How to bridge vboxnet with Wi-Fi on OS X 10.10 "Yosemite" I am trying to bridge two interfaces on OS X 10.10 "Yosemite" but somehow this does not seem to work for virtual interfaces:

The network on Virtualbox goes over "Host Only Network"

Is there a way to overcome this? I want to bridge 192.168.56.1 with the Wi-Fi in order to make my virtual machines visible to other computers on the internet.

VirtualBox and OS X provide several (no-NAT) methods to connect your VM:

1. The VirtualBox "Bridged Adapter":

First remove bridge1 in Terminal and use a "Bridged Adapter" instead of vboxnet0 in your VM. Go to the Network settings of the respective VM -> Adapter1 -> attached to: and change the type from whatever it is now to "Bridged Adapter" then choose your Wi-Fi interface:

The VM's en0 attached to the bridged adapter has to be configured with a unique IP in the same network range as the hosts interface IP.

Example:

My hosts en1 config: network: 192.168.1.0/24 IP: 192.168.1.2 gateway: 192.168.1.1
The VM's eth0 config: network: 192.168.1.0/24 IP: a free and unique IP-address in the range 192.168.1.3-192.168.1.254 gateway: 192.168.1.1

If you want to make the VM accessible to other computers in the WAN (internet) (e.g. a web-server) you have to forward the respective ports in the router to the VM's IP. The VM can be accessed by all other computers in the same network (192.168.1.0/24) in your LAN directly.

Finally it looks like this:

WAN <---> Router/Switch (& port fw to VM) <----> Mac <-------> VM
           192.168.1.1                      192.168.1.2   192.168.1.130
                ¦
                ¦
             other Mac(s)
           192.168.1.3|4|5...

2. The OS X bridge

I assume en1 is your Wi-Fi interface and eth0 is the first adapter in your (Linux-)VM. Check this with ifconfig on your VM-host. Please adapt the commands and change the interfaces below if necessary.

If you don't want to use "Bridged Adapter" but vboxnet0 do the following after starting VirtualBox:

Attach the VM adapter 1 to the "Host-only Adapter" and the "Name" vboxnet0.

On the host in Terminal enter:

sudo sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
sudo ifconfig bridge1 destroy #if bridge1 still exists
sudo ifconfig en1 down
sudo ifconfig vboxnet0 down
sudo ifconfig bridge1 create
sudo ifconfig bridge1 addm vboxnet0 addm en1
sudo ifconfig bridge1 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

In the VM (Linux) you have to configure an IP-address and a default route:

sudo ipconfig eth0 192.168.56.101 netmask 255.255.255.0 arp
sudo route add default gw 192.168.56.1

A configured "Network Manager" might interfere with those settings.

On the various Macs in your network you have to configure an additional static route:

sudo route -n add -net 192.168.56.0/24 192.168.1.2

On the router your have to forward ports to the VM and add a static route to 192.168.56.0/24 to make the VM accessible to other computers in the WAN (internet).

Finally it looks like this:

WAN <---> Router/Switch (& port fw to VM & static route to 192.168.56.0/24) <-----> Mac <----------------------> VM
           192.168.1.1                                                    192.168.1.2|192.168.56.1   192.168.56.101 (& default gw or static route to 192.168.1.0/24)
                ¦
                ¦
             other Mac(s)
           192.168.1.3|4|5... (& static route to 192.168.56.0/24)

The bridge and the various routes (except those on the router and the default gateway of the VM) don't survive a reboot.

To roll-back all changes:

To remove bridge1 on the host do the following:

sudo ifconfig bridge1 down
sudo ifconfig bridge1 deletem en1 deletem vboxnet0
sudo ifconfig bridge1 destroy

To disable forwarding on the host do the following:

sudo sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=0

To remove static routes on the Mac enter:

sudo route -n delete -net 192.168.56.0/24 192.168.1.2

Remove the static route on the Router.

As a result one might say it's much easier and much more comfortable to use method 1.


Mac OS X downloads do not begin, other app store downloads normal I just acquired a mid-2014 Macbook Pro that's been reconditioned. It booted up in El Capitan, so my first order of business after the initial sign-in and setup was to attempt to upgrade the OS to Mojave, or less preferably, to Catalina. Mojave first because some of my audio software still uses a few 32 bit plugins which have not as yet been up-written to 64 bit.
The problem: When I go to the app store (via any path, internal or external) signed in to the Store or not, and click the Download button for either Mojave or Catalina, no download happens. For Mojave, the Download button changes to dark grey and says "Downloading", the 'spinner' spins for 20 seconds and stops. A status bar underneath shows the progress dot stuck at the beginning, with no movement, even overnight. For Catalina, the Download button changes to dark grey, but still says "Download", not "Downloading", the 'spinner' spins for four seconds and disappears, but no progress bar is displayed, and nothing else happens, at least not within the coming hour.
Here's the catch: downloads of other apps from the Store to this machine work normally, as evidenced by my quick and successful downloads of Battery Health 2, and an attempt at downloading LastPass password manager (which I then declined until the OS is upgraded - but it was ready to work.)
What have I tried..? Sign out of Store, close Store, reboot computer, sign back in to Store, try again. Did this with sequence variations several times. Tested using two external page links direct to the Store's Mojave and Catalina pages, same result. Copy-pasted a forum-suggested line of code into Terminal to reset the Store, but system rejected part of the code as an unknown reference. Have read every forum suggestion I can find on this, but none of the previous questions or answers seem to address this situation exactly, in that only the OS downloads won't start, but others are okay.
According to the applications chart this Mid-2014 Macbook Pro is clearly eligible for all OS up through Catalina. My two other Mac computers on this network (one also running El Capitan) interact normally with the Store.
Suggestions? Thanks.

We do this all the time. Here is a quick process.

How to download Mojave now that Catalina is available?

When this doesn’t work, it’s almost always the network so take your Mac to a new location (public library, school, different ISP) or have a friend download the installer and make them a pie or meal in thanks.


How to install a .qtz screensaver in Lion? What are the instructions to install a .qtz screensaver in Lion?

Move it into ~/Library/Screen Savers if you are the only one who wants to use it, or into /Library/screen Savers if you want all users on the machine to have access to it (note ~/Library is hidden by default in Lion: you can access it by holding Option when clicking the “Go To” menu in Finder).


Do I need to target the root of the destination HDD when using carbon copy cloner? I have a development machine that only uses about 50gb hdd disk.

I would like to create a backup of that disk and restore it in case my machine goes wrong.

I used to use carbon copy cloner to do it, but I don't have a spare disk now.

Is it possible to create a directory on a hdd disk and copy everything from my machine to that directory? Am I going to be able to recover the disk from the directory later?

Carbon Copy Cloner essentially requires you to backup one Volume to another.

It doesn't have to be the entire volume, there are some quite comprehensive filtering options, but it does need to be to a distinct Volume, not just another folder on the same one.

It's always wisest to have a full bootable backup, just in case, but single folder backup is actually possible.

A separate Volume on the same physical disk would be acceptable, though of course if the disk dies, it takes both copies with it.


parallel with copy command is very slow to clone 2 directories I am on MacOS Catalina. This command is very slow :
parallel -j32 cp -rpf {} /Users/henry/ ::: /Volumes/henry/
The goal is to  clone the /Volume/henry to /Users/henry directory.
/Volume/henry is shared across my network.
Could anyone tell me what's wrong in my command : I have 1.3 TB to clone.
Any help is welcome.

The command should likely be adjusted like this:
parallel -j32 cp -rpf {} /Users/henry/ ::: /Volumes/henry/*
Note the asterisk, this will allow parallel to parallelize across the folders/files present to be copied within the top level of /Volumes/henry/.
With the above command, there will be as many concurrent copies as /Volumes/henry/* expands to, which is why the original command (without the asterisk) was slow (it was performing one parallel copy).
However, since you are copying so much information, I'd recommend an alternate approach, and use rsync rather than cp. rsync might be slightly slower, but it verifies that copies complete properly, so would help guarantee that the destination matches the source, and it is resumable in case the process prematurely ends.
Something like this should work:
parallel -j32 rsync -av {} /Users/henry/ ::: /Volumes/henry/*
Finally, you may need to play around with the number of maximum threads, 32 might be too high depending on the I/O of your disks on the source and destination, and depending on how many folders/files there are in the folder /Volumes/henry/. Since this copy is network bound, 32 threads may not speed the copy up as much as is hoped.


Why does iPad show a weird effect on some PDF images? I noticed some PDF documents viewed on iPad (either version 1 or 2) show a weird effect as follows. There are thin lines distracting the image.

You can see the details on YouTube: Weird image shown on iPad 1 and iPad 2.

Why does iPad show a weird effect on some PDF images?

Though I can't say for certain without examining the actual PDF (or at least that page), I suspect the apparent artifacts -- the lines -- are the result of the image containing an imperfect grid of pixels, probably due to a slight resizing.

I created an example to demonstrate the idea. It doesn't reproduce exactly what you're seeing on the iPad, but the concept is the same.

Here are two grids of black and white pixels, one perfect and one imperfect. Zoomed at 600% you can clearly see the difference between them:

Perfect Pixel Grid (600% Zoom)

Imperfect Pixel Grid (600% Zoom)

If you look at those same images at their original size they look about the same:

Perfect Pixel Grid (100% Zoom)

Imperfect Pixel Grid (100% Zoom)

However, if you resize them the way the iPad does, effectively putting the pixels at the nearest spot it can find after you change the size, you can see the difference easily -- basically the math doesn't work out perfectly because you can perform zooming of any percentage with the gesture. The effect is called aliasing:

Perfect Pixel Grid with Aliased Zoom

Imperfect Pixel Grid with Aliased Zoom


How to update whatsapp with new apple ID I need someone to help me
I got this iphone5 a months ago from my cousin and I already have my own appleID and also my iCloud, and I could download the apps and everything but now when I got a notice to update whatsapp it requires the old password :/ is the only solution to delete whatsapp or is there anything else I could do?
P.S my cousin doesn't know the password
Thank you

When the iPhone wasn't ereased before you got it, the whatsapp app belongs to the apple id used by your cousin.

