How can I assign different characters to different keyboard shortcuts on Mac? I am using Macbook Air with OS 10.8.2. I bought my MAC from the US, and then moved to another country. Therefore, I had to change my keyboard language.

The problem is the keyboard layout is not the same.
For instance when I type:

Shift + 9 it is supposed to show '('. But instead it shows ')'

There are a lot of similar shortcuts.

What I want it when I type Shift + 9 on my keyboard, I want to show '(' which is the same character that is written on the physical keyboard.

I want to reassign characters to these shortcuts.

I tried a software called Ukelele, but could not get it to work well for me.

If you have used Ukelele before, please let me know how can I do it step by step.

Otherwise do you have any other solutions for me?

If the manual provided with Ukelele is not sufficient, you can ask for help with specific problems at the users group

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/ukelele-users

It might be easier to just use the US Extended layout.  Shortcuts for Turkish special characters are

option c, then c  ç
option b, then g  ğ
option w, then i  ı
option u, then o  ö
option c, then s  ş
option u, then u  ü

PS Have you tried the Turkish Qwerty layout (instead of Turkish Qwerty PC) in system prefs/language & text/input sources?  It may also do what you need via the option keys while keeping the usual other shortcuts.


How can I make SwiftKey keyboard show up when replying to messages in lock screen? I have SwiftKey keyboard installed on my iPhone (5, iOS 11).

When I am in normal apps (e.g. Google Hangouts), it is possible to use it.

However, when I hit "Reply" to Hangouts messages on Lock Screen (which doesn't open full app), it only lets me use built in iOS keyboard, not Swift. I think the same happens when filling in password.

How can I have SwiftKey used as a keyboard 100% of time?

If you have Touch ID or Face ID, make sure to unlock your phone with your finger/face before tapping the reply button.

Otherwise the best shortcut there is, is to unlock your phone with your passcode and then drag down notification center from the top of the screen. Then press the reply button from there.


How can I recover files off this disk that won't mount? I have an HFS+ disk that will not mount.  I've tried it in multiple enclosures, and the problem is the disk itself.  Disk Utility says it cannot repair, and so does DiskWarrior.  With fsck I get this weird output.

$ sudo fsck_hfs /dev/disk4
** /dev/rdisk4 (NO WRITE)
   Executing fsck_hfs (version hfs-285).
volumeType is 0
0000:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000       |................|
. . .
01b0:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00fe       |................|
01c0:  ffff eefe ffff 0100 0000 af6d 7074 0000       |...........mpt..|
01d0:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000       |................|
. . .
01f0:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 55aa       |..............U.|

Here is some output from syslog:

9/29/16 08:11:58.747 diskarbitrationd[67]: unable to repair /dev/disk4s2 (status code 0x00000008).
9/29/16 08:11:58.752 diskarbitrationd[67]: unable to mount /dev/disk4s2 (status code 0x00000001).

Disk4 is the whole disk device and no slice with an (HFS) file system. The output is the content of block0 omitting most lines containing only zeros. Block zero often is equivalent to the MBR/pMBR of a disk. Block0 doesn't contain a file system!

To verify/repair a file system, you have to choose a particular partition and the volume has to be mounted. The common external disk has two partitions: the EFI and the main volume - so try:

sudo fsck_hfs -f /dev/disk4s2

If the external disk has more than one visible volume, enter diskutil list and choose the appropriate partition (e.g disk4s3 or disk4s4).

If fsck_hfs fails to mount and/or repair the disk, try a data recovery tool like Data Rescue, R-Studio, Disk Drill etc.

If they also fail contact a professional data recovery specialist like Kroll Ontrack.


iMac login screen is very slow (Mojave) Whenever I wake up my iMac, the login screen takes very long time to respond (roughly 8 seconds). This happens on Mojave (I cannot remember if it also happened in the previous OS but I think it did).

I emphasize that it does not happen on my MacBook Pro which is the same OS Mojave. Therefore I think it's an iMac issue.

What can fix this issue?

Is the iMac an older model with a hard disk instead of an SSD? It takes a while for hard drives to 'spin up' compared to an SSD in a newer MacBook Pro.


Why won't my iPad sync photos ("not enough memory") when it's half empty? When I try to sync my iPad, it aborts on the last step, indicating that it can't be synced, becuase "not enough memory is available":

But I have LOTS of room:

And it all fit before - I actually have about 8GB of photos that all fit with  ~20GB to spare until today.   The above image is after I set it to only sync the last 20 photo projects (I'm using aperture) to see if space was really an issue, and it's clearly not.

However, photos do seem to be a part of the problem:   if i turn off photo sync, it works, but if I reduce the photos being synced (sunk? syunk?) to a de minimis number, it doesn't.

The catalyst for the problem is pretty likely either the new version of itunes or of OSX, as both were upgraded just before the problem manifested.  Any help?  I miss my pictures.

I have had iTunes go off the deep end thinking there were far too many photos.

I have had luck with several tacks so I presume there are a few bugs - one of which you may have run into:

Take the device to another computer (or another iTunes library on a shell account) and let it sync and erase all photos on iOS. Taking it back to the main iTunes library which has the correct photos sometimes works. I presume the error was an accounting one on the iPad when this works.
Change photo sync to a simple folder with a jpeg or two, sync it, and then change back to the settings I prefer. (rarely works)
Rebuild the affected library in Aperture or iPhoto - this seems to force new data into the media browser so iTunes is forced to take a better look at the sizes for your albums and photos as organized.

Sorry I don't have a sure fire answer - but maybe you haven't tried all of these or it sparks an idea of something else you can try.


Simulate how a volume is mounted using diskarbitrationd I'm attempting to emulate how a volume is normally mounted for my NTFS volume that I've added to /private/etc/fstab. Normally, when a volume is found, like an external hard drive, it is mounted and then a shortcut to that volume is put on the Desktop and in the Finder left-hand sidebar. However, since to mount a NTFS volume as read-write in fstab, the flag nobrowse must be added, this prevents it from showing up on the desktop and in Finder's sidebar.

My research has pointed me to diskarbitrationd as the program that listens for new volumes and mounts them. I'd like to emulate the automatic adding of shortcuts to the desktop and Finder and removal on volume unmounting, and I'd like to make a script that listens for information from diskarbitationd and do the processing for me.

How would I hook into diskarbitrationd and listen for new events, then add the shortcuts to the desktop and Finder after the volume is mounted?

Thanks for your help!

You hook into diskarbitrationd by using Apple's Disk Arbitration framework. Basically you call DASessionCreate() to create a DASessionRef, and then register one or more notification callbacks.

You would need to register for the DARegisterDiskMountApprovalCallback. This gives you a notification whenever diskarbitrationd is going to mount something new. By returning a DADissenterRef from this callback, you can prevent diskarbitrationd from actually mounting the file system.

Then you can mount the file system yourself and create shortcuts etc. using standard methods, such as the mount() system call.

Here's a direct link to the page in the programming guide, you'll need to examine:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/DriversKernelHardware/Conceptual/DiskArbitrationProgGuide/ArbitrationBasics/ArbitrationBasics.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009310-CH2-SW1


2011 i5 27" imac wired keyboard does not power up I have tried 3 keyboards and every one does not get power until after OS X starts it's boot sequence, it seem the USB bus is not getting power until about a minute after startup. I am therefore unable to launch diagnostics, reset NVRAM, PRAM and all the other good stuff I need at present because my SSD is dying and I'd like to upgrade it's firmware

Any ideas?

Plug out the iMac (from power) for 15+ seconds to reset SMC.


Mac use Cmd-Opt-Control-Shift-, (comma) as a hotkey Is there a way to use CommandOptionControlShift, as  hotkey?

The same modifier keys (CommandOptionControlShift) work fine with letters, but I can't seem to make it do anything when using the , key.

Is it a system hotkey that needs to be removed from a plist somewhere? Or is it something deeper that can't be reassigned at all?

Command-Option-Shift-Control-, starts a system diagnose process. I'm not really sure about the specifics, but try it and you'll get a zip archive with some information in it.


What app could open text from anywhere in the editor of your choice? On my previous installation, I had a small tool that took text from e.g. a web form after pressing e.g. ⌘ + E, pasted it in the editor of my choice where I would edit it. After saving, it was pasted back to the original place. The app was on the App Store in its early days, later pulled and still available from GitHub.

I can't remember its name, can you?

Thanks.

Thanks to jherran’s comment I found the app: QuickCursor from Hog Bay Software (GitHub repository).


How do I get the calculator button on a Microsoft Sculpt keyboard working? I'm on a MacBook Pro using Microsoft's Ergonomic Sculpt Desktop (i.e. keyboard, mouse, and number pad). The Number Pad looks like this and as you can see has a Calculator button. Unfortunately, on Macos, it seems that Calculator button does nothing. I would have expected it to ideally have opened the Calculator app, but it does nothing.

Incidentally, I happen to use a separate tool called "Better Touch Tool" (similar to Karabiner I think) to remap certain keystrokes, and I thought that perhaps I could use this tool to map whatever button press this Calculator button generates to a custom action that would open the Calculator app. However, BTT doesn't even detect a key press at all when I press the Calculator button. I don't see that Microsoft has made any drivers for Mac for this keyboard available so does that mean I'm stuck?

Does that mean this button is just totally unusable on Macs?

If macOS isn't "seeing" the scan code then there's not much that can be done in mapping it - it's got to see it to map it.

There is a utility you can use that can verify if the keyboard is sending the code or not - xev.  You'll need to run it in XQuartz which is an X11 environment.

Using the following command, you can get the output of each keypress

xev | grep -A2 --line-buffered '^KeyRelease' \
| sed -n '/keycode /s/^.*keycode \([0-9]*\).* (.*, \(.*\)).*$/\1 \2/p'

Below is some random keypresses on my wired Unix keyboard attached to my Mac.

I've used this to test and map Sun Microsystems Type 5, 6, and 7 keyboards on my Mac and can verify that it detected the extra keys.  If xev can see it, it means that the scancode is being sent, it's just the HID kexts macOS uses are insufficient.

