Is it possible to completely reset an iPhone so its software/firmware is guaranteed to be 100% factory fresh? When purchasing a used iPhone with a completely unknown history (which includes the possibility of multiple previous owners), is it possible to reset it and be sure that all software and firmware on it is 100% identical to the factory image?
Please keep in mind that since the history is unknown, it's possible the device was previously jailbroken/unlocked/rooted/etc.
If the answer varies depending on iPhone model, please indicate to which models your answer pertains.
I'm interested in answers for all iPhone models.

Please note:
The question and answers at Is it possible to return the iPhone to its very original factory state? do not help because they do not take in account the possibility of the phone being jailbroken/unlocked/rooted/etc.  Also, that question is ambiguous as to whether or not it applies to both the software and firmware.

No, it’s not possible if the phone has received iOS updates, which it probably has. You may be able to reset it to the factory state of a new iPhone, but not to the factory state of your iPhone, because Apple works hard to ensure that you can’t downgrade iOS to the factory version.


Can auto glass chip repair kits fix cracked iOS device screens? Can auto glass chip repair kits such as this item repair cracked iOS device screens? If so, what should I watch out for?

Yes, glass chip kits can be used to fix a cracked screen, but only in the following conditions:

The crack does not cover any of the touch surface (only the bezel area is cracked). Anywhere resin is left on the surface of the device or seeps under the glass can block the electrical signal from your finger and prevent the device from reading a touch in that area.
The "suction cup" (really, a gasket) included with the kit will likely only be partially attached to the device during the repair. It must completely cover the crack, but may only extend off one edge of the device (it will not work well on a corner) and the hole in the center of the gasket must not cover the touch surface.

These conditions mean a repair is not likely to work with an iPhone or iPod Touch, but may work with the larger bezel on an iPad, especially as most cracks begin near the edge of a screen.

There is one modification to the instructions included with the kits. At the point where you press the gasket sticker to the glass to make a seal, you should also fold it down so that it seals the edge of the glass as well. This is because the metal backing on the iOS device does not completely cover the sides of the glass. You need to seal the resin within the glass and prevent it from escaping. This is why a corner repair is unlikely to work well: it is difficult or impossible to get a good seal over a corner.

The last step of the process requires you to leave the device in direct sunlight, preferably outdoors, to allow UV light to cure the resin. Make sure not to do this on a hot day, or the heat can damage your device. I did my own repair on the day in the low sixties and still had a temperature warning by the time the resin had cured.

Even following these tips, you may end up with an imperfect repair. However, this should be enough to prevent or at least significantly delay the crack from spreading, and thus likely save a much more costly or extensive repair. In my case, the crack is still visible, but only if I remove the protective cover (which I never do.)

It's also important to note that this will void your warranty, but as the warranty doesn't cover accidental damage anyway it's a case of pick your poison.


Associate Apple ID with two different SIM cards (phone numbers) I live in Canada but travel to the States and when I do I put in my American SIM card which of course has a different phone number. Sometimes when in the States I get locked out of my account and it sends a verification code to my Canadian number, but I don't really want to put the SIM card back in the phone just to get the code.  Is there any way I can have the verification code go to both numbers simultaneously.

If you have another phone, you can forward both phone calls and messages from one number to another. If you have another iPhone, you can forward messages for free - just go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding. This will make the message appear on both devices within a minute or so of each other. If you don't have an iPhone, I expect other phones would have an SMS forwarding capability, but there would be a per message cost.

I use this so I don't have to carry a work and personal phone, and it works well. The only complication you have is that it is in 2 different countries, so there will be roaming charges (I expect).


Can't read filenames in save dialog box. Names are too faint I want to click on file to inherit the name for the file being saved. I can't read file names in the dialog box because the color is too faint.
This is the same question as File Save dialog unreadable

That question does not have an answer but I don't have enough points to interact there so I have to post a new question.

Edited to add screen shots
I tried to calibrate the monitor which no effect and did not change the readability of "unavailable" file names. I have added screenshots of previous operating systems to compare:
Please tell me how Mojave is not to blame here:

The save dialog box will gray out files with extensions that differ from the file you're saving. The folders are not grayed out because you are allowed to change folders if you were to choose saving in them.
For example, if you had a folder full of .docx and .xlsx files while trying to save a .docx file all of the .xlsx files will be grayed out, but the .docx files will be their normal contrast.
Depending on the application, there may be a "File Extension" or a "Format" option at the bottom of the save dialog box where you can save as a different extension. In some cases (although becoming less common) this dialog box may have the option *.* that will allow you to select any extension. You've cropped out that part of your screenshots so I can't say exactly if this option exists in your case.


Detect when an application goes fullscreen? I would like to detect that event from an Applescript. I have found the lsappinfo command-line app, which has a listen command that seems to fill my need exactly, but going fullscreen does show up in the output. Here is what I tried. First I ran in Terminal

lsappinfo  listen +all forever

Then I clicked on a Safari window, and then clicked on the green button to make it fullscreen, then exited fullscreen and went back to terminal to see the output. I then did it again but without going fullscreen, just clicking on a Safari window, and then clicking back on the Terminal window. In both cases, the sequence of events is

FrontApplicationPresentationModeChanged, received by Safari
PresentationModeChangedBecauseFrontApplicationChanged, received by Safari
BecameFrontmost, received by Safari
LostFrontmost, received by Terminal
MenuBarAcquired, received by Safari
MenuBarLost, received by Terminal
FrontApplicationPresentationModeChanged, received by Terminal
PresentationModeChangedBecauseFrontApplicationChanged, received by Terminal
BecameFrontmost, received by Terminal
etc

The "fullscreen event" should have shown up between 6 and 7 in this list but it is conspicuously absent!

This is on MacOS 10.12.6. It feels like a bug to me. Does somebody know whether it works on other versions of MacOS? Is there any other way to achieve my goal?

I am not sure if this solves your issue or not but the easiest way to detect whether or not a window is full screen would be to compare it's window dimensions to the window dimensions of your "desktop window". See below:

tell application "Finder" to set screenSize to bounds of window of desktop

tell application "Safari" to set windowBounds to bounds of front window

if windowBounds is equal to screenSize then
    return "It's Full Screen"
else
    return "Not Full Screen"
end if


My MacBook Pro mid-2010 won't recognize new hard drive I was forced to change my HD since the old one gives me I/O error on boot.

I bought a Western Digital Blue WD5000LPVX, connected by USB to another Mac and format it using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system.

When I change the new hard drive and boot OS X Mavericks from USB drive, going to Disk Utility the new HD isn't recognized.

Is it a wrong HD for my Mac? Why isn't it shown in Disk Utility?

Using a MacBook Pro mid-2010

I'm not sure if this will work for you since you've got an error on boot, but if your OLD drive can get into recovery mode, I did a pretty extensive write up on swapping hard drives here: How do i install OS X on new hard drive? I have macbook pro mid 2010.

If it doesn't, based on my research, you'll need another Mac to create a bootable install from a USB device of at least 8 GB.

This question is really old, but just in case someone runs across it, I figured I'd put in my $.02. In addition sometimes this problem may occur due to the HDD cable itself failing a Apple known problem with this model. In which case a new cable usually allows communication with the HDD to work internally as it should. While many Hdd refused to work internally they booted externally just fine.  These cables run $30 to $60 depending on where you buy.


Macbook pro early 2011 model motherboard short circuted on connecting data cable to USB port I have macbook pro early 2011 MC700 model. Few days back I was using it on battery and connected my samsung phone data cable to USB port and when I was about to connect other end of cable to my phone, macbook crashed. I took it to service centre and after few days technician told me macbook motherboard has short circuted and it need to be replaced. My macbook is just 3 month old and warranty has saved me from the cost of repair. I want to know what exactly is reason of short circuit. Is it fault in that model or this kind of short circuit of motherboard on connecting data cable is a common phenomenon. Now in future I will think twice before connecting my USB cable or pendrive to USB port of macbook. What can be exact reason of shortcircuit of motherboard. Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Anuj

I youtubed/googled the issue and all I needed to do was remove the battery plug on the logicboard and I guess the system resets and it worked again. MacBook Pro alive.

How did I learn this? This happened to me at well. I had my MacBook Pro 17' connected to my Thunderbolt Display and when decided to charge my ipad using the USB and when I connected the iPad, everything shutdown. I couldn't even power it back on. Took it to apple store and they told me 500 bucks. WHAT$$$ They don't even diagnose the problem.


Blue Light reduction for iPod touch? After speaking with a senior advisor at Apple, I have been informed by them that the Night Shift feature (and other iOS features in the 9.3 upgrade) are not available for Ipod touch 5th generation, which is frustrating, as there seems to be no available alternative.

I used to have a great app on my Ipod called F.LUX (which as only available if I jailbroke the Ipod). This app reduces Blue Light, and is what the new Night Shift app in iOS 9.3 is based on.

Since Apple has abandoned Ipod 5 support for many new features in iOS 9.3,   and does not support Night Shift on the iPod touch 5, are there any system wide apps that I can install that will protect my eyes at night by reducing blue light emissions?

If you manage to find the project file that you can sideload using Xcode on a Mac, you can get f.lux without jail breaking.


XCode 8 keeps hanging Since I've updated to Sierra and started using XCode 8, XCode started freezing a lot, specially (but not only) when saving. The beachball appears and nothing can be done in XCode.
Sometimes it freezes for some seconds and resumes, other times it won't resume (or at least, not in a reasonable time).

Already tried XCode 8.1 and 8.2. Same problem.

Is there any fix? Or anyway to troubleshoot this (like logs and such).

Close Xcode
Open Terminal
Type defaults delete com.apple.dt.Xcode
Re-open Xcode

Note: Xcode will be reset to its default settings. This might help if you would like to do so.