The only ways to update whatsapp are deleting it (by holding the app and pressing the "X"-symbol) and download it again with your own apple id, or use the password that belongs to the old apple id.


Company Website required for registering as Enterprise App Developer I am trying to register under the Enterprise Developer program but I get a response that the website needs to be working.

Does the website need to be a company name domain or can it be an app name domain?

There are clear requirement details on the Developer sign-up site - What You Need To Enroll

Specifically...

  A Website
  Your organization’s website must be publicly available and the domain name must be associated with your organization.


Should I restart after uninstalling software or drivers on a mac? I know that the Mac doesn't use a registry, but is there anything I'm unaware of that would make it better to restart a mac after an uninstall of software, a printer etc.?

I'm going to just posit a general rule of thumb here -

If it needs you to restart it will tell you - or even make you.

More specifically,
If it doesn't need an uninstaller, then just trashing the app requires no further action.
If you use something like AppCleaner to also sweep up the prefs, there is still no further action required.

If it needs an uninstaller, the uninstaller will tell you if a restart will be required.

However, just to be on the safe side...
If you manually pull kexts etc out of the system using Terminal - restart is safest.

The rule of thumb works on a simple 'Did it change the system?'
If not, then no restart
If it did, then yes.


Kernel Panic on Macbook Air (2020) My Macbook just experienced Kernel Panic and don't know what to do since it is my first time to encountered this, should I do something to prevent and to ensure that this will never happened again on my Mac however there's a lot of info's about regarding on how to fix but I'm worried that they might be bad or not reliable to trust kindly give me an suggestions.
As a first timer to encountered this kind of system issue should I do some steps regarding this or just ignored it?
My mac version is MAC OS BIG SUR 11.2.3

A single kernel panic is not an issue. It happens sometimes.
Unless it happens repeatedly, I wouldn’t worry about it.
If you want to learn more about a specific kernel panic, search kernel-panic for keywords from your log.

In the future if you do get recurring kernel panics, Apple has an official guide on things to try.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/mchlp2890/mac

Restart your Mac in Safe Mode. …
Uninstall any plug-ins …
Disconnect all devices …
Use Apple Diagnostics …


Opening suspicious files How can I deal/inspect a suspicious file on my mac short of installing and creating a full blown virtual machine instance? On windows when I want to open a suspicious file I use the sandboxing app sandboxie Is there something comparable/safe on mac?

Open up the terminal and try:

zipinfo zipFileOfInterest.zip

If you really want some "verbose" information output, then enter:

zipinfo -v zipFileOfInterest.zip

The "-v" option will output a bit more information :)

Also, try man zipinfo to get the rundown of what options/etc is available.

You can also try:

unzip -l zipFileOfInterest.zip

These will allow you to peak inside the .zip without extracting what is inside.


Re-sync messages between iPhone and computer after period of not syncing them? I have recently re-setup the message app on my iPhone to sync with the messages app on my MacBook. New messages are now appearing in both places, however messages that had occurred before syncing these two devices do not appear on my mac. Is there a way to have my pre-sync conversations to appear in Messages on my mac?

No. Only iMessages sent from the time you set up Messages on your Mac can be received.

Note that you are not actually syncing between Messages on iPhone and Messages on Mac - you are adding a new device to receive a copy of each message sent. When you register a device for iMessage, a set of keys (a public key and a private key) are created. The public key is sent to Apple, while the private key remains private and known only to your device. When someone wants to send you a message, their app contacts Apple and requests your public key(s). If you have four devices registered, they will receive four public keys.

At that point, their device encrypts the message once for each public key. Only your private key for a particular device can open the encrypted messages intended for that device. So if (by some technical problem) the copy of the message intended for your iPhone was sent to your Mac by mistake, it won't be able to be opened, even though it's for you and was encrypted with your public key.

Hopefully this makes it clear why messages sent prior to registering your MacBook with iMessage cannot be retrieved - simply put, they don't exist in a form that can be read by your MacBook. Even if Apple kept a copy of the messages at the time they were sent (which they for up to seven days, or until the message is received by the intended device, whichever comes first), only your iPhone can decrypt them.

This page has a good overview of iMessage encryption (which goes into more detail on what I've outlined above).


ejabberd admin interface is not open I'm newbie for XMPP/ejabberd. My system is "OS X EL Captain version 10.11.4" and As per my title said, I can't able to open ejabberd admin interface.
When I click on "admin interface" not able to open admin panel.

For more clear look at below Images.

And when I click on "admin interface", display below error message.

I also do internet connect off Because I was thought issue might be problem is with fire-wall but same issue occurred.

If you want to know how can installed "ejabberd" then look at this question.

Can anybody knows the solution then please guide me.

Simply reinstall it and you can get rights to admin section.
it may be problem with config file.
If you have no error message from the installer, you should be set. You can call ejabberd start script to fictionalize
this helped me...


El Capitan Mail.app iCloud email account default email address Just upgraded to El Capitan OS X 10.11 and my default email account is no longer ending with mac.com but is now me.com.

When I try to change this it won't let me save it within the mail.app program.

Any suggestions?

Wow...found an answer elsewhere.  Basically, sign out of iCloud (System Preferences --> iCloud), restart, sign in to iCloud, restart, open Mail.  Everything seemed to reset just fine, and I could save changes to the account in Mail Preferences.


How to remove dock shelf from Mavericks? I installed OS X Mavericks, and the dock shelf has returned despite the hidden option to remove it from previous OS X upgrades. I've tried all the third party dock utility applications like Docker, Dock Designer, CandyBar. All of these apps promise to remove the shelf but fail to do so.

There must be a way to return the dock to 2D view rather than the 3D view or to customize the dock. I'm on 5' of display and the shelf is incredibly glaring, takes up far too much screen space and really isn't needed or wanted.

Does anyone know of a way to remove the dock shelf leaving just the app icons floating at the bottom of the screen and their little "on" lights below those apps running? Please, no other suggestions like hiding the dock or placing the dock on the side. I want the shelf removed entirely.

They removed this feature from 10.9. No one really knows why, but it is removed from the dock settings UI as well as the command line. From the linked article;

  As of Mountian Lion, the Dock is rendered by the OS, instead of the OS using a set of image files like in Lion and before, so it can't be edited.

  The 2D dock terminal trick only worked via a string item in the Dock executable. As of Mavericks, that string item has been removed.

  The only way to edit the dock would be to patch the encrypted Dock executable, and inject software to re-render the Dock differently in memory. Not a simple task.


Can someone who registered my iPhone read all my text messages? My ex-husband registered my iPhone and I have found out he has been using iCloud to check up on my every move (the iPhone he got me is connected to his iCloud account).  Will he have been able to read all of my personal text messages exchanged through the iPhone?  And is there anything I can do to prevent him from reading my messages in the future?

Will he be able to read all of my iPhone's text messages?

Yes. If he has an iPad, Mac, or iPhone hooked up to the same iCloud account as you use on your iPhone, then all of the texts you receive will notify him too, and he can see your sent texts and send some of his own too. He can also (if he's crafty) restore a new iPhone from an iCloud backup of your iPhone and thus copy data from all of your apps.

Do I have any rights?

You can certainly sign out of his iCloud account (go to the Settings app on your iPhone, scroll down and tap iCloud, then scroll down again and tap Sign Out). Then, create your own new iCloud account (go to https://icloud.com in a web browser). Be very sure to set it up with a strong, original password you've never used before, and ensure that your ex does not have access to the email account you set up iCloud with. Then as an added security precaution, you should set up Two-Factor Authentication on your iCloud account which ensures that anyone signing on to your account would need physical access to your iPhone. For a guide on setting up Two-Factor Authentication, see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915.
Now your ex will not be able to see your iCloud data.

Tip from user Alexis: do not set the recovery questions to something your ex would be able to guess. Instead, make up false answers and store it somewhere local (not anywhere in the cloud!!) like on a flash drive, an offline note, or even a piece of paper.


How can I click on Launchpad and make it to behave like secondary click performed? I dislike the big eye-candy icons that I see after clicking the Launchpad icon on the dock. However I like the menu that I see after a secondary click on Launchpad. How can I make the click/tap on the Launchpad behave like a secondary click?

If what you want is a clean compact list of applications in your Dock, consider instead adding the /Applications folder to you Dock and setting it to "View as List".


Some apps I'm finding only on iTunes, isn't there a way to buy in directly on my iPhone/iPod touch? Some apps (e.g. Angry Birds) I'm finding only on iTunes, isn't there a way to buy in directly on my iPhone/iPod touch?

It is very likely that the iTunes store in your country (Brazil after your profile) does not have all the apps from the US AppStore. Developers can choose if they want to make their app available in all or just some countries. Since the website of Apple shows the content of the US AppStore by default it might have led you to believe that you can buy the app with your account.


iPhone not connecting to 3G after losing wifi connection Everytime I am connected to wifi, then lose the connection (e.g. by leaving the house), the 3G on my iphone 4s refuses to work. I have to turn my phone off and on in order to get 3G again, and then I lose the 3G again next time I connect to the wifi.

I can work around the problem so theres no point getting my phone repaired or doing anything drastic, I just wanted to know if any of you knew what is causing this and if there is an easy way to fix it.

Is it Jailbroken?
If not, I'd suggest going to see Apple Genius and see whether its anything hardware wise.


Secure copy a movie from Mac to iPad I have a Mac and a jailbroken iPad. Jailbreaking is perfectly legal where I write this. I can scp and rsync to the device (i.e. I can file-transfer), how would I best transfer some movies to watch on the iPad?

Which folder on the iPad?
Which app on the iPad? (preferably: free)

Any combination that works without using iTunes would do.

If you want to watch with the built in iTunes Player, I would suggest Music2iPod, a free app that can access any file (including videos) on a jailbroken iDevice and add it to the iTunes library. To add the video file to your device I would suggest connecting with a GUI SCP program (like Cyberduck) and transferring to the default directory (it really doesn't matter where, as long as you have read/write access and can remember it), then navigating to this with Music2iPod, which will then add the video to your iPod library for you.


