How to diagnose insertion point/trackpad jitters? When I’m typing in any application (e.g. Chrome, Safari, MS Word, Evernote), the insertion point often jumps around unexpectedly. I have this problem with the builtin trackpad and my magic trackpad at home. Caveat Since this is both a disease of the internal trackpad and the magic trackpad then it can't be the cable between the internal trackpad and the motherboard

My MBP has been for service once, I believe they changed a cable between the trackpad and motherboard. No dice. I have wiped the OS and reinstalled from scratch. I have booted in safe mode. You get the idea. I'm certain that most of the time I'm nowhere near the trackpad when it happens. (Like 10 seconds ago).

Is this hardware? Software? I must admit I don’t have a clue how to diagnose. My leaning is likely software.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
OS 10.12.5 (although this has been going on for over a year)

I'm sure you've read Apple's support documentation on this issue by now and have had no luck.

Since the issue wasn't resolved even after reinstalling macOS from scratch and booting into safe mode, this should definitely be a hardware problem. Your trackpad is slowly dying. The connector is probably loose or getting old. Since you say that the trackpad cable has already been changed once, it probably wasn't serviced properly the first time.

The best thing to do here would be to go back to an Apple service center and get your laptop checked again. That's almost always the best route to take in case of hardware problems with Apple products.

FYI: There are people who've said that a firm slap with the palm of their hand fixed their trackpad issues. Try at your own risk though.


iCloud restore issue on iPhone 4S I had a minor problem with my iPhone so I decided to restore from the most recent iCloud backup. I assumed it worked much like system restore on my laptop.  After resetting the phone and following the instructions, I began the restore from a backup less than 12 hours old. I got a message saying that there was a problem with the backup and I should choose another source.  I attempted backups from all three most recent backups and got the same message. Is there anything besides a corrupted backup file that would cause this? I do have an iTunes backup but I haven't been as diligent about those since I thought that the iCloud backup was reliable. So if I restore to the iTunes backup I'll lose some data that I really don't want to lose (ideas, work notes, etc.) Thoughts? Suggestions?

I've encountered a similar error on my iPhone 4S while restoring an iCloud backup. I fixed it by simply updating the firmware/iOS version to the latest version available from Apple. Latest iOS 7.1.2 was out at that time but I was running outdated iOS 7.0.4. Once the phone restored with the latest iOS version, I was able to restore from iCloud. So update your iOS if you're using an older iOS version and try again.


How to update Python which download from official website? I'm mac user, and I downloaded Python from the offcial website. What if I want to update Python, what should I do? I also installed the Java JDK from offcial website, both of them are .pkg, can someone tell me how to update them if they can be updated?

If you have homebrew installed you can type in the terminal:

brew install python3

Otherwise you can just download it again from the website and install it.

If you don't know which version of python you have installed type python --version or python3 --version. Similar questions have been answered on SO and other websites.


Uninstall all programs installed by Homebrew I am wondering if there is a way to uninstall all "programs" installed by Homebrew? I was using it and installed programs that corresponded to programming or using C/C++ and used the terminal to compile it but will not be using it in a few months.

I usually just do brew remove --force $(brew list).
Edited: brew list now requires the --formula argument, so it should now be
brew remove --force $(brew list --formula)


What traffic is sent over the build-in VPN connection? Under System Preferences > Network > VPN > Advanced > Options I can choose to "Send all traffic over VPN connection".

Contrariwise, this would mean that if this option is not enabled (which is default) some traffic is treated as if no VPN connection was established: e.g. The IP address when surfing is still the same.

What traffic is (not) sent over VPN when this option is disabled?

This really depends on the routes your VPN server is pushing when you connect. It could push only routes to private networks or it could push a route for the default gateway.


What is the difference between “/private/var/vm” and “/vm”? I’m wondering why my Mac (running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6) has both /private/var/vm and /vm:

$ ls -l /private/var/vm /vm
/private/var/vm:
total 4194304
-rw------T  1 root  wheel  1073741824 May 17 19:12 sleepimage
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  1073741824 May 26 13:29 swapfile0

/vm:
total 2097152
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  1073741824 May 14 23:49 swapfile0

I know these have to do with virtual memory, but why are there two of them; what's the difference?

Are both of the files named swapfile0 being used or can I delete one? I assume that if I would delete one, it would be the second one, as it hasn’t been modified in over a week, whereas the first one was modified only a few minutes ago (I rebooted my Mac just now). But how can I tell for sure whether it is safe to delete? Why does it exist to begin with?

This happens because of a change that happened within the High Sierra versions. It is unknown whether this is a bug, or simply a change of hearts at Apple, but with High Sierra the location of the swapfile was changed from /private/var/vm to /vm, and then in a later update to High Sierra moved back to /privat/var/vm.

The best way to proceed is to ensure that you have upgraded to the latest High Sierra version. If the extraneous swapfile in /vm/swapfile0 still exists and takes up disk space, then boot up in Recovery Mode, use Disk Utility to mount the main volume, and start a Terminal and run: (replace TheVolumeName with the name of the main volume)

rm /Volumes/TheVolumeName/vm/swapfile0

Then you can reboot afterwards.


My macbook air is very loud! My MacBook Air's fan is spinning rapidly even though there are hardly any programs running. A couple of weeks ago my mum accidentally spilled water on it and we had to take it to get fixed. After it had been fixed, everything was working fine but my laptop has been very noisy ever since. Even when there are no programs running. How do I stop my laptop from being so loud?

Plug in your power adapter and turn the machine off. Press and hold control+option+shift+power buttons for 5 seconds. This resets the System Management controller, which is in charge of power flow through your machine and also things like the speed of your fan.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3964

If that does not help, the computer may still be damaged. Where did you have it repaired?


Using Airport Express pair as 'audio tunnel'? I'm looking to do something that I think is fairly basic, but I'm not aware of whether Airport Express hardware supports this scenario.  Basically, I just want to tunnel audio via IP packets / my home network, from a home theater, to a set of outdoor speakers.  [For the scenario, think:  being able to follow the action of a sports broadcast when I go from home-theater room, to outside my house, where my outdoor speakers are.]

If a pair of Airport Expresses can be configured as a 'dedicated, point-to-point audio bridge' then it seems like it'd work.  In other words - set up to just tunnel the audio input from one Express, over regular home-network IP, to the other bridge, where it re-emerges via line-out as regular audio out. Can those devices operate that way?  If not - is there an inexpensive way to enable?

I'm not aware of any 'bridge' device pairs that tunnel audio over IP (TCP or UDP) from a 'transmitter' to a 'receiver.' (Devices like this exist for Bluetooth... but, I need to span a large distance, and figure I should be able to leverage the my wired/WiFi home network to achieve this, and not worry about audio quality; bluetooth profiles; signal strength - etc.)

Note, the goal would be to set this up once - and then not control them or manage them, using Airplay or anything else, thereafter.

thoughts?

The Airport does not have an Audio Input. It's audio-feature is essentially being an AirPlay receiver. Your plan will only work when playing your source material from a device that supports AirPlay.


What is deleted during a macOS reinstall? If I reinstall macOS via Recovery without wiping the disk beforehand, what exactly will be reinstalled, what will be deleted, what will be kept?

In the past - Apple had three methods to install:

erase and install (now deprecated)
archive + install + migrate
upgrade install (now deprecated)

Now, when you run the installer - it is always archive, install, migrate. SO the existing system folder isn't touched (it gets archived) and a new system folder and library are created on the drive.

So some folders get erased entirely, some have modification scripts and most user folders don't change. The user folders might get a light script run to clean known issues, but in general - the things in the user home folder are left alone.

The system then reboots into the newly functioning system to run further installations and then kicks off the migration script. That script is responsible for the infamous "about a second" step where it actually goes over each user folder and migrates all the apps, settings and checks for known incompatible software and packages so they can be disabled before any user logs in to the newly made system. The whole process usually takes 5 to 25 minutes for the system tasks and then the last user step can take a few moments or a few hours in my experience. Past an hour, it is usually hung and you might need to do an erase / migration from backup.

How long can I expect my system to be unusable during an upgrade to OS X Lion?

The old system is then deleted unless the script detects a potential that it will be needed or the migration failed in some manner.

I you wan to do an erase instal, you need to erase the drive using internet recovery, target disk mode or similar and then run an installer on a blank volume.


How do I open a browser which Apple gives in popups I have seen a type of browser which Apple spits out, for example, when connecting to hotel WiFi's. They seem to be a pop-up window without any specific application.

I find Github's screenshots to be displayed in the same way - Example. How do I achieve this to open any URL in a similar fashion?

Purpose: This would be a clean way to take screenshots etc.

One way to accomplish something similar is to use the Website Popup workflow in Automator.

Open Automator
Create a new Workflow or Service
Add Get Specified URL's
Add Website Popup

Modify the settings in each workflow to your preference.  The popup can be then captured for screen shots.
From the Mac OS X Automation website:

Website Popup
More and more, services and functionality are moving to the Cloud. Accessing internet-hosted server-based content without
the hassle and overhead of using a browser can prove to be invaluable
in providing simple, quick, and elegant workflow soltuions.[sic] The
Website Popup action displays specified HTML or web-based content in a
floating HUD-like palette that can provide fast access to important
content and then quicly [sic] get out of the way.

Sample using "Website" in a Wikipedia search workflow:


Pages: can I change the document font size but retain the italics? I've got a 500 page Pages ('09 v4.3 on OS X 10.12.6) document where all text is 14 point; I want to change to 12. The problem is that there are blocks of italic text throughout. Using Select all to change to 12 point of course changes all the italic text to normal. How can change the document font size to 12 but retain the italics? Could Applescript parse the document and change the font size and retain the italics?

I'm not quite sure what you're doing to affect the italics. Changing one aspect should not change any other.
Select all text. Multi-style selections will show as Multiple in the style box. In the Text tab click the size button… all else is retained except the font size.
Window shrunk to only show relevant area…

If your text already has multiple font sizes, meaning the point size box is greyed out, then use  Cmd ⌘   and  +  or  -  which will change all by one point at a time, maintaining relative sizes.
If you use that box in this instance, all type will be set to the same font size, breaking the relationship.


