sms/imessage's allert don't work for one contact I have an iPhone 11 on 13.5.1 iOs. Suddenly, the alerts of imessage don't work, for one only person. There is no budge for new message in the chat (on the main app, where all the chats are).
This specific contact is not on the "Do not disturb" and the alerts are on, but my iPhone neither rings nor has a banner for the new message. I've already tried to delete the chat, delete the contact, restore the settings but nothing of these worked. What can i do?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: when I open the message from this contact, he cannot see if I read the message or not. The status of the message is “delivered”.

is it possible that you have muted or limited the alert on this contact?

Or, if you have added them to the Spam or Block, then alerts would be suppressed.
https://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-block-someone-on-imessage-on-iphone/

Open the Settings app → Scroll down and tap on Messages.
Tap on Settings then Messages on iPhone
Now, scroll down again and tap on Blocked → To check a person from this list

You can unblock them by taping on Settings → Messages → Blocked → Edit → Tap on Red minus sign → Tap on Unblock → Finally tap on Done.


How to Show Virtual Keyboard in El Capitan? I changed to El Capitan and I cannot find anymore the virtual keyboard about testing keyboard's keys visually.
It is normally in the right hand corner under the keyboard switcher icon.
I need the tool to review specific characters of OS X Keyboards, since I am typing many of them.

How can you have the virtual keyboard in OS X El Capitan?

System Prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard > Show Keyboard, Emoji & Symbol viewers in menu bar.


How to restore a Mac if you forgot recovery password As the title, is there a way to restore a Mac when you forgot the recovery password, I tried with command + R during reboot, but it doesn’t help.

Apple documents firmware passwords and how you want to schedule an in person appointment if you lose the password:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455

  If you forgot your firmware password

  If you can't remember your firmware password or passcode, schedule an in-person service appointment with an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. Bring your Mac to the appointment, and bring your original receipt or invoice as proof of purchase.


Can i decline iphone call when the screen was locked AND power button Does not work? Can any body help? i use iphone 5, the power button does not work, what shall i do to decline the call when the screen was locked? are any software? or some combinations?

on your iPhone, go to: settings > general > accessibility > assistive touch
turn it on, it will then put a touchable dot overlay on your screen (even at the lock screen) which will open a popup, allowing you to select "lock screen".


How can I disable the "Welcome, Name!" banner notification for Game Center? As per this question I've found banners to cause slowdown on iOS 5, it turns out the "welcome, you have been signed in" Game Center message does this too, and on occasion it will interupt me several times in a game if I switch in/out of the app while playing as it logs be in/out repeatedly.

Is there a way to disable this notification while leaving Game Center enabled? I tried revoking the banner notification rights from Game Center but the pop up still appears.

That login banner is a provided aspect of the Game Center API in the iOS SDKs,  as far as I'm aware there is no way as a developer to disable it from opening when the Game Center login completes. As a user, there is certainly no way to disable it, because it is part of the application's compiled source code.

However, note that it's not the banner that is causing the delays and skips. It is actually the entire login process to Game Center. My only advice is when you open a game that has Game Center logins, open it up to the first functional screen, and just wait the ~5-10 seconds it takes to reveal the Game Center banner. After the banner has displayed and disappeared, proceed normally and you should not be affected any further.


How to clear Trash after deleting old user profiles on macOS Catalina? I probably did something that I was not supposed to do and now I ran into some kind of problem.
I deleted two old user accounts from my Mac inside System Preferences to get some space back. However the space did not become more so I checked the hard drive and found the two user folders still being there.
So I deleted both manually, which was probably not the best idea. They went to the Trash. However when trying to clear my Trash, the following error occurs:

The operation can't be completed because some items had to be skipped. For each item, choose File > Get Info, make sure "Locked" is deselected, and then check the Sharing & Permissions section. When you are sure the items are unlocked and not designated as Read Only or No Access, try again.

Next I tried to delete the two folders via Terminal using this command:
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/
This did not work either, I got the following error: Operation not permitted
Does anyone have any idea how to solve this problem. Thanks for your help in advance.

I had a similar problem. I have an iMac running Catalina 10.15.7 but I think my solution will work for any recent OSX version.
Basically, I had an unwanted user folder inside my Users folder but this user didn't appear in the System Preferences > Users & Groups menu and so, it appeared that I couldn't delete it from there.
If that's the problem you face then, go to the Users & Groups menu, authenticate yourself (click on the padlock and enter your credentials), then click on the '+' to add a new user. Give this user exactly the same name as the unwanted user you want to delete.  The new user will be created in Users & Groups.  Now click on the '-' to remove that user. You will see a dialogue box asking you to choose from 4 options. The one you want is 'Remove the user's home folder from the computer'. Click OK and you'll find the unwanted user folder inside your Users folder is no longer there.
You can find more instructions on this here : Delete a user or group on Mac - Apple Support
But, unfortunately, I only discovered the above solution AFTER I'd made the mistake of dragging the unwanted user folder to the trash. Once the unwanted user is in the trash, there appears to be nothing you can do to remove it by any of the normal means - if you try to empty the trash, you get a system message advising that 'Voice Trigger' is in use and another that says 'Library' is in use.  I tried dragging it back to the Users folder and my desktop and it just created a copy and left the original in the trash; I tried the 'delete immediately' option; I changed the permissions on the folder to allow an Administrator to read & write (and hopefully delete - but that didn't work); I tried a number of Terminal commands; I tried installing an app called iTrash that forces deletion of 'stuck' items; I revealed the hidden files / folders in my own User folder (using cmd-shift-dot) and found the 'bin' folder with the unwanted user inside - I opened that and found the culprit 'voice trigger' folder. I tried setting the permissions on that to Admin read & write but even that didn't work; I tried booting into safe mode and seeing if I could delete from there but that didn't work either. Nothing seemed to work.
The solution
So, here's what I did. I have a bootable clone of my hard drive on an external drive as insurance (made with Carbon Copy Cloner). I plugged that drive in and set it as the startup disk (System preferences > Startup disk) and rebooted. Once the mac had booted off the external drive, you can see the internal MacintoshHD drive in the left panel of the finder window in the usual place. I opened the MacintoshHD and navigated to my own User folder and use cmd-shift-dot to display the hidden files and folders therein. I found the .Trash folder and inside it was the rogue unwanted user folder I had been trying to delete. Only this time, as I'd booted off of the external drive, the unwanted user folder wasn't in use by  anything so I was able to drag it to the trash (ie the trash can in the dock) - and was able to empty the trash in the normal way.
I switched the start up drive back to the MacintoshHD and rebooted and voila - the rogue unwanted user folder had gone from the trash.
Hope this helps someone.


How can I disable inline attachment previews (i.e. view as icon by default) in Mac Mail in macOS Mojave? I would like to disable inline attachment previews by default, and instead view all attachments as icons in Mac's Mail app in macOS Mojave.

In High Sierra, the following terminal command was sufficient:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

However this command does not work in Mojave.

How can I accomplish this in Mojave?

Applications (including Terminal) do not get "full disk access" (e.g. your user files) any more in Mojave.

Try to grant Terminal access in...System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access

Unlock the system preference panel, by clicking the lock at the bottom left and filling in your password.  Then either drag and drop Terminal.app onto the window, or navigate to it by clicking the plus sign (+).

Then launch Terminal and try your command again.

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

PS. Alternatively you could disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) from Recovery, run your command, check that it worked and subsequently enable SIP again.  Less elegant, usually not advised (in case you forget to re-enable it again), a lot of booting in and out, but just as effective.


Software for splitting or trimming MP4 video without transcoding I occasionally need to trim an MP4 video or split a clip out of the middle. Up to now I've been using a great app called MPEG Streamclip which has all the features I want:

super light weight, opens instantly
gui for scrubbing through videos
keyboard controls for frame-by-frame, keyframe-by-keyframe, in, out, and trim
batch list so I can set up multiple splits without waiting for each to save
saves clips from MP4s without transcoding

A lot of this functionality was also available in Apple's Quicktime 7 Pro, although not quite as streamlined.

Unfortunately the last update to MPEG Streamclip was in 2012, and each OS update breaks it further. In Mojave the Streamclip GUI is almost useless, and it's 32 bit so 10.15 will kill it entirely. Same for Quicktime 7.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants to trim and split video on a Mac. What are the options for lightweight editors to trim MP4s without transcoding?

Edit to explain how this is not a duplicate of Is there an easy way on a Mac to split an audio file at defined intervals?:
This question is about splitting a video file, not an audio file, at points decided by scrubbing through the video, not on a defined interval. That question currently has no accepted answer, and the answers that were proposed do not apply to this question.

Avidemux is a lightweight editor that can split videos without transcoding:

Start Avidemux
Open a file e.g. by dropping it into the Avidemux window
Choose where your video should start and then click on the (red) “A” button below.
Choose where your video should stop and then click on the “B” button below.
Select an output format (e.g. mp4). Note: there are two mp4 versions. If one does not work, just try the other.
Click on the save icon. Avidemux will propose a new file name based on the old one adding an “_edit” before the suffix. The trimming takes less than a second.


Create a space from script on El Capitan I'm using Slate window manager and I wanted a way to create a new space on El Capitan using script. I have found other solutions like the following, but it doesn't work on El Capitan.

list 1 would contain all the spaces, but add new desktop
and I didn't find any list 2 which would contain add new desktop.

do shell script "open -a 'Mission Control'"
tell application "System Events" of list 1 of group 2 of group 1 of group 1 of process "Dock"

end tell
tell application "System Events" to key code 53

Thanks

I do not have Slate window manager installed however the following AppleScript code will add a new Desktop in Mission Control in a normal install of OS X El Capitan and other versions of OS X and macOS.

do shell script "open -a 'Mission Control'"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events" to click (every button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "add desktop") of group 1 of process "Dock"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events" to key code 53


How can I troubleshoot a WiFi setup that needs close proximity to function? My Macbook does not pick up wi-fi signals that my iPhone can pickup.

