How can I combine PDF files and automatically create a table of contents? I have a bunch of PDF files named, say, chapter1, chapter2, etc. I would like to combine them into a single file and create a table of contents where each file gets an entry.

If memory serves, there used to be a tool called CombinePDFs that could do that, but it was written as a RealBASIC application and does not seem to work on OS X 10.8 anymore.

Any alternative suggestion?

Note: it's really about the automatic table of contents feature; I know how to merge/join/combine PDF files without one.

PDFCombo, new free app for Mac OS X, combines PDFs and preserves the table of contents. It can also add a TOC entry based on filename to link to first page of every contributing PDF in the combined PDF.

Download here: http://www.onekerato.com/downloads.html


Is my RAM compatible with my Macbook Pro I have a Mid 2012 13-inch MacBook Pro. To speed it up, I bought  two Kingston PC3L-12800 1600 MHz memory modules which have 4 GB each. However, my computer keeps showing the famous "beach ball" if try to do to many things at the same time (keeping multiple tabs open, closing applications one after another etc).

Do you think there is a compatibility issue? If so, is there a way that I can solve it?

Yes, there's a problem:

PC3L ≠ PC3.

PC3L is PC3 Low Voltage memory that operates at 1.35V and PC3 operates at 1.5V.  The 2012 MacBook Pro calls for PC3-12800.  See Everymac.com.  For best results you want to use the exact memory, or higher quality memory that operates at both voltage levels.

Also, that Mac is capable of 16GB of RAM, and the price point is low enough that you could max it out for only a marginal amount more.  Nobody ever said "Gee I have too much memory!" It's better to have and not need than need and not have!


Is it possible to use an iPhone 5 with tracfone service byop? I am trying to use an iPhone 5 with Tracfone's byop. However I can't seem to find the right sim card. At first Tracfone said that I needed an at&t SIM card but it doesn't work with iPhone 5 for it is much to big.  Can anyone help me?

I recently purchased this kit I learned about on a deals forum.

It comes with SIM cards in standard, micro and nano sizes. I have not activated it yet but you can buy different levels of time to add. I have installed the card in my 4S but I still have time left on my non-smartphone tracfone.


Can I connect 3 display to a mid 2012 MBP retina? I have a mid 2012 Retina display MBP, currently connected to 2 external displays.

Specs:

And these are the 2 current monitors, both FULL HD:

One of them is connected directly with native HDMI port and with the other one Im using an HDMI apple MiniDisplay Port adapter.

Im worried cause just bought another FULL HD 23" inches monitor and would like to use it as a third monitor, so I have 4 screens in total (I normally use MBP opened)

So what do you think? Can my Mac handle this? I bought a couple of Belkin HDMI to MiniDisplay port cables so I get rid of adapters.

Thank you

Yes, the your MacBook Pro is able to handle three externals displays as you require. You'll need to connect one via the HDMI port, and the two others via the Thunderbolt (mini DisplayPort) ports.


help with Karabiner elements custom complex rule I have a busted close-bracket key on my keyboard. Previously, I had used Karabiner to map L-control+open_bracket to close_bracket using a custom rule I wrote in the xml-format used by karabiner.

However, now that I've updated to Sierra, Karabiner is out, and Karabiner elements is in. Karabiner elements uses a JSON format. I tried to create a new rule and stick it in the JSON file:

"rules": [
         {"manipulators": [
                {"description": "bracket rule",
                        "from": {"key_code": "open_bracket",
                                 "modifiers": ["left_control"]
                                },
                          "to": [{"key_code": "close_bracket",
                                  "modifiers":[]
                                }]
                }         ]
         }]

However, this rule doesn't seem to work the way I'd like it to (it just maps open_bracket to close_bracket).

Does anyone have an insight into what I'm doing wrong here?

Your sample appeared to be slightly different than other rules I've looked at.  Here's a version that works for me:

file: map_lctl_plus_open_bracket_to_close_bracket.json :

{
  "title": "Map Lft-Ctl+Open-Bracket to Close-Bracket",
  "rules": [
    {
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "description": "bracket rule",
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "key_code": "open_bracket",
            "modifiers": {
              "mandatory": [
                "left_control"
              ],
              "optional": [
                "caps_lock"
              ]
            }
          },
          "to": [
            {
              "key_code": "close_bracket"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

I wasn't able to determine any way to install the script other than through the "Import more rules from the internet" option, but I did figure out how to launch the importer on my own files.

Assuming you copy the file into /tmp/map_lctl_plus_open_bracket_to_close_bracket.json, pasting the following url into Safari should launch the importer:

karabiner://karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/import?url=file%3A%2F%2F%2Ftmp%2Fmap_lctl_plus_open_bracket_to_close_bracket.json

I have fully tested both the file content and the import url within this post, and all worked fine for me.

Good luck !

EDIT: Immediately after making this post, I think I found where the local filestore is for manually adding rules.

https://github.com/pqrs-org/KE-complex_modifications#local-testing

This is the github repo for the rules on the "Import more rules from the internet" page.  It shows how to test the rules locally before submitting to the web repository.

TL;DR:

$ cp my_rule.json ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications

The site also confirms the karabiner://... technique I mentioned above.


Howto see disk I/O utilisation per process - iotop and pidstat not available in Homebrew on macOS I have the same question like this, but for macOS.

There is a GUI solution with Activity Monitor. Any command line alternative? I use latest macOS Sierra.

iotop is available in macOS/OS X itself.

iotop relies on dtrace though and you have to disable SIP in systems like El Capitan/Sierra to run dtrace.

Check man iotop for options and then execute iotop as root :

sudo iotop [-C] [-D|-o|-P] [-j|-Z] [-d device] [-f filename] [-m mount_point] [-t top] [interval [count]]


how can i set up mamp or web sharing to show clients php application remotely? I'm currently using mamp instead of web sharing and I'm trying to figure out the best approach to share php and mysql web application that I'm working on to clients. What is the best way to do this?

I personally prefer using Web Sharing and installing only MySQL Server, just to stick with the  Mac OS X Apache setup.

Web sharing has support for PHP, all you need to do is remove the comment (#) from the following line of the file /etc/apache2/httpd.conf:

#LoadModule php5_module      libexec/apache2/libphp5.

So it becomes:

LoadModule php5_module      libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

The PHP module includes MySQL support, so you just need to install the MySQL Server, turn it on and then you are ready to go.

After turning Web Sharing on, put your .php files inside your personal Site folder, and access it on your browser using the address informed on the Web Sharing activation screen, inside Settings.


FaceTime calls wrong person Often (not always) I try to call my mother using FaceTime it calls totally the wrong person. The wrong person it calls, is always the same wrong person. How is this even possible?

Open your Contacts and check all of the phone numbers and email addresses listed for the person that gets called (check your mother's contact as well).  This person's contact likely incorrectly contains your mother's phone number or email address.  Remove or correct the incorrect information from that person's contact information and the problem will go away.


VPN client no longer connecting A colleague of mine has a Mac which is no longer able to connect to our office VPN. It has worked in the past, and nothing has changed in his VPN-settings nor on the server side. (Other Mac users with identical settings connect without problems).

Here's what he gets in his ppp.log:

Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : publish_entry SCDSet() failed: Success!
Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : publish_entry SCDSet() failed: Success!
Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : l2tp_get_router_address
Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : l2tp_get_router_address 10.2.6.1 from dict 1
Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : L2TP connecting to server '310.20.30.40' (310.20.30.40)...
Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : IPSec connection started
Thu Feb 23 10:23:30 2017 : IPSec phase 1 client started
Thu Feb 23 10:23:40 2017 : IPSec connection failed

(I've replaced the IP address with a non existing one)

So the client starts, but a 'IPSec phase 1 server replied' never comes.

I'm actually not sure where to look next, given that our other Macs connect successfully, and our VPN-server & firewall haven't changed either.

Who can help me out? :)

I had the same exact error log, but with having admin access to vpn server and router, so I found out the problem quickly. For me it was dst-nat problem, on one  router that I forgot about being there and I found it via traceroute. I was playing with it and some testing vpn-servers 2 years ago.

So basically this log would show up if no packets on 500/udp or 4500/udp are able to reach the server or just end up redirected to non-existing address(like my case). There's most likely no problem with your colleague's mac. The log would just say something else if there was something like bad configurations, secret, cipher, outdated operating system etc. I recommend to contact your office if you haven't yet and tell them your IP.


Is it possible to connect my iPhone 3G via Bluetooth to both OS on my MacBook? I'm trying to connect my iPhone 3G to my MacBook via Bluetooth to use the iPhone Tethering.
When I connect the iPhone to the OS X everything works fine. Since I often also use Windows 7 on the Boot Camp partition I'd like to connect from Windows 7 to the iPhone as well.

This works, but in this case I always have to remove and reconnect it when booting back to OS X and vice versa.

Is it possible to setup the Bluetooth connection and have it working in both operating systems on the same MacBook?

The bluetooth connection is maintained by the OS (Windows or Mac OS X) so as soon as you restart, the connection is lost and you have to re-establish it.


How do I fresh install on used OSX 10.6.8? I just bought a used MacBook and I want to wipe it clean to start fresh. It didn't come up a DVD or anything.

I tried following another post on here that said to push Option on start up and it sounded like it could do a fresh install using an internet connection. However when I did it the only icon I got was the hard drive in the laptop.

It looks like you can purchase the DVD on the apple website (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard) though here it looks like it offers a free upgrade to http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/ 10.10.1

But it's not clear if that applies to me since I'm not the original owner. It's also not clear if I'll run into complications in general since I'm not the original owner (eg is the laptop tied to someone else's iTunes account right now?)

It's also not clear if it'll allow for a "fresh installation". I'm more of a PC guy I'm not really familiar with Macs. What route should I go to wipe the laptop?

The Recovery HD (which is what holding down Option would enable you to access) didn't come into being until Lion. You should go to the App Store, sign out of the previous owner's Apple ID, sign in with your own, download and install Yosemite, and then you'll have the Recovery partition from which you can do a wipe/fresh install.