Trying to trace Iphone I lost my iphone5 a few minutes ago. I have activated my FindmyIphone. But since the phone is off it is not being traced. Also I have a 4 digit passcode installed to unlock the phone. Is it possible that the phone can be misused in this case. Also what is the likelihood of finding it through FindmyIphone and IMEI registration, I have registered on both.

From Apple:

  If you have already configured the iCloud Find My iPhone service on
  your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac you can use it to locate your
  missing device, display a message on its screen, make it play a sound
  at full volume (even if on mute), remotely lock it, or remotely wipe
  (erase) it to protect your privacy. Please see the following articles
  for more information:

The phone is pretty much useless to who ever found it.

But consider following as first step:
I just found your phone and it is locked and I have no idea to who it belongs, so there is not much I can do to return it. I could go to police station (but who has time to do that).
If you are so kind you would send a message to your phone with your contact information, email or phone number, I would contact you to arrange the return.


Duplicate birthdays in Calendar but only on Mac I have my birthdays stored in my contacts. As of late I see duplicate entries for each birthday in my Calendar on the Mac. On my iOS devices they only show up once. When I deactivate my contacts account (macOS Server account) the birthdays are removed from my calendar as expected. When I reactivate the contacts account the birthdays re-appear but only once. After a few hours Calendar on my Mac will then show them twice again. If I try to manually delete one of the events I get the error message: "You can't add or change events in the Birthdays calendar".

Is there a why for me to reset my "birthdays Calendar" on my Mac? What else can I do?

I am using the Sierra 10.12.2 and Calendar version 9.0

Thanks for any advice.

macOS Catalina (10.15.7)
Unchecking and renabling birthdays on the calendars sidebar will only toggle visibility and did not remove the duplicates, but unchecking and renabling 'Show birthday calendar' in the calendars settings seems to reload it - that's what worked for me.


Remote desktop apps for OS X Mavericks 10.9 I have tried CoRD, Microsoft Remote Desktop and RDC but all three are not compatible with Mavericks 10.9

Can someone recommend how I can connect to my Windows 7 computer from my mac?

In the past, I've used LogMeIn to remotely connect to a Windows 7 system from my Mac. It's perfectly compatible with OSX Mavericks, reputable, and secure. I highly recommend it.


Which version of Oracle is suitable for Mac OS X Lion? I just bought my Mac few days ago and I am trying to install Oracle Express for work purpose on Mac OSX X 10.7.1.

I've downloaded Oracle 10g R2 from here but when I run the installation shortcut,I got the following messages

No pre-requisite checks found in oraparam.ini, no system pre-requisite
checks will be executed.
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2011-10-13_02-58-18PM.
Please wait ...
tokwan:~ tokwan$ java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /private/tmp/OraInstall2011-10-13_02-58-18PM/oui/lib/mac_osx/liboraInstaller.dylib:
no suitable image found.
Did find:  /private/tmp/OraInstall2011-10-13_02-58-18PM/oui/lib/mac_osx/liboraInstaller.dylib: mach-o,
but wrong architecture

I did try to check the pre-requisite from here.but I'm not sure if I am following the right guide because some of the instruction and output are differ from what it suggested.

I am fairly new to Mac, so any guidance would be appreciated.

No Oracle DB is certified for Lion. In fact no Oracle DB is certified for Snow Leopard either. So don't expect official Oracle's support on this.

For unofficial ways to do it, see this SuperUser question: OS X Lion and installing Oracle 10G


Can a PowerBook or MacBook be configured to automatically wake when power is connected? I'm looking to turn an old Mac laptop into a "car-puter". However, I don't want to drain the battery on either the laptop or the car. Is there a way to configure it so that the computer automatically wakes up when plugged into power? (I know that it can be woken via ethernet, but I don't know how I can turn that to my advantage.)

My specific use case is a late-model PowerBook G4 running 10.5, but I'm also curious about whether this can be done with other models or OS versions. Thanks!

As you indicated, this does depend on the specifics of the hardware - but the pmset acwake command is used to read or change the intended wake on power change status for a Mac.

The man page for pmset goes into some detail how to use this command line tool to change settings.

I couldn't find a reference that calls out which models work with this setting - you may have to experiment or do some more research.


Why won't Subversion remember certificates? I'm using Terminal and committing some data to a remote SVN server... every time I get the same message about a new certificate, and I choose to "permanently" accept the cert and it works. However, the next time I commit... same thing. Why isn't the cert being remembered, and how can I fix this?

flat:smarty e$ svn commit ./ -m commit

Error validating server certificate for 'https://x.svn.x.com:443':
 - The certificate is not issued by a trusted authority. Use the
   fingerprint to validate the certificate manually!

Certificate information:
 - Hostname: *.svn.x.com
 - Valid: from Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT until Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:00:00 GMT
 - Issuer: www.digicert.com, DigiCert Inc, US
 - Fingerprint: 3f:97:e9:1f:5c:3e:a9:fb:86:5d:4e:ed:6c:9a:1f:63:a4:f8:25:0a
(R)eject, accept (t)emporarily or accept (p)ermanently? p

Committed revision 19.

This doesn't sound like a Terminal problem, but a subversion and/or permissions problem. Did it work at one point in the past, or has it always been a problem?

Most likely the issue is somewhere inside of ~/.subversion/auth/. You could try blowing away the directory, though that will require you to recreate all your credentials. (Maybe something in there is borking up authentication process.)

I suggest you try to recreate your problem with another user profile, computer, or operating system, and compare ~/.subversion directories with your broken system.

If you are convinced its the Terminal's fault, you can try iTerm2, though I expect the same results in the same environment. Good luck!


How to exit Recovery Mode on jailbroken iPhone What I've searched so far says that my iPhone had goes to Recovery-Mode (Am I right?) because it stuck on Apple Logo and won't start.

What I've tried so far :

What is Soft DFU mode, and how do I exit it
How to Exit iOS Recovery Mode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX9VM590pvo

But problem still remains.

Please tell me how do I get rid of this Apple Logo on my jailbroken iPhone 5s?

Based on the fact that you're stuck at the Apple logo, it actually sounds like you're stuck at boot-up instead of being in recovery mode! It's likely that a tweak you installed caused it to enter what is often called a "boot-loop" when you restarted it.

To exit this, try holding the power and home button for ten seconds like you saw in those guides, but this time as it restarts, hold the volume-up button. This enters the Mobile Substrate's safe-mode (thank you Saurik for your foresight!) and should allow you to access Cydia to remove the troublesome tweak. If your volume-up button doesn't work, use your Apple earbuds and use the volume-up on the headset remote.

EDIT:
After digging through the problem more and trying my suggestion, the asker could not boot into safe-mode. Booting into DFU-mode and restoring via iTunes was the only viable course of action to solve their problem.


High Sierra: "An error has occurred" and app won't finish downloading I am trying to download the latest version of Xcode from the AppStore so I can continue with my development. I am on a MBP 2016 touch-bar running MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4. I did a lot of digging and can't seem to find anything recent or something that works.

Xcode will download part of the way, but if I disconnect from the WiFi or leave my computer closed for too long it will tell me "An error has occurred" when I come back to it to check on it. The "An error has occurred" message will not go away to let me start up the download again. The only way to fix this (that I know of) is to completely restart my computer. This causes all my download progress to be lost (I live in a country with really bad internet, so I can't just download it in an hour like in America)

I've tried:

Restarting my computer (this works but I lose all my download progress)
resetting the storedownloadd in the activity monitor
activating the debug menu (it doesn't activate no matter what I tried)
signing out and signing back in

How do I force the download to restart and get rid of "An error has occurred" message?

I helped someone about three weeks ago with the same issue. What worked for them was resetting the System Management Controller and then starting the download again, but this time with their energy saver settings temporarily changed so that their MBP did not go to sleep at all.

Resetting the SMC

To reset the SMC on your model MBP, follow these steps:

Shut down your MBP
Unplug the power cable from your Mac
For 10 seconds, press and hold at the same time the shiftcontroloption keys (on the left side of the built-in keyboard) and the power button
After 10 seconds let go of all keys and the power button
Plug in the power cable
Turn your MBP back on with the power button.

Temporarily change your Energy Saver settings

Now ensure your Energy Saver settings (Apple > System Preferences > Energy Saver) mimic the following:

You can change your settings back again after the download works. If it doesn't work, then you'll know it wasn't some sort of power management issue at your end interrupting the download.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should keep your MBP connected to an AC power source (i.e. the Power Adapter) while trying this.


How to use double click on desktop to act as a shortcut for a few commands Until I shifted to Mac I used to use an app called Fences in Windows to hide desktop by double clicking the desktop. I wanted a similar app to do this on the Mac OS X Mavericks but I have no clue how to do it. The closest app I made is using a global shortcut key Shift+Command+H (using the idea I found on GitHub at MASShortcutDemo to toggle between hide and show of desktop.

Basically it ran the following commands and set a flag as desktop is hidden

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false; killall Finder

Pressing shortcut again ran these commands to revert it

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true; killall Finder

I want to know if this is possible to just double click on the desktop and make this happen pretty much like Fences on Windows. I have already tried an app called HideDesktop which works fairly simple but would love to know how to get this done.

To hide other all other open applications windows while in another:

option + ⌘ + (mouse click)

by clicking on it's dock icon


Create new file from contextual menu Is there a program I can download to add an option to create a new file to the contextual menu of finder? NuFile doesn't seem to work in Snow Leopard.

If you are happy using a toolbar button instead of the contextual menu, you can use New Text File Here from Jonas Wisser. Just drop it into Finder's toolbar.

Note: As of OS X 10.11.4 this program no longer seems to be working.


How can I retain volume settings upon plugging in different speakers/headphones? On the rare occasion that I would like to plug in some headphones to my Mac Mini, rather than speakers, I often turn down the volume before plugging them in, because the first "blip" is rather loud, and probably isn't good for my headphones. However, upon plugging them in, the volume will revert to 100%, and I often get an unpleasant pain in the ear because of it. Is there any way to make the volume stay where it was before?

