Windows 10 Install Hanging on Internet Connection I am doing a clean install on my 15" MacBook Pro, i7, via Boot Camp 6.1.0, Mojave 10.14.5.  I downloaded the latest version of Windows 10 via Microsoft (as of July 2019).  All installs fine and when it reboots into Windows 10 to finish the installation process, it hangs on the screen with blue box that says "Let's Connect you to a Network", but there is no option to choose a network.

Although I entered my wifi and passcode prior to this step during the install process, it does not see an internet connection in which to choose.  I've tried starting over clean three times and it stalls on the same place each time.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can resolve this?  Sorry if this issue has been posted before, I searched and searched and could not find it.

I have resolved this issue.  Can’t explain it, but deleted downloaded ISO File, increased sector size to 128GB.  Windows installed and loaded as before, but got stuck at exactly same spot on not connecting to the internet (blue box on screen in Windows 10 start up).  However, the lower left hand corner now changed it’s radio button to bypass the internet connection.  Windows then finished install, loaded and started up.

BUT!.....No wifi!!! (another issue I’ve seen on this forum).  Here’s how you resolve that:

Insert formatted USB Drive.
Open Boot Camp Assistant from Utilities.
At top pull down Action and select Download Windows Support Software.
When USB install is completed, Re-boot to Windows while leaving USB inserted.
In Windows, go to USB Drive, Boot Camp folder, and start Setup.
Drivers will get installed and Wifi should work (mine did).

What a frustrating 2 days this has been!

Hope this helps someone.


How can I identify the macOS version from the command line? After detecting a GNU/Linux system through running uname, in a GNU/Linux distribution lsb_release -a is a good entry level utility you could use to [try to] find out the GNU/Linux distribution name and particular version1.

After detecting a Darwin (possibly macOS) system through running uname, there must be a Different (maybe not that much...) way to Ask the OS version number1. Even if it only works on macOS, it'd be useful.

This is similar to the /etc/release for other Unix / Linux, but I’d like to specifically target macOS to script a check of the version. In what way(s) is this possible?

I don't know if all of this is imposed by Darwin, the manual page seems like it maybe is a Mac OS X (sic in my manual page as of Sep 2019) thing, but there is the awesome sw_vers:

$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.14.6
BuildVersion:   yadda yadda yadda
$ _


Where are Microsoft Office for Mac My Templates stored? Where do Word for Mac and Powerpoint for Mac store user templates?

According to this page, and confirmed by experiment, the path has changed for Office 2016.  It is now ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates.  (This is what you see in the Finder: if you use Terminal the last two directories have ".localized" appended to their name, which Finder evidently suppresses).

Be aware that if you performed an upgrade of Office, you will still have the ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/My Templates directory, but Powerpoint, at least, won't look in that location.


Is it possible to switch to a specific keyboard layout via `defaults`, *.plist or similar? I have figured out a workable shell script using osascript (AppleScript) to automatically switch to US keyboard layout when MacVim activates (triggered by Keyboard Maestro), and Swedish layout when it deactivates:

osascript > /dev/null 2>&1 <<-RAW
on changeKeyboardLayout(layoutName)
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
        tell (1st menu bar item of menu bar 1 whose description is "text input") to {click, click (menu 1's menu item layoutName)}
    end tell
end changeKeyboardLayout

changeKeyboardLayout("Svensk - Pro")
RAW
exit $?

However, AppleScript is truly slow and I also don't prefer to see the text input menu in the statusbar to flash open when switching back and forth.

Question:

Is there an alternative to my AppleScript approach to instantly switch layout?

…I envision something like a defaults command or altering any .plist file as potential candidates for the job, only I don't know any specifics.

Two things related to the answer(s) I'm seeking:

I'm keen to have the change propagate instantly – faster than the sluggish AppleScript execution.
I prefer not installing new software daemons to achieve this. (Suggestions are always welcome, though, but 3rd party apps will likely not qualify as the accepted answer.)

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.HIToolbox.*.plist has an AppleSelectedInputSources key, but modifying it directly doesn't seem to actually change the layout.

Most of the solutions posted at MacScripter just use UI scripting as well.

There's a small Objective-C utility called changeInput though that should change the layout almost instantly.


Can someone else see my messages on his device? Something strange happened today. I got lots of messages via iMessage obviously not intended for me. Short story, what’s happened is when I got my iPhone on a new network I transferred my old number. Except I didn’t realise I had to do this manually on the phone itself which was happily using the number the handset came with for iMessage and FaceTime.

So it turns out the network must have reallocated my number and now I’m getting all of this person’s messages. I’ve now changed my number on my iPhone and checked that iMessage and FaceTime are linked to my actual number. My question is whether this other person can see my old messages via iMessage on his new phone (as they were sent to what is now his number)?

You’re mixing up two different thing all happening on the back end of the messaging servers.

You receiving someone else’s messages doesn’t mean you can read their’s.  You don’t know who got you old number and you don’t know who’s old number you got.  The probability that the two of you just happened to swap phone numbers is highly, highly unlikely.

Is it possible that someone saw some of your messages prior to changing the number in iMessage?  Yes.  You don’t know who sent you messages intended for you to your old number.
the messages you got when you changed your number were likely queued up SMS messages that couldn’t be delivered until your number was activated.
is someone possibly seeing SMS messages sent to you at your old number?  Yes.  Apple has no control over SMS messages and has no idea if the sender meant to send it to you or the new owner.

Changing phone numbers is not a normal, everyday process.  Just control the variables you can control and ensure your account information where your phone number is relevant is accurate.  As far as someone having access to see all or even past messages, no, that’s not possible.  Unless they have your iCloud account and can log into it, they can’t access anything.


What dowload speeds is the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter capable of? I have a 2014 MBP running 10.13.6.

The first two pics show my baseline ethernet performance, with the Speedtest desktop app, and with Fast.com, respectively.  I get this same performance with wireless, ethernet→thunderbolt (Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter), and ethernet→USB (Monoprice [Realtek 1853] USB Ethernet Adapter, advertised as USB 3.0, 10/100/1000BASE-T).

The next pair show what I get with ethernet→USB with the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter (advertised as USB 2.0, 10/100BASE-T).

Both the Monoprice and Apple USB Ethernet adapters were plugged directly into the USB 3.0 port on my Mac.

Summary, and other info.:

My question: It seems that the Apple USB Ethernet adapter should have a ceiling of either 100 Mbps (100BASE-TX) or 480 Mbps. But I'm only getting low-30's Mbps download speeds with the Apple device.  What should be its actual peformance?

BASELINE PERFORMANCE WITH MONOPRICE (REALTEK 1853) USB ETHERNET ADAPTER PLUGGED INTO USB 3.0; GET SAME PERFORMANCE WITH BOTH APPLE THUNDERBOLT ETHERNET ADAPTER, AND WIRELESS:

PERFORMANCE WITH APPLE USB ETHERNET ADAPTER PLUGGED INTO USB 3.0:

What is iPerf3

  iPerf3 is a tool for active measurements of the maximum achievable bandwidth on IP networks.

Setting up iPerf3

You need two different nodes (computers) on your network. They can be macOS, Windows, BSD, or Linux; it really doesn't matter.  Ideally, you want to connect via Ethernet; WiFi isn't recommended unless of course you're evaluating your WiFi bandwidth.

You can obtain the downloadable binaries from https://iperf.fr/ or install via the following:

MacPorts - port install iperf3
Homebrew - brew install iperf3

Other Operating Systems

FreeBSD - pkg add iperf or via ports cd /usr/local/ports/benchmarks/ && make install clean
Ubuntu & Debian Distros:  apt-get iperf3
RedHat, CentOS, Fedora, etc:  yum install iperf. You may need the EPEL repositories (yum install epel-release)
There's two components - a server and a client.

These commands are provided as a convenience; be sure to reference the user documentation for your specific OS regarding software installation.

Once installed on two different computers ideally on the exact same subnet on the same swtich run one instance as a server and the other as a client:

iPerf Server

% iperf3 -s

-----------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on 5201
-----------------------------------------------------------

iPerf Client

% iperf3 -c IP <Address/Hostname>

Connecting to host node1, port 5201
[  7] local 192.168.1.33 port 55455 connected to 192.168.1.23 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  7]   0.00-1.00   sec  65.1 MBytes   546 Mbits/sec
[  7]   1.00-2.00   sec  59.6 MBytes   500 Mbits/sec
[  7]   2.00-3.00   sec  62.3 MBytes   522 Mbits/sec
[  7]   3.00-4.00   sec  61.8 MBytes   519 Mbits/sec
[  7]   4.00-5.00   sec  61.5 MBytes   516 Mbits/sec
[  7]   5.00-6.00   sec  59.2 MBytes   497 Mbits/sec
[  7]   6.00-7.00   sec  60.6 MBytes   509 Mbits/sec
[  7]   7.00-8.00   sec  59.7 MBytes   501 Mbits/sec
[  7]   8.00-9.00   sec  62.6 MBytes   525 Mbits/sec
[  7]   9.00-10.00  sec  64.4 MBytes   540 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   617 MBytes   518 Mbits/sec                  sender
[  7]   0.00-10.00  sec   615 MBytes   516 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

The Results

You should see a similar output table on both the server and the client.  From what this is telling me is that on a virtualized Gigabit Ethernet adapter, I'm getting about half of my bandwidth ~500Mbits throughput.  I'm assuming that's due to overhead of "going up and down" networking stack of the  the virtualized adapter.


Windows compatible USB > LAN adapter compatible? Does anyone have any experience if these cheap USB 2 > Ethernet adapters like sold on ebay for 1 or $2 work with mac. They say only windows compatible, but I can't imagine why they wouldn't work on mac too.

To answer my own question:
Googling for the model of the device and mac "KY-RD9700 mac" brings up a list of solutions which involve setting csrutil disable in safe mode. So they should work.


Glitch in 'Open with...' I want to change all media apps to open with VLC.

So I right click on one, get info, open with:

But now this:

And I only have one VLC on my system:

ps-MacBook-Air:~ pi$ sudo find / -iname "VLC.app"
/Applications/VLC.app

Is this a microscopic bug?

