Lion not getting installed properly I bought a used Mac that only had Windows 7 installed. The seller didn't have the original OS DVD, and the hard drive only had a single NTFS partition. I downloaded Lion from a torrent, burned it to a DVD and attempted to install it. When I create a user, it errors out and continues to ask me to create a user again and again.

How do I get past the user creation step?

One solution would be to not download a copy of OS X from a torrent, you never know what you are getting.

Obtain a legal, trusted copy of OS X. If your Mac supports it you can get Mountain Lion for $19.99 USD from the App Store, if not you can order OS X Lion from apple for probably around $29.99.

Borrow a friends Mac, visit a Mac at an Apple Store, etc., log in to Mac App Store using your Apple ID.
Buy and download OS X.
Make a boot-able USB OS X installer
Log out of app store
Delete the installer you downloaded.

Boot from that copy, by holding down the option key while booting your mac.
Run Disk Utility from the OS X install media, erase the entire hard drive.
Install OS X
Enjoy...


Is there a Time Machine-equivalent cloud backup solution for macOS? I really like Time Machine for local backups, but I'd also like to have a cloud backup of everything on my local disk.  What's the best way to get full, versioned incremental backups of my machine, to the cloud?

The obvious solutions do not fulfil this seemingly simple goal:

BackBlaze is convenient and works well but doesn't back up anything outside of /Users/—and even then has undocumented exclusions such as not backing up empty directories, symlinks, etc.
iDrive also has various (but at least better documented) mandatory exclusions including /System and /etc.  They advertise disk image backups, but this is a Windows-only feature; when I contacted iDrive support they suggested I use the iDrive app to backup my local Time Machine drive.  That would work but means I have to carry around an extra hard drive (or NAS box!) just to do cloud backups, which is lame.  (iDrive is also a resource hog, making my system unusably slow when it is running, even when it's not saturating the network connection.)

Ideally I'd just like to configure TimeMachine to backup to a cloud-provided network share, but I suspect that this might be terribly slow (and prone to corruption due to network disconnects) even if I could find a provider offering SMB-mountable cloud storage.

Is there a solution that provides Time Machine levels of convenience and protection without needing a local disk?

CrashPlan (here) or self-host and use Arq (here).


When I read an email on my iPad I am not receiving it on my laptop - how do I sync them? I am using YAHOO email on my MacBook Pro and my iPad and iPhone - but when  I open an email on my iPad it is not showing up on my laptop or iPhone. How do I get all of my emails on all of my devices?

Also - when I send a message via my iPad it also is not syncing to my other devices, so when a friend replies, it shows on my iPad but not my iPhone.

In order to have your email sync on multiple devices, make sure your account is set up to use the IMAP protocol. Most free services, like Yahoo!, are set to use POP by default, which does not sync.

Go to your Yahoo! account settings at yahoo.com and change it to use the protocol to IMAP. You will have to then delete/change the email account on your iPad, and set it up as IMAP as well.


afconvert: Difference between AAC formats: 'aac ' 'aace' 'aacf' 'aach' 'aacl' 'aacp' 'alac' 'paac' When using afconvert for AAC output, I find little documentation on the format variants under the m4af category:

'aac', 'aace', 'aacf', 'aach', 'aacl', 'aacp', 'alac', 'paac'.

I can guess probably 'aac' is the basis, 'alac' is the lossless format, 'aach' is the HE-AAC. What about the rest? The differences?

Same for other variants under other format tags.

The "names" stem from the four char values defined in the Software Development Kit for CoreAudio. Specifically, they are from the header CoreAudioTypes.h. You can find the documentation here.

enum {
kAudioFormatLinearPCM               = 'lpcm',
kAudioFormatAC3                     = 'ac-3',
kAudioFormat60958AC3                = 'cac3',
kAudioFormatAppleIMA4               = 'ima4',
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC                = 'aac ',
kAudioFormatMPEG4CELP               = 'celp',
kAudioFormatMPEG4HVXC               = 'hvxc',
kAudioFormatMPEG4TwinVQ             = 'twvq',
kAudioFormatMACE3                   = 'MAC3',
kAudioFormatMACE6                   = 'MAC6',
kAudioFormatULaw                    = 'ulaw',
kAudioFormatALaw                    = 'alaw',
kAudioFormatQDesign                 = 'QDMC',
kAudioFormatQDesign2                = 'QDM2',
kAudioFormatQUALCOMM                = 'Qclp',
kAudioFormatMPEGLayer1              = '.mp1',
kAudioFormatMPEGLayer2              = '.mp2',
kAudioFormatMPEGLayer3              = '.mp3',
kAudioFormatTimeCode                = 'time',
kAudioFormatMIDIStream              = 'midi',
kAudioFormatParameterValueStream    = 'apvs',
kAudioFormatAppleLossless           = 'alac'
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC_HE             = 'aach',
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC_LD             = 'aacl',
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC_ELD            = 'aace',
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC_ELD_SBR        = 'aacf',
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC_HE_V2          = 'aacp',
kAudioFormatMPEG4AAC_Spatial        = 'aacs',
kAudioFormatAMR                     = 'samr',
kAudioFormatAudible                 = 'AUDB',
kAudioFormatiLBC                    = 'ilbc',
kAudioFormatDVIIntelIMA             = 0x6D730011,
kAudioFormatMicrosoftGSM            = 0x6D730031,
kAudioFormatAES3                    = 'aes3'
};


Larger resolution than proposed in El Capitan Is it possible to get a larger resolution on my Macbook Pro than the one proposed in System Preferences ? I mean my screen is 1280x800 and I'd like to putt an even larger resolution so as to have a zoom out effect on the computer.

In each application (like Chrome for instance) I have to zoom out manually.

A large screen resolution results in smaller icons and windows. Have you tried the large setting?


Merge all space into one volume I wanted to delete all my partitions and merge all the space to the Macintosh HD but I made a mistake by taking the Macintosh HD volume out of the physical storage list. I don't know what happened:

I just want to delete all the space that's not in the Macintosh HD and merge all the free space too.

After trying to reboot, your main partition (disk0s2) won't be recognized as APFS container because the partition type is wrong (FFF...) and consequently your Mac won't boot to the login screen.

You have to boot to Internet Recovery Mode and remove the Apple_Boot volume (now disk0s4 - after a reboot probably disk0s3), repair the partition type of disk0s2 and finally expand the APFS container.

Under certain circumstances SIP has to be disabled to modify the GUID partition table.

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode (or a third party drive).
Open Terminal in the menubar Utilities > Terminal
Get an overview with diskutil list
Get an overview of your internal disk with the disk identifier found in the previous command. Below I assume the disk identifier of your internal disk is disk0 (SSD) (replace it with the one you have found in your environment).

gpt -r show disk0

Remove the 134 MB "Apple_Boot" partition:

diskutil eraseVolume "Free Space" %noformat% /dev/disk0s3

Unmount disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk0
Then remove and re-add the second partition with the same size but proper type (APFS):

gpt remove -i 2 disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 774363776 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

Verify disk and volume:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

Expand the APFS container to fill the free space.

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

Verify disk and volume:

diskutil verifyDisk disk0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2


Prompting user for input on locking screen I'm relatively new to OSX (running Mavericks), but my goal is to create a script that reminds me to take notes on the day's work. The script will ideally: run upon the user clicking 'Login window' (i.e. lock screen) and prompt the user for whether or not they want to record notes (ok/cancel). If the user answers OK, then the script will ask for a multiline input, then append the date and time, plus that input, to a text file before locking the screen. If the user clicks cancel or 15 seconds pass without interaction, the dialog should be dismissed and the screen will lock.

I'm:

1) unsure about how to prompt the user for multiline input

2) unclear how to trigger the script on the user requesting a return to the login window (lock screen?)

If this can be accomplished through a third-party program/interface, I'm open to that as well. Thanks!

Keyboard Maestro.

What you want to achieve requires a daemon that runs in the background, launches with the system, and executes customized commands/scripts after detecting a trigger. It's no a small feat if you want to write one that has good stability.

Apart from the keys, Keyboard Maestro has triggers like Startup, System Wake, Login, While Logged In, etc. With some tweaking and compromise, this is the best shot I know.


Reset iPhone's Frequently Used Emoji's in Emoji keyboard I want to reset the Frequently Used part of the iPhone's built-in Emoji keyboard.

Is there a simple way to do this?

The Frequently Used Emoji section in the iPhone's built-in Emoji keyboard can be reset to the default set by going to Settings app → General → Reset and tapping Reset Keyboard Dictionary.

This is the only approach to reset the frequently used Emoji list (other than manually entering the Emoji's from the default frequently used list as shown below to manually reset the list).

Note: The command is not specifically meant to reset the Frequently Used Emoji list (rather it's the side effect), you'll end up resetting your custom dictionary. Also, all the downloaded dictionaries will be deleted. (Hence, you will no longer be able to quickly see the definition of a word by selecting it and tapping Look Up). Dictionaries can be easily re-downloaded by going to Settings app → General → Dictionary and tapping on desired dictionaries.


used iphone 8 plus charged battery drain I have bought an used iphone 8 plus yesterday. It s working all right after some testing, before I I got to sleep, I charged it 100%, when I woke up today I found it 80%. I find it completely not normal, what might I check to see what s the problem so I can contact the seller?

I love the new graphs that show you what happens in the battery for this over time.

Here’s what an iPad Pro that’s cranky after updating to iOS 14 and not recognizing the Magic Keyboard looks like sitting on a desk overnight, power to the keyboard hinge port and clearly not taking a charge. The gap before the brief charge was caused by a forced reset requested by Apple Support to triage and isolate what’s going on.
Here’s an iPhone getting much better charge results than the human did last night.