Mid 2010 Mac Pro with no video card; will it run with new HDDs? I have a Mid 2010 Mac Pro that was once my main computer; however, when the graphics card failed and I couldn't find a replacement that the Mac would take I had to replace the computer.  I still have the Mac and am considering re-purposing it as a file server.  If I install new HDDs (I salvaged the old HDDs for the replacement computer), would the Mac run even without a video card?  Thanks!

CLARIFICATION: Since I would be using new HDDs, OS X would not yet be installed on those HDDs.

I have 2 mid 2010 MacPros and have been able to run both without a GPU. If you can load OSX with screensharing turned on onto a drive using another Mac in Target Disk mode you should be able to plug that drive in and boot it up.

I have this running as a media and file server and it works great. Also cuts back on the heat as I loaded my pro up with 6 HDDs (4 in the trays and 2 using the OWC 3.5 adaptor in the CD Drive space). Set up an SSD via a PCIe adaptor for OSx. It works perfectly.


How to import iPhone videos into Instagram without distortion? Whenever I take a video with the standard camera app and then import it into Instagram on my iPhone 5S, the video ends up distorted.

A still from the original video:

A screengrab showing distortion:

I suspect this occurs due to the different aspect ratios of the two formats.

Is there any way to either:

Take video in the default camera app in Instagram's 1:1 ratio, or
Crop video in the Instagram app so that it doesn't distort

I know that Instagram doesn't allow video cropping at the moment. Nor can you change the Camera app's aspect ratio. I suggest either recording inside Instagram or changing your phone's recording position to landscape.


What is the maximum/optimized size of the OSX photos.app library? I was using aperture with referenced images. The aperture library is about 20gig, the folder containing the referenced images is 200gig. I exported versions of a selection of my pictures (6000) and imported those into photos.app for a trial run. The settings (checked) in photos.app are: iCloud Photo Library, Optimized Mac Storage, My Photo Stream, iCloud Photo Sharing.

Right now my Photos Library has a size of 23gig. Which is used mainly for Masters as seen below:

When checking my iCloud-Setting (in System Preferences) the size of photos in the cloud is 16gig.

I use a MacBookAir(late2010) right now with 128gig of storage. So I was hoping photos.app would upload all the pictures in full-res to the cloud and keep low-res pictures locally. Right now it seems the local copy is even larger. I had my mac book on wifi (and connected to power) for some days now (only 78 pictures left for upload).

So my questions are:

What is the target size Photos.app is optimizing for?
Is there any way to change/adapt this target size?

So after some time (learning python on how to monitor and plot library size and disk usage) this is what I have observed regarding my first question. As written by @will-mallard and @bmike the optimizer targes for percentage free disk space. As shown below: the size of the picture library increases and decreases together with my disk usage. During those three days I did not use my mac book air for work. I only added pictures two times.

Over a longer time scale, one can see the reduction of picture library disc space over time while I was working on my macbook.

My followup question is now:
What triggers the optimization? At first I thought it is some kind of free space threshold. But as it is easily seen in the last plot, something at the 24th May triggered a reduction of library space. I am not sure what that was.


Mount XFS under Mac OS X Lion I'm using Linux with XFS under Parallels. How I can mount a XFS in an efficient way? I use Transmit to mount guest filesystem as a disk, however performance is very poor.

what's about shared folders? I use them in good Read/Write speed.


Okay to charge iPad 2 with 14 Watt charger? My iPad 2 charger kinda burned. I bought a new charger from a shop near me. It is a 5v 2.8a (14 Watts) charger.

Is there any problem using that charger to charge my iPad 2?

That's okay. As far I know, the actual charging power is selected by iPad. If the charger supports Apple 2.4A, iPad charges at 2.4A. Otherwise, a lower option will be chosen.
As long as you bought a proper charger, bad ones are unpredictable.


micro DVI on 1st generation macbook air is there a tested way to connect the Micro-DVI port of the Apple Macbook Air 1,1 (Early 2008) to the HDMI input of an HD TV?

The only way I know of, is Micro-DVI -> DVI-D (Apple adapter) and then DVI-D -> HDMI (cable), with a separate audio cable: has anyone tested this? are there suggested cable versions or brands?

DVI (DVI = Digital Visual Interface) does never carry sound, it's visual only. Buying a Mini Displayport to HDMI does not help you out either because it's not supported for your Macbook Air.

Here's the list of laptop models that support audio pass-through via MDP

MacBook Air 11" Model 3,1
MacBook Air 11" Model 4,1
MacBook Air 11" Model 5,1

MacBook Air 13" Model 3,2
MacBook Air 13" Model 4,2
MacBook Air 13" Model 5,2

MacBook 13" Model 7,1

MacBook Pro 13" Model 7,1
MacBook Pro 13" Model 8,1
MacBook Pro 13" Model 9,2

MacBook Pro 15" Model 6,2
MacBook Pro 15" Model 8,2
MacBook Pro 15" Model 9,1
MacBook Pro 15" Model 10,1

MacBook Pro 17" Model 6,1
MacBook Pro 17" Model 8,3

and any version later

You can use the Apple MiniDisplayPort to DVI adapter with a cable like this:
and a separate jack audio cable.


Traffic to IP addresses matching local network not sent over VPN I have an active VPN connection (L2TP) and try to access a server with IP 192.168.1.29 in the remote network.

If my local network uses the same subnetwork (192.168.1.0/24), connections to that subnet are not routed through the VPN, so the connection to the remote server fails. If my local network uses a different subnetwork (e.g., 192.168.2.0/24) the connection succeeds.

Is there a way to access my server in the first case?

No. This is precisely why all of documentation about setting up VPN tunnels/bridges stresses the need for local and remote networks to have different subnets.

You will need to change one or the other.


Can anyone recommend good third party iOS email clients (especially regarding signature support)? Can anyone recommend an iOS email client (Exchange/ActiveSync or IMAP... preferably both) that supports really sweet email signatures?  Our company email signature has an official format that has a base64 encoded image and a standardized font/color.

Please, throw me some suggestions!

Sparrow is now available for the iPhone, and it supports IMAP.

The app description does not mention exchange, and it specifically says that there's no POP support, but being that it's such a popular mail client, I figured it's worth mentioning.

Disclaimer: I've never used it either on the Mac or on iOS


How do I copy music from iTunes to my iPad? I seem to remember that dragging and dropping a file used to work the same as it did with my iPod.

Click on the device, and on the main screen you need to set it to "manually manage music and videos." The reason it may still work on your iPod is that the setting is device specific.


enabling virtual machine Guest Additions on a Mac host and Mac guest I want to enable Shared folders on VirtualBox. I went to Devices tab and clicked -> Insert guest additions CD image. Nothing happened. This is an image of my Storage tab in Settings of Virtual box:

I previously got this message, that instructed me to go to Insert guest additions CD image:

I'll quote a previous answer of mine:

From Virtualbox Manual : Chapter 14:

14.2. Known Issues
Mac OS X guests:
VirtualBox does not provide Guest Additions for Mac OS X at this time

[snip]
From the content of this, I wouldn't hold out for such support in VirtualBox any time soon.

The situation really has not changed since then.
There is some discussion of a workaround involving the built in OS X sharing functionality and configuring your network setup to work, but nothing well defined.


How can I have an iTunes DJ-style playback on my iOS Device? I use iTunes DJ pretty frequently, it serves a great purpose for when you have no specific artist/album you wish to listen to, nor a loose collection of songs based around a single genre (Genius).

This issue is at it's worst when I'm driving, and wish to listen to music; Voice Command only gives me the ability to pick an artist, album, or playlist.

How best am I able to create something which uses my entire Music library, and can quickly, easy, and perhaps most important of all, safely, begin playing any random item?

Additionally, shuffle should be turned on, or some other aspect of randomization should be used as part of the accepted solution. One other important aspect is that I've explicitly mentioned the use of Voice Command, which only exists on an iPhone (3GS and 4).

I use an app called InstanTunes.

It doesn't have voice command, but it does use a selected Source playlist to generate a random playlist from. Then uses this playlist as a Queue. Whenever you like you can add songs to the playlist which are added into the Next Song position of the playlist.


Do any current (early 2012) Macs support Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT) Intel's SRT uses a small SSD (up to 64 GB) as a cache for the hard disk. Or just the first 64 GB of a larger SSD. Per this Intel document this needs a Z68 Express board and Windows Vista or 7. Various sources say the 2011 iMacs use the Z68 chipset.

Is this supported, or an equivalent feature, on any current Mac? If so, where can I read more?

There is no current implementation of this technology in the current iMac with the requisite Z68 chipset, or any other Mac. I'm not even sure that any other Macs from this (last?) year have the Z68 chipset!


Blocking calls with no SIM card automatically on new? If I block a number from my old iPhone without a SIM card, does that block the number on my new iPhone with SIM card? This is a replacement iPhone for my broken one.

The Call Blocking feature built-into iOS doesn’t depend on having a SIM card per se. However it does synchronize over iCloud, meaning that if your previous iPhone had an Internet connection at any point (and you were logged in to your iCloud account) then its blocked numbers were synced with iCloud.

Conversely, your new iPhone would synchronize its block list as soon as you connected it to your iCloud account.

You can verify whether your block list transferred by opening Settings → Phone → Call Blocking & Identification.


How to prevent iPad from keeping pushing iOS 11 to me? My iPad Air 2 keeps downloading iOS 11 in the background and then tries to push me into upgrading. I don't want that. I have declined it numerous times, and recovered the storage space it takes up from the download, but every time it keeps doing it over and over.

Is there a way for my iPad (currently running iOS 10) to stop downloading or bothering me about iOS 11 at all?

Update:
iOS/iPadOS 13.6 has introduced the ability for users to turn off automatic download of updates. To configure automatic download or installation of iOS/iPadOS updates on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings app → General → Software Update → Customize Automatic Updates and toggle the switches as desired.
The linked Apple Support document discusses the same:

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204204

Customize Automatic Updates

With iOS 13.6, or iPadOS, you can choose not to download software updates automatically. Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Customize Automatic Updates, then turn off Download iOS updates.

