Homebrew mutt(1) file permission weirdness I just installed mutt ('brew install mutt') running as myself (uid=501(john)), no sudo.

It seems to have worked, but now I've got a couple of weird permission problems.

When I run mutt, email always appears new and I can't delete it.  When I try, the screen flashes (visual bell, I guess) and I get "Mailbox is read-only".  The mailbox appears to be /var/mail/john, and ls gives me this:

-rw-------  1 john  mail  607 Jun 24 11:25 /var/mail/john

(I'm not in the mail group.  Should I be?)
When I run mutt as another user on the system, I get different errors.

sudo su - conrad

Now my uid (as given by id(1)) is 502 (conrad).

This time when I run mutt, as before (just plain mutt on the command line), I get slightly different errors:

/Users/conrad/.mbox: No such file or directory (errno = 2)

(If I supply -f /var/mail/conrad then I go back to case 1.)

If I use sudo to run mutt, then everything's copacetic, but that doesn't seem right.

How do I fix this?

I guess I'm asking two questions:

How do I fix the file permission issue?
How do I make mutt, when run as another user besides the one that installed it, by default read from /var/mail/*username* instead of /Users/*username*/.mbox?

My software is running the specific versions:

Deimos$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.10.3
BuildVersion:   14D136

Deimos$ brew info mutt | head -1
mutt: stable 1.5.23 (bottled), HEAD

Ok, I still don't know what's going on with the .mbox thing.  I suspect that's a mutt/mail config issue of some sort.

BUT... I have a solution for the inability to write /var/mail/username.

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100609140550467

dseditgroup -o edit -u john -p -a john -t user mail
dseditgroup -o edit -u john -p -a conrad -t user mail

(john is the admin user)

I added both users in question to the mail group and now both users can use mutt (no command-line arguments) to read their mail spool.

(As an expedient hack to get rid of the visual flag/error message for .mbox, I did:

touch ~/.mbox
chmod go-rwx ~/.mbox

)


Why can't some images in the pdf be viewed on iBook of iPad or iPod Touch? I have iPod Touch and iPad (version 1).

I noticed some images on pdf cannot be viewed on the iBook.

Why?

Edit

The following are my pdf ebooks  that cannot be viewed by iBook:

Pro ASP.NET MVC 2 Framework (Expert's Voice in .NET)
Learn JavaScript and Ajax with w3Schools

to be continued...

I'm going to attempt to answer this as best I can without detailed examples...

The screenshots and illustrations (which were most likely placed as EPS or Illustrator files) could be in some format or be corrupted in some way that the iBook PDF engine simply chooses to ignore the image (and is unarguably better than simply crashing).

PDFs are surprisingly complex documents that can be made in a number of different ways. Essentially, PDF documents are streamlined Postscript, which is a programming language unto itself. Support in PDF viewers for various features varies according to who the developed that particular viewer.

We (I) don't know what engine Apple uses to read PDFs (i.e., open source, licensed, homemade), but I would be willing to bet that if those PDFs were opened in Adobe Acrobat, that there would be no problems viewing the art (but please don't ask me how to open iBook-sourced books in Acrobat because I'm not suggesting you do that and I have no idea if for no other reason that I don't use iBooks).

Update: @Jadasc points to a definite possibility to the problem. If the art was, indeed, placed in the layouts as JPEG2000 files, then that's either bad prepress practice or the books you are looking at are ePub files. In either case, without direct access to the books to fix them, I'm not sure what can be done about it.


Is there an OS X equivalent to iOS's Remote App? Is there some equivalent to Apple's (iOS) Remote App for the desktop (running OS X)? I.e. some – preferably small – application to control an iTunes instance which is running on another Mac? Maybe some menu extra?

I know there are several "iTunes controllers" (like Coversutra). But does any of them support a remotely running iTunes?

(N.B.: I'm aware of e.g. Home Sharing, but I want the remote Mac to keep running and output the music, not the controlling one. I'm also aware of Screen Sharing, but I'm looking for a quicker/easier solution.)

iTunes Remote Control is probably the easiest, but is no longer updated, and I've heard reports of some issues with it under Snow Leopard. YMMV.

Edit: One other major option would be to control iTunes from your browser. A variety of commercial and free solutions exist to do this. This is one of the more popular DIY guides on the subject. Playerpal and PatioTunes are two examples of commercial variants on the idea. N.B., I've used neither, and can't speak to the quality of either app. Feel free to google around for more options on this front.


Force Strong Password Generation Is there any way to prompt iOS to generate a password when it doesn't detect a New Password/Change Password field?

Here is a great link from Cult Of Mac about how to use Siri to generate a secure password.   https://www.cultofmac.com/227362/use-siri-to-generate-a-super-secure-random-password-ios-tips/


Create network user with remote home folder I have Mac Server with OpenDirectory configured. Then I create some network users with home folder located on server. Due to the high bandwidth of user usage, I want to add another server that only host user home folders, so the traffic transferred between user and new server while authentication still via old server.
Is this possible to do that? If not, is there any walk around that fix my issue?

Yes this is possible. When prompted for the location of the home folder for the user you can choose any shared folder that you have configured to be used as storage for home folders in the File Sharing service. This folder can be anywhere on the machine or anywhere on the network.


Macbook air boot time I've heard that Macbook air saves more power and boot time is very short and it is pretty fast in boot time. I know that instead of HDD it uses flash memory but how can it save more power and boot faster?

There are a number of benefits to flash memory over HDD:

No moving parts
No spin up time
No electric motor using your battery charge
"Seek Time" isn't really a thing, since there's no drive head moving to read a different sector of HDD platter

During boot, your computer reads a lot of software from your boot volume into memory. The time it takes to do this is drastically reduced when using a SSD (flash) instead of an HDD.


Reinstall Mavericks update When Mavericks came out I've (as many others) installed the update. But something went wrong. First of all update didn't finish properly. It stayed on the last step in "less than 1 minute left" state for multiple hours, then screen became black and I rebooted my Mac Mini. System rebooted and loaded without problems, so I've decided that it was some unimportant glitch. But now my system misbehave in different ways and is pretty much unusable.

When my screen sleeps and I awake it, nearly every time some windows are broken: they jump to top left corner, become very small (something like quarter of screen) and are unresizable and unmovable. Every time I try to move them they jump again to their beloved place in the corner and refuse to go from there. I need to quit from broken application and start it again. Also changing screen resolution back and forth helps.
Sometimes after awakening the screen I see the same black screen as in Mavericks installation and need to reboot Mac.
Sharing my folder by SMB to my Android devices stopped working (ok, this should be because of SMB update in Mavericks, so it's more of a feature than a bug)

I believe this is the most frustrating OS experience which I had for a long long time. Including different versions of Windows, different Linux distros and even Android MiniPC.

So the question is -- is there any way I can reinstall Mavericks update without losing (and backing up) all my data and applications? I know there is always an option to format HDD and make clean install, but I would prefer a less radical way if it is possible.

Ok, answer for the question was pretty much obvious -- you just go to the AppStore and hit 'Download' on Mavericks once again. It then asks  if you really want to reapply the once downloaded update. Just accept it and update will be reinstalled.

If you want to reuse once downloaded update file you could use advice from this question.

But the main problem (with jumping windows) wasn't resolved. To resolve it I used advice from this thread on apple.com. I've rebooted to safe mode and then rebooted once again to normal mode. After that the issue was gone. At least till now. Hope this helps to someone.


MacBook Pro unusable when HDMI output is connected My new MacBook Pro Retina 13″ (OS X 10.10) gets completely unusable when I attach the HDMI cable to the HDMI port.

I have noticed that there are few processes that will start to consume crazy memory.
In particular "SystemUIServer" process, around 65 GB RAM (which I do not even have from an hardware perspective), and the "kernel_task" process several GBs of memory usage.

The problem is that the resolution of the screen is changed once the HDMI cable is plugged and, even after killing the SystemUIServer, if i try to open the monitor settings to change the resolution this task will hang for ever making the usage of the laptop connected with the beamer impossible.

I have tried to search on internet but seems that no one has got the same problem.

The following facts are relevant to the workaround.

  A separate copy of SystemUIServer runs on behalf of each user, owned by that user, when the user has a GUI login. This is very convenient because it means we can kill this program without requiring passwords and suchlike.
  SystemUIServer appears to have been very nicely cordoned off by Apple from the rest of the system so that you can kill it at any time and nothing bad happens. The menulings all disappear, then launch restarts SystemUIServer, and the menulings all reappear (in a much smaller memory environment).
  So the simple one-off solution to the problem is to type in Terminal:
  killall SystemUIServer. And this works, but only once --- you will need to do it again in a week or so.
  The possibility I chose is to have launchd execute this command once a day, at a time when I'm probably not using the machine, namely 4:00am. (If your machine is asleep at that time, launchd in Snow Leopard performs the task when the machine is wakes up, and this works out OK --- we see just one more flash in the UI as the menulings are killed then restart, to accompany the various other flashes in the UI that occur when a wake occurs.

Source: Handle growing SystemUIServer memory usage


Bring back the OS X 10.9, Maverick, theme on 10.10, Yosemite, (UI Elements and Icons) I really hate the new OS X 10.10, Yosemite, icons and I just can't like the user interface. Is there a way to bring back the Maverick ones by patching some files.

P.S. I already did the reduce the transparency thing but still it sucks I just want the same old one.

Install a program called XRevert. This will change the buttons, icons, etc. Install cDock to change the dock. Use Lucida Grande as system font.


Automator's "Combine PDF Pages" action doesn't preserve crop? I'm trying to separately crop PDF's even and odd pages, by building on top of the accepted answer from How to crop odd and even pages differently in a PDF?

My Automator workflow, roughly:

automatically Extract Odd & Even Pages; each output PDF filename is suffixed with "(Even Pages)" or "(Odd Pages)"
pause Automator Workflow with Ask for Confirmation and manually crop each of the two output PDFs (using Rectangular Selection and Crop in Preview)
select the two cropped PDFs using Get Folder Contents
Combine PDF Pages with Shuffling pages option

The issue is step 4. which inevitably seems to drop any Crop from step 2. The combined PDF has no crop applied to it, even though the two even & odd input PDFs are definitely cropped.

