Notes App on El Capitan: Change Default Format The Notes app on El Capitan now has a number of styles, such as Body and Heading. How do I change the fonts associated with this?

I tried to make changes to the DefaultFonts.plist file, but it appears that the new System Integrity Protection has locked that down. Notes, of course, doesn’t have a preferences setting.

I really don’t like the font that’s showing up, and I don’t want to have to individually change all of my notes.

  Note: This is not a duplicate of How to change the default font and size in Notes on El Capitan?. (a) I am referring to the release version; (b) I want to change the font styles; (c) It hasn’t been answered anyway.

But even if the new System Integrity Protection is off, you still will be unable to change it. And the keyboard's plists of PressAndAll also can no longer be modified to add the new accents.

Tip: You do not need to modify the default font and size in Notes.

To change the font, you can select all or one sentence and press Cmd + T.

To change the font size, you can press Cmd, Shift and + at the same time to increase or Cmd + - to decrease the size.

Another tip: If you want to use the user font in Notes in OS X, please, install and use AnyFont in iOS to install your favourite font in iOS.


The operation can't be completed because the item is in use … im using Macos Mojave, and some of my Xcode files were locked i guess by the system. So i trashed them and now im not able to clean the Trash. Im getting annoying error The operation can't be completed because the item is in use … Rebooting in safe mode, disabling login items, fixing permissions on disk does not helped. How can i clean my trash?

Posting the OP’s solution:

The trash can be emptied using:

rm -rf ~/.Trash


Using `rsync` as more advanced `cp` For copying large files (and/or large quantities of files), especially across disks, I prefer to avoid using the Finder as it often fails with some meaningless error message and/or complaint about permissions.

Instead I have been looking at using rsync -- or, more specifically, the latest version of rsync available from Homebrew, which, as of today, is:

rsync  version 3.1.1  protocol version 31

Capabilities:
64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 64-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints,
socketpairs, hardlinks, symlinks, IPv6, batchfiles, inplace,
append, ACLs, xattrs, iconv, symtimes, no prealloc, file-flags

(Those are the default capabilities that Homebrew uses.)

The problem is that rsync is hopelessly complex, and I'm never sure if I am using the proper arguments, or if there are others that I should be using:

rsync \
    --8-bit-output \
    --acls \
    --backup \
    --devices \
    --exclude='.DS_Store' \
    --executability \
    --group \
    --human-readable \
    --inplace \
    --itemize-changes \
    --owner \
    --perms \
    --progress \
    --prune-empty-dirs \
    --recursive \
    --safe-links \
    --specials \
    --stats \
    --times \
    --update \
    --verbose \
    --xattrs \
    'foo' /path/to/destination/

Args I'm not sure if I should be using or not, mostly because I'm not 100% sure what they do:

(one of the other options for links instead of '--safe-links')
--relative
--sparse
--partial

Any other suggestions?

Unless you have some specific needs, I would throw out most of those options and keep it simple: rysnc -aEv (on the default OS X version) or rsync -aXv (on the Homebrew version).

Options

-a is archive mode, which essentially means preserve the metadata (timestamps, permissions, etc.) and do a recursive copy. This is what you want for your standard backup or copy operations.
-E/-X preserves extended attributes (a.k.a. resource forks). In the past the built-in rsync version had special functionality to cover HFS+ quirks in this regard, but newer default versions of rsync may be improved in that regard now. I would lean towards using the built-in version unless you have a specific reason not to.
-v is the verbose option, and simply makes it easier to track what's going on if you're running this in a Terminal window. If it's going to be running in a script, you can remove it.

Unless you know you need them, you can safely ignore most of those options you've got already. Some are duplicated by the archive command, and others (like --inplace, which can slow things down and leave the filesystem in an inconsistent state) are only necessary for specific edge cases. Do yourself a favour and keep things simple — if you run into specific issues with the options I've listed, perhaps enumerate those (in a separate question if need be).

As an aside, running into problems copying via Finder is a bit of a red flag IMO. While it may not always be as fast as some options, it shouldn't be throwing error messages. You may want to verify/repair your disk in Disk Utility.


How do I get my Macbook Pro back to normal and keep all my files when I'm in "macOS Recovery"? My "Notes" app was non-responsive and lagging so I manually shut down my MacBook Pro by pressing down the off button for several seconds (It's from 2013 or older and I think I have OS X Mavericks or maybe a newer operating system). When I turned it back on it was in "macOS Recovery" mode. How do I get it back to normal and keep all my files and everything?

There are a few things you can try.

1. Use the SDM to try booting from your usual Startup Disk

Use Startup Disk Manager to see if your usual startup disk is available. Follow these steps:

Shut down your MBP
Switch it on and immediately press and hold the option key
Release the key when your bootable disks start appearing
If you see your usual startup disk, try booting from it

2. Try running Disk Utility from macOS Recovery

Boot into macOS Recovery
When the macOS Utilities window appears, select the Disk Utility option
Check to see if Disk Utility can see your usual startup disk
If so, use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk
Assuming it completes okay, try again to boot up your MBP

3. Run Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics

It's unclear from your question the exact model of MBP you have, so it's not clear whether your Mac used Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics (Apple switched to the latter in June 2013)

While the process of using these is slightly different, how to access them is the same:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears
Wait for either AHT or AD to load

If it's AD it'll automatically run the diagnostics - just wait for it to finish and report back
If it's AHT, select your language and click the right arrow to access your test options. I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.

Assuming this finds no hardware problems, it may be time to consider reinstalling macOS.

4. Reinstalling macOS without deleting applications, data, etc

Prior to following this process, you need to ensure:

you have a known good backup of all your data (be it via Time Machine or another process) just in case something goes wrong
your MacBook Pro is able to connect to the internet during the installation process
you have already confirmed that your usual startup disk can be seen by Disk Utility (see 2 above) and that the repair process itself completed without problems

Assuming you have the above sorted, follow these steps to reinstall macOS without deleting your apps, data, etc.

Shutdown your MBP
Power up your MBP and immediately press and hold the commandR keys
Let go of the keys when it's clear you're booting into Recovery mode
Soon the macOS Utilities window will appear
Make sure your iMac is connected to the internet
Now choose the Reinstall macOS option
Click the Continue button
Follow the prompts (to select your disk, etc)
Click the Install button

Once completed, your MBP will restart as normal. This process does not erase your drive and therefore all your apps and data should still be in place. In other words, this process does nothing but reinstall macOS over the previous version on your drive.

IMPORTANT: - Once again, things can go wrong and you should have a backup regime in place. Proceeding without a backup is done at your own risk.


Why can't I share my voice memo on my iPhone via e-mail? When I go to to share a memo created in the Voice Memo app via e-mail, the e-mail will get sent, but there will not be an attachment.  In the outbox before it gets sent, the attachment is there, but when I look in the sent folder afterward, there is no attachment.  What is causing this and how can I fix it?  The size of the voice memo does not matter, there will be no attachment.

I am using ios 6.1, sending to a Gmail account.

I had the same issue after an update and found that by clicking "edit" on the voice memo then "done" , it would attach all details in that vm so I could send.
It just added another step to what was a straight forward pro ss to begin with.


How to change incorrect Wi-Fi password? I went to a coffee shop that had Wi-Fi this morning and they gave me the network name and password. In the top-right corner of my desktop there is the Wi-Fi menu, and I selected it to "Turn Wi-Fi On" It searched for a few seconds and correctly found their network.

I then tried to connect to it, but botched/fat-fingered the password and pressed Enter ⏎ by mistake. I then wasted about 20 mins trying to find a way to change the (bad) password that my Mac was using to authenticate with. I gave up and came home.

So I ask: How do you change the password for a Wi-Fi network?

There are two ways to do this...
Modify the Password in Keychain
You can do this under Keychain Access.  You will find all your saved Wi-Fi networks under the "System" keychain in the "Passwords" category.
Double clicking on the SSID (mine are redacted for security) will bring up a dialog box with the details for that particular Wi-Fi network.  From here, you can enter in a new password.

Delete the Network & Rejoin
You can also solve the issue by deleteing the network and rejoining it.  Simply go into your System Preferences > Network and select your Wi-Fi Adapter.  Click on the Advanced... button and you will be able to delete your Wi-Fi Network.  Just rejoin and enter in the good password.


How can I erase the data from my Macbook without losing my recent OS? I'm going to sell my Macbook Pro and want to remove all of the data before doing so. I have the OS Lion installed but my machine came with Snow Leopard. How can I remove everything and restore it to basically just the OS without losing Lion? I want to sell the machine with Lion. Thanks.

Apple provides instructions on erasing and reinstalling OS X, so the system will be as it was when it came from the factory: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4439

These instructions guide you through reformatting the drive and reinstalling OS X via Recovery.


Possible to selectively choose folders to sync at set-up time of OneDrive for macOS? Question:

Is it possible to configure through the Terminal or otherwise which folders to selectively sync in the OneDrive app for macOS?
Or, to select the folders to sync during the setup procedure of the app?

Background:

I am having trouble getting OneDrive setup on a new iMac running macOS Catalina 10.15.4. After installing the app from the Mac App Store and linking my Microsoft account, the app immediately start syncing. So far, so good. But then I have two related issues:

The app starts syncing all the content, which is about 250GB, and which is not what I want (it would drain my ISP quota). I want to exclude a certain big (Backup) folder from syncing.
However, trying to do selective syncing configured, I bump into the spinning beachball when trying to adjust the OneDrive settings. It's almost impossible to get to the correct setting; but if I get there and uncheck the relevant folders I get a popup from Onedrive telling me it can't do it because of some content that first needs to be uploaded. (don't have a screenshot right now, as it's hard to reproduce).

Unfortunately, when setting up OneDrive, there is no option to specify what folders to sync. (Dropbox, for instance has such a feature).

So, is there any way for me to reliably set the folders to sync with OneDrive, without having to download the full 250GB of my OneDrive folder?

BTW, I have the OneDrive app running successfully on an older iMac; but I think that was already setup before I started backing up to OneDrive.