And who is at fault? I suspect maybe VLC needs to register somewhere as a media player and maybe it has registered twice?

This is a well known bug in LaunchServices.

You need to rebuild the database using this command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain user;killall Finder;echo "Open With has been rebuilt, Finder will relaunch"

then

killall Finder

Once you have done that you will only have one entry for each application.

Here is the command split onto multiple lines

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/\
LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/\
lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain user

(Notice the \ characters that allow a command to stretch across physical lines in bash.)


How to connect 2 laptops to separate monitor and work simultaneously? There are two of us with Mac book pros working on the same project and we'd like to connect our work to one one single monitor as we work to be able to share ideas and build the presentation we are working on together... how can we do this?

This is impossible.  You cannot have two inputs on a monitor simultaneously display.

What you need is to do is have one of the laptops hooked up to the monitor and share that desktop to other users.  Skype, Go2Meeting, TeamViewer and other screen sharing and collaboration software have this capability.


How to return to setup for a new mac? I was setting up my new Mac, I got to a step where there was this error

 unable to load identity provider: the identity provider is unable to be contacted. Check network settings or contact technical support

So I connected a docker stations with ethernet connected to it and restarted the computer.
This is were the wonk came into play: when the mac started up again it didnt show the setup step but instead it showed a login screen with a blank user and password.

I haven't set a user or password yet, i didn't get to that step???

how do i return the setup so i can create an account and use my mac?

Okay I got help from the apple tech boys/girls.

shutdown your computer (press and hold power button till computer
goes black)
power up your computer and immediately press and hold the keys command+R
a spinning world will show up if not connected to internet, connect to a network
then Macos utilities will pop up, on the MacOS Utilities screen, you will want to click Utilities > Terminal from the menubar at the top
type this command into the terminal rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone" and press return to execute the command
now restart your computer and you will be back to the setup for your mac
follow the setup and create your computer account so this doesnt happen again


hdiutil convert/rsize resource temporarily unavailable When trying to convert or resize a dmg image I get the error:

hdiutil: convert failed Resource Temporarily Unavailable error

or

hdiutil: resize: failed. Resource temporarily unavailable (35).

(hdiutil error code 35).

The problem appears to happen when you unmount the image using umount.

Remount the image (either using hdiutil attach or just double click the image) and use the command hdiutil detach it again. This will unmount and eject the image.

hdiutil detach /Volumes/<your image>


Is it possible to add an SSD module to an iMac 27" Late 2012 model to create a fusion drive on that? I have this old iMac 27", model iMac 13,2 (Late 2012).

This computer has a regular hard disk.

I wonder if it is possible to add a SSD disk module to it, to convert the main disk into a fusion drive?

Is that possible? Is that internal space and connector that can be used?
What SSD disk, adapters or so, I should buy to do that?

The Fusion drive was an option for the 2012 27" iMac, so there may be space. The iFixit tear-down for your model shows a caddy that holds both a hard drive and SSD: you'll need to read through it to see whether you're comfortable with taking it all apart -- and more importantly, getting it back together.

If you're not comfortable with the task, then you may want to run an external SSD via USB3 or a Thunderbolt dock of some kind. That should still be faster than the internal hard drive.

I concur with the comment that really, SSDs are cheap enough to buy sufficiently large volumes, making Fusion drives an unnecessary complication.


Transfer time machine backups from unmountable HDD I am attempting to access time machine backups on an external hard drive that I have, and transfer them over to a new HDD. Both drives are 2TB. The drive with the time machine backups will not mount, but I can use Disk Drill to access the files on the HDD, thus I am trying to transfer the backups to the hard drive that will mount so I can restore to my latest backup.

When I try and manually drag+drop the files from one drive to the other things take way too long - 4 days. At the end of the 4 days I hit an error that says the drive is full. I've read that this is due to expanding hard links in the time machine backups.

I have also tried running disk utility and doing a restore from the one drive to the other, but of course this copied all the files and also made this new drive unmountable. So I have to reformat drive #2 and figure out an alternative method for copying over the files from the one drive to the other.

Any ideas? I really need to get this machine back up and running.

If disk drill won’t show you the directory structure, you’ll need to try a tool like Data Rescue it Disk Warrior so you can find the folder with one specific date to navigate and then restore those specific files. That would copy off at full speed.

use the folder named Latest  unless you’re sure you want to go back to a specific point in time

However, if the drive is failing hardware wise, no tool might be able to speed it up, so consider data rescue if you’re not sure it’s software corruption.


Can an iPad work to replace a computer in terms of photo management? Our Mac is broken and we are contemplating not replacing it. One need we can't see a solution is replacing an iPhoto library with many 10 G of photos. Obviously we'd need to go for the 64 GB iPad if we wanted lots of pictures.

Most of our pictures are in the 5 megapixel range (JPG between 2 and 4.5 MB each) and we expect to have between 5 and 10 thousand pictures to start.

Can I just move an entire iPhoto library to an iPad? I'm looking for experience people have had managing a non-trivial amount of photos entirely from iOS. Obviously, we may need to still get a compute, but I wondered how "PC free" we might be able to be at this point in iOS and with apps that are available in late 2012.

There are numerous hard drives that will work with the iPad. Some wireless, others via USB (with the camera connection kit). The lightening port is a whole other thing if you end up with the 4th gen iPad, though there might be a workaround.

Here's a 1TB wired solution from HyperDrive

Here's a 500gb wireless solution from Seagate


Export an iMovie project to QuickTime to import into another iMovie project I have iMovie '11 and wish to export an iMovie project to a mov file that I can import into another iMovie project. How can I do this?

Open the project, then select Share → Export Movie.

Select a destination and other options if relevant, then select Export. Once the project is exported, you can import it just like any other video.

More information: iMovie ‘11: Export your movies to a Finder folder


Can Siri add some form of timestamp to a Note? I'd like Siri to add a timestamp -- I'm not too fussy about the exact format -- of the current day and time to the end of one of my notes in the Notes app. She can find the note just fine, but takes me too literally:

"Add the current date and time to my UFO Sightings note"

  Okay, I updated your note:

  UFO Sightings
  Jun 3    11:18
  Jun 5    11:28
  The current date and time

In hopes of getting some guidance, I then tried

"Can you add a timestamp to one of my notes?"

She asked which one, and when I told her, she cheerfully replied

  Okay, I updated your note:

  UFO Sightings
  Jun 3    11:18
  Jun 5    11:28
  The current date and time
  A timestamp

I asked about her capabilities in general, too, and got a list of example commands, but it didn't seem exhaustive at all:

Is there a command I haven't been able to find? I'm willing to use this as an excuse to finally buy TextExpander (or similar) if necessary, though I'd prefer a built-in method.

I'm on an iPhone 5s running iOS 8.3.

No, this is not currently possible using Siri. If on iOS 12 a Shortcut can be made by downloading the Shortcuts app from the App Store.

You can then make this Shortcut:

You can format the date and time as you wish. You can record a phrase for Siri to copy this to the clipboard. After this you’ll need to manually paste it in the note.

Images from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250089354


Is it possible to install MacOS Sierra or El Capitan on an external hard drive and boot it from a PC? I tried it out in Virtual Machine, but it was quite slow, and I don't want to risk losing my Windows by trying to install besides it.

For what you want - Xcode - a used Mac mini or used laptop with a broken screen that you screen share/ssh in to seems far better than trying to dual boot and mess with hackintosh.

You can usually sell a used MacMini for almost what you paid for it, so the cost for three months of getting started is the interest on $400 expense. Used laptops that work and have broken screens or batteries that hold no charge are more in the $85 to $200 range.

It is possible to boot OS X on generic hardware, but this site isn't the place to ask that specifically - but solving your broader problem of developing Xcode and running a PC primarily is certainly worth a quality answer here with options.


Activation Lock on iPhone 4S randomly appeared (not my username, I am the only owner) While listening to Spotify on my old iPhone 4S, the screen changed and showed the Activation Lock screen.  Spotify continued to play while the activation lock was on.  This phone is not set up or connected to any carrier, and I only use it for music and games, so it is only connected to my home WiFi (which is password protected).

The strange thing is that I purchased this phone from AT&T back in 2013, and I have been the only owner of the phone, but it is saying my Apple ID is not the original Apple ID, and will not let me Activate the phone.  What is interesting is that it does seem to be someone with a similar name to mine.

I like having the spare iPhone for listening to music and playing games separate from my current phone.  How do I get my phone back?

Take it to an apple store, they will check if it is really yours, and if it is they will remove it. Also, check your find my iphone settings after it is fixed.


What are the licensing concerns running Mac OS X guest OS on VMWare ESXi 5.5 with non-apple hardware? How do I install Mac OS X as a guest OS on VMWare ESXi 5.5 Update 1 running on non apple hardware?

We currently have a large deployment of HP server hardware running VMWare ESXi 5.5 Update 1. We have numerous Windows and Linux deployments in this environment and all works very well. Now we are in need of a virtual install of Mac OS X. We don't want to hack it in and we don't want to violate any EULA's, we just want virtual Mac OS X in our environment. Does this mean we need new hardware in the data center to support this?

You can't run OS X virtualized or not, on non-Apple-branded hardware per the software license agreement.  You would need Apple hardware to virtualize it and be compliant with the EULA.

Mavericks EULA


How do I make a window move to the left half of my screen and another window move to the right half? On Windows 8, I type win + left and the current window becomes full-height and half the screen width and moves to the left. If I type win + right, the current window does the same except moves to the right.

This is so incredibly helpful. Is there a mechanism to do the same for Macs?

You can try Cinch and SizeUp apps to do that.

http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/


Mac Numbers Shortcut Help In Numbers (I'm currently running v3.6.2) after I have selected a cell/row/whatever, I want, without irritating my carpal tunnels, to format that text strikethrough.

In Excel, I just had to add the little strikethrough button to the top bar and whoosh it's that much easier to strike items from my ToDo lists.