Is it possible to cluster multiple Xservers in to one logical machine? I have (3) 2009 2.26 Xserves and I am wondering if it is possible to tie them together so it acts as one computer?

Yes and no.

It's certainly possible to create clusters out of disparate machines and use them in some co-ordinated fashion. But it's the realm of specialty software and specialty application programming.

Beowulf can take separate machines and have them act as one, large SMP machine with shared memory and all but programs need to be Beowulf compatible for this to work. There are lots of specifics to making Beowulf work well: you should use nearly identical machines and your machine interconnect fabric has to be really high speed and low latency (read: better than gigabit ethernet...like InfiniBand)

Xgrid (tutorials), an Apple-designed, job scheduling framework based on the BEEP framework is available for use and sits somewhere between Beowulf above and Condor/GE below. It's a process distribution framework along with a message passing interface for distributed process co-ordination. You have to run an XGrid head node and XGrid slaves in your pool and your code needs to be XGrid-aware and complied against the XGrid libraries for it to take advantage of an XGrid. From that article linked to above:

  Unfortunately, Xgrid is not yet the silver bullet that can magically take an existing program such as iMovie, cut it in slices and run in on all the macs it can find in the neighborhood.

The above statement is true for every technology I'm talking about in this answer I'm afraid.

Condor (and Oracle Grid Engine) can provide somewhat easy access to pools of machines for batch-based workloads -- you queue up jobs and these programs will take care of scheduling their execution on machines that you have joined to the pool as execution nodes -- but they don't share CPU power across machines (at least not without MPI interfaces in the software using them) and they don't share memory. The interconnect requirements aren't nearly as heavy as in Beowulf clustering and you can get away with heterogenous pools of machines as the schedulers will handle matchmaking based on job requirements.

There are some off-the-shelf Mac apps that will let you do clustering in an application-specific way. For example: Logic Pro 8 and Logic 9 let you run "Logic Nodes" in your network and you can offload audio processing to these nodes. How much and what specifically you can offload is very dependent on your network and your machines but it does work. There are options in the Logic installer to create a 'Logic Node' when you install the software and run Logic in slave mode on the instance so it can be found by a master Logic session running on another machine.

This sort of one-off speciality parallelization is pretty unique in consumer and pro-sumer level applications and far from the norm though.

It's worth noting that Apple used to sell something called the Xserve Cluster Node. The name is somewhat misleading here. It was a hardware configuration for the Xserve, without a graphics card or an optical drive, intended to be used in cluster deployments. But the configuration didn't include any additional clustering capabilities. You still needed something like above mentioned software to create a cluster for your workloads.


Syncing photos from Mac with iPad My Mac and my iPad are synced so I can get messages and take pictures with both. When I take a picture with my Mac it doesn't show up on my iPad, vice versa.
How can I get Mac photos to my iPad?
If someone can answer this I will be very thankful!

You can enable iCloud Photos which will sync photos between all devices as long as you use the same AppleID on all of them. Apple has extensive documentation on this, see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264 for a first introduction.
PS: There is a lot of useful stuff on https://support.apple.com/ which should help in getting started with using Apple devices.


My iPhone's Album Art is Wrong. How can I fix it? All the art in my iTunes app is wrong. I pay for iTunes Match, but it's disabled on my phone. (It has been enabled in the past.)

What can I do to fix the art?

The "awesome" thing is, that if you want to have the right Coverart in your iPhone you are obligated to buy your music in the iTunes store, else it messes the Coverart up (even though it is the correct one in iTunes). Bottomline: neither Amazon mp3 nor imported CD (no matter if original or not) will have the right cover in your iPhone.
Thanks apple for this great new feature !


Toggling page views in Skim When right-clicking on a document in skim there are two very useful options:

Single Page (good for presentations)
Single Page Continuous (suitable for reading)

Is there a way to define a shortcut which will toggle between the two? I guess AppleScript and probably this can be helpful. Problem is I don't know how to work with AppleScript.

I've just assigned custom shortcuts for the menu bar items.

You could also assign a shortcut to an AppleScript like this.

try
    tell application "Skim" to tell document 1
        if item -2 of (view settings as list) is single page then
            set view settings to {display mode:single page continuous}
        else
            set view settings to {display mode:single page}
        end if
    end tell
end try


How to disable auto-completion in Safari I hate to use Private Navigation so I disabled history (locked the History.plist file) but when I enter words in my search, auto completion sometimes show somethings I'd rather not show to my friends / familly (ie. searching for "poker" and seeing "pornhub" appear.
Do you know how to disable this ?

Try Prefs/Search - disable everything except search engine suggestions [which are 'live' not historical]


Is it possible to upgrade the SSD in a 2011 model Macbook Pro? I have a 2011 model MacbookPro (MacBookPro8,2) which came with a 128GB SSD.  I would like to upgrade the SSD to a larger size without voiding my AppleCare.

Is it possible to upgrade the SSD at all?  I have heard rumours that they are soldered in after 2010, and are not replaceable.
My city and country (Tallinn, Estonia) has no official Apple stores that I know of, but does have Apple-authorised resellers.  Are they the appropriate place to get this done?  I've replaced a hard disk on an older model MBP myself, but my current laptop is still within the warranty period.

This seems like a fairly common question on SO, but all questions I found are for older models or for iMacs, not MBPs.  Perhaps this should be migrated to a community wiki where the question can be updated for all models of Mac?

To your questions:

Is it possible to upgrade the SSD at all? I have heard rumours that they are soldered in after 2010, and are not replaceable.

Yes, it should be possible, others have done it. This video (How to Upgrade/Replace the Hard Drive in the 2011 15" MacBook Pro) shows the procedure (just for information, I understand you don't want to void your AppleCare warranty): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5opqLFOvh3M.
My city and country (Tallinn, Estonia) has no official Apple stores that I know of, but does have Apple-authorised resellers. Are they the appropriate place to get this done?

Yes, I'd definitely go to an Apple authorized reseller. I could find Premium resellers in Tallinn (see https://locate.apple.com/ee/et/sales/?pt=all&lat=59.43696079999999&lon=24.75357459999998):

IM ARVUTID IDEAL TALLINN
NARVA MNT. STREET 7, PK 34
TALLINN EE-10117

IM ARVUTID SOLARIS
ESTONIA PST. 9
TALLINN 10143

IDEAL KRISTIINE
KRISTIINE 45
TALLINN 10615

You can select another country/language from https://locate.apple.com/country (though I used the trick explained here http://forums.ilounge.com/lounge/224663-where-can-i-buy-apple-products-sweden-finland.html).


Delete apps from previous Apple ID and set iPhone to factory seeting I sold my iPhone to my friend and she used her Apple ID to sync some apps and music, but after a few days she gave it back to me. Now I have 2 questions:

How can I delete all her apps and Apple ID from my phone? (I mean I need to reset to original factory settings to use my own apps and Apple ID.)
I have a backup from my phone. How can I sync my own apps and use my own Apple ID?

To reset to factory settings, in your iPhone go to Settings → General → Reset → Erase All Content and Settings. It ask for confirmation twice.

To restore a previous backup, you have a couple of options:

Connect your iPhone to iTunes and you will see a Restore Backup... button on the iPhone Summary tab.
If you start your phone without iTunes, once you enter your Apple ID and password you will be prompted to restore a backup (if you have one stored on iCloud).


Looking to create a keyboard shortcut to open the Share menu I understand how to create a custom keyboard shortcut to a specific app within a nested menu, but does anyone know how to open the Share menu from the Menu Bar via a keyboard shortcut?

macOS doesn't need to open a menu to find a sub-menu item, so long as the menu item is unique.
From your example, you can't open Share itself, but you can directly key command for instance "Messages"
In System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts, select All Applications then click the + underneath, add the exact name of the menu item (this includes any ellipsis … if there is one, which is not the same as three full stops … ) then underneath, your trigger, which can be anything that doesn't conflict.
This requirement for a full exact name does mean you cannot use this method for any 'smart' menu item that changes its name depending on context.

If, on the rare occasion the same command appears in two places in any menu structure, then you can direct to the correct instance by using this syntax to follow the correct path Edit>Share>Messages but for normal use you don't need the path.


iMessage: send from new number in ongoing conversations In iMessage, I'm receiving at 2 numbers (and a couple of emails), but I would like to ensure that all messages sent out are only sent from one of them.

As in its name, the setting "Start new conversation from..." will only work with new conversations, not with existing ones.

How would you do this without deleting the conversation?

EDIT: Another important question: how can I find out what number I'm sending out from on an existing conversation?

Sadly, you can't change the conversation that the number is coming from without deleting the conversations.

Also, the only way to tell what number or email a conversation is coming from is to ask your friend what number it is coming from. The way they can tell what number it's coming from is by either looking at the control bar at the top of the screen or, if they have that number in their Contacts, clicking details, clicking the "i" next to your contact then seeing what number of yours (or email) is in blue text instead on black.

I know this is complicated and I wish there was a better answer to this question, but sadly Apple needs to do more work on the Messages app.


iOS 8 Health app stats resetting each day I got the iPhone 6 the day it was released.  I immediately started using the new Health app.  I added the basics, birthday, age, sex, weight, and I added the "Steps" and "Walking + Running Distance" to the dashbaord.  I notice they automatically started tracking my steps.  So I went for a jog, it tracked that also.  Awesome, so far so good.  But the next day it was all gone.  It doesn't matter if I select "Day / Week / Month / Year" at the very top, the stats are always the same, they only show the current day.  I've checked each day since I've got the phone, each day it seems to start over.  Why is all the previous data disappearing?

This is a total speculation but I think this might be because the data you are viewing is generated by the M8 co-processor and it only stores data for a relatively short space of time. The idea being that other apps are meant to take the data from the co-processor and store it, and the M7/M8 co-processors themselves just have a little memory to cover periods when the device is turned off.

My guess is that if you install another app that tracks movement (once you have installed 8.0.1, when it is safe to install), then they'll take over the role of storing and supplying data to the Health app.


Is it possible to disable a specific key in OSX? It appears my left shift key is permanently down on my MBP. All keys trigger capital letters, and numbers print out the symbols, I have to hold down esc when booting to prevent it from booting into safe mode...

