Wifi on Macbook vs Macbook Pro How will you rate your wifi experience and over all experience between Macbook and Macbook pro?

How much of that good or bad is to do with Aluminium body?

The new 450 megabit per second (a.k.a. 3 spacial stream, 3x3) flavor of 802.11n on the Thunderbolt MacBook Pros is very nice, especially when combined with the latest AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule revisions from June that have modern 450 megabit per second 802.11n radios.

The plastic MacBooks and the MacBook Airs are still running the older 300 megabit per second flavor of 802.11n from 2007.


Where are force click preferences stored? Similar to others, I experience the issue where Force Click does not work to bring up the look up window, even in native Apple apps such as Safari. However, in a secondary user account, Force Click works as expected, while the System Preferences pane looks exactly the same.

Where does macOS (10.13.1, in this case) store the preferences for force touch and how to reset them?

Might this be related to the fact that sometimes Cmd+Ctrl+D does not work in my account (despite there not being a conflicting entry in Keyboard→Shortcuts)?

As far as I'm aware I don't have 3rd party programmes modifying trackpad/keys.

All your settings are stored in something called the defaults system, which at its core is a bunch of .plist files in your Library folder: ~/Library/Preferences/whatever.plist.

You can actually change them with the defaults command in Terminal, although it's generally a good idea to quit the relevant app first. Changing system settings will probably not take effect until you log out. For more information, run man defaults in Terminal.

Try this command:

defaults read -g | grep trackpad

This should show your trackpad-related settings. I don't have a Force Touch trackpad, but here's  what I get:

"com.apple.trackpad.forceClick" = 1;
"com.apple.trackpad.scaling" = "0.6875";
"com.apple.trackpad.scrolling" = "0.3125";

Now for some troubleshooting.

Before going any further, it's a good idea to duplicate your global preferences file, ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist, in case you lose some settings you want to keep.

To see if one of these preferences is the problem, try doing this with each preference in turn that you got from the previous command:

defaults delete -g com.apple.trackpad.forceClick

replacing with the proper one, of course. You'll probably have to log out and back in to see the changes.

(An important note: Terminal commands generally don't ask for confirmation before doing things. They assume you know what you're doing, which is all well and good until you don't, or make a typo.)


Applescript osacompile fails if user input contains apostrophe / single quote I have created a script which takes some user input from me (prompts with basic dialogs), then generates a standalone script that sends me a text message and an email, which I can then schedule as a calendar alert to trigger at a desired date/time.
Everything works fine, until there is an apostrophe/single quote in the user input.  For example if my email body is:

Here's my email

the script will fail to run, with:
sh: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'
sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Here's the relevant code sction:
set savePath to (path to desktop as text) & _appName & ".app"

set code to "osacompile -e '
tell application \"Messages\"
    set imessageservice to 1st service whose service type = iMessage
    set iMessageBuddy to buddy \"" & _smsNumber & "\" of imessageservice
    send \"" & _smsBody & "\" to iMessageBuddy
end tell
tell application \"Mail\"
    set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:\"" & _emailSubject & "\", content:\"" & quoted form of _emailBody & "\"}
    tell theMessage
        make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:\"" & _emailAddress & "\"}
    end tell
    send theMessage
end tell' -o " & quoted form of POSIX path of savePath

do shell script code

Again it works great as long as I don't pass in an apostrophe.  In my searching, it appears that escaping apostrophes in script is really, really tricky to get right.  I've tried numerous approaches (heredoc, multiple -e lines, quoted form of, etc.) but so far I haven't been able to get any to work.  If anyone knows how to get around this I'd love to hear it.

If I was doing something such as this for myself, I would simply write the contents of "code" to a temporary text file then use osacompile to create the AppleScript application bundle and then delete the temporary text file. Doing it in this manner you should not have do deal with the single-quotes passed in a variable.
The following example AppleScript code is just a proof of concept. In Script Editor, just set an appropriate value for the smsNumber variable, for you, and then run the code.
It will create Foobar.app on your Desktop for you to then double-click and see that it sends you the message with the single-quotes in it.
set appName to "Foobar"
set smsNumber to ""
set smsBody to "Here's my email"

set tempAppleScriptCode to ¬
    "/tmp/" & appName & ".applescript"

set saveToPathFileName to POSIX path of ¬
    (path to desktop as text) & appName & ".app"

set myAppleScriptCode to "tell application \"Messages\"
    set imessageservice to 1st service whose service type = iMessage
    set iMessageBuddy to buddy \"" & smsNumber & "\" of imessageservice
    send \"" & smsBody & "\" to iMessageBuddy
end tell"

set tempFileWasWritten to ¬
    (my writeTextToFile(myAppleScriptCode, tempAppleScriptCode, true))

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    set saveToPathFileNameExists to ¬
        (exists item saveToPathFileName)

set saveToPathFileName to saveToPathFileName's quoted form
set tempAppleScriptCode to tempAppleScriptCode's quoted form

if tempFileWasWritten then
    if not saveToPathFileNameExists then
        do shell script "osacompile -o" & space & saveToPathFileName & ¬
            space & tempAppleScriptCode & ";rm" & space & tempAppleScriptCode
    else
        display dialog "The file '" & saveToPathFileName & ¬
            "' already exists!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 ¬
            with title "The target file already exists!"
    end if
else
    display dialog "An error occured writing to: '" & tempAppleScriptCode & ¬
        "'" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with title "Error writing to file!"
end if

on writeTextToFile(theText, theFile, overwriteExistingContent)
    try
        set theOpenedFile to open for access POSIX file theFile with write permission
        if overwriteExistingContent is true then set eof of theOpenedFile to 0
        write theText to theOpenedFile starting at eof
        close access theOpenedFile
        return true
    on error
        try
            close access file theFile
        end try
        return false
    end try
end writeTextToFile


Can not setup open directory due to host name In activing Open Directory on a new install of OS X, I am able to put in a diradmin name/password, and they I get the following dialog:

  This computer's host name is invalid.

  The host name does not resolve to any configured address of this computer.  Please ensure the host name is correct.

I have checked

scutil --get ComputerName
scutil --get HostName
scutil --get LocalHostName

Each has returned what I expected (the machine name...the domain we are on, and the LocalHostName which matches the ComputerName.

My goal is to restore a backup of a live OD server to this one along with passwords.

That "what I expected" part seems wrong.

LocalHostName + <your domain name> should equal HostName

so, if HostName is myserver and your domain is sample.com than
LocalHostName should be "myserver" and HostName should be
"myserver.sample.com".

In a terminal,

dig `scutil --get HostName`

should return the IP adress of your server.


Apple Configurator 2 won't save changes to home screen layout iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 13.1

Despite applying the changes in the Home Screen Layout menu, the changes do not appear to take on the device itself. When I open the menu again to change the layout it simply never made the changes and reverts back to how the phone is when it's plugged in.

Am I missing a step?

I am using Apple Configurator 2 version 2.13.3 (5B55) and the "Apply" button does apply the changes to my iPhone 6 (running iOS 14.4.2).
Unfortunately, the modal dialog doesn't have a scroll bar, so it only allows me to change app icons from the first 4 home screens. I have enough icons to fill 7 screens on my phone but the final ones are not available.


Disable notification when logging in with apple watch OSX Sierra added the ability to login to your mac via a paired Apple Watch instead of typing a password.  This is a great feature, but every time I log in it sends a notification to the Apple Watch, which can be annoying (especially since the notification tone is exactly the same as the one used for actual notifications).  Is there any way to disable that notification, or at least tun off the sound for that one without completely muting the watch?

There isn't a way to disable the sound without disabling all notification sounds, as you've already discovered.

I would recommend leaving feedback for Apple here and let them know what new features you'd like to have added to the watch.  I already left my feedback for this option but it would help to have others do the same thing.


How do I record video on iOS with external audio interface? I would like to record a camera video on my iPad, but I do not want to use the internal microphone.

I have a USB audio interface connected with the Camera Connection Kit, and the interface works flawlessly in audio apps. I can record multichannel audio no problem. iOS sets the audio interface as default audio device, so it's usually plug in & record, easy.

But the iOS camera app doesn't seem to work with the audio interface - it records silence when the audio interface is connected.

I want to record the video from the camera, and audio from the audio interface inputs.

Anyone found a way to do this with either a built-in or a free app?
Thanks!

On your iOS device, launch Camera App. Select the desired recording setting (eg. Video).

THEN plug in your external Audio Interface. Your camera connection kit should already be plugged in, but you should only plug the audio interface usb lead into it once the camera app is running.

Record. It will take in whatever is on channels 1 and 2 and record with your video stream.

NOTE: If you either close the Camera App, power down the iOS device, iOS device goes to sleep or you disconnect your interface - you will need to repeat the above procedure to capture again.

Other issue, these is NO INDICATION you are recording audio from the external interface - so you may want to test the procedure a few times to make sure you know it works for you so you can reproduce exactly in a real situation.


Slim down an ios backup file My 32gb iPhone is irreversibly broken but I have an encrypted backup on iTunes (not iCloud). I want to load it onto my older 16gb iPhone but it's too large. I've found some software that lets you browse encrypted backup files but I need something that will let me browse it and delete large media files to slim it down to <16gb. Any suggestions?

iMazing works with iOS 11 and allows you to slim down encrypted backups. You

  With iMazing, your backups become fully editable, even if they are
  encrypted.

  Advanced users enjoy a complete toolbox for browsing and editing
  backups.

  Browse the file system of iTunes and iMazing backups
  Extract any file or folder
  Edit backup files, or add files to backups
  Encrypted backups are fully supported (password required!)

I have used iMazing in the past and for full and partial restores of iPhones and iPads.


