How to exclude mailboxes within a smart mailbox? I have made some smart mailboxes in Mail.app. The smart mailboxes I am using only for my Gmail account.

While they send the emails to the smart mailbox they always send duplicates. The email from the Gmail account, email from the whole inbox and email labeled 'important'. Apparently every single email I get is labelled as 'important'. Whenever the mailboxes refresh, they add the duplicates back to the smart mailbox.

I only want one copy to appear in the mailbox. Is there a way to exclude these duplicates or am I just stuck with it?

Well, in Mail 4.5 (on Snow Leopard) it's easy: add a condition "Message is in Mailbox" to your smart mailbox's filter. In my case, that "Gmail" mailbox is a sub-box of the (unified) Inbox.


iPhone 6 can't find network I have an iPhone 6 and it has the following problem:

the phone can find my sim card, but can't find any network. It does everything, including finding Wifi- and Bluetooth-connections.

When I put off the location services after a hard reset, the iPhone can't find the correct time and date. When I take my sim card out and put it in another smartphone, the time and date on this phone is messed up too.

Only after I put on the location services and the Wifi, the phone is able to find the right time and date.

For info: Here in Belgium, we only have unlocked SIM cards, so it is nothing like that. The SIM card works fine in other smartphones, except for the time and date being out of order.

Does anyone have a solution for this?

Thanks in advance!

There are two possibilities.

Broken SIM card. This would be more likely because SIM cards are small and break easily. However, you mentioned that the SIM card works ok in other phones. I would still suggest getting a replacement SIM card, as that will be easier than the other possibility.
Problematic phone. It is possible that the problem is with the phone itself. It could be a hardware problem, a firmware problem, or a software problem. The only way to tell would be to take the phone to an Apple Store (or, if that's not possible, an Apple Authorized Service Provider) to get it checked out.


macOS Mail app rules to delete are archiving instead I have several rules in macOS Mail app version 12.4 set to detect certain senders and/or subjects, with the action to delete the matching emails.

Here's an example rule:

However, I see they're instead archived (moved to "All Mail", still marked as unread).

Here're my Mailbox Behavior prefs:

Here're my Gmail IMAP settings:

I've no filters in my Gmail webapp. Anyone else experience this?

Check settings in Gmail itself. In "Forwarding and POP/IMAP", what's the setting under "When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted:"? And if that is set to "Auto-Expunge off" - what is the setting for "When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder:"?

I have the first option set to the default (Auto-Expunge on), which prevents you from modifying the second option. But deleting an email in my mail client immediately sends it to the Trash folder, not the Archives folder.


Disconnecting & Connecting macbook pro to Apple display My mac behaves weirdly while connecting and disconnecting to Apple 27" display.

Disconnecting:
At the end of the day when i'm taking my mac & disconnecting it for my desk display I just disconnecting all the cables thunderbolt usb and power, then when I'm opening my mac in the train , it's stuck and laggy the dock is disappearing, only hard shut down helps.

Connecting:
Nearly same thing here , when i'm connecting the mac starting a new day,
Again the mac is laggy and the dock is hovering somewhere in the middle of the screen, but here I can leave the mac for 10 min and it goes back to itself... everything in place and no more lags.

-Tried to disconnect it in sleep mode , doesn't help.
-While i'm working with the display the mac cover is closed.

someone here familiar with it ? any help will be appreciated

Thanks,

To be honest, I've found for many users it's best to just shutdown their MacBook prior to disconnecting it from a display (especially if it's also drawing its power from the display).

However, you should also be able to just put your Mac to sleep prior to unplugging the display and Apple actually recommends at least doing so:

  It's best to put your Mac to sleep by choosing Apple menu > Sleep before disconnecting your display.

Source: Apple

Also, only some DVI and Mini DisplayPort displays can be unplugged without putting the computer to sleep, but since you're using an Apple 27" display (which should be fine), you can try resetting the NVRAM to see if this addresses your issue.

Resetting the NVRAM on your model MacBook Pro

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). In your case here’s how to reset it (I recommend doing this using the built-in keyboard and while your MBP is not connected to the display):

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

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

Resetting the SMC on your model MacBook Pro

If, after resetting the NVRAM, you notice no difference, you can also reset the SMC.

Follow these instructions to reset the SMC on your model MacBook Pro (once again, I recommend doing this using the built-in keyboard and while your MBP is not connected to the display):

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

Further reading:

Use your Mac notebook computer in closed-display mode with an external display


Does iPhone X support Display Zoom? Does iPhone X support Display Zoom like the iPhone devices before it that are larger than the iPhone SE?

No

  Not yet. It’s a whole new UI so my guess is that has to be redone at the second scale still. Dynamic text is there and improved, though. https://twitter.com/roelvangils/status/925696251651330050

https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/925709868425793542

That makes sense to me because if a developer wants to support iPhone 6 sizes and larger then they already should have support for iPhone SE which is used when Display Zoom is turned on on an iPhone 6. There is no smaller version of the iPhone X with its notch and rounded corners, thus no Display Zoom. Next year we might have display zoom on iPhone X Plus.


How to launch browser in iOS Simulator from command line? I want to launch the browser in iOS Simulator from the Terminal with specified URL.

Is there any command for it? So that I can write in a script which will take URL as argument and launch simulator with browser and URL open on it.

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone\ Simulator -SimulateApplication /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk/Applications/MobileSafari.app/MobileSafari -u "http://google.com/"

Yes this really is one long command — make sure to run it all. Replace google.com with actual website, and iPhoneSimulator7.0.sdk with the relevant version of the simulator that you're using.


how to check integrity of recovery partition? I recently reinstalled Yosemite from the computer's recovery image.  I'd like to be able to check the integrity of that image (i.e. shasum /Applications/Install*OS*.app/Contents/SharedSupport/{Base,Install}*.dmg
 as seen here.). At the time I could not because shasum and most command line utilities are not installed when you boot from the recovery partition.  I know there is a volume called Recovery HD but I can't access it.  How do I check the integrity of the installer on the recovery partition?

Thank you

You can mount the Recovery volume in your normal booted macOS.

diskutil mount readOnly Recovery

Then you can perform checksums on files as you normally would, on the Recovery volume.

shasum /Volumes/Recovery/*/BaseSystem.dmg

When you're done, you can unmount Recovery.

diskutil unmount Recovery


Why can't my Mac say "defeat ISIS"? I'm running Sierra (10.12.5) and I've been using the text-to-speech feature to read news articles.  The system stumbled over the phrase "defeat ISIS" today, saying DEH-feh-CHURring EYE-sis.  The system can pronounce "defeat" and "ISIS" correctly as separate words, but if I put them together, "defeat" gets the incorrect pronunciation.

While probing this oddity further I've discovered that:

Of the English speaking voices, only the Samantha voice has this flaw.
The DEH-feh-CHURring pronunciation occurs if you follow "defeat" with any word at all.  Even random strings produce the error.

Is this user-fixable short of giving up on the Samantha voice?

Speech Synthesis in OS X

As a user, you can affect macOS's text to speech pronunciation and approach. Everything you need to know is in Apple's Speech Synthesis in OS X.

You can provide TUNE Format information to control how the speech is generated. An Apple developer tool called Repeat After Me may also be useful in this endeavour.

Also see add pronunciation to text to speech.

Let Apple Know

However, you have encountered an interesting and serious bug in Apple's text to voice system. I recommend telling Apple's engineers directly either through the macOS feedback form or via the Bug Reporter service.

The problem can be quickly demonstrated with these two Terminal commands:

say -v Samantha "defeat ISIS"

…and…

say -v Alex "defeat ISIS"


Remove the delete/archive button from iPhone email Quite often I seem to accidentally tap the delete/archive button in the bottom left of an opened email in the iPhone email app. No matter if it's set up to delete or archive the opened mail, once you tap that button it happily removes the email without further question, no confirmation screens. Is there a way to remove that button?

That’s unfortunately part of the UI and you cannot remove the button.

Post feedback to Apple at https:/apple.com/feedback
Use a different  Mail client

I personally got tired of the limitations and idiosyncrasies of Apple’s mail and calendar applications (similar to this) and switched to Outlook.  There are many 3rd party apps; you may find one you’re more in tune with.  From what I understand, iOS/iPadOS 14 will allow you to set your own default mail, calendar and browser breaking from the built in apps.


How to set Finder to *always* use list view I'm using Finder on macOS, and one major frustration I have is the disorganized grid view that always ends up cluttered and messy until I right click and 'Clean Up by Name'.

I don't mind the grid view in itself, but I'm also fine with list view. What I want is a system where it will use list view 100% of the time, NOT on a folder-by-folder basis, which is what happens when I click on the list view icon in the title bar.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Open finder
Select your hard disc
CommandJ
Check the top two check boxes (Always open in list view, browse in list view)
Click use as defaults
Open Applications->Utilities->Terminal

sudo find / -name ".DS_Store"  -exec rm {} \;

Enter your root password, press enter


Insecure update error - SUPublicDSAKeyFile A minute ago I had the following popup appear:

  Insecure update error!
  For security reasons, the file (dsa_pub.pem) indicated by the 'SUPublicDSAKeyFile' key needs to exist in the bundle's Resources.

I have no idea what application generates this error. If I open up the Console and search for "SUPublicDSAKeyFile" or other strings, I don't find anything.

How can I find out what this is about?

The error comes from the Sparkle Update system (SU). It is a freely available system for integration by developers into apps to provide online updating of their apps.

The error message you see could come from any of your third party apps that are using Sparkle (it is very popular).

The error message indicates that an important file is missing from the application's bundle. This usually indicates developer error (i.e. the program you've downloaded was "flawed" to begin with) - or it could be caused by you manually deleting the file.

I would start with Activity Monitor to see which third party apps you're running, and simply try closing down app after app until you're left with the one responsible for this popup.


How do I run Apple2.saver from XScreensaver as an application? From the XScreenSaver collection, https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/, we have the interesting Apple ][+ simulator.

According to its description, it can also be run as an application. But how?

If I use Finder to go to /Library/Screen Savers, Apple2.saver is present but running it just gets me the System Preferences / Desktop & Screen Saver screen.