Is this expected behaviour from Combine PDF Pages? PDF metadata and annotations do seem to get dropped, does Crop as well?

There is a package called pdfjoin which uses pdflatex to combine pdf files. You could try joining your pdf's in the following way:

pdfjoin 01.pdf 02.pdf

which will combine the files into a single pdf called 02-combined.pdf, in your current working directory.

If you don't have LaTeX installed you can follow this guide to do so.

This preserved crops for me when I tried. If you can get this working on your system, you could then maybe look at putting this together in a bash script.


Prevent Xcode from jumping to debugging after crash Hey is there a way to prevent xcode from switching to the debug navigator every time an app crashes? I'd rather stay in the file I am working at a time, the "new" view is completely useless for me

Take a look under Preferences -> Behaviors in Xcode. I haven't actually tested this myself, but going to Running -> Pauses and unchecking to "Show navigator Debug navigator" and/or "Show debugger with Current Views" sounds like it should do what you want.

Alternately, you might want to play around with these settings to find something that suits you.


Restore photos from old iPhoto library backup to new Mac Photos app I've old backup from my MacBook (2008-2010) iPhoto library on external HD, i wish to browse + select photos and merge them with my current iMac Photos app in El Capitan 10.11

I had the same problem. You've got to do:

Open PHOTOS while pressing OPTION key. Choose form a list your old
iPhoto library. Either Photos will convert the old file or will
direct you to a link on Apple where you can download an utility that
will convert the file for you.
In any case you will have to repeat and open Photos with option key pressed. Choose the converted file.
Once it is opened you have to select all photos and EXPORT them to a folder in your desktop.
Then you go through your filtering. After having all the photos you want in a folder, reopen Photos with the option key pressed. But now choose your regular Photo Library.
Then you IMPORT the photos from the folder.
In case you need the convertion utility from Apple, here is the link:
https://support.apple.com/pt-br/HT202358 . (It did not work for me. I think El capitan doesn't like these old utilities - from 2013.)

Hope you succeed.


Why won't my iMac boot? (com.apple.displaypolicyd exited with abnormal code: 1) I'm using a 21.5-inch 2017 iMac with 3.6GHz i7 CPU, and Radeon Pro 560 graphics card. I'm running Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6
For the last week, the iMac will not finish booting. The progress bar gets halfway, it stalls, and eventually it appears to shut off. If I boot in safe mode, it will boot.
I have removed all non-Apple extensions, login items, daemons, etc, etc. But it makes no difference.
In the console, I see the following error message every time at the exact timestamp of the boot sequence where the Mac dies:
com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.displaypolicyd[418]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1

All the questions I can find online about com.apple.displaypolicyd seem to involve Hackintoshes. This is not a Hackintosh.
UPDATE (2021-02-08): After enabling verbose mode, here's a sequence of screenshots during boot:

The sequence ends with what looks like:
IOConsoleUsers: time(0) 0->0, lin 0, llk 1,
IOConsoleUsers: GIOScreenLockState 3, hs 0, bs 0, now 0, sm 0x0

Does anyone have any insight on what might be going on? Is the graphics card going bad? Might there be some setting I could adjust to fix this?
UPDATE (2021-03-03): Noticed today there is a /var/log/displaypolicy/ folder containing the files displaypolicyd.1/0/0.log, displaypolicyd.log, and iogdiagnose-last.bin. In case these might be useful in diagnosing the issue, here is a ZIP of those files.
UPDATE (2021-04-30): Sorry for the long delay. Here's another set of images made after setting the additional boot-args requested by @pion. Not sure there's a ton of difference, but please let me know if you see anything significant.

The sequence ends in almost the same place as before, with what looks like:
IOConsoleUsers: GIOScreenLockState 3, hs 0, bs 0, now 0, sm 0x0
  levelControl->setValueChangeHandler ( &changeVolumeHandler <ptr>, this <ptr> ) for coreAudioChannel ID 0
  controlID: 0, coreAudioChannelID = 0 MASTER oldValue 0xC newVa

It ends mid-line (presumably that would have been "newValue"). The screen remains unchanged for a few moments, then everything goes black.

Let’s start with the basics and permanently enable verbose mode for booting (you can always turn it off later). Boot into Safe Mode (or single-user mode, either should work) and run the following in Terminal:
$ sudo nvram boot-args="-v"

Then reboot. As you are booting, I recommend using your iPhone to take a slow-mo video of the screen so you can capture the boot text. If you can then put together some screencaps of full screens of text and share them here, we can try to see if we can catch a log of the failure sequence.
UPDATE:
From your screenshots I am starting to suspect GPU involvement. Try booting with the following and see if you get different output:
$ sudo nvram boot-args="-v panic_on_display_hang panic_on_gpu_hang"

Also can you boot into safe mode and check /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for anything involving displaypolicyd?


I keep getting a pop up I keep getting a pop up saying, congratulations iPad user' saying I have won something. I have tried hard reboot, I have factory reset my iPad and still I get the pop up.

You are most likely are accessing/have accessed a sketchy site which has opened a malicious site in a different tab.  Sadly, you have not won anything (although a nice cruise to the Bahamas would be nice/$50 Amazon gift card).  Try clearing out all of the tabs in you internet browser.

Also take a look at this page about phishing from Apple.

Additionally take a look at this amazing post over at Apple Support Communities

Note: Browsers within apps can are still susceptible to this.  They use WebKitView (basically Safari inside an app). In this case just close the popup and the webpage within the app. Try not to access the page or section your were accessing in that app.


App for offline bookmark reading on iPad I'm currently using Diigo for saving my bookmarks and reading them later on the iPad offline. However, it allows only the 20 last for reading.

Does anyone know an app that enables reading older history items offline?

I really like Instapaper. Not only does it allow storage and hierarchical organization of seemingly unlimited bookmarks/pages, it has a nice, big cache and reading offline works like a charm.

It will save articles that are broken into multiple pages automatically which I particularly like.

It also sports an iBooks-like UI which allows typographic control, strips ads and fluff out, and helps with the reading experience. Frankly, I prefer reading in Instapaper than on the original site.

Lastly, it keeps track of where you left off in multiple articles if you don't finish one and move to another.


"control +a" not working on mac, but "control + e" works Today control+a combination stopped working. So I cannot move cursor to beginning of line in terminal or browser input.

Although yesterday it was working well. control+e works good.

In eventViewer of KeyRemap4MacBook app I cans see that when I press control+a, control key is logged, but a key not logged.

When I press a key without control it is typed in any application and logged in eventViewer.

Why control+a not working? How to enable it?

The reason was application Music Player for VK Lite. When quit it, control+a start working again.


Lock down a device address in AirPort Utility? I have one device on my network that does not use any form of rDNS or Bonjour, and I have to access it primarily through ssl. So I'd like to to stop moving around in the IP listing so I know where it is (instead of, as I did yesterday, assuming it was broken). Is there a way, through the AirPort Utility, to give a particular device, as identified by MAC, a specific non-changing IP address?

Try the steps detailed at this URL: http://www.macinstruct.com/node/553

Find your Mac's MAC address for the Wi-Fi network interface. See How to Find Your Mac's MAC Address for instructions.
Open the AirPort Utility application. (It's in Applications → Utilities.) The window shown below appears.
Click the AirPort Extreme's icon. The status pop-up window appears.
Click Edit. The settings window appears.
Select the Network tab. The window shown below appears.
Click the + button under the DHCP Reservations field. The window shown below appears.
Enter a descriptive name for your Mac in the Description field.
From the Reserve Address By menu, select MAC Address.
Enter your Mac's MAC address in the MAC Address field.
Enter the static IP address you want to assign to your computer. For more information, see step 9 in How to Set a Static IP Address in Mac OS X.
Click Save.
Click Update. The AirPort will restart to apply the changes.


Installing OSX Yosemite on completely empty drive Mac Mini c. mid-2011 500GB HDD

The existing HDD is failing, have backed up and now looking to replace the drive. Don't want to spend $$$ for Apple service so going DIY. The hardware installation looks easy enough, and I can create a bootable USB key using a second Mac Mini at work, but...

All the sources suggest using the bootable USB key then pressing "Option" during bootup. Will this work on a Mac Mini with a new unformatted completely empty HDD?

Yes, the option boot is independent of any OS present on the disk. You can always alt-boot, even booting off an external disk or network disk if there isn't any disk present in the computer at all.


is there a Cydia tweak that will make Google Maps the default map app? The Cydia tweak Browser Changer lets you change the default browser on iOS. Is there a similar tweak for changing the default maps app? I'm specifically asking if there's a way to make the new Google Maps app come up when any type of navigation links are clicked.

There is a Cydia tweak available now called MapsOpener which should accomplish just that. http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/972329


Is there a way to hide the unread count badge in Mountain Lion's Mail.app? Mail.app used to have the ability to hide the unread count badge, as shown on this 37signals blog post:

It seems that Apple has removed this in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Is there any way to restore this functionality and remove the badge?

With the advent of Notification Center, the display of badges on any app can now be managed alongside display of banners, popups, and other notification-related settings.

Go to the Notifications preference pane in System Preferences, and select the Mail app from the list - the option to turn off the Dock badge should be there.

You may need to restart Mail for this change to take effect, though on 10.8.4 I do not.


Kindle iOS app - how to bulk delete personal documents Is there a way to bulk delete "personal documents" from the Kindle iOS app?

They don't appear under the app folder in itunes when the phone is plugged in to a computer and my web searches have been fruitless.

Thanks.

Amazon help desk confirmed that it is NOT possible to bulk delete personal documents from the iOS app.

(FWIW: I hadn't used the help function in the app before.  They responded very quickly.)


Terminal text size different when connected to external monitor I have a Macbook Pro 15" running OS X 10.6.8. When not connected to an external monitor, launching Terminal looks like this. Note the width of the text (almost looks bold).

When connected to my 24" Dell 2408WFP monitor (via Mini DisplayPort to DVI connector), launching Terminal looks like this. Note the skinny non-bold appearance of the text.

Even more odd is Terminal decides on the text style depending on when the app was first launched. If Terminal was initially launched with no external monitor connected, it uses the bold style. If I keep Terminal open and hot connect to my Dell monitor, all subsequent new Terminal windows will use the bold style. If I exit Terminal and relaunch, it uses the skinny non-bold text.