Old answer which applies to iOS/iPadOS versions earlier than 13.6 is as follows:
Apple strongly advises to keep your iOS devices up-to-date by installing the latest supported public release of iOS on your devices.
While Apple takes every measure to get the iOS devices to the newly released software, you can choose to opt out of upgrading. There is no straightforward way for you to turn-off iOS software upgrade all together, following are a few tricks you can employ to keep yourself from upgrading:

Delete the update and avoid Wi-Fi connection: First delete the already downloaded iOS update by going to Settings app → General → Storage & iCloud Storage → Manage Storage. Select the Software Update item, tap on Delete Update and confirm that you want to delete the update.
Now disconnect your device from Wi-Fi. Software update can be downloaded and installed only over a Wi-Fi connection. If you can make do with a regular data/LTE connection, you can avoid Wi-Fi and you will not be nagged by a downloaded update.

Block the Apple software update domain(s) on your router: If you need to connect to a Wi-Fi connection at your home or office and have the admin access to the router, you can blacklist the Apple Software domains. Use it with caution as this will block the domains for others who are connected to the access point as well and they will not be able to check for or install the update. Prevent access to the following domains:
 appldnld.apple.com
 mesu.apple.com


Show directory path in Finder in MacOS How to see the directory path or navigation bar in Finder? Is there any ubuntu or windows like directory bar?

Got the solution. View -> Show Path Bar solves it.


How to investigate Mail app's random popup bug on Mojave? My friend's computer (running the latest version Mojave) is experiencing that bug where mail.app suddenly — randomly? — and automatically takes focus while having his Google-account connected to it. I've seen others with this problem — and that it has been around for a while.

Is there a way to find out what is actually happening? A log file perhaps that shows what prompts the Mail app to take focus by itself? It only seems to happen with Google btw. So could it be something with certain Google accounts that forces Mail app to exhibit this behaviour? Any help or pointers in the right direction is much appreciated!

Suggested fixes to this that I've seen so far, have been elaborate workarounds that really doesn't deal with the problem itself, or even what the problem is.

Copying the answer I wrote for this question, Catalina has NOT solved the problem.

Looking for a solution I tried to activate the logging of the connection status (from Mail menu: Windows -> Connection Status).
Examining the log when the Mail app is popping up, I found out these error messages at the exactly same time and on every occurrence of the problem (when the app doesn't pop up the error messages don't show up):

READ Oct 10 20:41:21.323 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_2] -- host:imap.gmail.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x6000003b7de0 -- thread:0x60000322d080
5.659 NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Invalid credentials (Failure)
--
READ Oct 10 20:41:21.427 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_2] -- host:imap.gmail.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x6000003b7de0 -- thread:0x60000322d080
6.659 BAD Invalid SASL argument. z66mb54202756wmc
--
READ Oct 10 20:41:21.732 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_2] -- host:imap.gmail.com -- port:993 -- socket:0x6000003b7de0 -- thread:0x60000322d080
7.659 NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Invalid credentials (Failure)

(Just posting the lines containing the errors)

The error messages are present only on the log file of my Gmail account, every other mail account doesn't show any error message.
So as many of you, I also think that the problem is due to the Gmail accounts.

Hope this can help to solve the problem in any meaningful way.


Do iWork applications now iOS support versioning? The current iWork on Lion supports autosave and versions. Is the same true for the iOS versions of these applications? I need versioning support for my documents on iOS devices.

Version support is not found in iWork it is actually a part of OSX Lion. There is no version support built into iOS. (yet)


What does "Enable AirPlay over WAN" do? What does AirPlay over WAN do? I have an AirPort Express 802.11n. This was the last generation to hook directly into the outlet.

I believe it refers to accepting airplay connections from computers connected to the wired ethernet port on the AirPort Express. The port's primary purpose when the AirPortExpress was first released was to connect to a cable or DSL modem. Apple and many other home router makers refer to this as the WAN connection. However, I think it only supports AirPlay when the AirPort Express is being used to bridge wired devices onto a WiFi network.

I base this on my interpretation of this review of the AirPort Express on Small Net Builder:

  Since the Music screen is unique to the Express, I grabbed a copy of it. The screenshot below shows that the controls are pretty simple. The Enable AirPlay over WAN feature really works, since that's where the iTunes server I used for a quick test sat. Administration from the WAN worked just fine, too.


Install OS X recovery mode. Can't log in Dusting off an old iMac and it was hanging at 50% progress bar during start up.  Since I don't need anything on it I'm trying to reformat.

I've booted into recovery mode and erased the drive.  Then selected to install new OS.  Chose the drive (it's also showing a locked recovery drive).  By then it asks me to log into Apple Store.  I do and it's saying wrong password.  But then my phone asks for permission for login with my account.  I approve and it still doesn't let me in on the iMac.  Phone is giving an auth code but no where to enter it on iMac.

The version of the operating system of the recovery partition is probably lower than 10.11.0.

According to Apple you have to append the auth code to the password then:

  What if I use two-factor authentication on a device running older software?
  If you use two-factor authentication with devices running older OS versions, you might be asked to add your six-digit verification code to the end of your password when signing in. Get your verification code from a trusted device running iOS 9 and later or OS X El Capitan and later, or have it sent to your trusted phone number. Then type your password followed by the six-digit verification code directly into the password field.


How to make iTunes video window float on top? In iTunes you can play videos in a seperate window. Is it possible to make that window stay on top? Preferably without any 3rd party apps?

Yes, there is an option under Preferences -> Advanced Preferences, under the separator saying 'Keep movie window on top of all other windows'.

The window may look slightly different than this (I found this example online), but the wording is still the same.


Remove unwanted email address associated with Apple ID I noticed that I have an unwanted email address in the following panel:

System Preferences → iCloud → Account Details → Contact

What does that mean and how can I remove it?

Update:

I have tried to log on Apple ID settings but it doesn't work:

There is NO x besides that email but a ? saying:

  This is an alias of your Apple ID email address.

Updated 2:
It seems there is no way to remove it:

Method #1: Normal Email Address

If you log into your Apple ID you can access your associated emails by clicking on the "Edit" button next to your account info.

screenshot of account info

From there you'll see all the email addresses associated with your Apple ID. You can delete them or add new ones here.

screenshot of account details - email address

Delete additional emails by clicking on the 'X' next to it

NOTE: Any new email addresses will require that you MFA (Multi-factor authenticate) then through your associated phone number that you setup with your Apple ID.

Method #2: An alias email address (XXX@icloud.com)

If you have an alias email address of the form XXXXX@icloud.com that's a different matter. This is an alias that Apple can add to your account. To remove these you can follow the directions in this Apple discussion titled: How do I delete an alias from my Apple ID.

Steps:

  Change, turn off, turn on, or delete an alias

  Click the Action pop-up menu  in the sidebar, then choose Preferences.
  Click Accounts.
  Select the alias in the Addresses list, then do any of the following:

  Turn off an alias: Select “Disable alias.”
  Delete an alias: Click Delete.

  Click Done.

NOTE: The Action pop-up menu is under the Mail application after you open it in icloud (www.icloud.com).

Method #3: Revised directions from Apple

I found these steps outlined in the official documentation from apple in this KB titled: iCloud: Use email aliases in iCloud Mail.

These steps were recently updated (April 9th, 2019) as follows:

  Change, turn off, turn on, or delete an alias

  Click the Action pop-up menu  in the sidebar, then choose Preferences.
  Click Accounts.
  Select the alias in the Addresses list, then do any of the following:

  Change the name or label: Enter a new alias name and label in the fields provided. Alias names must contain between 3 and 20 characters.
  Choose a new color for incoming messages: Click a Label Color option.
  Alias labels appear only in Mail on iCloud.com.
  Turn off an alias: Select “Disable alias.”
  Turn on an alias: Deselect “Disable alias.”
  Delete an alias: Click Delete.

  Click Done.


Is it possible to play youtube video in safari browser on WiFi in iOS devices? I have a query regarding playing you tube videos in iOS devices (like iphone,ipad).I can able to play youtube videos in safari browser in iphone on 3G data connection but can not play the same video on WiFi.

I am facing the same issue in the youtube iOS application also. Is it possible to play youtube video on WiFi in iOS devices ? Please help me to fix this issue.

Please refer this stackoverflow question also for the same issue.

Yes it is possible. I am doing it as I write this answer. There shouldn't be an T&C issue as I know it, just check whether your WiFi is properly connected and has enough bandwidth to stream video. Also you can cross check this by streaming something else through one other application.


How do I switch tabs when using iTerm2 with Z shell How do I switch tabs when using Z shell on iTerm2? I have already tried all the possible key combinations. Here is an image of my current setup:

OS: macOS Mojave 10.14.4 (18E226)

iTerm2: Build 3.3.0beta7

Key combos tried: Different combinations of Command, Control, Option, →, ←, }, { keys.

Use the keyboard shortcuts Shift + Command + ] and Shift + Command + [ to switch to next and previous tabs respectively. The same are also available under iTerm2 Menu Bar → Window menu.

The keyboard shortcuts remain the same irrespective of the shell you are running.


Possible to connect multiple Macs via Thunderbolt Networking (IP over Thunderbolt)? Looking to connect 4 Macs to a central Mac Mini that is running as a server (with a few Thunderbolt RAID arrays connected it as data sources).

Network is currently gigabit ethernet, but would like to speed up data transfers.  10G Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapters are still relatively expensive ($300-500) - so I'm wondering if its possible to connect multiple Macs via IP over Thunderbolt?

Apple supports a direct connection between two computers via IP, but is it possible to connect multiple either via daisy chaining them or via some sort of a Thunderbolt hub or switch (if one exists)?

If so, this would make for a relatively inexpensive way to build a 10G LAN network with (mostly) existing hardware and a few Optical Thunderbolt Cables

Theoretically, yes you can do this. You would need a Mac with multiple Thunderbolt ports like a 2013 MacPro with its 6 Thunderbolt ports. Not sure if daisy chaining multiple Macs together will give you the desired effect.

This link seems to think that it will work but says nothing about daisy chaining only plugging a bunch of Macs into one Mac with a lot of ports.

So it seems that it is safe to plug a bunch of Macs together VIA thunderbolt which opens the door to you experimenting with various topologies to find one that does what you want.


How Do I Set Multiple Categories for a Podcast? I have a podcast that I want to be listed under Religion & Spirituality.  I would like for it to be listed when someone selects Christianity or Spirituality.