I have taken the key off and cleaned underneath but that hasn't helped matters. If I open the visual keyboard I can see that the right shift responds to my presses but the left one does not, which leads me to think it is the one that is bust.

Is there any way for me to disable this key? I can make do with just using the right hand shift, obviously the laptop is practically un-usable with shift always being on...

The only way I am aware of doing this is by using a program which used to be called KeyRemap4MacBook but is now called Karabiner.

Download here: https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

If you would like a walk through, go here: https://www.quora.com/How-does-one-turn-off-their-shift-key-on-a-MacBook-Pro


42 Spaces Open on Mission Control on starup (mavericks) On startup, when I press f3, I have 42 spaces open in mission control. Is this normal? Is there anyway to limit the amount of spaces that are open on startup in OSX? I don't remember this happening for versions before Mavericks.

If it helps i'm on a 2011 15 inch macbook pro (early).

It may be a bit tedious, but try closing all of the spaces and then restart your machine.  OS X will keep the spaces you had open when you restart, so if you restart with none it should start with none.


Certification in iOS development I have an experience like of around 6 years as an iOS developer but I am feeling like stuck. Is there any certification for iOS developer which can help me in getting better job or which can put me in the priority list of recruiters?

Getting certification for completing coursework and getting hired aren't necessarily at all related endeavors. If you have been developing for some time, then ideally you have something to show on your resume and CV which will reflect not only your relevance in the marketplace, but also your potential value to the company you are applying to and hopefully interviewing with. For example, your projects on github and other verifiable accomplishments clearly demonstrating your skill set.

As for certifications with recognized market value, I suppose a good start would be Apple's website portal: http://training.apple.com. Specifically for iOS development certification, there's Apple's "Global Authorized Training Provider" Learn Quest.

It certainly couldn't hurt to learn the programming language Swift. I don't know that they have a certificate optionStanford offers a course through iTunes for iOS10. There's also the main Swift site and Apple's Swift Developer site.

...and there's online course certificates from places like Udacity: https://www.udacity.com/course/ios-developer-nanodegree--nd003

Note that Udacity's "nanodegree" program and other certification programs (including bootcamps) claim varying degrees of "money-back" and other such guarantees if the certification doesn't lead to some kind of employment (which might simply be teaching the courses). The folks I know personally that have gotten hired to full-time jobs have paid for bootcamps and gotten jobs through the contacts they've made there.

As for getting noticed by recruiters, there is LinkedIn.com and job sites like Indeed.com. Networking, however, cannot be under-rated. Find local developer groups and meetings and get to know who the people in your area are. If you've gone to college, community schools, etc. use those resources as well.

Hope that helps!


How to stop Safari from unzipping files after download Safari unzips .zip and .gz files after downloading. How can I stop this behavior?

In the menu bar, go Safari -> Preferences. In the "General" tab, uncheck "Open 'safe' files after downloading". This will stop Safari from automatically unzipping the files.


Bootcamp Refuses to create boot drive because iso is too large? all.  I am a longtime bootcamp user and have dealt with a fair amount of its crazy errors, but this new one really has me stumped.  So I recently deleted my windows 7 partition because it refused to update, and decided to simply reinstall windows 7 from scratch from an iso that had the most recent updates installed, which would unironically take less time than trying to figure out how to make win update work.

Halfway through the normal process of creating a boot drive, bootcamp keeps giving me this error:

The usb I am using is an 8Gb Kingston that I have been using for bootcamp installations for a few years, but other usb's also exhibit this error, and other iso's I managed to find that also contain an updated win7 also don't work.  The only thing I can imagine causing this is the fact that the iso is bigger than normal, and the biggest file in it is 4.1 Gb.

Is there a way to make bootcamp maybe use exFat formatting or somehow else accept this iso?  I refuse to get win10, and a regular installation simply does not install security updates.

Any help at all would be informative and extremely appreciated by me. Thank you all sincerely in advance.

EDIT:  It seems that the larger file size is indeed what prevented the recovery drive from being made - I wish Apple had created a more specific error message in that case.  Formatting it to exFat does not work as bootcamp does not recognize it, sadly.  Thanks for the help anyway.

In the past, an 8 GB USB would suffice to create a Bootcamp boot drive for Windows 10 (talking from experience), but now you need "a blank 16 GB or larger USB 2 flash drive," as Apple states on their Boot Camp support website. I too found out the hard way, as the process of creating a boot drive on my old 8 GB USB failed.

It's possible that the latest versions of Windows 10 (Anniversary Edition onwards) simply require more than 8 GB for their installers.


Odd keystroke sequence cant be deactivated? So I turn on my computer today and try to type the letters "php" but it automatically turns to this "₱", the Philippine currency symbol. So far Ive tried:Checking keyboard settings and regionTrying my wired apple keyboard and logitech wirelessTested the Keyboard viewer and noticed something change in the function keys really fast, i recorded it and noticed the F16 key appeared which is not even used on my Logitech, my main keyboard Tried turning Fn keys off and onTried Resetting NVRAMReinstalled OSX SierraTried remapping with two programs, Karabiner and Better Touch Tool, which when recorded in Better Touch showed the actual keys being hit as phpv  This is driving me nuts. Anyone with a clue whats going on?

Examples:
 https://satori-design.d.pr/ldRMcJ
 https://satori-design.d.pr/QHy1Lr

So I wasnt able to find the cause, and last time I tried to use a clean account and bring over library prefs, etc it brought the problem back with it. I went nuclear and wiped my computer and started new. Pain in the ass but fixed the problem.


How can I analyse Others data in my iPhone? My iPhone 5s currently running on iOS 9.2 has been misbehaving for a couple of months now. No matter, how much free space I give it, it slows eat it away, reducing MB by MB till I have 0 bytes free space left.

Even if I don't use the phone, it stills eat away the free space. My suspect is that an app is writing logs like a maniac. I tried syncing with iTunes thinking it might be the debug logs that gets sent for crashes etc, but it's not that either.

How do I go about getting an idea on what makes up this other data? If I know its an app (I am thinking Whatsapp since its a chat app and the only thing on my phone that keeps on running all the time), I can get rid of it.

Whatsapp might be causing the problem.delete it but if you want to backup your whatsapp contents,see if you can do that with Whatsapp itself beforehand.after removing whatsapp check the memory size and then re-install the app.


Time Machine "waiting" I'm looking for a file on Time Machine and it says "waiting". It is a file in a recent backup. Why is time Machine "waiting"?

If you have entered time machine via the top toolbar, you will receive the "Waiting" message (as shown in the image) when trying to navigate to an older backup. This is simply because time machine is waiting to load that backup.

Be patient and wait for it to load

If it is taking a very long time to load, visit This Link for troubleshooting


search Apple Notes -> jump or highlight position where match search term in note I search all my notes for "fix". Apple Notes shows all notes where "fix" is matched.

When I click on one match "19/06/16 Howto fix replicati..." I have problems finding the term fix in this big note document. Some of my notes about 2000 lines.

Is there some jump to result or highlight result?

Drag down at the home screen, when the search bar comes down, enter the word you would like to search for, and it will come up in the search results.


How to ensure that all traffic goes through VPN connection once it has been started? I connect to the internet through a VPN provider along with other precautions in order to ensure privacy (against traffic analysis by agencies of a repressive government). I currently use Tunnelblick to configure and establish the VPN connection. Tunnelblick does not allow automatically connecting to the provider at or before login so I need to connect manually each time, and sometimes the connection is lost.

I need any and all traffic to go through the VPN connection at all times; whenever the VPN isn't connectable for whatever reason, I want the fallback to be no connection. I need to ensure

that OS X does not connect to the internet on my regular internet connection, or at all, during boot (until the login screen, for time synchronization and other possible "call home" stuff etc.). What services, if any, try to do this, and how can I practically analyze and change what's going on with networking during boot? Is there a way to connect to VPN earlier than right after login?
that if my VPN connection is temporarily lost, applications do not continue to communicate over my regular unencrypted connection.

I basically want the system to act as if the network connection is lost altogether if the VPN connection fails, but currently they just continue to work as if nothing happened. What can I do to my system so that once a VPN is established, all traffic can only flow through that connection and no traffic can flow if the connection drops?

You need a firewall between you and the Internet that will block all traffic except traffic to the IP address of your VPN host

Your router will more than likely have this functionality built in


How can I map `Ctrl+Alt+Char` and `Ctrl+Number` in vim on Mac OSX? 1.Enviroment

Env: vim+zsh+iTerm2 on Mac OSX 10.9.2. (Same problems in macvim on Mac OSX 10.9.2)

2. Mapping Problem

In mac, mappings for <A-char> won't directly work in mac.

:inoremap <A-u> type some string A-u
:inoremap <A-p> type some string A-p
:inoremap
i  õ           * type some string A-u
i  ð           * type some string A-p

As far as I know about <A-char> in mac, hit <A-u> will print nothing but with a sound alert. hit <A-p> will print π. I found that map for π works well.

:inoremap π type some string A-p

Is it possible to map <A-u> in vim? Yes!
Let me  go into  this problem deeply:

:map <A-S-p> not work
:map ∏ works well(A-S-p will print `∏`)

:map <C-A-p> not work
:map <C-π> still not work

:map <C-S-p> do work
:map <C-1> not work

So , is it possible to map Ctrl-Alt-char and Ctrl+Number?

Of course, you can use fastcodes in vimfastcodes in vim. Refer to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23606892/vim-keyboard-mapping-problems-in-mac/23608928#23608928

If you use MacVim, the easiest way is:

set macmeta

So that MacVim will treat alt/option as Meta key, you can then bind:

nmap <C-M-S> :call foo_func()

The keys pressed for above is: Ctrl+alt+s.

Hope this helps and solves your issue, happy Vimming!


How can I import text substitutions from Wikipedia "Lists of common misspellings for machines"? Wikipedia has some nice lists of misspellings for machines:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lists_of_common_misspellings/For_machines
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Veelvoorkomende_spelfouten/machines
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lista_de_errores_ortogr%C3%A1ficos_comunes/M%C3%A1quinas

How to import them as text replacement definitions in System Preferences > Language & Text > Text?

