Can't delete Linux partition with Disk utility Weeks ago I created a new partition for Linux installation positioned after the Mac OS partition. I used the new larger partition to install Ubuntu (which caused the partition to be further partitioned into root, home, swap etc).

Now I'd like to delete that partition and resize the Mac OS partition back to full disk. Disk utility won't let me for reasons unknown.

Here is diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               80.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:           Linux Filesystem                         319.1 GB   disk0s4
   4:           Linux Filesystem                         399.5 MB   disk0s5
   5:                 Linux Swap                         600.8 MB   disk0s6

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +80.0 GB    disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh SSD           54.1 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 45.3 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      8.6 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +1.1 GB     disk2
   1:                  Apple_HFS IntelliJ IDEA CE        977.2 MB   disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +1.6 GB     disk3
   1:                  Apple_HFS LibreOffice             1.4 GB     disk3s1

/dev/disk4 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        +179.1 MB   disk4
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Wireshark               179.1 MB   disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +10.1 MB    disk5
   1:                  Apple_HFS Android File Transfer   10.0 MB    disk5s1

/dev/disk6 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        +196.8 MB   disk6
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk6s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Firefox                 196.7 MB   disk6s2

/dev/disk7 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +1.6 GB     disk7
   1:                  Apple_HFS Android Studio 3.1.4    1.4 GB     disk7s1

The partition type for the APFS partition has the incorrect value.

The simplest solution would be to use the gdisk command supplied with Ubuntu to correct this problem.

If you can boot to Ubuntu from either the internal drive or from a live version, then proceed as follows.

Boot to Ubuntu.
Open a Terminal windows by entering the key combination control+option+T.
In the window, enter the following command.

sudo gdisk /dev/sda

Enter the following commands into gdisk. Basically, you will be changing the partition type to the correct GUID.

t
2
7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
w
y

  Note: If you are using version 1.0.4 or newer of gdisk, then you can substitute af0a for 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

Quit the Terminal application.
Reboot to macOS. You may need to hold down the option key at startup and then select macOS.

Removing Linux without Using the Disk Utility Application.

When removing partitions, entering commands in a Terminal application window can provide more satisfying results than relying on the Disk Utility application.

A linux partitions can be converted back to free space by entering the commands below.

Use the command below to get the identifier of a partition.

diskutil list

Use the command below to remove the partition. Replace  diskXsY with the identifier determined in step 1.

diskutil eraseVolume free none diskXsY

When finished removing partitions, the free space should be allocated back to macOS. In your case, this can be accomplished using the command given below.

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

Alternate Method of Employing gdisk

The gdisk command can now be accessed by a rEFInd bootable USB flash drive. Below are the instructions for creating the bootable flash drive.

Goto the website The rEFInd Boot Manager:
Getting rEFInd.
Click on the link labeled A USB flash drive image file. Currently, this will download the file refind-flashdrive-0.11.3.zip, which defaults to the creation of the folder refind-flashdrive-0.11.3 in the Downloads folder.
Insert a flash drive in a USB port. Note: All the files on this flash drive will be erased.
Open a Terminal application window.
Enter the command below to get the identifier of the flash drive.

diskutil list

Enter the commands below to copy the image to the flash drive. If necessary, replace disk1 with the identifier from the previous step. Also, make the appropriate substitution, if your rEFInd version is be newer than 0.11.3.

cd ~/Downloads/refind-flashdrive-0.11.3
diskutil unmountdisk disk1
sudo dd if=refind-flashdrive-0.11.3.img of=/dev/disk1

Next, follow the steps below fix the partition type error.

Restart the Mac and immediately hold down the option key.
Select the external drive icon labeled EFI Boot.
From the rEFInd menu, select the icon labeled Start disk partitioning tool.
Enter the commands given below.

t
2
7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
w
y

Select the icon labeled Reboot Computer.


Disable Finder icon preview blurring When I click on a finder icon to view it's preview, the icon is crystal clear like in this photo,

But when I scroll through all the files with the arrow keys after I click, they become blurred like this:

Is there any way to disable this or is there an app the stops this?

I think I've finally found the reason why it's been doing this. Every time you click the item it generates a preview the very moment you click down on the item. During the period that your mouse is clicked down, it runs its image anti-aliasing algorithms to create the preview.

I've noticed when I click on the item as fast as I can (ensure that I release the click as fast as possible), I get a better probability of the image being aliased rather than smoothed. Being a programmer, I think it's definitely because the computer can't generate the smoothed preview fast enough if a fast click is used. So to always get aliased images, I'd think a macro is probably the only way to click fast enough without having to rely on the speed of your finger every time you click.

(usually you can set the execution time of the macro, this is the only thing I can think of to solve the problem)


Can I fit a 39Wh battery in my MacBook Air 2011 which states 35Wh? I'm trying to change the battery in a MacBook Air 11″ i7 1.8 GHz (July 2011) MD214LL/A.

I found this Runpower battery, which is 39Wh.

Yet when checking the specs mentioned above, the battery is a 35Wh.

If I change the battery to one with a higher Wh, will it have a negative impact or will it be ok?
Can I safely buy and install the new battery?

The battery you want to buy should be fine (in terms of the specs and compatibility). The 39 watt hours basically means that on a full charge it should last longer than a 35 watt hour battery (about 11.4% longer). Many after market MacBook batteries do usually offer a little more capacity in that regard.

As for the battery itself, I've never used that particular brand, so cannot vouch for its quality. However, since it seems to have a 5 star rating, it looks promising. As long as it offers a decent warranty (I can't read French, so can't tell), I'd buy it.


Spanish Dvorak Keyboard Actually i am learning to write with the Dvorak Keyboard. In the system configuration for Language and Text i have three Dvorak options (Left, Right and Querty) but none for spanish (with 'ñ' and accents).

There are a way to configure Dvorak for spanish ?

If you hold a key down (like n) you should get a popup menu with accented versions (like ñ). Also the usual option deadkeys (option n, then n) should work.

An example of a custom layout someone has made for this is at

http://djelibeibi.unex.es/dvorak/

http://djelibeibi.unex.es/dvorak/ES%20Dvorak.keylayout

It is pretty easy to make your own with Ukelele:

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele


How can I find out which Automator folder actions are attached to a folder? I spent some time experimenting with building a Folder Action for my Desktop folder. However, it seems like it's running twice.

I might have created the Folder Action more than once. How can I find out what Folder Actions I have attached to my Desktop folder? I can't see anything in Automator to list them.

As an alternative, this one-line snippet of AppleScript will return all folders with folder actions applied them:

tell application "System Events" to get the path of every folder action
    --> {"/Users/CK/Scripts/AppleScript/scripts", "/Users/CK/Downloads", ...}

This one might be handy too, because it lists the actual path to the scripts or Automator workflows monitoring each of your folders...

tell application "System Events" to get the POSIX path of every script of ¬
        (every folder action where class of its scripts contains script)

...or a specific folder:

tell application "System Events" to return the POSIX path of every script of ¬
        (every folder action where its path contains "/Users/CK/Desktop" and ¬
        enabled of scripts contains true)


Why Homebrew is connecting to Google analytics and how to disable it? I've noticed that when I run :

brew update

Homebrew is connecting to Google analytics. Why? And how to disable it?

According to the official documentation : Anonymous Aggregate User Behaviour Analytics

  Homebrew has begun gathering anonymous aggregate user behaviour analytics and reporting these to Google Analytics. You will be notified the first time you run brew update or install Homebrew.
  Why?

  Homebrew is provided free of charge and run entirely by volunteers in their spare time. As a result, we do not have the resources to do detailed user studies of Homebrew users to decide on how best to design future features and prioritise current work. Anonymous aggregate user analytics allow us to prioritise fixes and features based on how, where and when people use Homebrew.

You can disable this feature with :

brew analytics off

or by setting

export HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1


iOS 6 Facebook Integration: How may I extract contacts from iPhone? iOS 6 has a new feature that allows my facebook contacts to be synced as a separate group.
I would like to extract the contacts, is it possible to do somehow?

The answer lies in the Contacts applications for OS 10.7+. First, you must set iCloud in System Preferences to sync your contacts, or you can sign into Facebook (if you're using Mountain Lion).

Then, open Contacts and select the "All Facebook" item to the left of the window. Select all visible contacts by clicking within the contact list and pressing ⌘A.

