How do I deauthorize all computers on iTunes? In older versions of iTunes (for Windows at least), there used to be a way to Deauthorize all computers associated with an account.

Now it appears the only option in 10 (10.1.2.17) is to Deauthorize this computer... and removes only the one I'm on. Has the option to Deauthorize All disappeared or has it been moved somewhere else?

My reason behind needing this: One of the authorized computers had a hard drive failure and I just wanted to clean up the computers I have authorized.

From this Apple Support article you can do it from your account.

  If you find you have reached 5 authorizations, you can reset your authorization count by clicking Deauthorize All in the Account Information screen.

The process works as follows

  Click iTunes Store in the menu on the left side of iTunes.
  If you're not signed in to the store, click the Account button, then enter your account name and password.
  Click the Account button again (your ID appears on the button), enter your password, and then click View Account.
  In the Account Information window, click Deauthorize All.

Also note the following:

  You may only use this feature once per year. The Deauthorize All button will not appear if you have fewer than 5 authorized computers, or if you have used this option within the last 12 months. If you need assistance on using this feature please contact iTunes Store support via email.


Sierra Beta: External keyboard won't type "a" and types an "i" instead of "h" after several seconds of being plugged in This is driving me crazy and I think I've done all the obvious troubleshooting. Where might OSX be keeping keyboard-specific settings that would do this?

Here's what's happening:

When I plug in the keyboard to either USB port on my MBP, it works fine for about 3 seconds
Then, the "a" key stops working (no response), and when I press "h" it types an "i" instead
It works fine when I boot in Recovery Mode
It works fine on other computers
Different USB keyboard works fine on this computer

Of note:

I am running macOS Sierra 10.12.1 Beta (16B2333a)
I recently installed and removed Keyboard Maestro

EDIT: I updated my machine to the latest Beta and I also got this issue. I resolved it by going to:

Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys...

And then "Restore Defaults".

This is a known issue in latest Beta.


MacBook Pro Retina 15'' Late 2013 Stoppped Charging Related questions here and here.

Hi everyone. This is what happened to me:

I was giving a class, in a 200 people auditorium, and there were lots of power extensions and cables for everyone to connect their laptops while the class. I was running out of battery (about 20%) so I decided to plug my MBP to one of those connectors. I didn't notice if it started charging or not, I just trusted it would. Then after 20 min aprox, we had an hour off the auditorium, and when we got back, I connected the machine again, but this time I noticed the light in the charger didn't work. I thought it was an issue with the power, I changed the place but the MBP was not receiving any power.

I asked to my students for a different charger (thinking it was a charger issue) but trying 2 different ones, still light didn't turned on, so I thought it was an internal hardware issue. (at this point the MBP was still on, with 5% battery or so).

After class, I took the MBP to an official Apple Service center, they told me it was the "Magsafe" (like an internal little board that allows power from charger to battery?) and the charger, both of them seemed to be damaged. Most likely an overpower incident. I understood since it made sense.

Now issue is they asked warranty Magsafe piece, the installed it but machine still not turning on. THey say at Apple Service retailer that could be Logic Board, but does that even make sense? Could a MBP still be on and working if logic board is damaged? I mean, the machine never got turned off, it was alive until battery drained out...

Now we are waiting another freaking 4-5 days to get the logic board. I'm getting crazy since that machine is my main work tool. What do you guys think it could be?

EDIT

Now, I get that this specific model's parts are all welded, so, a new logic board would mean what other new pieces? I'm worried about the data in my hard drive.

It is possible the logic board needs to be replaced.

I would try resetting your SMC (manages the power in the laptop):

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

For the full Apple KB Article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295


How do I determine what TLS ciphers are being used in OSX, Outlook 2011? I just limited all my SSL ciphers to TLS 1.X and TLS1_RSA_AES and my up-to-date OSX machine is no longer able to connect to the server via Outlook 2011.

I can use Safari to connect to the same host, so this is probably an app-specific issue.

How do I, in OSX, figure out what TLS cipher and protocol is being used to connect to a given host?

This is necessary to remove security risks with SSL3, BEAST, CRIME, POODLE, and other security risks.

Ideally I will remove all ciphers locally that use RC4 and other risky protocol negotiations.

As you already remarked, the use of ciphers and protocol version is application specific. The easiest way to check which ciphers and protocol version is currently used by an application is to either use wireshark to sniff and look at the TLS handshake (ClientHello contains the cipher offers) or to use some server which displays these information from the SSL handshake, like SSLLabs.


Upload videos from iPhone to YouTube I have an iPhone 3GS and am trying to upload a video I shot in the Apple Camera app. Here's what I do:

Go to the video I want to upload
Tap "Send to YouTube"
Enter my Gmail username and password for "YouTube password"
I also try my old YouTube username and password

This fails and re-prompts me to enter my username and password. I don't have a YouTube password because Google merged YouTube accounts in your Google (Gmail) account.

How can I upload videos to YouTube?

What I would do is go directly to the Youtube app (I am testing this with my old 3GS so this should work) and drag to the left to access all of the different menus, then click on the little up arrow next to my channel (assuming you are already logged in on the app) and then you just click on the video you want to upload instead of using the photos app and 'sharing' to Youtube. You could also try logging in to Youtube on a computer as on there it should give you the option to create a new Youtube account with your Gmail assuming that the cause of the problem is that your gmail is not tied to any Youtube. Assuming it let you create a new Youtube associated with your Gmail you should just be able to go back to the app on your iPhone and try again.


Time Machine backup is too large (but shouldn't be) I get:

This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 35.72 GB but only 24.79 GB are available.

Facts:

Estimated size of full backup: 149 GB

Size of Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine drive is 166 GB and there is 18GB of free space on the drive.

So why doesn't the backup go through? It should be able to delete old files... especially since the current backup size on the drive is less than it is required for the new one.

I know what is the problem... I only have one backup on time machine and it won't delete it because it's the only one. So I can either clean up some space on the drive (I have other things there) or just delete the backup and let it run again.

How to delete a backup - from here:

The easiest way is to:

Enter time machine (on the Mac whose backup you want to delete)
Go to the point in time you want to delete
Select the icon that looks like a cog in the finder and choose 'Delete Backup'
This ensures the backup catalog remains accurate and the integrity of your data stays intact.


How Can I install Java on mac I want to install java plug-in in firefox .

I read that installing java plug-in is not secure.

EDIT1 : Can anyone please tell me why java installation is not secure, and should I install it or not.

Download and install Java from java.com.

If it doesn't seem to work, check if it is installed using Java Tester. If it only doesn't work in Firefox, make sure that the Java plugin is enabled in the Add-ons Manager tab:

On the menu bar, click on the Tools menu, and then click Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager tab will open.
In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Plugins panel.
Click on the Java Applet Plug-in to select it.
Select Always Activate in its drop-down menu if it's not already set.


Getting Data back from damaged .pages file This question is not duplicate as this thread didnot solve my problem since I cannot upload my data on Icloud. I am trying to restore data from a folder which I later found is similar to .pages package contents. It has subfolders Index, MetaData, file.zip and some jpeg images as preview. I also came across several other threads 1 2 which all suggests to change the folder extension to .pages or copy contents first and then change etc etc. I have done all that, but Pages [10.3.5] still wont let me open this file. Data in folder is also some encrypted format .iwa. I also searched to understand this format to extract data but it is some kind of compression (Snappy) which I guess can only be read by application (please correct me otherwise).
So far I have tried changing extensions and copying contents into a new folder and then change extension. I cannot upload data on Icloud. Is there any other way around to get data back? Is there any editor for .iwa files to read data?
Thanks.

The folder was originally a file created in Numbers not Pages.
Since I was given data as a folder with some .iwa files. When I read on internet about opening those files, all posts were regarding Pages rather Numbers. As package contents were same for both formats (.pages and  .numbers) I kept trying opening the folder (by extending .pages) in Pages.
Later on I tried Numbers (giving extension .numbers to folder) and it worked instantly.


What is the technology used in iOS 11 settings migration (moving blue dots / particles pattern / animated QR code?) During the setup of a new iPhone 8 / iPhone 8 Plus / iPhone X, there is a step for migrating the settings from another iOS 11 device.

On the old device, it says:

  Set Up New iPhone

  Use your Apple ID "xxx@xxx.com" to set up your new iPhone.

On the new device, it says:

  Quick Start

  If you have an iPhone or iPad running iOS 11, bring it nearby to sign in automatically.

  If you want, you can also set up this iPhone manually.

After tapping "Continue" on the old device, on the old device, it says:

  Hold Your New iPhone Up to the Camera

  Position the pattern in the circle

On the new device, it says:

  Waiting for Other iPhone...

  Position this image in the frame of your other iPhone.

A pattern of moving blue dots appears in the new device, as shown in this picture:

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/06/05/automatic-setup-feature-ios-11/

And in this video:

https://youtu.be/tHxhZu97pXc

I believe it works like QR code, but it is not. Does anybody know what the name of this technology is?

The technology can be thought of very much like an animated QR-code. The main principle of data encoding is very much like QR-codes, but obviously with the difference that as time goes forward, the displayed data changes as an animation.

In addition there seems to be the use of a neat trick with two different colors shown in quick alternation, which makes it possible for Apple to "hide" or make less obvious the clues that are used for the receiver of the data to synchronize with the signal (i.e. figure out where the boundaries of the encoded data is).

With a traditional QR code these sync markers are much more evident as they are big black square boxes with white borders that are set different places in the code to make it easy for the receiver to figure out what's encoded data, and what's not part of the code.

Much more details are available in these two patent applications by Apple:

US Patent 9,022,291
US Patent 9,022,292


My finder's sidebar is empty My finder's sidebar is empty (see attachement), this happens about once every two weeks, I would be working on my mac and suddenly the sidebar becomes empty.

It works again after a restart, but it is a great inconvenience to have to do that each time.

