How to launch Hangouts Chrome extension via AppleScript? I am trying to launch a Google Chrome extension in AppleScript or Terminal. By "launch," I mean replicate the act of clicking on the extension icon found in Chrome's toolbar.

The Chrome extension in question is Google Hangouts. Clicking on the extension icon creates a new pseudo-window in Chrome that houses the Hangouts dialer.

Here is what I've considered:

I uncovered the physical location of this extension on my hard drive:

/Users/Me/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/ nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd/2018.123.418.2_0
However, I didn't find anything of significance.

I entered chrome-extension://nckgahadagoaajjgafhacjanaoiihapd/ in Chrome's address bar, which led to a "Your file was not found" message.
I do not know of a way to associate a keyboard-shortcut with the Hangouts extension. The Options item in the context menu of the Hangouts extension is not selectable (i.e., it is greyed out).
The Hangouts extension has a second shortcut, found in the systemwide, top menu bar. I tried programmatically clicking on the menu-bar icon with code like this (source):

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer" to tell (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1) to click
But, I am unable to get AppleScript to click on any icon that falls to the left of the wifi symbol.

I am aware that Hangouts has a web interface (https://hangouts.google.com). However, any phone number that is given to the web interface is dialed by the extension (not by the web interface itself). So, interacting with the extension directly is more ideal.

Is the dreaded mouse-click simulation the only way to accomplish what I want?

This works for me in macOS High Sierra:

if running of application "Google Chrome" then
    tell application "System Events" to click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2 of application process "Chrome"
else
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        activate
        tell active tab of front window
            repeat while (loading)
                delay 0.2
            end repeat
        end tell
    end tell
    tell application "System Events" to click menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2 of application process "Chrome"
end if

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


Can I control my Mac with my iPhone -- over Bluetooth? There are about nine thousand apps that will allow me to use my iPhone to control my Mac over wifi.

I just moved, and I don't have an internet connection in the new place yet. Additionally, I can't tether with my iPhone's connection (thanks to my carrier's rules).

Can I turn my iPhone into a Bluetooth trackpad somehow? This would need to be a standalone solution on my phone, since for obvious reasons I can't download client software onto the Mac.

I don't know of a general purpose Bluetooth only control that exists on the App store (but that store is really hard to search these days for a needle in the haystack of apps), but one of the more common remote control software packages does say it will work without WiFi on the Mac.

http://www.airkeyboardapp.com/faq#no-wifi

Once you've installed the free Mac software and tested that you are OK tethering the Mac to the phone (which can use prodigious amounts of cellular data) you can download the free and ad supported iOS app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-keyboard-free-wireless/id541873446?mt=8

There is IAP to remove the ads if you really like it over time. I prefer to use the computer's create network and tether over USB if needed for control in situations where I don't have a pre-existing WiFi network. The apps I prefer for that are:

Touchpad by Martian Craft - about $7 on the app store
Rowmote Pro by Evan Schoenberg - about $5 on the app store

Touchpad is truly standalone, just turn on screen sharing on your Mac and run the app. Rowmote Pro is more integrated with various apps such as spottily, hulu, etc... Both function fabulously as a keyboard and mouse/trackpad for OS X from iOS and I find I use both for different tasks at different times.


How to select iPhone audio device before placing a call? Question
How can I select a specific audio device before placing a call on my iPhone, without setting a new default device?
Background
During a call, I can route the audio to several different devices - my iPhone's speakerphone, various Bluetooth devices, iMac, MacBook Pro, etc. This works well when switching devices during the call. I can also easily answer a call from any of these devices.
However, I cannot figure out how to select another device before placing a new call, and just for that call.
Use Cases
My most common use case is when I'm already listening to audio on my iMac or MBP with (wired) headphones and need to place a call that requires me to continue using the headphones connected to the computer.
If I place the call first and then switch the audio to the computer, the other party often answers before the switch completes, and I've missed the first part of the conversation.
Same thing if my phone is mounted and/or charging and I want to place a speakerphone call - if I don't switch the audio before the other party answers, I'm left with an awkward hello...
Context
I'm normally using an iPhone XS with iOS 14 or an iPhone 7 with iOS 13. I don't want to switch the default device since there are many times I'd prefer to initiate the call normally, i.e. phone-to-ear.

Before placing the call, you can open Control Center and tap the AirPlay icon to select a Bluetooth destination such as for example a pir of AirPods. The following call will then use that audio device by default.
After the call is done, you'll probably to tap the AirPlay icon again to choose iPhone as your destination.
If you want to use wired headphones, you'll obviously need to actually connect them to the phone before they can be used.
There are no other settings or functionality for doing a once-only rerouting of phone-only audio to a specific device before placing a call.
There is however a different way to overcome the problem that the calls connects before you have managed to switch the audio destination: You can add a pause or wait to the actual phone number.
I.e. when you edit a contact on your phone, you can set their phone number. If you click the button labelled "+*#" you get the option to place a pause or a wait. Add this to the start of the number, and you'll get additional time to switch the audio destination.
A pause is literally just a pause for 2-3 seconds (afair), whereas wait means that the phone does not dial the rest of the number until you have tapped the phone to acknowledge.


Keeping column width in Finder Is there a way to keep the columns width settings?  Every time I open Finder, the columns width default back to whatever OS X's setting.

Hold the Option key while resizing a column;
Close all Finder windows;
When you next open a window, the column will be the same size as you just set!

See a video example & also check this useful information.


Why I can't see the “price” tab in itunes producer I'm submiting my first book to the Ibook store.

Problem : In Itunes Producer, I can't see the "price" tab ? Do you know why ?

When you create an account on iTunes Connect in order to distribute books, you can either create a Free Books Account or a Paid Books Account.

Apparently, for the Price tab to appear in iTunes Producer, you have to be logged in with a Paid Books Account. Make sure you followed the right procedure when you did create your account. If you didn’t, I’m quite sure you can somehow switch from Free to Paid. I don’t know how, though.


Restore Access to File System for Emacs on MacOS Catalina I upgraded to macOS Catalina and see that applications now need to be permitted to access the file system, even the shell running inside Terminal.

I work extensively in Emacs which seems to have lost access to the file system. Unlike with other applications, no popup appears to allow the access  for Emacs.

How can I restore file system access for Emacs?

I solved the problem by granting Full Disk Access to /usr/bin/ruby as suggested here. Quoting from the reply,

  Emacs.app actually launches using a ruby script. As a result, MacOS Catalina uses the permissions set for ruby, not the permissions for Emacs.app.

Grant access as follows.

Go to "System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy"
Select Full Disk Access from the left menu. It is about half way down in the menu. A list of apps will appear in the main region of the window.
Click the lock on the lower left and authenticate in order to allow making changes.
Click the + button under the list of software and select /usr/bin/ruby.

/usr is usually a hidden folder and may not appear by default. If so, press shift+cmd+. (the last one is a dot) at the root directory to make it appear.

Emacs.app should now be able to access the file system without any hindrance!


I need administrator password for file management on external hard drive So I have an external hard drive, my passport, that used to be a Time Machine, but now I use for basic file storage. Whenever I try to add a folder, or manage files, it asks for an administrator password. I looked in the system preferences, and it said nothing about it there. Help.

One question first: do you still use it for TimeMachine also? If not, did you format it before you use it for what you do now?


How to update OS X using dmg I have multiple Macs and I want to update all those macs using a dmg file. From where I can get the dmg file.And how to update if the minor version difference is more than one. i.e. from 10.10.1 to 10.10.5?

You can get the dmg file from here: https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

While downloading the dmg please check the system requirement. Because you will need a combo dmg file if you are upgrading from say 10.10.2 to 10.10.5

On detail page of the dmg there is a System Requirements button at the bottom, please check the system requirement from there.


iPhone turns itself off with lots of charge left My iPhone turns itself off when it has a lot of battery charge left, sometimes when it's still at 70%. Then I can't turn it on at all unless I plug it in to a charger.... After I do that, the apple logo appears and it turns on as normal with lots of charge.

Why is this happening?

It appears your battery is faulty.

If you have an iPhone 5, check the iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program to get a free replacement.

If you have an iPhone 6s, check the iPhone 6s Program for Unexpected Shutdown issues to get a free replacement.

If your phone is under warranty or AppleCare extended warranty, you may be eligible for a free battery replacement. Even if it is not under warranty, go to the Apple Support webpage, "Start a service request" and fill in your problem details so Apple can help you.

If you have a Mac, you can find information about your battery by plugging into your computer and installing the free CoconutBattery app to check its health.


Mac mail does not work after 10.8.5 update After installing Mountain Lion 10.8.5 update, mail does not associate to an email account and will not quit (Quit is grayed out - must force quit).  However, the email account is set up in preferences.  Library/mail/V2/maildata/accounts.plist lists the account and the Mailboxes are still present under Library/mail/V2/Mailboxes.  However, if I log out as iMac user and log in as another user, Mail works OK for a different email account associated to that user.  Does 10.8.5 limit the number of accounts for emails?  In Console, I get a MailIAPlugin message: "Tried to get settings for nonexistent account".  Any idea on how to get Mail to work?

Grayed out Quit in Mail usually indicates that mail is busy doing something (like sync) and does not allow quitting.

Here are few steps you can do:

1- Run the Connection doctor

2- Enable the Activity window to see what is going on (get mail)

3- Delete that account and recreate it. (no worry, your email should be on the original server (ie gmail), but better check that before.

4- Wait for it to complete its duty. (like updating 10000 emails)


Copying over the time machine backups folder, "backups.backupdb" to a new drive results in "V100 Spotlight" permissions issues I am trying to copy over the time machine backups folder, "backups.backupdb" to a new drive but it keeps giving me errors like "V100 Spotlight" permissions issues.

If I changed the permissions of the entire backups folder, would it result in corruption? Thanks

Please don’t tamper with the permissions of your Time Machine backup as this could indeed get you into trouble.

One of the problems you have trying to copy your Time Machine backup is the fact that Time Machine uses a feature called “hard links” which lets a single file show up in different folders multiple times. I. e., the file (precisely: its inode) is stored only once but it can have an arbitrary number of associated directory entries. If you copied these files using a tool unaware of hard links you would probably create unnecessary duplicates of these hard-linked files.