Can it be fixed?

That would be a software development question outside my and this site's scope.

Bottom Line

If it's not being detectable at all, it's unusable.  If it is being detected, there's a chance of using it, but you'll need an application to see the keypress to utilize it.

(You might want to try ControllerMate)


App like Lightroom and Photos to display geotagged images in a map I am looking for a Mac app to display locations of the geotagged photos in a folder using google maps.

I don't want to import them from Photos because:
a)  It is not practical to import several large images (10Mb+), get the info I am looking for (for example clicking on one of the sample thumbnails to see which photos were took in that place) and then delete all of them at the end.
Why that? Because I don't want Photos Library increased (it is linked to iCloud)
.
b) I don't like encapsulated data, specially because I access image folders from other computers in other OS.
I know it is possible using Lightroom but I am looking for a solution where I don’t have to pay majority of the features when I want just a map.
an interactive map where I can see images and explore them is a needed function

Edit 1:
Google Maps because it seems to me that it has more information. I also has Street

Comment 1: I am having a very simplified screen, no way to just put a thumbnail instead of a large photo, no preview screen

Check out HoudahGeo — it's an inexpensive Mac app that lets you easily drag and drop photos to view on a map, edit location info, etc.


How to tell generation of Intel processor of Macs on Apple's website? I'm trying to understand if both the non-touch bar and touch bar versions of Apple's new MacBook Pros have the same generation of processor inside, but Apple does not seem to list generation of processor on it's website under tech specs (which is very misleading because based on the clock speed and i5/i7 listing, it makes it look as if it's last generation MacBook Pros have better processors than its newest machines).

I notice that the non-touch bar MacBook Pro has slower RAM, but I'm not sure if this is because it's using an older processor or not.

How can I get better technical details on the MacBook Pro processors (such as the generation) without having the MacBook in hand?

I'd check out other resources, such as EveryMac: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/index-macbookpro.html

Although the details aren't there yet, they will be shortly, and they include the full CPU specs you're looking for.

Wikipedia also has details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro#Technical_specifications_4

Unclear what their source is though.


Why I can only input English in iFile? In order to search files, I want to input Chinese. But when I point to the input field. It shows English keyboard and I cannot change the language input. Why? Thank you very much.

When preferences are set in iOS through Settings.app, they apply to the current user, which is mobile. These preferences are written to ~/Library/Preferences.

Apps such as iFile which run as root obtain their preferences from the root user, which by factory is set the same on all devices. Changing settings in mobile doesn't affect root, as it should. This is useful in case you make a change that means the mobile user cannot log in.

This is also reflected in that Cydia Substrate which runs as mobile is not in effect in root apps such as iFile. That Cydia runs as mobile now has lead to a number of Substrate tweaks which were not possible before.

I'm not certain how to change root preferences, but I wouldn't want to either as changes to root could break its ability to log in which may cause iOS to not be able to log in. I recommend you copy text from another app which runs as mobile and allows you to use your preferences in keyboard.


How do I change the iTunes country while maintaining Family Sharing? My whole family is moving to different countries. My sister and I are going off to university in Europe and my parents are moving to Southeast Asia. And we are all linked with Family sharing as we share Apple Music.

So how do I change my location on Apple with my parents being in a different country? Can the "child" even be in a different country?

This only thing I can think of doing is getting a new family sharing set up, but I'm still not sure it can allow different countries.
Should I abandon the Family Sharing altogether?

Thanks in advance.

Family sharing is country-specific. You cannot have accounts in multiple countries in the same "family".

That said, if you don't change the region of your iTunes accounts, nothing will change. Once you change the region of the account, you will only be able to be in a "family" with other members in the same region.


Partition type FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF, drive unmountable Yes, I already tried this one: Partition type suddenly FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF, drive unmountable

My main partition is in this ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff format or whatever it is. And I need all the Data on this disk3s2.

Here is a picture of my Disk, a couple of hours ago:

disk3s1: EFI
disk3s2: Macintosh (ffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff partition with all of my Data on, I want this Data!)
disk3s3: Apple_HFS Recovery HD
disk3s4: New (Another useless Partition, its empty.)
disk3s5: Apple_Boot Recovery HD

What I did to try to repair my disk:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk3
sudo gpt destroy /dev/disk3
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk3
sudo gpt create -f /dev/disk3

sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk3

So whenever I try to add another partition, I get this Error:

gpt add: /dev/disk3: error: no space available on device

Please help if you have any suggestions, I lost a lot of important Data!!!

Update:

diskutil list

leads to this:

 /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage SSD                     119.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            SSD                    +118.8 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 ...deleted it...
                                 Unencrypted

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *320.1 GB   disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1

and

sudo gpt -r show disk3

leads to this:

    start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  624732774
  625142414         32         Sec GPT table
  625142446          1         Sec GPT header

The volumes could be recovered in a TeamViewer session by searching for special strings similar to the method outlined in this answer: My SATA hardrive was ejected, and is unable to be remounted due to issues.

The assumptions made:

disk3s4 (24.6 GB) and disk3s5 (650 MB) are located at the end of the disk (see diskutil list screenshot of the question - both vanished after destroying the old partition table with sudo gpt destroy /dev/disk3)
disk3s2 (Macintosh) occupies/occupied the whole unallocated disk space (except the 1st Recovery HD) of ~294 GB and is encrypted.

To get the starting block of the first Recovery HD enter (which has to be in the 271 GiB - 274 GiB or ~291 GB - ~295 GB range of the disk)

sudo hexdump -s 271g /dev/disk3 | grep "48 46 53 4a"

(hexdump uses GibiBytes instead of GigaBytes!) which revealed:

447f801400 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
447f828a00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
447f840c00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 20 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
447f871e00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
...

0x447f801400 is Byte 294196876288 (or block 574603274) of the disk. Since the string HFSJ resides in the third block of a volume, the Recovery HD starts with block 574603272.

The typical output if the previous volume wasn't a FileVault but a normal HFSJ volume would look like this instead:

447f800c00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 20 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 01 ff
447f801400 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
447f828a00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
447f840c00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 20 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
447f871e00 48 2b 00 04 80 00 21 00 48 46 53 4a 00 00 00 06
...

The first and second byte number show a difference of 0xc00-0x1400=0x800 or 2048 Bytes because the preceding OS X volume has an alternative volume header in the second last block while FileVault volumes don't have one.

The Recovery HD has a fixed size of 1269536 blocks and it can be added with gpt to the partition table.

sudo gpt add -i 3 -b 574603272 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk3

Now verify the volume with

diskutil verifyVolume disk3s3

If the partition boundaries and the volume are/is OK you'll get an exit code 0.

In the unallocated disk space between EFI and Recovery HD a CoreStorage partition was added:

sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 574193632 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk3

The FileVault password window popped up and the password was entered - so it  was added successful probably.

The disk and the volume were verified with:

diskutil verifyDisk disk3
diskutil verifyVolume disk3s2

which both exited with code 0 and all was fine.

Later the FileVault volume was extended to the full size of the disk with:

diskutil cs lvUUID resizeStack 318g #with lvUUID: the Logical Volume UUID of the second CoreStorage container


Samsung SSD Firmware Update Power Cycle on MBP I am trying to install the firmware update for my Samsung 840 Series (250GB) on my MacBook Pro 13" (early 2011). As explained in Samsung's installation guide I downloaded the respective .iso file and created a bootable DVD.

Just before I wanted to reboot from the DVD I read in the installation guide that for some systems the firmware update utility will ask you to power cycle the drive meaning that you have to disconnect the SSD from the SATA and power cable for a short moment.

So I guess, the only way to install this firmware update is by removing the SSD and putting it into some SSD enclosure which will be connected to my MBP, right? Is there really no way to update while still having the SSD inside my MBP?

The back cover of the MacBook Pro does not need to be on in order to operate.  You can even have the drive brackets removed.  Simply use a piece of non-conductive tape (I've used blue painters tape) to temporarily hold the drive in place.  I've also found that this works best at the edge of a desk or table with a towel or large mousepad for the MBP to rest on when I have it inverted.

If you are required to power cycle the drive, carefully turn over your MBP ensuring you don't close the lid,  pull the drive up, disconnect and reconnect the drive's SATA connector.  This will power the cycle the SSD.

Once that's done, you can turn the MBP back over and continue the process.


Is it possible to know the last time my iPhone was online? My iPhone was stolen about two months ago, and the company wants to know the date which I lost it.

Is it possible to recover information to the last time it was turned on?

Go to iCloud - Find My iPhone, and select your device. You can also see where it is right now, and you can lock and erase it.

What's required though is that you have to had iCloud set up before it got stolen.


How can I change the Google search locale with OS X Lion Safari 5 Whenever I perform a search in Safari it takes me to google.com. I am in the UK, so results for eShops etc the results are not relevant - I need google.co.uk.

How do I change the search engine? I don't want to use the Glims plugin because it interferes with the toolbar in a subtle way that I don't like (I can explain if necessary).

From a few articles I found, it sounds like this isn't directly supported in Safari.

However, there is a Safari extension that will redirect google.com to google.co.uk and should take care of your problem. (This is a simple extension, using the built-in mechanism, and not a plugin.)


Mac thinks USB is the wrong format I have a USB drive that I cleaned and formatted as FAT32 on my Linux machine because Diskutil disableOwnership wouldn't work.  I plugged it into the Windows machine with the files I need and copied them onto the USB with no problems.  But when I plugged the USB into my Mac, it gave the error, "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."

I reopened terminal and ran diskutil info.  Here's the output for the particular disk:

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *30.8 GB    disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         4.1 KB     disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                         2.4 MB     disk2s2

Windows and Linux are both recognizing the disk correctly as a FAT32, but MacOS thinks it is an Apple Partition scheme.  What is a possible cause?  Is there a way to force MacOS to recognize the disk correctly?

Note: The reason I formatted the disk with Linux was that I get the error "Couldn't modify the partition map" when I use Diskutil to erase the disk.