After having read How can I export text substitutions from Lion for import into Mountain Lion made clear to me that PlistBuddy was a good way to go.

Create a folder for storing related files, for example using Terminal.app:

$ mkdir ~/Documents/OS\ X
Create a backup of the existing text replacements:

$ /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -x -c "Print NSUserReplacementItems" ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist > ~/Documents/OS\ X/UserReplacementItems-backup.plist
Create a new document in TextWrangler.
Change the encoding of the document (bottom of the window) to Western (Windows Latin 1). Otherwise Plist Converter.app replaces any accented characters with an incorrect value.
Copy the text from Wikipedia and paste it into the newly created TextWrangler document.
[Replace All] occurences of '->' with ',' using the menu command Search -> Find.
Insert the Prefix '1,' on all lines using the menu command Text -> Prefix/Suffix Lines....
Prepend the file with this line (as first line): on,replace,with
Save the file to the  ~/Documents/OS\ X folder and make sure that the file name ends with '.csv'.
Drag the '.csv' file to Plist Converter.app and click the button [Convert Plist].
Open the newly created '.plist' in TextWrangler.
Replace all occurrences of '<string>1</string>' with '<integer>1</integer>'.
Save the replace .plist file and quit TextWrangler.
Now make sure you don't have System Preferences open while doing the import, or it may not work!

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Merge '$(ls ~/Documents/OS\ X/common-typos.plist)' NSUserReplacementItems" ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

Don't forget to replace common-typos.plist with the file name you created.


Find out what process is using my HDD I know it's the spotlight indexing process, but it's been killing my HDD for the last few days and will not stop. The CPU usage is rather low but fs_usage shows that the mds process is doing something the whole time.

I'v tried force quitting it with kill -9 but it will just auto re-spawn and keep killing my HDD.

I'v added all my HDDs into the Spotlight privacy list as well as disabling indexing sudo mdutil -a -i off
I'v done several restarts but it keeps on going.

Any ideas on how to stop it from opening and running?

Update:

I Managed to stop mds by the following command:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library//LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.*

But after a restart my HDD is still writing ~6MB/s and reading ~500KB/s
Any ideas how to find out which process is consuming my HDD? It makes my computer incredible slow.

Update 2:

It only does 3MB/s write now that I have left the computer alone for a while.

Update 3:

It stopped just now for about 5 seconds, then started writing again.
I was doing nothing different.

Here is a screenshot of the usage:

Try running the fs_usage in Terminal (must be run as root):

sudo fs_usage

This will start spitting out details of all your disk access right there in the Terminal window. It might go by quickly, but you should at least be able to see the app names accessing the disk.

More info and options for the fs_usage command here.


Facebook and Twitter sharing is missing in Notification Center On Yosemite the direct posting of both Facebook and Twitter is missing in Notification Center. How can I put it back?

I found where I can turn it on.

'System Preferences'/Extensions/Today/Social


How can I move videos from Google Drive to Apple Photos on iPad? My uncle has a lot of videos in Google Drive on his iPad. In Google Drive i can’t find a way to export/save to Photos. I can only move to another Google drive but not onto the native Photos app. Is there a way?

From this Google article:

  Open the Google Drive app.

  Next to the file you want to download, tap More.

  Tap Send a copy.

  Depending on your file, tap Save image or Save video.

If you want to save multiple at once you will need to move the files to Google Photos and have them in a folder.

Then:

  On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Drive app.

  Tap Menu and then Settings.

  Under Google Photos, turn on Auto Add. At the top, tap Back.

  Find and open the Google Photos folder.

  Select the folder you want to download.

  Tap More and then  Select All and then Download.


Prevent Sierra from opening a Window for a new Volume I have a mobile LTE modem that I connect to via Wifi. Whenever I connect via USB (for charging) Sierra opens a /Volumes/Web Connection Finder window. How can I prevent that?

I can't use bless as the volume is read-only.

I also tried setting

defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages auto-open-ro-root -bool false
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages auto-open-rw-root -bool false
defaults write com.apple.finder OpenWindowForNewRemovableDisk -bool false

but they had no effect.

I haven't relied on this in the Sierra times, but you might get lucky with the venerable unix fstab functionality and removing your default commands that weren't effective:

diskutil info /Volumes/Web\ Connection

Get the UUID and add a line to your /etc/fstab file

UUID=12345678-1ABC-1CDE-1FGH-123456789012 none hfs rw,noauto

There are some more details at https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7942 covering a nice use of the vifs command which safely edits the /etc/fstab file in place. Some good discussion on the mounting mechanics are at: How does Mac OS X decide which volumes to mount? One of my disks doesn't mount at boot


Time machine restore iCloud Drive I did a time machine restore and everything seemed fine. But the next day it says my iCloud Drive is uploading. The files are already on iCloud why would it upload them again? My other computer and phone/tablet already have the files
It is uploading 1.94 GB and the number of items is decreasing rapidly. My guess is it is figuring itself out

iCloud needs to check that the restore from backup is the same as the current state on iCloud Drive, so it's not uploading the entire file where it already exists on iCloud Drive but instead just comparing hashes.
This process should be much faster than re-uploading the entire iCloud Drive contents. The progress reported by Finder (in GB) is the size of the files that still need to be checked, not the amount that will be transmitted over the network.
This will also happen in other circumstances where iCloud loses track of the local copy of the drive, such as after a logout of iCloud.


Can I set up a hand written signature in iOS mail app? Or must I copy and paste each time?

To be able to compose a multiline signature that'll apply to all your messages:

  Settings » Mail, Contacts, Calendars » Signature

Additionally, you can also use:

  Settings » General » Keyboard » Shortcuts

And compose multiple keyboard auto-expanding shortcuts. By using clever shortcut tags (e.g., l1, l2, etc.), you can quickly make multiple lines of text for a seemingly multiline signature.


Will upgrading to Lion boost performance and responsiveness? I remember going from Leopard to Snow Leopard was a huge performance boost.

Going to Lion, is it going to be the case? Read so many reviews yet none of them discussed this (many discussed gestures and mission control, etc).

I'm running Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz with 4GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce 9400. Late 2008 Macbook unibody.

EDIT (for future me doing google search): It works very well. Performance is quite the same as Snow Leopard. Should wait a bit for spotlight indexing, and don't plug in time machine drive while spotlight index!

All of the press / industry coverage is focusing on the huge usability changes (and that mirrors the marketing that Apple is doing).

Some notable exceptions are the new Safari which runs some benchmarks like web app and JavaScript significantly faster.

The major changes under the hood speak more to security, sandboxing and plumbing the new multi-touch interface, encryption, auto save, auto revisions rather than speed.

It is too soon to tell if speed is much better, but once people adapt to the changes, the idea is we will be much more efficient with the computer waiting for us less than the other way around. I would expect your experience with the hardware you mentioned to be a minor speedup in pure numbers but a major speedup as your brain becomes free from worrying about saving, window management and revisions (assuming you adapt to the changes and like them)

I get the feeling that with mission control and full screen apps, that the UI is incredibly fluid and optimized but I'm running on some faster macs than yours.

Fun times, huh?


Open file in Sublime Text tab via AppleScript Using the following AppleScript code, I can open a .txt file in a new window of Sublime Text:

tell application "Sublime Text"
    open "Users:me:Desktop:foo.txt"
end tell

Is there a way to open this file NOT as its own new window, but rather as a new tab of my existing window of Sublime Text?

Sublime Text doesn't provide an AppleScript suite, but does provide a command line utility ‘subl’ in:

/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl

Usage is available with --help.

subl is aware of the current window when opening files and adds the file as a tab.

/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /path/to/file

To run this in AppleScript, use ‘do shell script’.

do shell script ¬
    "/Applications/Sublime\\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /path/to/file"

do shell script
    "/Applications/Sublime\\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl " ¬
    & quoted form of POSIX path of (alias "path:to:file")


Media keys Next and Previous don't work in safari If I play music via safari (YouTube music or soundcloud.com) I can't skip the song or move to the previous one using media keys on MacBook or Bluetooth keyboard.

Stop/Start buttons work well, as well as fast forward and fast backward, but I can't skip the song or move to the previous one.

Is it expected behavior or it's a bug(because in google chrome it works)?

Safari Version: 13.0.3 (15608.3.10.1.4)
MacOS Catalina Version: 10.15.1 (19B88)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

For a test, play a YouTube video in Safari and go to Notification Centre, and find "Now Playing". What the arrow keys do here is what the physical keys would do too. In Safari, they're for fast forward. I don't have chrome, so you can test what they do there.

For Spotify, they are used to skip songs.


Some photos from iCloud Photos after backup mysteriously disappeared I bought an iPhone XS a month ago. On my old iPhone I made an iCloud Backup, then I deleted everything and gave my old iPhone to my mom (I don't use that iPhone anymore).

After checking in iCloud Photos on my Mac I confirmed absolutely every photo was there. On my new iPhone XS I chose the option "Restore from iCloud", all apps were restored, but unfortunately not all photos and videos.

I noticed this a few weeks later when I was looking for something. I was shocked that 30-40 files (videos & photos) were not downloaded from iCloud Backup. I tried repeatedly to restore them somehow, but I failed.

I know I didn't delete them, they just disappeared mysteriously after I backed up to iCloud.

These 30-40 photos are also now not available in iCloud Photos on my Mac. I do not know why. I am very sad because these were photos and videos from a long-awaited concert.

How can I recover these missing files?

Can I see the iCloud Photos upload history somehow?

Yes - sign in to iCloud from a computer browser and you can see all photos that have been deleted in the past 30 days (or a little more some times).

iOS and macOS version of Photos can also show the deleted items album if you toggle it in preferences or choose it if it’s enabled.

This is covered in the “What if some photos are missing” section of this guide to iCloud Photos:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204570

Barring that, you’d need a backup from before the photos were deleted to get them back.


iTunes 11 Import Into Apple Music I have a really old IMO Snow Leopard intel iMac that is still running so that I sync with iPods.