In Numbers at the moment the only way I know to strike text is expand the right side format pane, click Text, find and click the advanced gear dropdown thing, and click the little radio button next to Strikethrough.

It's too much to bear! Just get me a single-click or two-key-combo solution!

On OS X you can assign your own keyboard shortcuts very easily.

Just go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts

Here you can add new shortcut for any application like this:


Enable "standby mode" for MacBook Pros I can't get my 2012 13" MacBook Pro to standby (note: NOT regular sleep, see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4392).

My pmset -g results are:

Active Profiles:
Battery Power       -1
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 standbydelay   1800
 standby    1
 womp       0
 halfdim    0
 panicrestart   157680000
 hibernatefile  /var/vm/sleepimage
 sms        0
 networkoversleep   0
 disksleep  0
 sleep      0
 hibernatemode  3
 ttyskeepawake  0
 displaysleep   10
 acwake     0
 lidwake    1

Anyone has any idea what might go wrong which would prevent standby? Note: regular sleep works fine, but it does not enter standby after a period of time. I also reset the PRAM and SMC.

I don't think it's supported on your 13" MacBook Pro. From the KB article you linked (emphasis mine):

  Apple Portables that support standby mode are:

  MacBook Air (Mid 2010) and later
  MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)

I parse the text in italics to mean the Mid 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, not "Mid 2012 MBP and Retina MBP". This is further corroborated by the reference to the flash storage later on, which is only included by default on the MacBook Air and Retina MBP.


A MacOS app to backup All Photos in iCloud to External Drive I have more than 140 GB of photos & videos.  On my Mac I have only 256 GB of storage so I chose "Optimize Mac Storage" to make more room.

I have a NAS with a lot of available storage (it has apps for my Apple TV).  My internet connection is not great here so I would like to be able to extract the photos and videos from my Mac and into a common format on an external or network drive.

I can write a script or a Swift program to do this work but I do not have a clue how to approach a resolution. I also looked at SQLite file of Photos, which can be queried with sqlite3 program an used the following query: SELECT imagePath FROM RKMaster but it does not contain all the photos since I did not Download everything to my Mac.

You could do it in the Photos apps. If you launch it holding the option key, and choose to create a new library on the external drive. Then change the preferences to download all photos. It will take a while but that will download a full version of the library to the external. Then quit, safely remove the backup drive. Open again and choose the old local library, and quickly change the preference back to "optimize". It's a bit of a process but it should work.


Convert an epoch date to human readable format? echo "$some_string" | awk -F '|' '{print $1 $2}'

$2 is a epoch date and I want to convert it to human readable format. I tried doing date -r $2 but no luck.

If you can get GNU awk on your mac (via homebrew), you can do:

gawk '{print $1, strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", $2)}'

flavour your datetime formatting to suit.

Otherwise, you can call date from inside awk:

awk '{
    cmd = "date -d \"@" $2 "\" \"+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S\""
    cmd | getline datetime
    close(cmd)
    print $1, datetime
}'

I don't have access to a mac, so you'll need to adjust your date arguments accordingly.


Restart USB hubs without restarting the whole computer I am running MacBook pro OS Catalina 10.15.7.  When I unplug my USB-C modem, sometimes it will no longer work again when plugged in, even after having the computer sleep.  The only solution I have found that works is to restart my computer.
The following question is very similar.  In my case, the USB works the first time it is plugged in, but may or may not work if unplugged and replugged in.  If the following questions was answered, this one would probably be answered too, but there is no answer to this question yet:
Refresh USB port / restart usb service
Both ports have the same behavior, and even when the hub stops working it still passes power to the computer (can charge through the hub).  So my issue is different from this one:
Macbook Pro: One USB-C port only works for charging devices
It seems this may relate to the SMC, but I don't know why, just that others seem to think that  one cannot reset the SMC without rebooting.
https://www.imore.com/how-troubleshoot-dead-usb-c-ports-your-macbook
Reset SMC without power button
Is there any way to reset the USB ports without rebooting my computer.  (Or is it possible to demonstrate that the problem is linked to the SMC?)
The only way I have found to prevent the problem is to not run my power through the USB-C hub (note that an answer to this question suggests this should be acceptable practice: USB C HUB delivery safe?), but rather to plug them separately into the two USB-C ports.  But this is prevention, not the "cure" I am looking for.

Try this (you may need to disable SIP first):
sudo nvram boot-args="usb=0x20"

This will prevent your USB hubs from entering low power mode, which is one possible cause of unreliable reenumeration for noncompliant devices. It’s just a hunch since we haven’t done a deep dive but it’s a good quick first pass. If that doesn’t help, we can also try disabling deep idle:
sudo nvram boot-args="usb=0x60"

Make sure you reboot after running either one.


How do I change the number of desktops in Mountain Lion? I have just downloaded Mountain Lion and I would like more than one desktop (the default setting) how do I change the number of desktops?

Open "Mission Control" (icon should be in the Dock or else through Launchpad) and move your mouse to the upper-right hand corner. A '+' sign will appear allowing you to create an additional virtual desktop. The dimmed half of a new desktop appears in the upper left if the dock is changed to the right side of the screen but otherwise is in the upper right when the dock is in the left or the bottom.
Add a Desktop

Remove a Desktop


Is it possible to get digital audio output from a MacBook Air (2011), like on other Macs? I know the audio line-out port on the MacBook Pro – and even older MacBooks and the Mac mini – sport a dual capability: in addition to providing the expected and obvious 3.5mm analog stereo audio output, the port is capable of digital optical audio output.

Then by using a Mini-TOSLINK cable, it is possible to connect such a Mac to an A/V receiver (or a dedicated DAC, if you're really into this kind of thing) and thereby enjoy fully digital audio from the Mac.

Sadly, I also understand the MacBook Air does not enjoy this dual-purpose audio output port.  I tried, and I checked the specs, and I was disappointed it is simply plain analog stereo.  So, what I'd like to know is:

Is it possible, using a third-party device, to produce digital audio output from a MacBook Air?  I'm wondering if this may be possible via USB or the Thunderbolt port.  Do such devices exist?

Yes its possible and here is an example of a USB to Digital audio output adapter, just like the ones found on other Macs, but external.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB Analog & Digital Audio Adapter


Why is Photo Stream not visible in iOS 12? I have an iPhone 6s running iOS 12.1.4, and I recently noticed my photos are not being uploaded to Photo Stream. There is no option for Photo Stream under Settings app → Account → iCloud → Photos, nor under Settings app → Photos. Did this option get removed in iOS 12?

After speaking with Apple, I learned they are phasing out Photo Stream.  Any new Apple IDs created since approximately 2018 don't have access to this feature.  Looks like I will have to start using iCloud Photos or some other sync utility.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201317


Boot camp no osx partition So some time ago i used boot camp to install Windows 8 pro.
Now i want to switch back to my mac/osx but there is no osx partition

Screenshot of boot camp on windows: (Ingore the langauge, it's in Danish)

I have searched around for an answer but i can't find one.

Thanks for reading

Note 1
I have tried ALT at the start-up of the computer but there is now OSX disc. Only a windows one. And i have tried to reinstall OSX on one of the discs, but i gives me a error (Can't remember the error, but i couldn't delete the disc either)

Try holding down the alt key while powering on your Mac. This should yield a boot device selection.

If this doesn’t help, try booting in Recovery Mode as outlined here: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4718
There you can run Disk Utility to check wether your partition is corrupted.


Upgrade to Mojave messed up Guest account Prior to upgrading to Mojave, I had the Guest account enabled, so that if my laptop went missing, the person could at least access Wifi, and I would know the location through Find My Mac.

I have the firmware password on, and I had verified this worked as expected.

However, when I upgraded this week, I found the Guest account was now turned off. I turned it back on, and went to test that it still worked as expected. However, now, in order to access the Guest account, during the reboot, it asks for the Firmware password.

I've tried turning off the firmware password, going into the guest account, and turning the firmware password back on. However, that doesn't work.

I'm completely confused, because the -only- way that Find My Mac will work is if the Guest account has access to Wifi.

Try this. It worked for me. Best of luck
https://www.imore.com/how-enable-guest-user-account-your-mac

Let us know how it went.


How to install AMD Crimson video drivers on iMac 5K (Late 2014) in Bootcamp? I installed Windows 10 using Bootcamp on my iMac.

Bootcamp installed a bunch of drivers including one that allows proper 5K rendering on Windows.

However when I play a recent game Rainbow Six Siege, I see a ton of flickering of textures. The more I move around and shoot, the more they flick around.

Googling leads me to the solution of installing the new AMD Crimson driver's however, it seems I cannot install it on a Bootcamp Windows 10 version.

Is there a way around this?

My specs:

http://www.remkoweijnen.nl/blog/2015/09/21/update-amd-display-driver-under-bootcamp/

it worked out for me I have the same config as you and I had the same problems with Rainbow Six Siege
good luck trying


How can I initiate a modem connection from the command line? I am looking for a way to initiate a PPP connection with my EVDO modem from the command line instead of having to go to System Preferences -> Network and hit "Connect".

To connect a network device, use the System Events dictionary:

tell application "System Events"
    tell current location of network preferences
        connect service "Sprint 3G"
    end tell
end tell

assuming the name of the service is Sprint 3G:

To disconnect, change connect to disconnect:

tell application "System Events"
    tell current location of network preferences
        disconnect service "Sprint 3G"
    end tell
end tell

Once you've saved your scripts with names, you can use the terminal open command to kick off either script.


The screen of my macbook suddenly broken down how can I do to recover It suddenly turned to have two light bars on the top of the screen how can I fix it and get the files back. I needed to use the Macbook for 3 years for school and I can't afford a new one

Depending on the age of your MacBook, you'll have one or more connections on the side that an external screen can connect to. When you identify your MacBook you'll be able figure out the best way to connect a screen, whether it's directly or using an adaptor.

If the external monitor doesn't help, the onboard graphics may have gone pop, which might have affected the screen. In that case, go the Target Disk mode route -- but you'll need another Mac and a connecting lead (Thunderbolt or Firewire depending the age of the MacBook) for it to work.