The first thing I would do is run a cleaning utility (like Onyx), reboot and see if cleaning up caches, running disk repair, maintenance scripts, etc. does the trick.

Failing that go to Apple support and download the latest Combo Updater that matches your current OS version and run that. Combo updaters often fix odd macOS behavior.


Difference between macOS login root and Darwin Terminal root The recent major security flaw in macOS 11.13.[1,2] has turned the usual advice of not enabling the root account on its head. But it has left me a bit confused about exactly what root account is being discussed.

The Darwin shell has a root account listed, and has many files and directories listed as owned by root, but macOS has no login account enabled for root.

What's the difference between the root account listed as an existing owner for files in the Terminal, and the (disabled) root login account?

The root user (UID 0) exists in every Unix or Unix-like operating system. Every process of a Unix operating systems must run as a valid user/UID, independently of system processes, daemons, services or user-initiated applications. Every basic system-process runs under UID 0 (root), and every system-relevant file is owned by that user. For reasons of security, some processes are running as different "users" with lesser privileges than the superuser root. Such users are there for the solely purpose to start services, such as a webserver, a database, the window server and so on. This means, not every user configured on Unix (or macOS) is a "real" user. In fact, most of those system-users can not log-in interactively.

For example a webserver (nginx, apache, ...) will be started by a script running under UID 0 (=root). The webserver-process afterwards drops the privileges to a specific UID (in this case, it could be the user www). www is not a real user and cannot be used to log in to the system interactively.
There are two ways to "deactivate" a (system) user:

set the user shell to /bin/false (or any non valid-shell)
disable the users's password, setting it to an invalid, empty or specific value.

On macOS AFAIK a non-valid user has an empty password and a specific property set on the local OpenDirectory server.

Usually, for a request like "is this a valid user" the OpenDirectory service in macOS does a simple check on the requested user and returns true (user can log in) or false (user cannot log in).
It seems, Apples bug was not to check user's validity but to set it to enabled. On already enabled accounts this had no effect, but disabled accounts  became valid, enabled accounts. And since a disabled user has no password, an empty password was accepted as a valid option to log in as superuser/root.


Keynote 6.6 cannot open old file, says: " cannot be opened for some reason." I've found that Keynote after upgrading to 6.6 could not open some of my previously created presentations anymore. How do I revert to a previous version?

Apple released Keynote 6.6.1 today - I tried to open previous files before and after updating, and sure enough, the files that previously would not open in 6.6 actually opened in 6.6.1.


WiFi Sync iPhone on new MacBook Pro I am able to sync when the iPhone is connected by cable, although its not possible through WiFi.

On my previous mac, the iPhone would be visible in iTunes at all times while both connected to WiFi.

Although now its not visible whether its connected to power source or not. Also from the iPhone my MBP doesn't appear available. Both devices are registered under same Apple ID.

How can I fix this issue?

Connect your iPhone to iTunes and select it when it shows up in the sidebar.
Scroll down in the Summary Pane until you see the "Options"
Assure that the "Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi" option is checked.
Click the "Apply" button and you're done.


Sluggish cursor movement in emacs in Lion Terminal? On upgrading to Lion, I noticed that cursor movement in emacs (^-N, ^-P and so on) while running in Terminal has become sluggish. Cursor movement in vi seems fine and cursor movement in Emacs.app seems fine too.

Any ideas what is going on?

Are you using a translucent terminal window appearance? Terminal now supports window background blur in addition to translucency, and existing settings profiles default to 20% blur (except Pro, which uses 0%). If you have a large terminal window and/or slower hardware, you may notice some slow down when moving around in emacs (compared to vim, emacs is noticeably inefficient about updating the display when moving the cursor around and redraws a lot, which requires redrawing the background).

Try selecting a different profile or edit the profile to disable blur:

  Terminal > Preferences > Settings > [profile] > Window > Background > Color


Intel HD 3000, HDMI and 2560x1080 I recently purchased an ultra wide monitor, with a native resolution of 2560x1080.

This is great but it's only working with Windows !
Apple is limiting HDMI resolution to be no more than 1920x1080, for no reason at all. I read everywhere than I need to buy whatever cable or adapter and to use display port, but I just can't.
I also tried SwitchResX but same problem, resolutions over 1920x1080 are not available.

So I searched for a solution, and I found something interesting there : https://discussions.apple.com/message/25831860#25831860
It seems that increasing the framebuffer size will set bigger resolution available.

But I can't find any info about this with an Intel HD 3000. Is someone have any clue about where to begin ? I guess it's happenning in AppleIntelSNBGraphics but that file is quite big...

Another question I'm having is, is this still the case on Yosemite ? Because I'm on Mavericks and I could do the update if that might solve this issue.

Thank you.

After some digging, I finally found a solution :

Update to Yosemite.
Apply a patch to IOKit.framework : https://github.com/Floris497/mac-pixel-clock-patch
Enjoy 2560x1080 50Hz using HDMI cable


iOS app retains data between installs? I recently installed VLC on iOS 10 and noticed that there is play history in it on a fresh install.

How does this app preserve data between installs? Should it even be able to?

It doesn't matter whether I restart the phone before reinstall or not.

I forgot to mention that it doesn't have an entry on iCloud in the settings app.

Being an app developer myself, I know that it is possible to store data on the cloud, or in the phone's keychain. Either way, the data is not deleted even if you delete it and reinstall it. Deleting the app makes the data inaccessible, however it is still there. Reinstalling it just makes it accessible to the user once again. Hope this helped:)


Moving External Boot Drive into Mac mini (Mid 2007) Some time ago the hard disk inside of my family's Mac mini (Mid 2007) failed. We purchased an external disk (Some iteration of the Western Digital 'My Passport'), installed OS X onto it, and have been using it as the boot volume through USB. The computer has been running fine, albeit very slowly, though the computer now needs to be used more intensively and the bottleneck of a USB boot drive has made it impossible to do so.

So I ask you this: Will I need to format the disk once it's in the mini and reinstall OS X? Or will I just be able to place the My Passport's drive into the mini, select the now-internal drive as the boot volume and be alright?

Assuming the drive inside the My Passport has a SATA connection, then you can just take the drive as-is without any need for re-formatting or changing any data.

However you should look into the specific model of drive you've got — some external drives are manufactured with direct USB interfaces to save costs, rather than a SATA interface with a USB bridge.


Generating a monochrome PDF file from a color PDF file How can I generate a monochrome pdf file from a color pdf file?

I have tried ImageMagick's convert, but with bad results.

A direct conversion

  convert -monochrome file.pdf file-bw.pdf

produces dithered images.

Going through png

  convert -monochrome -background white -geometry 2048 file.pdf file-bw.png

stubbornly keeps the background to some shade of gray.

You can do this easily in Preview:

Open the PDF in Preview.
Go to File > Export...
From the Quartz Filter drop-down box, select Black & White.
Save and you're done.


How to scale down 4k monitor I have got new 28 inch 4K monitor (AOC U2879VF). Display options give me either 3840x2160 or 1920*1080. Full 4k is too small, but 1080p on a 28 inch is too big. I cannot find a way to sclae to something in the middle like ( 2560x1440 or 2880x1620).
I tried using SwitchResX,but their scaling down looks terrible.

Any suggestions?

One thing you can try is to hold Alt while selecting Scaled in the Display pane of the Displays view in System Preferences. On my Mac, that increases the selection of resolutions (and the effect of that is sticky; if I hold Alt and click again after reverting to Default for display, the list shrinks back to what it was initially, but clicking back and forth without Alt shows me the same list of resolutions each time). It's possible that won't help, if your monitor simply doesn't offer up intermediate resolutions, but that might not matter if it's the GPU that does the scaling rather than the monitor.

I tend to prefer to choose a mode which uses the native resolution of the display, because it maximizes the crispness. It's possible your 1080P is actually 2160P, but described by System Preferences as Looks like 1920 x 1080; that uses four times as many pixels per character in the font selection, compared to a true 1080P. Depending on whether your monitor is treated as equivalent to a Retina display when connected to your Mac, what it's calling 1080P could be either (a true scaled 1080P, or just a better choice of fonts). If the applications you commonly use are sufficiently capable of changing font size, you can increase the font size (if you're using 2160P) or decrease the font size (if your 1080P is like a Retina 1080P). Then again, if the pixels are small enough, an intermediate scaled resolution (if System Preferences offers that with help from the Alt key) might look OK (for me the pixels on a 28" UHD display are big enough that they don't look good to me scaled, but then again the display on my 27" Retina iMac has completely spoiled me).

One problem with relying on applications to scale fonts is that it doesn't change the menu bar and dock, but that does allow you to adjust the content you probably spend the most time looking at.

In any case, it's probably worth your while to try the Alt trick to see if that changes the list of resolutions.


How can I use Google Calendar etc. with iCloud? Since 3 years, I'm a Linux user. Now I am thinking about switching to OSX. I informed myself about OSX and looked into many youtube videos about it, but still I have a few questions about it

At the moment I'm using Google Calendar as my primary calendar. In my google account I have a dashboard where I see an overview over my data, calendars etc. Where can I find this in my apple Account? If I use iCloud, how does this work? Are calendars etc.. only synced over icloud and Apple devices?

If I don't want to use iCloud, is it possible to integrate my google Account into the OSX calendar etc?

Your Google account can be added to System Preferences → Internet Accounts. There you can select the services that you would like to enable.

For example, selecting the Calendars service will enable all of your calendars in your Google account in the Calendars app on OS X.


Is Apple's Screen Sharing tool secure? I've been using Apple's screen sharing tool to connect from a client to an Xserve for a while and it's just occurred to me that doing so might be quite a bad idea!

I know VNC is inherently insecure and that it is possible to tunnel it over SSH, but does Apple's Screen Sharing tool use any secure transport protocol? If not then surely I've been typing in server passwords on my client and they have been transported over the network in plain text.

Anyway, I now use the Server Management tools and SSH when possible, but I'm sure there will be times when I still need to use VNC.