I have run into and struggled with the exact same issue with setting up OneDrive app for macOS. Here's what I have observed setting it up on multiple personal Macs.

Soon after logging into the app, it appears to start syncing all the files and folders, and trying to access the app preferences result in a spinning beachball. While it appears that the app is trying to download all the data from your OneDrive cloud storage, in reality that's not the case.

What's happening is that the app is fetching the metadata for all the files on your cloud storage without actually downloading the files themselves. I have experienced this process to take unusually long time, thereby giving an impression that it's trying to download all the files.

Also, the app by defaults comes configured with a setting called Files On-Demand enabled. Here's how it looks like in the app preferences window:

What this does it gives you an impression that all the files and folders are available in Finder. However, when you try to access any by trying to copy or open, the app actually starts downloading the file. The Finder simply shows the file icon normally and even trying to perform a Quick Look triggers a download.

In my experience, the app is programmed such that the app preferences are not accessible until this initial fetching of metadata is complete. But as soon as this initial fetching of metadata is complete, the app preferences become accessible, and then you can choose the folders to sync selectively. If you get an error when trying to select some folders and save, try relaunching the app.

Once you have selected the desired folders, you may also want to turn off Files On-Demand. Doing so would actually download the files for the selected folders and would even let you work with them in offline mode.

I find this feature of the app very annoying. Also, I feel that the overall UX of the app is very confusing and frustrating. You can consider sharing feedback on this with Microsoft here: OneDrive on Mac - Feature Suggestions for Microsoft OneDrive.

Now to address your specific queries:

  Is it possible to configure through the Terminal or otherwise which folders to selectively sync in the OneDrive app for macOS?

I can't conclusively answer this in no, but there aren't any publicly known command-line that can do this.

  Or, to select the folders to sync during the setup procedure of the app?

I have not found this feature present in the current version of the app.


Is there a notepad that lets me change the background image? I want to put this blackboard as the background of my notepad, so when I type, it'll look like I'm writing on a blackboard.

Do you know a simple text editor that will let me use it as a background image?

WriteRoom is a pretty awesome text editor in general, and will let you do this through its built in custom themes feature.


Running 3 External Monitors off a Mid 2014 MacBook Pro I have a MacBook Pro retina 15 inch. It's a retina model with a i7 4980HQ 2.8Ghz quad core processor, a 2GB Nvidia GTX 750M graphics with 2GB VRAM and 16GB ram.

I was wondering if I would be able to connect 3 monitors to it to use mostly for coding, but perhaps also some occasional gaming.

would the best way to do it be through the two Thunderbolt ports using a 2 Thunderbolt-> DVI adapter and one monitor through the HDMI?

Will they all work properly, will there be any difference in quality if I'm using 3 monitors of the exact same model.

If you Google Mid 2014 MacBook Pro and go to this link Apple says "Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors."

I added the emphasis.


After Mavericks upgrade Chrome font is terrible I just upgrade to Mavericks and had some issues. Out of all the issues, one that I get frustrated the most is Chrome browser is not displaying font like it use to be. Here are two images taken from Safari and Chrome to compare.

Chrome:

Safari:

As you can see, comparing both Safari and Chrome, fonts on Chrome are more bold.  I use Chrome mostly for my development and the font use in this design is Open Sans font-weight 300.

Is this normal or there is a fix to have Chrome render the fonts more finely as Safari does?

It's not a Mavericks issue.

Google Chrome has (currently) a bad support of Webfonts.


Flash plugin crashes frequently In various websites, at random times and with no apparent pattern, the Flash plugin will crash. This has occurred in every browser, and I typically have at least one crash a day. According to Mozilla's plugin check I have the latest version of Flash (10.1.102.64)

This is a new MacBook Pro (17", 2010 unibody version) running fully updated Mac OS X 10.6.5.

Does the plugin just crash for everyone, or is this unique to me? How often does Flash crash for you? Is there anything I can check, or is there a way I can reinstall Flash or some other diagnosis I can run? I haven't been experiencing other issues with my computer or my browser.

There's a reason why Apple appears to onlookers to be so anti-Flash, and it's because Flash sucks on Macs (it may also suck on other OSs, but I don't use them enough to be knowledgeable).

What to do about it depends on what browser you use (your question doesn't say, as Mozilla's Plugin Check isn't FF-only):

Safari - the answer is ClickToFlash. Honestly, C2F is something that should just come pre-installed on every Mac.
Firefox/Camino - As Ken mentioned in a comment, you want the FlashBlock extension.
Chrome - use the FlashBlock for Chrome extension.

As has already been said: you can get along fine on almost all sites without Flash. Here's some additional recommended reading, both of which are from John Gruber at Daring Fireball:

Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It
Masquerading as Mobile Safari to Get Websites to Serve HTML5 Video to Safari on Mac OS X


Modify router port-forwarding rules from Terminal I'm trying to modify my router's NAT Table / Port-forwarding rules using the terminal on my Mac. My current setup looks something like this

Public  <->  Internet  <->  Modem + Router (1.1.1.1)  <->  Macbook (192.168.1.2)

There's a webserver / app running on port 7919 on my Macbook and I'd like to port-forward it so anyone can access it publicly from the internet. Specifically, I want 1.1.1.1:7919 to forward data to 192.168.1.2:7919.

I know I can do this by going in to the Router settings web interface, or using other GUI apps such as PortMap, but I need to do this using the command line.

I've been searching for a solution for hours and still haven't been able to find a simple solution that does this for me. The closest I came was to natd, but it has been deprecated in favor of pfctl, and I can't make any sense of it.

After searching for hours, I still wasn't able to find a built-in command-line utility that does what I'm asking for. But I did find something else that's pretty close. It's PortMapper, a java applet that comes with a command-line interface to manage the port-mappings of your router (must be UPnP compatible).

Since my plan was to do everything from the terminal, I'll walk you through the steps:

# Download the latest version
curl -fSL "https://sourceforge.net/projects/upnp-portmapper/files/latest/download" -o portmapper.jar

# See the basic help
java -jar portmapper.jar -h

# List all port-forwarding rules
java -jar portmapper.jar -list

# Create a new rule
java -jar portmapper.jar -add -externalPort 7919 -internalPort 7919 -ip 192.168.1.2 -protocol tcp

# Delete a rule
java -jar portmapper.jar -delete -externalPort 7919 -protocol tcp

This assumes you have java installed and available in your shell


Launch Final Cut Pro, make a new project and name it with Automator I want to make an Automator app that will do a couple of things for me with Final Cut Pro:

I want it to ask me to name a the new project (we will call it test1)
Then I want it to make a new folder and name it test1
Then I want it to launch Final Cut Pro and make a new project and name it test1

This is what I have accomplished so far:

Run AppleScript

on run {foldername, parameters}
    display dialog "Please choose name" default answer "untitled"
    set foldername to text returned of result
    return foldername
end run

Set Value of Variable foldername
New Folder foldername
Run AppleScript

on run {input, parameters}
application "Final Cut Pro"
end run

I just can’t find any script on how to create a new project, let alone name it.

I don't have any version of Final Cut, but from the MacScripter search results it appears like at least the older versions weren't scriptable. Anyway, have you looked at its AppleScript dictionary (by e.g. dropping its icon on AppleScript Editor)?

Would it be possible to just copy a template file instead of creating a new project? If so, if you saved a script like this as /usr/bin/fcpp and ran chmod +x /usr/bin/fcpp, you could create a new project with fcpp Project name.

#!/bin/bash

mkdir -p ~/Projects/"$*"
cp -r ~/Documents/Test.fcpx ~/"Projects/$*/$*.fcpx"
open ~/"Projects/$*/$*.fcpx"


How can I prevent java processes from stealing focus? Has anyone else noticed that command line java applications in OS X create GUI processes that steal focus (ie, groovy, maven sub processes)? I'm finding it extremely annoying; probably because I've been living with it for 6-8 months since I think OS X 10.6.

How can I prevent java processes from doing this in OS X?

Eventually I found the basic solution:

For Java applications in general you can specify that they are 'headless', by adding the option -Djava.awt.headless=true to your java application.

(also posted to stackoverflow).


How can I find a specific JavaScript identifier of a website? I want to use JavaScript to set the scroll amount of a webpage in an AppleScript, using the second method described in this answer.

This answer focuses on one webpage in particular. I want to branch this method out, so that I can use it on any other webpage. I am unfamiliar with JavaScript.

So, is there some way that I can hover my mouse in a certain location of a webpage, and then I am told what the corresponding JavaScript identifier is? If that's not possible, is there a way to get the JavaScript identifier name of a specific visual element on a webpage?

As an example in Google Chrome, using the URL of this question and setting the scroll to point to the question header of the page, use Chrome > View > Developer > Developer Tools ⌥⌘I to find the id. In this case it's called question-header.

You can also right-click and select Inspect from the context menu, which will bring up Developer Tools directly to that point in the code.

The following code will open this page and scroll to the question header.

set myURL to "http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/276314/how-can-i-find-a-specific-javascript-identifier-of-a-website#276314"
tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    tell front window to set curTab to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:myURL}
    tell curTab
        repeat while (loading)
            delay 1
        end repeat
        -- scroll to the top of the question header.
        execute javascript "e=document.getElementById('question-header');tTop=0; do {tTop +=e.offsetTop || 0; e=e.offsetParent} while(e); window.scrollTo(0,tTop);"
    end tell
end tell

You can see in the code above that question-header was swapped for twc-scrollabe in the execute javascript ... line of code.

You can also get a quick list of the <div id= anchor points using curl in Terminal and piping the output to grep, as in the example for this page.

$ curl -s 'http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/276314/how-can-i-find-a-specific-javascript-identifier-of-a-website' | grep '<div id='

_

</script>

draft saved

draft discarded

Ask Different works best with JavaScript enabled

$

Note: While curl will bring the page down, the grep command as shown in the example may not work as nice as it did for this page. Some page content doesn't have line breaks and the code is a contiguous stream.


