Clear queue in Apple Music on iOS 14 Now that iOS 14 has added the feature to remember the song and not clear the queue(play next) when the app is closed, how are we supposed to clear the queue?
Previously, when we used to close the app, the queue used to get cleared. Also there is no option to clear queue in the three dot menu.

This top portion is something like a rant so you can skip to the next bolded text...
So to kinda summarize my thoughts in the comments on the native music app... If you clear the queue by closing the app, it's probably not a feature, but rather default software behavior and therefore probably just something they neglected until now. If a dev doesn't write a feature where the application remembers where you left off, why would it. So they didn't exactly remove a feature, they added a feature, that removed what I would call an exploit for the lack of a better word. Not saying OP claimed it was a feature, just saying they probably never thought anyone would use the music app that way and they didn't see it as replacing one feature with another one, so I wouldn't expect them adding a "clear queue" button anytime soon.
I've always been a big fan of 3rd party apps in general, but talking about music apps specifically, I also had never even considered that the native app could be used that way because 3rd party apps had faaaaar superior queue systems long before Apple added it to the native music player. Pretty much from the beginning 3rd party apps have been innovating and Apple has been slowly implementing the good features, like music queue for instance. And my understanding is that Apple has made some things regarding music apps more strict over the years and that's why many players nowadays have various compromises and in some cases have died away.
Solution #1 - Native music app

First of all the way you clear the queue is by clicking a song and then it asks if you want to clear the queue, in which case it does clear the queue but it also adds all the songs in the context of that song to the queue. If the song you clicked was in the album view, it would add all of the songs in the album to the queue and place the clicked song first. So you can't clear the queue just to make it empty. Perhaps if the app crashes, it might clear it.

So, the only way to get around it, that I see, is by making a playlist with just one song and then clicking the song in that playlist to clear the queue. Don't click the play or the shuffle buttons at the top, just click the song. The only kinda big downside is that you can't remove this song from the queue, which isn't much of an issue as long as that song is something you always feel like listening. Of course you can always skip it too.

I can imagine that you could probably get around that by basically making an empty 2 second audio clip, adding it to the Music app through Itunes and making a playlist out of it. But it might be too much trouble for what it's worth.

Solution #2 - 3rd party apps
I didn't test every single 3rd party player, so there could still be better options out there.

Picky Music Player - ($2.99)

This player plays the songs through the native app...
My first pick and really the only solid player I found that fits the bill
This is actually something I already owned and it has in app purchases... I'm not sure about this Picky Deluxe because I can't see it in the app. Maybe I already bought that... but all the other in app purchases are basically just donations. Which is to say, I'm not sure if this Picky Deluxe in app purchase is something that gives you more features or something.
Picky's FAQ
Pros

Works with apple music: cloud and downloaded songs.
Swipe left on a song to add to the queue
In the top right of the "now playing" screen there's the typical horizontal 3 dot menu where you have a "Clear song queue" option.
In the top right corner of every song list there's a picklist  menu that lets you add multiple songs to the queue or you can choose to play them next, which clears the queue.
You can swipe the album cover in the "now playing" screen left and right to go to the previous or next song.
I'm not sure if this counts as a pro, but it syncs the queue with the native Music app. You clear the queue in it, it clears the queue in the native app. If you add songs to the queue, they get added to the native app. If you add songs to the queue in the native app, they show up in Picky. If you remove songs from the queue it gets removed in Picky... etc..

Cons

The interface overall is pretty good, but now that I've gotten used to the native music player, I'm not a big fan of how the song lists are these very compact lists, without album art in the front.
Can't edit individual songs in the queue, like say move or remove them. Of course you can add more to the top of the queue or clear the whole queue.

You can however edit individual songs in the queue in the native music app. Picky manipulates the native queue every time you make changes to it and it stays in sync both ways.

Honorable mentions:

MusiQ Player - Queue Music - Free

This app plays song independently from the native music app
This is like the wet dream of anyone who is into making playlists on the fly... Like wow! (With a huge caveat*)
Cons

*Only works with downloaded apple music songs :( Don't read the pro's if this is a deal breaker because it'll just make you sad.

Pros

Swipe right to add song to the bottom of a queue
Swipe left to add song to the top of the queue
Clicking a song actually brings it to the top of the queue and starts playing it immediately.
Long click(press) gives you the option to Play now & Replace Queue
Queue has it's own tab, which I'm totally into
There's also a tab for "Queues", which is where you can manage or start playing any queues that you have saved.

This is really a con: you can add, remove and rename saves queues, but you can't edit the songs in them in any way. You have to starts playing the saved queue, then make edits in the "Queue" tab and save it again :/

The queue tab has 2 icons at the top right:

(1st icon) Clears queue - Or if you started playing a saved queue, it resets it to the saved queue... Which is kinda cool, but also I think I should be able to then click the icon again to empty out the queue, but no, the icon gets grayed out :/
(2nd icon) Saves the current queue into the "Queues" tab with the current date as a placeholder name.

Also has a swipe left and right over the now playing screen's album art.
In the "Queues" tab you can use the same swipe gestures to add the whole saved queue into the current queue... Awesome...
You can export saved queues to the native app. Would assume it is imported as a playlist.

AuxBox - Free

This app plays song independently from the native music app
This was an interesting find. I don't think I'd ever had any use for this but sure enough you can queue up songs and play them... Sort of...
I'm a little surprised it works with Apple music and Apple hasn't take it down... Well it's not like you can use it as a full on music server because it's on your phone, but still.
It's sort of like you make a "radio station", though they call them "channels", where you can add songs from the Music app. And then it just plays that queue...
Interestingly as soon as a song finishes, it's removed from the queue but the last song sticks around and plays on repeat until you stop or add other songs.
You can share these channels with friends and when you start a channel it has 2 options: party mode or radio mode.

Party mode: At a quick glance it seems party mode is one where you play music through the phone speakers or to bluetooth speakers or whatever and I guess your friends can... affect the queue somehow? I'm not really sure how that would work but it is called "party mode". Maybe they have full control of what's playing now or next, I don't know..
Radio mode: Again, quick glance says it would be otherwise kinda similar but your friends would be hearing it from their phone speakers.

Apparently your friends can add songs to their apple music, if they like the song or whatever.
Also works with Spotify.


IPhone 6 left out in sun I left my iphone 6 in the sun and it stopped working.  It has been a few hours since I cooled it down and it still doesn't work or even take a charge.  Is the battery damaged?  How do I fix this problem?

Let the phone cool down for a couple of hours (place it by a fan), then plug it into your Mac and hold down the iPhone's power button and home button together for 20 seconds for hard reset.

You could try the hard reset first, if you choose.


iOS iPhone/iPad Mail - rapid mass delete/delete all How do you mass-delete emails in iOS Mail?
I don't know if this is documented anywhere, but just to bring it to current attention…

Late edit
Not sure when this appeared but there is now [in 13.7] a simple 'Select All' button, like we always wanted. Follow that with Delete, accept the 'are you sure?' message & at last we have a simple solution. ;)

Scroll to the top or bottom of your list;
Tap edit, then swipe up or down the circular icons [the checkboxes] until you reach the other end.
It will quite rapidly auto-scroll once you reach the limit of the current view.
Tap Delete.
Gone.
100 unwanted emails, 3 seconds. Gone.
Discovered [by accident] on iOS 13.4.1


Is there a fast way I can clone a partition on to another drive using a sector by sector copy, instead of copying individual files? I'm trying to transfer a 4 TB Time Machine backup from one USB 3 hard drive to another. I'm currently using SuperDuper to do it, and it's going to take upwards of two full days to perform the copy, if not longer.

That's significantly slower than the usual maximum speed for copying over USB 3, and I suspect that what's slowing things down is the overhead of copying each file individually, rather than just copying the raw data on the drive, sector by sector.

Given that I just need to duplicate a partition on to another drive:

Would it result in a usable partition if I did a sector-by-sector copy?
Would that be faster than using SuperDuper?
And if yes to both of the above, what are some methods I could use to do that?

I already tried using Disk Utility's restore feature to clone feature, but it got about 5% of the way in and then failed with a weird error about a drive being busy. So I don't think it's reliable enough, and it has no option for resuming where it left off. But that said, it did seem like it was going much faster, and if it didn't fail, it would've taken around 8 hours for it to finish.

edit: for posterity, the reason Disk Utility failed to copy the drive is because my destination drive was dying and loaded with bad sectors. Under normal circumstances it would probably work and be about as fast as dd. However I like Allan's answer the most because, in case something causes dd to stop mid-copy, you can restart it from where it left off.

Use dd to clone your drive/partition.

The syntax is simple:

dd if=inputfile.foo of=outputfile.bar bs=blockSize

This will do a bit for bit copy of your drive.  Whatever your drive "looks like", including partition tables, will be copied.

For example, assuming your Time Machine drive's identifier is /dev/disk3 and your second USB drive's identifier is /dev/disk4, your command would be:

dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/disk4 bs=1M

You can also write directly to the raw device by using /dev/rdiskX

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk3 of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=1M

Keep in mind, you will need to unmount the devices first with the command sudo diskutil unmountDisk diskX

Copy Speed

You are correct in assuming that there is some overhead associated with copying files.  However, what you may not be aware of is that USB 3 speeds aren't what they are cracked up to be.  USB 3 is upto 5Gbs (gigabits per second)... in a lab, on a clear day, with a really strong tail wind, going downhill.

The actual speed of USB 3.0 is closer to 100Mbps1

So, doing a little calculation, we find that to transfer a 4TB file at 100Mbps means it will take roughly 10 and a half hours at best (it could go slower!)

What I have found to be the most reliable for me is that I copy the file to an internal drive (or a network share as a 1Gbs wired connection is significantly faster than USB will ever be) and once I have the image, I then copy it to my target.

Breaking it up into two separate processes:

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk3 of=/Volumes/Some/Network/Share/file.img bs=1M

sudo dd if=/Volumes/Some/Network/Share/file.img of=/dev/rdisk4  bs=1M

This has the added benefit that if anything happens, there is a copy in a safe place.