I have an wi-fi setup at home and the router is in a room. Outside that room - or even in some corners, my Macbook Pro does not pickup wi-fi signal. But my iPhone can still use the wi-fi outside the apartment doors.

Once, I restarted my Macbook Pro while holding Command+P+M (or something like that). It had to do with the PRAM. That is the only hack I tried which I didn't know the full extent of its damages or capablities. Does this affect networking with Airport?

How do I fix this?

EDIT: Maximum RSSI averages -39. This is when I place my router on my keyboard.

Since there are a lot of causes - let's try to narrow down some things.

If you are on Snow Leopard - you can get some more detail on the MacBook to know if there is interference or if there is potentially a hardware error.

Hold the option (or alt) key and press the WiFi icon in the menu (you'll have to add it if it's not in the menu for this testing.)

All the mac cares about is transmit rate - it's the best number to tell how much data your mac thinks it can send reliably to the router. The higher the rate, the better. A high transmit rate is all that matters - even if the signal is weak, you still have a good connection if you have a solid transmit rate.

Next is RSSI - it's less intuitive. I tell people think of sunlight into the ocean. If you are -20 feet below the surface it's really light. RSSI of -100 is really dark / really faint signal. In ideal environment - no noise, good antennas on both mac and router and good amplifiers reading the singals - you can still operate at -100, but any interference or extra distance, you could stop getting a signal.

Different macs have different RSSI - so if you have a close match in hardware you can be sure the problem is the mac by comparing with another. If not, it's more guesswork. Your iPhone WiFi antenna is likely 10 times as big as the Mac's antenna so it's looking more like a signal issue than anything else.

I hope this helps you decide what next steps to take to find the cause.

You can change the router, change the physical location or change the hardware. If a repair shop is close, maybe try a diagnosis there. If not, you'll have to take the mac to other locations with that router and try changing the things you can control.

It's not likely software since moving the mac closer to the router doesn't change the software, but you might check for updates if some new firmware does better with interference or error handling. It's a long shot so I list it last.

EDIT - I am home and can report some transmit rates. On my older equipment, transmit rates of 24 to 54 are seen on an old linksys 802.11b router. My MacBook Pro gets transmit rates of 200 to 300 pretty much all around the house. Even when I have one bar in the menu bar for airport signal strength, these transmit rates stay high as the RSSI goes to -90 (which is getting far away from the base station)


Is there a Mac text editor that has live display of unique word count? That is, it shows, while you type, the count of unique words. Not a count of all words.

If the document had the words:

  The cat is in the hat which is in Toledo.

It would show a count of 7.

I know I could write a short shell script to do this but I'm looking for real-time display. If you know of an editor that allows writing such a real-time plugin that would be helpful as well.

Emacs can do it (as most things). Have a look at this page. The part: "How many times was each word used?" - is quite similar to your problem. WordCountMode shows how to put the info in the modeline. Shouldn't be too hard to get in a form you need.


How do I turn off cellular data on certain apps with an iPhone 6 Many of my apps I barely use but still need use up some of my cellular data. I would like to turn the data of for certain apps, but as you can see in the picture it looks ,in a way, tinted. It won't let me turn off the data on the apps or turn it on for apps.

I don't know if I'm supposed to click a certain thing somewhere else in the settings.

Please Help!!

Check if restrictions is turned on in settings -> general -> restrictions. Turn it off and try again.


exec("php -v”) vs phpinfo() -- different php version I have upgraded PHP version on my Mac to 7.3 with a command
curl -s http://php-osx.liip.ch/install.sh | bash -s 7.3

and then
export PATH=/usr/local/php5/bin:$PATH

When I type php -v in terminal the new version shows up correctly.

I am using Apache shipped with macOS.
I have created a simple document in localhost/phpinfo.php that contains:
echo exec('which php');

echo '
';

$out = [];
exec("php -v" , $out);
foreach($out as $line) {
    echo $line, '
';
}

phpinfo();

The phpinfo() shows the new PHP 7.3.8 as expected, but the preceding lines, using exec() command produce a different result.

I was wondering if someone could explain why it is happening, does it matter at all, and if it is possible to fix it.

This happens because you've still got the older PHP binary installed (probably in /usr/bin).
When you change your PATH environment variable on the command to include /usr/local/bin - this means that the shell also searches that folder (and in that order) to find the program you want to run. In this case when you run php, it finds the new version in /usr/local/bin and runs that for you.
However that PATH environment variable change is local to that shell session only. It is not saved anywhere, and not used in other contexts.
Thus when you run the phpinfo.php script through the web server, it runs with a standard PATH that doesn't include /usr/local/bin. Thus the older PHP binary is run - showing the old version number.
It really doesn't matter at all - why would you want to run a PHP binary from a PHP script run by the webserver anyways?
In case you really wanted to do that and wanted it "fixed", you could do that by either changing your exec() call to include the full path:
exec("/usr/local/bin/php -v" , $out);

or by changing the PATH environment variable for in your PHP script context.


How to enable ssh login for _www user? In order to deploy files the the apache server running on OS X host I want to ssh/scp to it using the _www user.

I do not want to use root because I want to be sure that I always put the files with correct permissions.

The problem is that I am not able to login with _www. I did change the password for the account but ssh login still fails after asking me the password two times.

The _www user is designed to never have a shell and many of the user attributes needed for ssh to run are missing. Once you log in as any other admin user, you can easily sudo over to user _www to get file permissions correct.

mac:~ me$ dscl . -read /Users/_www
AppleMetaNodeLocation: /Local/Default
GeneratedUID: FFFFEEEE-DDDD-CCCC-BBBB-AAAA00000046
NFSHomeDirectory: /Library/WebServer
Password: *
PrimaryGroupID: 70
RealName:
 World Wide Web Server
RecordName: _www www
RecordType: dsRecTypeStandard:Users
UniqueID: 70
UserShell: /usr/bin/false

mac:~ me$ sudo -u _www -s
Password:
bash-3.2$ id
uid=70(_www) gid=70(_www) groups=70(_www),61(localaccounts),12(everyone)

You can compare with a real user to see the missing attributes. If you want to hack, you could try making the NFSHomeDirectory writable and editing the shell - but that would leave all sorts of user files in /Library/Webserver - and your custom mods might get wiped out each update or cause unintended effects down the road.

Any reasons why you don't just create a apache admin user with a UID less than 500 so that it won't show in the log in screen as a normal user?

(or simply use a normal user to ssh in before using sudo to become _www)?

It's a lot less work and more secure. _www is intentionally placed in a sandboxbox to reduce the chance that web browsing does bad things to a running mac.


How can I dim the screen from Terminal? Is it possible to dim the screen from Terminal, in a Mac with OS X Lion? Is there any command to do control brightness and volume?

You can install this command line tool from github.com/nriley/brightness. The install is pretty easy if you have homebrew:

brew install brightness

And usage is straightforward:

Set 100% brightness: brightness 1
Set 50% brightness:
brightness 0.5

Unfortunately it doesn't work for external monitors. See Does Apple support DDC/CI for  3rd party displays via Apple's Thunderbolt to DVI adapter for background on why.


For Install MacOS mojave I purchased a MacBook Pro 6,2 (15" mid 2010) running macOS High Sierra

How I can install macOS Mojave in this Mac?

Several time I tried to install Mojave in this Mac, but it gives an error message that version is not compatible with this Mac.

Would you please help for solve my problem?

Several older model macs are not compatible with Mojave. This site will list what Macs can run Mojave.  The only 2010 model listed is for an Mac Pro with a specific graphics card.


Why does my reported used and available disk space not equal the total reported via "df"? I'm running mac Big Sur (11.2.3).  I get some strange disk space readings when I query free space on the command line ...
s davea$ df -h /
Filesystem       Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5s1  234Gi   14Gi   18Gi    45%  568975 2448556385    0%   /

I'm confused -- the size of the disk listed (234 GB) seems to exceed the used + available by quite a lot.  I've been noticing disk space issues even though there is 18GB free reported so I'm trying to track down what the problem is.
Edit: Per request, here's the diskutil output ...
$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI NO NAME                 209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data     205.8 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 426.9 MB   disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                613.9 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      6.4 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            15.1 GB    disk1s5
   6:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.1 GB    disk1s5s1

It's because on Big_Sur / is a read only system volume mounted on a snapshot. The size of this volume is around 15 go. The free size is 18 go, so the volume "data" may be around 200 go.
The command
diskutil list

Will give the real size of your system volumes.


Using search bar in safari to search a specific site One can do searches from the address bar in safari. However one can only specify one search engine to use. Id really like to specify that I want the search to happen in google/youtube/wikipedia etc. Id really like to be able to do searches from the address bar in safari.

I had this in chrome a while back, and I'd love to use it in safari. Does anyone know if an extension is available to do it?

a description of the functionality can be seen in this gif:
https://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/09/h2-chrome-omnibox/chromebar_gif_slow_it_down/

You can use the same syntax in Safari's address bar as you would directly in Google etc
site:
Example
iTunes playlist site: apple.stackexchange.com
Result


messages keeps asking for password for jabber account Apple messages keeps asking for password every time I try to log in to my jabber account.

The password is correctly saved in the keychain (in fact I just go and copy it from there each time). Save Password to Keychain is of course always checked.

I can not find Keychain First Aid in High Sierra, it seems it has been removed. I tried creating a new login keyring, removing the jabber account and re-adding it (both from Messages and from System Preferences). I also tried adding imagent and Messages.app to the authorized applications list for that Keychain entry (as suggested here).

The only weird thing I encountered is that when the problem started I had two entries in keychain for that password. Now I only have one, no matter what I do.

I also tried resetting messages by renaming away ~/Library/Messages but this led to a "message database is upgrading, please try again later" prompt.

It seems that while creating a new account saves the password in the keychain as it should, Messages fails to read it.