From here:

Mac to Mac screen sharing, using the username/password, is done in a secure manner.
Using a VNC client and the "VNC viewers may control screen with password" is not secure.


MacOS: Is it possible to import customized voice in "Announce the time"? Mac provide some official voices to download, but it is very limited. Is it possible to import customized voice?

I did 2 things to handle similar requirement. Since my way is not a direct file import meanwhile required preknowledge on shell, I am not sure if it can resolve your problem.

The 2 things:

a bash script prepared to let PC alarm in the customized voice. You can find my bash script here call bclock.sh then substitute my sound file path with yours: https://github.com/vjyq/bclock/blob/master/bclock.sh
a cronjob set up to make PC chime hourly. My cronjob cmd: 0 * * * * /Users/<user-name>/bclock/bclock.sh   # you could get <user-name> via $ whoami

You may find more how-to in my post: https://vjyq.github.io/bclock/

Hope this helps.


MBP 2011: external displays not detected automatically My late-2011 13" MacBook Pro generally doesn't automatically detect external displays. At work or at home, I plug it to either a 23" Cinema Display (2005) or a 24" LG display using a Mini DisplayPort / DVI adapter.

Sometimes auto-detection of the display works out-of-the-box (notably, the first time I plug a display after a reboot), but most of the time I need to manually click "Detect Displays" in system preferences.

My two monitors work perfectly, my MDP/DVI adapter works too (confirmed by cross-testing with other Macs, other displays, other adapters). The problem only comes from my MacBook.

Does anyone experiences the same issue?

Model: 13" MacBookPro8,1 (late-2011)
MacOS: 10.7.3 (11D50 -- problem occurs since 10.7.0)
Graphics card: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Software that might affect the issue: iScreen 3.0.0 (even though the problem also occurs with iScreen uninstalled).

I solved that problem by connecting HDMI cable to another input of my external display. I don't know exactly what's the difference but it works for me.


Re-connect iTunes library from different drive I just replaced my optical drive with an SSD, which I now boot off of (Lion, fresh install).  I'd like to keep my iTunes folder on the original drive, which is still in the computer as well.  When I used Migration Assistant I had it skip the Music folder.

I haven't been able to get iTunes 10 to "see" the old library in its current location on the other drive.  I've gone into Preferences-->Advanced-->Change and selected all of the different folders in the old Music folder, but iTunes never sees my music.  Thanks!

The easiest is to start with a fresh and empty folder in the new ~/Music directory.

Fire up iTunes and tell it to use the media folder on the the external drive and quit iTunes after making whatever settings you want about copying files / organization. I would recommend leaving both selected.

Then move just the artwork folder and the itdb / xml files into place and replace the "empty" files that got created on the local ~/Music/iTunes folder. (basically use Finder to move everything back except the folder containing the media.)

When you start iTunes it should run a quick check to make sure all the files are working and you can proceed with your app management / music enjoyment.


How to I go from .flac to .mp3 using LAME & FLAC using the Terminal alone? For a long time I've been using a relative clunky technique which involves Audacity with a LAME plugin. This is fine I guess, but the appeal of the Terminal approach is I can be a little finer grained with my [options] and perhaps use more up-to-date binaries.

Furthermore, my MacBook is ageing a little now and if I can get rid of an unnecessary GUI, all the better.

Thanks in advance.

Converting a single file without preserving tags

brew install lame
flac --decode --stdout test.flac | lame --preset extreme - test.mp3

--decode --stdout = -dc
lame - $outfile = input from STDIN
--preset extreme = ~245 kbit/s VBR

A shell script that preserves some ID3 tags

#!/bin/bash

for f in "$@"; do
    [[ "$f" != *.flac ]] && continue
    album="$(metaflac --show-tag=album "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    artist="$(metaflac --show-tag=artist "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    date="$(metaflac --show-tag=date "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    title="$(metaflac --show-tag=title "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    year="$(metaflac --show-tag=date "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    genre="$(metaflac --show-tag=genre "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"
    tracknumber="$(metaflac --show-tag=tracknumber "$f" | sed 's/[^=]*=//')"

    flac --decode --stdout "$f" | lame --preset extreme --add-id3v2 --tt "$title" --ta "$artist" --tl "$album" --ty "$year" --tn "$tracknumber" --tg "$genre" - "${f%.flac}.mp3"
done

To use the script, just save it somewhere like ~/bin/flac2mp3 and make it executable with chmod +x ~/bin/flac2mp3.

This would convert all flac files in your Music folder:

find ~/Music/ -name '*.flac' -exec ~/bin/flac2mp3 {} \;

Or slightly faster, since it only calls flac2mp3 once:

find ~/Music/ -name '*.flac' -print0 | xargs -0 ~/bin/flac2mp3


How to prevent Windows 10 from downloading and installing updates before the Boot Camp Support Software is installed? Microsoft is allowing users to download and install (but not activate) Windows 10 Pro 64 bit without using a Product key.

I tried doing a clean install of Windows 10 on my mid 2007, 20 inch iMac. During installation, I was not asked if I wanted to disable Windows Update. Windows ended up downloading drivers before I could install the Boot Camp software. Some of the drivers installed but most failed.

Is there a way to install the Boot Camp software before updates are downloaded?
Or, can updating be disabled during the Windows 10 installation?

Below are some basic steps to install the Boot Camp Support Software and configure Windows Update before updates are downloaded from Microsoft.

  Windows Update can only be configured if you are installing Windows 10 Pro or better. I do not know of a way to configure Windows Update for Windows 10 Home. The steps given below can still be used to install the Boot Camp Support Software.

Hint: For a better view, click on an image or open an image in a new window.

Before installing Windows 10, make sure your computer can not
communicate with the internet. If the computer is hardwired to the
internet, disconnect it now.
Start installing Windows 10.
You may be asked to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. If a window
similar to below appears, click on "Skip this step".

When you reach the following screen, put the computer in Audit mode
by pressing the following keys. With the
ctrlshift keys held down, press the
F3 key. Hold all three keys down for about 3 seconds or
until the computer starts to reboot.

If you see the screen below, do nothing. The computer will login
automatically to the Administrator account.

Eventually, you should get the following screen showing the
Administrator's desktop. You can close the "System Preparation Tool
3.14" window.

Check the clock and make any needed corrections. Right click on the
clock shown on the task bar at the bottom right of the screen and
select "Adjust date/time". See image shown below.

Install the Boot Camp Support Software (BCSS) by opening the setup
Application in the appropriate BCSS folder. If you get a Windows
version error message similar to what is shown below, proceed to
step 9.

If you get a Boot Camp x64 error message similar to what is shown
below, proceed to step 10. Otherwise, goto step 11.

You can remedy the situation by right clicking on the highlighted
setup application entry and selecting "Properties", as shown below.

Next, click on the "Compatibility" tab, check off "Run this program
in compatibility for:" box and select the appropriate previous
version of Windows. An illustration is shown below.

Click the "OK" button and a open the setup application to install
the BCSS. If the computer reboots, you can close the "System
Preparation Tool 3.14" window and any Boot Camp windows. Proceed to
step 11.
You can remedy the situation by using the Finder application to
 navigate to the Windows Installer Package named "BootCamp64" or
 similar file. Right click on the file entry and select
 "Properties", as shown below.

Next, click on the "Compatibility" tab, check off "Run this program
 in compatibility for:" box. An illustration is shown below.

Click the "OK" button. Right click on the file entry and select
 "Install", as shown below. This starts the installation of the
 BCSS. If the computer reboots, you can close the "System
 Preparation Tool 3.14" window and any Boot Camp windows.

If you do not want to configure Windows Update or have Windows 10
Home, you should skip this step. To proceed, right click on the
Start button on the taskbar and select "Run", as shown below.

In the popup windows, enter "gpedit.msc" and click the Ok button, as
shown below.

Select "Local Computer Policy→Computer Configuration→Administrative
Templates→Windows Components→Windows Update", as shown below.

Next, right click on "Configure Automatic Updates" and select
"Edit". The "Configure Automatic Updates" windows should appear as
shown below.

If you want to "Never check for updates" click the "Disabled"
button, otherwise click the "Enabled" button and choose your option.
The result from choosing option 2 is shown below.

When finished, click the "OK" button to close the window. Also,
close the "Local Group Policy Editor" window. Next, Click on the
Start button on the task bar and select "Settings→Update &
security→Windows Update→Check for updates". When the following
message occurs, click "Advanced options".

Inspect the window to confirm you selection. Below is the correct
window for option 2.

Close the "Settings" window.
Connect your computer to the internet. If you computer was hardwired
to the internet, plug it back in now. If you were using Wi-Fi,
enable it and join a network.
If the "System Preparation Tool 3.14" window is not displayed,
reboot the computer.
Click the "OK" button in the "System Preparation Tool 3.14" window.
 Use the default settings shown in the image below.

When the computer reboots, you will have left the Audit mode. You should boot to the following display.

On my computer, I was able to select the "United States (Apple)" keyboard. You may want to check if a better choice exists than the default keyboard.

At this point, you can continue with the Windows 10 installation.

Additional Notes:

There is a downloadable "Show or hide updates" troubleshooter package from Microsoft, that will allow you to review and/or hide updates before downloading and/or installing. This option is described in an answer to "Stopping automatic updates windows 10".

Personally, I found this software to be unpredictable. I could get the software to hide an update, but I had trouble getting a hidden update to install.


Finding name of a process? I'm doing a project for school and it involves running a java program which sometimes crashes. In order to kill the unresponsive program, I'll go to my dock, right click on the program and press "Force Quit":

The program it kills has a window with a title "Planet Wars Visualizer", and the top menu for the program in the top left says "CLViewer":

Instead of having to press "Force Quit" every time, I want to just use the killall <name> command. However, when I go to my activity monitor I don't see any processes with the names "Java", "Planet Wars Visualizer", or "CLViewer". Even when I try killall with those names I just get No matching processes belonging to you were found.