It is running iTunes 11.  Is there a migration point at this point to get the music off the computer(without doing it manually)?

Though Apple's monthly music subscription service offers similar functionality, I think the feature you're looking for is iTunes Match.

iTunes Match enables storing your music in the iTunes Cloud Library (as long as you don't have more than 100,000 songs to store in the cloud). It'll scan your library, match the songs to ones already in Apple's extensive library (to avoid uploading them), and upload the songs that it can't match. Once all your songs are uploaded or matched from your old iMac, you'll be able to pull them down onto other iOS and macOS devices — you'll either be able to stream them on demand or download them.

iTunes Match should be available in iTunes version 10 and later.

Here's some further info:

Apple – iTunes Match
iMore – Apple Music vs iTunes Match


How do I fix Notification Centre? It is blank in "Recents" mode Within the last two weeks, the right tab in Notification Centre ("Notifications)" became completely blank, without warning, and with no apparent trigger. The sort order mode is "Recents".

How can this be fixed?

I have tried to restart the Macbook in question, and Notification Centre itself using Activity Monitor.

(Mac OS X Version 10.11.6 (15G31))

A workaround: change the sort order to "Recents by App" in the Notifications section of System Preferences.


Which keyboard can plug into an iPhone 5s? I have an iPhone 5s, the screen is broken and so I cannot get past the lock screen.

I have seen that you can plug a keyboard directly into the iPhone 5s to enter the lock screen pin code.

I cannot find a straight answer on which keyboard would work with this. I know the iPhone 5s has a lightning port, so I either want:

A keyboard which has a lightning cable.
An adapter to convert a USB keyboard cable to a Lightning port.

I cannot find any of #1, this is the closest thing I could find from Apple for #2, but it says it's for cameras:
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter

Does anyone know if that will work, or can make a recommendation?

Please help.

Both options are possible.

1) You can get for example the "Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad with Lightning Connector" 1 or the "Griffin Wired Keyboard" 2 with Lightning connector.

2) The Lightning to USB Camera Adapter will work for most, if not all, USB keyboards - even though it says it is intended for cameras.


What is the partial red in dot top left of screen? What is the partial red in dot top left of screen? I started seeing this the other day. At first I thought there was something broken now I think it has something to do with notifications. Anyone know the logic behind this?

Rebooting my phone fixed the problem. Turns out it's related to the way you close windows with the iPhone X. Has anyone seen this that doesn't have an iPhone X?


How to block OS X to run only one application We need to have two machines for exams with no access to any other application other than Microsoft Word. Is there any easy way how to achieve this? Preferred free solution if possible.

Before you shout "Parental Controls" - I have tried these and it kind of worked but not always and it is prompting for application to run (which is fine but some just keeps asking over and over).

The easiest way to get a mode on a Mac for students taking tests is to create a second user (my school has a second user called Take Test) where they only allow access to certain apps (TextEdit, Pages, and a Dropbox thing they set up) using parental controls. Then, just have students sign out of their main account and sign into that test taking user before they take a test.

To create that second user, go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> + and create a user. Then, for that new test-taking user, hit the Open Parental Controls in the right pane, hit Limit Applications on This Mac, and choose the applications from the list which you'd like to allow the students to use while they take a test.


How much space does a mac os update occupy after installation? I am currently running mac OS Catalina 10.15.3 and I want to update to Big Sur, however, it needs a lot of space and I am actually limited on space as I have a 128 GBs laptop (big mistake, I know), my question is: will installing this new update really take as much space as indicated (for downloading I need to free up around 15 GBs then for installing the download file I need like 20-25 GBs more), will this space be forever occupied or will the old files of Catalina be deleted and I will have relatively the same amount of space before and after updating

While installations of macOS do vary in size slightly, the previous operating system files are removed as part of the upgrade. You shouldn't expect a noticeable decrease in space available after upgrading to Big Sur.


Is there a way to change the double-press speed on the Apple headphones? Specifically, I have the newest headphones which were released with the iPhone5, however if you have an answer for any of the headphones they released, this may be a good place to centralize the information.

I've found I'm constantly not double-pressing fast enough to cause the phone to go to the next track while listening to music, not to mention if I want to go back (three-presses). I would love to be able to increase the allowed delay between presses so I don't constantly pause/un-pause my music instead of going to the next song.

Not possible.I have non-Apple earphones with a mini remote with three buttons - the central one being the one to be double-pressed. I have turned the Internet upside down and haven't found anything close to this, even on jailbreak (my ipod touch is jailbroken).


Is it possible to connect automatically to a server on login without an opened window? I know how to have the connection established at login, but I don't know if it's possible that the Finder doesn't open a window of the server root...

I've tried the "Hide" checkbox, but this doesn't help. (I'm on Snow Leopard)

Instead of whatever method you are doing now to mount the server, I would recommend a script which is launched at login for all users.

Your best options are either a LoginHook or a launchd process installed to /Library/LaunchAgents/

You will then need to figure out the syntax for the mounting the drive.

UPDATE:

I decided I wanted to check this out further myself, and created this launchd script:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>luoma.mount.blackbook</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/luomat/Dropbox/bin/mount_blackbook.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

which I placed at /Library/LaunchAgents/luoma.mount.blackbook.plist (owned by root)

The script  can be found at http://f.luo.ma/mount_blackbook.sh (note: script will display in browser window, to download, use click-click/save-as)


stuck booting into broken Bootcamp (Win 7) volume. any ideas on how to get back to OS X? I've got a 10.11.6 (El Capitan) tower with separate drives for OS X and Windows 7 via Bootcamp, which I also use via Parallels. I went to shut down the Win 7 VM via Parallels yesterday and it wanted to 'finish' installing a bunch of Windows Updates. I let it run for hours and it was still stuck on 1 of 32(ish) so I reluctantly killed it. After this it was failing to boot up again, so I figured I'd reboot the entire machine into Win 7 to fix it... big mistake apparently.

The automatic repair options in Windows are all failing to correct the problem. Rolling back to a previous known good state fails. System restore fails. Safe mode blue screens at login. I have a Windows 7 install CD but can't get the system to boot to it and restore the OS. Tapping F8 at startup gives me some more options but restore via CD doesn't seem to be one.

The worst part is that holding the option key down at boot leaves me with a black screen so I can't select to boot back into OS X. I tried using 'X' from the list here but no dice on that either (just proceeds to fail to boot into windows again).

Would love to hear any other ideas about repairing the windows installation or getting back into OS X.

I pulled the windows drive and put it in a windows machine to repair it and got it booting over there, but it still wouldn't boot when put back into my Mac Pro.

I was able to get my Mac Pro to boot back into OS X by resetting NVRAM (command-option-P-R after startup sound until you hear it again). Apparently this contains boot disk preference and resetting it along with pulling the windows drive let it 'find' OS X again.

I believe the reason that OS X Recovery and holding option for the Startup Manager don't work for me is due to an aftermarket GTX 760 graphics card. It works great on successful boot, however it doesn't behave the same as the OEM card did in the EFI.


Enable 3G button missing on iPhone 4s I bought a secondhand iPhone 4s recently with iOS 7.0.4 installed.
I'm in Indonesia and I am using Telkomsel as my cellular provider.
When I am using it, the battery is decreasing fast. So I updated the iOS to 7.1.1.
But, what I got is the battery decreasing faster, and my iPhone is so hot, especially at Micro-SIM card area. Is this normal in iOS 7.1.1 at iPhone 4s?

What I want to do to decrease the heat is changing the network. My iPhone always using 3G connection, so I want to change it to 2G because I rarely use the 3G connection.
The "Enable 3G" toggle button should be at Settings → Cellular → Enable 3G, but mine is gone!

I compare it with my friend's iPhone which can switch 2G and 3G, and i suspect 1 thing, Carrier. I can see Carrier in Settings → General → About (EE 16.0).

I've been googling and found that this Carrier setting can hide this Enable 3G button, because they want to stop using 2G.
Is it true, this Carrier setting is hidden the Enable 3G toggle button?
then, How to change it to Telkomsel (my cellular provider)?

Did you buy your phone from someone in the UK (where the EE network is available)?

According to Apple your phone should automatically update carrier settings when you connect to a new network. I assume you have the correct APN defined? If you're not sure, take a look here - having the incorrect APN may prevent the update from working.


Does Find My iPhone use location services only when necessary? If I have location services enabled and only Find My iPhone checked, will it use my battery constantly or only if I go to icloud.com and try to locate my iPhone?

I noticed that disabling location services saves a lot of battery but I still want to keep Find My iPhone enabled. I tried to do this but it looks like it's using location services all the time.

The location services are only used when specifically required to do so.  You should see a small compass symbol in the menu bar when the services are being used.  You can see what apps have made use of the service recently by checking in the settings app.

For Find My iPhone, what happens is that the device maintains a connection much like being logged into a push mail account to the iCloud services.  This allows the iCloud service to communicate with the phone, and when you log into iCloud and request a location for the device in question, it is able to send a message to the device over this IP data connection, and request that it turn on the location based services, locate the device and report back the findings, as well as tell it to display a message, play a sound etc etc.

So you are quite free to leave it turned on all the time and it will only use it when you need it.  You can test this by setting yourself a reminder with a geofenced alert - if I am at work and I set an alert for when I get home to feed the cat, the icon will display constantly as it needs to know exactly when I arrive at a location, and the services and as such battery drain associated with it will also be used during that time.  Clear the reminder, and it will turn off.


How do I get technical information on my video card? (Model, RAM, Mhz, etc) I'd like to get as much technical information about my MacOSX's video card as possible... technical details, even serial number if the card has a unique identifier.

I intend to use this information do research what GPU specific commands I can run on a given laptop.

Select Graphics/Displays from the output of system_profiler.