I just submitted my podcast with the xml code below.  When the page displayed before submitting it only showed the Spirituality category under Religion & Spirituality, not the Christianity category.

<itunes:category text="Religion &amp; Spirituality">
<itunes:category text="Christianity"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="Religion &amp; Spirituality">
<itunes:category text="Spirituality"/>
</itunes:category>

I could not find any documentation about how to do this.  I thought I might try the following.

<itunes:category text="Religion &amp; Spirituality">
<itunes:category text="Christianity"/>
<itunes:category text="Spirituality"/>
</itunes:category>

Can this be done?

Your second format is the proper one. Even if the iTunes listing only shows one category after the name, it will be searchable under both.

More explanation can be found here, or in the official documentation and a properly formatted multi-category tag is shown below:

<itunes:category text="Technology">
<itunes:category text="Computers" />
<itunes:category text="News" />
</itunes:category>

If you want multiple subcategories in different main categories, you would do something like your first example:

<itunes:category text="Arts &amp; Entertainment">
    <itunes:category text="Games" />
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="Technology">
    <itunes:category text="Computers" />
</itunes:category>


Copy contents of a smart folder to a new folder in Mountain Lion I admit that my music collection is a royal mess. This is the result of merging many sources of music (external drive, old iPod sync, iTunes purchases, etc) into my iTunes account. iTunes Match has done a pretty good job of cleaning it up visually as I look at it in iTunes.

What I want to do is create a backup copy of all my music no matter where it lives (external HD, etc.) to one location and hopefully eliminate duplicates in the process.

More specifically, I setup a smart folder to find all of kind:music with a bitrate over 44kbps. This results in over 20,000 music files at around 485 GB. I now want to copy all this content to my external drive to ensure I have a backup of all these audio files.

I tried a simple select all and drag to copy, but that didn't seem to work. After a few days of Finder "not responding", I killed the process.  Some zero-byte files were created on the external drive, but no sign of progress after the first few minutes.

I'm wondering if there is a Terminal command that could reference the contents of a smart folder and copy or some other creative way to get this done.

I really don't want to mess with iTunes, I just want to copy all music files to the external HD. Bash script maybe?

You could use mdfind in a shell script to simulate your smart folder's settings (mdfind is how you use Spotlight from the command line). Use kMDItemKind to specify the kind and kMDItemAudioBitRate for the bitrate.

Then you can use that list of files and copy them to your external drive.

Something like this script below. (scp copies files to a server; use cp to copy to a drive. Or, if you want to get fancy, rsync is generally better for incremental backups.)

#!/bin/bash

for FILE in $(mdfind 'kMDItemAudioBitRate >= "44000"')
do
    scp $FILE myname@myserver:~/music-backup
done


Is it programmatically possible to communicate with Siri via bluetooth? We see people talk on bluetooth headsets all the time. In addition bluetooth is used to send notifications to devices like watches.

My question is Is it programmatically possible to communicate with Siri via bluetooth?

Yes, some Bluetooth headphones, speakers and hands-free car audio systems have Siri functionality, the Bluetooth device acts as a speaker/mic with action buttons, one commonly found being the Call button.

So, in answer to your question, yes it's possible with the right equipment.


Playlists getting duplicated When I sync my iPad to my MacBook, a lot of my playlists are getting duplicated over and over again. Here is an example:

It happens to regular and smart-playlists.

I am on iTunes 12.4.1.6.

How do I stop this mass duplication?

I had to delete the duplicated playlists from my computer and then delete the same playlists on my iPhone in order to get rid of the duplicates. Still, I have duplicates on my Macbook


How to repair a MacBook Pro 2007 hard drive bus? Is there a repair I can do to the hard drive bus on a MacBook Pro 2007?

I've changed the SATA cable but it still won't see the drive, which I know is good as it boots externally! Disk Utility doesn't detect it either.

If you're certain the drive is known to be good and working and that the cable you're using is also in good condition then the answer is no: there isn't anything you can do to fix a broken controller yourself. You'll need to take it to an authorized Apple Repair Center. These things are usually solved with main board swaps as it's all, more or less, integrated on one board in this case.


How to fix mail to particular contacts not appearing in Sent folder? On Mountain Lion's Mail, I am having a problem with the messages I send to a particular coworker from my work account not appearing in the Sent mailbox.

The messages are going through. (I got her to Fwd: the important one back to me.)
Messages I sent to my other accounts, even from that account, are correctly appearing in Sent.
Messages I send from another address (even using the same SMTP server) are appearing in Sent.

Things I've tried so far:

Connection Doctor. It shows no issues.
Deleting + recreating the account.
Rebuilding the mailbox.
I'm familiar with Use This Mailbox For > and it is not a factor here.

Any ideas?

This appears to have been a hiccup on the SMTP server.


What's the technical reason some Macs can't use Boot Camp with macOS Mojave? As written on MacRumors and other places Macs using 3TB Fusion Drives for the macOS and Boot Camp installations can't be upgraded to Mojave currently without losing the Boot Camp partition.

To fix this problem, Apple says that customers with the 2012 27-inch iMac with 3TB hard drive will need to completely remove the Boot Camp partition using Boot Camp Assistant before macOS Mojave can be installed.
After upgrading to macOS Mojave, Boot Camp will not be able to be used to install Windows on these machines. No other iMac models appear to be affected by this issue.

What is the technical reason for this?
PS: See also Apple knowledgebase document (which mentions only Late-2012 27-inch iMacs with 3TB fusion drives.)

The technical reason is that the fusion drive is an Apple engineered disk spanning software layer and Apple didn't implement / ship this for fusion drives on top of APFS. Someone has to write the actual code that runs behind that Boot Camp assistant program and the code was written to not start on that specific hardware.

Now - that decision was probably a business decision. We could speculate that it required tradeoffs or more engineering talent or failed some performance or stability test so they removed that capability technically during the planning of the OS before it was publicly released to beta in June 2018 and shipped in September 2018.

Boot Camp is three things:

1) Drivers to make Windows see the Mac hardware as legitimate
2) Scripts to repartition the drive.
3) Documentation and articles like the one you references to educate people how to use the software and what to expect.

Apple could have decided to leave these few Macs without the entirely new APFS and coded other exceptions, but I'm not at all surprised they just said - no bootcamp on some small subset of iMac that didn't ship with SSD as the main storage.


How can I stop my Mac from automatically upgrading to High Sierra? As per the title. If I have a Mac running Sierra, what can/should I do if I don’t want to be upgraded to High Sierra?

I’ve already unchecked “Install macOS updates” in System Preferences:

but I’m wondering if there’s anything else I should be doing. (Or can do, because I’m not sure I trust that checkbox.)

Why?

This weekend, one of my Macs got unexpectedly upgraded from Sierra to High Sierra, but I don’t remember asking for the upgrade. (I say “upgraded”, what I mean is “freeze, crash, then reboot twice”. Is this a new installation procedure?) A bunch of stuff is now broken, yay.

I’m downgrading to a backup taken when my Mac was on Sierra. When I’m back up, I want to ensure I don’t get another unwanted upgrade.

Normally I would just follow a policy of “don’t hit the upgrade button”, but this weekend’s experience suggests that’s no longer enough. :-/

I'm not aware that anything has changed in terms of macOS upgrades.

The only Mac I have with macOS High Sierra actually shipped with it, while all the others regularly inform me of the upgrade, but none have actually been upgraded to macOS High Sierra. The ones that support macOS High Sierra but haven't upgraded are either running El Capitan 10.11.6 or Sierra 10.12.6.

So, based on your settings, you should be fine.


How to recover the deleted partition and get its UUID in macOS My MacBook Air has installed Ubuntu, and I want to remove it and expand the Mac partition, so I delete the original partitions, like this picture:

but I forget to note the UUID of disk0s2 and disk0s3, so when I make Partition, there is a problem, like that:

So how can I recover the partition ?

You have to destroy the GUID partition table and create a new one. The UUIDs of the various partition types are fixed. You can get some or most of them here: Partition type GUIDs.

Below I assume that your MacBook Air contains an SSD and the main partition was formatted as CoreStorage volume. You can check this in Recovery Mode with a method outlined here: OS volume shows as type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFF' (last part)

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.
You can either use fdisk or gpt to remove the MBR at block 0. If you use an admin user prepend sudo using the gpt .... commands.
First get an overview. This step is important before you destroy the gpt, because it's the source to rebuild it from scratch:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Then delete the gpt:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt destroy /dev/disk0

Create a new GUID partition table:

gpt create -f /dev/disk0

Finally add all common Mac partitions one by one based on details shown in the gpt -r show /dev/disk0 output:

gpt add -b 40 -s 409600 -i 1 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 134167720 -s 1269760 -i 3 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 409640 -s 133758080 -i 2 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Hint: You may add and remove partitions in an arbitrary order if you keep the right index number. In the above commands I added the third partition (... -i 3 ...) before adding the second partition (... -i 2 ...). You don't have to unmount disk0 then because the partitions i=1 and i=3 don't contain auto-mounted volumes while the second partition does.
Check the disk with diskutil verifyDisk disk0
Check the disk with diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

Resizing the main volume to fill the whole disk

Finally you want to resize the main volume to fill the whole disk.

Get an overview with:

diskutil cs list

You may have several CoreStorage Logical Volume Groups, if you boot from an external drive with a full system! Use the proper one!
Resize the whole stack:

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size #lvUUID is the UUID of the Logical Volume. Usually it's the last one listed.

Booted to Yosemite you can use 0g for the size to expand it. 0g is a "magical" size here.

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID 0g

Booted to El Capitan or later you have to use a real size like 120g. If you get an error use a slightly smaller size like 119g or199500m.

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID 120g


How can I open certain links in Google Chrome, which is not my default browser? My default browser is Safari. I would like to open all Google Meet links (e.g. https://meet.google.com/xxx-xxxx-xxx) to open in Google Chrome. I open these links from a calendar event in Apple's Calendar app.

How can I make these kinds of links open in Chrome instead of Safari?

I don't have or use the app but I believe Choosy can do this for you. You configure it to be your default browser, and via rules you set within Choosy determine which actual browser it then hands the URL off to.