How can I find out the actual name of the process just by the clues I have?

When the program goes unresponsive, open Activity Monitor and see if a process is followed by a message in red which says unresponsive. You can get the name of the process from there.


Why does `arch` output `i386`? When I run $ arch on my 10.9 2012 MacBook Pro, I get the output

i386

The manpage for arch says that

the arch command is 2-way universal, 32-bit only

However, $ file "$(which arch)" gives

/usr/bin/arch: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/usr/bin/arch (for architecture x86_64):        Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
/usr/bin/arch (for architecture i386):  Mach-O executable i386

OTOH, python2.7 is running as a 64-bit executable:

$ /usr/bin/python2.7 -c 'import sys; print "%x" % sys.maxint'
7fffffffffffffff

Also, the kernel is apparently 64-bit:

$ file /mach_kernel
/mach_kernel: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

uname agrees:

$ uname -m
x86_64

..or does it?

$ uname -p
i386

Here you go:

uname -p      print the machine processor architecture name.

uname -m      print the machine hardware name.

The arch command with no arguments, displays the machine's architecture type.

Ultimately I suspect this is the answer you want: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12763296/os-x-arch-command-incorrect

For further confusion, run:

$arch
i386
$machine
i486
$uname -m
x86_64
$uname -p
i386


Distributing Beta App to Remote Users It seems like there is no simple solution to providing my beta iOS app to people outside of physical contact.  The ways that I have found to do this WITHOUT using the App Store (which Apple explicitly says is not for Beta testing) are:

Use Developer Enterprise Program; Expensive and Excessive
Use TestFlight; Only up to a measly 25 "Internal" Testers allowed before extreme Guidelines put in place for more people (Why not just put it on App Store at this point...?)
Give them my whole Xcode project and have the user build it in their own Xcode environment; Impossible to ask of non-tech-savvy people + I do not want to give my project to people outside my company
Ad-Hoc Development; Make everyone give me their UDIDs...Huge hassle for others/ People might not want to do it outside my company

The app I am developing is going to be used by people in the scientific community to control a specific device that my company is making.  There's a chance that it might never be up to Apple's standards for apps on the App Store, but could be used by more than 100 people in the near-distant future.  I guess the real question I am asking is: How do I get my "sub-par" beta app to a large group of people?

You could use TestFlight for external beta testers. This will allow you to test with up to 2,500 external testers. You do not need to know their UDIDs, only their email addresses.

However, I assume you think your app won't be able to pass even the less restrictive beta app review.

In that case, you could distribute your app in a "half-baked" form. Instead of giving out the Xcode-project including sources, which you state you do not want, you could distribute your app as compiled, but not yet signed, binaries.

In order to make it easy for your customers, you would have to build or get built a simple tool that the user can run that codesigns the binaries with the user's AppleID. They wouldn't need to be registered Apple Developers.

The tool would need to alter the bundle name in Info.plist and use the "codesign" tool to sign the app:

To make the bundle name unique, just add any random identifiers to the bundle name in the plist file.

The codesign tool can be used with a command like this:

codesign --force --sign "my identity"  <path for .app file>

where "my identity" is the identity (apple-id) of the end-user.


How do I paste an url from an image? I want to post an image on a website, but it requires the image's url, which I don't know how to. By the way, I'm on an iPad... could anyone help?

Just use an app like "Imgur"

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imgur-awesome-images-gifs/id639881495?mt=8

Use Upload feature to create and share your own pictures as url.


Rsync with Linux server: special character problem I have a problem with using rsync for backuping files on my remote linux machine to my Mac. The first time all is well, but apparently there is a problem with special characters between the mac and linux machine, since every time I run the rsync operation after that, the files with special characters are first deleted and then re-synced. It seems as if there is a problem with different character sets.

The preferred solution seems to be to use the --iconv option:

  You can use rsync's --iconv option to convert between UTF-8 NFC & NFD,
  at least if you're on a Mac. There is a special utf-8-mac character
  set that stands for UTF-8 NFD. So to copy files from your Mac to your
  NAS, you'd need to run something like:

  rsync -a --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 localdir/ mynas:remotedir/

  This will convert all the local filenames from UTF-8 NFD to UTF-8 NFC on the
  remote server. The files' contents won't be affected.

That sounds all and well, but my mac does not seem to recognise that option, since I get:

>     MyMachine:~ Macuser$ /usr/bin/rsync -av --delete --iconv=utf-8,utf-8-mac user@linuxmachine:/home/linuxuser/Test/ /Users/Macuser/Test/
>     rsync: --iconv=utf-8,utf-8-mac: unknown option
>     rsync error: syntax or usage error (code 1) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-42/rsync/main.c(1333) [client=2.6.9]

Any suggestions on what to do?

EDIT: the rsync version on my mac is 2.6.9.

Macuser$ rsync --version
rsync  version 2.6.9  protocol version 29

If that version does not support the --iconv option, how do I update in a safe manner?

EDIT: I finally figured out that apart from updating rsync, I also had to switch the order in which I specified the character sets, so I added an answer below.

I finally figured out that apart from updating rsync, I also had to switch the order in which I specified the character sets: I thought you were supposed to specify the character set in the order of transformation; but it seems as that is not the correct syntax. Rather, one should always use --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 when initialising the rsync from the mac, and always use --iconv=utf-8,utf-8-mac when initialising the rsync from the linux machine, no matter if I want to sync files from the mac or linux machine.

Then @Mark's solution works like magic!


Shortcut for "Action" button on Finder toolbar I am looking for a way to show a contextual menu for a Finder selected item from keyboard.

According to the answers I saw, there is no macOS full equivalent for a Windows "Context Menu" button, but maybe it is possible to have a shortcut for "Action" button on a Finder toolbar?

This is how it looks:

This works for me running OS Sierra..  This AppleScript code will open your active Finder window or open a new Finder window if none are open, then it will automatically click the "Action" button in your toolbar.

Notice where it says "group 2" in both lines of code.  This is the location of the "Action" button in my "Finder" window.  If you do not have your "Action" button located in the exact same location in your finder window, this script will produce an error and won't work.

activate application "Finder"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Finder"
        delay 0.5  -- may need to adjust this number
        if window 1 of application "Finder" exists then
            click menu button 1 of group 2 of toolbar 1 of window 1
        else
            tell application "Finder"
                activate
                make new Finder window
                tell application "System Events"
                    tell process "Finder"
                        delay 1 -- may need to adjust this number
                        click menu button 1 of group 2 of toolbar 1 of window 1 (* notice where it says "group 2" in both lines of code.  This is the location of the "Action" button in my "Finder" window.  If you do not have your "Action" button located in the exact same location in your finder window, this script will produce an error and won't work. *)
                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end if
    end tell
end tell

Save this script in script editor app as an application.  For purposes of this post, I saved the file in script editor as Finder_Action_Button_Shortcut.app

Open Automator app and create a new service

Be sure to select the files and folders option.  Add a "Launch Application" action to your workflow and select the new script editor application you just saved and named: Finder_Action_Button_Shortcut.app

At this point save your Automator workflow file and name it something like "Finder_Action_Button_Shortcut.workflow" to your /Users/YOUR_COMPUTER_NAME/Library/Services/ folder. (if Automator during the save process does not ask you if you want to install the new service)

Now this service will be available in your "Services" in Finder for any selected file or folder

Be sure to add Automator.app and Finder_Action_Button_Shortcut.app
to the list of applications allowed to control your computer in the System Preferences/ Security & Privacy/ Accessability/ Privacy tab

Next, go to System Preferences/ Keyboard/ Shortcuts/ Services and you should see your new service listed there.  Go ahead and assign your new service a keyboard shortcut and BINGO!  You're done


My iPhone keeps switching on and off charge whilst charging, how do I fix it? When I charge my iPhone 4 on my laptop, it starts charging but then it keeps going on and off charging even though it's not touched.
It charges fine with a plug charger or with any computers I use at college.

What things prevent a Mac from charging a connected iPhone so that charging can be resumed?

Running this in terminal worked for me: (it will ask for your user's password)

sudo killall -STOP -c usbd

This pauses the troublesome process instead of killing it altogether like other answers suggest. The difference is that macOS won't try to reopen it automatically and cause the issue again.

Running sudo killall -CONT usbd will resume the process, should anything require it.

Tested on: iPhone 7 (iOS 11) + MacBook Pro Late 2013 (10.13.6)

Besides software issues, there's a good chance that the cable is at least partially damaged so it might work for dumb power chargers but not with a MacBook that also relies on the USB data pins.

Also this might happen when either device needs an update. I've been asked "Install update to connect to device?" before and if I don't accept, this issue happens.


General commands for getting help and/or documentation for command line utilities in terminal on macOS? Some command line interfaces or command line utilities give some comprehensive documentation or help when --help is appended to the name of the command, for example git:
git --help
# shows comprehensive help docs

Some others show only the command and its arguments (that's all), for example grep:
grep --help
usage: grep [-abcDEFGHhIiJLlmnOoqRSsUVvwxZ] [-A num] [-B num] [-C[num]]
    [-e pattern] [-f file] [--binary-files=value] [--color=when]
    [--context[=num]] [--directories=action] [--label] [--line-buffered]
    [--null] [pattern] [file ...]

And others give some assistance, but only because --help is not recognised as a legal option, for examples ls:
ls --help
ls: illegal option -- -
usage: ls [-@ABCFGHLOPRSTUWabcdefghiklmnopqrstuwx1%] [file ...]

and netstat:
netstat --help
netstat: illegal option -- -
Usage:  netstat [-AaLlnW] [-f address_family | -p protocol]
    netstat [-gilns] [-f address_family]
    netstat -i | -I interface [-w wait] [-abdgRtS]
    netstat -s [-s] [-f address_family | -p protocol] [-w wait]
    netstat -i | -I interface -s [-f address_family | -p protocol]
    netstat -m [-m]
    netstat -r [-Aaln] [-f address_family]
    netstat -rs [-s]

Question
Are there any generally safe way(s) of getting documentation or help with a CLI or utility without having to google (i.e. from within the terminal)? I currently try --help or -h, but other than that I go straight to google, but would like to know if there are other things to (safely) try before going to google.