1 PC World:  USB 3.0 speed: real and imagined


Automating document creation in Pages So my actual question is broader but I'll focus on a specific example to start:

I created a Pages document with some sample text displayed in each of the available fonts for comparison. To do this I ended up having to copy/paste the text over and over, manually selecting a different font for each instance.

How would I go about automating this? Through the Terminal? And, more broadly, how do I automate repetitive tasks like this in any application? Will it depend on the application I'm using or is there a general solution for most cases?

Thanks for your help

As a graphic designer, a huge part of my jobs are logo recreation.  Most of the time, these logos have text that I need to identify what fonts are used.  I actually wound up creating a small AppleScript application for auto scrolling in FontBook. For my purposes, I usually have the original design with their font on one side of the screen and Font Book window right next to it so I can visually compare.

I actually posted a question on stackoverflow regarding the script I wrote (which nobody replied to LOL) Applescript for auto scrolling in Font Book

In that post, I have the full AppleScript code with a complete explanation for all of its functions. It's a great little script for font comparisons and such.  Maybe it could be of some use to you.


What is the correct way to eject a APFS dmg from the command line? Create a APFS DMG using Apple's Disk Utility application and call it test_apfs.dmg.

One can mount it with:

hdiutil attach -plist ~/Desktop/test_apfs.dmg

which provides the following output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>system-entities</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>content-hint</key>
            <string>GUID_partition_scheme</string>
            <key>dev-entry</key>
            <string>/dev/disk2</string>
            <key>potentially-mountable</key>
            <false/>
            <key>unmapped-content-hint</key>
            <string>GUID_partition_scheme</string>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>content-hint</key>
            <string>Apple_APFS</string>
            <key>dev-entry</key>
            <string>/dev/disk2s1</string>
            <key>potentially-mountable</key>
            <false/>
            <key>unmapped-content-hint</key>
            <string>7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC</string>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>content-hint</key>
            <string>41504653-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC</string>
            <key>dev-entry</key>
            <string>/dev/disk3s1</string>
            <key>mount-point</key>
            <string>/Volumes/Untitled</string>
            <key>potentially-mountable</key>
            <true/>
            <key>unmapped-content-hint</key>
            <string>41504653-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC</string>
            <key>volume-kind</key>
            <string>apfs</string>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>content-hint</key>
            <string>EF57347C-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC</string>
            <key>dev-entry</key>
            <string>/dev/disk3</string>
            <key>potentially-mountable</key>
            <false/>
            <key>unmapped-content-hint</key>
            <string>EF57347C-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC</string>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

After I try to detach with:

hdiutil detach /Volumes/Untitled

diskutil list, returns:

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +100.0 MB   disk2
   1:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         100.0 MB   disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +100.0 MB   disk3
                                 Physical Store disk2s1
   1:                APFS Volume Untitled                65.5 KB    disk3s1

and going back to Apple's Disk Utility application, I see the Untitled volume listed, but it is grayed out.

I can only really fully eject it if I then do:

hdiutil detach /dev/disk2

So, mounting is one command, fully ejecting is two.

Is this the only / correct way to eject this kind of volume from the command line? What I would like to be able to do is fully eject it with a single command. Is that possible?

Use the following command.

diskutil eject disk2

From the man pages for hdiutil, the following appears:

 detach dev_name [-force]
            detach a disk image and terminate any associated process.
            dev_name is a partial /dev node path (e.g. "disk1").  As of
            Mac OS X 10.4, dev_name can also be a mountpoint.  If Disk
            Arbitration is running, detach will use it to unmount any
            filesystems and detach the image.  If not, detach will attempt
            to unmount any filesystems and detach the image directly
            (using the `eject' ioctl).  If Disk Arbitration is not run-
            ning, it may be necessary to unmount the filesystems with
            umount(8) before detaching the image.  eject is a synonym for
            detach.  In common operation, detach is very similar to
            diskutil(8)'s eject.

            Options:
            -force   ignore open files on mounted volumes, etc.

So the documentation states you may need to unmount filesystems first. I assume this is what the hdiutil detach /Volumes/Untitled command did.

From the man pages for diskutil, the following appears:

 eject device
            Eject a disk.  Media will become offline for the purposes of
            being a data store for file systems or being a member of con-
            structs such as software RAID or direct data.  Additionally,
            removable media will become eligible for safe manual removal;
            automatically-removable media will begin its physical (motor-
            ized) eject sequence.

Here, there is no mention of having to run any other commands first.

  Note: For the diskutil eject disk2 command to work, the Untitled volume can not be in use.


What's happens to credit in the non-Organizer account when you turn on Family Sharing? I, my wife and my three kids all have apple devices and IDs. However, some of my kids have credit balances from gift cards.

If I turn on Apple Sharing, can those gift balances still be spent?

Yes. Gift balances are preserved.

In fact, I use a gift balance to avoid charging the family organizer for my primary Apple ID. I want to pay for my apps and be part of the family to share apps and calendars and reminders easily.

This lets me use my Credit Card to buy gift cards (usually at a substantial discount from Costco) and/or use Apple Pay and Passbook to load my store credit at Apple Retail Stores without needing a physical gift card at all.


How to specify that cover art for a video in iTunes should be a frame from a specific time in the video? When I add a movie or other video to iTunes, it appears that iTunes selects a video frame from somewhere near the beginning of the video file as the default cover art — and most of the time this is a terrible choice.

Many of the shows and movies in my collection have an opening sequence containing frames where a title is plainly shown (e.g. "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"), or at least there's some scene in the video which is distinct & identifiable, a scene I would clearly recognize when scrolling through my collection with the Cover Flow view.

I'd like to specify such a distinct frame, from an arbitrary point in a video, as a video's cover art.  I expected a slider somewhere to seek through a video and find just the right spot to use as cover, but I didn't find such functionality.

How does iTunes determine which frame to select for the cover art from a video?
Is there a way to tell iTunes to use a different video frame as the cover art?
Failing that, what is a good alternative?

Thank you.

The frame that's used is called the "Poster Frame". It looks like iTunes chooses a frame 10 seconds into the video by default.

To choose a specific frame as the cover art:

Start playing the video.
Pause the video on the frame you want to use.
Right-click on the video and choose "Set Poster Frame".


How to use keynote magic move with Connection Lines? When I use magic move with connetion lines, they disappear and reappear in the next slide.

It seems like magic move doesn't recognize the connection lines (or can't match them), so it just redraws them, instead of leaving them there.

I'm trying to use magic move to make a nice presentation that includes connection lines. How can I make without the lines disappearing every time something moves?

Turns out, according to several sources you can't do it. You would need to separate the lines (i.e. not use connection lines).


How can I set oh my zsh to be my default shell? I'm using Hyper as my terminal application and I just installed Oh My Zsh via curl. I'd like it to be my default shell environment but for some reason whenever I restart Hyper I have to run the zsh command to get to Oh My Zsh. Is this normal?

Oh My Zsh isn’t a shell.  It’s a set of ZSH shell customizations like creating a colorful and grphical prompt or autocompletion and even file selection.
If you have to run zsh to get the cusomizations, then you’re not in the ZSH shell; likely you’re in Bash.  You can check your current shell with the commands
$ echo $SHELL

or

$ echo $0

What you need to do is change your default shell.  You can do this in Terminal; issue the command:
$ chsh -s /bin/zsh

You can also do this via the GUI by going to System Preferences > Users & Groups Then, while holding Control click on the user you want to edit and click on Advanced Options.  In the “Login Shell” field, select the shell you want to use - /bin/zsh for for the ZSH shell.

A piece of friendly advice...  Oh My Zsh is a fun, colorful, and even productive add-on for Zsh that makes lots of changes and adds lots of scripts and functions to your Zsh environment.  I don’t recommend this for novices.  It’s always better to gain some experience in the shell environment and see how things work before installing things like this.


iOS 7: Unzipping zip files, natively I'm working on an iPad app and I need to be able to download and unzip a collection of images to display. Is this possible to do natively in iOS 7? iOS 6?

As far as I know, you need to use third-party tools like SSZipArchive or ZipArchive in order to work with zip files.

Using SSZipArchive, the line below would unzip a zip file:

[SSZipArchive unzipFileAtPath:path toDestination:destination];

Edit:

It turns out that in iOS 7, Apple added support to natively unzip files in iMessage and in the Mail app! Not sure if this is 100% related, but it might help. See this link for more info.


In macOS, is there a keyboard shortcut to move windows to other desktops? Mission Control allows for multiple desktop (spaces). Does there exist a keyboard shortcut for moving an application's window from one to another?

You can hold the window with your mouse and use the usual keyboard shortcuts to move the window across desktops.


IPFW: IP blocked, but still can get in I am using Fail2Ban to dynamically add rules to IPFW. The offending IP addresses are added into IPFW, but for some unknown reasons they can still get through to Apache and make requests.

Is it because the ordering is ruined? Should the dynamic rules >12407 be placed before 12304, 12305?

00001 allow udp from any 626 to any dst-port 626
01000 allow ip from any to any via lo0
…
12300 allow tcp from any to any established
12301 allow tcp from any to any out
12302 allow udp from any to any out keep-state
12303 allow udp from any to any in frag
12304 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 80
12305 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 443
12306 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 5113
12307 allow ip from 192.168.0.0/16 to any
12407 deny tcp from 94.23.148.61 to 192.168.1.3 dst-port 80,443
…
65535 allow ip from any to any

It is because rules are followed from top to bottom. As soon as the first matching rules is found, further rule processing stops.

In this case there is first the allow rule (12304 allow tcp from any to any dst-port 80) and later the deny rule (12407 deny tcp from 94.23.148.61 to 192.168.1.3 dst-port 80,443).

To fix this: either place the deny rule above the allow rule for port 80 and 442 (number < 12304) or place the allow rules for port 80 and 443 below the deny rules (f.e. at 65533 and 65534).