Go to File > Export… > Export vCard… and save with the name and location you desire.


Which Macs support macOS internet recovery? I know that all modern Macs support internet recovery, but I'm not quite sure how far back that started. How can I tell if internet recovery is supported on a specific model? And when was this feature introduced for each computer in Apple's product lineup?

I'm specifically asking about internet recovery that does not depend on the built-in recovery partition.

Mac computers have had this ability since around 2012.

Works out of box

One of the earliest Mac laptops to support this by default was the MacBook Pro Mid-2012 (MacBookPro9,2).

With a firmware upgrade

A few Macs from 2010 and 2011 can have their firmware upgraded so that they gain support for internet recovery.

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
Mac mini (Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch and 27-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch, Late 2010)


How to stop Numbers from beeping at me when I use the arrow keys? When I edit spreadsheets in Numbers, I often hold down the left or right arrow key to get to the far-left or far-right column of a table. Numbers always beeps at me when I do this. It seems to think it is an error to press keys that try to move outside the boundaries of a table, even though the keystrokes are from keyboard auto-repeat.

This is highly annoying. How do I stop Numbers from beeping at me all the time? I know I can mute the system volume or the default beep sound, but I like to listen to music, and the beeps in other programs are sometimes useful.

The keyboard shortcut for going to the last cell of a row: ⌘+Right Arrow

The keyboard shortcut for going to the first cell of a row: ⌘+Left Arrow

The keyboard shortcut for going to the last cell of a column: ⌘+Down Arrow

The keyboard shortcut for going to the first cell of a column: ⌘+Up Arrow

This will save holding the arrow key down repeat extending beyond the table bounds resulting in the annoying beeping/screen flash error.


Better way of using the iPhone with a Bluetooth speaker I got a Bluetooth wireless speaker and it is great in many ways.  I can listen to podcasts and music without wires to get in the way.

I have one small first-world problem.  If i want to type up a quick text message, it lags because it seems that for each character typed it has to play the sound on the bluetooth speaker.  It probably takes time to send each audio snippet.  This is not horrible, but oh well.

The problem is much worse when I use speech recognition to "type" a message.  It insists on using the microphone on the bluetooth speaker and seeing how it is not right in front of me - the speech recognition fails almost always.  Or comes up with unbelievably hilarious renderings of what I said.

Siri has a workaround for this: when I bring it up, it has a small bluetooth icon in the bottom left where I can select the audio source.  But the speech recognition applet on the keyboard does not.

Or am I missing something simple here?

P.S.  I looked at the bluetooth references for the device - the only thing there is to "Forget the Device".

I figured out my own answer, so hopefully this helps whomever runs into this problem.

Bring up Siri by holding down the Home button.  It will come up and on the bottom left you'll see Audio source indicator, pictured below (and highlighted in yellow).

As you can see, it has a grey background.  Tap on it and you'll get a menu of audio sources (typically your phone and the Bluetooth device).  Select your phone.  The icon will get a white background indicate that you successfully changed the audio source.

Now switch back to your Text Messaging application and the tap the microphone button on the keyboard and it will now use the phone microphone instead of the one on the Bluetooth device.


Boot Camp files available from finder but unavailable from Startup Manager I know that many other people have already posted similar problems, but I have tried all their fixes and still none of them have worked.

Earlier, I had a "No Bootable Device" error, and I followed the instructions provided in order to fix that. That then created a "No Operating System" error, which I also tried to fix with the known method. That didn't work either. Is there anything else I can do?

System Information:

Bootcamp is using a BIOS Method
2012 MacBook Pro
High Sierra 10.13.4

An "Missing operating system" error is issued when the code stored in the MBR executes, reads the first 512 bytes of the boot volume and determines the read bytes do not end in 0xAA55. The assumption here is the code stored in the MBR came from a Windows installation. If the source for code came from another product (such as rEFInd), the message could be sightly different. The signature of 0xAA55 is present when a volume contains bootable Microsoft software.

Normally, when Windows is installed for a BIOS boot, the MBR partition table has the Windows partition flagged as the boot volume. If some other partition is flagged and is not bootable, the "Missing operating system" message is issued and the computer halts. This will occur even if Windows appears in "Startup Disk" pane in the System Preferences application.

The sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 command prints the contents of the MBR partition table. The partition flagged as bootable is marked with an * character. Below is the output from this command, when issue on my 2011 iMac. (The Boot Camp Assistant was not used to install Windows on this Mac.)

  Note: With High Sierra (and many other older macOS versions), System Integrity Protection (SIP) must be disabled before entering the sudo fdisk /dev/disk0 command.

Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
*2: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  195312500] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 3: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 195722140 -   95441064] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 4: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 291163208 -  294176536] HFS+

In my case, Windows 10 is installed in the second partition. In your case, the third partition should be marked.

  Note: I assume the 2rd, 3rd and 4th partitions in your GUID Partition Table (GPT) correspond to the 2rd, 3rd and 4th partitions in your MBR partition table. Normally, for a BIOS boot of Windows on a Mac, this usually is the case.

You can flag the third partition by entering the interactive command sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0 with SIP disabled. Below is an example of the output from executing this command.

fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
Enter 'help' for information
fdisk: 1> f 3
Partition 3 marked active.
fdisk:*1> q
Writing current MBR to disk.
Device could not be accessed exclusively.
A reboot will be needed for changes to take effect. OK? [n] y

The interactive input, shown above, is given below.

f 3
q
y

If the event your third partition is correctly flagged, there is an place later in the BIOS boot sequence where the message "An operating system wasn't found" can appear. If this occurs, then post a comment.

Appendix

What is shown in this appendix can be skipped by the OP. I just wanted to document the resources used to answer this question.

The code shown below was create with the help from the website Online Assembler and Disassembler and verified using the Microsoft Macro Assembler 8.0 (MASM). This is the contents of the MBR (sector 0) on my 2011 iMac.