If I get a Terminal and try to execute /Library/Screen\ Savers/Apple2.saver/Contents/MacOS/Apple2 I get an error "-bash: /Library/Screen Savers/Apple2.saver/Contents/MacOS/Apple2: cannot execute binary file". Adding the arguments to it that will probably make it behave in the way I want ("-text -program /bin/bash") obviously isn't going to help, we're not getting that far.

But it appears to be a valid MacOS binary, and runs just fine as a screensaver:

$ file  /Library/Screen\ Savers/Apple2.saver/Contents/MacOS/Apple2
/Library/Screen Savers/Apple2.saver/Contents/MacOS/Apple2: Mach-O 64-bit bundle x86_64

Back in Finder, if I "Show Package Contents" and then look at Contents/MacOS/Apple2 it shows as a "Unix executable" and will start up a Terminal when double-clicked, resulting in the same error output.

What should I be doing?

The two savers that can run as apps are actually supplied as separate apps, you don't need to pick apart the .saver files to get them to run.

Using the 'Install Everything' option will install Apple2 and Phosphor to your regular Applications folder. Double-click to run, like any other app.


Help with loop/counter script I'm trying to create a simple loop/counter script to display information about installed printers.  Main the Name, PPD, PPD Version, and URI.  I have two problems...  1 - the name is not coming up; 2 - the second printer PPD is incorrect.

Here what I have:

#!/bin/bash
name=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk -F ":" '/Name/{$1="";print $0}' | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))
ppd=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk -F ":" '/PPD/{$1="";print $0}' | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))
ppdversion=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk -F ":" '/PPD File Version/{$1="";print $0}' | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))
uri=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk '/URI/{print $NF}'))
total="${#ppdversion[@]}"
/bin/echo -n "<result>"
for ((counter=0; counter < "$total"; counter++))
{
    echo "name: ${name[$counter]}" | /usr/bin/sed 's/-,--/\ /g;s/\ \ //g'
    echo "PPD: ${ppd[$counter]}" | /usr/bin/sed 's/-,--/\ /g;s/\ \ //g'
    echo "PPD Version: ${ppdversion[$counter]}" | /usr/bin/sed 's/-,--/\ /g;s/\ \ //g'
    echo "URI: ${uri[$counter]}"
    echo
}
echo "</result>"

The output:

<result>
name:
PPD: Canon MX410 series
PPD Version: 16.10.0.0
URI: lpd://printer.local

name:
PPD: 16.10.0.0
PPD Version: 16.10.0.0
URI: dnssd://Canon%20MX410%20series%20_1B181C000000._printer._tcp.local./auto

</result>

Thanks.

The script is searching for "Name" - but no field entitled "Name" exists, so nothing is found. There is an alternate command lpstat that may be easier to parse the name from, and returns the same ordering:

/usr/bin/lpstat -p | awk '{print $2}'

Since PPD is also in PPD Version, this causes a conflict. Search instead for PPD:, like the following:

ppd=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType \
           | /usr/bin/awk -F ":" '/PPD:/{$1="";print $0}' \
           | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))

Here's a complete script - it appears to do what you want:

 #!/bin/bash
 name=($(/usr/bin/lpstat -p | awk '{print $2}' | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))
 ppd=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk -F ":" '/PPD:/{$1="";print $0}' | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))
 ppdversion=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk -F ":" '/PPD File Version/{$1="";print $0}' | /usr/bin/sed 's/\ /-,--/g'))
 uri=($(/usr/sbin/system_profiler SPPrintersDataType | /usr/bin/awk '/URI/{print $NF}'))
 total="${#ppdversion[@]}"
 /bin/echo "<result>"
 for ((counter=0; counter < "$total"; counter++))
 {
     echo "name: ${name[$counter]}" | /usr/bin/sed 's/-,--/\ /g;s/\ \ //g'
     echo "PPD: ${ppd[$counter]}" | /usr/bin/sed 's/-,--/\ /g;s/\ \ //g'
     echo "PPD Version: ${ppdversion[$counter]}" | /usr/bin/sed 's/-,--/\ /g;s/\ \ //g'
     echo "URI: ${uri[$counter]}"
     echo
 }
 echo "</result>"

The output (for my installed printers):

<result>
name: Brother_MFC_9325CW
PPD: Brother MFC-9325CW CUPS
PPD Version: 4.5.2
URI: usb://Brother/MFC-9325CW?serial=000L2J998184

name: Canon_MX410
PPD: Canon MX410 series
PPD Version: 16.10.0.0
URI: dnssd://Canon%20MX410._printer._tcp.local./auto

</result>


Reboot application without restarting Mac Whenever I try to open Preview on my MacBook, the application doesn't work and I need to force quit it. I would usually restart my Mac to resolve the issue, but I have some code running on the same Mac, which will be done in several days only. Is there anything I can do now?

What caused Preview to freeze was trying to open several EPS files simultaneously, and whenever I try to open Preview now, I see all those EPS files as currently open (their names are shown if I hover over the Preview icon).

After having opened something that crashes an app, subsequent launches will automatically try to reopen the file that crashed it... & round you go in circles.

The usual 'first-fix' for this type of issue is to clear the 'history' of what it was trying to open.

Many apps store data in this way, that's how they can set everything back up exactly as you left it, after a reboot, etc.

They live in /Library/Saved Application State/
specifically for Preview, at ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState the file in here is an Alias - usually they're not so you can usually just delete the specific app's folder & it will recreate it as necessary - but for an Alias it's safer to follow it by right clicking & 'Show Original' which saves the Alias being accidentally broken.

Delete the contents of the original folder but not the folder itself & your App should launch cleanly.


"The required index.xml is missing" in Pages and "You need a newer version of Pages to open this document" I have the newest Pages 4.3 and Yosemite 10.10 so the report makes no sense, Pages has been messed up. I tested the conversion between pages file and zip and it recompiled pages to a folder but it did not work -- only getting the error: you need the new Pages.
How can I fix this I-Cannot-Open-Any-Pages-File-On-My-Computer-Anymore with Pages?

You need to go to the Mac App Store and install the latest version of Pages (5.x)

As of now, the latest version of Pages is 5.5.1, and it's only available from the App Store.

Mac App Store
Apple website

I've seen this when using Pages from iWork '09, which is 4.3. The file format changed and iWork '09 cannot directly open the new files.

You can export iWork '09 compatible files from Pages 5.x though.


Can I share a wifi-connected internet connection over wifi on stock MBP? I have my MBP that is connected to wifi, and I want to share this connection with other devices but via wifi as well.  Can this be done with a stock MBP (i.e. no extra wifi card)?  I enabled this in Sharing, but my chosen wifi network name was not showing up.  MBP is running latest Mavericks (10.9.4).

If this is not possible with stock MBP, would adding an extra wifi connection make it work (e.g. via USB wifi card)?

If you have single WiFi card then you can not use it for receiving and sending WiFi.

If your internet comes from cable (Ethernet) or from a USB -WiFi, then those can be shared using your WiFi card.


Why do all other windows minimize when I open a window from the dock? Clicking an app icon from the dock causes all other windows onscreen to minimize. Is this intended? Is there a way to configure it so selected app's most recent window gets placed on top without minimizing the other windows?

iMac Pro 2017 on Mojave 10.14.3

I'm running:
Karabiner
SensibleSideButtons
Snap
TinkerTool

Using:
USB Mouse and Keyboard

Try this in Terminal/commandline:

defaults write com.apple.dock single-app -bool false; killall Dock

My hunch is that you accidentially changed this setting in TinkerTool.


How to show iPhone screen on projector? I want to do some user training on the new iPhone they are getting and I would like to be able to display the screen up on a projector while I am talking, similar to a Steve Jobs keynote.

Is there a way to do this without jail breaking?

Specifically, I would like to do this on an iPhone 4.

You can download the iPhone Dev Tools and use the emulator, this is supposedly what Steve Jobs does his presentations with (I haven't corroborated that). Otherwise you will need to jailbreak and use one of the VNC apps.

I know it sounds like you do not want to jailbreak, but you could do it just for the presentation, then go back to stock IOS afterwords. No one would know you were jailbroken except for the savy.

[Update]
Forgot to add, follow this link for what to do once jailbroke:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/iphone-mobile-osx-meshing-connect-your-car-internet-cloud/128589-mirror-your-iphone-display-extneral-display.html#post1286663


Why can't this process terminate? Just recently I ran into an issue where my network program couldn't bind to a port because it was already in use. I opened the activity monitor and realized it (named "server") was already running from previously, even though I had closed the window and it was supposedly terminated. Quit or Force Quit on the process do nothing. I even restarted the computer but it was still there! This hasn't happened with my program before. I even typed in the terminal kill 4517 and nothing happened. Help?

OS X uses a process launching system called launchd which consolidates functions provided by Init scripts, crontab and more in *nix systems (see the Wikipedia article for a high level overview, and Apple’s Developer docs on launch daemons and agents for details). One of the abilities of launchd is to keep a process it launched alive, if so defined by its configuration file – in that case, the process will relaunch whenever it is terminated. Your problem with a process apparently persisting across reboots and manual termination sounds very much like a case of launchd initiated process with a keepAlive key.

launchd configuration files are in plist format and found in

~/Library/LaunchAgents – agents for the current  user account only
/Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons – agents and daemons for all user accounts
/System/Library/LaunchAgents and /System/Library/LaunchDaemons – system level agents and daemons

and are usually named in reverse domain notation (tld.domain.process.plist). Depending if the user account of server is yours or not (can’t say, as you have blanked it), you should look in one of the first two locations above for a likely plist (if you have Xcode installed, you can QuickLook them easily). If found, your server is indeed controlled by launchd. The correct procedure to stop it is to remove it from launchd’s process list through

launchctl unload <tld.domain.process>

which will unload and stop the process (note you omit the plist suffix).

There is also a GUI for handling launchd files, Peter Borg’s Lingon (make sure to get “Lingon”, not “Lingon 3”, which is a dumbed down version safe for vanilla use), which might be more convenient than manually rooting through the file locations.


How do I backup just a single user account with OS 10.10 Yosemite? I have a MacBook Pro that will be securely wiped and reverted back to factory state, but I want to save just one personal user account and restore it after the wipe.  I don't think I want to use Time Machine to do the backup unless it can selectively back up a single account.  Is there a way to copy just that user account folder and have my settings, etc., preserved?  How would I restore it afterward?