Problem with external monitor and MacBook Air I cannot connect my MacBook Air to an external monitor. But I am able to connect it to a projector, without any difficulty. My computer detects the external monitor but cannot connect to it. The screen is just black

I have tried everything in the System Preferences > Display > Resolution
category. Does not work, but any clue will help!
I have upgraded everything on my Mac, so that it is now OS
X El Capitan.
I have tried to deconnect and reconnent the cable connecting to the screen.
Other MacBook Air work with the monitors I want to use, and they all work.
I have tried the sleep-mode to get it to detect the mac/screen.
I have tried changing the VGA cable.

I have tried almost everything, what am I missing?

Are you connecting using 100Hz for example on a 60 Hz monitor? The monitor will turn black then and appears to be disconnected.
There should be an option to cast it as a different Hz to your monitor.


Will VOX music player change anything in my iTunes library? I've downloaded the free VOX music player from the Mac App Store after reading a recomendation in some site.

The program asks me for permission to acces my iTunes Library but a splash screen hints of some lenghty process is going to happen is I do so.

Has someone used VOX, and what does is do to my iTunes Library ?
Does it create its own library of sorts ?

From what I see using Vox, it does not create a library of its own, instead it either access the iTunes Library directly for information.

It should be a read-only access, and you have nothing to worry.

You should note that it's not iTunes integration, so it does not work with iTunes Match to provide tracks that aren't downloaded to your Mac yet.

If you have further concerns, I suggest you contact the developers of Vox directly.


Can I use Spotlight to search for files by name? My most common search pattern is to search for files based on their name. When I try this in Spotlight (cmd-space) it rarely works. Is there a way to make Spotlight search for file names, and to place those results on top?

You can use this in your search to search for files with 'query' in their name: name:query

For more info about Spotlight commands, you can take a look at an excerpt of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual.


What is Tri-band 2G CDMA (800 (CDMA over ESMR), 850, 1900 MHz) in Iphone 5 CDMA model? In this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphone_5, it said

iPhone 5 CDMA model (A1429) support "Tri-band 2G CDMA (800 (CDMA over ESMR), 850, 1900 MHz)."

So what does it means?

So before iPhone5, CDMA customers can't make the 2G call or something like that?

Why Apple support very old 2G technology in iPhone 5?

Is it cos CDMA customers complained they can't make 2G call on iPhone 4, 4s & that is why Apple start to support 2G CDMA on the iPhone 5?

It means its compatible with 3 bandwidth for 2G :

800 MHz (CDMA over ESMR)
850 MHz (GSM)
1900 MHz (GSM)

800/1900 is mostly used in the USA and Canada. It's quite usefull to use 2G since 3G has not a coverage as wide as 2G.


Possible to Disable Screensaver? What I'd like to achieve

On my Macbook Pro with latest macOS - every X minutes, the screensaver turns on for X seconds, then the screensaver turns off. This application by defaults runs every time the MBP turns on, with the option to disable.

Question

I've started to create this using Automator but I'm stuck at disabling/turning off the screen saver. Is it possible to do this through Automator or is there another way to achieve this?

For MacOS 10.15.4 Catalina, you can start a screen saver after 15 minutes and then stop after 15 seconds you can use the following Automator Application.

You then need it to launch at login, by going into System Preferences>User and Groups>Login Items and add your screen Saver Application.


Problem fixing my corrupted USB drive on OS X I followed your tutorial How do I fix a corrupted USB drive on OS X?
and got the final message:

  dd: /dev/disk2: Permission denied

Then I tried it with a sudo command and got the message:

  dd: /dev/disk2: Resource busy

Do you have an idea how I can successfully fix my corrupted USB drive?

You need to unmount the disk first. Before you can write to it using ddHere the command you need to run to unmount the disk:

sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk2


Can I disable Google Software Update for a selected user account? From this help file I know I can disable Google Software Update using:

$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

Does this work for all accounts or just the current user account? I want to disable Google Software Update for the non-admin accounts that can't run it.

[repeating my comment as an answer to close the question]

When you update a setting using defaults, it generally only affects the current user." http://commandlinemac.blogspot.com/2008/12/defaults-setting-preferences-from.html

So I can just run

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

on each of the non-admin accounts where the pop-up is bothersome.


What info does a Mac broadcast and how to hide it? I want to run a Mac in the cloud as a webserver and for facilitative use. I've secured most of my used tools already, but I was wondering about the OS itself.

Imagine I'm running an up-to-date Yosemite. How could I check what information a third party could obtain from the device. If information could be found, how to hide it?

I noticed some SSH services on Linux servers bluntly giving their exact OS version until the release number. I would want to prevent stuff like that being broadcasted and just wanted to double-check if OS X would broadcast such and how to obfuscate it or hide it fully. I can understand I can't hide my server is running OS X, but I would at least not like the external party to know more details if they were broadcasted.

First make sure that you're running a firewall that is prohibiting all inbound and outbound connections on the server. Then open only those ports you need for the production to run fine.

Most applications can be configured to not identify their exact version, but remember that this is not really giving you any more security, it is just a tad harder to exploit.

After you've "hardened" your machine like this you could fire up a second machine in the same subnet and launch a utility like Wireshark (Wireshark download page) to listen to the chatter of your cloud server. This way you get additional hints about processes that you might want to silence.


What can I do besides taking in Macbook to remove firmware password? I have a MacBook Pro w/ Retina (2012 I believe) which has a firmware password which I don't know. Since it is a retina I can't use the remove RAM trick. If I go to reformat and reinstall the MBP will the firmware password be removed?

Your only option is to visit an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) or one of their Genius Bars.  The process to bypass a firmware lock changed a few years ago and now requires that a certified technician (ACMT) contact Apple with the Mac's information, which Apple will then process and use to remove the firmware lock.

You can find a list of AASPs using Apple's locate tool, https://locate.apple.com. Select the service option and search for a provider in your location.

Even with older Macs, where the firmware password could be bypassed by changing the RAM configuration and resetting the PRAM, the firmware lock would persist after wiping the hard drive and re-installing the OS.  This behavior still exists today.


Stop iOS 7 update installation I made a mistake and accidentally started downloading iOS 7 on my device.

I didn't notice it until it finished downloading but now it says it needs minimum of 50% charge to start installation.

I do not want to install and and I am concerned of charging my phone as the download might start automatically

Will it install automatically?

It should not install until and unless you click on install.


Resolution when connecting to a headless Mac Mini My setup is as follows:

Mac Mini 2012 with a dummy video adapter with latest OSX.
Retina Macbook Pro 13-inch, Early 2015 running the default OSX VNC client with the latest OSX.
Display Menu to switch resolutions.

My problem is that I'm not able to get the right resolution such that it fills up the entire Retina Macbook Pro display. Ideally I would have liked 1280x800 or equivalent higher. This way it would fill up the entire screen (though it would be scaled since Retina has a higher resolution, which is fine).

However the only resolution options I see are:

My question is that do these options depend on the dummy video adapter? If so, is there a recommended video adapter to achieve such a setup?

I’m not sure how you could do this within macOS, but I know that every portable Mac I’ve owned since the PowerBook G4, as well as my current Mac mini, all run a tool called SwitchResX. It has saved me so many times in connecting to projectors, screens, etc. and in exactly the same situation you’re in where I wanted to have my MacBook Air screen resolution exactly matched by the Mac mini so that I had a full screen experience.

Go and have a look at SwitchResX over at http://www.madrau.com. There is a fully functional 10-day trial version, and €14 buys you a license. Well-worth the expense in my opinion!


Stop App Store prompting for specific system update I have a Brother MFC printer, and installed the latest drivers from the Brother website. All is good, everything works.

The App Store now prompts me that there is an update available: Brother Printer Software Update 2.10. This looks like an Apple package, and isn't the same as the Brother one.

With this installed I can't print, and it doesn't even think the printer has a scanner attached. After deleting the printer, re-installing the Brother package, and re-adding the printer it's all working again.

It appears in the top Software Update section of the Updates page, not in the section below for regular app updates.

Is there a way to specifically block this one update? I know app updates have been discussed in other questions, this isn't it.

I'm on 10.8.2

Turns out that if you click on "More Info" and expand the update fully, you can then right-click on it and choose "Ignore Update".


Odd iCloud syncing issue Having problems with photos syncing from iPhone 5s to PC running Windows 7. Long story short, my wife's photos sync to her computer, mine only syncs to 1 of 3 computers (all Win 7 Pro) all on the same wifi network at home. As mentioned, no problems on 1 of our computers with the photos populating within seconds of taking them. On the 2 that will not show them, I can only get iCloud to show "My Photo Stream" and "Activity" folders when clicking the "iCloud Photos" shortcut link in favorites when opening Windows Explorer

On the computer that does bring the photo from the cloud, I set it up to save them to a network drive and if I point the non-working pc's to that folder as default for iCloud, I still see nothing on my computer when double clicking "My Photo Stream"

Here's the kicker: if I click the "Open Folder" link in the above photo, the folder opens correctly and shows the files

Does anyone have any clues why these photos in the linked default iCloud folder are not showing on 2 of my computers? I've tried for many hours to figure this out and would appreciate any suggestions beyond the normal "reset iCloud" - "sign out then sign back in" - "delete account from phone and reload it" answers.

This is genuinely because of multiple iCloud accounts used on one PC. Just for the sake of experiment, try installing iCloud on a PC where no other iCloud have ever been installed. I am sure, it will sync with it, and it is certainly a cache problem.

Secondly, regarding the My Photo Stream not showing up anything but you can still see 3 photos when you click open folder ... this is because Photo Stream shows photos when its a collection or multiple of 5 photos (e.g 5, 10, 15, 20), so if you have 5 photos in the folder, it will show up, then it won't show until it get 10 (in case of total photos <> multiple of 5, it will come up with all photos it has, as the last photo will tell that this is the end of the album). Make sure it is not a network drive, as iCloud doesn't re-download photos once it is interrupted.


what is the name and password for transfer server? I want to transfer files between my Windows 7 unlimited computer and my Mac VirtualBox machine.
I followed this tutorial.