You can track things each day and get an excellent picture of what your device is doing before needing support to run a battery diagnostic in my experience.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201264

Once you have some details and have read about the terms, maybe get Apple to see if you want a battery service?

iPad Pro 10.5" down to 92% battery health after 6 months of use (update: 84% after 1.5 years)

I generally wait till it’s 45% to pay as I’m ok managing it and want to get the most life out of a safe but aging battery. You’ll want to be sure it’s not software or a busy app, though before any repair since a stuck app can drain a perfect battery rapidly.


Listing Frameworks folder on Mac gives different results due to EWSMac.framework I can't understand what is happening. I am using macOS 10.14.6. I am simply trying to find R.framework which is inside Library/Frameworks folder I get EWSMac.framework (I don't know what is this):

MBP:~ me$ cd Library/Frameworks
MBP:Frameworks sergiobacelar$ ls
EWSMac.framework

But when I do:

MBP:~ me$ cd /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
MBP:Resources me$ cd ..
MBP:R.framework me$ cd ..
MBP:Frameworks me$ ls
AEProfiling.framework       PROJ.framework
AERegistration.framework    PluginManager.framework

I get the usual list of frameworks.

The / matters

This is the Unix file system and use of relative and absolute paths .

All Unix files and directories are in one space all under the root directory /

An absolute path is one beginning with / and is always seen the same.

If the path does not beginning with / it is a relative path and if used it is appened to your current working directory.

So in the first case you are in your home directory which the shell shows as ~.  The shell expands ~ to the absolute path of your home diurectory which is usually /Users/me if your user name is me. You then cd to a directory that adds the parameter you pass to cd to the current directory e.g. you cd to /Users/me/Library/Frameworks which contains frameworks just for your user which in this case is EWSMac.

To see this after you cd in both cases enter the command pwd to show what directory you are in.


Why won't my Macbook remember any Messages chats anymore? Can't figure out what's going on here, but my Macbook Pro (mid-2011, macOS Sierra) no longer remembers anything new in Messages.  Every time I quit and relaunch Messages, the history is right back where it was before I launched.  The last messages I have there are from Feb 4 (4 days ago) and anything since then is always gone.  I can open it right now, chat with someone, then quit & relaunch and everything we had said since launching the app, is gone.  I did just do an OS reinstall recently to try and fix some other random weird issues I was having, also repaired all permissions etc. though there was nothing to repair.  I'm stumped.

EDIT:  Additionally, now every time I launch Messages, my own chat (with my contact) is defaulting to an alternate email address of mine, which is not iMessages enabled, so appears in red.  I can change it to my valid address, send messages do whatever I want... but again once I relaunch, it's reset to as it was before, with all new chats gone and seto to use a non-enabled email address.

You need to click on the word Messages at the top of the screen (next to the Apple Logo) and then click on preferences and then Accounts. You need to click on your iMessage account (iCloud) and then sign back in to your account to reactivate the account.


Do apps on jailbroken iOS devices have uncontrolled access to all my data? I'm thinking about jailbreaking my iOS device but one thing worries me. Apple's restrictive developer API has one big advantage: apps can't tinker with my data outside the app unless I allow them to.

Can apps on jailbroken iOS devices access my e-mails, iTunes account password (through keylogging) and other sensitive information without my consent?

Yes. Any jailbreak-only app could potentially do everything you describe because they can acquire root access and run outside of iOS's sandbox.


Automator to open random file on Windows share I have created through automator the ability to locally open a random file in a specified folder with subfolders.  I cannot figure out how to do this on a networked Windows share.

I have:

Get Specified Servers = smb://Share/Folder 1
Connect to Servers = it connects
Run AppleScript

tell application "Finder"

    set location to :: -- NOT WORKING!

    set randomFolder to some folder in folder "location"
    open some file in randomFolder
end tell

Any thoughts to what the syntax is for location? Or am I missing the mark completely with these actions? I have tried several variations and nothing works.

Note: there is a space in the location "Folder 1"

The following example Automator workflow works for me:

on run {input, parameters}

    set thisFolder to (item 1 of input as string)

    tell application "Finder"
        set randomFolder to some folder in folder thisFolder
        open some file in randomFolder
    end tell

end run

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate/needed/wanted. The onus is upon the user to add any appropriate error handling as may be appropriate/needed/wanted.


Change Sierra Login Screen Background Blur Amount Ever since the Sierra update, when I boot up my Mac the background is a lot less blurred and more saturated then the normal lockscreen.

I'd like to be able to customise the the amount of blur (not remove it entirely) and saturation on the lockscreen and I am wondering how I would be able to achieve this.

Boot Background (What I want the lock screen to look like as well):

Lock Screen (A lot more blurred and less saturated):

Thanks :)

The image file is stored in Macintosh-HD:Library:Caches:

There will only be like 3 files there so it should be easy to find.

You can take this file and edit it in an image editor such as GIMP(free) or Photoshop(not free) etc.

Don't forget to make sure that the image keeps it's name or OSX will get confused.

You may also need to use the original image, if, you want to blur it down.

Hope this helps!


Indenting html + javascript/css Have you encountered an OS X text editor capable of indenting both the line

var x = 2;

and the lines

<it>Item A</it>
<it>Item B</it>

in the following html?

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Test</title>

Header

<it>Item A</it>
<it>Item B</it>

I have tried all emacs packages purporting to do this simple task properly (through a major and a minor mode), but none is adequate. I am too heavily into emacs to abandon it altogether, but I am now looking for an editor other than emacs for this task.

I've written web-mode.el (available on http://web-mode.org) because I had the same problems as you. This Emacs Major Mode for editing HTML templates (HTML with CSS/JS/PHP/JSP) is autonomous (no other major required) and syntax-highlights and indents according to the block's type.

OP Raving

With nothing more than

(require 'web-mode)

in your .emacs and storing web-mode.el in an accessible location (your home directory will do for a start), the code sample in the question will look like this out-of-the-box.

To get the right indentation

you'll need to use

;; First the (general) requisite initialization.
(package-initialize)

(require 'web-mode)

(eval-after-load "web-mode"
  '(progn
     (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.css\\'" . web-mode))
     (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.html\\'" . web-mode))
     (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.js\\'" . web-mode))

     (setq web-mode-script-padding 2)
     (setq web-mode-style-padding 2)
     (setq web-mode-block-padding 2)
     ))


How to find ipsw file on macOS Catalina I have downloaded latest iOS on my iPhone and it's not installing. It says "no internet" while the internet is working on the device. So I decided to synchronize the iPhone and get access to the downloaded IPSW for the iOS device.

But in macOS Catalina I couldn't find the IPSW file under Library/iTunes/

Any ideas how can I retrieve the downloaded IPSW?

While downloading the file through Finder, Open terminal:

%lsof | grep ipsw

This command will show you the open ipsw file (which is being downloaded).

The path to find the downloaded ipsw file is:

/Users/Username/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/


HP Product Research on Activity Log I'm seeing an item on my activity monitor called 'HP Product Research.'

I assume it's associated with some HP Printer drivers that I no long need, and have have removed, but this tracker keeps hanging around.

Any ideas on how to get rid of this tracker?

Yo may find this app here:

/Library/Printers/hp/Utilities/HPPU Plugins/ProductImprovementStudy.hptask/Contents/Helpers/HP Customer Participation.app

Just move it to the trash.


recover data from FFFFF partition inside an external drive A few weeks ago, I deleted my Linux partition of my Mac because I was running out of space.
After that, I couldn't boot my OS anymore. Because I depend on my computer to work, I decided to backup my whole volume as it was to an external drive and format my Mac.
Now with my Mac working, once I mount my volume backup from the external drive, I can see something like below:
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         250.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     74.4 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 325.8 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                613.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 MB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            15.1 GB    disk1s5
   6:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.1 GB    disk1s5s1

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                  Apple_HFS Seagate Expansi         1.0 TB     disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +251.0 GB   disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               220.8 GB   disk3s2
                    (free space)                         30.0 GB    -

My question is: Is there any way of getting my data that was once in Macintosh HD ? How can I do that ??

I managed to resolve that. For those who are interested here is the solution:
Install gdisk with the following command:
brew install gdisk

After that, run gdisk passing the disk that has the FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF.
sudo gdisk /dev/disk3

Then you will be prompted with the following questions. Answer like I did below.
Command (? for help): t
Partition number (1-3): 2 // This is because the partition 2 has FFFF (see question)
Current type is 'Unknown'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): AF0A
Changed type of partition to 'Apple APFS'

Command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y

After that your volume will not be FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF anymore and you will be able to mount it and get your files back.


Applescript app keeps crashing Whenever I try running this code it does not log the text.

 repeat
        set myTime to (time of (current date))
        set precisetime1 to 82800
        set precisetime2 to 84600
        set precisetime3 to 85500
        set precisetime4 to 86100
        set wantTime to "0"
        if myTime ≥ precisetime1 then
            repeat
                set myTime to (time of (current date))
                if myTime ≥ precisetime2 then
                    repeat
                        set myTime to (time of (current date))
                        if myTime ≥ precisetime3 then
                            repeat
                                set myTime to (time of (current date))
                                if myTime ≥ precisetime4 then
                                    repeat
                                        set myTime to (time of (current date))
                                        if myTime ≤ wantTime then
                                            tell application "Messages"
                                                activate
                                            end tell
                                            tell application "System Events"
                                                keystroke "Good Morning"
                                                keystroke return
                                            end tell
                                            delay (0.5)
                                            exit repeat
                                        end if
                                        delay (5)
                                    end repeat
                                end if
                                delay (300)
                            end repeat
                        end if
                        delay (900)
                    end repeat
                end if
                delay (1800)
            end repeat
        end if

        log {"checked at % seconds since midnight", myTime}
        delay (3600)
    end repeat

this code is supposed to wait until midnight, then send a message saying "good morning" I added so many if statements and repeat statements because the code was designed to run constantly and checking every 5 seconds used too much resources.