How can I increase my font sizes without decreasing my resolution? I have a 24" iMac at home which at the max resolution (1920 x 1200) is very comfortable for me to see my desktop and read text.

Now at work I have a 27" iMac with a max resolution of 2560 x 1440 which with my poor eyesight makes text extremely tiny and hard to read.

If I decrease my resolution to 1920 x 1080 it's back to being very easy to read, though it makes text in some instances (most notably in terminal) quite blurry and hard to read.

So, how can I increase font sizes for all applications without decreasing my resolution?

Apple doesn't have an option for you to do that. However, you can try TinkerTool. You can download it at no cost.

Screenshot taken from TinkerTool website.


Does "Secure Empty Trash" securely delete the hidden version files for documents in the Trash in OS X Lion? The new Versions feature in Lion creates hidden files that store old versions of the document you're working on in case you want to revert back to some older version of the document. If I drag a document to the Trash, then select Secure Empty Trash from the Finder menu, do the hidden version files get securely deleted along with the document?

I just tested this out, and it appears that the older files do indeed get deleted. It did not matter if I chose Secure Empty Trash or simply emptied the trash normally, they were also deleted.

A little more detail:

To test this, I enabled the root user to allow me to peer into /.DocumentRevisions-V100 and the files within. The exact structure of this folder and its contents are better explained over in John Siracusa's Lion review (Internals, Document Revisions).

I created a couple files, then made some changes, saving new versions. The folder that contained the revisions populated with new files as I saved new versions. Within this top level folder, there's a folder called PerUID, which houses subfolders for each user account. Each user account folder contains a series of numbered folders, one folder for each file that has revisions saved. Thus, the actual revisions are saved as files a few levels down in this hierarchy, with hashed filenames. Emptying the trash (either way) would delete these files, but the preceding folder structure would remain in place.

Before deleting:
/.DocumentRevisions-V100/PerUID/0/5/com.apple.revisions
This folder still has the previous versions contained within.

After deleting:
/.DocumentRevisions-V100/PerUID/0/5/com.apple.revisions
This folder still exists, but it is empty.

I did not inspect the other folders within /.DocumentRevisions-V100/, so I did not check the databases that are contained within them. Siracusa goes into more detail, but they seem to exist to contain databases to track changes and map the user's files to the revisions saved by the system. I'm fairly certain that no document contents are saved there, though I'm not sure about filenames, and if filenames are present, if they're hashed or not.


Restarting or resetting diplay and/or GPU without logging out or rebooting? I have a 2011 iMac 27" running Yosemite.

Is there a way to restart the monitor and/or GPU without rebooting the computer or logging off? Is there some sort of keyboard shortcut or keystroke?

I ask because sometimes my monitor freezes and displays greenish horizontal stripes. I suspect the rest of the computer is still operational (although I'm not certain of this), and I'd like to restart only the display.

Changing the resolution will reset the GPU.

I recommend the QuickRes app, since you can also set keyboard shortcuts.

Read more here http://www.macworld.com/article/2012693/mac-gems-quickres-helps-you-get-the-most-out-of-retina-displays.html


Open HTML files on Dropbox application On my computer I'm developing some simple front-end web pages made of typical structure:

HTML source code for structuring the elements;
CSS classes linked to the HTML;
JavaScript files linked to the HTML as well.

I put everything on a Dropbox folder and I'm so able to view all these files from my Dropbox application on the iPhone.

If I open the HTML files from there, I'm only able to see its basic HTML structure: no CSS is called, nor Javascript functions. Clearly because I'm not opening on a browser, but on a simple file viewer.

MY QUESTION: Is anyhow possible to open HTML files with a browser (such as Safari) from the iPhone so to be able to see the whole result (CSS, links and JavaScripts included)? I've already tried the "Open this file on..." function on Dropbox, but it doesn't show me Safari as an app that accepts that kind of file.

Thanks in advance.

If you try to accessing the files using the regular sharing feature the HTML file will fail to find it's linked CSS, JavaScript, etc files because of the way that Dropbox generates these sharing links.

However you should have a "Public" folder in your Dropbox. If you drop your files in there and select one you should see a "Copy public link..." option above the file list. If you use that, instead of the "Share" button then your HTML file should find it's linked files.


Two macs backing up to one Time Capsule, first Mac hogging all the space I have two Macs backing up to my 3 TB Time Capsule. One mac (250 GB disk) has 2 years of backups saved, the other (1 TB disk) cannot save because it needs 128 GB of space and there is only 25 GB available on the Time Capsule.

Both Macs were backing up successfully for about the last two years. It just seems that recently one has pushed the other out of the backup space.

I have already excluded all the folders I can to reduce the size of both Macs' backups.

Is there a way to reduce the first Mac's backup space so the other one can get at least 1 or 2 days of backup?

I have read about setting up partitions on the Time Capsule. But I am wondering if there is a way to get both macs to work together and share the space?

There is nothing stopping you from deleting some of the older backups, so long as you do it safely.  After all, you're not likely to need 2yrs worth of backups.

Follow these steps to safely delete backups:

Enter Time Machine (on the Mac whose backup you want to delete)
Go to the point in time you want to delete
Click on the cog icon in the Finder and choose 'Delete Backup' (depending on your version of OS X you may need to right-click in the finder window to choose 'Delete Backup')

By deleting backups this way you ensure that Time Machine keeps an accurate record of your backups and keeps your data safe.


Universal method to record calls via Bluetooth in OS X 10.6? I am a freelance journalist who needs to record calls for accuracy and legal reasons -- I inform every person I record that I am doing so, so *PLEASE* do *NOT* post asking about the legality of recording calls. Don't even mention it. I don't give a rip. I've sat through more lectures on this topic than you — trust me.

My phone runs Android 1.5, and all of the call recording software sucks. Like, it isn't even serviceable -- all calls are recorded via the internal microphone, resulting in one needing to use speakerphone to even hear the other side in recordings. Apparently my HTC Dream uses two different circuits for each side of the conversation, making full-duplex recording on the phone itself impossible.

Given the general crappiness of these apps, I've started to look for workarounds. One idea I had was to use my laptop as a Bluetooth handsfree device, then using a separate program like Audio Hijack to record audio. I've tried Phone Amego and BluePhoneElite2; Audio Hijack somehow receives no audio data when hijacking both (and both inexplicably have no recording function).

Is there a piece of software that is able to record audio from Bluetooth handsfree?

I don't even need a full Mac OS X telephony suite; ideally, I'd be able to use my phone as normal, but record the call via Bluetooth on my Macbook Pro.

Returning to this question several years later, it's still a pretty sad state of affairs. The only reliable answer is some sort of hardware solution.

In practice, this is what I ended up buying:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-TP-8-Telephone-Pick-Microphone/dp/B007OXMHDE/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1400147804&sr=8-11&keywords=voice+recorder+microphone

It works really well; you connect the jack to a voice recorder and put the earbud in your ear, which has a microphone and sits between your ear and the phone's speaker. The quality isn't bad (albeit not broadcast quality) and the ability to use an external voice recorder means I'm not having to deal with moving files off my phone or expend extra battery power on a recording app.

That said, this looks really interesting (Though I'm unsure whether you just connect it to your phone and use normally, or whether you connect some sort of hands-free headset to the other side):

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/05/12/15-quirky-gadgets-accessories-buy-today-2/2/

Considering the question is ultimately about finding a cheap or free software-based recording solution, I'll leave it open in case anyone comes up with something workable.


Will it be safe to jailbreak my iPhone 3Gs? Currently I have an 8 GB iPhone 3Gs (A1303). It has become slightly slower so I am wishing to jailbreak it. Will it be safe? If yes give me specific sites which will help me jailbreak it.

'Safe' is a broad term. If you keep a backup though, there's not much that can go wrong as you can always restore that backup. In addition, as there are no updates available for the 3Gs, you can safely restore to a jailbreakable version of iOS if anything goes wrong.

As the last version of iOS that can be installed on the iPhone 3Gs is iOS 6.1.6, this can be jailbroken using p0sixspwn. Download it, then follow the instructions.


How to unlock a Mac that's been locked with Apple Remote Desktop's "curtain" screen lock Apple Remote Desktop has a "curtain" feature that a remote client can use to lock the screen of the Mac that's being remotely controlled.  I use this when I connect to my work Mac from my home Mac.  My work Mac's screen shows a big lock icon and a message while I'm remotely controlling it from my home Mac using Apple Remote Desktop (ARD).

Unfortunately, there's a bug of some kind that causes the remote Mac's screen to stay locked, even after I've disconnected from it.  (Latest ARD and OS X 10.8.2 on both machines.) When this happens, I come in to work the next day to find the big lock icon and message on my Mac's screen.  Despite now being physically present in front of the Mac, I can't find a way to unlock the screen.

I usually try ssh-ing into the Mac from another machine and killing processes.  I've tried killing the ARDAgent process, the screen lock process (I can't recall the name), and anything else I can find with "ard" or "remote" in the process name.  None of these things seem to unlock the screen.  Eventually, I resort to using osascript -e ... to tell all my running applications to gracefully quit, then I run shutdown -r now to reboot the machine.

My question: is there a way to successfully unlock a Mac that's stuck on the ARD lock screen, using ssh or otherwise?

One way to reproduce this: Log in to the target Mac with Remote Desktop, initiate Curtain mode, and then after finishing whatever work was to be done, log out the user on the target Mac while still under Curtain mode. This will leave the Mac inaccessible to the Remote Desktop app and even a physical user of the computer, with the large lock icon still on the screen of the target Mac.

I'm not sure what I'm doing to trigger this situation, but I'm definitely not logging out.  Either way, it seems like the solution should be the same.

I don't have a Mac with ARD to test this, but this sunshine-ard utility suggests it can fix the problem. From a quick glance at the source code, it just sends a CFNotificationCenter message to quit the curtain mode.

I'm not sure if there's a way to hook in to the ARD logout process to have this run every time you disconnect your session, but at the very least you could run it via SSH as necessary.