You should use Disk Utility (found in /Applications/Utilities) to clone the whole backup partition to the new drive or partition. Doing so will get you around the hard link problem as a block-level copy will be made instead of a file-level copy.


Prevent uninstallation of Cydia tweaks I have GuizmoDNS installed on my iPhone (it can lock in DNS settings for WiFi and Cellular data). This is great for when my kids browse the web, as it can block most inappropriate sites, and the settings themselves are password protected.

But removing the tweak itself is an easy way around this. Is there any way to password protect the removal of Cydia tweaks?

I would very much like to not have to password protect Cydia itself.

A possible solution is as mentioned by @Andrew, according to me there are two other possible things you can do:

install iAppLock and lock Cydia so nothing can be changed at all with in Cydia
install GuestMode and disable Cydia so that, you can see it but can't open it


Rearranging iBooks on bookshelf manually I'm unable to manually rearrange my iBooks bookshelf manually and would like to put individual books as well as a 'series' of books in their right order.It lets me 'edit' and move to the position I want but then re-sets itself back to the order the books started with when I press 'done'. I have tried rearranging and not pressing the 'done' but that doesn't work either.either way, once you re-open the bookshelf it's reset itself again. What can I do to rearrange my books in the order I want and save the changes without my iPad re- setting them? Thank- you for your help.

Are you doing it through the categories of purchased books or PDFs or collection? Try doing it through the collection.

Another thing you could try is go to your iPad's Settings, click on the Settings icon and scroll past the General settings and other apps until you see iBooks then click on where it says "Show All Purchases" and slide it to No. Then try rearranging again from your bookshelf collections.

I have no idea why it worked for me. I had your same problem with rearranging with the edit on and then when I clicked done it would revert back to the original unwanted order. But the steps I just described fixed it for me. I will now try and reselect show all purchases and see if it undoes what I just "fixed". I do not even know what made me take those steps - maybe intuition. But it worked like a charm.


Connecting to VPN (Mac OS X) I'm trying to connect to VPN on Mac OS X via several ways:

Native vpn client (doing something like this:
https://www.publicvpn.com/support/MacOSX105.php)
By Anyconnect vpn client
By Cisco vpn client

In 3 case I receive the 51 error and I read, that it's ok for mac.
In 1 case I recieve no errors, just can't connect.
In case 2 I receive error message: "the vpn server did not respond", but ping to vpn server I try to connect is successfull.

What I'm doing wrong? When I tried to connect in Windows by cisco vpn client, connection was successfull. Can the problem be in that the vpn is based on windows?

The Cisco VPNClient app is not officially supported in 10.8.  You may have some luck by using Java Preferences to specify the 32-bit JVM and either disabling the 64-bit or changing it to be secondary.

You're better off replicating the settings from your Cisco configuration into a new native VPN (IPSec) connection.

Look for the encrypted Group password in your .pcf file, then head over here to get the decrypted value.  After that it should be fairly obvious.


How to Show Apple Wallet without Apple Pay — Boarding Passes Only (iOS 10) In Australia, Apple Pay is not widely supported, so the credit card facility is not of much use at this time. On the other hand, the two major domestic airlines certainly support Apple Wallet with their boarding passes.

The question is:

(a) Is it possible to hide the credit card section, or, at least, to move it below the boarding passes?
(b) Is this why the double-click short cut doesn’t work to show the Wallet from the lock screen?

For devices supporting Apple Pay, the feature cannot be disabled and is shown at the top of the Wallet app. There is no option to hide the feature or disable it using Restrictions.

Double-clicking the home button only works if there is a card in Apple Pay, upon which the default Apple Pay card is shown and other Wallet cards/passes can be presented. Unfortunately without any Apple Pay card this feature is unavailable.


Deleting Message cache Trying to delete all SMS and iMessage cache.  Other forums and research indicates a SYNC will do this.  Have tried, but old messages keep showing up in Spotlight search.  I want them deleted for good.  How?

Obviously, it’s a cache bug (or more like feature). If you find that it’s a little annoying, Apple does provide a way to remove this.

Here’s how to delete recent contacts from messages app (and other apps in iOS):

Go to the Messages app and tap on the New Message icon
In the recipient field, tap the name of the recently-deleted contact (or a part of the number)
When the contact shows up in the list, you should see a blue ‘i’ icon right next to the contact you just deleted
Tap on the ‘i’ icon. Next, tap on Remove from Recents
That’s about it. The contact will no longer show up.

It’s really that simple. This will remove the contact from the cache (of recent contacts) and it will make sure that the deleted contact doesn’t show up anywhere in iOS.

The problem doesn’t appear for contacts that you have not communicated with (via Email, Message or FaceTime). It’s mostly for contacts that you have communicated with via these services. The Recent Contacts list holds a cache of contact data (contacts that you have recently talked/messaged to) and it’s not available to modify.


How can I get rid of Safari 5's "awesome bar"? Safari 5 came with a copycat of Firefox "awesome" bar, completing text as your type an url with history of previous title pages you've seen, and not just previous URLs.

How to get rid of this annoyance?

I haven't tried it and I don't know if it'll solve your problem, but Shaun Inman created a Safari extension called SMRT that disables its auto-complete behavior.


Mac Pro 3,1 Boot fail diagnosis I have an old Mac Pro 2008 3,1 which after running pretty much 24/7 for 10 years was left switched off for a two-week holiday.

Now when powered up, the PSU & GPU fans spin up, but nothing else happens. No main fans, no chimes.

It's recently had the PRAM battery changed & went through some heavy diagnostics at that time with no apparent issues.

My suspicion is the PSU - but I have no 'electrical' evidence to support that.
When powered on, the diagnostic lights show only 2 of what I think ought to be 3 lights if everything was normal.

 That was not an easy picture to take ;-)

According to the Service Source manual I think I ought to also be seeing the 'Power good' [PWRG] light up too. I'm guessing the GPU light would come on later in the boot process.

The machine is pretty clean; it gets a good dusting at least annually. I've had the PSU out for another quick dust, but tbh that's where my expertise ends.
I have a multimeter, but wouldn't have the faintest clue where to start with it.

Is there any relatively easy next step to diagnose the failure?
I don't want to just buy a new PSU only to discover my diagnosis was incorrect.

Additional info:
Current OS is El Capitan.
Tested with HD 5770 & stock GT 120, just in case the GPU was pulling too much power.
Tested with individual RAM risers. [All RAM lights flash red as expected]
Tested without any drives or USB connected.

Hmm, the two week break may have killed the Power Supply Unit (PSU), especially if it was a rather cold morning when you tried to first power it back up. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen that happen. :(

As for using a multimeter to test the PSU, I wouldn't bother since the LEDs indicate the PSU is still providing trickle power and I wouldn't really encourage trying to test around some of the other rails (just to be extra safe).

However, a fairly simple test you can do is a system reset. To do this:

Power up the Mac Pro
Wait for it to get to its current usual state
Press the SYS_RST switch on the logic board (yep, this needs to be done while it's powered on).
If the Mac Pro boots, shut it down again
Now try booting up again from the normal power switch
If it doesn't boot, press the SYS_RST switch on the logic board again (don't power off first)

Basically, if your Mac Pro does boot from the SYS_RST switch but not from the main power button, then it's most likely a new PSU you'll need.

However,let's not give up yet! I'm not sure if you have a full Mac Pro Service Manual at your disposal, but before purchasing another PSU it may be worth going through the following process.

Just ignore anything obvious or that you've already tried - I'm just trying to write this so it may be useful to others too. Obviously, before purchasing another PSU, it's worth trying anything below you haven't already tried.

Firstly, let's summarise what to make of the LEDs:

LED 1 off is a Good sign! - You wouldn't expect this to be lit unless your Mac was powered up but in sleep mode
LED 2 on is a Good sign! - This is normal when pressing the DIAG_LED button
LEDs 3 and 4 off is a Good sign! - These LEDs only come on if an error occurs or if the BootROM is corrupted (and you don't actually have to press the DIAG_LED button to see them)
LEDs 5 and 6 off is a Good sign! - Normally off. These LEDs actually have two indicator modes (i.e. they can either stay on or flash, depending on the error). Regardless, not an issue here
LED 7 off is a Bad sign! - This is normally on when pressing the DIAG_LED button. See troubleshooting suggestions below
LED 8 off is a Bad sign! - This is normally on when pressing the DIAG_LED button. See troubleshooting suggestions below
LED 9 on is a Good sign! - This is normal when pressing the DIAG_LED button (assuming the computer has been powered up for about 5 or do seconds first)

Troubleshooting LED 7

LED 7 should be on when pressing the DIAG_LED button.

Typically to troubleshoot this you would:

Check that the graphics card is seated correctly in its PCI slot
Check that the card’s auxiliary booster power cable is connected properly (i.e. if the card requires one)
Try the graphics card in a different PCI slot
Try another graphics card if you happen to have one handy

Troubleshooting LED 8

Likewise, LED 8 should be on when pressing the DIAG_LED button.

To troubleshoot this:

Check the power cable connections
Swap your AC power cable with another one and test again
Unplug all external hardware (except for the display, keyboard and mouse, but also including any UPS you may be connected to) and test again
If you happen to have another USB keyboard you can try, use that instead while booting up
Check for any signs of an obvious electrical short, e.g. metal screws or a loose PCI card slot cover touching the logic board. Also check the logic board for any soldering that’s not quite right (something loose, or something that could come into contact with something else)

Other troubleshooting

Some other things to try include:

Reset the SMC and test again
Reset the NVRAM and test again
Remove the battery for about 30 seconds, insert it again and test
Although you've only fairly recently replaced the PRAM battery, it's cheap enough to just try replacing it again


Can't connect to wireless network at home with OS X 10.5.8 I'm having trouble connecting to the wireless network at my home. My brother recently picked up a new wireless router and provided me with the password. When I locate the SSID and enter in the password he told me, it waits for a few seconds then says "Connection Failed."

