How can I delete contact relationships in Siri? Today something really stupid happened to me. To show the new iPhone I gave it to a friend at work. He activated Siri and said:

"Call my father"

Siri said : "Who is your father?"

My friend said his name and since he was in the address book contacts the phone called his number. Now every time I say "Call my father" my friends number is called. How can I delete this "relationship" and where is it stored?

Tell Siri "My father is XYZ" and let it make the change for you.


What do I do about a broken screen replacement (flickering while unlocking)? I got my LCD screen changed a month ago when it broke, but now my phone is flickering when I unlock it. It goes back to normal after a few seconds. How do I fix this?

The quick answer is that there isn't really much you can do on your end.

What can I do?

You could take apart the phone and attempt to fix the display manually, but by no means does this guarantee a fix (or even an improvement). By doing this, you would also run the risk of damaging your device further.
If Apple replaced your screen when it was broken, take it back to them and let them know it was not fully fixed. They should fix it again at no charge (if it was serviced within the last 90 days).

  Apple covers defects if they arise from authorized service for 90 days or the remaining term of your iPhone warranty, whichever is longer.

If a third-party dealer replaced your screen, take it back to them. Generally, third-party iDevice-fixing stores will repair it a second time, if they did not correctly repair it the first time (in order to keep your business).

Will my warranty be void?

Your AppleCare Coverage does not apply to:

  damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, liquid contact, fire, earthquake or other external cause

  damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (“AASP”)

  defects caused by normal wear and tear or otherwise due to the normal aging of the Apple Product, or if any serial number has been removed or defaced from the Apple Product.

What are Apple's Prices?

With AppleCare Coverage (screen replacement)

iPhone 6 - $109
iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5 - $129

  If your repair isn’t covered by Apple’s One Year Limited Warranty, AppleCare+, or AppleCare Protection Plan, your iPhone might be eligible for out-of-warranty service.

Out-of-Warranty (any repair)

iPhone 6 Plus - $329
iPhone 6 - $299
iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5 - $269
iPhone 4s - $199
iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, Original iPhone - $149

Note: An out-of-warranty battery replacement is $79, but only available if the battery fails Apple’s diagnostic tests.

What is AppleCare?

  Purchasing AppleCare+ extends the hardware coverage to two years from the original purchase date of your iPhone and covers two incidents of accidental damage, each with a $79 service fee plus applicable tax. AppleCare+ also includes Express Replacement Service so you can get a replacement before sending in your iPhone.

  If you didn’t buy AppleCare+ with your iPhone, you can buy it within 60 days of purchase. Take your iPhone to an Apple Retail Store or call Apple. We’ll verify the purchase date and confirm that your iPhone has no existing damage.

What are Apple's Repair Terms?

  For all service orders, Apple warrants to the extent permitted by
  law that (1) services performed will conform to their description for ninety (90)
  days from the date of service, (2) except for batteries described in the subsection
  below, all parts or products used in service will be free from defects in materials
  and workmanship for ninety (90) days from the date of service, and (3) batteries
  installed as part of Apple’s battery replacement service for Apple portable Mac
  computers will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for one year
  from the date of service. This warranty is an express limited warranty. If nonconforming
  service is provided or a defect arises in a replacement part or product
  during the applicable warranty period, Apple will to the extent permitted by
  applicable law at its option, either (a) re-perform services to conform to their
  description (b) repair or replace the part or product, using parts or products that
  are new or equivalent to new in performance and reliability, or (c) refund the sums
  paid to Apple for service.


Scripted vector drawing app (à la Satimage Smile) I've used Satimage's Smile app to make vector diagrams (for technical illustrations, laser-cutting patterns, etc) via AppleScript augmented with drawing commands. It's like the opposite of PaintCode, which turns drawings into code. (I'm a mathematician, not an artist, so I want/need to describe images with formulas and equations.)

Sadly, macOS Mojave broke OSAX functionality, making Smile completely unusable.[*] Besides, the oh-so-rudimentary Smile UI can be pretty frustrating. It's time to seek an alternative.

The "code" doesn't have to be AppleScript. I've seen a couple of open-source (usually Qt) apps for editing TikZ, a programmatic graphics language. However, these are geared towards tweaking TikZ code for import into a LaTeX documents and whatnot; I'm looking for something more of a stand-alone document editor, capable of exporting to PDF or EPS directly. (But if there's a really good Mac-like TikZ editor, I'd consider it.)

[*] There's apparently an AppleScript workaround using an an auxiliary SatimageOSAX app, but I haven't gotten it to work with Smile. Besides, it's only a patch, doomed to break eventually.

MetaPost

An open source and complete picture drawing language, with plenty of support and documentation, is MetaPost.

  The MetaPost system (by John Hobby) implements a picture-drawing language very much like that of MetaFont; the difference is that MetaPost outputs vector graphic files instead of run-length-encoded bitmaps; output formats available are PostScript and SVG.

MetaPost is capable of creating complex images and shapes:

beginfig(11)
    pair A, B, C;
    A:=(0,0); B:=(1cm,0); C:=(0,1cm);
    draw A--B;
    draw B--C dashed evenly;
    draw C--A dashed withdots;

endfig;

beginfig(117)
  u:=2cm;
  pair A, B, C, D, E;
  path p, q, r;

  A = u*up;
  p := (-.2)[ A, A rotated 72 ] -- (1.2)[ A, A rotated 72 ];
  for i=0 upto 5:
    draw p rotated 72i;
  endfor;
  B := 1/2[ A, A rotated 72 ];
  C := .8*B;

  p := B --- C .. (C rotated (2*72)){right};
  % On allonge le chemin p
  p := ( (point 0 of p) - 4mm*unitvector(direction 0 of p))
       --
       (point 0 of p)
       & p &
       (point 2 of p)
       --
       ( (point 2 of p) + 4mm*unitvector(direction 2 of p));

  E = p intersectionpoint (p rotated 72);
  q := p cutbefore fullcircle scaled -2mm shifted E;
  r := p cutafter fullcircle scaled  2mm shifted E;

  for i=0 upto 4:
    draw q rotated 72i;
    draw r rotated 72i;
    draw A rotated 72i withpen pencircle scaled 4bp;
    draw B rotated 72i withpen pencircle scaled 4bp;
    draw C rotated 72i withpen pencircle scaled 4bp;
  endfor;
endfig;

You can install MetaPost as part of BasicTex.

Sketch

Aimed more at designers than engineers, Sketch offers a programmable interface and AppleScript support.

Side Note

As an aside, Apple once distributed a sample vector drawing application also called Sketch. One purpose of Sketch was to demonstrate how to incorporate AppleScript into an application.


How do I change iTunes country with family sharing and child accounts? I've moved from the US to the UK and I'm trying to change my country in the App store on my iPad.  I have family sharing setup, and a child account included in the family sharing.

The problem is that changing countries demands that I disable family sharing first.  But when I try to do this, I can't, because I have a child under 13 on my family sharing account which cannot be removed from the family. The child account can be transferred to another family - but I don't have another family!

So it looks like I have to delete my childs account, then disable family sharing, then recreate it all in the UK.  Hence losing anything bought by my child and causing a lot of disruption.

Is that really the only way to do it or is there any better method out there?

original poster here - I did basically what Mitchell D suggested and it worked.   I actually moved my wife's account to UK first, set up family sharing with her, invited my child to join my wife's new family, then disabled my family sharing and moved myself to the UK, then invited child back to my family.  Phew!

So far, all seems to have gone OK but was a bit of hassle and entirely non-obvious!


How to install iDVD on OS X Yosemite or Mavericks? I have an old Macbook with Snow Leopard on it, and a newer Macbook Air with Yosemite, and a newer Macbook Pro with Mavericks.

The old Macbook is taking about 4 hours to encode videos to burn to a DVD disc using the highest quality setting, so I wonder if I install it on the Macbook Pro, whether it can be much faster.  However, since iDVD is discontinued since Lion, there might be 2 ways to install it on the Macbook Pro or Macbook Air and I wonder if they will work.

Buy iLife 11 (produced in 2011) from Amazon and install on Mavericks and Yosemite... but I wonder how compatible it will be, and whether the installation may write some outdated material over the newer, more current files (of the OS).
Simply copy the iDVD app from the Applications folder on the Snow Leopard machine to a USB Flash drive and copy it over to the Applications folder of the Mavericks and Yosemite machine.  But is there any side effects of doing so?  Often, the way general users install apps on the Mac is by download a .dmg file, and double click to see a virtual disc, and then just drag the app (which is actually a folder) to the Applications folder. So if I do the method (2) here, isn't the same as the .dmg way of installing an app?

iDVD still runs on Yosemite. I haven't tested to see whether it still actually functions correctly, as I have no DVD video player to view the result on.

Edit 2017: This method apparently still works on Sierra, but I haven't tested.

I would go for the 'sneaker-net' method of install…
copy the app to a USB key & carry it over to one of the other machines.  Will take 2 minutes to discover if that works.

Edit
I trawled my boot drive for associated items for iDVD

It appears that the themes, which would be installed by the installer live in
/Library/Application Support/iDVD/Themes & ~/Library/Application Support/iDVD/Installed Themes In folders by version, iDVD 4, 5, 6, 7 etc

It would be a simple-enough task to carry these over in the same way.


Can't copy into my own Public folder I can't copy into my own Public folder neither with my finder nor from terminal 'sudo cp ~/temp/gyongyinek/* ~/Public/'

If I execute the above command from terminal I got this:
Operation not permitted
If I want to copy from finder then the crossed out mouse cursor appears suggesting that the operation is invalid...

This is my Public directory access flag:
drwxr-xr-x+  3 boti  staff     204 Jan 11  2012 Public

If on finder I hit Command+I then I have the following access rules:
Fetching: Read Only
Fetching: Read Only
boti(Me): Read & Write
staff: Read Only
everyone: Read Only

I found the solution
The folder was locked...