In a mac terminal, type:

system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType

The output will show something like this with your card name and details:

system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType

Graphics/Displays:

AMD FirePro D500:

  Chipset Model: AMD FirePro D500
  Type: GPU
  Bus: PCIe
  Slot: Slot-2
  PCIe Lane Width: x16
  VRAM (Total): 3072 MB
  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID: 0x679e
  Revision ID: 0x0000
  ROM Revision: 113-C3861J-687
  gMux Version: 4.0.11 [3.2.8]
  EFI Driver Version: 01.00.687
  Displays:
    CS230:
      Resolution: 1920 x 1080
      Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
      Display Serial Number: 27673034
      Main Display: Yes
      Mirror: Off
      Online: Yes
      Rotation: Supported
    CS230:
      Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz (1080p)
      Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
      Display Serial Number: 27712034
      Mirror: Off
      Online: Yes
      Rotation: Supported
      Television: Yes

AMD FirePro D500:


How can Transit app vibrate my phone even with notification sounds turned off? I've been tweaking my notification settings for various apps recently, and today I noticed something very peculiar.

I was using the Transit App in Go mode as I do on most days. As I approached my destination, I felt my phone vibrate... but I had already turned off Sounds in the notification settings for this app! (See below) I'm sure the vibrate was from Transit App because I had exactly one notification in my Notification Centre right after I got the vibration.

Is there any way to suppress vibrations from app notifications, since apparently turning off sounds doesn't do it?

Additional info about my phone settings:

Silent switch: Off
Do Not Disturb: Off
Vibrate on Ring: On
Vibrate on Silent: Off
Ringer volume: 50%
System Haptics: On

When Transit App is in Go mode, it can deliver notifications using the Turn-by-turn API which has some special privileges.

Vibration is possible if Notifications are turned on for Transit App, even if all the specific options are turned off. Disabling notifications for the app prevents vibration.
Audible announcement of upcoming stops is permitted even if notifications are entirely disabled for Transit App. But of course audible announcements will only play if enabled in Transit App by toggling the sound icon in Go mode.

These special notifications also seem to bypass Do Not Disturb mode.


How many displays on MacBook Pro 2011 How many displays can I connect on my MacBook Pro early 2011?
Now I use extender monitor, but the screen of MacBook is off, like this
macbook http://shrani.si/f/V/wG/3dRsX6iy/screen-shot-2014-02-18-a.png
and I forced my graphic card to non automatic switch
monitor http://shrani.si/f/35/qq/4Oq2JVmK/screen-shot-2014-02-18-a.png

My question is next:
Can I use 2 LG TV displays? or I must buy MBP retina?

Greetings Andrej

Yes, you can, since your computer has a Thunderbolt port (http://support.apple.com/kb/sp620). According to Apple, you can daisy-chain additional monitors using the Thunderbolt port:

  To make a desktop workstation out of your MacBook Pro, just daisy-chain additional Thunderbolt devices, including high-performance storage and video and audio capture devices, through the display. (http://www.apple.com/displays/, section "Expand the capabilities of your Mac")

Two monitors connected to one MacbookPro:


can't connect two hard-drives to my airport I have two seagate usb 3.0 4tb drives full of music that I want to access wirelessly. I have my Bites USB 3.0 hub powered by DC 5V cord. I want to connect these to my airport extreme (5th gen), but there's a problem.

When I connect the whole thing to my airport, it says that the hard drives need to be repaired. When I connect them (via usb hub) to my Macbook Air, it can only see one hard drive at a time (the first connected), but all of them work (as if they're not broken, my Mac sees both when I plug them directly). So obviously - there's something wrong with the usb hub. But what exactly? How can I fix this?

If the USB hub is bus powered (it doesn't have to plug in to a wall socket) then the problem is that your Hard Drives are drawing too much current. USB Standards state that each USB port needs to be able to output 500mA.

When you divide that by four (assuming your USB hub is 4-port), you get 125mA, which isn't nearly enough to power two hard drives.

I suggest you get a externally powered USB hub (one that requires a power supply other than USB), as that will ensure that each USB port receives 500mA each.


Why is my battery time so much shorter after jailbreak? I've been impressed with the better battery time of my new iPhone 4 as compared to the 3G I had before. Yesterday evening, I finally jailbroke the 4, and the battery time today has been much worse than usual. Why is this?

I installed a very few programs from Cydia: FolderCloser, NoLockScreen, SBSettings, biteSMS, PdaNet, My3G. Note that I haven't used PdaNet yet, so I would rule that out as a culprit. Also, while My3G is set up, I haven't actually done any faux-wifi stuff today: no Skype, no wifi-only downloads, etc. I've deliberately used 3G less than on normal days, and not used wifi at all (also not as a hotspot). I've not played music at all today, in fact I've barely turned it on at all! The screen brightness is as usual, at about 70%. The phone was charged to 100% overnight as always.

Despite this, the battery is already under 40% at 5 p.m. where it would normally still be well above 60%. At this rate, I don't think it will even make it until I get home -- which is worse than the battery life of my old 3G!

What's depleting my battery faster than usual, and how can I prevent that?

Update: The first day of jailbroken battery life must have been a fluke, or was fixed by rebooting. I've been through a few cycles now and battery life seems to be practically unchanged after all.

I can see two main possibilities:

Apps like FolderCloser, NoLockScreen, and SBSettings shorten battery life by requiring heavy background processes. The only solution to this would be either to not install these apps or restore the phone to its original state altogether (and not have these apps installed). I am convinced that jailbreaking allows for processes that are not in phase with Apple's careful thriftiness of battery use.
Your battery is not calibrated properly so your iPhone miscalculates the remaining percentage. The solution here would be to drain your battery completely and then fully charge it.

Good luck! And know that you can restore the phone to its original state.


Checking iTunes collection for DRM How can I check which songs or videos that I purchased from the iTunes Store have DRM restrictions?

All of the mobile OSes are very impressive to me at the moment, and I'm thinking about trying a non-iOS device again. I want to know now the impact it has on my Apple-sourced music collection though.

Is there a date cut-off for purchases when items went DRM free?

Delete Old DRM Copies of iTunes Music and Download DRM-Free Versions
If you purchased any music from iTunes between 2003 and 2009, you downloaded tracks with DRM (Digital Rights Management) in them. Apple's long since removed the DRM, but you might not have. Wired shows how to update your music library with the new, DRM-free versions.
The process here is pretty simple, but if you're anything like me, you never bothered to actually do it:

Before starting, make sure you are signed in to the iTunes Store [Store menu] & can see the columns for Kind & iCloud Download in your Songs view in iTunes, then sort by Kind
Scroll down to find 'Protected AAC audio file' as a Kind - those are the ones you need to replace.

In iTunes, select iTunes > Preferences and click the "Store tab"
Make sure "Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases" is checked and close the Preferences panel
Click on the cloud icon in your list view and make sure all your purchases are there (note which songs are here and do not delete anything in step 5 that isn't available for download)
Now, delete the old DRM versions by sorting by "Kind" in the list view (if it's not there, go to View > Show View Options and select it)
Scroll down to see if any tracks are listed as "Protected AAC audio file." That's the DRM music you need to replace. If you can download it again from iTunes with the cloud icon, you can delete the DRMed version

Once you run through the process of deleting those songs you can download them from the cloud at any point, DRM free. This has been around for a while, but if you haven't grabbed those DRM free versions, now's as good a time as any.
Source: Lifehacker Delete Old DRM Copies of iTunes Music and Download DRM-Free Versions
Also see - Which songs in my iTunes library are DRM protected?


New SSD Fitted but Disk Utility Still Showing Old Disk My 2013 Mac Mini with 1 TB Fusion drive was starting to run really slowly.  I got a brand new 1 TB SSD fitted and am trying to restore from Time Machine, now.  The restore can see the Time Machine drive no problem, but when it goes forward to choose a destination disk, there is no disk indicated.

So I restart the restore process, and this time go into disk utility.  What's strange is that I can see the Samsung SSD, but also the original Macintosh HD.  I know that it's not there, as I have it sitting next to me (and besides.. can Minis have more than one internal drive?).

So I guess what I need to do is to remove the "ghost" disk from Disk Utility and then prepare the SSD as "Macintosh HD" to accept my restore.

Can someone tell me how I do this?

The problem you are experiencing is because you only replaced the 1TB spinning portion of the Fusion drive; the 128GB SSD is still there with the boot partition on it.

You've confirmed this when you said that you can see both the Samsung SSD and the original HD.  What you need to do now is wipe both and create a new Fusion drive to combine the 128GB SSD and the 1TB SSD into one CoreStorage volume.

I've detailed these steps in this post on how to do this.  Since you've got everything backed up with Time Machine and are using it for recovery, you should have no problems migrating your data over.


Can I plug my 15" 2017 MacBook Pro into a USB-C display while using the charger cable? I've bought myself a Dell U2719DC display, which allows your device to charge when connected via USB C. However the maximum charging ability is capped at 65W, whereas the stock 15" MacBook Pro charger is 83W, so while plugged in, the computer will still charge, just slower.

Was just wondering if having them both plugged in and supplying power, is going to do any harm? Are the MacBook Pros smart enough to manage their power input?

It shouldn't be a problem.  I did the same thing with an LG 5K display, and the power plugged in separately, and had no issues.

Having written that, I almost never bothered to do it that way, because my laptop spent most of it's time on my desk, and I never needed to charge it faster.


Add Energy Saver to menu bar? On my iMac, I tend to adjust the Turn off display after: from short to long and back again, pretty frequently. It would be convenient if I could get to this with one click, perhaps from the menu bar. Is there a way to accomplish this?

It's not one of the things in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras.

Native option

You're most likely aware of this, but for the benefit of others I thought it worth mentioning even though it's not exactly what you're after anyway.

By going to Apple > System Preferences > Energy Saver users will have a checkbox at bottom left of the window that they can tick to enable access via the menu bar. The option provided here differs depending on whether you have a MacBook model of some sort or a desktop computer, and also depending on the version of macOS you're running. In summary:

MacBooks will have a Show battery status in menu bar option
Desktop Macs may have no option at all, or they may have an option for Show UPS status in the menu bar (this depends on the version of macOS you're running and whether you have a compatible UPS connected)

Enabling one of the above options doesn't give the one click solution you're after, but will give you quicker access to the Energy Saver preference pane, effectively making it a two click solution instead of the usual three clicks.

3rd party options

Since there's no perfect native option I think you're best bet is to use a 3rd party menu bar utility that allows you to override your Mac's sleep settings whenever you need.