Open Disk Utility application.
From the Menu Bar select "File→New→Disk Image from Folder"
Select home folder of the user account. Click "Image" button.
In "New Image from Folder" window enter:
Save As: Name for .dmg file that will be created.
Tags: Leave blank.
Where: Where to place .dmg file.
Image Format: compressed
Encryption: none
Click "Save" button.
In the "Disk Utility" window, highlight the new .dmg file. From the
Menu Bar select "Images→Scan Image for Restore".

  You now can mount the new .dmg file and access the saved files. You may have to use the chown command to reassign ownership of any files copied from the mounted .dmg file.

Update 1:

Personally, I would preform a backup of a users files while booted to a recovery partition or another partition containing OS X. Using internet recovery would also be preferable.

If you choose to preform a backup while logged into an administrator account, then choose to save the .dmg file to location where the user would normally have permission to save such a file.

For example, say I (davidanderson) open the disk utility and try to backup ronjanzen's files to the default folder /Users, as shown below.

I would expect the following error message, because I do not have permission to create the file ronjanzen.dmg in the folder /Users.

Now, if I choose to save to my Documents folder, then I will succeed.

The other alternative would be to give read/write permission to the /Users folder. If you do a "Get Info" from the Finder on folder /Users, you get the following.

If you modify "Sharing & Permission" as shown below, you will not get the above error message.


How can I add a city to my list and create a corresponding if-then string? My current code:

property cityList : {"City A","City B","City C","New City"}
choose from list cityList with prompt "Choose your city:"
set choice to result
if choice is not false then set city to choice
if choice is false then error number -128

if (city as string) is "City A" then
    set lat to 1
    set lon to 1
else if (city as string) is "City B" then
    set lat to 1
    set lon to 1
else if (city as string) is "City C" then
    set lat to 1
    set lon to 1
else if (city as string) is "New City" then
    set lat to my customLat()
    set lon to my customLon()
    set city to my customCity()
    set x to the length of cityList
    set the end of cityList to "New City"
    copy city as string to item x of cityList
end if

--script that does things based on values of lat and lon

where customLat() is a subroutine that prompts the user for a latitude, tries to coerce it to a number and outputs an error if it can't, and outputs another error if said number is not between -90 and 90, and customLon() is a similar one, but it tests for between -180 and 180 instead. In either case, if an error is returned, it prompts the user for the relevant number once more. customCity() merely prompts the user for the city's name.

My problem is what to type in after the copy city line. Is there a way to add an if block in my code - that is, have the code write on top of itself - based on the result of the "New City" if block? That is, once the code has established the variables city, lat, and lon, it will then insert before the end if line a similar block to the previous cities:

else if (city as string) is "Newly Inputted City" then
    set lat to 1
    set lon to 1

I am looking for a way that the user can input a custom city and coordinates, and the code will overwrite itself to allow that as a valid option, so that the next time the script is run the custom city will be available as an option, and selecting it will automatically set its lat and lon, just like the other cities.

Your code doesn’t need to rewrite itself. else already takes care of all cases that are unaccounted for:

property cityList : {"City A", "City B", "City C", "New City"}
set choice to choose from list cityList with prompt "Choose your city:"
if choice is false then
    error number -128
end if

set city to choice as string
if city is "New City" then
    set lat to my customLat()
    set lon to my customLon()
    set city to my customCity()
    set x to the length of cityList
    set the end of cityList to "New City"
    copy city to item x of cityList
else
    set lat to 1
    set lon to 1
end if


How to stop photos taken in Notes being saved in Photo library? I mostly work with Notes app in iOS and every time when I capture an image from Note app specific camera, it saves in Photo library. So after making a note I have to delete few images every time to clean my library. So is there any way of stopping that?

Yes. That is possible in iOS 10 or later version ( I think). However to do that simply you have to turn off a specific option provided in Notes settings.

Method

Goto Settings -> Notes

Then turn off Save Media to Photos. That will solve your problem.


How do I get non default calendars to show up on iOS (iPhone/iPad)? I was able to connect my iPhone to multiple Google accounts and have the default calendars show up on my iPhone and iPad correctly.  But how do I get the non default google calendars to show up as well?

Apparently there is a secret URL you have to visit to check off which calendars you want to appear on your iOS device.

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect


update unsupported mac with OS X lion to APFS 10.15 Please confirm if one can help me update unsupported mac book late 2008
HFS+ to APFS
Last 2008
current OS X Lion
Mac book 5.1
Omt; Cpre 2 Duo processor
2 GHZ
1 processor
2 cores
L2 cache 3mb
Mem 2gb
Bus speed 1.07 ghz
boot Rom Version MB51.007d.B03
Serial number W891......c8QR
Hardware UUID
Sudden Motion sensor
State enabled

There is software on the logic board which is referred to as firmware. This is the software that first executes when a Mac starts up. The firmware is capable of reading partitions using various formats such as JHFS+. When Apple introduced the APFS format, Apple only provided firmware updates for certain Mac models. Older Macs can not boot from APFS formatted partitions, because the firmware does not recognize the APFS format. Your Mac is one such model. There is no way to fix this. The macOS 10.15 operating system can only boot from APFS formatted partitions.


My MacBook won't go to sleep anymore Since the update to Mavericks, my MacBook has stopped going to sleep when I close the lid. I did some investigation and found out a command (pmset -g) to identify the process(es) that prevent it from sleeping.

The output:

$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
Battery Power       -1
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 womp                 1
 halfdim              1
 sms                  0
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 gpuswitch            2
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            0
 sleep                0 (sleep prevented by AddressBookSour)
 hibernatemode        0
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         15
 acwake               0
 lidwake              1

As you can see, AddressBookSour, short for the process Address Book Source Sync, is preventing the computer from sleeping. Unfortunately I can't quit this process, because it's a daemon and soon after I kill it, it starts again. I tried deactivating the synchronisation of my Google Contacts from the Address Book (I don't use iCloud) but it didn't help: the process is still running and preventing the sleep.

With the addressbook preventing the sleep I used the following procedure to fix it on my MBA 10.9.2

As always it is recommended to Back up all data.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBookSourceSync

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash.

Log out, log back in, and test. If there's no change, go to the next step.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Step 2

If you use iCloud, uncheck the box marked Contacts in the iCloud preference pane. Press return to confirm, or click Keep on Mac in the dialog that opens.

Step 3

From the list of groups on the left side of the Contacts window, select All On My Mac. If that group doesn't exist or is empty, skip this step. Otherwise, from the menu bar, select

File ▹ Export ▹ Export vCard

Save the exported contacts to the Desktop.

Step 4

Quit Contacts. Reveal the following item in the Finder as you did in Step 1:

~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Move the selected folder to the Desktop, leaving the window open for now.

Step 5

Launch Contacts. Your contacts will be gone. If you took Step 3, then double-click the file you created in that step and confirm that you want to import from it. Your contacts will reappear.

Step 6

If you took Step 2, reverse it. Test. If the issue is resolved, delete the AddressBook folder and the vCard file on the Desktop and close the open folder window.

Otherwise, quit Contacts again and put the AddressBook folder back where it was, overwriting the newer one that will have been created in its place.

Courtesy. https://discussions.apple.com/people/Linc%20Davis


How do I export Notes from iphone to PC with images? I have keeping track of my expenses within the notes app on my iPhone. It consists of a series of headings and pictures of receipts for the entire month. How can I get this on my PC in some format with pictures included?

If you do not require your notes to be in Notes format on your PC as well, you can email each note to yourself:

Open the Notes app on your iPhone,
Get into the note you want to transfer to your PC,
Tap the share button (top right),
Choose Mail and input your email address,
Check the mail on your PC.

You can then copy the contents of the note in the email and paste them into a document for further use or download the attachments to your computer. Some attachments, like photos, may not show in the mail correctly. If that happens, you need to click the show image option (depending on which email service you use) to view the pictures.

These directions have been excerpted from easeus.com. Hope they help.


Transmit Automator Actions Not Loading I have been using Panic Transmit to upload files from a specific folder to an S3 bucket for quite a while (couple of years). I have run into an issue where the Automator actions associated with Panic won't load (I think this is an apple Quarantine problem). When I open automator and try to use the upload action, for example, I see the following:

The problem is that when I click Load, nothing happens at all. I've tried restarting to no avail. I ran into this problem a couple weeks ago and reinstalled Transmit, and remade all my folder actions. This worked, but I'd rather not do this every time this happens. I also can't find the action saved in any of the normal locations, so I'm not sure how to turn quarantine off for it.

I'm running OSX 10.10.5 with Transmit 4.4.1. The only thing in the Workflow is the "Upload" action from Transmit. I am uploading to a saved favorite in Transmit.

So I figured this out after a lot of digging. In looking for the Automator action, I somehow skimmed over the application package in /Applications.

Transmit's actions live in /Applications/Transmit.app/Contents/Library/Automator.

Once I found them, I just had to clear the Apple quarantine info on that folder with
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Transmit.app/Contents/Library/Automator source.

I Hope this helps anyone with the same problem in the future!


iphone x camera files sizes I'm going to buy iPhone X and I wonder which size will be most appropriate, 64GB or 256GB.

I'm not a big user of apps, taking pictures or video but because my iPhone 5S 16 gb is full right now I am afraid iPhone X will fill up in the years ahead. I'm using iCloud storage to optimize storage on iPhone so all my photos and videos are on iCloud.
For now I would like to keep all my files on the device.

How large are the pictures and videos on iPhone X?
For example how much space will be used by a 1 minute video?

If you’re not a heavy user, 64GB is more than enough for what you need. Here is the size of videos in different resolution

1 minute 1080p at 30fps will be 60MB
1 minute 1080p at 60fps will be 90MB
1 minute 4K at 30fps will be 170MB
1 minute 4K at 60fps will be 400MB
(Approximately)
More resolution can be seen in Settings -> Camera -> Record Video

One high quality photo from my phone is a little more than 20MB.

Unless you’re filming at 4K60 all the time (for your job or something), and you don’t use big apps, 64GB is good enough for you. Otherwise go for the 256.


Choose a tab in textmate 2 Choosing :

I use a European keyboard (french) and I can't use ⌘1, ⌘2 etc. to access a specific tab with TM2.