cseg segment
        assume cs:cseg, ds:cseg, ss:cseg
        org 7C00h
        .386
_start:
                xor         ax, ax;             7C00 33 C0
                mov         ss, ax;             7C02 8E D0
                mov         sp, 7C00h;          7C04 BC 00 7C
                mov         es,ax;              7C07 8E C0
                mov         ds,ax;              7C09 8E D8
                mov         si,7C00h;           7C0B BE 00 7C
                mov         di,0600h;           7C0E BF 00 06
                mov         cx, 0200h;          7C11 B9 00 02
                cld;                            7C14 FC
    rep movs    byte ptr es:[di],byte ptr [si]; 7C15 F3 A4
                push        ax;                 7C17 50
                push        061Ch;              7C18 68 1C 06
                retf;                           7C1B CB
        org 061Ch
                sti;                            061C FB
                mov         cx,0004h;           061D B9 0004
                mov         bp,07BEh;           0620 BD BE 07
Q210:           cmp         byte ptr [bp],0;    0623 80 7E 00 00
                jl          Q220;               0627 7C 0B
                jne         Q330;               0629 0F 85 0E 01        InvalTbl
                add         bp,10h;             062D 83 C5 10
                loop Q210;                      0630 E2 F1
                int 18h;                        0632 CD 18      No boot disk
Q220:           mov byte ptr [bp], dl;          0634 88 56 00
                push bp;                        0637 55
                mov byte ptr [bp + 11h], 5;     0638 C6 46 11 05
                mov byte ptr [bp + 10h], 0;     063C C6 46 10 00
                mov ah, 41h;                    0640 B4 41
                mov bx, 55aah;                  0642 BB 55AA
                int 13h;                        0645 CD 13      Check
                pop bp;                         0647 5D
                jb Q230;                        0648 72 0F
                cmp bx, 0aa55h;                 064A 81 FB AA55
                jne Q230;                       064E 75 09
                test cx, 1;                     0650 F7 C1 01 00
                je Q230;                        0654 74 03
                inc byte ptr [bp + 10h];        0656 FE 46 10
Q230:           pushad;                         0659 66 60
                cmp byte ptr [bp + 10h], 0;     065B 80 7E 10 00
                je Q250;                        065F 74 26
                push dword ptr 0;               0661 66 68 00 00 00 00
                push dword ptr [bp + 8];        0667 66 FF 76 08
                push word ptr 0;                066B 68 00 00
                push word ptr 7c00h;            066E 68 00 7C
                push word ptr 1;                0671 68 01 00
                push word ptr 10h;              0674 68 10 00
                mov ah, 42h;                    0677 B4 42
                mov dl, byte ptr [bp];          0679 8A 56 00
                mov si, sp;                     067C 8B F4
                int 13h;                        067E CD 13      Read sectors extended
                lahf;                           0680 9F
                add sp, 10h;                    0681 83 C4 10
                sahf;                           0684 9E
                jmp Q240;                       0685 EB 14
Q250:           mov ax, 201h;                   0687 B8 0201
                mov bx, 7c00h;                  068A BB 7C00
                mov dl, byte ptr [bp];          068D 8A 56 00
                mov dh, byte ptr [bp + 1];      0690 8A 76 01
                mov cl, byte ptr [bp + 2];      0693 8A 4E 02
                mov ch, byte ptr [bp + 3];      0696 8A 6E 03
                int 13h;                        0699 CD 13      Read sectors
Q240:           popad;                          069B 66 61
                jae Q280;                       069D 73 1C
                dec byte ptr [bp + 11h];        069F FE 4E 11
                jne Q270;                       06A2 75 0C
                cmp byte ptr [bp], 80h;         06A4 80 7E 00 80
                je Q320;                        06A8 0F 84 8A 00        ErrLoad
                mov dl, 80h;                    06AC B2 80
                jmp Q220;                       06AE EB 84
Q270:           push bp;                        06B0 55
                xor ah, ah;                     06B1 32 E4
                mov dl, byte ptr [bp];          06B3 8A 56 00
                int 13h;                        06B6 CD 13      Reset
                pop bp;                         06B8 5D
                jmp Q230;                       06B9 EB 9E
Q280:           cmp word ptr ds:[7dfeh], 0aa55h;06BB 81 3E FE 7D 55 AA
                jne Q310;                       06C1 75 6E      MissOS
                push word ptr [bp];             06C3 FF 76 00
                call Q360;                      06C6 E8 8D 00
                jne Q290;                       06C9 75 17
                cli;                            06CB FA
                mov al, 0d1h;                   06CC B0 D1
                out 64h, al;                    06CE E6 64
                call Q360;                      06D0 E8 83 00
                mov al, 0dfh;                   06D3 B0 DF
                out 60h, al;                    06D5 E6 60
                call Q360;                      06D7 E8 7C 00
                mov al, 0ffh;                   06DA B0 FF
                out 64h, al;                    06DC E6 64
                call Q360;                      06DE E8 75 00
                sti;                            06E1 FB
Q290:           mov ax, 0bb00h;                 06E2 B8 00 BB
                int 1ah;                        06E5 CD 1A      Read system clock counter
                and eax, eax;                   06E7 66 23 C0
                jne Q300;                       06EA 75 3B
                cmp ebx, 41504354h;             06EC 66 81 FB 54 43 50 41
                jne Q300;                       06F3 75 32
                cmp cx, 102h;                   06F5 81 F9 02 01
                jb Q300;                        06F9 72 2C
                push dword ptr 0bb07h;          06FB 66 68 07 BB 00 00
                push dword ptr 200h;            0701 66 68 00 02 00 00
                push dword ptr 8;               0707 66 68 08 00 00 00
                push ebx;                       070D 66 53
                push ebx;                       070F 66 53
                push ebp;                       0711 66 55
                push dword ptr 0;               0713 66 68 00 00 00 00
                push dword ptr 7c00h;           0719 66 68 00 7C 00 00
                popad;                          071F 66 61
                push word ptr 0;                0721 68 00 00
                pop es;                         0724 07
                int 1ah;                        0725 CD 1A      Read system clock counter
Q300:           pop dx;                         0727 5A
                xor dh, dh;                     0728 32 F6
;               jmp far ptr _start              072A EA 00 7C 00 00
                db 0EAh,00,7Ch,00,00
                int 18h;                        072F CD 18      No boot disk
Q310:           mov al, byte ptr ds:[07b7h];    0731 A0 B7 07   MissOS
                jmp Q340;                       0734 EB 08
Q320:           mov al, byte ptr ds:[07b6h];    0736 A0 B6 07   ErrLoad
                jmp Q340;                       0739 EB 03
Q330:           mov al, byte ptr ds:[07b5h];    073B A0 B5 07   InvalTbl
Q340:           xor ah, ah;                     073E 32 E4
                add ax, 700h;                   0740 05 00 07
                mov si, ax;                     0743 8B F0
Q370:           lodsb byte ptr [si];            0745 AC
                cmp al, 0;                      0746 3C 00
                je Q350;                        0748 74 09
                mov bx, 7;                      074A BB 07 00
                mov ah, 0eh;                    074D B4 0E
                int 10h;                        074F CD 10      Write text in teletype mode
                jmp Q370;                       0751 EB F2
Q350:           hlt;                            0753 F4
                jmp Q350;                       0754 EB FD
Q360:           sub cx, cx;                     0756 2B C9
Q390:           in al, 64h;                     0758 E4 64
                jmp Q380;                       075A EB 00
Q380:           and al, 2;                      075C 24 02
                loopne Q390;                    075E E0 F8
                and al, 2;                      0760 24 02
                ret;                            0762 C3

InvalTbl        db "Invalid partition table",0;         0763
ErrLoad         db "Error loading operating system",0;  077B
MissOS          db "Missing operating system",0;        079A
Offsets         db 00h, 00h, 63h, 7Bh, 9Ah;             07B3
DiskSignature   dword  028A47A7h;                       07B8
CopyProtect     dw 0;                                   07BC

Status1         db 00;                  07BE
FirstCHS1       db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07BF
Type1           db 0EEh;                07C2
LastCHS1        db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07C3
FirstLBA1       dword 1;                07C6
Count1          dword 409639;           07CA

Status2         db 80h;                 07CE
FirstCHS2       db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07CF
Type2           db 07h;                 07D2
LastCHS2        db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07D3
FirstLBA2       dword 409640;           07D6
Count2          dword 195312500;        07DA

Status3         db 00;                  07DE
FirstCHS3       db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07DF
Type3           db 07h;                 07E2
LastCHS3        db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07E3
FirstLBA3       dword 195722140;        07E6
Count3          dword 95441064;         07EA

Status4         db 00;                  07EE
FirstCHS14      db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07EF
Type4           db 0AFh;                07F2
LastCHS4        db 0FEh, 0FFh, 0FFh;    07F3
FirstLBA4       dword 291163208;        07F6
Count4          dword 294176536;        07FA

BootSignature   dw 0AA55h;              07FE

cseg ends
        end _start


Spotify is damaged or incomplete I used to have Spotify but now it says it is damaged or incomplete, and now I can't open it again. How do I fix that?

There's official manual about it:

Reinstall Spotify
Reinstalling gives the app a new lease of life; fixing many common issues you may be experiencing.
Note: Any offline playlists will need to be re-synced once reinstalled.

Click Spotify in the menu bar then Quit Spotify.
Open Finder then click Go > Library in the menu bar. (You may need to hold the Alt key if Library isn’t visible).
Open Caches and delete the com.spotify.Client folder.
Click the back arrow.
Open Application Support and delete the Spotify folder.
Download and install Spotify!


Can I set some sort of "never send error report" on an app that has to be force quit frequently? RSA SecurID. OSX El Capitan.

The app is frequently unresponsive when the computer comes back from sleep. Response from IT Support: "it's not meant to be left running". In other words I'm supposed to quit the app right after I use it. If I don't do that, the app is unresponsive next time I need it. So I have to force quit it.

It seems like there's a whole process involved in Force Quit -- like it's gathering up a stack trace etc. Well in this case there is no point to me reporting the quit it seems; I've reported it a dozen times over the past 9 months and never seen a new version of the app.

Can I permanently elect to not send an error report for a certain application? When I need to use RSA SecurID I need it right then, not 30s later. Waiting just interrupts my workflow.

Instead of force quit you could find the name of the process(es) you want to quit using Activity Monitor and then create a script that uses the kill command to get rid of them.

Some details: Chriswrites


OS X Finder sorting by date shows some files in incorrect order Is there any logic behind OS X's file sorting patterns?

Here is a screenshot of two file dialogs open side by side:

Why on the left it is labeled as "no date" and on the right it is "today"?