Make the Keyboard on OSX and windows behave identically regarding text editing I work as a developer and exclusively use the keyboard for text selection and navigation.
I have to switch between windows and OSX a lot.
Is there any way to make

the OSX keyboard behave like windows
or
the windows keyboard behave like OSX

particularly when it comes to text editing?
The differences hurt my productivity, because whenever I switch platform, my muscle memory kicks in and will use the wrong combinations on the other OS, which will lead to a wrong caret position at best, or - depending on the program - switched inapp-windows and/or other very undesired behavior which takes even more time to correct at worst.
I would prefer Version 1, because - while i can train my brain to swap, i am used to it more and also the windows-behavior seems "more" standard to me, since it is used on mainstream Linux Desktops as well.
Text editing keyboard shortcuts:
move to the start / end of a line:
Windows: pos1 / end
OSX: ctrl+left / ctrl+right
move to the start / end of the document
Windows: ctrl+pos1 / ctrl+end
OSX: pos1 / end
move to the start / end of the current word
Windows: ctrl+left / ctrl+right
OSX: alt+left / alt+right
(I am happy that the added shift key behaves consistently across platforms, performing selection instead of mere caret navigation)
Bonus question: other keyboard shortcuts:
I already swapped the Command-key with control globally in osx keyboard settings,
to make behavior a bit more consistent (i.e, ctrl+s to save instead of command+s)
However when it comes to navigation between application, this breaks down, because:
Next/previous tab within an application
Windows: ctrl+tab / ctrl+shift+tab
OSX: ctrl+tab / ctrl+shift+tab
Also it does not solve
Next Application
Windows: alt+tab
OSX: command+tab
A solution that also covers this would be even better :)

In short, you can't do it. You might get close employing such as Karabiner, Better Touch Tool, AutoHotKey etc, but you will never achieve 100%. You additionally have to fight that not only is Mac a paradigm shift from Windows, but that Terminal-type apps also have a separate set of rules.
TL:DR Learn the differences. Long-term it's better than trying to fight it.
One really good tip to help you learn the difference…
Don't try to use the same keyboard for both. Have a Mac keyboard & a PC keyboard.
Anecdotally, I've been working cross-platform for 20 years, prior to that I was Mac only.
I daily have to work with

Macs on Mac keyboards
Windows on Win keyboards
a Mac with a Windows keyboard [because I needed a wireless one with built-in trackpad]
Windows over RDC from a Mac keyboard.

The first two are easy, the last two are [comparitively] hard.
A comparison, if you ever drive abroad - it's much easier to drive a rental with the steering wheel on the correct side for the country you're in than it is to take your own car & be on the 'wrong' side of the road. As a Brit, this happens almost everywhere I travel, as we're in the minority in driving on the 'proper' side of the road :P


My computer is broken, how can I get my music onto my iPad? My computer is broken and I have just acquired an iPad. All my music was on my computer and accessed through iTunes but that computer no longer functions.

I don't think I was using iCloud.

How do I save all my music and get it onto my iPad?

If it was music you purchased from the iTunes store it is automatically available for you to redownload from the iTunes Store on your iPad. You don't need to have bought iTunes Match; tracks purchased via the iTunes Store are always available for re-downloading fromt he store. Just set your iPad up with your iTunes account and you should see the tracks in the store as having be bought and available for download to your iPad.

If the music wasn't from the iTunes Store and you weren't using iTunes Match to copy your music in to iCloud your options are extremely limited. With iTunes Match you could turn on the feature on your iPad and you would see your entire library, stored in the cloud, available to you.

If the hard drive of your broken computer is still functional you can hook it up to another computer, associate the new machine with your Apple ID, copy the music off the old computer's hard drive by using iTunes Add to Library feature found under the File menu. Once you've added the files to the library, you can connect your iPad to this machine and transfer the music on to your iPad. At this point you may want to consider subscribing to iTunes Match to move the content to the cloud, otherwise you need to use this computer to sync new music to the iPad.

If the hard drive of your broken computer is no longer functional you have no options. Your files are lost. Hopefully you had a back up in the form of Time Machine or a third party service like CrashPlan.


How can I transfer all my songs to iPhone instead of just purchased songs? When I connect and sync my iPhone to iTunes it only transfers over purchased songs and not songs I ripped from a music cd.  How do I get all of them to sync?

There are multiple ways to get around this issue, and I've detailed one below. Before trying that, though, see if this solves your problem:

Select the iPhone in the iTunes sidebar. Go to the Music tab and look at what music is syncing.
I expect maybe only the "Purchased" playlist is syncing, and that's why. If that's the case, simply select  and you're set!

Here's the other fix, if that doesn't work:

Select the iPhone in the iTunes sidebar. Find the tick box that looks like this:  and make sure it's checked.
Go to Music in the sidebar and select everything (Tip: ⌘ (command or control) A!).
Drag everything to your iPhone.


MagSafe Charger not working My MagSafe adapter stopped working 10 days ago, so I bought a replacement wire and replaced the original with this third-party wire. It worked fine until this morning.
It magically stopped charging!
So, I used one of those testers for current (This might've been a mistake) to check whether the charger was actually sending current or not.

On touching the tester to the L-Shaped head, it sparked and then there was no current!

I didn't connect it back to the MacBook since I'm afraid it might burn the socket or something which would ultimately cost me to change the entire Motherboard I believe as they are fitted into the PCB. (I'm not very educated on this stuff)

Should I try connecting it back to the MacBook?
Should I buy the original adapter from Apple?

This is what I mean by L-Shaped(60W):

This is the tester I'm talking about:

Have you tried resetting your SMC? Are you positive the power cord is working? Try different plugs, different laptops, different power cords. Test this thoroughly as you don’t want to go through the rest of this answer just to find out it was a bad cord/outlet. If nothing in the above works, keep reading.

Based on your symptoms, and assuming the second power adapter is functional, it sounds too me like a bad MagSafe DC-In board. This is the board that collects the power from the MagSafe cable and transfers it to the battery. I’d suggest 1) running Apple Hardware Test with the adapter plugged in to test this. If the power test comes back faulty, and you’re reasonably sure that the cable is working, the MagSafe board is your most likely problem. If you feel comfortable with DIY repairs on your laptop, check out this iFixit page where you can find the replacement part for ~$25 USD. If you don’t feel comfortable with this repair, take your computer in to an Apple Authorized Service Provider to get a quote for the repair. Good luck!

Please don’t hesitate to add comments/edits if you think this answer is wrong, incomplete or needs clarification.


MAMP Pro license record I purchased a license for MAMP Pro and copy/pasted the license on the webpage when I ordered it.  But there is no record of the license key on the invoice or on when I login to their support system..  I am retiring this computer and transferring my work to a new computer so I am trying to find my license so I can reinstall MAMP on the new computer.

I've looked through the ~/Library/Application Support folder and /Applications/MAMP Pro/ but I can not find it in a plist file either.  Does anyone know where this is stored or where I can find it?

I've already submitted a support ticket but figured I'd see if someone knows rather than waiting around for them to get back to me.

The MAMP Pro 1.0/2.0/2.0 upgrade/3.0 serial numbers are stored in the following files:
"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration 1.0" or
"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration 2.0" or
"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration upgrade 1.0 to 2.0" or
"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration 3.0"

Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>sn</key>
<string>AABB1122CCDD33AA1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Your serial number is then string : AABB-1122-CCDD-33AA1

In MAMP Pro 4 and 5 the serial number is longer and is prefixed with an "MP" (which won't occur in the sn-string).

Files:

"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration 4.0" or
"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration upgrade 4.x to 5.x" or
"/Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/Registration 5.x"

Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>sn</key>
<string>11112A2AB333C4444DD55EE66F7F7ABCDEA</string>
</dict>
</plist>

The serial number would be: MP-1111-2A2A-B333-C4444-DD55-EE66-F7F7-ABCDE-A

(don't try it – it's probably no valid number because I modified my own serial number massively)


Why history search results are different in Spotlight and in Safari search bar Sometimes I want to search for a website I visited earlier. So I type a couple of words in Spotlight and nothing useful shows up. When I enter the same words in search bar in Safari I find the result I am interested in.
Why doesn’t Spotlight show the same results as in search bar in Safari?
When I type some query words in Safari history using CommandY I can find even more results.
Is there a way to find more information from Safari history on Spotlight?
We can see that it shows completely different results.

Why doesn’t Spotlight show the same results as in search bar in Safari?

It’s because they use two different search engines.
In iOS 8, Spotlight was using Bing (iOS 9 used Bing as well) whereas Safari was defaulted out of the box to use Google, but you could, obviously, change that. According to Wikipedia, Spotlight search uses Bing but goes through Apple’s servers first with a unique identifier that changes every 15 minutes.  However, it’s still 2 different engines, thus the different results and the non-matching history.

Since the release of Yosemite, Spotlight sends all entered queries and location information to Apple by default. The data is accompanied by a unique identifying code, which Apple claims to rotate every 15 minutes to a new identifier. In response to privacy concerns, Apple has stated that they do not use the data to create profiles of their users, and that query and location information is only shared with their partner, Bing, under a strict contract which prohibits the information from being used for advertising purposes.

So, not only is it two different search engines, the search is actually sent to Bing through Apple with an identifier that technically doesn’t come back to you, so the search history will be different even if you standardize on Bing.
IMO, I’ve been using Bing instead of Google for a while now and I can honestly say that the results are better, easier to filter ads versus genuine search results and I have less of my search activity going to aggregators who sell it to advertisers.  So, if it’s still Bing, I don’t have any issue with that at all.
Update:  After further research, in 2017, Apple switched from Google to Bing (quietly, I might add).  The process is still the same - the search  goes through Apple's servers first as they did with Bing.


Why is there no difference between 2 differently capitalized folders? I have an empty directory called "foo". I try to create a new directory called "Foo". But I cannot create it:

***@###:~/test$ mkdir foo
***@###:~/test$ ls
foo
***@###:~/test$ mkdir Foo
mkdir: Foo: File exists
***@###:~/test$ ls
foo

The same behaviour can be seen for files as well.

On Linux, 2 files/folders with a difference in case can coexist in the same directory.

Why did MacOS chose to not allow case differentiation for files and directories?

History. Backwards compatibility. Customer preference.

Historical Apple, and other, filesystems were not always case-sensitive. HFS+ and now APFS have such capability. That is, they can be case sensitive or insensitive, depending on how it was formatted.

If you are using macOS to manipulate file and folders on a case-insensitive file system macOS will prevent creating same-named files even though their displayed names can include both cases.