These shorcuts are used by the Finder to choose a Desktop (Space).
In the Preferences System, I use the default keys : ^& , ^é to go to a Desktop (Mission Control). These shortcuts works perfectly but ⌘1, ⌘2 works also perfectly in the Finder to go to the Desktop 1 etc. In TM2 go to tab use ⌘1, ⌘2 but these shortcuts don't work for me in TM2. So I have two possibilities to switch between Desktops in the Finder and none in TM2 to switch between Tabs !!

My question is how to modify the shortcuts in TM2 or in Finder ?  I would like to be able to use ⌘1, ⌘2 (or a different shortcut) in Textmate to choice a tab (file) .

or How to remove the shortcuts ⌘1, ⌘2 used by the Finder to go to Desktop?

Switching :

A) Remarks about switching tabs in TM2
   I can switch between tabs with ⌘} and ⌘{ but I can also make a switch with ⌘⌥-> and ⌘⌥<-.
I think it's strange to have two different shortcuts to make the same action

B) Remarks about switching Desktops (spaces) in the Finder
  I can use ^-> and ^<-

You can change the Mission Control shortcuts in System Preferences:


After iOS 5 install, only some purchased ringtone transfer to iPhone After install of iOS 5 on my iPhone 4, I noticed that only 2 of my ringtones installed. I resynched. I explicitly requested a sync of my 7 purchased ringtones. Same result: iTunes synced the same 2 of 7.
I'm on OS X 10.6.8.

How can transfer all of my ringtones to my phone?

Similar thing was reported on Apple's forum (don't have the reference handy).  One guy said he fixed it by: deselect all ringtones, sync, select again, sync.  Another guy said he fixed it by downloading a single new ringtone.


How to open Google Chrome or Safari from Terminal When I try to open 'chrome' or 'safari' in terminal,

$ safari
-bash: safari: command not found
$ open safari
The file Desktop/safari does not exist.
$ chrome
-bash: chrome: command not found

How to open them in right methods.

All you need to do in Terminal, no matter what directory you're in, is use
open -a Safari
open -a Google\ Chrome

and optionally, add the URL afterwards if you want to open the Browser to the given URL
open -a Safari http://apple.com/


iTunes Utility - Merging Libraries I would like to merge three separate iTunes libraries.  Here is more information:

Currently have 3 separate iTunes libraries on 2 laptops and and dekstop.
Want to merge all three onto the desktop (i.e. it has all content), while maintaining the other two laptop based libraries as-is.
I want to avoid getting a slew of duplicates within the merged library.
I am not concerned about maintaining the library (i.e. playlists, etc.) on desktop.
I am not concerned with maintaining perfect sync, so could repeat the necessary procedure periodically to remerge libraries.

I am ok with using the command line, Python or applescript if that's the way to go.

Try this,

http://www.mediarover.com/

Haven't tried it myself yet but looks like it will give you exactly what you need.

EDIT:

Script Method: http://guides.macrumors.com/Keeping_2_iTunes_Libraries_in_Sync

I actually use this technique myself.

Creates a "carbon copy" of a library on another machine which you can then sync to reflect changes.

Works best with two Macs, never tried it with a PC.


2015 MacBook Air (13" - 256 SSD, 8GB RAM) Boot problems This is my Wife's Mac, and she has been complaining of general slowness for a while now. And I confirmed it and did the normal things: Safe Mode, clean caches, check the disk for errors, run the hardware diagnostics, zap the PRAM/NVRAM. The result: nothing found, still slow.
So time for a new Mac for her (a new MBA) and I scrub the drive on the old MBA clean of all data with disk utility, run first aid and (try to) reinstall macOS (Mojave)in the hopes that a clean reinstall will do the trick.
Internet Recovery mode errors out when trying to install Mojave from Apple's servers (and a 30 minute boot), so I make a Mojave installer on a USB-3 flash drive and boot from that.
It takes almost an hour to boot the flash drive and even then the progress bar completes but nothing happens. So I built another installer and verified this one will boot an older Mac Mini I have. Works fine, but on the MBA same as before: an hour to complete booting but I never get the Install MacOS Mojave screen. It sits, completed on the black screen with a filled progress bar.
So Diagnostics finds nothing, disk first aid finds nothing, zapping the PRAM/NVRAM does nothing, and now I have an old MBA with no OS that won't install a new OS and stumped as to what is going on. Not sure it is worth taking to Apple for repairs as repairs would likely cost more than the Mac is worth.
Any suggestions or even ideas what it might be?

If your installer/boot media works fine on a different Mac but fails on your MacBook Air, the issue is likely hardware (logic board).
You don't need a drive to load the installer.  If you boot from USB or boot from the network (Internet), it is caching the installer in memory.  If you're to run diskutil list command while the installer is running, you'll find many "disks" from 0 to 20-something.  These are the RAM disks and this is normal.
What you've done by booting both Internet Recovery and USB installer is bypass a potential failure point - the internal storage device.  The fact that the problem still exists  using both of those methods indicates you have logic board issue (possibly CPU or memory).  By booting from Internet, you remove both the USB bus and the internal storage from the equation.  Process of elimination says there's nothing more to bypass - the problem is with your main board.
Apple (service) isn't going to do anything that you've already done.  Apple won't repair this - they will quote you for a logic board replacement.  This normally runs about $5-700 USD.  At that price point, I'd go for a new machine.
Also Sell that one as salvage and recoup some money.  The screen is good, the battery, case, keyboard, trackpad, etc. can all be used for repair parts by a shop.  Even the logic board can be salvaged for individual components (the SMC chip is in high demand).


Find the target of an alias or link in Quicksilver Can I find the target of an alias or symbolic link using Quicksilver? I don't find a way to do so on this Quicksilver reference which is the best source I know of at this point.

I wasn’t aware of a way, but with some trial and error, I found that hitting → or / will take you to the original item for symbolic links. It doesn’t seem to work for aliases. There should probably be a “Show Original” action.


Stop Safari from opening FaceTime when a site contains a phone number When navigating with Safari to some sites that have phone numbers, Safari diligently opens FaceTime when I click on a phone number. Is there a way to prevent this?

I am currently tempted to delete the FaceTime app from the Applications folder, but I hope there is a less drastic way to do this.

more info : Both Chrome and Firefox propose the option to 'open FT' or cancel. I was looking for a similar setting in Safari.

I'm not 100% certain on this

If you uncheck "Calls from iPhone"

in FaceTime Preferences, this should stop happening.


Can't rate apps/music/etc in iTunes or App Store I'm unable to rate anything in either iTunes, the Mac app store, or the iOS app store.  If I rate an app 5 stars (or anything else), and then return to the search results, then go back to the app page the rating widget will appear as if I hadn't rated the app.  The rating count does not increase either.  It's has been happening for a while.  I only just noticed the behavior a week or two ago when I got my iPad, but it may have been an issue before that on my Mac.

I'm assuming something may be wrong with my Apple ID, but I dont know what it could be.

Apple blocked your account. You can still download apps but cannot post reviews or rate them


Remove all paired Bluetooth devices from iPhone in one go I'd like to remove a long list of old devices I paired to an iPhone without having to remove them one by one (I've got like 30 devices saved). I tried resetting Network settings followed by Reset All Settings but to no avail, they're still there!. Any way to do it without having to erase the iPhone?

I just need to know if there's an Apple official way to do it, so to speak, not any third party app or method.

I guess the only soluction is to erase all contents and settings


How to change the default app for callto/tel links from Facetime to Skype/other? Callto/tel links inside Chrome open up for me in Facetime. How can I change the default application used for opening such links? (I'd like to set it to Skype)

Two options:
1. Do this via Facetime (Preferences > Settings > Default for calls)
2. If this doesn't work, try RCDefault App: http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/

For me, Skype was not showing in Facetime's list, but RCDefault App made it possible to add a custom app there. What I haven't yet managed to make work is that the number would get copied to Skype.

By the way, this has been answered also at https://superuser.com/questions/1132108/how-to-configure-the-default-app-to-open-tel-links-in-macos-x


Galaxy S7 user with inactive iPhone 6 - Can I get iMessage with my active phone number? I have a pretty unique and specific scenario.

Here's some context. My friend lost his iPhone 6 in my house last October. Since he had insurance on the phone, he was able to replace it. I ended up finding it four months later. To complicate matters, Sprint said the phone's IMEI is blacklisted because the phone is listed as lost or stolen. My friend is contacting Sprint to let them know that he has found the phone, and he will let me keep the phone since I found it.

I already have a Samsung Galaxy S7 with my active Sprint number (415 area code). I prefer to use my Samsung for daily use with that number.

What I am looking to do is use the iPhone just for iMessage, so that I can still be in touch with friends and family who have iPhones while I'm out of the US. I only want to use the iPhone 6 to use iMessage when connected with Wi-Fi because I am going overseas for work in January. I might pause the active Sprint ph#(415) account while out of the US since I wont be able to receive SMS messages while in Europe and Asia but still considering all options.

Assuming my friend is able to get the phone's IMEI off the blacklist, will I be able to activate the iPhone with my Sprint phone number and get iMessage up and going, then go back to my Samsung Galaxy S7 once I get iMessage account running? Are their any easier ways to get my end goal of communicating thru iMessage without any obstacles?

Once you start using the iPhone on your account, and activate iMessage, you will no longer be able to receive SMS on the Galaxy from any contacts who use iPhones, because from Apple's perspective, your number will now be an iMessage number.

If you wait until you're ready to leave to do this, that will work. However, if you pause/cancel/whatever your service with Sprint, you will only be able to receive iMessages if the person has the email address associated with your Apple ID in your contact on their iPhone, and you have that email address set up for receiving in iMessage settings on your iPhone. If your service stays active, messages from other iPhone users will still be received by your phone via your phone number, but only if you're connected to Wi-Fi (or enable data roaming, which would probably be a bad idea if you like keeping your money).

Once you get back, assuming you want to resume using the Galaxy, you'll want to deregister your number from iMessage or you will back in the same predicament as far as not being able to trade messages with iPhone users.