This behavior is really annoying as I prefer the non-external monitor bold appearance.

Oddly, at work I have an iMac connected to a 24" Apple Cinema Display and all Terminal instances uses the bold style text. I suspect Terminal on startup is detecting the monitor(s) and doing something to the text style.

Is there anyway to disable this behavior?

Follow-Up: I'm seeing this behavior in other applications such as iTerm and Firefox. I suspect it's a operation system issue.

After some searching, this appears to be a known issue. OS X somehow isn't fully aware my Dell monitor, and is not applying the same font smoothing. The font smoothing can be set using:

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

See this superuser and macrumors threads.


Bluetooth/WiFi cannot be turned off in control Center on iOS 13.4.1 I don’t know if this has been talked about in the past, but I’m new to the iPhone, so I’m not sure how this works. When I toggle the WiFi or Bluetooth off on the control Center, it shows a message that says: turning off Bluetooth WiFi communications until tomorrow. Does this mean that it’s just not turning off at all? Turning it off from the settings seems to help, but doing it from control Center simply does nothing.

Turning it off from the control center should give you the message you mentioned, but turning it back on writes a message to the iphone Control Center Screen. Maybe when you tried it in Control Center you were turning it back on. I'd try it again from Control Center and press the bluetooth button twice to make sure you get it off and on. After pressing be sure to check the top of the Control Center screen.


Permissions issue when copying files over SMB to server on OS X 10.9 Mavericks First of all I'd like to say that I've spent most of the day trying to figure this problem out. I've already read quite some articles on this issue but can't seem to find the specific issue I'm experiencing.

I'm running OS X 10.9 Mavericks on a Mac Mini.
Our server is running Linux Gentoo. At this point I'm not exact sure which version.

The problem

When I connect to a server on our company network with the SMB or CIFS protocol I can mount the volumes from that server. I can also access and read the files on all the volumes (so far as I know). I connect through the admin username and password for this server.

However, when I try to copy files to one particularly volume I get prompted by Finder to enter my username and password. After I've entered my OSX user credentials I get an error stating the following:

  The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.

I therefor cannot copy files to this specific volume on our server. I can however copy files to other volumes on our server.

Attempted Solutions

Solutions I've already attempted are:

Connecting through CIFS rather then SMB
Changing the permissions on said files to read/write by everyone
Attempting to install Samba to be used instead of OS X's SMB implementation

None of these attempts have managed to solve the problem I'm experiencing.

Some more alternative attempts

What I also tried to do was to give my files to a colleague which runs OS X Mountain Lion so he could attempt to copy the files to said volume. He got the same problem and was also prompted by Finder to provide his credentials on which afterwards failed to copy because of the above permissions error.
He can however copy his own files to said volume without any problem.

When I provided my files to a colleague which is using Windows 8 he succeeded in copying my files to said volume.

TL;DR

Can't copy files over SMB to specific server volume from OSX Mavericks. Can read however.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Update #1

Some people have suggested that I needed to enter the server credentials in the Finder prompt but it doesn't allow that. I can only enter my OSX account credentials.

I also want to indicate that I connect to the server with the same user account and login as most of my colleagues. So I connect with the same account as colleagues which can copy files to the server. I, however, keep getting the no permissions error when I try to copy files to the server.

Usually the authentication prompt is in relation to the destination for your copy.

Thus, from what you're describing, you should enter your Gentoo login credentials. However, I suspect the owner/write permission are too restrictive on that specific volume. Have you checked owner user/group on the problematic volume vs. the other "problem-free" volumes? Are the read/write permissions the same?

To change the permissions without resorting to Terminal, highlight the folder you want to put the user file in and select Get Info (Cmd+i). At the bottom are the permissions. Make sure that where it says "everyone" that it also says "Read & Write." You may have to click the little gold lock at the bottom of the Get Info pane to adjust this. Once you do this, you will be able to copy your folder over.


Printer presets not taking effect I'm using a Canon MX882 printer with Mavericks.

I can set and save printer presets and review them under show presets. All settings are saved as expected, but when actually selecting to use the preset just before printing thing don't quite work as expected. On my next attempt to use a preset, even though the "show presets" still shows the settings were saved as expected, the reality is quite a few of the settings will stick with the default settings.

For example, I will set Layout to 2 pages per sheet and set Duplex Printing and Margins to print two-sided. "Show presets" shows the setting were saved as expected, but when I exit and re-enter to print and select this preset (show preset still shows correct settings), the duplex printer setting won't take affect.  That is, when I print it will only print single-side, despite 2-side duplex being enabled. The layout will be 2 pages per sheet, as expected.

If I manually set the printer settings as I want and print (without saving it as a  preset) the document will print with the setting I chose.

Also, after selecting a preset I notice none of the printer settings actually change if I dive down into each setting. I'm not talking about the "show presets", but the settings below. I would expect those to change in conjunction with a preset change. This seems really strange, because I don't see how you could modify a duplicated preset or any other existing preset. However, visually the image in the page preview and page counts will change based on the preset I chose.

The only other similar problem I could find out in the net concerns getting the paper size setting to save in a preset.  None of the solutions for this problem seemed to solve my problem. (I've seen Safari/print backgrounds not save into the preset, but that one is not a big issue for me.)

I've used the Mavericks/Apple provided drivers and those from Canon's site, but they both behave the same.

I've tried creating presets that work for only one printer and all printers, without any difference in behavior.

The one thing I have yet to try is to create separate printer drivers each with their own set of default presets by configuring the default printer settings via CUPS. I tried one experiment to use CUPS to modify a second copy of the printer driver with duplex enabled by default, but it seems the print utility still had the old print default preset settings (without duplex enabled). Not sure if I needed to reboot for the setting to take affect.  I might have to revisit this workaround again.

I would really like to use the printer presets, is there something I am missing?

Right now I'm at my wits end. I'm very new to Mac, so I'm probably missing something.

I think I have a solution to this problem.

After upgrading to Mavericks my saved presets for a Brother Laser printer still worked fine, but for an Epson Inkjet they would load, like you describe. I thought it was the printer or OS conflict as the Epson was attached by USB to a machine running OS X 10.6 and I was sharing to the Mavericks machine. However I got a new wireless Epson Inkjet and the problem persisted.

Here's what I did to fix it.

Log in to an administrator account. Make a new one if you need to and give it full privileges.
Open an app that lets you print, Safari say.
Type Cmd-P and select the problem printer, set your options and save the preset.
Click Print, just to make sure it's working.
Type Cmd-P and check that your settings have stuck, if they haven't try again with another user account, if they have carry on.
Quit the App you used above.
In the Finder Opt-Click the Go menu and select Library.
Navigate to Preferences.
Copy the file com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.[yourprintername].plist to the Desktop.
Change the owner of the file to the account that is having problems (chown [username] com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.[yourprintername].plist) if this fails precede the command with sudo.
Copy the file from the Desktop to the Drop Box of the user having problems (/Users/[username]/Public/Drop Box, or you could email it to yourself or use Dropbox (as in the cloud service).
Log out of the admin account and back in to your usual one.
Repeat step 7 and 8 above
Delete the com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.[yourprintername].plist
Copy your new com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.[yourprintername].plist from your Drop Box folder.
Select the new file and type Cmd-I. Scroll down to the bottom of the Get Info window and check that your current username is the one listed with Read/Write access.
Log out
Log back in
Try to print something. Hopefully you will now have a working preset.

Hope this is useful


Is there a way to specify that a certain app always stay in memory? I notice sometimes when I open the Reminders app (after not having opened it for a while), it takes a second to load. This is presumably because it is no longer in memory and loading from SSD. Is there a way I can tell OS X to never remove Reminders from memory?

P.S. I minimize Reminders, not close it. Which is why it sometimes stays in memory.

You can not set the application priority (to remain in the RAM).

Your system automatically manages the resources based on current usage.

However, depending on your Reminders settings, and what external (Internet) accounts you use, it might take a moment for it to check those accounts.


What's this "Finder" icon on my Desktop and how do I get rid of it? A few days ago, this icon appeared on my desktop. It sticks near the top-right of the screen and it doesn't seem like I can reposition it. Clicking on it has no effect.

In Mission Control, the icon changes to look like this:

How do I get rid of it?

I am running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 on a 2014 MacBook Pro.

Relaunch the Finder app to get rid of the tiny window.

Go to Apple Menu → Force Quit... or press Option + Command + Esc. In the Force Quit Applications window that appears, click on Finder and then click on Relaunch button.

It will get rid of the tiny window.


How to transfer a file from iPhone to computer when there is no Internet? I have a word doc saved as an attachment in my inbox. I can read it using my iPhone 4S, but I can't edit it, and anyway, I want to edit it on my MacBook Pro. But there is (was) no Internet where I was, and so I couldn't access the file on my computer. Is there any way to transfer the file from my phone to computer using USB?

If you can transfer the document to a general-purpose app that "knows" about files (like GoodReader, Air Sharing, or iBooks), you should be able to access it from the file-handling dialog from within iTunes.

Most computers can create an ad-hoc WiFi network; using this, you'd use a network-sharing app (like Air Sharing) to mount a disk from your iPhone and transfer the files to your computer.


mac doesnt boot after single user mode I had brought an external hard disk to use as a time machine. There was a problem while trying to partition, so i booted into single user mode and ran the ffsck command. This returned an error, and after that, my mac stopped rebooting. I tried many things, from safe mode to repairing in disk utility, but nothing works. All im getting when i try to boot is a progress bar that stops when its about 1/9 done, and then the computer shuts down.
What the hell happened?
I have no back ups whatsoever...

EDIT: is there a way i can somehow get the files off my hard disk using the same mac? I have no other computers.

If the fsck modified the filesystem, it may have corrected damage to the file system by deleting a file needed to boot.

If you can get professional troubleshooting assistance, I would do that since without a backup, you'd hate to make the problem worse.

Trying to fix a filesystem or writing new files to it will over-write space that could have files that you need to recover, so you'll want to shut down the computer and make a decision:

Are you willing to proceed without trying to recover the files you need?
Is it better to get a quote for data-recovery and learn more about the problem than it is to try to fix this now.