Experiment by plugging in flash drives formatted in different filesystems (FAT, ext3, etc) to easily test this behavior.


How do add "Recent Folders" item to the Finder sidebar? In the menu Go > Recent Places you can get a list of recently accessed folders. I want to add this to the Finder sidebar, but I am not seeing any clear explanation of how to do this.

Use a smart folder.

Right click the Finder in the Dock
Select New Smart Folder
Press the plus button
Select kind.
Select Last Modified/Opened or whatever you want.
Select 'This Mac'
Save your smart folder. When saving, make sure 'Add to Sidebar' is checked. Name your smart folder and you're good to go!


Can I transfer game progress for Clash of Clans between GameCenter accounts I downloaded clash of clans on my sisters apple account. I then made my own apple account. When I try purchasing gems I can't because it says something about the app not being downloaded from this apple account.

Is there a way I can't delete clash of clans and then re download it without losing any progress?!! Please help!! I also have a gamecenter account.

Unfortunately no you can't transfer data between Game Center Accounts.  Apple doesn't allow moving data between Apple ID's.


Transfer Clash of Clans village to another iPhone I will soon buy a new iPhone. If I log in with my Apple ID in my new phone could I still access my Clash of Clans village without starting from scratch?

You'll want to use iTunes or iCloud to which to back up your iPhone prior to replacing it. For example, if you backup to iTunes and enable encryption, all your data and passwords will be covered as well as your apps. When you get the new phone, you would then immediately connect it to your system and use iTunes to restore your data to the new phone from backup.

As long as your backup and restore do not have any CoC action in between, your level information should transfer at par.


Getting used to either US or EN International keyboard layout I will buy a new Macbook soon. I am german and used to the german keyboard layout:

Since I do alot of coding and many special characters are placed inconveniently on the german keyboard (e.g. { and }) I will purchase either a US or a EN International keyboard.

I am tempted to buy the standard US one, because I like to believe that this is the way the ANSI has conceived the keyboard layout to be. However, I am concerned that I will not get used to the small return key, and will accidently press \ often.

What can you recommend me? Do you think I will get used to the small return quickly?

US Standard.

For one, Apple only offer the option of US Standard in some territories now. US International exists for its close resemblance to UK version. Secondly, US Standard is the pervalant QWERTY across countries regardless of the manufacturer. Plus, symmetry. I guess if you need to re-learn where all the symbol keys are anyways, why not use the keyboard that doesn't have a symbol key left of "Z"? It's just better.

If you want you can install Karabiner, and remap "\" into "return" key, and map option+"\" back to "\". This way no worries about that annoyance.


pbcopy exits code 1, no error message I'm trying to use pbcopy and pbpaste to copy and paste to the clipboard from a shell. I read the man page to learn the syntax for these programs. However, no matter how I try to invoke pbcopy or pbpaste, they refuse to work, exiting code 1 with no error message. Command-C and Command-V work as normal.

[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo foo | pbcopy
[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo $?
1
[jay-mba-osx ~]% pbcopy < foo.txt
[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo $?
1
[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo foo | pbcopy -pboard general
[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo $?
1
[jay-mba-osx ~]% pbcopy --help
[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo $?
1
[jay-mba-osx ~]% which pbcopy
/usr/bin/pbcopy
[jay-mba-osx ~]% pbpaste
[jay-mba-osx ~]% echo $?
1

Any ideas why this is happening? It persists across reboots.

EDIT: OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Here is the result of uname -a:

Darwin jay-mba-osx.local 13.0.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Thu Sep 19 22:22:27 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

EDIT2: I have isolated this to occur only in tmux sessions. I didn't even think about that at first... now to figure out the actual problem...

It is a problem with tmux detaching itself from the GUI namespace.

Fixed with: https://github.com/ChrisJohnsen/tmux-MacOSX-pasteboard


What in the world is happening on Handbrake on my Mac? I have used handbrake once successfully, to rip my first season of Boardwalk Empire to my Mac. But now any time after that first successful try, it gives me images like this:  where it is all pixelated and the fading between scenes is very jagged-y. What is happening now?

Did you remove the VLC player ?

Because HandBrake no longer includes the libraries needed to decrypt commercial DVDs, you’ll also need to install the VLC media player.

To get the 64-bit benefits from HandBrake, you’ll need to have a 64-bit version of VLC as well.

The standard download is a Universal Binary and contains both 32- and 64-bit code for Intel Macs—if you want to save some disk space, you can download the VLC specific version here.


Mac Mini fan gone furious something awful happened to my mini.
I placed it under my aircon, and for some reason, the aircon started to drip.
right on the fan grills on the mini.
not a lot, probably like an eighth of a glass of water.
so, i rushed to unplug everything from the mini.
and leave it to dry.
problem is... when i plug it all in, i start with the power cable.
just when i plug it, the fan gone furious. like 6000rpm furious.
the state of the mini is currently OFF.
that's one thing i'm confused about.
second, after a while the fan speed goes down..
but never really really low.
even when it's off, and the room is cold (not just cool) it's still noticeably whirring.
and the mini is still OFF.
when i turn it on.. after just 15-20 minutes the fan goes furious again.
like 6000rpm.
what can i do to fix this, and how much damage have i done.
and to answer a few preliminary questions.
the mini is a late 2009 mini, C2D, 4GB ram, and usually running on 18C room.
and i've never upgraded any hardware, RAM, HDD, everything.. still as it was.

Since it got wet, I'm inclined to believe this is hardware damage.

I recommend that you give it another few days to dry, without use. Keep it completely unplugged for this time.

If that doesn't work, run Apple Hardware Test. If it finds problems, take it to the Apple Store for service.

Good luck.


Using three-finger drag and three-finger back on browser For OS X Lion 10.7, is there a way that I can use three-finger drag and still be able to use gestures to swipe "back" in Firefox or Chrome?

I've found out how to do one or the other, but not both.

You cannot use both. Maybe a third-party app will come along to support it or it may in the future, but not now.


Setting up CrashPlan with NAS drive attached to Airport Extreme? I have one of the new (well it's not so new anymore) Airport Extremes with ac wireless. I am using Crashplan to back up my data online, but I also want a more local backup -- so I would like to hook up a big external hard drive to the Airport Extreme as an NAS, and back up my computer using Crashplan's software to the Airport Extreme NAS. What's the best way to set this up? I know that Drobo's NAS can install Crashplan on the NAS, but since you can't install any software on a hard drive using the Airport Extreme as an NAS, what's the ideal way to set this up?

You should be able to use the drive on the Airport Extreme as a destination folder for your CrashPlan backups. CrashPlan can backup to a local folder, or to an external hard disk in addition to their online service. You should be able to treat the NAS in the same way as you treat an external hard drive, from CrashPlan's point of view. At least, that's my guess, but I haven't tested this.

This assumes you want to backup from your computer TO the NAS, and not that you want to backup FROM the NAS to CrashPlan's servers (although I'd imagine both are possible).


How to prevent iPhone from vibrating during calls? I can't figure out how to prevent my iPhone SE (iOS 10.2) from vibrating when messages arrive while I'm on a call (that is, it vibrates right into my ear). This happens regularly, and I'm sure it occurs with other models/software versions.

I cannot find any setting regulating this, therefore it looks like a major bug: it doesn't have any function and interferes with the normal phone usage.

Does anybody know if anything has been/is being done with respect to this issue?

I believe you need to look in Settings > Sounds & Haptics.

In there you have various settings for Sound and Vibrate. Under the section "Sounds and Vibration Patterns" there's a "Text Tone" option. If you touch that, you have options for what happens when you receive a Text, both Sound and Haptics. One of the options for Haptics is "None"


Yosemite update problem Trying to update to Yosemite. Unfortunately I'm encountering the Verify File System and Repair Fail. Ive got no backup whatsoever prior to updating to the new OS. I have Windows and I can boot on that just fine. How do I solve this problem and how do I recover my files on OS via Windows.

Paragon HFS for Windows (or similar) might be your only hope, plus some good disk recovery software on the PC - there is a whole slew of freebies for Windows, but I don't know how good they are. Try http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm The list of available software is constantly changing.

Even if you manage to recover any data, the file names will be gone, so you will then have to dredge through & try to add appropriate names to everything you can recognise.

Then invest in a backup solution & remember the adage
"Any data stored in less than three separate locations ought to be considered temporary.


How should I recover my NTFS partition that I have accidentally deleted on my Mac I have a 2 TB external HDD that was divided in 2 partition:

First partition: 280 GB
Second partition: 1720 GB

I accidentally delete the second partition.

Here are several steps that I already did;

result of diskutil list

~ diskutil list
  /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
     #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
     0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
     1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
     2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         249.8 GB   disk0s2

  /dev/disk1 (synthesized):
     #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
     0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +249.8 GB   disk1
                                   Physical Store disk0s2
     1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            119.9 GB   disk1s1
     2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 20.5 MB    disk1s2
     3:                APFS Volume Recovery                503.9 MB   disk1s3
     4:                APFS Volume VM                      5.4 GB     disk1s4

  /dev/disk2 (external, physical):
     #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
     0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
     1:               Windows_NTFS HDD1                    228.4 GB   disk2s1

Here is the result of sudo fdisk /dev/disk2

~ sudo fdisk /dev/disk2
    Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 243201/255/63 [3907029167 sectors]
    Signature: 0xAA55
             Starting       Ending
     #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    *1: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    206848 -  446126158] HPFS/QNX/AUX
     2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
     3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
     4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

EDIT:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 bs=512 skip=446333006 count=150000000 | grep -o -a -b "BOOTMGR"

71010552671:BOOTMGR
71010552692:BOOTMGR
150000000+0 records in
150000000+0 records out
76800000000 bytes transferred in 11355.441546 secs (6763277 bytes/sec)

The NTFS volume has been recovered in a TeamViewer session. The method is slightly related to my answer here: Can't see external HDD partition in Disk Utility

Preface:

The NTFS volume was formatted attached to a Mexican-Spanish (or French?) Windows system.

The specific string "BOOTMGR" to find the NTFS Partition Boot Sector with grep wasn't successful because on these systems - as it later transpired - the proper string is "bootmgr" instead.