I can connect to the wifi on my iPhone 4 but because I do a lot of work from my Mac running OS X 10.5.8, it's imperative that I can connect to the wifi on my laptop. I can connect to other wifi networks (in fact, I'm at a Starbucks using their wifi right now).

I don't think it has anything to do with my Mac, but if it does, can anyone provide any insight or solution?

If it's with the router, how can I configure it to allow me to connect with my Mac?

This issue can be caused by a SSID which contains special signs (e.g. - / ! : %)


Rsyncd: unable to bind any inbound sockets on port 873 I'm running OS X El Capitan.

I want to run rsync in daemon mode but I'm unable to do it. Here is the error from /var/log/system./log:

rsyncd[1329]: unable to bind any inbound sockets on port 873
rsyncd[1329]: rsync error: error in socket IO (code 10) at /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/rsync/rsync-47/rsync/socket.c(477) [receiver=2.6.9]

Any advice?

You'd see that error if you don't have privileges or a process is already bound to port 873.
Anyway I just wrote a small 'one button' GUI app which starts the rsync daemon for you:
http://bonhardcomputing.com/rsync-server/
It also has the most modern version of rsync built into it...


How do I make keyboard viewer to automatically show up only when I'm holding the option key? I'd like keyboard viewer to show up while I hold the option key or after pressing a "dead key" such as option-e, but to hide otherwise.

I know where the letters are. But it would be nice to get an automatic reminder of how to type special characters, especially since my keyboard layout (known as "qwpr") allows typing hundreds of special glyphs.

You could use a private.xml like this with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<root>
  <vkopenurldef>
    <name>KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_KEYBOARDVIEWER</name>
    <url>file:///System/Library/Input%20Methods/KeyboardViewer.app</url>
  </vkopenurldef>
  <vkopenurldef>
    <name>KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_QUITKEYBOARDVIEWER</name>
    <url>file:///Applications/QuitKeyboardViewer.app</url>
  </vkopenurldef>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <autogen>
    __KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_L,
    ModifierFlag::OPTION_L | ModifierFlag::NONE,
    KeyCode::OPTION_L,
    Option::KEYTOKEY_BEFORE_KEYDOWN,
    KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_KEYBOARDVIEWER,
    Option::KEYTOKEY_AFTER_KEYUP,
    KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_QUITKEYBOARDVIEWER
    </autogen>
    <autogen>
    __KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_R,
    ModifierFlag::OPTION_R | ModifierFlag::NONE,
    KeyCode::OPTION_R,
    Option::KEYTOKEY_BEFORE_KEYDOWN,
    KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_KEYBOARDVIEWER,
    Option::KEYTOKEY_AFTER_KEYUP,
    KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_QUITKEYBOARDVIEWER
    </autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Save this script as /Applications/QuitKeyboardViewer.app in AppleScript Editor:

quit application "KeyboardViewer"

There is a noticeable (but not that long) delay before KeyboardViewer is opened or closed. If for example you hold option and command simultaneously, KeyboardViewer is shown if you press option first but not if you press command first.


How to configure a static IP for a specific access point on OS X? I own a MacBook Pro and always used Ubuntu in the past. In Ubuntu, I was able to configure my IP, DNS, Gateway, for a specific access point. There was a list of all the access points, each one with its own settings.

The goal I want to achieve is to do port forwarding in my own local network with static IP and still being able to connect with automatic DHCP settings  somewhere else (not my own network).

But I'm unable to do/find this in Mac OS X. Is it possible (with or without extra applications)?

I have found it myself. It's already built in in OS X. In System Preferences, goto Network and at the top of the window, you can see a combobox which says: Location. You have to click it and select Edit Locations.

At this picture I have already created my Home Network.

Create and configure the Home network. And click Apply afterwards. Close the window.

From now on you can choose which configuration (or Location) you want to use by opening the Apple-menu () in the Menu Bar. And choose from the Location submenu.


Toshiba 2TB External Drive Stopped Being Recognised After a lot of searching on the internet I have been unable to find a solution to my problem. There are many people having similar problems, but no solution seems to work for me.

I have a 2013 MacBook Pro and I have a Toshiba 2TB External drive which I have used for the past 5 or 6 months to keep copies of my iPhoto Library and my Time Machine backups on. Everything has been fine up until yesterday. I plugged the drive into the USB slot to find it no longer appeared on the desktop. I have tried everything I can think of to get this to work. Here is a rundown of the situation:-

I have tried both USB ports on the Macbook.
The drive doesn't appear in Disk Utility or System Profiler.
I have bought a new USB cable.
The drive has it's own power supply and lights up and makes regular noises when on.
I have connected it to a PC and managed to access the files using HFSExplorer, which leads me to believe the HDD is okay.
I can browse both partitions and extract files to my PC using HFSExplorer.
The drive shows up in Disk Manager on Windows and shows the partitions.
I have another external drive, my old MacBook HDD in a caddy, which works perfectly, so I don't think its the USB ports either.

This is what I get in Terminal:-

-laeO@ /Volumes
total 24
drwxrwxrwt@  4 root           admin  hidden  136 17 Oct 13:36 .
    com.apple.FinderInfo      32
 0: group:everyone deny add_file,add_subdirectory,directory_inherit,only_inherit
drwxr-xr-x  32 root           wheel  -      1156 17 Oct 12:18 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 rebeccaholmes  admin  -      6148  7 Dec  2013 .DS_Store
    com.apple.FinderInfo      32
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root           admin  -         1 17 Oct 12:54 Macintosh HD -> /

It really is bizarre. I am left thinking my only solution is to go through the arduous process of copying all the files to my windows PC and reformatting the HDD :(

Does anyone have a better solution to this problem?

Edit - Since posting I have also tried resetting the MacBook PRAM and SMC. Neither has made any difference.

Edit - Using DiskUtiliy after entering "defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1" command lists no external drive.

   "diskutil info disk1s2" returns the message "cannot find disk"

Please quit Disk Utility if it is open and launch Terminal in the folder Applications/Utilities/ with your external drive connected
Enter the following command at the Terminal prompt:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Press Enter
Quit Terminal
Start Disk Utility and enable 'Show every Partition' in the Debug menu
After a few seconds all partitions should be visible
Mount the partition 'NameOfTheMainPartitionExternalHD' if it is present and greyed out with the blue button Mount. The partition should now be visible on your desktop.

In the above example the external drive is an SD card and the usually visible partition of the external drive is gDisk. Don't touch disk1s1 (Lion) or EFI (Mavericks)
Please check the format of the partition

If the format is 'Mac OS Extended' you might check the drive for inconsistencies.


iPad (iOS 7) time-language inconsistency I'm in Germany with my new iPad mini, and I prefer to run those gadgets in English. But unfortunately, this one is inconsistent. Everything that should be English is, except the time. Right now it says 01:30 nachm., instead of 01:30 pm. I could ignore that on the top line of the screen, but I just figured out that it even puts that time format in mails I forward or reply. It's distracting and annoying.

Of course, one thing I could do is switching to the 24h format, but I'd prefer not to. Are there any other suggestions how this could be fixed?

You should try toggling to 24h format, force quit Settings, and then reset it to 12h format.

You could also try toggling to German and back to English, once again after force quitting Settings.

Sometimes something simple as toggling a setting will get the app to execute some code that it didn't when you switched the language setting.

Good Luck.


How do I add a sub list with different bullets in Pages What I want is a list with the following levels of indentation:

1. Test
    a. Test
        i. Test
    b. Test
        i. Test
        ii. Test
        iii. Test
2. Test

I can't get seem to use two different styles for indentation; I get a list like this:

1. Test
    1. Test
        1. Test
    2. Test
        1. Test
        2. Test
        3. Test
2. Test

How would I achieve what I want in Pages automatically?

You can use different Bullets & Lists style for different indentation level in Pages.

After entering the 1st level item (i.e. 1. Test in your case), simply press the Enter key. This will automatically create a list, mark the entered text as the 1st item of list, assign default spacing between text and the number, and add numbering for the second item on the next line.

Now, simply press the Tab key to create a sub-list. Change the bullet & list style as desired under Format sidebar.

Repeat for every subsequent level of indentation.


find a folder nested in a folder I need to find a folder nested in a folder.

example:

/Volumes/"4T Virtual Machines"/outerfolder/innerfolder

mac $ pwd
/Volumes/4T Virtual Machines
mac $ ls -lR outerfolder/
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Aug 28 18:02 file1
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Aug 28 18:02 file2
drwxr-xr-x  5 mac  staff   170B Aug 28 18:04 innerfolder/
drwxr-xr-x  3 mac  staff   102B Aug 28 18:07 otherfolder/

outerfolder//innerfolder:
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Aug 28 18:04 aaa
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Aug 28 18:04 bbb
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Aug 28 18:04 ccc

outerfolder//otherfolder:
total 0
-rw-r--r--  1 mac  staff     0B Aug 28 18:07 justskip
mac $

Let's have two cases the outerfolder is at the root of the external drive and the outerfolder isn't at the root of the external drive.  I should be able to modify one solution to the other.

I'm writing in applescript on macOS yosemite or later, but potentially invoking a Unix command from applescript. So the solution may be in all applescript or Unix command called from applescript.  The Unix command approach

Here is the Unix command I have for finding the outer folder:

find /Volumes -type d -maxdepth 1 ! -name Volumes -exec find {} -type d -maxdepth 1 -name "Virtual Box" \;

I tired a third nested find, but errored out

 find /Volumes -type d -maxdepth 1 ! -name Volumes -exec find {} -type d -maxdepth 1 -name "Virtual Box" -exec find {}  -type d -maxdepth 1 ! -name inner  \;
find: -exec: no terminating ";" or "+"
find: -exec: no terminating ";" or "+"
find: -exec: no terminating ";" or "+"
mac RC=1   $

I'm not quite sure of what you are looking for but the following will list all directories named "Virtual Box" starting with the deepest nested to the least.

find /Volumes -type d ! -name Volumes -name "Virtual Box" 2>/dev/null

EDIT: OK, understanding your requirement a bit better we can use the path predicate to match outerfolder/innerfolder

find /Volumes -type d -path '*outerfolder/innerfolder'


How do I show a certificate's detail in OS X Mail (Lion) I run my own mail servers and have them set up to support SSL connections over IMAP/SMTP. They are GoDaddy SSL certificates and are recognized by Mail and IOS since the root authority (godaddy) is trusted.