When erasing media in Disk Utility, how can I change the default format? Every time I erase my MicroSD card, I need to change the format from ExFAT to MS-DOS (FAT). Is there a way to change the default to the latter, or better yet, to default to the current format of the drive I'm erasing?

There isn't a setting to change, so you might instead script the diskutil command to do the erase using AppleScript or another scripting language.

diskutil eraseVolume disk12345

The eraseVolume command just wipes the volume and recreates an empty filesystem to match what was there. You could build a little window to ask for the volume or perhaps even list all the disks and then tell you to insert the drive to be wiped.

You also might use system_profiler SPCardReaderDataType or the similar SPStorageDataType or SPUSBDataType depending on how the cards you wish to erase are connected to the Mac.


Profile Manager: Mass Deploying Exchange Accounts Many of my users would like to set up their Exchange accounts (which are provided by company) on their personal iPhones or iPads. None of the iPhones and iPads are enrolled to my macOS Server. I would like to try Profile Manager (from macOS Server) to create a profile configuration for mass deployment, in order to reduce repetitive labor.

There are some information to be inputted when creating the configuration file. Here is the correct configuration which works for me. But I can't 'mass configure' Exchange settings of Users or Email Address. It seems the only way we can preconfigure Exchange for each user is to create a profile for each individual user.

You may have heard of the part of Profile Manager documentation covering global variables that you can use to configure group profiles: Payload variables. I did give it a try. But it seems it doesn't work for me. Here is how it looks like:

Anyone know how to get it work? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Let me answer this by myself. Try to create a profile configuration via Groups instead of Devices Groups. Here is what it looks like:


iPhone multitasking gestures On iPad, there are some useful multitasking gestures such as swipe between applications.

How do I enable multitasking gestures (a la iPad) on iPhone 4?

iOS 4.3 beta had this feature.
I used it and it wasn't that nice.  The all of your fingers toward the middle brings you home gesture was difficult to use at best.

As of right now, you have to jailbreak your device and install the Zephyr app from the BigBoss default repo.

It lets you configure how it works, which is a nice bonus.


Using MBP as web server with many users I teach new media classes at a small liberal arts and sciences university. For the past several years, I have been running an Ubuntu server on an old desktop PC in my office. At the beginning of each semester, I create an account on the web server for each student. They learn how to use FTP to upload their digital projects, and some students experiment with basic UNIX command line options. The server recently died, and I'd love to swap in my old Macbook as the new server.

I have spent the better part of a day trying to install Ubuntu 14.04 on a late-2011 MBP. Unfortunately, the dual graphics card configuration causes real problems for the Ubuntu installer. I've worked through multiple installation guides, and cannot manage to boot to the Ubuntu OS without manually editing the grub every single time.

Is it possible to accomplish my objectives while sticking with Yosemite on the MBP? Specifically, this is what I need to be able to do:

SSH into the MBP server from my other computer in order to create new user accounts.
Allow students to connect to their FTP folders via SFTP. Over the course of a typical year, there would be probably be around 30 new user accounts created.

Really... That's about all I need to do. I don't need a fancy graphical interface. I just want to telnet/FTP into the server and occasionally patch it to receive the latest security updates.

I know that Macs have some sort of UNIX terminal under the shell. It would be so cool if I could just telnet/SSH to reach the machine from my desktop computer. Then, I could use basic UNIX commands to create user accounts.

I'm sure you can create users manually from command line in OS X, and while I have a large *nix background, I'm only familiar with approaching this from a GUI standpoint in OS X (though like I said, this absolutely doesn't mean it can't be done.)

Simply get on the console or enable remote administration for your OS X user and VNC to the Mac from your desktop.  Or install xRDP on the Mac, which is my personal preference for GUI access from Windows-to-Mac.

From there, just go to System Preferences, and create the user accounts from there.  You can tweak the remote administration access to allow these users or add them to a specific group and give that group SSH access from there.

This will achieve what you're looking to accomplish.  If the basic commands are the same as what you are familiar with, just enable Remote Administration, SSH to the Mac, and do your thing from the command line.


Line In Headset's Microphone Not Receiving Input I'm using Windows 10 (32 bit) with Boot Camp on an early 2009 iMac.

I recently got an X2 from Ovann (http://ovann.com/c2223.html) and looks like this (http://phongvu.vn/gallery/avatar_upload/products/storage/32083_ovann-x2-proo.jpg)

I've tried this on OS X and on Windows and checked the recording devices; it seems that whenever I talk or test the microphone it doesn't get any input.

I've solved it! The only thing I needed to do was find a good line-in to USB adapter and then use it.

The one I got was this one.


Are Macs vulnerable to the Bash shellshock bug? Red Hat recently announced a major security-related bug in the Bash shell. Some are calling it the "shellshock" bug. Since OS X is built off of Unix, is it vulnerable to attacks that exploit this bug?

As an end user, do I need to worry about an immediate fix? Or is it better for me to wait for an official software update from Apple?

Yes you are technically vulnerable. So if you feel like panicking or billing a panicked client for a few hours of panic work, go for it!

But the reality is unless you allow SSH access from remote connections or a web server that runs server side scripting, you are not at risk. You are only truly vulnerable if someone you do not know can remotely access your machine & do so in a way where a Bash command can be executed.

Meaning your desktop Mac—which really does not run server applications of any kind—is not at any serious risk. I am willing to eat some proverbial “humble pie” here, but I do not think the majority of Mac users out there will be at risk at the end of the day.

So this issue is mainly of concern to system administrators on Mac OS X & Unix/Linux servers exposed to the world, not desktop users who do not enable SSH sharing.

Perhaps there is an edge risk of a Mac malware or virus being created to exploit this risk, but I doubt it.

EDIT: And just to elaborate how this issue is—in my humble opinion—not really an issue to most average users, yes I can run the following command from bash on Mac OS X 10.9.5:

env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c 'echo hello'

And I see this:

vulnerable
hello

Guess what? That is only terrifying if you don’t rationally think this out. I had to already have been logged into my Mac to even open the Terminal. And to negate what I said about SSH above, to even get to the point I can run this test even if SSH is enabled I would still have to be logged in to begin with.  And then—let’s say I get access via SSH—the command does not allow me to do ANYTHING past my normal user rights such as this:

env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c 'cat /etc/ssh_host_rsa_key'

Meaning if you truly are vulnerable to being exploited by this hack, your core security on the system would have to be so compromised that the fact that bash has a flaw is really the very least of your issues.

This is a concern from an overall control & rights issue as it as the potential to allow unintended access since the behavior extends outside of expected norms. But in my humble opinion, it is not a risk on par with OpenSSL or the garden variety “let me leave my password on a note taped to my screen” risks.

At the end of the day I am still patching all of my Linux/Unix servers I run as standard procedure. And will happily patch the Macs I manage once a fix is out. But for practical day-to-day use I feel fine not worrying about this since I do not understand how a flaw that does not allow for elevated user privileges adds up to anything.

UPDATE: Official word from Apple posted here; emphasis mine:

  “The vast majority of OS X users are not at risk to recently reported
  bash vulnerabilities," an Apple spokesperson told iMore. "Bash, a UNIX
  command shell and language included in OS X, has a weakness that could
  allow unauthorized users to remotely gain control of vulnerable
  systems. With OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to
  remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services.
  We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced
  UNIX users.”

Translation: What I said above about this being a server issue & not a client issue? Exactly.

A FINAL UDPATE: For anyone struggling with compiling from source, as of September 29th, Apple has officially released patches for Mac OS X 10.9.5, 10.8.5 as well as 10.7.5:

OS X bash Update 1.0 – OS X Mavericks
OS X bash Update 1.0 – OS X Mountain Lion
OS X bash Update 1.0 - OS X Lion

YET ANOTHER FINAL UPDATE: And now, Apple has just released a combination security update today that includes the bash update as well!

  Note: Security Update 2014-005 includes the security content of OS X
  bash Update 1.0


Can you debug interactively in Workflow? I’ve been creating some mobile workflows, and debugging has become a bit of a chore. My current method of doing so has simply been to add a Quick Look and Exit Workflow step. Since Workflow execution often runs way too quickly for me to see the evaluation path, especially when If branches and Repeat sections are in use.

Is there a better method for debugging, perhaps a step-wise debugger (ala. perl-d, Ruby’s byebug or pry, gdb, etc.) with the ability to investigate data at each step?

No. Since the workflow team and app are now Apple employees and Apple first party app, I would expect this to feature to come to either playgrounds or Xcode if it’s not added to whatever becomes of the app itself. Siri automations are going to need this debugging as well but I expect one to three years for this to arrive on a form we will all see and be able to use.


Install Flash Player 11.9 on case-sensitive filesystem I'm trying to install Flash Player 11.9 on Mac OS X running on a case-sensitive filesystem. The installation fails with a (very unsatisfactory) error message.

What can I do to complete the installation successfully?

As I posted on an Adobe forum post the reason is the following: The installation tries to access /usr/libexec/Plistbuddy but the correct spelling is /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy. You can execute the following commands in a terminal to solve the problem and successfully complete the installation:

cd /usr/libexec
sudo ln -s PlistBuddy Plistbuddy


Emacs crashes on Mac OS X with "Dispatch Thread Hard Limit Reached" Emacs crashes on me once a day or so with the same error message in the dump:

  Dispatch Thread Hard Limit Reached: 512 (too many dispatch threads blocked in synchronous operations)

Google shows this causes many programs on Mac OS X to crash, so I don't think it's specific to Emacs. The thread limit varies, but it seems to be built into the OS. I tend to open lots of files and run shells which start other processes, all inside Emacs, so I'm not surprised that it's hitting the limit, but I'm not sure how to prevent it. Any ideas?

This is GNU Emacs 24.2, built and installed from Homebrew with --cocoa, running on a late 2012 Retina MBP 13" on OS X Mavericks 10.9.1.