Boot Camp installs in wrong language. How can I fix this? I have a MacBook with an English keyboard running Lion in English. I used Boot Camp to download the WindowsSupport package and then installed 32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate, also in English.

Turns out the WindowsSupport package is in German, probably because I am currently in Switzerland.

How can I fix this?

Turns out the Apple installer installs whatever language Windows' language format is set to. I am in Zurich, I set it to German Switzerland.

I had called Apple support, they didn't know that. Their theory was that because I had bought Lion in a German-language app store, it would download German Boot Camp updates.

But this is the solution.


Double and triple notifications When activating Calendar app I get double and triple notifications on my appointments - for example birthdays, holidays etc. How can I get rid of these double notifications?

I assume you have local calendars and iCloud calendars.

Make sure that the events and birthdays are only in one calendar. I had the same problem before. After consolidating my calendars and moving them to iCloud it was fixed.


Does there exist an iPhone application that can call an online API (RESTful or otherwise) triggered by geofences? I've pretty much stated the entire question in the title:

I'm looking for an iPhone application that can call an online API (preferably RESTful but I'll accept anything) as a reaction to triggering a geofence.

So, as a stupid example, a tweet could be sent out automatically when I arrive at my house. The iPhone would see the geofence trigger, the application would be invoked, which would call the Twitter API to send the tweet.

Looks like Locative can do this:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/locative/id725198453?mt=8

https://github.com/LocativeHQ


macOS High Sierra 17G2112 vs 17G65 I was trying to use
installinstallmacos.py to create an installer disk image for High Sierra 10.13.6 (I need an offline installer and downloading from App Store only downloads a ~4MiB stub file with further install most probably requiring an active internet connection).

The above script lists two different variants of High Sierra 10.3.6:

ProductID   Version Build   Title
091-53703   10.13.6 17G2112 macOS High Sierra
091-94326   10.13.6 17G65   macOS High Sierra

The page How to find the macOS version number on your Mac, in fact lists only 17G65 for High Sierra 10.13.6 and states:

  Below are the versions and builds of each Mac operating system made available from the Mac App Store,

What is the difference between the two?

17G2112 is a special build for the new hardware just released. The 2018 MacBook Pro.

It's mentioned as shipping OS at Everymac.com

  Pre-Installed MacOS:  X 10.13.6 (17G2112)

17G65 should be used for every other Mac.


Delay in receiving messages in iMessage on iPhone 4S I have an iPhone 4S, and I've noticed a delay receiving messages. When I've noticed the problem, I've always been on 3G, not Wi-Fi.

I'll generally notice this when 5 or 6 messages in a conversation come in at the same time. From there, everything seems to be real-time with no problems.

I've considered that maybe my 3G service was just inconsistent and is down when the messages are delayed, but my understanding is that if 3G isn't available, the messages will come in as regular SMS.

Anyone heard of this problem, or have any ideas on how I can troubleshoot?

This issue could be caused by a lot of causes.

To start with, it could be a matter of poor data coverage. If you experience the delays at the same time of the day at the same place, maybe that spot isn't that well covered and you just have bad luck receiving messages over there. So if you are always on the same spot, try a different one.

It could also be a connection error. Do you experience the problems when one particular person sends you messages, or with everyone? And do they experience delays too when you send messages to them?

It could be a malfunctioning 3G. Try to turn off 3G (if you can) and just use GPRS. There have been reports iMessages didn't work out well on 3G, but on GPRS it worked like a charm (it doesn't make any sense to turn off and on 3G just to send iMessages, but at least you'll figure out the cause).

And the last, and probably the most unliky cause, could be an issue at the Apple servers. It happens sometimes, when those things get really busy, they protect themselves and spread the work over time. As I said, it's very unlikely, but it happens.

And to answer your second question; yes indeed. If iMessages fails to send, your iPhone will try to send it as an SMS. You can activate this function at 'General < Messages < Send as SMS'


The wireless chipset's Wi-Fi frequency (Ghz or MHz) and Wi-Fi output (dbm) MacBook Pro 13' 2017 touch bar I want to deliver my macbookpro to another country (Taiwain).
  And to do so, the country ask me to provide the wireless chipset's Wi-Fi frequency (Ghz or MHz) and output (dbm) information which is one of the input documents.

I searched in the Internet for half of day and I have known is that it use the "Broadcom 43XX" as the chipset and "Murata/Apple339S00056 Wi-Fi".

However there is still nothing about the  information I need.

And I had contact with the Apple Store and found out that they said it is the internal information they could not reach.

Hope here can find the information.
Thanks for watching this!!

I'm not sure how much this answer will help, but unless I'm missing some finer details in your question, the Wi-Fi bands supported are 5GHz (IEEE 802.11ac natively) and 2.4GHz (via backwards compatibility with the 802.11n specifications).

I'm not 100% certain on the radio output power, but typically Apple hardware is rated at 20 dBm (nominal).

If it helps, all Apple hardware fully complies with IEEE specifications and meet the legal regulatory requirements for all regions to which they sell directly. And, just for the record, Apple does sell these models directly in Taiwan.

Also, by default Apple designs these products to ensure their devices

do not exceed the level of allowable transmitter power, the different available channels, and the times those channels can be occupied.
will not transmit at a power above what is allowable in any nation to which they sell, nor will their products use frequencies that are not permitted in any nation.


How to create own filename extension? I want to have an extension, named .content, to store all files in it that are linked to the filename. The extension ".content" should be recognized by the OS as a file extension rather than a regular map. The files in the extension should be only reached by opening the extension by the option "Show Package Contents".
I hope someone can offer me a solution to my problem.

OS X ships with a set of extensions that map to specific applications (and most of these map to Apple provided apps) so you could petition Apple to make the change, but that would be unlikely.

The other mechanism to inject a specific .extension to Application mapping into the Launch Services database is to install an Application that tells the system to map certain file types and extensions to that specific Application.

So, to keep things on-topic here let's just direct you to Stack Overflow to ask how to make your own Application. If you're not looking to develop an application,  you could also just modify the app you want to open your custom file extension by changing it's interal info.plist file:

About Information Property List Files for OS X Applications

Sorry if this level of detail is more technical than you want, but I wanted to answer this for anyone that needs to know how to modify things.


Can I limit Gmail auto-retrieval on an iPhone? Is it possible to stop the iPhone from retrieving old emails from my mail account? I have about 5000 messages in my Gmail inbox and would like to keep them there. Currently, my iPhone fetches about 50 at a time and displays them in my inbox.

Is there a way to setup iPhone mail to fetch only future emails, or a workaround?

If you have setup your Gmail using Google Sync (as an Exchange account) then it is doable. If you'd like to do this follow these instructions:

Set up Google Sync with your iOS device

There are other benefits to this such as Exchange-like calendar pushing and proper push support for mail.

Then, go to the Settings app and under Mail, Contacts, Calendars select the account you want to limit the retrieval of mail for.

Underneath the sliders that enable the components of the account (e.g. contacts, calendars or mail) you will have the following option

Mail Days to Sync
Mail Folders to Push

The first of these is what you want. If set to 2 weeks then only the last 2 weeks of mail is synced with your phone.

I prefer however to have No Limit with this option and choose to limit which folders get synced (with the second option). If you keep a tidy inbox and archive mail to folders then this can be a sensible way forward.


How to enforce sandbox rules for the particular app? I wrote an sandbox specification file (inspired by files from /usr/share/sandbox and manuals like this) and now I can launch some app in sandbox with sandbox-exec $path_to_rules /Applications/$appname.app/Content/.... Fine.

Is there a way to enforce the rules when the app is started in regular way (Finder's "Open with...", etc)?

I thought about replacing the binary inside .app with wrapper script but it will be overwritten after app update and I will need to restore it every time.

Yes, you can change the binary, or even change the Info.plist, but like changing the binary you make will need to do this again each time the app is updated. There's no way to do this without changing the app in a way that won't be overwritten when it's updated.

You can automatically make your changes with a Launch Agent.
Save the following in ~/Library/LaunchAgents as com.yourname.youragent.plist, then run launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourname.youragent.plist.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.yourname.youragent</string>
        <key>OnDemand</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>cp</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/Users/grgarside/test/MyApp</string>
            <string>/Applications/MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/</string>
        </array>
        <key>WatchPaths</key>
        <array>
            <string>/Applications/MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</plist>

The above script will watch the WatchPaths for any modifications (in this case, it's watching the binary for an app) and will run cp to copy your binary to the app in /Applications.


How to disable notifications from automated "shortcuts"? How can I disable notifications from iOS "Automation" "shortcuts"?
Is there a way to disable (or manage at all) notifications from my shortcuts? I have "Automation" shortcuts which turn on the phone screen and I really don't need or want notifications for.
Thanks.

There is a way but it requires Screen Time to be enabled.
You need to go to Settings ▶ Screen Time, search for See All Activity, scroll down to Notification section (it’s shown only when you got 1 or more notifications from shortcuts after enabling Screen Time), and there you can manage shortcuts notification permissions, style, etc.


How do I find my MacBook Pro password? I have a new MacBook Pro 2017, running OS 10.13.6 and I am afraid to shut down because I don't remember my password.  How do I find it or make a new one?

There are a couple methods to reset an admin password. Once you restart, Apple guides you to this when you fail to enter the password correctly.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860

Also these questions cover the ground pretty thoroughly.

Lost access to admin user account in my mac book pro
How can I get admin access to a Mac without knowing the current password?
How to hack into a deceased person's Mac that is still running?