However, I suspected that I am coming up on my expiration for the SSL certificate on one of my mail servers, so I want to look at the certificate's expiry date - I can't find where to do this in Mail and I can't find a certificate for my server in key chain. I suspect it's not there since there is nothing to add - the root certificate (godaddy) is there, so there is no reason to add my child certificate.

How do I look at SSL certificate attributes in OS X? Where can I find my certificate? In Thunderbird you just click on server > security and hit certificates.

This is not in Mail, I know of no way to do that, but this does not require any new software.  In Terminal:

echo ^d|openssl s_client -connect host:port 2>/dev/null |  sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' |  openssl x509 -noout -subject -dates


How do I unlock my iTunes account when my old e-mail is unavailable? When I originally set up my iTunes account, I used an email address from my prior employer.  I later moved my account to a personal rather than corporate email address and I have since changed jobs.  The original email address associated with my Apple account is no longer valid.  In the meantime, my computer on which my original iTunes account died.   Fortunately, I had my iTunes music backed up and when I purchased a new computer, I uploaded my songs.  I recently tried to play an Album and an error message came up that said that this computer was not authorized to play the songs and that I would need to access my account to authorize the new computer.  When I clicked through the authorization screen, my original email address came up and asked for my password.  I tried several of my “usual” passwords, but none of them worked.  I clicked on the “forgot my password” link and Apple gave me the option of answering a few security questions or having my password sent to my email address.  Recognizing that I could not access the dead email account, I asked to answer the security questions.  The first one that came up was to enter my birthdate.  I did so and Apple said that my answer was incorrect.  I next tried the street I grew up on and that did not work either.   I soon figured out that none of the questions matched my personal information so I am wondering if these questions were ever associated with my original iTunes account. Apple then locked my account for incorrectly answering the questions.

When I called Apple to see if we could do something to unlock the account and tie it to my new account (which would have the same name, address, and other personal information), I was informed that Apple cannot unlock the account and that I had to have access to the old email account to access the account and authorize this new computer to play the music.  After going up three levels of Apple customer service, I was told that there was absolutely nothing they could do for me.  So, I have purchased hundreds of songs that I cannot play now.

Is there a work around to this problem?  The songs are stored on my computer – I just can’t play them.

Some social engineering solutions :

Your iTunes account was presumably associated with your credit card, yes?  You could attempt to prove you identity to Apple via that credit card connection.  You could warn them that you plan on contesting credit card charges if they cannot restore the account.
If Apple won't help, then collect your old credit card bills with iTunes charges, and speak with your credit card company about contesting those charges.  You're beyond the 60 day period, but maybe not the 1 year "claims and defenses" period.  I doubt you'll get your money back, but you have a legitimate dispute with Apple, so stick them the dispute resolution merchant fees, which might cost as much as $30 per song.  Do not lie to your credit card company, simply push the dispute process as far as possible, the further it goes the more money they charge Apple.
You could theoretically sue Apple in small claims court.  Imho, this sounds like way way too much hassle for a few hundred bucks.  But maybe you could get your account back by contacting Apple's legal department in writing.

Two technical solutions :

You say you still have the files themselves, yes?  There are a variety of tools for removing iTunes DRM.  A priori, I'd imagine most/all require authorization since that's the easiest way, but perhaps some clever one does not.  Try any that look promising.
Do you have an iPod?  If so, try Graeme Hutchison suggestion.  If it only give you encrypted music, then theoretically the iPod knows the authorization keys, meaning you've a slim chance someone discovered a trick for using the iPod's authorization to decrypt your music.  Google isn't finding anything for me though.

As an aside, you should never buy DRM protected content in the first palce because : (a) Eventually you'll lose access one way or another, often by the company discontinuing the service. (b) Your supporting the DRM technologies which create these problems.  Any books, movies, or music distributed with DRM are also available without DRM if you look.


How to recover data from a mac that crash on login? I have a mac book pro that is crashing everytime I logged in (with every users). The cause may be that my gf put so many pictures and video on the hard drive that it can't even start (from the restore utility, it has 40mb of free space).

I am looking for a way to recover the data from the hard drive , before I can restore it with a clean setup.

I have done it previously on windows partition by using a live linux distro and copying to an external drive, but the mac book doesn't seem to recognize it. Is there a trick ? Or a way to access the console from the login screen ? Maybe a way to mount and extract data from a recovery image I would create from the recovery partition. I am at lost here,

Thank you in advance for your advices

Your response indicates that you can boot into the recovery partition so I am making that assumption for this answer.

If you can boot into the recovery partition (accomplished by holding down Command+R while your computer is booting), there are a couple things that may work. Either using Disk Utility to create a disk image (easy but time-consuming) or using the terminal to transfer files (hard if you're not comfortable with the command line but more likely to work).

To create a disk image:

Connect an external hard drive to your computer, then boot into recovery mode by holding down Command+R at boot until you see the Apple logo.
Choose a language, then select Disk Utility from the options you are presented with.
In Disk Utility, you should see a list of all disks connected to your computer on the left-hand side. Choose the one that says Macintosh HD (or whatever you call your HD).
Click the New Image button from the top of the window.
Change the Where field to your external hard drive but leave the other settings alone (Image Format: compressed, Encryption: none), then click Save.
It will take quite a while if it works but, once done, you will have a mountable disk image containing all of the files from your computer. Test it by opening it on a working computer before erasing your HD though (I've made that mistake before).

If that fails, you can use Terminal to transfer files from the recovery partition by following these steps:

Connect an external hard drive to your computer, then boot into recovery mode by holding down Command+R at boot until you see the Apple logo.
Choose a language, then click on the Utilities menu option from the menu bar and select Terminal.
Once in the terminal, you can use standard terminal commands to find and copy data from your internal drive to your external drive.

I can add more info on using the Finder to copy files if you need it but this is a useful primer.


Steam.app would like to receive keystrokes from any application I just installed a new version of Steam on macOS Catalina 10.15 (19A602) and got this unexpected request:

  Keystroke Receiving

  Steam.app would like to receive keystrokes from any application

I hit Deny since I can't see any good reason why Steam should need this. I can't find any answers, having looked at a thread on Reddit and Apple Support forums. This security article from Sophos, Synthetic clicks and the macOS flaw Apple can’t seem to fix seems to be related.

Why would Steam need this?

Under Catalina's security model, Apps are supposed to operate isolated
  from everything else, including your data. If they want to use your
  data or a service from another App, they must ask you for permission
  to do so.

Source.

This seems reasonable given the message in the dialog box, however I can find no direct information directly from Apple so please take it under advisement until it can be confirmed.


AppleScript SL to ML Issue (compatibility error?) I've written the following script in Applescript in Snow Leopard, and I tried to use it in Mountain Lion, but to no avail (doesn't work). The script watches a folder for added files, and if the filetype matches, it will scp it to a server.

It runs great, no errors on Snow Leopard. When it's run in ML it spits back the error (in console):

AppleScript Runner: CPSGetFrontProcess(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.

I'm almost positive this has something to do with the way the script is written. I have tried copying & pasting into a new script in mountain lion, and then saving that. Doesn't work either.

Here is the code itself, any insight as to what call is working wrong?

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving the_files

--set login vars
set fileExt to "zip"
set scpIP to "blah"
set scpUser to "blah"
set scpDest to "/home/blah"
set scpPort to "1234"

--repeat on each file that is added to the folder
repeat with each_file in the_files
    set filename to name of (info for each_file)
    tell application "Finder"
        --check extension, if match, scp. else, error.
        if name extension of each_file is fileExt then
            try
                do shell script "scp -p" & scpPort & " " & scpUser & "@" & scpIP & ":" & scpDes
                move each_file to trash
            end try
        end if
    end tell
end repeat

end adding folder items to

this might fix it, failing that can you post the contents of the plist files from ~/Library/LaunchAgents

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving the_files

--set login vars
set fileExt to "zip"
set scpIP to "blah"
set scpUser to "blah"
set scpDest to "/home/blah"
set scpPort to "1234"

--repeat on each file that is added to the folder
repeat with each_file in the_files
    set filename to name of (info for each_file)
    --check extension, if match, scp. else, error.
    if name extension of each_file is fileExt then
        try
            do shell script "scp -p" & scpPort & " " & scpUser & "@" & scpIP & ":" & scpDes
            tell application "System Events" to move each_file to trash
        end try
    end if
end repeat
end adding folder items to


I know how to repair disk permissions. But... Who broke them? One of the common Mac troubleshooting steps everyone always seems encouraged to try first is to "repair disk permissions" in Disk Utility.

This process usually finds random odd problems, fixes them, and on rare occasions it actually makes a difference.

But...

How on earth are random files ending up with their disk permissions changed in the first place?

That seemingly crucial operating system files are ending up randomly tampered with is actually a bit disturbing to me. What is causing this? Why after a decade of telling people to "repair permissions" hasn't some sort of lock been applied to prevent permissions from being inappropriately changed in the first place?

What is the real story here?

Many factors might come into mind. A process with root privileges is the main cause.

Think about an Application that you grant permissions to install using your Admin password. This Application might not have permissions set properly for certain folders that are installed in key OS location (i.e. /Library) would cause the permissions to change.

Think about a process in an Application that is granted a root privilege and does tamper with permissions in folders incorrectly.

The idea of locking the permissions is nice, but that would be implemented at this time with a no-write permission. Unless of course there is lock-permission-only flag is used; something I don't know if it exists.


Log in and out of iTunes account on separate computer Is it possible to use someone else's computer, log out of their iTunes account, log into your own account and access your own library on their computer?