I posted this to another question you asked because it is indeed caused by Emacs 24.3 and related to distnoted acting up. As a solution you can either use a nightly from http://emacsformacosx.com/ or use the patch below to build 24.3 without leaks.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/8553178


Stuck on boot loop after upgrading iPhone SE 10.3.3 to 13.3.1 via iTunes I have an iPhone SE. It was running iOS 10.3.3, and I finally made the jump and upgraded to iOS 13.3.1 via iTunes. My computer is running Sierra so I'm only on iTunes 12.8.2.3 if it's relevant. Since I have slow internet and couldn't rely on iTunes to do the large download of iOS, I used ipsw.me to find the iPhone_4.0_64bit_13.3.1_17D50_Restore.ipsw file from Apple for my phone model and used iTunes to install this after downloading. Everything was going fine until the end where iTunes wanted me to allow it to access the iPhone, but it timed out waiting for the iPhone to actually boot. And eventually it seemed like it was going to boot, but then it kept rebooting. I can't stop it. I've tried forcing a reboot already. It also does not show up in iTunes when plugging it in. It gets to the point where the screen slightly dims on the boot screen to show my custom brightness while still on the Apple logo and sometimes even has a little [Zoom enabled] heads up thing that shows up briefly near the end, but then it just reboots again.

Help?

Edit: I can try putting my phone in DFU mode, but then iTunes will want to wipe and restore from backup and redownload iOS 13.3.1. Losing data and re-downloading are both not desirable, but is there any other option?

Edit 2: I was able to move the ipsw file into the iTunes library, so it didn't need to do any re-downloading. However, after being in DFU mode for a little while as iTunes is in the process of 'Extracting software...', my iPhone started the boot-loop again. iTunes still says it's extracting though. Is that normal? A way to fix?

Edit 3: After it extracted software, it couldn't find the phone (which was still rebooting). Help?

Edit 4: While connected to my Mac, I held down the power and home button to force a reboot and just continued holding until I got a new screen, the restore screen where it says on the iPhone screen to plug it into the computer. At that point iTunes said it needed to install iOS 13.3.1 and erase all my data on the phone. So I let it try, currently extracting software 'Verifying updated iPhone software...'. And I'm just hoping that now that it's in recovery mode and not DFU mode it will keep from rebooting and allow iTunes to work its software.

Edit 5: It reinstalled, and is back into a boot loop! What could it be? I do think my battery health may be about 80% of its design capacity, but other than that I don't know what could be wrong.

Would there be any chance that it would be happy using it for installing but still be some kind of problem and that I shouldn't use a newly downloaded copy of iOS downloaded directly by iTunes? Or even go so far as to get a Windows virtual machine going with a newer copy of iTunes in case 12.8.2.3 is too old? I'm kind of grasping at straws here.

Edit 6: Not sure if when I did the recovery mode installation if it was trying an update or a restore. I'm trying again choosing 'restore' this time.

Edit 7: 'Restore' made a difference! It brought me to the activation login and then asked me if I wanted to restore from a backup in iTunes while my phone still displayed a loading bar. I selected the backup, my phone booted to a screen that said 'restore in progress', and iTunes is telling me to wait about 8 minutes. Hoping this works.

Not sure whether this is the best answer, but as I more or less got my issue ultimately resolved, I'll describe what I did. DFU mode did not prevent a boot-loop, but restore mode did, which I was only able to enter by holding the power and home buttons continuously while it was plugged into my Mac. iTunes then wanted to install the latest version of iOS, and I had to install it by choosing to restore from a backup rather than trying to install it as an upgrade. This worked, and then it restored from my iTunes backup. Eventually it rebooted, which took longer than normal but not more than a few minutes, and iTunes got right to syncing my music and podcasts.

Unfortunately, having to re-download all my apps over my internet connection was not desirable, especially considering that I intentionally did not update certain apps, but this is better than a boot loop.

One hitch that happened was that on the new welcome screen on my phone, it didn't accept my Apple ID login/password, even though it worked initially within iTunes itself. But it let me skip that step and nevertheless seemed to be signed in to iCloud in iOS anyway.


iTunes Store vs App Store (iPhone 4) Why are some apps installed via iTunes Store while others via App Store? is there any significance in that? Many thanks.

You're confused because on Mac, you access iOS App Store from iTunes, but it is actually iOS App Store. So all your apps are from iOS App Store, not the Mac App Store which is a separate App like iOS App Store is separate on iDevices than iTunes.


extract by terminal the Darwin version I want to know how extract by terminal the Darwin version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_Sierra#Releases

For macOS Sierra 10.12.3 is 16.4.0 for 10.12.6 is 16.7.0.

Now, I want to create:

--build=x86_64-apple-darwin$(uname -r)

Is it possible obtain this complete value?

x86_64-apple-darwin16.4.0

That is very simple using uname with the r option.

uname -r

and

sysctl -n kern.osrelease

would give you the same results.


Is it possible to change the order of the tabs shown in the Dictionary? In my Mac Mini running OS X 10.8, the tabs shown from Dictionary are the following:

All
American English
American English Thesaurus
Apple
British English Thesaurus
Wikipedia
British English

I would like to change their order, as follows:

All
American English
American English Thesaurus
British English
British English Thesaurus
Apple
Wikipedia

I tried dragging them, but nothing happens; I also tried selecting them pressing the control keys, but all I got was a contextual menu that allows me to edit the labels, which  is not what I want to do.

Is there any way to change the order that labels are shown?

Yes, just go to the Preferences for the Dictionary app.  There's a list there of all the possible dictionaries, which you can then drag to be in any order you like.


Network Shares disappeared after adding shared volume to boot items I wanted to add a have a network share mount on boot so I added it to the users boot items. The volume mounted successfully but other network shares are no longer visible either through the sidebar or via Finder > Go > Network.

Previously my other mac book pro, which is set up for screen sharing would be in the server list as would my NAS (Lacie Network Space), which would appear as both an afp and smb share. The NAS is now the only option available as afp or smb, it was one of the shared folders on this that I added as a boot item.

Finder > Go > Connect to Server works but I no longer have the option to browse for shares

I have removed the share from the boot items.

So far I have tried:

unchecking all options under Finder > Preferences > Sidebar > Shared, rebooting and then checking again.
Deleting all the files in Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration and rebooting
Replacing all files in the above from a previous back up

Unfortunately I don't back up anywhere near enough so a full restore from back up is a last resort.

All shares are visible from my other macbook pro, running Leopard

The real question is how to I make the network shares visible/browsable again?

Well this turns out not to be a Mac issue after all!

Restarting my router fixes the problem. It seems to have DNS issues every now and then.


Use AppleScript to send all emails in a folder at a certain time I'd very much like to please develop an AppleScript to send all emails inside a specific mailbox whenever it is run. Then I can create a mailbox called "9AM", place emails inside there, and with a little help from cron/iCal, have all those emails send at 9am each day allowing me to type emails late at night but have them send in the morning.

My code below however fails on the send command.

tell application "Mail"
    repeat with theMessage in (every message of (mailbox "9AM" of account "accountnamehere"))
        send theMessage
    end repeat
end tell

I also tried moving them to the "Outbox" mailbox but that just seems to make them disappear...

tell application "Mail"
    repeat with theMessage in (every message of (mailbox "9AM" of account "accountnamehere"))
        set mailbox of theMessage to mailbox "Outbox"
    end repeat
end tell

Any suggestions anyone? Help greatly appreciated!

This setup would be ideal as I can just leave a Mac switched on and then even save emails to this "9AM" mailbox from my iPhone. I hope it is possible.

This is not necessarily meant to be a complete answer and is too much as a comment. Because the Mail AppleScript Dictionary lacks some verbs, e.g. send again, one therefore needs to workaround any shortcomings.

The code below could be incorporated into your script. It uses System Events to manipulate menu commands to send composed messages from the designated mailbox.

Example Code:

tell application "Mail"
    activate
    repeat with theMessage in (every message of (mailbox "9AM"))
        open theMessage
        delay 1
        tell application "System Events" to click menu item "Send Again" of menu "Message" of menu bar 1 of process "Mail"
        delay 1
        tell application "System Events" to click menu item "Send" of menu "Message" of menu bar 1 of process "Mail"
        delay 1
    end repeat
end tell

What this does is automate the tasks that one could/would do manually to achieve the same results, sending the unsent saved messages from a given mailbox.

What this doesn't do is, if the mailbox is other then Drafts, remove the messages from the target mailbox and additional coding will be required.

Notes:

The problem with automating a series of manual tasks in this manner, aka. UI programming, is if at the designated time the script runs and you are doing something else and it take focus away from Mail then the script will not be able to properly complete.  This is because if the Mail menu is not visible then the calls being made by System Events cannot be completed.

The value of the delay command may need to be adjusted, e.g. delay 1.25, if required or whatever value works on your system.  Slower systems need higher delay values.

Obviously if the target mailbox is Drafts keep in mind that unless you code accordingly all messages in the target mailbox will be sent and therefore using e.g. "9AM" allows keeping drafts that aren't ready to send from being sent. The disadvantage of other then using Drafts is requiring additional coding to remove the messages that have now been sent via Send Again > Send in this manner.


I have an iPhone xs max, can I use two bluetooth headphones My little brother and I want to watch Youtube without disturbing everyone. Is it possible to use two Bluetooth headphones at once?

yes, if you have iOS 13 and above plus apple airPods or Beats equipment. look maybe here for a howto:
https://www.gadgetsnow.com/how-to/share-audio-with-two-bluetooth-headphones-using-this-trick-on-apple-iphone-and-ipad/articleshow/77442813.cms


Time Machine backup: Does it create a disk image? Or replicate data on the backup drive? When I use Time Machine to backup my MBP hard drive: Does it create a disk image? Or replication data on the backup drive?

Am asking because I wonder whether erasing the hard drive, reinstalling OS, and then restoring from a Time Machine backup ...  would help free up space (occupied by dropped databases) or get rid of conflicting bits left by package managers like NVM, NPM etc.

Time Machine does not create a disk image, and it instead copies over files to a folder on the target destination. It copies over almost all the files, except for a few system files and trash files. When backing up to remote drives like a Time Capsule, it uses Sparse bundles.

Erasing the hard drive and restoring the backup might free up some storage, but it'll be very, very little and probably not worth the effort.