MacBook Pro battery drains when connected to AC power I've been experiencing a very annoying problem lately. Often, I've got my MacBook Pro connected to  power when I'm working from the office. At home, I often leave it unplugged until the battery is too low to continue at which point I plug it in.
The problem occurs when my device is connected to a power supply. My battery indicator shows 100% charge which is fine. But sometimes the battery starts draining and the menu bar icon says "Battery not charging," even when it's connected to a wall socket, and it keeps draining until absolutely dry. It doesn't even warn me the battery is running low because it shows "Power source: Power adapter" which I guess disables the Operating system low-battery warning. This has happened on multiple occasions.
I've already tried several things, I've swapped chargers, swapped wall sockets, started with as few tools/apps running as possible. But the problem comes back. I also can't really tie this to a specific app or behavior,  AFAIK.
Does anyone know what might be causing this behavior and what to possibly do about it?

There are two things that can be attributed to this:

There is a technical issue with your charger
The Battery Health Management feature (released in Catalina) can make it appear you have a charging issue.

Wrong charger
You are likely using the wrong power adapter; it's too "small" for your particular MacBook.  Your machine requires the 87W power adapter.
If you take a look at Apple's support document Find the right power adapter and cable for your Mac notebook under the USB section, you'll notice that all of the adapters from the 29W that charges the MacBook to the 91W that charges the 16" MacBook Pro all look identical so it's quite easy to mix them up. While you can plug in any of these into any of the MacBook computers (plain, Air, or Pro) and while it will "charge," you won't get optimal results.

A "larger" charger can be used to power a "smaller" device.  In other words, you can use the 91W charger from the 16" MBP to power/charge the 2015 MBA that only required the 29W charger.
A "smaller" charger should not be used to power a "larger" device.  While USB-C will negotiate the power being delivered, if the adapter cannot supply the requested current, it simply won't be there.

What you're experiencing is what's in the second  point.  The adapter is connected (and detected) but it simply cannot supply enough power to charge and for you use the computer at the same time.  If you notice, Coconut battery is reporting that it's charging with only 49W, yet the battery isn't charging.  You're likely using the 61W adapter. (That number is a misnomer because that current is what it's drawing from the power adapter current, not what's going to the battery).
Battery Health Management in Catalina
As of Catalina (10.15.5) Apple has implemented a feature called Battery Health Management that will stop charging and allow it to discharge to a predetermined charge (about 80%) before recharging again. This happens even while the charger is plugged in and working.
You can learn more about Catalina’s Battery Health Management feature in the Apple Support Document About battery health management in Mac notebooks
Therefore, assuming you're using the correct wattage charging adapter, this could be perfectly normal behavior.


Audiobook files do not play correctly in iOS 5 I upgraded to iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 and now I cannot play audiobooks correctly.  When I transfer audiobooks to my phone using Overdrive they show up in the book section but are unable to play.  I have to designate each file as Music to be able to play them, but then I am not able to listen to them in chapter format, nor am I able to play in double speed or use the 30 second fast forward button.  I spend more time listening to books on my phone than anything else so this is a major digression in capability.

Is there a fix to this?

I had a similar issue with the default music app and the Steve Jobs biography audiobook (ironically).

I had to manually delete the audiobook from my device by checking the box for Manually manage music and videos in iTunes, then delete the files, then re-add them again.

Have a look at the audiobook entries under your device in iTunes - mine had a sync icon next to them as if to indicate that the problem was getting them onto the device, rather than with the player itself.

I haven't yet tried to uncheck the box for Manually manage music and videos for fear of breaking the audiobook again.


How do I remove the MobileMe icon in the menu bar? If I try to go to the settings in System Prefs > MobileMe, it asks for a username and password. Is there any way to remove the menu bar icon without needing to either login or create a MobileMe account?

You can remove menu icons by dragging them out of the menubar while holding the ⌘-key.

This behavior does not work with icons from third party applications (e.g. Dropbox, Growl...).


MacBook Pro early 2011: sound loop, black screen Over the last week I have had four similar incidents:

When I played something on YouTube, the audio just loops for a few seconds, and then either the screen freezes or a black screen will appear.

For the first three times, booting up will result in blue screen with black vertical lines, grey screen or black screen. Went to technician at my school for advice, he said to update my Macbook to 10.9.5. I did that, it was fine for around 48 hours or so.

A few minutes ago, I was watching something on BBC iPlayer when suddenly the sound loops and a black screen appeared. I cannot control my keyboard either. I have to long press the power button (force shut down) and started up again. When I boot up the computer it booted up fine, no safe mode needed. Weirdly enough it did not give me any log. turns out it was from YouTube, not iPlayer

Anyone has an idea of what might be going on with my Macbook? I have the early 2011 Macbook Pro model, 15". Could this be one of the infamous cases of bad GPU?
Is it also possible for this incident to happen multiple times in one day?

Thank you in advance.

It is a case of desecrete GPU failure. Most of the Early and Late 2011 MBP are prone to this failure. The culprit is the AMD GPU. See more at the links below.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/suddenly-bunch-early-2011-macbook-pro-owners-running-video-problems/

http://www.cultofmac.com/262861/early-2011-macbook-pros-dropping-like-flies-heat-issues-blame/


can i safely use a 60 w adapter on a 2009 macbook pro computer I received  a 2009 macbook pro desk computer and did not get power cord.

Need information on correct adapter to not burn out the battery or the computer which will be in constant use daily.

For future reference, providing the exact model of your computer will be very helpful in getting accurate advice. In 2009 Apple actually released five different MacBook Pro models. See below for the power adaptor used with each model:

MacBook Pro 17" early-2009 -
(85W MagSafe Power Adapter)

MacBook Pro 13" mid-2009 -
(60W MagSafe Power Adapter)

MacBook Pro 15" mid-2009 (2.53GHz model) -
(60W MagSafe Power Adapter)

MacBook Pro 15" mid-2009 -
(85W MagSafe Power Adapter)

MacBook Pro 17" early-2009 -
(85W MagSafe Power Adapter)

In a nutshell, your 60W adapter will work with both the MacBook Pro 13" mid-2009 and MacBook Pro 15" mid-2009 (2.53GHz model) computers. It should not be used with the others!

Hope this helps.


How to use SquidMan and force apps to go through it? I have installed SquidMan and gave it the following details:

General tab:

HTTP Port: 8080

Parent tab:

Hostname/IP: 10.18.1.3 (work proxy)
Port: 8080 (work port)

Username: myUserName
Password: myPassword

Then I clicked save and Status: Squid is running

Now, How can I force my installed applications to use it for all HTTP and HTTPS connections?

Simply add your proxy settings to the network card that you use.

System Preferences => Network => Unlock the session for administrative changes from the little lock button on the bottom left side => Select the active network card => Advanced... => Proxies => and enter your proxy credentials in the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" and "Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS)" sections.

This will make your whole system go thru that proxy and if you would like to use different proxy (or may be your IP address) while browsing, you may install an additional plugin on your browser (I suggest FoxyProxy for Mozilla Firefox).


Visual Studios 2013 with VM on 12" mac1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core M I'm a non mac user. But I would like to buy the latest mac 12" 1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core M. But I need Visual Studios 2013 the requirements are 1.6 GHz or faster processor.
Can this be install in VM and work? Thank you in advance.

I guess you are talking about the latest MacBook and not Air or Pro?

VS will probably install and maybe even start, but the MacBook(without suffix) was never invented to be for developers, indeed it isn't even meant to complete any complicated tasks, but only Web and Office, which means that you won't be able to properly work with it.

I can only recommend buying a MacBook Pro which even starts cheaper at 1099$ with a 2.5 Ghz Dual-Core processor.


Best rsync options to transfer data between two Mac I am about to move my data from my old iMac to a brand new MacBook Pro. I would like to start over with a fresh install on B and copy just a subset of my data, reinstalling applications from scratch, so I am not considering using Migration assistance.

I am thinking to use rsync to do the job, but I am confused about which options I should use.

Reading man pages, I came out with this:

rsync -vazHE --progress -e ssh andrea@imac:/remote/dir /local/dir/ 2> errors.log

v: verbose
a: archive, to keep times, symlinks, permissions, groups, owners and traverse directories recursively
z: to compress data
H: to keep any hard-link
E: to keep extended attributes
progress: to keep an eye on job progress

Am I not considering some other useful options?

Personally, I'd be inclined to drop the z switch. Compression is only really useful over very slow connections (mobile data, dial-up) as the CPU is likely to become the bottleneck. I've certainly seen a drop in throughput with compression enabled.
Assuming your network is trusted, you would do well to use a more efficient, but perhaps less secure SSH cipher as this will probably speed up the operation a little (it certainly helps with VNC over SSH, or X11 forwarding over SSH).

Run ssh -Q cipher on both systems and pick a cipher common to both
Use it with rsync -vhaHE --progress -e "ssh -c aes256-cbc" andrea@imac:/remote/dir /local/dir/ 2> errors.log

PS: I also use the -h switch to get more human readable numbers in MB/s as opposed to b/s


Why does my macbook pro displays random garbled blocks? Occasionally my macbook pro (15-inch, Early 2011 with mountain lion 10.8.2) displays random garbled blocks. This happens on external Apple displays and the laptop display. See photo.

We had a lot of these problems in our store and in the most cases the graphic card was broken. You should run the Apple Hardware Test / Apple Diagnostics and look at the results.