Assumptions:

The vanished partition and its important blocks weren't overwritten. The partition is situated near the "end" of the disk.

So the following method was used:

Enable and log-in as root and install wxHexEditor
get the device identifier with diskutil list. Below I assume it's disk2.
Open the device disk2 in wxHexEditor, jump to the very end of the disk and backward-search for the string "NTFS" which revealed the (2nd) Partition Boot Sector of the NTFS volume.
With its byte offset the block number of the last NTFS volume block can be determined (byte offset/512 + 1 = block number)
The (2nd) Partition Boot Sector contains the size of the whole NTFS volume in sectors at offset 0x028 and a field length of 8 Bytes and the sector size at offset 0x0B and a field length of 2 Bytes.

Sector size: 00 02 (= 512 Byte)
volume size in sectors was (after a 64bit to decimal conversion) 2047997951+1 blocks (one has to add 1 to the number of blocks because block count starts at 0!)

In Terminal the partition was added with fdisk:

fdisk -e /dev/disk2
edit 2 #add second partition
Partition id ('0' to disable)  [0 - FF]: [0] (? for help) 7 #HPFS/QNX/AUX
Do you wish to edit in CHS mode? [n] n
Partition offset [0 - 3907029167]: [446333006] 1859028992
Partition size [1 - 2048000175]: [2048000175] 2047997952
write
exit

the volume was mounted automatically.
The NTFS volume was checked with Paragon NTFS for Mac with a "no errors" result.

The initial details of at least one of the two deleted partitions posted by the OP were wrong:

First partition: 280 GB
Second partition: 1720 GB

The second partition had and has a size of 1.049 TB only!


How to import icloud notes or restore them? After 10.3 update all of my notes just dissapeared, all my gamesaves too and other stuff. I wouldnt even care because of other stuff on icloud but notes are pretty important for me.

I went to the website version of icloud and found that there is nothing left but notes. I'm even ok with that.

Now the question: how do I restore them on my IPhone? And even more important: how do I import them to my PC in .txt or other text format.

This is pretty strange. After update it didn't work, but now system unlocked buttons in settings to allow syncronisation for all of the apps. I turned on notes and everything else and got my stuff back. Just to point out, maybe some time was needed to allow syncronisation, which is kind of strange, but I am glad I returned my stuff.


What Are The Signs of RAM (Slot) Failure? I've recently attempted to install 2 sticks of 2GB RAM into my MacBook Pro, but unfortunately had jammed one stick in the lower RAM compartment (Apparently I forgot to enter it at 45°) and had a rough time getting it out.

The RAM stick is busted and had to replace it, but I'm quite sure the slot might suffered a bit.

What are the signs of RAM failure?

A hosed slot (other than the obvious visual short circuit if the metal connectors are in contact with each other) will possibly cause the machine not to start.

It can as well damage the memory stick (short circuit) when the computer is turned on with a stick in it.

If the voltage mess is big enough, in theory it could damage more than that (i.e the board).

Electricity in electronics is very delicate and if the wrong current or voltage flows to the wrong place, bad things happen.

Or… maybe nothing happens. Use a magnifier to see if the pins are aligned. If you see some in contact, it’s best to remove the battery and unplug the laptop and try to separate the pins that are in contact, even if you have to sacrifice the slot forever.

Repairing that is probably expensive (800++ u$) because you need to change all the mother board.


Can I install OS X on a failing SSD? I have a failing SSD in my Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (5,4) that I'd like to install OS X on. It's only temporary because I'll be ordering a new SSD in a couple of weeks.

The OS X installer rightly alerts me that the drive is failing so I should replace it - but I'm wondering if there's any way to get around this alert and install it anyway?

I can't offer much advice about the SSD in question given the very limited information you've shared about it.

However, I suggest you try installing OS X onto a USB key (preferably a fast USB 3 one) or SD Card (slower; don't recommend). It'll make migrating your files to your new SSD easier. Just be careful of the protruding hardware!


iOS 7 iPad Gmail prevent photo downsizing I'm transferring photos from my camera via the SD adapter. When I attach them from within the Mail app, I'm given the option to choose the photo resolution (Small, Medium, Large, Actual Size) but I don't seem to have this option from within the Gmail app. Am I missing something?

I can see from the Mail app and on the camera that the actual file size it 3.6MB, but the attachment in the Gmail is 1.3MB and is clearly downsampled.  It's frustrating not to be able to send the full resolution attachments!

Thanks in advance for your help!

The Gmail.app does not support this feature and resizes the image automatically.
There is currently no way you can prevent this from happening.

You might be able to send feedback to Google about this, but as workaround you can use the native Mail.app provided on a clean install of any iOS version - since you pointed out that's giving you the right options.


Is there a way to disable headphone detection in Yosemite? What i would like to do is be able to manually switch to the internal speakers even if something is plugged in to the headphone jack. Reason being my docking station has a connector plugged in but i do not have an speakers attached (nor do i want to attach them). I think the connector is adjustable/removable but i'd really rather not mess with that.

Im thinking this is a low level hardware driver issue/feature because I have 10.10 running on my 2011 13" MBP and it still has the "Use audio port for:" option in the sound prefs. I'm wondering if maybe there is a kext I can disable or a terminal command i can use to get this option back, or otherwise allow "Internal Speakers" to be selectable even when something is connected.

That is not possible.

By design there is a mechanical switch inside the headphone jack that will automatically turn off the speakers.


"cron" processes piling up I have cronjobs doing various cleanup tasks:

$ crontab -l
0 * * * * find ${HOME}/Downloads -depth 1 -d -mtime +12h -exec /usr/local/bin/trash {} \;
* * * * * /usr/bin/defaults delete com.apple.Spotlight userHasMovedWindow > /dev/null
* * * * * /usr/bin/defaults delete com.apple.Spotlight windowHeight > /dev/null

However, it seems the jobs, for some reason, never exits. Instead they linger on and show as (cron) companioned by either (find) or (defaults) in the output of ps and in the activity monitor.

It happens for all jobs.

After hours or days, the computer freezes as the OS won't allow any more processes to spawn.

$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.15
BuildVersion:   19A583

Redirect stderr to /dev/null as well as stdout:

* * * * * /usr/bin/defaults delete com.apple.Spotlight userHasMovedWindow &> /dev/null
* * * * * /usr/bin/defaults delete com.apple.Spotlight windowHeight &> /dev/null

From trial and error it seems to be the stderr output of those commands that prevents the cronjob from exiting. I have no clue why that is, but it may be related to permissions to mail the output.


Terminal command to find hd bay name? In the system report accessed via the About This Mac menu option, there is an entry in the Hardware > SATA/SATA Express info panel which shows the bay name that each hard drive is installed in (e.g. upper bay / lower bay).

Is there an equivalent terminal command which shows the same information?

system_profiler SPSerialATADataType

Located at /usr/sbin/system_profiler. For example:

SATA/SATA Express:

    Intel 7 Series Chipset:

      Vendor: Intel
      Product: 7 Series Chipset
      Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
      Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
      Physical Interconnect: SATA
      Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

        APPLE HDD ST1000LM024:

          Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
          Model: APPLE HDD ST1000LM024
          Revision: 2AR20008
          Serial Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
          Native Command Queuing: Yes
          Queue Depth: 32
          Removable Media: No
          Detachable Drive: No
          BSD Name: disk0
          Rotational Rate: 5400
          Medium Type: Rotational
          Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
          S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
          Volumes:
            EFI:
              Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
              File System: MS-DOS FAT32
              BSD Name: disk0s1
              Content: EFI
              Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B
            iMac HDD:
              Capacity: 999.35 GB (999,345,127,424 bytes)
              Available: 241.23 GB (241,225,633,792 bytes)
              Writable: Yes
              File System: Journaled HFS+
              BSD Name: disk0s2
              Mount Point: /Volumes/iMac HDD
              Content: Apple_HFS
              Volume UUID: ECE5EA87-55BF-33A8-AA27-FB7BE9F48CC4
            Recovery HD:
              Capacity: 650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)
              File System: Journaled HFS+
              BSD Name: disk0s3
              Content: Apple_Boot
              Volume UUID: A6D16761-A44A-3B42-9C8D-DDDD4E42B6F6

    Intel 7 Series Chipset:

      Vendor: Intel
      Product: 7 Series Chipset
      Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
      Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported


Deleting files and empty trash does not increase free space I have a MacBook Air running macOS Catalina 10.15, upgraded from an older version.

There's only a few 10s of megabytes free on the disk, but deleting files and emptying the trash doesn't change the amount of free space.

I've tried:

looking for time machine snapshots that can be deleted, but there do not seem to be any (tmutil listlocalsnapshots /System/Volumes/Data does not show any snapshots to remove)
running disk utility first aid after booting in recovery mode on the Macintosh HD - Data partition.  This produces an error...

Checking snapshot 1 of 2 (com.apple.apfs.purgatory.115b2)
error: btn: invalid key order (1) oid 1742762 / oxid 0 / level 2 / flags 0x1
previous key:  [...]
current key [...]
next key [...]
snapshot invalid
the volume /dev/rdisk1s1 could not be verified completely```

disabling SICP using csrutil disable and rebooting
running fsck in single user mode:

fsck -f which yields:
error: container /dev/rdisk1 is mounted with write acess
but trying to umount /dev/rdisk1 tells me that /dev/rdisk1 is not currently mounted.
Running fsck -f /dev/rdisk1s1 produces the same message.
same with running fsck_apfs -f /dev/rdisk1s1

I'm about at my wits end here.  Anyone have suggestions for further things to try?

The disk utility error is the main issue you face.

Make sure your important files are backed up.
Boot to internet recovery or an external drive so you can re-run Disk Utility not from the booted container. If you can't clear the errors or flush all the snapshots and get a clean run - it's time to erase and reinstall.

Also - you'll want to remove snapshots from all of your volumes - not just /System. find all your volumes on the synthesized volume and check them with diskutil instead of tmutil

diskutil list
diskutil apfs listsnapshots disk1s1

As for the end result - you'll get the most space back deleting the apfs snapshots against /System/Volumes/Data as you mentioned in your post:

diskutil apfs listsnapshots /System/Volumes/Data
diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot disk1s1 -name com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-12-27-124916.local


Unlock iPhone 4 iOS 5.0.1 with baseband 4.11.08 I had a jailbroken unlocked iPhone with iOS 5.0, but by mistake I updated it to iOS 5.0.1 with iTunes. I'm asking this as both a cautionary tale to others as well in hopes that perhaps there is a jailbreak option I am overlooking.