Source


Is it possible to create a custom keyboard and upload it to the App store? I am working with someone who teaches an endangered language, of interest to a fairly small group. Many of the people in that group use only phones, and don’t have laptops. The language has a lot of special characters to represent the sounds of the language — that is, it has its own alphabet — but some of those characters are not available in any of the standard languages available by default on OSX.

Is it possible to design a custom keyboard and define which keys will input which character?
If so, is it possible to upload such a keyboard to the app store to make it available to people (he wants to make it free)?

Yes, lots of people have done this, you can find many custom language keyboards in the app store.  You should make sure there is not one there already by searching the store for the language you are talking about.

Have a look at the Keyman app.  It already has lots of keyboards and I think offers ways to create new ones.

Keyman

For developer info see iOS Custom Keyboard


How can I save videos from iCloud Drive or Google Drive to photos on my iPhone? in the past I’ve been able to click a video in iCloud drive, and the option to ‘save to camera roll’ has been there. From there, I can use the instagram app and it will find the video stored in my photos/videos on the phone.

Now this option isn’t there. I can’t find a way to save the mp4 files to my phone at all. It’s not a huge file (35MB) but sending it to myself by email hasn’t worked.

Clicking 'open with instagram’ on the video in iCloud Drive does nothing, the menu goes away but it doesn’t open. If I click ‘open with winzip’ it will open in that app and allow me to play, but again gives me no option to save.

I managed this two weeks ago several times and it let me save it. What can I do???

I use this method for Google Drive, I think it's OK for iCloud Drive. Touch the three vertical dots and there will be the "Send a copy" option; Now, as you will see, there will be "Save Video", it will start exporting and your video will be saved in the roll


Can I scrobble Google Music on iPhone? Is there an app for iPhone iOS8 which will scrobble Google Music onto Last.fm?

I came across this question, but it only applies to Android.

I've been working on a way to Scrobble from the official Google Play Music app. It's still a work in progress and it requires a Jailbroken iPhone, but it works!

https://github.com/octalmage/LastGoogle


Do I need the latest version of macOS to run Xcode and publish macOS/iOS apps? To release an app to the App Store or build one you need a Mac. So my sister offered me her 13" 2013 MacBook Air (128GB) for €200 (~$230). It's still running pretty well, so price-wise it's worth it (I guess).

But I heard that to use Xcode, you need the latest version, which is usually bound to the latest OS version.

Is this true? Do I need the latest OS version (High Sierra as of now) to develop and publish Mac/iOS apps?

The short answer is no, not necessarily.

Versions of Xcode, like any software, will have a minimum version of the operating system it requires to run. However, that isn't necessarily the latest version of the OS.

Some examples:

Xcode 9.2 requires as a minimum macOS Sierra 10.12.6 to run
Xcode 9.3 requires as a minimum macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 to run

This highlights the crux of the assumption in your question - that you need the latest version of Xcode to develop and publish apps. However, this assumption is false. Developers do not have to use the latest version of Xcode to develop and publish apps to the Mac or iOS App Stores. In fact, you don't necessarily have to use Xcode at all.

Having said all that, the latest release version of Xcode (9.4.1) requires macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 to run, so in that sense it does require the latest major version of macOS (although not the latest minor version). But, as I said, you don't need to use the latest version of Xcode to develop/publish an app.


Any app that will automatically size and lock Finder windows? For several years I was Windows-only at work and used a great utility that resized and locked my Explorer windows.

I'm surprised I haven't come across this for the Mac as I am always repositioning, sizing my windows. Does anyone know if such an app exists?

FinderMinder resizes Finder windows when they are opened. There is a small delay before windows are resized and you have to keep it running on the background though.

I use this script to reset the properties of windows manually:

tell application "Finder"
    if number of windows is 0 then return
    tell Finder window 1
        set toolbar visible to false
        set sidebar width to 0
        set statusbar visible to false
        set current view to column view
        set bounds to {474, 250, 1318, 750}
        tell its column view options
            set shows icon to false
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

When you move or resize a window, Finder saves its dimensions to a .DS_Store file. You can make all folders use the default dimensions by deleting .DS_Store files:

sudo find / -name .DS_Store -delete && killall Finder

It also removes Spotlight comments, resets the positions of icons in icon view, and removes folder-specific sorting modes and view options.


How to configure VPN per app in iOS 7? As one of the business feature the upcoming iOS 7, Apple has announced the ability to configure VPN on application basis.
However, details about this feature are hard to find on the web.
I am wondering, if this configuration will be something that can be done on the Device itself, or if it has to be something that has to be set up by an IT administrator in the network?

Here's how I understand it. Mobile apps that run on iOS 7 can indeed be set up to (either manually or automatically) connect via VPN, but the devices have to be managed with OS X 10.9 as the backend VPN server and MDM. This is intended to separate the corporate connection (which may be carrying sensitive data) from the personal one.

Functionally, a payload (XML file) will be pushed to the iOS device. The VPN payload is designated by specifying com.apple.vpn.managed as the PayloadType value. The VPN payload contains VPN connection information, but relevant to VPN-By-App, the OnDemandMatchAppEnabled key is enabled:

  If true, the Per-App VPN connection starts automatically when apps
  linked to this Per-App VPN service initiate network communication.

Additionally, there is a VPNUUID key:

  A globally-unique identifier for this VPN configuration. This
  identifier is used to configure apps so that they use the Per-App VPN
  service for all of their network communication.

And a SafariDomains key:

  This array contains strings, each of which is a domain that should
  trigger this VPN connection in Safari.

So, the short answer to your question is Yes.


Apple Music: Heart ratings ("Loved" tracks) are not supposed to synchronize between devices? I hearted/Loved dozens of tracks on Apple Music desktop (on Mac), but when I played them on my iPhone, they were not hearted/Loved.

Is it normal? I hope not, because it wouldn't make any sense! (Why would I want to love a track but only on one device and not on another?)

If it is indeed normal, is there a way to force this sync?

Thanks!

Through investigating a similar question I have found the same thing, you don't appear to be able to create a Smart Playlist for online content.

However if you download the song for offline playback you can Love it and it will show in the Smart Playlist of Loved songs. However this playlist does not sync to an iOS device, regardless of it being in offline storage on your iOS device.

I imagine this is a bug, and certainly isn't very user friendly. People are becoming confused by the fact you can Love a song but it doesn't let you review a list of Loved songs later.

I would expect an update in future to resolve this, seems like a lack of UX design and testing in Apple Music as there are a few issues like this.


Start/stop external hard drive? I need to start/stop an external hard drive (USB) from a shell or python script. Actually the external hard drive automatically stops when ejected. So, is it possible to programmatically eject / start an external hard drive? Something like USBDeview does for Windows :-)

Update:

My intended use case: I want to run a nightly backup to the external drive. As the drive is quite loud and to save on energy, I only want it to be active during the backup. I likely won't use Time Machine, but my own backup script.

You could use pmset disksleep TIME to set a timeout for the disk to go into standby mode. This way, you wouldn't have to mount/unmount the disk every time you want to access it. TIME is the time in minutes.

If you set the time to 0, the timeout is disabled, so if you want to keep it spinning you can set it to that.


iPhone 4 asks me to log into an Apple address that Apple say doesn't exist I have an Apple ID and a password that works fine on most things but not my iPhone 4. The address is example24@example.com.

But When I start up my iPhone, iCloud asks me to enter the password for example22@example.com. As far as I know I have never used this email address as an Apple ID. Consequently I have no idea what the supposed password is.

I have researched your excellent articles about changing apple id addresses but in every case it asks me to log out by entering the old password which I don't know.

When I try to change the password I get the message that example22@example.com is not an Apple ID.

In a perfect world all I want to do is completely delete any reference to example22@example.com but I can't do that without knowing what the password for that address is. If anybody can help I would be really grateful.

Start by recovering the password to example22@example.com at https://iforgot.apple.com (and use the guidance provided there in case you don't know the answers to the security questions). Then proceed with decoupling your phone from the old ID.

If you are unable to recover the password to example22@example.com, Apple can remove the old AppleID from your phone. You need to show proof of purchase for this though.


Cannot connect to Mac (Big Sur) running SSH server while connected to VPN I cannot connect to my Mac via SSH when I run a VPN client on it. When I connect to the public IP address of my Mac, the return packets are being routed over the VPN. I need to force these packets to be routed over the public interface.
This question has been answered for Linux here: https://serverfault.com/questions/659955/allowing-ssh-on-a-server-with-an-active-openvpn-client/918441#918441. Unfortunately the solutions provided do not apply for macOS Big Sur as ip is not available.
I am using the official PIA VPN client in WireGuard mode.
How can I connect to my Mac via SSH while it is connected to the VPN?

If this works when the VPN software is disconnected, then you now have a case to make a configuration change on the VPN server to allow split tunneling.
By default, many VPN servers demand and check that all traffic to the Mac (or PC or Android or iOS or unix client) connect only through the VPN. This causes intentional breakage of ssh since its can no longer listen for an incoming connection from your local subnetwork.
Signing in to a single tunnel VPN intentionally breaks the interface since it exists on the other end of the network tunnel which is a different network range. This is a security issue as most companies consider VPN a firewall to prevent any communications as you have described. This is working as intended for many VPN setups and what you ask may break or be contrary to security setup decision.
Options to change this include:

Try to establish your ssh session before VPN tunnels engage.
Change the nature of your VPN tunneling configuration to allow split tunneling.
Use a network to network VPN tunnel instead of a client to network tunnel.

It’s a good idea to review your security policy if someone else imposes VPN since this could be outside their design parameters or violate security policy if split tunneling is intentionally disabled.


Is the iOS5 GM identical to the final version? Are there any differences between the iOS 5 GM seed released to developers and the final version released to the public? If I have the GM installed, do I need to do anything?

No changes in file bytesize at least.  The first GM seed for 10.7.2 was initially marginally different to the final version in some way and was updated, but the iOS 5 release is identical.  No need to change anything.  If you were not already on the GM/release version, it would have complained by today and deactivated your phone...