Using OIKWAN usb-c to ethernet cable on catalina I bought this cable
https://www.amazon.com/USB-C-Cisco-Console-Cable-Windows/dp/B0774JV2QQ
and installed FTDI drivers
and the system profiler does pick it up:
FT232R USB UART:

  Product ID:   0x6001
  Vendor ID:    0x0403  (Future Technology Devices International Limited)
  Version:  6.00
  Serial Number:    A91UIYBK
  Speed:    Up to 12 Mb/s
  Manufacturer: FTDI
  Location ID:  0x14400000 / 1
  Current Available (mA):   500
  Current Required (mA):    90
  Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

and i even turned on the kext
 kextstat| grep FTDI
  154    0 0xffffff7f84653000 0x7000     0x7000     com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver (2.4.4) B137605C-32D8-3E81-89B6-E1F8039FC427 <88 64 6 5 3 1>%

but when I have the cable connected from the macbook to the router, no USB connection for internet comes up in the network profile under system network preferences.
Not sure what else to do

You’re not going to find it in Networking, because it’s a Cisco console cable and USB to RS-232 UART all-in-one.   The Cisco console cable is a serial cable, with a DB-9 on one end and an RJ-45 connector on the other - it’s not Ethernet.
You will need an application like screen (comes with macOS), Minicom or iTterm2  that allows you to connect to the serial console.  Most importantly, when you plug it into the router, you cannot plug it into any of the network ports - you need to plug it into the console port.


Is there a way to have clipboard buffering in OS X? Does OS X have this built in?  It is tedious with only one buffer.

I would recommend something like Jumpcut:

  Jumpcut is an application that provides "clipboard buffering" — that is, access to text that you've cut or copied, even if you've subsequently cut or copied something else. The goal of Jumpcut's interface is to provide quick, natural, intuitive access to your clipboard's history.

Flycut is another option.

  Description: Flycut is a clean and simple clipboard manager for developers. It based on open source app called Jumpcut.


How can i change StarDict dictionary language? How can i change StarDict dictionary language?

I want to set it to English.

There is a freeware, Language Switcher, to launch an app in a different language.

Or, you check another thread for more detail: Is it possible to launch a program in a specific language?


Suspicious NDTV notification pop-ups in my Mac Yosemite 10.10 I started to have notification pop-ups called NDTV since a week ago and I can't find a way to remove it. I certainly didn't install a 'NDTV' app and I checked it is not in the application directory. I also used the AppCleaner to search for it but there is nothing. So how can I keep getting those notifications? They are really annoying and suspicious and I really need to get them off my system.

Launch Safari, then click on Safari(at the top)> Preferences> Notifications(Tab)> Remove.


macOS High Sierra Installation Fail I wanted to install High Sierra and made a USB Installation Disk with Disk Maker X

All goes well and the installation is doing fine.

Then this screen appears:

  OSX couldn't install on this computer. To enter the Apple Diagnostic program to test your hardware please hit D during reboot.

SO that's what I did.

Now holding D during reboot does exactly nothing but instead it goes to this screen:

And from this screen it then goes back to the former error.

And that's it. Nothing else is happening.

I can enter the Disk Utility when the error is appearing. But I can't Partition the HD nor delete it because it is used by another process.

Nice. Now what?

David Anderson was right. The Disk Maker X was the problem. The bootstick was corrupted apparently.

I created a boot Stick via Terminal

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

The last time I did this a Bootable Stick wasn't as easy as one terminal command that's why I used this 3d party tool. Better keep away.

Thanks for the hint.


AppleTV Remote Shortcut to Sleep I have a 2nd gen AppleTV unit. I would like to know if there is a way to use the AppleTV remote to put the unit to sleep (e.g. hold a key down)?  Currently, the only way I know to do this is to traverse the menus back out to Settings, and then select Sleep Now.

Hold down the main centre button. Should put it to sleep after a couple of seconds.

Hit it again to wake it up.


MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011, top right corner of the screen getting too hot Since 10.9.3 update, I'm noticing a problem
first, as I mentioned, right side of the screen getting quite warm, as warm as base, where CPU and GPU fans resides.

second, even it's in sleep mode (blinking led) whole laptop is getting quite warm again, and draining battery like in normal operation (fans are not spinning).

I can not pinpoint the problem, no clues on net, I'm wondering if anyone else having these problems.

First the Sleep

use Pmset -g in Terminal to find out what is keeping it awake (publish here)

second the HOT ! as rule of thumb anything above 50 Dgr Celsius would be hot for us, anything above 60 Dgr Celsius we almost can not touch.

However, your computer can handle that with no problem.

If you want to do more try running the Apple Hardware test to see if it comes with anything.

Press D during startup  Start up in Apple Hardware Test (AHT).


.bash_profile not updating until open new Terminal window I am trying to create a Terminal command. I have created this so far:

cd ~/ && touch .bash_profile && echo "" >> .bash_profile && echo "alias sendtext=\"osascript -e 'on run argv' -e 'tell application \\\"Messages\\\"' -e 'set myid to get id of first service' -e 'set address to item 1 of argv' -e 'set message to item 2 of argv' -e 'set receiver to buddy address of service id myid' -e 'send message to receiver' -e 'end tell' -e 'end run'\"" >> .bash_profile && echo "alias sendtext-remove=\"cd ~/ && grep -vwE \\\"(sendtext|sendtext-remove)\\\" .bash_profile > .bash_profile && . .bash_profile\"" >> .bash_profile && . .bash_profile

It creates two commands:

sendtext [email] [message] (Sends a text message to email)
sendtext-remove (Removes the two lines from the .bash_profile)

The problem is that after I run sendtext-remove, I can still run send text. How can I update the .bash_profile without opening a new Terminal window?

You can reload the bash profile from command line or script with the following command:

source ~/.bash_profile


Videos from Shared Album Not Appearing in iPhoto A friend recently shared an album with me on Photostream. The album contains videos only. I clicked on the invitation and was able to successfully view the videos within the album on my iPhone.

On my Mac however, although the album did appear in the Family and Friends Photos section of iPhoto, it was empty.

This FAQ, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT20278, states "Can photos and videos be saved or downloaded from a shared album? Yes. After photos are shared, anyone who can view the shared album can download and keep them permanently. Videos can only be downloaded to a Mac or PC."

Based on that, you would think this would work. Any ideas? OSX 10.8.5.

Thanks!

Turns out that it worked fine after upgrading to Yosemite and Photos 1.0.1. So I'll just chalk it up to the old version of iPhoto.


Show the Dock with AppleScript? I would like to show the Dock when all windows are hidden/closed/minimized.  Is this something that can be done with AppleScript?  Where can I learn more about the specific capabilities of AppleScript?

[edit after more research]

You can use Applescript to turn on and off the dock's autohide.
You can't use Applescript to determine whether you have open/visible windows. This is because Applescript treats each application as an object, and some applications handle windows differently, meaning they can't all be manipulated or detected. I haven't even been able to find an applescript that can reliably count open windows, and there's absolutely no recent documentation on how to handle spaces with applescript.

From within the Script Editor, select File > Open Dictionary, and you will be presented with a list of applications that have dictionaries of scriptable objects & behaviors that you can access. You want to select System Events and search for "dock". The dock preferences object has the property autohide, which looks like a good bet to do what you want: i.e. turn on autohide when there are open windows, and turn it off when there aren't. You can find more information about what's available by looking through different dictionaries and reading the documentation.

Apple's own introduction


Logitech C910 webcam El Capitan compatability? Are there any drivers available for the Logitech C910 after OS 10.6.x? It works in Logitech Webcam Software, but the camera isn't recognized in any other application that accesses the camera. A similar question from 2014 led me to trying the webcam out in QuickTime; in my case, QuickTime recognizes the C910's microphone as "Unknown USB Audio Device," but doesn't recognize the camera.

I've looked both in the Logitech support site and elsewhere for possible drivers, and haven't found anything, so I'm aware that there may be no solution for this.

Update: restarting the computer did help a late 2015 trash can Mac Pro recognize the camera, but restarting did not work for a late 2011 MBP. Meanwhile, it worked perfectly on a late 2012 MBP without much struggle. All these are running El Capitan.

I had the same issue with a C920, it kinda works but doesn't quite 'fit' into the OS. Logitech didn't seem to offer any support for it at all.

I got round it using an intermediary app called Webcam Settings [$7.99/£5.99] which essentially turned it into a useful camera again.


iOS 13 - Mail auto-fetch will not disable Since iOS 13 Mail seems to auto-fetch new mail every time the iPhone is plugged into any charging source, either Mac or simple wall-wart.
I've always had my iPhone set to manual Mail fetching for all except my actual Apple iCloud account, which is my only IMAP account & only used for official notifications from Apple.
My main email is done over a POP3 structure, intentionally so I don't have a phone-full of emails. These have always been set to only fetch if I launch the Mail app.
I've always had the main Push* setting on, but then setting each individual account except iCloud to Manual. Switching off this main Push seems to have no effect.
*Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Fetch New Data > Push

This has affected every iOS from 13.0 & continues in 13.6
Edit May 2020 - no fix but a rapid workaround  -
iOS iPhone/iPad Mail - rapid mass delete/delete all

After several weeks of testing - this doesn't work. All it does is prevent the badges, not the actual unwanted mail fetch

What appears to fix this is to turn off Notifications for Mail
Settings > Notifications > Mail > Allow Notifications.
This does mean that you never see Badges if/when any mail at all is received, so you do have to actually launch Mail to see if it worked… which then loads manually, of course.


How did Siri know where this plane was going? The other day something creepy happened to me. My anti-Apple friend has been trying to convince me for some time that Apple are spying on all their users. To prove her point she used my iPhone to ask Siri where a plane in the sky was flying to. And Siri answered that it was going to Delhi. I said that Siri likes to joke around and she was probably just joking. My friend then said if I didn’t believe it, just check the flight schedules. Sure enough, this morning I checked and a flight was scheduled to leave Toronto for Delhi at the time she asked Siri the question. I don’t believe Apple is spying on me, but how did Siri know about that flight?!?!

Actually this is nothing new and isn’t all that creepy (although I suppose that depends on what you consider to be creepy).

Siri has been closely integrated with the WolframAlpha Computational Knowledge Engine for many years now.