Have you heard of using the man command. For example: man ls or man grep. You can get comprehensive documentation on man by entering man man.
Some of the basic keys used by the man command are the f key to page forward, the b key to page backward and the q key to quit.
Try using the mouse to highlight the command, then right click on the highlighted text and select Open man page. See example below.

Note: The highlighted text can not contain spaces.

Some commands are builtin. This means the command is part on the current shell. If you are using the zsh shell (which is the macOS default shell), then you will need to enter man zshbuiltins for documentation.


I think I have bricked my MacBook Pro, what are my options to get it fixed? I have been having power issues with my MacBook Pro (late 2007?). The power cable had a dodgy connection, and kept cutting out. This destroyed the life of the battery to the point where it would only hold a charge for a couple of seconds. Last night it stopped booting up, so I reset the PRAM, and tried booting from a CD but it wouldn't fully boot.

Finally, today I attempted to turn it on using a working power cable and there is no life whatsoever. The light goes green on the cable when I plug it in, but the power button doesn't give any life to the computer, no screen, no sound, nothing.

I've tried booting it with the battery removed.

What are my options? Is it likely to be a motherboard or RAM issue? Can I use the hard disk in another laptop to at least recover files? What is it likely to cost in repairs in the Apple store?

Take it to an Apple Store (make an appointment first): they'll examine and diagnose it for you with no charge, and then tell you what they'd charge to fix it.

Doesn't cost you anything and if the price is too great or you'd rather fix it yourself (now that you know the problem) then you can simply decline the service. It's a no-pressure deal, and one of the primary reasons I recommend Macs.


Prevent a Mac from waking up from keyboard or mouse? I put my PowerMac at work to sleep so that I can use Wake-on-LAN to do remote work on it. However the office cleaner often touches the keyboard or the mouse button unintentionally. So the question is:

How to disable mouse and keyboard wake up; to just use the power button and wake-on-LAN to wake/sleep instead?

Don't tell me to disconnect mouse and keyboard.

The solution I can offer is to use Sleepwatcher and add the following to your ~/.wakeup script:

#!/bin/bash

WR=`syslog | grep -i "Wake reason =" | tail -1 | awk '{ print $11 }'`

if [[ "$WR" =~ EHC[0-9] ]]; then
    pmset sleepnow
fi

This won't prevent your Mac from waking via keyboard or mouse. It will however sleep the computer immediately after it is woken via keyboard, mouse, or any other USB device.

According to an anonymous user this works for some versions of OS X (e.g. Mavericks):

#!/bin/bash

WR=`syslog | grep -i "Wake reason:" | tail -1 | awk '{ print $11 }'`

if [[ "$WR" =~ EHC[0-9] ]]; then
    pmset sleepnow
fi


Unable to find driver for this platform \"ACPI\" MACOSX version: not yet set After applying the latest OSX update, I'm unsure which version it was anymore, but I applied it yesterday, on my MacBook Air I get this screen below and am unable to continue in any way. What now?

Try starting up from the recovery partition (by holding command-R), in single user mode (by holding command-S), in safe mode (by holding shift), or in Internet recovery mode (by holding option-command-R).

If you already have backups and you can start up from the recovery partition or in Internet recovery mode, try choosing the Reinstall OS X option. It downloads an OS X installer and installs it over the current installation, keeping user files and settings in place.

If you can start up from the recovery partition but reinstalling OS X does not work, try to erase and reinstall OS X.

If you don't have backups but you can start up from the recovery partition, you can save a disk image to an external drive with Disk Utility.


Outlook 2011 cannot delete account Recently migrated work email to office365, therefore, all of our users have a new account on a new exchange server.

Added this without fuss, but upon trying to remove the obsolete account outlook only seems to be able to crash. Starting in safe mode does nothing.

Wonder if anyone else has run into this problem?

I had the same issue. Tried working offline - nothing.  Finally SUCCESS!  I unchecked the "sync to server" box that was checked and set to "every two minutes."  The constant syncing must have hung up the program.  Accounts deleted without an issue after that.  I have Outlook 2011 on a Mac.


Does Forced shutdown damage Mac? Does Forced Shutdown, pushing power button until Mac shuts down, damage hard drive? Or operation system?

Can it cause damage to Mac's security so it will get weaker towards malicious things?

And if I run Disk Utility after forced shutdown, will it find any potential damage?

I've had it happen few times, but no underlying continuous problems, just want to know what could happen.

A forced shutdown doesn't damage your hardware nor does it weaken your security.

What it could potentially do is corrupt files because you are turning off the computer while they are open/active.  These files can be anything from an open webpage or text file to system files that in use for any reason (like an update).

fsck checks for inconsistencies in the filesystem.  Meaning it looks at the blocks, the inodes, the used space, the free space, etc. to see if everything "adds up."    For instance, it will check the blocks and the sizes, if there is an error it will attempt to fix.

However, it won't repair a file that has been corrupted or the data lost - it simply can't recreate data.

As for "being dangerous to security" there's no direct link to your filesystem getting corrupted and security being compromised.  If your file system has been corrupted to the point that services fail to load or critical files cannot be loaded you will know about it as the system will generate errors.

It will NOT suddenly open ports in your firewall or make your password go blank.


Does Apple Watch automatically stop walk/run workout? One problem I commonly have with activity and workout trackers is that I forget to stop recording when I finish my walk or run, and end up including a bus ride or drive as part of the workout. This skews the data and mostly makes it useless for tracking.

And furthermore, most trackers don’t make it easy to trim or crop an activity after it has been completed.

Does the Apple Watch automatically stop recording a walk or run workout when it detects you’re moving faster than a human could possibly run?

watchOS 6 (set to release in fall 2019) will include enhancements to automatic workout detection.

Apple Watch: All of the health and fitness features, explained

  Automatic workout detection

  When the Apple Watch senses you're beginning a workout, you'll get an alert asking if you want it to start tracking. You can respond to that notification to choose your workout type and beyond a session.

  Best of all, if you missed out on a few minutes before beginning to track the workout, Apple Watch will give you retroactive credit for that, too. And if you forget to stop tracking when your workout is over, the Apple Watch will detect that and automatically end it.


How to delete App (files with cross sign) that cant delete from Application on Mac Due to my new Mac running hot overheating issue, I found an extension app called "Turbo Boost Switcher" to see if I can control heat generation.

However, since it can't it run properly, I want to delete it after. Then I realized, I cant remove it from the launchpad nor from the Application folder.

When I try to search what are leftover in the computer, I found that the files were all shown with a prohibitory sign as shown.

How can I locate and trash these icons?

The prohibitory symbol means the application will not run on your machine.

I'd recommend either user128733 or CousinCocaine approach as seen here:

How to remove an icon from launchpad that does not appear in the Finder?

Application cleaner tend to be OK.  FYI: General mac cleaners are to be avoided.

https://nektony.com/how-to/delete-apps-from-launchpad


USB to Serial on macOS Sierra not working I have been going in circles for two days trying to get macOS Sierra 10.12 to work with my Gigaware USB to Console (RS-232). I have tried about 10 different drivers from a google search with no luck. No matter what I do, the USB device will not show up under the TTY lines when plugged in.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling all of the drivers as well as changing the vendor ID to match Prolific. I have also tried csrutil disable/enable command from safe mode and managed to see it in the network settings but it still isn't recognized by any terminal program that I have tried. Zterm, Zoc, other serial programs all fail.

Additionally, a program called "Serial" from Decisive Tactics Inc. seems to work, whatever drivers they load there work but I shouldn't have to pay 30 dollars for a feature that macOS should support. Any ideas on what I can do?  I'm all out of possibilities at this point and need some help. I've uploaded screenshots of what I currently have.

Install libusb >1.0 (actual 1.0.20) from homebrew or MacPorts, since this one provides access for controlling data transfer to and from USB devices in UNIX/non-UNIX systems, without the need for kernel-mode drivers.

As for a free application, try CoolTerm.

I used this combination with Cortex-M4 microcontrollers.


command line: unmount a smb network drive We use Windows Server for my company network.

I do use Mac has client.  When I mount a network drive, I use the following command line:

osascript -e ‘mount volume “smb://myusername:mypassword@fileserver/department/its”'

everything works fine. I am a user administrator for my network, this is the reason why I guess I am able to mount the network drive in this way and everything works fine.

But my question is: how do I unmount this network drive? What is the command line?

thank you so much

umount is the opposite of mount. You'll need to know the name of the mount point - that is, the name in /Volumes that corresponds to that network drive.

umount /Volumes/VolumeName

Per man umount, umount may fail for any number of reasons, and the recommend command is instead diskutil:

diskutil unmount /Volumes/VolumeName


Strange Macbook 13 Retina MagSafe port problem My Macbook Pro 13 Retina only charges (charger lights up and charges) if FIRST I plug the charger to the macbook THEN I join the metal part of the charger cable (see pictures).

If I do it the other way around: first join the metal part of the adapter cable and then plug it to the computer it doesn't charge.

A new Adapter doesn't work because of this reason (it has the metal part soldered from factory)

First I plug it to the laptop:

Then I join the metal part of the cable:

I'm not interested on fixing the charger, it won't work anyway as the problem seems to be the computer's Magsafe port.

Any ideas what the problem can be or how to fix it?

Can you explain me this behaviour?

Apple MagSafe cables have one central shielded cable & one braided outer cable. You are simply breaking & creating a connection when you touch the broken braided cable - the order anomaly is the MagSafe/MacBook logic/sensor only allowing a particular state to operate.