This solution worked for me:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/32744059#32744059

  After running a comparison with a working version (on Sierra 10.12.6) it looks like the solution (at least for me) is to change the Where value that gets generated on sign in from what gets populated when adding an account in High Sierra com.apple.account.jabber.password to Jabber

  In order to make this change follow these steps:

  Open Keychain Access
  Search for com.apple.account.jabber.password
  Double click it to open the attributes prompt
  In the Where field (fourth one down) you should see com.apple.account.jabber.password
  Replace all text in that field with Jabber
  Click Save Changes

  After making this change the first launch of messages asked me to allow permission to access keychain. After doing so any subsequent open of messages works as expected.


how can I add command line parameters to an application shortcut Chromium has command line flags.  I'd like to use them, but I'd like to put them on the shortcut, since I tend to launch Chromium via spotlight.  Is this possible?

It will launch faster if you cut out Automator and just do it with Applescript (and then save that applescript as an application bundle).

Here's an example:

do shell script "open /Applications/Chromium.app --args --enable-expose-for-tabs"


I've added a second HD into my Macbook 2011 instead of CD-ROM. Is it safe to encrypt it using Finder? Years ago I changed my cdrom in my Macbook for a second hard drive, and have been using a SSD as a first drive ever since.

This HD is shown in Finder, and, clicking on it with two fingers, there's an option to encrypt it.

Since this has never been an endorsed upgrade from Apple (changing the cdrom for a HD) I've never used this encrypt option, but now I'm traveling too much because of work and I'm planning to do it if somehow I lose the macbook or it gets stolen.

Does anyone here now of any caveats of this approach? I think this is the same option if you plug an external HD in USB.

I think I'm correct to say it's safe! As Mac OS sees it as a drive you can just use the encryption.

Other people have tested it in Apple Support Comunnities and it seems to work so far.


Is there a way to change the iOS low battery warning to pop up at 25%? I have a jailbroken iPhone 4 running 7.1.2., I tried using the cydia tweak lowpowerbanner but I don't think it worked. So if you could suggest another tweak that'd be great.

I think that a tweak named "Power Informer" is what you are looking for.
Step by step instructions by WonderHowTo on this link.


Why rebooted Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion prevents adding or moving files at Desktop? Whenever I reboot my Macbook Pro since installing OSX 10.8 the desktop is locked, prohibiting files from being dropped on or moved from the desktop. I can right-click, select “Get Info” and uncheck the “locked” box, but it will return the locked status the next time the machine sleeps or reboots.

How can I keep the desktop unlocked?

The OS X Recovery Mode has a utility called resetpassword which, apart from the obvious, will also reset the permissions for your home holder.

Restart your Mac and hold down cmd ⌘-R, and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears.
Once started up, from the menu bar at the top, go Utilities > Terminal
Type in resetpassword and hit enter, and the Reset Password utility will open.

Select the user, change the password, and hit 'Save' to save the password, and then below that hit 'Reset' to fix the permissions


I lost a MacBook Pro Retina 2013, What should I do to locate it? I forgot it in the train station in a backpack.

The Mac is locked with a password. It has Mavericks installed.

Find my mac is enabled. What should I do to locate it and avoid thieve disable "find my Mac" feature somehow.

I don't know if I should enable "Lock" or "Erase Mac" in iCloud.

Thanks

The only way to locate it is via find my mac.

When it is a personal mac my advice is to lock it in iCloud.
When the mac is used for business, best thing to do is to erase the mac.


Disable the "None of your preferred networks are available" dialog on OS X How do I disable that horribly annoying dialog that tells me I am not connected to any wifi network?

None of your preferred networks are available.
Choose the Wi-Fi network you want to join from the list below.

Edit:
I use the wifi.
So why do I want the dialog gone?

The dialog only shows up when I have no internet connection. Great. That dialog won't magically help me know encryption keys to random networks I am around. There is only like one time that it was useful, and thats the first time I ever turned this machine on.
The dialog is annoying.
The dialog has zero uses. I can use the status bar icon to do all the needed work that the dialog provides, except I get to chose when to stop and use it, not the dialog choosing "stop what ur doing and connect to the f-ing internet"

Open the Network pane of the System preferences.
Select AirPort in the list on the left.
Uncheck the “Ask to join new networks” checkbox.
Et voilà!  :)


Permanently disable "Check Spelling While Typing" On OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, no matter what I do, including all the suggestions I've found on Google and on this site, every time I launch the Notes app it has Check Spelling While Typing enabled.

How do I permanently disable this feature?

Open Notes and go to an existing note or create a new one. Right-click in the body of the note. A menu opens and one selection is 'Spelling and Grammar'. Clicking on this selection gives you a sub-menu with selections for spell checking. Select the one you want.


Alt+3 no longer types ‘#’, types ‘£’ instead I turned on my Mac one day and found that Alt + 3 no longer types a hash (#) symbol, but types a pound (£) instead.

I’ve checked the keyboard input source in System Preferences and it’s set to U.S. (which is to be expected). I’ve also found I can type a hash symbol with Shift + 3, but this is undesirable as I’m a website developer, use hashes frequently, and it’s in my muscle memory to hit Alt + 3 for a hash.

What would affect this?

The only keyboard layout that has Alt3 as hash # is the one called British: all others have Shift3

So you need to change the input source to British.

Note most developers have the opposite issue and want to match US and all Windows and Unix keyboards to have Shift3 as #


iOS11: airplane mode and Bluetooth I just updated to iOS11 and I realized that, when you enable and then disable the airplane mode, the Bluetooth is automatically turned on (even if previously is was switched off).
Is there a way to prevent this annoying functionality?

I had the same issue but I finally found out how to fix it. Bluetooth actually stays on the whole time even if in the control center the bluetooth button isn’t even blue.
Go open “settings”, and you’ll see that bluetooth is switched on (and maybe you thought it was off like in my case). If you turn it off in the settings, the bluetooth icon from the control center will get crossed, and from there it doesn’t get switched on automatically every time you disable airplane mode.

Good Luck :)


How do I find a modem driver for Mac? I'm not familiar with OS X. I'm trying to find a way to get a modem (Huawei ETS 1201, which I believe can only be connected using a USB cable) driver for OS X Leopard (on a MacBook Pro) for a friend.

After failing to find a driver from the company's website, I was wondering whether it would be possible to use a Windows driver in any way (like some sort of Virtualization?) or whether I am likely to be able to find an unofficial driver for OS X.

TIA

First thing to check is : Do your modem support Mac OS X  ?

If the documentation said so, you should try to connect the modem directly on your Mac and see  what happens.

In case nothing works, I'd say that this modem is for PC only and you'll not find any driver for Mac OS X.
The only way to make it works is to boot on your BootCamp partition and install the driver on it, but you'll can use only Windows and not Mac OS X.

Edit : I'm not sure that virtualization solve the problem too. Most of the time, the Internet connection is shared on the VM from host to guest. I think you can't share connection from guest to host.


CDMA users can't use iPhone before iPhone4? is that correct? look at this page http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3939

Before iPhone 4, we have 3GS, 3G & 2G but seem they (3GS, 3G & 2G) don't have any model for CDMA network!! is that correct?

So CDMA users (who use Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, Cricket and Alltel carriers) can't use iPhone til iPhone4 which has a model support CDMA? Is that correct?

I am doing a research about iPhone, so i need to know the history of its.

Yes, it is correct.

Before iPhone 4 the only supported network was GSM, iPhone 4 model A1349 is the first iPhone to support CDMA network.


How secure are password protected PDFs that are created with Preview? I use 1Password1 to store not only my own information, but also my sisters home Wi-Fi information.

Since she does not have a 1Password licence, I printed out the information for her to store in a safe place. Now, I was just thinking of using the printing dialog (under "Security Options...") to create a "password protected" PDF.

But what does that actually mean and how secure is it?

Does this encrypt the whole PDF?
What encryption is used?
Is it compatible with Windows and Ubuntu?

There does not2 seem to be a knowledge-base article on support.apple.com. The info dialog in Finder merely says that the PDF is "Password Encrypted".

The last Time I checked a 128 bit RC4 encryption of the whole document was used. Also, compatability should be vested.

Here's a screenshot of the output of GuaPDF:


Multiple Monitors using separate "spaces", yet have screensaver stretch as if one space macbook pro anyone know of a screensaver app that would allow me to have it viewed as as single "space" across multiple monitors, even when the multiple monitors are set up to be separate spaces?

Thanks

This is not possible with the current macOS. It would be necessary to write a screen saver that explicitly understands you want to draw across multiple screen surfaces.


How Can I Trace the Origin of Outbound Spam Mail in Mavericks Server? My Mavericks Server mail server has been compromised and has been sending reams of Nigerian royalty scam emails out. Where can I find log files which will enable me to track down the IP address these messages originated from (in case their is a machine with an infection on my network) and which credentials are being used to authenticate to the SMTP server?

You should be able to find that Information in /var/log/Mail.log and some more in /var/log/system.log.


How does macOS know when to Automatically Adjust Brightness? I understand the "Automatically Adjust Brightness" feature, when enabled, is designed automatically to raise or lower the brightness of e.g. the Macbook's screen depending on whether the surrounding environment is dark or well-lit.

I am curious what sensor onboard the Macbook laptop is used to detect the amount of light in the room.

A cursory experiment caused my Macbook's screen to dim when I covered the webcam, even though the webcan was not on, and the green light wasn't lit. Is the Macbook's webcam constantly sensing light levels? I was under the impression that the webcam was wired to prevent the webcam from capturing without illuminating the green LED.

If there is some other sensor positioned close to the webcam just for sensing light levels, what is it?

There is an ambient light sensor near the webcam (not part of the webcam) that is used for this. If you shine a flashlight on your camera, you'll see it about 75mm right of the camera.


How do I install Windows 8 or 10 on MacBook Air 2015 11" El Captain? I want to install Windows on my internal SSD. Because my internet connection is slow and unreliable, and the download within Boot Camp Assistant can't be resumed I've downloaded the support software (Boot Camp drivers: AppleBcUpdate.exe) directly from Apple using this direct link.