To determine where a plane flying overhead is going, Siri only needs to send a request along the lines of flights seen from current geoIP location to WolframAlpha. WolframAlpha then returns the details to Siri, such as where the flight is going, the flight number, type of plane, altitude, etc.

For this to work you must already have Settings > Privacy > Location Services switched on - so if you have any concerns about revealing your location then you should check these settings and which apps you're sharing your location with.

If you're interested in learning more about WolframAlpha, you can refer to Wikipedia’s WolframAlpha entry. This provides a great overview, including the fact that other devices (such as some Android devices) also use it.

In summary: Apple isn't spying on you. All that is happening is your iPhone is sending its geolocation to WolframAlpha which in turn is using data provided to it from another third party to return the flight information back to Siri. This is nothing new and some Android devices can also do the same thing.


Keep MacBook on when closed without keyboard and mouse I use my Mac a lot to show movies or play video games on a larger display without a keyboard or mouse attached.

How can I set up my Mac so that it continues to display to an external screen when closed without a keyboard or mouse attached?

I would connect a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse if you can’t have physical cables connected.

This function is in firmware, so you’d need to engineer a solution to change Apple’s conditions for closed clamshell mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201834


Itunes Smart Playlist - Sort by Descending Track Number I want to create a smart playlist that will list an album by descending track number.

I have a singles album in which I would like to add new singles as time goes on but I want to listen to the new songs from that album first so play in reverse order. The track number is in chronological order i.e. 01, 02, 03 etc.

I want the playlist to play 09, 08, 07...in that order.

Any help would be appreciated.

When creating the smart playlist, can you sort your tracks by 'most recently added'? That way, every time you add a new single, the most recent one will stay on top.


Can I tell my Mac to charge to 80% only? I leave my MacBook plugged in for days at a time, so the battery stays charged to 100%. Despite Apple claims to the contrary, I believe that the battery's capacity would be better preserved if I could keep it at an 80% state-of-charge. Is there any command or setting that would let me disable charging from the power adapter?
Here are various options, (1) being my most preferred:

A setting to automatically maintain battery at 80% SoC (like my Tesla has)
A setting/command to use the AC adapter for running power only ("not charging" state)
A command to tell my Mac to totally ignore the AC adapter power

(2) could be cobbled into (1) with some kind of script. Even if not possible from the Mac itself, (3) could be cobbled together with an IOT switch. But with (3), it's unclear the lower maintained SoC would outweigh the cost of the additional cycling.

Use osx_battery_charge_limit.
Follow the instructions on github:
# 1. Install command-line tools
xcode-select --install

# 2. Install Homebrew
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

# 3. Install Python3
brew install python3

Alternatively, you can also get python3 from python.org.
Then, git clone --recursive https://github.com/DevNulPavel/osx_battery_charge_limit, cd osx_battery_charge_limit, and finally sudo python3 main.py -s 80
I think it might be better if you set it even lower, for example, 60% or 70%. Then, before you need to use it on battery for a long time, sudo python3 main.py -r. You can automate this switching between 80% and full using cron.
There is also a GUI version: https://github.com/godly-devotion/charge-limiter. Both work by setting the BCLM key in SMC to a custom value.


Possible to reset Keychain password without knowing the old password? My girlfriend forgot the password for her MacBook (don't ask), so I reset it using the Utilities.

But as you may be aware, this doesn't reset the Keychain password. Her MacBook is now virtually unusable due to Keychain demands continuously provoking a request for the Keychain password.

There are lots of other people asking this around the web and they're usually pointed towards this Apple support page, which doesn't apply in our situation because the support advice involves entering the old password.

We don't know the old password.

Is it possible to reset Keychain without knowing the old password? We're not bothered about what's in there and what will be lost, we just want the continuous password prompts to go away.

An administrator can change your login password without knowing the old password. The is no way for anyone to change a keychain password without knowing the old password.

Normally your login password is the same as the keychain password. For you to change your login password, you need to enter the old password and new password. After the software changes your login password, an attempt is made to change the keychain password. This only succeeds if the old  password you entered is the current keychain password. If not, then the current keychain password remain unchanged.

When an administrator overrides you old login password with a new password, the old password is never entered into the software. Without the old login password, the software can not change the keychain password. If you do not know the old password (i.e. the current keychain password), then you have to "Create a new login keychain". Doing so erases all the passwords stored in the keychain.

This throwing away the keychain with all the data “resets” the slate and you won’t have prompts with the new keychain that you can’t unlock since you now know the correct password to unlock.


Time separators blinks inconsistently If I have OS X display the time in the menu bar with blinking separators, the seem to blink inconsistently. I've taken a 32 second video of the effect. It's happening on two of my MacBook Airs, 13" Mid 2011 model. Running MacOSX 10.8.4. One is used at work and the other is my personal machine.

I know that this is a rather small issue but I'm still very curious on what might be causing this problem.

Update

Looks like it's fixed in Mavericks!

Some thoughts about how to track this down:

In System Preferences > Language & Text > Region, do you have any unusual settings?  (Some of these influence the formatting of the clock... from the video, you have the same settings as me, but I wonder if you have anything unusual here that perhaps Apple haven't tested too well?)
Is there any pattern to the absence / presence of the separators?  Eg, from your video, I see they are absent at 46, 47 and 48 seconds: is this true for every minute?  (In which case, perhaps the cause of this might be some logic bug in the code that determines whether the separators should be shown for a given number of seconds.)
I believe the SystemUIServer process controls many of the icons on the menu bar, including the clock.  If you use Activity Monitor to quit it, it will quickly relaunch, but you'll get some insight into what that process is doing.

Some thoughts:

Is SystemUIServer perhaps using a lot of CPU?
Try removing any non-Apple menu bar icons for the moment (by quitting the appropriate apps), and see if the issue goes away.  I suggest this because: even if SystemUIServer isn't using much CPU (and the system CPU load is low), I suspect that if one of the menu icons it controls blocks (that is: performs some system call which doesn't immediately return, perhaps because it is waiting for some data), then the updates of the clock might be paused.

After discussion below, seems that unfortunately none of this has helped to isolate the issue.  The only remaining possibility I can think of is that you've run into an Apple bug... in which case, you might consider reporting it at bugreport.apple.com.  (I have a paid developer account, but I believe that isn't required to report bugs there.)


How is it possible to remotely access photos on iPhone? Is there any software to do so, and what would it take to install it?
Another person had physical access to my phone, so I suspect the possibility of installation of such software.
Even photos which I immediately deleted and those, which went straight to application got in other hands.

I have an iPhone 4s. It was not jailbroken (at least, by me), and it did not appear such: no Cydia app or other oddities.
Photo Stream and iCloud backup for photos were also off, and I never used them.

Dropbox, Google+ and other similar apps offer the ability to automatically upload new photos to your cloud storage. Do you have anything like that installed?


2011 MBA occasionally drains battery and powers down even when powered Sometimes I leave my MacBook running (connected to the charger) and when I return it has drained the battery to 0% and powered off.

This has been happening sporadically for over a year, but seems to be getting more frequent.

(Under power settings I've set it to never sleep when connected to power outlet).

Sometimes I have to turn it back on several times and each time it will power itself down within seconds to minutes.

Looking at my process list to see what is consuming CPU, there will always be some culprit.  Today it was mds (indexing Spotlight) but one other time it was the core kernel process (PID 0).

Googling suggests that occasionally the machine demands more power than the outlet can provide and borrows from the battery. If this is the case I think it is great failing that this technique does not disable itself once the battery goes into the red.

Is there anything I can do?

First of all let me address the following:

  Googling suggests that occasionally the machine demands more power
  than the outlet can provide and borrows from the battery.

This is plain and simply false. Ignore this altogether.

Now, what almost certainly must be happening is that for some reason the MacBook is not receiving power from the charger and therefore is forced to rely on the battery instead. To clarify, what I mean is that the MacBook is drawing its power from the battery just like it would if there was a blackout, the charger was unplugged, and so on.

This indicates that you may have a faulty charger or charging cable, a faulty I/O board, or in the worst case scenario a faulty logic board.

The first thing I would try is to reset the System Management Controller (SMC).

Reset the SMC

To reset the SMC in a MacBook Air, follow these steps:

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

Now use your MBA as normal and see if the problem returns. If so, I would be regularly keeping an eye on the charging indicator (it should always show either a green or amber light). No light means it's not delivering any power whatsoever which, assuming the mains is on and there's no blackout, indicates a hardware problem. A constant amber light (i.e. one that never goes green) also indicates a problem, usually with the battery but not always.

Run Apple Hardware Test

You can also test you Mac's main hardware components. To do this your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. Follow these steps:

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

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

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


Finder crashes permanently I bought an SSD for my Macbook Pro. I did a backup of my hdd disk (as I always do with Time Machine) and used the disk utility to restore that backup to my ssd disk. The restore worked perfectly, but Finder is always crashing and restarting and crashing... So I googled a lot and tried to create a second user account. There the problem does not occur. So it seems to be a account-specific problem. But how can I see where the problem is? I don't want to use the new account, because all settings and preferences are gone.

The crash report:

http://pastebin.com/qQjJedDD

You could just try reinstalling OS X from the recovery partition (see http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10763). It fixed a similar issue I had where different applications started crashing on launch. It keeps most user files and settings in place, so it might not fix account-specific issues though.

Or if you don't want to recreate settings, try copying directories like ~/Library/Preferences/ and ~/Library/Containers/ to the new account.


"This is a startup partition. You can't erase it" On Disk Utility I want to expand my Windows partition. I saw all the tutorials on youtube and they said to drag the drive on the corner. However, the Disk partitions doesn't have a drive for me to drag and said that it was a startup partition so I can't decrease it's size.

In order to increase your Windows partition, you will need to first free up disk space on your Macintosh HD partition, as it appears to be full.  128GB isn't very much these days, I would recommend getting a larger hard drive, but transferring larger, less frequently used items such as movies or videos can often help free up large amount of space.