This question has a comment that FAT32 is not best for Mac. Can you format disc as ExFAT? That would be best if you want this to be cross-platform or HFS+ for Mac only. Reformatting a drive will delete all data on the drive.


Open Office files from Finder in the same screen When opening files from a Finder window, I want them to open in the active Space, regardless of the application already being open on another Space. Instead, they open in whatever Space already happens to have an open window of the application. I've noticed this particularly with Microsoft Office programs, as I tried to reproduce it with Preview and Terminal windows but they seemed to behave properly, so I think that this problem lies within the MS Office suite.

I imagine that this is related to this question, but this occurs with windows that aren't minimized. Similarly, I've already unchecked three of the options in mission control;

Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use
When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application
Group windows by application

If there are any known methods of disabling this behavior it would be much appreciated.

Apple's website:

  If you work in multiple spaces, you can assign apps to particular spaces.

  Press and hold an app’s icon in the Dock. You may have to first open the app from Launchpad to see its icon in the Dock.
  From the shortcut menu that appears over the icon, choose one of these:
  To have the app open only in the current space, choose Options > This Desktop. From now on, the app will open in the current space; if you are working in a different space, the app’s space scrolls into view.

  This setting doesn’t apply to full-screen windows, which always appear in their own separate spaces.

  To have the app open in every space, choose Options > All Desktops. From now on, when the app is open it will appear in every space.

  To have the app open in the space you are currently using, choose Options > None.

  In Mission Control preferences, you can specify that when you switch to an app, your desktop should scroll to a space with open windows for that app.

THis should allow you to choose Office programs to open in that desktop


Migration from one Macbook to another I am going to buy new Macbook and want to transfer all my programs and data to it.  I have googled and as I see the Migration Assistant the best way to do it.  Is it right ?

If it is, I have additional questions:

What is the best way to transfer:  from old Macbook or from Time Capsule ?
My old Macbook have OS X 10.10 installed.  The new one will have 10.9 version.  Can I use Migration Assistant in this case or it will be better to upgrade the new Macbook to 10.10 firstly ?

The Migration Assistant was made by Apple for one purpose only, so it is the best way to migrate from one device to another.

As for the 10.10 since it is still in beta phases, the Migration Assistant on the host computer might not work as it should, since beta phase testing is not completed yet.

Since 10.10 has it own way of managing the files ect... the transfer to 10.9 might have problems with that.

10.10 Release notes:

OS X 10.10 Installation
Known Issues
Migration Assistant may hang while transferring your information from a Time Machine backup. To proceed with the login, quit the Installer.


What is the location of background image set from Safari? Safari allows you to set any image as desktop background right from the browser.

Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane will then display it as Safari Desktop Picture.

No filename, no location, and if I change it, seems like the picture is lost.
I find it frustrating because, although I frequently change wallpapers, I'd like to keep each of them.
I could as well download the file manually but isn't this what Use As Desktop Picture exists for?

So, the question is:

  Where is this image actually stored on my hard drive?
  How do I retrieve it?

Open ~/Library/Safari/.
It is there, called Safari Desktop Picture.jpg (or whatever the extension is).

If you're on Lion, to get to Library folder you may open Finder, select Go from the top menu and  hold ⌥ Option. The normally hidden Library menu will reveal itself in the folder list. Open it, and proceed to Safari subfolder.

If you're not on Lion or just prefer the quick way, open Finder, press ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Cmd + G to open directory prompt and paste ~/Library/Safari/:


TCP Test Tool for Mac OS X I have been using this simple TCP Test Tool on Windows. It is a very basic GUI for listening ports and making TCP requests, yet it was very handy. However I could not find anything similar which works on Mac OS X.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

You might also find Wireshark useful.  I found a good video on Youtube to getting it setup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxeHm0BKdwc

All the steps in the video may no longer be necessary as the changelog for version 1.6.0 says the following:

  Wireshark is now distributed as an installation package rather than a drag-installer on OS X. The installer adds a startup item that should make it easier to capture packets.


All Safari Tabs lost after installation of Mojave I had a lot of research tabs open in Safari. But all lost after installing Mojave.

I have Time Machine if that is of any help. I also checked "restoring all tabs from last session" without any success.

I'm a doomed or is there help? Thank you so much in advance!

Unfortunately I can only guess here, but it might be worthwhile to look at ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState/ (that's a symlink to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState/). It seems the information is saved as raw data (except one general plist file, maybe that can at least give you some hints), but perhaps you can simply replace that from a TimeMachine backup. Be careful with that however, perhaps the reason why the tabs are gone in the first place was a change in the data format.

If that does not work you can try to look through your history (⌘-Y in Safari), though that's gonna be tedious.


Why does the iPhone have a physical sound-switch? I'm new to the iPhone world, although I've been down iPod lane for a few years. One thing that is well-known (and even parodied) about Apple devices is the slimmed down and minimalist approach.

So it strikes me as odd that there's a dedicated switch on the side, just for silent mode.  There's already the control center for many similar 'quick go to' things, which also includes 'do not disturb' (which in turn doesn't seem that different to me).

So what's up with the one-function switch on the side?

The late Mr. Jobs felt it was essential to be able to mute a cell phone without pulling it out of your pocket, and/or in the dark, with minimal light disturbance, without having to hold it up to see it, without being distracting to the reason you are muting the phone in the first place. IIRC, he actually described something to this effect at the original iPhone unveiling 29 June 2007


I blocked someone from contacting me on iPhone. I then sent an angry message to them that I regret. Did they see the message? I know this sounds petty. It is. Regardless, I must know the answer. I was angry with the person I have an intimate relationship. I blocked him on my iPhone, in his contact profile, so that he could not contact me. I then sent him a message while I was still upset, a message I truly regret. Did he receive the message?? I still have him blocked because I don't think either of us are ready to talk.

Blocking someone and being able to send them messages are two different things:

  Yes, you have only blocked seeing that they called or texted you. Blocking has nothing to do with outgoing calls or texts.

Your iMessage has most likely been delivered to, and displayed on, one or more of the recipient’s iOS and macOS devices.


Got a Java process with about 4 GB memory consumption after just starting up macOS I recently found there is a Java process with more than 4 GB memory in my MBP, and it respawned after I force quit it.

After restarting the computer and entering safe mode, the process does not appear in. And I removed all the LoginItems of my account and cleared the path /Library/StartItems/, and restart in normal mode. Then the problem still there: a java process appeared after about a minute when entering the system. And seems the process do nothing...

I have no idea where the process come from and how to totally remove it.

OS: High Sierra 10.13.2

Yes, Allan's solution in his comment

Issue the command sudo launchctl list | grep 458 This will list the service associated with that process ID. Note that the PID may change, so check activity monitor for the PID number before issuing the command.

worked very well (In this case as the rogue process was run as the current user this worked without "sudo" also).
For me also it is Cassandra which is consuming the memory.


OS X Mail - How can I setup multiple e-mail addresses under the same mail account? OS X Mail - How can I setup multiple e-mail addresses under the same mail account?

I use two addresses with the same account one is me@myworkdomain.com and the other is me@mypersonaldomain.com. On iOS I can add the second address to the mail account configuration and I can send from both.

How is this done on OS X's Apple Mail?

To add another email address to an account you add it to the email field.

Each address is separated by a comma.  ","

But note just because you can add it does not mean you email provider will accept an address from a different provider/domain.

Edit: As of macOS Sierra, the procedure is slightly different. The "Email Address" field is now a dropdown, and you add additional addresses by selecting "Edit Email Addresses..." from this dropdown.


Is there an iOS SMS Texting app that allows parent to get a record of all texting messages? My son (pre-teen) received an iPod Touch for Christmas.  He has a friend that does not have an iOS device.  But his friend can text.  I am still at the stage and my son is still of the age that I would like to have a way to know when he is texting and what he is texting.  Is there an app for that?

[It could be something that allows me to setup an account and login to a website to see activity.]

I found this app.
SMS Touch that allows you to setup email address to send copy of SMS content.  SMS are purchased in app.
Net Nanny are also bringing out an iOS app to monitor and restrict iOS devices in young persons hands. details  here

NET NANNY FOR IOS includes Filtering (18 categories), Age-based Profiles, Safe Search, Profanity Masking, and supports Wi-Fi/3G/4G.
NET NANNY SUITE FOR IOS includes all the features of Net Nanny for iOS plus Remote Administration, Reports, Custom Categories, Whitelist/Blacklist. Future releases within the next few months will include Time Controls, Custom Alerts, Reports, and device management tools such as Device Locate and Forced Ring. All new features will be auto-updated for existing users.


Can we use Apple Remote Desktop to hold internal meetings screen to screen over LAN ? Like Join.me I administer the computers in our office which run a mix of 10.10.5 and 10.11.5.

To assist with problems I use Apple Remote Desktop allot to view and control users' computers. What I tend to do is control their computer whilst on the phone to them and talk them through why it happened etc.

What i think would be really useful is if I could give users limited access to Apple Remote Desktop to say have "view only" access which was only allowed if the user's computer they want to access accepts and external connection something like "xxx wants to share your screen, click Ok to continue". This way members of staff could have impromptu mini meetings screen to screen which would be very useful. Is that possible ?

I know I can do it via Teamviewer or join.me but would prefer it to run on the local network via Apple Remote Desktop.

Can you do it?

Yes.  It's a bit sketchy to do this using ARD, but you can.  There is one massive caveat, however.  You will need a license for every client you wish to install ARD on.

From the ARD License Agreement

  (i) to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running OS X (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control; and

  (ii) if you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, to
  download, install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software for
  use either: (a) by a single individual on each of the Mac Computer(s)
  that you own or control, or (b) by multiple individuals on a single
  shared Mac Computer that you own or control. For example, a single
  employee may use the Apple Software on both the employee’s desktop Mac
  Computer and laptop Mac Computer, or multiple students may serially
  use the Apple Software on a single Mac Computer located at a resource
  center or library.

This can get quite expensive especially when the ARD software is $79 per install.
That, and it's overkill.  You really don't want to give users admin level tools to just share a screen with a group for a meeting.