It is possible to crack open a MagSafe and solder a 3rd party cable (but it will probably have 2 shielded internal cores and no braiding). Search YouTube for video (and note the risk of electrical shock even after several days of the MagSafe not being used). You will need the correct replacement part, long nose pliers to forcibly crack open the white  MagSafe shell, soldering iron, desoldering pump, locktite adhesive & activator, steady hands & patience.

Alternatively pop into an Apple shop when they are least busy (in the UK 10am the shops are empty), borrow a MagSafe & do an SMC reset. If that doesn't work, an Apple diagnostic test is required (power/logic board) - store staff may run one out of goodwill (hence go when they're not busy)


Why does changing "Open with" also change a files "Modification date"? Something I noticed a while ago. I use Carbon Copy Cloner for backing up my files and I noticed one day when I changed a video's "Open with" flag to always open a video file with Movist instead of Quicktime, and the next time the clone ran it copied the file again. Even though nothing was changed. Which made me realize that OS X changes changes a files modification date causing backup programs like Rsync (Which CCC and SuperDuper use) and Time Machine to re-copy the file, even if it's 10GB in size.

Why does it do this? Is there a technical reason or is it an oversight? Seems like a silly idea to me. Especially since changing a label doesn't modify the file and the color selection is duplicated without the whole file being copied.

Some experimentation using the xattr command shows this:

Label information is stored in the com.apple.FinderInfo extended attribute, which every file should have by default.
Custom application associations are stored in the com.apple.ResourceFork attribute, which not every file has.
Updating the FinderInfo attribute does not cause the modification date to be modified.
Creating/updating the ResourceFork causes the modification date to be modified.

The resource fork historically had a special place in Mac file systems. I'm not sure if the com.apple.ResourceFork extended attribute is the same as a resource fork, if the latter was superseded by the former or how else they are connected.

If there's a technical difference between an extended attribute and a resource fork, it may be "necessary" for a file to be modified when the resource fork is updated, but not when the extended attribute is written.
It may be that the (legacy) API for updating resource forks updates the file modification date in the process, while the extended attribute API doesn't. The latter possibly in error, possibly because of different philosophies.

Vague information, but it might give a little more insight. In the end though you're right. Some meta information modification causes the modification date to be updated, others doesn't. Whether there's a reason behind this or if it's just an oversight… only a few guys at Apple may know. :)


Mavericks or El Captain for old MacBook Pro (early'11) In case of performance for multithreaded applications, development (Java) and virtualization (Parallels 11), what's better - upgrading to 10.9 Mavericks or El Captain? (or Yosemite) ?

Now I'm on 10.8.5, MacBook Pro 15", i7-2.0x4, on SSD with 16GB RAM

P.S. upgrading needed as Parallels 11 doesn't support 10.8

Go El Cap. The marginal performance decrease (especially on your machine) is near zero compared to 10.9. You'll get better support, newer features, newer apps, etc.


Can I filter multiple columns at the same time in Excel? I haven't managed to find a good answer upon Googling this so here it goes:

I've got a large data set of people and within this there are two columns I want to filter: Location and Rating. I've worked out how to do one at a time (just the regular filter function), but I want to filter for both of these at once so that I have only people of X location and Y rating.

Is this possible?

Unless I'm missing something from your question, you've actually already worked out how to do this.

That is, if you first filter by one column the way you want, and then filter by the second column the way you want, you've effectively filtered both columns.

So, using your example, say you filter the location column so that only people in location X are showing. Then if you proceed to filter that list so that only those with rating Y are still showing, then the end result is you only have people of X location and Y rating listed.


Menu bar icon disappear A few days ago, when I start my OS X, I see that a few key icons are gone: including the clock, WIFI, battery and various other things.

I did the following:

Remove the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist
run killall SystemUIServer in the terminal.

The icons did come back. However after restart the icons are gone again.

Other symptoms include: whenever I connect to my WIFI, and then open any application, they will get shutdown immediately, giving error messages like:

  Please run the gather_files.sh command that's attached to the radar
  sudo gather_files.sh

These disappears after a day, but the icons are still gone. How can I get those icons back?

I am using OS X Mavericks 10.9.2

This worked for me:

Reboot and hold shift key to enter safe mode
Launch Safari
Reboot normally


Macbook Pro 2015 with El Capitan went black screen after login I have macbook pro 2015 model with El Capitan.
Today when i clicked on reminder notification after login it fluctuated and finally went to black screen.

So I tried following steps till now:-
1. Restarted the macbook
2. Tried SMC reset
3. Tried PRAM reset but no benefit.

Also on forced shutdown(by pressing and holding power button) and restarting the macbook apple logo is not coming at start now only sound of starting is coming.
Now login screen is also not coming just black screen in whole process.

Please give suggestions.

Summarizing the answer after getting issue resolved.

It was a technical hardware failure of motherboard in my case.
So the whole motherboard set was replaced.

P.S. - But before going directly to hardware failure please go through the steps shared in question and the comments above by @J.C. and @Tetsujin


iTunes disable command by trackpad Since a few months, iTunes is listening to the track-pad fingers command previous and next (3 fingers swipe) even if it's not the active application (ie: has focus).

This is extremely annoying when browsing the web and listening to music. How can I disable this shortcut that I didn't set up ?

I've searched in the trackpad settings, the itTunes ones and the keyboard => shortcuts but didn't find the solution.

BTT screenshot:

Problem is related with 3rd party app called Better Touch Tool. As OP showed on the screenshot - commands Previous and Next assigned to gestures, refer to Track change in iTunes not going back/forth in browser history.


Can iMac 5 (Retina 5k, 27-inch, Late 2014) be downgraded if it comes factory-installed with Yosemite? Has anyone downgraded an iMac 5 (Retina 5k, 27-inch, Late 2014) pre-installed with Yosemite to an older version of Mac OS?

My Pro Tools 10 does´t work with Yosemite. I have two days to resolve this, if not I have to return the computer.

I have tried it to downgrade and it appears this symbol:

If somebody has done the downgrade, please give a step-by-step solution.

It is impossible to downgrade this Mac to anything less than Yosemite - the hardware forbids it. You have proved this in practice by getting the No Boot sign.

As for Pro Tools: from the Avid site: Note: Pro Tools 10.x and earlier (including Pro Tools Express) will not be tested/qualified with Yosemite (or Mavericks).

You will have to upgrade your Pro Tools to version 11 if you want to use Yosemite.


Send notifications to users that app is being discontinued I'm having to get a very quick intro to iOS development to support apps for my organization. We would like to post a notification to users of one of our apps that it is being replaced by another. I suppose this would look like a banner when the app is launched.

What is the right method to make this happen? It's not a push notification (doesn't look like we are enabled for that anyway) but it sounds like it would still require an update to the app. Can anyone help?

I'd address this question to StackOverflow.com. Basically you'll need to create a UIAlert or a UIAlertController and yes, you will need an update to the app.


Bootcamp: Black screen shows after windows 10 installation I have a MacBook Air with OS High Sierra. I tried to install windows 10 by selecting the top and the bottom selections in Bootcamp, which installs the setup on a USB and partitions a section for windows 10. Bootcamp successfully installs it and boots into windows 10 setup.

After I complete the setup, it boots into windows 10. That’s where the error is. It restarts and goes to a blank screen. The screen is not off, and the computer isn’t off either. I booted back into Mac OS and tried to boot back into windows 10, and the black screen reappears.

Here is a video of what happens.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks.

For anyone else coming here, try this simple solution first.

Disconnect the power (MagSafe plug). If the display comes on, it means your power profile is set to turn brightness down when the AC is plugged in.

Solution: While power is unplugged, login and verify that the brightness controls work. Then plug power in and turn the brightness up. For some drivers, those brightness control don't work, and I've seen drivers that install with brightness set to zero by default.


MacBook Air's Mini Display vs Thunderbolt I can't find the right info on this, everything that I'm reading is mostly about monitors and HDMI about this topic.

So my questions is... can I run an ethernet adapter for internet access through a 2010 MBA model that has the Mini Display Port or is this only a capability with the Thunderbolt replacement port for the 2011 MBA models?

It is only possible with the Thunderbolt port. You cannot run an ethernet adapter on a Mini Display Port.

However, you can use a USB Ethernet Adapter and connect to your network with that.


What does the 'Special Paste' menu item in Xcode do? In Xcode 6.x, the Edit -> Paste and Edit -> Paste and Preserve Formatting menu items are self-evident. What does Edit -> Special Paste do?

On my system it's disabled most of the times.

It's a fairly obscure and hard to find official documentation covering it feature of the OS X pasteboard being capable of storing several presentations of object data on several pasteboards.

Basically, you can have multiple items in a pasteboard and they are object oriented - so for image if you have copied an image - there is metadata that you could paste - especially when the image itself isn't passable into a plain text document.

When you have a png image in your clipboard, the "special" is renamed:

Paste Image Name

I presume there are all sorts of items you could have "special" aspects of which to paste into an Xcode document in addition to the name of an image, especially if an UTI is defined for that object:

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/PasteboardGuide106/Articles/pbConcepts.html


Multiple Displays and Screen Sharing My iMac has two non-matching displays. When I connect from my iPad using iTeleport, only one of the displays is visible. Is there some way to configure Screen Sharing so that both displays will be available?

This is probably not a problem with Screen Sharing, but a problem with iTeleport. Using screen sharing's default setup, I can see both of my iMac's displays from another computer:

And, it appears that iTeleport also supports multiple displays (see their FAQs).

I suggest that you check the connections to the extra display, and see if there are any settings for iTeleport.

You can also look at the Screen Sharing preferences by opening /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app and going to Screen Sharing-> Preferences. However, it doesn't appear that that allows you to change which display(s) are used.


How to run a script from Alfred or Spotlight or any run dialog? Coming from Linux I am really missing the good old gmrun -- a run dialog
which recognizes your $PATH and allows you to execute any script in it
without needing to open up a terminal. It does the job and get out of the
way immediately.

I am wondering if I can make Alfred or spotlight do the same thing, or perhaps
find another tool?