Time capsule web site logging? If time capsule can not be set up to log the web sites that users access, is there third-party software that will accomplish this for time capsule?  Ideally something that would work through the time capsule and not have to be installed on each individual device, but would allow analysis by device.

The router itself does have DNS caching, but that cannot be accessed without rooting the device (and probably changing a few settings that shouldn't be changed to do logging to disk). Furthermore, an automatic update may reset everything, so I wouldn't go down that path at all. Much better idea would be to set up a DNS on a small linux machine and then configure the Airport DHCP to use your small Linux computer's DNS server as the default. That will persist through updates, etc. All clients connecting will ask the linux machine for the IP address of the website they want to go to. Just log it.

Also, for what it's worth, even if this is your network and these sorts of invasions of privacy are easy to do, I really really REALLY recommend you make everyone (children, etc) aware that this logging is going on. For everyone's sake.


Need to solve “Can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" by any other way than changes the Security and Privacy settings We have created one .app application which will place some files under the user location “/Users//Library/” on executing that.
Basically, that app is a shell script app in which .app file is created by using the platypus tool on Mac.

While double clicking the created .app file we are getting the popup below.

We know that this error can sort out by change the Security & Private setting under System Preferences. But, as we are going to share this .app to our customers, we don’t want our customer to do that settings change.
Is there any way to avoid this popup? I mean by code level or by doing any kind of code sign?

We have tried to sign the code with self signed certificate, apple developement certificate and Mac developement certificate but facing that issue still.

The issue is that using a self-signed certificate does makes you a « identified developer » (at least to the eyes of macOS)

The system only accounts for certificates which have an Apple CA as their root.

If you want to get rid of the pop-up, ask for a Certificate on Apple’s Developer Console and sign your app with it.

Another way is to use csrutil to completly bypass macOS’ security mechanisms, but I highly discourage you from doing this, nor telling your end-users to do so...

Bypassing the security of an OS with a self-signed certificate would make the system... well, unsecure !

By using their CA in the certificates they issue through their Developer Program, they can revoke any app (or developer) at any time, allowing them to ensure the system security when someone tries to do bad stuff.


How to interface with iOS lockdownd I used nmap to portscan my iPod Touch, and found a single port open, which was port 62078, labeled as "iphone-sync". I did some research, and found that the proccess behind it was a program called  "lockdownd" which could be used to interface with the iPod.

I was wondering if and how I could use this to interface with and possibly control my iPod.

Port 62078 is the port on which the iOS lockdown daemon listens on. Normally it is interacted with via usbmuxd which is a protocol that allows arbitrary TCP connections to be made over a USB connection.

lockdownd can be used to do a lot of nifty things with the built-in services Apple expose on unjailbroken devices. The goto library for interfacing with this service seems to be libimobiledevice which is an open-source library implementing the usbmuxd and other iOS protocols. For a better overview of the capabilities of lockdownd and the iMobileDevice library, take a look at some of the packaged tools the library provides. If you know C, the source code for these tools is here.


Mac monitor is displaying screen but I cannot navigate my cursor to it I'm using a VGA adapter to connect my Macbook Pro to an external monitor and I see the Macbook screen on my external display but I'm not able to move my cursor to it. It was working just fine a day ago, all of a sudden my cursor is not able to navigate there and I'm not able to drag any open windows to the screen either.

Check that the virtual display arrangement in System Prefs > Display > Arrangement is the same as their physical placement.
You can only move your mouse across between the two at the side where they join.

You can drag & drop either of the virtual screens until they match your physical layout. When dragging, both the virtual & real screen will display a bright red border, so you know which you are working with.
The white menu bar can be dragged separately & should be placed [if it isn't already] on your main monitor.

Also note that if the screens are not the same resolution [size actually doesn't matter, only resolution, as displayed in that control panel] then you may have a smaller 'gap' where you can pass from one to the other, as in this picture...


Gained My Daughter's Contacts... Lost Mine! My daughter gained my contacts on her iPhone.  When she noticed this she deleted all of my contacts from her phone and now I find that when she performed that, I lost all of my personal contacts and am left with only the contacts on her phone.  If I restore how do I know I am not restoring back to her contacts? How do I make my phone the primary and RESTORE to get my contacts back and not hers?

Been there, feel for you friend.

There's two answers to this.

If you're both using iCloud then you may be out of luck, or both your address books may be merged. When it was happening to me, the cloud service kept getting confused and just deleting all of my contacts (this happened daily for a few months! - mobileMe days) Anyways, if you're syncing with iCloud, and you're the only one, you should be able to log  in with your credentials and get your contacts back. you will be prompted with a replace, merge or purge notice that you're about to delete all the contacts on the phone. It is my theory your daughter saw this message and didn't think anything of it thinking "well, i'll delete my dad's contacts and get mine back" Problem is, somehow her iCloud and yours are now confused

Case two, hard backup... If you have a back up that predates your daughter's incident you can try restoring from that as your contacts are a part of that backup; however, this can cause confusion with the iCloud service so be careful if you are indeed using iCloud.

What i recommend trying is first do a back up of your daughters contacts, export them to a CSV or something like Address Book for Mac or Outlook for PC. This will just ensure her information is secured while you're working on recovering your own. Next, try a restore and find a restore point that predates this occurrence (the one your daughter used will probably work) Since you didn't say you did any restore to your own i think it's pretty safe to assume we're having an iCloud issue... make sure her phone isn't signed in to your iCloud, and if you share an iCloud account (or use multiple as families often do) disable the contacts on your account. Hopefully once you restore your phone your contacts will all be set.. and with your daughter's phone already having contact cloud sync off she should be good too.

it's really frustrating, i sympathize. Good luck! :)


Upgrade to old version of MacOS X I have an old MacBook Pro (mid-2010) and I am currently running Mountain Lion. Due to lack of any type of support (I cannot install most new versions of applications), I think about installing a newer version, but I don't want the most recent as it will slow my computer down too much. Ideally I would like to upgrade to Mavericks.

I saw a similar topic, which unfortunately doesn't answer my question (as I have never installed my desired version with my Apple ID):

How can I download an older version of OS X?

Is there any way I can do this?

If I were you I'd just get it from torrents since you basically own a copy anyways. Easy.


External Display Won't stay asleep: stuck in sleep / wake loop I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro (running Mountain Lion) connected to an HP Pavilion 23xi external display. The external is connected via DVI-->Thunderbolt adapter, is set as the primary display and the MacBook Pro is mostly in Clamshell mode.

When I put the Mac to sleep, the displays sleep as they should. However, if I put just the displays to sleep (ctrl - shift -eject or hot corner) the internal display behaves as it should but the external display goes to sleep for a second or so then immediately wakes up. It then gets caught in a sleep / wake loop.

The problem is similar to the one described in this question but, in my case, resetting the SMC hasn't helped. Wake for network access is off and the problem persists when the display is the only peripheral connected to the mac.

This is what the Console shows when this happens:

Any idea how to solve this?

I am having the same problem with this HP monitor connected to a Mac Pro.  My only solution was to connect via HDMI cable instead of the Thunderbolt/DVI cable.  That works.


Can I prevent an iPad app ever being updated? The latest version of Skype for the iPad has commercials. It will probably be necessary to upgrade at some point, but until then I want to stay with the commercial free version.

Is there any way I can prevent it ever being updated? I want to ensure that it will not be updated by accident.

Back up your iPad with iTunes. Back up that hard drive. Unplug that backup and store it far away from any internet connection. If you do update Sykpe by mistake, restore the iPad from the backup. It won't keep Skype from updating, but it will preserve your ability to undo the update.


Do iOS 11/12 have special features making it easy to share Wi-Fi passwords between devices? I’m having 2 issues with Wifi:

Does iCloud Keychain sync Wifi network passwords, or just network names?
Does iOS 11 or 12 have a new Wi-Fi sharing feature where a iOS device logged into a Wifi-network near another iOS device will be informed that someone else is trying to join the network and given the option of sending them the password directly over-the-air, as it were?

I called Apple support, and the so-called "senior" adviser informed me that with respect to Question 1, only network names are synced via iCloud Keychain, and with respect to Question 2, it's not a feature about which they have any documentation.

Please set me straight!

In my experience, both the names and the passwords are shared via iCloud.

If I add a Wi-Fi network on my iPad, and then go to my iPhone, it will have almost always already connected to that same Wi-Fi network.

If it doesn't, I can tap on the Wi-Fi name and have it joined, without re-entering the password on my iPhone.

A potential difficulty, of course, is if the 2nd device does not have a network connection. For example, if I have a Wi-Fi-only iPad, and I add a new Wi-Fi network name/password to my iPhone, then the iPad has no way of getting that information sync'd to it until it connects to a Wi-Fi network.

Hence my suggestion of connecting the iPad first, because the iPhone has its own non-Wi-Fi network connection with which it can sync new iCloud information.

(The same would be true if you replaced 'iPad' with 'MacBook' in the above examples.)


Downloading iOS 8.4 .dmg file or later I'm trying to download or to get .dmg of iOS 8.4 or later and all I can get from Apple dev center is ipws file. Is there any way to convert/extract/whatever this .ipws to a valid dmg image (that can be eventually mounted ?) or is there any link from where I can get a valid .dmg image of ios8.4 or later?
Thank you in advance

You'll have to decrypt it first, here is a complete guide to mounting and editing ipsw files.

Decrypting and mounting IPSW files

Hope this helps,

Tiferrei


Is there a quick way to delete Foldered bookmarks directly from Safari bookmark bar? I like to group my bookmarks into Folders in the Bookmark Bar.

But I cannot find an easy way to delete these bookmarks!