Where can I find the stock audio files (notifications, ringtones, etc) from iOS 6? I am working on a prototype/demo of an application and it is necessary for me to play back the iOS 6 audio files on a PC. Supposing I was able to access the file system on my iOS device, what path would I find those files under?

If your device is jailbroken, you can grab them from /System/Library/Audio/UISounds


iOS 8.1.2 and Outlook 2010 Calendar Sync Issue Corporate environment.
Outlook 2010 running on Windows 7 32bit.
iOS 8.1.2 running on iPhone 6.

Scenario:

User 1 sets up a meeting, using Outlook 2010, and sends the invite to User 2. User 2 gets the meeting notification in Outlook 2010 but not on the iPhone.

Also, if User 2 creates a new meeting on their iPhone the meeting never shows on User 2's Outlook 2010 calendar.

The iPhone is using Mobile Iron to handle the Exchange account.

Settings > General > Mail, Contacts, And Calendars > Scroll to the bottom where it says Default Calendar and make sure the "On This iPhone" option isn't checked. If it is then you need to select the appropriate calendar for this be it your FIRM or Corporate Calendar. An option your IT Administrator or if your FIRM or Corporation requires to have an app for would have been preloaded and installed already on the iPhone or iOS Configuration


Can't delete old TimeMachine backup In terminal, trying to do the following:

$ sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/BACKUP/Backups.backupdb/lappy/2014-11-02-005458/
Deleting: /Volumes/BACKUP/Backups.backupdb/lappy/2014-11-02-005458

I get the following error:

Error (-36) deleting: /Volumes/BACKUP/Backups.backupdb/lappy/2014-11-02-005458
Error (512) re-linking Latest for machine directory: /Volumes/BACKUP/Backups.backupdb/lappy
Total deleted: 8.0K

Is there another way I can delete old backup files to release disk space?

And Time Machine window shows

I had the same problem and found the solution at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8597674:

  Add your Terminal app (i.e. Terminal.app or iTerm.app) to your list of apps for full disk access in Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access.


How to solve Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Overscan problem? (Part of the screen is missing) I use the latest model of iMac 27 inch and output to an Samsung 40 inch HDTV, and found that the Menu Bar is missing on the HDTV.   This is usually known as the "overscan" issue, that the top 10 or 15 lines are missing (and so are the bottom, left, and right) -- this is because in the old days, there are some signals for TV info piggy-backed in the TV signal (usually at the bottom) and the TV won't want to display it, so the top, left, right, bottom 10 or 15 lines are cut off.

This isn't a problem with a Dell Studio 15 Notebook: the notebook computer output HDMI directly, and 100%, every single pixel is visible on the HDTV.

Also, I tried both a generic Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable (from Monoprice), as well as an expensive, Belkin cable sold at the Apple Store -- they are the same.

Also, this issue happens no matter I choose the "Mirror Mode" or the "Individual Display Mode" on the iMac -- in either case, the 10 or 15 lines are missing at the top, bottom, left, and right.

Is there a way to solve this?  To make it work like the Dell notebook? (either by hardware, software, or settings?)

Update: a better solution I found later on was to change the HDTV to not overscan at all, if that's possible.  More details in:  How to solve the "overscan" issue if the iMac is connected to an HDTV and using BootCamp and Windows 7?  That solution is to set the TV not to overscan at all.  For example, the setting of 16:9 or 4:3 may both overscan, but the setting of "Just Scan" will not overscan at all.

There should be an "Underscan" adjustment in display preferences. Open up the Displays in System Preferences. Have a look at your available resolutions. There should be a 720p, 1080i and 1080p, choose whichever is appropriate for your TV, and a slider labelled Underscan should appear. Adjust as necessary to get the picture right on your TV.


Apple ID no longer working on discussions.apple.com When I try and log into  discussions.apple.com I see this message:

"Please sign in again. For added security, we need to reconfirm your Apple ID"

So I do that then I see:

"Pick a username"

It says that's available and I hit continue and then I see:

"An account utilizing this email address already exists.  Only one account per email address is allowed on Apple Support Communities".

I called Apple Care and they said they weren't sure who to contact about the matter and that I should just use another email address.  Of course I prefer to continue using this email address that's worked for years on the discussion groups.  Apparently the site upgrade messed things up. What can I do to get this working?

To get help with Apple ID, the best solution is to go to this web page to start the process:

http://www.apple.com/support/appleid/

In your case, choose contact support on the lower left of the page. Then Contact US, then iTunes store and finally Apple ID Security.

Explain in detail the error message you got and your email address that is associated with your Apple ID and your Apple ID. Give them a phone number to call you and times that work in the next week and ask for help getting a reset email sent to whatever email account is in use and preventing your participation on Apple Discussions. Explain to them that you want to exert control / secure any and all discussion accounts that are registered to an email account that you control.

You can also choose billing support if you are in any way not able to buy things on the iTunes store or App Stores since they don't need eligible hardware to help people that have problems spending more money without some Apple ID help.

Good luck and feel free to answer with how you sorted this out. I've done so several times in the past, but each time the steps seem to change a bit.


Why is Airdrop not available between iPhone and old MBP Since 10.10 and iOS 8, AirDrop is available between Mac OS and iOS if you have a fairly recent Mac (>= 2012 for MacBook Pro) and I don't understand what changed between 2011 and 2012. I know that for older Macs it's a bi-band issue (Why doesn't AirDrop work on older network adapters?) but as AirDrop works between Macs, what's changed in AirDrop with iDevices?

Your MacBook Pro does not contain the necessary hardware to support AirDrop.

In OS X, the feature didn't use Bluetooth, instead using Bonjour and personal area networking over WiFi to discover and transfer files between Macs.

When iOS gained the feature in version 7, it was a completely different implementation, using Bluetooth LE and WiFi Direct. That's why it was not previously compatible with the OS X implementation.

Apple has now retrofitted the iOS implementation onto OS X in Yosemite. This in turn requires a chip for Bluetooth v4 and LE support. This chip was not included in MacBook Pros until mid-2012.

You may be able to replace the Bluetooth chip in a 2011 MacBook Pro. See this thread on MacRumors. It references Handoff/Continuity but the underlying chip replacement is what is needed to enable AirDrop as well.

  As it turns out the 2011 MacBook Pro can use the same Airport/Bluetooth card as the mid 2012 Macbook pro and its user replaceable so by replacing the 2011 macbook pro Airport/Bluetooth card you should have the ability to use Handoff/continuity.


Why aren't 2 external monitors working with MBP (mid 2014)? So I have 2 external monitors; One is hdmi, the other is DisplayPort.
I have a MBP mid-2014 model which contains 2 Thunderbolt 2 ports as well as an HDMI port.
Theoretically I would have thought I could plug in two miniDP to HDMI cables, run one to monitor #1, and run the second one to an HDMI to DisplayPort adapter -> monitor #2.
That did not work, and I since realized only one of the miniDP ports can support video at a time.
I then read running an HDMI and a miniDP at the same time would work, so I tried that, miniDP->HDMI monitor #1, and then HDMI->HDMI to DP adapter -> monitor #2. Still does not work. Only one monitor shows video.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this is so difficult to do. I have seen others use USB adapters but would prefer not to sacrifice any CPU usage with the second display.
What possible options do I have for using my 2 external monitors in extended view?
Thank you for any help!

According to Apple, your MBP supports dual monitors plus the native display:
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp703?locale=en_US
You may have a bad HDMI>DP adapter, but my bigger question is why are you doing that in the first place? Why take Thunderbolt and convert to HDMI, when you have a HDMI port on the Macbook?
I recommend that you connect the HDMI port to the HDMI port on one monitor, and you connect the Thunderbolt to DP on the other monitor. Thunderbolt outputs DP 'natively' so its a better fit for DP.


Does the Mac Pro 2008 display memory speeds accurately in System Information? Can anyone confirm that when a Mac Pro 2008 has 800MHz FB-DIMMs installed it displays the Ram speed as 800Mhz in the System Information and not 667MHZ. I am running OS X Lion.

Verified that there was only PC2 - 5300 RAM installed, which is 667MHZ. So there was not any 800MHZ ram installed, so I can verify that 667MHZ was in fact accurate in this situation.


Mac App Store Debug - Save page source to disk I've searched the net for this, but nobody seems to have the answer. Anyone knows where the "page source" gets saved when I select Debug - Save page source to disk from within the Mac App Store? Thank you.

It's saved in /private/tmp as pageSource.html


Implementing AirPrint with DNS-SD Background

I'm trying to implement AirPrint through static DNS, like documented on http://dns-sd.org/ServerStaticSetup.html. The iPad gets the dns search domain "lan" through DHCP, and I verified that in Settings-WLAN. I think I created all necessary entries in the right places, the iPad however doesn't find my printer or if it happened to find it, it showed a lock after the printers name and didn't print. (iOS version is 6.0.1)

Has anyone here a clue, as to why iOS does not find the printer or if it finds it, why it shows it as locked?

This is my setup (simplified with example domain)

DNS entries

Redirect to browse domain

PTR b._dns-sd._udp.lan = bonjour.lan
PTR lb._dns-sd._udp.lan = bonjour.lan

Printer entries

PTR _ipp._tcp.bonjour.lan = TestPrinter._ipp._tcp.bonjour.lan
PTR _universal._sub._ipp._tcp.bonjour.lan = TestPrinter._ipp._tcp.bonjour.lan
SRV TestPrinter._ipp._tcp.bonjour.lan = 0 0 631 mfp.printer
TXT TestPrinter._ipp._tcp.bonjour.lan

txtvers=1
qtotal=1
rp=Print
ty=Toshiba MFP
adminurl=http://mfp.printer
note=Shared MFP
priority=0
product=(Toshiba eStudio 351c)
printer-state=3
printer-type=0xC0B0DE
Transparent=T
Binary=T
Fax=F
Color=T
Duplex=T
Staple=F
Copies=T
Collate=T
Punch=F
Bind=F
Sort=T
Scan=T
pdl=application/octet-stream,application/pdf,application/postscript,image/jpeg,image/png,image/urf
URF=none

Caveats: I don't own an AirPrint device nor do I have one available elsewhere for testing. So I'm not talking from my own experience in the following answer...