Good luck - I hate to be in this situation (either as the one giving advice or the one needing advice), but it's a problem that many have overcome, so you'll just need to figure out what's most important to you and be sure you understand what the consequences of doing a step might be. In your case, fsck isn't a good tool to run if you have precious data since it is designed to save a filesystem by making it sane after errors creep in. It's not designed to save individual files that have not been backed up.


Storing photos from iPhone remotely and then deleting them off of device My dream scenario is where I can:

Take photos with my iPhone
Then press a button that uploads them to a server (ideally one which I own, but I would also subscribe to a service) and then deletes them off my iPhone.

The photos then should be easily accessible via a web client where I can decide which ones to keep, print or delete forever.

Any recommendations as to services which do this or come close?

I usually use Dropbox for this purposes.

Take picture with iPhone.
Upload them to Dropbox via the Dropbox app.
Delete from iPhone.

You will be able to access those pictures via the Dropbox web interface. Or via their client on various platform.


If "Reset Keyboard Dictionary" does not reset some words, what supplies them? There are some previously unanswered questions about "Reset Keyboard Dictionary" (in Settings) not resetting the autocorrect for specific words. (In my case [iOS 11], the letter "i" converts to "A" and a unicode character... and by the way, a manual shortcut override appears to be the only fix.)

So if the issue is not caused by the Keyboard Dictionary, what other plugins could be providing this erroneous autocorrection? Do other apps contribute words to the dictionary? And is there any other way to remove them from the dictionary without wiping the whole phone?

iOS comes with a built-in dictionary/replacements which can't be modified (without jailbreaking). This is why the workaround is to add a shortcut, because it's up to Apple to release a software update to resolve the issue.


Is it possible to connect a single Dropbox Mac app with two or more Dropbox accounts? Is it possible to connect a single Dropbox Mac app with two or more Dropbox accounts?

Assume I have corporate and private account. How can I use a single dropbox app for them?

You can't do it out of one copy of the app, but it seems that you can duplicate the app. You can see (somewhat complicated) instructions here:

http://maketecheasier.com/run-multiple-dropbox-accounts-in-mac-and-linux/2010/05/24

I haven't done this personally, but this looks like it should work.


How can I save my carefully constructed printer presets before I have to re-install my printer? My Brother MFC-L5750DW is refusing to print documents (worked fine this morning), and after restarting, checking for latest software and drivers (currently updating) I suspect it's time to remove and re-add the printer via SysPrefs.

Over the last few months I have carefully saved up numerous printing presets which AFAIK will all be lost when I remove the printer.

I don't want that - what steps can I do to keep these presets - is there a .pref file somewhere?

Anything else I should do first?

OS 10.15.4
Mac Mini (Late 2012)
Printer Driver (and Firmware) updating as we speak (released yesterday)…

Thanks!

Your custom presets are located in

${HOME}/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plists

Now, it is possible that it may have the printer name "embedded" in the filename.  For instance I have an HP LaserJet that I name "HP Color LaserJet" so for me, my plist has the following name:

com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.HP_Color_LaserJet.plist

If you want to see what's in the settings file, just issue the command

defaults read com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.HP_Color_LaserJet.plist


Accessing wireless from my Macbook? There's this network at my school which I know requires a username and password. If I access it on my PC, it asks for it, and I give it, and I get access. Works great.

On my Mac, when I select it from the drop down list of detected wireless networks, it asks me for just a password.  Like this is some normal home network. Which is wrong. Inapplicable. No.

How can I get it let me put in my username and password instead?

This should work, but, as this is working with tech, you never know:

Open System Preferences.
Select Network.
Select "Wi-Fi" on the sidebar (AirPort if you're running SL or earlier).
Click "Advanced..." in the lower right.
On the Wi-Fi tab, click the plus sign beneath "Preferred Networks".
Enter the name of the network that you want to connect to.
In the security drop-down, select "Any (Enterprise)".
Log in with your username and password.
Press OK.


Each time I turn on or off my VPN, it will ask for the permission "trying to modify this system network configuration" How can I give permission to my VPN once and it won't ask again?

First, click on the Apple icon on the top left corner and select System Preferences.
From here, you will want to go to Security & Privacy.
Once here, click on the Privacy tab, and scroll to Files and Folder and if needed you can do the following action for Full Disk Access.
In the bottom left the corner, click the lock to make changes. This will prompt you for your computer password. Type that in and click Unlock.
Click the '+' button to add a new permitted application. Choose your VPN application here.

First, try in the "Files and folder" option and if that didn't help then try to do similar action for Full Disk Access.


Is there a way to have my macbook set its brightness based on it running from battery or from line power? Basically I'd like to have one brightness setting configured for when I'm plugged in through the adapter and charging the macbook from wall power, vs a lower brightness setting when I'm running off battery to preserve battery life. This configuration swap would be in response to the changed power state of the laptop. Does MacOS support such behavior?

While macOS does not support the exact behavior you are looking for (setting custom brightness when switching between power states), you can configure your Mac portable to slightly dim the brightness automatically when on battery power.
To do that, go to System Preferences → Energy Saver and enable Slightly dim the display while on battery power.


MacBook Pro asks to reset password, but neither keyboard nor mousepad are working When I turned on my MacBook pro, I saw a screen titled: "Reset Password", and I was asked to choose between three alternatives: I forgot my password, My password doesn't work, The keyboard doesn't work. Here's a photo of the screen.

I have no idea why this screen was shown. I remember my password quite vividly, and all I did was turn on the laptop.

However, this is not the worst part. The worst part is that the computer doesn't react to either the keyboard or the mousepad. I'd choose "the keyboard doesn't work", except the keyboard doesn't work and therefore I can't choose this option...

Computer: MacBook Pro (mid 2012)
OS: macOS Catalina, v. 10.15 (possibly 10.15.1, I don't remember if I upgraded)

EDIT: I'd like to clarify the statement "my mousepad doesn't work". When I move my finger on the mousepad, the cursor follows the movement on the screen, however when I click in order to choose an option or hit one of the buttons "Next" or "Restart" at the bottom of the screen, no action takes place.

I've solved the problem this way.

Turned off the computer manually by holding down the power button.
Attached an external mousetrack (Apple Magic Mouse 2) by USB.
Turned on the computer in recovery mode, by holding down the Command + R keys simultaneously while starting the computer, and releasing only when the Apple logo appeared.
When the recovery screen appeared, I used the Apple menu on the top left corner to restart the computer. It wasn't enough to tap the mousetrack in order to select the desired menu item, I had to forcefully press down on its surface.
The restart proceeded normally. Hurrah!


Dualboot on an external hard drive I have an iMac, its OS (EL Capitan) is located on an external hard drive.
I want to install WIndows 10 as a second OS on this drive.

But, since it is an external drive, I can't devide it into several partitions, using BootCamp Assistant.

Is there any way I can do it? Maybe I should use different software? Even solution, that includes erasing of the data is acceptable at the moment!

Thank you in advance!

You can actually divide external drives into several partitions.

To do so you just need to add a partition table to the drive using Disk Utility. Unfortunately that will render existing data on the drive unreadable by conventional means.

So in essence you'll need to copy your data to a backup, add the partition table, format the macOS partition and copy back your data. Then you can format the Windows partition and install Windows.


Why is my iPhone using 4G data when in range of my WiFi? This month my data usage is very close to my plan limit, so I am trying to limit usage to prevent going over.  But every day I notice it is still creeping up, and when I look at the log my provider shows me of data used, I see lots of (mostly) little transfers at times when I know I was definitely in range of WiFi.  I am especially sure of the ones in middle of the night; these are something like 20-50kbytes of data, so I was wondering if I am missing a setting that lets the phone switch over the the (lower powered?) LTE after being asleep for a certain amount of time which I could switch off, or if there is some other reason that it isn't using the WiFi connection.

When the phone is asleep (also known as hibernation mode), the WiFi radio is shut off after a time to conserve battery power. Anything that occurs on the phone, such as receiving notifications, background app updates, et cetera, uses the cellular network instead of WiFi. The one notable exception would be iCloud backup, for which the phone wakes the WiFi radio.


What happens if I interrupt a back-up from my laptop to my external hard disk? What happens if I interrupt a back-up from my laptop to my external hard disk?  Do I just lose the back-up and have to start over?

If it's a Time Machine backup, no, you don't lose your progress if the backup is interrupted. The backup will continue from where it left off. The partial backup is kept in an .inProgress file.


Change font color when posting new iCal events I have an iMac with OS X version 10.9.4. When using the iCal application I cannot change the color of a new event I post to match the color I've  chosen for the event.  Example: If I post a Red color coded event the lettering for my description is black.  I want the description I type for my Red event to be Red, not Black.  It would stand out as what color code the event is. Currently if I post a new Calendar event and choose a color for it just a small dot appears next to black font description of my event.  I want colored font to match the colored dot on my calendar.  Additionally there is a Gray Birthday event option but I cannot place any personalized  Gray color coded birthday events. I want the typing font color to match the event color for new iCal events I add and I want to be able to post Birthdays using the Gray color set up on my iCal menu.

The calendar app doesn't give you that level of flexibility. Apple has designed it to look a certain way, and that's the way it's going to look, bar some pretty serious hacking. Busycal is a calendar app that does use the calendar's color for the text, not just for the dot.
The "Birthdays" calendar is a special one automatically generated based on the birthday info you enter for your contacts. You can't edit it directly.


Bluetooth Magic Mouse disconnects I have an iMac, now running Mountain Lion; about six months ago I started finding that the mouse would lose connectivity whenever I banged it, even lightly, on the mouse pad; I also got a couple of kernel panics while the mouse was disconnected. Usually it would reconnect within 20 seconds or so, but not always. I took it in to Apple; there were bluetooth service failures associated with the kernel panics. They upgraded me from Lion to Mountain Lion and said the mouse looked OK. Things were fine for a while, but now the mouse is failing again.