What is the purpose of "no date" anyway? Isn't it kind of useless, especially appearing on the very bottom of the list?

Is there any fix for this?

I'm on Mavericks.

Caching.

Not all Finder dialogs use the latest information available for a file to improve performance. Information such as that is loaded asynchronously, but this sometimes fails and doesn't show the correct information.

If a directory is taking too long to load, Finder may sometimes prefer to load partial information rather than not listing the directory contents in a timely manner. If this data is never loaded, it is never cached and is consistently listed incorrectly in certain circumstances.

This can usually be fixed by remounting the partition (if applicable) or restarting.


External drive Mojave installs unaccessible from Mavericks I've installed Mojave fresh, direct using an Apple-downloaded installer 4x now on 2 brand new, freshly formatted Seagate 2TB drives as well as a partition on another reliable non-Seagate drive. Drives were formatted Mac OS Extended journaled and GUID and connected directly to usb on specced-out Mac Mini 2012 running Mavericks. In all cases install was smooth and ended with booting to fully operational Mojave installs on external drives. All good so far.

Restart as-is ie back to fresh-installed Mojave on external USB drive and all good, boots to external Mojave with Mac Mini on-board OS and files also visible as expected in Finder.

Reboot to the original on-board OS (Mavericks) either by selecting in prefs>startup disk or by shutdown and disconnect/reconnect external drive and the new Mojave partition doesn't show as an OS or on the desktop or anywhere. In Disk Utility it's now greyed out and renamed to disk1s2. A 2nd non-OS partition on the same external drive shows up as normal, just the Mojave partition has gone AWOL and doesn't appear in prefs>startup disc either.

I tried using Disk Utility to check/repair after this all happened. 'root' external disk shows no problem, non-OS partition shows no problem, Mojave partition is greyed out and has random generic name disk1s2.

User passwords and computer name are all different.

The output from Maverick's diskutil list disk1 command for an external drive is shown below.

/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2: 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC               1.0 TB     disk1s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS spare B                 999.5 GB   disk1s3

The simplest way to boot back to Mojave would be to reboot the Mac and immediately hold down the option key. This will invoke the Startup Manager. Select the Mojave startup disk. Next, click on the arrow below the icon to boot Mojave. If you wish to make Mojave the default, then hold down the control key before clicking on the arrow.

Apple a recently added new instructions for using the Startup Manager. These instructions can be found on the Apple website: How to select a different startup disk.

While it is technically possible to select Mojave directly from Mavericks, this would involve installing a third party boot manager such as rEFInd. Unless you intend to change operating systems often, such an installation would probably not be worth the trouble to pursue.


What is the effect of permissions on external drives? I've set the permissions on files on my removable external drives in ways that seem to make sense to preserve some degree of security. For example, for files that only I should have access to, I've only myself any access rights

-rw-------@   1 MyName  staff  ... File1

while for others, that I want other users of my machine to have access to, I've expanded these access rights a bit

-rw-r-----@   1 MyName  staff  ... File2

This behaves as I intend on my machine; but what happens if the drive is plugged into a different machine? Does anyone on the staff group there have read access to File2 and none to File? Would anyone who was given the user name MyName on that machine have full access to both files?

Anyone with the same user ID as you have on your main machine will be able to read the disk. The, usually hidden, user Ids start at 501 and increase. If you are not the first user on a machine you will not be able to read the contents of the drive.

I've gone round and round with this. If you need a secure drive then you need to encrypt it with a password. There are ways to do this using the tools built into Mountain Lion, or you can use a third party solution like True Crypt.


Keychain Access error when creating new system certificate I am following the instructions to codesign gdb on my MBP however when I get to the end of the System certificate creation process, keychain says "Unknown Error = -2,147,414,007" and the certificate has not been created.

It creates a certificate fine for login location, but system fails.

What is the problem and how can I fix this?

I got the same error, so I went through the process but created the certificate in the login keychain. Once this is done you can drag the certificate into the System keychain through the UI.

You will need to unlock your System keychain first if it is showing as a locked padlock: just right-click and select 'Unlock keychain "System"'.

You have to enter your password several times but eventually it works, and the corresponding codesign command works:

codesign -fs your-cert-name $(which gdb)


Can Apple collect my used Mac's serial number and other hardware information if I use my Apple ID on it? I am doing research on privacy, and I need to know if Apple has the ability to pull hardware/software information from a device that has used an Apple ID to log into it and make purchases off the App Store.

Specifically, I need to know if by using your Apple ID to sign in to an apple device and make purchases, that Apple will take your Apple ID and associate it with that new device's serial number.  In other words, can Apple automatically or manually retrieve the serial number from a device simply by a user signing in with his/her Apple ID?

If the answer is YES, then this would mean that by signing into a device with your Apple ID would result in you providing Apple with your serial number with or without your consent OR knowledge.

Can they, yes.

Do they any/every time you sign in to the App Store, I think not.

Apple would probably be able to collate your device's anonymous and unique ID with your Apple ID if you opt in or agree explicitly to a question that informs you that the serial number will be checked to verify eligibility for a specific product.

You might capture the serial number to iCloud if you are opting into trusted devices, two-factor authentication or find my iPhone / find my Mac. It's debatable whether Apple actually links that serial number to your account though, since they could stored in the way that let's you retrieve your serial number from all the possible ones as opposed to just storing it directly in the database.

Also, your question is extremely broad due to the fact that Apple ID can be used windows, on web browser sessions, on iOS devices, Mac devices, on airport devices, and on AppleTV space (currently). Furthermore, AppleID can be used with far more services than just the App Store so as you see with iCloud, it can get more complicated than yes/no.

On operating systems, Apple provides a security and privacy preference that allows you to opt in to sharing diagnostic information which could under some circumstances include serial number. More recent OS include a randomly generated GUID to help anonymize reports. You also can regenerate that ID on-demand on IOS to further enhance your privacy.

Apple has clearly stated many times on the record that they wish to collect as little customer data as possible, and retain that data for short periods only. Apple  appears to minimize even further personally identifying information and that the consumer should clearly opt into these collections.

From where I sit, Apple has delivered on those promises in the software they design and ship. I also think your question is an extremely valid one, we all should be thinking so clearly as you are about the information we routinely provide to large corporations and how it either allows them or prevents them from invading our privacy and selling us out to the highest bidder.


Is it possible to search within a PDF document using Kindle for iPad? I am trying to use the Kindle iPad app as a storage base for all of my PDFs.  But I'm disappointed that I can't seem to find a way to search the text within a PDF using the Kindle iPad App.  Am I missing something?  Seems like a critical, missing feature.

Note that it is possible to search within a book on both iBooks and Kindle. This question is specifically about PDF. It is also possible to open these files in Acrobat Reader or OSX Preview, and the text is searchable within those applications.

No.

As of version 4.5 of the kindle app for IOS in pdf searching is  not available.

As of version 1.10.7 of the kindle app for OS X in pdf searching is available.


Have Automator folder action pass a list of files to AppleScript I need to pass to a .jsx script (a Photoshop script written in JavaScript) a list of image files as arguments when they are added to a folder. According to the Adobe documentation, you can call a .jsx in the following way:

tell application "Adobe Photoshop CS6"
    do javascript (file "/path/myPhotoshopScritp.jsx") ¬
        with arguments { "path/image1.jpg","path/image3.jpg","path/image4.jpg" }
end tell

I know that when a folder action workflow is triggered, the items that were added to the attached folder are passed to the workflow. But I have problems in referencing these items from AppleScript and dynamically compose the array you see in the last part of the script:

"path/image1.jpg","path/image3.jpg","path/image4.jpg"

I imagine it's a simple task, but AppleScript is not intuitive for me.

Use a run handler:

on run {input, parameters}
    input
end run

Or if you need the input as a list of POSIX paths:

on run {input, parameters}
    set l to {}
    repeat with f in input
        set end of l to POSIX path of f
    end repeat
end run

For a script saved directly in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/, use an adding folder items handler:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    added_items
end addin


Migrating from one Macbook to another I am planning on selling my Macbook Pro and buying a new Macbook Retina, however I'd like to sell my current one first before I buy the new laptop, so I need a way of migrating all my stuff from my current laptop to the new one without having the new one available at the time of sale of the current one.