When I worked in the edu space, one of the products we used was Splashtop.  It allowed folks to share their screens from either Mac or Windows machines.  It was designed to do specifically what you are requesting - allow users to share their screens.  We had an enterprise license but I believe the license for each user is under $20


HDD shows as "Untitled" în Disk Utility I have another HDD problem.
I had a broken enclosure witch was acting really weird. It freezes up the finder at some point and I wasn't able to do anything else but to unplug it so "force eject" witch it seems that it was bad for my hdd.

After a few of those One of my external stop appearing in Finder or anywhere else but shows  as "Untitled" in Disk Utility and cannot be mounted. The name "untitled" wasn't actually the name of the volume I had so I guess something happened there.

I have a bunch of data on it. I've tried "first aid" and everything seems fine, but I still cannot mount that volume.

I did not tried yet any recovery software, I don't wanna mess anything.

Any suggestion on how to fix that?

I was able to fix my disk through DiskWarrior5. I had to rebuild the directory and I did it with one click.

I had a similar problem a few months back but because I've tried first a few terminal commands DiskWarrior wasn't able to do a thing but this time it worked.


Disk issues on reboot I have a rMBP (Mid 2012) that is having disk issues. When verifying the disk, I get three different errors:

Incorrect number of file hard links
Invalid first link in hard link chain
Invalid directory item count

Rebooting into single user mode and running fsck -fy seems to fix these errors, as a subsequent run of fsck -fy does not report any errors after the first completes. However, after rebooting, the errors are once again present.

I have also rebooted into Internet Recovery to run Disk Utility and get an error that Disk Utility cannot repair the drive.

The only issue that I have noticed while using my laptop is inability to repartition my hard drive. I fixed this issue once before so I could repartition my hard drive, but do not remember what I did.

The SMART status of my hard drive doesn't indicate any problems, so the only solution I can come to is wiping my drive and reinstalling OS X, although I would rather do that in the fall to do a clean install of El Capitan. Is there anything else that I could do to at least resolve the issue of not being able to repartition my hard drive?

It seems that after a little more research, I was able to recover my issue with a more aggressive fsck_hfs -drfs /dev/disk0s2 call.


Should We Still Install Matched Pairs of RAM? When I say "still", I'm not actually talking about current generation Macs. I'm specifically talking about 2012's. Is there still benefit to installing matched pairs or are those days long gone?

I have two 2012 Macs with 4 GB each. I just got my hands on 8 GB from a 2012 iMac. So the question is, which Mac do I upgrade to 8 GB?

...but I could also do 2 GB + 4 GB in each Mac, bringing each Mac to 6 GB.
Way back when, it was always said to install in matched pairs, otherwise the RAM run's "slow". But is this still the case by 2012? Even if it is true, just how much slower is it? It still may be worthwhile to run unmatched pairs to get an extra 2 GB in each machine.

No - even in the core 2 days, it was almost always faster to have more RAM that wasn’t matched compared to less RAM that was matched. I believe the penalty was 3% range - so you could test it in a benchmark, but real world - more RAM wins.

The only way matched ram would matter was in a perfect tie. Say two chips of 4 compared to four chips of 2. Always go with more RAM when you have capacity unless you are on a power budget - mobile devices on battery have to power all RAM and if you provision too much, you waste battery.

These days, the memory controllers are so good, I don’t think you can even benchmark differences due to a mix of memory sizes or locations.


My headphone set doesn't play any sound After plugging in my headphone into my iphone 4s no sound comes through. I can
hear the music from the phone itself. Do I need to change the settings?

I had the same issue with a 4 and a 3GS, the solution? it was dust, I had to use a pin to get dust out, after that it worked.

If that is not the issue, try using the headphones in another device. Also try using other headphones in the iPhone.


Sync errors between iCal and Google Calendars For the most part iCal and Google Calendars via CalDAV just work for me. But irregularly, throughout the day, iCal will start bouncing in my dock and display a warning like the following:

What I know about the problem:

It happens randomly. I can hit Refresh All in iCal and this sync error won't occur.
The account with the error can change. It's not always a problem with the same account. I keep three Google calendars in sync with on iCal instance.
It happens randomly throughout the course of a day. I can't predict when a sync will fail with this error.
It does happen at all hours. I've had the pop-up show up at 9 am, and 9 pm and even 3 am.
I've been unable to tell if the error results in an out-of-sync state between iCal and Google Calendar. That's what makes me nervous.

How can I make these sync errors go away for good?

This is a common error. The iCal auto setup has created an incorrect address for you. There should be no "slash" / at the end of the address i.e. it should be

/calendar/dav/youremail@domain.com/user

To fix it, go to Preferences / Accounts and change the address, removing the final / from the Server Path setting.

AFAIK Lion no longer has this bug.


How can I use a Macbook Air to provide a TV with an internet connection? The television we  have supports the use of the internet through an Ethernet cable or wireless USB network adapter (bought separately). The television has no built-in wireless and the nearest ethernet port in the house is too far away to be practical.

You should be able to do this via Ethernet or wireless, depending on whether you want to buy a wireless dongle for your TV or whether you have the Ethernet adapter for your MacBook Air.
If you have the USB Ethernet adapter, you should be able to follow the instructions found here:

Set up the Sharing -The first step is to set up sharing on the host Mac. Head to System Preferences > Sharing
Set up the client - make sure your TV uses DHCP

General instructions from Apple support:

To set up Internet sharing:

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and
click Sharing.

Select Internet Sharing.

Choose the Internet connection you want to share from the “Share your
connection from” pop-up menu. For example, if you’re connected to the
Internet over Ethernet, choose Ethernet.

Select how you want to share your Internet connection in the “To
computers using” list. For example, if you want to share your Internet
connection over AirPort, select AirPort.

If you share your Internet connection using AirPort, click AirPort
Options and give your network a name and password.

Either approach should work - it's most likely a matter of the hardware that you have (or are willing to acquire). Getting the USB Ethernet adapter for your MacBook Air is likely to be cheaper (and of more use long-term) than a dongle for the TV.


How do I control which applications receive mouse input? On Windows I have been using X-Mouse Button Control to control which applications receive mouse input. I need to know how to do this on a Mac.

Specifically I am using Mumble and want to bind the "back" button on the mouse to Push To Talk globally. It must have no action in any other application.

I'm using an MMO 7 mouse. But sadly the software that comes with it does not have this functionality.

I have used USBOverdrive in the past with Logitech gaming mice. ( Not for gaming but the number of buttons)

The app gave me control over what buttons would trigger when in different apps. It has global options also.

  The USB Overdrive is a device driver for Mac OS X that handles any USB mouse / trackball / joystick / gamepad / media keyboard and any Bluetooth mouse from any manufacturer and lets you configure them either globally or on a per-application, per-device basis. Note that the Apple Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are not handled by the USB Overdrive to let Mac OS X implement its full multitouch support.

  The USB Overdrive reads all kinds of wheels, buttons, switches and
  controls and assigns them to useful actions like clicking, typing,
  scrolling, launching, opening documents and so forth. It can easily
  handle several USB devices at once and can assign different settings
  to each one.

  The USB Overdrive works in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), 10.7 (Lion)
  and 10.8 (Mountain Lion) in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes. Users of
  previous Mac OS X releases should stick with version 3.0.1 of the USB
  Overdrive.


App Store: "To update this app, you need to accept it on the Account page" I'm trying to update Keynote in the Mac App Store and I get this message:

  Unable to update “Keynote”
  To update this app, you need to accept it on the Account page in the App Store.

I get the same message for Pages and Numbers.

Where is the Account page?

While Simon's answer is correct, the reason this may be appearing for you is actually because you have those apps pre-installed. I ran into a similar situation just now. Despite already having those apps tied to my Apple ID, there's something about this having them pre-installed on my machine that breaks down.

Simply delete those apps. You'll be able to redownload and update them from that same "View My Account" page with no issues after that.

Tip: For those unable to reinstall (work computer, etc.) if you simply delete then "Move Back" from the trash you will achieve the same result.


What does the "Run-only" checkbox do in the Script Editor? In the Script Editor when Exporting, there is a "Run-only" checkbox. It is not documented in the help. What does it do?

"Run-only" saves the script in a run-only mode that disallows opening the script in the editor. If I drag a script exported as Run-only onto the open Script Editor, I get this:


How to stop flood of Non-Local IPv6 events in my Console (system.log)? For some reason, my Console is filling up with <8/15/11 6:47:12.000 PM kernel: IPv6 Non-Local address> messages. A quick Google doesn't tell me much and there's nothing on some of the usual boards. Any hints? I'm on a MacBook Pro running Lion.

Issue resolved by turning off GlimmerBlocker.


createinstallmedia: cannot execute binary file I have downloaded the Sierra Installer from the App Store and I would like to make a bootable thumbdrive out of it.

I tried using the createinstallmedia binary that the installer ships with but got the following error:

/Applications/Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: cannot execute binary file

What happened? How do I go about fixing it?

Redownloaded the installer. And everything works fine.

p.s. I'm in China at the moment. Look like package loss is a real problem here.


How do I prevent Mac apps from blocking the restart process? My desktop is configured in such a way that a sudden power loss (or abrupt restart) would result in absolutely no data lost. I therefore want to make sure that updates can always install on schedule and that I don't have to manually close any programs when clicking the Restart button.

How do I force Mac to always restart without delay, completely ignoring whatever software might be running in the background?

In my experience the best way to keep apps from blocking an update install is to just close all GUI apps before going to bed - or putting my machine "to sleep".

I've also noticed that I need to logout of Terminal, especially.


How to recover files from the home directory that malware removed on OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite? Two days ago, somehow, my Mac running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 got infected by malware and it deleted almost all my files from my home directory. I have no idea how it happened (it wasn't because clicked on some ad, I wasn't even browsing the web when it happened and I also run Adblock on my Safari, Chrome, and Firefox browsers). Suddenly at 10 PM, an xterm window showed up with tons of lines running by with filenames and "permission denied" messages. I panicked and shut down the computer.

