What file type/extension is used to store data for iPhone apps? I'm thinking about recovering the data on my bricked iPhone, but the hard drive recovery company would probably need to know what file types I want to recover. Most applications store their data in SQLite databases. When I sync to my computer, it saves this in a .mddata file. I'm guessing this file type is only used for the backup process.

What file type/extension is used to store the data on the iPhone?

I realize that apps can probably store it in whatever format they want. I want to know what's the default (or most likely) format for those that store their data in SQLite files.

I'm not sure if you want to know about storage on the iPhone itself, or storage by iTunes in the backups, so I'll take a stab at both. :)

See here for a more in-depth analysis, but the basic gist is that the .mddata files are typically SQLite databases (occasionally encrypted), while the corresponding .mdinfo files are the metadata associated with them. (Older versions of iTunes used .mdbackup files.)

Here's a more practical description of retrieving data from an existing iPhone/iPod backup, and another one which does so with the more recent format. Also, there's this presentation that dives into the format a bit. Here's a blog entry about deciphering the obfuscated filenames, and finally, here's a StackOverflow discussion about decrypting the encrypted .mddata files (which didn't end in a resolution of any kind).

On the iPhone itself, many applications store their data in a SQLite database directly because of the simplicity of doing so. Also, the Core Data ORM uses it under the hood, although that's really just an implementation detail.

But, as you've noted, there's no requirement to use SQLite; applications can store data in something as simple as a plain text file or XML document, or as complicated as a database of their own making.


How do I restore Dashboard widget list? (Launchpad-style adding) When using a tutorial to clear Launchpad of its mess I had in /Applications, I accidentally cleared Dashboard's list of widgets when I click the (+) button to add downloaded widgets at the same time, kind of like Launchpad's viewing of apps.

Here is my Dashboard:

And here it is when I click the (+) button to add downloaded widgets in the bottom left corner of Dashboard:

I believe it will only show new widgets I download. How can I get it to show all of my widgets again—including the default, built-in widgets?

(This is my Launchpad: it looks similar to the "add widgets" of Dashboard.app in Mountain Lion, but I am looking how to restore my list of widgets in Dashboard, not Launchpad.)

Also, it probably doesn't make a large difference, but my Dashboard is set as a Space and not an overlay right now.

I encountered the same problem, but now have a partial solution:

If you want to refresh the list entirely, delete the .db file located in "~/Library/Application Support/Dock/", followed by running killall Dock. This forces the Dock to refresh its list of widgets. Unfortunately, the list of apps in Launchpad will also be reset.

You can remove these individually via

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps WHERE title='APP_NAME';" && killall Dock

(from http://www.wikihow.com/Delete-Apps-from-Launchpad-in-Mac-Os-X-Lion, which adds:

 Replace APP_NAME with the name of the unwanted app as it’s displayed in LaunchPad.

)

I wish I knew how to add widgets manually, but I really don't know much unix... If it's any help to those trying to find a better solution, the widgets are located in /Library/Widgets.

Update

In the end I just decided to use Launchpad Manager to delete apps. It also functions as a widget manager.


can't run GlassFish because something is using port 8080; but how to find it? I develop on Mac (Lion) with Eclipse and GlassFish 3.1. GlassFish uses ports 8080 and 4848. Suddenly, when I try to launch GlassFish it tells me it can't because there's a port conflict.

As far as I can tell, nothing is using that port. I shut down everything and restarted the Mac and still get the same error when I ran GlassFish. I uninstalled GlassFish, deleted all the directories, restarted my machine, reinstalled GlassFish and same problem.

I created a new test user on my Mac, log out as me, log in as him, install GlassFish under that users account and it runs fine there.

It's like there's something in my user account that makes my Mac or GlassFish think that port is in use.

Does anyone know how I might solve this problem? I hate the idea of having to create a new account on my Mac and transfer all of my data there. Seems like an excessive solution.

NMAP will provide a listing of open ports and programs that are currently using them. It is actually a powerful networking tool that can perform a wide variety of network maintenance tasks.

You can read more about it here: http://nmap.org/book/inst-macosx.html

It is a small commandline utility (although GUI front-ends are available) that is quite easy to use and should give you a detailed view of your current network state.


Turn on automatic update I'd like my Mac OS X machine to automatically install updates for any software where it can, with no interaction from me.

System updates, updates to applications, security patches -- I want them all.  I'd prefer to not have to do anything.  I'd like the machine to simply download and install them in the background, automatically, without requiring me to click anything, approve anything, or take any further action.

Is there a way to do it, on Mountain Lion?

OS X has some support for automatically installing updates, but it's limited to "system data files and security updates" - what exactly constitute system data files, I'm not sure, but presumably any drivers that are typically distributed through Software Update, but possibly OS X point updates as well. Apple's documentation isn't clear on this.

You can enable this in the Software Update pane of System Preferences:

However this won't update any apps, and possibly not all OS X updates either (again, Apple's documentation isn't very clear on what counts as a "system data file").

The other solution you may be interested in is AppFresh, which claims to be a one-stop shop for all software updates, OS X or 3rd party. I haven't used it, but it seems to be able to integrate with and automatically install from Software Update (and they list Mountain Lion compatibility, so I'm assuming that includes updates through the App Store now), apps that use the fairly popular Sparkle updater, as well as Microsoft and Adobe updaters.


Connect EOS 600d to Mac Book Pro (Mountain Lion 10.8.2) When I connect my EOS 600d Camera from Canon with my Mac Book Pro (Mountain Lion 10.8.2), it doesn't get mounted as a drive... Nothing is happening. I googled the problem and was able to get my pictures on to my Mac by using a SD-Card reader. Anyhow, it's not recommended to open the camera every time I want to transfer some pictures and EOS Utility isn't compatible to Mountain Lion. Did anyone come across that problem?

Digital cameras are usually not mounted as storage devices. To transfer the photos from the camera, use the Image Capture.app which is under Applications.

Once you connect your camera, it'll show up there.

In the bottom left, see the triangle button. Here you can select whether Image Capture should open automatically once you connect the camera.


Installing Windows 10 Bootcamp on 27 iMac (2015): USB 3.0 problem I'm trying to install Windows 10 on my iMac. I've gotten to the part where Windows setup asks for the bootcamp drivers, before Windows is installed ("Collecting information"). I've tried having the bootcamp drivers on both a usb 2.0 and a usb 3.0 external hard drive, and I still get the following error:

"No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click ok"

I've digged a bit and found that the issue is a USB 3.0 issue, according to many. All the iMac USB's are 3.0, so what is the solution here ? I don't have an SD card or a thunderbolt drive.

Actually if you look on Apples website they have updated about bootcamp 6.0.1 on El Capitan.  All 2015 models do not need a USB stick to put Windows 10 ISO in.  All 2015 Mac models from Macbook, Air, Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac do not need USB with Windows 10 ISO.  You can simply download Windows 10 ISO file, put it on desktop, open bootcamp.  Apple website says that all 2015 Macs have the install Mac bootcamp uploader files for Windows within a private partition that uploads after installing Windows and gets to start menu desktop.  If you want to read more of what I just told go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201468  It states right on there that 2015 Macs do not need USB for Windows 10 install on bootcamp anymore.


How to Turn OFF Find My iPhone if I don't Know the ID & Password? It's a Pre-Owned Phone, I bought it from a Market Place.

Seller forgot to reset the iCloud Account, and I lost the Owner Contact details...

I've seen many Bypass Tricks Online, Nothing worked for me...

Finally My hope is here...

is there any experts here, Know How to Bypass the iCloud Lock to Turn OFF the Find My iPhone.

There's a good chance you bought a stolen iPhone. I'd bring it to an Apple Store or contact Apple support:

How to Contact Us - Apple

If it hasn't been reported as stolen, maybe they'll be able to help you.

I would not expect that anyone here knows the answer to this. Even if there was such an exploit, knowledge of it could make a person quite wealthy. You aren't going to find out about it on a web forum or Google search.


How can I operate "Find & Replace" using only the keyboard in Pages for OS X? When I have clicked Tab to highlight the Replace All button, Enter doesn't do anything. Do I absolutely have to use the mouse for this?

It's inefficient to move between the keyboard and mouse when carrying out a long sequence of "Find & Replace" actions.

This is Pages 5.0 (1465) running on Yosemite.

Use the Spacebar Space to click the selected button (not the Enter key Enter). That should do it for you.

(Note to editors: I want to have the word "Spacebar" in there in case someone searches for it.)


How do I change my iPod's name? I am trying to change the name of an iPod I bought off the Internet.  I changed it in iTunes, and that seemed to work fine, but when I look at "About" in "Settings" it still has the old name.  Any ideas?  It's an iPod 5.5

If it is running iOS 5, you should be able to change it in Settings>General>About>Name:

If it is running anything less than iOS 5 (or is just a click wheel iPod) you'll need to plug it into your computer and change it from iTunes. Click on the name in the sidebar and change it:

If this still doesn't work (and doesn't show up on the iPod), try restoring (in iTunes) it, or restarting it (hold down the center button and the menu button for 10 seconds)


Dual 4k monitor setup at 60hz with 2015(?) 15" MacBook Pro I purchased the 15 inch MacBook Pro that costs $1999 on Apple's website a couple of weeks ago. I believe this is the 2015 model, and it does not have a touchbar.

I have been using the laptop itself for a while, and I'm ready to get a dual monitor setup for productivity purposes. I specifically wanted a monitor that would be very similar to the retina quality of the laptop's screen, so I went for the most pixel dense option I could find under $500, and this meant going for a 24 inch 4k. I picked the Dell P2415Q.

First and foremost, will I have any issues running this monitor at 60hz? Second, how could I go about using two of these at 60hz? If I like this one, I'm going to order a second one.

Thanks in advance for your help. I just switched to Mac after years of using Windows/Linux on a 5k gaming PC I built four years ago, so I'm not used to having to consider these sorts of questions.