There are numerous options (both free and paid) and ones available on the Mac App Store or not. The option you go for depends somewhat on the version of macOS you're running and personal preference.

To start with, open the Mac App Store app and conduct a search for "caffeine". This will return a number of options you can choose from. One notable option that doesn't appear on the list of search results is Amphetamine (so I link to it here separately - last time I checked it was free).

Another option not available on the Mac App Store is KeepingYouAwake. This is basically a wrapper around Apple's native “Caffeinate” Terminal command which can be used to alter your Mac’s sleep behavior. Caffeinate is Apple’s official command line utility - if you haven't heard of it and are comfortable using Terminal, then you can view more information by launching Terminal and running the man caffeinate command. Otherwise, KeepingYouAwake is a GUI version that runs it for you without having to use Terminal. Just keep in mind that the version you run will depend on the version of macOS you're using.

In summary, I'd probably start with the Mac App Store search and go from there.

NOTE: I am not affiliated with any of the products mentioned in this answer.


I cant get past my password since my mac only spells caps and starts up in safe mode In the morning two days ago, I spilled some water on my Macbook pro. It was shut down, so I dried it with a towel but that evening it worked perfectly.

I didn't use it for a day and this morning I started it up and it was in safe boot mode. I got past it by holding Ctrl key, but I can't get past my password, because I have capitals that I can't disable.

I can't reset or remove it also because the commands won't work (for example,instead of "-" there's "_") and i can't reset it trought my apple ID.

Is it just that shift key is stuck?

Your Mac starts up in safeboot mode because of your SHIFT key pressed.

You could probably disconnect your keyboard as done here, and try a bluetooth or USB keyboard.

In the answer with the repair instruction is also a programm mentioned, which can disable a specific key. Nevertheless, I wish good luck and hope you can fix it.

I found nice instructions on How-To-Detach-A-Key here. It shows what you can expect when detaching a key from your keyboard.

** Update **

If you can ssh into your machine from another Mac, you could try to install Karabiner. With this app you can disable your left SHIFT key.

This app has a command line api, so 'fixing' your machine should be possible. Go [here](https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/files/Karabiner-10.6.0.dmg"Download app") to download it.


enable spotlight web search a couple os versions back I disabled spotlight's web search with a terminal command and now I'd like to undo that but I can't figure out how to do that. Is there a way to undo or return spotlight to default settings?

You can reset Spotlight to default settings by deleting the preference file at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.spotlight.plist and logging out and back in.


Deleting all photos from iCloud immediately 2018 I would like to delete all of my photos from icloud immediately. The only way I have found to do this is select each individual picture and delete it. There does not seem to be a select all option anymore.

I already know about this. I just don't want to have to wait 30 days.

On your iDevice/s (iPhone, iPad, etc), go to Settings > Photos & Camera > and turn off the "iCloud Photo Library" option.

On a Mac you can open System Preferences -> iCloud
Click the "Manage..." button in the bottom right corner and then disable and delete the iCloud Photo Library.


Should my iMac hibernate automatically I've got a 2009 iMac (Intel Core 2 Duo) and I've noticed that the disks never sleep. I ran a power monitor and the iMac is using a third of our electricity every day!

I've checked via pmset that hibernatemode is set to 1 and when I purposefully click Apple > Sleep the iMac sleeps by saving state to RAM. However, if I just leave the device the screen sleeps but the disk never does.

I've unplugged all USB devices and made sure that bluetooth is not allowed to wake the device and that wake-on-lan is off

maxi:~ pauldambra$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 hibernatemode  1
 halfdim    1
 womp       0
 sleep      2
 powerbutton    1
 disksleep  2
 hibernatefile  /var/vm/sleepimage
 ttyskeepawake  1
 autorestart    0
 displaysleep   1

I'm pretty new to Macs and Unix so I'm not really sure how I go about checking what is keeping the disks awake (or indeed if I've understood how disksleep works on a mac)

Many thanks in advance

Paul

Your iMac should automatically spin down its disks and go to sleep.

Use the following command to view a detailed log showing your iMac's power history:

pmset -g log

Look out for applications that may be keeping your Mac awake and active. Applications and other processes can keep your Mac awake if they are providing a service, such as file sharing or remote access.

Do you have an active ssh session or terminal session running? This can also be responsible for keeping your iMac awake.

Be aware that Apple does not officially support hibernation on desktop Macs. Your setting hibernatemode suggests you have this feature enabled.

Disclaimer: I am involved with a commercial product called Power Manager, it can help make your Mac sleep more predictably.


Finder hiding items under a grey box in list view In Mojave, when I open a finder window, I don't see all the requested columns displayed.

For example, the finder should open for the desktop and look like this:

However, I see this:

Which looks like a window within the finder window is not wide enough to display my columns.

So, I resize the window and columns.
I delete all the .DS_Store files on my Mac.
I save the new finder window setting as the default.
Then when I open a new finder window, I have the same problem.

How do I remove this overlay ?

Go in Finder to View and select "Hide Preview"


Can I use multiple partition external HDD connected to Apple Airport Extreme for Backups from both Mac and Windows PC I have a 6TB external drive partitioned into two equal partitions.  One is NTFS and the other is compatible with Time Machine backups.  The drive is then connected to the Airport Extreme via USB.  The Mac can see the Time Machine formatted drive.  Neither the PC or the Mac see the NTFS partition.

According to the Apple support article
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202807

The disk must be formatted as Mac OS Extended, FAT16, or FAT32.
...
AirPort base stations don't support encrypted formats or disks formatted as APFS, ExFAT, or NTFS.

So, unfortunately, it seems like the the answer to your title is no, at least for the Windows / NTFS portion. However, since Time Capsule and AirPort share HFS+ over SMB - any client can write to the disk if you just format all of it using one of the supported file systems (Mac OS Extended, FAT16, or FAT32).


How do you entirely backup Google Chrome? Google Chrome account sync does not sync everything. For example, it's missing the configuration of extensions that do not make use of cloud sync.
What is the best way to backup Google Chrome in case you want to reinstall it on another machine or in case your current machine dies?
PS: Would Time Machine completely restore Google Chrome or would parts be missing?

While I can't speak to the completeness of the Google Chrome account sync, All of the settings for your Google Chrome account are kept in your user profile.
So there are a couple of ways to proceed

Keep a current backup of at least your user profile using the backup utility of your choice.
Time Machine works well for #1 above as it backs up your user profile by default (in addition to everything else.)
You can use the Migration Assistant to migrate your entire user profile (Apps, too) from your old Mac to any new Mac as long as you have a backup or access to the HD or SSD in your old Mac. This includes the still working old Mac attached to the new one with an ethernet cable.

I don't use Chrome much but if I recall correctly there are preferences and folders that contain all of Chrome's configuration files, cache, bookmarks, add-ons and whatnot located in your ~/Library/ folder. That is the Library folder inside your user profile that is usually hidden from view in Finder.


System volume locked on Mac mini when using HDMI audio I just connected my Mac mini (Late 2012) to my TV using HDMI.

Now, all works good, except that I cannot set system volume on the HDMI link. That is, if I switch from built-in speaker to HDMI audio, system volume is locked and I cannot adjust it.

Under Windows (Boot Camp), by contrast, I can adjust system volume, so it's not hardware-related issue.

Is there any workaround?

The reason is that since you use a digital link (the same behaviour is exhibited when you use the optic interface) the modulation must a high as possible to get the best sound quality possible.

This is because when lowering the modulation you reduce the amount of significant bits that "describes" the sound : the resolution and dynamic range of the source signal is lowered.

So, even if it is theoretically possible, that's not a good advice from an audiophile point of view. I guess that's why Apple decided to lock the volume control when using those links.

Regarding the workaround, you may try to install soundflower : http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090111110741237


Where is the Thunderbolt Display's microphone located, and what are its specifications? There is a mesh above the camera on top of the display. Is that it?

I wonder if it's omni-directional or listening towards the front of the display.
I can't find any information about the location or specifications on apple.com or elsewhere.

According to the iFixit teardown (see step 19) the microphone is indeed located above the camera behind the mesh. No word on the specs.


Can Airport Extreme be configured to work with a free dynamic DNS service? I have an Airport Extreme and wish to set up Dynamic DNS (DDNS) so that I can remotely access my home WiFi security cameras when I'm traveling.  I'm seeing certain things that say the built-in dynamic DNS client in the Airport, which I need to use since my Mac will be traveling with me, uses obscure protocols that aren't supported by many accounts.  Is there a free dynamic DNS provider I can use (or the one from Foscam) that will work with the Airport?

Apple's Airport Extreme doesn't have DDNS support built in so it can't update the service itself. But it also doesn't prevent any other client from talking to the DDNS service and updating the records to point to the Airport.

You don't need to be on the router to get your public IP address; you can get get it from any client anywhere on your network that has Internet access.

The basic way DDNS works is that

You set up a DDNS domain and account to which you will sync periodically to.
The DDNS client requests an update from the DDNS server; the client and server authenticate, and compare the IP address the client is sending with the IP address in the DNS record.
If the records are the same, nothing is done and you continue on.  If there is an update, the server updates its DNS record.
The DDNS DNS server propagates those changes throughout the Internet meaning GoDaddy's, Google's, etc. will accept the changes.
At some point, this change hits your ISP and their DNS servers so a nslookup of your IP address will return the correct domain name.

I had a router that didn't support DNS, so I created a script that ran via cron on my web dev server VM that updated it; it worked with no problem.  So, in reference to your "answer", it's your IP cameras that are doing the DDNS updates for you.


If iCloud backup is off, are the toggled items still being put on iCloud? Could someone help explain the nuances of what is being backed up in a situation where I have deleted my iCloud backups and have turned off Backup, but certain items are still toggled "on" in Settings > iCloud?

Attached is a screenshot to illustrate this situation.  Notice how two items are set to "on".  Does that mean they are still getting backed up, even though the Backup option is "off"?  If not, then what does being toggled "on" mean?

If iCloud Backup is off, then your device is not being backed up to iCloud, regardless of any other settings.