I have no way of knowing whether the mouse is hosed, the bluetooth connection sucks, or there's a hardware problem in my box. If it's the mouse, I'm happy to buy a new one, or a trackpad, but don't really feel like laying out the bucks if it won't solve my problem. Ideas?

system.log shows the following:

Feb  2 11:03:58 rogers_imac kernel[0]: [AppleMultitouchDevice::willTerminate] entered
Feb  2 11:03:58 rogers_imac kernel[0]: [AppleMultitouchDevice::stop] entered
Feb  2 11:04:00 rogers_imac kernel[0]: [BNBMouseDevice::init][75.19] init is complete
Feb  2 11:04:00 rogers_imac kernel[0]: [BNBMouseDevice::handleStart][75.19] returning 1
Feb  2 11:04:00 rogers_imac kernel[0]: [AppleMultitouchHIDEventDriver::start] entered
Feb  2 11:04:01 rogers_imac kernel[0]: [AppleMultitouchDevice::start] entered

I think your best bet is to see if you can borrow another BlueTooth mouse (or a keyboard) from somewhere so you can test to see if it is BlueTooth failure in the Mac or the Mouse.

Is there anything in your logs at the time of the failure? Those logs look ordinary - there are no processes dying or panics close to those times?


Can you transfer your applications like photoshop from your old mac to your new macbook? Is it possible using a passport external hard drive and tome machine to transfer applications from my old macbook to my new macbook?

Please advise a safe way to do this if it is possible?

Generally speaking the Apple Migration Assistant (in /Applications/Utilities) will transfer documents, settings and Applications.

However some (most?) Applications transfer flawlessly and some do not. I would imagine, what with all the posts I see online, that Adobe applications may require more than just Migration Assistant. At the very least you will have to activate the applications again with Adobe. You may have to reinstall the apps or even call Adobe support to activate/authorize your Adobe applications on your new Mac.

But I would start with Migration assistant, unless someone here with specific experience with migrating Adobe apps says otherwise.


How do I load specific pictures from iPhone 3G to my PC? I am trying to load pics from my iPhone to my computer, but just want specific pictures.

How can I choose which ones to download.  I already have several downloaded and so when I go to download the additional pictures I took, it wants to download them all again.

I think you might be able to right click on the iPhone icon found under my computer, and select explore.  If so, you should be able to select just the ones you want.

I'm not running windows right now so can't check, let me know how it works out.


Why can't I install telnet on my macOS catalina with Homebrew? Here is the error information:

shawnstationdeMacBook-Pro:~ shawnstation$ brew install telnet
==> Downloading https://opensource.apple.com/tarballs/remote_cmds/remote_cmds-54.50.1.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/shawnstation/Library/Caches/Homebrew/telnet-54.50.1.tar.gz
==> Downloading https://opensource.apple.com/tarballs/libtelnet/libtelnet-13.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/shawnstation/Library/Caches/Homebrew/telnet--libtelnet-13.tar.gz
==> xcodebuild SYMROOT=build
Last 15 lines from /Users/shawnstation/Library/Logs/Homebrew/telnet/01.xcodebuild:
2020-02-29 03:04:09 +0800

xcodebuild
SYMROOT=build

Build settings from command line:
    SYMROOT = build

note: Using new build system
note: Planning build
note: Constructing build description
error: The i386 architecture is deprecated. You should update your ARCHS build setting to remove the i386 architecture. (in target 'libtelnet' from project 'libtelnet')

** BUILD FAILED **

Do not report this issue to Homebrew/brew or Homebrew/core!

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb:222:in `raise_api_error': curl failed!  (GitHub::Error)
curl: (7) Failed to connect to api.github.com port 443: Connection refused
curl: (3) URL using bad/illegal format or missing URL
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb:180:in `open_api'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb:294:in `search'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb:227:in `search_issues'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/utils/github.rb:240:in `issues_for_formula'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/exceptions.rb:368:in `fetch_issues'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/exceptions.rb:364:in `issues'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/exceptions.rb:418:in `dump'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb:137:in `rescue in <main>'
    from /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb:29:in `<main>

Does anybody know why? thanks a lot.

My catalina version is 10.15.2 (19C57)
Home-brew version is

shawnstationdeMacBook-Pro:~ shawnstation$ brew --version
Homebrew 1.6.9
Homebrew/homebrew-core (git revision fab7d; last commit 2018-07-07)

Do the brew update first.

$ brew update
Fast-forwarded master to origin/master.
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles-portable-ruby/portable-ruby-2.6.3.mavericks.bottle.tar.gz
################################################################################################################# 100.0%
==> Pouring portable-ruby-2.6.3.mavericks.bottle.tar.gz
==> Homebrew has enabled anonymous aggregate formulae and cask analytics.
Read the analytics documentation (and how to opt-out) here:
  https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics
No analytics have been recorded yet (or will be during this `brew` run).

==> Homebrew is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Please consider donating:
  https://github.com/Homebrew/brew#donations
Updated 1 tap (homebrew/core).

Then it's ok!

$ brew install telnet
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/telnet-63.catalina.bottle.tar.gz
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring telnet-63.catalina.bottle.tar.gz
  /usr/local/Cellar/telnet/63: 4 files, 138.1KB


Is it possible to export the current iPhone wallpaper? I have a photo set as my current iPhone wallpaper, which I would like to save.  I have forgotten where I stored this file on my computer originally, so I can't easily go back to place it back on my phone. It has since been deleted from my camera roll.

Is there any way to export the photo that is currently set as the wallpaper, so that I can change the wallpaper to something else, but save the other one?

As an expansion to Macjack's answer, here's the process I just followed to retrieve the lock screen wallpaper on my phone.

Looking in the /Users/<youruser>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backups folder is effective but very time consuming, especially if you have a lot of files/images in your backup (my phone a 16GB iPhone 5 that is pretty full had nearly 7000 files in there).  However, the majority of them were not photos for me.

So I wrote a small script to extract the photos and rename them so they have the proper file extension.  This makes it possible to use the image carousel preview for reviewing the images quickly.

Get the script here. (right click and 'Save link as' and save into your Downloads folder)

Now, open Terminal (type 'terminal' into spotlight).  Then copy and paste this into the terminal window:

cd ~/Library/'Application Support'/MobileSync/Backups
chmod +x ~/Downloads/img-separator.sh
BACKUP=$(ls -t . | head -n1)
~/Downloads/img-separator.sh "$BACKUP"

What those four lines do, for non-programmers:

"moves" you into the Backups directory
Makes the script I wrote above "executable" (able to be run)
Gets the name of the newest backup
Runs my script, telling it the name of the backup to process

And here is a description of what the script does.


OS X does not recognize keyboard and trackpad while Boot Camp Windows still can I've encountered strange issues on my Macbook Air 2013.

I spilled some drop of water on keyboard (near trackpad and spacebar)
I did some cleaning, and then try to boot again.
The OS X then can not detect my keyboard and trackpad. I was unable to log in.
But still I'm able to press button to reset PRAM and SMC, but nothing changes.
I decided to wait, after a few hours, I booted it again and this time the Fan start to run at (seem to be) max speed without any heavy task (I wasn't able to log in).
I tried to boot Windows 8 on the Boot Camp partition, surprisingly it works, trackpad and keyboard are fine. I'm writing this from windows.
So I thought maybe I should re-install OS X like someone said on this forum. but the installation also denied to recognize the keyboard, so I stop installing.

Could you help me to make the OS X recognize my keyboard, trackpad and stop my fan from sounding like a helicopter?

Edit: I ran an AHT and it told me I have SMC error code PFM006, which I heard to be related to thermal sensor. I'll probably bring to a store to fix...

You could try the SMC reset. Option-Command (⌘)-P-R

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222

Also try start in safe mode, that does some repairs. (hold Shift)

Try using external keyboard.

Finlay use the OSX restore function to restore your OSX.  (Command(⌘)-R)

Maybe lesson learned and buy a cheep keyboard cover in the future.


Mac Mail "View as Icon" missing in High Sierra? I upgraded to High Sierra and now the "View as Icon" option in Mail is no longer there.  Anyone know where it went? Is it gone for good :-(

What I was told by my AppleCare chat was that tis is a "Cosmetic Change: for Markup to work on attachments.  You are right that the  view as icon option is still there for text and numbers and for image files, but not for multipage PDFs.  Give Apple feedback on you interest in having this restred.


How to set application icon using command line? I created an application using "Script Editor".
I would like to override the default icon using command line vs the usual drag and drop approach.
Is that possible?
Thanks!

The following approach worked to replace default icon (located at /Applications/Hello World.app/Contents/Resources/applet.icns for example) of "Hello World" application created using "Script Editor" with another icns icon file (Firefox icon for example).
cp "/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Resources/firefox.icns" "/Applications/Hello World.app/Contents/Resources/applet.icns"
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -f "/Applications/Hello World.app"


macOS Catalina on AWS: merging partitions I have created a macOS Catalina EC2 instance on AWS with an EBS volume size of 60 GB.
Then I resized the volume on AWS to 120 GB and tried the following commands to resize the APFS container accordingly:
PDISK=$(diskutil list physical external | head -n1 | cut -d" " -f1)
APFSCONT=$(diskutil list physical external | grep "Apple_APFS" | tr -s " " | cut -d" " -f8)
yes | sudo diskutil repairDisk $PDISK
sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer $APFSCONT 0

Unfortunately the last command gives me the following output:

Started APFS operation Error: -69743: The new size must be different
than the existing size

That's the output of "diskutil list":

I am not sure about what's happening, but I am wondering, would it be possible to merge disk1 and disk0 into one disk? Without breaking the system, and where I could install applications as "normal".

Solution: I had to restart the EC2 instance and the command then worked.


Get notified on new App Reviews? Does anyone know of a solution (app or site) that will automatically notify me anytime I get a review on one of my iOS apps?

Apple provides an RSS you can subscribe to. You can find it by doing the following:

Go to iTunes Connect and log in
Go to Manage your Apps and select the App you're interested in
Under Links, in the App Information section, you'll find the Customer Reviews
Opening it will display all of the customer reviews, filtered by country.
Alongside the combo box to choose between the different countries you've already got reviews in, you'll find the RSS button.

Note: The countries combo box and the RSS button will only be displayed if there are reviews already.

The RSS URL looks like this:

feed:https://itunes.apple.com/COUNTRY-OF-THE-REVIEW/rss/customerreviews/id=APP-ID/sortBy=mostRecent/xml?l=LANGUAGE-YOU-WANT-IT-TO-BE-DISPLAYED-IN


Is there any alternative to MacPorts? MacPorts became really a pain because it does compile the packages on your machine, like the infamous gentoo and I would like something with a smaller footprint on your machine.