As far as I can tell, the Mac maintains two volume settings: one with headphones connected and another without headphones connected. If the volume is turned down with headphones connected, it should save that setting the next time headphones are connected.

That said, if your concern is that the "blip" is too loud, it can be disabled in System Preferences; under Sound » Sound Effects, deselect Play feedback when volume is changed.


How can I sync multiple photo and video folders in iTunes? I have an iPhone 4, a PC, and iTunes 10. I can't figure out how to sync photos AND videos from multiple folders.

In iTunes' iPhone view, under "Pictures" I can select a single master folder, then subfolders to sync. Eg, I have "D:\Pictures" and I select the "2010" folder. Fine. But I'd also like to sync "D:\Videos" and select its "2010" folder. I see that the "Pictures" option also allows you to sync videos. But what's impossible to do, as far as I can tell, is sync multiple folders arbitrarily located in my folder hierarchy, rather than multiple subfolders of a single parent folder.

Wild guess here because I don't sync mine on a windows system. But you can probably use symbolic links to your other folders, within the ones that actually sync.

Here is how to do it:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363878(VS.85).aspx


Icons in App store display blurred I did a clean install on macOS Sierra 10.12 on my MacBook Air 13.3" early 2015 and found out that most of the icons in App Store are blurred.

Searched the web for a bit, finding references saying that this issue may be caused by the app developers who forgot to update the icon to better image quality. Some references also suggest deleting applications and downloading them again in order for the icons to be updated. Also no custom fonts were installed on this machine.

These references do not really apply to my case, because blurred icons are in the App Store itself and app developer is Apple. Have a look on the attached images:

I am guessing that my MacBook Air supports only up to 1440x900 resolution with 128 dpi and icons were designed to support higher dpi screens. That sounds a bit ridiculous.

What are you thoughts guys? What could be causing this problem?

i had the same Problem .. the fix (for me) was go to systempreferences  - Accsessibility - Zoom - Smooth Images. Turn smooth images OFF and all icons back to "normal".  Good Luck


Virtual Monitor "Off Screen" to Control Remote PC I'm successfully sharing my Ubuntu Desktop with my Mac Book, using VNC.

My Mac Book Pro is on the right, my external monitor is in the center, and I have an Ubuntu Laptop on the left as in this image:

While using the Mac, I'd like to be able to slide my mouse to the left of my centre external monitor, so I can think of the Ubuntu system as an additional monitor, as it were.

I have been able to do this from within Ubuntu in the past, by setting up a virtual monitor using "x2x -south -to :1"

I'm curious as to whether this functionality is possible using my Mac.

UPDATE:

I've found the following which are close, but "no-cigar"
https://superuser.com/questions/276766/create-virtual-external-display-for-vnc-control

I've found the following software that might work, though not free:
http://symless.com/synergy/

Synergy is still open source (therefore free), though they don't really go to great lengths to make that known.

https://github.com/symless/synergy

Synergy works pretty well from what I remember.


Pencil Lag (iPad 2018 vs Pros, Notes vs OneNote, iOS 11 vs 12) I am very nitty about the input lag of the Apple Pencil.
Originally, I was under the impression that the iPad 2018 was a little slower to respond. Testing was with with Standard Notes App.

I got the 2018 anyway, at this undeniable price.

I was then super surprised that in OneNote (which I prefer) the lag was much less noticeable than in Notes. So it is a software thing, after all!!!

With iOS 12 now, I have more lag in OneNote, while Notes is now much smoother!!!

Has anybody experienced similarly?
Any workarounds/tips?

Based on viewing the drawing footage in slow motion, it appears the new Apple Notes app in iOS 12 is using Apple's Predicted Touches technology, which makes an educated guess as to where future touches on the display will appear so the developer can temporarily pre-draw the path there. This explains why the latency now appears faster than OneNote, which doesn't appear to use this technology. As far as I'm aware, previous versions of Apple Notes did not use this technology.

If you want to reduce latency for Apple Pencil input, the 2nd-generation iPad Pros are the way to go because they have the 120hz ProMotion display, versus 60hz for the 2018 iPad, though they are now well over a year old -- so maybe best to wait for an update. Alternatively, you could use PDF Viewer by PSPDFKit, which has the lowest latency of any app I've used because it uses more predicted touches than Apple Notes.


Alert says "iTunes can not be opened while it is being updated." but nothing ever changes For the past week I have been getting this message when I try to open iTunes.

It doesn't matter how long I wait, nothing ever changes. If I reboot my computer and try to open iTunes immediately after startup, iTunes will open normally. But eventually this same message will appear again after closing iTunes and trying to open it again later. I am running El Capitan 10.11.6 on a late 2012 iMac. Has anyone else experienced this or a similar issue and does anyone know of way to resolve this problem?

This thread talks about checking for OS updates, and also trying to start the computer in safe mode:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7416168?start=0&tstart=0

If you don't have any OS updates to do, you might as well just download a new iTunes app and install a fresh copy:
https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/


Are there any options for IOS development on Windows 8? (Apps, Emulators, Cloud Computing OK) I am trying to develop iPhone apps on Windows 8. To do that, I might need an emulator to run certain IOS development programs.

I would like to know if there are any OS-X emulators available for Windows and which ones are to be recommended? Please note that I am willing to pay for the emulators (doesn't necessarily have to be free).

If emulators aren't an option, I'm also willing to use cloud-computing, provided it works.

I just came across a service called macincloud.com, which supposedly allows you to rent a Mac-OS server.

I am willing to invest in this, which costs $20/month, so I seriously need to know if this is legit or not. I am not willing to pony up money for something that's unreliable.

Please tell me your thoughts on that service.

If none of those options are possible, are there any options that allow me to develop AND preview the app using Windows without submitting the product to Apple?

Thanks.

According to the license for OS X, you are not allowed to run it on non-Apple hardware.

If any emulators do exist, or methods to hack existing virtualization software to run it on non-Apple hardware, that would not be legal.

Legally, you could technically buy some Apple hardware like an iMac or Mac Pro, install Windows on it, and then run virtualized OS X within Windows, but I'm not certain virtualization software that will do this exists.

The only virtualization system I know of that supports OS X is VMWare ESXi, but I believe that's a bare-metal hypervisor that won't run on Windows.

You will probably be best served by buying a Mac Mini and either KVMing it or connecting to it with VNC.

EDIT:

You mentioned http://www.macincloud.com -- I can't speak to the reputability of that particular business, but the premise is sound. They could be running multiple instances of OS X on ESXi hypervisor running on Mac Pro or Mac mini server hardware, or they could be renting out individual Mac mini servers -- making each instance accessible over VNC.

Here are two articles that may give some credit to MacinCloud's reliability:

http://coronalabs.com/blog/2012/03/15/corona-developers-rent-a-mac-in-the-cloud/
http://gizmodo.com/5853926/join-a-mac-timeshare-in-the-clouds


iTunes tracks are not playing or downloading from Purchased After purchasing a new iMac computer, I naturally opened up iTunes and began to download my purchased music onto the machine. The process went smoothly enough, but I noticed that a few songs from an album that I had bought a few weeks ago weren't downloading correctly. The song would download, then iTunes would say "There was an error downloading the song", then I would have to redownload it from Purchased, which worked. But some of the songs, even though they downloaded fine after the second try, just simply won't play when I click on them. What I mean is that they show up in my Music Library, but they won't play when I double-click them, instead, the song will briefly show up in the Now Playing bar, then disappear as iTunes skips to the next song. Any advice? This might just be an isolated incident.

This might be an Authorization issue since this is a new computer.

Open iTunes> In the menu bar select, "Authorize This Computer"> Enter your Apple ID credentials (linked with the purchases you are attempting to download) and click "Authorize".


How does iWork for iOS know what account to use for icloud? I saw a student selling a used iPad with the offer of including Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. They said they would wipe the device then reinstall iWork.

Wouldn't logging in associate the iWork apps with that iTunes account for icloud purposes? If not, how do these apps figure out which account to use?

If I was seing my used iOS device, I would want to be sure that my icloud account isn't on someone else's iPad. Can I be sure that this won't happen?

You can use different accounts for iCloud and the App store by logging in in Settings. For document storage the iCloud account is used.

Keeping iWork apps on an iPad you sell is probably violating the license agreement. And there will be no way to update the applications later because this would require the original iOS App Store password.


result returns just new line \n not whats printed after command is run Ultimately I'm trying to catch some errors that are popping up but aren't getting returned.

Here's the command I'm trying to run.

/usr/bin/dscl . -change /Users/admin NFSHomeDirectory /Users/admin /var/admin

when it runs successfully it returns \n
when it comes up with an error I get \n and

<main> attribute status: eDSAttributeNotFound
<dscl_cmd> DS Error: -13134 (eDSAttributeNotFound)

I know why I'm getting the error and I'm actually making it happen intentionally so that I can (hopefully) get terminal to write the next two lines out to a file or (eventually) send it using CURL to another computer.

So when I run the command with either > tomytextfile.txt it writes and empty file or using my POST request like so

echo "result=`/usr/bin/dscl . -change /Users/admin NFSHomeDirectory /Users/admin /var/admin`" | curl --data-urlencode result@- http://172.16.26.251:8080/script

I get this as the response on the server where I'm sending the curl POST request.

{ result: 'result=\n' }

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be super grateful.

You could try replacing > tomytextfile.txt with > tomytextfile.txt 2>&1.

Similarly, you could use what is shown below.

echo "result=`/usr/bin/dscl . -change /Users/admin NFSHomeDirectory /Users/admin /var/admin 2>&1`" | curl --data-urlencode result@- http://172.16.26.251:8080/script

Basically, 2>&1 redirects error output to regular output.


Display is set to Mobile PC Display on Windows when I run it on  Macbook Pro via boot camp Just installed Windows using boot camp. I downloaded the drivers using boot camp. After installing the display says: Mobile PC Display. I have 15 inch Macbook Pro.  What display driver do I need to get the right resolution?

Update: Okay. My bad. Went to Genius bar at apple they told me that Mobile PC Display is how Macbook sees your display on Windows. Resolution is 1440 x 900 what my resolution on Macbook. There is no missing driver after all.