First, when publishing a printer (AirPrint or not) from a DNS server ("static, Wide Area Bonjour"), you should include ALL of the TXT record key/value pairs which are listed in the current Bonjour Printing specification.

A tabular overview is listed in chapter 9 of the specification document (for all details please read the complete chapter):

Second, the Bonjour Printing specification requires that for a printer you always have to register the LPD protocol (_printer._tcp), even if the device does not support it (port = 0) !.

The reason for this seemingly braindead requirement is this: LPD is considered the "flagship" protocol for service discovery related to printing. (Meaning: if you own the service instance name for _printer then you also own it for _pdl-datastream, _ipp, _ipps, etc.)

Some older versions of OS X enforced this. They would not work without it. Newer versions (and probably the next macOS version too) are less dogmatic and more pragmatic...

In your case the air (has nothing to do with AirPrint, but means s.th. like authentication information required), TLS, UUID, usb_MFG, usb_CMD and usb_MDL keys are missing (even if you'd use "" as their key values).
Third, please take to heart the general rule about the trailing dot for domain names. Details are outlined here:

dns-sd.org/TrailingDotsInDomainNames.html

Fourth, maybe you also should enclose your key values in quotes. Example:

pdl="application/pdf,image/urf"

not

pdl=application/pdf,image/urf

Fifth, in general, what is quoted above in the OP code block does not look like a valid format for a zone file to me. (I notice that the original question has been edited by other people than the OP, so I won't comment on the details...)


App promo codes - do they renew? A client of mine has generated all 100 promo codes for their app without considering that they are valid for only 28 days.

Do they ever regenerate? If I made version 2.0 of the App would that enable new promo codes?

It's just naivety on the part of the client.

Thanks,

Paul

They will regenerate and make the old codes invalid.

"They become invalid if a new version of the app becomes available" ... "You can request up to 100 promo codes for every version of each platform of your app"  - Apple Developer - Providing Promo Codes


Is switching 3G/4G off to save power a cheap trick? Since UMTS is a lot fast than EDGE, data transfers via UMTS take less time.
When downloading the same file, it would take longer to be downloaded via EDGE.

Doesn't the difference in transfer time (partly) kill the advantage of saving power as the antenna pulls power for longer to end the transfer?

If you still want to be downloading stuff, then probably yes, switching off 3G probably won't save you much power / battery life. However, when my battery is running low, switching off 3G can make the difference between the battery making it until I get to a charger or not. Obviously in those conditions I stop surfing or doing anything data-related as well, but even just for being in standby and receiving or making calls, 3G uses a lot more power than GPRS / EDGE / UMTS.


I want to use an iPhone5 S bought in the US in India I bought an iPhone 5S from the US. It is unlocked. In India I am unable to use it with the local (Indian) service provider. When I insert a nano sim card, I am getting an error msg: "activation required".

Please explain how I could use it with local GSM service provider.

If I remember correctly, the "unlocked" iPhone 5S sold in the US is really unlocked for use on TMO or AT&T.  This means you need to activate it with one of those two carriers before it can be used with another carrier's SIM card.  I'd contact Apple to verify and see if they can do anything to help out since you're no longer in the US.


Computer shutting down (dirty) randomly Everyday when I come back to my system it will be shutoff no matter what I do, if I log out, it'll be shutdown, if I restart it will be shutdown. A grep through the log files shows me this:

2018-03-29 16:06:29.964161-0500 0x4a8      Default     0x0                  0      kernel: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 3
2018-03-29 18:30:34.297536-0500 0x435      Default     0x0                  0      kernel: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 3
2018-03-30 09:42:33.355573-0500 0x420      Default     0x0                  0      kernel: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 3

The 3 means hard reboot (or so I've gathered) but I'm not rebooting my system. Is there a way for me to tell what is causing my reboots or if there is an application that is crashing that could be causing this?

EDIT:

I've figured out that the 3 is a dirty forced shutdown, so this leaves the question, how can I determine what is causing the issue?

I actually believe I've found a fix for this.

I started greping through all the log files from when this issue started happening looking for a pattern. As it turns out the pattern is that the GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon runs everytime right before the crash happens:

Mar 30 13:33:55 <COMP-NAME> GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon[19078]: 2018-03-30 13:33:55.245 GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon[19078/0x7fff77030000] [lvl=2] -[KeystoneDaemon main] GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon inactive, shutdown.
Mar 30 13:34:00 localhost kernel[0]: Previous shutdown cause: 3

So doing some research, this is a updater that is secretly installed by Google (it is nowhere in their terms of service, nor is there a warning for it) what this does is update your Google applications every 5 hours. In order to disable this you can do the following:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

What that command will do is set the interval for checking to 0. This is probably not recommended since security updates are important, so you can also set the interval for once a week:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 604800

Now apparently this updater takes up very minuscule amounts of resources, but what they don't tell you is that it depends on how much Google software is on your system, it runs all the updates at one time. For example, if you have Google Chrome, Google Drive, and Google Hangouts installed, it will attempt to run updates for all of those pieces of software at once.

So what I did is the first option, set it to 0 and watched the computer for over an hour. Nothing happened, restarted and it boot right up, watched for another hour and it didn't crash or turn off. Going to assume this was the problem and move on with my life.


Is there any software to control at what time a specific network can be used? I recently purchased a MiFi to be used while commuting, but apparently the AutoOn doesn't really work as expected.

In less than a week I bursted £16 pound credit, when I was supposed to pay £0.2 per each 20Mb.
As I did not downloaded 1.6GB of traffic, but I don't have time to complain I wonder whether there is some way or some software to control at what time my laptop use a specific network.

By doing this, even though the MiFi will remain active, no network will be connected and I won't be charged (though it is also strange I have made traffic with the laptop off).

Look forward to hearing from you.
Andrea

There's an app called Control Plane that allows you to setup rules for various preferences based on criteria such as what network you just joined, your location, time of day, etc. You could try creating a rule with it that cuts down the network activity on your mac after so many minutes of connecting to the Mifi.

http://www.controlplaneapp.com


Can macOS system open zip and tar archives natively? I have to upload an archive for some Linux, Windows and Mac OS users. I'm using Linux so I'm sure everybody could handle a tar file, Windows users will get some problems, so I think zip is the best way.

Are these formats native?

OS X can handle both by default from Finder. The Archive Utility that ships with OS X knows how to extract both formats. Just double click on the file or Cmd-Click (or right click) on the archive and select 'Open' from the list and OS X will unarchive it.

Users also have access to zip, unzip and tar from a Terminal window command line. These all come with OS X.

There's also the free, and most excellent, Unarchiver that they can install that allows for a few more options when dealing with compressed files. It also supports a few more formats. But it's completely unnecessary for extracting gzip-compressed tar archives and zip archives.


Restrict ssh access to selected IP on macOS I want to restrict ssh access on macOS 10.12 to selected IPs on my local network. I tried writing the following files:

# /etc/hosts.allow
sshd: 192.168.1.32
sshd: 192.168.1.33

# /etc/hosts.deny
sshd: ALL

Then restarting with:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist

Unloading ssh.plist successfully disabled ssh, but after reloading I can still connect from any IP.

How can I configure an IP whitelist?

hosts.allow and hosts.deny are only used when you run the service (sshd) through TCP wrappers. The default macOS install does not do that, so they will not have any effect.

As recommended by other answers, you could use a firewall to restrict access to SSH. This could be a hardware (i.e. "external") firewall or a software firewall such as the built-in pf firewall.

However, I wouldn't recommend using a firewall only. The best is to limit the sshd service itself - and if you want, you can add the firewall protection to that. The reasoning behind that is that if for some reason your firewall gets disabled, outside users would suddenly be allowed access to communicate with sshd - you really do not want that.

In order to configure sshd to limit access, you will need to edit the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config, and add the following:

AllowUsers username@192.168.1.32 username@192.168.1.33

where you replace "username" with your actual username.

If you want you can replace parts with * to denote a wildcard, such as for example username@192.168.1.* or *@192.168.1.32. You can read more about the options in the man page for sshd_config.


Mountain Lion ssh -X problems How to run on Mountain Lion X11 forwarding via SSH?

Example:

ssh -X some@example.com xterm

my /etc/sshd_config has

X11Forwarding yes
#X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes

# XAuthLocation added by XQuartz (http://xquartz.macosforge.org)
XAuthLocation /opt/X11/bin/xauth

Restarted sshd with

launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd
launchctl start com.openssh.sshd

(and from the Preferences -> Sharing too)

Started XQuatrz, and from the xterm I run

ssh -v -X mrp@192.168.1.17 xterm        #this part not works :)

got the next:

debug1: Authentication succeeded (keyboard-interactive).
Authenticated to 192.168.1.17 ([192.168.1.17]:22).
debug1: channel 0: new [client-session]
debug1: Requesting no-more-sessions@openssh.com
debug1: Entering interactive session.
debug1: Requesting X11 forwarding with authentication spoofing.
debug1: Sending command: xterm
debug1: Remote: No xauth program; cannot forward with spoofing.
X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0
xterm: Xt error: Can't open display:
xterm: DISPLAY is not set
debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype exit-status reply 0
debug1: client_input_channel_req: channel 0 rtype eow@openssh.com reply 0
debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1
Transferred: sent 2656, received 2480 bytes, in 0.1 seconds
Bytes per second: sent 29582.4, received 27622.1
debug1: Exit status 1

from the xterm

$ echo $DISPLAY
/tmp/launch-BHtJfJ/org.macosforge.xquartz:0

changing it to :0 doesn't helps

running from the xterm

$ xauth list
jonatan.local/unix:0  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1  f4f85682af36ae7d95cd3d244cb6beb2
192.168.1.9:0  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1  f4f85682af36ae7d95cd3d244cb6beb2
jonatan.local:0  MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1  f4f85682af36ae7d95cd3d244cb6beb2

Any idea?