The only way I know to do this is to go to Show All Bookmarks, then browse down to the shortcut and select it and delete it - this totally gets in the way of workflow.

Is there any way to delete a Foldered bookmark from the bookmark bar?!

NB - I am not talking about standalone bookmarks, deleting those is easy and intuitive.

Since it's a folder, hold down the Command and Option keys, then drag the folder off the Bookmarks Bar. You'll get a confirmation dialog saying "Are you sure?" Just click the Delete Folder button in the dialog.

Holding the Command and Control keys keys down gets you a contextual menu that allows you to edit the name of the folder, edit its contents (jumps you to the Bookmarks window to do that), delete it, copy it, and a few other things.


How to reclaim unoccupied disk space with Disk Utility? I have a 2015 MacBook Pro which I tried to set up for dual-booting OS X and Linux. It resulted in some unclaimed free space on my SSD, see screenshot below.

Unfortunately, I am unable to reclaim that free space: It is grayed out and there seems to be nothing in Disk Utility that I can use to change that.

The answer is in the screenshot you posted. "To resize a partition on the selected disk, drag its resize control and click Apply." You should be able to just increase the size of the Macintosh HD partition to use the free space. I would recommend backing up first to be safe.


iPhone differences in different countries or carriers Is there any difference between software/hardware of iPhone 6 devices in different regions/carriers or all iPhone 6 devices around the world are exactly same from applications perspective ?

There are different hardware models by country / carrier to support different LTE bands. Apple has a list at http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/


Flash Player.dmg Question Quick question concerning malicious flash player.dmg files....

I was on news sites (on the likes of CNN, BBC, etc.,) the other night when suddenly my tab automatically opened a new tab with a long string of non-sensical url, and started automatically downloading a flashplayer.dmg file to my downloads folder. I double clicked on the file to see what it was: just an image of what seemed to be the Flash Player logo. I didn’t install it, and instead after reading online that this was malware I closed the file, deleted the file, ejected it from my desktop, and cleared out my trash can.

My question is whether there was any harm/possible consequences in double-clicking the file? Or would I have had to actually install the file for anything bad to come out of this?

There are occasionally programs that exploit a bug in the OS to infect your macOS without typing an admin password, and those generally are patched quickly and depend on you not having the current latest security updates installed.

Most run of the mill software won’t cause any harm, run any code, make any changes just because you downloaded a DMG.

If you are super at risk of harm due to malware (human rights worker, journalist (especially one critical of the following powerful groups),  a potential target of a nation state or large corporation, or just a public figure - think globally recognized celebrity like Beyoncé) you should assume you’re compromised and seek professional help to be sure you’re secure or educated about your risk tolerance and operational security practices.

Most people like me and my family, relatives, work colleagues that aren’t involved in super secret work - I would say if you didn’t install anything and you don’t see anything going crazy like browser redirects then you could safely trash the file and perhaps be sure Safari doesn’t open “safe” attachments and be sure your backups are set.

If a regular security posture user wants to check that malware was installed, I like both a scanner for known attacks and something that looks for persistent processes being hidden.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/
https://objective-see.com/products/knockknock.html

So to summarize, just clicking is enough to compromise a Mac with the right malware and the right version of macOS. Even if you have a fully patched Mac - the term “zero-day” acknowledges that there are exploits that have no warning and nothing you can do to prevent them from escalating their privileges and changing your Mac without a password entered. They are rare, but do exist in practice as well as in theory.


Can I go from iOS 7.0.6 to 7.1.2? Is there any way to get to 7.1.2 without going to 8 on my old iPad?

After release of ios 8 that is no longer possible.

Apple no longer signing iOS 7.1.2, closing the downgrade window.

Apple has finally ceased signing iOS 7.1.2.

This means that you can no longer downgrade to the older firmware from iOS 8.x, or upgrade to it from older versions.


How to remove boot from MacMini? I have tried installing windows 7 on my MacMini.

I followed following steps.

Setup went perfectly But while installing I thought of not installing it.
So, I just restarted mac mini.
Pressed Alt key while booting
Started OSX
Launched Disk Utility
Removed windows partition.

But after doing all these stuff, I am facing new problem. Each time when macMini starts, I always have to press ALT while booting, otherwise it goes in indeterminate state.

Please guide me.

According to discussions.apple.com you could also have removed the Windows partition with Boot Camp Assistant (located in /Applications/Utilities).  It may be worth trying that just in case not everything was properly cleaned up during your attempts.

After that you can use go to your System Preferences, and select your OS X volume as the startup disk.


How do I prove I own/am the developer of an iOS app? I am currently in the process of trying to secure a visa for overseas work. I recently developed an iOS app and need to provide proof or ownership or that I developed it. Is there a way to go about this? Can Apple provide a certificate or something? Any advice on this would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Is you app available in App Store? Is your name officially mentioned there as the author. If yes, then I would consider this as a proof.

Are you talking about being iOS developer in general or developer of particular iOS app? If first case is true then maybe your certificates of employment could solve the problem?


XQuartz cannot start on macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Recently the XQuartz cracked after I open it from the Utilities folder. And I try to install it through different methods like the pkg and "brew cask install xquartz". However, it cannot work by each method.

Now I open it from the Terminals, it can open. However, it cannot open display automatically.

After I install the Grace, the problem I met as follows.

$ xmgrace
  Can't open display
  Failed initializing GUI, exiting

Then I tried to use "echo $DISPLAY" to show the display setup, it gives nothing.

$ echo $DISPLAY

I tried to open the Xquartz program and use another program which needs the graphics platform, it gives the error report as follows:

 $ kfmf
   dyld: Library not loaded: /opt/X11/lib/libxcb.1.dylib
   Referenced from: /usr/bin/xwininfo
   Reason: no suitable image found.  Did find:
   /opt/X11/lib/libxcb.1.dylib: code signature in (/opt/X11/lib/libxcb.1.dylib) not valid for use in process using Library Validation: mapping process is a platform binary, but mapped file is not /opt/X11/lib/libxcb.1.dylib: stat() failed with errno=1
   Xinfo: Subscript out of range.

I want to know how to solve this problem. Please give me some advice. Thanks a lot.

This problem can be fixed by reinstall the OS system. If you have the same problem, you can use this method.
And I find that the "xinfowin" program in /usr/bin folder is installed repeatedly. The old one cannot run. Then I decided to reinstall my OS system.

I guess the original problem was solved by the author by reinstalling the OS, but this seems similar to a problem I was having which seems to be the result of different versions of XQuartz (and maybe MacPorts' x11) getting in each other's way, particularly due to restrictions involving code signing security, possibly due to my not properly uninstalling one of them before reinstalling.
I seem to have fixed my issue by completely uninstalling XQuartz following instructions at the XQuartz Mailing List FAQ. A key seems to be logging out and logging back in again to make whatever magic happens that sets the $DISPLAY environment properly. I did this after uninstalling everything, and then again after installing what I wanted.
I uninstalled both 2.7 and 2.8. Running the commands if either is already uninstalled should not cause any issues beyond a warning that the resource does not exist.
Uninstall (XQuartz 2.8 and later)
To uninstall XQuartz 2.8 and later, execute the following in Terminal:
launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/org.xquartz.startx.plist
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist
sudo rm -rf /opt/X11* /Library/Launch*/org.xquartz.* /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app /etc/*paths.d/*XQuartz
sudo pkgutil --forget org.xquartz.pkg

Uninstall (XQuartz 2.7.x and earlier)
To uninstall XQuartz 2.7.x and earlier, execute the following in Terminal:
launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist
sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist
sudo rm -rf /opt/X11* /Library/Launch*/org.macosforge.xquartz.* /Applications/Utilities/XQuartz.app /etc/*paths.d/*XQuartz
sudo pkgutil --forget org.macosforge.xquartz.pkg

At that point (after logging out and logging back in) I only installed the x11 software using MacPorts (via sudo port install xorg) and things seem to be working again (after logging out and logging back in).
I am still trying to figure out why, in one user account, Mojave is VERY slow to launch /Applications/MacPorts/X11.app from the Finder and VERY VERY VERY slow to launch x11 when invoking 'xclock' or 'xterm' from the terminal, while in the other user account, X11.app launches much quicker (while still pretty slow).


What iOS version can be downgraded to iOS 10? I would like to downgrade my iPad running iOS 11.4.
I don’t care the data preservation.

Is it possible to downgrade?

No, It is not possible to downgrade a device running iOS 11 to iOS 10.

When iOS is installed and activated on a device, the installation is verified with Apple's servers.

Apple routinely stops verifying older versions of iOS (by stopping signing them) so as to encourage users to remain on the most latest release.

Currently only iOS 11.4.1 is signed by Apple’s server and it isn’t possible to downgrade past it if it’s installed.


Infinite loop "Are you sure you want to buy this item?" in the App Store I have the latest Apple iPod touch. I just received a iTunes gift card and started downloading free apps.
When I try to download apps that are $0.99 or higher, it asks me for my billing information. After I hit clicked 'done', it asks me if I still want to buy the item. I say yes and it starts asking me for my billing info again and then if I'm sure again and again...
Can someone tell me what to do?

Have you tried going to http://appleid.apple.com and confirming your billing information there (going to billing, clicking submit) and then trying again ;-)


Share Photos album on Dropbox Is there a way to share a Photos album (regular or 'smart') via Dropbox?  I know that I can copy the album to DB, but I'd rather create a symlink (or similar) so the photographs aren't duplicated on my HDD.

I recently tried to "Create Alias" for a photo folder, and then put the Alias in Dropbox. Then I went to dropbox.com to see if I could view the folder's contents. The folder is there, but the photos inside could not be viewed. This is the error message I got.