Your MacBook has a AMD Radeon HD 6490M video card per your properties screen. You'll need to download the driver from AMD's website.

For Windows 7:

64 bit: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx
32 bit: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-32.aspx

For your display driver you might need to update your Bootcamp drivers which you can get from Apple's Boot Camp Support Drivers.


how to get ls to list files in case-insensitive order? How do I get the ls shell command to list my files in:

case-insensitive order
with the directories at the top?

The reason I ask is: I want Aquamacs Emacs dired to list my files and directories this way. Emacs queries ls when displaying dired.

Which means I don't think piping using a command like
     ls -whatever | sort -f
will work. (Or will it? Can I do something fancy with aliases?)

I'm using zsh at the moment, but I'm not sure that matters for Emacs.

Similar questions have been asked here before and in other forums, but never resolved.

So, is this possible?

Emacs mode hooks to the rescue! Taken from EmacsWiki:

(defun mydired-sort ()
  "Sort dired listings with directories first."
  (save-excursion
    (let (buffer-read-only)
      (forward-line 2) ;; beyond dir. header
      (sort-regexp-fields t "^.*$" "[ ]*." (point) (point-max)))
    (set-buffer-modified-p nil)))

(defadvice dired-readin
  (after dired-after-updating-hook first () activate)
  "Sort dired listings with directories first before adding marks."
  (mydired-sort))


Wifi dongle stopped working as soon a I upgraded to MacOS Big Sur 11 version My wifi dongle is not working on Big Sur. Whenever I tried to install the software that came with the wifi dongle, I get a message that the drive is incompatible. I was using a Wifi dongle from this company called Cuddy and when I contacted them, they said they are not sure when are they going to have a compatible driver for the same.
I found a similar post related to this over herewhen someone faced similar issue when Big sur was in beta phase.
And I was looking at Gummibando's answer where he mentioned the following:
While macOS 11 is in development, you can enable the loading of deprecated KEXTs by disabling SIP. See https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-big-sur-11-beta-release-notes (Deprecations).
However, the link is not working anymore. Any other solution to solve this issue?

While Apple hasn't realeased an official date for when third party kexts, they have been phasing them out for over a year now and over time the list of depreciated kexts is growing.
For now I believe that you can boot into recovery mode using Command and R, and then running csrutil disable in the terminal.
This is more like a temporary hotfix than a solution and I would advise getting a new dongle if your manufacturer does not keep up.


How can I hide the unread counter from Outlook 2011 Dock icon? I find the unread counter on Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac distracting. Whenever it's there I feel the need to click on it. How can I hide the unread count?

Mail.app provides an option to disable it, I'm hoping there is a setting in Outlook too.

Deselecting "Badge app icon" in Notifications Center preferences worked for me (Outlook 2016 for Mac).


How do I get Spotlight to find apps in non-standard folders? My work computer has a handful of personal applications that I store not in /Applications, and not in ~/Applications, but in another folder (/usr/local/data/Applications) for several reasons. However, despite this folder being within Spotlight's search index (it's not excluded from Spotlight's index), Spotlight doesn't find the apps there when searching.

Is there any way to address this? Does Spotlight have a preference list property for "list of directories that I know contain apps" or something?

Based on a bug report filed with legacy-homebrew, it appears that even using the command line to tell Spotlight to index the /usr/local hierarchy doesn't work. Apple considers this a system directory and so it won't be indexed.


Yosemite Server, adaptive firewall not stopping screensharingd attempts? I'm not certain if the Adaptive Firewall in Yosemite Server 4.0 is just not working or just not working for screensharingd.  I have a Mac mini Server in a colo and get lots of attempts at screensharing.  So I turned on the adaptive firewall as per Apple docs and it does not seem to be doing anything.

Whats my next step?

The only sure solution I know of for this is to configure VPN on the server then lock down port 5900 on the WAN interface. That will kill the attempts for screen sharing from the public side but allow it when you VPN into the server.

If the port is open on the public-facing WAN side, you can be sure that the port-scanners are going to find it and attempt getting in.


App to control background sound output I have an iPad 3 which I would like to use to play music to Bluetooth speakers in the background while I play various games and the like. The problem is that the foreground apps interrupt the sound of the background radio app. In Windows you can control which programs are allowed to output sound with the volume mixer; similarly, is there any way to lock sound output on an iPad to one background app?

Sorry but that isn't possible on an iPad.  Each application/game has the option/ability to allow the background music to continue or to stop it and use its own audio.

You would have to ask the developer of each application to add an option to allow the background music to continue instead of interrupting.  Good luck with that. ;)


Does iPhone update deletes media content? In my previous question I had asked about backing up the content of the iPhone in order to un-jailbreak my iPhone.

I was told that simply synchronizing with iTunes should do the trick, and I did that. However I did not get a certain answer about the media.

When I had applied the jailbreak patch I recall it completely obliterating everything I had: contacts, logs, apps and even mp3s and such.

I fear that after applying the update to my iPhone all my music will be gone (it will still be on my computer, but transferring all those files again and setting up playlists is something that generally I wish to avoid)

So all in all, after applying the update to my iPhone, what happens to my music, playlists, photos, videos and voice memos?

A normal update doesn't delete your content, but I don't think you can delete your jailbreak with an update. You can always try. If it fails, you'll have to restore. Then you'll lose your music and apps from the device. ;-)


How to fix git path after MacOS Sierra update? I have just upgraded from OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" to 10.12 "Sierra", and when I open intellijIdea, I get the following error:

  Can't start Git: /usr/bin/git Probably the path to Git executable is not valid.

My problem solved after running xcode installation with following code from terminal:

xcode-select --install


Where/how are default input methods stored? I use the Cangjie input method to type Chinese characters. The one bundled with macOS is an older "version" of the input method that I don't particularly enjoy using. So far I've been getting by with using a third-party IME (Rime) but for various reasons it's not ideal either. I know that Macs support custom plaintext *.cin files but I'm looking for something different.

I'm curious where and how default Chinese and Japanese input methods are stored in general. Maybe a filepath, and if the file is in some esoteric format possibly external software to read/edit the data? My goal is to see if I can write a script to change the character mappings to the ones I'm accustomed to.

Hope this question isn't too specific. If this is better suited for another StackExchange forum just give me a heads up and I can ask it somewhere else.

The Chinese and Japanese IM's (along with several others) are in System/Library/Input Methods.

For some alternatives that may offer more options, see this page.

https://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2017/05/macos-alternative-input-methods-for.html


Safari won't open after Lion? I just finished upgrading to Lion from SL and Safari won't open. When I click it, the app bounces in the dock for a moment then a box pops up and says

Safari quit unexpectedly.

Click Reopen to open the application again. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple.

I tried going to the apple website to download safari but http://www.apple.com/safari/ doesn't contain a download link on the page (to me, at least) and http://www.apple.com/safari/download just redirects to http://www.apple.com/safari/.

I can't find a Safari version for Lion anywhere.

Found this pkg to Safari 6:

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/37/23/041-5058/lr5tynbldi18zcrqo8a8uq88 rnjushqliu/Safari6Lion.pkg


Modify existing Little Snitch rule to be Effective in all profiles I've been using Little Snitch for a while. I have several profiles set up (e.g. Home, Work, Public, etc). I've been working to generalize some of the rules. E.g. Instead of specifically allowing Firefox on port 80 to each of a thousand different websites, just allow Firefox on Port 80 to anywhere. However, I still end up with duplicates of many of those same rules across profiles.

Is there an easy way to modify an existing rule to be effective in all profiles?

AFAIK you could simply move the rule from your current profile into your 'Effective in all profiles' Profile. But rules in your current active profile will override your 'Effective in all profiles' rules which means they have a higher precedence.

And allowing outgoing connections for your browser on http and https should not be a big security risk IMHO.


Parental filter which blocks Tarot and other Black magic I am searching for a closed source or open source (MacPorts) internet filtering which blocks Black magic (for example Tarot) web sites.

Very important that this also works with Russian language (example Google query)

Background info: my customer is a Catholic single mom.

In my home, we use a combination of:

OpenDNS filtering.
Locking down the devices so that the end user cannot change the Internet settings, specifically DNS.
The Mobicip browser, which has a free version, but for advanced features such as specific site filtering, costs $9.99 annually.

I don't specifically filter Black Magic, but there are other things I do block, and these tools allow me to have control over what gets into my network via the Internet.


Mac multiboot flash drive I am in the process of creating a multiboot drive with OS X starting from 10.7 up to 10.12 (Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra). I have bought Kingston DT micro 3.1 64GB and created a separate partition for each OS and their updates. The usb drive is formatted in GUID partition scheme.

When I have completed creating bootable partitions, I decided to test if they will boot on my MBA early 2015. And it turns out that only Sierra and El Capitan will proceed to boot, other partitions will either not be recognised at all or will just show a Prohibitory symbol (meaning it could not find a valid System folder).

I have used the following command to create all the install media:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Name.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Partition\ Name --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Name.app --nointeraction

For Lion and Mountain Lion I have used the restore disk utility functionality as they do not have createinstallmedia command.

I am doing all of the operations on Sierra 10.12.3.

Here are the guesses what I have:

Flash drive could have a certain partitioning limit
OS X below 10.11 will not boot on newer hardware
Each partition should have a free space buffer - currently each partition has just enough space for the OS with 200-300mb spare space
It is solely the USB3.1 issue - I did not have any problems with doing the same thing on USB2.0
The usb drive is fake - no idea how to test this

I have also noticed that it takes up to couple of minutes to recognise the drive itself and its partitions in disk utility.

What else should I try to successfully create a multiboot drive?

The Early 2015 MacBook Air can not boot anything earlier than 10.10.2. So anything earlier than Yosemite definitely don't work on that machine. As to why Yosemite doesn't work you need to make sure you're not installing 10.10 or 10.10.1. Just re-download the Yosemite installer from the App Store it will give you the most recent to version of Yosemite.


How do I get the messages view back in Mail on OS X? Normally when in the non-classic view in Mail there is list on the left for my mailbox, a list in the middle for my inbox, and a list on the right for the messages contained in a conversation. I don't see the last list on the right. Is there a way to get that pane back, perhaps through an option in the menu? I'm running the last versions of everything (10.11).