Can I Watch Prime Video On Apple TV? I have not figured how to play prime video on Apple TV.
is it possible to watch prime video on Apple TV?

Initially Amazon didn’t have an app for the tv, so I used the iPhone or iPad app to AirPlay that content on my Apple TV. Now that the app supports tvOS, I would start there.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amazon-prime-video/id545519333


Gifting in iTunes to people in other countries Christmas is coming up, and I'm currently living in a country (UK) that's a completely different iTunes store from my family (US).  So I'm wondering if I can gift things in the iTunes store if I'm in a different country than the recipient.  If I gift something from the UK store, can someone in the US download the items?  I'm not even sure if there's a way for me to go to the US version, let alone try to gift an item from there.

According to Apple support, from the U.S., you can gift physical goods to:

  Mexico, 15 countries in Europe, and four countries in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand).

Those 15 European countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. Anywhere else and it seems you need a credit card with a billing address in the target country to send gifts.

However, this does NOT apply to gifting apps:

  [iTunes] Gift Cards and Certificates are valid for use only in the country in which they were purchased. Only residents of the U.S may redeem gift certificates purchased in the U.S.


Iphone 4 Screen not working - animating non-stop. My Iphone 4 screen doesn't display properly, contents on the screen are animating as shown in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olr2kgZ3cTU . Touch is working fine I am able to open apps... but the display is broken. The same behavior as in the video is observed during resetting, rebooting etc..  Tried factory resetting, updating the software etc..

That looks like a hardware fault. Sorry but you'll need to take it to an Apple Store or somewhere similar to be repaired or replaced.


Can I activate three 3GS iPhones if i set them all back to factory settings using iTunes? I was wondering if I have 3 3GS iPhones and they are all locked and I set them back to factory settings using iTunes, if I could activate them and just activate using one SIM card and then use them just with WiFi with out the SIM card?

Yes, as you said yourself you need a simcard to activate them. But afterwards you can use them "just Wi-Fi" without any problem. Sorry I can't write any longer answer, this is just as it is.


Can I watch 1080p torrents while downloading? Most large torrent files (8-20 gb) take quite a while to download. Is there software for Mac OS X that allows me to watch them while downloading?

We need a torrent client that can download the movie file parts in order, not randomly.
We need a player that supports playing incomplete files.
We need a connection that is faster than the movie’s bitrate (and a torrent with enough peers obviously).

The torrent client

Previously I used BitThief. It is developed by a technology institute in Zurich. It didn’t have a polished GUI and took a little bit too much CPU while downloading.

There's new client I found thanks to @diimdeep. It is called qbittorrent and it is awesome.

You can see that while downloading it downloads as a normal torrent client – the parts are downloaded randomly:

But there is an option:

After that we can see that the rest of the file is being downloaded sequentially (blue – downloaded, green – requested):

The connection speed

How can we tell if the speed is good enough? By the estimated time of arrival (ETA):

If the movie is 1.5 hours and the ETA is 17 minutes, then the speed is sufficient.

The player

The player is and always has been mplayer (I don't know why the domain is Hungarian)

low cpu usage
plays almost anything (although very rarely it crashes and burns)
lots of options (boosting volume, control of cache on streams, indexing...)
arrow keys navigation (I can't live without that)
playing incomplete files (and reindexing them, which allows navigation)

I use MplayerX - a nice OSX gui. Download and associate movie files with mplayer (avi, mkg):

The final step is to to play the file after the downloading started:

That’s it.

Happy watching.


Virtual video capture device? Is it possible to create a virtual video capture device in Mac OS?

Sort of like how Loopback creates virtual audio devices...?

I'd like to have a setup where I can take the input from say my laptop's HD camera, processed it with opencv, and then pipe that to some other program that is pretending to be a video capture device (ie it would present itself on video input selection dialogs).

Is it possible to create such a virtual video device, similarly to how audio ones are made?

You can create such a virtual camera device by using the Webcamoid software:

https://webcamoid.github.io/

It supports the virtual camera feature in version 8.5.0 and later.


iMac suddenly stopped seeing my WiFi network, which works with every other device in the house My iMac suddenly stopped recognizing my WiFi network. Numerous other devices are connected to the same network (2 MacBooks, iPhone and LG Nexus). The network doesn't display in available networks list, but I can see all other WiFi networks available from neighbours. I have tried following things already:

Restart iMac
Restart WiFi router
Add new 'location' in network settings
Change radio channels in my router
Manually input network SSID, security type and password (it keeps telling me that network with this name doesn't exist)

The iMac sits very close to the router and other devices work flawlessly in the same place. What's worth mentioning is that this behaviour was sudden, that is everything as working fine until it suddenly stopped.

I'd appreciate any help!

I had the same problem, suddenly. Solution? I opened the list of saved networks and removed it, it appeared in the list of networks in range immediately.


What causes me to be unable to burn Windows 7 ISO due to a medium error? I've just upgraded my 2011 17" MacBook Pro with a brand spankin' new SSD hard drive and 8GB of RAM. In order to fully maximize the potential of the system, I'd like to install Windows 7 to take full advantage of the specs.

That being said, when I downloaded the Windows 7 ISO from Digital River, I was unable to burn it through Disk Utility. The burn failed due to a medium error, and I can't figure out why.

It's a brand new spindle of DVD-Rs, granted it's a brand I've never heard of, but I was able to burn a couple other items using them, so I'm at a loss as to what's going on here.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like it was the oddball brand (Ativa) causing the issues. Bought a spindle of Maxell discs and it's burning like a charm.


Why speed of SSD is increased after enabling FileVault? My config is following:

Mac Book Pro
Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014
Processor  2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory  16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Apple SSD Controller:

Vendor:   Apple
Product:    SSD Controller
Physical Interconnect:    PCI
Link Width: x4
Link Speed:   5.0 GT/s
Description:    AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Command for test:

time dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k of=1G count=1024

Before enabling FileVault [1.338061 secs]

1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes transferred in 1.338061 secs (802460985 bytes/sec)

real     0m1.342s
user     0m0.002s
sys     0m0.443s

After enabling FileVault [1.008163 secs]

1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes transferred in 1.008163 secs (1065047865 bytes/sec)

real    0m1.011s
user    0m0.002s
sys 0m0.341s

May some optimization was enabled. Anybody knows?

Similar result was reported by Gabi int this question:

Does FileVault encryption slow read/write access on an SSD?

SSD performance is known to degrade over time, if no or poor garbage collection is enabled or not working. The later can occur if TRIM is inactive, the disk is very full or it has no time to do garbage collection. So if the SSD wants to write data, it will need to delete old data first, slowing down the process.

When encrypting the SSD, all its contents gets re-written and free blocks are liberated. This will result in faster write speeds. Reformatting a disk is an effective way of restoring write speeds.

Just a theory however...


MacBook Pro's Trackpad stops working when connecting an external keyboard I'm trying to set up a new Ergodox EZ keyboard. Whenever I plug in the keyboard's via USB port, the MacBook's built-in Trackpad ceases to function. It responds to absolutely no input at all. This makes it impossible to configure the keyboard properly (I have to go through a wizard so the computer can figure out the keyboard uses an ANSI layout).

If I disconnect the keyboard temporarily, I can press next, plug the keyboard back in, and then continue with the wizard, but at the final screen I need my mouse again. So I have to disconnect → click → reconnect, at which point the wizard reappears from the beginning claiming that the keyboard could not be identified.

This is preventing me from successfully configuring the keyboard. How do I fix this?

It's possible that plugging in the keyboard is causing macOS to detect a cursor control device (mouse).

Go to System Preferences app → Accessibility → Mouse & Trackpad and check if Ignore built-in trackpad when mouse or wireless trackpad is present is checked?

If it is, simply uncheck and try again. You should now be able to use the built-in Trackpad normally while your keyboard is plugged in.


Create USB Boot device on Linux or Windows I have been given a MacBook Pro 15" Core2Duo A1286 with corrupted HDD structure. I would like to reinstall MacOS X but when I try to use Disk Utility to reinstall it, it tells me I am unable to install from its recovery partition. (I was able to erase the HDD).

Internet recovery launched with CmdOptR fails to install Sierra with an error UNTRUSTED_CERT_TITLE.

How might I create a bootable installer on a USB flashdrive from Linux Mint or from Windows 7 or 10? Unable to find how after creating an Apple Store account, the MacVerse is totally foreign to me.

Unless you are going to go the route of downloading an illegal/pirated copy of an installer there is no way of downloading Mac OS on anything but Mac OS.

There are ways to do this, though. The first would be a friend with an older Mac, preferably of the same vintage as yours and have him download a compatible installer.

Another way would be to make a Mac Genius appointment. They will help you re-install Mac OS using installers available at the Apple store.

Also if there is a Mac user group in your area, go to a meeting and ask if someone can help with an installer.


Use copied file path in terminal (from applescript and automator) I'm trying to create a simple workflow that will be used to help non-technical people use tesseract OCR. I have no problem using it myself, but others probably prefer GUIs, so I'm working on the following automator workflow (image below): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxiQVt7sQigQwgjpscG-0E9loCRO7Fxe/view?usp=sharing

Script:

set appName to "Terminal"

if application appName is running then
    tell application "Terminal"
        activate
        do script "tesseract /Users/jackson/Downloads/OCRTemp.jpg /Users/jackson/Downloads/OCRTemp.txt"
    end tell

else
    tell application "Terminal"
        activate
        do script "tesseract /Users/jackson/Downloads/OCRTemp.jpg /Users/jackson/Downloads/OCRTemp.txt" in front window
    end tell
end if

The problem is that in the line "tesseract /Users/jackson/Downloads/OCRTemp.jpg /Users/jackson/Downloads/OCRTemp.txt" I would like to replace the first file extension with the clipboard. Not being well versed in how to use bash, I'm not entirely sure what to do. I think part of the confusion is that I'm using an applescript to run a terminal command, so I'm not sure if I use applescript or terminal to get the variable.

No need for Automator.