In the process of the update from 5.0 to 5.0.1, the baseband was also updated to 4.11.08 and as expected, the phone became locked again as evidenced by the fact that it says "No Service" when I try to use my SIM.

Is there a way to unlock my iPhone 4 with iOS 5.0.1 other than asking the carrier to which it was initially locked?

You can't. Not only is there no way to unlock the new baseband, but there's also no way to downgrade it. You are out of luck.


Getting admin privileges on a mac with almost no access I have a MacBook Air that has single use mode and terminal blocked off and I want to get admin access because with out it I can do absolutely nothing. I thought maybe I could get into it using another computer or something but I have no clue. Does anyone know how I can accomplish this? I am on the brink of giving up so if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears.

There are three avenues:

get the firmware password or bypass that
socially engineer the person or team that locked you out (try convincing them you have a decent need and can be trusted before you consider trying to blatantly deceive them)
hope the os or third party software is unpatched and there is a known privilege escalation vulnerability you can exploit. (Assuming you can’t get the NSA or similar to help you)

In short, there is no easy way since you’re up against Apple engineering and trying to defeat the security of the system.

Bypassing firmware: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203409


How do I change askForPasswordDelay from the command line? dwrite alone doesn't work I normally run my Mac with a very long password delay on the screensaver. Sometimes, though, I want to reduce the delay to just 1-2 seconds.

This command is supposed to reduce the time for the delay to a second:

defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 1

This command makes the laptop sleep again:

pmset sleepnow

And this command activates the screen saver:

open -a /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework//Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app

My problem: if I run any combination of these commands when the screen saver delay is 60 minutes, the computer does not immediately ask for a password when it wakes up or the screen saver stops. I need to open the system preferences after I run these commands in order for the defaults write to get registered. And if the Preferences pane is open, it never gets registered.

I think that the Preferences pane is doing something else --- that is, I think that the information about how long to sleep or be in screen saver before a password is required is being stored someplace other than this defaults entry and the Preference pane is copying from one to another.

How do I make the Mac immediately require a screensaver password without opening the preferences pane? How do I have the password not be required for 60 minutes? How do I get MacOS to respect the dwrite ? I suppose I could kill the Preferences program and then re-open it with AppleScript, but that seems silly (and slow)

I'm using a little app, called Lock me Now! which is completely free.
You can set your own lock-command, and it will lock instantly asking for a password.


Accessing Snow leopard from remote I have a snow leopard computer in a remote location, logged out. I want to be able to use this machine from a Linux computer. I already hear you saying vnc, but vnc works only for a logged in session. The remote machine is logged out, and must stay this way. Occasionally, someone else may login to it with a different username.

How can I start a remote OSX session from Linux ?

www.logmein.com is what you're looking for :)


Slow transfer between iMac and Macbook Pro I've recently purchased a new Macbook Pro, and am attempting to copy files over my LAN from an iMac (both running Snow Leopard). I have about 100GB of data to transfer, and am finding I'm getting incredibly slow transfer speeds. For example, an 86MB file is taking about 7 minutes.

If I transfer this file from either the iMac or the Macbook Pro to a HP laptop running Windows 7, it takes about 60 seconds. Also, if I initiate the transfer of the file between the iMac and Macbook Pro on the HP (using Windows Explorer to transfer from iMac to Macbook), it also takes approximately 60 seconds.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to why the file transfers, when initiated from the Macbook or iMac using Finder, would be so slow? I'm not very experienced with OSX yet, so please be gentle with me :-)

To transfer via FireWire, turn off one of the Macs, then when powering it on hold down the 'T' key. This will put the computer in Target Disk Mode and make that computer's disk available to the other computer. You can then just drag and drop between the two drives on the other computer.

If you connect the cable when both computers are powered on, your Macs will treat it like a network, assign themselves IP addresses, and use Bonjour to broadcast their sharing services. You will be able to connect via AFP/SMB/etc, but this configuration defeats the purpose of the firewire cable - you could just get a cat5e or cat6 ethernet cable and make the same connection, and it would be faster than Firewire in this case (assuming both Macs have gigabit ethernet ports)


Getting a < 75 Watt charger for a macbook pro due to flight constraints My MacBook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2012) charger has a rating of 85 Watts.

I want to use it on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. (24 hours). (Airbus A380-800).

You can plug in an AC adapter - but they have the following rule:

  The PC power is configured to provide a maximum of output of 75 watts. If the limit is exceeded by a user, which is possible on new version PCs the power to the user will be interrupted and can only be reset on the ground.

This means if I plug in my charger - I'll lock out my power supply for the remainder of the 24 hour flight.

Can I get a lower wattage power adapter for my MacBook Pro?

Apple sells a 60W MagSafe2 Power Adapter for US$79.00 for the MacBook Pro with 13-inch Retina display. They also sell a 60W MagSafe Power Adapter.


Automator Applescript inconsistently handling Google Chrome tabs I want to make an Automator app which closes any open tabs in Google Chrome and loads 3 specific tabs. It should load these 3 tabs regardless of whether Google Chrome was already in use or not.
To accomplish this my app runs the following Applescript:
# Close whatever is already open in Chrome
tell application "Google Chrome"
    close every window
end tell

Next, it uses the "Get Specified URLs" action to understand the list of URLs which I will want to load as tabs. Finally, these URLs are passed into the following Applescript for loading:
# input is the list of url's from the previous task
on run {input, parameters}

    # The below is an applescript loop
    repeat with theURL in input
        tell application "Google Chrome" to open location theURL
    end repeat

    # We must return something so we just return the input
    return input

 end run

When I actually run it, it sometimes works. Other times it does nothing (Chrome is running but has no window or tab loaded) or it opens the 3 new tabs along with whatever tabs were already open when the app was run.
At first I thought perhaps it was being affected by a browser preference which tells Chrome what you would like to have open on startup. I initially had Chrome set to open Gmail. I changed this preference to open only a blank new tab. This did not affect the results (except that when the app otherwise runs successfully now there is an additional blank new tab open, which isn't ideal but I don't care about much).

If an application is what you want, then the following example AppleScript code can be saved as an AppleScript application in Script Editor:
set myURLs to {"https://www.example.com", ¬
    "https://www.apple.com", ¬
    "https://apple.stackexchange.com"}

tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    close windows
    set winID to id of (make new window)
    tell window id winID
        set URL of active tab to first item of myURLs
        repeat with i from 2 to (length of myURLs)
            make new tab at end of tabs ¬
                with properties {URL:item i of myURLs}
        end repeat
        set active tab index to 1
    end tell
end tell


Which alternatives to Microsoft Excel are there for MacOS X and what are their (dis)advantages? I'm still working with Office:mac:2004 on my MacBook 13" (2,16 GHz, 3 GB RAM, MacOS X 10.6.8) and it is quite slow in Loading the applications, so I avoid working with it if I can.

What are alternatives to MS Excel which have at least the following features:

filtering of tables
creating complex formulae
(if possible also a programming language like VBA to create custom commands and formulae)
cell format change automatically dependent on cell value

(Free applications would be welcome)

Would the most recent version of MS Office perform better on my (quite old) MacBook?

I would recommend you use Numbers from Apple. It is a very powerful tool, yet very easy to get started with.

You find more information about it on the Apple product page: http://www.apple.com/iwork/numbers/

Here are some hints for your requested features:

Filtering of tables http://www.apple.com/iwork/tutorials/#numbers-cell
Creating complex formulae http://www.apple.com/iwork/tutorials/#numbers-formula
Formatting cells http://www.apple.com/iwork/tutorials/#numbers-format

If you are interested in scripting Numbers, I highly recommend you to check out the AppleScript language guide.
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/applescript/conceptual/applescriptlangguide/AppleScriptLanguageGuide.pdf

Numbers, as many other popular OSX applications, is fully scriptable using AppleScript.

My own experience with Numbers is great. I stopped using Excel a long time ago. I use it as my main spreadsheet application, and I found the learning curve is quite shallow. Although if you plan to become an expert user, it may take a while to adapt to the different environment. But as long as you go the "Apple way" by learning and using the built in tools, you will soon find yourself in a very comfortable spot.
A good example is the Address Book. Since I have started using the Address Book, mass mailing became very easy.


OS 10.14 stop console from scrolling It seems that since the new update, console will not stop scrolling. I have turned off the "Now" button, but scrolling up and highlighting a line pops out of view as soon as a new message comes in (which is many every second).

It makes it pretty hard to track anything down when you can't read the messages.

Does anyone know how to turn scrolling off?

The clear button also worked nicely for me. As an added bonus, "Now" button is working as it should: stopping the scroll when toggled off, and jumping to the most current entry when toggled on.


macOS Sierra "System" files eating up disk space macOS Sierra system is using over 200 GB of storage space on my 250 GB hard drive. I've removed Time Machine backups to no avail. How do I free up space? My current usable space being less than 50 GB is getting quite problematic.

Edit:

The culprit has been found. Imagemagick is creating tons of temp files for some reason.

The Solution

I used a storage scanning application to see where all the space was going. I used DaisyDisk, but Disk Inventory X is another option

Turns out ImageMagick image editing library was rampantly creating large files at /private/var/tmp


Moving from Stanza to another eBook reader on my iPad Air For years, I've been reading ebooks on my antique iPhone 4, using Calibre to painlessly send ebooks to it.

I have an iPad Air, and it just dawned on me (I guess I'm slow) that I oughtta be doing my reading on my iPad Air. Stanza's out of the question, obviously, but I like the effortless way Calibre maintains my vast library. I also like the ease with which Stanza works (though not the frequent crashes on the phone, obviously).

I'd be grateful if someone would recommend an eBook app which will continue to work with Calibre. I've tried over the years to replace Stanza with appalling results, and I'd rather not go through the agony of buying eBook readers only to throw my money away on disappointments (or worse, apps which make me rage). I'm a disabled vet and can't afford to go experimenting in things I can't use.