I did use the Boot Camp Assistant to make a bootable drive for Windows and put the support software in another drive. When I try to proceed I get the error message

"couldn't find the support software.....".

How can I proceed from here?

You fetched the wrong installer. The recommended way is to simply open in the menubar of Boot Camp Assistant > Action > Download Windows Support Software.

This will download and unpack all necessary files and you can simply continue installing Windows.

An alternative is brigadier. This is a python script which downloads support software for an arbitrary Mac.

Download the zip (direct link!) and unpack it. Open Terminal and cd into the resulting folder: cd .../Path/to/brigadier-master (probably cd ~/Downloads/brigadier-master).

Then enter ./brigadier --model=MacBookAir7,1. The command will download the proper installer and compile a WindowsSupport.dmg in the brigadier-master folder. This dmg file contains all necessary files and folders (an xml file, a drivers folder and a $WinPE folder).

Terminal output:

host:brigadier-master user$./brigadier --model=MacBookAir7,1
Using Mac model: MacBookAir7,1.

Model supported in package distribution file at http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/39/14/031-55710/u2c6bi4yl91ud1lqc3k53bx9860hvsnf7z/031-55710.English.dist.

Distribution 031-55710 supports the following models: MacBook8,1, MacBookAir5,1,
MacBookAir5,2, MacBookAir6,1, MacBookAir6,2, MacBookAir7,1,
MacBookAir7,2, MacBookPro9,1, MacBookPro9,2, MacBookPro11,1, MacBookPro11,2,
MacBookPro11,3, MacBookPro11,4, MacBookPro11,5, MacBookPro12,1, MacPro6,1,
Macmini6,1, Macmini6,2, Macmini7,1, iMac13,1, iMac13,2, iMac13,3, iMac14,1,
iMac14,2, iMac14,3, iMac14,4, iMac15,1.

Making directory /Users/user/Downloads/brigadier-master/BootCamp-031-55710..

Fetching Boot Camp product at URL http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/39/14/031-55710/u2c6bi4yl91ud1lqc3k53bx9860hvsnf7z/BootCampESD.pkg.

100.0% 1614454784 / 1614454648 bytes
Expanding flat package...

Extracting Payload...

Extracted to /Users/user/Downloads/brigadier-master/BootCamp-031-55710/WindowsSupport.dmg.

Done.


How to fix a MacBook Pro display that turns off? I have a 12 month old MacBook Pro, and just over the last 3 weeks or so, the screens (one additional screen) just turns off and I cannot get it back on again.

I have to restart to turn the screen back on.

I'm not sure how to diagnose the issue and find out how to fix it, I'm really hoping to avoid using Apple support because it's my work laptop and I really need it to work daily.

This is a pretty vague question, but try some of these things:

Does the monitor work properly on other computers? (Probably you should check this first.)
You don't say if the external monitor is an Apple monitor or not, but are there drivers for the external monitor? If so, are they current?
Did you change anything in your system prior to the external screens breaking?
What happens prior to the external monitor turning off? Are you getting an error message? How long does the external screen work before it turns off? Is it an LCD or an older CRT monitor?
I was thinking this could be an issue with the monitor overheating and switching off, but it's currently not the summer where you are. Does the monitor have a fan that stopped working?
Does this happen when you boot into another user? What about if you boot onto another volume?


What are alternatives for Menumeters on El Capitan? Menumeters no longer works on El Capitan (see here), what are some alternatives? I just want to see my network and CPU stats.

I just ported MenuMeters for El Capitan, please go to http://member.ipmu.jp/yuji.tachikawa/MenuMetersElCapitan/.


Proof (data access) of a confirmation pop-up online On Safari 11.0.3, I placed bids on an auction website a few days ago and after making each bid, I saw a confirmation pop-up that told me "Thank you for the offer". I thus have concluded the organization selling the items received my bids.

However, I have learnt today that my bids were never received. Is there a way to prove that my bid was sent or that I indeed received a confirmation?

Is the information exchange (the form I filled online in a pop-up window and the confirmation I have received) stored somewhere in macOS?

Safari on macOS has caching functionality that could potentially save copies of web sites on your hard drive - however, pages with dynamic content such as a order notifications, bidding confirmations, form content, etc. are generally not saved at all. I.e. the web sites forbids the browser from saving them to cache.

Therefore I doubt there's any chance to restore those pages for documentation. You would have needed to take screenshots, save PDFs or similar at the time the information was available to you.


Notes.app - how to access history? Since notes.app seems to accrue a "rolling history" of data and doesn't automatically save out versions of your files to disk in any reasonable way (date stamped, etc), I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to access the history of the note data you have accrued.

Specifically this came up because I am trying to restore something that I have lost, because the undo command doesn't work in the app.

Any tips would be appreciated.

No, there is no history of notes. Once modified and synchronised, the note is overwritten and older versions are not available. Per my answer on your last question, you may be able to obtain older versions if a device has been offline, but besides this, unfortunately not. You can provide feedback to Apple at apple.com/feedback.


How can I turn off Bluetooth with only keyboard actions? A trackpad in another room was interfering with my ability to use my laptop's native trackpad, such that I could not click on anything. I wanted to either turn off bluetooth or disconnect the offending device.

I used Finder to get into Bluetooth settings but then I was stuck. I could not figure out a keyboard shortcut to get to the button to turn off bluetooth nor to disconnect the connected trackpad.

Go into the Finder, type command + shift + u and open Script Editor by selecting it and typing command + o. In a new script, type (since you can't highlight to copy)

tell application "System Events"
    click button "Turn Bluetooth Off" of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
end tell

and then type command + r to run the script. The trackpad should now be disconnected.


Can't restore my Notes I've updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 6.1 today.

I made a clean restore in order for it to be as fast and clean as possible, without any junk leftovers.

The problem is that while I was able to restore all of my files, it somehow destroyed my Notes, I can't restore them!

Steps I did so far:

iCloud backup - In the iCloud main menu, I marked "notes", in Storage, marked the iCloud backup, then "backup now". (It went down from 5 to 4.8GB).
Normal iTunes backup to the device.

Please note I did that before the update.

When I finally updated, I entered my iCloud account, it took a long while, but when it was done, everything was restored except for the notes.

When I tried to restore the iTunes back, my last backup did not appear in the list!

I'm really at a loss please help me, I promise free cookies for whoever helps me solve it.

Do you have any email accounts, other than your iCloud account? If so, go to "Mail, Contacts, and Calender" in the Settings app on your iOS device. Find or add your email account, tap  on it, and set the slider for notes to "On." Your notes should be restored!


OSX server 5.2 VPN type missing OSX server 5.2 is supposed to have this drop-down menu "Configure VPN for"

but I don't have it.

I'm not able to select the type of VPN at all, I'm not sure why
 :

how can I have this option back?

OS X Server 5.2 only supports L2TP/IPSec VPN.

Apple has dropped support for PPTP for security reasons. PPTP is known to have a number of significant security vulnerabilities.

Apple started to warn their users in OS X El Capitan and iOS 9 during VPN client setup not to use PPTP any more. With macOS Sierra and iOS 10, Apple has removed PPTP client support.

If, for some reason, despite of the security problems, you need to continue to use PPTP, you will probably need some third-party software. But you should not.


Bug with the automator action "rotate an image" and tags I have the following bug.

I have created a small app that rotates an image, with the help of automator.

But when I apply this action to a file with tags, it removes all the tags of the file (by tag, I me am the Finder's tags, introduced in Mavericks).

Can you reproduce that bug?
Waiting for the bug to be removed, how can I do to keep tags when rotating (with automator)?

Yes the Tags do get wiped on mine.

As an example of resetting them. You can collect the tags first apply your changes and then reset them after.

1, set the first Set Value of Variable  to the file path (input)  :var named File

2, Pass the file path to a Run Applescript : collecting the tag info.

This example works on a single file.

Code:

on run {input, parameters}
set tag to do shell script "xattr -px com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags" & space & quoted form of POSIX path of (item 1 of input)
return tag

end run

3, pass the result on to a Set Value of Variable :var named tag

4, Get value of Variable :var File:  ignore input from the above action.

5,Pass it onto the Rotate Images Action

6,Get value of Variable :var tag:  The image path from the Rotate Images Action will also be collected  by this action.

7, Pass the file path and tag array on to a Run Applescript

on run {input, parameters}

    set theFile to item 1 of input
    set theTags to item 2 of input
    do shell script "xattr -wx com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags" & space & quoted form of theTags & space & quoted form of POSIX path of theFile

end run

This is just an example which worked on my simple tests and you may want to test it on copies first.


rMBP random unexpected shutdown Recently I'm facing random unexpected shutdown on rMBP mid-2014. I've clean installed the Yosemite with clean user and issue still continues. Apple online support suggested to work on Safe Mode and it didn't shutdown.

P.S.: I was working on Brackets code editor (http://brackets.io) when the first unexpected shutdown happened.

I inferred there is an issue with Intel Iris Pro, so I decide to delete the following kext file and the device didn't shutdown

AppleIntelBDWGraphics.kext
AppleIntelBDWGraphicsFramebuffer.kext
AppleIntelBDWGraphicsGLDriver.bundle
AppleIntelBDWGraphicsVADriver.bundle
AppleIntelBDWGraphicsVAME.bundle
AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext
AppleIntelHD3000GraphicsGA.plugin
AppleIntelHD3000GraphicsGLDriver.bundle
AppleIntelHD3000GraphicsVADriver.bundle
AppleIntelHD4000Graphics.kext
AppleIntelHD4000GraphicsGLDriver.bundle
AppleIntelHD4000GraphicsVADriver.bundle
AppleIntelHD5000Graphics.kext
AppleIntelHD5000GraphicsGLDriver.bundle
AppleIntelHD5000GraphicsVADriver.bundle
AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext
AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB.kext
AppleIntelHDGraphicsGA.plugin
AppleIntelHDGraphicsGLDriver.bundle
AppleIntelHDGraphicsVADriver.bundle

So what are your thoughts?
Thanks

I sent my laptop to two service centres and they said there is not any hardware issues. So I decided to clean install Mac OS X without installing any additional software but the problem still occurs.