You should be able to run two 4K monitors at 60hz. However, you'll probably be stuck at 30hz if you are using HDMi. If it is in fact a 2015 MBP, there should be a few thunderbolt 2 ports. I'd suggest using a mini display port -> display port cable that supports Display Port 1.2 and thunderbolt 2. Something like this should do the job. Also, since I don't know the exact model you have, I'd hold off on buying the second monitor until you know what your MBP is fully capable of.


Delete default folders: Documents, Public, etc -- permanently? I do not use the folders ~/{Downloads, Documents, Public} and so I remove them.  But some Mac OS X process keeps recreating them.

How can I disable the creation of these folders permanently?  What process(es) are creating them?

Note:  I do download files, e.g. from Safari, but they then go to a different directory.
Safari allows this to be customized, so why can't the default directory be erased?

Note:  I have run a crontab to delete these folders on a routine basis, however this
is not a satisfactory solution especially since it needs to be run by root or an administrator.

It's definitively not recommended to remove these directories because a lot of applications just assume they are there. But it's your computer of course, so you can do with it whatever you like.

Instead of hunting down all applications/processes which might recreate these folders you could change their properties to make them invisible in Finder and inaccessible for everything :

chflags hidden ~/{Downloads,Documents,Public}
chmod 000 ~/{Downloads,Documents,Public}


Adding a bookmark to a new folder in Safari? In Chrome, when adding a new bookmark, you can choose to add it to a new folder you create at that time, through "Choose Another Folder" > "New Folder".

However, in Safari, I find if I need to do this, I have to go create the folder first in my bookmarks, then add the bookmark to this folder.

Is there any way I could do the same thing as Chrome in Safari?

That is the only way in Safari.

Create the New folder first then add bookmarks to it.


My MacBook Pro periodically displays ads in a banner on the top right that says "Breaking Apple News" I have OSX 10.9.5.  It seems to happen once or twice within a few minutes after I come out of sleep.  A smallish banner on the top right kind of slides in place.  It's always text that starts with "Breaking Apple News" and then it advertises something.

Is this Malware, or did Apple really stoop to this level?  If it's really Apple SW doing this, is it at least optional to disable it?  I paid for my MacBook Pro.  I don't think slide in ads are appropriate here.

You may have accidentally allowed a website to send you push notifications. If you use Safari, go into Preferences > Notifications, and see if you've allowed any sites to give you notifications.


Ribbon tabs in Office/Word/Excel 2011 stop working Occasionally some of the ribbon tabs in Office/Word/Excel 2011 become unclickable so you can't choose that tab. It's usually the ones on the left in my experience like Home or "Header and Footer". The only way around it I have found to date is to close and reopen the document.

I'm putting this question up so I can share an answer I just found after months of searching (probably was missing the right search terms). Hopefully we can also track if/when Microsoft fixes it.

After months of searching I found this non-obvious, but very easy workaround on Mac OS X Hints.

While the majority of the tab isn't clickable, the very top edge of the tab is. So just click on its top border.

Still not sure what the underlying problem is, but this much easier then closing and reopening the document.


Manually Tag People/Faces in Photos for iOS Photos for macOS has the ability to manually tag People in a photo where the machine learning algorithm has not yet detected a Face:

Window > Info > Add Faces > Click to Name

These tagged photos then show up when selecting a Person from the People Album in iCloud Photos, just as if they had been recognized by the ML algorithms.
How can I similarly manually tag People/Faces in a photo from the iOS Photos app?

In iOS 14 and earlier, you cannot manually add a face tag on on iOS. This function is only available on macOS.


Virtual ergonomic keyboard for ipad pro? Is there a virtual ergononmic keyboard available for the ipad pro?

I am coming from a Windows background and am happy with the physical Ergonomic Keyboard series from MS.

However when using the ipad pro, I would like to use it with a virtual keyboard, so it's easily portable.

If by ergonomic keyboard you mean a split keyboard, you can do this natively on the iPad.

To do this:

In the bottom right corner of the keyboard there is a key with a keyboard icon (with a black down arrow)
Tap and hold that key
A toggle for the split keyboard will pop up (or, if it's already split, a choice to unsplit the keyboard will appear instead)

NOTE: If the above steps don't work, first go to Settings > General > Keyboard and toggle the Split Keyboard option on.


Issue reading removable drive during macOS install I have a MacBook Pro (15", Core 2 Duo), model A1226, and I am trying to install macOS on this MacBook, but when I tried, my laptop can not see my bootable pendrive. The last disk does not work, as it is damaged. So what can I do?

I tried install on TransMac.

According to everyman.com, you mac appears to be a mid/late 2007 model.

The Pre-Installed operating system was OS X 10.4.9 (8Q1058) (Tiger). The Maximum operating system is OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan).

If you are using TransMac, I assume you have a DMG file. You can use DMG files to upgrade OS X, but you can not use a DMG file to do an clean install of OS X. For example, if you purchase Lion from Apple, then you must first have Snow Leopard installed in order to use the purchased file to upgrade to Lion.

Apple still sells Snow Leopard DVDs, but you can also download an ISO from the internet. There are plenty of websites that explain how to make a bootable USB Snow Leopard installer. I have not tried any of these methods. If you succeed, then maybe you could post a method that works.

  I would recommend burning the Snow Leopard ISO file to a DL DVD.

Once you have Snow Leopard installed, you should install all the available Snow Leopard updates. This would update Snow Leopard to OS X 10.6.8.

Once Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.8 is installed, you can upgrade to El Capitan for free.
Enter this address: https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12 into Safari on the Mac running Snow Leopard. You should be able to download El Capitan. Follow the instructions at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 to create a bootable USB El Capitan installer.

Please post of comment, if you needed an Apple Id to download El Capitan.


iOS 14: daily automation not running I have set up a simple automation to run a Shortcut at 6am every morning. If I test the shortcut, it works. If I set the time for [10 mins from now], it works.
However, it never seems to run for 6am where:

The phone is plugged into power
The phone is on WiFi
The phone is in Do Not Disturb
The phone hasn’t been unlocked since I went to bed (11pm ish)

I don’t think the power/WiFi/DND make any difference but is there something in iOS that stops automations running if the phone hasn’t been unlocked or used for some period of time?
I see exactly the same issue with a totally different automation that’s supposed to run on my iPad … it runs about once per month if I am lucky and I am wondering if those are times when I had used the iPad in the past hour or so.
Is this a bug or is there something that stops daily automations that I’ve missed in the documentation?

Update - here’s how I created it:

I believe this is a feature. Depending on what automation you do, you may need to have it run in the HomeKit controller so it triggers from a device that is running and cleared for background tasks.
You can certainly report it to Apple as a bug, but everything I see from power management, automations are designed to be user triggered or relevant to the device in a near term sleep state, not that it wakes itself up and runs work in the background.
I would expect it to run once you wake the device after 6 am, though. That would be worth a bug if the task never triggers.
I’ve had an automation run each day for a week, so I’m not so sure this is a bug at all in iOS 14.


How can I Ensure a Retired iPhone Stays Activated After 4+ years (and one replacement unit) I finally retired my iPhone 1 and bought a new 4S.  I'd like to continue to use the original iPhone as a low rent touch device.

I'm paranoid about doing a hard software restore on the device, or otherwise putting putting it back into pre-activation state, as I'm no longer with AT&T.

I assume jail breaking can help me here, but my initial google research led to a lot of pages written for people already familiar with the jailbreak community and technology.

So, there's three concrete questions I have.

Can I somehow reactivate an old iPhone that gets put back into pre-activation mode without resorting to a jail break when I'm no longer under contract with AT&T
If not, how can I do so with jailbreaking? (keeping in mind I'm a jail break novice)
Is there a a "Jailbreak for Dummies" style intro that will cover the terminology used by the jailbreak community, as well as the various options out there so I can start to make sense of the community and answer my own questions in the future?

I had the same "issue" with my iPhone 1. gen a few months ago. It was like four years ago I've been messing around with jailbreaks and what not. A buddy of mine asked if he could borrow my retro iPhone and there I was googling after an updated jailbreak.

Like you, I found a lot of forums with a lot of different solutions but I ended up with finding a download-link to a .ipsw which was already jailbroken/unlocked with the latest 3.1.3 version. Then I went to iTunes and restored the thing, and voila!

Of course I cannot find the exact .ipsw right now, but you cannot 'brick' the iPhone 2G, so you should be safe no matter what :)


After I traveled abroad, my Mac thinks I'm in the wrong timezone I have selected the option to set the time zone base on my current location. It correctly detects my location (London), but it still keeps the time as New York time.

See screenshot image.

This is OSX 10.9.5 Macbook Pro

I think you have to move the physical time zone marker to your location, I had to do that to reset my times one from California to New York.


How to remove 'phantom' iCloud account from Apple Mail I am trying to remove a duplicate copy of my iCloud account from Apple Mail that seems to have managed to get stuck there.

I cannot remove it from the Internet Accounts or iCloud panels as it does not appear there, just in my account listing for Mail. If I try  to remove it there I am told to use the Internet Accounts panel (where it isn't).

I have tried changing the name and gripping the contents of Preferences and Application Support for the unique name, but no luck.

Where does Apple Mail store it's account information and can I remove the account from there?

The list of accounts is stored in the property list located at:

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist

The account data itself is stored in ~/Library/Mail/V2/<account-type>-<email-address>.
This entire folder can be deleted for the account you wish to remove.


Where can I find software for the Mac Classic? I just found a really great application: Mini vMac, a Mac Classic emulator (simple and one that actually works). Is there a place where I can find some actual software that was meant for the original Macintosh? I think someone I know might have some boxes of floppies, so would it be possible to copy files off of them? I don't want modern software that was made for emulators. Would the Apple website have some hidden like how they have old System 6+ downloads?

Apple's website has a page dedicated to Older Software Downloads for systems earlier than 8.1.

(They also still have a support page for OS 9, but the Downloads link on this page just links to the current OS X downloads page.)