If you can tell me which app will work for me right out of the gate, I'll be a happy girl. These are my requirements:

Lets Calibre maintain my library and add books to/remove books from my eBook app's library;
Allows me to read ebooks easily.
(Optional) Allows to me change size and typeface of text easily, although this is an option I really, really want.

MegaReader will do all that you've asked for here. It's not free, but it's not very expensive. It's what I replaced Stanza with on my own iPhone.


Is it important to backup public keys for iOS Developer Certificates? I have read everywhere that you need to backup your private keys for iOS Developer Certificates on your Mac. I want to know if public key is important to backup or not. In case if a person just keeps backup of Private keys of all certificates, can public keys be recovered on new OS installation using those old private keys? Or in other words, can I re-use those old backup certificates successfully? So Does it really matter if I do not backup public keys?

May be it's a lame Question, but I want to know about it. Thanks for helping me out..

There's no need of backing up the Public Key as it is in the actual Certificate, which can be easily downloaded from the iOS Dev Center.

When you manually generate a Certificate, you firstly need to generate a Certificate Signing Request through the Keychain Access application. When this is done, both Public and Private keys are generated. The private one is automatically saved into your Mac, whilst the public key is included in the CSR file sent to the Provisioning Authority. One of the items contained in the generated certificate sent back from the Provisioning Authority will be this public key.


Cannot get more than 29.88 Hertz refresh rate from 2016 MacBook Pro and Acer XR342CK monitor I'm connecting to an Acer XR342CK with a 2016 MacBook Pro 13 via HDMI cable. The monitor is capable of 75 Hertz at full resolution and the laptop is capable of 60 Hertz. However, when connected either through the Apple USB-C Multiport adapter of the USB-C Dock from CalDigit, the the Mac shows a Refresh Rate of 29.88 Hertz (NTSC):

I tried the DisplayPort cable that came with the monitor and when I connected it to the MacBook Pro through the CalDigit USB-C dock, it caused my laptop to freeze up then reboot. This happens every time I connect it.

If I lower the resolution from 3440 x 1440 to 2560 x 1080 the Refresh Rate will default to 60 Hertz, but will be greyed out still. Something very strange is going on with this setup.

There are no Mac drivers for this monitor. Is there anything I can do to get the full 60 Hertz, which both the monitor and laptop support?

As it turns out, the Acer XR342CK monitor is not compatible with the 2016 MacBook Pro 13" (and possibly 15", I haven't tried). I talked to two different Acer support techs and they both told me there is a compatibility problem between the laptop and monitor.

To verify this information, I was able to get the monitor to connect with the same cables I was using to a Mac Pro tower with an NVIDIA GTX 980 and it worked flawlessly and reached 75 Hertz by default.

I have purchased and tested two of these monitors and they both displayed the same problem with connectivity and refresh rate (and caused my MacBook to hang/reboot). Both of these monitors also have terrible image persistence/burn-in/echo, something to keep in mind if you are considering one of these monitors for your setup.

I sure wish Apple would make a curved display.


installing python2.4 on osx10.6? I prefer installing stuff from their source and dont use package managers generally. Has anyone here tried building python2.4 from source here? If so, had any luck with the same?

Probably you have some troubles building it from a sources. My 0.02$:

check here https://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/lang/python24

In the files subdir you can see the needed patches to sources, but especially the patches needed to the Makefile and configure, for the successful build. Use the above as a learning material for your own build process.

Ps: only wondering, what is wrong with macports.org? Why does not use it directly? All things are builded/compiled on your machine from the sources and you can always check the patches and so on... (so, no binary installs).


Strange message in console about _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit key This message is always displayed in the console log at regular intervals.

com.apple.xpc.launched: (comm.apple.imFoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent) the _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit key is not available in this platform

Can anyone explain why it's displayed and if it has any impact on system performance, as well as how to get rid of it?

It's harmless. Jetsam is a system that monitors memory use in OSX and iOS. It keeps a list of processes on the device, to monitor for situations where a device is running out of free RAM and look for things to kill to free up RAM. It also watches for processes that are using too much RAM; breaching a "high water mark" level.
This error message is because the code is shared between OSX and iOS but the _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit key is only available on iOS.
You can read more about Jetsam at the following link.
http://newosxbook.com/articles/MemoryPressure.html
And if you are really interested you can read some of the Jetsam code in the following two files.
http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-1456.1.26/bsd/kern/kern_memorystatus.c
http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-1456.1.26/bsd/sys/kern_memorystatus.h
Long story short, I don't think this error message necessarily indicates a performance problem. The memory system on iOS is a lot more strict because iOS doesn't have things like swapfiles that allow the system to exceed the physical amount of RAM. OSX has a lot more room to play in.
Anyone can verify that it has no impact on performance by using Activity Monitor and showing all processes in the CPU view. Look at the syslogd line and make sure the CPU time is reasonable compared to other tasks you wish to perform with your Mac.


How do I update the Icon of a program running from /usr/local/bin on the Dock? I often run mvim from iTerm, and it pops up on the Dock with the default vim icon. A friend gave me a nice icon for mvim, how do I go about updating the icon for mvim launched from a console?

There's two main ways of changing the icon for an application.

The first (and free) way is to navigate to the application itself (most likely in your /Applications folder). Right-click the app (MacVim.app), and select "Get Info". Then, drag the new icon onto existing icon displayed in the Get Info pane. In this Adium example, you'd drag the new icon over the Adium duck icon. A password pane will most likely pop up - enter your password and you should be all set.

The other way is to buy CandyBar for $30. CandyBar is a much easier to way to manage large scale icon changes, plus provides an interfaces for organized vast icon libraries. But if you are just looking to change one icon, it is probably overkill.


Scheduled Ringer Volume Change for Work Hours Can I schedule the ringer volume to drop during work hours and then go back up at the end of work?

Yes, you can use "Do not disturb":

Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb
Enable "Scheduled"
Set your desired schedule

Your phone will be muted as long as you are within the DND schedule.

To see how exactly this feature works you may have a look at Apple's explanation for Do Not Disturb.


Any "Always On Top" app working on Mojave? My workflow requires a lot of coding, and sometimes pasting code from a text editor to a terminal window. In those occasions, keeping the terminal window "always on top" is very convenient.

Up until High Sierra, I used to use mySIMBL with its "Afloat" plugin. It was quite tricky to get it working - one had to disable SIP, install mySIMBL and re-enable SIP again - but it worked fine. It looked like this:

With Mojave, however, it no longer works. Actually, it does - but SIP must be permanently disabled. I mean not only for installing it, but for using it as well. And I don't want to take the risk of using Mojave with SIP permanently disabled.

So, I'm looking for a replacement. Does anyone know an alternative way of making a window stay on top in macOS Mojave? Thanks in advance.

If you only need it for a terminal app, I'm pretty sure iTerm2 still knows this: https://www.iterm2.com/features.html


Is it possible to sync the same contact to multiple accounts in iOS? In iOS, when one goes to Settings -> Contacts -> Default account, one can choose the cloud account (for example iCloud, Gmail etc.), to sync a newly created contact by default. Is there a way to sync the same contact to multiple accounts. Flow:

Create a contact on iPhone.
Go to gmail.com -> Contacts and the contact should be there.
Go to icloud.com -> Contact and the contact should be there.

Basically, I want to have the same set of contacts in both accounts without, of course, having duplicates on my phone.

Not a straightforward way, but I export all contacts in Contacts.app in a format that Google Contacts receives. Then upload them all there and clean up all the duplicates.

Then export a file from Google Contacts. Delete all iCloud contacts and then import the file I just got.

But ever since I started using photos for people's phone numbers, this doesn't work.


Alias in bash to Change Directory When I am typing in a typical alias with my .bash_profile, my change directory is not working.

I currently have the following:

alias cdicloud="/Users/<username>/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Folder1/subFolder

Does anyone know how to properly change directories via an alias. All my other aliases work, but this one doesn't want to work.

You need to escape/protect any spaces etc in the path:

alias cdicloud="cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs"

Executing this in Terminal looks like the following:

pse@Mithos:~$ alias cdicloud="cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs"
pse@Mithos:~$ cdicloud
pse@Mithos:~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs$ cd -
/Users/pse
pse@Mithos:~$


Can I charge my 2016 MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt to USB-C I forgot my power supply today, but I have an older powered thunderbolt (2?) display and drives. Can I plug the thunderbolt out from my display into my thunderbolt to USB-C adapter somehow to charge my laptop? The connections I set up now don't seem to be doing anything.

Please hurry ;^) 19% and dropping....  18%...!

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 do not support power delivery.  You won't be able to charge your device from the Thunderbolt cable on your display or drives.

Thunderbolt 3 implemented the USB-C power delivery specification.

  By virtue of being an Alternate Mode of USB Type-C, Thunderbolt 3
  ports implement USB Power Delivery, allowing the ports to source or
  sink up to 100 watts of power...


Why does the iMac charge my iPhone faster than the wall charger? I've noticed that my iMac at work (21.5", Mid 2011) charges my iPhone 5 about 2-3x faster than the included wall charger.

How does it do that?

If you have the USB 3 SuperSpeed (on your Mac) it can deliver up to 100 Watts.

For iPhone it will deliver 10 Watts (5 Volt x 2 Amps) which is more than your charger.


In full-screen mode, Chrome only sometimes reveals tabs -- why? In full-screen mode, Chrome reveals all open tabs when you move your mouse to the top of the screen. Except when it doesn't. Sometimes clicking on the content of the currently open tab seems to jolt Chrome and make it start noticing the mouse-to-screen-top movements, sometimes I have to do Command-L to reveal the search/URL bar to force the tabs to show.

Anyone else have this problem? Am I doing something wrong? Is this just a bug?

Make sure "Always Show Toolbar in Full Screen" is enabled under "View" when Chrome is open.


What do I need to know if I am going to use FileVault I am going to big travel trip with my Mac and I have think that turn on FileVault will be a good decision, for the case if may MacBooks was stolen.

I have found the stories (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8301725, https://mybyways.com/blog/macos-filevault-and-sierra-update-get-stuck-when-running-concurrently) that sometimes updating the Mac OS can be broken if I have FileVault turned on due to errors in updating software. In the travel I will not have the ability reinstall my MacBook, so may be it will be better to not install Mac OS updates during the trip.