Turns out, My answer was simple

I added a delay function

set myTime to (time of (current date))
set waitTime to 86400 - myTime
delay (waitTime)
tell application "Messages"
    activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "Good Morning"
    keystroke return
    log {"checked at % seconds since midnight", myTime}
end tell
delay (3600)


How to make an alias (Cmd-L) using command line? With Finder, Cmd-L is a short-cut to make an alias of a file/directory. How can I use the command line to do that?

I tried 'ln -s', but it generates the 'Symbolic Link', not 'Alias'.

mkalias is a binary available in a set of tools here. It can also be installed via Homebrew with brew install osxutils.

This is a SH shell script that calls AppleScript to create an alias.

I'm including the shell script here for future reference incase it goes missing from the nets.

#!/bin/sh

# make_alias
# This script takes two command-line arguments:
# 1) The name (relative or full path) of a source file or folder (directory)
# 2) The name (relative or full path) of a destination folder (directory)
# The script makes a Finder-style alias to the source file or folder
# and puts it in the specified destination folder.
#
# Cameron Hayne (macdev@hayne.net), December 2003
# Modified as suggested by Paul Russell (prussell@sonic.net), May 2006
#          to allow either file or folder as source
# Mofified to work with ".app" files, January 2007

scriptname=`basename $0`
if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $scriptname srcPath destPath"
    exit
fi

srcPath=$1
destPath=$2

if [ ! -e "$srcPath" ]; then
    echo "$scriptname: $srcPath: No such file or directory"
    exit
fi

# remove possible trailing slash from $srcPath
srcPath=${srcPath%/}

# set $srcType to "file" or "folder" as appropriate
if [ -d "$srcPath" ]; then
    if [ "${srcPath##*.}" == "app" ]; then
        srcType="file"
    else
        srcType="folder"
    fi
else
    srcType="file"
fi

# check if the $destPath directory exists
if [ ! -d "$destPath" ]; then
    echo "$scriptname: $destPath: No such directory"
    exit
fi

# check if we have permission to create a new file in the $destPath directory
if [ ! -w "$destPath" ]; then
    echo "$scriptname: No write permission in the directory $destPath"
    exit
fi

case $srcPath in
/*) fullSrcPath=$srcPath ;;
~*) fullSrcPath=$srcPath ;;
*)  fullSrcPath=`pwd`/$srcPath ;;
esac

case $destPath in
/*) fullDestPath=$destPath ;;
~*) fullDestPath=$destPath ;;
*)  fullDestPath=`pwd`/$destPath ;;
esac

/usr/bin/osascript > /dev/null <<EOT
tell application "Finder"
    set macSrcPath to POSIX file "$fullSrcPath" as text
    set macDestPath to POSIX file "$fullDestPath" as text
    make new alias file to $srcType macSrcPath at folder macDestPath
end tell
EOT


Logs and eMail headers from THE Future"? iPad Console Logs & eMail headers from the Future

What does the  "-700" mean in an eMail header when next to Date/Time Stampt?

I've noticed some of my iPad Console Logs display as +7hours AHEAD of the time they were collected.

And recently, I checked an eMail Header and noticed the same strange time shift when forwarded.  (specifically to /from certain recipients).

What does this mean?

I have not found any location  on our planet which is 7+ hours ahead of PST Time?

The -700 is relative to UTC time and used to describe the time zone. UTC-700 is used in many places, probably including where you live.

The messages are shown with their UTC timestamp and the timezone offset. Subtract 7 hours from the time and you'll have the time in your local time zone. This is what computers do behind the scenes.

Also, one word of advice: the iPad console logs are meant for people developing software. If you're not doing that, looking through the logs is generally pointless. If things are working, don't worry about things you see in the logs :-)


What can I do to regulate iPhone charging rate (make it charge slower)? My iPhone is charging from my MacBook. I believe that it charges too fast and even heats quite sensibly. Also, I'm afraid the battery could degrade at a greater rate with such a fast charge.

So, I don't need that fast charging, because it has plenty of time to charge.

As you can see, the battery temperature rises quite a bit.

By the end of the charge, the temperature drops to 30 degrees.

I'm well aware that there's a new thing that analyses how much time you let the phone be on charge and slows down the charging rate accordingly, but only after the battery reaches 80% (more details here - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512)

What can I do apart from just buying a cheap charger? (I don't think it's a great idea)

Fast charging your phone via a MacBook is not going to "damage" your battery anymore than other kinds of charging. Yes, high temperature can affect the battery, but a temperature of 38 degrees C is not a problem in charging your phone.

There's no need to limit the charging rate beyond what the iPhone does automatically by itself.

Also there's no setting in macOS that will allow you to limit the power supplied to the phone charging through a USB port (besides limiting it to 0 by turning the port off completely).


Alarm clock OS X with automator and password on wake up As there is no built in alarm clock in OS X, like in IOS, is there any way to set alarm clock via automator (playlist in iTunes), when Mac is in sleep mode and login password is required?

There is an scheduler for sleeping and waking up OS X in System Preferences > Energy Saver > Schedule....

Unlike the alarm in the iOS you can set timers in Automator with Pause action. It will work even your Mac is asleep. Playing iTunes playlist does not require password for the running Automator workflow. You can make a workflow of pausing until your preferred time and then play your playlist. You should set the scheduler to wake up before the pause passed.

After starting the workflow you can sleep your Mac.


How to see / capture ALL SMB server log output in 10.12 and 10.13? Ever since the move away from SAMBA, I've been plagued by various oddities with SMB and both Windows and Mac clients.

Digging about /var/log used to do the trick, but it doesn't seem that the SMB server messages are really contained in their fully glory now.  How does one go about seeing all SMB server messages and output in 10.12 and 10.13?

While I have not yet found the actual solution to the original question (I will update this once I do or someone else does) I did find a solution it seems for the actual problem that was leading me to ask this question.

It appears that macOS 10.13.x is severely problematic with its SMB server. Windows clients seem to connect fine, but 10.13 clients very, very frequently have severe hanging issues. I have now also seen others mentioning this problem for some months.

The trick appears to be to modify /etc/nsmb.conf such that it changes the behavior a bit (I think the actual key being to change the protocol version to 1):

[default]
signing_required=no
dir_cache_off=yes
protocol_vers_map=1

After rebooting clients that I've updated to have this I now no longer experience the hangs that I previously had on several 10.13 workstations. Windows also still works fine accessing the shares. OpenZFS on OSX pool sharing is also great with this.


How to remove MDM from iPad iOS 9.1 I bought an iPad, the user had removed the iCloud in front of me. But he did not remove the MDM profile from the iPad.

She did the full reset on the iPad, however the MDM profile is still there how can I remove that or should I return the device?

Open general, swipe up on the right side, find Profiles & Device Management and tap it.

Tap each of the profiles in turn and delete them. The MDM profile should show "Remove Management" in red and explain what it will do. The others should say "Delete Profile"

When that's done, you should have a clean device that you could erase all content and settings. Then see that the device isn't tied to a corporate Device Enrollment system. In that case, you'd want to return the iPad or get a bill of sale indicating that the device will be released from "corporate" control in a period of time.

The DEP can be under education or business - so the steps they take will be similar to release that serial number and not re-enroll it in the MDM each time the device is configured/activated.

https://www.apple.com/business/dep/


Can I still use my own apple ID with its asociated credit card when I'm in a family sharing family? I'm thinking of setting up family sharing for our family. We're all adults, so we buy apps for ourselves, but it would be nice if we could share the apps. Will I lose the ability to buy apps with my own Apple ID if I join my family?

No. Any apps you buy with your Apple ID will still belong to you. If you leave Family Sharing other family members will lose access to the apps (Mac OS & iOS), movies, TV shows and music that you own.

Any family member's purchase will be charged to the credit card of the Family Organizer.  Gift cards can be used by a family member and they will be charged before the family organizer's credit card. Family Sharing will bill the family organizer's credit card even if other family members have a different credit card on file.

Here is a link to Apple's own support document on this.


iOS 10: Storage Almost Full Warning (But I have free space) I am running iOS 10.2.1 on an iPhone 5S, with a doubleH3lix jailbreak. The phone was receiving the "Storage Almost Full" warning before I jailbroke it. I reset the phone to factory settings (got the error after installing one app), jailbroke it, and ran two different cleaning apps, one of which is iCleaner.

I am guessing that whatever cache iCleaner is looking at is the same one causing the warning. But, as you can see, I still have 9GB of free space on this device.

Is there a way to clear this cache and correct the free space showing in iCleaner and stop the warning from being triggered?

I have reset the iPhone from the iPhone's setting (because I did not want to update the phone), but in order to truly clear the caches and space, I had to reset (and update) using iTunes.


Connect to FTP server in Finder not working I can get to my FTP server just fine from the command line but I cannot get to it from Finder. When I am in Finder and I "Connect to Server" and enter ftp://192.168.125.128/, then my credentials when prompted, it gives me the error:

There was a problem connecting to the server "192.168.125.128".
The share does not exist on the server. Please check the share name, and then try again.

I can however connect to it anonymously just fine, which is frustrating, because as stated before, I am able to log in just fine and browse around from the command line using my credentials.

ftp 192.168.125.128
Connected to 192.168.125.128.
220 (vsFTPd 2.3.5)
Name (192.168.125.128:name):
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (|||26727|).
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxrwxr-x    3 1000     1000         4096 Dec 12 14:38 yadayada

Is there something else I need to do with Finder?