Awk/Gawk not working after install gawk on M1 Using brew, I installed gawk on my m1. upon doing so, awk does not work.
Before install gawk:
❯ awk -version
awk version 20200816
❯ which awk
/usr/bin/awk

Then I install gawk and add the path to the binary to my $PATH
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/gawk-5.1.0.arm64_big_sur.bo
Already downloaded: /Users/jtsmith/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/78854a178070158dd17ca1789b20ecabe69f924bad7052337c019a8efeb30178--gawk-5.1.0.arm64_big_sur.bottle.tar.gz
==> Pouring gawk-5.1.0.arm64_big_sur.bottle.tar.gz
  /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gawk/5.1.0: 90 files, 5.4MB

❯ which awk
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/gawk/5.1.0/bin/awk

Now, if I try to use awk/gawk, it always results in a killed
❯ awk -version
[1]    10790 killed     awk -version
❯ gawk -version
[1]    10796 killed     gawk -version
❯ echo "test test" | awk '{ gsub(/ /,""); print $0}';
[1]    10800 done       echo "test test" |
       10801 killed     awk '{ gsub(/ /,""); print $0}'

I assume they are clashing but can't figure out what's going on.
Additional details:
❯ /usr/bin/awk -version
awk version 20200816
❯ /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gawk/5.1.0/bin/gawk -version
[1]    12436 killed     /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gawk/5.1.0/bin/gawk -version

I had the same issue with git. After reinstalling MacOS the issue went away.


Applescript app to shut down Mathematica at a specific time of day I have the following workflow that I need to execute on a daily basis for a period of days:

The computers start at a specified time, Mathematica and a specific Mathematica notebook launch and evaluate. Then I need to quit Mathematica programmatically and let the relevant schedules shut down the computers. I've worked out everything here except the highlighted step to quit Mathematica with an Applescript application.

To start with I created a simple application using the
Applescript Editor:

tell application "Mathematica" to quit

This will shut down Mathematica if the open notebook has been saved which the notebook does itself. Now I need to add a timer to the Applescript application.

An earlier question Automator workflow or AppleScript to close Safari after a period of time does something similar that I hoped to adapt to my needs.  It shows the following code:

global quit_after, check_every

set quit_after to 2700
set check_every to 10
set minute to quit_after / 60

display dialog "Check is performed every " & check_every & " seconds. Things will be quit after " & minute & " minutesof system inactivity."

on reopen
    display dialog "Check is performed every " & check_every & " seconds. Things will be quit after " & minute & " minutes of system inactivity."
end reopen

on idle
    set idletime to do shell script "echo $((`ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | sed -e '/HIDIdleTime/ !{ d' -e 't' -e '}' -e 's/.* = //g' -e 'q'` / 1000000000))"
    if (idletime as integer) > quit_after then
        tell application "System Events"
            if ((name of processes) contains "Safari") then
                tell application "Safari" to quit
            end if
        end tell
    end if
    return check_every
end idle

I don't need the dialog boxes and I want it to close Mathematica after say 15 minutes, so I tried this as a next step towards a solution.

global quit_after, check_every

set quit_after to 900
set check_every to 10
set minute to quit_after / 60

on idle
    set idletime to do shell script "echo $((`ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | sed -e '/HIDIdleTime/ !{ d' -e 't' -e '}' -e 's/.* = //g' -e 'q'` / 1000000000))"
    if (idletime as integer) > quit_after then
        tell application "System Events"
            if ((name of processes) contains "Mathematica") then
                tell application "Mathematica" to quit
            end if
        end tell
    end if
    return check_every
end idle

It doesn't work.

So I have two questions, can anyone suggest:

How to get my modified code to work?
How to alter it so it will shut down Mathematica at a specified time on weekdays only?

The latter would work better for me as I think I'd have fewer conflicts if I shut down Mathematica at a specific time rather than after a certain amount of time has passed.

Here's why it doesn't work.

HIDIdleTime is the number of seconds of inactivity, so unless the user do absolutely nothing during fifteen minutes, your script doesn't work.

Here's how to do this in AppleScript.

set timeToQuit to 50700 -- time in seconds =14h05
set currDate to current date

-- do nothing on Saturday and Sunday or this script is launched after 14h05
if weekday of currDate is in {Saturday, Sunday} or (time of currDate) > timeToQuit then return

delay (timeToQuit - (time of currDate)) -- wait
tell application "System Events" to exists process "Mathematica"
if the result then quit application "Mathematica"


Why does Microsoft Word need to allow incoming network connections? When I turn on the Mac firewall I get prompted to allow the MS office apps (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) to accept incoming connections. Why is this, and is it safe to allow it ?

I'm running Mac OS 10.7.2

I can't speak for Office 2011 because it requires you to activate your serial number with Microsoft, but in Office 2008, Office 2004 and Offive v.X, the incoming network connection is part of Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts.  Since each copy of Office is activated with a unique product key, Office products open an incoming network connection and listen for connections from other instances of Microsoft Office on the network.  When connections are established, the two instances of Office will trade product keys and make sure they are not the same.  If they are the same, then one user is forced to close their copy of Office.

I recommend instructing your firewall NOT to allow Office to accept inbound network connections.

Here's a link to Macworld that speaks about this 'feature':

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20020406142423494


Lost contacts after turning off Exchange On my iPhone, I gave it to another person who used it and added contacts.  Later I turned off the calendar, contacts, ets. (he didn't have the password) but some of his contacts disappeared.  Can I recover them?

When you delete Exchange account, sync deletes all of the contacts that are stored trough it. You can try to set up Exchange again to get that contacts synced on the phone (you said there is no password assigned) and then use this guide to keep them stored after turning off the Exchange account http://iphone-contacts.blogspot.com/2013/03/keep-your-exchange-contacts-on-your.html


how to quickly reboot from OSX to Windows and back From Windows back to OSX is fairly easy.  What I would like is a few less steps to get from OSX to Windows.  Currently I launch system preferences -> startup disk - then select the bootcamp partition and press restart.

Being completely new to OSX it seems to me that a one-click action on the dock should be possible with some sort of automation scripting.  Howerver I know nothing about OSX (yet) and how that works. First, is such a thing possible, and second please provide some tutoral links for such automation system.

Note: This does not work on systems with System Integrity Protection enabled

Write a shell script that does this

#!/bin/sh
# tell OSX to change the boot disk
# nextonly just for the next time - without the default would be Windows
/usr/sbin/bless -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP --setBoot  --nextonly
# reboot
/sbin/shutdown -r now

This can be called from a terminal window

sudo bootcamp

The use Automator to call this via an apple script and save as an application

on run {input, parameters}

    do shell script "/Users/mark/bin/bootcamp" with administrator privileges

    return input
end run


Terminal: run source ~/.bash_profile every time start new terminal I installed some command line programs (e.g. rbenv), but every time I open a new Terminal tab, it looks like the environment gets reset. I need to source my .bash_profile manually:

source ~/.bash_profile

I followed some tutorials and put this code in my .bash_profile, but it doesn't work:

if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ] && [ -f $HOME/.bashrc ];then
    source $HOME/.bashrc
fi

This doesn't happen on my old Mac, and I don't know how to configure this.

If you are using oh-my-zsh,
the default one that will be loaded automatically is ~/.zshrc. All you need to do is adding the following at the end of ~/.zshrc:

if [ -f ~/.bash_profile ]; then
  . ~/.bash_profile
fi


Wi-Fi drops since 10.10.3 Since I did this OS update my Wi-Fi will not stay on all the time, it has trouble (dropping). Also, once I turn on my laptop it will search for Wi-Fi for a while and in turn sometime never find the saved Wi-Fi network. I am doing this all from my home and trusted network.

OS X Yosemite 10.10.3
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)

Another thing to check is make sure IPV6 is configured as Link Local Only. To check go to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced > TCP/IP. Also check for the Ethernet connection also. Also check the configuration of any Apple Routers and Apple Express units you may have for IPV6 configurations and change them to Link Local. I did this and my wifi is back to normal.


How do I use ffmpeg to convert audible files I'm running ffmpeg v2.8.1 from Homebrew, and trying to convert Audible files but there's some trick I"m missing.

This command produces this error output.

ffmpeg -activation_bytes 1CEB00DA -i Volume1.aax -vn -c:a copy output.mp4

[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7fc9a4010600] [aax] file checksum == d72f1f04e3c73d0bc68e742db1bc69b58dc3a500
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7fc9a4010600] [aax] mismatch in checksums!
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7fc9a4010600] error reading header
Volume1.aax: Invalid data found when processing input

I know the file is ok, because it plays in iTunes. I does have the file image/cover art embedded in it as well,

From the ffmpeg docs, I read
Audible AAX files are encrypted M4B files, and they can be decrypted by specifying a 4 byte activation secret.

I'm presuming - probably incorrectly - that the one given is ok. If not, how does one find that secret.

First run these commands:

brew install chromedriver ffmpeg
sudo easy_install pip
pip install selenium requests
git clone https://github.com/inAudible-NG/audible-activator
cd audible-activator
sed -i '' 's,chromedriver_path = "./chromedriver",chromedriver_path = "/usr/local/bin/chromedriver",' audible-activator.py
./audible-activator.py

Then enter your Audible username and password and wait for a while for the eight character activation key to be printed.

If you do not run the sed command that changes the value of the chromedriver_path variable, ./audible-activator.py results in an error like 'chromedriver' executable needs to be in PATH even if chromedriver is on the path or in the audible-activator directory. If your sed is GNU sed, replace sed -i '' with sed -i.

After that run a command like this:

ffmpeg -activation_bytes youractivationkey -i input.aax -c copy output.m4b

(I edited the command above based on the comments by LiWang and marcus erronius to replace output.m4a;mv output.m4{a,b} with output.m4b and to replace -vn -c:v copy with -c copy.)

If you try to use the ffmpeg command above with an aa file instead of an aax file, it results in an error like Option activation_bytes not found. To download a book from Audible as aax instead of aa, choose "Enhanced" from the "Audio Quality" dropdown in the view for downloading a book.

aax files are encrypted mp4 / m4a / m4b files so the ffmpeg command above does not re-encode audio and it preserves metadata such as chapters. mp4, m4a, and m4b are alternative filename extensions for the MPEG-4 Part 14 container format. The m4a and m4b extensions were originally introduced by Apple. One difference between the m4a and m4b extensions is that the option to remember the previous playback position in iTunes is enabled by default for files with an m4b extension but not for files with an m4a extension. iTunes also displays files with an m4b extension under audiobooks by default.

Old versions of iTunes did not have the checkbox to enable remembering the previous playback position, but remembering the previous playback position was always enabled for files with an m4b extension, so even Wikipedia still incorrectly states that "an .m4a audio file cannot "bookmark" (remember the last listening spot), whereas .m4b extension files can." (Even though I don't know if there are still other media players which behave like old versions of iTunes in that respect.)