I then restarted it and then when I open the Terminal, the xterm came up and started with similar "permission denied" messages (I figured it auto launched when I opened the Terminal). I shut down again and it did not appear to shut down completely. Then after a few minutes I tried to start it up and it did not start for the next 5 or 10 minutes or so. Then when it did start up, the OS X settings were all fresh (for example, my Dock was moved from left to the bottom center etc, as it would be if it were a fresh install). Then I looked at my home directory and almost all the files were deleted, strangely except some (I guess these must have different permissions).

I lost all my photos and files I was working on. I have a Time Machine backup that is 70 days old.

I looked at the console and this is what I found.

Can someone please tell me what this is, how it happened and how I can eliminate it from my system?

The console log is below.

2015-08-14 10:00:23.702 PMFinder[240]CreateWithFileInfo failed to create URL with FSRef, falling back to blank icon.
2015-08-14 10:00:24.620 PMbird[267]someone ripped the database from under our feet
LIMITS ------------------------------------------------------------------------
RLIMIT_CORE 0 infinity
RLIMIT_CPU infinity infinity
RLIMIT_DATA infinity infinity
RLIMIT_FSIZE infinity infinity
RLIMIT_MEMLOCK infinity infinity
RLIMIT_NOFILE 16384 16384
RLIMIT_NPROC 709 1064
RLIMIT_RSS infinity infinity
DISK (/Users/userx/Library/Mobile Documents)--------------------------------
NSFileSystemNodes 121846308
NSFileSystemSize 499082485760
NSFileSystemFreeSize 220219854848
NSFileSystemFreeNodes 53764613
NSFileSystemNumber 16777220
2015-08-14 10:00:24.637 PMcom.apple.xpc.launchd[1](com.apple.ReportCrash[21508]) Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.ReportCrash
2015-08-14 10:00:24.807 PMcom.apple.SecurityServer[85]Killing auth hosts
2015-08-14 10:00:24.807 PMcom.apple.SecurityServer[85]Session 100122 destroyed
2015-08-14 10:00:28.333 PMcom.apple.xpc.launchd[1](com.apple.bird[267]) Service exited due to signal: Abort trap: 6
2015-08-14 10:00:28.392 PMReportCrash[21508]Saved crash report for bird[267] version 321.9 to /Users/userx/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/bird_2015-08-14-220028_OLM-userx.cr ash
2015-08-14 10:00:31.108 PMcloudphotosd[519]Failed to open '/Users/userx/Library/Containers/com.apple.cloudphotosd/Data/Library/Preference s/com.apple.cloudphotosd.plist' for events
2015-08-14 10:01:07.911 PMsharingd[254]Could not replace account with identifier: _local
2015-08-14 10:01:07.913 PMcom.apple.internetaccounts[262]Could not replace account with identifier: _local
2015-08-14 10:01:07.915 PMsoagent[268]Could not replace account with identifier: _local

After some deep investigations we come to the preliminary conclusion that the culprit wasn't any malware but an unhappy coincidence involving org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist, .bashrc and an xrd --merge ~/.Xdefaults command. Since all those files were deleted, we don't have hard evidence though.

Said .bashrc is derived from a (Linux-)precursor. It was heavily adapted to work with OS X.

The XQuartz service started to delete files with rm in the root folder after reading in the ~/.bashrc triggered by the xrd command. Most rms weren't successful because of missing user permissions. Most of the user data was deleted though.

After creating a recovery thumb drive with Data Rescue 4 (the Bootwell feature) a deep scan found a lot of deleted files. The most important files couldn't be recovered.


Showing "Return Completed" as status but didn't receive refund yet I have ordered an IPhone and the phone was not delivered(not sure about the reason) and was returned back to apple warehouse. The status in the order page shows as "Return Completed" on 22nd of December 2018. I didn't receive the refund yet. How much longer it might take for the refund to be completed.

It can take 5-7 days once the goods arrive back at the warehouse.

From the refund page:

  Once your goods are back at Apple’s warehouse, your refund will be processed. Please allow 5-7 days for the refund to reach your account. For cash payments such as cheque and wire transfer, we will require your bank details, including IBAN/SWIFT, to proceed with the refund to your account.

If you haven't received your refund contact Apple Support. I would give it  a bit of time since it is holiday time.


How to disable horizontal scrolling on OS X Yosemite's Preview? As stated in the question, how do I disable horizontal scrolling on Preview when the page obviously fits and there is over horizontal overflow?

I am scrolling with my touchpad, and with two-finger scroll I inevitably move a little sideways while scrolling. This little jerk to the left/right is rather annoying to me and I would like to know if there are any ways to prevent the horizontal scrolling.

I used to have the same problem and I solved it by cloning and building a fork of the Scroll-Reverser tool, whose repository is below.

https://github.com/dawncold/Scroll-Reverser

As you can see in this commit the author made a little patch in the tool in a way such that if you check the reverse horizontal scrolling option, it actually disables it instead of reversing it.

This is also explicitly stated by the author of the patch here.

You will need XCode to build the project and to generate the corresponding app.

Just as general information (the original author deserves it), the original Scroll-Reverser tool, which was doing just reversing instead of disabling, can be found here


How do I erase my apple ID from my iphone which got stolen? I lost my iPhone and it had no password. I'd like to disable my Apple ID on it and wipe it.

Is there any way to do it if I don't have the phone with me?

Well, if you had Find My iPhone enabled, you can wipe the phone as a whole, or add a passcode.

To do this:

Go to iCloud.com/#find
Sign in
Select your phone from the list of devices
Select either 'lost mode' (add passcode and message to lock screen) or 'erase device' (you can't track your phone anymore if you do this)
Follow the steps outlined by the website.

In addition, Find My iPhone will show you the GPS location of your phone, which will help you track it. It cannot be disabled without your Apple ID password, and your phone cannot be wiped with it enabled.

If you choose to wipe your phone, nobody will be able to use it without your Apple ID email password

Finally, if your phone is offline, these options will be applied as soon as the phone connects to a network.

I'd highly suggest adding a passcode to your new phone.


Why does my Mac slow down when the volume/brightness indicator fades out? I frequently change the volume and brightness on my computer. Usually I modify them to more or less match my surrounding physical(!) environment. But there's this one annoying quirk with changing my volume and brightness.

When the brightness/volume indicator – I'm referring to this thing, by the way:

..fades out, my entire computer's frame rate just seems to drop. For example when I'm playing Minecraft and I'm changing my brightness or volume, the FPS drops down to about 10 from 110. YouTube videos also go from 60FPS to around a few frames per second.

Any idea what the cause of this is? It seems to be consistent across different Macs, too – I get the same issue on a new MacBook Pro.

What kind of OS X version that you are running? (Yosemite or El Capitan? I see in screenshot posted a volume/brightness indicator)

It sounds LIKE a good idea when you talking about Mac slow down when volume/brightness indicator fades out.

Here to fix this:

Go to System Preferences > Accessibility and then check "Increase Contrast" Option.

Also you can watch this video to fix about Slow Macs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi5VJsbRxzk

Same problem on my 2008 Mac Pro too, But i'm sorry that for didn't answer for a long, I am a first user using this forum, But People who don't know what problem this is.


How can I edit a .docx file in Dropbox on my iPad? I have all my papers in a .docx on Dropbox and I'd like to be able to edit them on my iPad. How do I do this? All the free editors I've tried only support reading .docx files and they don't have formatting.

I suggest QuickOffice Pro HD for iPad. It will allow you to connect to Dropbox and edit any Microsoft Office file.


Using iMac late 2013 as external monitor to HP EliteBook 820 G3 on Windows 10 Is it at all possible to use my 21.5 inch late 2013 iMac as an external monitor on which I can extend the display of my HP EliteBook 820 G3?

These are the ports that I'm working with on both devices:

This is not possible.

In order to use your iMac as a display (Target Display Mode) , you need to connect it via a Thunderbolt 1 or 2 port.  The HP laptop you listed does not have a Thunderbolt port per the technical specifications.

Software Based Solutions

AirParrot 2. This allows you to "beam" your screen to any supported device
SpaceDesk.  This software allows you to extend your Windows desktop to another computer or browser over the network.


Back to My Mac: BTMM kMMServiceFailureNotification About a week ago iCloud's Back to My Mac service silently stopped working and will no longer start.

I discovered an error icon in System Preference's iCloud panel reporting the error: Back to My Mac isn't working because it couldn't start properly.

Following the trouble shooting steps provided by Apple has not fixed the problem. This includes restarting, and signing out & back into iCloud. An Apple support discussion thread, I cannot start Back To My Mac Since Wed Last Week, suggests this is not an isolated problem.

The system.log messages at the time of attempted enabling suggests an error occurred:

Jan 16 09:59:46 Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice[731]: AOSKit ERROR: LH request failed, url=https://p33-btmm.icloud.com:443/v1/hello, requestHeaders=
    {
        "Accept-Language" = "en-us";
        Authorization = "...";
        "X-Mme-Client-Info" = "<[redacted]> <Mac OS X;10.11.2;15C50> <com.apple.AOSKit/232 (com.apple.systempreferences/14.0)>";
        "X-Mme-Country" = GB;
        "X-Mme-Device-Id" = "[redacted]";
        "X-Mme-Timezone" = CET;
    },
    error=Error Domain=AOSErrorDomain Code=1000 "(null)" UserInfo={HttpStatusCode=503, DialogInfo={
        DialogType = Unknown;
    }}, httpStatusCode=503
Jan 16 09:59:46 Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice[731]: [AOSAccounts] : BTMM operation not successful
Jan 16 09:59:46 Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice[731]: [AOSAccounts] : BTMM kMMServiceFailureNotification dictionary <CFBasicHash 0x7f921e2ba590 [0x7fff7c6cd440]>{type = mutable dict, count = 2,
    entries =>
        0 : <CFString 0x7fff7b7cc170 [0x7fff7c6cd440]>{contents = "ServiceFailureErrorKey"} = Error Domain=AOSErrorDomain Code=1000 "(null)" UserInfo={HttpStatusCode=503, DialogInfo={
        DialogType = Unknown;
    }}
        2 : <CFString 0x7fff7b7cc110 [0x7fff7c6cd440]>{contents = "ServiceFailureTypeKey"} = <CFString 0x7fff7b7cc130 [0x7fff7c6cd440]>{contents = "ServiceFailureTypeEnable"}
    }

I have reported the bug to Apple as rdar://24219994

Is there any solution?