You need to open XQuartz, go to X11 → Preferences → Security, there are two check boxes: disable the first, enable the second. Restart XQuartz and try again. You will also need to define the $DISPLAY variable like this:

export DISPLAY=clienthost:0.0


Column width and document margins don't add up I am sure this question has been asked many times, I just couldn't find an answer on the web.

I am writing a letter (I started with one of the Pages templates).
Now I'd like to increase the width of the body of the text.

So I set the right Document Margin to 0; that increased the width a little, but I get nowhere near the edge of the paper.

I've got a paper size of A4, which has width 21 cm.
Looking at Format / Layout / Columns, I see that the column has a width = 14.5 cm.
Left document margin = 2.5 cm.
But 2.5 + 14.5 = 17 cm, not 21 cm!

Where is the rest of the width?
Why can't I increase the body text width further?

All hints and insights will be highly appreciated!
Best regards, Gabriel

PS:
Apple Pages version = 10.0 (6748), macOS Catalina (10.15)

At the very top of an open document click on the 2 Document tabs on the right. This brings op options to set hard page boundaries. The first Documents tab I'm referring to is the one next to the Format tab and the next is below that. See image below.

If that doesn't work add the paper size US Letter borderless available via pulldown.


How can I stop NTFS-3g from mounting a particular volume? I have NTFS-3g installed and working. I don't want it to mount my Boot Camp partition; I do want it to mount any other NTFS drives I have. How do I do this?

(The mounted volume list in NTFS-3g's System Preferences page is always empty, for whatever reason, so I can't disable it that way. As I recall, this option puts a file on the disk in the root directory. But what should the file's name be? I'm having no luck with google here...)

OS X 10.10.3.

Add the following line to the /etc/fstab file.

LABEL=BOOTCAMP none ntfs rw,noauto 0 0

If the label is something other then "BOOTCAMP" set it to what it is.

To edit the fstab file, in a Terminal: sudo nano /etc/fstab

To save the changes press control-O and to exit press control-X


How to view an image full screen on an Apple Watch with no UI showing I need to be able to display an image (or video) full screen on an Apple Watch, without displaying any UI.

Opening an image in Photos shows a small watch icon in the bottom
left corner.
Opening it from Messages displays the name of the person
being messaged in the top right corner
Saving a photo as a watch face
displays the image with the time over it.

Is there any other way you can think of? It's for a video where a character needs to see a specific image on the watch, and I'd rather not do it in post-production.

The native way to do this is to use Xcode 12 and a free AppleID to make a custom app using AVKit and SwiftUI.

https://developer.apple.com/watchos/

Xcode can take your video content and display it as a custom app. QuickTime Player and Xcode can record the screen so you could fake pre-roll Home Screen content and add that to your “actual” video content so you don’t have to tap the screen. You can make a custom icon for your app to mimic whatever you desire. You don’t have to pay for a dev certificate or publish it to the App Store, it will just side load and run on the one watch you use to record your project.
Even though we’re not really a programming site, here’s two links if you want to research this to either hire someone or start down your development path to realize this:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/watchkit/building_a_watchos_app
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avkit/videoplayer


How do iPhones and Macs handle OS storage? This topic came up yesterday from a friend of mine who owns both a Macbook and an iPhone 6. His iPhone is almost out of storage space; about 500MB remaining, and he claims this is due to all the iOS operating systems he has installed over his time with the phone. He also says that this is the same with Apple computers. When he installed up to Mavericks, he lost a lot of storage space because the new operating system "installed separately from the previous one", taking up more space.

It just doesn't make any sense, and I feel like he is wrong, but I'm not sure how to explain it, nor can I find any data to back up his claim or the opposite.

So, the question(s) is, how is storage of the operating systems accomplished for Macbooks and iPhones? Are previous versions of operating systems indeed stored on the phone, even after updating to the newest one? Would this contribute to his lack of available space on the iPhone? Finally, how could this be resolved without taking it to an Apple store?

When IOS is updated the old operating system is replaced. the same is true for MacOS. So Tetsujin's comment is correct, if less than helpful ;-). But understand the caveats.

IOS sometimes does not delete old temporary files and the file system fills up with junk that is difficult to delete. If you back-up the phone in question to your computer, erase all content and settings and then restore from the backup just created those temp files will be gone. So trying this might give you some of your "missing" space back.

For MacOS when a new version is installed (EG Yosemite to El Capitan) the installer is usually left on the computer in the /Applications folder. I will usually make a restore USB key with that installer and then delete it as they are often fairly large (5GB or so).

With the Mac temp/cache files may also build up with time and utilities like the (free) Onyx will clean up those files and often free up some space.


Why doesn't iPhoto show up in Spotlight search results? Recently I noticed that if I do a Spotlight search (using the Spotlight menu on the menu bar), the iPhoto application is not included in the results. If I open a Finder window to the Applications folder and search there for iPhoto, it doesn't show up either. Other applications are included in the results if I search for them (including iMovie and GarageBand).

The only folder in the list of folders to exclude from searching in the Spotlight Privacy tab is my Time Machine backup drive.

I'm running 10.8.3.

Do you know why iPhoto isn't showing up when I do a Spotlight search? What can I do to get it to show up again?

Try rebuild index

From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
Click Spotlight.
Click the Privacy tab.
Drag a folder or an entire volume (your hard drive) to the list.
If prompted for confirmation, click OK.
Remove the item or volume you just added to the list by clicking
it and then clicking the minus ("-") button.
Close Spotlight preferences.
Spotlight will re-index the contents of the folder or volume.

You can also use the command line to rebuild Spotlight’s index.
Open the Terminal application and enter the following command:

sudo mdutil -E /

Authenticate with your administrator password,
and a message appears indicating that the index will be rebuilt.
Spotlight rebuilds the index of your hard disk.
You can track the rebuilding progress by clicking the Spotlight menu.


Pressing first letter of user account name does not select user in login window This has been irritating me for a long time and I have not found a solution for this whenever I have looked for one.

This problem has perplexed me maybe as far back as Mac OS X 10.7, but I can't be sure. We share a couple of Macs in our family of five and because of that we each have dedicated user accounts. In total that's five separate user accounts. After booting up we get the login window just fine. However, the only way to select the user account you wish to log in to is to click on the user's name. In the past we could just press the first letter of our username and that would automatically select that user for you. But this hasn't happened for a long time now.

The reason why I think it may not have occurred since Mac OS 10.7 is that one of our Macs is still on Mac OS X 10.6.8 and on that particular Mac we can still press the first letter of our username to select that account. The Mac this doesn't work on is an iMac using Mac OS X 10.11.6, but like I said, this has been happening for a long time, even before Mac OS X 10.11. It's not the end of the world, but it's surprising how annoying this is for us.

MY QUESTIONS:

Did Apple remove this feature for some reason?
If not, is there a setting anywhere to switch this feature back on?

Did Apple remove this feature for some reason?

No, this has not been removed. You should still be able to select users at the login window via the first letter of their user name, or via using the tab and arrow keys.

If not, is there a setting anywhere to switch this feature back on?

At the outset let me say this may not be the likely solution for you. However, I have seen this behaviour and thought it was worth mentioning in case it helps you or others.

If your Mac running El Capitan is a desktop Mac (i.e. iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, etc) and it happens to be plugged into a UPS (i.e. an Uninterruptible Power Supply), then shut down your Mac and unplug it from the UPS. Now plug it into another AC power outlet and reboot it. Check to see how your login window behaves now?

If on the off chance this is your situation and your Mac now works as you'd like, an option that may help you is upgrading your OS to macOS Sierra. I say this only because macOS Sierra offers some native support for using a UPS and this may or may not rectify this issue.


Using single credit card to enroll more than one Apple ID into Apple Developer Program I am an Apple Developer enrolled into paid Apple Developer program. I wish to create a new Apple ID and enroll it separately into Developer Program.

Can I use the same credit card to make payment for enrolling that I used with my first account? Can I use this approach to further enroll more Apple IDs?

Ccan I receive money from these accounts into one credit card?

Yes, you can use one card to pay for several Apple developer accounts. A credit card number isn't locked to a single Apple developer account.

The payments made by Apple to developers in-lieu of the sale on App Store/iTunes Store/iBooks Store is not made as credit into the credit card, but in the bank account that's provided when enrolling into Developer Program. From iTunes Connect FAQs:

  Payments are made within 45 days of the last day of the month in which app purchases were made. To receive payment, you must have provided all required banking and tax information and documentation, as well as meeting the minimum payment threshold.


iPhone backup not starting After upgrading to iOS 5, I have some issues with my iPhone 4.
I did not activate iCloud backups, preferring to keep them on my MacBook Pro, but when I sync the phone to iTunes the backup does not start, neither through wi-fi nor by connecting the phone to the mac with the USB cable. It syncs without any problem, but the backup is not happening.
Is there a way to manually trigger the backup?
The last backup listed in Itunes is the one made during the update to iOS 5, and not having regular backups makes me feel nervous.

Try logging out and logging in again. There was an issue with some helper not restarting the right way after the required upgrades, relogging helped me. If that doesn't work, try rebooting.