2 external displays on your macbook pro 2015 I'm just asking again. It has been asked before, but most answers are quite old, so let's give it another try.

I've just bought a new Macbook Pro 15 inch 2.2 Ghz, a 2015 model of course. Now I want to connect two external displays using thunderbolt only. I don't want any difference in quality whatsoever, so one thunderbolt and one hdmi doesn't seem a good option to me. Even my dad has a laptop which allows him to connect multiple screens, an external keyboard, ethernet and has plenty of usb ports, so why shouldn't this be possible with a much more expensive macbook pro? I can't find the answer on the internet.

So far it seems it's only possible to buy two thunderbolt displays, which is really too expensive, but has the possibility to connect multiple usb devices, display, and ethernet using just one thunderbolt port.

There must be a way to connect two dell displays to the macbook pro and ethernet (possible the keyboard as well), using only the two thunderbolts, is there?

The Thunderbolt ports can be used as regular miniDisplayPorts. Modern Dell screens have DisplayPort or miniDisplayPorts. The only difference to HDMI is that DP supports higher resolutions.


'Filter' failed error trying to print after upgrading to Mavericks I made the mistake of upgrading to Mavericks and now my Samsung ML-1710 won't print.

I get Stopped - 'Filter' failed while trying to print a test page for example.

I've tried some of the suggestions here which are in regard to an Epson printer. I've obviously deleted and added the printer numerous times, verified the permissions using disk utility (it did make some corrections), tried a different Gutenprint driver (ML-1750) that didn't work, etc.

Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks!

I got it working on my Mavericks Macbook Pro this morning. All you need to do is install SpliX 1.1.1 (a set of free CUPS printer drivers for certain models of Samsung, Dell and Xerox printers) at http://guigo.us/mac/splix/

Then, reset your printing system (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1341) and re-add the ML-1710 1.1.1 driver.

Then you're good to go!


All Keyboard Shortcuts are selecting word backwards Since the start of September approximately keyboard shortcuts in OS X have been acting strangely.

Many of the common shortcuts (cmd+z, cmd+v, cm+c, cmd+w etc) select the previous word rather than eliciting their usual action. Further presses simply continue the backward selection of words as if I were pressing shift+option+left arrow.

This does not occur immediately. For example, in Apple's Mail programme, upon loading I can press cmd+n and a new window in which to compose an email appears. However, after commencing typing, any further use of the keyboard shortcuts elicits the strange behaviour.

The behaviour also occurs in Safari once some text has been highlighted. As with mail, the standard shortcuts operate as, well, standard before some text has been highlighted. Once it has been highlighted however, all shortcuts assume the "select word backwards" functionality.

The problem does not manifest itself in Pages or Scrivener. However it does occur in Apple's Notes programme.

I am using a 2012 mac mini, currently with Mavericks. The problem first appeared while running Mountain Lion.

I had some keyboard modification programs running, e.g. keyremapper and an apple script to select a current word via Fastscripts. Suspecting the latter might be the cause of my woes, since the problem roughly coincided with its first use,  I have removed it and all the rest of them to boot. I then reset the keyboard to its defaults and  restarted the system.

I have tested it against Apple's wireless bluetooth keyboard and a logitech usb receiver cordless keyboard while web searches have failed to return even a ball park level of relevant information.

Erasing the boot disk and installing OS X Mavericks from a flash drive solved the issue. I subsequently reinstalled the various keyboard modifications I had previously been using, including the 'select word' script, pop clip, keyremapformacbook and PCKeyboardHack. So far none of them have elicited the problem behaviour.


Internet solution, printing problem Background:

We have 50+ agents placed at various locations throughout canada. They conduct consumer surveys at departmental stores using our inhouse built iPad app. They record consumer responses and give back to consumer a printout (A4 size) of the consent to participate in survey along with brief summary.

Problem:

Most sites either don't cooperate with our agents to provide them internet or they don't allow our printer (most of our printers are HP LaserJet M130 fw) to be on their network if they let them use the 'Guest' WiFi. For iPad printing both iPad and printer need to be on the same network. Is there any solution to it? We don't want to use cellular internet because of poor coverage and signal strength drops off frequently. So in short our agents need to be independent operative at their site without using their resources.

If you have the option of buying new printers, you can buy a portable Bluetooth printer for them to use. Using Bluetooth you're no longer dependent on any WiFi, and the iPad can use its WiFi to connect to a guest network for internet access or anything you like.

Using a Bluetooth printer is possible because you have an in-house built app. The app would require slight tweaking to support the printer.

For example you could use the HP PJ-763MFI Bluetooth printer which is created for use over Bluetooth with iOS:

https://www.brother.co.uk/mobile-printers/pocket-jet/pj-763mfi

The HP printer support A4/letter size paper.

Another option for smaller paper sizes are the popular Zebra printers that are certified for use over Bluetooth with iOS:

https://www.zebra.com/us/en/products/printers/mobile/mz-series.html

You can also find similar printers from Star and others.


Magic Mouse 2 Only Connects When Plugged In I have a Magic Mouse 2 - the type that can be connected to my laptop with a Lightning cable, and a Retina MBP 15-inch Mid 2015 running Sierra (10.12.3).

My mouse does not connect via Bluetooth. Power cycling the mouse, the computer itself, the bluetooth, and the wifi does nothing. I've also tried un-pairing the mouse as well. I followed every step of every answer on this already.

However, when I plug in the mouse with my lightning cable, the mouse is immediately recognized as my mouse, and even has a 88% charge on it. The moment I unplug the mouse, it is disconnected and unrecognizable.

Help?

It may be an issue with one of the bluetooth radios.

Can your MBP connect to other BT devices?
 - If not, you may need to get your MBP to Apple Service.

Can you connect the MM2 to a different computer via BT?
 - If not, you may need to get your MM2 to Apple Service.

If you can't test this yourself, you should get both units to an Apple store and let them diagnose it for you.  They are usually pretty good at root-causing such issues.


Default photo filters (Chrome) for Videos in camera app Is there a way I can use the default filters (mainly Chrome) provided in Camera app for Video recording?

If somebody can point me to any 3rd party app that mimics chrome filter for video, it would be real great.

EDIT: I should be more clearer, I want filters while recording the videos, not for post processing.

Video Filters
This app is available to any iPhone or iPad running iOS 7 or higher.  It's a free app (as of the time of writing), and it comes with 8 filters, with another 7 available for purchase.  It is a standalone video-editing app.
Free filters:

Mono
Tonal
Noir
Fade
Chrome
Process
Transfer
Instant

Export format:

File Type : MPEG-4(Default), QuickTime
Retain Metadata
Optimize For Network Use


My external disk made a clicking noise. What should I do? I have a USB2+Firewire external disk that made a clicking noise, and Mac OS X immediately unmounted it and put up a dialog box saying that a peripheral is misbehaving. The disk made a clicking noise several times in a short interval, and each time it did, the dialog box on screen would flash. So I unplugged it, waited for a few seconds, and plugged it in to another Mac, and this time it worked perfectly. I copied all 800 GB of data out of the drive over some 9 hours, and it worked perfectly and at its usual speed of 30 - 40 MB/second.

Now that all my data is out of the disk, I repaired the filesystem using Disk Utility. What else should I do? Should I run some kind of disk scan tool that checks the entire disk for bad blocks? Can you suggest a tool for the Mac? Since the disk has a HFS+ partition (and a FAT32 partition), I think I should run a disk repair tool on Mac rather than Linux. Is that correct?

I don't have SMART data since it's an external disk, and I don't want to break open the enclosure.

Thanks.

Clicking noises are generally signs of immanent disk failure. Backing up your important data on that drive is a good idea, and you should do that first thing.

Most HDD manufacturers have tools that will perform thorough checks on your disks health and come in different formats (most require an image to burned to a CD/DVD and then boot to it).

Do you know what the model of the external drive or the hard disk it houses?


How can I activate the 'say' command from the keyboard? I love the 'say' command in OS X. It's quite possibly the most fun little part of the Mac that I've seen in a while.

However, having to go to Terminal every time I want to use it is a bit of a drag. I'd like to make it a keyboard shortcut.

So: How can I tell OS X to 'say' whatever text I have selected with a keyboard shortcut?

Go to System Preferences, click the "Speech" icon, then click the "Text to Speech" tab. Then simply check the "Speak selected text when the key is pressed" box.

Text you have selected will be spoken when you press the selected key combination.


Why other apple ID-s appearing constantly? I hard restarted, restored and updated my Iphone X 'casue it constanty kept turning off in the most random moments. When I started to setup and backup I saw other 5 apple ID-s popping up (I've never seen them before, and they're not mine), Iphone said that there were some purchases made with these ID-s and it wanted me to type in the passwords. Is it possible that I have some malware/spyware on my phone or it was hacked?

Thanks for any helpful answers in advance.

It sounds like you are restoring the phone from a backup (iCloud or otherwise) and such a backup is placing all of your old apps back on your phone, which it is supposed to do.

It sounds like what is happening that some of the apps were downloaded under another AppleID. Whether it is someone who was using your phone and did this or the apps are from other sources.

The only way to get around this (without jailbreaking your phone) is to cancel all app installs and then download them one at a time from the app store under your personal AppleID. Apps that are associated with your current AppleID will have the download icon next to them (cloud with a downward pointing arrow) all others will have have a "GET" or "BUY" button.


No option to share internet connection with computers using wifi I'm trying to setup a hotspot from my macbook. From Settings -> Sharing, when I try select Internet Sharing from my WiFi connection, there is no option to share with other computers using WiFi.
I'm running macOS High Sierra 10.13.3

While Wi-Fi is the internet connection path, it cannot simultaneously share internet from the same interface.

This is similar to iOS's feature, where turning on Wi-Fi disables hotspot.


"Show Password" in Keychain Access doesn't work I am having a problem, as a program is requesting my RSA password but my Mac won't let me see it. As I check the "show password" (mostrar contraseña) chechbox, it immediately unmarks itself.