Note: I also installed Windows 10 using bootcamp, the machine works without any unexpected shutdown issues.

I got this console log (http://pastebin.com/irLDsEhB), maybe these lines can help you identify this annoying issue.

Thanks


MacBook Pro installation failure (recovery, internet, or disk)... what now? Inherited a MacBook Pro (2010 MacBook6,1 17"). Starts up fine, but wouldn't boot - no operating system found. Hard drive does not appear to be bad (see details below) but I can't seem to get it to accept an OS installation. What I've tried so far:

Starting system using my 13" MBP as host drive in Target Disk Mode (intent was to check system hardware before I tried anything else) - would not boot, some type of error message appears over the loading screen, system reboots too quickly to read it.
Placing 17" MBP in Target Disk Mode - My 13" reads the disk just fine, Disk Utility sees no errors in the volume, reformatting the volume gives no errors
Starting from included OS X 10.6 installation DVD - Loads fine, Disk Utility shows no errors, installation initiates correctly, but exits with an error stating the installation could not complete on this system.
Cloning Recovery Partition from the 13" MBP (using CarbonCopy Cloner) - Will not boot, same text error as encountered using 13" in Target Disk Mode
Internet Recovery - system initiates recovery, but immediately throws a "-6002F" error
Starting in Single User Mode didn't highlight any obvious errors that I could see.

So... what next? I have NOT tried resetting PRAM or SMC. I do have another hard drive that I could swap in if needed (currently this drive is inside a 2007 MBP with a dead motherboard, so swapping it would require removal of 37,000 tiny screws). I probably have some memory that would be compatible, if it's an issue there, as it appears to take the same specs as my 13", but am hoping that's not the problem (I upgraded the 13" from 4 to 16 GB RAM, 17" currently has 8 GB, so swapping it could cut the memory in half, depending on DIMM arrangement - I haven't cracked the case yet to check).

Suggestions?

Appears to have been a bad memory module. I swapped in a known good hard drive (with OS already installed) with no success, reset PRAM (which restored startup sound) but didn't help the boot process. However, as soon as I pulled the RAM and replaced with a known good pair of DIMMs it booted right up. (Unfortunately that also means I went from 8 GB to 2 GB RAM - so I think I'll be placing an order for an upgrade!)


I can’t remove my old phone number from iMessage or FaceTime I had an old phone number on my iPhone 8 carrier free. I recently switched to another carrier but I cannot use my new phone number to activate iMessage. Furthermore, I cannot remove my old phone number which still appears on my iMessage settings.

I tried inserting the old sim from the old number to see if it would remove the number, I tried changing my Apple ID password, trying the web based iMessage removal, erase network settings but I still can’t activate iMessage.

can I just check if you've tried the steps in this Apple Support document? It seems it might answer your question.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201349

The steps laid out there for removing your old phone number are as follows.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Select your Apple ID and tap Sign Out. Then go to Settings > FaceTime, select your Apple ID and tap Sign Out.

If the phone number that you want to remove belongs to an iPhone that you can't access, change your Apple ID password. This removes all phone numbers from your iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. Calls or messages for the removed numbers won't appear on those devices anymore.

The steps to add a new phone number are as follows.

1) Go to Settings > Messages and make sure that iMessage is on. You might need to wait a moment for it to activate.

2) Tap Send & Receive. If you see “Use your Apple ID for iMessage,” tap it and sign in with the same Apple ID that you use on your Mac, iPad, and iPod touch.

3) In the "You can receive iMessages" section, make sure that your phone number and Apple ID are selected.

4) Go to Settings > FaceTime and make sure that your phone number and Apple ID are selected in the "You can be reached at" section.


How do I tell if my AT&T iPhone 5 is unlocked? I requested AT&T to unlock my iPhone 5 at http://att.com/deviceunlock . I got an email saying that my device may be unlocked.

According to the instructions in AT&T's email, I need to do an iTunes backup and restore to complete the unlock process.  I have NOT done this yet.

I bought this T-Mobile SIM and inserted it in my iPhone and T-Mobile shows up in my phone's status bar.  I cannot make phone calls because I have not signed up for T-Mobile service and have no intentions to.

So, is my phone unlocked at this point?  Is there something else I can look at to confirm this?

Thanks!

I believe you are unlocked.

I just conducted an experiment for you.  I took my T-Mobile SIM card out of my iPad and put it in my locked AT&T iPhone 6.  It immediately told me "SIM Not Valid. The SIM card that you currently have installed in this iPhone is from a carrier that is not supported under the activation policy that is currently assigned by the activation server."

That is what you'd get if you were locked. Congrats: It seems they did indeed unlock your iPhone.


In OS Catalina make a account Standard I have an MacBook Air with the OS Catalina installed. I need to change my admin account to a Standard User account.So how would you change a account from Administrator to a Standard account by using Recovery or Single User Mode, while not creating another admin account.

You don't need to use Recovery/Single User mode for this.

If you don't have a new admin account yet, create one in System Preferences->Users & Groups
Log out of the current account (the one you want to switch from admin to standard)
Log in with another admin account
Open System Preferences->Users & Groups, select the old account and untick "User can administer the computer"


Open a new MacVim window with AppleScript I can open a new iTerm window like this:

tell application "iTerm"
    create window with default profile
end tell

How do I do the same but with MacVim?

To open a new window in MacVim, you can use the following example AppleScript code:

tell application "MacVim"
    activate
    delay 1
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "n" using command down
end tell

Note that the value of the delay command may need to be adjusted for your system, and or additional delay commands may or may not be needed. Adjust values of and or add/remove the delay command(s) as appropriate.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any error handling and is meant only to show one of many ways to accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.


Can I download free apps without a payment method? I just downloaded the newest iOS version, which I don't know what it is, and I can't download free apps now. I used to be able to download free apps, but now apple requires a credit card to download apps even if the apps are free.

I don't know what version of iOS I am using, nor what type I was using earlier. Nor do I know what type of iPhone I am using other than that it is an iPhone of some sort. I don't know how to find out this information either.

This official guide can help you:
Create or use your Apple ID without a payment method

If you already have an Apple ID
You can choose to remove the payment method for your existing Apple ID after you have signed in to the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store. You won't be asked for a payment method again until you make a purchase. Have a look at: Change or remove your Apple ID payment information


Why does running Luxology Modo cause a marked increase in performance for other 3D graphics apps? Original post is at the bottom, newest update at the top. ;)

I didn't think to add this before, but you can download a 15-day trial of Modo for free if anyone want to try this for themselves. If you do try it, please take the time to report your results, even just to say there was no noticeable difference. Thanks! Here's the demo download page: http://www.luxology.com/trymodo/

I'm going to ask Luxology if they can shed some light on the situation...

I was searching around for ways to improve graphics performance on OS X and I found an article about disabling an Apple GPU power management kernel extension (I checked and this is loaded on my Mac).

I also noticed that the same games run much better in Windows 7 under Bootcamp on the exact same hardware. These are OpenGL apps and do not use DirectX. Windows also runs much hotter. The case is hot to the touch and the fans run at their max 6,000 RPM pretty much the whole time Windows is running.

In light of these two things—the Apple GPU power management kernel extension and Windows performing better and running hotter—it looks like there is some software layer imposed by Apple that is reducing performance to keep the hardware cooler. -Edit: It seems the GPU power management extension only has to do with dual GPU models, so it wouldn't effect me. Still, it's obvious there's some software-level restraint on performance.

I have not yet tried removing the kernel extension because obviously running Modo gets the performance boost without removing it. There is still something simpler going on here that allows Modo to boost performance (without abandoning power management and melting the components :3 )

I've noticed that, with no other changes, Urban Terror and Second Life (both use OpenGL) will have double their usual framerate if I run Luxology Modo and use it to render a preview image first. I first noticed this effect a few years ago when I started using Modo. Without changing any settings, Unreal Tournament 2004 would be faster and render effects that just didn't show up at all before.

Any ideas why this might be?

Urban Terror, Second Life, and a fully-functional demo of Unreal Tournament 2004 are all available free online if anyone with Modo wants to try for themselves.

I'm still using Modo 301, but I imagine whatever they did to optimize performance has survived. I'm on a MacBook Pro 3,1 (this model only has one GPU; no dual integrated/discrete GPUs) running OS X 10.7.4 (though this was happening before Lion):

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:   MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
  Processor Name:   Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:  2.4 GHz
  Number of Processors: 1
  Total Number of Cores:    2
  L2 Cache: 4 MB
  Memory:   4 GB
  Bus Speed:    800 MHz
  Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
  SMC Version (system): 1.18f5
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:    Enabled

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT:

  Chipset Model:    GeForce 8600M GT
  Type: GPU
  Bus:  PCIe
  PCIe Lane Width:  x16
  VRAM (Total): 256 MB
  Vendor:   NVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:    0x0407
  Revision ID:  0x00a1
  ROM Revision: 3175
  Displays:
Color LCD:
  Resolution:   1920 x 1200
  Pixel Depth:  32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
  Main Display: Yes
  Mirror:   Off
  Online:   Yes
  Built-In: Yes
VK246:
  Resolution:   1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
  Pixel Depth:  32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
  Mirror:   Off
  Online:   Yes
  Rotation: Supported

MacBook Pros come with dual GPUs (built-in Intel and discrete nVidia) and the OS switch between them in the background, depending on amount of workload. it is likely you went over the graphic intensiveness threshold with Luxology Modo and the OS switched from the low-end Intel GPU to the mid-range nVidia, which benefited other running 3D apps.


System using old version of rSync instread of new version I have a Mac computer and would like to send backups to a Synology NAS.

Apple has rSync 2.6.9 pre-loaded with the operating system.