What is "AddressBookUrlForwarder"? Today I clicked a link on Facebook and a dialogue window gave me the message:

  "The link needs to be opened with an application.  Send to:
  AddressBookUrlForwarder

Upon examining the link, it had the format:

  fb://photo/12345678?set=blahblahlblah

I've never seen a browser link with the "fb://" protocol before and certainly never heard of "AddressBookUrlForwarder".

So I did a finder search and came up with nothing.  Then I did a Locate search from terminal and found:

  /System/Library/CoreServices/AddressBookUrlForwarder.app

So I open "/System/Library/CoreServices/" in finder and that app doesn't show up.  But it's definitely there.  Thinking it must have some extended attributes or ACL I do an "ls-lae@" in the coreservices directory and for all intents and purposes it appears to be a normal .app directory with no @ or + or anything special to hide it from the Finder.

What the heck is going on?  What is this app?  Why is it not showing up in Finder?  What is an "fb://" protocol link?

I'm creeped out now.

Also, I'm using 10.8.4.

I'm guessing that this application is used to retrieve Facebook and Twitter contact details for display in the address book.

This assumption is based on release notes for a recent update of Mac OS X, as well as the content of that application's executable (as viewed with strings):

strings /System/Library/CoreServices/AddressBookUrlForwarder.app/Contents/MacOS/AddressBookUrlForwarder`).

The output of strings makes me think that the application is a URL handler for these expressions:

...
_urlPatterns
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=$1
fb://profile/(.*)
http://twitter.com/$1
twitter:///user[?]screen_name=(.+)
http://twitter.com/share?text=$1
twitter:///post[?]message=(.+)
...

Do you have a Facebook account setup in System Preferences -> Mail, Contacts & Calendars?


Can an xbox360 be connected to a thunderbolt iMac to be used in target display mode I've attempted to do some research, but I've unable to determine if the imac can be used as a monitor (in target display mode) for my xbox 360.

It seems like the only option is some kind of weird converter like the ones that matrox produce for £150! Are there any alternative solutions for input to Thunderbolt ?

Currently, you can only use a 2010 or 2011 27" iMac with this Adapter.

iMacs build in 2009 and before doesn't support input signals.

  iMacs build in 2010 or 2011 support input, but you have to convert the
  HDMI signal to MiniDisplayPort.

iMacs with Thunderbolt does support input, too. But there is no adapter yet to convert the signals. Thunderbolt is from Intel and they aren't very open about the drivers yet.

EDIT: Found a german article about your problem.


Caching Server OS X Port When you run sudo fullstatus caching, it lists all the relevant data for how the caching works on the server. There is one particular line that shows what port the caching server is using.

Does this port need to be open and accessible in order for caching to work properly? For example, does this port need to be forwarded/opened since we are NAT'ed in order for caching to work (because caching doesn't seem to be working right now even though it says that it is running)?

Thanks!

It does need opening if you are trying to access your Caching server outside of your network. If you are only attempting to access it within the network, this port doesn't need unblocking externally.


Problem installing VirtualBox on MacOS High Sierra I'm trying to install VirtualBox 6.0.15 on my mid-2010 MacBook Pro 13" with High Sierra on it.  The installer gets to the "Running package scripts" with "Time remaining: less than a minute" - and then hangs.  Waiting for 30 minutes does nothing.  In the console, I can see in the install.log:

2020-01-24 22:15:44+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: ----- Begin install -----
2020-01-24 22:15:44+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: request=PKInstallRequest <4 packages, destination=/>
2020-01-24 22:15:44+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: packages=(
2020-01-24 22:15:45+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#VBoxKEXTs.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:47+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#VirtualBox.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root/Applications, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#VirtualBoxCLI.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root/usr/local/bin, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#OSXFuseCore.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: prevent user idle system sleep
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: suspending backupd
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Executing script "./preflight" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.fRMY1G/Scripts/org.virtualbox.pkg.virtualbox.8bFgh6
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Executing script "./preinstall" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.fRMY1G/Scripts/com.github.osxfuse.pkg.Core.3YlHpP
2020-01-24 22:15:53+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Using trashcan path /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/T/PKInstallSandboxTrash/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.sandboxTrash for sandbox /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox
2020-01-24 22:15:54+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Shoving /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root (3 items) to /
2020-01-24 22:15:54+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Executing script "./postflight" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.fRMY1G/Scripts/org.virtualbox.pkg.vboxkexts.fPelJc
2020-01-24 22:15:54+00 Cloud installd[27429]: ./postflight: /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.virtualbox.startup.plist

And that's it! Nothing further in the log - and the installation is simply hanging. How can I complete the installation?

Ok, so in desperation I left it overnight - and it did complete.  Looking at the logs, it took about 3 hours from that line to the next one in the log.  Very bizarre, but it's done.


Keyboard Touch Bar MacBook Pro late 2016 I bought the new MacBook Pro (with the Touch Bar) 4 months ago. The problem is I keep pressing by mistake "esc" and "siri" multiple times per day.

I thought it was my bad and I'd get used to it, but after 4 months I really think I have a problem or this Touch Bar is not well made in terms of User Experience.

Is there anything I can do to customise the Touch Bar avoid this problem?

No, you're not the only one.

I'm aware of people who have used BetterTouchTool to modify the Touch Bar buttons and, in some cases, move the ESC key to the right somewhat because they have the same problem.

BTT offers much more customisability then what Apple does via System Preferences. Also, you can associate buttons with your own scripts (using AppleScript) or use it to trigger Automator workflows.

You can download it for free to give it a try.

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with BTT.


How to transfer keychain data from an external SSD? I need some information about Keychain access.  I plan to replace the SSD currently in my MBP with a larger SSD.  The SSD currently in my MBP would be placed in an enclosure which will be essentially an external drive. I plan to put a clean copy of the OS on the new drive to avoid any transfer of malware and so on which would happen if I cloned the drive I remove.  My only concern is the Keychain Access folder.  I need to keep all the information in the Keychain Access folder on the “old” drive and transfer it to the new drive.  Can I be sure that if I copy and paste the folder I will be getting all the data?

The best way to copy your keychains to a new computer is to export and then import them using Keychain Access. See Import and export keychain items.

However, you can also manually copy your keychains to another Mac/mac using the steps below. It should work in your scenario too.

On your Mac, locate the keychain files you want to transfer.

Keychains are usually located in the Keychains folder in the Library folder in your home folder. To locate these files, press and hold the Option key and choose to Go > Library, then open the Keychains folder.

Select the keychains you want, then press and hold the Option key and drag the selected keychains into another folder to copy them to the folder.

Keychain files typically end with .keychain-db. Don’t select and copy encrypted folders with names that appear as a series of numbers.

Transfer the folder containing the keychains to the new computer.

Important: Transfer the keychains in a safe manner so no unauthorized person can access them. For example, use AirDrop or a USB flash drive to copy the files.

Change the name of the transferred keychains on your new computer so they don’t become confused with any of the existing keychains.

This is especially important if you are copying a standard keychain, such as the login keychain.

Open Keychain Access, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Add each copied keychain one by one by choosing File > Add Keychain, selecting your keychain, then clicking OK.


Is it good practice to edit photos from the Photo Stream using iPhoto? For a while I've been taking photos on my iPhone and then editing them using iPhoto on my iPad. I select the photos from the Photo Stream since they are conveniently available on the iPad. It occurred to me recently that perhaps this is not a good idea.

What are the pros and cons of doing this? Could I lose the edited images since the pictures are from the Photo Stream? Should I be transferring the photos from the iPhone to the iPad before editing them?

Some guidance would be appreciated.

Edited photos in iPhoto on iOS is an interesting situation - one that there is not much documentation on, and one that seems like a one-way street. Photos can enter, but cannot "escape". You can edit photos, but you can't deleted Edited photos from the iPhoto app.

It is safe to edit your photos that are currently stored in Photostream without fear of losing them for good.* When you edit a photo, it is stored in the "Edited" album of iPhoto. Even when that photo is deleted from Camera Roll (if it was ever there), and Photostream (I have tested this to verify accuracy), it will not be deleted from the Edited album in iPhoto.

There is no need to transfer these photos to your iPad before editing them.

*The only thing that I would be a little concerned about is if the iPad dies (prompting a restore), or the app gets deleted. It is very likely that if the app is deleted from a working iOS device, that the edited versions of all edited photos would be lost. Keep in mind that iOS iPhoto edits are non-destructive, so it likely comes down to a file that is saved somewhere within iPhoto that remembers these changes - how that works when the "Edited" photo is deleted I don't. Perhaps those photos are then saved in the app.

If the iPad is wiped, and then restored, iCloud should remember those edits, and with the restore, it should (this theory hasn't been personally proved) restore those edited copies.

However, both of these problems probably exist even if you transfer the photos to your iPad.


Native Mac timer app for Freshbooks What's a Freshbooks-compatible native Mac time-tracking app that is still updated? I found a few that work on Freshbooks's site, but it looks like they haven't been updated in years. I can track via Freshbooks's web app, but I'd prefer not to have Safari running just for that. That's why I'd like to find a native Mac app.

I use Chronomate. It's not technically native, but I've used the free version with great success. Mutliple timers too.


Mac starts up as administrator I just got a new Mac Air for my wife. Every time she starts it up (after installing software, crashes, whatever), it starts up logged in as administrator. This confuses my wife no end (where did all my stuff go?)

How can I make it just go to the login screen?

You can disable automiatic login by going into System Preferences, Accounts, then selecting "Login Options" and changing "Automatic login" to "Off":


Play custom audio alert for certain incoming mail I would like my Mac to play a sound when certain email arrives. For example if the subject contains "xyz", play "mycustomsound.mp3".

Any easy way to do this?

Assuming your using Mail.app, add a mail rule.

Go to Mail -> Preferences -> Rules. Add a rule based on your criteria (Subject Contains | Is Equal To | Starts with "xyz").