I know that Fink and other solutions exists but from what I remember form few years ago they are less maintained than macports.

I would like to read a more informed opinion regarding which solution would be optimal and why.

Alternatives for MacPorts

Homebrew

Uses OS X binary versions when available
Compiles OS X optimized versions

Compiling usually faster than with MacPorts

Easy to use, e.g. to install wget: $ brew install wget
Tries to separate already installed software from what is installed through brew …
… while taking advantage of already installed software and libraries (e.g. doesn't install a working version of Perl twice)
Installing software doesn't need root access
Actively developed on github

Fink

Uses Debian tools like dpkg and apt-get
Easy to use, e.g. to install wget: $ fink install wget
Can be used to install precompiled packages or to compile everything from the source
Has a separate directory tree to avoid interference with the system

Rudix

Last version 2010-04-10

MacLibre

Has GUI
Nothing new on the website since 2008


How to prompt Safari to save website's username and password to keychain? Given the site: https://ritx-fl-sales.bswa.net, username and password: how do I prompt Safari to save the username and password to the keychain, so that it is available next time I need to logon to the website?

I have logged into the site 3 times today, however, Safari did not prompt to save credentials

Check in the preferences if you denied saving passwords in the past for the website. Go to Safari Preferences (CMD + ,), passwords tab. Unlock it and sort the list by passwords column. If the site shows "Never Saved", site will not prompt for saving credentials. One can also search for the site using the search bar in this password window.

Otherwise, manually adding the credentials is the way to go. In the same place, use add button and fill in the site URL and the password. Even then, some sites may not support autofill partially or even fully. It's upto the web developer. See if this site works that way or not after manual addition.

  Safari may be unable to tell which fields are for username and password, credit card number and expiry date, and so forth.

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/safari/ibrw1100/12.0/mac/10.14


How to move cursor to the end of the line in a cell in Excel for Mac 2011 For example,

In any text editor:

Command+right arrow will put your cursor to the Right of the line
Command+left arrow will move your cursor to the Left of the line

Is there an equivalent keybord shortcut for this in Excel for Mac?

You didn't say what version of Excel you're using however see the Moving and scrolling in a sheet or workbook section of Keyboard shortcuts in Excel 2016 for Mac.


Erase All Contents And Settings on iPhone 4 I want to do an "Erase All Contents And Settings" on my iPhone 4. Will that require internet access and upgrade to the latests firmware? Or it will just erase everything and leave iOS firmware version as it is right now?

The tool you want to use is iTune's Restore to Factory Settings, found in the General tab when your iPhone is connected to iTunes.

While I haven't used this on an iPhone, I am reasonably sure that it will remove your iOS (firmware) updates so that you will have to re-download them.
It will also take all your apps, music, videos, and other media off the iPhone, as well as erasing all your settings and resetting them to the defaults. Basically, your iPhone will be just like it was when you bought it.

Directions on how to perform this operation (and restore afterwards from a backup) are available in the Restoring section of this Apple help document.


Can applications be using mic/camera without permission? Normally when an application on iPhone or iPad needs to access the microphone or camera it should get permission from the user.

Considering applications for iOS distributed through AppStore,
if such an application never asked for permission, and isn't listed in the privacy tab in Settings, is it guaranteed that the application can't access the microphone or camera?

Unless it's a hacked system, then no, it will not have access since access is only possible via API's that require granting access.


Sierra meets El Capitan OS installation issue I tried upgrading the software on my Macbook pro from OS El Capitan to Sierra.

I downloaded software and was installing it. Got the instruction to restart computer.
On re-starting, I find I don't have enough space to install Sierra. I am unable to get to the login menu and am stuck in the OS x Utilities Window.
Used Cmd + R to reinstall El Capitan. I get a notification saying I don't have enough space for this either. I am stuck in what seems to be no-mans-land.
Tried entering safe mode to delete unnecessary files and folders. But even after several attempts my macbook does not go to safe mode.

How do I restore my macbook to El Capitan? Should I erase my disk? Is it possible to enter into safe mode through some other way.

Your direction is much appreciated.

Boot into Recovery Mode with Cmd-R
Once the "maOS Utilities" screen comes up, access Terminal from the Utilities menu in the menu bar
Delete unnecessary (or backuped) files/folders

(Soure: About macOS Recovery)


Location of NetBoot operating environment In Apple's Mac Management Basics 10.10 they say that NetInstall and NetRestore images rely on NetBoot to "boot an operating environment that
frees the internal drive for an operating system image or upgrade."

Is the operating environment stored in the NetRestore/NetInstall image or is it part of the macOS Server application?

The OS is stored in the image which is transferred across the network. NetBoot can boot any operating system in this way, depending on the contents of the image.


How do I transmit video from my iMac wirelessly? What would be a good option if I were to transmit any video (DVD, AVI, MOV, just anything) from my iMac to a TV or beamer over the air? 1080p would be nice but is not a requirement. Setup should be simple and the required hardware should be small and have decent design that can be used in a living room.

How about an Apple TV ($99) and Airflick (free), over WiFi?  It'll only be 720p, though.

http://ericasadun.com/ftp/AirPlay/

There are a number of solutions for transmitting high-definition video:
https://www.google.com/search?q=1080p+wireless

...but to be honest, they cost nearly as much (or more) than an AppleTV, which gets you way more functionality.  Unless you have an enormous TV and top-notch content, you're going to be very hard-pressed to tell the difference.


How to change the language of the date (day of week) in Yosemite's lock screen? When my iMac enters the lock screen, my default language for the buttons is German; but the language of the day of week displayed in the upper right corner is English. Is there a way to change this?

You may want to check this article from Apple's website.

  OS X Yosemite: Customize formats to display dates, times, and more

  Change the language and formats used to display dates, times, numbers,
  and currencies in Finder windows and apps, such as Mail. For example,
  if the region for your Mac is set to United States, but the format
  language is set to French, then dates in Finder windows and email
  messages appear in French.

  Tip:   If you just want to change how time is shown in the menu bar,
  select the “Time format” checkbox in the Language & Region preference
  pane, or select the 24-hour option in the Clock pane of Date & Time
  preferences. To show the date in the menu bar, also select “Show Date”
  in the Clock pane.

  Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Language & Region.
  Choose a geographic region from the Region pop-up menu, to use the region’s date, time, number, and currency formats.
  To customize the formats or change the language used to display them, click Advanced, then set options.

  In the General pane, you can choose the language to use for showing
  dates, times, and numbers, and set formats for numbers, currency, and
  measurements.

  In the Dates and Times panes, you can type in the Short, Medium, Long,
  and Full fields, and rearrange or delete elements. You can also drag
  new elements, such as Quarter or Milliseconds, into the fields. If
  you’re not using a 24-hour clock, you can replace AM and PM with
  whatever you type in those fields.
  When you’re done customizing formats, click OK.

  The region name in Language & Region preferences now includes “Custom”
  to indicate that you customized formats.

  Your formats are visible in Finder windows and in some apps. For
  example, dates in Mail or Notes show your custom format.

  To undo all of your changes for a region, choose the region again from
  the Region pop-up menu. To undo just your changes to advanced options,
  click Advanced, click the pane where you want to undo your changes,
  then click Restore Defaults.


How to install OS X 10.9 on a new Mac mini loaded with OS X 10.11 I have searched as well as tried so many ways on downgrading from OS X 10.11 to OS X 10.9 on a new Mac mini which is loaded with OS X 10.11 but it always fails.

Are there any tweaks or ways which can be used to achieve this?

You probably can not do this. The older versions of the Apple OS X operating systems are not capable of running on hardware yet to be designed. For this to work, Apple would have to have released an updated version of OS X 10.9, which they have not done. Therefore, OS X 10.9 will not be able to recognize your newer machine's hardware.

PS: Apple has a support article for this as well, see Use the version of OS X that came with your Mac, or a compatible newer version.


Mapping Key (e.g. F15) to Fn Key with no Fn Key on keyboard None of the keys in my keyboard (Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard) are natively recognized as the Fn key by OS X (I checked with Mouseposé)

I have Karabiner and Keyboard Maestro installed but:

Karabiner doesn't seem to have a template to map things to Fn
As shown below, there doesn't seem to be an option in Keyboard Maestro to enter by hand Fn

How can I bind a key (specifically I am hoping to map F15) of my keyboard (e.g. F15 to Fn)?

Try the DoubleCommand (free, sourceforge) project. According to the features page, you can map the fn key, though it's only listed as partial support.  I don't have any personal experience to share...


How do I create a shortcut on the desktop? I was just migrated from a Windows machine to an Apple, which I was told would be seamless, but it's pretty seamy...

My tech (i.e., husband) told me I should drag-and-drop icons to the desktop to create a shortcut, since there's no dropdown-menu item saying "create shortcut."  However, all that did was move the file out of its logical spot into the desktop folder.  That is absolutely not what I want.

I'm having a hard enough time sorting folders by date or reverse alpha sort.  I don't know whether that's even possible using an Apple, but my first problem is the desktop shortcut.  For ergo-medical reasons, I definitely don't want to be navigating to my favorite folders, and I don't want to move them out of their logical places.

Drag an app to the desktop, and hold both command and option while you release it. This will create a shortcut much like those on Windows.

You can also try activating Spotlight (Apple's name for the search functionality) by pressing command + space. You can then type the first letters of the name of the app you need, then press enter to launch it. This could be even ergonomically better, as you don't need access to the desktop or to move your hand to the mouse.


Snow Leopard installer ISO on USB flash drive I have the setup ISO file for my Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
I need to be able to boot this and install it to a USB drive (from a windows pc by booting the USB drive).

I can't run it in a virtual environment and I can't burn it to a DVD (it doesn't work for some reason. It only makes a ~120KB of data on the DVD).

So, I need to make a bootable USB installer from the Snow Leopard ISO so I can boot that and install it to another USB/hard drive (this has to be done from a windows machine).
I have tried Multiboot ISO but it requires the USB to be formatted as FAT32 and as the ISO is over 4GB, this won't work.