Update 1

I have tried Dterm, but it keeps asking me for accessibility permissions, which I have already granted.

Update 2

I have solved the above problem by going to privacy settings and check DTerm manually there:

It's working right now, but not as smoothly as I would expect: the run dialog is still there after the command is issued, it would be much better if the window gets hidden.

Dterm

You might want to take a look at Dterm. This is a dialog under commandshiftreturn and does exactly what you are looking for and it does even more than that.

As it says on the site:

"DTerm provides a context-sensitive command line that makes it fast and easy to run commands on the files you're working with and then use the results of those commands."


What is the best way to generate a Yosemite or Mavericks Install USB flash drive? I could probably copy the contents from the package, but what is the best way to create an install Flash Drive for Mavericks?

Of course ideally the drive should be bootable.

Edit: this also should work for El Capitan with a 6.33GB+ partition

Currently the best way seems to be through createinstallmedia, which is also Apple's recommended method.

First create a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition on the USB key with 5GB or more:

then in the terminal use the createinstallmedia command. It can be found in the Maverick install apk. By default the path is /Applications/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia.

Replace /Volumes/MavericksInstall with your own partition name:

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

The output should be along these lines:

Copying installer files to disk...
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable...
Copying boot files...
Copy complete.
Done.

The setup should take few to few dozens minutes depending on your USB drive.

To create a USB installer for multiple OS X versions you can to go through the following procedure:

Start disk utility
Create multiple partitions formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Give them names like:

OS X Lion : LionInstall
OS X Mountain Lion : MountainLionInstall
OS X Mavericks : MavericksInstall

Generate multiple install partitions using the createinstallmedia tool of each OX 10.9+ version and add the other install partitions using disktool :

restore the InstallESD.dmg from /Applications/Install Mac OS X Lion/Contents/SharedSupport  to /Volumes/LionInstall
restore the InstallESD.dmg from /Applications/Install OS X Mountain Lion/Contents/SharedSupport  to /Volumes/MountainLionInstall
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MavericksInstall --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction

From experience here is the data usage for each OS X version :

OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard: 7.19GB
OSX 10.7 Lion: 4.78GB (requires 6.13 GB)
OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion: 4.48GB
OSX 10.9 Mavericks: 5.4GB
OSX 10.10 Yosemite: 5.25GB
OSX 10.11 El Capitan: 6.33GB
macOS Sierra: 4.84GB


How to recover from accidently diskpart'ing an OS X drive, destroying everything? Ok, so, I just got my Mac back after 5 months in the repair shop. I went to install winblows 7 via Boot Camp Assistant, but was having issues. I went into diskpart, and not remembering how to use it, accidently formatted the OS X drive. Not knowing what I had just done, I went and cleaned it. It wasn't until a few formats and conversions later that I realized I had obliterated every last one of my files and critical system stuff, including my recovery drive, because I had selected the wrong volume to change.

I have no doubt there is no way to get my files back, but I at least want OS X back. I have no access to any other Mac anywhere, and I can't afford to pay for support or a new image, and somehow every last Time Machine backup is corrupt.

What can or should I do?

EDIT: As per request, I ran clean format convert delete recover and create in diskpart. The external drive was not empty, but is now :/

MacBook Pro,
Model A1502,
Mfd. late 2014,
11" model,
128GB Internal SSD,
1TB external HDD,
x64 Architecture

If you can connect to a standard wireless WPA/WPA2 network, it should be possible to reinstall OS X from an internet connection. Try booting with
⌘-Option-R held down as soon as you power on. Do not let go until the Apple logo is visible on screen.

Per this Apple support article:

  Newer Macs include the ability to start up directly from an Internet-based version OS X Recovery. Your Mac automatically uses this feature when the Recovery System on the startup drive isn't available. For example, if your startup drive encounters an issue, or if your startup drive has been replaced or erased. Internet Recovery lets you start your Mac directly from Apple's servers.

I would not attempt to do this until you have exhausted any options you wish to take for data recovery.


Can an eMac boot from a USB optical drive connected via a FireWire adapter? I've got an eMac that's mostly working (running Tiger, plus a selection of other nice software), but has a broken optical drive.  I have a spare USB optical drive lying around, and it works for most purposes, but, according to this discussion on the Ars Technica OpenForum, most PowerPC Macs (including eMacs) can't boot from USB drives (at least not out of the box and without a LOT of tinkering and swearing), although they can boot from FireWire drives.

Just in case I ever have to reinstall Mac OS X on the eMac, here's my question: if I plug a USB-to-FireWire adapter into one of the eMac's FireWire ports, and plug the USB optical drive into that, will the eMac be able to boot from said optical drive, or will I have to shell out for a FireWire optical drive?

I believe you’ll have better luck with USB drives that are not optical. FireWire optical drives that supported booting in this era were expensive, so see if you can score a drive that you know used to boot. Even three at scrap prices are often salvageable with DIY skills.
I’m almost certain we booted these Macs from USB drives in the shop back in the day. It wasn’t “supported” but it worked most of the time.


iOS speed tracker app We all know running tracker apps, such as Nike Running, RunKeeper, Runtastic etc. But i need app with a bit difference in functionality.

My ideal running application should track and report it to me (by voice) my speed every 30 seconds or 100 meter. (May be i can change this factor in settings).

Do you know some apps with such feature?

http://abvio.com/runmeter/ will speak your stats:

Hear stats automatically at time or distance intervals, or on-demand with your earphone remote.

I've reported several bugs and enhancements to the developer and they have many features baked into the app and tuning of parameters if needed. I would buy their app on the assumption it can cycle that fast and contact the developer if you need a setting to get the level of detail you need. The engineering behind their use of GPS is excellent. You'll need their assistance in tuning the filtering to avoid false alerts when noise places you more than 100m from the last fix in a shorter period of time than you can cover on foot.


Menu bar dictionary search Is there an app that allows me to search the mac dictionary from the menu bar? I thought spotlight was able to do this but it doesn't seem to work (in Lion) (I noticed Dictionary isn't even listed in spotlight preferences).

I (stupidly) forgot to mention that I forbade spotlight from indexing my main drive. I thought that would just keep it from searching my files and not affect dictionary search, but I'm guessing that they're all bundled up together.

Spotlight can do this.  You just need to hover your mouse over the "Look Up" entry:


RBENV managed Rubies: VIM upgrade forcing homebrew to install Ruby I've recently switched from RVM to RBENV as my Ruby manager under MacOS Sierra.

$ rbenv version
2.3.1 (set by /Users/meltemi/.rbenv/version)
$ which ruby
/Users/meltemi/.rbenv/shims/ruby

I've used Homebrew to install packages like vim for years and never had Ruby version be installed via Homebrew.

Now when I brew upgrade vim I get a forced dependency install of Ruby.

==> Upgrading vim
==> Installing dependencies for vim: ruby
==> Installing vim dependency: ruby
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/ruby-2.3.1_2.sierra.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring ruby-2.3.1_2.sierra.bottle.tar.gz
Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
Could not symlink bin/rake
Target /usr/local/bin/rake
already exists. You may want to remove it:
  rm '/usr/local/bin/rake'

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:
  brew link --overwrite ruby

To list all files that would be deleted:
  brew link --overwrite --dry-run ruby

Possible conflicting files are:
/usr/local/bin/rake
/usr/local/bin/rdoc
/usr/local/bin/ri
==> Caveats
Emacs Lisp files have been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/ruby
==> Summary
  /usr/local/Cellar/ruby/2.3.1_2: 1,261 files, 18.8M

How can I get Homebrew (read: vim) to use the rbenv version of Ruby?

Ruby is a dependency for building vim with Homebrew according to the package details:

ianc.local
> brew info vim
vim: stable 8.0.0019 (bottled), HEAD
Vi "workalike" with many additional features
http://www.vim.org/
Conflicts with: ex-vi
Not installed
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/vim.rb
==> Dependencies
Optional: lua ✘, luajit ✘
==> Requirements
Required: ruby >= 1.8 ✔, perl >= 5.3 ✔
Recommended: python ✔
Optional: python3 ✔
==> Options
--with-client-server
    Enable client/server mode
--with-custom-perl
    Build with a custom Perl instead of the Homebrew version.
--with-custom-python
    Build with a custom Python 2 instead of the Homebrew version.
--with-custom-ruby
    Build with a custom Ruby instead of the Homebrew version.
--with-lua
    Build vim with lua support
--with-luajit
    Build with luajit support
--with-mzscheme
    Build vim with mzscheme support
--with-override-system-vi
    Override system vi
--with-python3
    Build vim with python3 instead of python[2] support
--with-tcl
    Build vim with tcl support
--without-nls
    Build vim without National Language Support (translated messages, keymaps)
--without-perl
    Build vim without perl support
--without-python
    Build vim without python support
--without-ruby
    Build vim without ruby support
--HEAD
    Install HEAD version

But as you can see, it only requires ruby 1.8. It's installing a ruby because rbenv likely isn't returning an installed ruby when the ruby shim is called by the build package.

Given vim will dynamically link to your Ruby installation, I highly recommend you just switch to system ruby before you brew install or upgrade vim. Something like:

brew uninstall vim ruby
brew cleanup
rbenv global system
brew install --build-from-source vim --with-custom-ruby

The installer will happily use system ruby on the Mac, which has a high enough version, during installation and the resulting binaries created won't segfault if you happen to remove the specific ruby version they were built against, which is a real problem if you use a rbenv-controlled ruby at build time.

Alternatively you can build without ruby support:

brew install vim --without-ruby

But that's probably not what you want.


Are there any advanced options for a removable volume? I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.8. And I'm curious to see if there are any advanced options for ejectable volumes. Such as hiding a partition, password protecting, and so forth.

Now, I'm not asking for software that does this. I'm asking if OS X offers any of these solutions. Or if OS X doesn't, can things like this be done through Terminal?