Under "Perform the following action" select "Play sound". You can choose a preset sound or select "Add/Remove" to set your own custom sound.


Can I extend internal iPad storage? Running out of space to store photos on our iPad 2. Is it possible to plug in an external storage device, move photos to it, and then be able to access those photos as if they were stored internally?

iPad internal storage is not extensible, but you can use services like iCloud Photos or Google Photos to store your pictures online and automatically download them as needed.


Use only SMTP server without a mailbox In Mail.app I have several mail addresses and incoming mail to some addresses is already being forwarded to my primary mail address. I don't want to have an inbox for these secondary emails (I've got them on my primary anyway) but I want to be able to send from those addresses. I've tried adding my secondary account as usual, and then disabling it. But then I can't see that address' SMTP server to send from when sending. If I enable it, I can see it, but its mailbox automatically comes back. How can I have no mailbox for a mail account, but still be able to select its SMTP server to send mail from that address?

In short, you can't accomplish what you're trying to do. In order to send/reply from a given address, you have to have that account set up and active in Mail.

Without the account being active, the address you wish to use is not available. And setting up an SMTP server entry for the other account(s) will not bypass the primary issue since you would only be using any alternate SMTP server as a relay for the account you're using to send the email - it will not rewrite the sending account address. For example, I have email forwarded from a generic "info@" account to a personal account on the same domain, but I can't reply with or send from the "info@" account address since I don't have that account set up in Mail.


MacBook Pro login screen characters replaced by question marks I can't log in to my MacBook Pro. The log-in screen now has question marks in place of letters and won't allow me to type in the password box.

The linked question covers the why of the fonts being messed up. The part of the system that renders the system fonts is damaged or intentionally changed (but perhaps without realizing the ramification of disabling the fonts until now.)

characters in login screen replaced by question marks

The fix is to boot to recovery HD and reinstall the core OS. That will replace the part of the system that has the needed fonts and not overwrite / erase your data like Applications and emails and photos and such.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314 - About macOS recovery
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 - Reinstall macOS


How to share my music with my kid's iTunes? All - how can I share some of my iTunes music (not purchased via iTunes) with my kid? Virtually all of those are ripped from CDs. I still have the CDs but I don't want to rip them all again.

Thank you.

In terms of technology, the files you're talking about don't have DRM, so you can simply copy them to your son's computer. You don't say what kind of devices either of you are using, but you can right-click songs in iTunes and choose Show in Finder/Windows Explorer to see where your music files are located. Then you can transfer these files to your son using the same methods as any other files.

But whether it is legal to do that depends on where you live and other factors, and in some cases it may be a grey area. I just want to be clear that I can give you technical advice, but I can't give you legal advice. I am not suggesting that you break any the laws where you live.


Can a brand-new iPhone be stored in its box long-term? I purchased an iPhone SE last year but still haven’t opened it. Is it safe to leave an iPhone unopened in its box long-term (at room temperature if that makes a difference) without any negative consequences?

From what I understand, the question

Before putting an iPhone5 into very long-term storage should I fully drain battery

discusses about an iPhone that has already been used (and the inquiry is about placing it in long-term storage), whereas mine is asking about a brand-new iPhone.

As long as you have not charged the battery, leaving the unit in the box for long-term storage should pose no difficulty. Batteries as supplied from the manufacturer are holding about 50% charge, which is the ideal amount of charge for lithium batteries to be left in storage.


newsd eating my limited bandwidth Big Sur 11.1 and iMac Pro.   I am on a slow (8Mbps) internet connection and the newsd program is consistently eating up more than 10% of that.  I assume it's related to Apple News but can't find any documentation.  Does anyone else see 1Mbs constant downloading from newsd?  I base that info on an iStat Menus readout--and the fact that killing newsd in Activity Monitor instantly brings faster internet to all other apps.

Yes, I too see an incredible amount of data usage from newsd. In my case, around 28GB was downloaded in 24 hours.
I’ve opened a ticket with Apple Support.


What are real life iPhone 5 battery run-time expectancies? I got my iPhone 5 this week.

While browsing with Safari, on WiFi (which I am using to post this question), my battery life drops at a steady rate of 1% per 5 minutes. I have been timing it from 64% to 56%, and its been exactly constant for each percentage point.

All widgets are off and I have double-tapped the Home button to make sure Safari is the only app running.

5 minutes times 100 percentage points comes out to about 8 hours and 20 minutes, but Apple says it should last up to 10 hours browsing on WiFi.

Am I just being OCD or is my battery a little weak?

How much deviance from the estimated time is normal?

While quite possibly you do end up with a lower battery life in your tests than the one advertised, you need to take into account the following:

Test conditions

Many factors will determine the outcome when testing the battery life, like signal strength, iPhone settings, screen brightness, the actual websites being loaded, background processes and much more. FYI, apple discloses it's test conditions, you can read about them here. If you truly want to compare, you should as best as possible mimic the test conditions Apple used.

Test accuracy

While I have no problem taking you for your word your battery drops 1 percent exactly every 5 minutes while browsing, that doesn't necessarily mean you end up with 8 hours and 20 minutes of battery life. There is quite a large margin for error when you only sample such a small period, and the only real way of checking Apple's claims would be by actually trying to surf the web for 10 consecutive hours.

Concluding, while Apple's test conditions are semi-optimal for their testing results, they have a better reputation for test accuracy than some other manufacturers. They do test the iPhone with almost factory default settings, but specifically for browsing the actual web sites being loaded can still make a noticeable difference in the test results.

From the info you provided, your battery seems perfectly fine to me and within the margins of difference one would expect.


Deleted Partitions and Wasted Storage After doing diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            140.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

and sudo gpt -r show disk0:

    start       size  index  contents
        0          1         PMBR
        1          1         Pri GPT header
        2          4         Pri GPT table
        6      76800      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    76806   34169245      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
 34246051     158692      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
 34404743   87733384
122138127          4         Sec GPT table
122138131          1         Sec GPT header

I deleted some partitions I was using for a dual boot with Ubuntu using gdisk, but now Disk Utility nor diskutil will show empty space from deleting the volumes. Although my GUID_partition_scheme shows I have 500 gigs on the disk, the space is just gone and no longer able to be expanded to the "Macintosh HD" partition. I tried rebooting but nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

Under these circumstances - only one main volume - the proper command to expand it to its full size is:

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 R

This command will not work if your main volume is part of a CoreStorage Volume Group.


Readdle cross-app integration: Documents and PDF Expert Documents by Readdle is a useful file manager, image viewer, cloud synchronizer, pdf reader and download manager. PDF-Reading has however only limited annotation support (notes in text and highlighting), while the ≈10€ Readdle PDF Expert should extend these abilities.

However, I am slightly reluctant to purchase PDF Expert just yet, because I couldn't find out if the App integrates well with Documents; Since iOS usually doesn't give apps direct access to each other I fear, that syncing annotations made in PDF Expert back to Dropbox would require synching my pdfs to both apps -- aside from the obvious waste of space, this also brings the risk of file version conflicts.

Documents can send a PDF to Adobe Reader for annotating (quite powerful too), but it is then saved as a copy local to Adobe Reader with no way to move it back to Readdle directly. Worse yet, after doing so I have to versions of the same file; Such file duplications are one of the most annoying issues I have found with managing data on mobile devices; iOS just makes it especially common due to the (otherwise justified) high level of app-isolation.

I fear that the same would apply to PDF Expert though PDF Expert should at least be able to use DropBox.

The Documents app works very well together with the iPhone and iPad versions of PDF Expert (by the same company). You do need to go through the share dialog and you could use another tool such as PDF Pen Pro if you prefer or wanted a universal app for editing PDF that you locate and move using Documents app.

Since iOS abstracts away the filesystem, unless you are careful to push changes back to a cloud storage location, you can get files duplicated, wrong versions and revisions. I don't think there is a silver bullet solution at this point for iOS file management other than using a single app that syncs directly to a shared folder.

Luckily, PDF Expert does just that and works with a plethora of server backed storage options - Dropbox, WebDAV, Google Drive, FTP / SFTP, Office 365 / SkyDrive, Box, Oxygen and Huddle currently:

Even better, you can set up sync to minimize the chance that you will forget to upload or download a changed document.


Weird Permissions/ Sandboxing issue: installer.app is not entitled for system.install.apple There is a serious ownership/ permissions/ entitlements fault in my 10.7 install.

What happened:

1) After swapping the stock drive for an Intel SSD of the same size in my Mac Mini 1,2 (2006 -ish?), I performed a clean install of 10.7 via target disk mode; That is, I put the mini into TDM and mounted it via FW400 to my iMac which I booted using a 10.7 install USB drive.

2) The install went smooth and the machine boots by itself as expected all the way to the desktop.

3) I try to install the 10.7.5 combo update via Software Update, it fails due to bad checksum.

4) Knowing I get corrupt downloads from several CDNs (incl. Apple) through my janky cable internet, I download the standalone 10.7.5 package to a USB stick at the local library and, having brought it home, etc, run it from the mini's desktop. Fails for unknown reason.

5) Console log indicates that before the installer even started to unpack the updates:

  14-03-25 4:18:59.771 PM authorizationhost: SFBuiltinEntitled: Installer.app >is not entitled for system.install.apple-software

  14-03-25 4:18:59.813 PM authorizationhost: SFBuiltinEntitled: Installer.app >is not entitled for system.install.app-store-software

  14-03-25 4:18:59.853 PM authorizationhost: SFBuiltinEntitled: Installer.app >is not entitled for system.install.app-store-software

  14-03-25 4:18:59.856 PM com.apple.SecurityServer: Failed to authorize right >'system.install.app-store-software' by client >'/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PackageKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/>installd' [301] for authorization created by >'/System/Library/CoreServices/Installer.app' [290]

What I've tried:
I've tried installing less significant things (like the iTunes update) and get the same error.