I did not set a password for my Windows computer
While connecting, it asks this:

What exactly is my name and password? Where is it?
I entered all of the things needed but it won't work.

You Solution can be found in this SuperUser Question

If you want to use smb without a password, you have some options to bypass the "blank password issue", but it basically won't work. The Samba Service in Windows 7 simply does not allow you to do so.

I your specific case, the Username would be your Win7 Account Name and the password would be blank. But since Win7 (smb) does not allow a blank password for authentication you can not log in.


Will a restore to default factory settings remove the firmware updates from my Iphone? If I restore my iphone to default factory settings will it remove the ios firmware updates and leave ios in the state it was in when I got the phone?

Restoring to factory setting will simply wipe out every bit of customization you did to it (every setting you changed from the default) but it will not downgrade the firmware.

In other words, if you bought your iPhone with iOS 3 and now you're on iOS 4, then a factory setting reset will still leave you on iOS 4.


OS X browsers option maximize\zoom I know that how to maximize windows has been discussed in several places. I have a more specific question here:

Why, when I hit option + maximize\zoom (green button in the top left) do browsers not work the same as other windows? e.g. they don't fully maximize.

Other desktop native apps that I've tried (Spotify, Slack, Terminal\iTerm are examples) go fullscreen when I hit option+maximize. However, Google Chrome and Safari do not. Interestingly, Firefox does.

I really would prefer to not switch back to Firefox, but this has annoyed me for years. Does anyone know how to change the option maximize in Google Chrome?

Versions:

Google Chrome 52.0.2743.116 (64-bit)
Safari 9.1.2 (10601.7.7)
OS X 10.10.5

I think you are mixing up keys.

This is in El Capitan - earlier versions behaved differently - I forget when it changed

I have tried this on Firefox, Safari, Numbers and iTerm2

Cmd + green button makes the window full screen with no menubar
Alt + green button keeps the menu bar and makes the window fill the rest of the screen

these are documented in this Apple knowledgebase article

but

Alt + Shift+ green button seems to do different things.

Safari Nothing
Firefox same as 2
Numbers same as 2
iTerm Keeps the menubar makes the window full screen height but keep the same width as before.


How can you get OSX if your hard drive crashed and you don't have the original DVD anymore? Yesterday my HD died. I thought about buying a new disk and reinstalling, but I can't find the original DVD that came with the machine (it's a MacBook 5.1, it came with 10.5). Suppose I want to buy and install a new operating system, how can I do it, considering that boxed dvds are no longer sold?

In the past AppleCare has been able to send replacement system discs.  I would assume the same holds true today but my only doubt stems from the age of the Mac, since it may be unsupported by AppleCare.  It's definitely worth a call though...

Call 1-800-APLCARE (Or find your Apple support number HERE if you're outside of the US/Canada)
Give them your serial number (found on your Mac, underneath your battery)
Explain that you have misplaced the gray system discs that came with your Mac and that you need replacement discs in order to reinstall your operating system.

Hopefully they are still able to provide replacements!


Trash won't empty, and duplicates files (with one copy remaining in trash) when moved back to desktop I'm having a problem with Yosemite. It started when I attempted to move items to recycle bin, and was asked for my password. I entered it, and the items were moved to the bin. When I tried secure empty trash, it worked for a minute then froze. So I halted the trash. I then tried to move the folders back to the desktop to see if I could get the trash down to only a few files that weren't in folders (these files hadn't asked for my password to move to recycle). That didn't work, because when I restored the folders to desktop, the computer copied them instead of just restoring them: one copy of each folder remained in the trash, another copy now on desktop. When I moved those folders back to trash from desktop, they were then in duplicate. Now I have over 150 GB in the trash and it won't empty. Help!

Have you tried secure-delete? When you go to empty trash hold down the command key. This has helped me empty the trash when it was stubborn for whatever reason.


So my email keeps popping up on iMessage instead of my number why? So I just recently noticed that my iMessages we're going in as my email instead of my number why is that?  I just want somebody to help me figure out how can I get  it to change into my number instead of my email  I tried turning it off and doesn't work I try resetting my phone doesn't work and every time I try to click where it says my number it's all Gray with a little  has a a loading icon on the left.

There have been some quirks with this from time to time. As you can imagine, where it says "START NEW CONVERSATIONS FROM" should have your phone number listed as an option.

Try to get it to show up by doing the following, go to "Settings -> Messages" and go to "Send as SMS" and toggle that on. This will shut off iMessages and force your phone to only send SMS messages using phone number.

Try sending a message or two before coming back, then toggle "Send as SMS" off and go back to "Settings -> Messages -> Send & Receive" and your phone number should be listed under "START NEW CONVERSATIONS FROM"


iTunes iCloud status: Uploaded I subscribe to Apple Music (streaming) but not iTunes Match. I ripped a (somewhat rare?) CD, and was surprised to see its status as "Uploaded". Sure enough it plays on my other iTunes-enabled devices.

Since I'm not paying for Match, what service/subscription is this part of? What are the limits? The file does not seem to be counting towards my iCloud usage, at least not from what I can see in the System Prefs usage graph.

This service is part of iCloud Music Library, which is a feature of both MUSIC and iTunes Match. It uploads songs that did not match against the iTunes music collection, and does not count towards your iCloud storage allowance.

iCloud Music Library as a whole is a broader service that encompasses the following:

Purchased tracks (previously called iTunes in the Cloud)
Tracks matched or uploaded with iTunes Match
Tracks matched or uploaded with Apple Music
Streaming tracks that you’ve added to My Music, if you have an Apple Music subscription

When the “music locker” functionality launched originally with iTunes Match, the limit was 25,000 songs. However starting in December 2015, this has been increased to 100,000 songs.

Note that some songs may be ineligible to be either Matched or Uploaded. This includes:

Songs with a bitrate of 96 kbps or lower
Some songs encoded in 24-bit
Songs larger than 200 MB
DRM-protected songs, and songs your computer is otherwise not authorized to play
Digital booklets and other non-song items in your iTunes Music Library
Music videos that weren’t purchased on the same iTunes account

Regarding the first two, you can re-encode them in 16-bit, 128 kbps, and you might get a 256 kbps Matched version out of the deal.


Save/Don't Save Menus No Longer Respond to Tab and Spacebar (post Big Sur) Prior to Big Sur (OS 11.1), I could use tab to move between the options (buttons) in the type of pop-up menu shown in the image, and spacebar to select an option. For example, in the menu here I could a) press spacebar and have this email 'Save' and b) use tab to transition the highlighted option to 'Don't Save'.
Now, neither of these work, which I don't like bcs. I prefer to use the keyboard. I can't seem to find an option to reenable them (or work around the issue). Any ideas?

Have you checked whether following in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts is selected:


Does Safari and Google Chrome for macOS use the same rendering engine? Google Chrome uses Blink rendering engine, while Safari uses WebKit.

But, in iOS, Google Chrome uses WebKit. My question is, does Google Chrome macOS client uses WebKit rendering engine too?

No. While Google Chrome used WebKit for macOS client at one point, that's no longer the case for current stable build. From the Wikipedia entry for Google Chrome:

  WebKit was the original rendering engine, but Google eventually forked it to create the Blink engine; all Chrome variants except iOS now use Blink

The restriction to use WebKit as the rendering engine for 3rd party Web browser apps exists solely on iOS. From the App Store Review Guidelines:

  2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.


Is it safe to work with MacBook Pro lid closed? My MacBook Pro (8,3) often gets fairly hot (see current sensor readings here: http://pastebin.com/2rj7GGAJ) even when it isn't closed. I'm about to purchase a DualHead2Go (or a TripleHead2Go) so I can use my MacBook while closed to push two 1920x1080 displays. I'm worried a bit about the heat generation, however. Is this a recommended and/or safe thing to do?

Yes - they are designed to work when closed. The machine will shut itself off if it ever exceeds the safe operating temperature (unless of course there are multiple failures in the sensors).

You can measure the battery temp - and may reduce the useful life of the battery if the temperature is always higher (and substantially higher on the order of 10 to 30 degrees F) for extended always on periods.

You may never need a new battery with the new 5 year / 1000 cycle batteries - so that might not even be a concern. I'm happy to spend the $99 on a new one if I really need one after the normal 3 year coverage has lapsed with Apple Care. Other than the battery - the rest of the electronics is basically immune to heat. The next thing to go might be a blower bearing - but those are far cheaper to have replaced than even a battery.


AppleScript error -1728 while accessing menu I am getting following error for the script below. Please help

error "System Events got an error: Can’t get menu bar item \"File\" of process \"iTunes\"." number -1728 from menu bar item "File" of process "iTunes"

Script I wrote

tell application "iTunes"
 activate
 tell application "System Events"
    tell process "iTunes"
        click menu item "Sync \"iPhone\"" of menu item "Devices" of menu bar item "File"
    end tell
 end tell
end tell

This works for me to sync my iPhone in iTunes:

tell application "iTunes"
    activate
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events"
        click menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu item "Devices" of menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1 of application process "iTunes"
    end tell
end tell

click menu item 1 can also be e.g., click menu item "Sync “Iam’s iPhone”"
Note that the value of the delay command(s) may need to be adjusted for your system, and or additional delay commands may or may not be needed. Adjust values of and or add/remove the delay commands as appropriate.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any error handling and is meant only to show one of many ways accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


It is an unnecessary file. You can simply delete it if no process is currently using it. This question was already answered here.


Why am I receiving messages from a group text as emails? I'm in a group text with 2 iPhone users and 2 Android users (I have an iPhone). When I message the group, it works normally as a text on my phone, but when anyone else messages back, it automatically goes to my email (coming from their-phone-number@mms.att.net). I tried turning off my email address from who I can 'Send and Receive' messages from but it didn't do anything. This is so strange because I'm in several other group texts with both iPhone and android users and don't have this problem there. Help? Thanks!

Two possibilities don’t include operator error.

Your cellular carrier has SMS to email enabled for your service.
The sender of the SMS has SMS to email enabled.

I would start with your carrier. This is easy to happen since AppleID and iMessages can be your email or AppleID or cellular number and the receiving party could have your contact commingled.

https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1061254/

Once you’re sure it’s not a carrier setting, you have to see the person doing the sending to be sure they don’t send to your email, but since you’re seeing the ATT mms email, I suspect the first two cases.