I think you've dragged the right edge of the middle list all the way to the right, which then hides the preview of the messages. If you hover your mouse of the right edge of the scroll bar on the right you should get the draggable crosshair mouse pointer. Hold it and drag left and you should get the previews back.


mouse move wakes up sleeping mac.. how to prevent? When the cleaning man has been by my desk then my computer wakes up from sleep. How can I make it insensitive to mouse movements?

If it is a bluetooth mouse you can disable it waking the computer by unchecking

Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer.

in System Preferences - Bluetooth - Advanced

This will also effect the wireless keyboard waking the Mac so you will need to use the power button to wake it.


Resume Restore issue after internet goes offline How do I resume a restore from iCloud on a new iPhone 8? The restore was halted when our Internet network went (scheduled) offline.

It should resume right away wen the internet is back online! This happened to me and it just resumed right away! If your worried about it, go to a public place and do the restore! It should only take about 10-15 minutes!


How do you add books to the Kindle app for iOS? I might be overlooking something very obvious here but I cannot see any of the books I add to the Kindle app. Listed below are the steps I follow to add the books.

1. Connect the iPod Touch to my Windows computer and start iTunes.
2. On iTunes, go to the Apps Section of iPod Touch.
3. Using the new file transfer system with the iOS 4 (see screenshot), add the PDF and epub file type.

-And voila, that should have done it.
-But when I check the Kindle app on the iPod Touch, it only has the three default books it came with when I downloaded the app. (See screenshot below screenshot)

I'm sure this is some error on my part but can't figure out what.

The Kindle iphone app does not read pdf or epub files without conversion.

There are various tools you can use to convert from pdf and epub to the mobi format that the Kindle app can read. The one I use is Calibre, and it works pretty well. Epub files generally convert without problem, but pdf files might be harder, depending on how complex the pdf is. If there are pictures or columns you are probably in trouble.


I Would Like To Open Files in Different Tabs in the Same Window Using Xcode 5 I'm new to using Xcode.  When I started using Xcode a couple of weeks ago I had a file list to the left and had three tabs open for different files.  I'm not sure if that was a default setting or not.

This morning there was an update to iTunes.  I could not update it without closing Xcode.  Before if I opened a new tab it would open the same file that was in the other tab.  All I had to do was open a new file and it would open in the active tab.  Now when I open files they open in a new window.

I have done online searches but they are for previous versions of Xcode.

How do I set up my preferences where a file list displays to the left as before and open files in new tabs instead of new windows?

Left column in Xcode is called Navigator. You can show/hide it with ⌘+0 (Zero), or in the upper right window corner, see image:

In the Navigator there are dfferent tabs (Project Navigator, Symbols Navigator etc.). To see list of files in Your project You need to select Project Navigator or press ⌘+1.

To open file in current tab, single click on it in Navigator. If You double click the file, it would open in new window/tab. You can change the behaviour of double click in Preferences... -> Navigation -> Double Click Navigation.


Why are images on retina display pixelated whereas videos are fine? I just bought MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display. I have noticed that bitmap images (which are not vector graphics) are pixelated and fuzzy on several websites. However, videos seem to be fine. Why is that so? Can anyone explain why only bitmap images are affected by this (low resolution) but not videos?

For example, when I open YouTube, the logo of YouTube on left corner appears fuzzy, but video is played fine and correct. What method is used in videos then?

Does anyone know?

The videos remain sharp on the retina display because they're scaled down to half their original size (a 720p video is 1280x720, but displayed at 640x360 on YouTube).

Images on webpages are usually blurry because in order to display at the same physical size as on a non-retina display, they have to be scaled up 2x (unless the website provides 2x source images, like Apple.com does).


How can I keep my fan from staying at full speed after replacing the hard drive? I replaced a hard drive in a 2011 iMac (Core i7), though it was a standard hard drive and didn't have a location for the S.M.A.R.T. cord. (Or at least I think that's what it was.) Since then, the internal fan has constantly been running. I don't want the fan to burn out, and it is becoming quite a distraction for the user.

I believe there is a terminal command that turns off the fan, I believe by bypassing the S.M.A.R.T. test, but the Google gods are not forthcoming with this information. Does anybody know how I can turn off the fan?

Macs Fan Control can set the fan of an iMac (or MacBook, or other hardware) to any speed. The coolest thing that it can also set a fan to sensor-based control depending on your new HDD by reading its S.M.A.R.T. temperature.

This free app is much better and powerful than HDD Fan Control, which is currently deprecated but still costs $35. Macs Fan Control also works under Windows in Boot Camp.


How to save emailed video into Photos program? I'm just now getting used to Photos. When someone emails me a video, I can't just drag it into my photos library like I could with iPhoto. How do I add it to my existing library?

Save Attachment

Right click the video in Mail.
Select "Save Attachment".
Go to where you saved it in Finder.
Drag it into Photos.

It may take it a while, depending on the age of your Mac, how big the video is, etc.


How can I prevent Homebrew from installing a duplicate of software I installed through other means? I like using Homebrew for installing Unix software on my Mac, and appreciate that it doesn't try to install multiple copies of things like Python.  There are some packages I've already installed manually, though, and I don't want Homebrew to install its own copies of them.

In my current situation, I installed OCaml using the standard installer.  Now I want to install Coq via Homebrew.  I see via brew deps coq that it depends on OCaml.  I know I can tell it to skip installing OCaml this time via brew install --ignore-dependencies coq.  However, I'd rather not have to do that every time I install a Homebrew package that requires OCaml.

How can I make Homebrew pretend that it installed software that I installed through other means, so that it doesn't try to install a duplicate copy?

Take the path that you used for --prefix= during your ./configure and sym-link that into the Cellar/ directory that Homebrew is using. Homebrew will see these directories and see the dependencies as satisfied (unless you need to have them compiled with or without certain features to make Homebrew's formulas compile correctly). If your manually-compiled deps aren't compiled correctly, you'll probably get errors out of Homebrew.

ln -s /path/from/prefix/ /usr/local/Cellar/path/from/prefix

(Note the trailing slash on the first path, and lack of trailing slash on the second. OS X can be picky about these slashes when creating sym-links.)

This is the wrong way to do it, you should just be using --ignore-dependencies coq — that's what it's there for.


Swapping spaces between monitors Given that I have 'mission control/displays have separate spaces' unchecked: is there a way to swap spaces between displays (and assign a shortcut to it)?

For example: if I have 'Desktop 4' on the left monitor and 'Desktop 2' on the right monitor, I'd like to end up with 'Desktop 2' on left and 'Desktop 4' on the right.

If you have 'Displays have separate Spaces' unchecked, then you cannot do what you are looking for.

The 'Space' will automatically be the same Space on both monitors, you can't have one Space on the left & another on the right. You would need to re-check 'Displays have separate Spaces' in order to do that.
Then you could call up any Space on any monitor.

Because I don't use it that way myself (& refuse to mess up my careful setup yet again to test it ;) you'd have to test whether a given Space on the left has the same window contents as when you call that Space on the right. My guess is that they would have different contents, as it's possible to call the same Space on each, & for that to then be a mirror wouldn't make much sense.

So, I'm pretty certain that by either method, you cannot achieve what you need - which I am assuming is effectively to swap the contents of one screen for the contents of the other.


Airport Express network keeps showing up as protected after soft reset I have an aiport express,of which I have forgotten the password. After it has started up, I pressed the reset button for 1 second, but the network stil appears with a lock icon. How do I get back into the network?

Hard reset

Press and hold the reset button with a pen, pencil, or straightened **paperclip until you see the status light (LED) start to flash amber rapidly**, which should occur after about five seconds.
Release the button and the device will reset.
Wait about a minute for the base station to finish restarting, then open AirPort Utility from Applications > Utilities.
Select the base station from Other Wi-Fi Devices, then click Edit.
Select the Other Options button.
Select "Restore previous settings" and click Next until you get to the final window.
AirPort Utility will indicate that Setup is complete. Click Done.
Quit AirPort Utility.


Keyboard layout changes in Office I'm using an external USB keyboard (for windows, really). It's a 105-key UK layout and for some reason my ` and \ keys are switched.

This is fine, as I've obtained a keyboard layout which swaps these keys round. However, in certain applications (Office and Slack, possibly more) the layout switches back to the original British PC layout.

Also, I'm on Sierra.

How can I get my keyboard layout to persist?

The solution to this issue is to uncheck the "Automatically switch to a document's input source" checkbox in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input Sources.

If the keyboard layout is wrong then select the correct layout.


Folders in Applications not in sync with Launchpad I created a folder in /Applications to move all Games into a folder called Games. Launchpad is not in sync with the folders that I created.

Looking at the folder Utilities, I was under the impression that creating a folder in /Applications would keep Launchpad in sync .

Is there a way to keep these two distinct Applications (LaunchPad and Finder) which show me a list apps to respect the folders hierarchy ?

The two hierarchies are separate, and cannot be kept in sync without third-party intervention. Even then, there would be difficulties. Note that Launchpad folders have capacity limits that actual folders do not have, and folders within /Applications can contain nested folders, while Launchpad folders cannot.

It's just a coincidence that the apps in /Applications/Utilities match up with the Utilities folder in Launchpad. On my machine, I moved Terminal out of the Utilities folder in Launchpad, but it's still /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app


File sharing from OSX 10.6.8 to OS 9.2.2 For several years I have updated my server on OS 9.2.2 using file sharing from OSX 10.5.8. Today I tried to update a file from another Mac with OSX 10.6.8. It mounts the OS 9 volume as usual and I can copy files from it but I can only write files with a total size of up to 5,006 bytes.

Does anybody have any thoughts about the likely cause of this?

I now have Leopard and various versions of Snow Leopard installed on my Mac Pro and I get the following results:

All versions can mount a remote OS 9 volume or folder. Leopard can write files to the mounted volume without any difficulty. Some versions of Snow Leopard can write some files at a first attempt but some of these appear empty or corrupted.