May be there is something else what I need to know if I am going to turn on FileVault. Some to doand not to do.

Be sure to write down your password and recovery password on a piece of paper and keep in a safe place.

Be sure to have your data backed up before you leave. Using filevault reduces or eliminates your chance of third party data recovery apps succeeding ( like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotoRec ).  Hence, you need to up your backup game.


View passwords of all Wi-Fi networks my Mac has connected to in the past I have connected my Mac to lots of public Wi-Fi networks. I want to know their passwords. What should be the terminal command to list all the Wi-Fi networks whom I connected with in the past with their passwords.

Open Keychain Access from /Applications/Utilities and search for AirPort. All the network passwords are listed as 'AirPort network password' entries. Double-click an entry, then select Show Password and enter your login password to view it.


Restored my iPhone from backup, now cannot recover purchased ringtone My iPhone 4 was playing a ringtone that I had purchased from iTunes.

I updated my phone to the latest operating system, and in the process it said that it had to restore my phone from backup.

Now:

I can still see the purchased ringtone on my local machine when I view it in iTunes on my PC
I can drag the ringtone onto my phone icon
When browsing my phone contents from my PC I can see the ringtone

But...

When I attempt to change the ringtone in the settings, my purchased ringtone does not appear!

I've gone to the iTunes store to attempt to download it directly onto my iPhone. A message box comes up "You have already purchased this ringtone. Do you wish to purchase it again?".  Err, why should I have to?!?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to try?

Have you tried removing it from your phone and adding it again (all via iTunes)? Can't think of anything else, and I don't think the iTunes in the cloud re-download everything for free applies to ringtones.


Search LaTeX documentation with Alfred I'm using Alfred v2 on Mavericks. I would like to use it to quickly locate documentation of LaTeX packages (PDF files). I have TeXLive 2014 installed in /usr/local/texlive/2014. I added /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/doc/latex to Alfred's search scope, but I'm not having any success. I tried searching using open and the backtick (file search) to no avail. I tried rebuilding the OSX metadata, but not joy there either. The locate command-line utility quickly finds the files in question, e.g.:

$ locate thmtools.pdf
/usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/doc/latex/thmtools/thmtools.pdf

I should add that Spotlight can't find the files either. Is it a matter of permissions?

$ ll /usr/local/texlive/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  20 root  wheel   680B Sep 21 11:51 2014

Thanks for any hint!

(1) Ready Alfred to accept a terminal command. Per this support document, the standard method is to type > and then the terminal command. Similarly, in LaunchBar the action is built into the basic index, too, and one can initiate it with term or similar.

(2) Type texdoc PackageName where PackageName is the LaTeX package you're looking for the documentation for. For example: texdoc enumitem or texdoc thmtools.

It'll open the documentation PDF. That's it!

Note that of course you can also do this from the command line directly if you open a terminal window.


Can I lock an external hard drive? I have two identical hard drives. One is the one I will keep updating frequently, the other will be a backup that I update less often.
In order to avoid confusion, I would like to "Lock" the second hard drive the same way you would lock a folder from its "Info" panel, here:

However, for drives, this option is not present:

Is there a simple, quick, Mac OS native way to make the drive locked to prevent mixing them up?
I tried to set permission to "Read Only" but it still allowed me to make changes on the drive (like move a folder inside another).

I have a disk image on a drive which is passworded.
Seems to work fine but whether it will suit you...
See https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/183826/how-to-create-an-encrypted-file-container-disk-image-on-a-mac/amp/


Why don’t events created in iCal show up in my iCloud calendar? Yesterday I installed Mac OS X 10.7.2, iOS5, and set up my iCloud.com account. I entered my iCloud details in System Preferences in Mac OS X, and in Settings on iOS. In both places, I set calendar syncing to “On”

However, I just created a test event in iCal, and it didn’t sync to iCloud.com or iOS. Events created on iOS sync to iCloud and iCal just fine.

What’s going on?

It turns out I had to:

Add my iCloud account to iCal, in iCal > Preferences > Accounts.
Set my default calendar to one of my iCloud calendars, in iCal > Preferences > General.

See e.g.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/253324-lion-ical-not-syncing-icloud-calendar.html
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1249011

It seems a bit strange that I had to do this manually — you’d think just turning on Calendar syncing in the iCloud preference pane would do it.


Why won't the audio switch back to my Internal Speakers after having used Apple TV? When I extend my MacBook display to my TV using my Apple TV, both the video and audio work well, being output through my TV.

However, when I disconnect my Apple TV, the video disconnects, but audio from my computer is still output through my TV.

I tried going to System Preferences > Sound and toggling the output back to my Internal Speakers, but this doesn't seem to work.

Any idea why?

I have had something similar on the Answer when directing sound vai the say command to my Apple Tv and then back to the Built in output.

I would have to run the command to switch back twice to get it back

You could open Terminal.app  and type and run

say -a 38 "I am Back"

a couple of times.


Is there a human-readable summary of Apple's Terms and Conditions? Just went to update my apps on my iPhone and it looks like Apple have updated their Terms and Conditions and Apple Privacy Policy. It's currently at 62 pages!

Has anyone read it thoroughly and can give a short summary of any important items for users? I appreciate this won't be a legal answer (that'll also take 62 pages) but a general summary would be handy, e.g. am I promising to go on their mailing list or something like that?

Clarification: the best answer won't be legally accurate (because only the T&C themselves are) but it will state if there are any gotchas or weird stuff users should be aware of.

Apple has on their website the latest versions all of their legal documents on their website: http://www.apple.com/legal/. Some of those pages offer summaries of the policies, but not many of them have that.

At the same time @Mark makes a valid point: there is a reason why these legal documents are so long. If you want a summary, then it would be best to have a lawyer look it over and give you the information you need. I think any take away from their documentation is that Apple is very restrictive when it comes to their branding, content, technologies, processes, and the like.


What is the 6th Gen (2018) iPad's Touch Delivery Rate? Apple hasn't updated their display documentation for the new iPad yet. Is the 6th Gen (2018) iPad's Touch Delivery Rate 60Hz or 120Hz?

It's 60Hz. It is aimed for students. And It is a budget friendly iPad when compared with the iPad Pro.


Customizing OS X Finder toolbar How is it possible to customize toolbar of Finder and to add more buttons other than defaults ?

Which kind of buttons are you talking about?

If you want to customize your toolbar by adding or removing existing buttons:

Right-click in the Finder toolbar and select Customize Toolbar… from the context menu
Drag the buttons you want in or out, and place them where you want them.
Click Done.

[This also works for most apps, btw.]

If you want to add new buttons that aren't shipped by Apple:

Just drag them into the toolbar.

For example, I've used Refresh Finder for years (Macworld review).


Should i Buy SSD first or RAM for my Macbook? I have a macbook pro 15 inch mid 2010.
For school i have to use mostly Adobe applications but they take so long to boot up.
Not only these programs but other programs too.
What should i do to improve my macbook.
I was thinking to upgrade my ram from 4GB to 8GB.
I was also thinking to buy a Samsung Evo 840 128GB SSD.
But i don't know which one should i buy first.

Which one should i buy first? (SSD or Ram?)

Don't get a 128GB SSD. You don't want to run a 3rd party SSD on OS X without a decent amount of free space since you won't have TRIM support.

Does Activity Monitor show memory pressure? If not, I'd save my pennies until I could afford a 256GB or 512GB SSD. I've done both RAM and SSD upgrades many times and an SSD has always been by far the best upgrade in changing the "feel" of the computer.


Which Apple TV generations support the use of AirPods? Does anyone know from experience whether AirPods work with the Apple TV 3rd generation?

I have both 3rd and 4th gen. AirPods only work with 4th unfortunately


Change HD in Macbook Pro Retina Display 13" - SSD 250GB I have a Macbook Pro Retina Display 13" model with a 250GB SSD which was brought in January this year. I always knew that there wouldn't be enough storage space for me at 250GB however always planned to upgrade with external storage and eventually replace the hard drive with a larger one. The time has come and now I am deciding on the most cost effective, most stable SSD to replace my original one with. I ideally would like to spend around £150 to £200 and want at least 500GB.

Changing a SSD for a larger one is usually pretty easy. I have done it myself via a kit OWC (macsales.com) sells. We also use cruical.com at work and buy SSDs from them. As for brands and make/model... I've always shopped price as HD/SSD are all made by about 5-6 companies and all are good and should work with any Mac that supports SATA.

You will find good instructions at ifixit.com so you know what you are in for (you may possibly need some specialized "screwdrivers." That guide will tell you.

However as you seem to be in the UK I am unsure if these places sell overseas and/or will be price competitive with a reseller in the UK.

Regardless iFixit is a great resource and will help regardless of where you get the drive.


One sign in for Apple ID across all applications on MacBook It seems like every built-in application on a MacBook has a separate Apple ID log in. Is there a way to log in to your Apple account in one place on your MacBook Pro and have it sign in your iTunes, Messages, and other applications that have an Apple ID automatically?

If this is the case then that is how you've set it up. If you want to use a single Apple ID, log out of all of the accounts, then log back in to each with a single Apple ID.


iOS Simulator Hidden in Xcode 4.3.1? This is more of an "am I doing this right?" type of question...

I recently performed a clean install of Lion and installed Xcode 4.3.1 from the App Store.  I noticed that the /Developer folder was missing so in my search I found in the release notes they talked about how the tools are consolidated into Xcode now.  Okay, fair enough.  I followed the instructions and downloaded the iOS simulator from Preferences > Downloads:

The iOS simulator is nowhere to be found anywhere in Xcode or in the Open Developer Tool menu with the rest of the tools either:

Turns out I have to drill down through this path to find it!?

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app

Really Apple?  So... Is it okay to just drag this out and into my Applications folder?  Are there dependencies?  Will it break?  How are you launching this app without having to drill down into that folder every time?  (Spotlight can't find it).

tl;dr: Apple hides iOS Simulator deep in the Xcode package contents.  What's the best practice to launch the app in a convenient way and why can't I find it in the Xcode GUI?

I would leave the simulator in the Xcode package, but drag it to your dock to easily launch it. Or make an alias to it and place that alias in what ever spot you want to launch simulator from.