I've tried every permutation of repairing disk permissions and fsck from active partition, disk in target mode, single user mode, safe boot, etc. No effect.

I've tried chown-ing things, still no luck.

Somehow the installer has become sandboxed and cannot do stuff, for lack of better language. I'd love some help with this!

In the end, it was a fault being caused by mis-matched RAM. Solved.


Macbook Pro 15inch mid 2010 won't detect internal hard drive My mid-2010 Macbook Pro displayed the question mark on boot. I bought a new hard drive (SSD) thinking the hard drive failed (had a SSD in there).
After replacing the SSD, I still had the same question mark coming up.
I put my original SSD in an external case and successfully booting off USB.
It still did not recognise the internal disk.
After researching the problem, I have since replaced the hard drive cable as this seem a common issue with this machine at this age. This did not fix the issue.
I have been since using the Macbook Pro using my SSD via USB.
One day I booted up and received a message that there was a disk connected that wasn't initialised. Curious, I opened the disk utility to see if my new SSD was recognised. It was! I formatted it and thought my issue had magically resolved itself!
Then the next day it refused to find it again. Then it found it again. And now, ever since it hasn't been able to read the internal disk.
I was hoping to get this working as the machine runs fine, apart from this issue.
Any ideas?
System: OS X Yosemite 10.10.5
Macbook Pro mid-2010 15" 8GB Ram 2.4ghz Intel Core i5
Tried replacing cable
Tried using 3 different working hard drives (SSD 500gb, SSD 490GB, HDD 320GB)
Tried running on El Capitan using USB
Tried zapping PRAM
Tried booting in safe mode/select disk boot mode

i've experienced the same issue last year. I was instructed to reinstall macOS. And it worked.
You can download the Yosemite & El Capitan bootable installer here:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210717
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT206886
And create bootable USB: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
OR through Internet Recovery Mode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314.
Apple have something called EFI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_system_partition
which in your case, i think it might have corrupted. Reinstall macOS would do the trick. You should open your mac and take the 'old SSD' out before reinstall with a new one.
Good luck :)


iMac WiFi connection to my router is unstable I got an iMac about half a year ago (2011 version). It has been fine, until recent weeks. Now the iMac loses its connection to my wireless router frequently. I have to turn off WiFi on the iMac and turn it on again to reconnect.

First I thought it might be the problem of my wireless router. However, in the same room, my Macbook Air and iPad work just fine.

I've done all the software update available. Still doesn't work.

What can I do to fix the problem? Any idea?

The problem resolved after installing the newest Wi-Fi update.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/24/apple-releases-imac-wi-fi-update-v1-0/

EDIT: after upgrading to Mountain Lion, the same issue occurs again. Anybody encounters the same problem?

Tried to install http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1501. But the package prompt out that 'The package require OS X 10.7' which means not be able to install on 10.8.


iTunes podcast connect Has anyone successfully created a podcast on iTunes? I'm in Apple Hell : if I go to Podcast Connect, it lets me log in, then I choose "Podcast" as the type of content I want to create, and that takes me back to the Login page.

I gather my Apple ID has to be approved for content creation, but I cannot figure out how to do that.

There is also App Store Connect, but I cannot access THAT because it says

"To access App Store Connect, you must be enrolled in the Apple Developer Program or be invited by a user with the Legal role or Admin role in App Store Connect. Learn More."

The issue:

You need to accept the Terms & Conditions for the iTunes Store.

Why?

When you attempt to login to http://PodcastsConnect.apple.com with an Apple ID that has not been authorized for use in the iTunes Store, you will get stuck in a loop (and thus, instead of logging into PodcastsConnect, you will be returned back the login screen).

The solution:

Login to the iTunes Store. (In iTunes: click "Store" in the top >
Login. Accept the terms. On an iOS device: Settings > iTunes Store >
Login. Accept the terms.) You don't need to enter a credit card!
Login at https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/
Submit your podcast feed.

Bonus: Don't forget to check out the awesome Podcast Analytics


What to do if a distribution certificate is expiring for an app store app I have an app in the app store and the distribution profile is about to run out in about a week, but my developer membership doesn't actually  expire till next year.  Do I need to rebuild and re-submit my app with a new certificate?

You can renew the certificate by selecting the certificate and clicking Renew. This means you won't have to resubmit the app just to update the certificate.


Configure Swipe between full screen apps Im using my macbookpro with external everything, computer is closed. Im missing the trackpad tho.. Is there a way to configure the trackpad option 'swipe between full screen apps'on my mouse?

Im using a Corsair Harpoon mouse

If your mouse has it's own drivers, much like Razer Synapse, you can assign ^ control+← and ^ control+→, the shortcuts for moving left and right a space, respectively, to certain mouse buttons.

This cannot be done natively in macOS Mouse System Preferences. A third-party app/driver is required to do this.


Can't boot to bootcamp windows anymore I think I made a big mistake: I wanted to boot to ubuntu from my usbstick, therefore I used the ppa mactel-boot and I could boot into ubuntu (this tutorial: https://medium.com/@mmiglier/ubuntu-installation-on-usb-stick-with-pure-efi-boot-mac-compatible-469ad33645c9). But then Windows 10 disappeared from the boot menu. So I installed rEFInd and I could see Windows, but wasn't able to boot into it. Then I tried several things, which I had seen on the net, but nothing solved my problem. I think it also made it worse.

I use a MacBook Air (Early 2015).

This is my output for diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         80.7 GB    disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS                         40.5 GB    disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +80.7 GB    disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            77.4 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 18.8 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.2 GB     disk1s4

And this one using

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=121332826112; sectorsize=512; blocks=236978176
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Malformed MBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 236978175
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
     409640  157519832      2  GPT part - 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  157929472   79048671      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  236978143         32         Sec GPT table
  236978175          1         Sec GPT header

Windows 10 is installed on disk0s3.

I hope you can help me.

Big thanks

Now I tried another thing, and it looks like this right now:

diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         80.7 GB    disk0s2
   3:                        EFI                         40.5 GB    disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +80.7 GB    disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            77.7 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 18.9 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

and this

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
Password:
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=121332826112; sectorsize=512; blocks=236978176
gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 236978175
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
     409640  157519832      2  GPT part - 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  157929472   79048671      3  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
  236978143         32         Sec GPT table
  236978175          1         Sec GPT header

anyone out there who can help me?

The Windows partition even doesn't appear in the disk utility, only in the terminal via diskutil list


Setting Account Picture/JPEGPhoto with dscl in terminal I'm working on a script based on this question: What steps are needed to create a new user from the command line on Mountain Lion?

The script is packaged up in an empty installer as a postflight script.

It's all working well enough - however, I cannot get the Account picture set. I can use dscl to set the Picture property to an image file, for example the
default Apple Account photos.

I can even copy a photo I include in the package over to a number of directories, including /Users/newAccount/Public. But the permissions are messed up and no one but the newAccount can view the profile image. I am unable to chmod the file. Instead, I have to use the GUI and "get info -> Set Permissions"

The other option that I can see is if I set the JPEGPhoto value. This is what happens when you use a custom photo or take one in photobooth. However, I'm not sure how to convert the photo I include in the installer into Hex or Whatever is being stored in the JPEGPhoto value.

Thanks!
 - Chris

Edit: Added script. Everything works in this script - the picture just won't display, due to permissions. The path is set properly. I've tried to place it several different locations that have shared access, but no matter what the permissions are wrong and I cannot chmod them.

###CREATE TP ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT###

LastID=`dscl . -list /Users UniqueID | awk '{print $2}' | sort -n | tail -1`

NextID=$((LastID + 1))
. /etc/rc.common
dscl . create /Users/administrator

dscl . create /Users/administrator RealName "Administrator Account"
dscl . create /Users/administrator hint "the password Duh"

dscl . passwd /Users/administrator password
dscl . create /Users/administrator UniqueID $NextID
dscl . create /Users/administrator PrimaryGroupID 80
dscl . create /Users/administrator UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . create /Users/administrator NFSHomeDirectory /Users/administrator
cp -R /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj /Users/administrator
chown -R administrator:staff /Users/administrator

cp $1"/Contents/Resources/admin.jpg" /Users/administrator/Public
dscl . create /Users/administrator Picture "/Users/administrator/Public/admin.jpg"

###CREATE TP ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT###

dscl

It seems that the most promising method is to modify the JPEGPhoto attribute for the user. The problem is, while the JPEG image can be converted very simply to a hex string, the value is too long to just pass at the command-line. This attribute seems to be what the GUI writes to when you drag in an image. Recovering the image from this variable when set is as simple as:

dscl . read /Users/username JPEGPhoto | xxd -r -p > ./username.jpg

The second common way mentioned on the forums is to:

dscl . delete /Users/username JPEGPhoto
dscl . delete /Users/username Picture
dscl . delete /Users/username Picture "/Library/User Pictures/username.jpg"

This only changes the 'login' icon and not the icon seen in the User detail page in System Preferences.

Using sysadminctl

When creating or managing users prefer sysadminctl over the list of dscl commands that are commonly mentioned in forums. sysadminctl sets the user up correctly with a SECURE TOKEN which is important if you want to use FileVault the user should be able to unlock the disk at boot. It also offers the ability to set the user image when created. Unfortunately it doesn't offer the ability to change user images.

Using dsimport

What does work for changing the user image is dsimport.