I eventually found I could get consistent satisfactory results by using a bash script to write about 40kB to a dummy file twice. After this further files can be written without any difficulty until the connection is terminated. Whist this is slightly tedious I can live it.

Further insights or fixes would be of interest to me.

Here is my bash script:

open 'afp://user-name:password@###.###.###.###/volume/web-pages'; sleep 1; f(){ echo {a..z}{A..Z}{z..n} > /Volumes/volume/web-pages/dummy-file; }; f; f


How to disable Mac's generic Option-Command-W? I end up accidentally hitting it because I have a similar shortcut for something else. I was hoping to disable Option-Cmd-W. I am fine disabling it only for one app specifically, or for all apps, whichever is easier. I'm on MacBook Pro, Catalina.
What software can I buy that could do it?
(Or maybe I just missed some menu option?)
Note: I'm talking about the shortcut that is set by Apple, not by any application. It's mentioned here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236. Chrome is not showing this key assignment in its menu (it has Close All listed in the menu, but it seems as if it's unassigned). And yet, when I followed the accepted answer, I did manage to disable this.

If you want to change the keyboard shortcut for Close All on the File menu of Google Chrome, this can be does in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts
Click the [+] button and fill in the sheet that appears.
For this example, I changed it to: ⌥⌘/


OSX slow netwerk setup after sleep when wired (wireless is fast)? When my mapro6,1 awakes from sleep it takes like 20-30 seconds before the network (and therefor Internet) is working, when i use WiFi its almost instant.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Wel, guess I found it.

I used a cross-cable (UTP), instead of a normal cable. Although it works fine, it seems the link negotiation takes a bit longer.


Can I apply to student discount just with a school ID I'm an international student currently in an exchange program in a US school. I do have a student ID card, but that's it.

According to your experience, will I be able to get the student discount? Does it take some kind of digital validation?

As I said before, I have a student ID card from my school, but I don't have a valid .edu address or anything. Does Apple perform some kind of checkup or just showing the ID is enough?

If your just looking for the ~5% student discount, yes your student ID card will be enough.

For the Apple On Campus 12% discout, they will check from your student card if your school is registered to this program.


How can I use the output sound from GarageBand as my 'mic' for Skype or similar? I run GarageBand on my MacMini with a simple USB audio interface. I want to be able to play my electric guitar through GarageBAnd so the sound with SFX is what is fed into Skype and other video chat sites, as if this were my microphone.

But I think selecting the USB device as my audio input will give me only the dry sound from my instrument, not the modified sound from Garageband?
So how can I do what I want without expensive equipment?

I have realised my USB interface has a mixer inputs/playback which means through headphones I can choose to select only the processed output from GarageBand if I set the interface as my audio-out... but how do I get that back into the Mac short of putting a cable from the headphone-out => Mac line-in?!

I just used the Blackhole. It worked perfectly.
At the very high level you have to do these things:
Follow these screenshots and steps to:

Add blackhole to your OS. It's not an app you install. It's a package. Once you install it. This creates a new audio device ie adds an item named blackhole to the list of your audio inputs and outputs.
Create a Multi-output device (I did blackhole + Headphone) using your Mac's Utilities.

Then

In Garageband you set your output to that blackhole (not Multi-output)
In Skype your set your Mic input to that blackhole (not Multi-output)
Done! Begin speaking into your primary audio input source (I used my Mac's microphone)

All the steps are mentioned in detail here. Garageband is the 'sending application'. Skype is the 'receiving application'
The end result for me looked like like:
Create new project:

GarageBand Settings

I've also been told that you can achieve the same using the Loopback app.
btw, everything I mentioned in my answer is free.


Turn Do Not Disturb on or off in an Applescript app (macOS Catalina) I want to turn on or off (not just toggle) Do Not Disturb within an Applescript-based app.
Apparently there used to be a method for doing this on older versions of the OS (I'm on Catalina). Now, the only solution I've found is a hack that uses a keyboard shortcut to toggle the condition of Do Not Disturb. This won't work for me because I don't know in advance the state of the setting before I run the app and I specifically want to turn it off when the app is run (later I'll turn it back on).
If there's no way to specifically turn Do Not Disturb on or off, then I suppose what I need to know is how to ascertain the current state of the setting and only execute the keyboard shortcut if it is not in the desired state.

This is not as elegant as I was hoping for but it seems to work.
After playing with the Record feature for a while, I seem to be able to turn DND on when it's off:
-- Click the “Notification Center” menu bar item.
delay 1.109957
set timeoutSeconds to 0.0
set uiScript to "click menu bar item \"Notification Center\" of menu bar 1 of application process \"SystemUIServer\""
my doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)

-- Click the “<fill in title>” button.
delay 2.096055
set timeoutSeconds to 0.0
set uiScript to "click UI Element 3 of group \"Do Not Disturb\" of scroll area 1 of window \"Notification Center\" of application process \"Notification Center\""
my doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)

on doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)
    set endDate to (current date) + timeoutSeconds
    repeat
        try
            run script "tell application \"System Events\"
" & uiScript & "
end tell"
            exit repeat
        on error errorMessage
            if ((current date) > endDate) then
                error "Can not " & uiScript
            end if
        end try
    end repeat
end doWithTimeout

and vice versa:
-- Click the “Notification Center” menu bar item.
delay 2.508349
set timeoutSeconds to 2.0
set uiScript to "click menu bar item \"Notification Center, Do Not Disturb enabled\" of menu bar 1 of application process \"SystemUIServer\""
my doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)

-- Click the “<fill in title>” button.
delay 1.176098
set timeoutSeconds to 2.0
set uiScript to "click UI Element 3 of group \"Do Not Disturb\" of scroll area 1 of window \"Notification Center\" of application process \"Notification Center\""
my doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)

on doWithTimeout(uiScript, timeoutSeconds)
    set endDate to (current date) + timeoutSeconds
    repeat
        try
            run script "tell application \"System Events\"
" & uiScript & "
end tell"
            exit repeat
        on error errorMessage
            if ((current date) > endDate) then
                error "Can not " & uiScript
            end if
        end try
    end repeat
end doWithTimeout

It would be better if there were a solution that checked its state or explicitly specified the desired new state instead of just toggling. There is a small difference between the "on" and "off" scripts so it's not exactly toggling but it works by clicking the button.


Can you turn off auto-complete/auto-correct in mobile Safari? It's awful for SO I have an iPad Pro with a Logitech keyboard. It is almost useable for day-to-day light work.

However, the auto-complete/auto-correct feature in mobile Safari is truly awful when posting to Stack Overflow. In particular, it keeps converting back-ticks (`) to abbreviations like "1st" or "10th". Is there a way to turn off auto-correct for a specific website?

I found several posts talking about how to disable auto-correct in the HTML of a website. I'm talking about as a user.

Yes, you can turn auto-correction off. But unfortunately not for specific apps or websites.

Open the settings app
General > Keyboards
Turn Auto-Correction off


Iphone 8.3 Other Storage 89gb Upgrade to 8.3 at the time of backup I had 1.2gb of used Other Data.
Hooked up the watch, used it over the weekend and now up to 89gb of Other Data.

Turned off the Watch, and restarted the phone but I can not find anyway to remove the Used space. Deleted my main Email account but that did not free up any space.

Looked in Setting - Have 29gb of Video and other apps are around 500mb.
Not enough small apps to make up 89gb.

The Apple rep requested I restore from my Upgrade backup.
Has anyone see this happen?

Try this:
Plug your device into your computer. Download the app iFunbox. Go to the root file system, then open the directory "Application Archives" then delete all of the ipa files.

Another alternative (without ads) is iMazing it does an amazing job with my files. (It's a paid app)


Restore incomplete iCloud backup One month ago i lost my iPhone 5. Got a new one, 6S, and i'm trying to recover my old media. According to iCloud, there is a 1.5 GB Incomplete backup from the phone which is now gone. Is there anything I can do to salvage any of the data from this Incomplete 1.5 GB backup?Thanks in advance!

Your iCloud backups should be stored in:
/Users/[user name]/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

You can use a backup extraction tool like this one (note that the free version is limited) to see what you can get from the backup, then transfer it to your phone via iTunes.


What is the best iCharger that charges from AA batteries? I will be leaving on a vacation soon to a place where there are several days between power outlets. What charger should I use to charge/run my iP(ad/hone)?

I’ve had “decent” experience with this one with an iPhone 3GS.

I’ve brought that one after reading from someone who actually tested it; you can find his little post: Here.

I didn’t test with all those batteries, but I can say that a pack of 4 AA batteries will charge the iPhone from 10-20% to 100%, but the batteries were drained in the process. An expensive idea… but a life saver if you really need it.

  But for long trips away from power
  sources, non-rechargeable lithium AAs
  are by far the best


Where does Apple Configurator store ipsw downloads? Every time Apple releases new iOS software, it's a bit of a rush to get things downloaded and the servers can be slow in delivering the bits.

I would like to know where the Apple Configurator Version 1.2.1 (169) stores downloaded iOS software so I could transfer the files from iTunes or another computer so I can have several machines grab one each of the builds and then distribute them to avoid having each machine have to re-download all images each time.

Can I move IPSW in to or out of Apple Configurator rather than having it control the downloads from Apple for iOS software?

Since Apple Configurator 2.0 they are downloaded in:

~/Library/Group Containers/K36BKF7T3D.group.com.apple.configurator/Library/Caches/Downloads/ACUDownloadFileOperation/

and stored in:

~/Library/Group Containers/K36BKF7T3D.group.com.apple.configurator/Library/Caches/Firmware


Captioning an image in Keynote Guides online refer to a text box beneath the image, but I don't see one in Keynote 8. I've filled in the Description, but I can't find any way to make that visible, either. Must I create a text box? I am using my company's presentation template.

The Description field attached to an image is not designed to be visible in your presentation. Instead, the purpose of the Description field is to provide additional information that can be read by assistive software. This allows users of any such software to access your presentation in a meaningful way.

Assistive software is primarily used by people who face challenges (e.g. visual impairment, learning difficulties, etc) so that they're able to access content that would otherwise not be available to them. For example, a description you enter for an image in Keynote can be read out aloud using VoiceOver so that a user with visual impairment is aware of it and understands it.