If you have any answers, or know of any online tutorials, please post them here. :)

To Disable Automount
Getting the UUID
The first thing you will need is the volume's UUID (universal unique identifier) number, which can be found by opening Disk Utility, selecting the volume of interest, and then pressing Command+I or clicking the blue information button in the Disk Utility toolbar. In the window that appears, locate and copy the UUID, which is a string of alphanumeric characters separated by dashes.
Making changes to fstab
With the UUID, you can now create an fstab entry for the volume that prevents it from mounting:

Open Terminal.

Edit the fstab file by running the following command (supply your password when prompted):
 sudo pico /etc/fstab

Create a new line at the end of the file that looks like the following (note: replace "NUMBER" with the full UUID string you copied from Disk Utility):
 UUID=NUMBER none hfs rw,noauto

Save the file by pressing Control+O, followed by Control+X to quit the editor.
Perform these steps for each volume you wish to prevent automatically mounting, then restart the system, and they should no longer automatically mount. If you need to mount the volumes, then you can open Disk Utility and select them followed by clicking the Mount button in the toolbar, and they should become available in the Finder.


iPhone 4 won't connect to the internet except on wifi My iphone 4 won't connect to the internet except using wifi. I've reset the device, turned off and on airplane mode, called AT&T where they instructed me to reset network settings, cleared cookies, history and web sites history. Still nothing except on wifi. The phone makes and receives phone calls and text messages fine. Any other suggestions?

You have done many of the quick fixes, but the best guideline on troubleshooting this would be to re-start the troubleshooting process:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3780

Before you start, do you have a backup of your device?

Also, you can test the data connection with some very simple items to rule out Mobile Safari or other items being blocked.

Go to Settings App - turn off Wi-Fi
Go to Settings -> General -> Date & Time and turn off "Set Automatically" and then intentionally set the clock back 10 minutes in the past.
Turn off the phone.
Turn on the phone - verifying WiFi is still off and the date is still set incorrectly and in the past.
Go to Date & Time and turn on "Set Automatically" and see if the date can be set from AT&T's network connection.

At that point, I would then go through the steps in the above article, noting on a piece of paper what results you get. That way should you need to contact AT&T or Apple - they can't give you the run around. It is Apple's responsibility to explain how to test the device up to and including restore / erase and setting it up new. It's AT&T's responsibility to ensure your data service is working if you are paying for it. You can not give them an easy out if you document your efforts to solve it and have done all the things that are expected of the end user.

Hopefully something simple like a power cycle and eliminating the WiFi will allow the cellular data to start working again, but it still could be something out of your control and you'll need help from Apple or AT&T to finally solve it.


Make numbers in table of contents go to right of page in Pages When I insert a table of contents in Pages, the page numbers are inserted with only a tab character separating them from the title of the paragraph style. I would like the page numbers to go to the right of the screen, preferably with some sort of separation line between the two (e.g. dots). I am doing this to emulate the look of any standard table of contents:

Is this possible on Pages?

Show the ruler (View → Show Rulers), then adjust the TOC as you desire, such as:

Move the page numbers by selecting all TOC levels (hold ⌘ while clicking to select multiple levels) and moving the marker on the ruler.

Indent headings based on hierarchy by selecting sub levels and moving the marker on the ruler.

Add dots between heading and page number using the inspector: Text → Tabs: Leader.


How to have Chrome cover everything except the dock when double clicked? So I have recently switched to Mac from Windows and I like to have the dock always visible when I'm using programs (probably because I'm used to the Start button toolbar in Windows). I don't use the green full screen button, I just double click the title bar to make the window cover everything.

Unfortunately, this does not work in Chrome. Seems like the default shape of the Chrome window is set to be a square and when I double click on the title bar, it expands into a square, leaving space on the sides. I have to manually drag the left and right side to cover the screen.

Is there any way to change this?

EDIT: Option + Maximise does not work. It still leaves space on the sides.

Hold the Option key at the same time you click on the Maximize button on Chrome.  This will maximize the window while leaving visible the menu bar and dock.  This will also work on any other window on a Mac.

If this doesn't maximize the window on the first try, drag the window to where you want it (like you're doing now with the left and right sides) and then close the browser.  Next time you open it, it should fully maximize.


Texture and Pattern generator, Alternative to fireworks I use Adobe Fireworks for its Texture and Pattern tools to make things like this:

and then i copy-paste it to Flash Professional to use there.
but fireworks is so slow and buggy

is there a free or commercial alternative to do this simple Texture / Pattern thing easily?

Texture (like the second image above)
Patter and Texture (like the first one)
Transparent Texture, so the background would be instead of the white lines in second image
The ability to copy and paste it (as PNG 32 or any alpha transparent image) so i don't have to save it first and then import it to flash

* I Use Mac OS X 10.8.4 *

I found GIMP

Download Here

it is free and useful

if anyone have any other suggestion i would be glad to hear it


Very hard to select text via mouse accurately after upgraded to Yosemite After upgraded to Yosemite, I've found that the mouse selection is basically broken, e.g. when I select, I follow the steps

mouse down, start select
end select, mouse up

The problem is, when I mouse up in step2, basically what I selected, has 50% of chance is being unselected.

I can't reproduce the issue every time, but given that 50% of chance, it is very annoying..

Any idea?

regardless from the type of mouse you are using, try going into settings/mouse options and feel free to fiddle with the settings here, when I had trackpad tracking issues after the update (couldn't even move the pointer arrow properly), I just went there and changed the cursor sensitivity and that did the trick.

Hope it works for you too!


MacBook autofill name fields with someone else's name I have a brand new MacBook Pro. When I first started the computer and set it up, it asked for my name, but the field was already autofilled with my brother's name.

When I install software, when there is a name field (such as for registration), my brother's name is autofilled there. My brother hasn't lived here in over 10 years and this computer is brand new, he has never used it or even seen it.

Why would my computer be populating fields with his name?

This likely pertains to the Address Book card marked as "me". Launch the Address Book application (from Spotlight, Finder, Launchpad, or the Dock), create or locate your own card, and choose the Card > Make This My Card menu item.

This could've originally happened if you or someone else created an Address Book card for your brother and marked it as "me", or if you copied Address Book data from another computer belonging to your brother.


How can I set the iOS Springboard wallpaper to a different image than the lock screen wallpaper without jailbreaking? How can I set the iOS 5 Springboard wallpaper to a different image than the lock screen wallpaper without jailbreaking?  The answer may very well be "you can't." I just want to know for sure.

After going to the Wallpaper section from within Settings.app and choosing an image;

On the iPad, there are 'Set Lock Screen', 'Set Home Screen', and 'Set Both' buttons on the top of the screen while previewing the image.
On the iPhone, a menu pops up asking whether you'd like it on the Lock Screen or Home Screen, or Both, after tapping 'Set'.


How to delete an account for a now unused ftp server from finders "connect at login" list EDIT2: I found the solution, see my answer below.

EDIT: The question may be a bit misleading I don't have it in the favorites bar, the problem is that finder always tries to connect to a server when I start my machine or log in.

I once saved an ftp server as a "favorite" in finder (so finder would automatically try to connect to it at startup). I no longer use this service, but finder still tries to connect to it automatically at every startup, I'm not sure how to delete this server from the list of servers finder tries to connect to automatically. How do I do that?

Some things I have tried: It has been removed from favorite servers and I also cleared the recent servers list in the "Connect to Server" menu. This had no effect.

Just hold the ⌘ button down, click and hold on the item you wish to remove, and drag it off the Finder’s window.

Additionally you should try Go → Connect to Server (⌘+K). There you must see a list of your favorite servers. If your server is there, you could select it and hit Remove in the bottom of that screen.


MacBook-Pro boots to BLACK screen; keyboard back light is OFF; fan is running; gets hot I was on the internet and it locked up the computer so I forced a shut-down.  But after that... it won't boot up.

On boot it chimes
and nothing shows on the screen.
The keyboard back light is NOT on.
However, the fan is running
And if I leave it in this position for awhile the computer gets real hot.

Is this a virus I got off the internet?

I tried the options I saw to boot:

shift
shift+command+option
boot up disk

Nothing gets past this problem.

Equipment:

OS:  Sierra
MacBook pro 2011
15 inch screen.
Can't boot up to see the model#

I'd start by trying to reset both the NVRAM and SMC using the steps below.

Before doing so, ensure you have no external hardware connected and that you're using the built-in keyboard.

Reset the NVRAM

Here’s how to reset the NVRAM on your particular MBP:

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

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

Reset the SMC

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

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

After resetting both the NVRAM and SMC, try booting your computer to determine if the issue still persists. IF it does, then test the hardware as per the instructions below.

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. To use this, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key immediately
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: that the extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.


Switching between one and two monitors When running my MBP, I attach an external monitor, a keyboard and trackpad to it so I have two separate desktops which are contiguous; like it's a "fancy" desktop.

Back in the day on Mavericks, it behaved properly: when I unplugged the external monitor to, say, take the laptop into a meeting, it would just put all of the desktops separately on the built in display, roughly preserving which window stayed on which desktop so all you'd have to use was a run a restore tool like Display Maid to restore your window positions when you plug your external monitor back in. This was handy because you didn't have to manually clean up your desktop when done.

Now, with El Cap, it would seem that when you unplug the external monitor, it used the monitor count of whichever screen had the most desktops and merges the windows from the two "combined desktops" into one desktop in a way that seemed to be random, which is clumsy.

Worse, setting back Display Maid to restore the original configuration automatic doesn't work like it used to - previously it saved positions on all desktops in one action, but now it does it one screen at a time and forcing you restore eech desktop separately, which is tedious. It would seem that Display Maid is not great software anymore.

Is there some other utility out there that must work better so you can restore how your windows and desktop setup was as it was before you unplugged the external monitor. Any ideas?

I answered a very similar, though not a duplicate, question just the other day where the proposed solution would work for your as well.

Basically, the product you are looking for is Stay.