I installed rSync 3.1.3 using HomeBrew as Synology Active Backup requires at least 3.0.  HomeBrew installed rSync into /usr/local/bin/rsync.

The problem is when I connect to the Mac computer using rSync, the Mac uses version 2.6.9 instead of the new one I installed.  How can I make it so that it uses the new one instead of the old one?

I know about changing the PATH for the local user to put /usr/local/bin/rsync before /usr/bin/rsync.  It works when I am logged in using the terminal or SSH.  However, when I connect using Synology, it always invokes 2.6.9 which renders it not workable.

Is there anything in there that can cause the system to use 3.1.3 in the /usr/local/bin/rsync instead of the original one that came with the computer?

Thanks in advance.

The answer depends on how you have setup ActiveBackup, as you can run it in three different ways:

1) Rsync shell mode via SSH

2) Rsync module mode (directly)

3) Rsync module mode via SSH

When using mode 1, ActiveBackup will login to the Mac and start up rsync itself. This does not go through launchd at all. I can see that you have been advised to use "--rsync-path", but that is not an option for you, simply because ActiveBackup does not let you set this parameter.

Instead what you need to do is to ensure that when ActiveBackup starts rsync on the remote server, it will start up the correct version - WITHOUT the possibility of changing which command ActiveBackup sends over. There's two ways of doing this depending on whether your ActiveBackup version is the one that issues the "rsync" command or the one issuing the "/usr/bin/rsync" command.

If it is the first one (try this first), then edit the /private/etc/paths file and make sure the "/usr/local/bin" line comes before the "/usr/bin" line.

If it is the second one, then use these steps:

Reboot the Mac in Recovery Mode
Open Terminal and disable SIP: "csrutil disable"
Reboot and open Terminal
Move away old rsync: "mv /usr/bin/rsync /usr/bin/rsync.orig"
Link in new rsync: "ln -s /usr/local/bin/rsync /usr/bin/rsync"

You'll want to test this with ActiveBackup, and then reboot into Recovery Mode to enable SIP again with "csrutil enable".

Note that a subsequent macOS update might replace rsync. If that happens, just repeat the process. Note that as Apple hasn't updated rsync for years, it is not that likely to happen.

If you're using mode 2, ActiveBackup communicates directly with the rsync daemon, and does not start the rsync command itself on the Mac. In this case you cannot use the advise of using "--rsync-path", as it doesn't apply here at all. How to fix it depends on how you have actually started the rsync daemon. As you haven't detailed anything about starting it, I assume this means that you haven't actually started it.

However if you did follow a guide to enable rsyncd - you have probably done it through adding a launchd "LaunchDaemon". In that case you'll need to change your launch daemon file and find the key "Program" and change the corresponding string element to:

/usr/local/bin/rsync

If you're using mode 3, you'll want to follow the guide for mode 1 as it is the same steps necessary.


How come terminal processes are paused when display sleeps? I'm running some long-running CPU intensive scripts, but I've noticed that the CPU utilisation becomes 0 when the display sleeps. I've already kept the machine awake using caffeine. Is this expected behaviour?

In High Sierra there is a 2 setting in System Preferences > Energy for that. Enable Prevent computer from sleeping....or/and set Display sleep to Never.


How can I open a file in its default application from the command line in OS X? How can I open a file in its default application from the command line?

For example if I have a file foo.doc, can I type command ./foo.doc into the CLI and have that file open in Word?

Note: on my linux machine, I would use xdg-open but that doesn't work on my Mac.

Use:

open foo.doc

or, alternatively:

open -n foo.doc

to force it to open a new instance if one is already open for that app.


MacBook Air 2011 release , OS recovery I formatted my hard disk in internet recovery (disk utility) but it had a partition so I can't boot into the main disk all I see is APPLE SSD HTA..e.t.c which is 60 gb   and I can't see the main partition in disk utility plus I have no startup disk. Terminal's sudo command is also not working, is there anything I can do to gain root and erase all partitions?..it is still in recovery mode

Used Internet Recovery ⌘ Command⌥ OptionR and it worked fine. If you're interested you can buy a Apple technician's disk and boot from it  or buy a new Mac or do something simpler like installing Deb on a Mac with a damaged boot partition.


How to enable Three Finger Drag from command line I'm trying to write a shell script that will automatically set the trackpad to use the three-finger-drag option that you can find in the system preferences. I've tried a number of different things, but none of them seem to work. Here's what I've got right now:

defaults write com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad TrackpadThreeFingerDrag -bool true
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad TrackpadThreeFingerDrag -bool true

I've scoured all the settings I could find from the output of defaults read, but I've found nothing else useful. These are the settings that system-prefs changes when I manually change the settings. Is this a bug?

I'm running Mavericks on a 13-inch mid 2012 MacBook Air. The three-finger-drag works fine when I enable it manually.

EDIT: I restart my machine each time I run this.

It took a lot of trial and error, but I figured it out:

 defaults -currentHost write NSGlobalDomain com.apple.trackpad.threeFingerSwipeGesture -int 1

You don't need to restart your machine after you enter this command for the setting to apply. Logging out of your account and logging back in again is sufficient.


What adapters are available for a connecting a secondary SSD to the Superdrive's SATA cable? I have a 2011 iMac. I plan to replace the SuperDrive with an SSD drive. I've noticed on various images of, e.g., on ifixit, that the SATA cable that plugs into the Superdrive looks different to the female SATA connector on the SSD drive I have ordered (and Intel 510).

Does anyone know what (if any) adapters I will need to plug the SSD drive into the Superdrive's SATA/power connectors.

For clarity - I'm completely removing the Superdrive from the machine; I don't plan on sharing anything between the SSD/Superdrive. The SSD will have the sole use of whatever cable is is currently plugging into the Superdrive.

Should be similar to the one I got for my MacBookPro, actually here is one especially for iMacs:
OWC Data Doubler

I got another one from ebay for ~20 $ - does not fit perfectly, but is good enough for me. Up to you which way you go.

MacBookPro installation was not too difficult, don't know about difficulty for iMacs.


iCloud control panel in Windows is missing Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Tasks tab Have Windows 7 with Outlook 2007 linked to iCloud to sync calendars, tasks and contacts. works great.  Now I have to set up new Windows 7 with Outlook 2007. Installed iCloud for Windows, but when I start it the checkbox for "Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Tasks" is missing.  Only have checkboxes for "iCloud Drive", "Photos", and "Bookmarks".  Every troubleshooting post just assumes the checkbox is there, and I just can't figure out why it is not. any ideas?

Although I don't really know what the original problem was, I did find a workaround.

When trying to connect iCloud to Outlook I was using my PST file from my old machine, and the iCloud option to sync "Mail, Contacts, Calendar & Tasks" was missing.

I then deleted MS Office and reinstalled.  Now, before copying over my old PST file I tried to connect iCloud with the new, empty, PST file.... and it was now successful.  I was able to "see" my iCloud Contacts and Calendar.  So, far, so good...
I then copied over the old PST file, made it the default pst file, and deleted the "new, empty" pst file. Went into Outlook and everything was there... my mail, iCloud calendar, and iCloud Contacts.  Success.

Now, why did this work???  The ONLY thing I could think of was that, somehow, iCloud knew my old pst file was already connected to iCloud so it didn't offer the option to connect to outlook.  As soon as I used a "new" pst file, iCloud showed me the option to connect to outlook.  Anyway, that's my theory.  Anybody have any other ideas about what might be happening?


Access to many websites under OS X Server on port 80 I've installed two web applications (Jenkins and Redmine) on my OS X Mavericks Server. Both are available in local network from other computers as:

myserver.local:8080 (Jenkins)
myserver.local:8081/redmine (Redmine installed from Bitnami)

Also I redirect to domains to my public IP:

ci.mydomain.com
pm.mydomain.com

At this moment I'm able to get access to my web applications from the Internet in this way:

ci.mydomain.com:8080 (Jenkins)
pm.mydomain.com:8081 (Redmine)

Now I want to change this configuration to more friendly form which allow to get access to this applications directly by enter only domains like:

ci.mydomain.com
pm.mydomain.com

Do you have any suggestion what and where should I change in my server configuration to get this result (access many sites on default 80 port)?

You need a web server in front of your sites, acting as a proxy.

With Apache web server, use the mod_proxy module (I think on Apache you'll need to enable the module from httpd.conf, by uncommenting the line starting with LoadModule proxy_http_module).

If you prefer nginx, use the http_proxy module.

Both are pretty much straight forward to configure.


Recover obscured pixels If I screenshot something on my phone and scribble out the text:

Is it possible to get the text back?

Are there computer programs that can analyse that jpg to see what’s under the scribble.

If you are scribbling the text while still editing the screenshot, you can press the undo button to restore the original image, press the Done button and select Save to Photos.

If you have saved the screenshot to Photos after scribbling the text, there is no way to revert the image and restore the original one.


Change screenshot destination on Touch Bar Mac (macOS Sierra) I have a late 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and when taking a screenshot, I get the option to choose the location on the Touch Bar.

However since I'm using my computer in clamshell mode, I can't see the Touch Bar, and always want to save my screenshots in a specific folder.

The Touch Bar behaviour seems to override the screenshot location that I have set in com.apple.screencapture:

~$ defaults read com.apple.screencapture
{
    location = "/Users/[my_username]/Pictures/screenshots/";
}

Even if the above is set, it always saves to Documents, which I chose on the Touchbar once.

Also if I choose Desktop as the location on the Touch Bar, it's ignored, and it saves in Documents. So it seems to malfunction even when using the Touch Bar.

So is there a "defaults key" (?) that stores the location since the above is ignored, or is there a conflict between the Touch Bar and the default setting that can be fixed?

As of Mojave 10.14.2 version, you can change "Save to" destination by entering screenshot mode (press screenshot key on touchbar or Command+Shift+5), then you'd see quick tools (region selection, etc). Go to Options -> Save to... -> Other location... and choose desired location for your screenshots.