I already tried "Repair" and turning the computer off and on again (as if it ever worked) and of course, it didn't fix it.

Any suggestions?

To get the password from your keychain . You can right click on that item of which you need the password and click on "copy the password to clipboard", then you will ask to enter the login password , after that you can paste the password where you want.

PFA:


Is that possible to change IMEI on Iphone 5? I know changing the IMEI number of the phone, is illegal in most countries.

I'm basicly curious about two things:

Is that possible?
If it is not possible; why is that so hard, technically? (Considering the fact that it is written somewhere in the phones memory.)

Apart from the fact that it is illegal (in most if not all countries), you might want to think about why you would ever want to change the IMEI on your phone. I can think of only a few reasons why you would want to do that:

clear the identity of a stolen phone
clear information about phone manufacturer and model
research

Numbers 1 and 2 are highly questionable I would say. But to answer your questions:

Depending on the phone it could be possible, unless a one time programmable chip is used to store it, changing the IMEI would mean changing that chip, and since that's usually baked on the phones motherboard, it requires you to change that completely then.
Why is it made so hard? Well to prevent you from clearing the identity of a stolen phone mostly.

Consider the IMEI of your phone the same as the chassis number of your car, why on earth would you want to change that, unless you have criminal intent?


iPhone for use in Israel How can I get an iPhone to work in Israel and also transfer to it all the music and apps from my iPod?

I bought an unlocked 3GS iPhone and brought it to Israel. Initially, I put in my SIM card (from the company Cellcom) and it worked. Then, in order to get my apps and music, I restored the phone through Apple's service. After I did that, the SIM card no longer worked on the phone. I had no success unlocking the phone, so I am returning it to the seller. My question is:  what kind of phone should I get, and how can I transfer my apps and music to it without losing the ability to put in a SIM card?

You need to buy officially unlocked iPhone. There is no universal way to tell if particular phone is officially unlocked until you restore it in iTunes and it's still unlocked.

Here you can find countries/providers that sell unlocked phones if that could be of any hep to you.


iPhone 5 sync won't complete, stalls at waiting for changes to be applied I have an iPhone 5. Since the latest update to iOS 7, my ripped music won't sync to my phone. The sync stalls at "waiting for changes to be applied". I've run the sync diagnostic, and it indicates there are no problems. I have plenty of room on my phone, and had nearly 2000 songs on it prior to the update. Now, only the purchased tunes sync.

From this macrumors.com post:

Close iTunes, unplug your device and reboot the computer.
On your iDevice, connect to your Wifi network & leave it on and reboot it too. Now plug your iDevice back to the computer.
If you have any voice mails, delete them first.
Everything will sync and the problem goes away.


Suppress event times in week view? Within iCal the preferences settings let choose the use of event times
in month view.

I would like to obtain the same choice for the week view.

I'm actually using iCal on Snow Leopard, which I will shortly upgrade to Lion and Mountain Lion.
Is this choice possible within iCal on these different OS X versions?
Is there any progress on this possibility through these versions of the OS (this will be a key incentive to accelerate the OS X upgrade in such a case).

Additionally, is there any documentation about this level of tuning for iCal.

Yes.
It is possible from the Preferences > General menu of Calendar to activate the display of event times within the week view too:

Show event times


Did Apple remove the zooming feature from the Magic Mouse in a recent OS update? Mac OS X has a 'zoom' action which can be used in various views in applications e.g. Photos.app when looking at a photo, zooming an entire Safari page, zooming in an NSScrollView.

This action is easily performed on a trackpad by using the 'pinch' gesture.

I cannot for the life of me, work out how to enable it for the Magic Mouse (when running Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite).

The closest that I can get is in the 'Zoom' section of the 'Accessibility' pref pane.  This allows you to zoom the entire screen which is not the behaviour that I'm looking for.

You used to be able to perform the zoom action using the mouse (see this video at 1:26 - https://youtu.be/UXbwOIsXNL8?t=1m26s )

So - have Apple removed this feature?  Or is there a way to enable in-app zooming with the Magic Mouse?

Thanks

Hold down cmd# while scroling then the magic mouse zooms.


Network switching issues with MacOS 10.7? I'm having a weird problem and hope somebody can tip me, what way should I dig to.

I'm using MacBookPro with Lion 10.7.3 both at my working place & at home.

At working place, we have a domain-based network with 802.1x authorization (more than 400 computers) and to connect it I'm using Ethernet cable. IP range is 10.10.2.*. All network settings are setup automatically by DHCP. Also, in settings, I have Network Account Server setup in the User&Groups Settings for my work Domain server - and it is available only from corporate network.

At home, I have an ADSL router, that shares Internet connection by WiFi in NAT mode. I'm using WiFi to connect it. Router gives out addresses from 192.168.1.* range and all settings are also set up  by router's DHCP.

So, my problem is the following. When I come back home from the office, I open my MacBook and AirPort automatically connects my WiFi network. After this, for about 1 minute I'm able to browse sites & ping hosts successfully. But after this minute, network connection is broken down. All pings return time-out. trace route to google.com stops on 192.168.1.1 (which is my router). This lasts for 3-4 minutes. After that network connection is automatically repaired and all pings go smoothly again. At the same time, when my MacBook return timeouts, I can successfully ping any host from my wife's MacBook - so this doesn't look like router issue. When I come to the office, I don't have any issues and Internet connection is available & stable moments after ethernet cable plugged in.

Do anybody has any clues about this? What should I monitor & what settings look for resolving this issue?
Please, ask, what additional information should I provide.

Hoping for good advice & thanks in advance!

UPDATE:

ifconfig en1 results

for state, when ping fails

DenisMBP:CrowdedIsland denis$ ifconfig en1
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 60:33:4b:12:38:60
    inet6 fe80::6233:4bff:fe12:3860%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
    inet 192.168.1.10 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
    media: autoselect
    status: active

for state, when pings are ok

DenisMBP:CrowdedIsland denis$ ifconfig en1
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 60:33:4b:12:38:60
    inet6 fe80::6233:4bff:fe12:3860%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
    inet 192.168.1.10 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
    media: autoselect
    status: active

UPDATE 2:
I've added a cut from Console.app log, displaying the moment of Macbook wakeup, working connection, broken connection. You can get it here

UPDATE 3:
I've made log of netstat & ifconfig calls for all of three states. You can found it here

UPDATE 4:
I've uninstalled Cisco AnynetConnect VPN Client and issue is still reproducible. Here's log for netstat & ifconfig log file. And here's log from Console.app (see netstat log for finding time points, when network was working and was not) log file

I have seen something similar to this; I do not have a fix (wish I did).

The problem is that Lion speculatively brings up the interface immediately with its last known address (presumably based on the router or AP; it does store that information in one of the system plists), while querying the DHCP server to find out if that address is actually available.  If the DHCP server returns DHCPNAK, the interface becomes unconfigured while it properly negotiates a new address, at which point the interface is brought back up.

Theoretically (although probably not in practice on a small home network) your computer could have the same address as another computer on the network during that initial speculative phase.


Method of uploading contacts to a new iPhone? iPhone version: Up-to-Date (iOS - 10)

I have more than 10,000 contacts in my phone.

I recently tried to transfer them to a new [i]phone but with no luck...
The backup is sitting in my email as a .vcf file.

My method of uploading the contacts to the phone is:
Mail App-> "Backup June 27"->Download the File-> To contacts -> Crashes at this point.

I don't have a save on iCloud.

So, I was wondering: what are all the ways (which might include Windows or Mac and so they are included) to upload a backup to an iPhone?

Looking around, it appears there may be an app called Contacts Kit on the Mac app store. If I read correctly, this can be used to export the contacts to a file (which I know you have already done, however your file may be corrupted considering the process crashes) and then you do the steps in mail you did previously.

One thing I may suggest is that you open the App Switcher by double pressing the home button, and swiping upwards on every app but the mail app to close them off and free up memory. Considering your contacts list is in the hundreds of thousands you may simply be running out of memory, as I've had apps crash before when I ran out of memory. This can especially happen if the phone is older (thinking iPhone 5 as it can have as little as 512mb of RAM, yet still run iOS 10).


Unable to install with admin I am trying to update MAMP MySQL from this link, but when i double click the file as mentioned in the blog. I get message saying,

  The file “Install_MySQL_5.6.25.command” could not be executed because you do not have appropriate access privileges.

I tried to see the rights Get Info and it shows i am the owner and i have read and write.
If i am the owner, why can't i install it?

The file might not be marked executable. Try this:

Open Terminal.app
Enter: "chmod u+x " (without the quotes but with the space) but don't press enter yet

3.Drop the "Install_MySQL_5.6.25.command" file on the Terminal.app window.
The full path to "Install_MySQL_5.6.25.command" should appear.

Press enter

The file is now marked as executable and you should be able to run it.


mail.app missing plug-in Today I opened mail.app and my mail attachments showed up as "missing plug-in". I faced this issue before, at that time I quite the mail.app and opened again were fix the problem. Now that also not working.Please help me to fix this issue.

The Following are the content types in the mail:

Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
Content-Type: multipart/related;
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Type: image/gif Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Type: multipart/related;
Content-Type: text/html;
Content-Type: image/jpeg   Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

This is how my mail look like:

I just had a similar problem and solved it by going to:

System Preferences > Java > Security

and set the security level down to medium.

However I don't find this a very satisfying solution and I wonder why Mail requires Java to display images...

Update:

I assume it actually has nothing to do with Java itself but in some way with the plug-in loading. Maybe changing Java settings does something with the internet plugins... After all, now that my images do appear again, it has no further effect to change the java settings. The images will be displayed regardless of the java security settings. (So I set them back to high)

Maybe another solution is to have the privileges repaired or internet caches cleaned up...


how do I write a homebrew recipe? What are the key features of a homebrew recipe?