Just use AppleScript (Change /opt/local/bin/tesseract to the output of which tesseract):

set myFile to (choose file with prompt "Choose a file to convert") # Get the file to convert
set myFilePOSIX to the POSIX path of myFile # Get terminal friendly path
set myLocation to (choose folder with prompt "Choose a location to save your file") # Get location to save the file
set myLocationPOSIX to the POSIX path of myLocation
tell application "Finder"
    display dialog "Choose a file name" default answer (name of file myFile as string) # Type the name the file
    set myName to the text returned of the result # Get what user typed
end tell
do shell script "/opt/local/bin/tesseract " & quoted form of myFilePOSIX & " " & quoted form of myLocationPOSIX & quoted form of myName # Do the terminal command


OS X El-Capitan - /cores directory taking up a lot of space? Im using a program called Daisy Disk to see what is taking up space in my Mac and I find that the /cores directory is taking up 77gb.

Is that a problem? Can I get rid of it to regain the space?

Long story short, it's safe to delete them.

The /cores folder is where OS X stores Core Dumps. These are files that are intended for developers to trouble-shoot and diagnose faults in their software. They are generated as software crashes. If you're not a developer, or aren't testing software for a developer, then these files serve no purpose for you.

The files contain the state of the memory (or RAM) in your Mac at the time the crash happened. So lots of useful information for developers or testers to debug crashes. Not much use to anyone else.

By default, OS X is set up not to generate core dump files. If you type sudo launchctl limit core in a Terminal window it will respond with the soft and hard size limits of dump files it is allowed to create. Soft limit means the default for each process, however processes can change this if they require but only up to the value of the hard limit. By default the values in OS X seem to be "0 unlimited" means that the operating system won't create core dumps by default, but processes can elect to have unlimited core dump files created if they wish.

You can change the setting on your machine by simply entering sudo launchctl limit core 0 0 to disable the feature entirely. sudo launchctl limit core 0 unlimited will restore the default behaviour if it has been changed.


How to force files saved to the system's Downloads folder to be stored on an external drive? I tried using symbolic links but they make me lose the default's Downloads icon which I don't want.

Is there a way I can just made files saved or downloaded to the system's Downloads folder be automatically moved and stored to an external drive?

You could do it with a Automator Folder Action workflow:

Automator > New > Folder Action

Set: Folder Action receives files and folders added to Choose folder to: Downloads

Add the following Actions:
Get Folders Contents

[ ] Repeat for each subfolder found - Leave unchecked.

Filter Finder Items

Find files where:

None of the following are true
Name ends with .download

This is to avoid moving a file Safari is currently downloading.

Kind is folder

This is to avoid moving just the contents of the folder.

Kind is other alias

Move Finder Items

To: Downloads [ ] Replacing existing files

Obviously in this instance Downloads is the one on the external drive.
You can choose to check or not: Replacing existing files

New Alias

In: Downloads

Obviously in this instance Downloads is the one in your Home folder.If you do not want an alias created for each moved file, then omit this action.

Save the Automator Folder Action workflow, e.g.; Move to External Downloads

To stop and or remove a Folder Action: In Finder, you can select the target folder and right-click on it and select Folder Action Setup... from the Services menu section of the Context menu.


App Store: Are app names more important or app display names when it comes to searchability? If I register an app named Kim Kardashian and my app display name is also Kim Kardashian, does that hold less/more weight as an app registered as kimkapp with display name Kim Kardashian - Khloe and Kourtney's Celebrity Sister when searching Kim Kardashian in the app store?

I'm wondering how much value there is in reserving that Kim Kardashian name if the app display name is more important for app store optimization purposes.

This:

Vs.

The app display name is taken into consideration when apps are being searched.  However, that's only 1 thing Apple considers when determining what apps and what order apps are returned during a search.  They can also use app review score, how long the apps been in the store, reputation, etc.

In short, nobody outside of App Store staff knows exactly the formula used to determine how search results are displayed.  Right now everyone is just guessing what they think will be returned.  The best thing to do is name your app properly and use the right keywords.  This link will help guide you in doing that: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/search/

Apple just announced they will be limiting app names to 50 characters (not 50 letters so spaces and special characters count).


Does the mid-2010 Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo) support memory compression with OS X 10.9+? The machine in question is a mid-2010 Macbook Pro w/ the Intel Core 2 Duo (P8600 2.4GHz).

I'm not entirely clear on whether or not the memory compression feature in OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and beyond takes advantage of compression instruction sets in the newer Intel processors. That being said, is it implemented completely in software and would work on all Apple hardware capable of running 10.9 and beyond, regardless of processor, or does it require a more modern processor with these instructions that speed-up the compression? An example of a compatibility issue with processors is the AESNI instruction set in the newer Intel architecture that greatly speeds up AES and hashing routines, but is unavailable in a lot of AMD processors and the Intel Core Duo series.

Any information that can shed light on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

It is implemented completely in software, yes (for any meaningful definition of this). Obviously you will need a physical CPU to run the code in practice.

The feature does not require the AESNI instruction set. It only requires a x86_64 CPU (i.e. 64-bit CPU) which is anyways already a requirement for running Mavericks.

You can find the source code for the compression algorithm here:

https://github.com/aosm/xnu/blob/9653931b282e653805655cc56831195d0fb162aa/osfmk/x86_64/WKdmCompress_new.s


Mirror two different devices via usb I am trying to do two demos running on two devices.  The goal would be to plug an external monitor into my computer and have one display show one device, and the other show the other device.

I would use Reflect 2, but it only does wifi, or personal hotspot
I would use quicktime but it only supports one device at a time.

Any ideas?

Yes. It's now quite easy to do so using Quicktime.

Connect both phones to the computer using a USB -> Lightning cable.

Open QuickTime Player.

Choose File -> New Movie Recording twice.

Choose a given phone to mirror for each of the windows.

Move the windows around as you see fit!


How do I deactivate a broken iphone 4s and switch to an old iphone 4s a friend gave me? I recently broke my iPhone 4s and am not due for an update for another year. My friend is going to let me use her old iPhone 4s. How do I deactivate my broken phone so that my friends phone will now be usable as mine? My carrier is Verizon

You can call Verizon customer support @ 1 (800) 922-0204. They should be able to deactivate your phone and activate the replacement. Even in the case of newer phones that are unlocked like the iPhone 6 - you still need a Verizon rep to activate the device after placing the SIM in it due to how their network is configured.


MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) screen displaying low number of colors My 17-inch, Mid 2010 MacBook Pro's screen now displays a limited number of colors, kind of "fuzzy". See this photo

I search on the internet but I could not find a case similar to mine. Not search on which keywords to use to describe the issue, though.

Does anyone knows this? Is it fixable?

As I see the screenshot, the colors on that display are inverted.

Try unchecking Settings > Accessibility > Display > Invert colors

Also take a look at the Display contrast and the Increase contrast options.

Here is a screenshot of the default settings:


Why is this one playlist unable to be synced with iTunes Match? I have a smart playlist made up of the following rules:

But it won't sync with my iCloud Music Library (formerly known as iTunes Match), giving the error:

Given that I have specifically selected Media Kind is Music and iCloud Status is not Ineligible, why does it insist that the playlist "includes other media kinds or songs that are not eligible"?

Im using iTunes version 12.3.044 (the latest version at time of posting this question).

Following up on the comment above by @patrix it seems the problem is that my playlist references another playlist, and it's simply that the error message that iTunes gives me is wrong.

This Question has more information on the issue.


iPad wire-connection issues I use an iPad Air 1 (8.4) and a MacBook Pro mid 2014 13''(10.10.4)
Whenever I try to connect my iPad to my MacBook with a lightning-usb wire it starts connecting but then disconnects immediately. This process is repeated multiple times a second and even crashes my MacBook.

As a result, I can't move the mouse or write with the keyboard anymore. Animations, slideshows or videos still continue in the background, but even after I close the display and open it again, only the cursor for the password input blinks, but I can't enter anything. Hard-reset is the only way to recover the MacBook.

The iPad behaves like nothing happened and just continues working.
Sometimes it just holds connection for a minute but that's only very few times.

I tried with different 10.10s and wires, but it never works.

As it turns out, it's a specific problem of one USB port go my MacBook, which usually works just fine, but now causes trouble.

It's likely that there is a fault with the connector either in the computer, or the cable, as you say you've tried another port and it's working I would suggest that there is a fault with that port.

Do other devices have similar intermittent disconnection issues?

As the USB bus on most modern computers also supports the keyboard, trackpad, FaceTime/iSight Camera and the SD Card reader it's likely that the USB device rapidly connecting and disconnecting dozens of times is causing either a software issue in the kernel extension that manages USB devices, or causing the hardware to shut down the USB hub in the machine to protect it from damage.

Either way, I would suggest trying with a couple other devices, and also check with another Lightning Cable for your iPad and if the issue persists seek service at your nearest Authorised Apple Service Provider, such as an Apple Store.


Why is the process bluetoothd taking up to 100% of a CPU core Over the past few months I've noticed the process bluetoothd taking up to 100% of a CPU core. I normally only have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected. With just the mouse and keyboard connected the process periodically (a couple minutes every hour) ramps up from <10% to 100%.
But, when I have a bluetooth mouse, keyboard, and headset connected the bluetoothd process tends to stay 90-100% while the headset is connected.
(side problem) Bluetooth sporadically will take a couple minutes to connection or I will have to turn bluetooth off/on to make the initially connection when I log-on for the day.

Computer: Mid-2012 Macbook 15"
OS: Catalina (happened in last couple major updates too)
Keyboard: Microsoft Mobile Keyboard 6000
Mouse: Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse Bluetooth
Headphones: Jabra Evolve 65

^This is with Mouse, Keyboard, and Headset connected but without audio playing
Attempted Fix
I've tried power cycling bluetooth and computer. I've tried resetting the Bluetooth module. I've deleted the .plist.
Any other suggestions? It doesn't make sense that the bluetoothd process use that much resources when it never did a few OS versions ago.