How to get OS X out of a strange debug mode My two year old loves banging on the keyboard of my iMac and occasionally  discovers strange features that I've never seen before.

Most recently he has enabled what appears to be some kind of debug mode where there is a black box just above and to the left of the dock containing current windowing event info. I'll post a screengrab when I've got enough reputation to do so.

, and

This debug mode is also making apps such as my browser unusable as it tends to scroll back to the top of pages at regular intervals.

Does anyone know how to switch this off?

Another thing he managed to do was to create an empty folder on the desktop with the name "Time Machine", i.e. exactly the name of a volume on the desktop (he certainly didn't type that). It doesn't sound a particularly useful feature but I'd be interested to know how he did it.

Your kid managed to activate VoiceOver. To turn it if, go to Preferences/Accessibility (or try Command-F5 first)


How to play Apple ProRes 422 outside of QuickTime? I've received a number of videos encoded in Apple ProRes 422, and it plays fine in QuickTime 7 or X.
However, I can't open them in any other player (VLC, mplayer, etc. etc.). What can I do to let other player be able to read the file?
Thanks.

I know that this is an OLD question, but I thought I would add to the answers posted back in 2011.

When it was released you could not open video encoded with ProRes in video players that did not support the Apple QuickTime playback architecture since ProRes was a proprietary Apple encoding format. But in late 2011 an open source decoder became available for ffmpeg as a compile in option.

Just to be clear, ProRes was never intended as a playback format. ProRes was designed as an intermediate codec for use during video recording and editing, and was a replacement for Apple Intermediate Codec. As a result, it was never intended to be used as a "playback" format. That's why you could only play it back with QuickTime or editing software.

For optimal high quality video playback across a variety of video players (that have the horsepower to play back your video) you need to encode your video as a H.264 MPEG-4 video. You will want to set both the temporal and spacial compression to minimum, and make sure that the playback bit rate is not capped in the compression software. H.264 and MPEG-4 were designed for playback, and that's why it's the main format behind YouTube, Blu-ray, and virtual all playback systems in use today. While H.265 is starting to become more common, it is not yet as widely playable across a variety of devise.

If you do want to try and use ProRes as a playback format, then you need to make sure that the player you are using connects to the QuickTime playback codecs, and that you have the ProRes decoder installed on your system. The only video player that I know that will handle ProRes (other than pro editing systems) is VLC, and you need to have the ProRes decoder installed to make this work.


Is / always the path of the system drive? I need to know which drive is the System drive.

Is it safe to assume that / is always the system drive ? Or in some situation (for example booting from a FW drive) / is not the drive were the system is. thanks.

The basic answer is yes, although it depends a bit on exactly what you mean by "system drive". A few versions ago, Apple introduced what they call "Boot≠Root"; I can't find much documentation on it, but the basic idea is that OS X can load the booter file from one volume, then use a different volume as the operating system root.

For instance, when your startup volume is encrypted with FileVault 2, it actually loads the booter from a different volume (the hidden "Recovery HD" volume); the booter decrypts the startup volume, and then loads the operating system from the encrypted volume.

The rule is that / will always refer to the volume you are running the operating system from, just not necessarily the one that the boot process started from. This applies whether you're starting from an internal disk, FireWire disk, USB disk, NetBoot disk image, disk image,... whatever.


Can i have a state in OS X where there is no default browser I'd like OS X to default to whichever browser is open (i.e. have no default browser) so that links in other applications don't go off and open a second browser.

Is this possible (without copy/paste). An example would be that I'm listening to music in google music in chrome and i click a link in my Evernote and/or Wunderlist app and Safari is called to open; okay most times but not this particular time.

A number of apps will let you do approximately this, but as far as I'm aware only Choosy ($10) has the flexibility to decide which to use based on which browsers are open. (All of these apps are designed to let you pick a browser when you click a link, and some, Choosy included, also let you make rules based on the link URL or source app. If that's all you need, then you may find another option might serve you better.)

To make Choosy work in this way, simply install it, add your browsers to the "Browsers" tab in its settings, and then set the options in "Behaviour" how you want them. Based on what you said above, I expect you probably want to set the first option listed to "Use best running browser."


Change Dock Icons only? I just want to change the dock icons instead of system wide.

It it possible to only change the icons in the dock, and not elsewhere?

Use Candybar. It's free now as it's not as effective in Mountain Lion as it used to be.


Which version of Safari has the user agent string "Safari/537.36"? Our site analytics tool (we use Google Analytics) has shown a huge influx of Safari users (about 40% of all users, which is more than Chrome's 36%!), with over 17,000 of them reported as being on Safari version 537.36. The most recent version as of this writing is Safari 10.0.2 (and we only get about 2,500 users on 10.0.x).

We're really surprised by this development. Which version of Safari has the user agent string "Safari/537.36"?

It seems to be a slightly dated version of Google Chrome (45.0.2454.85). The use agent strings seem to get pretty ridiculous nowadays, so I normally use the Browser Info tool to parse exactly whats going on.

Browser Info


How can I use the system information to locate 48 GB of photos? I’m new to this Mac and have a month of experience. I think I have deleted every single photo on my laptop, and emptied recently deleted, and I'm getting this from the storage part of About This Mac...

I'm a youtube and really need to import footage & can't as I have no storage...

In another forum they suggested to use a tool like OmniDiskSweeper
(it can be downloaded here: https://www.omnigroup.com/more/)
that can show you where the files that take up the space in your disk are.

Start by using the "File|Size Home Folder" and then explore further in the other directories if the images are not there.


Uninstall virtualenv, Mac When trying to run a command:

pip uninstall virtualenv

it raises an error:

Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/basecommand.py", line 122, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/commands/uninstall.py", line 59, in run
    requirement_set.uninstall(auto_confirm=options.yes)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/req.py", line 1035, in uninstall
    req.uninstall(auto_confirm=auto_confirm)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/req.py", line 568, in uninstall
    for path in pip.wheel.uninstallation_paths(dist):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/wheel.py", line 375, in unique
    for item in fn(*args, **kw):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/wheel.py", line 393, in uninstallation_paths
    r = csv.reader(FakeFile(dist.get_metadata_lines('RECORD')))
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/_vendor/pkg_resources.py", line 1369, in get_metadata_lines
    return yield_lines(self.get_metadata(name))
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/_vendor/pkg_resources.py", line 1361, in get_metadata
    return self._get(self._fn(self.egg_info,name))
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.8_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.5.6-py2.7.egg/pip/_vendor/pkg_resources.py", line 1470, in _get
    stream = open(path, 'rb')
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11.6.dist-info/RECORD'

Storing debug log for failure in /var/folders/qn/_rqylh917b33tgzrfm1wy79h0000gn/T/tmpFtrtEX

I have no clue how to fix it, it start to show when I was trying to uninstall packages. Does anyone know how to solve the issue?

I encountered the same problem. I solved it by creating an empty file called RECORD in the virtualenv directory.

On my machine, the command to run in Terminal was

 touch /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11.6.dist-info/RECORD

That's it. After doing that, pip install virtualenv --upgrade worked for me.


Temporarily disable Notification Center in Mountain Lion from command line? I've been trying to create a script to disable/enable the Notification Center, even if it's temporary. It should do the same as manually sliding the Notification Center, scrolling up, and toggling the "Show Alerts and Banner" badge.

Anyone knows if it's posible and how to do it? :)

Thanks!

To disable Notification Center from the command line, write a KeepAlive key that is false into the /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist like so:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui KeepAlive -bool false

If you want to re-enable Notification Center, you’d just run the same with a true:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui KeepAlive -bool true

Method to DISABLE without sudo:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
killall NotificationCenter

Method to ENABLE without sudo:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist

Then just hit Command+Shift+G and go to /System/Library/CoreServices/ then find “Notification Center” and double-click it to launch it again

Tutorial with useful info here and here


What are these giant files in ~/Library/Autosave Information/? In my ~/Library/Autosave Information/ folder on 10.7, I have some fairly routine-looking files—a few unsaved scratch documents in applications that use Autosave, and accompanying plists for those apps. I also have 3 folders with names like 64FE2D0E-7447-4086-B7CA-8D59ED769875.genstore.noindex. They each contain a .genstore_lockfile file and a .genstore_staging/ directory, which contains another directory with a random name such as rneN5zs, which contains a single file, staged.

The problem is that the staged files are pretty big - 1.49 GB, 980 MB and 312 MB. According to the Finder's timestamps, they were created back in June, and haven't been modified or accessed since.

I'd like to free up that space on my drive if possible, but I don't want to go deleting these files without understanding what they are. The names and access times suggest they might be temporary storage for saved state data (although I'm not sure why it would be so big) that didn't get cleaned up. Running lsof doesn't list any process accessing those files.

Does anyone know what these files are? Do you have similar ones on your system? Can they safely be deleted?

Delete them, they are just caches for an app or an installer.

A lock file indicates that a process was using them while it was forcibly quit or crashed. Normally, when system processes modify files, they create a lock file for it so that no other process can access it. These files are deleted when the process exits or stops modifying the said file.

The presence of the lock files indicates that their process has not accessed them since they were created. That means you have probably not used the app involved.

Source: https://superuser.com/questions/313878/what-is-a-lockfile


How can I make rows and columns for Spaces in Lion? I just recently switched to Lion from Snow leopard and dealing with a few issues (like this question)

I am still loving it, though.

I used to have 3 X 3 spaces (I know, it's insane for some, but I like it), and liked that I can arrange things in a spatial arrangement.
Now on Lion I get a 1 X 9 series of spaces, is there a way to enable the column X row configuration of Spaces in Snow Leopard back?

EDIT: I've been using the four-fingere-up gesture for a while now and I dont miss spaces as much anymore!

I’m pretty certain that you can't; you just get a single-line.

From John Siracusa’s review of Lion (when describing the implementation of spaces in Mission Control):

  The biggest limitation of this new arrangement is that Spaces are now confined to a one-dimensional line of virtual desktops. Four-finger swiping between spaces feels great, but there's no wrap-around when you hit the end.