I figured out the problem. I sniffed the traffic from my computer to the FTP server and saw traffic go through when I connected as a guest. I did not, however, see any traffic when I connected as myself. No traffic whatsoever was going through. On a whim, I tried a blank password and saw traffic going through! After changing my password on the FTP server I was successfully able to connect with Finder. It apparently had something to do with my password??? I played around to see what the exact problem was with my password and, at the risk of revealing too much information about my security credentials, found that any password with an '@' symbol in it caused Finder to immediately display that error and not even try to send any traffic to the FTP server.


Mac mode where you can see code on startup In The Outliers, Bill Joy is quoted as saying

  "If you put your Mac in that funny mode where you can see the code, I
  see things that I can remember typing 25 years ago."

I'm intrigued - what is this mode? How does one use it?

Single user or Verbose mode.
Verbose mode start up

Restart the Mac
Immediately hold down the command + V keys

You have successfully entered verbose mode when you see white text appear on the screen.
See Apple Support


Connect firewire MacMini to thunderbolt MacBook Pro I have a MacMini that only has a firewire port, I want to connect it to my MacBook Pro via its thunderbolt port, can I do this so that I can then (using target mode) display my Mac mini on my macbook pro)? What equipment would I need todo this?

You would need a Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter.

You can find it here for $29

Please also read this.

Apple's Thunderbolt FireWire adapter can connect to Macs via both ends, but can only be used in one direction.


How do I determine what Siri commands an app supports? When an app supports Siri commands natively, how can I figure out what commands they support?

Note that this is asking specifically about app developer-defined commands built into the app. This is not asking about Siri Shortcuts in Settings, Siri Shortcuts you can define to an aspect of an app, nor a Siri command you can bind to a Shortcut in Shortcuts.app

Some apps have static built-in commands, for example, if you view Overcast’s App Store page and scroll down to the bottom, you’ll see it “Supports Siri and Family Sharing”. That Siri support badge is stating it supports Siri commands external to the app. “Hey Siri, play The Talk Show on Overcast”

How can I find out what Siri commands are natively supported by an app?

Invoke Siri, but don't ask her a question; instead, tap on the waveform so that she
stops listening and shows you suggested questions.
Next, scroll down to the app you're interested in and tap on it to see possible voice commands.


Does Safari has a panel similar with Chrome's Preview under Network? In Safari, if I request gets a 403 error, there is only a sample hint.

But in the Chorome, there have a Preview panel under Network.

Whether is Safari has a similar panel but I don't know?
Or do not have this panel?

EDIT

The relate resource. I opened all of the right tabs, no one like Chrome's Network Preview tab.

Click on the underlined URL shown on the right of the error. This opens the Resources tab with all the request and response details in the right sidebar.


Execute App (Apps Authorization Revoked) Hello there I am trying to start an app (downloaded from the Internet) on macOS Mojave 10.14.5 though when I double click I get the following pop up message:

  “Ascabart” can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

There is also a question mark button that gives me more info:

  The app’s authorisation has been revoked

  There may be a problem with this app. Although the app was signed by
  an identified developer, the certificate for the app has been revoked
  and it cannot be opened.

  Check with the Mac App Store or the software developer to see whether
  there is an updated version of this app.

Now I still want to execute the app since I myself know I can trust it. How can I do so?

In my Security System Preferences I already have:

  Allow Apps downloaded from anywhere

selected

If there is no easy way can I modify the certificate or app profile?

Thanks a lot!

Something tells me you have upgraded to Catalina and have run into Apple's heightened security around apps.

As is often the case, Apple has hidden how to get around this in plain sight, in a completely non-discoverable way:

Right or Control click on the App and select Open from that contextual menu. the resultant dialog box will then allow you to open the app.


iPod app of my iPhone connecting to internet On iPhone 4 IOS 4.3.5, if I start playing music the iPod app is getting or sending information from internet.

To reproduce it :
kill the ipod app using the "taskbar"
then play some music
your will notice the turning "wheel" of data transfer during a few seconds

I am not using Genius or Ping.
I have already the song cover.
I don't have any vocals

Do you have an idea of what kind of info is sent or received ?

Update : I am trying to connect through fiddler on my PC
Fiddle is acting as a proxy and will let me inspect the data
BUT the wifi proxy settings is returning from manual to disabled all the time !

The iPod app is contacting iTunes server to get some encrypted keys. Three of them actually, respectively called "signature", "certs" and "bag". All of them are part of an xml (plist) file located at http://ax.init.itunes.apple.com/bag.xml?ix=2.

There's no POST data, just some cookies and HTTP headers giving information about the device and the context. These informations are part of many request made to Apple servers by iOS.

I have no idea what this "bag" can be nor what it's used for.

Details

Here's the request headers :

User-Agent : iTunes-iPhone/4.3.4 (4; 32GB)
Accept-Language : fr;q=1.0,en;q=1.0[...]
X-Apple-Store-Front : [cut]
X-Apple-Connection-Type : WiFi
X-Apple-Cuid : [cut]
X-Apple-Software-Cuid : [cut]
X-Dsid : [cut]
X-Apple-Client-Application : MediaPlayer
X-Apple-Client-Versions : iBooks/1.3

The cookies names :

mz_at1
s_vi
dssid2
mz_pc
mz_at0
ds01_a
Pod
s_vnum_us
s_vnum_befr
mz_if
mz_pt
a
s_vnum_fr
s_cvp35b

And the XML scheme :

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>signature</key>
        <data>[encrypted string]</data>
        <key>certs</key>
        <array>
            <data>[encrypted string]</data>
        </array>
        <key>bag</key>
        <data>[VERY long encrypted string]</data>
    </dict>
</plist>

The "certs" part seems to be constant, even with a standard browser and none of the special HTTP headers or cookies.

(I don't want to publish too many details as I don't know what they contain about me or my Apple ID.)


Trouble Understanding Inactive Memory in MacOSX I thought that I understood how MacOSX manages memory, but recently I’ve become baffled by its performance. Here is the situation:

I have a brand new Core i7 system with 8GB of physical memory running MacOSX 10.6.7.
There are a few Apps running regularly taking up some of the memory—Safari, Mail, Xcode, Terminal, etc.
I need to run three 64-bit processes in parallel, each of which uses about 2000M of real memory.
Although the wired memory stays below 1000M (i.e. I have over 7000M available for processes), I see heavy paging activity leading to very bad performance from the three memory-intensive processes that I launched.
Apparently, I am not running out of available RAM, as the reported inactive memory stays around 2500M and the active memory doesn’t rise above 5000M.

Can anyone give me a clue as to why MacOSX does not release the inactive memory for the processes that need it, instead resorting to paging? Also, is there any proper way to influence the memory management by the system?

I have found, on my machine, that Mac OS X is a little slow to page the right things out.

Whenever doing anything particularly memory hungry, I will often quit a few applications to help it out. Safari is a huge memory hog if it has been running for a while and is top of the list of applications to quit. In my case this was when I tried to run VMWare Fusion without quite enough actual RAM.

You probably know this but here are a couple of links to Apple documentation which describe memory usage and virtual memory on OS X:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Performance/Conceptual/ManagingMemory/Articles/AboutMemory.html

Here is the explanation that is given: The inactive list contains pages that are currently resident in physical memory but have not been accessed recently. It's hard to get an exact definition of what this means but is seems to include a file system cache as well as actual inactive memory.

Inactive memory is probably a difficult thing to handle on an interactive GUI driven OS where a user may choose to switch to any running application at any time and providing responsiveness in this sort of situation is important.... but the flipside of that is that in a situation like yours the OS doesn't quite know what the right thing to do is.

It is possible to purge (some of) the inactive memory by using the purge command. This may need to be installed by installing the CHUD tools but you may already have that installed. I haven't tried using the purge command so YMMV...

I've rambled on a bit and may or may not have answered your question. After writing all this out, I found another question on this site which much of the same info that might also help.


What are some undocumented iPhone features? With included documentation as sparse as Apple's, there are plenty of them...

When using the keyboard, if you tap the 123 button, and slide your finger (without lifting it) to any number or punctuation symbol, when you lift your finger the keyboard will return to the alphabetic keyboard automatically. One less tap!


Why do I have /Volumes/Storage Drive? In Terminal, I noticed I have /Volumes/Storage Drive. On my mac, I have no drive named Storage Drive. Furthermore, no Storage Drive appears in Finder or Disk Utility. When I cd inside Storage Drive and ls -a, it is empty.

What is this /Volumes/Storage Drive? Why is it not appearing in Finder or Disk Utility? Can I safely get rid of it?

The output of df does not show the /Volumes/Storage Drive:

jerzy@jerzys-mbp $ df
Filesystem                                                 512-blocks      Used  Available Capacity  iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                                                467182912 392156184   74514728    85% 49083521    9314341   84%   /
devfs                                                             419       419          0   100%      725          0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s2                                               1464477344 296803024 1167674320    21% 37100376  145959290   20%   /Volumes/Storage
map -hosts                                                          0         0          0   100%        0          0  100%   /net
map auto_home                                                       0         0          0   100%        0          0  100%   /home
localhost:/-ZOSLTsDfGt2NKFW5Q-SUw                           467182912 467182912          0   100%        0          0  100%   /Volumes/MobileBackups
//jerzy@Jerzy%E2%80%99s%20Mac%20mini._smb._tcp.local/jerzy  975093952  72910968  902182984     8%        0 18446744073709551615    0%   /Volumes/jerzy

Here is the output of diskutil list:

jerzy@jerzys-mbp:/Volumes|⇒  diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *240.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Primary                 239.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Storage                 749.8 GB   disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *16.0 MB    disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Flash Player            16.0 MB    disk2s2

If it helps to know this: I have a 250GB SSD (mounted to /), and a 750GB HDD (mounted to /Storage).

Chances are, it's just a folder created randomly by some app or another at some point to use as a mount point and it was never deleted. It should be perfectly safe to rm -rf it, especially if it is empty.