A text box is totally separate to an image and would need to be added individually. Depending on what you wanted to achieve, you could use a text box, comments or notes. If all you wanted, however, was a caption at the bottom of images then a text box is probably your best bet.


How do I stop/freeze my secondary display? I'm fairly new to Mac and having a dual monitor setup, but I have my secondary display working and arranged above my laptop. I want to be able to move between screens on the laptop and have the secondary display on the TV freeze on that document so that I can read what else I need to search for. I have tried turning 'Mirroring' on and off but it doesn't seen to stop the secondary display.

I am on Mac OS X 10.7.5 (MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011)

If you're referring to full screen applications, there's no fix for that at the moment. You'll always have a grey screen on one of your displays when you switch applications. OS X 10.9 is rumored to have a fix, but obviously that's no guarantee. Your best bet is to wait until June 10 when the WWDC announcement comes through.


VPP license transfer Is there any way to transfer licenses bought through Apple's VPP from one iDevice to another? (aka. I don't want to make apps a gift to the employee)

And what are the prerequisites if such a thing was possible?

Any source where I can easily figure that one out?
Edit: I almost forgot, we don't have a BYOD-Program, so the iDevices are institutional property.

it looks like I haven't been the only one wondering about "owning" the license to an app and being able to reassign it.

  App Store license management.

  The App Store Volume Purchase Program now offers businesses the ability to assign apps to their users while keeping full ownership and control over app licenses. Companies purchase app licenses through the VPP website, and can use their MDM solution to assign apps to employees over the air. [...] Apps can be revoked at any time and reassigned to other employees. [...]

http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7/business/


Does Safari's history eventually get deleted? I recently came across a folder in my computer called "History" with over 30 000 (!!) files. It seems that Safari was collecting a copy of every website I visit (probably to display it in the "history" menu...).

Would this folder keep on growing if I didn't see it and delete its contents?
What is the best way to clean it?

Your history is cleared automatically per your setting in (Safari) Preferences → General:

To clear your history manually, go to Safari → Clear History….


Can I keep 1 specific backup on an external hard drive as it fills up and deletes older backups? I've just moved 262GB of photos to a new external hard drive (1 TB), freeing up my MacBook Pro, 1 year old, which was dangerously low on space. I first backed them up on an existing external hard drive (also 1 TB). But now I see that this hard drive is getting full and Time Machine has started deleting older backups. That's ok. Currently the backups go to Jan 2015. But I need to keep the backup dated 2015.06.11 because that has all the photos I just deleted from the computer: these images are now on my new HD called "Photos" (and not formatted for Time Machine) and backed up in 2015.06.11 on the original ext. hard drive. So for now I'm okay, but in order to keep 2015.06.11 will I have to replace my backup ext. HD? Or is there some way I can tell Time Machine not to delete that one backup? Thanks.

Some advice. I always back up my photos separately from Time Machine. You can save your images in a separate folder on the Time Machine drive and Time Machine will not overwrite them (used to do this with Apertures backup vault).

Also, depending on the space on your Time Machine drive, you could use time machine to backup your external Photos drive as as well.

I would recommend that you have your photo's in at least two locations (which you currently have; however, Time Machine will eventually overwrite old data that is no longer on you hard drive if it needs the space).


For some reason I don't have an 'Automatically Add to iTunes' folder. Is that normal? I'm reading that a lot of people have this folder under their ~/Music/iTunes/ folder called Automatically Add to iTunes that lets them put files in and have iTunes reorganize them within the library and remove them.

I don't have this folder for some reason. Here's my command line list of files in that folder:

[teddyknox@teddyknox iTunes]$ ls -la
total 47960
drwxr-xr-x+ 14 teddyknox  staff       476 Dec 19 12:10 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 12 teddyknox  staff       408 Dec 17 16:44 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 teddyknox  staff     12292 Dec 19 10:44 .DS_Store
drwxr-xr-x+  6 teddyknox  staff       204 Nov 30 10:15 Album Artwork
drwxr-xr-x+ 10 teddyknox  staff       340 Mar 31  2012 Mobile Applications
drwxr-xr-x+ 13 teddyknox  staff       442 Nov 30 10:14 Previous iTunes Libraries
-rw-r--r--+  1 teddyknox  staff    538607 Dec 20  2011 Temp File.tmp
-rw-r--r--+  1 teddyknox  staff   3685049 Dec 20  2011 iT.tmp
-rw-r--r--+  1 teddyknox  staff    172032 Dec 19 10:26 iTunes Library Extras.itdb
-rw-r--r--+  1 teddyknox  staff    528384 Nov 30 10:14 iTunes Library Genius.itdb
-rw-r--r--@  1 teddyknox  staff   4022157 Dec 19 12:10 iTunes Library.itl
lrwxr-xr-x   1 teddyknox  staff        56 Sep 13 19:37 iTunes Media ->       /Volumes/root/Users/teddyknox/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/
-rw-r--r--@  1 teddyknox  staff  15579060 Dec 19 12:10 iTunes Music Library.xml
-rw-r--r--@  1 teddyknox  staff         8 Dec 19 10:26 sentinel
[teddyknox@teddyknox iTunes]$ pwd
/Users/teddyknox/Music/iTunes

I've tried manually adding a folder with that name and restarting iTunes, but the process still doesn't work.

Why am I missing this folder, and what I can I do to get it in place and working OK?

It’s in the iTunes Media folder, no?

iTunes Media % pwd
/Users/paul/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
iTunes Media % ls -la                                                                                total 8
drwxr-xr-x   6 paul  staff  204 31 Oct 10:37 .
drwxr-xr-x  11 paul  staff  374 19 Dec 16:37 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 paul  staff  305 20 Aug  2010 .iTunes Preferences.plist
drwxr-xr-x   2 paul  staff   68 20 Aug  2010 Automatically Add to iTunes
drwxr-xr-x   7 paul  staff  238 31 Oct 11:21 Mobile Applications
drwxr-xr-x   4 paul  staff  136  5 Jan  2012 Music


iOS Auto-sorts New Stock Apps? I just updated my iPhone to iOS 10.2 and went looking for the new TV app. I was surprised to not find it on any of my home screens! Instead, it had been placed in my "Apple" folder, where I keep most of the (semi-useless) stock apps. It was even alphabetized correctly, having been inserted between "Tips" and "Voice Memos"!

How long has this feature existed? Does anyone know the history of this happening? Is it something that Apple has advertised?

The TV app is not new, Apple just renamed the Videos app.

You probably had the Videos app in the same location and when it was updated it just appeared to be placed alphabetically. In reality, since 'T' is close 'V' you might have just thought it automatically sorted itself.


MacOS 10.13.4 Cannot turn off lock screen in system preferences I guess since up 'upgraded' to 10.13.4 I get a login screen if I leave my MacBook air alone for the briefest time. This is a real pain in the neck.

In system preferences the this statement is checked:

"Require password [immediately] after sleep or screen saver begins."

I can't uncheck this box, and I can't change the [immediately] to anything else. If I could change it to 8 hrs I wouldn't be so unhappy, but as it is it is intolerable. Makes me want to go back to Linux.

I live alone and I have never taken my MacBook to any place public. I guess Apple in their wisdom thinks that if I go to the kitchen to freshen my coffee someone will bust down the door and steel all my secrets.

I would be glad to downgrade my OS if I could figure out how, and if that would actually make a difference.

I hope someone has a solution for this, I'm at wits end.

I was stumped with some issues for days now, reading everything I could on the subject, and I finally found the solution: it is a keychain problem with as simple solution.

The solution is to delete one or more folders located in ~/Library/Keychains/, that is to say folders in the Keychains folder in our user Library.

The folders to be deleted have long names like: A8F5E7B8-CEC1-4479-A7DF-F23CB076C8B8.

You may have one or more folders with these long names and they can be safely deleted: one such folder will be recreated after rebooting.

Do not remove anything else contained in you Keychain folder, and reboot.

Once rebooted, reinstall all extensions in Safari, and/or enable other features you we having issues with.

Trashing those folders solves many issues such as:

Security login screen system prefs not recognizing your changes & your password (locks the screen immediately on sleep or screen saver);
Safari disabling all your extensions and not recognizing your password if you try a solution in the developer's menu;
iCloud system prefs not wanting to enable your iCloud Keychain and complaining it can't communicate with the iCloud server;
Safari not recognizing your password when you try to access the passwords tab in Safari preferences;
Login screen disregards Automatic Login settings and insists on asking  for a user password.

——

I found this solution at TechRaptor (thanks!), although at first it seems a bit unrelated (many screen captures in article): The Iron Mac: How to Get Rid of Annoying Local Items Keychain Box.


How do I find out the hostname of my Mac OS X server? I'm trying to connect with mysql_connect using PHP.

I was wondering how to find the hostname when I turn my MacBook into a server by turning on the personal webpage.

I have Apache, MySQL and PHP enabled.

Is the hostname what you ssh into? It says that my computer's name is spiderman and it could be accessed with spiderman.local, but it doesn't seem to work. I've also tried using my IP address.

In a terminal run the command:

$ hostname

The environment variable $HOSTNAME may not necessarily be set.


Keynote presentation view Today when I set up my Keynote presentation, the "presenter view" appeared on the audience screen and the audience view appeared on my MacBookPro. The MacBook is a brand new computer and the Keynote is ver. 6.5.2 (2119) I have used this same computer, Keynote and projector for the past 4 months and never had this problem. I tried disconnecting the computer from the projector and restarting Keynote. No difference. I disconnected the computer from the projector and restarted the computer with the projector connected. No difference. I looked in preferences but did not find anything helpful in the display settings. I'm obviously missing something. Has anyone had a similar experience?

When that occurs, you can move your cursor to the screen with the presenter view (in this case the one that everyone could see); some options will appear, including the ability to swap the displays. This will cause your computer's display to become the presenter display and for the "public" display to just show the slide content.


MacBook Pro trouble signing into App Store, iMessage and iCloud New macbook and while trying to sign into the App Store, iMessage and iCloud it just loads for hours, correct email and password yet loading symbol appears and spins for hours. Any fixes??