Airpods just disappeared from settings I updated to the latest iOS today and I heard there is a new version for Airpods also. So I paired them with the device then put them in their case.

What's interesting is that you can't check their firmware on the iPhone since they just disappear from the general->about menu on the iPhone.

Actually they are no where on the phone, but you can still hear music and pair them.

Not only I don't know how to update them, I also can't check their version now.

Credit to 9to5Mac

To check & update the AirPod firmware, do the following:

Have your AirPods nearby and open the case. The normal status/connectivity window will pop up, but you can swipe that away and look at the ‘About’ screen and scroll all the way the way down.
On the iPhone/iPad, go to Settings -> About.

Open the AirPods case and have them near your phone.
Tap the new AirPods section in the About menu.

From there, you’ll be able to see detailed information about your AirPods, including the model number, serial number, and hardware version. Your info should be similar to this:

Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Model Number: A1523
Firmaware Version: 3.5.1
Hardware Version: 1.0.0

If the Firmware Version is not 3.5.1 then you'll need to update them.  Just keep them in their case, plug them in, and next to your iPhone.  The update should happen automatically.  It might take a few hours so it's best to leave them overnight so the update can take place.


Are the app store review guidelines under NDA? To access the app store review guidelines you need to sign in:
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html

Does that mean they are under NDA or it it ok to blog about a specific requirement?

There have been several cases of people blogging about review guidelines, and AFAIK, nowhere does Apple ask us to agree to an NDA about the guidelines when creating our developer account (at least, they didn't for me).

Here's a few cases of the guidelines being blogged about:

iClarified, LocalMediaInsider, ReadWrite, engadget


Bug? Scheduled reminder won't dismiss When I put a scheduled reminder with a daily repeat mode, it won't dismiss.

It keeps on showing and just changes the date to the next day.

Is this a bug or a feature?

It will do this until you mark it as completed. Think of it this way: unlike recurring Calendar events, a new Reminder is created for every recurrence. They are all "nested" into each other, though, so that effect is not obvious.

For example, if I create a reminder that re-occurs every day called "water plants" it will appear normal the first day. On day two, though, unless I mark day one as "completed", it still thinks I haven't watered the flowers on Day 1, so it continues telling me that I need to water the plants on Day 1. As soon as I check Day 1, it will be marked as completed until Day 2.


Will a 4K external monitor create a sharper display when connected to my MacBook Pro I recently connected my MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 running 10.12.6 to the Asus PB238Q 23-inch via the mini display cable to VGA cable. The max resolution of the external monitor is 1920 x 1080.

The external display is not as crisp as my retina display, is this due to how I am connecting the monitor, or is it simply because I don't have enough pixels on my external monitor to display it with the same level of sharpness?

If I was to purchase a 4k monitor would this solve the problem?

Thank you for your help!

The "sharpness" of a display is defined by its pixel density and measured in ppi (pixels per inch). So it is the combination of size and resolution that makes a display appear sharp.
Unless the 4K monitor is extremely large the pixel density will be higher then on your 1920 x 1080 pixel display.

You can check compatibility on Using 4K displays, 5K displays, and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac.

In your case, your Late 2013 MacBook Pro 15" supports 4K displays. However you also have to use a cable that supports the resolution accordingly. For example:

HDMI:

3840 x 2160 at 30Hz
4096 x 2160 at 24Hz


Which version of ZSH is installed in macOS Catalina? I am required to write a script on Linux while still supporting macOS. I am using ZSH. macOS Catalina has ZSH enabled by default, but the feature I am building has a version dependency on the ZSH version.

Which version of ZSH comes pre-installed with macOS catalina? (I did not have access to a macOS Catalina based machine at the time of writing this)

Running the following commands in macOS Catalina 10.15:

sw_vers

  ProductName:  Mac OS X
  ProductVersion:   10.15
  BuildVersion: 19A602

zsh --version

  zsh 5.7.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin19.0)


Correcting text on iOS: fixing capitalization I re-write and re-organize text frequently when I type longer messages (emails, StackExchange posts, etc). That means that words that were originally at the beginning of a sentence might end up in the middle, or vice versa.

I have found that it is nearly impossible on an iOS device to change the capitalization of a word without retyping the entire word. If I try to highlight just the first letter (or to drag the highlight end-point), then it snaps back to highlighting the entire word.

Is there some technique I am missing to do this?

Or maybe some custom keyboard that would make this simple? (I haven't used any custom keyboards yet.)

Some of this is in built-in apps (iMessage, Mail), others are in 3rd-party apps ("Alien Blue" client for Reddit, Facebook app).

In case it matters, I use an iPhone 6 and an iPad Air, both with latest iOS 8.1.3.

iOS 12
Starting with iOS 12, you can turn the software keyboard into a trackpad even on an iPhone that doesn’t feature 3D Touch.
Simply press-and-hold the spacebar until the keyboard blanks out. Then slide your finger across the keyboard to move the cursor.
This trick also works on iPads.
Screenshot courtesy of iMore:

iOS 9 (iPad Only)
On iPad only, iOS 9 originally trackpad mode for the iPad only. To activate it, simply press-and-hold two fingers on the keyboard until the keyboard blanks out.
In addition, you can also double-tap-and-hold on the keyboard with two fingers to select the current word, then drag the selection by sliding your fingers across the keyboard.
Screenshot courtesy of iMore:

3D Touch
Of course, if you have an iPhone 6s or later you can achieve the same thing by 3D Touching anywhere on the keyboard. The advantage of 3D Touch is that once you’ve moved your cursor you can then press a little harder to select the entire word, then keep dragging your selection across more text.
Do note that immediately after pressing a key on the software keyboard, you will need to wait for the cursor to blink once before you can activate trackpad mode with 3D Touch.
Older Devices / iOS Versions
On iPhones without 3D Touch running iOS 11 or earlier, and on iPads running iOS 8 or earlier, you needed to press-and-hold on the text to bring up the loupe, then drag the cursor to the exact desired position.
An alternative on 4.7” and 5.5” iPhones was to flip the iPhone into landscape orientation. Many (but indeed not all) applications then offered < and > keys that let you move the cursor left or right. You could then tap at the beginning of the word you want to edit, then move the cursor right and delete.


Mac showing special characters in menu items My Mac Pro is showing special characters "??????" in all my menu items. See image below:

I am not sure how to fix this. Does anyone have any suggestions?

The easiest way to clear the font cache is to boot into Safe Mode. Restart your Mac while holding down Shift.

Once the restart has completed, then restart normally.

Alternatively, you can run the following Terminal command, and then Restart:

sudo atsutil databases -remove

You will need to supply an admin password.


USB became write-protected after trying to install Windows on BOOTCAMP I tried to install windows using BootCamp, and it formatted my usb and loaded windows files and gave me an error that not enough space available, so I changed my mind and wanted to use my pen drive for other works, but bootcamp made it write-protected not able to format it or edit it, Tried using disk Utility and many more...

Partition or Erase the disk rather than the partition: in the Disk Utility sidebar, choose ‘Kingston DataTr…’ rather than ‘WinInstall’ and try your operation again.


What if the wifi server has "Security Recommendation" next to it and it will not connect to internet? Is there a work around or setting change that will help if the wifi server has "Security Recommendation" next to it and my iphone 6 will not connect to internet?

The 'security recommendation' will display whenever your iPhone sees an unsecured wireless network (meaning you don't need a password to join).  It has nothing to do with your ability to connect to the internet.  That message is just to let you know that anything sent over that wifi connection will be visible/unencrypted.

If the owner of that wifi connection, let's say a school, for example, doesn't allow that connection to access the internet, then you won't be able to access the internet.  It's as simple as that and there's no workaround or shortcut to allow you access.

If the connection does allow internet access and you still can't get on the internet, there could be a problem with your iPhone or with that connection.


Does the iPod Nano 6G use the headphones as an antenna? I recently received a iPod Nano 6G for my birthday.  I very quickly found out that headphones/earbuds are required for radio reception.  My dad proposed the idea that the iPod uses the headphones/earbuds as the antenna.  Is his hypothesis correct?

Does the iPod Nano 6G use the headphones as an antenna?

Yes it does. From this Apple KB doc:

  [The] iPod nano uses the earphone or headphone cord as an antenna, so you must connect the earphone or headphone cord to the iPod to receive a radio signal.


What are all these files on my Mac? I just did a clean install of the latest Catalina on my Mac. I was searching for my documents folder and all these files appear? What are they? can I delete it? is it possible is malware?

You're in a search screen and it's currently listing all of the files on "This Mac" (your Mac).  It's literally (not figuratively) every single one of your files listed alphabetically in a search window; it's nothing harmful.

Just close out of the search and you'll be fine.  You might want to take a quick read of the Apple document, Get to know the Finder on your Mac.


How do I stop my phone from turning off the display whenever I put my finger over the phone speaker? I have an iPhone 6, and recently I've found out that if you put your finger on the thing next to the front camera, the display will turn black. but I can't find a setting to turn it off. Anyone know where it is? Or if I can? This isn't just calls it's anytime.

In this case, it was just a bug. All you need to do to fix this is to restart your iPhone and it should be fixed. Thanks to Apple support.


Can automation using AppleScript Copy Text From A Webpage Into a Text Editor app? As a first try at AppleScript I'm looking to automate a find command and some follow actions that would normally be user input.

Ultimately I want to automate adding lyrics to my iTunes library.  My first challenge is to tell Safari to search a webpage for a phrase, click on the link, and then copy the plain text on the page that comes up to the clipboard and then paste it into Text Editor.

I'm not sure how to tell Safari to command + F, paste a phrase from the clipboard, and then "click" the highlighted link.

I don't need a full script, but help getting started at a minimum

How would I do one or more parts of this automation?

Your first AppleScript!  Amazing...  And an ambitious project to start with, but I can see its value.

My answer won't write the script for you, but I will give you tips about how to approach your problem differently and achieve what you want a little more easily.

To answer your specific queries first:

Telling Safari to Cmd-F

    tell application "Safari" to activate

    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "f" using command down

Paste a Phrase From Clipboard

Send a Cmd-V.  You might need a small delay between the two keystroke commands.