Can't send messages with iPad Pro I am having trouble sending SMS messages using my iPad Pro. I can send a blue iMessage to another iPad user but that's it - no SMS.

Friends I regularly text using my iphone or iMac can't be reached using my iPad.
I'm using the same wireless network but it just wont work.
After I send a message almost immediately a red exclamation mark appears beside the message and a note in red that reads "Not Delivered".

If I click on red exclamation mark I just get a box the has "Try Again" message. Trying again just gives same result.

Does anyone know what I have failed to do that is maybe causing this?

I found my answer here. The basics of the answer is in these steps.

make sure you're signed into iMessage on your non-iPhone device.

Jump over to your iPhone and confirm you're signed into iMessage and iCloud with the same account here, too.

Still on your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding.

Flip the switch to enable it on one device at a time.

This worked fine for me.
Apple's relevant support articles on the differences between iMessage and SMS messages as well as the full steps to enable this (with screen shots) are here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207006
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201349


What, precisely, does "reset network settings" do on an iPhone? I use "internet sharing" on my Mac, but lately I've been having trouble connecting my iPhone 5 to the resulting WiFi network. I've read advice online to do Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings on the iPhone, but I can only find very vague information on what this actually does. From the name it sounds like a bit of a nuclear option, and before I try it I want to make sure that it's not going to affect my ability to use the cellular network.

So, does the iPhone's "reset network settings" just reset WiFi settings, or does it reset cellular network settings as well? If the latter, is there any danger that this would delete any settings installed by my phone company, causing problems with using internet or telephone services via the 3G or 4G networks?

According to this Apple support page,

  This will clear your current cellular and Wi-Fi network settings,
  including saved networks, Wi-Fi passwords, and VPN settings.

So, it will reset your network connection options, and it will affect internet connectivity, both GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G/4G and WiFi, but it shouldn't impact "classic" telephone services, because they are usually auto-configured by the carrier and do not require specific settings on the mobile phone.


WiFi keeps searching and icon issue I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) with MacOS Sierra.

My issue is that the WiFi keeps searching indefinitely, even when I'm stably connected to my home network. My house is quite isolated so my hotspot is the only one in range.

In addition the icons don't reflect the actual signal strength (when choosing the network), and the one in the top bar is constantly animated as if during the connection phase.

I have no idea how to solve this. What can I do?

EDIT: this is specific to this device, all the other devices I own have no issues connecting. Also I want to specify that connection is not the issue, meaning that I can browse internet just fine and even use ssh as if nothing was wrong.

WiFi Diagnostic tool highlights no issues with the connection (as expected as I'm not seeing any).

I performed all the operations listed in the Apple support page, which frankly seem supremely useless, and nothing changed.

If it's just the icon giving you issues, not the connection, then try removing the icon from the menu bar, restarting your machine, and then putting it back.

To remove the "Wifi Status" menu bar icon, drag it out of the menu bar while holding the command key.

Restart your machine. To put the icon back, go to System Preferences > Network > Show Wifi Status in Menu Bar.

If this doesn't work, then reset your Network interface, which will erase your previous configuration and set it back to default.


brew cask: howto uninstall an Application I tried, while I am in /opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom

$ for i in *; do brew cask uninstall $i; done
Error: appcleaner is not installed
Error: avidemux is not installed
Error: eclipse-ide is not installed
Error: flash is not installed
Error: silverlight is not installed
Error: thunderbird is not installed
Error: vlc is not installed

He uninstalled several apps, but those not. Why?

$ brew cask list
appcleaner    avidemux      eclipse-ide   flash     silverlight   thunderbird   vlc

$ pwd
/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom
$ ls
appcleaner  avidemux    eclipse-ide flash       silverlight thunderbird vlc
$ du -sh .
532M    .

Howto uninstall them properly? He didn't uninstall because updated without brew cask?

brew cask uninstall --force

This will remove all versions of a Cask.


Japanese system-wide spellchecker I am looking for a relatively easy solution for a Japanese spellchecker (not a Japanese dictionary for the Dictionary app) in High Sierra. I would prefer a link to a downloadable spelling dictionary (Japanese websites are okay).

If there are no ready to use Japanese spelling dictionaries, I would be glad if you could point me to a good step-by-step tutorial for making one.

P.S. I already acquainted myself with everything the official Apple website has to offer on the topic. I checked OpenOffice and LibreOffice for Japanese spelling dictionaries and could not find anything that I could make work. I also tried to look for a solution on Japanese and English websites but so far I did not have any luck.

And of course, I did not forget to make sure that my computer is plugged in, turned on, logged into my account, and connected to the internet. It is :).

If you have .dic and .aff files, just put them Library/Spelling or Home/Library/Spelling, making the folder if necessary.  Apple's instructions are in the setup area of system prefs/keyboard/text/spelling.

I have not seen such files for Japanese, but they may exist somewhere.  MS Word has Japanese Proofing Tools usable with that app.

Some info on how to make spellcheck dictionaries is here.

If you need reference and translation dictionaries, Apple provides those in the Dictionary App:


Can I get Genius Bar Support w/o Applecare/Warranty? If it is past my one-year warranty, or if I just don't have AppleCare, will I still be able to get Genius Bar support?

To what extent does that support cover? I'm trying to decide whether or not I should get AppleCare, as the price is quite steep. However, I think this laptop (Air) will stick with me for quite a while.

Furthermore, will Genius Bar cover Boot Camp issues? (Like, if I'm trying to install Windows 10)

Yes, you can. Without AppleCare, advice is free; quotes for repairs are free, but the actual repairs are not.

With AppleCare, you're covered for pretty much any repair, except when caused by you: e.g. LCD backlight fails? Repaired free. Dropped your MacBook and broke the screen? Not covered. You pay.


Are the OSX Mavericks tags visible from the command line? For example, suppose I have a directory structure such as

/Users
    /tlehman
        /Math
            algebraic_varieties.tex [tagged: Math, Documentation]
            projective_geometry.pdf [tagged: Math]
        /Development
            visualize_surfaces.py   [tagged: Math, Programming]
            solve_polynomials.scm   [tagged: Math]
    /guest
        /Desktop
            welcome.rtf             [tagged: Documentation]
/Volumes
    /USBKey
        assignments_for_may.txt     [tagged: Math]
        using_LaTeX.pdf             [tagged: Documentation]

From the command line, is there a way I can use ls (or something like it) to display all the files tagged as "Math"?

EDIT: I made a tool called tfind that does this: https://github.com/tlehman/bin/blob/master/tfind

Yes, you can find files that have a given user tag using mdfind.

Create a file and assign it a a custom tag in Finder.

Then go in a terminal; you will find it with:

mdfind "kMDItemUserTags == Math || kMDItemUserTags == Programming"

or

mdfind "kMDItemUserTags == Math && kMDItemUserTags == Programming"

See also -onlyin aFolder to restrict the search.

I didn't check how complex these boolean expressions can be, but these two examples work.

You can pipe the output to ls like this:

mdfind "kMDItemUserTags == mathTag || kMDItemUserTags == anotherTag" \
| while read f; do ls "$f"; md5 "$f"; done

Also, mdfind has an option "-0"

    -0                Use NUL (``\0'') as a path separator, for use with xargs -0.

which can be practical with nasty filenames.


How can I download my contacts with the latest LinkedIn application version? In the old (before version 4) LinkedIn application, there was a button to Download all connections to my iPhone.

In the latest (4.0.2) I cannot find that option.

How can I update (download) all my connections with the latest LinkedIn version?

Considering that their mobile app page doesn't show the current version, and the current version doesn't have this feature anywhere that I could find, I'm going to say that they have removed this feature.

Try using their feedback page to request this feature in v4.x, or an explanation as to why it was removed etc..


Adding the Print Document Option To The Right-Click Contextual Menu? In Windows it is possible to print a document on the desktop by right-clicking on it and choosing Print Document in the contextual menu that appears. By default this option is  unfortunately not given in OS X.

Is it therefore possible to create this option and therefore aid the printing of documents on a Mac ?

As suggested on this blog, you can use the following applescript :

tell application "Your Printer Name Here"
   activate
   print theFile without print dialog
   quit
end tell

To add it to the contextual menu, do as usual : Create a new automator service with this script.

Don't forget to select Service receives selected file and folders in the app you want (At least Finder but it can be from any app).


cannot execute binary file I have a simple binary file needs to be executed. So I opened terminal and navigate to the folder where the binary file is. Then I gave the command ./bclock and got the following error,

-bash: ./bclock: cannot execute binary file

After some research I though it has something to do with echo $PATH. Can someone help me out?

The two common problems are that the permissions are wrong or the file is somehow corrupt.

You can add execute permission (or list them) with the two commands:

chmod a+x ./bclock
ls -l ./bclock

You can check the file format as well to see if it's really executable or if it's a script or other type.

file ./bclock


Batch rename files based on folder name I'm looking to rename a large number of files based on the folder name in which the file resides.  Most folders only contain one file (usually a PDF but could be Word or other files) and I am looking to only change the file base name and not the extension.

Current folders:

Preferred outcome:

Note: It's unlikely that there will be two of the same file types in a folder.  I'm keen to avoid sequential numbering to all files but if there is a way of adding sequential numbering only in the event of two or more of the same file types then that would be great (although not essential).

I've had a look at Automator but I'm a novice.

I’ve been using the very powerful paid app A Better Finder Rename for many years for complex file and folder renaming needs. Perhaps this app will help. I think it has a free trial period, too.

You can find it here.

Disclaimer: I’m an extremely satisfied user. No financial or other connection to PublicSpace.net.


Problems with apache after update of php and mysql using homebrew I am hoping someone here can assist me.

I upgraded php and related files using brew upgrade on my mac which is running Mac OS X 10.8.3. Everything was working fine before and I just wanted to update.