I believe it is a problem on Apple's side. Just give it a day or two and try again.

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/23/mac-users-facetime-imessage-login-issues/


Process completed immediately after opening Terminal After I open Terminal in OS X:

Last login: Tue Oct 28 10:29:21 on ttys000 login(14773,0x7fff7572f300) malloc: * error for
object 0x7fd4bb715110: pointer being freed was not allocated * set a breakpoint in
malloc_error_break to debug

[Process completed]

I have no idea what I did or how to fix it.

Go to Preferences → General and set Shells open with to Command, and enter the following:

/bin/bash -x

Open a new shell and see what is being run, then remove the relevant lines from your profile files.


Automatically Mount Encrypted Core Storage Volume (10.14.4+) Prior to Mojave 10.14.4, macOS would automatically attempt to mount locked Core Storage volumes, and if the necessary password was found in the current user's keychain this would occur automatically.

I've taken advantage of this behaviour until now to allow me to have multiple encrypted volumes that are all mounted automatically by successfully logging in to a user account on my encrypted startup volume.

However, macOS no longer appears to be attempting to mount Core Storage volumes automatically, despite the necessary passwords being in either my user keychain, or the system keychain, forcing me to mount them manually with Disk Utility. This isn't ideal as it ties the volumes to the user account, meaning if I log out the volumes are locked again.

This behaviour differs from encrypted APFS volumes, which mount automatically exactly as before. I know Apple is pushing us to move to APFS, but with still no conversion for AppleRAID (I'm not keen to erase and restore a multiple terabyte volume just to switch), and no use for Time Machine which still doesn't support an APFS backup volume.

Is there a way to restore or securely emulate the previous behaviour such that the volumes are unlocked automatically for all users?

In case the specifics of my setup are useful; my startup volume is an APFS encrypted volume that only my admin account is authorised to unlock, but I use other, standard, user accounts (one for work, one for general use etc.) when actually using my system. I then have an AppleRAID volume of several disks using Core Storage encryption, and a CS encrypted Time Machine disk.

It appears to be a bug that was introduced in macOS 10.14.4. In this discussion some users report that the problem went away by itself, a recent poster found the problem was solved in the latest 10.14.5 beta, and others have resorted to using the third-party app AutoMounter.

In my case, I have a SD drive permanently inserted into the SD card reader. That worked perfectly for years. Since the update it would auto-mount only about 50% of all reboots.

Therefore, it seems your best bet will be to wait for macOS 10.14.5 and report the issue to Apple. Another thing that you could try is to delete and re-enter the passphrase in your Keychain Access.app. Concerning your comment, the necessary steps would be:

Open Keychain Access.app
Find the key by entering the volume's name in the search field
Select & delete the key
Open Disk Utility.app
Mount the volume in question and check the "Save passphrase" box
Go back to Keychain Access.app and locate the volume key again
Drag & drop they volume key into the "System" category in the left sidebar of Keychain Access.app. This step is necessary to enable auto-mounting.

P.S.: I experience another issue, which I suspect is related to this one. Possibly a new UUID is assigned to the drive which could be the reason it is not auto-mounted anymore.


AppleID Two-factor Authentification with Email address Suppose I have 2FA activated for AppleID, and I lose my phone and I need to log in with my AppleID. This becomes further complicated when I travel to another country and have to use another, local phone number for some time.
I wish I could use my email-address for 2FA instead of my phone number.
Is there any way I can log in with my AppleID if I don't have access to my phone number?

Keep in mind SMS is a fallback from trusted device push notifications. You don’t even need an SMS message unless you can not / do not choose to have trusted devices with you that use network based Apple push notification services (APNS).

Go all in on trusted devices if you can - avoid SMS entirely.
Choose a dual sim phone if you can so you can layer both lines when you travel or add a short term number.
Many carriers allow SMS to forward to a watch or iPad or computer so that the delivery is network based like the Apple trusted device notification path.
Add your new number as a trusted phone number when you need that extra flexibility.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915

You don’t have to remove your primary or depend on SMS only would be my recommendation unless/until Apple adds new methods of verifying it’s you when you want to sign in to a service from abroad.


Am I able to retrieve document from time machine after a clean install and setup new account with same username? I used time machine previously and I have done a clean install to get back some space on my mac. At setup process I skipped to use time machine I just wanted to get my machine up and running and set up a new account with same username as earlier. Am I able to retrieve document from backup time machine used to done?

You can drill down into the Time Machine folder hierarchy just like any other disk...

[Time Machine Drive] > Backups.backupd > [Computer name] > Latest - then you're into the old hierarchy as it was on your previous system.

if Latest has been overwritten by the new system then you'd have to dig by date or use search.


My 5TB HD now thinks it's a 3TB? I'm at a total loss to explain this strange incident.  I have a dedicated Mac Mini as a media server to the house, and it has a 5TB external Seagate drive hanging off of it.  The drive is partitioned into two partitions, one called "Media" which is 3TB and contains our household movies, TV shows, etc.  The other is called "TM iMac" and is a network volume I use to backup my personal workstation (an iMac) via Time Machine.  It's been set up this way for years, never had a hitch until yesterday.

Yesterday I noticed that my iMac kept complaining about a problem connecting to a share on the media server.  I finally investigated further last night and found that my iMac was failing to connect to the TM iMac network volume.  The last successful TM backup was yesterday at 9am, and nothing unusual happened all day.  I checked the media server and sure enough, the TM iMac volume was missing.  But that's when things got really weird.  I ran Disk First Aid and found that, according to it, I don't have a 5TB drive with 2 partitions connected, I have a single 3TB drive with 1 partition - the Media partition.  All verify/repairs pass with flying colors.

What the heck has happened here?  How has my 5TB drive suddenly turned itself into a 3TB drive?  How can DFA think it's anything other than what it is?  It would be strange but at least make some sense, if one partition was lost somehow and my 5TB drive reported only a single partition of 3TB in use.  But DFA actually says it's a 3TB Seagate drive, not the 5TB that it actually is!

Is this some strange indication of the drive beginning to fail?  The drive was purchased new and put in service in March of 2016.  Should I nuke the drive, reformat, and restore from backup (I have backups of the Media partition)?  Any other ideas on what caused this and what to do about it?

EDIT to include disultil list results:

Media-Server:Volumes media$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            249.6 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Time Machine Media      249.5 GB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Media                   3.0 TB     disk1s2

Please note that "Time Machine Media" is a separate partition on the internal drive of this machine, used for this machine's own local TM backup.  It has nothing to do with this question.

Well, chalk this one up to pilot error.  It turned out that what I had thought was a single drive in two partitions, wasn't.  I was right that my TM drive was 5TB, but what I had forgotten was that my Media drive, was a completely separate, older 3TB drive that was just somewhat hidden in my media cabinet.  It looks like the TM drive had disappeared due to a cabling issue of some sort.  Unplugging and then plugging back in its USB, caused it to suddenly reappear as expected.

Oh well, I'm now also the proud owner of a new 8TB drive (which was cheaper than the 5TB drive was 18 months ago!) so I guess I'll look at this as the universe's way of telling me once and for all that I need to stop running out of space on my Media drive.  LOL


iMac occasionally gets very sluggish. Memory Pressure is high and its hard to use computer. Why is this? I have a mid-2010 iMac running High Sierra. It has started getting very sluggish several times a week. I have tracked it down to the memory pressure and the process kernal_task. Shown below is a screenshot of the activity monitor when this occurs.

As you can see the process kernal_task is using 9.43 GB of memory.  This usually lasts 20 or 30 minutes. The kernal_task will occasionally drop to 5.46 GB and then sometimes down to 1.6 GB at which time the memory pressure is small and it turns green and my machine will return to normal.
The next image is of the Activity Monitor showing CPU usage. Kernal_task is not using a lot of CPU but has been running for quite a while.

Does anyone have an idea of what is happening?
I've tried restarting my computer and quitting all open apps when it gets sluggish. Restarting the computer worked but eventually it gets sluggish again.  Restarting every time this happens is a real pain. Quitting the open apps seems to have no effect. The final image below shoes the memory pressure when things return to normal.

A dying a hard drive will actually cause this symptom as the system "waits" for read/write operations to complete.  It'll eventually get there, but often times, it will crash.
From the comments, you've confirmed this with the SMART status saying "Failed" which means that drive literally has one foot in the grave and slowly putting the other one in now.

I just hate putting money into my old computer.

I can't agree more.  However, this one might be worth an SSD upgrade. You can get a 120GB for under $20USD and a 250GB for under $40. Why go through the trouble?
Here's a little teaser....
This is a little side project I've been hacking away on... It's a white 2007 MacBook.

(Forgive the bezel, I'm dealing with an unscrupulous vendor in NJ who sent me a dead LCD and refused to exchange it due to COVID-19 and I'm waiting on a resolution from AMEX). I'm into this for about $40 (a little horse trading on ebay helps) and everything works - Ethernet, Bluetooth, external display, and even WiFi!  It's utterly useless, from a macOS perspective, but not for FreeBSD with the MATE DE. Even if all else fails, I still have a good SSD that I got for $20 that can go into another machine...
Your iMac is a tank, and I'd hate to see it meet an untimely demise.  ;-)


How Do Macbooks Automatically Connect to Xfinity Wifi I have a MacBook that has automatically connected to Xfinity hotspots ever since I logged into a friends apartment wifi years ago. They now live outside the US, so I doubt they still have an account.

How is the information that allows me to automatically connect stored? I was looking in the keychain access app and could not find any stored passwords / keys. For my other computers Xfinity will throw a popup asking me for account information.

I was hoping I could figure out how to copy the password / validation key information to other computers I own for wifi access on the go. Perhaps it is handled differently, but either way it seemed an interesting question to learn the answer to. Thanks!

That information is in your keychain.

Just enter the name of the WiFi in the search box in key chain.

If you do not know the name look it up.

All the networks that your computer has ever joined are saved in System Preference > Networks > advanced.

UPDATE.....Xfinity WiFi is not actually called Xfintiy, it is called Comcast.

Use Comcast when searching in your keychain.

I just looked up mine and there it is, even so I do no longer use it.