If I want to contribute a recipe, e.g. this one for udunits to the the hombrew-science repository, how would I convert a command-line script like this:

wget ftp://ftp.unidata.ucar.edu/pub/udunits/udunits-2.1.24.tar.gz
tar -xvf udunits-2.1.24.tar.gz
cd udunits-2.1.24
./configure
make
make check
make clean

into a valid recipe?

This Homebrew README gives these steps (with links to more information):

  Contributing

  In short:

  Fork Homebrew.
  brew create http://example.com/foo-0.1.tar.gz
  git checkout -b foo
  git commit Library/Formula/foo.rb && git push
  Pull Request.

  In long:

  Formula Cookbook
  Acceptable Formulae

Homebrew formulas are written in Ruby (tested against Ruby 2.0.0). Knowledge of Ruby certainly helps, but you might be able to get a feel for how to do basic procedures like you outline above just by reading a few existing formulae.

Getting a formula accepted also requires a little knowledge of Git and GitHub pull requests, but is covered How to open a Homebrew pull request (and get it merged)


Upgrade processor iMac (mid 2010 specifically) I have a mac from mid 2010.

I want to know if I can upgrade the processor from the current 3.6 Ghz dual core i3 processor to a quad core i5 or i7.

There seems to be very little information on the subject on the internet, with most people saying "OMG IT VOIDZ YOUR WARRANTYZ". My warranty has been expired for the best part of 6 months now, so I don't really care about it.

I want to know - Can I buy a quad core i5 or i7, take out the current i3, replace it with the new i5/i7 and have the computer still work? Are all processors the same size/fitting? Is my motherboard/hardware/bios/firmware/software compatible with a different processor?

My reasoning is that this would be a much cheaper way to upgrade my current computer, rather than splashing out for a new computer.

Thanks

Yes, it is possible. By that I mean it is not physically soldered onto the logic board. However, as you mentioned, it will void your warranty. More importantly, Apple has not divulged the inner hardware workings of their system. Since Apple makes the logic board, and does not simply order stock motherboards, we do not know the exact number of chipsets that each physical board is designed to support. I have also heard that Intel sometimes will make the number of pins on Apple processors just slightly different than the PC version of the same processor.

All of that said, while it may be possible, it is not advisable, because messing up during an undocumented, unsupported process is more expensive than buying the new system.


How to track email open/forward events with Mac Mail (or standalone App)? We are looking for a Mac tool to track open and forward events on email we send (basically, ToutApp or Yesware functionality). We're hoping to find something which is compatible with Mac Mail (v7.1) or runs as a standalone desktop client.

Most of the tools we have seen are designed to integrate with Gmail or Outlook.  Can anyone recommend a tool which works with Mac Mail or as a standalone client?

Our main features would be:

Compatible with Mac desktop client (e.g. Mac Mail but could be standalone app)
Track open and forward events; and
Not have our emails get stuck in spam filters.

The mail protocol does not mandate that the other end acknowledge a message.

Most of these programs send rich text mail with a link to a web page embedded in them.  Loading the email into a browser fetches the link.  By keying the link to the web page to the user's email address, you can track who opened it.

So you set up your web server so that it has a virtual host with a rewrite rule that rewrites every request to a single 1 bit GIF file. But you log the request first.

Spam is a lot harder to detect.  Some mail servers will bounce it back.  More and more however just silently drop it.  Your best bet here is to try every month for 3 months, then delete it from your records.


Does Apache require special settings to run a command? I am trying to create an image using Bio::Perl/Bio::Graphics and implement it on my webserver. However, whenever I am trying to run my scripts online, the command line does not respond to run my script.

One of my perl module files contains this system command:

my $command = "perl Graphics.pl $start $end $attributes";
system($command);

All values are routed to this command and all scripts work perfectly fine when run manually through the command line. Apache does not report an error messages except that the file it was supposed to create in Graphics.pl hasn't been created:

> [Mon Dec 16 12:15:59 2013] [error] [client ::1] Cannot Open Output 59_15_12_16_11_113_1_349_0.png, referer: http://localhost/~User/cgi-bin/Home.pl

>[Mon Dec 16 12:15:59 2013] [error] [client ::1] File does not exist: /Users/User/Sites/cgi-bin/59_15_12_16_11_113_1_349_0.png, referer: http://localhost/~User/cgi-bin/Results.pl?start=1000&end=20000&chr=All&type=protein

Is there an additional setting that needs to be configured in the Apache settings so it can use the command line?

My specs are the following:

Server version: Apache/2.2.24 (Unix)
perl 5, version 16, subversion 2 (v5.16.2)
Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The problem has been solved. Basically Apache did not have permission to write into the folder. Steps to solve the issue included:

ls -la cgi-bin to check the permissions of my cgi-bin folder.
Give the _www group ownership of cgi-bin and give the group write permissions: chgrp -R _www cgi-bin && chmod g+w cgi-bin.
In addition, I added my User to the group _www so I would not have to authenticate myself every time I added a file in the cgi-bin folder.
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a ikr -t user _www was used to do Step 3 (ikr has to be replaced with the username to be added)


Turning on FileVault fails on MacBook Pro with 'disk in use by driver' error I am trying to turn on FileVault on my retina MacBook Pro (running OS X 10.8.4), and after going through the key generation it fails with a "Disk in use by driver" error, as shown:

I've got nothing running (I had quit all applications) except Finder, and no USB or external drives are connected, and I am connected to AC power.

So, what could be wrong?

You can try using the command line version, fdesetup. The simplest method of doing so is opening Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities) and typing

  sudo fdesetup enable

Once you put in your username(type it exactly as shown in the terminal window before the ":~" ) and password, it will give you a recovery key. Write it down and double check it! This is your only way back into the system if you forget your password.

Reboot the computer and the process should begin.

If that gives you the same error, you can try doing a deferred process.

NOTE TO ALL:

Do not do this method if you have a mac with a Fusion Drive in it.

To do so, open Terminal and type:

  sudo fdesetup -defer ~/Desktop/recovery.plist

This will run full disk encryption at reboot, so everything will be closed. The user you are logged in as will be the default username/password used to unlock your encrypted drive.  Since this method will not display the recovery key, it will be saved on your Desktop as "recovery.plist". Treat this as your password, it is just as powerful. Once you reboot, write this down somewhere safe.

Hopefully this works out for you, and as always, be sure to make an unencrypted backup before you do this, just to prevent any data loss.


Spotlight Search: Show ALL FILES, and exclude ALL FOLDERS I am looking for a macOS equivalent of the Windows command:
type:NOT"file folder"

This command, when entered into Windows Explorer search bar, will display all the files of a directory or hard drive, without showing the folders in the search results.
Thanks.

You can set up some quite complex searches using  Cmd ⌘   F  in the Finder, rather than invoking Spotlight itself.

You can define many criteria & even save as a smart search for future use.
If you really want to get in-depth, you can use Spotlight's own query language, though the mechanics of that are well beyond my pay-grade.
I'll let Macworld - macOS: How to use Spotlight’s query language to create an All My Files-like feature - explain in detail.


limiting mdfind on Terminal to files changed in the last x minutes/hours? It's relatively simple to use find to look for recent files.

find . -cmin -5 will look for all files changed in the last 5 minutes under the current directory.

But find is very much slower than mdfind, which is powered by Spotlight's index when you search the whole machine.

What is the simplest way, on the terminal, to ask mdfind to only look for files modified in the last 5 minutes?  Every time I look at the Apple doc I get totally lost as to what you actually type on the command line.

You would use the time variable- $time.now and subtract the number of seconds- $time.now(-300) to get 5 minutes before the current time. Next, you would use the operator >= for the comparison. To put it all together-

 mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemFSContentChangeDate >= $time.now(-300)'


Activity Monitor - Dock Icon - dual core is displayed with 4 columns View > Dock Icon has two CPU choices:

Show CPU Activity
Show CPU History

I am on a dual core (MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014).
In both views, I see 4 items.

Using High Sierra.

While researching the Activity Monitor, I saw this:

Some of the newer Macs have hyper-threading, which makes each core appear to be two processors.

Relatively speaking, I'm less familiar with hyper-threading than older CPU technology, so I'm putting this in an answer, and letting the community vote.


Move iMessages between accounts I have two Apple IDs, because one of them is in the US App Store and the other is in the hungarian Store. I use almost every service of iCloud on the US account except for the iMessage. I still have to log in to iMessage with my older, hungarian account, because all my messages since the service was introduced belong to that. I want to simplify my life and use only the US account (except for purchases in the Store). Is there any way to transfer my old iMessages from my old account to the new one?

Short Answer: No

Longer Answer:
Apple does not support and even don't know how to merge 2 Apple IDs/Account. But on your local iPhone you can hold all the Data if you only switch the iMessage ID afaik. iMessages are only hold for 14 Days in the Apple Account and are not/nerver longer stored at Apple (claims Apple)

So moving iMessages to another account without Dataloss - No
Keep old Messages on the same Phone (or Backup) - Yes


Can I pre-download iOS update for iPad? I purchased  an iPad for my parents who live 2 hours drive away from me.  The only internet connection they have is the 3G sim chip in their iPad.  I want to apply the iOS 5 update, but in order to download it the iPad seems to be required to be plugged in to my iTunes, which is really inconvenient.  I also would ned to provide my laptop with a wifi connection from a hotspot on my iPhone, which does not seem stable enough long enough to download the iOS update.

It would be so much easier if I could download the update while at home over my fast fiber optic network connection, then drive the two hours and apply the update.

Is this even possible?

When iOS is updated, an .ipsw file that is downloaded from Apple's servers by iTunes. You can find direct links to them at iDownloadBlog.

At your parents' house, to update iOS, plug their iPad into a computer and launch iTunes. Then click it in the left sidebar and hold down the ⇑ Shift key while clicking on the Restore button. This brings up an open file dialog; simply look for the .ipsw file you downloaded and open it.

iTunes will tell you that the iPad will be wiped and restored, just click OK and give it time to update. You'll be asked whether you want to start again or restore from a backup when the process finishes; choose the newest backup and the previous data on the device will be loaded back on.