After I ensured that everything was fine as regards config files and vhosts I issued the following command to restart apache:

sudo apachectl restart

I then tried to connect to http://localhost/phpinfo.php

Safari errored out with:

Safari can’t open the page “http://localhost/phpinfo.php” because Safari can’t connect to the server “localhost”.

in the terminal, issuing the following command:

apachectl -V | grep httpd.conf

results in:

-D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"

Server root is:

ServerRoot "/usr"

and Document Root is:

DocumentRoot "/Volumes/sites"

DocumentRoot has permissions set to 755

As I said, everything was working fine until I restarted apache.

Now, nothing works.

I am completely lost, and I need to get things working again.

OK, so I found the culprit.

It is amazing that no error message was visible in console or in the error logs, but I found a site which helped me a lot.

http://blog.joshdick.net/2012/07/28/troubleshooting_apache_in_os_x_10.8_mountain_lion.html

In that post, the author, Josh, suggested restarting apache using the following command:

sudo bash -x /usr/sbin/apachectl -k start

This command provides some error information, and overcomes the frustrating silent termination of Apache.

When I issued the command, it gave me the following output:

$ sudo bash -x /usr/sbin/apachectl -k start
+ ARGV='-k start'
+ HTTPD=/usr/sbin/httpd
+ test -f /usr/sbin/envvars
+ . /usr/sbin/envvars
++ DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib:
++ export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
+ LYNX='lynx -dump'
+ STATUSURL=http://localhost:80/server-status
+ ULIMIT_MAX_FILES=
+ LAUNCHCTL=/bin/launchctl
+ LAUNCHD_JOB=/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist
+ '[' x '!=' x ']'
+ ERROR=0
+ '[' 'x-k start' = x ']'
+ case $ARGV in
+ /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
httpd: Syntax error on line 118 of /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf: Cannot load /usr/local/Cellar/php54/5.4.11/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so into server: dlopen(/usr/local/Cellar/php54/5.4.11/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so, 10): Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/zlib/lib/libz.so.1.2.7\n  Referenced from: /usr/local/Cellar/php54/5.4.11/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so\n  Reason: image not found
+ ERROR=1
+ exit 1

At the end of that snippet, you can see that it is trying and failing to load /usr/local/Cellar/php54/5.4.11/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

Well, when I upgraded my homebrew installs, php5 was upgraded to 5.4.15, so that path was no longer valid. (Actually, the path was valid, since php was now at 5.4.15, and the path pointed to the older 5.4.11 lib, apache was terminating.

Modifying that line in https.conf solved the issue.


Pdf viewer in Mac with `fit content' I am desperately looking for a Pdf viewer which can show the pdf without any margins, that would help me a lot in viewing two pdfs simultaneously.

Thanks.

Cropping the page could work for you.

  So, open up whatever PDF you want to crop in Preview. Hit the Select button in the toolbar and crop the first page as you want all the selected pages to be cropped. The cropping tool works just like any crop tool in your average photo editing software. Then, in the sidebar on the right, select a thumbnail of any page (make sure the sidebar is in thumbnail view and not Table of Contents or Annotations view). Now check to be sure that the crop size is what you want to be applied to all the pages you select, then hit Select All, and go to Tools » Crop or hit Command-K.

Here is the link how to crop all pages within a pdf.

Uncrop see here


iPhone music no longer synced with PC My iPhone syncs with my PC. The music from my PC syncs - or rather, did - with my iPhone. It doesn't now.

Actions I took that probably caused this:

I transferred music from 3 CDs to my laptop
Deleted the music on my phone
Synced the phone with my laptop and got the music (copied from the CD to laptop) on my phone.
Attached iPhone to PC and synced. Apps and Outlook synch okay, but not the music. The music on my phone remains only as per the synch with the laptop.

Is there a way I can get the music from my PC (ticked choices in iTunes list) back onto my iPhone and keep the stuff already on it?

You may want to check out some of the suggestions from this Apple.SE question. Basically, make the music libraries of your two computers (PC and laptop) available to your iPhone via either:

iTunes Home Sharing
iCloud (if your library isn't too large OR you don't mind paying)

This article also suggests iTunes Match as an option.

Another alternative is to merge the music libraries from your two computers:

Copy the music from one machine to the other that your phone is currently syncing with
Copy the music from your iPhone to a computer - see this Lifehacker article for suggestions for several platforms (Windows, OS X, Linux)

Lastly, you can manually manage your music on the iPhone, which prevents a sync altogether and allows you to drop music in from multiple computers. This Apple Support article explains it in detail.


Can the 12-inch macbook charge from USB-A? While it's nice to have a laptop that can charge over a standard cable, USB-C is not yet ubiquitous. USB-A is: you can be sure that whatever hotel room or office you visit, you will find a place to plug in your USB-A charging cable.

If I buy a USB-A to USB-C cable, will it allow me to charge my 12 inch macbook (however slowly)? Is it safe to try?

Can a Macbook charge it's batteries from a USB-A charger (car or wall) or battery pack?

It depends, but yes, it should work.  The charging performance may vary from it charges very slowly to not at all.

"Type A" is the connector type; it has nothing to do with how much power is being delivered.  What you need is a power adapter that is compliant to USB 3.1 specifications.  It just so happens that to connect it to your MacBook, you need a "Type C" connector.

Would I recommend you doing this?  Absolutely not.

Important Note:  Plugging into a power source that is significantly lower than what is required by your device can and will damage your equipment.

Why?

First, we need to know what the power requirements are to power the Macbook; per Apple, it requires a 29W USB-C Power Adapter (see below).

Generally speaking, the USB Type A adapters most people are familiar with are those that charge their iDevices.  These are based on USB 2.0 at best and according to the specifications, they are limited to 5V 1.5A.

That means, those chargers are limited to 7.5W. (Watts = Volts * Amps) 7.5W  is nowhere enough to power your Macbook.

If you notice in the above USB 3.0 pin out diagram, there is only 1 5V (VCC) pin (this is important in understanding USB 3.1 further down).

The USB 3.1 is the specification that says it will support up to 20V at 5A.  Using the same equation from above we get a specification that is capable of handling up to 100W so there's enough power "bandwidth" to charge your Macbook.  But that's using a special communications protocol over a USB-C cable.

20V * 5A = 100W

However, the basic spec is still the same, 5V but now at 3A and there are two 5 volt pins as opposed to only one for USB 3.0 and earlier.  This means combined you can get 10V.

If you notice in this pin out diagram there are two 5V pins (Vbus).  These are combined to make 10V.

Note:   There are some USB 3.1 Type A adapters out in the wild, but they are so few and far between I wasn't able to find a schematic for the pinouts.  I am using Type C since these are the most common.

So using our trusty equation again,

(2x 5V) * 3A = 10V * 3A = 30W

30W is within spec of charging your Macbook.

But what about the cable?  Plugging in a USB 3.1 (A to C) into a non-USB 3.1 power adapter will not fix the problem.  The adapter is only providing 5 volts on one pin, not on two that's required to get the appropriate amount of current.


How can I set a link to my gym so that siri can find it I want to set a reminder like "remember me to change dress when I am at the gym".
Siri answers "I do not know your gym. Touch your name to add the gym to your record".

I could not find a way to do that. Using a custom label did not work, nor when I used the label "others".

Siri works fine when i say "remember me to ... when i am at Jane Doe".

Create a contact entry for your gym with phone number, website, and address. You can put the name of the gym in the company field and then you can create a nickname that just says "Gym"... problem is that Gym and Jim sound alike.

What I now tried was setting up a new address to my person vCard with a custom tag. I have gym now as a customer address on my card and why I say "Get to directions to gym" it worked.

With having the gym as a separate contact entry, does it work when you say the Gym's name?


I just got an "Infection Blocked" alert from Avast when I went to the Macworld site - 8:40 pm eastern timeAug 2nd From a macworld URL ending in . . . ads/prebid.min.js.

Is this something to be worried about? Should this be reported to someone?

Prebid is a program on the server that serves the site, it is used to setup and manage header bidding advertising partners without writing code or confusing line items. For more on the project, see https://github.com/prebid/Prebid.js — basically, if there are ads on the site, it’s trying to block them from being interactive.


AirPods losing significant volume I'm a heavy user of the AirPods 1st Generation, probably using them for 6–10 hours daily. Currently, my left AirPod has gradually, but also quite dramatically, lost its volume capacity over the course of a couple of weeks.
It would be vital for you to know, that this is not the first time this has happened. I have been an AirPods owner for about 1.5 years, but during that time this problem has occurred with both my Left and Right AirPods multiple times at different occasions. I have been able to get replacement units from Apple as the decreases in volume has been significant. I believe my current Left AirPod is the fourth unit I've owned which exhibits this problem.
I need to pan the audio in the system to achieve a rough L–R equilibrium. Currently, I need to pan the volume 50% Left from the Middle, which indicates a 50% volume loss.
While the deterioration has been slightly gradual, it may also occur dramatically and suddenly. In fact, two times (with different units) the volume capacity has gone jumped from unnoticeable to about 20% loss and then almost 50% loss over the course of a week or two. This would suggest to me that it's not due to earwax buildup, but something technical, but I'm not sure.
I have tried the AirPods on multiple systems, so I know it's something relating to the unit and not the OS. I have tried cleaning them quite routinely, even by following this suggestion to suck on it to remove potentially clogging earwax from the behind the membrane. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to help.
Does anyone know what the problem can be, and how to fix it? If it's likely due to dirt, is there a sure-fire effective way to clean them? For equipment at this price, it doesn't feel satisfactory that they lose significant volume over time.

Update regarding AirPods Pro: I now own the AirPods 1st Generation, and also since six months back the AirPods Pro. The problem of suddenly and significantly losing volume – as described above – has been delimited to only the 1st Generation AirPods so far, and this has happened at least with 3–4 pairs of these 1st Generation AirPods that I have replaced thanks to the multi-year consumer protection laws in my country. They have failed every six months or so.
The AirPods Pro have not exhibited the problem of suddenly losing significant volume, after six months of usage. Apple may have resolved the issue, but it remains to be seen. However, the AirPods Pro does lose volume gradually due to continual use, despite cleaning. Max volume is perhaps 20–30% less than upon purchase. I would recommend people to replace their AirPods after the damage becomes significant enough, because I view gradual loss of volume as a product failure.