I know it's easy to migrate from one laptop to another provided you have both in front of you, however since there will be a few days between selling the current and buying the new one, I'd like to migrate using an external drive as an intermediary, is it possible? What software could I use?

You can use builtin Time Machine application.
First - make a backup on Your external drive using TimeMachine.
Then on the new Mac use Migration Assistant.

Here is the link with detailed info: http://www.macworld.com/article/2066996/how-to-transfer-backups-from-time-machine-to-a-new-mac.html

  On the new iMac make sure that you have access to the drive where the Time Machine backup is stored and then launch Migration Assistant. It will notify you that it needs to quit all open applications. Allow it to do so.
  The first Migration Assistant screen will offer three options regarding data transfer. Select the first one, which reads From a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk and click Continue.
  In the next screen choose the drive that holds your backup and then click Continue.


Set EFI to boot Windows via (U)EFI one time On my late 2012 Mac Mini, I have installed both Mac OS X Mavericks (with FileVault) and Windows 8.1 (natively, not via Bootcamp):

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     268.4 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         859.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data Windows                 140.2 GB   disk0s5

That's working fine, and I can boot both Mac OS and Windows.
However, I'd like to be able to boot my Mac into Windows from the command line - without permanently changing boot settings.

To my understanding, this should do it: sudo bless -mount "/Volumes/Windows" -setBoot --nextonly

The command produces no output. With --verbose, it tells me this:

EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Mount point for /Volumes/Windows is /Volumes/Windows
Mount point is '/Volumes/Windows'
No BootX creation requested
No boot.efi creation requested
found ioreg "FirmwareFeaturesMask"; featureMaskValue=0xE003FF37
found ioreg "FirmwareFeatures"; featureFlagsValue=0xE001F537
isPreBootEnvironmentUEFIWindowsBootCapable=1
given BSD is not a DVD disc medium
isDVDWithElToritoWithUEFIBootableOS=0
Checking if disk is complex (if it is associated with booter partitions)
GPT detected
Booter partition required at index 6
System partition found
Preferred system partition found: disk0s1
Returning booter information dictionary:
<CFBasicHash 0x7fdc0940a7c0 [0x7fff73d4beb0]>{type = mutable dict, count = 3,
entries =>
    0 : <CFString 0x101f48e70 [0x7fff73d4beb0]>{contents = "System Partitions"} = (
    disk0s1
)
    1 : <CFString 0x101f49650 [0x7fff73d4beb0]>{contents = "Data Partitions"} = (
    disk0s5
)
    2 : <CFString 0x101f49670 [0x7fff73d4beb0]>{contents = "Auxiliary Partitions"} = (
)
}

Path to mountpoint given: /Volumes/Windows
IOMedia disk0s5 has UUID D4FC6318-275B-427D-B039-3AB033DE8ACC
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    efi-boot-next='<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>D4FC6318-275B-427D-B039-3AB033DE8ACC</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk0s5</string></dict></array>'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-file'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-mkext'
Setting EFI NVRAM:
    IONVRAM-DELETE-PROPERTY='efi-boot-kernelcache'
NVRAM variable "boot-args" not set.

That looks good to me - but the command has no effect, after rebooting, I'm back in Mac OS X.

What am I doing wrong?

I finally can boot to Bootcamp EFI partition with the help of this answer.

In order to boot to Bootcamp EFI partition, you have to bless the EFI partition of the disk that you install Bootcamp, too. So it goes something like this: bless -device /dev/disk0s1 -mount /Volumes/BOOTCAMP -setBoot -nextonly.


Missing space after deleting bootcamp partition My mac storage has decreased to just 75gb after I deleted Bootcamp. I need to recover this space (45.7gb) and return the computer to the rightful 120gb any help would be much appreciated.

I believe the commands below will return the free space to your "Macintosh HD" volume.

diskutil  resizevolume  disk0s3  650M
diskutil  unmount  disk0s3
diskutil  cs  resizestack  7FA484C3-705F-4C19-B060-659CEB006623  0

To be sure of the 650M value, I would first need to see the output from the command given below.

diskutil  resizevolume  disk0s3  limits


Creating a desktop shortcut to a file in the iCloud I have a MacBook with OS X Lion, and an iPad.

I use IAWriter for keeping track of notes. In addition to standard file-based storage, it supports  live syncing using iCloud.

I want to organize the files on my MacBook's desktop for quick access.
How do I create desktop links pointing to the IAWriter files in the iCloud?

Apple's vision for iCloud seems to include isolating users from the confusion of the file system. iCloud files are accessed from within the application that created them–which is advantageous in some situations and a problem in others.

To use iCloud to share documents between iOS and MacOS you'll need to install iA Writer on both platforms. (Byword fans can now do the same).

If you want to use a different text editor, or editors, on your Mac, implement my (previous?–my test of the  Byword iCloud setup is working well so far) workflow that included a storage system using DropBox.

I can't recommend this path because I haven't fully explored it, and it isn't officially supported by Apple, but if you're determined to create file aliases on the desktop, you might find a solution by exploring the folder ~/Library/Mobile Documents

↬Kirk McElhearn: Make your own personal dropbox with iCloud

Note that on the Mac I'm writing this from, the folder for my Byword documents did not exist within the Mobile Documents folder until I used the Open from iCloud… menu item. (I didn't have to load a file, just access the menu and allow the file requestor box a minute to populate.) Once the Byword folder existed, I was able to create an alias on the desktop that opens the file. I can also use the alias to Open with… TextMate but have not tested editing/saving the file using an alternative application Proceed with caution.


OS X El Capitan keychain login cannot be found to store Upgraded to El Capital 10.11.3 yesterday, at the last prompt where it asks to login using iCloud I supplied my user/pass and then it sent code to my iPhone which I typed correctly but after that it just froze there and continue button never enabled

So at this point I had to do hard reset to get access back

after that since my first login

Issue
a. When trying to use System Preferences > iCloud > login with my id
I get an error saying "keychain login cannot be found to store "
b. Just tried to add a Wi-Fi password and got error saying "Keychain System cannot be found to store"--- so it seems keychain in general is broken or impacted
c. I use Internet Accounts > Google Accounts for Contacts > every now and then i get notification on top right saying Google Password Required, no matter how many time I enter it keeps saying that message

What i have tried so far
1. went to ~/Library/ and then moved Keychains folder to my desktop, Rebooted so it would recreate the keychain again but this didn't
2. earlier I had Two Step authentication enabled on my iCloud id so i disabled it

The very same iCloud account works fine on other OS X and iOS so I am sure my account is okay

not sure if this means anything but i deleted all system keychains and restarted.  I had to re-enter passwords for wireless and re-get certs for company wireless but it worked.  Keychains are the bain of my existance some times.


iPhone 5s IOS update problems My storage is almost full, I can't seem to update my IOS. Is there a way to update my iPhone 5s when my storage is almost full?

Every update also shows how much space is needed. It will also check that for you when you try to update and let you know.

If you have some free space, but not enough to update over the air, you can either update using iTunes or delete content manually from your device. Whether you use iTunes or update over the air, you'll have the same amount of free space on your device after you update.

Before you start make sure you know your AppleID and password.


MacOS Dark Mode toggles back to Light Mode I have an issue were when I log into MacOS Dark mode seems to be toggling back to light mode.

I resolved this issue. Turns out I have an app installed that changes the color temperature of my screen (flux). This app seems to be toggling Dark mode back to light mode because it detects its day time. I turned the App off and this solved the problem.

Edit:
Turns out the Flux option Color Effect --> OS X Dark Theme at sunset was the root cause. I toggled this off and now I am using flux and Dark mode!


how to force quit LookupViewService Processes? How do I force quit the LookupViewService processes?
Activity Monitor showed using a lot of Real Memory!

Try running killall LookupViewService in the terminal


Disable automatic alt text in Word for Mac When I paste an image into a Word for Mac document, it automatically adds alt text. How can I disable this "feature"? All the sources I can find online only explain how to do it on Word for Windows.

For me it is at Preferences > General > Automatic Alt Text (Word 16.30 at the moment)


Why are my existing Reminders and Notes not saved to iCloud on my Mac? I have enabled iCloud support for Apple applications such as Reminders and Notes. Yet my existing Reminders and Notes on my device are not being saved to iCloud. Isn't the point of iCloud for Mac to offer cloud storage for application data on your Mac device? As shown below, the application data on my device do not sync to iCloud, and there seems to be no way to do it manually.