Note: If you rm -rf in /Volumes, make sure you specify which directory  to operate on (i.e. DON'T JUST rm -rf /Volumes!) otherwise you will delete everything on every mounted disk, including your root drive (granted, it will throw permissions errors before doing anything to your OS first but still). Try to delete things in Finder if you’re not sure of your rm skills or if you don’t have a backup or time now to restore from that backup.


Is there an alternative to touch-automation than AutoTouch? I want to automate repetitive actions for a game on my (jailbroken) iPhone 4. I hesitate to mention the name of the game in case you would be abetting me in violation of its Terms of Service (ToS) by automation, but its player-base recommends replaying the tutorial to reroll an early game RNG element. The tutorial is easy but time-consuming, making it a prime target for automation. I stumbled across AutoTouch in the Cydia store, but it requires purchasing a license to run scripts for longer than a minute or some-length and I am skeptical of its performance. So, is there an (preferably cheaper) alternative to touch-automation than AutoTouch?

I don't think there are any other option (cheaper) that I've heard of.  Most of the unique tweaks in the jailbreak world are always priced high.

You should probably tweet to the developer @KentKrantz
and ask him about AutoTouch performance on iPhone 4 running iOS7 or maybe ask him for a trial license after which if you're interested you could buy the full license for $5 which doesn't seem a lot.


How to keep monitor off when logging in remotely I'm managing an 8-core mac server (fully updated to Mac OSX 10.8.4, all other software is up to date). Multiple users can login remotely to use the machine. Whenever someone logs in remotely, the physical monitor that is connected to the server and sits on my desk turns on, and I can see everything that the user is doing. I can even interfere with their work if I want by moving the physical mouse that is connected to the server, or typing on the physical keyboard that is connected to the server.

Update July 30 2013 If I log in to the local monitor, a remote user can log in and see my screen / hijack my session in the same way that i (locally) can take over their session (remote). Something seems very wrong with that. What settings need to be changed?

How can I stop this behavior? It represents a security risk (other users may not want me viewing their activity, or hijacking their mouse/keyboard), and frankly it's distracting to have someone else's screen/activity going on my desk.

I've messed with a bunch of settings in system preferences, and poked around Ask Different (How to Screen Sharing / VNC to an iMac without waking the display? is close, but still unsolved) for a while, haven't found a solution that works.

Physically turning off the monitor doesn't help, since it 'wakes' up whenever there is activity. Turning the monitor around or unplugging it are also not a solutions I will accept.

Thanks for your help!

Are they logging in as the same user as the currently logged in user?  Post-10.7, Mac OS X VNC supports logging in and either sharing the current desktop, or generating a new virtual desktop.

HOWEVER, I believe if you're logging in as the same user that's currently logged in, it will take over the computer as though you were accessing it directly.  The solution would then be to create separate users for everyone who accesses the server.

Here's some info about the VNC options.

Hope this helps!


How to remove removed apps OS X URL schemes from system? Some OS X apps register URL schemes and let users open the app directly through browser such as macappstore://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unibox/id702816521?mt=12 to open the URL in Mac App Store.

Recently I downloaded RCDefault and discovered some of the URL schemes from apps I’ve removed — Steam for Mac and Monosnap — are still available.

Is there any way to remove those apps from the list? I’ve tried to use this command below to disassociate all the URL schemes relic, but the mentioned URL schemes are still visible.

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Here’s the screenshot from RCDefault.

How long did you wait until checking the URL list?  Did you reboot?

After you reset the Launch Services database with that command, it will take a few minutes to rescan your system and rebuild the database.  During that time, the existing database will still be used.

I wrote a blog post about using this command to clean up the Open With contextual menu as it would often become corrupted and list applications multiple times.  When I would reset the database, I've seen it take over 30 minutes until the menu is correct again.

If you still have the app installed, or you can reinstall it, you can use the lsregister -u PATH command to unregister an application, which removes the associated URL Schemes.  For example, I still have TurboTax from 2011 installed and in the URL Schemes list, it had a com.intuit.turbotax.2011 scheme listed.  Using the /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -u /Applications/TurboTax\ Deluxe\ 2011.app command, it removed ONLY that registered application from the Launch Services database so it didn't need to rebuild the entire database.  Upon launching the Defaults Apps preference pane, I don't see the com.intuit.turbotax.2011 scheme listed anymore


2015 MBP does not boot with disk image from 2012 MBP I have (using dd with an external SATA interface from Internet Recovery) copied my old 2012 MBP disk to the internal SSD of my new Mid 2015 MBP ("MacbookPro11,4", the 2.5 GHz variant with the Iris Pro GPU). However, the system will only boot to Recovery and Safe Mode - when booting "normally", the system eventually gets stuck at the progress bar and pressing any key only yields that "error" sound as if one would press a not allowed keyboard combo.

I guess this is because the system believes that the GPU is still the dual-GPU setup from the old MacBook (Intel on-chip + Radeon), and now fails to recognize the new GPU. However, both AppleIntelHD5000Graphics.kext and AppleIntelFramebufferAzul.kext are present so in theory it should be able to bring up the display server.

There is nothing indicating any problem when launching the Console app - except for two things:

1) a sandbox policy violation:

sandboxd[308]: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.sandbox.system-policy-violation
com.apple.message.signature2: nmnetmgrd
com.apple.message.signature3: nmnetmgrd ||| ??? (???)
com.apple.message.summarize: YES
com.apple.message.signature: nmnetmgrd System Policy: deny file-write-data /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/SCMonitor.plugin/Contents/Info.plist
com.apple.message.violation_body: nmnetmgrd System Policy: deny file-write-data /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/SCMonitor.plugin/Contents/Info.plist

2) a load of watchdog_daemon crash logs in the system.log:

Jan  5 01:49:41 xxx watchdogd[875]:  [watchdog_daemon] @(    wd_watchdog_open) - IOIteratorNext failed (kr=0)
Jan  5 01:49:41 xxx watchdogd[875]:  [watchdog_daemon] @(      wd_daemon_init) - could not open connection with the kernel watchdog
Jan  5 01:49:41 xxx watchdogd[875]:  [watchdog_daemon] @(                main) - cannot initialize the watchdog service
Jan  5 01:49:41 xxx com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.watchdogd): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

What could be the cause for the failure, and can I fix it without having to re-install OS X? I don't want to spend days to get everything installed and configured again, and I don't really want to use the 2012 MBP much longer, if possible.

You've already figured out the cause of your crashes.

What you need to do is either one of two things:

Create a Time Machine Back Up of your old system and do a fresh install of macOS on your new machine and transfer everything using Migration Assistant
Do a fresh install of macOS on your new machine and using a network connection migrate all of your apps and settings over the network using Migration Assistant.

Keep in mind that if you are attempting to copy over an OS that is earlier that 10.10 it will NOT work on your Mid-2015 MBP.


Reducing PowerPoint file size with retina images I am using PowerPoint from Microsoft Office 2016. I use a lot of screenshots (save the screenshot to clipboard and paste it in PowerPoint). When using the retina display, the presentation file size becomes a lot bigger compared to the same task using a normal display. That makes sense, since the same size images would be 4X as many pixels.

There seems to be a solution. You can go to File > Compress Pictures. However, I don't think that compresses the images properly. I can set the resolution to a very low setting. That makes the images very blurry and the file size is reduced. However, the file size it still much higher than using non-retina images without any compression. The non-retina presentation is smaller file and better quality in the end. I think that the way PowerPoint calculates the resolution, that still somehow does not take into account the retina conversion by the OS.

Is there a way to use PowerPoint with a retina display, but still keep the images to a reasonable size? Can I keep PowerPoint in non-retina mode somehow?

Looking at previous posts, there used to be an option to "Open in low resolution" in File > Get Info, but that does not seem to exist anymore.

Try saving the screenshots to a JPG file and then inserting them into the Powerpoint. You can switch the format that Mac OS saves screenshots in to JPG by typing the following command into a terminal window:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg;killall SystemUIServer

I just tried it with identical screen shots and saving to a JPG file and then inserting into the Powerpoint made the file 80% smaller than pasting the screen shot directly into the Powerpoint. The quality was identical.

You can shrink your existing files by saving the screenshots out of Powerpoint as a JPG (right click and choose save as picture), then delete it from the slide and re-add it from the JPG you saved.

To switch back to saving screenshots as PNG, use this command:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png;killall SystemUIServer


How to get back Chinese Speech after upgrading to Mojave? After upgrading to Mojave, I cannot use Chinese Speech any more. If I go to

Preference → Accessibility → Speech

and choose any of the Chinese Speech (Mandarin, Cantonese), for Ting-Ting, Sin-ji, Mei-Jia, it just gives me a "DONG" sound and doesn't work.

There seems to be some issue with the upgrade to Mojave.  I then first removed all the speeches in Chinese inside of System Preferences, and then rebooted the Mac, and then added the speeches back.  After the download, this fixed the problem.


Is it possible to install lower version os in ipad? I am having an iPad2 with ios 6.0.1, I want to test an app which will be support for both ios 6 and ios 5.

Now, I want to install the ios 5 in the ipad.

is it possible to install the lower version than the current in an ipad?
(I am not willing to jailbreak it.)

It is possible to downgrade to iOS5. You will just have to "trick" iTunes into thinking you are restoring from one of you backups.

Just make sure to first make a backup of your current settings. Then it's just a matter of restoring from the "fake" backup(IPSW-file).

You can download an IPSW(backup file) from http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_downgrade_back_ios_5


Is /etc/resolv.conf changed every time my DHCP lease changes? I'd like to fire an event via launchd whenever my DHCP lease changes the IP on my WiFi interface. My question is similar to what's being asked in this question, which makes me thing I can watch /etc/resolv.conf for changes via a launchd agent.