If you are close to an Apple store, I would take them in for a factory reset / genius bar. See if they have any suggestions on monitoring. Unless you could use an otoscope or camera to show the ports clogged with ear wax - the total sound pressure can't be affected by some minor amount of cruft.

Also - in that setting you can close your eyes and have the tehnician move the balance and you can tell them when to stop the pan. If you're accurately hearing the sound output, it should be clear to everyone that you're carefully calibrated your ears and you are getting a different stereo mix when you use the same iPhone with wired headset and AirPods.

At that point, I would expect them to offer a full reset procedure and then a replacement set to be sure yours are not defective. At that point, once they are sure you're not getting proper volume, they might want to do an engineering capture / get you brand new set and/or refund your money.

I don't doubt you're getting poor volume and if you can get the support staff on your side - they might even fix the bug for us all. Sorry it's on you to prove it's hardware - but I had to go in to learn the reset procedure and a factory reset on AirPods was something you want on the service record if you want to get a paid swap / refund since it did solve volume and sound quality issues for me on one pair of AirPods.

Since I do live close to stores, I wouldn't do any cleaning other than what Apple says - and I request staff to instruct me how to clean it - possibly pointing out the cleaning KB and I'll review with them what force is safe from canned air, vacuum, etc... I wouldn't even go down the path of "suck on it” since the force from the suction could probably unhinge / break many headphone speakers unless they were internally vented in a very clever manner. (AirPods may in fact be, but I'm sticking with Apple on how to clean / maintain these.)


iMac with Mavericks sometimes won't sleep My mid 2012 iMac 27" with Mavericks sometimes won't sleep. Its screen is light up in the morning and I'm still logged in.
Energy settings:

pmset shows:

Last login: Wed Jan 22 23:08:58 on ttys000
renes-imac:~ rene$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 hibernatemode        0
 halfdim              1
 womp                 1
 networkoversleep     0
 sleep                20 (sleep prevented by coreaudiod, backupd, backupd)
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 autorestart          0
 disksleep            10
 displaysleep         15

I am running Windows 8.1 in Parallels 9. But that's always running. So I doubt it's Windows fault. Is there anything I can do to analyze why it did not sleep?

backupd is most of Time Machine. I think your computer is constantly backing up over a slowish network link such as WiFi.

I suspect that you have a large amount of file changes every day. Is the Windows image you are running in in Parallels being backed up? That could do it? Go into System Preferences > Time Machine and click on Options...

This will allow you to exclude your image files from Time Machine.

If that doesn't work turn off Time Machine for a couple of days and see if the computer sleeps.


Multi-color Safari Pinned Tab Favicon How do I make my Safari Pinned Tab Favicon multi-colored like Pandora has?
My logo and favicon are three colors.
I followed this tutorial to get the red svg I currently have, but it's a few years old.

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/pinnedTabs/pinnedTabs.html

Thanks!

Jason

Today I rebooted my iMac and when I opened Safari, the pinned tab icons are now multi-colored. It looks like Safari is now pulling the .ico file that the other browsers are pulling. Problem solved.


iPhone 4S Home Button Flush I've noticed over the last couple of weeks (to month) that the home button on my black 4S is becoming depressed relative to the case - only a very small amount but it now lacks the feedback it had when new.

Having looked at my housemate's 4S of the same age and probably slightly worse care, his is still perfectly flush. Is this normal / is the button on mine defective? I'm aware that I am probably being over-careful, but on my old i4 the home button gave up entirely after 14 months.

The fastest way to get a quick read would be to take it into any of the retail stores. You could check with 4 or 5 floor models and something like that is pretty easy to feel by setting a few phones down on the table and getting two or three people to compare them.

It's likely something small is stuck inside the switch area (like a grain of sand or smaller) or the spring got physically depressed more than it should.

You might get it swapped if the feel of the button is different or at least get it seen at the bar and have the genius write it up so there is a history of it not feeling perfect on the service record. (just in case you want to call in for a repair later over the phone)


How to change shortcut used for temporary zoom (accessibility feature)? I have a particular application that has extremely small detail for some of its controls, and no way to zoom anything larger.  I find that the accessibility feature "temporary zoom" works great for allowing me to just momentarily pop a magnifying glass up to see the detail, then let go of the keys to go back to normal.

The problem is that I can't also interact with anything while the magnifier is up, because the shortcut for Temporary Zoom is ⌃ ctrl+⌥ option and does not appear to be able to be changed.  So whenever I click, I get a context menu instead of interacting with the underlying control.

Is there any way to map the Temporary Zoom shortcut, to something other than using ⌃ ctrl ?

I found a limited solution:
Install free BetterTouchTool from http://blog.boastr.net
Go to Gestures/Normal Mice, click Add New Button, set Left Click, check ctrl and option modifiers.
At right, choose Predefined Action called Mouse Click Actions / More Mouse Buttons & Modifiers, and simply choose Left Mouse Button (see attached image). Save, close the BTT window, and try left-clicking. Unfortunately clicking is the only thing you can do, for example you can't click+drag (at least it didn't work for me).


How to print to a Ricoh Aficio printer requiring authentication? I'm trying to configure a lab of OS X workstations to print to a Ricoh Aficio MP C5000.  The Aficio is configured to require user authentication (a 4-digit passcode) in order to print.

In Mac OS X System Preferences, I've created a printer (LPD connection to the Aficio's IP address).  When I print to it, OS X thinks the print job has completed successfully.

The job shows up on the Aficio, but immediately has status "Cancelled", with the error log message "You do not have a privilege to use this function.  This job has been cancelled".

How can I tell OS X to authenticate before sending the print job?  (I don't see any field for entering the passcode in the OS X printer settings.)

I've already tried:

Setting the "User ID" under "Job Log" in the Mac print dialog.
Setting the "User Code" under "Job Log" in the Mac print dialog.
Setting it up as a Windows printer but OS X is unable to connect to the Aficio using this protocol.
Using the Gutenprint driver but that makes no difference.
Using IPP instead of LPD, but that makes no difference.
All of the above on both Lion and Mountain Lion; neither works.

User codes are setup via either WIM (using the machines IP address in a browser on same network) or on the device itself it is called User code Authentication.

Now you can assign a prompt for a suer code on all services (Aside from printing as this is handled by pacing the code into the 'Valid access' tab on the driver.

On newer models you can edit the driver to force a prompt on the driver to access the user code.

To enable user code auth. see the following:

User Tools/123 key --> System Settings --> Administrator Tools --> Next --> User Code Authentication.

Select User Code Auth.

Select the options in which you require a user code to authenticate.

Press Ok.

Now you need to add a user code, select the previous key.

Address book management --> New Program --> Add a name --> Select the Auth info. tab --> Apply a user code.


A headless Mac Mini server gets stuck (non-SSH-able) after rebooting (macOS Mojave) When I reboot a headless Mac Mini server running macOS Mojave with sudo reboot, it becomes non-ssh-able. The same happens if a "fake monitor" HDMI display emulator is plugged in. This happens consistently with multiple Mac Mini machines. Interestingly, a "hard reboot" (holding the power button until the machine switches off, and then turning it on again) allows the host to come back online, even without plugging in a monitor.

Also, this issue does not happen if a real monitor is plugged in -- in this case the machine reboots fine and comes back online.

The obvious thing to check is if you have FileVault enabled and attach a display simulator dongle. In the FileVault case, the machine does not restart to the OS but to a firmware / limited log in screen, but having a display connected won’t enable/disable FileVault.

You will want to have a remote KVM or someone that can log in for unexpected power failures. See this thread for a lot more options like power, display and management options for headless Macs.

Remote into Mac Mini after a reboot
Rebooting a headless Mac Mini


Sharing PDF with comments from IPad I have a PDF file in my IPad and I want to send it to a colleague. Unfortunately, when I tried to send it he does not receive the comments, even if I put (Share flattened copy)

How can I do it? What are the common problems that I might be having?

I don't work for the company or anything but this company/platform seem to be becoming a standard for this kind of thing

https://pdfexpert.com

In the Apple universe you could try and open the document in Pages, modify it, then share your changes online with the latest iCloud/iWork sharing features.


Why are past purchases no longer showing after I change country of my Apple ID? Recently I've changed the country in my Apple ID account. While everything else is fine there's an issue with my purchases. All Apps that were purchased before the change don't appear in Purchased section of App Store and in the list of available updates as well. However the updates count budge in iTunes shows a dozens of updates available but after being pressed there are only apps purchased after the change had been made in the list.

I tried to delete the apps from library and re-purchase them but with no success. I got them for free as I should but the problem hasn't gone.
Is there any solution?

This is by design.

A developer lists an app for one or more markets and when you lose past purchases, that indicates that that app was available in the old market and no longer is available in the new market.

Have a look on the site, there are several threads on people deciding to switch countries or keep an old account.

One is simpler and potentially costs more, the other costs more time, but you keep access to all purchases, past, present and future on two accounts.

I want to change the country on my app store account and I am having some problems?
Restoring past purchases from different country
Do I need to repurchase apps if I moved countries?

Also - the related section to the right should have several more likely threads to help.


iPhone 4 - bad proximity sensor? I think the proximity sensor in my iPhone 4 is out of order.

Nearly every time when I use the phone to place/receive calls, suddenly the mic mutes itself, or the speakerphone turns on, or a call starts on the second line -- but I am not doing this! I am merely holding the phone up to my ear (in a quite normal way). This was never a problem on my iPhone 3G.

It seems to me that the proximity sensor isn't sensitive enough and turns on the touch screen sometimes. I've heard that there used to be problems with that back on iOS 3, but I've been running 4.1 since it came out and the problem remains.

Is there any way to check if my suspicion is right?
Can I do something to fix this myself? Is there a fix in iOS 4.2.1?
Do I have to go to an Apple shop and wait phonelessly for weeks while they send it to the factory?
Note: I'm in Austria, we don't have Apple Stores.