It seems to be quite a complex issue as Apple doesn't comment it/claims it doesn't happen: macOS Catalina blueoothd high CPU IOBluetoothBroadcomSchedulerWorkaround issue


Apple Tv (3rd Gen) App Development What do i need? i have started considering developing an apple Tv app for my personal use so i got some questions and even tough i googled them im still not sure if i understood correctly.

The new TVSJ Framework or the TVML  wont work on my 3rd Gen Apple TV?
Do i have to develop everything via IOS swift/Objective C?
Can i test/install my app without a paid developer membership ?

Thanks in advance , hope this was the correct place to ask.

The new TVSJ Framework or the TVML won't work on my 3rd Gen Apple TV?
Apple said the 3rd gen Apple TV will not run tvOS when means you can't develop any app on that device. If you do want to develop, you can buy a 4th gen.
Do I have to develop everything via iOS swift/Objective-C?
Nope, Apple TV runs tvOS which have its own SDK. But the frameworks are very similar. tvOS also got some of its own SDK which iOS don't have. You do need to develop in Swift or Objective-C.
Can I test/install my app without a paid developer membership ?
Yes, Xcode 7 allows you to test app on device without paid account. Though to install app on Apple TV, you will need an USB-C cable.


iTunes library for multiple machines I have multiple machines with iTunes installed (mac and pc) and a Windows server with a file share hosting my music. I would like :

All machines to use one data repository but still have the metadata synced (play count, rating etc...).
All machines reflect changes when I buy a song on one machine or delete a song on one machine. (no broken references or missing entries)
The music repository to always be running (my Windows server always is).

Currently I have my machines pointed to a UNC path (\\server\music) which works to share a repository but iTunes Music Library.xml is stored on each machine and it gets out of sync. Update iTunes Library.itl may be the real library, and the XML is just a backup.

Are there any iTunes server apps out there that will do this? What about iTunes home sharing...? Someone wrote an app called iTunes library updater which I used to use to sync my libraries but its not being updated anymore.

EDIT - I should note, I also use iCloud and iTunes match.

The best way to go, in my opinion, for a flawless and easy experience would be iTunes Match. It doesn't only allow you to play your tunes on iOS devices, but also on other desktop computers running iTunes, and it Syncs everything via the cloud, including all your metadata, so basically you'd have your iTunes library wherever you have internet.

It costs 25 USD a year (plus extra storage, if you have more than 5GB of songs that are not in the iTunes Store), though if you can spare it you not only get the syncing, but also the upgrade of all your tunes to 256kbps ACC sound.

Home sharing also works, and does update your play counts if you enable it to under Preferences > Sharing, but it will pretty much just open a "read-only" version of your library on the rest of the computers; you cannot edit metadata, change rating, or even browse your library in any but the list view mode, plus of course, if the computer disconnects from the network it looses all access to the music, for Home Sharing makes no local copy in each machine.

Other methods should work, I believe, to share your music, but yeah, I remember I tried some time ago and I didn't manage to keep the iTunes Library file and thus data like play counts in sync.

Btw, I believe the file iTunes Library.itl is the main resource for the Library Database, and the iTunes Music Library.xml file is just a "backup" and a way for other applications to access data of the library if they need it, so you would need to keep in the .itl file in sync.

Good Luck!

Kevin


How do I have different footers for the left and right pages on Apple Pages? I need to have different footers for left and right pages in Apple Pages to make a sort of book layout in which the page number is close to the outer page. How is this achieved?

Facing pages/mirrored pages is not possible in Apple Pages v5.x. The last version of Pages that supported facing/mirrored pages is v4.x (iWork '09). If you have access to a copy of Pages v4.x, v5 can save in that format so you can use the file in '09. Otherwise you would need to use an alternative product, such as Microsoft Office, that supports facing pages.


Disable automatic boot on ac So when my iPhone 5S shuts down over night because of low battery, I have following behavior the next day, when I connect it to my laptop or my car's usb:

It turns on, tries to boot, but then dies because of a the low battery. This happens again and again for about 30 minutes. Then it will stay on with some percent of battery, charge as it should, and then last about one day.

I think this is because the battery is too low to boot. But Why does it turn on automatically? It's really annoying.

Even if the battery is broken, it just should not turn on.

It can be a Tristar controller. (I had such problem on iPhone 5s)


Lion installation gets stuck after reboot at Apple logo I have a 2006 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard as the OS X and I recently purchased OS X 10.7 from the App Store.  After download, I began the installation of Lion, it restarted and just remained at the grayish window with the black apple and the black pinwheel.  I left it alone, but after hours, just remained there, no progress

Here are some things you can do (short of reinstalling the OS)

Start in Verbose mode (cc George)
Start with cmd-r using the disk utility to repair disk permissions
Start in Safe mode (hold Shift)  to see if non OS apps are doing that.
Reset your SMC


Since when is it possible to CMD-Q Finder? I am on OSX 10.10.1.
As of very recently (can't be more than a couple of days, else I would've noticed it sooner I think), I am able to quit the Finder by hitting ⌘-Q, which will quit the Finder app, not only close the window. There is also a Quit Finder menu entry, I don't know if that was there before. I asked someone who also uses Yosemite and as expected, they can't do it.

The question is: Why is this suddenly possible, has anyone else experienced it and how can I revert this change?

The Quit menu item in Finder can be enabled by

Onyx, Cocktail, Secrets etc
Directly in Terminal with defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES


Does iPhone have a Wi-Fi & Bluetooth toggle widget in Notification Center? I've just recently bought an iPhone with iOS8 last month. I noticed that although iphone has a control center when locked, it doesn't have any way to toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth from the notification center, that's available via apps/default in android phones.

Is there any free app with a widget in iOS8 that can let me toggle these settings via notification center? I searched online, but couldn't find any app.

I don't intend to jailbreak my iphone, although I found some web-blogs suggesting to jailbreak and use Cydia...

You can toggle directly by swiping up from the very bottom of the screen…

...from the lock screen, home screen or in most apps [in some apps it's difficult to get the swipe to be recognised if the app uses the same part of the screen for a function.]


Lost ability to boot into recovery and bootcamp after resizing partition My computer is running High Sierra. I was planning to reclaim the free space in Macintosh HD and allocate it to Bootcamp. As I did this in Disk Utility, computer partition scheme was changed to AFPS and now I can only boot into apple, the multiboot option is gone. I ran the diskutil list command and this is my output.

bash-3.2# diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         148.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data FreeSpace               42.5 GB    disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot                         134.2 MB   disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                60.1 GB    disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +148.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            88.5 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 20.0 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                517.7 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4

bash-3.2#

Additional output from commands:

Macintosh-3:~ xxx$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Password:
fdisk: /dev/disk0: Operation not permitted
Macintosh-3:~ xxx$ sudo -s
bash-3.2# fdisk /dev/disk0
fdisk: /dev/disk0: Operation not permitted
bash-3.2# ls -d /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Boot /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Boot
bash-3.2# exit
exit
Macintosh-3:~ xxx$ ls -d /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Boot /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/Boot
Macintosh-3:~ xxx$

I need help to getting back my multi boot and fix the partition. Thanks a bunch.

When using APFS, the built-in macOS Recovery volume no long appears when the Startup Manager is invoked. You should be able to boot the the this volume by holding down the ⌘ (Command)+R key at startup or restart.

If you can not boot to the built-in macOS Recovery, reinstalling macOS may solve this problem.  This website has a link that will take you to the High Sierra download in the Apps Store.  You should be able to keep all your old files and Applications.

If you still want to boot the built-in macOS Recovery volume from the Startup Manager, then you will need to install a third party boot manager. I have the rEFInd Boot Manager installed on my iMac. Basically, I first boot to the Startup Manager, then to rEFInd and finally to the built-in macOS Recovery volume.

If your Windows files are intact, your problem with Windows could be solved by reinstalling the boot code. The procedure for doing so is given here.

  Note: I have assumed you did not upgrade to Windows 10 from a previous version of Windows that use the legacy BIOS boot method. For example, upgrading from Windows 7. I base this assumption on the lack of a Boot folder in the root of your BOOTCAMP volume.

I should also mention that the 134.2 MB Apple_Boot partition is unnecessary. With the introduction of APFS, Apple has incorporated everything needed to use the macOS operating system into a single partition per drive. This greatly simplifies the process of adding, deleting and resizing APFS volumes. This physical 134.2 MB Apple_Boot partition has been replaced by the synthesized APFS volume named "Recovery".


Have to upgrade to Mountain Lion. Want to wipe my drive, but can I then restore apps and data from LEOPARD backup on Time Machine? So my lovely system that has been working wonderfully is finally out of date, as enough developers are no longer supporting it. I have to upgrade to Mountain Lion on my intel macbook.

I'd like to take the opportunity to clean the drive and start pristine, but I don't want to have to go through the process of reinstalling a damn large amount of applications from their install disks. I also don't want to lose all my data.

Is it possible to do a clean install of Mountain Lion, and then restore applications/preferences/data from my last backup of my 10.5.8 system?

Is there a better way to accomplish what I'd like to do?

Thanks.

It is possible to do a clean install and then restore your applications and data if:

Your MacBook supports Mountain Lion (check this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5444)
You can somehow manage to buy the OS X installer on the Mac App Store (Mac OS X Leopard can't access the Mac App Store, you need at least Mac OS X 10.6.6).

Once you have downloaded the OS X installer create a bootable USB drive or DVD (for example, see here).

Note that Apple doesn't support updating from 10.5.8 (Leopard) to 10.8 (Mountain Lion) (http://www.apple.com/support/osx/getstarted/):

  If you’re running OS X Leopard and would like to upgrade to OS X
  Mountain Lion, first you’ll need to upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard. You
  can purchase OS X Snow Leopard for $19.99 online via the
  Apple Online Store.

so the Migration Assistant may have some trouble restoring your applications and data from your Time Machine backup, or even reject doing it. In that case will have to copy your applications and data manually.

If anything goes wrong you can restore Leopard from your Time Machine backup booting from the Leopard DVD (I did that once with my old PowerBook and worked like a charm). If you don't have the media, I'd recommend that you create an image of your current harddisk (for example, see this or this).