"Click" the Highlighted Link

You can't.  You won't be able to identify what's highlighted via a Cmd-F search with any great ease (possibly through GUI scripting, but that'll be a mess).  I'll come back to this shortly.

A Different Approach

Working backwards, let's assume you've obtained the text you need to paste into TextEdit.  Don't paste it.  Set the contents of a new TextEdit document to the contents of the clipboard:

    tell application "TextEdit" to set text of (make document) to the clipboard

In order to set the clipboard to the contents of a Safari web page, use this command:

    tell application "Safari" to set the clipboard to  ¬
        (text of current tab of front window) as string

And this brings us back to clicking on the link...

If you literally want to click a link on a webpage, one method would be to make sure Allow Javascript from Apple Events is checked in Safari's Develop menu, and run a do JavaScript to pick out the link containing the relevant search item and click it:

    tell application "Safari" to tell document 1 to do JavaScript ¬
        "Array.from(document.links).find(a => a.href.includes(\"cjk\")).click()"

This only finds the first instance of the search time, which I have inferred is sufficient given that your method of doing a Cmd+F search seemed content to accept the first occurrence as the only one of importance.

However, I think the whole process could be streamlined and made much more robust by using Automator to help us out.  It can extract all URLs directly from a webpage (all you have to do is feed it the URL of the webpage in question).  Then you can filter these URLs to search for specific text.  Once you have the URL you desire, instead of clicking on it, Automator can download its contents as text and insert it straight into a new TextEdit document.  I do believe that next to no AppleScript would be needed, although you can supplement it with some AppleScript to fine-tune things here and there as required.

Without your webpage in question, I can't devise the workflow specific to your application.  However, that would also deprive you of the joy of doing it yourself.  But using this Stack Exchange webpage as an example, the following workflow isolates the URL of your user profile (the link to which is at the bottom of the question you asked), downloads the text from your profile, and turns it into a new TextEdit document:

Hopefully, this is enough to get you well on your way to achieving your goal.  If you need any clarification, leave a comment and I'll get back to you when I can.


AirPort Time Capsule wifi is suddenly very slow: Boom network load Background

I have a 5th generation AirPort Time Capsule, bought refurbished from Apple about 6 months ago. It is on software version 7.7.3 and has worked without issue until recently.

Problem

Two days ago the performance of my AirPort Time Capsule's wifi dropped dramatically.  Whereas before I had no problem with AirPlay, or streaming videos stored on the Capsule over wifi, now videos buffer every few seconds, and AirPlay is chopped up to smithereens.  Web browsing is also noticeably slower, and file transfer speeds to and from the device have fallen through the floor.

Diagnosis

The problem seemed to start a day or so after I added an HP Envy 5530 printer to my network, though this could just be a coincidence.

To get an idea of exactly how slow the wifi had become, I put my Mac directly next to the Capsule and timed copying a 2GB (16000Mb) file to and from the device:

To: 390s ≈ 41Mbps
From: 527s ≈ 30Mbps

Both are less than a tenth of the theoretical maximum of 450Mbps reported when I alt-click the wifi icon in the top bar, so something is clearly amiss.

To isolate the wifi as the culprit, I connected my Mac to the Capsule over an Ethernet cable.  I then saw that videos streamed without issue, files transferred at reasonable speed, and web browsing returned to normal.

To isolate environmental interference and/or my Mac's wifi client as the problem, I took the Capsule into the office and repeated the transfer using a  360MB file on a Windows laptop.  The results were even worse than above:

To: 88s ≈ 31Mbps
From: 136s ≈ 20Mbps

Here is a screenshot from iStumbler taken at home while a slow file transfer was in progress.  The top two networks are mine (5GHz and 2.4GHz) and it shows there is no channel contention.  The transfer occurred around the middle 50% of the graph.

Remedy

I tried a few things to fix the problem, but with no luck:

Ran Wireless Diagnostics but no problems were found.
Assigned the wifi channels manually to a few different random combinations.
Specified a different SSID for the 5GHz wifi and tried connecting through that.
Removed the HP software and deleted the printer from my Mac, and unplugged the printer from the wall.
Performed a factory reset of the Capsule.

Next steps

Short of returning the unit to Apple, is there anything else I should try?

Changing network parameters like channel assignments might cause more harm than good, especially on the long turm. You may end up in having to analyse strange issues...

Use a professionnal tool to analyse your wireless environment first:
iStumbler.

If you want a professionnal help, please put a copy of a screen capture with this tool. Make this environmental measure at a point which is as near as possible from the point you want to communicate with your Time Capsule usually.
Take care to make this measure at the hour you witness your slow network throughput.
Sort the output along decreasing signal level (Level column).

Take care to hide private information from this screen capture.

If you have a real environmental problem (which a real and highly frequent situation), fix it.

Else, bring back your Time Capsule to your Apple reseller. Most probably an antenna cable was not correctly fixed inside, and a move made it unplug.


If I uninstall Terraria on my son's ipad 2 will he lose all his work and worlds done to date? If I uninstall Terraria on my son's ipad 2 will he lose all his work and worlds done to date? I haven't done anything yet as I want to know before I uninstall if everything will be lost when I reinstall Terraria.

if the game doesn't have the option to save progress to iCloud or "iCloud sync" then yes he will loose all game progress


Can't open .html file with UTF-8 how could I change the file encoding using OS X? If I open a file on Windows Notepad I see all the symbols and everything is fine. If I open it using TextEdit or TextWrangler I see only question marks instead of the normal symbols. I tried to save the file as plain text using UTF-8 unicode, but it didn't changed. Any more ideas?

It turns out this problem was caused by the text being actually encoded as Baltic (Windows) instead of UTF-8.


How can I delay audio in an mp4 file? How can I delay the audio (relative to the video stream) in an MP4 movie file and save the result?

You may use the free app QTSync which supports this feature.


How do I back up my old iPhone 4 onto a new Mac? As it said, i recently got a new apple mac and I want to backup my old iPhone onto it because i have a new iPhone 4S which i would like to get up and running.

I have all of my music and photos onto an external hard drive but i don't really want to loose my contacts, messages, apps, calendar entries etc.

Is it possible? Or will i just have to write everything down and re-enter it?

Thankyou :)

All you need to do is plug in your iPhone 4 into the Mac, and depending on your setup, iTunes should start backing it up. The Mac isn't actually a requirement here, if you set up the iPhone 4 with iTunes on a PC, you can do the same there.

When you get your iPhone 4S, and plug it into the computer, it will ask you if you would like to set up the phone as a new phone, or use a backup from a previous device, like the iPhone 4. Say yes - to use the backup - and it should set up the 4S just like your 4.

With iOS 5, iCloud actually will do part of this for you as well. If your iPhone 4 is already backing up to iCloud (instead of iTunes), when you set up iCloud on the 4S, it may ask you if you want to set it up using the previous backup. This is exactly how I migrated my wife's iPhone 4 to a 4S when she got it.


How -exactly- do I remove a specific directory, from my PATH, in OSX, Mavericks? Ok - so this issue has become somewhat of a white whale for me. I have browsed some of the questions here, but I cannot seem to figure out how to, very simply, delete a directory from my PATH. (I should also add that I am very to to Mac, making the transition from Windows).

So: I have gathered that I can make a .bashrc, .bash_profile, etc etc, to ADD files to my PATH. I think I get that.

However what I cannot seem to find a direct answer to, is: How do I simply delete a specific existing directory, from my PATH? This is all I would honestly like to do.

Thank you.

EDIT: Why I want to remove a directory from PATH:

Long story short, homebrew put a directory into my PATH, that it no longer needs. It says I can remove it from PATH, and so this is why I would like to remove it. Here is a screen shot:

It depends where the PATH is being set. If you use bash, the path could be set in any of the following:

/etc/profile
/etc/bashrc
~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login
~/.profile
~/.bashrc

This list is in the order that the files are read (by bash). Later files override earlier files.

Check the above in reverse order for export PATH which will write your PATH variable.

You should be able to find where it's set by launching your shell with -x.

Also check /etc/paths and /etc/paths.d for paths that are set before your shell is started.

If all else fails, you can set the PATH yourself to override its current contents. Run echo $PATH, then paste your PATH after export PATH in your ~/.bashrc and make your desired modifications. As ~/.bashrc is the last one read, it will override any earlier modifications to your PATH.

If you use zsh, it's probably in ~/.zshrc or a sourced file.


How to remove color formatting of links in Microsoft Word? In Microsoft Word for Mac 2011, I'm trying to edit the Hyperlink and FollowedHyperlink styles so that they don't modify the text's color that I'm hyperlinking.

For example, let's say I have the following words: red blue green all written in thier corresponding colors. Next, I decide to highlight these words and hyperlink them. By default, all the text will be turned into blue. That's not what I want; I want all the text to be the same colors, but with an underline added. That is, I would like the word red to still appear in red color, not blue.

When I edit the style, it shows this, as you would expect:

  Underline, Font color: Hyperlink, Style: Hide until used, Priority: 100, Based on: Default Paragraph Font.

I want to remove the part I bolded, however, I don't see a way to do that. When I click the color icon, there is no option to select "no color." The closest thing to that is "Auto" which just changes the links to be black instead of blue.

Format > Styles

There you can modify the styles in use for the current document, including hyperlink colours.


Can I change the color of the current date in Mavericks Calendar? Unlike previous versions of Calendar, Mavericks Calendar uses a color to indicate the current day. This color clashes with many of the colors I've been using for years for various calendars (and is even the same as one I use for one of my calendars), which makes the appointments for the current day almost unreadable.

Is there a way to restore the neutral, light gray used to indicate the current day used in earlier versions of Calendar?

I am sorry to say that after examining the plist for 10.9 Calendar.app I don't even see a way to change the color via command line. Sorry good sir but I gave it my best.