How do you enable Oracle VirtualBox's autostart daemon? The obvious gist from @reidransom didn't work for me.

Working through Section 9.24.3 of the User Manual, the following will allow all users to set virtual machines to autostart:

cat /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/org.virtualbox.vboxautostart.plist | sed '6s/true/false/' | sudo tee /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.virtualbox.vboxautostart.plist
sudo mkdir -p /etc/vbox/
echo 'default_policy = allow' | sudo tee /etc/vbox/autostart.cfg
VBoxManage modifyvm VM_NAME_HERE --autostart-enabled on

To restrict this ability to a single user, use this line instead:

echo 'default_policy = deny\nUSERNAME_HERE = {\nallow = true\n}' | sudo tee /etc/vbox/autostart.cfg


What was the name of the typeface used on the Mac OS 9/OS X Cheeta/Jaguar packaging? I am curious as to what typeface was used on the Mac OS 9 & early Mac OS X boxes. Where it reads "Installing Mac OS 9". The slopes of the letters are slightly different than any font that comes pre-installed on a modern Mac, and the 9 is obviously quite unique looking. If anyone is aware of the typeface name please let me know. Danke.

The font being used is Apple Garamond. This was used by Apple as one of its corporate fonts since the Mac was first launched in 1984 up until the early 2000s.

For more information on this and other typefaces used by Apple, refer to Typography of Apple Inc.


Why can't I resize my existing partition? I just finished downloading my copy of Lion and wanted to install it on a new second partition. I freed up just over 50 GBs from my hard drive and am now stuck trying to shrink my existing partition. I'm using the Disk Utility, but am continually getting:

  Partition failed

  Partition failed with the error:

  The partition cannot be resized. Try
  reducing the amount of change in the
  size of the partition.

I've tried just resizing by 1 gigabyte and it still fails. Any free tools to fix this? Thanks.

You've probably got fragmentation of your free space. For some reason, Disk Utility can't figure this out on its own; it just fails.

I found a stunningly simple way to resolve this: create a new disk image with Disk Utility that's a little bit smaller than the remaining space on your drive.

It took several minutes on my SSD, presumably while OS X moved things around. I imagine it would take significantly longer on a hard drive.

When it's done, delete the disk image you just created. You should now be able to resize your partition!


>console does not work I have enabled the login window so that the username and password must be entered to login to an account. However, when I switch out of my user and type >console into the username field, the screen flashes white and nothing happens.

Why is this happening? Can I fix it?

I, too, had this problem.
The way I fixed it was to log out of all accounts on my Mac. After this, >console login worked flawlessly.


Can I use a 2016 MacBook pro charger on a 2019 MacBook Pro I’m borrowing a 16 inch 2019 MacBook Pro while my 2016 is in the shop, I figured I could use the same charger being USB-C and it would just charge slow but it doesn’t seem to be charging at all... is it just slow or do I need the other charger?

The wattage requirement of the 2019 MacBook Pro (96W) is greater than the capability of the 2016 charger (87W), so it will either charge slowly, hold its charge level, or continue to lose charge slowly, depending on usage.

Analogy time: imagine a bath half full of water (the battery). The plug is removed, and water leaves the bath (energy used by the laptop). You add water by turning on the tap (Recharging).

If the tap can't supply water fast enough to match the water going out, then the bath level (battery) will continue to fall, but at a slower rate than no water going in at all.

If the tap can supply only a little bit more than the water going out, then the level will rise, but slowly.

With the laptop shut, it should still gain charge, but a bit slower than usual.


Why do I get notifications about new Photos memories from a decade ago? Every so often, I get a notification from Photos (on macOS) that I have a new memory. But it's not of recent events. I just got a new memory that includes some pictures I took, and imported into my Mac, nearly 10 years ago.

Why I am I getting these new memories for such old photos all of a sudden? Is Photos just scanning my memories when I have extra processing power and analyzing them?

10 year old photos must have been scanned for faces and scenes by now. Whatever new processing happens might be due to some changes or features they bring to Photos or Siri.

As far as memories are concerned from Apple,

  Rediscover favorite and forgotten moments from deep in your photo library. Memories automatically creates curated collections of your most meaningful photos and videos.

So (These are my guesses) whichever photos involve you in a happy state, your friends, or those shared or opened a lot would appear back.


Can I make an OS X ESD (or other USB drive) read-only? I have a USB Flash drive onto which I've used Disk Utility to restore the Mac OS X Install ESD:

Is there a way I can make the result read-only, in order offer it at lease some semblance of protection from accidental change?

I assume (but don't know for sure) that I cannot make the raw disk itself read-only, so higher levels of protection are okay, but the lower the better.

One thing I have tried is using Sharing & Permissions to set rights to Read only for myself, like so:

This prevents some writes:

megaweapon:Mac OS X Install ESD matt$ touch foo
touch: foo: Permission denied

but if I try to make modifications through the Finder, I'm prompted for my password for administrative access.

Unfortunately, this is not a hard defense against write access.  To accomplish this, a USB stick with a write lock switch (hard to find) or perhaps an SD card in a reader might work.


Which iOS app will let me paste an image? TL;DR; Version:
I'm looking for an app (preferably free) that will allow me to past an image from the clipboard and save it either to my photo library or to an online service.

Long Version:
Several months ago I had some photos stored in my Dropbox which accidentically got deleted without my knowing.  I recently realized the photos were gone and that I had no backups of the photos.  The other day I was in the Dropbox app on my iPad in an area which did not have Internet access.  I noticed that Dropbox had in its cache a bunch of the photos I had lost.  However, Dropbox will not allow me to import the photos into the photo libary or print them or share them; all of these actions return with the error "Unable to Connect to Dropbox - There may be a problem with your iPad's Internet connection."  I can't enable the internet connection because that would sync my Dropbox and loose the photos.  The "Copy Image to Clipboard" action does work, however I can't find any app that will let me paste the image and save it.

I have tried using Evernote, and I can paste the image, but the size limit for notes prevents me from syncing the note.  I've tried GMail and I can paste the image but when I send the message the received e-mail does not have the image attached or included in any way.

Is there an app out there that will let me paste an image and either save it to the photo library or sync with an online service?

Since you're able to copy the image, open up the Messages-app, open a new message to your own iMessage-address, and paste, then send. You should be able to save the image to the camera roll from there.

On newer iOS like 10 and higher, the ubiquitous share sheet function lets you move documents around so much easier, that third party apps aren't needed for this basic function anymore.


Set timeout on idle for VPN (Cisco IPsec)? Anyway to set a idle timeout on VPN? I want my VPN connection to drop automatically after idling for 5 minutes.

Using Lion 10.7.3 and built-in VPN Client (Cisco IPsec).

Go to System Preferences > Network. Select your VPN connection from the sidebar. Click on Advanced. In the first tab ("Options"), there should be the option "Disconnect if idle for X minutes".


Load text messages on new phone My personal phone is iPhone 5.

Boss bought me a new company phone, iPhone 7.  And it syncs with Microsoft Exchange server for email, etc.  Before I got this new phone, I used my old one for work, especially texting.

How can I get the old text messages (and only the text messages) from the 5 onto the new 7?  I do not want to backup/restore because I need to keep the configuration and current settings of the 7.

I think easiest way would be to load a backup on your new phone, but you said that is not possible.
In this article 3rd party software ist used.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iphone/how-to-transfer-text-messages-from-one-iphone-another-3525410/


Opened applications log Is there any way, such as an application or a terminal command, to display a log of every application that has been running on the computer? A bit like a keylogger, but for applications instead of keyboard. I did not find anything on the internet.

If it does not exist, do you think that programming such a tool would be possible?

Thank you for your help

There is an application called Time Sink ($5, free trial available) which can track time spent in an application in the foreground. I believe it also tracks background time too.

For a native and more techy solution, you can run this terminal command:

top -d 5 -b > /var/log/top.txt

This command will run top every 5 seconds as defined by -d, -b is for batch mode and this is used for sending output to a file. You wouldn't want to have this running all the time unless you're compressing the log file or using logrotate, as the log file would get large.


sharingd wants to use the "Local Items keychain Every time after I log into my computer the first thing that happens is I get this message even if I put in the password. I can click it 3 times or so and it will go away, or I can give it the password but it will come back. I want to know what is sharingd? It looks like the terminal screen on the lock. Can anyone explain?

What is sharingd?
sharingd is sharing daemon that enables AirDrop, Handoff, Instant Hotspot, Shared Computers, and Remote Disc in the Finder.

How to solve asking for password problem?
I think the login password and the keychain are not the same. That's why you get those messages. You want your default keychain to be unlocked automatically when you log in. Synchronise your Keychain Access and account login passwords by doing this:

Open Keychain Access (you can get to it by choosing Utilities from the Go menu in the Finder).
From the Edit menu, choose Change Password for Keychain "login."
Type the former password of the account that you are currently logged in to, then click OK.
If you entered the correct password, a new window appears; enter the original password again in the Current Password field.
In the New Password field, type the password that matches your current account password.
Re-enter the newer password in the Verify field, then click OK.


How to transfer numbers docs from lion on 2006 iMac to mountain lion on another computer (MBA) My iMac has OSX lion and cannot be upgraded further. How can I transfer iWork documents to my new MBA using mountain lion?

Wouldn't this be the same as sharing any other document?

In Numbers, hold down the command (⌘) key and click the proxy icon in the title bar. Clicking the name of the folder that appears in the list immediately under the file name will reveal your document in the Finder.

Then, using the Finder, you could transfer the document using File Sharing, a USB drive, as an attachment to an e-mail.


What's the meaning of the first two lines occurring after opening a Terminal window? I have an issue when I'm connected to public Wi-Fi networks with my Terminal,
When I run it, I see the following:

Last login: Sun Jul 26 11:58:02 on ttys001
Inbal-TOSH:~ chen$

'Inbal-TOSH' is a name of a computer in the network I guess. but I don't understand why am I seeing it.

Hostname can be set by the wifi network's DHCP server, but you can turn this off - see https://superuser.com/questions/49891/how-can-i-stop-mac-os-x-overriding-my-hostname-when-i-receive-a-dhcp-request-on