Converting iso to img completes without creating the img file I'm trying to create a bootable USB drive for my downloaded Ubuntu 10.04 Server (ppc) iso using my MacBook. I followed the instruction on the Ubuntu website for creating the img using hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso. However, after running the command, this is the output that I get:

Reading Driver Descriptor Map (DDM : 0)… Reading Apple
(Apple_partition_map : 1)… Reading Ubuntu-Server 10.04 LTS ppc
(Apple_ISO : 2)… Reading Ubuntu-Server 10.04 LTS ppc (Apple_HFS : 3)…
...................................................................................
Usage:  hdiutil convert -format <format> -o <outfile> [options] <image>
    hdiutil convert -help

Then it returns to the command line. When I check the supposed location of the img file, it doesn't exist.

Questions:

Am I running the right command?
If I am running the right command, where is the img file?

On further examination I noticed the appropriate file is created when I run the command—but as soon as the "Reading Ubuntu-Server 10.04 LTS ppc (Apple_HFS : 3)" process finishes, the file gets deleted.

Whenever a command line tool outputs it's Usage help text it means it couldn't parse your parameters. In this case you got the order of the arguments wrong, which can easily be gleaned from the man page (man hdiutil): convert image -format format -o outfile

In your case that'd be:

hdiutil convert ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img


Mac mini with intermittent wifi connnectivity problems Mac mini (2.4 core 2 duo, 10.6.8) has served well for years. Now it seems to be having wifi connectivity problems with no rhyme or reason to their appearance. Several other devices (laptops, phones) on the same wifi network can all connect and use the network with no issues. Sometimes connectivity is dropped altogether and later re-establishes. More often it just becomes impossibly slow:

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=292 ttl=64 time=2.807 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=293 ttl=64 time=3.668 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=294 ttl=64 time=3.047 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=295 ttl=64 time=2.845 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=296 ttl=64 time=452.096 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=297 ttl=64 time=204.045 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=298 ttl=64 time=496.942 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=299 ttl=64 time=534.443 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=300 ttl=64 time=74.985 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 301
Request timeout for icmp_seq 302
Request timeout for icmp_seq 303
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=302 ttl=64 time=2390.534 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=303 ttl=64 time=1390.854 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=304 ttl=64 time=393.798 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=306 ttl=64 time=21.682 ms

Above, 10.0.1.1 is our router. From another device, during the same time window, I see much more consistent ping times.

I tried to log all the wifi activity (sudo ./airportd debug +AllUserland +AllDriver +AllVendor; sudo ./airportd logger), and during the outage above there were no log messages seen. Wifi was "connected" but no data was flowing. The other issues (when the connection drops completely) I have not yet reproduced while debug logging.

Is there some other way I can investigate this problem, or should I just give up, assume the interface is dying, and buy a USB wifi dongle?

Sometimes that is caused by WiFi Chanel overcrowding.

Try changing the WiFi channel for Mac Mini.


How to force iPhone to upload to iCloud over mobile data Using iPhone 10.3.3 with no possibility of WiFi. Is there a way to force the use of mobile data to upload to iCloud?

I understand why the phone will not update using a potentially insecure signal but why won't it allow me to upload my photographs over mobile data?

These issues  are important to people making use of older lower end models. The #Iphone5c is still functional but with very limited scope because of the neglect over maximising use of mobile data and storage issues.

Go to:
Settings -> Photos -> Mobile Data
Then turn on the mobile data switch:

This will allow upload and download using mobile data.
Turn on Unlimited Updates to allow unlimited use of data to upload and download from iCloud when not connected to WiFi.
Beware to go exceed your mobile data plan.


How do you log out of the Mac App Store? When you are logged in with into the Mac App Store and it prompts for the password like this:

how do you log out without entering the password?

Store Menu > Sign Out

The downside is apps are tied to the ID, so you won't be able to update the same apps signed to another ID


To install Shotwell in OSX I install the first dependencies of Shotwell  successfully

brew install libGphoto2 vala libgee

Some discussion about this issue in this thread but the accepted answer is misleading, since it is about how to install pyexiv2, not gexiv2.

I run ./configure and get

Detected libGPhoto 2.5.x - using 2.5-aware code path.
Configured.  Type 'make' to build, 'make install' to install.

I run make and get

Package gexiv2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gexiv2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'gexiv2' found
...

My .bash_profile

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    source ~/.bashrc
fi

# http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/53058/15504
export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH

Echoing $PATH

/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/texbin

How can you install Shotwell in OSX Yosemite?

How can you install the dependency gexiv2 in OSX Yosemite?

As of right now there is no gexiv2 brew formula but I've created and submitted one which will hopefully get accepted soon. You can follow here: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/pull/37944

Beyond that there are various dependencies of shotwell that aren't easily available through brew, for example rest and gudev which don't appear to exist anywhere for OS X. I'll have a go at creating formulas for them depending on how the first one goes.


How to remove a container disk and reclaim space with main partition (similar to another question) This is very similar to another question here, but the devil is in the details.
I had Bootcamp installed on my Macbook, was not able to delete it with bootcamp assistant, so tried to delete the partition with disk utility. But something went wrong, and I'm not able to delete the partition.
I'd like to have just a single partition with no leftover Windows. I ran "diskutil list" from the terminal, and this is the result:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         149.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         101.6 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +101.6 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s3

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +149.0 GB   disk2
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            95.4 GB    disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 44.7 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.4 MB   disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk2s4

Thanks!

The safest way would be to use macOS Recovery. Reboot and hold down ⌘+R key combination until the Mac boots to macOS Recovery. Open a Terminal application window and enter the following commands.

gpt -f remove -i 3 disk0
diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0

An alternative quicker method would be to open a Terminal application window in macOS and enter the following commands.

sudo diskutil apfs deletecontainer disk0s3
sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s3
sudo diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0


How to interpret outcome of Apple Hardware Test on Malfunctioning Macbook-Pro/Snow Leopard Here are some tests I have when I ran Apple Hardware Test from original Tiger install disc.

My issue is recurrent worsening inconsistent kernel panics.

The Hardware Test hangs up at 35 seconds, while "testing memory."  The first time I ran it I didn't realize it had hung up till I looked over the display after 3 or 4 minutes. It showed "Detected Error" and a code, but shut down as I scrambled for a pencil to write it down.  I then ran it 3 more times, but each time the system shut down sometime between 35 seconds and the appearance of the error code.

Can I deduce anything useful from this?
Can I force the Hardware Test to tell me anything more?

I'm not sure if there's a way to get more information out of the Hardware Test (although I would suggest taking a picture of the screen if you're not able to write all the info down in time). However the symptoms you describe suggest that there's a problem with your memory — either the sticks themselves, or the memory controller.

I would suggest taking out your memory, then trying these steps:

Run the AHT with one memory DIMM only. Repeat with the same DIMM in the other slot.
Repeat the above, but with the other DIMM.
If neither of those work, try a known good DIMM from another machine, or a new one.

If you find that one stick works but the other doesn't, it's likely that you have a bad stick — replacing it should solve your problem. Likewise if new RAM works but the existing doesn't.

If you find that one slot works but the other doesn't, then you likely have a logic board or memory controller issue.

Finally, if none of those combinations work, it could be a logic board or memory controller issue, or something else.

Sorry I can't be more definitive, but hopefully that will help you to narrow it down.


MacBook Pro 13” 2014 - Trackpad gestures not working after long sleep I haven’t used my MacBook for around 2 weeks, it’s been in sleep mode (closed lid).

I’ve never had any issues with my MacBook Pro, but suddenly any form of gesture other than 1 finger on the trackpad causes a temporary 2/3 second freeze. Here’s what I’ve tried:

killall Dock on the console
updated to High sierra OS
unticked all trackpad gesture options
reset the SMC
sleeping, restarting, powering off and on

I’ve had absolutely no luck, not even temporary. It’s literally the moment it senses an additional finger on the pad that it freezes.

As there were no physical or software changes between when it worked and when it didn’t, can I assume it’s something to do with the long sleep? Are there any further tips for potential solutions or has anyone experienced this specific problem?

I've recently had this issue as well. I found the temporary solution to be related to the hidd process. If you head to Activity Monitor and forcibly terminate the process (as outlined in the fifth option in this article from OSXDaily), the gestures should return.


Why does my Google Maps app not send location? I have Google Maps installed in my iPhone 6, and I have enabled location history in Google location settings page, but my Google location history page doesn't have records.

How can I turn it on?

Go to;Settings-Privacy- Location Services- Make sure the toggle at the top of the page is "Green/ON"-scroll down to Google Maps and ensure you have checked either "While Using App" or "Always" depending on your preference.


Restrict AirPlay to single AppleTV out of many AppleTVs on the same network I have multiple Apple TVs in my apartments, all connected to the same network.

I want to block the possibility for the guest to stream video or connect to other Apple TV excluded the Apple TV in their single room (ex: guest in cabin 1 can't controls the ATV in cabin 2).

It is possible?

Yes, on the AppleTV you can set how AirPlay can be used by opening Settings and then AirPlay and then pressing "Allow Access".

On the guest room AppleTV, you would set it to for example "Anyone on the Same Network".

On the other AppleTVs, you would set it to "Only People Sharing this Home" or "Require Password".

This means that the guest cannot send an AirPlay stream to the other AppleTVs, unless ofcourse he gains access to the password, or you share your Home with the guest.


How can I fix Virtualization not being available in bootcamp windows? Virtualbox complains that VT-x isn't available and running securable confirms that it's not available. My 2012 rMBP has an i7 and intel clearly states the CPU does have VT-x, nevermind the fact that Virtualbox works just fine under OSX. This is where if I had a PC I'd check if it was enabled in BIOS.

What can I do?

Okay so I got it working with virtualbox with the help of VMWare. I tried AnonymousAppDev's answer but it didn't have any effect on my machine (at least not after the first reboot).