The UTI for the m4b extension is com.apple.protected-mpeg-4-audio and Finder shows the kind of all m4b files as "protected MPEG-4 audio" even though all files with an m4b extension do not have copy protection.


How can I delete files in recovery mode using Terminal on my OS X main partition? I need to delete a folder otherwise my mac won't boot. How can I do this in recovery mode or whatever it's called using Terminal commands?

Boot into recovery mode, mount volume, and open Terminal

Boot to recovery mode by holding CommandR right after starting your Mac before the Apple logo appears.
Go into Disk Utility and check that your target disk volume is mounted. Mount it if it's not already mounted.
Close Disk Utility, and open Terminal from Utilities menu.

Removing files from Terminal

Enter cd /Volumes then ls to list all mounted volumes.

Enter, e.g., cd Volume_Name/Users/<username>/path/to/parent_directory with parent_directory being the directory containing the target directory you want to delete.

Be careful, as you have nothing restricting you from deleting required system files! Unless otherwise necessary, you should only delete files from your home directory (/Volumes/<Volume_Name>/Users/<username>/)

Example: If you want to delete a folder "xyz" in "Macintosh HD" (the example name of your main volume) enter cd "Macintosh HD/Users/username", replacing username with your user name.

Then enter ls again to list all files and directories to be sure that you are in the correct working directory.

Then enter rm -r folder_to_delete or rm -rf folder_to_delete

-r: Removes a folder and its content recursively.
-rf: Removes a folder and its content recursively, attempts to remove the files without prompting for confirmation, regardless of the file’s permissions, and ignore any errors.

Example: If you want to delete a folder "xyz" and all containing files and folders enter: rm -r xyz


How to get songs to play consecutively I am in a playlist and if I tap the shuffle then the music changes but that song then repeats.  I can't get the menu described in previous answers How can I get an iPhone to play songs in order

What do I tap or do to shuffle a playlist?

The music player on iOS 10 is a little different - for me it doesn't reorder the tracks and you just get to press either of the shuffle all buttons on the iPad. (on iPhone, there's only one shuffle all control)

If no track is playing - it starts playing one of the tracks and for me that's pretty random (i.e. a second press almost always queues up a different track than the last press of shuffle all)

In the shown track - the items are playing from iCloud - so there is a delay to start playback, but if the track is downloaded or cached it's quite responsive to tap shuffle all several times.

I do also greatly prefer the Cesium music app on my iPhone for queuing up playlists. It has the traditional - repeat one song, repeat the playlist, or end playing controls visible below:

It has very nice queuing and gestures to control playback as well as filters to only show music that's downloaded or also include iCloud music. I tend to use this app for road trips or playlists at a party when I know I have a copy of the songs I want downloaded to the device.


How do I unlock a .plist file in /private/var/db/receipts so that I can change it? I want to edit some com.myApp.plist. I'm running OS 10.10.3, and I do have Xcode installed. But every time I try to edit the file, it's locked and I can't save my changes.

If I try to save it with Xcode, Xcode asks if I want to unlock it. I say "Unlock", but then an error says The file "com.myApp.plist" could not be unlocked."; it says that this is because I do not own it.

If I open the file in Sublime Text, its just the object code.

How can I make changes to the file?

I have tried sudo chown $USER com.myApp.plist followed by sudo chmod u+w com.myApp.plist. They both succeed but I still can't edit the file.

I have tried using Finder to change each folder in the path to add me as a read/write user, but still no editing capability.

I have tried opening the file from Terminal using sudo com.myApp.plist which opens Xcode. Doesn't work.

Not sure what else to do. I could try something like "apply to enclosing folders" but that seems dangerous.

You probably need to add an ACL to the immediately enclosing folder too.

Not certain about the entire path, but you could always later remove with
sudo chmod -R -N /path… at the highest directory level you reached to enable it, which will remove ACLs from the entire directory tree at & below your /path...


macOS: List apps authorized for full disk access Is there a Terminal command to view a list of all macOS that are authorized and unauthorized but have asked for Full Access?

I am looking for the list that is displayed under System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Full Disk Access, but via command-line.

The sqlite queries mentioned DO work, e.g.:

sudo sqlite3 /Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db 'select * from access'

The trick, however, is that you need full-disk access to access that SQLite database, so depending on where you're trying to do this, it's a chicken-and-egg problem. For just testing purposes, you can give your terminal full-disk access, then you'll be able to run the command.


MacBook won't reconnect to stronger WiFi hotspot My MacBook running Lion doesn't always connect to the strongest hotspot - and though it claims to be periodically "looking for networks" (at least when I hit the WiFi network symbol) - it won't connect to a stronger one.  If I turn WiFi off and back on, I always get the better connection.

Is this configurable? I certainly don't see anything in the user manual.

There's a bit of latency involved in establishing a connection to a network. If I had to hazard a guess, what's happening is something like this:

The MacBook sends out several requests for network connections simultaneously.
Some of them come back right away. Some take longer to process, depending on bandwidth, network latency, packet loss, whether or not the network is using encryption, mac address filtering, and whatnot.
It's quite possible that the server with the stronger signal is SLOWER, and takes longer to respond. But, because of some caching system (either at the server or in the MacBook, or both), when you turn your WiFi off and back on, you get that stronger connection.

This is, of course, all an educated guess.


Saving and managing attachments in the stock iPhone email app? This has been frustrating me for a long time now. I need to be able to save email attachments (NOT export my attachments to third party apps)

There are so many email apps in the appstore but why is it so difficult for someone to make an app that allows you to save an attachment to the app's filesystem ? Everywhere its Dropbox this, Google Drive that.

EXACTLY like how it works on blackberry like this : http://docs.blackberry.com/ko-kr/smartphone_users/deliverables/11298/Attach_a_file_to_an_email_message_664783_11.jsp

If not an app, Isn't there atleast a jailbreak tweak to do this ?

Dropbox's email management service app, Mailbox, allows you to open attachments in Dropbox or iFile, which in turn saves the attachment to your /var/mobile/Documents folder, but then again, this same thing happens in the stock Mail app (minus the Dropbox integration). What happens is iFile just registers itself as being able to open any file type, so that any application can open its files in iFile. This is how almost every application does it - they simply let iFile do all of the filesystem handling, so they don't have to (it's tricky on iOS; just ask the guy who made Sandcastle).

If that doesn't fit your needs, however, there is a paid jailbreak tweak called Attachments+ for Mail that should do everything you're looking for, and it integrates directly with the stock Mail app (plus, it even looks like it uses Sandcastle), and it's recently been updated for iOS 7.


Two external monitors using macOS and Windows on a MacBook Pro 13” I am in the process of setting up my desktop space and would like some guidance on products to purchase.

I am looking to buy two external monitors and a dock that will allow me to use my macOS and Windows Boot Camp partition on MacBook Pro 13” (2019) with two USB-C ports.

I essentially want to be sure that I will be able to utilize both operating systems when I purchase the new hardware. I have encountered mixed reviews about what will work with Boot Camp. I am willing to sacrifice display quality for speed as I will be using various types of statistical software and ArcGIS.

You have to check with the manufacturer to ensure it works with the OS on the Bootcamp partition.

There is no Bootcamp “compatible” hardware because Bootcamp isn’t an operating system, it’s  functionality built into your Mac.

So, you have to check to see if the dock, displays, and any other ancillary devices are compatible with macOS and Windows 10 (for example).

That said, docks and displays rarely have specific OS drivers.  Get quality ones of each and you should be fine.


Can my macbook HDD be used in a windows desktop? It seems there is a formatting issue / dead hdd in my macbook, as I have the infamous ? despite ensuring a good connection with the sata cable. Is it ok to plug the 2.5" macbook hdd into the standard sata & sata power cables on my windows desktop and check it out from there?

If it is working, will it show on windows?

I have no other mac to use or a sata-usb enclosure...

Thanks,

nuggetbram

Have you tried to boot to the recovery partition ..Boot with Cmd-R held down, and use disk utility to check/repair the filesystem

In the windows PC the disk should spin up but Windows will not be able to recognise the HFS+ filesystem on it, and will offer to format it for you. Don't let it!
Paragon Software produce a tool HFS+ for Windows which will allow it to mount the disk.

This will probably fail in strange and interesting ways if it is in fact corrupted. Another option might be some of the Mac Disk recovery programs e.g. Diskwarrior or TechToolPro


How do I view disk usage on my desktop computer icon? How do I get disk usage information on my 'Machintosh HD' icon on my desktop?

I did it on my old computer, so I know it's possible, but can't seem to find the option again.

I am on MacOSX 10.8.2.

Right-click a blank location (e.g. not on an icon) on your desktop and click 'Show View Options'.

Check the 'Show item info' box:

The effect happens immediately.


How to install Linux compatible apropos When I try to get information about apropos, I get the following:
$ which apropos
/usr/bin/apropos

$ apropos --version
apropos from man-1.6g

I tried apropos -r '^report but I get an error:
$ apropos -r '^report'
apropos: -r: unknown option

The man page about apropos is very simple:
apropos(1)                                                                                apropos(1)

NAME
       apropos - search the whatis database for strings

SYNOPSIS
       apropos keyword ...

DESCRIPTION
       apropos  searches  a set of database files containing short descriptions of system commands for key-
       words and displays the result on the standard output.
...

The above command works on Ubuntu/Linux.
I am not sure if it is because of the macOS apropos BSD?
Is there any way I can install Linux compatible apropos?
On Ubuntu/Multipass, I get the following. The man page has all options:
ubuntu@shin-instance:~$ which apropos
/usr/bin/apropos
ubuntu@shin-instance:~$ apropos --version
apropos 2.9.1
$ man apropos
APROPOS(1)                                       Manual pager utils                                       APROPOS(1)

NAME
       apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions

SYNOPSIS
       apropos [-dalv?V] [-e|-w|-r] [-s list] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-L locale] [-C file] keyword ...

DESCRIPTION
       Each  manual  page  has  a  short description available within it.  apropos searches the descriptions for in‐
       stances of keyword.
...
OPTIONS
       -d, --debug
              Print debugging information.

       -v, --verbose
              Print verbose warning messages.