In response to your question "Is there any solution?": Yes

Initial Feedback: I appear to have the same problem, which appeared out of the blue and which I noticed only on around 13 Jan (4 days prior). It appeared to have occurred at the same time as the last in a 3-4 week series of occasional spurious iCloud ID errors, requiring me to enter my iCloud password on each occasion. Back to my Mac is not accessible on any of the 3 macs using my personal account.

I spent 90 minutes on the phone with Apple Support. The problem could not be resolved immediately and was escalated to the level of the engineering staff for offline investigation.

Update: 3 days later BTMM was working correctly on all my machines, having been fixed at the Apple end. No explanation as yet as to the cause or how resolved. I recommend you contact Apple Support directly


Is it possible to remember a wifi network in iOS 6 without automatically connecting to it? Once in a while I need to use my iPhone 4 for work related tasks that require a lot of bandwidth. When doing this I will connect to the wireless network at work, do what I need to do, and then disconnect so that any personal activity goes over 3g. Currently my choices are to either leave wifi off while at work, only turning it on when I need to do work tasks, or join the work network every time I need to do work tasks, then forget the network. Turning wifi off is annoying since I have to remember to turn it off before I get to work, and then turn it back on after I leave work. Constantly joining the network is also annoying since I need to enter my username, password, and proxy information. Is there a way to have my iPhone remember my work network so I can manually join it without entering all my information, but not connect to the work network unless I force it to? I haven’t found anything obvious on either the phone or the iPhone configuration assistant so I’m pretty sure the answer is no but it can’t hurt to ask.

As you can see from this screenshot, iOS will automatically join any available known network based on signal strength. As of right now, it is not possible to do what you are asking with iOS.


Difficulty connecting at 300Mbps with Channel Bonding I'm trying to connect my MacBook Pro (early 2015) running High Sierra to my wifi at 300 Mbps but am only getting 150 Mbps.

I'm running a tp-link router flashed with one of the newer dd-wrt systems. The router status reports that it is transmitting at 300 mbps on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands but my MacBook is only connecting at 150 mbps at most on either band. Also the Mac connection properties say that it is connected at channel 57 at 20 MHz. The router is set up for 40 MHz only.
My wifi analyzer app does indicate that the 2.4 amd 5 GHz signals have 2 channels each.

I think the router is set up correctly.
Is there something I need to do to have my MacBook connect at the higher 300Mbps speed?

Thanks

I think I figured it out. It wasn't anything to do with my Macbook.

I had the 5GHz channel on the router set to the highest one (157). That apparently is a weaker signal.

I changed it to the lowest one (36) and I at least intermittently get a faster connection usually up to 270Mbps. Good enough.


My MacBook Air won't charge correctly : the light is green instead of orange I have a 2009 MacBook Air (MacBookAir2,1)

I have a compatible MagSafe and a Apple one.

Sometimes (almost most of the time), when the computer is running and not in sleep, if I plug the MagSafe, it goes orange for a few minutes then goes back to green. It says that the computer doesn't use battery but it doesn't charge it.

I have tried with both chargers and it is the same.

Now I have also tried to shut the computer down and charge it : it works, it remains orange and charges the battery.

I must admit that I have changed the battery to a compatible one because mine was too old.

Do you think the fact that it is a compatible battery makes the computer thinks it is fully loaded and stops charging ?  Is there a way to prevent that instead of stopping the computer to charge ?

Thanks

The first thing I would do is an SMC Reset.  According to Apple, one of the reasons to reset your SMC is...

To do a reset

Shut down the Mac.
Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your Mac.
Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift Control Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time.
Release all keys, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac

If you continue to have problems, I would then run an Apple Hardware Test and see if you can obtain any diagnostic info.


macOS Big Sur - Set quick look provider for specific file types? My default app to open .md markdown files is VS Code, which unfortunately doesn't provide quick look support for markdown files:
I've installed other apps that provide quick look for markdown files, how do I make quick look to use them without changing the default app for opening markdown files?

AFAIK, the default app for opening documents and the QuickLook generator for previewing them are two completely separate things.
If you have a QuickLook generator file for the .md format, then that will be used by the QL manager.
The Terminal command qlmanage provides a way to get the status of the QL manager, and to configure it in a limited way.
> qlmanage -m | grep "md"
  com.unknown.md -> /Users/Ben/Library/QuickLook/QLMarkdown.qlgenerator (1.3.3)

You can force which QL generator is used with
qlmanage -g /path/to/generator/


iPad and iPhone can sync with each other on Notes -- how about adding info on the Mac or PC? Right now the iPad and iPhone can sync with each other for any Notes added or edited, so one note added on the iPad will go to the iPhone automatically, and I think this is done by sync'ing with the Gmail account.  How about when using the Mac, if there is additional info, is there a way to add it to the note on the Mac (or on PC)?

In Lion, iPad and iPhone notes that are synced through your mail account can be accessed and edited in Apple's Mail app.


App to track hours in each work site I'm a contractor and I visit my customer places, I would like to install an app that does automatically detect how much time I spend for a customer at which location with an ability to mark the project or client name.

In short I want a location based work log. Most of the apps currently require to clock-in or clock-out manually.

There are plenty of time tracking apps out there. Take a look at Time Clock for location-based work hours tracking: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.timesquared.timetracker

You can also install Hours Tracker if you want an automatic clock in and clock out using preset GeoFences: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cribasoft.HoursTrackerFree.Android&hl=en_US


Number of cpus and cores in macbook pro? On Macbook Pro, I clicked "about this mac", and it shows that

  Number of Processors:   1
    Total Number of Cores:  2

I thought I have more cores and cpus, because when I created a virtual machine in Virtualbox, it allows me to specify up to 4 cpus to the virtual machine.

So how can I find out the number of cpus and cores on this laptop?

lshw doesn't work in bash under Mac. Is there some similar command?

Thanks.

The simplest way is to launch Activity Monitor - in Applications/Utilities

Then hit  Cmd ⌘   3  which will open the CPU History.
Then you just count the stripes ;-)
It counts virtual cores, so includes HT [Hyper-threading] cores.


OS X 10.10 Copy / Paste Source file count does not match destination file count I have folderA and want to make a copy of all the contents within into FolderB.  I select all the contents inside of FolderA then selected copy and went to FolderB and pasted it.  When it is done, there is a difference of ~500 files between the two folders when I check the folder sizes.

When I move the files, everything comes across.

I cannot figure out why there is such a big difference?  Does anybody know what might be happening?

Is it possible, that there are hidden files in the source folder?

You could use this shortcut in Finder to switch between showing/hiding hidden files.

  CMD + SHIFT + .

If you want to make sure to copy the whole content anyway, open Terminal.app and enter

  cp -pr /path/to/source /path/to/destination

After typing "cp -pr " in Terminal, you can drag&drop the folder names vom Finder window to Terminal window.


How can I avoid notes to be deleted from the iPhone when I delete them on my Mac Email app? Since the last software update on my iPhone 3 all the notes that I writte on the iPhone appears in the mail.app on my mac as income mails.

When I delete the notes at the Mail.app, they are also deleted at the iPhone.

Do you know how to avoid the notes to be deleted?

Thanks!

Turn off notes sync in Settings -> Mail,Calender,Contacts -> select your account and then turn off notes sync.

In Mail if you hit command + comma you can also stop showing notes in the inbox.


How can I automate keeping historical versions of iOS apps on the Mac? I find that iTunes management of backing up Apps isn't ideal for a number of reasons.  It will happily keep a copy of the most recent App in it's own area within the iTunes library, but it's archival process is very much against your "current" applications, without necessarily keeping a history of previous versions.

There are various reasons for keeping previous versions of an App, from being able to simply revert when a new version is buggy or makes changes which you do not wish to use, to the App changing it's minimum requirements to need hardware which you just down own therefore making the App unusable.

My current manner of archiving old iOS applications is both manual and therefore dysfunctional.

Currently I move copies by hand to a folder named "old iOS applications". I also depend on Time Machine to provide historical copies of apps for the rare case when an update to an app causes me to have a problem with functionality of an app. I prefer to keep iTunes only managing apps that are actively installed by deleting things I don't use regularly and letting the next iOS sync transfer back just the apps that are currently in use. The downside of a lean iTunes library is that finding an old app is hit or miss - needing to recall when it was saved to Time Machine. This hesitation also acts as a deterrent to keeping iTunes lean since I don't have a good process for archiving these programs.

What are people doing to have all copies of iOS apps organized without depending on Time Machine exclusively? I'm looking for an automated process for archiving apps delivered from the iOS app store.

Indeed, iTunes will simply throw in the Trash any item that is replaced by a subsequent update, which is a handy getout clause if you notice that you need the old version back quickly, before you empty it, but isn't exactly a robust solution with long term options.

Using Time Machine is a simple way of checking back through your history, and should be very effective on the understanding that you are using it regularly and to the normal hourly schedule, but may people don't have it setup, or use an external disk that is often not connected for long periods of time (guilty as charged).

So, they key is to get ahead of iTunes, and create your own archive of Apps, and you can break this down into 2 simple steps, the first being noticing when an app has changed, the 2nd being to do something about it.

You can happily write a script that you schedule to check for changes to select files and folders, but this is inefficient when you can simply use built in OS features such as Folder Actions, which are a much neglected yet insanely useful and powerful set of tools.

A folder action is simply an action that is executed automatically whenever certain things happen within the folder to which is is applied.  When the folder is opened, closed, or modified (and modifications include files being added, removed, or altered), the folder action script activates automatically.

The script that you apply to a folder action can be anything you like, and the simplest way is to create something within Automator, which allows you to string together various application specific functions with bits of AppleScript or even Shell scripts to achieve the end result, in our case taking a copy of updated apps and archiving them off.