I feel forced to use the headset in order to avoid these problems. While that has some advantages, it's not always practical, and anyway I want this fixed. Here is just one of the stories about this; so I think I'm not alone.

<rant>It's a #¤%! expensive phone and it better work.... I'm asking here rather than the Apple support site though because that other site has so few answers but page after page full of screaming people.

The proximity sensor was fixed in iOS 4.2.1, and people in Apple Support forums confirm it works.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12630060


I can no longer edit my iPhone's playlists My playlists on my iPhone are no longer showing the edit button at the top. Is there a setting for this or anything to get them back?

I just answered my own question.  I didn't realize that the list I was trying to edit was a Smart Playlist, which of course assembles lists based on the criteria you set up.  The only way to edit these lists is to change the criteria by which songs are included or modify the songs' information.  My regular playlists have the proper Edit buttons.


QuickTime X Applescript (Copying this from Stack Overflow, because this might be a better place to ask)

Looking for help (really to do) with a script/automator action for opening a files in QT X and using the export 720p command. I do not want to use the encode feature built into the finder. Using the "export" feature in QT X with the files I'm working does the trick and does not re-encode the files. I tried using automator but there is no "export" action only "encode" which re-encodes the files.

I see the command in the dictionary but can't seem to make it work.

I've started with this but I keep getting a permissions problem. A guy on Stack Overflow has noted the same problem.

tell application "Finder"
set savePath to "Macintosh HD:Users:WBTVPOST:Desktop"
end tell

tell application "QuickTime Player"
activate
tell application "QuickTime Player" to get the name of front window
set vidName to name
export (document 1) in savePath using settings preset "720p"
end tell

I've seen a lot of scripting help but mostly for QT 7 and Pro. Not so much for X

Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for your talent and skill,

Cheers!

tell application "QuickTime Player"
    set movieName to the name of the front document
    set savePath to a reference to POSIX file ¬
        ("/Users/WBTVPOST/Desktop/" & movieName & ".mov")
    export the front document in savePath using settings preset "720p"
end tell

System info: AppleScript version: 2.7  System version: 10.13.6

PS.  User @wowfunhappy is absolutely correct in saying that the export command does re-encode a file.  It has to in order to apply whatever settings are contained within the preset.


What is a organizational device considered to be? Would this be a device that is a organizational device because you get it from work? Or because of who makes the device? What is a organizational device. How can I find out.

In the context of MDM (Mobile Device Management), an "organizational device" is a device (mobile phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) that is owned and controlled by the organization (usually a company, school, etc.) that has legal ownership of it.

The alternative is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) where the end user brings their personal device to access the organization's IT resources (i.e. email, calendar, shared files, etc.)


PostgreSQL in OS X Lion There's be mention made of the fact that OS X Lion Server ships with PostgreSQL as it's standard database rather than MySQL.
Can anyone confirm:

It this specific to server or does OS X Lion "client" ship with it too?
I can see indications in the file system on my Mac that it might be
included but don't know whether they're the result of a previous
aborted Postgres install I did on my machine pre-Lion or just some
form of standardisation of directory structures that stops short of
an actual install.

Is this intended for use as an end user database or is it just supporting functionality within the OS?

On OS X Lion "client", here's what you can find:

martin$ find /usr/ -name postgre*
/usr//include/postgres_ext.h
/usr//include/postgresql
/usr//include/postgresql/internal/postgres_fe.h
/usr//include/postgresql/server/postgres.h
/usr//include/postgresql/server/postgres_ext.h
/usr//include/postgresql/server/postgres_fe.h
/usr//lib/postgresql
/usr//share/devicemgr/backend/vendor/rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb
/usr//share/devicemgr/backend/vendor/rails/railties/configs/databases/postgresql.yml
/usr//share/devicemgr/webserver/gems/gems/eventmachine-0.12.10/lib/em/protocols/postgres3.rb
/usr//share/man/man1/postgres.1.gz
/usr//share/postgresql
/usr//share/postgresql/postgres.bki
/usr//share/postgresql/postgres.description
/usr//share/postgresql/postgres.shdescription
/usr//share/postgresql/postgresql.conf.sample

So no binary or similar on a default install (yet there are c/c++ headers) and rails stuff.  (note I have Xcode 4.1 installed, and this is where all these Header files may have come from).

2) OS X doesn't use a relational database for anything as far as I know. If it's there is to support development or, well, the service itself.


Problem downloading software for the iPhone. Unknown error 1671 I have an iPhone on which I can't log in anymore. Too many failed passcode attempts. Now I want to wipe it with iTunes on my MacBook Pro. But iTunes is failing with

  There was a problem downloading the software for the iPhone "iPhone". An unknown error occurred (1671).

I have the latest iTunes.

What can I try next except for heading to a phone shop?

If you have a poor connection for whatever reason & the download keeps failing, then you can separate the two tasks, Download from Restore, by manually fetching the ipsw file from Apple's servers.

The links are all maintained on https://ipsw.me/signed - the actual files come directly from Apple & so are safe to download, the site merely lists the direct download locations.

If you are uncertain as to the correct file to download, then check the name against your previous ipsw file, which iTunes should have stored at
~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/
with a file name, for example of iPhone8,1_9.3.2_13F69_Restore.ipsw
...then you look for the v9.3.2 of that particular device on ipsw.me [assuming your device is new enough to support iOS 9]

You then copy your new ipsw file to the same location as your old one, erase the old & go for the restore again. It will find the correct file & work from that.


Applescript Crashing on Infinite Loop I am trying to use applescript to wait for a Serial keyword (in Screen - in Terminal), and then pausePlay Spotify when the keyword is seen.  It works fine at first, but then quickly crashes.  Can someone please let me know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

I am sorry, but I can't seem to get the Applescript code to format properly here...
Here is the Applescript code:

tell application "Terminal"
    set the bounds of window 1 to {0, 0, 500, 100}
end tell

set trigger to 1

set stopString to ""

repeat until (stopString = "stop")

    tell application "Terminal"

        if the contents of window 1 contains "Start MP3" and trigger is 1 then
            tell application "Spotify" to playpause
            set trigger to 0
        end if

        if the contents of window 1 does not contain "Start MP3" then
            set trigger to 1
        end if

        if the contents of window 1 contains "Stop Loop" then
            set stopString to "stop"
        end if

    end tell
end repeat

Like all while/do (Applescript repeat) loops, you must ensure a condition is met for it to exit.

How do you ensure that a condition will be met and not go on infinitely?  From what I can tell you have a window that can contain "Start MP3" or "Stop Loop."  What if it contains "I love balloons" or is blank?

You haven't created any logic for this (error trapping) so this loop will repeat until the window meets the condition to stop.

To prevent that you to put in a fail safe that sets the condition that stops the loop.  You can do this  by adding a counter and checking the counter against a predetermined value that will force condition that stops the loop to become true.

For example, we set a limit that the loop will run 10 times:

set count to 0

repeat until (stopString = "stop")

    ...

    if count > 10 then
        set stopString to "stop"
    end if

    set count to count + 1

end repeat


How to disable the built-in MacBook keyboard? Is it possible to completely disable the built-in keyboard on a MacBook? No input should be possible from that keyboard when I connect an external keyboard. This is sort of possible with the trackpad and the mouse, is there an option (or indeed a hack!) to do the same with the built-in hardware?

Install Karabiner

Choose your external keyboards on Devices > Advanced.

Check the corresponding box

Source


How can I have 1805 threads when I only have 4 virtual CPUs? I was wondering if someone could explain to me how in my Activity Monitor it says that I currently have 1805 threads

But I only have 4 virtual cores on my computer (which means that I should only be able to have 4 threads). Does the thread count mean all the threads that are being handled by the CPUs when they are deciding which thread to execute?

EDIT: The reason I think that there can only be 4 threads on my machine comes from this answer. I believe that my misunderstanding stems from the word 'thread' being used in a different context.

Scheduling

Your 1,805 threads do not run simultaneously. They trade off. One core runs a bit of the thread, then sets it aside to execute a bit of another thread. The other cores do the same. Round and round, threads execute a little bit at a time, not all at once.

A major responsibility of the operating system (Darwin and macOS) is the scheduling of which thread is to be executed on which core for how long.

Many threads have no work to do, and so are left dormant and unscheduled. Likewise, many threads may be waiting on some resource such as data to be retrieved from storage, or a network connection to be completed, or data to be loaded from a database. With almost nothing to do but check the status of the awaited resource, such threads are scheduled quite briefly if at all.

The app programmer can assist this scheduling operation by sleeping her thread for a certain amount of time when she knows the wait for the external resource will take some time. And if running a “tight” loop that is CPU-intensive with no cause to wait on external resources, the programmer can insert a call to volunteer to be set aside briefly so as to not hog the core and thereby allow other threads to execute.

For more detail, see the Wikipedia page for multithreading.

Simultaneous Multi-Threading

As for your linked Question, threads there are indeed the same as here.

One issue there is the overhead cost of switching between threads when scheduled by the OS. There is a significant cost in time to unload the current thread’s instructions and data from the core and then load next scheduled thread ’s instructions and data. Part of the operating system’s job is to try to be smart in scheduling the threads as to optimize around this overhead cost.

Some CPU makers have developed technology to cut this time so as to make switching between a pair of threads much faster. Intel calls their technology Hyper-Threading. Known generically as simultaneous multi-threading (SMT).

While the pair of threads does not actually execute simultaneously, the switching is so smooth and fast that both threads appear to be virtually simultaneous. This works so well that the each core presents itself as a pair of virtual cores to the OS. So a SMT enabled CPU with four physical cores, for example, will present itself to the OS as an eight-core CPU.

Despite this optimization, there is still some overhead to switching between such virtual cores. Too many CPU-intensive threads all clamoring for execution time to be scheduled on a core can make the system inefficient, with no one thread getting much work done. Like three balls on a playground being shared between nine kids, versus sharing between nine hundred kids where no one kid really gets any serious playtime with a ball.