       -r, --regex
              Interpret each keyword as a regular expression.  This is the default behaviour.  Each keyword will  be
              matched  against  the page names and the descriptions independently.  It can match any part of either.
              The match is not limited to word boundaries.

       -w, --wildcard
...

No, it does not have to do with macOS having a "BSD apropos" and Linux having a "Linux apropos".
Apropos on Linux and macOS is actually the exact same program. The difference you're seeing here is that macOS comes with a rather old version of apropros. You would find the exact same program in Linux distributions from that time period (at that time it was actually a rather simple shell script).
The "-r" option for regular expression was introduced with man-db version 2.5.4 from 2009, of which apropros is part.
You can install a newer version of man-db (and apropos) by having HomeBrew install, and running:
brew install man-db


Calibrate laptop display to simulate TN display problems I am a web developer and I have had issues where designs have too little contrast, and customers complain, but it looks fine on my nice MBP display.  Most of the computers at Best Buy are sold with crappy panels, and I agree with the customer than on cheap displays, there is too little contrast.

Is there a way to simulate a typical Cheap TN panel in OSX?

Since choosing the "right" color is a personal choice, I would recommend to use the ColorSync Utility located in your Utility folder.

Here you can set what profile to use or adjust the settings to your needs.

If you need to you can get ICC profile that suits your needs from here.


Can't get OS X installed on this ancient, formatted eMac Many years ago I was bequeathed an eMac. I believe it's a 1 GHz G4. It's been sitting around doing nothing for a long time, but now I need to install realMYST Mac edition, from 2002, and it's my best bet.

I was given three OS X install discs with the eMac: A 10.0 disc, an eMac Software Restore disc (that says it has Panther on it), and also a set of Panther upgrade discs. Unfortunately, the eMac refuses to boot from either the 10.0 disc or the Restore disc. It will boot from the Panther Upgrade disc, but I can't install it because the hard drive is blank and doesn't have a previous version of OS X on it!

Is there some file on the disc I could delete, some plist I could change or something, to make this installer not do the upgrade check? Or does anyone have any ideas on how to get it to boot from the restore disc?

EDIT to clarify:

The discs that the eMac won't boot from are in perfect condition and entirely readable by other Macs; the eMac simply won't boot from them. But it boots perfectly every single time from the Panther Upgrade disc. And the Panther Upgrade disc is way more scratched up (to the naked eye, anyway) than the others.

Apparently this eMac shipped with OS X 10.3 Panther. The restore discs claim to have Panther on them. But the eMac won't boot from the restore disc, even though it boots from the Panther Upgrade disc.

You are in a bit of a pickle, but not one you can't escape. :)

If you have another ancient Mac, you could use probably use target disk mode (hold T when booting) to install a version of Mac OS X on it.
If you don't have another Mac, take the 10.3 Restore disc to a local video store and pay a few dollars for it to be resurfaced. You'd be surprised how bad a CD can look before and still work after. I recommend this over the other approaches, because the Restore CD probably contains software you won't be able to get any other way. (Of course, don't read this as a guarantee that the 10.3 CD will work when resurfaced, but I think it's a good bet.)
Failing that, you should try to get a Retail 10.3 or 10.4 (Tiger) CD. I think you'd want to upgrade to Tiger anyway on this system.

A few more notes, assuming your eMac is really 1GHz (it's definitely a G4, they all are):

Your eMac requires a special build of 10.2. You should be able to use a 10.3 or 10.4 retail CD, but you're not going to be able to use a 10.2 retail CD. That 10.0 CD? I don't think any eMac will boot off a 10.0 CD.
If the eMac is faster than 1GHz, it may require a special build of 10.3 and you won't be able to use a retail 10.3 CD.

Personally, I found 10.4 the best version of Mac OS X for running Classic Mac apps. So if you can't get the restore CD to work (or even if you can), it's worth keeping an eye open for a 10.4 Retail CD.

See also:

Wikipedia: eMac Specifications


USB external hard drive is mounted on one MacBook Pro but not another I have a Hitachi rpm-5400 160GB hard drive in an Orico USB 3.0 hard drive case. The hard drive is formatted as ExFAT.

I plugged this drive on my Mid-2012 Non-Retina MacBook Pro and it mounts fine in both OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and Windows 10. But when I plugged into my Mid-2014 Retina MacBook Pro running El Capitan 10.11.6 it doesn't mount. Saying the disk you inserted was not recognizable by this computer. It happens on both of the USB port on the Retina MBP.

I also tried this on a Late 2013 iMac also running El Capitan 10.11.6 and nothing happens. Not even the disk unrecognizable message. I opened Disk Utility app on the iMac, it didn't even show up.

I am pretty sure this problem is not with the drive, as the 2012 MBP mounted the drive fine. Where should I go next to fix this problem? I don't want to erase the drive because it have important informations on it and it takes very long time to copy it to another drive.

Thanks

My intuition would say that the drive might be drawing a little more power than the USB spec allows and one Mac can supply that power and the other cannot, but that's just speculation.

You would need to measure the voltage or try a different drive in the same enclosure with the same two Mac to start to pick apart why you get different results on two hardware setup.


iCloudHelper spams system.log about accepting TOS I am seeing my system.log on my mac being flooded by iCloud Helper error messages dealing with the need to accept a TOS agreement. Problem is, the Apple ID that is listed in the message is not one of my current IDs but rather an 9 digit integer.

I have already logged into my two Apple ID accounts on iCloud and they are fine. Is there someplace I can look on disk for this? Everything seems to be working okay; I just want to eliminate the spam from a very overloaded Mavericks system.log.

Here is the log snippet with the integer replaced with XXXXX

  Nov 4 00:14:56 himeko com.apple.iCloudHelper[5272]: AOSKit ERROR: Setup request failed, appleID=XXXXXXXXX, url=https://setup.icloud.com/setup/get_account_settings, requestHeaders= { "Accept-Language" = "en-us"; Authorization = "Basic ..."; "X-APNS-Token" = 5aa69ef2a363d57292517edb985201b3e6ca340c04385511709c4a8be22180ea; "X-Aos-Accept-Tos" = false; "X-Mme-Client-Info" = " "; "X-Mme-Country" = US; "X-Mme-Timezone" = PST; }, error=Error Domain=AOSErrorDomain Code=5003 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (AOSErrorDomain error 5003.)" UserInfo=0x7f99e9d3dc30 {HttpStatusCode=409, DialogInfo={ AlternateButtonLabel = ""; AlternateButtonLink = ""; Body = "MOBILEME_TERMS_OF_SERVICE_UPDATE"; DefaultButtonLabel = "mme.setupservice.SetupServiceJS.OK"; DefaultButtonLink = ""; DialogType = TOSDialog; ErrorID = "MOBILEME_TERMS_OF_SERVICE_UPDATE"; Header = ""; HelpLink = ""; description = "This account needs to accept the ToS"; localizedError = "MOBILEME_TERMS_OF_SERVICE_UPDATE"; protocolVersion = 2; }}, httpStatusCode=409, responseHeaders= { "Cache-Control" = "no-cache, no-store, private"; "Content-Encoding" = gzip; "Content-Length" = 404; "Content-Type" = "application/xml; charset=UTF-8"; Date = "Mon, 04 Nov 2013 08:14:55 GMT"; : },

Open system preferences, click on each iCloud account and pause for a second or two and then accept the terms for that account.

Or, delete accounts that you don't need.

Either will remove the spamming.


VPN on OS X Lion Server I'm trying to configure VPN on my Mac Mini Server running OS X Lion 10.7.1 with Server app.

I have a SKY D-Link ADSL router connected via ethernet is Apple AirPort Extreme and my other devices including my Mini connect to my AirPort Extreme via Wi-Fi.

I don't have a Static IP so I am using DynDNS. I have installed the DynDNS Mac application on my Mini.

I have set the hostname on my mini to the hostname provided by DynDNS and I have set my Mini a static LAN IP of 192.168.0.100.

I have turned the VPN service on the Mini's server app, set a secret key and set a range for VPN connections of 192.168.0.101 - 192.168.0.200

For testing purposes I have enabled and forwarded all ports for incoming services to 192.168.0.100 on my D-Link Sky router.

I have tried to connect my iPhone using my DynDNS host name authenticating with a network account I have created and my secret key. I get an error the L2TP-VPN server did not respond.

My internet connection is working correctly on both my network and my iPhones data plan I have checked with my ISP and they do not block VPN connections.

I was getting the same error. In my case it turned out to be a conflict with "Back to My Mac"—specifically within my Airport Extreme. Once I removed my iCloud user account from the Airport Extreme, OS X Server's VPN started responding.

If there are any Airport Extreme/Express devices on your network, definitely remove any iCloud/MobileMe accounts using Airport Utility.

You may also have Back to My Mac turned on in System Preferences—and it's conceivable that could cause a problem as well...

I recommend (at least temporarily) checking that no user accounts have Back to My Mac enabled in the iCloud pane of System Preferences; I would verify this on every user account on every Mac on your network.

Good luck!


Right-click, create a new text file. How? In Finder > Select a folder > Right click, we get a popup with an option to create a new folder:

Is there a way to add menu item New Textfile for adding a new text file?

I am using XtraFinder plugin for Mac OS's built in Finder. It has most of the features including create new file in finder options.

You'll love it like I do

;)


How can I install Safari, without a browser or itunes access? I do not seem to have Safari on my iPhone 4.  I also do not seem to have iTunes installed, or any access to iTunes.  I have tried resetting my home-screen layout, but Safari and itunes still are not there.

I have tried to download the Safari install file to my PC, hoping to somehow transfer it to my iPhone.  But iTunes will not give up the file because I do not have iOS installed on the PC.

Any ideas, please?

As @Graham Miln suggested, it is most likely set this way in restrictions, assuming your phone isn't jail broken. Go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions and enable safari.

There is no way to install or uninstall Safari on an iOS device - it is a part of the operating system, nor is it possible to "have iOS installed on the PC"


Plug two headphones on a MBP 2011 15" Is there a way to use Mic/Line in as an output to plug a second set of earphones?

I gave a shot with JackPilot which is not compatible with macOS 10.12.3.