When I clicked on "Open" it opened the Dropbox folder on my computer. This would not help me if I were away from my computer and using the web to access my files.

I did come across an app in the Mac App Store called, "Cloud Storage Helper." It bugs me that I don't understand how this app works (and maybe someone else on here does!), but I was able to create links from my computer into my cloud storage and access them online.


How to search installed application based on functionality? My Applications folder has 486 entries, applications that have accumulated in the 30 years I'm using Apple hardware and software. Sometimes I'm looking for "that great application I have installed a few monts ago" but I am unable to remember its name, and I can spend a long time searching for it among hundreds of other apps.
Typical example: I installed Snagit during my last Parallels upgrade (it came as a bundle). It's a really great screen capture application, but how can I remember that "Snagit" is a screen capture application? As for its icon, it shows a white "S" on blue background, which isn't very helpful either.

On Unix there is apropos, but under Mac OSX this command only finds command line applications.
Of course, there is the Web, but it is rather cumbersome to search the Web to find an application which is already on my harddisk. Not to mention the fact that some applications are hard to find even if you know exactly what they do.
Take for example OmniDiskSweeper, I doubt I will ever find it through the query "application that calculates the size of folders".
I thought of adding comments to applications, but I'm afraid they will disappear at the first update.

Is there an application that will combine the information found on the Web with all applications I have on my disk, and be able to answer queries based on keywords or on a description of the task I need? (for example "application, screen capture, installed in the last six months"). I.e., an intelligent Spotlight ("intelligent" in the sense of the semantic Web).

So here is my need: find an application that does a specific task in an overcrowded Applications folder, out of a few keywords or out of a sentence describing it.

You can use meta data. Select the app in Finder, press ⌘+i or secondary click -> Get Info.. There You have "Comments" section, where You can describe Your app (for example "great screen capture app"). Then You can search for an app in Spotlight using the keywords You privided. After upgrading the app, extended attributes are not erased.


iPhone: Disable vibration for all notifications except for phone calls How can I disable vibrations for all notifications except for phone calls on an iPhone? This is for an iPhone 6 running iOS 8.

For instance, if I receive a notification such as a new email, my phone vibrates. And when I get phone calls, my phone vibrates. But when I disable vibration, it disables vibration for both notifications and phone calls.

So I'd like to separate the two, so that I don't get vibrations for notifications, but I do get vibrations for phone calls.

Is there a way to do this, without needing to enable vibrations and disabling vibrations on an app-by-app basis?

You can turn off vibrations for individual events from Settings > Sounds.

You can turn them all off, turn off all but Ringtone (receiving phone calls), or keep them all on.

Note: Any events that are not listed here can be turned off from the apps that produce them.


Windows Bootcamp stuck in infinite boot loop I have a Mac Mini which I bought a few months ago onto which I installed Windows 10 Pro as a bootcamp partition. Everything was fine until the windows update assistant started to update it the other day. It now boots straight to the windows logo then flickers and says something like 'attempting to restore previous version of windows' for a split second and then says 'restoring previous version of windows' for another split second. Then it just loops constantly like this.

I have tried using the USB key I used to install it and going into the recovery options. It won't let me roll back the version and none of the recovery options work basically. It just reverts back to the above loop.

I have the partition backed up as an image so can restore but would prefer to avoid doing this and just fix it somehow.

It boots into the Mac OS absolutely fine. It's just the windows installation that is currently inaccessible.

Any ideas how to fix it?

Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions. I still can't get it fixed. Here is a screenshot of diskutil list. There is nothing to boot windows   Any ideas how to fix this? Thanks.

Had the exact same problem.

Created a Windows 10 bootable USB using the Media Creation Tool.
Once done, insert, switch the mini on, and when you hear the startup tone, immediately press and hold the alt key on your keyboard.
Select EFI Boot. At the prompt, choose No.
Select Language to install etc etc, then click Next.
Don't click Install Now. At the bottom left, select Repair Your Computer.
You might be asked to choose your keyboard layout. Choose UK or US, whichever is quicker.
Now select Use Another Operating System.

You should see several options, select one. If it doesn't work, repeat above steps, and try the next and then the next.

Should you eventually end up successfully booting into Windows, RUN > CMD. Type msconfig and hit enter. Find the problematic boot records and remove them. Be very careful not to remove the one that actually boots you in.

If you're successful, pause for a moment, and then take your time at thanking Microsoft for nothing.


Shared Music and Photos We are just transitioning to Mac computers having used PCs for many years. (We both use iPhones & share an iPad.) Our new hardware setup is 27" iMac (1TB HDD) for wife's home office, 15" retina MacBook Pro (256GB SSD) for me, and 2TB AirPort Time Capsule.

What is the best configuration for sharing photo and music libraries?

The photos and music are mostly (but not exclusively) mine, and I will mainly use the rMBP for any photo editing, but I would like access to the data across both machines, and my wife would also like access. I am thinking of shared libraries in public folders on the iMac as it has the larger drive, the rMBP accessing the libraries over AirPort Wi-fi, with the Time Capsule used exclusively for back-up for both Macs, or would it be worth using part of the Time Capsule as data storage for the libraries rather than solely for machine back-up?

All thoughts welcome!

These two libraries will grow larger each year until your 256GB SSD will start to feel a big tight. I would recommend the following strategy:

Music

If you don't mind spending a little bit of money, you could pay for iTunes Match. We have found this an excellent way to share 120gb of music between machines which do not have enough space to store it all. You can keep the original library on the iMac (it has the room) and sync 'via the cloud' using iTunes Match to your rMBP. It caches the files you play, so any of the music that you're not that bothered about won't take up space on your SSD. This also allows you to get access to your music anywhere you have WiFi - not just at home. As you have iPhones and an iPad (or Apple TV if you get one) they can all share the same library with this mechanism at no additional cost and no synching. If you're in the US, this also gets you ad-free iTunes Radio.
If you'd rather not pay, and never play music outside of the house, you can use the iTunes Home Sharing feature as suggested by NEO.
If you'd rather not pay, but you want music outside of the house, then I suggest breaking up your libraries into music that you like, music that your wife likes and music you both like. You can keep the physical files split across the machines by having it mostly on a shared folder from your wife's iMac, but you must take great care to disable the 'Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library' option in iTunes preferences, otherwise you'll end up with duplicates. This option means you can only play the music that you both like when you are at home as it needs your home WiFi and the iMac to be on. Also, be sure to Sync your iPhones and iPad regularly.

Photos

(I'm assuming you use iPhoto)

Break up your photo libraries into year-by-year. It's unlikely you want to have multiple years of photos on your rMBP, so this will make editing easier too.
Store the by-year iPhoto libraries on the iMac in a shared folder.
Keep the latest library on your rMBP as you're editing it.
Use iCloud Photo Stream to keep your wife's iMac up-to-date with any new photos before you edit/take/red-eye/reject them.

If your iPhoto library is already a 500GB monster (like ours), you'll need to investigate tools to split it up or invest in some external hard drives to back up before you start splicing it.


Disable two-finger horizontal scroll Is there any way I could disable two finger swipes for horizontal scrolling on the Mac. I want to configure it for moving between tabs (using a 3rd party app called BetterTouchTool)

Edit:
Oh I should mention that I've already disabled the option 'swipe between pages using left/right two finger scrolls', but that just disables the back/forward feature — not the horizontal scrolling functionality itself. (And even though most pages don't have space horizontal scrolling, the action still produces a "dummy" movement.)

If you have disabled two finger swipes between pages in trackpad preferences then you should be able to configure it in BetterTouchTool by assigning keyboard shortcuts for those gestures. Swipes are generally fast and scrolls are generally slow. So you should be able to get both working side by side.

You can disable all scrolls if it really bothers you from accessibility section. In recent versions of OS X, disabling only horizontal scrolling is no more an option for built-in trackpad. Check this.


How do I get Home and End working for BOTH iTerm2 and VIM? I have been through at least a dozen articles and internet searches (including this one) and I cannot find a setting that satisfies what I want:  Both iTerm2 (at command prompt) and VIM to recognize Home and End the way they're meant to be used.
If I set Home to hex code 0x01 in iTerm2 key mapping, it starts working at the prompt, but stops working in VIM.
If I leave it alone, hitting Home and End work fine in VIM, but not at prompt.
What the hell is going on?
I have a Mac Keybinds file (located at ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict) that looks like this; and I have the same behavior when the keyword is BeginningOfLine as what's set here (BeginningOfParagraph):
{
/* Home Button*/
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfParagraph:";

/* End Button */
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfParagraph:";

/* Shift + Home Button */
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfParagraphAndModifySelection:";

/* Shift + End Button */
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfParagraphAndModifySelection:";

/* Ctrl + Home Button */
"^\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:";

/* Ctrl + End Button */
"^\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";

/* Shift + Ctrl + Home Button */
"$^\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocumentAndModifySelection:";

/* Shift + Ctrl + End Button*/
"$^\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocumentAndModifySelection:";
}

The problem turned out to be Zshell.
New macbooks come default with zshell now, creating confusion for setting these keys on a full size keyboard.  Typing bash and using that as my default shell worked without a problem, but I wanted to know how to accomplish this in zshell.
The solution was to modify ~/.zshrc with the following I got from this link:
bindkey "^[[H" beginning-of-line
bindkey "^[[F" end-of-line

Then, obviously, source ~/.zshrc.


How can I type or input Unicode characters using a code point on the iPhone? I'm aware of the ability to use accented characters by holding down a key until they appear (ie. á ü etc.); however, I'm curious as to how, if possible, one might enter a code point in hexadecimal format or otherwise to output the corresponding character?

UniK - Unicode & navigation Keyboard extension seems to be the closest to a character map and it also functions as a keyboard extension. You actually have to type hexadecimal code points in this app.