I differ in my need in that I'd like to fire the event every time the IP changes on an interface, not just when the interface comes up. For the curious, yes, I'm looking to do a simple dynamic DNS updater.

You could write a launchd that monitors the file path of:

/private/var/db/dhcpclient/leases/

If you looking for DHCP changes to an interface.

That db holds all the different interfaces and dhcp changes on them.  Something similar to monitoring that file with a launchd here.


How to get iMessages to sync across an iPhone, iPad and Mac automatically? One of the new features of Mountain Lion is the fact that one can sync iMessages across iOS and OSX devices.

I would really like to have a thread that I start on my iPhone automatically sync to my Mac and iPad so I can reply easily from either device. I do understand that SMS text messages will not sync, and only iMessages.

This question applies to iOS 6 and Mountain Lion devices as I am running an iPhone 4S and 3rd Gen iPad with iOS 6 and a Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8).

How can I enable this feature so that my iMessages stay in sync across all my devices?

iOS (6 and later) combines your phone number with your Apple ID email address, which makes it possible for others to iMessage your phone number and have those Messages sync across your devices.

First, you need to make sure all your devices are on the same Apple ID.

On each iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini):

Open Settings.app
Go to "Messages" and make sure iMessage is On.
If iMessage is on, "Send & Receive" will appear below it. Tap on it.
Make note of the Apple ID at the top of the page.
Select your phone number and email address(es) that you want to sync to that device.

On each Mac: (Mountain Lion or later)

Open Messages
Click Messages -> Preferences
Click the "Accounts" tab in the top.
Select your iMessage/Apple ID account, and make sure "Enable this account" is checked.
Select your phone number and any email address(es) that you would like synced.

The most important part is that everything is consistent across all devices that are necessary.

Message History

The steps described previously will not automatically cause old iMessages to sync across all devices. However, iOS and macOS now support "Messages in iCloud": Apple Support Document. Enabling Messages in iCloud will sync historical messages across all of your devices. Make sure you are running the latest version of macOS or iOS.

To turn on Messages in iCloud on your iOS device:

Open Settings app.
Tap your Apple ID profile at the top of the list.
Select iCloud.
Enable Messages.

To enable on your Mac:

Open the Messages app.
In the menu bar, select Messages -> Preferences.
Open the iMessage tab.
Select the checkbox to Enable Messages in iCloud.

Additional Troubleshooting steps

If you are still having trouble getting new iMessages to sync across the devices try:

Disabling then re-enabling iMessage on each device that isn't being synced to.
Delete all your previous conversations: Some people have reported that they had to delete all of their conversations before things would sync up.
Make sure you have your phone number added to your Apple ID account online.


Smart folder using "or" search? Is there a way to create a macOS smart folder which uses an "or" search? E.g. find all files which have tags "A" or "B"? It seems that smart folders allow only to search using an "and" command.

Yes there is.
If you press the OPTION button while composing the query in the finder window, the "+" button changes into a "..." button, that exposes the interface that allows for testing "All | Any | None" of the subsequent conditions.


No Network Access on Macbook air either through Wi-Fi or tethered to a phone I cannot connect to the Internet on My Mid 2013 MBA, running 10.11.3 either through Wi-Fi connected to my router, or tethered to my iPhone via USB or Bluetooth . Rebooting the machine has not solved anything.

I cannot ping any  external IP, I can ping other devices on the network.

All other devices in the house (Various ipads, iphones, windows PC's, NAS Box, Raspberry Pi's etc) all connect fine through the same router. Resetting the router hasn't helped either.

I've had similar problems with macbooks. I've found that going into "Network Preferences" / "Location" / "Edit Location" and creating a new location can work.

Here's another option:
set your IP manually to an IP the router will accept, instead of by DHCP. If your other devices connect at 192.168.1.25, for example, configure yours to 192.168.26 (keep it close to other IPs in case your router is set to limit to specific IPs). Apply your changes and try connecting.


How I can export analytic data from iTunes Connect I have iTunes Connect account, I want to export the analytics from iTunes Connect and then generate a report in my own system. I read many article but haven't been able to find any api to connect to iTunes Connect remotely. Any help in this regards will be greatly appreciated.

Navigate to Analytics for the appropriate app, then select the Metrics tab, then select a metric. There is a download icon (the box with the down arrow in the screenshot below) which you can click on for a CSV file. You can also select an option from the View By dropdown. As far as I know, there is no download all stats functionality sadly. Also, the analytics functionality is available for the iTunes Connect Admin, Finance, and Sales roles.


Joining lines into a single line in TextEdit In a text document, how do I join several lines into a single line? I want each paragraph to be on a single line, but keep the lines between the paragraphs.

Here is an example. I want to convert this text

  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
    adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac,
    adipiscing vitae, felis.

  Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu
    libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec
    vehicula augue eu neque.

to this text

  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
    adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut, placerat ac,
    adipiscing vitae, felis.

  Curabitur dictum gravida mauris. Nam arcu
    libero, nonummy eget, consectetuer id, vulputate a, magna. Donec
    vehicula augue eu neque.

I know how to do it in vim or fmt, but can I do it in TextEdit and in the builtin text boxes? I don't want to manually have to do ^D<space> at the end of each line.

If your paragraphs are separated by a blank line, you can do this with a two-part Find and Replace in TextEdit.

Open the Find and Replace dialog (⌥⌘F).
In the Find field, insert the newline character by typing option-return.
In the Replace field, insert a space, then click All. This replaces all newlines with a space, so you'll have one long line of all your text.
Change the Find field to two spaces.
In the Replace field, enter two newline characters (option-return twice).
Click All to move paragraphs to a new line.


Apple USB Ethernet Adapter has a self-assigned IP address and will not be able to connect to the Internet Cannot connect MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) (10.13.3) to the internet through my Apple USB Ethernet Adapter. I am receiving this error under System Preferences/Network:

"Apple USB Ethernet Adapter has a self-assigned IP address and will
not be able to connect to the Internet."
IP Address: 169.254.59.248
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0

I can connect to the internet with the same ethernet port on my Windows 10 machine. When I replace the IP address with a the Wi-Fi IP address I use to successfully connect to the same network under "Using DHCP with manual address", the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter icon is green and displays the message "Apple USB Ethernet Adapter is currently active and has the IP address xx.xx.xx.252." However there is no actual internet connection (i.e., I cannot visit any website).

According to this solution to a similar problem, I can:

Find and disable whatever firewall is intercepting the DHCP return traffic. According to System Preferences/Security & Privacy/Firewall, my firewall is off. Is there anywhere else I can check for additional firewalls? Would firewalls somehow impact ethernet and Wi-fi differently?
Inspect the network traffic or the router logs to see if and why the Mac DHCP broadcast packet is being ignored. How do I check network traffic on my Mac? I am comfortable using the terminal.

I have also tried steps listed as potential solutions in this post:

To reset the firewall, go to the /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/ folder and remove the file called "com.apple.alf.plist," and then restart your computer. On my computer I went to /Library/Preferences/ and ran sudo rm com.apple.alf.plist
If that was already set, try the "Advanced" button, then "Renew DHCP Lease"
Removing their "Ethernet" config from the Network settings and then re-adding

Does anyone have other suggestions? Thanks in advance

Assuming that there is no firewall running (you can do this by issuing the command sudo pfctl -d at the command line), there are two possibilities that would be causing this:

A faulty Apple USB Ethernet Adapter
Network security measures preventing you from obtaining network access

Faulty USB Adapter
This is fairly easy to diagnose; try another one.  If another adapter gives you the same results, it's highly likely the issue isn't the adapter.  Additionally, to be 100% certain, take the suspect adapter to a different network (or just connect it directly to another computer).  If it works there, the adapter isn't faulty.
Network Security Measures
Getting a self assigned IP address means you didn't get a DHCP offer (and accept it).  Manually assigning a known good IP  and still not being able to browse means your computer is blocked from accessing the network.  This could be due to many factors:

The port is disabled on a switch.  This is done to eliminate the possibility of a rogue actor gaining access to the network by simply plugging in a device.  This is not the case here as your Win10 machine works when plugged into it

The switch could be using Mac Address filtering.  The Ethernet adapters (the USB adapter and one in your Win10 machine) have unique MAC Addresses (Media Access Control, not "Macintosh") and the switch could be configured to only allow certain MACs access.  This is easy to test/bypass by spoofing the USB Adapter's MAC with the Win10 machine's MAC.  If it works, you've got your answer.

The company (I suspect this because this is very uncommon in home networks) has employed some sort of authentication mechanism like RADIUS that will prevent you from gaining access on an unknown/un-trusted device.  Spoofing a MAC address will not bypass this and you'll need to contact your IT admin for assistance.


How do I get my videos off my iPad 2? I put a bunch of videos onto my iPad 2 a while ago, syncing them over iTunes. The PC that I set this up on is no longer available. All I have now is my iPad with the videos, and a new computer with a clean install of iTunes.

Now it seems that iTunes wants to wipe all those videos off the iPad in order to set up a sync.

Can I get these videos off the iPad somehow?

(connecting the iPad as a camera doesn't help: this only shows videos shot using the iPad camera, but not the videos I recorded with my camcorder and synced over iTunes)

Have you looked into software like TouchCopy to transfer the videos? It offers a Windows and Mac version. I prefer PhoneView to this software on a Mac, but you have tagged this windows so TouchCopy seems a better fit.


How to share .bashrc files between two mac user accounts I have set up two user logins on my computer, one for home and one for work. I would like to be able to share any of my bash and vim settings between the two users. Is there anyway to do this? Thus far, I've been copying them from one account to another, but I'd like to be able to just have one file between the two so I can make changes in only one place. Is this even possible? Thanks.