Now all screenshot (even those you process with quick editor after making a screenshot) will be stored at chosen folder.

And you don't need any specific software or scripts.


Can a MacBook Air support 2560x1600 output via HDMI using a Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt to HMDI adaptor? The HDMI 1.3 spec can carry signals with resolutions as high as 2560 x 1600 pixels. Is it possible to output this high a resolution signal from a MacBook Air using a Mini DisplayPort/Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter? If so, are there any special considerations for buying this adapter or will any adapter on the market work?

Machine is 2012 MacBook Air

I own a 2013 MacBook Air.  This is equipped with a Thunderbolt 1 port :

Mini-DisplayPort -> HDMI adapter (1920x1200 max.)

Mini-DisplayPort -> DisplayPort adapter (upto 2560x1600 max.)

I've used both and am now driving daily on my MBA 13" with a monitor running at 2560x1440.


How can I identify 3rd party kernel extensions in macOS? Often 3rd party kernel extensions (aka Kexts) are the cause of problems on macOS systems. One tell-tale sign is a system that boots okay in Safe Mode and doesn't reproduce the problems a user may be experiencing when booted normally. While this doesn't guarantee the problem is a 3rd party kernel extension, it's certainly one of the more likely causes.

How does a user identify what 3rd part kernel extensions are installed on their Mac?

You can identify 3rd party kernel extensions (Kexts) via Terminal.

More specifically:

Launch the Terminal app (found within your Applications > Utilites folder)
Type (or copy and paste) the following command:

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

Press Enter
Within moments Terminal will list all 3rd party kernel extensions (Note: you may need to stretch the Terminal window so it's easier to read).

If you’re having issues with your Mac, you can use the above process to identify any 3rd party extensions you don't remember installing, or something that belongs to software you no longer use.

Please note that this is a list of all 3rd party kernel extensions and any of them could be causing the problem.


Where do I change the default iTunes U download settings? I want to change the default settings for iTunes U in iTunes 11. I can not find anything however relating to podcasts or iTunes U in the preference window.
Now I need to change the Episodes to keep property for every course. I want to change it for all the courses at once. How do I do that?

Go into the settings dialog for one of your courses.

You will see a drop-down menu next to "Settings for:"

Click on that, and at the top of that menu you will see "iTunes U Default"

You can change settings there.


IOS 9.2: My "General> Profiles and Device management" is gone? I have looked and looked and I can't find a solution. I need to get to the profiles and device management section on my ipad 3 but it is not under general. I tried searching for it in settings and it shows up as an option. I tap on it and it just opens General, where there is no option for profiles and device management. Please help, I already tried restarting the device.

How can I find it?

This option will not be displayed if you do not have an installed profile. You don't actually install profiles from the settings. Profiles can be installed through different channels, whether it be an email invitation or a website. The only reason profiles show up in settings is so you can manage/delete them easily. Before I had profiles, I didn't have the settings option to manage them.


How do I switch off/shutdown an iPhone with a broken power button? The title says it all. I have an iPhone 7 with a broken power switch. Just now I needed to switch off my iPhone, but realised I can't because the switch is no good. I did ask Siri to do it for me, but she said sorry she can't do that.

Is there another way?

Assuming you're on iOS 11: the easiest way is to go to Settings > General. Swipe up until you see the Shut Down option at bottom.Tapping on Shut Down will mimic using the power button.

If you're not on iOS 11: then you can use Assistive Touch: go to Settings > General > Accessibility and switch on Assistive Touch. Now you'll see a bubble appear on the screen. You can move this around, but most importantly you can tap on it and select Device and then select Lock Screen. Doing this will give you the option to switch off your iPhone. (Note: You can do this with iOS 11 as well).

Switching it back on

To switch it back on you will have to connect your iPhone to your Mac/PC or to a charger with the Lightning cable. After a while it will power up and you'll be able to unlock it.


Primary User missing after macOS Sierra Update Clarification:
There were two accounts on this macbook air (plus guest):
Account A (Admin)
Account B (standard)

1) After restarting after the latest macOS update, Account A was missing from the startup screen (Account B and Guest are the only options).

2) After a successful login to Account B, instead of starting macOS as usual, another startup screen appears, now with the option to log in as either Account A or Guest.

3) After logging in to Account A, macOS appears to run normally. Checking in Users & Groups, shows that Account A is still Admin. Account B is not listed.

4) Logging out of Account A returns to a screen with the option to log in again as either Account A or Guest.

5) A restart brings us back to #1, where we have to sign in first as Account B, then Account A.

Attempting to reinstall macOS from recovery mode prompts for the password from Account B (not the admin account) to unlock the HD.

What is going on, and how can it be fixed?

Original post:

The first time I restarted my macbook air after the latest macOS update, the primary user account had disappeared from the startup screen. My wife's account (a standard account which she never uses) and the guest account (which is apparently now a special browser only mode) are now the only options.

All attempts to login through my wife's account have failed. I figure she doesn't remember her password. I decided that I'm just going to try reinstalling the OS. So I restarted while pressing cmd-r to get into the recovery mode with macOS utilities and click to reinstall macOS.

Then it gets weird... My password didn't work to unlock the HD, and based on the hint, the hard drive is now encrypted under my wife's password instead of the one from my (now disappeared) admin account.

How/why would the primary account seem to disappear? And how did it end up treating a non-admin account as admin (and encrypting the HD under that password)? Did it just default to whatever other account it could find when the primary one went away?

And how can I get back in again? I imagine that all of the files are still there if I could access them.

Edit: My wife managed to remember her password and typed it in from the login screen, but instead of logging her in, it started another startup screen, now with options to log in as the primary account (the one that was missing before) or guest account, but now her account is missing. If I log out, her account is still missing.

But when I restart, it goes back to only having her account and guest as options... Then when I attempt to log in as her, it again takes me to a start up screen where the option are my account and guest.

What is going on here? Should I try to reinstall the OS?

This can happen when some users are not FileVault Enabled. Log in with another user and then check out security system preferences.

Thanks for the help, @bret7600. FileVault pointed me in the right direction; the solution was the same as here User account doesn't appear on first login screen I also had to recreate the other account (Account B) which showed up on first login screen but not in User & Groups to get everything back to normal.


Can I use different Apple ID for Music on Catalina? I just got a new 16" MBP at work. It runs Catalina of course.

I use a work based Apple ID for this machine. I have a personal Apple ID that I use on my iPhone which recently just got an Apple Music subscription. Is there a way to have the Catalina music app use a different Apple ID than the (work based) one that the rest of macOS knows about?

Yes - you can sign in using different Apple ID for the music app and not share the same AppleID as you do with other items like the App Store, iCloud preferences, FaceTime and Messages. In fact, you could choose a different account for each one of the above if you wanted to be creative or difficult or just had specific needs.

I use my work AppleID for Messages and FaceTime and iCloud.
I use my personal AppleID for the App Store and Music. (Where I subscribe to Apple Music as well)

For the macOS Music app - look in the Account menu - sign out of the wrong account and then choose Sign In... to switch to the one you prefer.

Works for me, no issues, no complaints. The activation count issues of the past seem to have disappeared for almost everyone.


Device name in network has a number in parenthesis and it is incrementing My iPad's name used to be Behdad's iPad for many years, but a few days back, it was automatically changed to Behdad's iPad (4) and when I manually deleted the number, it was soon changed to Behdad's iPad (8). Now that I'm writing this, it is currently Behdad's iPad (543), which has been changed from Behdad's iPad (284) from yesterday!

A few points to consider:
It all started when I installed YazFi package on my ASUS RT-AC87U router with Asuswrt-Merlin 384.13_2 firmware on it and my current network configuration is as follows:

I have two networks, one is 192.168.1.0/24 and another is 192.168.2.0/24.
All my devices occasionally connect to any of those networks, including my iPhone and my MacBook Pro.
This naming thing happens on both my iPad and MacBook Pro (but not to this extent, as it is currently sitting on `Behdad's MacBook Pro (7)", but not to my iPhone.

Do you have any idea on why this happens and how can I make it stop? I'm worried it messes something with iCloud, as these names appear on my iCloud device list.

This does not mess up iCloud devices, the device is getting the name from the router and reporting it. As soon as you rename the device or fix the network to assign a different name, iCloud will reflect the current names quickly.

It definitely is made worse by YazFi, because since I uninstalled it from my router, all my devices have kept their names. I'm going to ask its developer also. This can happen on any network, however with bonjour sleep proxy and dns/dhcp not cleaning old records at the same rate as iOS devices reconnect after sleep.
YazFi's developer had asked people to reply to a thread in SmallNetBuilders forum regarding any issues. Several others created accounts there, but looks new users need to gain a few points to be able to post on the forums (similar to how new users can’t comment here without reputation or make edits without approval).
Getting enough momentum posting on SNB forums to link to this question might help others see it.
Editors note: this answer came from edits to the question so I moved it to the answer. I encourage others to put up a better answer or edit this as needed.


I can't restore back up from PC. I returned to iOS 10.3.3.from iOS 11. Two months ago or earlier I've installed iOS 11 beta. Now I tried to get back to ioS 10.3.3. using recovery mode. I did back up on my PC but after IoS 10.3.3. installing restore back up failed - message: this back up corrupted or does not support .......How shall I proceed? Shall I return back to beta ioS 11?
Thanks, Maira

Backups of a newer version of iOS can’t be restored onto a device with an older version of iOS. To restore your iOS 11 backup, you’ll need iOS 11 running on the device.


"No connected camera" error using MacBook Air I have a friend with a 13" MacBook Air. He upgraded to the new software in the App Store about a week ago and now, when he is using anything that uses his built-in camera, it says "There is no connected camera." I've tried looking through his settings and nothing is working to fix the problem. I've found a number of problems, but nothing has worked. We're not sure how to go about solving the problem, even after finding several solutions to no avail.
Anything helps, thanks!