If you've created these Reminders before you turned on iCloud, then they will be local to the device. Newly created Reminders should automatically be 'in' iCloud.
(In fact, I can't see how to create a Local one on my Mac or iPhone.)
You can select an individual item, and then move it to a new List. This might be easier to do wholesale on the iCloud website or on a Mac.


How to preview any file in Lion? I love OS X Lion's feature to preview some files without opening them. Is there a way to register new file extension? For example, Drupal module extension ".module", which is a text file.

To preview files, you need a QuickLook plugin. Special thanks to Jason Salaz for providing this list:

QuickLook Plugins List
QLPLugins.com
And Jason's specially crafted Google search.

It looks like there is support for the Drupal .module via this plugin.


Store for old mac adapters I'm traveling and hoping to quickly obtain a very old adapter in order to plug my 2006 MacBook Pro into a modern display. The laptop has a DVI port, which I believe is the only display output for it.

So I'm trying to obtain something like this DVI to VGA adapter or a DVI to HDMI adapter. The tricky thing is I need to obtain this in 32 hours for a job interview, so it looks as though mail order is not an option. Transferring files to another computer might be an option, but it would be a little more awkward.

Is there a brick and mortar store that carries mac adapters that are this old? In case it is relevant, I am in the Boston, MA area. Not sure if the official Apple Store would carry them anymore.

Best Buy has many adapters, including this DVI to HDMI converter.


New Apple ID, Can't update previous apps on mac So I have a macbook pro and I recently made a new apple ID account due to a muck up with the old one the whole family was using.

I've changed everything on my mac to make sure that my apple ID account is the only one logged in and everything which is working fine, the only problem is, 2 original apps that come with the mac (iPhoto and iMovie) need to be upgraded but every time i try to upgrade them it asks for my old apple id which is disconnected so it won't let me update them.

I'm not great with technology so if you have any ideas to help please put every step and detail in.

Can I delete these original apps off my mac and re download them under my new account while saving all my photos?

You have 2 options

You can either buy them again [they may not be eligible as free versions twice] or use the ID & password they were originally downloaded under.

It shouldn't matter if the old versions are there at the time.


Recording screen via Quick Time Player along with the sound As seen from some of the youtube videos I tried to record a video playing on my mac but I couldn't hear anything. I chose File -> New Screen Recording in Quick Time Player. Any other software to do it or any other suggestions for how I can do it?

Thanks

QuickTime alone won't capture computer audio along with a screen capture, but combined with a free utility Soundflower, you can do this.

MacWorld has a step-by-step guide, but the basic idea is to install Soundflower and set your computer audio out to Soundflower, so system sounds play to it and not to the speakers. Then in QuickTime, when you set up a new screen capture, select Soundflower as the audio source. Then you can do a screen recording and capture system audio at the same time.

Note that this is the free but messy version. Software like Screenflow does this sort of thing very well, but costs $99.


Prevent iPhone use after hours Is it possible to prevent myself from using my iPhone (except say for messages or phone calls) between certain hours?

If it is not possible with a existing feature (or app?), is there something in macOS Server (or other "enterprise" tool) that would help?

I would like to get in the habit of not using my iPhone before bed.

You are in control. It is your responsibility.
Here are some suggestions you could try:

To help you keeping focus try a 'Stay focussed' app like Forest (which tries to convince you not to use your phone while the app is running).
To create a threshold you can enable restrictions. Go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions.
Shutdown your phone. The boot time will keep you from using your phone.
Edit settings in your router, some router can set internet access restrictions for certain devices during specified hours.


OS X Snow Leopard - Can't boot from HD, Target Mode or CD Today my computer started getting really slow and freezing alot, so i rebooted.  HOwever it won't boot up again, keeps getting stuck on the grey screen.

Here's what i've tried:

Startup in safe mode - fails with the following error:

** The volume Macintosh HD could not be verified completely.

/dev/rdisk0s2 (hfs) EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8

....

disk0s2: I/O error.

Invalid node structure (4,1211)

...

fsck failed!

Kext loading now disabled.

Kext unloading now disabled

Kext autounloading now disabled.

Kernel requests now disabled.

Can't get kextd port.

syncing disks... Killing all processes

continuing

And it just gets stuck there.

Boot from external hard drive - gets stuck on firewire symbol bouncing around the grey screen.. can't even get to screen where i choose which drive to boot from
Boot from OS X CD - fails - grey screen same as normal boot
Reset PVRAM - seems to work but no change
Reset Open Firmware - fails - grey screen same as normal boot - can't get to terminal window or anything
Single User Mode /sbin/fsck -fy  -  fails - same error as safe mode verbose above

I'm really stuck on this.  My computer is out of warranty so Applecare not really an option.  I'm currently on holiday in Borneo so Apple store/ Genius Bar not an option either atm... earliest i could get to a Mac store would be after xmas when i'll be in the UK. I'd rather not wait that long.

Any other suggestions?

The fact that i can't boot from CD or USB drive is kind of weird.. usually i can use my cloned drive to boot from and verify internal disk etc.. not this time.

Hoping somebody can help i'm really screwed if i can't get it sorted now... freelance clients to support etc etc. :(

Thanks heaps
greg

(Just to provide an actual answer that you can accept).

It looks like so far you've not actually tried accessing the Boot selection menu. Rather, you've mistakenly entered target disk mode.

Press and hold the alt key immediately after powering on the system (before you hear the chime). You should get a selection of the available boot volumes (if any). If you have an external drive or install DVD, this should appear. Use the arrow keys to navigate to your choice and hit enter to boot from that volume.

Use your alternative boot to backup data and repair/reinstall your main boot disk.


"brew formula" installation logs Sometimes I install a formula with Brew, and I get a series of warnings and notifications.   At some point later, I want to go back and read what problems the installation found.

Does brew automatically keep track of these installation logs?  If not, is there any way I could instruct it (perhaps with a parameter) to always record the installation log on a file?

Logs are stored in ~/Library/Logs/Homebrew.
You can browse this in Finder or using Console.app.

If you want to save your own log of an install, you can use…

brew install <formula> 2>&1 | tee install.log

Source: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/10430


Encrypting a PDF during Hazel processing I've created an Automator Workflow which can take the selected Finder item (being a PDF) and encrypt it using the Apple-provided "Encrypt PDF Documents" action. The problem with this action is it leaves the file buried deep in the /private/var folder structure.

I can add a subsequent action to move the file to a more visible location, however I want to be able to put it back wherever the original file was. Can I do this in Automator?

I tried a set then get of a variable for the filename but the final step to move the file errors with "the chosen folder was not found on this computer". It would seem that it's being given the full original path of the file, which indeed is not a folder.

The intended use of this Workflow is to be used as part of a Hazel action (by stripping off the initial Get Finder Items action). Can anyone tell me how I can solve this problem of encrypting an existing PDF in situ?

Possible options I have thought of include:
1. Figure out how to strip the file name off the variable.
2. Figure out how to encrypt the PDF using AppleScript (and thus making the variable handling much more flexible)
3. Use some other method from within Hazel than Automator/AppleScript.

Please note I am aware of the scripts out there to use PDFPen, but I do not like the fact that PDFPen has to launch just to encrypt a PDF, especially when the OS has the capability built in.

I am something of a novice with both Automator and AppleScript but am a programmer by trade, so any suggestions welcome.

I would go with option #2.

You can use command line tools to handle the encryption. A quick google search reveals a free, for non-commercial use, tool

http://community.coherentpdf.com/

which you can call using applescript like this:

do shell script "cpdf -encrypt AES \"pass\" \"\" in.pdf -o out.pdf"

This way there are no dialog boxes to enter a password. It will encrypt them with the same one if that is ok. Less secure but more convenient.

HTH


How to force quit the "Force Quit Applications" window The "Force Quit Applications" window opened spontaneously due to memory pressure.

Now I can't close the "Force Quit Applications" window itself . The "X" button doesn't close the window and it doesn't have an icon in the dock or a menu bar.

You can close it with ⌘ cmd+w.

There's a list of the official keyboard shortcuts on apple.com


Copy An Event From iPhoto Is there a way to copy just the contents of a single event from iPhoto to another location?