How do I copy mp3s and then edit the ID3 tags of the copies without altering the tags on the originals? I made a playlist for my brother, using tracks (.mp3) that I have on my Macbook and usually listen to with iTunes. I want to put these tracks onto a USB stick to give to him. I don't have the USB stick yet but I thought I'd get the tracks ready to put onto the stick, by copying them all into a separate folder on Finder and editing the ID3 tags so that their "album" field contains the name of the playlist and their track numbers match their positions within the playlist. I thought this would be simple enough (I grew up with Windows), so just made a new folder (under "Documents") and copied them out of iTunes into here. I then realized that it's impossible to edit ID3 tags through Finder. After overcoming my initial frustration with this, I thought that instead of downloading some third-party software I'd just copy these files into iTunes and edit their ID3 tags there. I made a new playlist within iTunes, dragged the files from the folder in Documents into this playlist and edited all the ID3 tags appropriately. When I was done I deleted the mp3s out of the folder in Documents and dragged the edited tracks from iTunes into this folder to replace them. This meant that I had exactly what I wanted (the tracks with the new ID3 tags) in the folder in Documents.
However, I then realized that something hadn't worked as I'd expected. I thought I'd duplicated the files that had initially been in my iTunes when I'd copied them into the folder in Documents, and then had added these new (but identical) files into iTunes, which I'd then edited (meaning that their ID3 tags were no longer identical to the originals). However, it turns out that somehow iTunes, presumably recognising the files to be identical, had somehow merged them? Either that or it had never actually duplicated them in the first place? I'm really not sure how it works. Either way, the end result is that the original files have disappeared from my iTunes and from my computer; now I only have the ones with the new ID3 tags. I tried to "undo" what I'd done in iTunes, but it was impossible (the editing of the ID3 tags didn't appear in the list of actions that could be undone, for some reason).
My questions are thus: firstly, is there a way to revert the files' ID3 tags to what they were before, other than manually? (It will be really annoying to have to go and look up the album titles and track numbers for each track and edit them manually.) And secondly, what did I do wrong? How do I achieve my simple goal of copying (i.e. duplicating) a group of mp3s and editing the ID3 tags of the copies without changing the originals?

As to your second question, I would try Tagscanner (https://www.xdlab.ru/en/). You can tell it the location of the files you want to edit tags for. So there is no danger of editing the set wrong files. It also has a batch mode. Read the documentation, as with many powerful tools, it has a lot of features that can seem overwhelming to new users. It also has a preview mode for changes that allows to to see the changes you are making before committing them.


Why My MacBook Pro’s battery is swollen and it don’t turn on nor charge? It’s 13 inch early 2015 My MacBook Pro’s battery is swollen and it don’t turn on nor charge?
It’s 13 inch early 2015.
I found my MacBook dead suddenly . Later I opened it up but found that the battery is swollen and after that I tried to unplug the battery and turn on the Mac using AC POWER but it didn’t turn on?

The MacBook Pro battery is based on lithium-ion technology. Swelling of the battery can be caused basically by two different things:
The functionality of the battery is based on chemical reactions within its components. These reactions happen when you charge the battery, and when you use it to power your device. However, as time passed, this reaction is no longer perfect, and gas can be produced as a byproduct. This gas makes the battery swell.
The second cause is that the battery is internally structured in "compartments" that are seperated from each other. If for some reason tiny holes occur in the membranes that make out the separation, then moisture from the air could make it into the battery and react with the chemicals. This can cause swelling as well.
In either case, a swollen battery is not fit to be used - and should be handled very cautiously as it is a safety issue as well. A swollen battery could break out in fire spontaneously.
I would suggest disposing of the battery via the correct channels immediately.
The battery needs to be replaced with a new battery in order for you laptop to function again.


iCloud Notes on Macbook not synchronising with iPad/iPhone IOS 9.0.2 After upgrading to IOS 9.0.2, I just realised the iCloud notes on my Macbook didn't syn with my iPad and iPhone.

Despite removing my iCloud Notes from my Macbook, rebooting my Mac and signing into my Apple ID again, the error still persists.

It may be dependent on whether this button still exists in the Notes app on your iPhone, & whether your Mac has been updated to El Capitan or not...

If you have upgraded Notes on the iPhone on iOS 9, then you must be on El Capitan for them to be compatible.


Need to close Word documents on Mac Air..I can see no red dot, green dot or yellow dot When I go to full screen on a Word for Mac document, the dots (red, yellow, green) disappear, and I can't get them back.  Therefore, I am not able to close a document.  Can someone tell me how to reduce the page size on a Word for Mac document so I can see the dots?  I've poked around for hours and found nothing online or in the help section.  Thank you

Word is in Full Screen mode. Simply hover your mouse at the top of the window, and the Menu bar will drop down. On the right hand side is a blue double-headed arrow. Click it, and the screen will return to a window.  (you can save the document by simply using the menu when it drops down from your mouse hover, if you wish to remain in full screen mode...oh and CMD-S is your friend (save))

Or, you can just hit ESC.


Changing The Dock's Appearance From 3D to 2D? Sometimes the glossy finish to the Dock 3D's appearance annoys me, and I want something less bedazzling on the eyes.

Is there a simple terminal command I can use to convert it from a 3D glossy to a 2D plain dock in appearance ?

Yes, you can, but only in OS X 10.8 or earlier.

You can use the the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES && killall -HUP Dock

To go back to 3D, run the following command (replace YES with NO):

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO && killall -HUP Dock


Apple Magic mouse problem I am having one problem with the Magic mouse; after 3-4 hours of continuos use, the Magic mouse automatically loses connection with my Macbook pro.

Do you have any idea? Why is it happening?
Is it a defect? Should I go for replacement?

The issues you're describing very common, along with many reasons why; fortunately there are some workarounds that might help.

The first reason you could be losing connectivity is because many macs have improper antenna configurations for the Airport and Bluetooth modules. This causes the signal to either be extremely weak, or just flaky in general. It get's progressively worse if the batteries on your mouse are starting to run low - much worse! Another reason is the Mouse itself having an aluminum battery cover that shields the bluetooth inside of it from having a decent connection.

[Here are a few ways that might help resolve some of the issues]

For starters take off the bottom battery cover and see if you have better responsiveness and connectivity. It works for me, although I have one of the macs with a backward antenna configs, so without doing that I basically have no connectivity. Another surprising fix is to download BTT (Better Touch Tool). I was very skepitcal about a third-party app helping remedy the situation, although I must admit that it helped tremendously. I'm not sure what mechanism the developer used to revive my mouse, but he's helped countless thousands I'm sure. If those two work-arounds don't do anything the last thing you can try is to re-wire your bluetooth antennna to hopefully make things work again.

The Magic Mouse has been plagued with these issues from day one, and besides getting another mouse that does the same exact thing there's not much else you can do. Oddly enough, the replacement that I got actually squeeks like mouse, and is worse than it's predecessor, which I'm currently wondering how to troubleshoot. Take a look at the article I've linked below; they might have a few other fixes that I might not have covered.

Link: The Not So Magic Mouse


Enable writing to NTFS harddrive with non-standard name on Mac I have a lot of NTFS hard drives back when I used a Windows PC. I'm trying to write to these drives with my Macbook Pro on OSX Yosemite 10.10.2. I'm going through this tutorial. I have to write this line in /etc/fstab

LABEL=drivename none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse

The caveat is that "drivename" must not contain spaces. My drives have spaces. For example, one is named "HGST Deskstar". Also, another shows up as "Untitled" (it's probably not literally named Untitled). I couldn't figure out how to rename my drives to conform to the standard. What should I do?

I know there's software that you can install to handle this, but I was hoping to just do this quick system configuration.

You can use the UUID instead of the volume label however a word of warning about using the built-in NTFS Write capability of OS X...  It's not stable and I'd highly recommend using a third party utility.  I use the paid version of Tuxera NTFS for Mac and enable/disable as needed.  IMO it's faster and more safe then the built-in.

Example:

UUID=4485D2B9-C375-5240-8F5A-2225B24332EB none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse

You can get the Universal Unique Identifier of the Partition from Get Info in Disk Utility.  Select the target partition then either click the Info icon on the Toolbar, press Command-I or click File > Get Info.


Disable and re-enable animations Terminal commands I used the following Terminal commands to disable animations:

# opening and closing Quick Look windows
defaults write -g QLPanelAnimationDuration -float 0

# showing a toolbar or menu bar in full screen
defaults write -g NSToolbarFullScreenAnimationDuration -float 0

from here:
How to turn off all animations on OS X

Are there Terminal commands to re enable them, just in case?

Also, that link suggested TinkerTool, but which option in TinkerTool is for disabling the Quick Look animation?

Try the following to re-enable them:

defaults delete -g QLPanelAnimationDuration
defaults delete -g NSToolbarFullScreenAnimationDuration

Those commands will delete the settings changes that you made, and OS X will reset them to the default settings.

Source: Wikipedia


Using a shared DVD burner Machine #1 is a mac mini with a CD burner only.

Machine #2 is a macbook pro with a DVD burner.

Both are current on MacOSX. Burner is shared. Machine #1 is connected to machine #2 in the finder.

iDVD is oblivious on machine #1 to the burner on #2. is this expected?

I think that feature is only for sharing discs that are in the drive, not for sharing the drive and it's burning capabilities itself. The manual says:

  If you have installed the DVD or CD Sharing Setup software, you can share DVD or CD discs in your computer’s optical drive with other computers on your Ethernet or wireless network. If another computer on your network doesn’t have an optical drive, you can set up your computer to allow the other computer to use the disc in your computer’s optical drive.

Instead of what you're doing now, try saving from iDVD as a disk image. You can then use Disk Utility on the other mac to burn that disk image to a DVD-R.


Is there a way to add keyboard shortcuts to preference panes? I wanted to add a keyboard shortcut to teleport via the System Preferences.

teleport is a preference pane not an application so I can't select it.

I tried to assign my keyboard to "All applications" but it didn't work.

Edit:
I am more looking for assigning a keyboard shortcut to a Preference pane menu item than assigning a global shortcut to a preference pane.

For example, in teleport I want to assign a shortcut to the menu item "Deactivate teleport". One can access to this menu item by clicking on the teleport icon in the OS X menu bar.