Yes, it's possible, but it takes quite a long time. The simplest way would be to enable iTunes Match on your own computer, and then sign in to the other computer. Another way would be to backup the com.apple.iTunes.plist file in your ~/Library/Preferences directory to an external hard disk, along with the ~/Music/iTunes folder. Then, on the other person's computer, move their com.apple.iTunes.plist file to a safe place (desktop, etc) and copy your com.apple.iTunes.plist file to their Preferences folder (see path above). Then, repeat the process for the iTunes folder in their Music folder.

It's complicated, but it works well for me.

P.S. Don't forget to replace the original person's files.


Can you connect iPhone/iPad to Apple TV without WiFi network in place I would like to make a presentation from an iPhone or iPad using an AppleTV and projector. Is it possible to do so without either a WiFi or LAN network in place (like in a bad hotel)? Is the AppleTV able to act as a WiFi/Bluetooth access point so that iDevice can connect to it and show the presentation? Or is that not possible?

Are there any workarounds for this, or do I have to bring wireless router with me as well?

You cannot connect directly to the Apple TV, so you will have to bring a router.


Getting .profile to execute after .bash_login When I installed RVM, it turns out that it created .bash_login with this:

[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM into a shell session as a function

And I now have to manually source .profile, where my BASH configs are.  How do I get .profile to automatically execute?

Delete ~/.bash_login
Move [[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM into a shell session as a function into the bottom of your ~/.profile.
Success!


Is it now possible to spy on other person's iPhone using microphone? There is this app on the Appstore "Find My Kid" and "Chat with parents". They allow to the first app to start listening to microphone of the second app even without notification. Even when the app is in the background and the screen is off.

So I wonder: How does the app do this?

I think the incorrect part of your question is the word 'spy'.  No, it's not possible to spy or listen to an iPhone's microphone without a notification or without the users consent.

I'm not a developer of these apps but I am an iOS developer with a few apps in the App Store so I'm familiar with the iPhone's API's and App Store review process.  Apple does not provide a way to secretly listen to another device

From reading their product page description, the 'listening' is done using a chat application or Messages.  The app starts recording and then sends the recording to the parents via chat.  It might work different in Android but for iOS that's what it looks like it's doing.  The image below specifically calls out "Android/GPS watch".

There doesn't appear to be anything 'secret' or in violation of Apple's app guidelines in these apps.  The wording on the app's App Store description is vague regarding how they do what they claim.


web sharing doesn't make my website live on internet? I have enabled web sharing in System Preference. Still when I try to access my machine from outside the LAN using safari url: http://my-laptop-ip-address/ I get this - "Can open the webpage"
Why?

It's likely that your router is engaging in Network Address Translation.  In order to see the web page inside your LAN from outside of it...

You'll have to turn on port forwarding on the HTTP port that you're serving (80 is the default) to direct any traffic to the internal address.  This process varies from router to router, so you'll have to look at the manual that came with that device.
It's best to also set up a static IP address for the computer serving the website so that if it reboots, the port forwarding still works.  This is unnecessary if you can port forward using the hostname (not typically supported).  This also varies from router to router.
Direct your clients to your externally-facing IP address.  If you don't have a reserved IP through your ISP, this might change from time-to-time, especially if you restart your modem, so I recommend...
(optional) Get an account at a dynamic dns host such as DynDNS to allow external users to see a persistent address.  You'll have to install some software on the server to periodically make sure that the IP address is correct.


On new iPad, "notify me" button does not function in Find My Friends I want to use the new notify me feature in find my friends, so I can know when they arrive at XX or leave from YY.

I have two friends set up in Find my Friends.

I have upgraded to the new iOS 6. This is a new iPad.

When I am in the find my friends app, I can see the "notify me" button, but it is greyed out slightly and pressing it does not work. Weirdly, if I hold my finger down on it, the classic spinning clock flower icon thing briefly spins as if it started to try something.

Any ideas?

This has to do with your friends and not your device. I haven't nailed down exactly why some of my friends allow me to set geo-fenced alerts and others do not.

I don't see a setting to disable it other than the Show Geofence Alerts From: which implies that I can restrict those I see - not those I share with.

Sorry I can't offer a perfect fix, but this is something on the account / friend's side of things and not a switch you can control on your device.


Dial long USSD code on iPhone I am trying to dial a USSD code like this:

*222*88*56167828873588501034*123*344*6842371612#

But when I press the call button nothing happens, however if I delete the # character at the end, the iPhone tries to call by an instant and then the call ends.

Some shorter USSD codes can be dialed, for example:

*222*88*8202117*04450*234567#

I need suggestions to force long USSD code to be dialed and to know if there is any way to program it in Swift, in that case I could make an app that forces the iphone to dial the codes.

Unstructured service data requests are touchy in my experience.

I usually verify my iOS settings are up to date, then check for a carrier settings update and then go straight to my cellular carrier for help when I can’t use one. They often find a problem with the cell tower or can tell me they flat out don’t support the request I’m making.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data

You’re not hitting the common limit of 182 alphanumeric characters but I’m not familiar with 222 request. Since this brings up a bidirectional channel between your phone and the carrier equipment they should be able to diagnose precisely what’s happening on the tower side. I do my updates so they don’t say “talk to apple” or “restart your device” since it’s really on them to validate that the precise string you sent got encoded and received and look at their logs to see why your request crashed their stack to respond to the request. You know your device is sending and you know your device can send messages millions of times longer - just open Safari and listen or watch to 10 seconds of content. The problem almost certainly isn’t your radio, device, OS.


Bootcamp says "insert windows 7 install disk" When my bootcamp asks me to inset windows 7 install disk, do I need to purchase a physical install disk or do I need to just purchase a windows 7 copy online with a product key?

My Mac's Model is: MacBook Pro: (13-inch, Mid 2010) Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

No, there's no need to buy a physical install disk. You can certainly purchase Windows 7 online to get a product key. The ISO file containing Windows 7 can be downloaded from Microsofts web site, allowing you to install via BootCamp.


Keyboard shortcut to select all text in a cell in Excel Is there a keyboard shortcut key to select all the text in the current cell in Excel, if you are in the process of editing the cell?

The quickest way I've found is the following:
1) tab/select the cell,
2) hit backspace to delete the contents of the cell
3) type Cntrl+Z to undo delete

When the undo function puts the text back into the cell, all text within that cell is automatically highlighted.  Then you can just type Cntrl+C to copy text only.

I found that I needed to highlight all text in a cell in order to be able to paste it back inside another excel sheet whose cells already had other text that I had to leave intact.

Hope this helps!


Iphone 4S is displaying black screen but is still on. Can't restart because lock button is broken I'm trying to fix my brother's phone. The screen is completely unresponsive. I tried swiping around to try getting the passcode wrong to see if it would vibrate to no avail. The phone's lock button is broken, so I can't restart it that way, and it was never used with a computer, so when I tried to plug it in and fix it that way, iTunes asks me to confirm that I want to allow this device access by clicking something on the phone (which obviously I cannot do). I read somewhere that the LCD connector may be loose. Could this be the problem? Is there any way to fix this? Thank you!

It sounds a lot like that to me. You could disconnect and reconnect the LCD cable yourself, if you are comfortable with opening up the iPhone. You would need a special iPhone screwdriver (one with 5-point star tip, AKA pentalobe), which can really only be found online.

You could also take it in to a repair shop, if any are around you, but whatever you choose don't over pay, as a working iPhone 4s is only worth around $100.


MacBook Pro Mid-2012 Hard Drive Cable Broken So I had a problem few days ago. My MacBook was freezing all the time without any obvious reason. Googled for some time and figured out that HD cable was acting funny. So I bought a new one, but my new one came with no brackets. Tried to replace it and broke this little cable

I'm not really sure why but I decided to give it a try and booted it as it is. MacBook runs fine so far. I understand that it needs to be replace and all but can anyone tell me what that cable for and what consequences I can face?

That yellow cable is a IR sensor cable, connected to a ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) connector. If you don't use or plan to use IR for anything you should be fine in my experience.

As an additional reference this guide at the site ifixit.com describes replacing the hard-drive cable on what is most likely your model. Step 14 in the guide describes the yellow sensor cable: iFixit, replace HD-cable on Macbook Pro 13" Unibody mid 2012, Step 14


Submenu for services I have written a small application and want to allow other applications to share data with it.

My first idea was to integrate it into the service menu. However, I need dynamically populated submenus and the Apple dev page for System Services states that "There are no submenus in the Services menu" since 10.6.

Are there any alternatives for integrating into the context menu of other applications and having submenus?

A better place to ask is probably the programmer forum https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/osx

But offhand I think you can make a few different variants of your .app each one registering their own Services action.  Those variants could then launch your "main" app to do the heavy lifting.

These variants could be bundled inside the main application, like I see some examples here:

/Applications/Adium.app/Contents/Frameworks/Sparkle.framework/Versions/A/Resources/finish_installation.app
/Applications/Android File Transfer.app/Contents/Frameworks/Breakpad.framework/Versions/A/Resources/crash_report_sender.app
/Applications/Android File Transfer.app/Contents/Resources/Android File Transfer Agent.app
/Applications/Android File Transfer.app/Contents/Resources/Android File Transfer Agent.app/Contents/Frameworks/Breakpad.framework/Versions/A/Resources/crash_report_sender.app
/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/Versions/26.0.1400.0/Google Chrome Framework.framework/Resources/app_mode_loader.app
/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/Versions/26.0.1400.0/Google Chrome Framework.framework/Resources/crash_report_sender.app
/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/Versions/26.0.1400.0/Google Chrome Helper EH.app
/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/Versions/26.0.1400.0/Google Chrome Helper NP.app
/Applications/Google Chrome Canary.app/Contents/Versions/26.0.1400.0/Google Chrome Helper.app
/Applications/Quicksilver.app/Contents/Resources/QSDroplet.app
/Applications/Stainless.app/Contents/Helpers/StainlessClient.app
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/crashreporter.app
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/plugin-container.app
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/updater.app
/Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Bundles/ActionScript.tmbundle/Support/bin/XTrace.app
/Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Support/bin/CocoaDialog.app
/Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/SharedSupport/Support/bin/CommitWindow.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Accessibility Inspector.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Application Loader.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/OpenGL ES Performance Detective.app
…


My Mac does "copy on select" - how to disable it? Due to reasons I do not understand, my mac (macOS High Sierra, 10.13.6) does "copy on select". I have no idea when it started, and I assume it comes from one of the tools I am using. Is there any way of finding out why it is doing this? I switched of Keyboard Maestro and BetterTouch already, but still the same.