You can use the ln tool to create a symbolic link:

ln -s /Users/user1/.bashrc /Users/user2/.bashrc

In this example you are creating a new link for user2 pointing back to the existing file in user1's directory. You may need to use sudo ln ... if the permissions are not set correctly.


Iphone: how to play a directory containing MP3 from OneDrive? I don't use iTunes, I just use plain MP3 stored in directories, I also have FLAC files. I stored them on OneDrive and use the OneDrive application from the APP. I use the application to download them on my phone "Make the file available offline".
The OneDrive application sucks and only allow to play 1 file, there is no queue, no playlist, nothing. I am looking for a solution to read a directory of audio files on iPhone.

VLC allows to connect to various cloud services including OneDrive and can play MP3. You can download it from the App Store.


Macbook Pro Retina with more than 2 external displays I have an Macbook Pro with retina display and want to connect additional displays/monitors to it. But sadly 2+1 isn't enough for me, so I'm searching for solution:

I want to buy two USB3.0 to VGA/HDMI adapters and my questions are:

Will it blend... ekhm I mean will it actually display anything (I'm asking if are there any forced/purposed limitation on the macbook itself to only allow 3 monitors at any given time)
Will it be smooth enough to be usable?

You can absolutely use display link drivers. I have an Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB graphics card in my 8gb Mac Book Pro (early 2015) 13 in. It drives 2 24 in Dell displays via with mindvi (normal fps) and four other Dell 24 in monitors using usb 2.0 -->minidvi adapters at 12-15fps. Not great for video or gaming, but just fine for email/documents/command line/etc. I still get full FPS on the two other monitors, so I'm not without media...  3.0 I imagine would be better, but more taxing on the system.

Anyway, my opinion is that this will work even though Display link is a little buggy and support is not great. I love the mini display devices. Like I said, I imagine 3.0 would offer a lot better FPS... but I appreciate the price point and that the system is not heavily burdened by the 2.0 devices.

As you can see on the left I have (besides terrible cable management skills) a 7 port usb 3.0 hub off of which these four displays split. I have two small 4 inch fans pointed up at the display link adapters, and my computer is kept elevated on a small stand. The laptop is is new, and my room is air conditioned with a dehumidifier and a HEPA filter to keep dust from deteriorating the impact of internal fanning systems... but my machine does not run hot at all:

My 2013 mac book air can drive 5 displays... for some reason I am hitting a limit of 4 display port devices. You may have better luck though...

[


Can you use a Lightning cable extension with an Apple iPhone dock? Can you use this:
https://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Extension-Cellularize-Extender-Available/dp/B073Z1G71S?th=1

with this?
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/ML8H2AM/A/iphone-lightning-dock-space-gray

The idea is that I'd be able to get a 3.5mm audio out for a headphone jack and be able to hold the phone in my hand.

I listen to music, podcast, meditations, ASMR, etc., a lot and have high-quality (and expensive) wired headphones I want to use. I have tried multiple lightening-port charger + 3.5mm audio adapters, and all of them have failed. The Belkin one is the only one old on Apple.com and it too has horrible reviews, many people saying it fails after a few weeks (just like I've seen with other ones). Thanks.

YES, it works perfectly! Just be sure to use a good, quality lightening extension cable like one from Anker - or the Cellularize cable linked above on Amazon. Finally, a reliable 3.5mm audio + charging solution for my iPhone 7 (inside its Otterbox case)! :)


Where are the MacOS startup boot icons located? Where is the exact location of certain icons like the internal storage drive icon you often see in the startup boot manager and other boot icons like it located on MacOS?

MacOS Catalina 10.15.2

The specified directories

/System/Library/Extensions/IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/
 and
/System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/

do indeed contain the .icns files used by the startup boot manager or at least it contains replicas of the .icns used.


Will my Battery get harmed if not used for long time? Will my MacBook's battery be damaged if I do not use for next couple of months?

I bought a new Macbook Pro (March 2015) a month back. So far I have not started using it yet. It's charged and box packed as I do not currently have time to set it up for my development work.

Update: It's charged 90%+ but not being used.

These are what you need to keep in mind:

The battery works using chemical reactions, these reactions cannot be stopped but they can be slowed.
A laptop with the battery left in will continue using that battery
very slowly.
A battery left completely dead inside a laptop that is still trying
to draw power will kill the battery completely.

If you are storing the MacBook for a few months, take better care where you store it. Place it in a case, or completely dry bag to prevent dust buildup. Even if you keep it in the box it has come with, it would be fine.

Taking the above care, you don't have to worry about the battery.

Apple's Maximizing Battery Life and Lifespan page offers the following advice:

  If you want to store your device long term, two key factors will affect the overall health of your battery: the environmental temperature and the percentage of charge on the battery when it’s powered down for storage. Therefore, we recommend the following:

  Do not fully charge or fully discharge your device’s battery — charge
  it to around 50%. If you store a device when its battery is fully
  discharged, the battery could fall into a deep discharge state, which
  renders it incapable of holding a charge. Conversely, if you store it
  fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may lose
  some capacity, leading to shorter battery life.
  Power down the device to avoid additional battery use.
  Place your device in a cool, moisture-free environment that’s less
  than 90° F (32° C).
  If you plan to store your device for longer than six months, charge
  it to 50% every six months.

  Depending on how long you store your device, it may be in a low-battery state when you remove it from long-term storage. After it’s removed from storage, it may require 20 minutes of charging with the original adapter before you can use it.


How can i get delivery confirmation for sent sms? I recently bought an iPhone and can't get the delivery confirmation when i send an sms.
I went from reading this thread at Apple forums and have some clarifications.

Old phones seems to can, last week my super old nokia sends me delivery confirmation when i send sms so isn't a network lack or issue. I have the exact same SIM, just swap the old phone for a new one.
With my older phone i didn't prepend any command to send an sms. That seems another argument depending of the carrier. I have the exact same numbers and i'm doing the exact same thing for sending its.

I wish to get back that feature to know when an sms is delivered or not.
Any help appreciated.

The short answer is you can't; Unless the standards have changed since I retired as a mobile planner 12 years ago.

Some networks do provide confirmation (Vodafone in Australia did). Once a SMS leaves the originating network there is no way of checking on it.


How to disable boot on MacBook Pro when lid is opened? My new MacBook Pro powers on automatically when the laptop lid is opened.

Can I disable it ? If yes, then how to do it ?

This article has the info for you.

Steps :

Open the Terminal from this location /Applications/Utilities/
Enter the command - sudo nvram AutoBoot=%00 to turn off autoboot feature.
Hit return and authenticate with the admin password (necessary due to sudo).
Exit terminal when finished

Note : If you want to reset to defaults, then enter this command - sudo nvram AutoBoot=%03


Did I mess up my .profile file? I was trying to update my system path, followed some directions online and accidentally types:

touch ~/.profile

Did I overwrite my .profile file? Does this mean that I have destroyed all of my PATH information? If so, how do I fix this?

The short answer is "no".

The touch command does not modify the data in a file at all. Its effects on a file are:

If the file does not exist it is created
If the file exists if sets its access time metadata to the current time

There are some more options but in this case they are irrelevant, you can see the whole documentation by typing man touch in the terminal.

So, no worries, your .profile file was not modified.


Mac file download behaviour Is there a way to prevent files being downloaded into the Downloads folder on a Mac such as when I open a PDF file from the browser instead of downloading it?

To explain what I mean, on Windows when you click 'Open' when the browser asks what to do with a file, the file gets downloaded to a temp folder.

On Mac it gets downloaded to the Downloads folder, in effect creating two copies if I choose to save the file later to a different folder. Since you can't move files on the Mac, the end result is a very cluttered Downloads folder and no way of knowing if a certain file is saved elsewhere?

Is there a way to change this behaviour, say not to have the file downloaded or to have it automatically deleted?

Just right click the link.

If you have a pdf viewer plugin enabled (which it sounds like you do), you have the option to *Open Link in..." it or Save Link As...

When you choose Save Link As... you even have the opportunity to change your download location.

The way that I am doing is through Full Acrobat Reader, not through a 3rd party plugin or Preview.  In fact, PDF plugin is disabled:

When I click on the PDF link, it opens in a new browser Tab for viewing, but now I have the opportunity to select "Download" if I want to save it (It's not saved to my Downloads folder automatically.)


Unable to delete files & folders from my USB drive I got this USB stick with some music on it. I copied the content on my machine. Two days later I wanted to delete the data from the USB drive. The Move to trash option is missing, and if I try to drag and drop this into Trash can it doesn't work. This message pops up

The item “[file name]” can’t be moved to the Trash because it can’t be deleted.

What is causing the issue and how do I resolve it?

I am using a Mac running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. The filesystem on USB drive is NTFS.

Your USB drive is formatted with NTFS file system. By default, macOS can only read a drive formatted with NTFS file system. It does not include drivers to write to NTFS filesystem.

To delete (technically writing, i.e. making changes) the files and folders on NTFS formatted drive, you'll need drivers for NTFS to be installed on your Mac.

If you wish to remove all the contents of the USB drive and use it on computers running macOS, Windows and any Linux distribution, it is recommended to format it with ExFAT or MS-DOS (FAT) file system by using Disk Utility app.


I removed some songs from my directory, how do I tell iTunes to remove them from my library? I have all my songs in a folder, when I need to add songs I do "Add folder to library"

Now I have deleted some songs from my folder, how do I tell iTunes to check which songs were removed and remove them from my library to remove them from my iPod?

iTunes has no functionality to actually scan for missing songs from it's library. If you want to delete Music, you need to do it from within iTunes, and not the other way around. It can however identify missing files which normally appear with an ! mark next to their names. These can simply just be deleted out of the library manually.