You can create an Automator based service that opens the specific preference pane.

You can find the preference pane bundles in the Library/PreferencePanes set of folders:

/System/Library/PreferencePanes
/Library/PreferencePanes
~/Library/PreferencePanes

Preference panes are special bundles that when opened from the Finder, will launch System Preferences.app and automatically switch to their settings.

Create an Automator Service
Drag the desired preference pane onto the Automator workflow
Add the Open Finder Items action…
…and select System Preferences.app in the action
Add a Watch Me Do action to record any clicks and interactions with the panel

To assign this workflow as a keyboard shortcut, see this Tuts+ tutorial, How to Launch Any App with a Keyboard Shortcut.


Can I use my 1st generation iPad ans a second screen for my Mac Laptop I work from home a lot and want to create a 2nd screen for my Laptop by using my iPad.  Is this possible and if so, what hardware/software do I need to purchase

I think you will run into problems trying to do this with a 1st generation iPad, as most software I've come across to achieve this sort of thing requires iOS 7 and a 1st generation iPad can't officially run this version of iOS.

In general though, if you want to use an iPad or iPhone as an extra display for your computer you will need to use 3rd party software to do this, such as Duet Display.

I have used this app to set an iPad up as an external monitor for an iMac and it works well for some workflows. How well it works for you will depend on what you're trying to do and the hardware you're using.

Duet Display does work with both iPads and iPhones and works with both Mac and Windows. However, I can not share any personal experience in using it with a 1st generation iPad as I think all versions of Duet Display require at least iOS 7.

There are also other options you can investigate, but I have no personal experience with them and don't know if they will run on a 1st generation iPad:

Air Display
iDisplay
Mirroring360

Hopefully this answers your question one way or another.


Does Homebrew have a command-not-found hook? Arch Linux's pkgfile has a command-not-found hook that you can source from your shell's startup file (.zshrc, .bashrc, or whatever).  Does Homebrew have anything roughly equivalent to this?

Have a look at homebrew-command-not-found. The project tries to reproduce Ubuntu’s command-not-found for Homebrew users on OS X.


Exists such thing as mozrepl for Safari? Looking for an Safari extension (or plugin) what acts as mozrepl, what works like a charm. :)

Exists such thing?

If not, is possible somewhat easily control Safari from external scripts (perl, python, bash)? With control mean:

GET urls (mean http GET method) - Via safari (e.g. the Safari will send the auth, session cookies, referere and so on).
get source of the page (after the Safari renders all ajax calls and such)
POST via Safari (for example using AJAX - but initieted from teh external script)
etc...
in short like: "mozrepl" :)

Seems, here is nothing comparable yet. I didn't delete the question, is someone found such thing - please add an answer.

Ps: i know, how to use curl or like tools, but this isn't helps for e.g. grabbing a content of pages, where Safari managing the session authentication, cookies, referrers , user-agent strings and so on. Everything is rev-engineerable, but it is much easier to use a tool like mozrepl as doing the fullstack rev-engineering for getting scriptable web-sessions...)

If the main idea is scripting Safari, I would try using Automator before trying AppleScript. I'd start by hitting the record button and then:

Open Safari
Navigate to your webpage
GET by saving the webpage source
Allow the page to do whataver AJAX calls you may want it to do

save the webpage source again

Fill out a form, hit submit for your POST

save the webpage source yet again

Or you could try AppleScript with something like this:

tell application "Safari"
    tell window 1
    set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:"http://www.example.com"})
    end tell
end tell

You can add to the script form fills and submit buttons with javascript:

do JavaScript "document.getElementById('field').value = '" & myvalue & "'"
do JavaScript "document.forms[\"form\"].submit();"

I'd try this out within the JavaScript console within a web browser first to make sure you have the names of everything correct.


What does setting LSUIPresentationMode to 1 or 2 do? While reading "Is it possible to hide the dock on a per-application basis?", I noted that according to the documentationLSUIPresentationMode, setting LSUIPresentationMode to value 1 or 2 (in an application's Info.plist) should mean that "system UI elements in the content area of the screen are hidden", and (it is implied) that this includes the Dock.

In practice setting this key to values 1 or 2 appears to do nothing (neither the dock nor anything else disappears), while values 3 and 4 behave as documented.

Do values 1 and 2 ever have a useful effect?  If so, what is it?

(I have tested this setting with a variety of different apps, including Aperture, Chess, Stickies and Emacs, all under OS X 10.6.8.  The behaviour was identical in each case: settings 3 and 4 behaved as described, while settings 1 and 2 appeared to have no effect whatsoever.)

I believe those keys are intended for cases where you're writing an app that will use its own full screen mode (such as a video player or game). To see any effect from changing them the app likely needs to be coded appropriately, not just have the key set in its Info.plist.


Will an external USB floppy drive work with a modern Mac? I have a number of old 3.5" floppies (Amiga and PC format) that I'd like to archive before they disintegrate. I'm curious if a cheap USB 3.5" floppy drive will work on OSX / macOS 10.11+?

Yes, I understand that reading an Amiga disk might be stretching things a bit, but was hoping perhaps a dd command might work. Otherwise, I'm thinking perhaps these devices only know how to read PC format and act as mass storage (ha!) devices..

The short answer is yes, external USB floppy drives will still work with macOS.

However, the issues you're likely to face relate to:

how the actual floppy disks are formatted (both in terms of file systems and capacity)
the type of floppy disks involved (i.e. are we talking 1.4MB disks, or older 800KB or even 400KB floppies)
the condition of the floppy disks (specifically, are they now demagnetised?)

Assuming they're 1.4MB floppies then you should be able to read the data. You won't, however, be able to write data to the floppies (although in your case this shouldn't be an issue as you're wanting to copy the data from them, not to them).

If they're 400KB or 800KB floppies, you can pretty much forget about using Mac OS X / macOS.

If they're demagnetised, you can pretty much forget about using anything to read the data.


Updating modifier key mappings through defaults command tool I am trying to automate the inital setup  of my macbook, that includes installing software and changing OS X configuration to my needs.

I have tried to update the modifier keys with defaults, the code is as follow:

# The apple keyboard id (1452-567-0) should probably be modified in case you use other different model
COMPUTER_UUID=`ioreg -rd1 -c IOPlatformExpertDevice | grep -E '(UUID)' | awk '{print $3}' | tr -d \"`
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/.GlobalPreferences.$COMPUTER_UUID com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-567-0 '( { HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst = 2;   HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc = 0; } )'

The problem seems that even if the pattern is changed the System Preferences does not catch the update, not even restarting the computer.

Is there any way to perform this operation in Snow Leopard?

Thanks.

It's important for the defaults command to use the correct "keyboard ID" in the key, it seems to be: com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.$VendorID-$ProductID-0

For example the internal keyboard for my MacBook Air uses: com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1452-579-0, while the external keyboard on my iMac uses com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1118-219-0

How to get the correct "keyboard ID"? On the command line you can use:

ioreg -p IOUSB -c IOUSBDevice | grep -e class -e idVendor -e idProduct

to get a list of your USB devices with the relevant parameters:

  [...]
  +-o Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000@fa140000  <class IOUSBDevice, id 0x100000452, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (115 ms), retain 12>
        "idProduct" = 219
        "idVendor" = 1118

My guess is that the third parameter (the "-0" part) is a "counter", in case you have more than one keyboard of the same type.

So, to switch off the CapsLock key on my external keyboard I can now use:

defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.1118-219-0 -array-add '<dict><key>HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst</key><integer>-1</integer><key>HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc</key><integer>0</integer></dict>'

And, for completeness' sake, here's a list of possible key codes to use (from Mac OS X Hints):

None — –1
Caps Lock — 0
Shift (Left) — 1
Control (Left) — 2
Option (Left) — 3
Command (Left) — 4
Keypad 0 — 5
Help — 6
Shift (Right) — 9
Control (Right) — 10
Option (Right) — 11
Command (Right) — 12

Update: thanks to Lauri Ranta here's a command that works for Bluetooth & USB keyboards:

ioreg -n IOHIDKeyboard -r | grep -e 'class IOHIDKeyboard' -e VendorID\" -e Product

which gives you slightly different output:

+-o IOHIDKeyboard  <class IOHIDKeyboard, id 0x100000489, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 8>
  |   "Product" = "Apple Wireless Keyboard"
  |   "VendorID" = 1452
  |   "ProductID" = 570


Where is the local Google Drive folder? all.

I need to find the local directory for Google Drive. So far, all I see is the "virtual" folder in the sidebar.

I'm trying to do network transfers, but it won't recognize the sidebar folder.

The Google Drive physical folder seems to be located in ~/Google Drive.  You should be able to just go to your home folder and see it there.

If for some reason it is hidden, you can always get there by going to a finder window, pressing Command-Shift-G and then typing in ~/Google Drive in the popup window.


Boot from external drive using rEFInd only if external drive is connected I'm trying to use an external drive to contain a Windows install and a Big Sur install, but I'm having trouble configuring the boot options on a MacBook Pro 2018.
I partitioned the external drive to have a Windows Partition and a macOS partition and installed rEFInd to the external drive in order to choose which partition to boot from.
This is the process I would like to have when starting up my Macbook: I would like to always boot up to macOS main install on the internal drive unless I hold option on startup, which would let me choose between macOS on the internal drive or to startup rEFInd, which will then let me choose an OS from the external drive (a second Big Sur install or the Windows parition).
Right now - I've managed to have rEFInd boot up whenever the external drive is plugged in, but whenever it's not plugged in the question mark folder pops up unless I press option to allow me to select my internal macOS install.
Anybody have any ideas on where to look to learn how to configure rEFInd or learn more about the booting process here?

Currently, you have rEFInd as the default to boot. Below are some ways to change this to the internal drive macOS.
When selecting macOS on the internal drive from the Mac Startup Manager, hold down the control key. This will make macOS on the internal drive the default to boot.
Or
From the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences in macOS, select the internal macOS as the default.
Or
From the Windows Control Panel, open Boot Camp and select macOS on the internal drive as the default.