I read that VMWare may be able to turn on VT-x, so I installed VMWare workstation. That in turn asked me to remove Hyper-v since there's a conflict. After rebooting securable now says I have VT-x enabled and I'm able to run Virtualbox.


VPN Tracker 6 won't work on Mac OS X Yosemite Equinux VPN Tracker 6 won't start on Mac OS X Yosemite. When starting up, a message says

  Unable to load kernel extension

And invites you to restart, but to no avail.

Needless to say, I don't want to give them € 50 to upgrade to version 8 for the sake of a new UI. And I find their licensing policy (upgrade or perish) very unfriendly.

Any idea on how to get it to run?

As read here, Yosemite won't load kernel extensions that aren't signed by an authorized kext (kernel extension) developer (at this stage, the protectionism of Apple no longer astonishes me).

The workaround is to turn your OS X into a kernel extension developer mode by adding this to the nvram parameters:

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

After rebooting, VPN Tracker 6 launched and connected trouble-free.

@Equinux and their greedy licensing policy: I am so very glad that you did not get my €€€. Your message "VPN Tracker 6 is out–of-date" with either Quit or Upgrade to version 8 shows how much your company is run by dinosaurs still stuck in the 90s of Microsoft of sorts.


Question about installing SSD into a Macbook Pro I want to upgrade the hard drive in my 2012 Macbook Pro to an SSD. I have the parts, but had a question about how to clone the contents of my current drive so I can install it onto the SSD.

I've seen tutorials where people suggest connecting the new SSD to the Macbook prior to installation and using a Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the drive, and then installing the SSD drive.

My question is, can I do a Time Machine backup of my current hard drive on an external hard drive, install the SSD, and then use the Time Machine backup from the external to transfer it onto the newly installed SSD? Is this the same as using the clone program above?

You can restore the backup onto the SSD so long as the SSD fits the entire contents of the backup[1].
According to Apple's support pages, you do not need to use an Apple Time Capsule for backups:

Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of your Mac. To use it, you need an external storage solution, sold separately:

External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac
Time Capsule or macOS Server on your network
External hard drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme Base Station on your network

Then you would want to restore using macOS recovery using the "Restore from Time Machine Backup" utility.
[1]: It's possible this is not the same as the size used by your hard drive, as the Time Machine backup also has previous versions of files and deleted files. However, since you are newly setting up Time Machine, there would be no previous versions of files.


How to speed up my iMac after upgrading to Sierra? I have this:

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012)
2,7 GHz Intel Core i5
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512 MB

Some days ago I updated to Sierra 10.12.6, and all my apps. My HD currently have about 350 GB free space.

Still, it runs quite slow after upgrading from El Capitan to Sierra.

Any of you had the same issue? How to solve?

Putting an SSD inside will give the most speed boost possible for general computing. If you have a specific benchmark or measurement you want to optimize, there might be other options.

Since that’s an internal upgrade, you should consider what value you can recoup selling it used and buy a better / newer used Mac than trying to upgrade internal parts on most iMac.

Since you have a hard drive, you will get the best performance with a hundred free GB and rebooting once a week or so. Other than that, watching for RAM hogs and keeping browser tabs under control are good tips as well.


Safari won't load on my G5; how can I get my bookmarks? I have a Mac, a Power PC G5 desktop, running MAC OS X 10.5.8, the last release made for this machine. I've been having a lot of problems lately with Safari; when I launch it, I get a spinning disc, and then Safari becomes unresponsive. My only option is to Force Quit.

Ideally, I'd like to resolve whatever is causing the issue.

Failing that, I'd like to somehow get to all my bookmarks. I just don't know enough about the inner workings of the computer to find where those are stored and how to access them.

The bookmarks are stored in ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.html

Triaging the crashing app might be as simple as moving the entire preference folder and plist file to the desktop or might take more work.


Does the CPU of your Macbook Pro overheat when gaming using a Thunderbolt external GPU? Does the CPU of your Macbook Pro overheat when gaming using a Thunderbolt external GPU ?
Any feedback from fellow gamers using an external GPU ? Thanks !

No, the CPU does not overheat.

There's no extra CPU-load from the fact that you're using an external GPU compared to an internal GPU.

In addition your CPU cannot overheat in a functioning MacBook Pro. The system will use the fans to cool down the CPU. In the event the fans are not functioning (i.e. broken hardware), the MacBook Pro would simply turn off instead of overheating.


Strange icon in my menu bar This strange icon decided to appear in my menubar this week, and I have absolutely no clue as to what it is. Could anyone help with this?
What steps should I take to finding out what process that owns this icon?

The icon doesn't interact with any single, double or right clicks, and does not drag out with a command+drag.
It comes and goes, but recently it decided to stay a bit longer. I'm a bit concerned, because I don't recall installing any new apps.

I got the same thing just now, it's the Libre Office update icon but sad it's not responding on 1 click...


Copy a Time Machine "backup" from the TimeCapsule to a HD I'm reading this, but I'm concerned about one point.

In the Check the format section, it says the drive has to be Journaled HFS+ and have a GPT map. My drive is AppleAPFSMedia and the map is Unknown. My drive also has Ignore Ownership turned ON.

I do not want to back up to this drive, I simply want to use it one time during Migration Assistant as opposed to pulling things over Ethernet. I will not do any future backups to it.

Does anyone know for sure what the deal is here?

The document Transfer Time Machine backup ups from one disk to another is correct.  You can't copy a Time Machine backup to your APFS drive. If the drive does not have important data you can erase it exactly as described in the Apple article and copy your Time Machine backup.

But, I don't see any benefit in that for you. Copying ahead of time will not be quick as the complete set of backups must be copied.  Migration Assistant will only bring across the data requested (typically from your most recent backup) and will be quicker.


Most recent backup not available when attempting to restore iPhone I am trying to restore my most recent backup onto my iPhone, but I can only see old backups when I click Restore. My most recent backup does appear in iTunes under Preferences.

How can I access that one, as the other is actually 8 months old? My iPhone has been stolen I am keen to recover my most recent data.

You can only restore a backup onto an iPhone, iPad, iPod or WATCH that is running the same, or a more recent version of its operating system.

If your latest backup isn’t showing up as an option when attempting to restore your iPhone, first set it up as new, and update to the latest version of iOS. Then try another Restore. Your backup should show up then.


Mac OS X finder and disk utility not responding My mac had turned slow and buggy - I did a reinstall.

After a couple of attempts I succeeded with a "blank" install. I thought it was working fine but now the problems from before keeps popping up:

Finder not responding and not showing any files
Disk utility not responding
Dock freezes after I've tried to use one of the first two applications

Please provide assistance on how to get my Mac to run properly again. I've done a few permission repairs but even if verifying permissions shows up with faulty permissions and I do a repair afterwards, I still have problems with finder etc. Where do I go from here?

Exerpt from system.log:

Jan 11 06:34:59 new-host-3 [0x0-0x67067].com.apple.systempreferences[575]: launchctl remove error: No such process
Jan 11 06:34:59 new-host-3 [0x0-0x67067].com.apple.systempreferences[575]: launchctl remove error: No such process
Jan 11 06:34:59 new-host-3 [0x0-0x67067].com.apple.systempreferences[575]: tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
Jan 11 06:35:27 new-host-3 AddressBookSourceSync[617]: Error, could not create MachMessagePort for com.apple.AddressBook.abd
Jan 11 06:35:38 new-host-3 AddressBookSourceSync[617]: Error, could not create MachMessagePort for com.apple.AddressBook.abd
Jan 11 07:04:18 Jane-Noesgaard-Larsens-MacBook-Pro applepushserviced[623]: <APSCourier: 0x7fdf9ba0d640>: Stream error occurred for <APSTCPStream: 0x7fdf99d221a0>: The operation couldn’t be completed. Socket is not connected
Jan 11 07:04:18 Jane-Noesgaard-Larsens-MacBook-Pro applepushserviced[623]: <APSCourier: 0x7fdf9ba0d640>: Stream error occurred for <APSTCPStream: 0x7fdf9b815400>: The operation couldn’t be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 2.)
Jan 11 07:09:22 new-host-3 mds[34]: (/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/4F667D9F-8447-4427-B05A-E9E886D0043D)(Error) IndexPath in openReverseStore:Successfully recovered from shadow with state d00d0dd0
Jan 11 07:09:23 new-host-3 fseventsd[42]: failed to make the directory /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.fseventsd (5/Input/output error)
Jan 11 07:09:23 new-host-3 mds[34]: (Error) Volume: sysctl_queryfs failed: Invalid argument
Jan 11 07:09:24 new-host-3 mds[34]: (/)(Error) IndexSDB in page_cache_deserialize_entries:Unexpected EOF in page cache preload; got 0 bytes at offset 0
Jan 11 07:09:30 new-host-3 UserEventAgent[11]: [11] error in getAndLockContext: open returned -1 (errno=2)  file was /private/var/servermgrd//servermgr_certs.lock
Jan 11 07:09:36 new-host-3 applepushserviced[52]: Unable to bootstrap_lookup connection port for 'com.apple.safaridavclient.push': unknown error code
Jan 11 07:09:36 new-host-3 applepushserviced[52]: Unable to bootstrap_lookup connection port for 'com.apple.iCalPush': unknown error code
Jan 11 07:09:50 new-host-3 WindowServer[99]: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.

As I wrote I've just reinstalled the machine - of cause I made a backup first.

I just ran the hardware test utility on my application DVD. No trouble reported. I'll take a look at the system log (located above).

Update: Problems are less evident when running Snow Leopard, Finder doesn't show external hard drives (USB) though disk utility does.

The laptop will be picked up for service today and in about 10 working days I'll know if they found any hardware related errors - will post here when I know anything new

This potentially sounds like you could have a faulty hard-drive. Without being near the machine it's difficult to diagnose, but if Finder, Disk Utility and Dock are freezing it's probably when your machine is trying to access a file on the hard disk and failing. Try a Verify from the Disk Utility 'First Aid' screen. If you can hear a clicking sound coming from your hard drive it could be an indication of a hardware fault. If you have an alternative hard drive you could try using, see if you get the same symptoms.