There are some 3rd Party options to try and do this automatically:

AppleScript Scan Missing is an AppleScript solution if your using a Mac or this AppleScript from MacOSXHints.
For Windows you can use the iTunes Library Scanner mentioned in this iLife article.

Once you have removed the songs from the iTunes library, they will be removed of your iPod the next time it synchronizes.


How can I stop MacOS 10.14.4 Safari from automatically logging me in when I select a password? When I go to a site that has a password saved and I select the password, Safari attempts to log me in immediately. However, this completely breaks functionality on some websites (ex adding accounts to RES etc). I believe this "feature" was added recently (10.14.4?).

I was able to disable requiring Touch ID to log in, which is a step in the right direction, but I want to disable the auto login completely, while still autofilling passwords. Is this possible/how can I do it?

Background

Unfortunately it looks like Apple decided to change this behavior in Safari, at least according to this article titled: Safari: macOS browser now autosubmits logins. Here’s how to disable it:

  Apple changed the behavior of Safari in macOS 10.14.4, and you may
  have noticed it and thought it was a bug. Now, if you have stored a
  password for a website, when you select a login entry to autofill,
  Safari 12.1 for macOS automatically submits the login. Previously, it
  would fill the fields and still require you to click a Login or Submit
  or other button to proceed.

Apple mentions it here in their Mojave 10.14.4 Update release notes (2nd bullet):

  Safari

  Adds Dark Mode support for websites that support custom color schemes
  Streamlines website login when filling credentials with Password AutoFill
  Allows push notification prompts only after interacting with a website
  Adds a warning when an insecure webpage is loaded
  Removes support for the expired Do Not Track standard to prevent potential use as a fingerprinting variable; Intelligent Tracking
  Prevention now protects against cross-site tracking by default

Workaround

So it looks like your only recourse here is to disable auto fill under the  "User names and passwords" section of the AutoFill tab of Safari's preferences.

AutFill tab under Safari Preferences

Edit under User names and passwords

NOTE: That dialog is actually just the Passwords tab, so you can just navigate to it directly.


Registering as an Apple Developer as a sole proprietor using a dba (doing business as) Is it possible to use a "dba" (doing business as) when registering as an Apple Developer as a sole proprietor? The objective would be to have the "dba" show up as the developer in the App Store, instead of the legal name of the sole proprietor person.

Please note that this question is specifically about being a sole proprietor. Registering an LLC is not an option here.

Contact Apple

You should contact Apple iTunes directly about this question. The answer will depend on your geographic region and exact legal status.

Business Name

Apple appear to enforce the use of the registered business name. For sole traders and similar business structures, this means your personal name.

See Does app store display sole trader's name and home address? for a related Apple Developer Forum discussion:

  The only way to not display your name is if you have a company/LLC, in which case gather the related documentation and contact Apple via the Contact Us tree found in iTunes Connect.


All notes mysteriously disappeared across all synced devices. Can I recover? All of my notes that are synced through iCloud have just disappeared across all of my synced devices. I use this application every day and would really like to get these notes back, but I can't explain how they disappeared.
Here's what happened:

I went to my notes app earlier today on my laptop
The notes app took a while to sync with iCloud
When it finished syncing, all my notes disappeared and there is no Recently Deleted section.
I went to my iPhone and had the same behaviour.
When I went to my iCloud account in my browser to check my notes, it was empty, too.
I went to my old laptop, disconntected it from the internet and made a backup of all the files in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.notes/Data/Library/Notes. This laptop has my notes up to early April of this year.
When I reconnected the laptop to the internet, it synced as well, and I lost everything (thought I still have the backup).

Several questions:

What could have happened here such that all notes were deleted?
How can I prevent this from happening in the future?
Is there any way of recovering these notes now? (For example, might they be in my iPhone backup?)

I do use Carbonite to back up my laptop files, but ~/Library/Containers/ is not one of the folders being backed up.

I have three questions here and I was able to figure out the two, with a guess for the first.
What could have happened here such that all notes were deleted?
I don't know exactly, but my guess is that the notes database was corrupted somehow. Most likely, the corruption happened on my phone (since I upgraded an OS patch two days ago). When my iPhone synced its corrupted database with iCloud, all notes there were deleted too. And then the corruption was passed on to my laptop. This is just a guess, though.
However, it seems like others have had this problem, too.
How can I prevent this from happening in the future?
The key thing to remember is that syncing is not a backup. If you sync corrupted or deleted data, then everything is corrupted or deleted. The most important thing to do is make sure you have backups of all your important data AND check to make sure that your backups are actually working properly.
In my case, the backup software on my laptop was not backing up anything in my ~/Library directory (which is where the notes archives are stored) unless I went in and changed some arcane settings. After this was done, I have this folder backing up.
I also installed Exporter from the app store which allows you to export your notes to text. This will be another stopgap for me if this ever happens again.
Is there any way of recovering these notes now? (For example, might they be in my iPhone backup?)
It turns out that yes, these notes were being backed up on my phone, but it was more complicated than just applying this backup to get the notes back. If I didn't do anything else, once the phone starts syncing with iCloud, all the backedup notes were immediately deleted because the synced notes on iCloud is "newer" (ie- the database corruption happened after the backup, so the corruption overwrote the notes).
What I needed to do was:

reinstate the backup
immediately put my phone into airplane mode so no syncing happened
open the notes app
move all notes to a non-synced folder outside of iCloud
take phone out of airplane mode
let the sync complete (ie- the local phone's synced folder and iCloud are now both without any notes, but the non-synced folder has all notes).
Move the notes back to the iCloud folder.
Allow sync to happen as normal.

This solved the problem.


Can I move my iTunes library to a network drive? The question title pretty much says it all. I'd like to be able to free up space on my iMac G5's hard drive. I had considered upgrading the drive, but moving it off the Mac seems like it'd be a better option.

If I'm able to do this, might it be possible that other non-Mac computers could make use of the MP3s on the server? I'd love to, for example, be able to access the library when the Mac isn't on, particularly from my ChromeOS laptop and Win7 netbook. (I can post a separate question to SuperUser about that part of the issue.)

The mac is a G5 iMac, the drive is a LaCie 2TB drive connected to an AirPort hub via USB.

What would I need to do to get this to work? What about protected AACs from the Apple Store? (I still have a few of those, but most of my iTunes library is DRM-free.)

You certainly can.

In iTunes, you can choose where your music library is stored:

ITunes->Preferences->Advanced->ITunes...location

If you want multiple iTunes accessing the library, it can get complicated. If other music players just use the folder structure, it should just work.

Extra scripts and config options can be set up so that iTunes uses a small local library if the network drive is not mounted, etc.


Does AirDrop use up Bandwidth? I recently used AirDrop for the first time to send about 30GB of videos to a friend while we were both connected to my internet. Two days later I got an e-mail from my internet provider saying I was over 50% of my monthly bandwidth at 50.31GB, and this was only a couple days into the "new month". I haven't downloaded anything these first few days of the month, nor have I been browsing/streaming much over my network.

I'm wondering if AirDrop is the reason why I've burned through a bunch of data.

AirDrop creates a direct connection to another Mac through it's wireless card and therefor does not transfer across your LANs wired network or wireless network and most certainly does not effect your internet bandwidth.

Here are 4 possible reasons for the high bandwidth.

You are unaware of software on your Mac because someone else has installed it on your behalf. Perhaps Online Backup Software or you may have installed it yourself and not been aware of the repercussions. i.e. Crashplan/Dropbox etc.
Your network has been compromised by a Neighbour via wireless. Reset your wireless routers password and make sure it is set to use a secure protocol i.e. WPA2
You have another device on your network to do with streaming Movies to your TV like Netflix.
You have signed up for iTunes Match and have synced Music and Movies to all your Mac devices.


Start video playback NOT enter full screen When I watch videos in Safari sometimes I want to stop the video and go to another tab, then I come back to the video and click on it to start the playback. But instead of the video starting I go to full screen. How do I stop this behavior?

I have discovered that I can go to full screen with a double click. If the double click speed is too fast it won't do it so there has to be a couple seconds between clicks, so I think that what is happening is that I am clicking the tap where the video is and then clicking in the screen and the time between the two clicks is the right amount to put me in full screen. Now that I know this I can do another double click to exit full screen. I would still like to be able to disable tis if anyone knows how to do it.


Add Cut file/folder option to right click or Context menu I use Lion on my Macbook pro 13". I would like to add a context menu item called "Move" or "Cut" (just like Copy) and when I go to the desired location and hit "Paste", it should Move the file/folder I selected and paste it there. Is this possible in Lion?

The short answer is no.

Assuming you may be an ex-Windows user, you cannot perform a "Cut" and "Paste" with files or folders in Mac OS X Lion, or previous versions for that matter like you can in Windows.

Your only option is to drag and drop to move, or "Copy" and "Paste" then delete the original afterwards.


Clearing user input - New Remote Connection Window MAC OSX I was using Terminal.app to to use the ssh command and I opened the "New Remote Connection" window. There is this long text box under the "user" box that displays the ssh ... commands that were entered. How do I clear my input? It just displays all of my server names that were entered? The delete doesn't seem to work?

You can clear the New Remote Connection history (which is shown in the dropbox that you mentioned) by typing the following in an active Terminal window:

defaults write com.apple.Terminal PreviousCommands '()'

Then, quit and restart Terminal and the history should be empty.


Why XCode needs to be stopped to update iTunes ? I'm wondering everytime iTunes has an update :

Why XCode needs to be stopped to update iTunes ?

Is it some kind of shared component ?

Both depend upon the same PrivateFramework.

Specifically usbmuxd is part of the MobileDevice.framework which communicates to iOS devices. When an iTunes update includes an update to usbmuxd, then Xcode can be flagged to prevent it from interacting with the subsystem while the update is being performed.