Why does Xcode 4.1 installation ask me to close iTunes when it isn't open? I am trying to install xcode 4.1 with lion. Apparently at 3/4 of the installation problem, it says to close itunes, which is not open. How can I fix the problem?

Use Activity Monitor, and locate the iTunes Helper process and kill it. As per an Apple support discussion and several other sources.

Update: The latest Xcode installer has been fixed and this should not be an issue now.


MAC OS X 10.8.4 Login Stuck on password - Restart logind service? I have a remote MAC that is stuck on the login screen for the local user. The login screen is stuck right after the password was entered. I can login to the remote MAC with ssh and run commands. This MAC is hosting a database for other users so I would rather not restart it if possible.

Is there a command I can run that would restart the core service logind so that I do not have to restart the computer?

If the answer is no, can I restart the computer using sudo shutdown -r now remotely over ssh?

It seems like you could run killall loginwindow to restart the login window process which should stop the authentication attempt.

And yes, sudo shutdown -r now should force the remote Mac to reboot immediately.


Can I release as opensource an iPad application I develop? Suppose I want to develop for iPad or iPhone. Can I release the code of this application on a public git repo, and under an opensource license ?

(side comment: I consider shocking that I have to ask such a question, since the software is mine, but considering the times we live in...)

Yes, you can, but there are some important things to keep in mind.

First off, I'll note that I'm not a lawyer or intellectual property expert. This is just my opinion, as informed as I can make it.

To my knowledge there's no prohibition in the App Store rules about what you do with your source code. The main issue arises when there's a conflict between the licence of the source code (i.e. the GPL) and the App Store. This was the problem with the VLC app that Ian C referenced in the comments, particularly with regards to other open source libraries used in an app.

Another issue is when not all the code belongs to you - i.e. others have contributed and hold copyright on parts of the code. You can't submit something to the App Store that you don't have the rights to, so everyone who owns the code in the project must agree.

That said, if we're talking about a program that you've developed entirely on your own, without code from other projects or people, then you're free to do with it whatever you feel like - you can release it on the App Store, licence it under anything you want (the licence applies to what others do with it, not you).

There are some open sourced apps on the app store, you can find a partial listing here


Why do I have a dozen copies of certain preference file in my ~/Library/Preferences folder? I found the file .Globalpreferences.plist in my ~/Library/Preferences folder, but I also found the same file with seven characters appended to the .plist extension.
For example: .GlobalPreferences.plist.jFulwSB.
In total there are 30 .Globalpreferences.plist files with appended characters.
I also found this behaviour with the com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX.plist file (192x), with the widget-com.apple.widget.stickies.plist file (106x) and the widget-com.apple.widget.weather.plist file (35x).

What are these files? Is it a backup? If so, what is backing them up?

Yes these are temporary file created by the NSUserDefault class when storing new preferences.

First, the temp file is created, then filled with the data and then the temp file replace the older one and gets deleted.

For some reason the were not deleted. You can check but I'm sure .Globalpreferences.plist has a more recent modification date than .GlobalPreferences.plist.jFulwSB. If it's in fact so, you can delete them.


Drobo file listing no showing I have a Drobo that has a ton of my personal information on it.  I've recently had some issues with it and it had to rebuild its entire structure I believe.  It took about 2 days before it finally stopped blinking.

Now when I open the folder via my Mac it shows that it is empty. So I opened the terminal and did an ls -la and it didn't show anything. So just to try I did a cd to a directory I knew existed an it worked and I can list all the files.

Can anyone explain to me how to fix the root directory so it will list my files?

Here is a screenshot demonstrating the issue:

Found the answer to this question over the past few days.  I performed a 'fsck_hfs /dev/diskXsX' and it went through fixing the drive a couple times and everything started being listed again.  Hopefully someone else can use this info.  It had nothing to do with the drobo and just the fact that filesystem was messed up.


Looking for an app to manage an archived music library My iTunes library is huge, so I am dragging music I no longer listen to, but I'd like to keep out of this into an archive folder.

The problem with this, is that the folder structure isn't preserved, and since many songs have the same name, I may lose some things if they are copied over. It also makes it hard to find artists or albums I want to retrieve.

I'm looking for something like iTunes which will be able to watch a folder (or even manually import) and then create a folder structure to organise the music based on artist/album/track or something similar.

I've tried 8 iTunes alternatives so far, and they either rely on iTunes existing library, or they simply create a structure within their own app and leave the folder unorganised.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

iTunes will actually let you use multiple libraries if you want, and then can switch between them on launch. So if disk space (and just keeping the files where they were wasn't an issue), you could use a second library.

If you launch iTunes while holding down the Option key on your keyboard, you will get this dialog.

You could choose 'Create Library' here, and make a second library.

Unfortunately, the storage location of your music is a iTunes general setting versus per library. But, there is the options in Preferences -> Advanced to not copy files into the iTunes Media folder. Changing this though would affect your main library too though.


What are the control keys available when working in a text field? I know that ctrl-e will move to me to the end of a line, and ctrl-a to the start.

I also know that ctrl-n will move down a line.

What other ctrl-key combinations are there?

Is it possible to move up a line?

How about, most desirable for me, is there something to move back and forth a word at a time?

I realize that I can do these things in emacs, or with an alternate set of keys in vi, but that's not what I am interested in.

If I am writing a question on one of the stackexchange sites or on a wiki, vi and emacs are not in play.

The default key bindings are stored in /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict. You can use plutil to convert the file to an XML format, like so:

plutil -convert xml1 -o StandardKeyBinding.xml  /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict

Or, if you have Xcode or Property List Editor, you can open it there.

In addition, you can add your own bindings system-wide to /Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict, or per-user to ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

This page has a nice overview of bindings. I've grown particularly fond of Transpose (⌃-T), which swaps the two letters to the left and right of your cursor, fixing my most common kind of typo quickly.

In addition, there are various additional tricks using the ⌥ and ⌘ keys:

⌘-← and → move to the beginning or end of the line. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.
⌘-↑ and ↓ move to the beginning or end of the document. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.
⌥-← and → move to the beginning or end of the word, or between multiple words. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.
⌥-↑ and ↓ move to the beginning or end of the paragraph. Add ⇧ to select everything in between.


How to enter Unicode (or other) symbols in LaTeX within Keynote (iWork) In Keynote and other iWork apps, it is possible to enter formulas (and text) in LaTeX. This is an immensely valuable feature. But...

How can I enter an astronomical (or other) symbol, via Unicode or by other means, directly in a LaTeX formula (ie. without copying and pasting from the Character Viewer — which doesn’t work anyway directly in the LaTeX formula editor within Keynote)?

For example, I wish to get the Mars symbol ♂ or the Venus symbol ♀ by entering \mars or \venus.

This Apple page claims that one can also enter (ASCII) Unicode characters, but no indication is given there, in the blahtex documentation, or anywhere else about how to enter a Unicode character.
I’d also be happy with any non-Unicode route that allows me to enter such characters directly within the LaTeX coding within Keynote. Any approach by which I could use any of the astronomical symbols in the LaTeX Comprehensive Symbol List would be a dream.

Thanks to the tip from tom-gewecke, I have a functioning workaround.

First, you have to enable the Unicode Hex Input keyboard in your System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources.
Then, of course, you activate it, for example, by ticking Show Input menu in menu bar, then selecting Unicode Hex Input with your cursor in the menu bar.
Once this keyboard is enabled, you can enter Unicode characters by holding down the Alt/Option key ⌥ on your keyboard and, while holding it down, typing the code for the Unicode character.
You can find code for Unicode characters by, for example, from the same keyboard menu bar item, selecting Show Emoji & Symbols, which opens the Character Viewer.

That much was known. The workaround to get a Unicode character directly into a LaTeX formula with an iWork application (eg. Keynote, Pages) is:

Once you open the editor for equations ( Insert > Equation... or ⌥⌘E ) to enter LaTeX code, you type \text{ }, and when your cursor is between those brackets in the text field, you type the code for the Unicode character as described above.
Et voila, you have any Unicode character directly in your formula. For example:

\text{⌥2642} produces ♂
\vec{R}_\text{⌥2642} produces


Magic Trackpad 2 became less responsive I've been happily using Magic Trackpad 2 for exactly a year and a week (suspicious ;)) and today it started acting strange - I'm using only three gestures mainly (dictionary lookup, two finger scroll and pinch to zoom) and the pinch to zoom seems buggy - I'm not sure if that's the problem with the trackpad or the MacOS (10.12.6 - but I've been using that one for months now with no issues).

So in short - before I was able to pinch to zoom all the time, right now I have to pinch and nothing happens and then quickly pinch again to actually zoom. Most of the time it works 50% of the time. I have only one MacBook and I'm wondering if I can somehow check if it is really an issue with my Trackpad or maybe with the OS itself?

Also, a bonus question - what's the lifespan of Magic Trackpads? I've been looking everywhere but couldn't find anything. Can they last years? I'm especially interested in Magic Trackpad 2 as it's the one I'm using.

There's probably a few things you could try (e.g. making sure the trackpad has a decent charge, resetting the NVRAM and/or SMC etc).

However, the first thing I'd try is to reset both the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller.

IMPORTANT: This will reset all connected Bluetooth devices, including any bluetooth keyboard or mouse, so all Bluetooth devices will need to be reconnected.

Before commencing, you will need to have the Bluetooth icon showing in the menu bar. If it is not there, open System Preferences > Bluetooth and enable the option Show Bluetooth in Menu Bar.

Resetting the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller

Follow these steps:

Hold down both the Shift and Option keys and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar. Once the menu is showing, release the keys.
From the Bluetooth menu, choose Debug > Remove All Devices
Hold down both the Shift and Option keys again and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.
From the Bluetooth menu,  choose Debug > Reset the Bluetooth Module
Restart your Mac
Setup your Magic Trackpad 2 again
Setup any other bluetooth devices

Let us know whether this helps.

As for how long it will last, the Magic TrackPad 2 was only launched in October 2015, so it's too early to say. However, if the original Magic Trackpad is anything to go by, you should get years of service from it.