The script usage is:

./change_userpic.sh USERNAME /path/to/image/jpg

GIST

#!/bin/bash

declare -xr AWK_CMD="/usr/bin/awk"
declare -xr SW_VERS_CMD="/usr/bin/sw_vers"
declare -xr DSIMPORT_CMD="/usr/bin/dsimport"
declare -xr ID_CMD="/usr/bin/id"

USERNAME="$1"; export USERNAME
USERPIC="$2"; export USERPIC

OSVERSION=$(${SW_VERS_CMD} -productVersion | ${AWK_CMD} -F"." '{print $2;exit}'); export OSVERSION
# Add the LDAP picture to the user record if dsimport is avaiable 10.6+
if [ -f "${USERPIC}" ] ; then
    # On 10.6 and higher this works
    if [ "${OSVERSION}" -ge "6" ] ; then
        declare -x MAPPINGS='0x0A 0x5C 0x3A 0x2C'
        declare -x ATTRS='dsRecTypeStandard:Users 2 dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordName externalbinary:dsAttrTypeStandard:JPEGPhoto'
        declare -x PICIMPORT="/Library/Caches/${USERNAME}.picture.dsimport"
        printf "%s %s \n%s:%s" "${MAPPINGS}" "${ATTRS}" "${USERNAME}" "${USERPIC}" >"${PICIMPORT}"
        # Check to see if the username is correct and import picture
        if ${ID_CMD} "${USERNAME}" &>/dev/null ; then
            # No credentials passed as we are running as root
            ${DSIMPORT_CMD} "${PICIMPORT}" /Local/Default M &&
                echo "Successfully imported users picture."
        fi
    fi
fi


Macbook Pro volume greyed out -- no internal speakers available The volume on my macbook pro has suddenly become greyed out. I haven't installed any updates or made any modifications to the computer, it just suddenly became greyed out after waking the macbook up from sleeping.

I've tried resetting the PRAM, but I don't hear any chime at all when I start up my computer, no matter how long I wait/how many times the computer re-restarts itself.

There also seem to be no internal speakers detected when I go into system preferences. For both input and output the computer detects 0 devices.

Thanks so much in advance for any help!!

Try switching back to your internal speakers with [alt]-clicking on the speaker icon in menubar. Many interfaces don't support volume adjustment and thus the control becomes greyed out.


Is there an application for boosting the bass levels of all system audio? Is there any application to boost the bass levels in all audio output?

I started searching for it because I have a HTC Wildfire phone and loaded Cyanogenmod onto it. In that I have got an application named "DSP Manager" which can dramatically increase bass levels.

I thought it would be very nice if I could get something similar for my MacBook Pro.

BOOM!

It's a very simple app, costs just $9 on the Mac App Store as of this writing.

We covered this app on the Ask Different Podcast, episode 15. Nathan needed an app to apply a satisfactory EQ output to all system audio, as he's begun to use Spotify more often than iTunes, and Spotify does not have an EQ function built in.

Thus, we have BOOM! A variety of uses (gain/leveling, EQing, etc.), with a simple interface, and a low cost.


When locking screen on OS X Chrome cancels downloads When I lock my screen using cmdalteject while Chrome is downloading, the download is canceled. I get back to my computer and see that download is not active. I also noticed that video streams I'm watching (such as live TV) also stop.

My question is, can I change this behaviour? When the download is big I cannot lock my computer for long time and I feel my computer is compromised when I leave it.

Is it OS X issue or Chrome?

I have MacBook Pro (13 inch, mid 2012) with El Capitan.

Instead of cmd+alt+eject, use the Login Window instead as this does not interrupt your download or streaming.

To use Login Window, go to:

System Preferences -> Users > Login Options > Show fast user switching menu as 'Icon'

You will see a "user icon" top right bar left of Spotlight icon. Click on this then click on Login Window.

Hope this helps, if it doesn't, it is most probably that your drive is encrypted. Check System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault.


Is there a way to "split" one display so that it treated as two separate screens? Is there any app or hack which can split a monitor into multiple screens? So for instance, a 1920x1080 display could be treated by the operating system as though there were two 960x1080 screens connected instead.

There is No: True Multi-Monitor Support for a Single Display
There is no way to get the OS to treat a single display as more than one display.
You Can:  Fill Defined Sections of your Screen with an App
You can get very close to what you are looking for with a tool like SizeUp or Divvy. They will allow you to fill sections of your screen with an app. Halves, quarters, etc.
Update: Answer still largely accurate as of 7/2020
After many years a friend mentioned he came across this post. Here is an updated response:
You still can't do true Linux-like window management or split a large screen into multiple monitors. Mac OS has added to it's Spaces feature including the ability to have fractional spaces (two apps side by side) which is really just a first party version of the third part solution mentioned above. It is still very limited as a window management system and generally less useful than any of the third party tools mentioned in this thread so far.
You can find a pretty thorough walk through of Spaces over at Apple Insider.
Also, today I use Moom (as mentioned by other commenters below). I find it to be the best modern answer to this question.


10.11.3 - launchd to start a job either at startup or at time of day I am attempting to use launchd to have SelfControl be active from 8am to 8pm. My first attempt was to just use launchd and have a little bash script which starts self control (for 12 hours) at 8am, but this isn't really flexible enough because if my laptop is off at 8am then obviously nothing happens.

Any advice on a better way to approach this problem or modify my current approach?

Here is the .plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" \
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
     <string>my.selfControlScheduler</string>
  <key>Program</key>
     <string>/Users/ira/Documents/coding/self_control/sc_sched.sh</string>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
     <dict>
     <key>Hour</key>
     <integer>8</integer>
     <key>Minute</key>
     <integer>0</integer>
     </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

And here is the bash script

sudo /Applications/SelfControl.app/Contents/MacOS/org.eyebeam.SelfControl $(id -u $(whoami)) --install

The length of time to block the blacklist in SelfControl for can be set by doing

defaults write org.eyebeam.SelfControl "BlockDuration"=xxx

I think that's all the relevant information

You should be able to control this with two different launchd jobs.

one job to start daily at 8 am
another job to unload the first at quitting time (8 pm)

If the application doesn't expect to be loaded/unloaded (like mongodb does if you install it from homebrew), then change the second script to call your "kill" script.

How do I create an AppleScript that will quit an application at a specific time and then put the computer to sleep?
Applescript app to shut down Mathematica at a specific time of day

I'm of the mind to just call /usr/bin/killall SelfControl if that works rather than mucking with wrapping a mode convoluted AppleScript example with /usr/bin/osascript like in the example here:

/usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Mathematica" to quit'

This is far more robust than making a helper script that needs to stay running since launchd keeps track of the time that passes when powered off and/or sleeping and should fire things later (say 23:30) if you wake the Mac from sleep starting at 6 pm.

I use LaunchControl or Lingon app to manage my plist files - but you can hand roll them too like your question.

The second is shorter, so I've named it org.you.control.unload and it simply calls launchctl unload org.you.control.load at 20:00 and set the RunAtLoad to /false so it only triggers per the clock.

<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.you.control.unload</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>launchctl</string>
        <string>unload</string>
        <string>org.you.control.load</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>20</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>

Just decide on the names you want: org.you.control.load or ** my.selfControlScheduler** are both fine, but pick an idiom and stick with it throughout.

Your startup plist looks fine but there could be permissions or other issues that a tool to debug things without needing a handy reference like http://launchd.info

Rather than script the opening of the app, just call /usr/bin/open -a SelfControl would be my suggestion if yours isn't working presently.

<string>org.you.control.load</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/usr/bin/open</string>
    <string>-a</string>
    <string>SelfControl</string>
</array>


How do I repair a corrupt Time Machine sparsebundle that is only showing the most recent backup? I am trying to recover a nearly-2TB backup of a Mac, whose sparsebundle file was located on a NAS and suffered some corruption. I have followed the steps here, and the sparsebundle is now accessible by both Time Machine and Migration Assistant. However, they only show me one choice for recovering the backup (the most recent one).

Mounting the sparsebundle in Finder shows me backups from 4 dates, which is correct, and I am interested in any of the earlier 3. Additionally, here is the data from the file com.apple.TimeMachine.SnapshotHistory.plist, which also shows the 4 backups:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Snapshots</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotCompletionDate</key>
            <date>2013-11-21T17:37:20Z</date>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotName</key>
            <string>2013-11-21-123720</string>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotTotalBytesCopied</key>
            <integer>2011005404937</integer>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotCompletionDate</key>
            <date>2013-11-22T08:04:32Z</date>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotName</key>
            <string>2013-11-22-030432</string>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotTotalBytesCopied</key>
            <integer>7208602218</integer>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotCompletionDate</key>
            <date>2013-11-22T23:58:38Z</date>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotName</key>
            <string>2013-11-22-185838</string>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotTotalBytesCopied</key>
            <integer>111986052</integer>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotCompletionDate</key>
            <date>2013-12-04T21:16:16Z</date>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotName</key>
            <string>2013-12-04-161616</string>
            <key>com.apple.backupd.SnapshotTotalBytesCopied</key>
            <integer>53164333190</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

How do I go about repairing the sparsebundle so I can have Time Machine restore one of the earlier backups? My last resort would be copying everything over by hand, but this would be messy, as well as incredibly time-consuming due to the large amount of data. I have spent many hours on this and have had headache after headache, any help is extremely appreciated!

Not completely sure if it will works since I don't know when the snapshot was taken (before or after an update).  You can go into your system preferences, spotlight, privacy tab, add your hard drive, reboot, remove the hard drive from spotlight and let the spotlight re-index (this can take a while).  Try going into time machine again.

Updates have messed up Time Machine when doing a clean install and upgrade for quite a few people and this was the fix.


4 devices on 1 Apple ID no have problems We have 2 iPad minis and 2 iPhones on the same Apple ID when I text my husband it goes to all 4 devices including mine twice. When anyone messages from the other 3 devices it goes to all 4 including my phone twice. When anyone tries to FaceTime  any of our devices it goes to all 4 devices. How can we get it to only go to one device ( the one we are sending the message to)?

Use different Apple IDs on each device. Using the same Apple ID will mean that the devices will be indistinguishable to FaceTime/iMessage/etc.