Any suggestions?

I had the same issue and by trial-and-error found out, that it only happened while the Unclutter App is running.

The issue was solved for me after I quit Unclutter. Though this solved the issue for me, your behavior might be caused by some other app...

General recommendation

My suggestion is, that you first quit all clipboard-managers (if you have any). If that does not solve the issue, quit one app after the other, even Dropbox, etc.

Also test, if the issue happens inside a specific editor only. For example, if it only happens inside Visual Studio Code, then you might have installed a plugin in Visual Studio Code that enables the behavior.

When the problem is not limited to a single editor, open your "System Settings > Security > Privacy" panel and check, which apps have access to "Accessibility". Try to revoke all Accessibility permissions...


iOS: Where is /proc/? Where is /proc/ in iOS? Or rather, why is it absent from the root directory structure?
It's typically a crucial interface to the kernel of any UNIX-like operating system; what else is in place to assume this role?
FYI: Following is the main system information and root directory structure of the device in question.

iPhone:~ mobile$ uname -a
Darwin Kernel Version 14.0.0:
Wed Jun 24 00:46:37 PDT 2015;
root:xnu-2784.30.7~30
RELEASE_ARM_S5L8950X
iPhone5,2 N42AP

iPhone:~ mobile$ find / -maxdepth 1
/
/.Trashes
/.file
/.fseventsd
/.ppuntether_inst
/Applications
/Developer
/Library
/System
/User
/bin
/boot
/cores
/dev
/etc
/lib
/mnt
/ppuntether
/private
/sbin
/tmp
/usr
/var

/proc is a pseudo-structure which is available on a lot of Unix systems but not on any version of OS X/macOS or iOS.

Kernel internals accessible through /proc are usually accessible by other means (either with some Terminal command or involving some ObjC/Swift coding) on Apple's iOS/watchOS/tvOS/macOS family of OS that all basically run on top of Next and then Apple's evolution of the Mach microkernel which is the XNU kernel.


How do I prevent incoming call notifications on a non-primary iPhone? I am using an iPhone 6S as my primary work iPhone. I have an old iPhone 4 that I am trying to use as a dedicated baby monitor.

The iPhone 4 has had its SIM card removed, but it maintains WiFi access to our network.

Both are using the same apple ID.

Whenever my iPhone 6S receives a phone call, my iPhone 4 still shows an incoming call. I have gone into phone notifications and disabled everything. I'm not sure what else to disable to prevent it from ringing. Any ideas?

Both are running the latest IOS (10.3.1).

I have had this same problem, and fixed it by first turning off iCloud Drive. This fixes the shared call history between devices. Second, go to Settings -> Phone -> Calls on Other Devices -> Off This fixes calls ringing up between devices

In your case, you could also avoid the problem by turning on Do Not Disturb on the iPhone 4 — that will stop all notifications. It is found in Settings -> Do Not Disturb


High CPU time of Finder in El Capitan I have extremely high CPU time for Finder use after updating to El Capitan version 10.11.0

I've tried:

Rebooting the Mac
Resetting SMC
Resetting NVRAM

The machine is borderline unusable with 100% CPU usage taken by Finder.

What can rein this in or diagnose the issue?

Looking at this Apple forum thread, the first solution was this:

A first guess is: bad com.apple.finder.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/. Delete the file.

Here was another that seemed to help:

I solved this issue by setting my finder preferences for "New Finder window show:"  to my home folder... My issue was that it was defaulting to "All My Files"--- that caused finder to scan everything, images, thumbnails, etc and get up over 100% of cpu usage.


Directory contents into a spreadsheet entry I would like to turn the contents of a folder into entries for Numbers (or Excel) - is there a way to automate doing this?

You can use Automator.app to create a service in finder.

Open Automator.

Create a new service documents
set the the service receives selected Folders in Finder
Add a Get folder contents Action.
Add a Get Run Applescript Action.
replace the applescript content with the applescript below.

.

on run {input, parameters}
    set theCsv to ""
    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in input
        tell application "Finder" to set this_item to displayed name of item i of input
        set this_item to this_item & ",\\n"
        set theCsv to theCsv & this_item
    end repeat
    do shell script "echo " & quoted form of theCsv & " > ~/Desktop/names.csv"
end run

save the document

Now when you select a folder in finder you can use the contextual menu to run the service on the folder.

It will create a .csv file on your desktop of the list. Which will open in Numbers.

Note: if you have more than one folder it will create a single list for both.
It is possible to have it only work on the first folder or both individually

UPDATE:

A quick applescript example to work on multiple folders in selection.
This will create a individual file for each directory in the finder selection

    on run {input, parameters}
        set theCsv to ""

        set pathList to {}
        repeat with i from 1 to number of items in input
            tell application "Finder" to set the Cpath to container of item i of input as alias
            if (Cpath as alias) is not in pathList then
                copy Cpath to end of pathList
            end if
        end repeat

        repeat with a from 1 to number of items in pathList
set this_item to item a of pathList
    set thisFileName to ""
        tell application "Finder" to set thisFileName to displayed name of (this_item as alias)

            set the CSVpath to ""
            repeat with i from 1 to number of items in input

                tell application "Finder"
                    set the Cpath to container of item i of input as alias

                    if container of item i of input as alias is this_item then
                        set theName to displayed name of item i of input & ",\\n"
                        set CSVpath to CSVpath & theName

                    end if
                end tell
            end repeat

     do shell script "echo " & quoted form of CSVpath & " > ~/Desktop/" & quoted form of thisFileName &  ".csv"
        end repeat

    end run

UPDATE 2.
This second example now uses the folder name as the name for the file


Connect to remote Server with macOS Sierra through sftp I recently moved from Ubuntu GNOME (16.04 LTS) to macOS Sierra and I wondered how I could mount a Folder, located on a remote Server, using the sftp protocol.
Ubuntu GNOME (16.04) comes with Nautilus as a File Manager by default, so I used that one for the purpose of having a gui for viewing remote folders.

[Setup with Ubuntu GNOME and Nautilus File-manager][3]

My workflow on Ubuntu was to open the Nautilus File manager

Click "Enter Server Adress"
Selecting the Connection (for example: sftp://user@example.com)
Click "Connect"

I like to have a similar or even simpler solution for these steps on Sierra. However, the Server shouldn't always be mounted. I just want a simple way to connect to certain remote Folders with different usernames when I need to, through a save Connection.

Any Ideas how to do this with Finder on macOS Sierra? I am kind a new to the whole Apple ecosystem, I don't even have a an idea where to look for recommended 3rd party software.

It seems that this is not possible with MacOS Sierra standard tools (sftp via Finder); Macfusion is also no more compatible with Sierra.

As costly alternative you could use Commander Pro, Panic Transmit 4 or Mountain Duck (35-40$).
As less costly alternative you could use Flow from the App Store (~5$).
As a free alternative you could use webdav with Finder (http://...).

What I did was installing winebottler (comes packed together with wine in one .dmg) and then install WinSCP via it. It was quick and worked, but is indeed rather a weird solution... ;-)


How does iOS 5 decide which home screen to put new icons on? I currently have an iPad running iOS 5. There are three home screens, which, for simplicity, I'll call A, B, and C.

A has 7 apps and one folder.
B has 9 apps.
C has 10 apps, one folder, and newsstand (whether that's an app or a folder I don't know).

Whenever I install a new app from the app store, it installs on B. If I move a bunch of apps from C to B so B is full, the new app installs on C.

It seems like apps will never install themselves on A. Is this correct?

Screen A that you refer to is the original 'Apple' home screen. Your observation is correct. The only time an app will install on screen A is when it is already present (or moved by you) and you are updating to a newer version of the app.

All other new apps will be installed in the screen closest to what you define as Screen A when possible (i.e. if Screen B is already full, it will go to screen C and so forth). New apps will never get installed into folders (unless you update the app that is already within a folder)


In Notes.app, how do you add columns to a table? I'm using Version 4.5 of Notes.app

There's an option to add a table. I see that if I tab through the table then rows will be added, but I'm not finding a way to add columns to the table.

Is it possible?

Yes. Add a table and click on it and you should get something that looks like this:

Notice the two small rectangles, One on the left of row 3 and the other on top of column 2. Right-click on these small rectangles and you'll be given an option to add row or column.


iCloud storage doesn't add up As you can see here, my iCloud storage doesn't add up. This also shows the same on my iPhone.
 As you can see, Backups still takes up 3.86 GB of space, even though I deleted it (because i had no space left to backup, deleting the current backup usually allows me to do a new full backup). What can I do to restore my iCloud space?

This might be a little late but I had the same problem. Went to the genius bar and they said to call Apple Care. I called Apple Care three times. The first two people said that there are other item which could be taking up space and couldn't provide a solution. The third one was more experienced and fixed the problem within minutes. She had access to the "iCloud support tools". This is a tool the Apple iCloud team has access to (but we as consumers don't). She used the iCloud storage repair kit and within minutes, my devices refreshed and the free space showed up. Apparently this problem occurs when you upload a file, it gets corrupted, then once deleted, iCloud doesn't recognise the space as being free. Hope this helps.


Why doesn't Airport reconnect after sleep or shutdown? I have a MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, running OS X 10.6.8) that does not reconnect to its stored WiFi network after it restarts or goes to sleep. To reconnect, I need to go into System Preferences and choose a network in Airport settings.  Then it happily reconnects and stays connected.

I saw this question, and tried to delete and re-add my preferred network (I only have one). I went into Advanced, deleted the network, turned Airport off and on, and chose my network from the dropdown. It knew the password already though.

I was going to delete/move the preferences file containing network/WiFi settings, but I can't find it.  Would this be helpful? If so, where is that file stored?  I've already looked through ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences to no avail.