So, to start off, let's start Automator, and choose Folder Action as your document type.
On the left hand side is a column (may require expanding, under Library) of collections of actions, choose Files and Folders, and in the list that appears under the adjacent column, drag the following two items into the space in the right of the screen:

Copy Finder Items
Rename Finder Items

Next, either create (or locate) a backup folder where you wish to store you backups, and in the Copy Finder Actions tasks, either browse to this location or simply drag it on top of the folder name to make it choose it.
The 2nd task, Rename Finder Items will likely be called "Add Date or Time" instead, which is odd, until you realise that this is simply the first method of renaming that is offers.  Change the selection to read "Make Sequential", the default options should be self explanatory, adding a number to each file that is renamed, starting with -1.ipa etc.  (note that the file renaming takes place before the file extension, so you will get file-1.txt, not file.txt-1)
Now, above your two tasks, you have likely spotted the option to choose the folder to which the action is applied.  Browse away and locate your mobile Apps folder in here, it's likely to be something in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media somewhere, exact location dependant on the age of your iTunes library, current iTunes version, and dependant on how you let iTunes organise your folders, for me it was Mobile Applications in the above folder.  You are essentially looking for a folder stuffed full of files ending in .ipa.
Your Automator should now look something like this:

Now you can save your action, I called mine "Itunes App Backups", don't worry where it saves the file to (which is actually ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions/)
You now have the action you just created, applied against the folder you chose.  You can prove this, just right click on any folder and click "Folder Actions Setup", from here you can pick a pre-existing action and assign it to a folder without having to recreate the whole thing just by choosing to add from the list of known actions you are presented with; note that your new action is listed in the options provided, but hit cancel for now.  You will see a list of folders which have actions assigned against them.  Select your Mobile Applications Folder, and there you see the following:

That's it.  Because iTunes removes and replaces applications with upgrades, then each new file has a copy taken at the time it is added, meaning that it doesn't matter when it subsequently get's removed.  Note that sometimes Apps include version information in the file names, sometimes they change names completely (Read It Later becoming Pocket, for example), and sometimes they use the same name exactly (which is where the renaming with sequential numbering comes in for added safety)

Note, that you can amend or expand this workflow to do all sorts of clever things, from keeping a set number of versions, removing any files older than X months at the same time etc etc, and if named sensibly you can apply the same workflow to multiple folders, thus creating your own personalised archiving mechanism for things other than just Apps for example. Also, note that if you subsequently replace an upgraded app with one of your own backups, it will get backed up again, which is something you might like to be aware of for such files that retain the same filename and are only distinguishable by their timestamps.

  Note that a lot of the ideas in the post were inspired by a Macworld
  Article, which introduces the same process but in less detail


Deleting photos from my IPad Air I imported some random photos from my desktop computer to test the photo import option on my new IPad Air. These photos are visible when I click on My Photos on the main menu screen, along with photos taken with the IPad, but are not visible when I click on my Photo Booth, which seems to store only pics. taken with my IPad. I want to delete the photos imported as a test but when I select them in My Photos the option to delete them (the dustbin) does not light up as an option. How can I delete them? Any help appreciated.

Go on iTunes and uncheck the albums you have imported. Just do the reverse of what you did to import photos...


OSX native equivalent to jdownload (app to download files from various sites, streaming, etc.) I'm using jDownload which is great from a functionality standpoint, what it does, does it great, has plugins to download files from a lot of sites, like youtube, megaupload, and the like.

But it takes too much to open, and when trying to stop a big list of downloads it most of the times hangs (at least on my machine), and it takes up a lot of resources, not to talk about the cumbersome user interface, which is the smallest problem.

Do you know any OSX native equivalent that can download files from sites like megaupload and youtube?

Progressive uploader can do megaupload and the like but I don't think it does youtube.


Mountain Lion firewall is randomly delaying DNS requests I recently experienced some delays during DNS host resolution on OS X 10.8. To test it I started a simple script which tries to repeatedly resolve the same hostname 20 times:

#!/bin/sh
for i in `seq 20`; do
    time -p dig www.google.com @8.8.8.8 | grep "^;; Query time:"
done

Most request take about the same time as the latency to the name server:

;; Query time: 49 msec
real 0.05

However, as soon as I enable the firewall in Mountain Lion (all incoming requests are allowed, stealth mode is not enabled), some of the dig requests take exactly 5 seconds plus the latency to the name server:

;; Query time: 25 msec
real 5.03

Most requests are still fast, but around every 10th to 15th requests has a delay of exactly 5 seconds even through dig still reports a short query time. It makes no difference if I use dig or host for testing, or if I use a local DNS server or a public one like in the example above. When the firewall is turned off the delay never happens.

Does the firewall of OS X enforce some kind of rate limiting for requests, or is there anything else I'm missing?

You are right. I diagnose the same rate limiting at the firewall level
on MacOS X 10.7.4 (Lion).

Moreover, if you look at

/usr/bin/sudo tcpdump -i en0 udp port 53

You will notice that the round trip time to get a reply from 8.8.8.8
is much lower then the 40 msec displayed by the server.

On a long test run I had:

;; Query time: 44 msec

and an average roundtrip time of 26 msec:

09:36:14.360564 IP me.53866 > google-public-dns-a.google.com.domain: 9943+ A? www.google.com. (32)
09:36:14.386302 IP google-public-dns-a.google.com.domain > me.53866: 9943 5/0/0 A 173.194.41.180, A 173.194.41.178, A 173.194.41.176, A 173.194.41.177, A 173.194.41.179 (112)

(386302 - 360564 = 26 msec)

To understand this protection mechanism (against basic DOS), look at:

/usr/bin/sudo pfctl -i en0 -s timeouts

The full documentation of this complex command is pfctl(8) Mountain Lion reference manual

Beware this is a powerfull but highly dangerous command. You may easily break your network access (Where is my backup?).


Why are zip file sizes different in finder compared to Google or Amazon Drive? I was wondering why file sizes of my zipped archives (.zip) are inconsistent. A file that shows in the finder (macOS) as 9.17 GB shows up as being 8.54 GB on an Amazon Drive (same thing with Google Drive).

This is because Apple uses base-10 instead of base-2 to display file size. Base-2 will consider 1GB to equal 1,073,741,824 bytes, where a base-10 system, like Apple's, will consider 1GB to mean 1,000,000,000 bytes. In fact, the base-2 and base-10 prefixes are different, using the term gibibyte and gigabyte to represent GB, respectively (GiB can be used to unambiguously denote gibibyte).

9.17 Gigabytes is 8.54 Gibibytes, so the zip files are actually the same size.

Further reading:

https://blog.macsales.com/1852-snow-leopard-changes-they-way-we-look-at-gigabytes-and-megabytes-and-kilobytes-as-well

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte#Consumer_confusion


Can I change the size of my applications folder icons from the dock? I have included a picture.
My applications folder is on the dock and when I click on it the applications come up but the icon size is too big, is there anyway to make these icons a lot smaller? any help is much appreciated.

To change the size on the Applications Dock menu in Grid view click the Applications Dock Tile and then press command- to make the menu and icons smaller or command+ to make the menu and icons larger.

I have tested this under OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5, OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and macOS Sierra 10.12.

The image below is from OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 taken on a Thunderbolt Display at 2560 x 1440 and of three separate screen shots that were cropped from the lower right corner to the size necessary to show the size of each grid menu and its size changed and layered to reduce the size of posting 3 individual images. Nothing has been retouched, just cropped and layered to contrast between a large menu in the back, the default size menu on this Display in the middle and a smaller sized menu up front. Calculator.app was used to show scale and as you can plainly see the size of the icons changes with the size of the grid menu.


Execute a folder action on a schedule I am completely new to Automator. I have a folder action setup to copy my Camera Uploads folder from DropBox to iPhoto. Currently, this only occurs when I open Automator and execute it. Can I set this up to run on a schedule, i.e. when the computer starts up, once a week, etc.

You could use Lingon (Mac App Store link) to set up a schedule to run the Automator action (or pretty much any other program/command for that matter). It's a GUI interface to the launchd command that allows scheduling by time, or on specific events (I believe system start/wake is one of them).


Can I use the music from Clips in iMovie? Does anyone know if there is a way to use the music from the Clips app on iOS in iMovie on macOS?

For example, there is a song "Aether" by Darren King.

I'd like a raw MP3/AIFF/whatever of this entire song so I can use it in iMovie without having to record a giant clip which will also include mic input.

The only way I see possible is the following:

Choose the music you want in Clips.
Record a clip that’s at least as long as the music you want (you could always hold then swipe up on the record button and come back 5 minutes later if you’re not sure how long the music clip is).
Select the clip you just recorded and tap “Mute.”
Tap the Share button and tap “Copy to iMovie.” (Yes, we’ll eventually get it to iMovie on macOS).
In iMovie for iOS, trim the clip to the desired length.
Tap “Done” then tap the share button, then tap “Save Video.”
Once the video has exported, go to Photos on your iOS device and select the clip you just exported. Tap the share button, then air drop it to your Mac. You could also use the photos app on your Mac to import the clip if you wish.
On your Mac, open iMovie and drag in the clip.
Click, then Two-finger-click the clip, then click, “Detach Audio.”
Drag the audio to be attached to a different clip.
Click, then Two-finger-click the video clip, then hit “delete” on your keyboard. Now you can drag the audio wherever you want to use it in your Project.

Let me know if any of that doesn’t make sense. I tested it using iPad mini 4 on iOS 11 and MacBook Pro with high sierra before posting so I know it works.


Hide Siri from default Dock in Sierra I would like to create a Dock for all users which does not include Siri. It does not appear in the file com.apple.dock.plist, so where is Siri added to the Dock?

I answered a similar question here: OSX 10.8 - How to keep a custom dock for all users that login

This answer should still apply to macOS Sierra.

Dug up my notes from when I first modified the user template in our base images.  Ran back through the process, changing the default Dock to have about 15 items, on a fresh Mac and these steps worked.  I did a lot of this from the command line, so as to not fuss with changing/reverting permissions using Finder.

Arrange your Dock however you would like for it to appear on new user accounts, changing the orientation and adding/removing applications.
Browse to ~/Library/Preferences and copy the com.apple.Dock.plist file to your desktop.
Open Terminal and start a root session by typing: sudo -s
Enter your current account's password when prompted
Copy the copy of your modified dock preference file from your desktop to the User Template in your Mac's System folder.: cp ~/Desktop/com.apple.Dock.plist /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Preferences

That should do the trick.  I tested this on a fresh Mac by logging into both a Guest account and a new (created after the above steps) standard user account, both accounts showed the proper Dock with 15~ items.

It shouldn't be necessary with these steps but if you run into trouble you should verify that the /System/Library/User Template folder has permissions set to: System - Read/Write & Everyone - No access.


If jailbreak is for iPhone then what is it for MacBook? As we know we can jailbreak any iOS device to loosen the OS rules.

1 Is there anything similar to macOS devices also?
2 If Yes, then what is it?
3 Is it possible to do it from remote?
4 How can I do for preventing my MacBook from getting jailbroken?

There is no need to. Administrator account is available. That is basically what you want with "jailbreak" on iOS.

EDIT: NoahL has a point about disabling SIP, forgot about that one. More info here http://www.howtogeek.com/230424/how-to-disable-system-integrity-protection-on-a-mac-and-why-you-shouldnt/


Does Facebook keep track of me? I wonder, since Facebook tracks all activity you do online when you're logged in using their like button and share buttons for example.

Because Facebook is integrated in iOS, does Apple allow Facebook to keep track of my Safari / Chrome searches because I'm logged in iOS? Or does it require a Safari/Chrome login specifically?

You don't have to know the exact or full answer, if you know a little detail (with source please) please add it as an answer.

No social network is fully integrated into iOS, only the login is. With iOS 6 Apple introduced the Social Framework which, as explained under the what's new page:

  The Social framework provides a simple interface for accessing the user’s social media accounts. This framework supplants the Twitter framework that was introduced in iOS 5 and adds support for other social accounts, including Facebook and Sina’s Weibo service. Apps can use this framework to post status updates and images to a user’s account. This framework works with the Accounts framework to provide a single sign-on model for the user and to ensure that access to the user’s account is approved.

When accessing any social network's API (which means retrieving information, posting, etc.) from a different source than the actual social network, an OAuth process is perform to authorize the web page, app or otherwise which is making the call to access the social network's resources on behalf of the user.

With the inclusion of the aforementioned framework, developers could acquire this authorization without having to perform the whole process, as the OS had already done it. Doing it like this, the developer just had to ask if there was an logged in account configured for the needed social network.

From a user's point of view, this inclusion meant that you didn't have to log in in every App which implemented social actions.

Consider too, that iOS Apps are sandboxed, which means that each App has its own space in disk, with its own directories, which act as the home for the app and its data, and no other App has direct access to these.

So, I don't believe that any social network has access to your information or movements, as the SO integration is just a way of easing the connection process with the required social network and not that the user is granting it access to any information.


Can I re-install MacPorts but leave my Python installation, done via MacPorts, alone? Okay, I admit it, I didn't really think it through when I clicked on the button to upgrade to Sierra. Having done that, I've of course made MacPorts lose its mind. I mostly don't notice because once I install Python and PIP, I don't do much with MacPorts -- except to install things like LaTeX or wget.

Can I re-install MacPorts without messing up my Python installation? I have a lot of packages installed -- numpy, scipy, nltk, sklearn, etc. -- that I would just as soon leave alone. Everything is working well.

The answer is unknown.

Macports is only supported and tested if you do a complete reinstall of it when you chnage the versions of macOS used.

You might be get away with rebuilding only a few of the ports but if you have a problem the only support is delete and reinstall as no one has the time to see what happens when you chnage the OS.


What's a good XML viewer/editor for Mac OS X? I use XML Editor from XMLmind for editing/viewing XML file in Mac.

It's not bad, but I expect an XML editor for Mac. What options do I have including the commercial/free software?

OS X Software for Editing XML

EditX (commercial)
oXygen (commercial)
XML Edita (commercial)
XMLMate (free/open source
plugin) for TextMate (shareware)
XMPlify (commercial)


Is there something in a Mac Pro that could make it sensitive and reboot when bumped? Bear with me here for a second...

I have an early 2008 MacPro3,1 that has been my work horse for many years and for the last several years has been running continuously as the home server. I've noticed in the last week that if I bang the desk that it is on, the machine will cold reboot immediately. (how did I discover it? hitting a stapler for big stack of papers)

Machine hasn't moved in quite some time and wasn't sensitive like this until perhaps the last week. Everything should be buttoned down well in the machine except perhaps the Bluetooth adapter on the internal mini PCI port, but the WiFi/Bluetooth is working just fine. Also, power cord is snug.

So I suppose the question is whether or not there is something in the PSU  that might be sensitive to movement or perhaps something else in the machine? Other than this, everything else seems fine with the machine.

UPDATE 2017-03-14: One other thing to note is that when it reboots, I get the startup chime followed by ~10 seconds of no activity and then another startup chime and then it goes into the full boot routine. Almost feels like a CMOS reset or something like that, i.e. is there a reset button on the motherboard that perhaps is a bit twitchy? (no, I haven't re-seated things yet since I haven't had the time, but I did open the case to check that the two cards, the WiFi/BT module and memory risers are snug).

This something is quite possibly a loose PCI card, maybe your video card, it can have some stress on it from the weight and pull of the VGA or DVI cable. Could be a usb daughter card as well. Unplug the machine from the power mains. Reseat the cards, blow the dust off them. Maybe it won't reboot on bump any more.

tl;dr: A loose PCI card can cause a reboot, they aren't hot-swappable.


How to forward port 80 to run a server So I turned on Web Sharing on my mac and put a basic HTML file in the folder for it, but I want to know how to make it accessible from any computer. How would I do that?

It already is on your local network.  You need to know either the IP address of your Mac or name of your Mac.  You can get the name of your Mac by clicking the Sharing option in System Preferences.  It'll be at the top.  You can simplify the name to make it easier for others.  For example, if you name your Mac AppleServer then everyone on the network should be able to find it at AppleServer.local.

If you want it accessible from anywhere in the world it is much more involved.  Start by figuring out what the IP address is of your Mac and on your broadband router either set your Mac has the machine in the DMZ or setup a port forward for port 80 to the IP of your Mac.  Your router's manual should describe how to do this.

In case your Internet Access Provider gives you a dynamic IP you may also want to check out services like DynDNS so your external users don't have to ask you for your current IP address every time.


Excel error : "Not enough memory" A friend of mine just bought an MBA. He installed Office 2011 in order to work mainly with Excel. As he opened one of his file (6.5MB - multiple sheets - company logo - no graphs) and wanted to save it this box appears:

where you can read something like Not enough memory. If I click on OK the box appears again like 15 times.

Thinking of an installation issue, I tried on my MBP which did the same result. But his old computer (win7 - Excel 2013) can open and save the file without any issue.

During my google searches, the only result that I found led me to a Windows based solution or an help site from 1994...

The file was saved as Excel 95 and was to big for the destination file. A simple save As with the new format xlsx solve the issue.


How to install vim 7.4a with homebrew I installed vim with homebrew on my macbook

brew install macvim

but the version I wish was 7.4a, the latest beta release, how can I install it?

For me,

brew info macvim

told me this:

  macvim: stable 7.3-66, devel 7.4b-BETA-69, HEAD

And as such, I would have to do this:

brew install macvim --devel


Admin in Terminal, logged on Family's session I have a weird problem. I'm trying to connect on my VPN with Mac 10.7.5 (Java 7 U45, Citrix Receiver 11.8) but when I do, JSam is not able to write in Hosts file.

So my Mac session is called "Family" but when I go in Terminal and type whoami, I get: Admin.

My question is, is it normal and if not, how can I see "Family" in Terminal? Or, how can I give proper rights to Family or Admin so when I connect on my office VPN, Citrix will be able to write in hosts file.

Host mapping - "JSAM modifies the hosts file if you choose Automatic host-mapping under Users > User Roles > Role > SAM > Options > Java SAM Options" (from here). Which is apparently running on the server side. If you are managing the server, try disabling host mapping unless you need it. At the very least, disable it temporarily and see if everything else works as expected. (If you can do everything you need without host mapping, then leave it turned off.)

Looks like if hosts file modification is enabled, the client needs to run as admin or root (see here) and should be prompting you for the admin password for your account on launch. If your local account does not have administrative permissions, then it would not be able to modify the hosts file. You'd need to log in as an administrator, not a user.

You haven't made it clear whether Terminal output is from your local machine or the remote one.


Touchbar Sending Virtual Keypresses to Amazon Workspaces I have a MacBook Pro with the touchbar and I use it to connect to Amazon Workspaces. Workspaces is essentially a Windows VM I connect to for Windows development.

My older MacBook worked great, but Workspaces does not recognize the function keys when I press them on the touchbar. I know this is partly an issue with Workspaces, as virtual keypresses sent via BetterTouchTool don't work either.

Has anyone had other issues with the "virtual" function keys and found a way to get them to be recognized correctly, by apps that apparently only accept physical keypresses?

I recently faced this problem and found a workaround. In the Keyboard settings, set the "Touch bar shows" to "F1, F2, etc. Keys". After this setting, my function keys are being recognized in Amazon WorkSpaces. Although it does not recognize F11 as it still shows desktop on Mac. You also lose firect access to App Controls.


iOS: How can I view more Unicode? I would like to be able to view more Unicode characters on my iPhone—specifically, more mathematical operators and symbols. Most of these are not visible on iOS and either appear blank or as a question mark inside a box despite being directly accessible through the character viewer on a Mac.

How can I view these characters on iOS?

You would have to add fonts to your iOS device which contain the characters which are missing.  This can be done with various apps from the app store, like Anyfont.

You might try the font Symbola.