When I want to zip up all of the photos in a single event and move them somewhere, like to a USB drive, I have to look at the event photos, click a photo, then choose File->Show In Finder, then select, copy, and zip the folders containing the event photos I want. This seems like way too many steps for what seems like a simple task.

Simply drag the event out of iPhoto to the destination folder  ;)

If you really want to zip them, use the Export to archive iPhoto plugin.


Will Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) file/rsync-based clones to a "target disk mode" T2 MacBook work? Summary

I want to copy my entire OS/volume/disk (which is FileVault-ed) from on MacBook to another, whose volumes(s) are also FileVaulted. Assuming no OS incompatibilities between hardware, will a Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) file/rsync-based copying/cloning from a MacBook source (regardless of T2) to a T2 MacBook work - and why or why not?

I do not yet see why a copy/clone to a FileVault-ed MacBook that's running Target Disk Mode (and for which I have the FileVault/disk/login password) will not work.

Comparison with Apple/macOS Migration Assistant (MA)

Reasons why I'm not yet jumping to MA:

I do not yet trust MA, as it's completely new to me. I have decades of trust with rsync (which is what CCC employs) across many OSes (Unix, Linux, *BSD, macOS, Windows).
I could not get MA to see my 40-gigabit Thunderbolt link between MacBooks (it kept wanting to talk over WiFi).
Every time I'm tried an Apple-native solution (namely TimeMachine) to thoroughly and comprehensively capture all data/settings/content in a filesystem it's always failed me.

Nonetheless, I'm open to any and all pitches for MA.

More details

A source told me CCC is "T2 chip incompatible" (or some such) and advised that Migration Assistant is the only (or at least only supported?) way to go. I'm skeptical.

Potentially-helpful reference(s):

How to Disable System Integrity Protection on a Mac (and Why You Shouldn’t)

My use case:

I regularly copy ("clone") one MacBook to another (or several others) for purposes of

retaining a fully-redundant laptop in case my primary one fails for any reason (the primary purpose) and
I can use multiple machines concurrently (so I don't have to carry one laptop everywhere) all configured with the same environment apps/config/settings. This use case is served well with advent of most dynamic data/content/files on my OS being Internet-served-and-synced (git repos, IMAP server, Dropbox/GDrive, etc) across my multiple MacBooks.

Typically source and target MacBooks are the exact same hardware model but not always. Regardless, I make sure there are no OS-incompatibility issues, namely: run same version of OS on each MacBook and that the copied OS is supported by the target MacBook.

I cloned my old Mac Mini 2012 onto my new 2018 Mini (with a T2).
Trying to remember exactly how I did it (in terms of what volume booted and how they were connected) but there are two important points:

After cloning, the OS would not boot, and I had to reinstall the OS on top of newly cloned disk. (Keeping all my data, apps and settings.)
The Admin user on the disk does not have a 'Secure Token', and can't be used to change Secure Boot settings. Follow Peter Thorn's excellent answer in this question.

I've previously cloned a succession of my Macs over the last 15 years or so, and never had a problem before.


Is it possible to password protect access to a folder with your macOS password? I'm trying to figure out the best place for me to backup my Lastpass CSV and it seems like the best place to put it would be on my full-disk-encrypted macbook, but I would like to be able to require a password before someone is actually able to read it.

I know I can password protect a folder with a chosen password but that's likely something that will be forgotten.

Is there a way to set the permissions of a file to require the Admin password before viewing the contents?

You can always use Disk Image to mount an encrypted partition that you can write files to. You choose the password, so you could set it to be the same as the password for admin. It's pretty simple to do:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201599


Time Machine restore on new OS I have a Time Machine backup of my MacBook running Lion. My install of Mountain Lion just failed, and I'm going to format the drive and install Mountain Lion anew. Will I still be able to restore my files from my Time Machine backup onto the new version of the OS?

Yes. Use the Migration Assistant and choose your Time Machine backup.


How to show my .emacs file in finder? I am new to Mac. I installed emacs, but I can't see my .emacs file in the finder. I can open the file from inside emacs, and I saved another copy on my desktop, but it's not showing.

These files starting with a dot are meant to be hidden in *nix.

To see them in terminal add the -a flag to the ls command:

ls -a

To see them in the Finder you will want to set a hidden preference (this is global change tho, you'll see all your hidden files everywhere):

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

and then restart the finder:

killall Finder

To reverse and hide them again:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE && killall Finder

Source

Update to add:

Lately I've only been able to get this to work when the string com.apple.finder is lower case!  I think this happened starting in 10.9, but not certain.

So you'll want:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;


How can I stop my iMac's remote management connection from defaulting to wifi? I have two Mac computers that I connect to using Screen Sharing and when the Mac Mini's wifi is disabled I get great performance out of it. The problem that occurs is when I enable wifi on the Mac Mini and use screen sharing it appears to bypass the ethernet connection and use wifi instead to connect resulting in a slow connection. Is there any way to force the iMac to connect to my Mac Mini via ethernet instead of wifi when wifi is enabled on the Mac Mini?

In System Prefereces > Network set Ethernet above Wifi. That should do the trick.


A flashing folder with question mark I have a rather strange problem with my  MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011). Whenever I start my computer I see a flashing folder with a question mark. I know this is supposed to be a common problem wich can be usually solved by the solution provided by Apple support.

However, my issue is different. Here is how it all started: I wanted to install Windows using bootcamp. The installer complained that my hard disk was corrupted and that I need to repair it using the recorvery HD. When I tried, I was asked to provide the firmware password. Since I did not have it ( I wrote it it on a piece of paper that I did not have access to at the moment), I went back and restarted my in target mode so I can back up my documents on another mac. Unfortunatelly, after restarting in target mode, I was asked to provide the firmare password again. When I finally got the password, my computer restarted with a flashing folder with a question mark.

I have tried all troubleshooting available on the internet and nothing seems to work. Some people think that I need to replace my internal HD cable. However, how can this be? I didn't mess up with my hard disk at all. During the troubleshooting, I used a bootable hard-drive, and notice that I could no longer see my HD in the list of available hard-drives. It is like it is completely gone. Can someone please suggest any solution? Please keep in mind that I live thousands of miles away from any Apple store. I can't get any official support. I have to fix this myself.

It would seem that the drive is no longer "blessed".

First, try booting the Mac while holding down the option key and if the drive is in the list of boot devices then selecting it once will "bless" the drive and you should be able to boot off it once again.

If that doesn't work then boot off the bootable hard drive you mentioned and run Disk Utility which can be found in /Applications/Utilities and you should be able to see the drive in the drive list. Once there you can try to first verify then repair the disk.


Should I use a package manager? I want to keep keep track of which files belong to which application, so that when I uninstall an application, I can be sure all of its files are gone, including configuration files, dependencies it might have installed, etc.

There are GUI applications that can be downloaded and just dragged and dropped into the Applications folder, like GIMP or TextMate. Is this the best way to install those apps, or should I use a package manager for them? Can I be sure that these applications do not install anything outside of their Application folder? Is deleting an app from the Application folder a "clean" uninstall?
There are applications such as Python which come with an installer (.mpkg). Is using that installer the best way to install these apps, or should I use a package manager for them? How do I find out which files these installers touched, and how would I undo everything that installer does in a clean way?

I'm interested in some kind of best practices, for which using a package manager is recommended, and when just installing it like said above is "clean" enough.

Since I do not install and uninstall multitude of apps daily, I prefer to use something that will not constantly burden my system like a package manager may do.

I use a very simple but very effective app called AppCleaner (what a name), that is only running when I ask for it.

It will find all the related files to a given app and show them to me before I hit delete.

It allows the deselection of drivers ect. if you want to keep them for some reason.


Make a file a Stationery pad via command line Is there a way to set make a file into a Stationery pad from the command line?

You can do it by clicking "Get info" on a file and checking the box, but I would like to do it without clicking.

An AppleScript solution would be useful also, but GUI scripting is off limits.

The SetFile utility is provided with Xcode, which Apple distributes at no cost. Once you have installed Xcode, you can issue the command

SetFile -a T /path/to/foo.bar


Attaching files and not wanting them embedded into email body Company Director with a MacBook Air and she's having problems attaching pages files and PDF's to her e-mails. Mail keep embedding them into the message window so she cannot type, or see what she's typed in the window. Many times recipients of her messages say they are missing some of the attachments she thinks she has attached.