The problem got partially better on its own, and it's not clear why.  There were also a lot of old networks in the list of previous wifi networks in System Preferences, and it helped to delete them.

The complete fix, however, ended up being to go into the list of wireless networks (in System Preferences > Networks > Airport, Advanced) and move the desired network up to the top of the list so it was joined first.  There was one called "linksys" on top that was matching a neighbor's network, and then failing to get internet access for some reason; I think it was added a long time ago for a different network of the same name.

I thought I had tried this before, but either something changed or I didn't actually try it.  I'm asking this question to help me troubleshoot someone else's computer, so I'm not aware of everything that might have changed since I originally posted the question.


How to resolve lock up after mouse click? I have a Mac Book Pro Retina display running OS X Yosemite and recently it has started acting up.  Occasionally, upon a trackpad click, the machine stops responding, you can move the pointer, but the keyboard does nothing and clicking the trackpad does nothing.  Holding down Command-Option-Esc does nothing.  I'm only able to hold down the power button until it forces a reboot when this arises.  Upon boot, the machine reports a graphics error:

A graphics problem has been detected.

  Click "Report" to submit a report about this problem to Apple. This information is collected anonymously. You won't be contacted about this report.

I reported the issue.

I ran the Apple Hardware Test (not the extended version though), but no errors are reported.  Using an external USB mouse has the same issue.

How can I go about resolving this issue?

A possible workaround is to disable graphics switching:

Though this will affect battery life.


How to recover from Time Machine "error creating the backup folder" Today TimeMachine crashed: it isn't making backups... when I try to start a newbackup, I get this error:

Time Machine could not complete the backup "Drive Name".
Could not complete the backup. There was an error creating the backup folder.

I had this problem before and the "solution" was formatting the drive but this time I have a lot of backups and I want to know if there is any other way without having to format my drive.

I had this problem before as well & I need to admit, I just formatted the drive - which is probably the easiest way. If you don't really need any of the old backups, maybe consider this again.

Alternatively you could try to run the Disk Utility App and try to repair your Backup Drive!


Is there a way to rotate multiple photos at once in the camera roll? In iOS on the iPhone I only see a way to select one photo at once in order to then rotate it in the Photos app.

Is there a method or perhaps a third-party app that could perform this?

There's no way to do this without a third-party app or a shortcut at the moment.

If you have a Mac and you are using iCloud Photos sync, you can do it in the Photos app
If you're ready to pay for an app, OneEdit Pro will do the job
You can also use a shortcut like this one : Batch Rotate Images


How to remove Gmail from iPad mail? During iPad setup I configured Gmail as email on iPad, now I want to remove Gmail from my iPad email, how to do it?

Go to the "Settings" app

"Mail, Contacts, Calendars".
Tap on your Gmail account
In the dialog that comes up tap the big red "Delete Account" button at the bottom.


Unable to activate mobile account I am in a dead end.

I am trying to settup mobile account on 10.8 Server, with 10.8 clients.

So far, I got my Open Directory seted up server.name.private
I created a new user in the Users tab, named test
The Home Folder is setted up for my Homes folder, which is on a secondary hard drive.
This file is shared with File Sharing, and have read/write permission for the group of my user.
If I check the folder permission in the Finder, it is strange, but I don't know how to clean them. Each group is there two times, and they have Custom privilege

With Workgroup Manager, I selected my user, went to the Preferences tab, and setted up the Mobility section.
The options for Account Creation are Manage: Always, Account Expiry are Manage: Never and under Rules, Home Sync, I selected Once.

On the client side, I activated the mobile account option, and entered the Open Directory adress.
And when I log in, I put my info test/password, and the message You are unable to log in to the user account "test" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occured.

And here is the log from the server

CFPreferences: user home directory for user kCFPreferencesCurrentUser at /var/teamsserver is unavailable. User domains will be volatile

Does someone have a clue for me?

Thanks!

NB: the account home folder at /var/teamsserver is misspelled by apple. Check it out carefully - it only has one "s". Create a properly spelled folder in var, then run chown to make sure it's owned by teamsserver and you'll be good to go.


How to install a Canon MX860 on MacBook Pro running MacOS 10.12.4? I updated the OS on my late 2013 13" Retina MacBook Pro to MacOS 10.12.4 and found that scanner of my Canon MX860 Multifunction printer did not work any more.

I downloaded and ran the the latest IJ Network Tool, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, I have read through Apple support pages etc and tried various suggestions but have failed to make it work.

I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

You'll need the applications:

Canon IJ Network Tool - this configures the printer/scanner on your for network operation. You can do the initial configuration via USB. It also starts upon login and presents you with a dialog to choose the printer/scanner via its MAC address. It is from the package file mnt_-mac-4_7_0-ea21_3.dmg.
MP Navigator EX 2.1 - this allows you to scan over the network; both scan from the app and from the device's control panel. This is from the package file mnve_5_0-mac-all-5_0_4-ea11.dmg. I've found that version 5.04 of this application does not work on High Sierra (10.13.3). YMMV of course.

Both are available on the Canon support site - https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/printers/support-inkjet-printer/mx-series/pixma-mx860/ from the "Drivers & Downloads" tab -> "Software" sub-tab. Note for 2 above, you'll need to "downgrade" the OS version to Yosemite (10.10).


MacBook Pro stuck on grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel The only thing it will let me do is booting to Safe Mode. After running /sbin/fsck_hfs -drfy /dev/disk0s2 it returned with an incorrect number of extended attributes (it should be 486802 instead of 486801) and disk0s2: i/o error. **the volume macintosh could not be verified completely.**

Running the command once more it returns:

**the volume macintosh could not be verified completely.**
volume check failed with error 5
volume type is pure HFS+
primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
alternate VHB is at block 623463230 0x25294b3e
sector size = 512 0x200
volumeObject flags = 0x07
total sectors for volume = 623463232 0x25294b40
total sectors for embedded volume - 0 0x00
checkHFS returned 5, fsmodified = 1
*****the volume was modified *****
doing update / reload mount for / now
:/root#

sw_vers: Mac OS X 10.9.5

I don't know what to do now. I really am trying to do this myself without spending any money or as little as possible. And I cannot do anything that will wipe out all of the info that is on it.

I/O errors are usually bad news- often a sign of failing hardware. :(

If you don't have a backup already be sure to make one ASAP. For example, try booting in target disk mode (hold the T key while starting up) and connecting to another Mac. From there make a copy and try running Disk Utility to repair the volume.


Copying Time Machine backup, destination takes more than original size, are hardlinks being expanded? I'm copying the backup folder of Time Machine, but it's taking too long, the backup is 90GB and the copy already reports 160GB and there's 60% to go yet, so I suspect it's copying hardlinks as different "solid" versions of the files.
(which would take up much more space than I have avaible, which is 300GB)

I tried making a partition of 120 GB to fit it by restoring from disk utility, but it said there wasn't enough space.

Also tried to restore to a sparse bundle on a partition with 300GB free, but didn't work either.

Is there a better or smarter way of doing this within my 300GB space?

edit & PS: The only alternative if this doesn't work is keeping only the last backup and saying bye bye to the older ones.

PS 2: Time Machine just recognized the old Backup folder and resumed from it even when the OS was freshly re-installed.

If you are using an entire drive for time machine backup, I would suggest using Carbon Copy Cloner latest version with block-to-block copy. I have seen people use Disk Utility for this but I haven't got this to work.
As noted in this answer CCC does not work for TM backups now (since BigSur?) see CCC site


Magsafe charger behaving strange I have a Macbook Pro 15 late 2011.
The charger has started to act funky the last few days.

What happens is that I connect it. Light shows as green on the connector and then switches to orange if it needs to be charged.

Then after a few hours the computer just dies while the light on the charger is green. Clicking the battery check on the side shows full battery. But removing the charger and clicking again shows a totally empty battery.

At this point, reconnecting the charger doesn't show any light at all. I have to wait a few minutes connect/disconnect cables a couple of times. Then it starts charging. Then starting the computer again it keeps charging. Then suddenly at a random battery percentage number the light switches to green and just stops charging.

Disconnecting and reconnecting charger doesn't help and no light is shown again. Restarting here seems to help. But it keeps happening.

Resting SMC and/or PRAM doesn't help. The charger, the white square doesn't get hot.

Any ideas?

Battery info:
Battery Information:

Model Information:
  Serial Number:    D8614...
  Manufacturer: SMP
  Device Name:  bq20z451
  Pack Lot Code:    0
  PCB Lot Code: 0
  Firmware Version: 406
  Hardware Revision:    2
  Cell Revision:    158
  Charge Information:
  Charge Remaining (mAh):   5407
  Fully Charged:    No
  Charging: No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   5628
  Health Information:
  Cycle Count:  913
  Condition:    Normal
  Battery Installed:    Yes
  Amperage (mA):    -2648
  Voltage (mV): 11967

You are nearing the expected cycle count for a battery. According to Apple, your model of MacBook Pro is expected to last for 1000 cycles. You could try swapping the MagSafe charger, but I suspect that the battery is ready to be replaced.

Apple Support - Determining battery cycle count


16GB DIMMs in 2010 Mac Pro I have a Mac Pro running dual Xeon X5675s (3.06 Ghz). I purchased 8 16GB PC3L-8500R DIMMs in the hope of upgrading it to 128GB. It sees all the memory, but it's only running it at 800 Mhz (PC3-8500 should run at 1066 Mhz). Is this a limitation of the amount of memory, or is it something about these DIMMMs that it doesn't like? I tried another CPU card (also with X5675s) and got the same result. With the original 4GB DIMMs, it runs at the expected speed.

ETA: I'm answering my own question. This is apparently a weakness of the architecture. If I remove the fourth DIMM from each bank, the memory runs at the correct speed.

It can run 64GB as dual channel [8's] or 96GB as triple [16s].

From EveryMac - Silver-Colored Mac Pro Q&A

  Actual Maximum RAM

  Although "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro systems with a single
  processor, which EveryMac.com notes as the "Quad Core" and "Six Core"
  models, officially support a maximum of 16 GB of RAM, as discovered by
  site sponsor Other World Computing, they actually can support more.
  OWC first noted an actual maximum of 32 GB of RAM and later increased
  this actual maximum to 48 GB of RAM.