How can I create the bootable installer?


local snapshot not restoring in APFS file system Using tmutil localsnapshot I was able to create snapshot(in this format: com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-28-032610), but was not able to revert to this snapshot using tmutil restore since APFS doesn't show me the path to this snapshot.

Any way to fix this?

Restoring from a snapshot happens when you run the migration assistant or boot to recovery HD / internet recovery.

Follow the restore steps from:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

The tmutil restore command is targeted at one or several individual file copies from my interpretation of the manual page and using it in practice. It works well for "go get this file" or "go get this folder" from that specific backup and not to much for rolling back a checkpoint of the whole system or a large volume of files.


How secure are the different router modes in a time capsule I have not been able to find the official documentation of my time capsule. I'd like to know how secure are the different 3 modes:

DHCP and NAT: this is the mode I'm currently using however the airport utility recommends me to use bridge mode.
DHCP only.
Off (Bridge mode)

If I use the bridge more, will anybody connected to the ethernet wan be able to access my network? What about the contents of the time capsule?

It depends on what is between the airport & the outside world.

I'm assuming, as it's recommending bridge mode, that you have an ISP-supplied modem/router too, in which case that's what you should do; let the router handle NAT & DHCP & put the Airport in Bridge mode.

Having double NAT is 'not a good thing' & can cause loss in transmission.

Only one device on a network - the one nearest the outside world - should be doing NAT [Network Address Translation]. This is what enables you to have multiple devices in the building, all of which can communicate with the outside world seamlessly, whilst only having one IP address at the router. The router handles which machine each message should be talking to.

DHCP is what handles the offering of in-house IP addresses, to enable NAT to do its job, & also to ensure it knows which device has which IP address & that no two devices have the same address. It is dynamic, meaning you are never 100% certain to get the same address each time; but has a 'memory' of who was who & therefore tends towards giving the same device the same address each time.

Having more than one DHCP server on a network means devices may be randomly assigned an address by either server - confusion reigns.

To specifically answer your question, security is not an issue - nor is security actually handled by either of those services - but effective networking needs one of each service... & only one... done by the router nearest to the outside world.


Messages goes unresponsive a couple of seconds after launching - any fix? I am running OS X 10.9 on a late 2009 iMac with 12 GB of RAM.

Until a couple of weeks ago, Messages ran fine. But as of a couple of weeks ago it goes unresponsive (spinning beach ball) a few seconds after startup. There is enough time to do something quick, like logout of my AIM account, or go into Preferences. But not enough time to actually check different preferences before it beachballs.

I must force quit. The error report for Apple says it is in a hanged state. Below I've included part of the (long) report. From all the indents it looks like something recursive is happening.

I've deleted everything I could think of from Library - all the im and ichat related plist files. The entire Messages folder. Nothing helps. Nobody at the Apple support forums seems to have any ideas.

Of course I've restarted. And deleted the imagent process from active processes too (it immediately reappears).

At this point I don't care if I lost all old messages and account settings. I don't mind setting things up again. I'd like to just get Messages to work again.

Any ideas?

Date/Time:       2013-12-14 22:33:02 +0900
OS Version:      10.9 (Build 13A603)
Architecture:    x86_64
Report Version:  18

Command:         Messages
Path:            /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages
Version:         8.0 (4218)
Build Version:   16
Project Name:    iChat
Source Version:  4218000000000000
Parent:          launchd [246]

PID:             28662
Event:           hang
Duration:        1.02s
Steps:           11 (100ms sampling interval)

Hardware model:  iMac10,1
Active cpus:     2
Fan speed:       999 rpm

Free pages:      304622 pages (+21114)
Pageins:         0 pages
Pageouts:        0 pages
Swapins:         0 pages
Swapouts:        0 pages

Process:         Messages [28662]
Path:            /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages
Architecture:    x86_64
Parent:          launchd [246]
UID:             501
Task size:       27616 pages (+498)
CPU Time:        0.743s

  Thread 0xa6ee94   DispatchQueue 1          priority 0          cpu time   0.742s
  10 start + 1 (libdyld.dylib) [0x7fff9643d5fd]
    10 NSApplicationMain + 940 (AppKit) [0x7fff92ecb803]
      10 -[NSApplication run] + 553 (AppKit) [0x7fff92ee09cc]
        10 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 122 (AppKit) [0x7fff92eec8db]
          10 _DPSNextEvent + 1434 (AppKit) [0x7fff92eed28e]
            10 _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 65 (HIToolbox) [0x7fff9233cabc]
              10 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 479 (HIToolbox) [0x7fff9233ccb7]
                10 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 226 (HIToolbox) [0x7fff9233cf0d]
                  10 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 340 (CoreFoundation) [0x7fff93acc294]
                    10 __CFRunLoopDoObservers + 391 (CoreFoundation) [0x7fff93adb017]
                      10 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 23 (CoreFoundation) [0x7fff93adb0a7]
                        10 CA::Transaction::observer_callback(__CFRunLoopObserver*, unsigned long, void*) + 71 (QuartzCore) [0x7fff90f277a1]
                          10 CA::Transaction::commit() + 388 (QuartzCore) [0x7fff90f17016]
                            10 CA::Context::commit_transaction(CA::Transaction*) + 236 (QuartzCore) [0x7fff90f1737c]
                              6 CA::Layer::layout_and_display_if_needed(CA::Transaction*) + 35 (QuartzCore) [0x7fff90f178f1]
                                6 CA::Layer::display_if_needed(CA::Transaction*) + 590 (QuartzCore) [0x7fff90f181a2]

Well, after a few weeks I finally managed to "fix" it, even though it meant losing my message history on my iMac.

(1) I deleted all the plist and preferences and caches and anything related to messages or chat.

(2) I restarted in Safe mode. I saw that Messages did start up again, as an empty shell, but it started up.

(3) I then restarted in normal mode.

Messages then started up again. I had to login to my AIM account again, but my buddy list is maintained by them, so that was all there. And I had to reset my iMessage settings.

But at least it is working again, finally.


change /etc/localtime to UTC time? I noticed it is common for programming languages to utilize /etc/localtime when determining the current time to display for a user. In particular, I know that Ruby relies on /etc/localtime if the "TZ" environment variable is not set. I am able to read the contents of this binary like so:

$ zdump /etc/localtime
/etc/localtime  Sun Aug 12 16:53:50 2018 EDT

It seems, therefore, the time used by programming languages is Eastern Time North America. It makes sense, I am in the East Coast of the US. However, how can I change this file to UTC so that the programming language and software on my computer uses UTC rather than EDT time?

You can set the time in System Preferences, and that time should be reflected back in /etc/localtime.

If you want to do it at the command line, use the systemsetup tool (which has to be run via sudo, fyi).

Here are the relevant commands from sudo systemsetup -help:

Usage: systemsetup -gettimezone
    Display current time zone.

Usage: systemsetup -settimezone <timezone>
    Set current time zone to <timezone>. Use "-listtimezones" to list time zones.

Usage: systemsetup -listtimezones
    List time zones supported by this machine.


TouchID does not lock MacBook Pro anymore on macOS Big Sur 11.2 Is it just me or this feature was removed after updating to Big Sur 11.2?

This is apparently a somewhat common issue after upgrading to Big Sur or even the 11.1 -> 11.2 upgrade.
You need to do a SMC and possibly a PRAM reset.
I was able to clear it by powering off the MacBook Pro, holding down the power button on the touch bar for >10 seconds, and then power back on.
Hope that works for you.


How can I view the full name of drop down items on iOS? For a dropdown list on a website, iOS shows only the first few characters and then ellipses for items with a long name. Is it possible to somehow see the full text of each item?

You could try selecting the item and then viewing the dropdown list in view mode, not selection mode. But As far as I know there is no way, in selection mode, to change how Apple presents the choices.


What's the easiest way to free up disk space on my iMac with a huge photo library? This is a hybrid hardware/software question with a few more factors than the typical "freeing disk space" question.

I have an older iMac with (I think) about a 250 GB hard drive. It's been running out of disk space for a while, and each time I find some way to recover a bit more room. I've used DaisyDisk, etc. to identify large unused files, moved my iPhone/iPad backups to cloud, etc.

At this point there's just one big culprit left: our iPhoto library, which has been fed increasingly large photos. (iPhone 4S + Nikon DSLR -> way more megapixels than my earliest photos!) The iPhoto library hogs most of the space now and I'd like to avoid one-by-one reviewing & deleting photos if I can help it.

Is there a software solution? Can I tell iPhoto to archive the oldest photos to a NAS? (I have plenty of network space) And if I do that, will photos take longer to open?

Is there a hardware solution? For instance, if I buy a Time Capsule is there a one-step way to relocate my existing photo library? And again, will it slow down the use of photos on my machine and/or prevent me from seeing all of my albums?

Also, I'd like to start moving some of my music back to the iMac - any solution that will let me do the same for iTunes (keep some local, move some to network storage) would be appreciated.

Assuming your NAS is always available and connected to your iMac, you can move both iPhoto and iTunes libraries to the NAS and use

symbolic links from ~/Pictures and ~/Music to fool the applications
start the application with Option pressed to select the alternative location
iTunes: select alternative storage location in Options
iPhoto: start by double-clicking moved library file


Group members from Contact do not appear in Mail address iMac using OS X 10.8.5. When using a Group from Contacts in a Mail address, all the Group list does not appear in the Mail address and those missing do not receive the email.

Try creating a duplicate of the group and trying again to see if it the duplicated group works. Also, check that all the contacts have a valid email address on their contact card as this could be what is causing issues with the Mail App.


Trying to run apache server on Mavericks I am trying to set up an Apache vhost on Mavericks, something that I was able to do easily on 10.6.8. I am using the default Apache that is preinstalled on a fresh install of OS X 10.9.2

$ sudo apachectl start
org.apache.httpd: Already loaded

$ ping localhost
PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.053 ms

But when I navigate to either http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 on any of my 3 browsers, I'm told I can't connect, instead of seeing Apache's "It Works!" message. (On Chrome I see "Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to localhost")

I also tried adding a vhost:

Uncommented Include /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf in /private/var/appache2/httpd.conf
Added 127.0.0.1 test.local to /etc/hosts
Added the following to /etc/apache2/extra/http2-vhosts.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
 ServerName test.local
 DocumentRoot /Users/me/test
 <Directory /Users/me/test>
   AllowOverride all
   Options -MultiViews
 </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Restarted Apache

$ apachectl -t
Syntax OK
$ sudo apachectl graceful
$ ping test.local
PING test.local (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.040 ms

...but again, nothing when I navigate to http://test.local

Any thoughts? Does this have something to do with Mavericks' new "Web Sharing" preference, which you have to download separately, or something?