Enabled iCloud services will synchronise that data to other devices with those services on. In the screenshot, the Contacts and Calendars services are enabled, which means that the data which is stored in iCloud for these services will be synchronised to all devices with these services enabled.


Why does my wifi iPad think its location is in another state? I live in MA but my iPad thinks it is in Clarksville, Indiana (both in Maps and other apps). This becomes annoying if I try to post in Facebook and all friends ask what I am doing in IN. This has been happening in both iOS 5 and 6.

I've read on the web where people claim this is because of the Apple location database thinks my wireless router is in IN but if I post a comment to Facebook on my wife's iMac (also on wifi) it correctly identifies my location.

I've also used my iPhone to determine my location while connected to my wifi which is supposed to update the Apple location database but it's had no effect.

Any ideas on how to fix?

The iPad location service now reports the correct location just seems to have taken a really long time to update.

Steps:

Connect iPhone to the wifi network
Open Maps and click on location arrow
Wait for Apple location db to update


Can't reduce size of OSX partition in bootcamp I'm trying to install Windows 7 Pro (64 bit) onto my new macbook air (OSX Yosemite 10.10.2). I'm using the Boot Camp Assistant and am at the point where it's asking me to create a partition for windows (with a slider). It won't let me reduce the Mac OSx partition smaller than 38 Gb. It currently says it's using 20 Gbs for OSx (18 Gb free), but I can't make it so that the MacOSx partition is only 20 Gb, which will give me more space for Windows.

Can someone please advise/tell me how to do this? or do I manually have to partition the drives and install Windows w/o using the bootcamp assistant.

Thanks

Edit: OSX Yosemite on a Macbook Air (Early 2014). After inputting "diskutil cs list", I get "CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)". I just received it last week so it's pretty new. Holding Cmd-alt-r-down took about 3 minutes to boot up. I do have an external flash drive (64 gb, exfat) and I don't use time machine.

I do not plan on upgrading/using the MacOSx, I just want to have it in case I need any warranty repairs (My coworker told me you need to have OSx installed for them to run diagnostics, else they won't touch your system).

Output:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
 +-- Logical Volume Group 0415F924-645A-47A7-B045-936E0F0AAD94
     =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         120473067520 B (120.5 GB)
    Free Space:   0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume 536E4C17-EADB-4B7E-B71C-783BB62E2681
|   ----------------------------------------------------
|   Index:    0
|   Disk:     disk0s2
|   Status:   Online
|   Size:     120473067520 B (120.5 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family 17DE7604-0810-4971-86F5-DDD56E0979AE
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Encryption Status:       Unlocked
    Encryption Type:         None
    Conversion Status:       NoConversion
    Conversion Direction:    -none-
    Has Encrypted Extents:   No
    Fully Secure:            No
    Passphrase Required:     No
    |
    +-> Logical Volume 20593179-3E19-4A57-99D6-A713D13CE2FD
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk1
        Status:                Online
        Size (Total):          120154296320 B (120.2 GB)
        Conversion Progress:   -none-
        Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
        LV Name:               Macintosh HD
        Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
        Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Update 2: diskutil cs list now shows

 No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

but I still can't slide the bar Past 38Gb (19 Gb free) for the Mac Partition.

Update 2:

I assume OS X is installed on partition 2 of disk 0. If you want me to check this, then post the output of the next three commands and I will verify. Otherwise proceed and attempt the resize.

diskutil list
sudo gpt -r -vvv show -l /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

To resize to a smaller size, you will have to boot using OS X Internet Recovery. (Hold altcmdR at startup.)  Open the Terminal application and enter the following command.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 limits

Here is an example output. Your numbers will be different.

For device disk0s2 Steelhead:
        Current size:  345.1 GB (345131147264 Bytes)
        Minimum size:  35.3 GB (35299999744 Bytes)
        Maximum size:  345.1 GB (345131147264 Bytes)

Take the minimum size and use that in the next command. (i.e. replace 35.3 with your number)

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 35.3G

Hopefully this will resize to the smallest possible size.

Note: When testing this procedure, I did not use OS X Internet Recovery. My 2007 iMac is just to old. I had to use a flash drive to boot the OS X Recovery System. While you can also create and use a flash drive, I just assumed OS X Internet Recovery would be easier. You CAN NOT use the OS X Recovery System stored on your internal disk. If you want to try using  the OS X Recovery System from a flash drive, you will need the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0.

Update 1:

Justin if you are afraid of violating the warranty, should I assume my answers should only be Apple approved? Well, that would just lead you to following the instructions that you have been already following. So, if that is as far as the slider will go then ... that is as small as you can make the OS X partition.

On the other hand, I would remove the Core Storage and then see if you can move the slider further. Why bother with backup anything up first. You are not going to use OS X anyway. The worst that could happen is you would have to reload from the internet. Your connection speed is fairly good, so that should  not take long.

Of course, it would have helped to post more than the first line produced from the distutil cs list command. I assume you either misunderstood my instructions or are really bad at using OS X. I was hoping to determine if you had a Fusion drive and/or if Core Storage is revertible. Also, I believe you need the UUID to enter the command to revert.

If you choose to keep Core Storage, I would refer you to klanomath, he is far more experianced than me. (Actually, I have no experience with Core Storage other than reading his posts.) One of us could ask him for help, or at least, his opinion.

What is the model year of your macbook air? You can find this by clicking the apple icon on the menu at the top of your screen, then selecting "About this Mac". Also, you might as well determine if you are using core storage. To do this: Open the Terminal application and type the following command.

diskutil cs list

If the output is something other than

No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

then edit your question and post the results there. Don't worry about the format, I will clean it up for you.

I assume your Mac is new enough to boot off the internet. This is where you hold the keys cmd-alt-r down at startup. What I want to know is how long does that takes? Also, do you have any way to do backups. For example, do you have a external hard disk. If so, what format and how much free space. Or, do you use Time Machine? Finally, do you have another way to access the internet, other than your macbook air? If you can not add comments to my answer, the edit your question and post the answers there.

How to proceed, depends the answers to my questions. If possible I would backup your OS X partition. Then if you are using core storage, I would remove it. Core storage is only useful if you have a Fusion Drive. Next, if internet recovery is to slow, then I would transfer my Recovery partition to a flash drive. (You probably don't even know you have a Recovery partition hidden on your internal SSD.)

If you intend to leave OS X on your internal SSD and you are able to shrink to a size smaller than 38Gb, what happens when software updates need to be installed? Or, OS X 10.10.3 comes along? If you need to grow the OS X partition in the future, then the Windows partition will have to be removed to do so.


Hotkey to menubar app in Mavericks I have Mountain App running in my menu bar (it is an app that allows you to quickly mount and unmount drives attached to your computer). I would like to create a simple script that calls up the menu on the app (which runs only on the menu bar). I tried to follow the instructions and code found here: Create hotkey to open a menubar app?, replacing the name of the app where relevant

launch application "System Events"
  delay 0.2
  ignoring application responses
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "Mountain"
      click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
    end tell
  end ignoring

  do shell script "killall System\\ Events"
  delay 0.1
  tell application "System Events" to tell process "Mountain"
    tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
      click menu item 2 of menu 1
    end tell
  end tell

but it did not work for me, giving me an error in Applescript:

error "System Events got an error: Can’t get menu 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 of process \"Mountain\". Invalid index."
    number -1719 from menu 1 of menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 of process "Mountain"

Playing around with the menu and other code pieces never got the app to activate the menu. I also tried creating a "Watch Me Do" applescript, but it will only work in automator and I couldn't get it to work globally or in any other app.

I am not a coder or programmer, so rely on some level of creativity and googling around to figure this stuff out. Anyone have a suggestion? It seems like such a simple thing to do, but my searches have found that it is not.

EDIT: I have seen the tool clickclick suggested elsewhere as a way to accomplish a mouse click. However, my understanding is that for clickclick to work, the exact coordinates of Mountain in the menu bar would need to stay the same. Is that a correct assumption in this case? If I recall, those icons in the menu bar change location on every restart or if a menu app is quit.

The problem in this case seems to be that Mountain.app is not a "proper" part of the menu bar, at least as far as "System Events" is concerned.

You can see this also when you use (fn+) ctrl+F8; this should put keyboard focus on the status menus, so that you can navigate them with the arrow keys.
Some extra menu items (e.g. iStat menus) can be selected this way, while others can not. This, I believe, translates to accessibility with AppleScript via "System Events".


How do I disable "iTunes Home Sharing"? Whenever I launch iTunes, I see my computer appears listed among those offering Bonjour services (e.g., by iStumbler), with an entry for "iTunes Home Sharing" even though I have unchecked "Share my library on my local network" in iTunes preferences:

How do I really disable "iTunes Home Sharing"?

In iTunes menus: File > Home Sharing > Turn Off Home Sharing


I cannot see Time Machine in Finder to eject it On my MacBook Pro, running macOS Sierra, Time Machine is not visible in Finder as an option, so I can't eject it.

If you want to be safe, power down your Mac and then disconnect the drive. If something is stuck, the os will alert you to the specific program so you can decide to wait. Most drives can be repaired in disk utility over night, but time machine drives can take days to "repair" so I would recommend not pulling the drive if you are uncertain that it ejected cleanly.

The restart also fixes 95% of the cases where thing should like this happen and your Finder sidebar should be accurate again.


Windows 10 via Bootcamp: "Setup was unable to use the existing system partition..." I'm running macOS Sierra on an early 2015 MacBook Pro with a 500 GB SSD.

I've been trying to get Windows 10 installed via Bootcamp by following this guide: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204990

I've allocated 80GB of space via the Bootcamp Assistant.

I'm getting stuck at the following error:

"Setup was unable to use the existing system partition because it does not contain the required free space"

I can go larger, but am not confident that would resolve the issue (I've done some searching and others report an issue with 100GB) and I didn't really want to give Windows that much space.

Any ideas?

It turns out the error is misleading. I was able to resolve the issue and successfully complete installation by clearing space on the "EFI Partition" by following this guide: Unable to install Windows 8.1 using Bootcamp, system volume doesn't contain required free space?