No, however you could purchase a USB device that gives you a headphone output and use Audio MIDI Setup in macOS to aggregate outputs so it would output on both. Steps for that are here:

http://lifehacker.com/5933282/how-to-aggregate-and-use-multiple-audio-inputs-and-outputs-in-os-x

Alternatively, just buy a headphone splitter to split your one 3.5 mm jack into two. Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Speaker-and-Headphone-Splitter/dp/B00009WQSR


OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Finder sidebar/Favorites: add MyComputer shortcut? How can I add a shortcut to "MyComputer"/"This Mac" (container of all drives) to the Finder.app sidebar (section: "Favorites), please?

Under Finder's Preferences / Sidebar / Devices check your computer's name.


2015 Macbook Pro display goes blank but machine continues to run and fans continue to go even if I close lid I have a 2015 Macbook Pro that seems to turn the display off after it reaches a specific temperature.  Is this a reasonable conclusion?

Initially I thought I had to change the logic board completely and figured it was full on hardware failure.  I tried closing opening the lid, tried messing with the display dimming, tried resetting SMC and PRAM, tried posting on Apple and asking them.  Nothing worked.  So rather than pull the whole thing apart and find a replacement logic board and replacing that I bought a new macbook pro 2018 and gave up on the 2015.

I needed some pictures off the old machine and began looking for a way to get the data off the 2015.  I started looking for a converter to transfer the data off the proprietary SSD.  I thought I would try to start the machine up again after about 6 months and the display came up asked me to log in and I did, everything was working fine for about two minutes then screen just goes black, machine still runs just no display.  Hard shut down then restarted worked fine for about 30 secs then blank screen.  Hard shut down left it overnight and then came back and restarted next day worked fine for about 3 mins. enough time to get my files  to the cloud and get the stuff I needed.  But it seems that all my hardware is working fine up to a point.  I've been able to run it sometimes up to about 10 mins, even updated the OS but eventually the display will just turn itself off and I have to repeat the process of hard shut down letting cool itself then restart.

So my questions are: Should I pull the heat sync and put some new paste on the cpu and gpu and see if that will help?  Has anyone else encountered this issue?  Any other thoughts on what might be happening here?  Any other idea about how I can cool the machine better or if I should not even mess with trying to address this issue?  I love my old 2015 and would love to have it working again.  Any suggestions would be helpful.  Thanks.

You've already reset the System Management Controller and NVRAM (both logical first steps), but there's no mention of you testing the MBP in Safe Mode or of testing your hardware.

Next I would probably start with testing to see if this behaviour is replicated when booted into Safe Mode and if the issue persists then running Apple Diagnostics.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your MBP
Restart your MBP
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. does your MBP still behave the same way, etc)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your MBP as normal
Test again when booted normally

If the problem doesn't occur while booted into Safe Mode, let me know and we'll go from there.

If the problem persists, proceed with running Apple Diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your MBP
Restart your MBP
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

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

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.


Control iPhone from Windows 8 Is there any software out there that will allow me to remotely control my phone from a windows 8 computer?  Either through Bluetooth, WiFi or direct cable connection?

Something like AirPlay but with the ability to actually use the phone from the computer, make calls, use applications, play music and so on.

No, there is no general purpose remote control on iOS. I don't follow the jailbreak community closely, but you might get some other capabilities there.

From a non-jailbroken scheme, you have these small elements of what you ask:

Air Parrot type software to AirPlay a PC but no capability to remote control
MDM tools like Casper Focus to remotely place an iOS device into guided access mode or automate the opening of one URL.

Again, the MDM profile isn't anything that hooks into VNC or accessibility (software switches or accessibility features like voiceover) - it just simulates one action to launch an app.


Creating a Service with automator, caffeinate First of all, sorry for my english, not a native speaker.
Since I'm a bit fed up opening Termninal and ^C I want to create a shortcut for activating caffeinate -d on my Mac OS X 10.11
I've been trying a simple Automator Service but with my noob skills it doesn't work.

This is the settings:
I chose Service as type of document

Library->Utilities->Run Shell Script
Service receives: no input
in: any application
Shell: /bin/bash
Pass input: to stdin

CAFFEINATECHECK=`ps | grep caffeinate | cut -d ' ' -f7,8`
if [ $CAFFEINATECHECK == 'caffeinate -d' ]; then
killall caffeinate
else
caffeinate -d
fi

Problem is that such a short scrip keeps running with no response and I have to stop it after a minute
I hope someone could give me any tips necessary

If you're trying the check to see if caffeinate is running and terminate it if it is, or start it if it isn't, then I'd use:

#!/bin/bash

if [[ $(pgrep caffeinate) == "" ]]; then
    caffeinate -d &
else
    pkill caffeinate
fi


Is there a way to add ‘separators’ to the menubar? Does anyone know of a tiny pseudo-app that adds fake menubar widgets, ones that take effectively no resources and have no icon, so I can ‘space out’ my menubar?

  (I ask because I use Bartender.app, and have ~30 menubar apps; they get pretty hard to skim over all in one line :P)

I've also spent countless hours searching for a way to achieve this. Recently I found a paid app on the App Store ($3.99) called infinite menu bar that claimed it could add separators to the menubar. I purchased it (had zero stars on the App Store so I was a little worried) but it works great! It allows you to make small, medium, & large separators.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infinite-menu-bar/id1439179659?mt=12


Does the iPhone GPS work in an airplane cruising between 30000-40000 feet? I have a very basic question: if I enable GPS in my iPhone when in an airplane cruising at an altitude between 30000-40000 feet (roughly 9-12 km), will the GPS actually give valid data?

I read a couple of articles (linked below) but I'm still confused whether GPS will work or not.

https://www.quora.com/Does-mobile-GPS-work-onboard-airplanes
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/8188/airplane-mode-does-not-disable-gps-is-it-safe-to-use-gps-in-flight

Thanks

For most practical situations, GPS will work well enough for you to track your progress but not have great coverage (less than 2m accuracy) or accurate speed over ground readings from iOS.

From an antenna / physics perspective, you may have horrendous GPS reception since you are riding inside a mostly complete faraday cage. Even if you have your phone in a window, all the visible satellites might be in a configuration where GPS is very poor or unable to generate a usable fix.

Clearly, cruising altitude is generally one of the best places for GPS reception as long as the antenna is placed on a tip / extremity of the plane. You don't have multi path interference to speak of, no foliage, and no hills or buildings to interfere with a clear view horizon to horizon - not to mention that your altitude will let you see more than the normal "half the sky" visibility you get on the ground at best.

The phone hardware and iOS will certainly try to get you the best fix it can once you have the device out of Airplane mode. I know many pilots that report the iOS GPS in the cockpit is quite good / on par with the other consumer and even commercial navigation products.


Is there a Terminal command to know the macOS installed but from an external hard drive or from macOS recovery? How can I know the macOS version (such as 10.12.1) installed on the startup drive if I don't have the password (or has filevault encryption and I don't have the password).  I wonder if there's a way to know it by using a Terminal command from macOS recovery or by starting from an External storage disk.

The ProductVersion is stored within the SystemVersion.plist file in CoreServices. This can be read using defaults:

defaults read /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion ProductVersion

When you're accessing the startup disk from another volume, you'll need to provide the full path to both defaults and /System:

/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/defaults read /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/usr/bin/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion ProductVersion


Installing Windows without superdrive or USB I'm trying to intall Windows 7 on my Mid 2009 Macbook Pro, however I'm running into A LOT of trouble.

My superdrive have been broken for years and I can't boot from a bootable USB. (I created one in Virtual Box using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool)

I then followed this tutorial on how to start the installation from within VMWare Fusion (http://www.andrewsavory.com/blog/2011/2156#), which seemed to work at first, but once I rebooted and selected the Windows Partition I got an error saying that windows could not be installed due to "recent software or hardware changes".
I had selected the x86 version, so I figured I might as well try the x64 version and see if that makes a difference.

So I removed my bootcamp partition, created it again, went into VMWare after doing the same process as before, now I simply get a message saying "No operating system found".

I'm wondering with my options are to actually install Windows without a superdrive or a bootable USB.
Can I just copy the installation files to the bootcamp partition and "make it start"?

Try using WinToFlash in creating your bootable USB.

I also ran into problems when creating a Bootcamp partition. I also don't have access to a SuperDrive when I created a Windows partition.

First, use WinToFlash on your Windows 7 iso. Please use at least a 4GB USB drive and make sure that you don't have any important files in that drive as WinToFlash will delete all files when creating the bootable USB. After creating the bootable USB, go ahead and create a Bootcamp partition in your Mac drive using this tutorial. Hope this helps.


Send email from my ipad without receiving? Is this possible?  I went into settings and turned off "fetch new data", but if I send a message from an account, the durn thing still downloads all my mail in that account.  I don't want it to do that.

In other words, I want the email on my iPad to be write only.

I don’t think there’s an officially endorsed routine for this, but I’m sure it’s possible; it just depends on what sort of email account it is.

What follows is guesswork based upon poking around the Settings panel of my iPhone. I haven’t tried these methods, but these are what I think might work.

iCloud

First you need to disable the default iCloud mail settings. On the iPhone, this is Settings > iCloud and toggle the switch next to Mail to Off.

Then we recreate the iCloud settings.

Navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts and Calendars.
Select Add Account… in the Accounts list, and select the option at the bottom, Other.
Select Add Mail Account from the list of options.
Fill in all of your iCloud details, and tap Next.
On the next screen, under Outgoing Mail Server, fill in Host Name with smtp.me.com, and the User Name and Password as per your iCloud login. Under Incoming Mail Server, fill in gibberish in the fields.
Tap Next. You’ll get some warnings; just tap through them. For example, I have one that says

  This account may not be able to send or receive emails. Are you sure you want to save?

  But this is just what we want, so tap Save, and on the next screen, Save again.

In theory, your iCloud account should now be able to send mail, but not receive it. (However, it will probably fuss and grumble, and you’ll still have an inbox for the account, albeit empty.)

Gmail or third-party mail server

Navigate to Settings > Mail, Contacts and Calendars > Gmail > Account example@gmail.com. Then, in the Gmail Account Information list, delete the Password. (In a third-party mail server, you’re looking for the Incoming Mail Server settings).

Hopefully, if the Outgoing Mail Server still has a correct username and password, you’ll still be able to send mail, but the iPad will fuss and grumble about receiving it.

I hope this is useful and works; or if not, gives you some ideas as to how to make it work.