opt/X11/bin folder wasn't added to your PATH or the system's PATH:
/opt/X11/bin/xhost

Run without any command line argument

... a message indicating whether or not access control is  currently enabled  is printed, followed by the list of those allowed to connect.  This is the only option that may be used from machines other than the controlling host.

Further help: man xhost (or man /opt/X11/share/man/man1/xhost.1 if the /opt/X11/share/man folder isn't considered by manpath).


How to make external display go to sleep after xx mins? I'm using my new 2016 12" Macbook as a "desktop" by connecting it to an external display, USB Keyboard/mouse and running it in "clamshell mode". Works beautifully except the display never goes to sleep. I was kinda figuring it would go to sleep just the same way the internal display does but it will stay on for hours if I let it. I did set up a hot-corner to sleep the display and that works fine but that means I always need to do it manually. How can I get this to work so that it acts normally? Do energy saver settings not apply to external displays?

As a first step I would reset both your NVRAM and SMC, as well as double check your Energy Saver settings.

Resetting the NVRAM on an early-2016 12" MacBook model

Follow these steps:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Resetting the SMC on an early-2016 12" MacBook model

Shut down your computer
Keep the power cable plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Energy Saver Settings

You don't specify in your question how you've configured your Energy Saver settings, but you may want to double-check what you've actually set under the Power Adapter tab. I've come across many instances where MacBook users forget that there's two tabs you can configure.


Is Apple ID related with developer ID before when I used to write some code on iOS, I think I had a developer account (which I also have now I think), however under some company. It was Company/Organization type.

I am no longer with that company.

I am interested, if I want to create a new developer account, what shall I do?

Shall I have to create also a new Apple ID also? next to new developer account?

All these are independent.

If you had  a developer account under some other company you should not use that as it really belongs to the company, and if they have good security they should have revoked it.

You can create as many Apple IDs and developer accounts as you want.

The developer id and the Apple Id can be the same which I think is what most people would want - as long it is personal and not related to any company or organisation.

I have separate Apple IDs and development accounts for historical reasons as the developer account started long before there was an @mac.com domain for apple ids.

I actually have two developer accounts, one for personal use and one for use when at work.

To get a paid developer account just go to here, choose iOS or Mac and enrol

For a free account see here which gives you the choice of using your Apple ID or have a separate one.


There was an error connecting to Apple ID server I am trying to login to iTunes App Store or the Mac App store on my Mac but it gives me the error every time "There was an error connecting to Apple ID server". Till now I have :

Removed all the antivirus
Disabled firewall
Reset HOSTS file
Tried all suggestions in If you can’t connect to the iTunes Store - Apple Support

I am on El Capitan 10.11.2 on a 2012 Mac Mini.

What I have not tried is Keychain first aid, which was ironically removed in this version of Mac OS. About the security content of OS X El Capitan 10.11.2, Security Update 2015-005 Yosemite, and Security Update 2015-008 M…

What should I do ?

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Here is the log from Console:
http://pastebin.com/raw/8FTiHQF6

Old question: new answer.  Today I had the same problem on my iPad mini.  It turns out that a prior troubleshooting solution was to manually reset the date to an earlier time.  My date was 4 years (yes!) off.  I went to settings and changed to my iPad time to "set automatically" and everything worked.  Other symptoms besides this included the search function in the app store never returning any results.  That was also fixed once the correct time was set.


After renewing IOS developer membership, my apps are "pending contract" I did the following
- renewed my company IOS developer program membership, as it was expiring soon
- changed agent contact details, as the previous agent had left the company.

What happened:
- Apple removed my company's apps from store, dropped them to "pending contract" state.

I next
- released an updated version of the app with bugfixes, it passed Apple review and I published

what happened:
- Apple put the new version also to "Pending contract" state.

What happened next:
- I look at the "banking and tax information" from Itunes Connect
- it says IOS membership has expired.
- I go to membership center and check and it is expiring 2014..

I hate apple for not offering me way to escalate this situation to them to be able to resolve this.

does anyone else experience similar difficulties? Is there any way for me to contact apple and let them know I am experiencing this?

Ugh. Another needless roadblock in the already painful experience of iOS development. Here's how I finally managed to fix this: Click on Edit to edit the bank information, then View/Edit details for the existing account. Without changing anything, click Next and Save. Then you gotta wait 24 hours, even though you didn't change anything hahaha!


Why defaults read can't read some domains?And why is there an plist that stores all my information? defaults read will output all domain contents and defaults domains will output all domain names.
However, I found that when I manually specify some domainsdefaults read com.valvesoftware.steam.helper, I get an error that domain does not exist but the file is there. E.g:

~/Library/Preferences/com.valvesoftware.steam.helper
~/LibraryL/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.ImageSizingPresets
~/LibraryL/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.ViewState
~/LibraryL/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.bookmarks
~/LibraryL/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.PreviewLegacySignaturesConversion

Two files in same folder but only one of them get an error.

~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.securebookmarks.plist

And why is there an plist that stores all my information  even my keyboard model.
co.twopeople.mate.plist contains even more information than Apple Global Domain

Why defaults read can't read some domains?

It returns an unintuitive message for when a domain is blank.  For example, a fresh install of Firefox may create /Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist, however when trying to read this file:
defaults read /Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist

# errors with:
# Domain /Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist does not exist

If you convert the .plist to xml you can see it exists but it's blank...
sudo plutil -convert xml1 /Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
cat /Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist

... shows
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict/>
</plist>

So this message is simply misleading for blank .plist files.  Note, a similar misleading message may occur if you do not have proper access to read and/or delete a file or setting.

And why is there an plist that stores all my information even my keyboard model. co.twopeople.mate.plist contains even more information than Apple Global Domain

It's impossible to know, but you may consider reaching out the developers of that app, it's not something present on any of my machines, so it was likely installed by a 3rd party program that you used in the past.


Upgrade iPad with iOS 5.1.1 to iOS 7 I have tried to download apps from App Store, but they require iOS 7.1.4. Please can you help me to upgrade my iOS 5.1.1 iPad to iOS 7.1.4?

What ipad do you have?

I will explain the options you have:

1) does your ipad have a camera? If not you have the first iPad and the latest iOS version than is iOS 5.1.1

When your ipad has a camera, you have two options i believe:

1) go to settings > general > software update. The app will then show the latest iOs version available for your device.

A download & install button (not sure if it displays 'install' but i'm sure about 'download') will show up and you can tap that to upgrade your iOS versions.

2) connect your ipad with your charging cable (lightning or 30-pins) to your computer

Open itunes, or download it from apple.com, when your iPad is connected it will be opened in itunes.

Click the "search for updates" button and follow the on screen steps