Edit:

Figured it out! I had to modify the main httpd.conf Directory options to AllowOverride All and Allow from All, as per this tutorial. The conf file that comes with Mavericks has this turned off. If I had looked at my original conf file on my old machine, I would have noticed the difference.

The other thing that was messing me up is that if I have

ErrorLog "/Users/me/error.log"

in my VirtualHost definition, I get "Chrome can't connect", even though Apache tells me the syntax is fine. Removing it resolves the problem.

Thanks all!

Check /var/log/apache2/error_log or /var/log/system.log. You can also try to flush the DNS cache by running sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5343.

Just running sudo apachectl start makes http://localhost show the "It works!" page for me in a 10.9 VM.

Saving

<Directory "/Users/username/Sites/">
  Options Indexes Multiviews
  AllowOverride AuthConfig Limit
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
</Directory>

as /etc/apache2/users/username.conf and running sudo apachectl restart makes http://localhost/~username/ point to ~/Sites/.

Uncommenting Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, adding 127.0.0.1 test.dev to /etc/hosts, adding

<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot "/Users/username/Sites/test"
  ServerName test.dev
</VirtualHost>

to /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf, and running sudo apachectl restart makes http://test.dev point to ~/Sites/test/.


Upgrade iPad2 to previous iOS version (from 4 to 6, but not 7) I have an iPad2 with original iOS4.3.3, no jailbreak. Now there are several apps that require iOS 5 or above and I'm ready to upgrade. But I don't want to install yet the latest iOS7 (heard about some bugs, performance issues, etc.).

I backed up all the data and apps with iTunes (11.1) on Mac computer. But in iTunes I have only iOS7 as the option to upgrade. It's a pity I'm just a few weeks late, when this new os became available.

I've tried hard to google it, but all the links discusses just upgrade to iOS7.

Is there any way to upgrade to previous iOS6 now? Better without jailbreak, but if there will be no other choice I may consider ...

For security reasons, once a new update is released the old ones are no longer supported, so there is no way to upgrade to six or seven.

However, there is no issue upgrading to iOS 7, because the interface is slicker and prettier, and it utilizes the iPad's resources well.


How does one rotate iMac display using Yosemite? With my Mid-2012 MBA running Mountain Lion, I have no issues at all in rotating my display after hitting display in preferences while holding cmd + option keys. However, I've run into a snag with my Late-2013 27" iMac running OS X Version 10.10.2. I would like to rotate my display 270 degrees. What's a workaround I can use to do this?

Edit 1: To be clear, I'm trying to rotate my actual iMac display in the same way I can with my MBA.

This isn't the most elegant solution but there is a C based utility available at https://github.com/CdLbB/fb-rotate. To use the utility, click the download zip in Github. Extract the zip to your downloads folder and then run these commands in the terminal (copy and paste one line at a time, pressing enter after each line) to compile the program (only needs to be done once):

cd ~/Downloads/fb-rotate-master
gcc -w -o fb-rotate fb-rotate.c -framework IOKit -framework ApplicationServices

After that is done, you can run the program like this:

~/Downloads/fb-rotate-master/fb-rotate -d 0 -r 270

The 270 at the end is the rotation you would like. Applicable values are 0, 90, 180, 270. If you feel comfortable enough, you could move this out of your downloads folder, but you would need to edit those terminal commands. You could also turn it into an apple script to make the process easier. (Let me know if you need help with this)


can I use time machine to restore old icloud confirguration? by  mistake, i accidentally blocked my I cloud account.password, security codes, lost the lot.

Is it possible to use the time machine to come back a few days ago when my passwords were still working?

It's doubtful.  iCloud is locked on the server side, a TM restore would only restore your client side configuration.


What video resolutions does late-2015 iMac 5K support on external monitors? I've got a Core i5 3.2GHz iMac with AMD R9 M390 2Gb. I decided to connect my old HP LP3065 monitor, but to my surprise it would only show either 1280x800 or 1024x640, though it supposed to be up to 2560x1600.

Could the problem be with graphics card, cable, or old monitor?

You haven't detailed how you have actually connected the monitor and the iMac, but it sounds like the problem is the cabling/adapters.

The monitor is from a time where you couldn't achieve the 2560x1600 resolution without using dual-link DVI. Note that this is different from just "DVI" as a non-dual link DVI cable will not allow you to transfer such a resolution.

You'll to use an adapter especially for this purpose. For example Apple's mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter:

https://www.apple.com/dk/shop/product/MB571Z/A/mini-displayport-til-dual-link-dvi-mellemstik


How do I delete an iCloud backup? I just got a new iPad2 (upgraded from an iPad1) today and I was going to do an iCloud backup, but it says there is no more data for me to use.

I want to either download all the data from my original iPad onto my new iPad and then delete the old iCloud backup, but I can't find anywhere to do that. The cloud is recognizing the devices seperatly. I can't even just delete the iPad1 backup to do a brand new backup, the system (on my iPad2, iPhone and Mac) all say "Could not delete this backup at this time, try again later"...

Is this even possible to download my iPad1 backup onto my iPad2?

Tap Settings and then tap the iCloud icon.
Tap "Storage & Backup."
Tap Manage Storage.
Tap your iOS device in the Backups area.
Under Backup Options, turn off any items that you no longer wish to back up.
Return to Storage & Backup and tap “Back up now.” This will immediately remove the requested backup data from iCloud.
Choose “Delete Backup” if you want to turn off Backup and remove all data for that Backup from iCloud.

(via support.apple.com)


Colour profile not set when switching monitor I'm running OS X 10.8.5 on a mid 2011 MacBook Air. Lately I've noticed that when I attach or detach an external monitor, the relevant monitor colour profile is not actually used.

When I look in the preferences, the correct profile is always set, be it for the external monitor or for the build in screen.

The actual displayed colours however are of, which can be fixed by selecting a random other screen profile and then clicking back on the original and correct selected one. This obviously is a minor annoyance. Any ideas?

The color profiles (drivers) are managed by the ColorSync Utility located in your utility folder.

Open it and look what profile is been used for your monitor, then select optional one to see the changes.

There should be the factory settings and currently used profiles.


Help with MacBook Pro (unibody) keyboard damage I have some scratches on my A key. I don't actually know where it came from but it looks deep and melted. Could it have actually melted due to the screen heat? And if so, why only that letter?

Also, is there a way to easily clean the keyboard? Or do i have to disassemble my notebook and put it all back together again?

Could it have "melted" due to the screen heat?

No. Impossible.

  Also, is there a way to easily clean the keyboard?

You can pop out the keys if you like (see this YouTube clip). I would advise against pulling out the entire keyboard as you won't be able to clean it any quicker and may damage it (depending on your dexterity) in the process. It is also a lengthy process that requires removal of the logicboard (hit up iFixit for details). Technically, the keyboard is attached to the top panel of the notebook (unlike the pre-unibody MacBook Pros).

As for a cleaning solution, you can use any monitor cleaner or a high concentrate (99%) isopropyl alcohol (70% will if you can't find the 99%, but not preferred). Apply it using q-tips or a small micro-fiber rag.


One Note alternative for Mac? For some time I've been using the combination of FreeMind and One Note on my Windows machine. About a month ago I migrated to Mac and now I'm trying to search for an alternative.

So far I've tried Personal Brain, but it has quite a heavy interface and I don't really like the workflow.

What app(s) would you recommend for managing larger amounts of information on tasks and projects?

You have many choices but none of them as good as One Note (It's just my opinion)

Omnioutliner
Journler
Macjournal
EverNote


iCloud: How long are photos stored? I heard that photos stored in iCloud are automatically erased one month after the upload date.

Can someone please explain the retention period for photos, songs and other information to iCloud?

Thanks.

Photos stored in iClouds photo stream are only stored for up to 30 days and up to 1000 photos (whichever you reach first). You should save any photos you want to keep to your photo roll or iPhoto within the 30 days allocated.

For this and more information about iCloud check out the iCloud FAQ


Software Update Problem I've tried to update my computer software to the latest version but I keep getting this message
"The Software Update Server (wd-od1.internal.waikatodiocesan.school.nz) is not responding."
Can someone please help.

Many schools and corporations point Macs at internal software update servers to control which updates arrive and when they get enabled.

Contact the IT department or support if you have an institutional Mac. They might fix the server or point your Mac to another source for updates.
You can sever that connection from the following post.

Using Software Update Server

You can revert your settings by running the following Terminal command:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL

Alternatively, you can delete any profiles listed in the system preferences app. Be sure you have a backup before deleting or changing these settings. You might need to revert things if in fact the settings were needed to prevent some updates.


How can I use the fn key as a standalone key on my Mac? I want to use the fn key on my keyboard as a trigger for an AppleScript (.scpt file) via FastScripts.

The reason that I want to do this is because the fn key is occupying coveted real estate on the keyboard, and I don't think I've once used a fn key shortcut in my life.

I installed Karabiner and went through every option under the "Change Fn key" and "Fn To All Modifiers Mode" categories individually, to see if FastScripts would be able to pick up on me pressing the fn key and thus allow me to assign the fn key as a script shortcut.

FastScripts was able to pick up my keypress when the "Fn to F14" option in Karabiner was selected. But, F14 is apparently already in use, because when I pressed the key, my screen brightness setting decreased a notch, which is obviously undesirable.
FastScripts was also able to pick up my keypress when the "Fn 2x to F19" option in Karabiner was selected. But, this obviously requires me to press the fn key, twice in order to start the script. This is also undesirable.

These were the only two Karabiner options that FastScripts was able to perceive.

I am not particularly wedded to using any application in particular (e.g., Karabiner) to accomplish this.

OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.6.

You can stop F14 from changing the brightness in System Preferences.

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Display, and untick "Decrease display brightness":

Any integrated brightness keys on your keyboard will continue to function.