So there is an option in the CPU firmware where a sysadmin can throw a switch on the machine to disable SMT if she decides it would benefit her users running an app that is unusually CPU-bound with very few opportunities for pausing.

In such a case we come back to your original Question: In this special situation you would indeed want to constrain the operations to have no more of these hyper-active threads than you have physical cores. But let me repeat: this is an extremely unusual situation that might occur in something like a specialized scientific data-crunching project but would almost never apply to common business/corporate/enterprise scenarios.


'Build' is not displayed in iTunes Connect using Xcode 8 I also get the same problem while uploading my build to the app store via Xcode 8. After uploading successfully from Xcode, I login to iTunes connect and see that it shows as Processing. After a little while it disappears. I've tried multiple times but have never been able to make it visible.

I emailed Apple Support and they only say that my build contains an error and they ask me to check my build settings again. But, If there is any error there, shouldn't it at least be showing something for me to know?

How have others resolved this issue?

Please check your email inbox. This may be the issue:

  Dear developer,

  We have discovered one or more issues with your recent delivery for "App Name". To process your delivery, the following issues must be corrected:

  Missing required icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPad of exactly '76x76' pixels, in .png format for iOS versions >= 7.0.
  Missing required icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPad of exactly '167x167' pixels, in .png format for iOS versions supporting iPad Pro.
  Missing required icon file - The bundle does not contain an app icon for iPad of exactly '152x152' pixels, in .png format for iOS versions >= 7.0.

  Once these issues have been corrected, you can then redeliver the corrected binary.


How can I use T-Mobile unlocked iPhone with different service provider? I just bought a free contract iPhone 6 with T-Mobile SIM card. I want to use the iPhone with another service provider but i'm worried. Should I plug the device and initialize it on iTunes first or can I simply change the SIM card before turning it on?

If it's unlocked, you don't need to activate it first. Simply switch out the T-Mobile SIM card and insert any SIM from a GSM carrier (basically anything but Sprint or Verizon in the US) and the device should work.

If you are curious, you can open the settings app and tap General, tap About then tap Carrier to update the carrier settings for the new carrier OTA. You can update carrier settings over USB with iTunes as well.


iTunes local backup of iOS device: can't disable encryption I have a strange problem with iTunes local backup of an iOS device (an iPod, in this case).

I know I've backed up the iPod to my computer before, but iTunes states, "Latest Backup: Your iPod has never been backed up to this computer."  The last local backup was a long time ago, under older versions of iTunes and OS X.  Maybe the current version of iTunes doesn't entirely recognize the old settings.

The iPod's backup settings in iTunes had "iCloud" selected.  I know whatever backup is in iCloud is very old and incomplete, since I didn't have space there to complete the backup.  Although "iCloud" was selected, the "Encrypt local backup" option is checked under "This computer" (which wasn't selected).

I want to change to local backup, but I don't remember what password I might have set when I used that option before.  I tried using the "Change password..." button to change it, but since I can't remember the current password, I can't specify a new one.  I've also tried disabling the "Encrypt local backup" with the idea of enabling it again later, just before the backup.  However, disabling that also prompts me for the password which I can't remember.

I've tried various passwords I've used before, including my current and recent ones for my OS X account.  I've tried my current and recent AppleID passwords, and my iPod's current and recent 4-digit passcodes.  None of them worked.

The "Devices" panel of iTunes preferences doesn't list any device backups.  The ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder is empty, too.

Since my computer doesn't seem to have any backups on it, I'd like to get iTunes to think that a password hasn't been set for encrypting local backups.  I've already checked Keychain Access and it doesn't have any passwords set for "backup" or any variations of my iPod's name.

Does anybody have ideas of how I can get iTunes to forget about the old settings for encrypting local backups?

Look in Utilities/Keychain to see if the backup password is there


iPhone makes shutter sound when taking photos despite being on mute I recently purchased a refurbished iPhone 6. It's been set up from my old device's iCloud backup and updated to iOS 10.2.1.

Unfortunately, despite being set to silent via the physical mute switch, my iPhone will make a shutter sound whenever I take a photo using the built in camera. I'm using my device in the United States, so country laws shouldn't be an issue.

Why would an iPhone camera be making a shutter sound while set to silent?

Edit: Worth noting that using the mute switch worked for my last iPhone

It is possible the refurbished unit originated from Japan or Korea, where the setting of the mute switch is deliberately ignored by the Camera app. See this article at engadget.


Zooming on Xcode on Mac I have seen in many tutorial videos people zoom in and out on Xcode to show the code a little better. I tried with 'control' + 'two finger swipe on trackpad' but this does not work on Xcode. What is the shortcut for zooming on Xcode?

Screen Zoom is a system-wide feature. In Lion, this is part of Universal Access.

The short version is:

Visit System Preferences->Universal Access->Seeing

And set "Zoom" to on.

You'll then be able to scroll using the control key and the scroll gesture of your input device.

Follow the instructions here for more detailed instructions.


What causes excessive CPU use by taskgated, notifyd, and launchd processes? I've looked around a lot to try to find the answer to this but have thus far been unsuccessful.  I am programming in Python, and I have code that takes a long time to run (hours to months depending on the application) and I am trying to optimize it.  On larger thread systems (once I get above ≈8 threads, but especially >18 threads), I run into a situation where the system is using up a large amount of my CPU instead of the actual code I want to run.  On a 12-thread machine as I type this, the system is using ≈25–30% of my total CPU.  If I try to run it on a 36-thread machine, the system takes >70% of the CPU which is simply unworkable (though running two instances of the code, limiting each to 18 threads, cuts this overhead back, oddly enough).
The Activity Monitor indicates that taskgated is using at least 10%, while notifyd, logd, and launchd are also using several percent, each (along with mds at 1% so I should turn off Spotlight, and sometimes lsd spikes to >40%, but that's more rare ... note that that process is another launch system daemon).
My older hypothesis was that it was a disk I/O issue, since the code was writing and reading many small files to try to keep track of certain things and recover if I needed to stop it.
My now-working hypothesis, based on what I could find online about the interactions between taskgated and launchd, is that this particular chunk of code is spawning a large number of processes and macOS's launching and security daemons are taking large amounts of CPU to make sure those processes are safe.  These are things like calling "mv" and "rm" from the command line (os.system(...) in my Python code), and spawning other code that take a second or two to run (such as in a different conda environment when two have conflicting installs of necessary components).  I count at least 40 potential spots where this chunk of code is possibly spawning child processes, and I thread it so that it's doing that concurrently however many threads there are (so, on a 12-thread machine, 12x40 over the course of ~10 seconds).  It doesn't seem to me like this should be making my system take up so much CPU, but that's my best guess at the moment.
Possibly related, the taskgated is constantly spitting out to log files, "MacOS error: -67062", which again I've searched for and found no luck with diagnosing the issue.  And, diskarbitrationd is spawning a lot of "<private>" messages in the Console, but its CPU% is around 0.3% so I'm less concerned about that.
My apologies for rambling a bit here, but I'm trying to provide the information I have, and hopefully someone here has an idea.  If I can get rid of this 25% or larger issue, that can save months of time.
For what it's worth, I'm running macOS 10.14.5 and ..4 on two desktops, and 10.15.5 on a laptop.  Same issue for all.  Running in Linux on a nearly identical 36-thread system build does not have the overhead issue (but I really don't want to switch to Linux) which is another reason why I don't think it's a disk I/O problem.

Is your question to understand macOS better or have your Python code complete faster? I suspect the latter.
If so, have you profiled your Python code? What does the performance profile show?
macOS
taskgated and launchd are both involved in evaluating and launching processes.
Turn on macOS's server performance mode for raised resource limits.
If a lack of code signing is a suspected cause, you can ad-hoc code sign your – and others' binaries:
sudo codesign -f -s - <full path to bundle or executable>

External Processes

The spawned processes range in longevity, it's anything from a simple "mv" terminal command to running another program that can take seconds to hours, though most are on the shorter side.

On any operating system, avoid calling out to external processes when an in-language call exists. Launching a process and waiting for the process to terminate is expensive, compared to a system call.
See Python - How to move a file? to replace mv with os.rename(), shutil.move(), or os.replace().
Threads
Adding threads to your process will not guarantee that calls down into the operating system will not be queued and handled sequentially.
Threads in Python are posix threads and thus managed by the operating system. Adding threads gives the underlying operating system more work and more influence on how your process performs. In this regard, the difference between Linux and macOS is significant.
Use threads to handle data manipulation and, where possible, pass off file handling work to a dedicated file handling thread. Avoid touching the disk unless absolutely essential to continue the next task. Even then, try and pass data to and from other processes using pipes or inter-process communication (IPC).
Use a solid state drives (SSDs) instead of spinning hard disk drives (HDDs).
Linux
Given you appear to have proven Linux is faster than macOS, use Linux.
Docker
To save months, I would justify 1 - 2 days experimenting with Docker. This approach will allow you to run a light weight instance of Linux on your Mac and avoid the proven costs of macOS. This should ease the cost of spawning processes.
There will be an unfortunate learning curve to Docker but it will be time well spent.
Using Docker will give you a well defined working environment that can be started, stopped, and replicated without ties to the host operating system.
Unavoidable?
Be wary of assuming the 20-25% of system time is not useful, and is avoidable. macOS is a heavy operating system compared to Linux. High Performance Computing uses specific operating systems for a reason. If using Linux is easy and gets the results faster, sinking time into macOS appears unjustifiable.


How to make OS X not remember ssh key passphrase I have a passphrase on my ssh id_rsa key, and OS X  asks me for the passphrase the first time I want to use it, but even if I decline to add it to my keychain, it doesn't ask me for a passphrase again until I reboot. How can I make it ask me for a passphrase every time I try to use it?

While reading GitHub documentation about adding ssh key to the ssh agent, I thought you might be able to prevent loading keys in the agent by modifying the ~/.ssh/config file like so:

Host *
 AddKeysToAgent no
 UseKeychain no
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa