How to play a dvd movie with external subtitles? This is not about authoring the DVD (not similar to this question): just want to insert the DVD in a laptop, start it in a video player, and then add a separate subtitle that I have myself found. (Some DVD movies contain no subtitles - or some subtitles may be needed that are not on the DVD.)

I know how to do that in Windows and in Linux - without VLC: it can try but has bad results in this respect. - Every time I try it, external subtitle display for a DVD in VLC is erratic; usually subtitles are not always displayed, or they disappear after a while, namely after pause/play or after going back and forth. (See here, here, here, here about this old bug that is not yet completely gone, afaict.) Here it says VLC is the only Mac player that can do the job. But is it?

Are there some Mac video players that could achieve this task - like MPC-HC (Potplayer, etc) can in Windows (and MPV and SMPlayer in Linux)?

This is a temporary answer as I don't have a Mac at hand now.

I have to test on a Mac, but the Windows version of 5kPlayer can do it very well; and it has a Mac version.

Also, KMPlayer can also do it (also tested just in Windows for the moment) and it has a Mac version it seems (here - Mac Alpha Version: have yet to test too).


MacBook Pro (Lion) won't boot anymore My MacBook Pro won't start up anymore. Here are the symptoms:

displays only folder with question mark icon on startup
when boot from Lion installation disk the disk utility program crashes. when i select it and click continue it just freezes
i tried to reinstall lion from the installation disk but this just freezes as well like the disk utility program.
i've tried resetting the PRAM and SMC to no avail
the hard drive has two partitions - one for bootcamp and one for lion

Does anyone here have any idea what's wrong.
What should be my next course of action?

Since you already tried to reset your PRAM and SMC, I can advise you to try booting to Lion Recovery (use cmd + R on start up). This will let you know if the machine is operating fine hardware and storage wise. If you can boot into your recovery HD with no issues - not only do you know the problem is isolated to the boot volume, but you have Disk Utility and an internet browser to run tests and see what step is next.

More and more Macs are getting updates to run Internet Recovery. Once you have your mac booted, you can then know where the problem lies. Worst case, with a current backup, you could just erase your Mac HD volume and reinstall Lion.

There are a few opions:

If the HDD is not recognized, you need a hardware repair.
If the HDD is recognized but the Mac HD is not, you will need to create a new partition and reinstall.
If the Mac HD is recognized, repair disk and restart to test; if the issue persists, reinstall.

If you don't get what I described here, please say so and I'll extend my answer. But you can start with that.

EDIT:
It seems like Apple has made a support page concerning this issue. I hope this can help you!


How to make automator app use a specific folder as input I have a number of processes that I need a Mac Mini to run with no input.

One of these tasks is to take ingested video files, rename them and transfer them to another location.

The app I am using to ingest the files is called one way sync and it is capable of running a script upon completion. Using this, I can trigger an automator app to run. However I do not know a way to specify the input for this app as the contents of X folder.

I need the app to run on the contents of folder X every time.

Can anybody tell me what i'm missing?

Apple's documentation on files is a bit of a laundry list - but read a little so you can decide if you want to use POSIX names or native names. POSIX uses / and native uses : to denote folder breaks. The following two lines are both the Downloads folder for a user with a short name of me:

"/Users/me/Downloads"
"Macintosh HD:Users:me:Downloads"

Mac Automation - Files and Folders - Apple Developer

On the left sidebar are links to sections dealing with Processing dropped files and folders as well as the concept of watching folders.

I would try my hand at writing a script that uses the built in watch folders triggers so you don't have to deal with passing file names or starting and stopping the script. If that doesn't work, you could always invest in a tool like Hazel that does what you want as well, but it's good to try and learn automation since it's so powerful long term.


Is it possible to add iCloud Reminders to iCal calendars? In iCloud, each Reminder is placed in a named list (called a "List" in the details dialog, and a "Calendar" in the context menu in iCal), but there seems to be no way to assign a reminder to an existing ("normal") iCal calendar (as there was with pre-iCloud "To Do" items).

Is there a way to assign a Reminder to an existing iCal calendar?

No. With iCloud and its supporting operating systems (iOS 5 and OS X 10.7.2), Apple has split the calendar stores on its online CalDAV servers to be either event-only, or task-only. Reminders sync to task-only calendars. See this Apple Support article for some details.


DIY patching of OS X system binaries? So since nobody on Apple.SE, Unix.SE or other sites was able to help me with my little WWAN problem, I've taken a look at the configd source and I was wondering... suppose I'd want to give patching the code a shot, what dev tools would I need and is there something about OS X keeping me from replacing the vanilla configd binary with a patched one (on a new installation on an external drive so as not to render my OS X productive system unusable)?

You can use XCode - it's in the App Store, and free. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12

Download that whole directory, open up the XCode project: configd.xcodeproj

Then, you can build it using XCode.

You'll probably need to turn off the code-signing protections - Security and Privacy panel in System Prefs. Allow Apps downloaded from anywhere. Not sure if Apple has additional protection for system binaries.

Try it on a different drive, or in a VM and see what happens.


How to find file system of external hard drive? I have plugged external hard drive. It does not show in Normal Mode. I can see its Type Name and Identifier thru terminal.

I want to find the file system of the external hard drive.
I want to format the disk.

The easiest way to format any disk is to use Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). Just start the application, select the drive to be formatted in the left column, make double sure you've selected the right one and select the file system type, partition sizes etc. on the right hand side.


I cant open my iPad mini! While I was playing minecraft pe, I was changing the skin and when I got to the camera roll there's a somehwat black glitch that rebooted my iPad. After waiting for my iPad to open it keeps rebooting without the loading screen. It keeps showing me the Apple logo... I waited for 2 hours for it to open, but nothing happens! I dont want all my videos, and pictures to be deleted... plss helpp

Connect your iPad to a Mac or PC using the iTunes application. Try to make a backup from there; if that worked, restore the iPad to factory defaults (that basically erases everything that's on it) and restore the backup you just made.

For the future: Make a backup regularly, or you will lose your data some day.


How do I take a steathy picture with my iSight camera from the command line? Is there a command line utility that allows me to take a picture from the built in camera?  Something like screencapture allows for, well, screen captures.

The reasoning for a command line tool is I would like for it to be stealthy, without a countdown or flash or other indication to the user that a picture is being taken.

Use imagesnap. It can be installed with brew install imagesnap or by downloading the binary from the website.

One use for it is to take series of snapshots:

while :; do
    imagesnap ~/Desktop/$(date +%y%m%d%H%M%S).png
    sleep ${1-1}
done

It doesn't crop images horizontally either. (Photo Booth changes the aspect ratio to 3:2.)


iPhone 6s with iOS 12.4 not connecting to MacBook Pro mid2015 with macOS 10.14.6 I am using an iPhone 6s with iOS 12.4 and a MacBook Pro mid2015 with macOS 10.14.6. Since recently (I am not exactly sure when it started), I cannot charge the phone with my computer anymore. As soon as I plug the phone in, it will play the charging sound repeatedly. The right-hand side port sometimes works, the lefthand side port never works. When I connect my old iPhone 5 (using the same cable), it charges without any issues. My iPad mini 4 shows the same issue.

Sometimes the "Do you trust this computer" setting flashes on the phone and disappears before I can click anything.

How can I fix this?

Update 1

Sometimes I get the Software Update dialogue in macOS. After approx. 2 minutes it shows the following:

Update 2

For some reason the issue disappeared for a while but is back now. Disabling "Settings" > "Touch ID & Passcode" > "USB Accessoires" seems like it makes the problem a bit less bad, but not go away.

Update 3

This is driving me crazy. I upgraded to Mojave 10.14.3 mostly to get rid of the issue. It persists. Some more random information: Before logging in (Filevault pre-boot authentication), the phone will charge fine. Only when a user account is loaded, the issue appears. The likelihood of a successful connection increases with the battery state of the iPhone. Workaround 2 in my answer below suggest that this a "Trust issue" from the iPhone's side. I suppose the solution will have to be hidden somewhere there...

What I tried so far (will update):

Reset Privacy settings on iPhone
Different (original, almost new Apple) lightning cables
"Disable unless needed" option for USB
Remove and add "iPhone USB" in Network Settings
Change and remove Thunderbold Bridge in Network Settings
SMC reset (thanks Jack3231), PRAM reset
Upgrade to latest iOS 12.4 and MacOS 10.14.6

Workaround 1

This is the only reliable workaround for my iPhone.

I came across a similar question. The most up-voted answer lets me charge my phone. However, I consider it rather a workaround than a solution.

Launch "Activity Monitor" > select the usbd process > click the cross icon in the top left corner > select "Force Quit". Sometimes the process has to be repeated once.

Unfortunately, this workaround does not work for my iPad mini 4, which will say Not Charging after quitting usbd.

Workaround 2

This is a weird one... I noticed that sometimes the Trust this Computer? dialogue appeared for a split second. However, it did not appear long enough to actually click  the Trust button (left button). After playing whack-a-mole for a while, I accidentally opened the Calculator App. There I was able to catch the dialogue and then I was asked to enter my Passcode. After repeating this twice it worked even after rebooting the computer. The phone will work randomly for a while.


Dual Thunderbolt displays with a Mac running Windows under Boot Camp? Is it possible, on a brand new MacBook Pro, to use two external Thunderbolt displays under Windows booted from Boot Camp?

I found this KB article, which says no. I also found this thread, where there's a hint that booting first to OS X then to Windows can work, but it's from late 2011. Have the drivers or firmware been updated to allow this more easily?

Unfortunately, as of now, you are unable to (I'm assuming that this is what you mean) daisy-chain two or more Thunderbolt displays (natively) into your Mac. I'm unsure if it's Apple to blame, Microsoft, or both. Wait until Windows PCs start receiving Thunderbolt (Microsoft should update the drivers by then) and try again. If that's not it, then it's probably Apple's fault and there is nothing that you can do now until Apple updates the Boot Camp drivers so that it can support this.


How can I upgrade Mac OS X for free on a recently bought rMBP? I've recently bought a rMBP. I've heard I could ask for an OS update for free. Im not sure what that means as I'm new to the Mac. What should I do?

Apple typically calls their upgrade program up to date.

In this case, you would go to this page below and follow the instructions based on the purchase date of your Mac.

http://www.apple.com/osx/uptodate/

Your seller can assist as well - but most people can find things themselves once they know where to look. You can then use one Apple ID on the Mac App store to redeem the Mountain Lion upgrade just like you may have to redeem the iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand).


How can I recover a standard user's password using the admin password? I'm trying to recover a standard user's password on Mac. I'm using OSX Sierra. Using the admin, can I view this password? Either with Terminal or otherwise?

Nope is the general prognosis for this.

Assign them a new password if you don’t intend to crack / reverse engineer the password or hope to find it stored in a plan text file.

https://github.com/octomagon/davegrohl

If you just need to get at the files and not crack to get at the user keychain, use the system preferences and an admin account to make a new password for the user account in question.


Copy SMS and imessages from one phone to other WITHOUT restoring backup I have a friend who needs to get SMS messages and imessages from an old phone to a new phone.

I understand that restoring the new phone using a backup of the old phone will acheive this.  But this can't work in his situation because the backup is tied to the find my iphone on his ex wife's account.   If he restores that backup his phone constantly asks for the password of his wife's icloud account.  He cannot get that information.

He has tried third party software with no success.

Is there a way to get the messages off one phone onto another without doing the restore backup.

OR, is there a way to prevent the backup tied to the wife's find-my-iphone from being bricked by requiring the wife's icloud password.

I work on a tool called Decipher Phone Refresh (https://deciphertools.com/decipher-phone-refresh.html) running this over the backup and selecting to keep only the Messages app data (definitely not accounts) should accomplish a clean backup with the Messages data that won't require the old iCloud account during setup. So uncheck all of the options, and only check the Messages app data.

Don't select apps, since those will be tied to the old App Store account (which I assume is the same as the iCloud account) and will ask for the password to install the apps.


Can I share Ethernet internet connection through Thunderbolt cable? I do not want to use WiFi but need to share my iMac's Internet connection (with incoming Ethernet) to my MacBook Pro, using a Thunderbolt cable.

I've connected the two in Network/sharing settings, can share files/screens etc, but the MacBook Pro does not pick up any Internet connection.

I switched on Internet sharing on the iMac, Ethernet → Thunderbolt, but no joy - any ideas?

You need to enable the DHCP server service included in macOS. Do this on the side that acts like a router (sharing side).

DHCP is what gives an IP address, DNS servers to user etc. to connected devices.


HDMI VGA projector cannot connect to Macbook Pro Why doesn't the projector find the Macbook Pro when connecting a VGA cable to the HDMI port on Macbook Pro via an adapter? It does work on a Windows machine. I know that to fix this problem one needs to connect the VGA to the Mini Display port (via an adapter of course). So is there another way around this? Or do we have to connect to the Mini Display port.

After a few months of experimentation, we found no 3rd party (i.e., non-Apple branded) HDMI <> VGA adaptors which worked well and some which didn't work at all on our Macs. We bit the financial bullet and purchased Apple-branded adaptors and they work perfectly.

We found the same with Thunderbolt & USB <> gig-Ethernet adaptors and Lightning <> HDMI adaptors, too. Remember, you may save $$ purchasing 3rd-party adaptors, but there are tradeoffs in either operation or quality, frequently both.

Most 3rd party adaptors have little or no strain or twist relief in the cable attachment inside the adaptor. We had slews of non-Apple Thunderbolt <> VGA adaptors die after only a week or two of use because the cables literally twisted out of the adaptor body.


Windows 7 using French AZERTY keyboard special characters problem After a long struggle I got successfully installed Windows 7(OS in English but French Keyboard) in Lion OS X Using Boot-Camp. Followed this I have installed all the windows necessary driver software's but I have some problem with the special characters.

I couldn't find out the symbols like @ ! § { } + =.

How can I change the layout of this keyboard???

I didn't realize there are 2 versions of French keyboard i.e 1.French 2.French Apple in the keyboard settings.

Chose French Apple keyboard from settings, resolved my problem.


SSD vs Memory upgrade I am starting to learn XCode, and having a MacBook Pro 2011 with 4Gb of DDR3 ram (Quad Core 2.0 Ghz), it is slow. Am considering of upgrading either my RAM or swapping the HDD for an SSD.

Which would you recommend first and why?

SSD's improve the start-up and shut down speed and will load apps installed on it a bit faster.
More ram will be very useful if you are running multiple big apps like xCode at the same time.

I recently upgraded my SSD and I have upgraded my ram before that and both made my machine a lot faster, the SSD with booting and the ram with running apps.
It really depends on what you would like to speed up in your mac.
If you are not sure I would recommend more Ram since it is less of a hassle, cheaper and the performance boost is very noticeable especially when developing in Xcode


Transfer data from Windows to OS X I'll buy a Macbook air and wonder how I can transfer my files from external hard drive I used for windows to the new Macbook Air?

Windows stores all of the users files in C:\Users (for windows Vista and up) or C:\Documents and Settings (for Windows XP).  Inside that folder you'll see all of the user accounts for that Windows computer.  Copy the user you want over to a flash drive or external hard drive then plug it into your laptop.  On your Mac, use the Migration Assistant to finish the transfer or just copy and paste the files yourself.


Monitor going black regularly The monitor connected to my Mac mini is going dark regularly for a few seconds, then he comes back up. What could this be? It is not a flickering, the monitor just loses connection.

Mac mini (Late 2012)
macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Monitor is a Dell U2713HM
second monitor which blacks out only very rarely (but he does as well sometimes.)

I have checked the cables about 100x times.

The most common causes for these types of blackouts are poor cables, poorly shielded monitors or excessive environmental noise.

If you have nearby sources of EMI (electromagnetic interference), try moving these sources or the monitor/computer/cable. In practice I have seen for example 4G/LTE hot spots, burglar alarms, stereo receivers and other similar equipment cause blackouts.

The next step is to replace the cables with properly shielded cables of a good quality.

If that doesn't help, contact your the seller of the monitor for support.


iOS 5 Sorting of list of playlists First, a little background. I listen to my iPhone in two cars, a Honda and a BMW. The Honda uses the Aux In, and I have a Bluetooth speakerphone, through which I use Voice Control to start playlists. In the BMW, I use the built-in iPod integration.

I primarily listen to a handful of playlists while in either car, but have dozens more on the phone. I can't use Voice Control in the BMW, so I use the iDrive interface to kick off playlists. As such, I want the playlists I listen to in the car at the top. I prefixed my car playlists with underscores, and everything was great. On iOS 4, they showed up on the iPhone (and iDrive) as follows:

_First Car Playlist
_Second Car Playlist
Another Playlist
Playlist Not For Car

They showed up at the top of the BMW's playlists, and Voice Control still found them with no trouble.

And along came iOS 5, which seems to trim all non-alphanumeric characters from the beginning of each title before sorting. On iOS 5, they show up as follows (on the iPhone and iDrive):

Another Playlist
_First Car Playlist
Playlist Not For Car
_Second Car Playlist

I tried numerous symbols (.$!,?), all of which were ignored. I can't use numbers, because numbers sort to the bottom of the list, and it's not practical to number every playlist. For now I've renamed them as follows:

a First Car Playlist
a Second Car Playlist
Another Playlist
Playlist Not For Car

This works, but it's ugly (less legible), and though Voice Control gets it right when I say "First Car Playlist", it reads it back with the leading "A", which annoys me. Can anyone else come up with another solution?

Oh brother ... I just spent about an hour trying to figure this out myself. I had my playlists in a nice order before this enforced alpha sorting. I hope there will be an update that will allow for some better customization.

Good news is ... I did find one leading symbol that will push your faves to the top! Without looking too ugly! And the voice command lady doesn't pronounce it!

Here it is:   ª

... copy and paste!

It's a superscript 'a' used as an ordinal counter in spanish.
It'll sort as an 'a' but it's so tiny it doesn't look like much, at least on the ipod screen it's kinda just a speck.

eta: don't know about iDrive or how it might look in the car display


How should I migrate my iTunes library to a larger external disk while preserving metadata? I currently have a set up where my default iTunes Library (of ~550 HD movies) resides on a 2TB external HD. I share this library and use it to serve my Apple TV/other LAN devices. The drive is close to full, so I got a 4TB External HD to migrate the Library to.

The default library path is set to /Volumes/MEDIA_2TB through iTunes Preferences, though all the .xml and .itl data still resides in ~/Music/iTunes/.

I'd like to migrate my current library contents to /Volumes/MEDIA_4TB while retaining the metadata (ratings, play count, watched/unwatched, date added, etc), as well as set Volumes/MEDIA_4TB as the new default library.

It seems that the file paths are tied to the metadata files though. If I change the default iTunes Library through iTunes and then "Consolidate Library" will this work? Is there another/better way?

Note that I don't want to create symlinks as in this Q&A: Move external iTunes library files to different location without losing metadata

So I successfully migrated the library without losing the metadata by:

1) Changing the default library under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > to /Volumes/MEDIA_4TB first

2) Selecting all the contents of the library within iTunes.

3) Going to File > Library > Consolidate Files

After many hours of copying, I confirmed it worked by right clicking on a movie > Movie Info > File Tab > Location: /Volumes/MEDIA_4TB/Movies/[Name of Movie]. I can now safely delete the contents of the old 2TB drive and reformat it.


Which part of iPhone is responsible for radiation I wonder what part of the iPhone is responsible for the radiation? Is it battery?

By radiation, I'm assuming you mean the creation of electromagnetic waves and not the movement of sub-atomic particles like X-Rays.
In that case, it would be the transmitter (technically the transceiver since it's an all in one device).  It's the transmitter that generates the electromagnetic waves at their respective frequencies with embedded data through the antennas that creates this radiation.
How a Transmitter Works

There's three components to a transmitter

Oscillator creates the "carrier wave" at a specified frequency.  This is the LTE, GSM or PCS frequencies that your carrier (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc.) uses.

Modulator embeds all of the data onto the wave signal generated by the oscillator

Amplifier (with antenna) takes that signal and increases it's power so that it's strong enough to reach the closest receiver.

Particle Radiation
If you're referring to the movement of sub-atomic particles from your iPhone, there isn't any.  There's no component (like the battery you mentioned) with any degree of radioactivity (This is the "dangerous radiation").  It would be illegal to sell that to the general public.


how do i remove the restrictions passcode on my iphone 5c i just bought a used iPhone 5c from someone and it has a restrictions passcode on it from the owner before me and I would like to take it off but dont know the passcode is  there anyway I could take It off .?

Only buy phones that are factory-reset. If you're able to reset it yourself (Settings > Erase All Content and Settings), then it should remove the restrictions


Outlook for Mac - Missing ribbons Today I was about to send an email when I've noticed that on the Compose screen most ribbons were missing. Ribbons like 'Insert', 'Table' (IIRC), were just not there. All I got was a super simple compose window with a handful of formatting options.

Do you know how can I re enable all the lost formatting tools?

Current Compose Window, note how many formatting options are not present

Thanks!

To add the Ribbon on/off to your Tool bar right click on it and select "Customize Toolbar".

In the new window, drag the Ribbon to your Tool bar.

The ribbon you are showing is already the standard version on MS Outlook 2011.

It can not be further customized, unlike the other MS office products.


sudo requires root password I've got an admin user phil with password orange, and the root user is enabled with password banana:

If I type sudo ls, and enter the password orange, I get Sorry, try again.
If I type sudo ls, and enter the password banana, it works.

If I disable the root user, sudo doesn't accept either password.

What the heck is going on?

If your user is an admin, they should (by default) be able to use sudo (based on the contents of the sudoers file).

If you re-enable the root user, and examine the contents of the file at /etc/sudoers, you should find this line (which specifies that the admin group has the ability to use sudo):

%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

It may be a good idea to confirm that "phil" is in the admin users group. You can perfom this check on the command line using this command (after you've re-enabled root, of course):

sudo dseditgroup -o checkmember -m phil admin

It's also possible that the rootpw flag may be set in the /etc/sudoers file (this should be off by default). If you find the following line in that file, see if deleting it will help:

Defaults rootpw


MacBook Pro NOT syncing desktop to iCloud UPDATE: After months of doing research and trying a vast array of different things I finally decided to call Apple. I was on the phone with them for over 2 hours and they could not figure it out. Finally they had me download some special software that would scan my computer  and then they'd have it analyzed by an engineer. Then this morning when I woke up, lo and behold it was magically working! I'm thinking they may have done something server side for me. But ya thats what it took to get it working again.

TDLR: Call Apple to get it fixed.

OLD POST:
My MacBook Pro is not uploading or downloading its desktop to iCloud. It works flawlessly on my iMac, iPhone, iPad, ec...

I can't figure out what the heck is going on, here are somethings that I've tried,

1) signed out of iCloud, shutdown computer and waited for a few hours
2) unchecked and rechecked desktop & document syncing
3) checked to make sure I have enough space in iCloud (I do)
4) checked to make sure I have enough space on my computer (I do)

How can I fix this!?

Do you have desktop syncing on?
In System preferences>iCloud>iCloud Drive
Make sure its Check
Then look at the options for 'Desktop & Documents Folders' and check

You can check iCloud stats at sidebar, iCloud Drive folder will get charging circle while loading


Messages: Online status or Last seen time Is there any method for me to know if a user registered with Messages is currently online? Or, is it possible for me to determine when they were last seen?

If not is there a way to find out using different method, preferably without reaching out to them?

No. Messages (formerly iMessage) doesn't have any of these features.

Since the feature is not available, there is no way to obtain either of the information by any means.

However, delivery time and read receipt with time (if enabled by the recipient) feature is available in Messages and is shown just below the message bubble.


How to dim screen on Mac before going to sleep I would like my MacBook (on El Capitan) to dim the screen before going to sleep, so that I can hit a key to keep it unlocked if desired. Currently, there is no way to keep it from locking if it's started to turn off the screen.

Any thoughts?

…so that I can hit a key to keep it unlocked if desired. Currently, there is no way to keep it from locking if it's started to turn off the screen.

It sounds like you don't need the old dimming action so much as you need a delay on the password lock following sleep or screensaver.

Open "System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General", and change the "Require password … after sleep or screen saver begins" dropdown from "immediately" to "5 seconds" or "1 minute" or longer even.


How to stop assignment of numbers to hostnames? My devices, including airport stations, keep being assigned a number following their name (i.e. "ATV (3)"). I was hoping Mavericks would fix it but it did not.

Is this fixable, please?

This seems like a problem with your router. Try forcing your hostname with scutil:

scutil --set HostName yourhostname

Why the number?

The bracketed numbers appear because the same Bonjour/ZeroConf name is being used multiple times on the network. If Bonjour detects a duplicate name, a number is appended to ensure uniqueness.

This does not indicate a serious problem. Resetting network caches and devices should help clear out the now superseded name.

Apple's Bonjour Frequently Asked Questions page discusses this behaviour:

  12. What should happen when two devices on the network both use the same service name?

  In the rare case where a name collision occurs, your device should add
  a digit to the end of the name, for example:

  "Apple Mac mini (2)"


Jump to the end of agreement in Terminal How to jump to the end of software license agreement in the Terminal? I want to avoid hitting Enter or Space to read line by line, I just want to jump to the end.

If the license pager is less, try hitting capital G.


Can i use my old MacBook charger on my new Mac? I have a 2011 15" MBP, that uses a 85W power supply.
My old 2008 MBP 15" also has a 85W power supply, but I cannot get it to work. Shouldnt it? Its the same watt power, and the adapter fits.

The way Apple power adapters are designed is that you can use any charger on any laptop that has the same, or lower, power rating. For example, you can safely use an 85W power adapter (for MacBook Pro) on a MacBook Air (which requires only 45W) or MacBook (which requires 65W).

However this does not work the other way around, you cannot use a MacBook Air (45W) adapter to power a MacBook Pro.

A 2008 MacBook Pro adapter rated at 85W should power a 2011 MacBook Pro with no problem. If this is not the case, then the adapter is faulty.


iPhone 11 A2111 compatibility with LTE bands in Europe (Portugal) Maybe this is a stupid question, but I'm visiting the States in a few months and I was thinking of buying the iPhone 11 there. I'm aware that there are 3 models because of network compatibilities.

In the States, they only sell the model A2111, and according to apple's website (iPhone LTE), my country (Portugal) is not supported. After some research, I found from multiple sources(List of LTE networks in Europe, Frequency Check - Portugal) that all the bands used in my Country are actually supported by this model.

What I'm missing? Why would Apple remove the country from the list if it's actually supported?

The modem and antenna setup in recent iPhones can't handle all of the band options at once, so Apple has split its models into devices that work with certain bands needed in the US and Canada, and devices that work with bands needed elsewhere.

The hardware of the models is pretty much the same, except that they have different modems that cover different LTE bands. Therefore, the phone you buy overseas or from black markets might not work properly on your current carrier.

iPhone 11 A2111, 11 Pro A2160, and 11 Pro Max A2161 are the US/Canadian models. iPhone 11 A2221, 11 Pro A2215, and 11 Pro Max A2218 are the world models. iPhone 11 A2223, 11 Pro A2217, and 11 Pro Max A2220 are Chinese models.

Especially in Europe, the US models will get poorer coverage and speeds than the world models will.

So it might work but not up to the expectancy level. I wouldn't suggest going with A2111 as Apple has provided the list of supporting bands. You can look for iPhone 11 A2221.

https://www.apple.com/lae/iphone/LTE/#iphone-11


Is it possible to update the preinstalled versions of both MySQL and PHP in OS X? I'm running 10.6.4 and PHP reports itself as version 5.3.2 (5.3.3 is available) and mySQL reports version 5.1.45 (5.1.51 is available)

I know they are minor releases but is it possible to easily update either of these?  If so, any hints or pointers as to how?

Briefly; no there is no easy way to update them. (Assuming that compiling from source is not considered easy)

I would strongly caution against modifying the system installed versions as you're likely to have your updated versions broken when Apple issues an update that updates them. (Usually Security Updates and has bitten some users/sysadmins when Perl has been updated)

If you wanted to update them it's a matter of downloading the source files and installing it over top of the provided versions.

As a reasonable alternative I recommend installing your own managed version of PHP and MySQL into /usr/local or using your packaging software of choice (MacPorts, Fink or Homebrew) or prepared installer (eg. MySQL's .pkg installer that installs into /usr/local).


What is the difference between the original Apple watch, and the 2016 announcement of "Series 1" As of the latest announcement in 2016, there appears to be 3 types of Apple watches

Original (Series 0?)
Series 1
Series 2

What isn't clear is the distinction between the original Apple watch and Series 1.

Prior to the announcement, the original Apple Watch (Series 0) listed at $349. Then it was discounted to $249.

Part numbers of Series 0:

- MJ3T2LL/A MJ2X2LL/A (Black)
- MJ3R2LL/A MJ2W2LL/A (red)
- MJ3P2LL/A MJ2P2LL/A (green)
- MJ3T2LL/A MJ2T2LL/A (silver)
- MLC42LL/A MLCF2LL/A (Orange)
- MLC52LL/A MLCG2LL/A (Silver)
- MLCH2LL/A (Rose Gold)
- MLC62LL/A MLCJ2LL/A
- MLC72LL/A (Gold + midnight blue)

From what I can tell, the original Apple Watch has these differences from Apple Watch "Series 1"

      Series "0"   Series 1
Cost    $249         $269
CPU    1 core?      2 core
         both are Splash resistant
         both have Wifi b/g/n
         both have bluetooth 4.0
         both have a heart rate sensor
          ???       accelerometer
          ???       gyroscope
          ???       ambient light sensor

The Apple Watch Series 1 has all the same features that shipped with the original Apple Watch. The only differences are that Series 1 models:

include the new dual-core processor
come pre-installed with watchOS 3.


What is the safest way to triple boot Macbook Pro? I recently purchased a MBP 13.3 i5 system, and I'm keen on making it triple boot (Lion, Win7, Ubuntu 11.04). What is the safest way to do this ? I found quite a few websites online, but I'm not sure of whether they are entirely accurate/updated for Lion etc.

I would really appreciate it if someone could post a link that has worked for Lion/Win7/Ubuntu 11.04.

Also, would this action invalidate the warranty of the MBP ?

Lifehacker's guide to triple booting has worked well for me in the past. You will also definitely need refit. I've seen varying reports of how well refit works on Lion - it seems to be that if you don't have FileVault enabled, you should be fine. Obviously make sure to back everything up before starting - any sort of partitioning/boot loader editing/etc is always slightly risky.

The basic steps are:

Install refit
Partition all the necessary partitions (OS X, Windows, Linux). Be careful at this step, it can be very difficult to resize partitions that aren't HFS+. You'll need three additional partitions: Windows, Linux, and Linux swap.
Install Windows, then install uBuntu.

(Lastly, this does not invalidate the MBP's warrantee.)


Is there an app that will scan a document and upload it to Google Docs? Is there an iPhone app that allows me to take pictures of documents and then upload them to Google Docs?

Scanner Pro [iTunes link] from Readdle. According to the product's Web page, it integrates with Google Docs and

  lets you use Google Docs OCR to convert scans into editable text files on your Google account.


fullscreen youtube video on external display / avoid changing desktops I'd like to entertain my 2 y.o. with cartoons while I' trying to work. The problem is that when I change desktops and use mission control it affects second display too.
How can I fix fullscreen youtube video to one display?
It's getting even worse with fullscreen quick time - the main display is blank...
So, is it possible to dedicate one display for entertainment while keeping the other for regular use?

I presume you are not on Mavericks. Multiple Displays support was improved in Mavericks and makes full-screen apps not interfere with other displays:

  Full screen applications
  With Mavericks, you can use full screen apps on each display independently. Open an app full screen on one display. On your other display, open an additional app as either windowed, or full screen.

Source: OS X: Using multiple displays in Mavericks

You can update to Mavericks which should fix this.


Why don't Projects folder and subfolders dynamically update with file system changes? After spending a long time debugging Sublime Text 2, I discovered the bug is in OSX.

The Finder does not dynamically update changes in the file system for the Projects folder and subfolders.

Why not?

How to fix?

OSX 10.7.5

EDIT: To clarify, when changing the file system in the terminal (for example touch tempfile or rm tempfile), the finder window updates immediately on most folders. However, in the Projects folder, the finder window does not update.

This is a problem with Sublime Text 2 because it has a files pane that updates as the file system changes. This does not work for folders inside the Projects folder. I thought it was a bug with Sublime Text 2. But it is a bug in OSX.

I don't believe this is the problem of Sublime Text as I am also using OSX 10.7.5 and have the same problem when viewing files and folders on a NAS (network server).

For some reason the Finder doesn't 'build' the folder/subfolder view as it used to on my earlier OSX 10.4.11 iMac - so it MUST be the newer operating system and Finder.

I have to force the Finder to quit and relaunch it for it to show me the up to date cached file system. It is causing me a real problem.


Bought first mac ever (mac mini), but stuck on install I just bought my first ever mac - mac mini - and now I'm trying to get it running. I have connected it to a dell monitor through hdmi and a windows usb keyboard so far.

When I power it on I get the screen with the apple and a progress bar. Once this progress bar is done, the screen turns sort of dark gray for like 10 seconds and then 2 images are displayed (one at a time). They both seem to indicate that I need to turn on/off some switch but there are no switches on my mac mini it seems?! I have network cable plugged in in case that is any help. Check out the images here:

And the second image:

The second image, at least, clearly indicates that your computer wants you to turn on the mouse. You need to have a mouse either plugged in through USB, or available to pair via Bluetooth. You say you already have a keyboard plugged in, so that should be okay.


MacBook Pro can't boot: shows Apple logo then grey screen There is a MacBook Pro from 2012 with Mountain Lion that won't boot. The Apple logo is showing, the spinning wheel and then it just goes to a solid grey screen.

I've tried to hold Cmd+R while booting, this does nothing.
I've tried to hold Shift while booting, this goes to a solid blue screen
I've tried to hold Cmd+Option+R while booting, this does nothing either.

I'd rather not re-install OS X. Do I need to reset the NVRAM?

Try to do a file system check via single user mode.

Reboot and immediately press Cmd+S
Wait for the command line and then type /sbin/fsck -fy
Have a tea. And a cookie.
Have a look in the output. If the HDD is failing you might see something like I/O Error. If you see something like ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***** then you can try to do it once more. If Volume X appears to be OK then you might be lucky.
Type reboot and let it boot.

More info on apple's website.

Good luck!


iOS 9.3.5 recover photos with broken touchscreen I've got an iPad 2 running iOS 9.3.5 which has a touchscreen that doesn't work. I'd like to recover the pictures from it preferably without having to pay to have a screen replaced on what is essentially an unsupported paperweight at this point.
I've got a USB to 30pin adapter so I can connect a keyboard which has let me unlock the iPad. The problem now is that although it is unlocked I have to allow access/trust any computer I connect it to, which I can't do because I have to unplug the keyboard to plug in the USB cable.
My first idea was to pair it with a bluetooth keyboard. Unfortunatley iOS 9.3.5 seems to be horrificly bad at handling keyboards. Using Meta+Space I can get into settings but once in there I'm stuck. I can search within settings but can't get out of the search box and interact with the app iteself.
This issue is compounded by it not having any internet access.  Again if I could navigate settings I could connect it to wifi but that wont work. Of course because its not connected to wifi siri wont work.
I'm running out of ideas at this point. We are 1 button press away for getting the pictures off but there seems to be no way to get that input into the iPad. I've even tried the old hit the back corner of the iPad trick to re-seat the digitizer connection to no avail.
I have a Windows machine and Mac that can throw things at this iPad if anyone has any ideas.

After a lot of other ideas the person I was doing this for was able to give me an old WiFi network that the iPad had connected to. Once I had internet access on the ipad it was "easy"
Using Siri I enabled voice over (Say "Enable Voice Over").
Then I went into bluetooth settings and switched on bluetooth whcih I did by asking siri for the bleutooth settings and then using Ctrl+Alt+Space (Ctrl+Option+Space on a mac keyboard) to switch it on. Once It saw the bluetooth keyboard I had prepared earlier I again used Ctrl+Alt+Space to pair with it.
Once I had the Bluetooth keyboard paired I connected the iPad to the computer using the cable and then used the bluetooth keyboard to Ctrl-Alt-Space the allow button and thats it. All data is being recovered now.
It is nothing short of a nightmare to navigate on an iPad with a keyboard but it is dooable.
I had already tried a digitizer replacement but it appears that the connection in the iPad was damaged as its digitizer worked on another iPad and none of the digitizers I had worked on this one. I do not belive it would have been possible to do this without getting it onto the internet.


How can I tell Automator to display an image with Preview but actual size? I am trying to have Automator do a simple task: display an image, but actual size. The problem is that Preview by default wants to 'fit' the image on the screen, but there appears to be no way to tell Automator to tell Preview to do it 'actual size' instead.
Is there a way to do this or do I simply have to find another way and avoid Preview.app?

Without seeing your actual Automator workflow, the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is to add a Run AppleScript action, after the action that opens the file in Preview, with the following example AppleScript code:
tell application "Preview" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Preview"
        if value of ¬
            attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" of ¬
            menu item "Actual Size" of ¬
            menu 1 of ¬
            menu bar item "View" of ¬
            menu bar 1 is missing value then

            click menu item "Actual Size" of ¬
                menu 1 of ¬
                menu bar item "View" of ¬
                menu bar 1
        end if
    end tell
end tell

This is similar to manually pressing ⌘0 while in Preview, which activates the Actual Size menu item on its View menu, if it is not already showing its actual size.
This also assumes the default preference of Define 100% scale as: 1 image pixel equals 1 screen pixel is in play.

 Note: Using the example AppleScript code may require adjusting settings under: System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy


No syncing between iCloud and iPad I've been using a Mac account for years. Just checked on my iPad that only posts made on iCloud the last 30 days are on Calendar. None of the older ones appear. I've already turn off and on on settings.

Thanks a lot.

Miguel.

By default, the iOS calendar only syncs events within a specific timeframe, but you can adjust that within the settings.

Open the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section in Settings, and scroll down to the Sync option under Calendars:

Tap that, and you'll get the option to choose how far back you want events to appear, or if you want all events to appear:


How to use FN keys as FN keys on macbook pro touchbar for ALL apps? Touchbar breaks my external keyboard, and the option to use all fn keys as fn keys is gone. Is there a way to do so anyway? For me the whole touchbar thing is completely useless, and I'd prefer only having it while I hold the fn key, like it works when I add a single app in the settings

Sierra 10.12, 2017 model

If you go to Settings > Keyboard, in the Keyboard pane, the box "Touch Bar shows" select "F1, F2, etc. Keys" as the option.

The touch bar will now just show Fn keys as if it was a normal keyboard. (They will dim and appear black sometimes.)

Then, you can change the setting directly below, "Press Fn key to" and select "Expand Control Strip" or "Show App Controls". This will fulfill your request to "only have it while I hold the fn key."

Hope this helps!


Problems creating Yosemite USB bootable drive I was trying to make a USB boot loader for Yosemite using this command

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled 2 --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

I borrowed it from the original

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

Which has worked for tons of people. The issue is for some reason it doesn't recognize the name of my volume is Untitled 2.
Error message:

/Volumes/Untitled is not a valid volume mount point.

I don't understand why it isn't reading the 2. Is there another way to point the command to the partition without using the names given e.g. serial addressing?

Change

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled 2 --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

to

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume "/Volumes/Untitled 2" --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

or

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled\ 2 --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction

and it should work.

You have to escape spaces in paths in the command line either with a \ or quotation marks.


How to get Apple Command Line Developer Tools without App Store? I got a mid-2013 MacBook Air for UNIX development.  I'm disappointed that it came with no C/C++ compilers and with no make, which are apparently part of Apple Command Line Developer Tools, which is supposed to be available for download from Apple Developer Connection, but which has been down for close to a week (and counting) due to some kind of user-database security breach in ADC.

If ADC is down, how come Xcode itself doesn't have any problems downloading Command Line Developer Tools, as per the "MacPorts fails to find 'make'" question?

How can one download make and clang et al without an App Store account, and when ADC is down?  How does Xcode do it?

Just get an Apple ID enter payment information for an Apple ID so that it can be used with App Store. You might eventually need it for upgrading the OS or for installing applications.

If others find this question after developer.apple.com comes back up, you can download the Command Line Tools package from https://developer.apple.com/downloads. It can also be installed from Xcode's preferences, but most of the binaries are already in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/{usr/bin,Tools}.


How do different methods of connecting USB-C display work? There are multiple ways how we can connect an external display via USB-C to an Apple device (say MacBook Pro). For example:

directly (e.g. LG UltraFine)
using Apple's USB-C to HDMI/VGA/DVI dongle
using a USB-C dock that supports DisplayLink

The last mentioned method - DisplayLink dock - is a 3rd party solution that does not seem to be supported by Apple and requires special drivers to be installed. Do other methods also require special drivers?

Is using original Apple dongle or connecting a display directly better since it connects directly to GPU while DisplayLink needs to encode/compress the image? (I've noticed it uses substantial amount of CPU).

Is using original Apple dongle or connecting a display directly better
  since it connects directly to GPU while DisplayLink needs to
  encode/compress the image? (I've noticed it uses substantial amount of
  CPU).

The short answer to this is yes.  DisplayLink is the "universal" USB display adapter driver. Being that the adapters are USB devices, and not actual GPU's, it stands to reason it will use more CPU than the other methods.

USB-C

The industry and Apple have created a ton of confusion around USB-C, Thunderbolt, and DisplayPort.  So, let's clear some of it up....

USB-C is just the connector type.  Technically, it's called a type C connector.
Thunderbolt 3 utilizes a type C connector and includes the following signaling:

DisplayPort video
USB 3.1
Power Delivery
PCIe

A USB-C port is a type C port and includes only the following signaling:

USB 3.1
Power Delivery
Optional DisplayPort (like on the MacBook without Thunderbolt Ports)

So, it is entirely possible to have what looks like a USB port be a Thunderbolt port that supplies video and on the other end of the spectrum, have that same looking port provide nothing but USB connectivity.  This, along with calling everything now "USB-C" leads to tons of confusion.

USB vs. DisplayPort

The first two methods, you described, connecting to the LG UltraFine or using Apples HDMI/VGA/DVI adapter both utilize the DisplayPort signaling embedded within the port to connect your GPU (integrated or dedicated) to your monitor.  It's a pure video signal.

A USB dock (regardless if it uses a type A, B, or C connector) is a USB device, not a DisplayPort device (caveat:  unless noted that it actually passes the DP signal).  Consequently, a USB video device is "created" and driven by the CPU, not the GPU.


How can I deactivate Find my iPhone's Erase iPhone? My iPhone 4s has been stolen and I have activated "Erase iPhone" through the iCloud, but I've found out that this disables Find My iPhone too.

How can I disable "Erase iPhone" to avoid deactivation of Find My Iphone?

Apple doesn't provide a way for you to withdraw an erase command from iCloud. Theoretically, if it hasn't been withdrawn, an engineer for Apple could go in and remove it from the queue assuming:

They could verify you were really you
You figured out how to convince them to do this

As for whether you can still track the device after an erase is sent, that depends on the version of iOS on the device.

If you have iOS 7 or later - the erase action does not stop tracking or remove the activation lock preventing a thief or someone who finds / buys it from being able to use the device. It will still show your lock message and you can still track the device. Problem solved!

If you are on iOS 6 or earlier, you are correct that you will have lost the chance to track the device once it connects and receives the wipe command. If it ever connects to Apple's servers, the wipe will happen and the device will be erased and you should get an email if/when that happens.


How can I restore my device with simply ipsw file and iTunes? I want to restore my iPod touch 4 gen. using a previously downloaded .ipsw file from the web instead of iTunes trying to download it again. I have tried putting the .ipsw file in the ~/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates/ folder but it still downloads another one.

By the way, my iPod is stuck in recovery mode and I cannot cannot get it out of it except restoring the iPod. What should I do?

Option-click the Restore button in iTunes and a standard file-selection dialog comes up allowing you to find your .ipsw file.


How do I connect to a SOCKS Proxy from an iPhone/iPod Touch? I like to surf securely and privately via a SOCKS proxy which I created via SSH tunneling, on the Mac. I used the SSH client on my Mac to achieve this. Then I thought, since the iPhone OS is essentially Mac OS, the same trick might work also on the iPhone.

I managed to create a SSh tunnel on my iPhone via the Terminal (iPhone's Terminal). (Yes, it's jail-broken)

ssh -D [port] user@domain.com

At this stage my iPhone is SOCKS proxy.

However, there doesn't seem to be a way in the iPhone networking preference panel to specify a SOCKS proxy. Someone suggest creating a Proxy Auto-Contig (PAC) file to workaround this, but that sounds complicated.

Any ideas how to make iPhone use it's own SOCKS proxy?

Well I guess, there's no better way to do it.  Darn you Apple, is it so hard to put a SOCKS Proxy setting in the iPhone OS network settings panel?
:-(

Anyway, the best answer so far, and the only one I could find on the Net, is from a document from the SNIPPLR Code 2.0 website entitled How To Connect To A SOCKS Proxy From An Unjailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch.

Below is a cleaned up version of their solution:

  Let's say, perhaps, that you are already forwarding your web traffic through an SSH/SOCKS tunnel at work (for privacy reasons) and you would like to use that same tunnel on your iPhone/iPod Touch. This is actually pretty easy to accomplish.

Make sure the SOCKS tunnel on your work computer allows LAN connections so your iPhone/iPod Touch can connect to it.

ssh -N -g -D 1080 user@domain.com

Create a text file and insert the following code:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
     return "SOCKS 192.168.xx.xx:yyyy";
}

Replace the x's with your IP and the y's with the port you used after the -D in your SSH command
Save the text file as a Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) file to a web accessible place with a .pac extension.

If you're reading this chances are you know how to serve a file over HTTP on your work LAN, so I won't delve into that.
Finally, on your iPhone/iPod Touch, go to Settings → Wi-Fi and click the blue arrow to the right of your work network. Scroll to the bottom, click Auto and type in the address to your PAC file (e.g. http://192.168.xx.xx/mysupersecretproxy.pac).

Now you can surf the web securely from your iPhone/iPod touch.


Garageband still taking up space in High Sierra Garageband is taking up nearly 25 GB of space under Music Creation when I look at "Manage" storage on my Macbook Air running High Sierra. I have deleted every file for Garageband, including Apple Loops and the preferences and containers and any files that were suggested online in various help lists, including this one. I deleted all files and emptied the trash and restarted several times, and it STILL shows 24.93 GB of space used under Music Creation for GarageBand instruments and lessons. I don't use GarageBand nor do I use LogicPro, so I would like to free up that much space. Any ideas on what to do next? This is infuriating, I've tried all the suggestions, what I am missing?

These are all the GarageBand folders...make sure they are all empty.
Also, quit and restart Storage Management after you have cleared those folders to see the changes or even a reboot, might help sort some other things out. Hope this helps...

/Applications/GarageBand.app
/Library/Application Support/Garageband
/Library/Application Support/Logic
/Library/Audio
~/Library/Application Support/Garageband
~/Library/Application Support/Audio


Unable to reboot from USB on Snow Leopard I have an external hard disk, where I had stored my 10.5.8 image. The laptop had issues with keyboard and display, so I stopped using it. I have a relatively new(5 months old) Snow Leopard Mac book Pro.I also have a mini mac. When I reboot the mac mini with the 10.5.8 image, it works fine. But with MBP, when I reboot, it sits at the apple image and does nothing.

The image was created using SuperDuper. I basically have an option in superduper to copy the hard disk to a usb. I think it blindly copie the files.

It's because your new MBP has few hardware components that are not supported by Mac OS X 10.5.8. Just to be sure you can check where 10.5.8 chocking when booting MBP if you press and hold cmd+v during boot.


How does Mac OS X decide which volumes to mount? One of my disks doesn't mount at boot I have four disks in my Mac Pro. The boot disk and two others mount when OS X starts but the fourth one does not. I can mount it in Disk Utility and it appears to be all right.

How can I tell Mac OS X to mount it?

diskutil list /dev/disk2s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Broken                  999.9 GB   disk2s2

Update: There seems to have been a misunderstanding about this question. I do not want to find out what's wrong' with my disk I named "Broken". It appears to work fine. I also reformatted it several times. I want to know how to tell OS X to mount a specific disk at boot. I named the disk "Broken" because it doesn't mount automatically, not because I have any problems with it as such and nor are there any error messages. Just forget I mentioned the disk and answer the question how to tell OS X which disks to mount at boot, if you know the answer. Thanks.

OS X uses diskarbitrationd which discovers new storage devices and probes them for mountable filesystems.  The Disk Arbitration framework handles notifying applications of disk mount/unmount events, and allows them to influence whether a volume is mounted or not.

Consult the man page for diskarbitrationd for very limited further information; for example, diskarbitrationd consults /etc/fstab to determine if the discovered filesystem should be mounted other than at the default location(/Volumes/) or with special options (or not mounted at all.)

Reasons for diskarbitrationd not mounting a filesystem or "volume" on a device may include:

Errors (corruption) in the partition table.
A mismatch between the partition type and the filesystem.
A damaged filesystem which fsck cannot repair.
Hardware failure.
Filesystem is listed in /etc/fstab with noauto.
An application has used the Disk Arbitration framework to prevent auto-mounting

According to your comments, all your journaled filesystems are mounting, and the filesystem which isn't mounting doesn't have journaling turned on.  Journaling was introduced in 10.2 Server and 10.3 Client and by now is considered a vital, critical feature.  It should be enabled unless you really know what you're doing; hence why you must hold down the option-key in Disk Utility to disable it in modern versions of OS X.   Make sure the volume has journaling enabled:

Select the volume in Disk Utility
Choose File->Enable journaling (if it is greyed out, journaling is enabled.
Verify by choosing File->Get info; you should see "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as the filesystem type.


Mac Pro won't sleep any more The past couple days, command-option-eject no longer puts my Mac Pro to sleep.  I haven't done any software updates in that time.  No process seems to be doing anything very interesting, or CPU-intensive.

What's stopping my Mac from being able to sleep?  How can I figure out what it is?

Using the Terminal application on macOS Sierra 10.12 or later you can run the following:

log show --last 2d|grep "Wake reason"

This will provide a list of the various reasons your system is not sleeping. Unfortunately the list will likely contain a few things that are not immediately clear, but a quick search on those messages should lead you in the right direction.


Mac Pro 5.1 running very slow after fresh install I inherited a Mac Pro 5.1.

I originally planned to use ubuntu on it. Which I did.

But I am now trying to get back to Mac OS X. Have installed the OS from the provided DVD. However it runs horribly slow. The boot would take 10 min. Every single click takes 30 sec to process.

I feel like I have messed up something at the Apple hardware level. Fair enough, I think I deleted the recovery partition, and messed with boot partition for ubuntu to work.

Question: is there any way to check the basics at the hardware level?
  I have ran disk utility and disk check, nothing there improves. So I am thinking more MBR/Bios/etc.

Cheers

After quite a bit of troubleshooting, I replaced the HDD with a new one. Works like a charm.


If I jailbreak my iPad, will I be able to test apps I develop as well as use the App Store? If I jailbreak my iPad, will I be able to use the App Store to download apps and also test the apps I develop?

As @Timothy pointed out in the comments, the App Store will work normally on a jailbroken device. As for your own apps, you can run them, but if you don't have a paid developer account it is harder to get them on the device. If you have a paid account, you can use the normal methods to install and run them.

A device which is not jailbroken will refuse to run any app which is not signed with an Apple-approved certificate. When you jailbreak, the code which performs the checks is modified. It will still only run signed apps, but those apps can be signed by any certificate. Therefore, you can create your own certificate to sign your apps with. However, the normal methods of installing an app will perform the check and refuse to install it. This means you need to find an alternate method of installation, most likely using SSH or USB to copy a package over and modifying permissions.


always launch new window from spotlight I want to launch new window for all applications every time when i launch an app using spotlight or alfred. Is there any to accomplisht that?

Unchecking the second item can help temporarily. When it's off, opening an app should give it focus on the current space, sometimes new windows open too, afaik.


2009 MacPro Xeon tower will not start 12 days ago I was working on my MacPro when it made an audible 'pop' and shut down.

Pressing the start button resulted in fan noise but no startup chime. After looking online I suspected the Power Supply  Unit. I managed to find a replacement PSU (took weeks) but I've just installed it and it hasn't worked the oracle.

I've tried resetting the SMC (considering it hasn't been plugged in for over a week I believe this is simply a matter of starting the machine up again?). I can't use any utilities as the machine won't boot. Disk is OK, I can read files off it, etc -- the machine isn't even looking for a startup disk!

Anybody out there got any ideas? I'm getting desparate now -- this machine is my main workhorse!

The audible "pop" you heard was the magical bubble Apple keeps all the technological goodness in break.  Once it pops, the magic is let out and your Mac will no longer work.

Seriously though....

I have personally heard the "pop" on many different types of computers - it could be something in your power supply (which you already diagnosed it isn't) to something on the logic board.

It could be a blown or bulging capacitor (left) or a burned out component  (right). (I know the pic on the right is of a PC, but it's an excellent example of both a blown and bulging capacitor in one picture; they go the same way in all electronics, not just Macs)

What you need to do is start removing components and visually inspecting them.  If you blew something, it would be quite visible.  You would see charring or a physically damaged component.  You are going to have to do some detective work to see what the cause will be and this means you will have to take the Mac down to bare metal.

Once you have figured out what it is, you can then figure out what you will need to do to repair it.


iPhone 5s: Which consumes more battery, 4G, or 4G LTE? Under Settings > Cellular, there's an option to enable/disable LTE. When disabled, my phone reverts to 4G, as indicated by the icon in the status bar.

I've read elsewhere that using 3G causes greater battery drain than 4G (in fact, Apple's own iPhone 5s spec sheet indicates that you only get 8 hours of 3G data, versus 10 hours of 4G LTE data). Which leads me to the following line of thought...

If I disable LTE and revert to standard 4G, what is the effect on battery life?

"Standard 4G" is kind of a meaningless phrase.  According to this article, disabling "LTE" means it's limited to either CDMA 3G or HSPA+.  HSPA+ is supposed to have performance comparable to LTE, so I would guess that if you disable LTE and see a "4G" icon, it means you're getting HSPA+.

PC Mag confirms that Apple (like their competitors and partners) started using "4G" to refer to any post-3G network, like LTE, WiMAX, and HSPA+.

Anyway, most of the articles I've found comparing power usage between HSPA+ and LTE suggest that LTE has slightly lower power consumption, but it seems to be a pretty small difference.  The signal strength where you are located probably has more impact than this setting.  Early LTE phones apparently sucked a lot of power even when idle, but with newer phones this seems to have been improved, e.g., this iPhone 5 user claims battery life is "nearly identical" whether LTE is enabled or not.

So you can try both settings and see which works better for you, but I wouldn't expect a huge power savings.


How do I edit the commands in full keyboard access on internal keyboard My phone won’t allow me to change the keyboard shortcuts. Is it possible to change them without aN external keyboard being connected?

As far as I know, there is no way the type the charcters you need to edit keyboard shortcuts from the iOS screen keyboard, so you must have a hardware keyboard connected to do that.


Is there any way to get a log of all the recently installed files and their respective folder paths and source directories? I recently installed an open source game. The file type is .pkg .

Now, during installation the installer asked for permission to access the system UI server. I didn't knew the reason behind it so I googled it up and before I could deny it the dialogue box asking for the permission has disappeared.

The installation was successful. But, I don't know where did the installer installed the game I tried every app cleaner to find the installed file but couldn't find it, it's not even in the applications folder.

So my question is; is there any way to get a log of all the recently installed files and their respective folder paths and source directories, so that I can find it and delete it?

Installers that ask for your login password can put a lot of crap in your filesystem.

You could create a user account in the future with standard credentials, not admin, purely for games. This maintains a separation and improves security.

But for now let's explore a bit.

To see the files created after a specific date, like when you installed the game, use find from a Terminal like

find / -type f -newerct 2018-01-01

Or whatever date you want. You can find files of a certain size, whatever, find is powerful but slow. It will, however check the entire filesystem if necessary. Replacing the slash with the tilde (~) constrains searches to your home folder. Some searches need to be run with sudo. Try man find from a Terminal.

You should also set up folder actions. on key folders. I do this on all of my machines via right click on

/Library/LaunchAgents
/System/Library/LaunchAgents
/Users/username/Library/LaunchAgents

To be alerted if installers drop files there in the future. There are corresponding LaunchDaemon folders alongside them.

When running a legitimate package .pkg installer you can generally do a Get Info (⌘I) to see a list of what will be installed.


Mac Book Pro - 5 400 tr/min or 7 200 tr/min? I'm buying a mac book pro (this one: http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MC723LL/A?mco=MjEyOTY4OTQ).

My doubt is:

5400 tr/min 750Gb or
7200 tr/min 500Gb ?

I would appreciate the extra space but I'm afraid of the 5400 be really really slower than 7200.
What do you think?

If you're not hammering the hard drive all the time, say by doing HD video work, then you're not going to notice. In that case, the 5400 might be better because it is larger, takes less power and is less likely to fail.


Text Edit rtf. Document suddenly disappeared from desktop after opening it! A very important (30+ hrs. of work) Text Edit rtf. Document suddenly disappeared from desktop after opening it!

I have been working on a translation with a tight deadline; non-stop working for 5 days all day, everyday.
I boarded a plane today, and before take-off, I took my computer out to continue working on the document.

The document/file was saved on my desktop. I open it, and scroll through it. Then I open another file, and another photograph file (all were saved on the Desktop)... All of a sudden, my translation 16 page document FILE IS GONE.
Literally gone and disappeared like it never existed! The document was gone, the icon on the desktop was gone... everything!
I tried checking in Trash, nothing. I checked "Open Recent" in Text Edit, and older documents were there, but no sign of my translation document.
I searched my entire computer. Nothing. It's like as if it never existed and this is tearing me apart.

I can't write to my job commission that, "hey my computer had a technical glitch and my file disappeared"... and this job is very important to me, as it will pay some important bills and I am really devastated about this setback and all the hard work I poured into this translation and now its just simply gone?? How on earth can this be?!! I really truly and deeply appreciate anyone who can help me out... thanks so much.

Local Time Machine snapshot
If you enabled Time Machine and didn't disable local snapshots in the past (but can't back up your files at the moment because the backup volume is at home/elsewhere) you should be able to find the file in the local Time Machine snapshot.

Open Time Machine
In the "Star Wars" display navigate to your desktop folder
White/purple ticks at the right side indicate local snapshots/snapshots on the Time Machine backup volume
Use the white ticks to search for your lost document

Containers
A second place to find the file - independent of any backups - may be:
/Users/your_user_name/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Autosave Information/


recover/restore files with specific extension from Time Machine with OSX I would like to recover/restore only *.GIF files from my most recent backup. They were accidentally deleted from everywhere in My Computer instead of just the intended folder. I currently have only 6 GB of free space (they took up about 1 GB, and only ~4000 files).

If I try selecting the most recent backup in Time Machine for recover, it starts by counting up to >20,000 files and then quits saying there is not enough space and stops. If I try to specify the Users folder, and kind:GIF in the most recent backup in Time Machine, the files remain gray color and not selectable.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this not possible?

Let me know if more info is needed.

NOTE: I edited to change "recover" to "recover/restore" - I didn't stop to think about the difference in meaning. If possible I need them back where they belong and there were so many locations - including applications and webpage downloads - I doubt I could figure it out myself.

Here is my most recent backup. Is Seagate Backup Plus Drive the drive name? With spaces?

This seems to work:
david914s-MacBook-Air:Volumes david914$ cd "/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/"

But adding this, doesn't:
david914s-MacBook-Air:Backups.backupdb david914$ cd "/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/david914's MacBook Air/"

-bash: cd: /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/david914's MacBook Air/: No such file or directory

Hmm... I've deleted --dry-run but still it is not adding files back to my computer.

david914s-MacBook-Air:david914’s MacBook Air david914$ rsync -av --include=".gif" --include="/" --exclude="*" "/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/david914’s MacBook Air/2015-08-30-221221/Macintosh HD/Users/david914/" "/Users/david914/"
building file list ... done
./

sent 81 bytes  received 26 bytes  214.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00
david914s-MacBook-Air:david914’s MacBook Air david914$

It seems like you will have to use the Terminal:

Mount your Time Machine disk. It will be located in /Volumes/myTMdisk/.
Start the Terminal
Type rsync -av --dry-run --include="*.gif" --include="*/" --exclude="*" /Volumes/myTMdisk/Backups.backupdb/myMac/Latest/myDisk/Users/me/ /Users/me/Desktop/allmygifs/

Replace myTMdisk, myMac, myDisk, me, and /Users/me/Desktop/allmygifs/ with the appropriate values.
You can use the tab key  while typing to auto-complete your path.
If your pathname contains whitespaces or special characters, put it in quotes, e.g. rsync -av --dry-run --include="*.gif" --include="*/" --exclude="*" "/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb/david914’s MacBook Air/2015-08-30-221221/Macintosh HD/Users/david914/" "/Users/david914/Desktop/allmygifs/"
If you want to restore the files into the original locations, use rsync -av --dry-run --include="*.gif" --include="*/" --exclude="*" /Volumes/myTMdisk/Backups.backupdb/myMac/Latest/myDisk/Users/me/ /Users/me/. I would recommend another backup before doing that. Then replace Latest with the respective timestamp.
In case you get file permission errors (e.g. Permission denied and code 23 error as described here), you may have to use sudo in front of rsync. But now you will really need to backup first. Ideally backup to a different disk or make another copy of your TM disk.

Once you are sure everything works, remove the --dry-run argument after rsync -av to actually write files.
Enjoy!


Boot Camp 5 drivers not installing on Windows 8 (iMac) So I have a mid-2010 iMac 22" that I just installed Windows 8 on, but cannot get the Boot Camp 5 drivers to install.

I was unaware that my mid-2010 iMac was technically unsupported for the Windows 8, but the Boot Camp assistant native to my OSX successfully installed it anyways. I know that the Apple support pages say that it is unsupported but when I look at what the specs are needed to run Windows 8 (on the Windows 8 support pages) my machine qualifies.

I haven't done much with the Windows partition as of yet, but so far it seems to run fine. So my question is:

Is it possible for me to not install any drivers, and safely use the Windows 8?

or

Can we work around the "Boot Camp 5 isn't supported on this Mac" and install the Boot Camp 5 drivers?

They don't support it because they want you to use their software


How do I unbind a Mac from the AD using the command line? Currently I am using the below command line to bind any Mac to my AD, and so far has been work perfectly.

dsconfigad -a hostname -u DomainAdminsUserName -p Password --ou "CN=Computers,DC=hello,DC=com" -domain hello.com -mobile enable -mobileconfirm enable -localhome enable -useuncpath enable -groups "Domain Admins,Enterprise Admins" -alldomains enable

reboot

Question, how do I unbind a Mac from AD to reverse the above configuration using the command line?

dsconfigad -remove -u DomainAdminsUserName -p Password

If that doesn't work, you may need to add -force.


Does using Sleep with FileVault negate some benefits of FileVault? As I understand it, FileVault makes you login before you computer boots to the OS in order to unlock the drive. This means someone getting ahold of your laptop when it is off cannot get at the data.

What are the implications of using FileVault with sleep? I assume the drive is still considered unlocked during sleep. Anyone that opens the sleeping laptop would have to know your login to do anything with the computer, but is the data insecure to someone very determined at that point (assuming they can't guess your password)?

I was considering turning on FileVault but since I never power down, the answer to this will help me decide what value there is in doing so.

If you don't require the password when you wake from sleep, then you are leaving yourself open to someone taking control of your data. That is regardless of FileVault.

If you have password set, then the data is still protected from being viewed in a similar method to it being on a locked file vault volume. You can also set a MDM profile to have the FileVault keys destroyed in RAM when the machine enters sleep, so that's pretty much as good as powering off in my book:

https://help.apple.com/deployment/osx/#/iore5b074158

For anything but a highly motivated and skilled adversary (think NSA or FBI) - the extra security you get by powering down the Mac is hard to estimate or differentiate from a locked screen.

That being said, you should turn on FileVault if you have an SSD since there is no other way to ensure destruction of sensitive data other than destroying the key that decrypts data on the drive. You can then decide to sleep or to power off based on how secure you judge your physical environment and the data you have on your Mac from moment to moment.


Starting applications, `open` vs mouse click What is the fundamental difference, for .app-bundles/applications, between

  open Application.app

in a bash-shell and opening it by clicking on it in for example Finder or the dock?

It seems the environments are slightly different, at least in Mojave, which causes low-level differences in AppKit-resources. In this case I've encountered weird behaviour with NSView (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nsview).

Does anyone have information (developer level info) on what the differences are?

I Googled and went through Apple's developer info, but I couldn't find anything meaningful. Appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

Apple developer info for 10.14 and AppKit had enough info to find the issue.

What mattered in this case was that the call order is slightly different depending on open Application.app or clicking on it. So do not assume call order for the first calls anymore.

The breaking change was that resetCursorRects (from NSView in AppKit) now can be called before the first redraw. AFAIK this was not the case previously.

See
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/appkit_release_notes_for_macos_10_14?language=objc


Is Spotlight index on an external USB drive reused when connected to a different Mac? I have a 10TB external usb drive that is shared among 3 Macs. It has been indexing for a while now and I'm worried that every time I connect it to a different Mac it gets reindexed. Is the index shared between Macs? does it create an independent index per Mac? Is the index being overwritten every time I connect it to a different Mac? Should I disable Spotlight (I would prefer to use it)

Every time you connect your drive to a different computer it gets indexed on the computer. Since your drive is 10TB indexing can take quite a while regarding how much data stored on it. I would suggest to deactivate indexation in the Spotlight options (indexing slows the computer down) but I noticed that un mounting/mounting the device to your/a computer erases the parameter in Spotlight so indexation is back on for the drive!  (on my system)
I hope this answers your question.

==> I forgot to mention that I have to delete all the 'fancy' dirs that macOS creates on my external drives to avoid issues when I connect these external drives to my DJ equipment.
I learned the hard way that if I don't remove those dirs, that it possibly will brake my ext. drive! (lost 2x 3 TB hard drives with tons and tons of music on it. The issue is known by the producer of the equipment but they aren't going to change a thing about it. For Denon, it's a macOS issue and not a Denon issue. :-( )


Can Google Chrome auto updating extensions be stopped? A few days ago a hacked version of a Google Chrome extension I use was distributed via Chrome's automatic extension updates.

Is it possible to stop Google Chrome from automatically updating extensions?

I've seen instructions on how to do block Google Chrome itself from updating, and how to block individual extensions from updating, but those were for Windows, not Mac OS X.

I'm currently running Chrome 60.0.3112.50 beta, under OS 10.12.5.

Thanks for any assistance.

Yeah, it can be blocked.  There is an extension to block auto-update by extensions.  See https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/extension-update-disabler/pfijgddffdeabjfpkfikmkfdpaleebek

Disclaimer: I wrote it.  At this instant, I am its only user, so exercise caution.

It provides an enable button and a disable button, which enable/disable all extensions from auto-updating.  It works by updating the manifest files to prevent/enable the extensions from finding their auto-update site.


Twitterrific doesn't save my last read tweet I'm giving Twitterrfic a test drive. I'm not sure about the issue but it looks to me the Twitterrfic doesn't keep my last read tweet after a relaunch.
I mean Nambu and Twitter official client save my last read tweet, thus I can scroll through all the new tweets. Twitterrific scrolls me to the newest tweet.
I can't read the tweets while I'm offline.

Any way to make Twitterrfic behaves like Nambu or Twitter?

Two possible things happening here.

1) You have "Always scroll to top" turned on in Twitterrific's prefs. Head to the settings app to check and make sure it's turned off.

2) You're receiving more tweets than the timeline can hold and so your previous reading position is "off the timeline". When this happens, Twitterrific defaults to the top of the timeline (the most recent tweet).

This is changing in the 4.1.1 update however so that even if you receive more tweets than the timeline holds, it will take you to the bottom instead of the top.

Hope this helps.


Screen bug on windows 10 on iMac Hi I tried to install Windows 10 as dual boot on my iMac (late 2009) High Sierra. First I ran into this problem someone else also had here, which is unfortunately unanswered. Anyway since I couldn't use Boot Camp Assistant, I created a bootable usb stick and installed windows manually. This worked quite well.

Then when my screen went sleeping because of I was afk for too long and I woke him up suddenly the screen split into 4 parts like in the image:

So I reinstalled windows 10 but they same happened, when the screen went to sleep (restarting didn't restore normal screen).

What can I do? Does this sound like a windows problem? Or is it due the fact that I am booting it on a Mac? Is there hardware incompatibility? I mean it works fine until the screen goes sleeping. I could reinstall windows and turn off screen sleeping as fast as possible but then something will possibly trigger this again.

edit
When I restart on macOS then there stays a line from this bug which disappears after the login

this seems like a software issue. Once you are booted into macOS, try reinstalling Windows support software from Apple via BootCamp. Once it is downloaded, install it to your Windows partition. Check this out for installation help: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204923

The problem with doing a manual install Is that it doesn't always install necessary drivers.

If the problem continues, then try doing a power on self-test. To do this, reboot the Mac and hold "D" while it is starting up.

Good luck!


How do I open folders in new windows/tabs by default in the Finder in 10.9? In 10.9 Mavericks the default for the Finder is to now open the selected folder in the same window instead of a new tab or window. How do I go back to the old behavior where a new window (or tab) is opened for each folder?

The closest solution is to go to Finder Preferences > General, uncheck the "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows" option, and then use Cmd + double click to open in a new window.

Source: Apple Support Communities - Mavericks Finder - how default to "double click opens new window"?


How to reformat/install new SSD on MBP late2010 using OS X Internet Recovery I had been saving some money to buy an SSD and finally I did. My old HDDs motor shut down so I had to replace it. I put it in the macbook all good but it isnt recognized by the system as a hard drive so I cant select it when I am trying to install the OSX from the OS X Internet Recovery option.
I think this is done because of the new SSD being NTFS (possibly from the factory) and not OSX enabled (fat) by default.

Is there a way to format (and maybe partition) the new SSD so its recognizable in internet recovery mode?
(I dont have another macb or external drive or a clean (not infected) computer to connect the SSD and format it from there.

SSD I am using is: ADATA SP9000 256GB.

I have no backup of my old HDDs files/os/image/anything, sadly I didnt backup.

My ultimate goal is to be able to use the SSD and also install later on partition of it windows.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

For anyone in the future viewing this and having simmilar proble this is the solution: Start up the macbook and hold down CMD+R it will start the remote isntall procedure. Then chosoe disk utility from there partition the harddrive as you would normally using "MacOS Extended Journaled" also when you type in the size make sure you click enter or it wont get it. (I had to figure it out the hard way lol) After that click the apply and then partition. Close that window and go back to install os x from the window before. If it doesnt show simply restart and hold down CMD+R


How to change the send/receive sound on Messages in macOS Mojave I'm trying to change the sound Messages makes when sending out an message along with receiving one.

I've done some tinkering based on info from similiar questions on this site. For example:
Where are the alert tone audio files located in OS X?

Can someone tell me where files are located for me to make changes. I know the receive sound is called note.m4r. But I want to change the sending out "wooooo" sound too.

How can I go about doing this?

iMessage sounds are located at

/Applications/Messages.app/Contents/Resources/Received Message.aiff
/Applications/Messages.app/Contents/Resources/Sent Message.aiff
/Applications/Messages.app/Contents/Resources/Default.aiff

However, changing these files do not seem to affect the sound.


AppleScript : CMD + S I can't manage to keystroke Command + S on an app, it's seems to trigger "Save AS" instead of "Save"

 tell application "TextMate 2"
    activate

    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "S" using {command down}
    end tell

    --
end tell

I don't have "shift" in my keystroke so I don't know why I can just save my documents without any extra windows.

Any idea of what I'm doing wrong?

Use a Lower Case s.

keystroke "s" using {command down}


Apple Monitor Thunderbolt adapter I have a Mac Screen that doest have any ports, instead having only a thunderbolt 1 cable coming out of the back. i have a non-apple pc that doest have a thunderbolt. i do not want to spend $70 on a good adaptor. Help?

Presumably, this is the Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display (the only Apple-branded display 'with Thunderbolt 1 cable coming out of the back').
Unfortunately, that display will not work with anything other than a Thunderbolt connection.
Will Thunderbolt Cinema displays work with Mini DisplayPort equipped macs?
Are there adapters to use Thunderbolt Display with non-Thunderbolt computers?
Fortunately, these are not made anymore, so you may be able to find a buyer that has more cash than displays and you can have fewer displays and more cash.


Changing time servers in High Sierra man timed and "hoakley" says that timed still uses /etc/ntp.conf and I see nothing in the launchd plist that selects that or anything else, so I would think that it is either hard-coded or in some alternate configuration file.

Anyway, in 10.13.6, changing it has no effect on what the pref pane says is being used.  And the pref pane only allows one of three Apple servers.  Changing that has no effect on ntp.conf  Erasing it causes the USA server to be re-entered (without affecting the file).

So, is it possible to point it to a different time server?  If so, how?

In OS 10.13.6, I was able to replace time.apple.com. with pool.ntp.org. in the "Set date and time automatically" field of the "Date & Time" pref pane of System Preferences by highlighting it and typing over it--after authenticating to unlock it, of course. I verified the change in Terminal.app using cat /etc/ntp.conf, which returned server pool.ntp.org..

  EDIT: Response to OP’s comment below

In my case, the name of the server listed in /etc/ntp.conf does change immediately upon selecting a different pre-set server in the "Date & Time" preference pane (that is, as long as the "Set date and time automatically" checkbox is ticked).

Out of curiosity, I used sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf to directly edit the name of the server in the network time server configuration file. Although the name of the server in the preference pane remained unchanged, that was the case only until the next activation of timed, when the name of the server I had entered indeed appeared in the preference pane’s text entry field. (I believe timed runs once an hour or upon the system waking from more than an hour’s sleep.) This same sequence of a new server’s name remaining undisclosed by System Preferences until the time daemon runs occurred when I set the network time server using sudo systemsetup -setnetworktimeserver foo.time.foo.

(And, yes, I really am on High Sierra.)


iCloud notes deleted after I turned off Notes for Mail on my iPhone I am a writer and have (or had, rather) many valuable writings in my Notes app. However, the notes made duplicates of themselves. I read from a post online that in order to stop this, you were to turn off Notes in Mail. When I did this, I opened my Notes app only to see that all my notes had been deleted (I wrote them under iCloud instead of My Phone, since all my prior notes were there before the update where iCloud was introduced). I checked on icloud.com to see if my notes were there, but they were not. There was no "Recently Deleted" tab, either. According to Apple, this means they are not recoverable. Is there anything else I can try to do to recover my notes?

Still, I'm annoyed that the person who recommended turning off Notes in Mail did not warn in his/her post that such a thing would happen.

Have you tried turning notes sync back on?
Go to Settings > iCloud and turn Notes back on. This may give you your notes back.


cannot compare pdf files I have two pdf files under version control. When I use textwrangler to compare the difference I see jibberish fonts. I have attached the figure below:

Please suggest what can be done to solve this. thanks.

PDFs are not natively readable with TextWrangler.

Adobe has a paid version of Acrobat that can compare two PDF files. There is a free trial available if this is a one-off need to compare PDFs.

This question may also be related to this StackExchange post.


What do grayed-out app icons mean in iOS 7? Every couple days on my iPhone 4 running iOS 7, I notice an app icon is slightly grayed-out. Here is an example with the clock app:

When I open the app the icon goes back to normal immediately:

What does this mean? I can't find any documentation explaining it, and I can't determine a pattern for which apps exhibit it.

It's a glitch, where the grey overlay that appears on top of an app when you tap it is retained when you exit the app.

You can remove it by interacting with the app icon in some way, whether that be swiping between pages starting with your finger on the app, or simply tapping the icon.

It appears to be fixed in the dev build of iOS 7.1 :)


iTunes: Prevent store from loading on start? I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and iTunes 10.0.1.

When I start iTunes, iTunes loads the iTunes Store. How can I stop iTunes from loading the iTunes Store upon start?

Note: I still want to have access to the iTunes Store.

iTunes loads the most recent view on startup. Selecting anything other than iTunes Store or Ping in the left sidebar before closing iTunes means that the store will not load on startup. The store will then first load when you select iTunes Store or Ping.


MacBook won't sleep while charging An ongoing problem:  my MacBook Pro (i5, 2.4ghz, 15") won't sleep while charging. I close the lid, but I don't get the pulsing "sleep light", it just stays fully illuminated. If I listen closely, I can hear hard drive/fan activity.

This has been a problem since purchasing the machine in June of 2010. In retrospect, I should've taken it to the Genius Bar, but I was confident that an eventual system update would fix the problem... it hasn't.  I even wiped the machine clean and reinstalled Lion (due to so me stability issues with the initial release of Lion), and that helped... for a while.  Now the problem is back.  I've even tried a different MacBook charger to no avail.

I've researched this issue before but none of the solutions that users suggested have worked (including various 'pmset' commands and also tinkering with EnergySaver settings). Any advice?

You may want to look into the sharing options as well as any other programs that may be keeping the computer awake.  If you exit all running programs (you may want to consider checking programs that are running in the background as well) and turn off all sharing under 'System Preferences' -> 'Sharing' and close the lid does it still exhibit the same problems.


MacOS Mojave - can't use Camera with imutils in Python After the new update to macOS (Mojave), I can't access the camera. I'm using a python script with opencv and imutils (doing some object detection), and once I run the script, it stops. After the debug part I'm seeing that it stops once it call the VideoStream from imutls.video. .

"vs = VideoStream(src=0).start()"

So, when I open the Security & Privacy > Privacy, I'm seeing that the new macOS have added Camera and Microphone options. There is no "+" or "-" sign to add additional programs in order to access. Even if there is, I'm not sure if I can add a python script.

If someone has some kind of solution about this, please feel free to share it.

I have found the solution here:

  I found the solution! I tried running the script using the default terminal that comes with mac and it worked :) So it seems there was some weird issue with the third party terminal (iTerm) I was using

I used  the macOS Terminal and it  seems to be ok. So the new Security features are preventing iTerm.


How to disable ._ AppleDouble files for SMB? I have a small problem. I don't want that our Macs here create the ._ files to the network drive. For example when you copy an image over the finder to the SMB storage.

Is there a way to disable this function in Finder?

The .DS_Store file is already disabled, but not files such as ._pic1.jpg .

We activated veto files in samba to prevent creation of ._ files, there arose an error – not enough permissions on the drive.

Thank to all ;)

Don't know of a way within Finder, but Blue Harvest (paid application) offers this functionality: http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest4/


Password is in a different language I just opened my new MacBook Air and I noticed that when my computer asks for my password, the tinted word that should say "Password" (before I type it) is in a different language. How do I change it to English?

I've had this happen with a couple of new Macs at our office recently.  I'm not sure if something is off with Apple's latest imaging of new Macs but the fix is relatively simple.

Login as normal, using your regular password.
Click on the  menu in the upper left corner and choose System Preferences (4th choice down)

Click on Language & Region

Change the following

If English is already an option then drag it to the top of the list
Click the + symbol in the lower left to add English to the list of languages
Change the region to the appropriate one (Americas, North America, United States)

Click "Show All" to leave the preference pane and return to System Preferences.  Your language should now be set to English.  You might restart your Mac to make sure.