Probably there is some process holding the camera. A dirty hack to solve this issue is to kill the culprit with:

sudo killall VDCAssistant


How to set external display as the main one with MacBook Pro? Someone gives me old macbook with broken screen model white 7.1.

i get this mac as my computer i use it for study programming.

as monitor i use external monitor AOC 1080p. for connecting i use mini display port

So my problem or this problem of all mac notebooks i don't know.

So when i get this mac to sleep and sometime after i try turn it on it gets black screen.

now a days when i turn it off and next day try turn on it start with low resolution it loads with grey apple and then it shows black screen.

and after NVRAM or PRAM or SMC reseting and with 2 or 3 time it only load
normal resolution and load OS.

my Question is:

it possible some how make this mac book understand that external monitor is main monitor and always load proper resolution like this be a mac mini.

later i want rebuild this macbook to look like mac mini and it bugs it's impossible

If you use you MacBook Pro in clam shell mode, your external monitor will automatically be the primary (and only) display.

See Apple's instructions on clam shell mode for more details.


Comfortable mouse tracking speed not available in system preferences The mouse section of the OS X version 10.8.2 system preferences has 10 different tracking speeds for my mighty mouse.

Unfortunately, the 4th fastest option is too slow for me, and the 3rd fastest option is too fast for me.

I've recently converted from a 21.5 inch iMac to a 27 inch iMac and I cannot recreate the mouse speed I've been used to.

How can tune my mouse's tracking speed, beyond the speeds available in the system preferences?

You can adjust the tracking speed on the command line through the Terminal:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling x.x

Where x.x is the tracking speed, 5 being the high and 1 being low, e.g.:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling 3.5

To reset it to defaults, use:

defaults delete -g com.apple.mouse.scaling

And it should reset back to the default tracking speed. Play around with the increments and see if that's fine-grained enough to find the tracking speed you want.


Why did syncing with iTunes delete one of my photos folders? I have an iPod Touch, and I tried to sync with apparently more room than my iPod Touch had on it.  So instead of not syncing some new podcasts, it decided to delete one of my photos folders off of my iPod Touch (over 5000 pictures).

Why did the iPod Touch determine that this should be deleted? Why didn't it give me a warning or a prompt so I could have chosen what action to take?

Suggestion 1 :
I think you would be a new user to the iPod/iPhone/OS X/iTunes family.
If your afraid or don't understand what is happening during synchronization using iTunes, I suggest you to use a utility called iPhoneExplorer.

Just Explorer the iPhone/iPod/iPad like a file system. You would get your images under Root/User/Media/DCIM/ directory. images are grouped in directories like 100APPLE, 101APPLE and so on. Just explore and copy it.

Suggestion 2:
Synchronization - means A single machine and an iPod synchronization. Not multiple machines and an iPod. If you synchronizes from other machine it will erase all of your old data. According to me, you had the problem just because you might have synchronized from other machines iTunes.


What is the quality of the music sold in the iTunes store? What is the quality of the music sold in the iTunes store? Is this quality comparable to that of a lossless file or CD?

From this article:

  Music encoded as 256kbps AAC files first came to the iTunes Store in 2007 with the launch of Apple's iTunes Plus. That marked the debut of DRM-free music tracks encoded at a higher quality bitrate that Apple claims is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.

As of 2007 the audio files sold in the iTunes store have been encoded using the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) codec and distributed with .m4a extensions from the iTunes store. The 256 kbps setting is an average bit rate encoding scheme, not a fixed bit rate encoding scheme. The actual sample rate is varied dynamically based on the content and time.

  Is this quality comparable to that of a lossless file or CD?

This is somewhat subjective. The encoding is a lossy encoding so from a purely bit-wise perspective the content sold in the iTunes store is not 100% identical to content from a CD -- when expanded back to a .wav format to match the bits on a CD, the expanded bits from the AAC file would not match perfectly with the bits on the CD because of of the lossy encoding. However, it is said, bitrate of the encoding used on iTunes files imparts no human-perceptible loss in the audio when compared to the source CD material. This sort of stuff is harder to verify, requiring double blind tests and the opinions of hopelessly fallible human beings.


Ideal Screen Sharing Conditions I realise what I am about to ask could be considered impossible to answer but maybe a discussion might be helpful to other people.

I am trying to use Screen Sharing (OS X 10.7.5) to control a Windows 7 PC at a remote site which is running Ultra VNC. I keep getting 'system not responding' errors in the applications I am using on the remote PC, even though when I am onsite I never get them. It's making things pretty hard work as I'm essentially locked out of the application for anywhere between 10-30 seconds at a time. I'm pretty certain that something to do with VNC is causing the problems and have had the same when using Chicken of the VNC on my Mac as well, does anyone have some recommendations as to what to do in this scenario?

Try the TeamViewer application for remote control.

I use it daily across the ocean and across the platforms (Windows/Mac) and it works fine.

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx


Macbook Pro USB Guitar Sound Issue I bought a Neweer USB Guitar cable for my MacBook Pro 2015. When I connect it and try to use it it has a 1 second delay, and when I try to fix that with different options; i manage to fix the delay, but there is a scrambling sound that appears over time. This sound gradually increases in a matter of 10 seconds, and after that you can only hear this sound instead of the guitar. I tried everything, I don't know what to do.

You're never going to get zero latency. The amount of latency you do get will depend on buffer size, which should be settable in either the driver or your audio app's control panel. The smaller the buffer, the greater the processing power needed to achieve it, hence the breakup as you reduce it.

Investigate using any app that can use ASIO rather than the system drivers, & don't run any unnecessary apps at the same time.


Display S.M.A.R.T. statistics for an SSD? I purchased a couple of used Intel 320-series 160 GB SSDs. I attached one of the drives to my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8 using a SATA III to USB 3.1 cable.

When I attempted to view the drive statistics, it resulted in S.M.A.R.T. Status: Not Supported.

I'm fairly certain S.M.A.R.T. Status: Not Supported is wrong. According to Intel Solid-State Drive 320 Series, S.M.A.R.T. is supported. From the document (section 5.4):

  The Intel SSD 320 Series supports the SMART command set, which
  consists of:

  SMART READ DATA
  SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS
  SMART ENABLE/DISABLE ATTRIBUTE AUTOSAVE
  SMART SAVE ATTRIBUTE VALUES
  SMART EXECUTE OFF-LINE IMMEDIATE
  SMART READ LOG SECTOR
  SMART WRITE LOG SECTOR
  SMART ENABLE OPERATIONS
  SMART DISABLE OPERATIONS
  SMART RETURN STATUS
  SMART ENABLE/DISABLE AUTOMATIC OFFLINE

How do I display the S.M.A.R.T. statistics for the SSD under OSX 10.8?

Getting  the SMART status is possible with these disks but not if they are attached to USB. The necessary ATA commands usually aren't propagated through the USB-controller.

You can try to get that working though by using OS X SAT SMART Driver.


Mac Mini frequently loses connections (both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) I have a Mid 2011 Mac Mini which is connected to:

Airport Express
Apple Bluetooth trackpad
Apple Bluetooth keyboard

Suspiciously frequently and quite consistently, maybe every other day, one of the three disconnects, and I have to reconnect them manually, which usually goes fine immediately.

For comparison, my MacBook Air never disconnects from the network. Battery health on the trackpad and keyboard does not seem related to the disconnects.

Since all three of the devices disconnect, the culprit would seem to be the Mini, particularly the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapter. But I don't want to jump to conclusions.

How can I best diagnose the situation to understand what is wrong?
Is it likely that replacing the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth adapter would resolve the problem?

Is it likely that replacing the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth adapter would resolve
  the problem?

Yes.

It's highly likely that the issue is the Airport card because it is a combo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapter.  Given that you are having issues with both functions, it points to the adapter being at fault.

You've already done a significant amount of diagnostics and ruled out other machines don't exhibit the symptoms connecting to the same network.  You can further verify that your Bluetooth peripherals are not the issue by connecting them (keyboard and trackpad) to the MacBook Air.  You could also run AHT - Apple Hardware Test.  It may detect a problem with the Airport card.


Rename home folder to match account name (High Sierra) My home folder name (bob 1) does not match my account name (bob)", but I want it to.

How I got here:

Got a new Mac
Didn't have the cables to transfer from previous Mac, so I just set up a simple test account with my same username "bob"
Once I had the cables I created a new account called "Admin" and then logged in as that account and deleted my previous test user account "bob" in System Preferences.
Migrated data from old Mac.
This resulted in a new account called "bob" but the home folder for that account was named "bob 1". I discovered that my deletion of the test "bob" account had not actually deleted the home folder called "bob".

While logged in as "bob" (which might have been a bad idea) I tried deleting the home folder called "bob" (from terminal) and then editing in System Preferences to change my home folder to "bob". After restart it walked me through the full setup and I realized it created a NEW home folder called "bob", and my old folder was still called "bob 1", except now my account was not associated with that folder (with all my actual data). So... restored from Time Machine.

Now I'd like to do it right. So -

I have a working account named "bob" that is linked to home folder "bob 1". I don't want to rename the account, just rename the home folder and have my account properly link to it.
I have an orphaned home directory named "bob" that I can delete via Terminal easily enough.
How should I go about renaming the home folder and maintaining (or re-establishing) the association between my user account and the renamed home folder? Or should I just give up and live with "bob 1"...

Per Apple, assuming you're on OS X 10.7 or higher:

Delete the orphaned home directory.
Log out of the account you're renaming, then log in to a different administrator account.
Go to the Users folder on the startup drive. The Users folder contains the home folder of the account you're renaming. Rename that account's home folder.
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
Click the lock, then enter the administrator name and password that you used to log in.
From the list of users, Control-click or right-click the user that you want to rename. Choose Advanced Options from the shortcut menu.
Change the “Home directory” field to match the new name that you gave the home folder in the Users folder.
Click OK, then quit System Preferences.
Restart your Mac.
Log in to the renamed account, then verify that your old files and folders are visible and the account is working as expected.