  Systems with dual processors, which EveryMac.com notes as the "Eight
  Core" and "Twelve Core" models, likewise officially support 32 GB of
  RAM, but again, OWC found they actually can support more. OWC first
  confirmed an actual maximum of 64 GB of RAM running Mac OS X 10.5
  "Leopard" and later increased this maximum to 96 GB of RAM running Mac
  OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" or higher. More recently, OWC yet again
  discovered these dual processor models can support up to 128 GB, but
  only when running a 64-bit version of Windows XP or later or Linux.
  Mac OS X only can support 96 GB of RAM.


Why does AT&T claim I used more data than my iPhone does? I reset my data usage in Settings (iPhone 4s) at the start of every billing cycle. Every month I near my data limit of 2GB so it's important to me to be careful of this number. However it seems like every day myAT&T claims my data usage went up by something in the neighborhood of 10 to 30 MB more than the usage statistics in Settings say. Now I'm pretty sure Settings knows how much data is transferred. Why does AT&T inflate this, is there any way to get them to stop, and does any other provider not do this?

The data counters on all phones are approximate, and they're most likely not artificially inflating your data usage. In the future, you can check AT&T's website to track the exact amount of data you'll be billed for.


How can I get all photos in PhotoStream on my iPhone? I recently had to completely reset my iPhone, and now the only photos present in PhotoStream on my phone are the ones that have been added to my PhotoStream account after the reset. How can I force my phone to re-sync all the previous photos as well?

I don't know if this is an answer, but I wanted to add some images, so:

First, what computer / os do you use? Can you see the photos on this computer? If you are using iPhoto or Aperture and the photos you are looking for are not visible in these programs, they have already been removed from the iCloud server and cannot be re-synced to iPhone (at least not through Photo Stream). iCloud only stores the last 30 days worth, or 1000 photos, whichever limit is hit first.

On the iPhone, go to Settings then iCloud (as seen in the first image below).
Next, tap on Photo Stream, and ensure the "My Photo Stream" slider is set to ON (as seen in the second image below).

Finally, (as this is iCloud (grrrh), it might help to turn these settings off, wait a few hours, and turn them on again. I had to do this recently, with photos and mail. Hope this helps.


Downgrade from Safari 12 to Safari 11 How can I downgrade from Safari 12 back to Safari 11?

I’m a blind Mac user, using Voiceover. Safari 12 has various accessibility bugs and thus I need to go back to the latest version of Safari 11.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far: restoring a previous version of my computer from a Time Machine backup. But that didn’t work, because as soon as the system restarted Safari updated automatically, before I could do basically anything.

Any other suggestions?

I’m running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

Go to Mac App Store page for macOS High Sierra and download the installer.

Create a bootable installer for macOS High Sierra by following the instructions in the support document, How to create a bootable installer for macOS:

Use a USB flash drive with at-leat 12 GB of free storage space and run the following command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

Once you have the installer ready, use it to install a fresh copy of macOS High Sierra. Once installed restore your data from Time Machine backup.

Now turn-off automatic updates in System Preferences and manually check for updates. Under Updates in Mac App Store do not choose to update Safari.


Recieving Error Code 60 connecting iCal to OS X Server I have a problem with my Mac mini running OS X Server 10.6.6. I want to use iCal and Address Book on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro.

I started the two services without SSL.
I installed port forwarding on my router: 8008, 8800, 8843, 8443
I added the account on my iPhone and iPad

But now, on my iPad and Mac I get the error: Code 60.

What did I do wrong?

This may help:

Open iCal on your client computer > Preferences
Go to the Accounts tab
Go to Server Settings tab
Make sure there is a port number entered. It should match the port number being used by the iCal server. Originally, this setting was on "Auto" and it worked fine. The "Auto" option no longer works. Also, be sure to check "Use SSL" if you are doing so. (In my setup, I have it on port 8443, with SSL on.)

Also make sure everything has been updated.


Is it possible to activate whichever mail client is connected by default to a mailto link in applescript? So I have an apple script that sends an email via the mail app. I didn't make it myself though.

tell application "Mail"
    set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:mailSubject, visible:true}
    tell newMessage
        set content to mailContent
        set visible to true
    end tell
    activate
end tell

Now I would like to change the script to, instead of opening the Mail app directly, just open a mailto: link with whatever client is configured for that.

Is that possible?

Whatever opens MAILTO:// links is set from within the Mail.app itself Go to Mail > Preferences > General and the top pop-up menu lets you set any installed application that the OS recognizes as being able to respond to those links as the default email application.

There used to be hacks that let a web browser with a webmail client open respond to mailto links but I haven't used one of them in years so not sure if/how that would work.


Disable ALL password prompts in Finder I FREQUENTLY mess with system/hidden files in /Library, /System, /bin, etc. and I'm tired of constantly being prompted for my (20+ Alphanumeric character) password. I'd like to have my "Administer" user account have all permission like root. I know it's a "security" hazard, but my network is locked down, drive is file vault 2 encrypted, and password is crazy complex (good luck dictionary brute-forcers). I can run Finder as root, but how can I make it the default behavior in 10.8/10.9?

Do It Yourself: Option 1
Open a Finder window in Column View. Choose Go To Folder from the Go menu. In the sheet that comes down, type /System/Library/CoreServices. You'll see two Finders there. Click on one of them (just one click!) and make sure it doesn't say "Classic Application" in the preview pane. If it doesn't, then that's the one you want. Hold Option and drag it to the desktop (because you want to duplicate it).
Now rename that app to RootFinder or something. Move it to your /Applications directory. That's all the setup; the only part you have to repeat is from here on in.
Open the terminal. Type:
    cd /Applications
    sudo open -a RootFinder.app

Enter your admin password at the prompt. Note that your desktop picture will change, and a new default Finder window will pop up. Your original Finder windows or other running apps won't be affected, however. Now, you cannot move files from one Finder to the other, but as long as you're using only the root finder (opening new windows will open them as root finder, obviously), you have full root access to the bowels of your system and you can browse directories and copy/move files much more easily.
To get back to where you were, open the Terminal again. Type ps auxc | grep Finder and then sudo kill [PID] and enter the PID of the Finder. The Finder will automatically relaunch in your original account, and your desktop picture will change back.
Source: Create a GUI Finder with root access
Third Party App: Option 2
Would you be interested in LaunchAsRoot?
From their website,
How to use
Drag the application (or a document) you wish to launch as root on top of the LaunchAsRoot application icon in the Finder. You will presented with an authentication dialog. Enter the name and password of an administrator to allow the application to be launched by LaunchAsRoot. LaunchAsRoot quits after launching the application.
How to use Service:
Control-click on the application (or a document) in the Finder and select "Launch As Root" from the Services contextual submenu. You will presented with an authentication dialog. Enter the name and password of an administrator to allow the application to be launched by LaunchAsRoot. LaunchAsRoot quits after launching the application.


Apple Script for autotyping I'd just like to know how to add multiple lines in my autotyper.

Currently, all that it can do is repeat the same lines over and over again, which is "NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE".

I'd like to find out how to add multiple different lines of text, then for the lines to repeat.

Here is my current code:

tell application "System Events"
delay 1
set textToType to "NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE"
    repeat
        delay 5
        keystroke textToType
        keystroke return
    end repeat
end tell

If you absolutely must do it by AppleScript, the simplest way is just to concatenate your textToType with ready-inserted returns.
If you copy/paste multi-line text, AppleScript will insert new line characters \n but these don't actually translate well in other apps

set textToType to "NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE" & return & "Notice 2" & return & ¬
"Notice 3" & return & "Notice 4" & return
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke textToType
end tell

The little 'sideways L' ¬ just tells Applescript that this new line is not a new script line but a continuation of the previous one - so it doesn't scroll right off the page.

Without it the line would look like this

set textToType to "NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE" & return & "Notice 2" & return & "Notice 3" & return & Notice 4" & return

Personally, this is the kind of task I would give to Apple's built-in text replacement function rather than AppleScript.

System Prefs > Keyboard > Text

Hit + at the bottom, type in your trigger word, then copy/paste from something like TextEdit, which will correctly keep your carriage returns.
[You cannot add carriage returns directly in that pref pane, you have to copy/paste an existing source. You also cannot see a multi-line replacement correctly in the pane - but it will be exactly as you copied it, in use.]

Then, every time you type your trigger, it will replace it with your multi-line paste.

After comments - if you need a delay between each line, then you cannot concatenate & must send each call separately

tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE" & return
    delay 5
    keystroke "Notice 2" & return
    delay 5
    keystroke "Notice 3" & return
    delay 5
    keystroke "Notice 4" & return
end tell


Why does this AppleScript not run in Outlook? I would like set up an inbound rule in Outlook to run applescript on certain messages.

However the rule fails with the following message:

While processing message "Test" (ID 39523), the rule "untitled" could not be successfully executed. An unknown error has occurred in Outlook.

I've tried with scripts that different things, such as displaying a dialog in another application:

Tell application "Adobe Illustrator" to display dialog "hallo"

or in Outlook itself:

Tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to display dialog "hallo"

or do a shell action:

do shell script "touch /Users/cesansim/Desktop/iamapony.txt"

and all of them work OK when launched from the command line via osascript, but do not from within Outlook.

Also, other actions (for example setting the message to read) run by rules work OK. Is it possible that on my corporate Mac there's a security setting blocking AppleScript? And how do I turn that off?

Thanks.

The script does not get recognized by Outlook as such because it has been saved as text (I created it inside Aquamacs).

If I open it in the AppleScript Editor and export it as script, then it works.

I found the solution here (third message from the top)


Build cask formula from source Is it possible to build cask formula from source instead of installing the corresponding pre-built app-file?

No.

Homebrew-cask is for binary distribution.
Downloading binary and place appropriately is all what Homebrew-cask does.

If you look in a cask (package installation script), you'll notice there's no url for source file (.tar.gz) but only for binary file (.dmg, .zip, etc.).