One last thing - make sure you have an up-to date backup! If the drive does fail you'll want a backup handy. I'll assume you have a backup because you said you just did a blank install.


Make Safari window smaller on Mac Is there anyway to make the Safari window smaller by width on Mac? It will only let you make it about 500px in width before it stops. Basically I'm trying to test out some mobile web designs so I would like to have a smaller window in Safari.

You can enter Responsive Design Mode to set a custom size and resolution of the viewport.

Enable the Develop menu from Preferences → Advanced → Show Develop menu in Menu bar
Choose Develop → Enter Responsive Design Mode.


What should I do about a Mac Mini whose fusion drive is getting steadily slower and slower? I have a 2012 Mac Mini (running OS/X 10.11.6) with an Apple-provided internal 1TB fusion drive that appears to be suffering from some kind of performance problem -- it seems to be getting slower and slower over time, to the point where it can be quite painful to use.

For example, applications can take 10-20 seconds to open, and Mac Mail in particular can take several minutes to bring up an email or bring up the file requester to add an attachment.

Is there any procedure recommended to bring the Mac Mini back up to its original speed?  I suppose if all else fails I could always do a low-level format of the Fusion Drive and then re-install everything from a Time Machine backup, but I'm not certain that that would solve the performance problem, or that the Fusion Drive logic would be set up correctly after that.  Is there anything less drastic that might be effective?

Spec summary:

Late-2012 Mac Mini
1TB Fusion Drive (less than 75% full)
8GB RAM
Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

As you probably know, troubleshooting is a process of elimination and can require quite a bit of patience.

The first things I'd do in your situation are to try booting in Safe Mode and, if no joy afterwards, reset both your NVRAM and SMC.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac Mini into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac Mini
Restart your Mac Mini
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice. Also, it will take longer than usual to boot.)
Use your computer for a while and take a note of what happens (i.e. Are you still experiencing the same issues, etc)
Once you've used your Mac long enough to know if it's working any better, exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac Mini
After booting up normally, take a note again of what happens (i.e. Are you still experiencing the same issues, etc)

If you're still experiencing problems, reset the NVRAM and then SMC.

Reset NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). It may be worth you also resetting this. Here’s how to:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Once you've reset your NVRAM, proceed to reset your SMC as well.

Reset SMC

Shut down your computer
Unplug it from power
Wait 15 seconds
Plug the power cord back in
Wait for an additional 5 seconds
Press the power button to turn it back on

Once you're booted back in, take a note of how your Mac Mini is running and we'll go from there.


How do I select a table style for table cells in pages? In pages you automatically get selected a table style when creating a table. However, after pasting in multiple elements I find that the paragraph style is different in multiple cells of the table.

I would just set all those styles back to e.g. "Table Style 2", however that style is missing from the drop down menu. I can select the "Body" style of course, but the font size seems larger than "Table Style 2".

Is there a way to reset or paste in the table style without having to copy / paste all the text?

Text from the clipboard can be pasted without its original formatting.

To do so:

Select the cell you wish to paste information to
From the Menu Edit > Paste and Match Style [ ⌥⇧⌘V ]

This will preserve the styling in the table, regardless of the style from the source copied from.

This will save you from having to try to restore the original table's formatting.

If you've already copy/pasted everything without regarding the style then you can create a new table and copy/paste all the elements into it using the "Paste and Match Style" method described above.

You may have to resize the table before or afterwards (if you create a smaller table then the size is adjusted automatically to the right number of rows and columns).


What happened to Bonjour in Safari 11 and how do I access it? I need to access Bonjour to get information from my printer and wonder where Bonjour has gone from Safari version 11.

Apple clearly removed that item from the Safari menu.

My take on this is everyone is wondering about Safari 11 and Bonjour.  There is a suggestion that Apple needs to be reminded that it is huge to have Bonjour in Safari to manage printers, access scanners, even see some HomeKit device tech interfaces.

Everyone trusted Apple on Bonjour... and Safari is the preeminent end user tool to use and be introduced to the benefits of Bonjour...

consider posting your opinion on Safari-sans-Bonjour at:

Bonjour Feedback: https://www.apple.com/feedback/bonjour.html


Distorted Audio from Speakers and Line-Out I've been working on my early-2008 iMac of late, replacing the HD with and SSD, and upgrading the CPU to 2.8 GhZ. The SSD and new CPU seem to be working fine, except after I finished I ended up with this weird audio problem: ALL audio is distorted. I've shared a couple of links to demonstrate:

Clip of Middle C

Stars and Stripes Forever

This happens both through speakers and audio out. I cannot seem to find the source of the problem. I've tried the following:

Replaced the audio board
Replaced the audio board / logic board flex cable
Replaced the logic board
Booted off an external HD
Downgraded to Mavericks
Reset the PRAM
Reset the SMU
Terminated CoreAudio

NOTHING seems to work. The audio just keeps coming through like it does above. My only thought is maybe my power supply is shorting out and messing with the audio, but I don't want to pony up for a new component until I have a better idea.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Note: This only happens after I boot. The startup chime is not affected.

So I swapped the original CPU back in and everything works fine. Oddly, audio in Ubuntu worked just fine with the original processor, but not in Mac OS X 10.10. Thanks for your help, Tetsujin.


Changes to Photos. Where did Camera Roll and Photo Stream albums go? In iOS 7, the Photos app has 2 default folders for pics.

Camera Roll
My Photo Stream

In iOS 8, the default folders is now:

Recently Added
Recently Deleted

How do you manage what's on Photo Stream and what's on your device?

See...

iCloud, meet Photos: What's changing for your images in iOS 8
How to Find Your Photos in iOS 8 (And Where Is Camera Roll?)
iOS 8, thoroughly reviewed:Camera & Photos

extract...

  while Camera Roll is gone, its photos are not. They've simply moved over to a different location in the Photos app: Collections. Collections, which organizes all of your photos by date and location, is Apple's attempt at making photos more organized and searchable.

It appears that PhotoStream has gone & only the last 30 days will be stored by default.


Help in finding files (.vimrc) in Mac I've made a mistake of moving my .vimrc file from my home directory and now I don't know how I'm able to locate it. I'm still new to Mac and navigating and finding files seems so foreign to me.

Instead of making another copy of my .vimrc file using 'cp' command in Terminal, I've dumbly issued the 'mv' (move) command. This is the command I've issued in my home (~) directory:

mv ~/.vimrc .old_vimrc

Now I can't find my original .vimrc file and can't even locate the '.old_vimrc' file.

Any idea where I can find it? I've wasted hours figuring it out and to no avail.

I'm trying to understand the 'mv' command I've issued above? Did it renamed the ".vimrc" file to ".old_vimrc"? Is that it?

If you still have the command in your history, you could run history | grep .vimrc.

mdfind -name .vimrc: fast, includes files that aren't normally shown by Spotlight, but not files that aren't indexed, like files in folders that start with a period.
find / -name .vimrc: slow, includes all files.
locate .vimrc: relatively fast, but doesn't include all files and relies on a database that is only rebuilt once per week by default.

You could also use Find Any File, which is faster than find and includes files that aren't indexed by Spotlight.


Cannot delete partition (minus greyed out) - non-encrypted, no core storage When trying to install Windows 10 from scratch on my Late 2013 MacBook Pro, I was unable to remove the old BOOTCAMP partition through the Boot Camp Assistant.  I erased the partition with Disk Utility, but was unable to join it with my main partition.  Now when I run Boot Camp Assistant, I get the following message: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."

Running diskutil core storage list returns: No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

Additionally, FileVault is turned off.

I can add new partitions to the drive manually and delete them, but every time I try to resize the main partition it adds a new Untitled partition that is not deleteable (minus button is greyed out).  Any ideas?

$ sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  244140624      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  244550264    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  245819800       1640
  245821440   10921976      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  256743416     262144
  257005560   10920264      5  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  267925824     262144
  268187968  221784600      6  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  489972568     262151
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header

Ok, I figured out an alternative method - I was able to combine the partitions using the diskutil mergePartitions command (e.g. diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ MacHD disk0s2 disk0s4).  Hope that helps anyone else with the same issue!


Facetime audio calls not working using iPhone I have a Netgear Nighthawk MR60 mesh system with a WiFi router and one satellite. Since I installed it, I cannot make calls using my iPhone xs with either of my Mac computers. The window comes up telling me I’m using Facetime audio with my iPhone, but I immediately get a message in the window saying that the phone and the computer must be connected to the same WiFi network in order to complete the call. Repeated attempts at this have failed.
It looks like everything is set up on all Apple devices for this to work.
On my Nighthawk app, all 3 devices show up on my 5 GHz network.
This worked with the former WiFi router I had and replaced. It was not a mesh system. That router had the ability to connect to either the 2.5 GHz or the 5 GHz network manually. Apparently, the Nighthawk does not have the manual connection option.
I’ve tried logging out of and back into Facetime to no avail.
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) running macOS Catalina 10.15.7;
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, Late 2015) running macOS Cataline 10.15.7;
iPhone XS Max IOS 14.4.2
On the Apple sight I can only find older similar questions - nothing recent except what I posted there.
Any help is welcome and appreciated.

Update
This is working for me now for the last 2 days.
When the new WiFi router was set up, I took advantage of the option to use the exact same network name and password for my network that was used with the previous router (different manufacturer and network type). Basically, I’m lazy and didn’t want to relog into 20+ devices on the existing network. That may have contributed to the problem.
As I said previously, I logged out of Facetime on my Macbook Pro {MBP) and logged right back in again. There was no difference in operation. However, I shut the Macs down at the end of every day and restart them the following morning. The day after I did the Facetime logout/login, tried it again and it worked. Also got a notification on my other Apple devices about the log in on the MBP after using phone with facetime.
So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s fixed.