How can I turn off the embedding of any attachments into the message body and just displaying them as a 'file' icon somewhere rather than the contents?

Using the Terminal.app you can set a default to turn off inline previews of attached files. The command to issue is:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

You only need to issue this command once per user. Be sure to quit Mail.app first and relaunch Mail.app afterwards; otherwise the changed default may not be seen.


Reclaim lost disk space after deleting partition I tried to install Windows 10 to my iMac 10.13.4, through Boot Camp Assistant, but I failed to complete the process...

The BOOTCAMP partition was created though and I wanted to delete it. I realised I couldn't do it from the Disk Utility app, so I opened up the terminal and ran diskutil  eraseVolume  free  n  disk0s5 and the partition was deleted successfully!

After that, I realised that the space the BOOTCAMP partition occupied, wasn't released back to Macintosh HD! I searched around and found this command diskutil secureErase freespace 3 "/Volumes/Macintosh HD". I ran it, and by the time I'm writing this it needs another 15 hours.

Should I stop it? Will it even do what I want?
Thanks in advance!

PS: I know it's not ubuntu related, but since Macs are unix based, the answer should be the same

From this article it looks like what you're doing is a 35-pass secure wipe of the unpartitioned space.

You might have better luck resizing the existing Macintosh HD to the full disk capacity.

If you try to resize Macintosh HD using disk utility and you encounter an error please update your question with a screenshot of the error, and the output of running diskutil list from a terminal window. Terminal can be found in the utilities folder.


Why do I keep jumping between items when scrolling in reading list? Why do I keep jumping between items when scrolling when reading an item in reading list on iOS?

I’ve also had this problem. Couldn’t figure out why it was sometimes randomly jumping and sometimes not. Maybe I flick the screen in strange ways? I was able to work around it with this Pythonista script. It reopens the same page in the same tab. Breaks it free from the reading list. So the whole scroll to the end to jump to a different item doesn’t work anymore, but I never really used that, preferring to manually pick the next item.

From the link:

import appex
import requests
import webbrowser

def main():
    if not appex.is_running_extension():
        url = 'http://arstechnica.com'
    else:
        url = appex.get_url()
    if url:
        webbrowser.get('safari').open(url)
    else:
        print('No input URL found.')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()


Large File still taking storage after Deleted I downloaded a file that is more than 20GB, but after deleting the file the space is still taken, and it's not showing in the finder. I'm using a macbook pro with retina display 121GB with bootcamp and OS X Mavericks.

If you have enabled Time Machine, the disk space could be taken up by local snapshots. When local snapshots are enabled, Time Machine saves snapshots to /.MobileBackups/ when there is more than 10% free disk space. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878. Local snapshots are not counted as used disk space in Finder, but they are shown under backups in the About This Mac window. The snapshots are deleted automatically if disk space is low enough, but since 10.9 the newest snapshot is kept even if there is less than 10% free disk space.

To see what files take up disk space, you can use OmniDiskSweeper:

To include folders like /.MobileBackups/, open OmniDiskSweeper as root by running sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper.

You can also just use Finder. Run sudo defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true;sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder, open the root folder in list view, and enable calculating all sizes:


Hard Drive Preview / Disk Utility Used Space Discrepancy? So I recently cleared a lot of space off of my hard drive as a sort of "spring cleaning," and I got it down to less than 40GB, but my computer doesn't seem to agree with itself on that. If I look at the info of my hard drive on my desktop, it gives me this:

but when I look at the partition in Disk Utility, it gives me this:

How do I get DiskUtil to realize how small my hard drive is?

Do you have Time Machine enabled? This could be a result of the Time Machine snapshots...

Have you looked at this thread here: How to fix Disk Utility, About This Mac, and Finder that disagree on hard drive space usage?

To disable Time Machine Snapshots :

Open the Terminal from Applications/Utilities
Enter : sudo tmutil disablelocal
Enter your password at the prompt


Can I redeem all my iTunes gift cards at once? For the past ever, I've been on my parents' Apple ID, making purchases on their credit cards and sharing any iTunes gift cards I redeemed with the family. However, I recently created my own Apple ID, complete with my own payment method. I'm tempted to upload every single gift card I have to my account. Is this doable, and are there any limitations to doing it?

Yes - stacking gift cards is not an issue. You will just carry a larger balance and less risk of losing the cash value if you lose the redemption codes or physical cards.

You lose the flexibility to redeem them on another account. So if you’re not the family organizer, don’t redeem a balance or they will need to cut you from the family temporarily when you want to spend your credits.

Gifts do not redeem twice and you cannot transfer a balance to another Apple ID or get a cash refund.


27" Apple Cinema Display (video and power) to one USB-C I've got an Apple Cinema Display with ThunderBolt-2 and MagSafe-1 connector and would love to combine these two cables to one ThunderBolt-3 to supply power to the Mac and video and sound to the display on one cable.

The TB-2 on the outside is connected to a TB-2 port on the inside.
The MagSafe-1 disconnected to two "pins" GND and Voltage on the inside.

There are TB-2 to TB-3 adapters (e.g. Apple) on the market. Is there a way to connect the "power pins" to the TB2-3-adapter and solve my problem?

(I've done a lot of soldering and working with Arduino etc.)

Is there a way to connect the "power pins" to the TB2-3-adapter and
  solve my problem?

No.  This can't be done.

This is not a matter of just dumping in some power on some of the pins.  Thunderbolt 3 supplies USB 3.1 signaling which conforms to the power delivery specification.  Meaning, power is negotiated between the two devices for up to 100W (20V at 5A); it's not simply supplying a set voltage (5V) at a maximum amperage of 3A (USB 2.0 spec).

From the image above VBUS (power) is provided on pins A4, A9, B4, B9.  However, it's not a constant, it's negotiated over the CC bus (CC1 and CC2).  By hard soldering in the power (16 to 20V DC) from the Magsafe, you could potentially fry equipment that's not expecting (or requesting) that much voltage.


VeraCrypt - Encryption of Host Protected Area on my Macbook Pro 13" I have a MacBook Pro 13" Model : MGX82xx/A with Windows installed only (no Mac OS X on a different partition, no Boot Camp used (manual driver installation after windows installed.) and a copy of VeraCrypt 1.0f1 installed.

Inside the VeraCrypt Volume Creation Wizard I have selected the options to Encrypt the whole drive.

I am being prompted with a yes/no Question - Encryption of Host Protected Area
Which states the following

At the end of many drives, there is an area that is normally hidden from the operating system (such areas are usually referred to as Host Protected Areas). However, some programs can read and write data from/to such areas.
WARNING: Some computer manufacturers may use such areas to store tools and data for RAID, system recover, system setup, diagnostic, or other purposes. If such tools or data must be accessible before booting, the hidden area should NOT be encrypted (choose 'No' above).

I would rather encrypt the Host Protected Area just to be sure, but do not want to damage my MacBook permanently if Apple reserve this space for whatever reason I do not know.

Can I encrypt this area?

Download a decent but free partition tool for Windows like MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9 and check for a HFS+ volume at the end of the disk. The size is ~650 MB and the GUID type: 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECA.

If it doesn't exist anymore - after installing Windows - go ahead and encrypt the whole drive.

If it exists, try to boot to Internet Recovery Mode with cmdaltR to check if it works with your network setup. If you have been successful (you will see a little spinning globe and boot to a recovery screen), reboot to Windows and delete the Recovery HD-partition. Expand your Windows partition and encrypt the whole disk with VeraCrypt afterwards.
Using only Windows, the Mac Recovery HD partition on your disk device is almost useless.

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode you will always be able to reinstall a current Mac OS X given that you have a decent internet connection.


How to type in Mac window? I want to enter a simple adb shell command, so I navigated to ...\sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe, and opened it. However, I am unable to type in it!

I am a new Mac user after recently moving from Windows, and am unsure why I can't type in the adb. What's wrong?

By clicking on a unix executable, you run it with the exit argument.  If you scroll up to the top you will see something like this:

.../Development/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64-20140702/sdk/platform-tools/adb ; exit;

The way to run a shell tool is to open terminal (hit command+space and type Terminal then enter)
then something like:

cd /wherever/you/have installed/your sdk/platform-tools/
./adb shell

tip: start typing the directory name then hit tab for completion


AppleTV is not accessing the iTunes Store after updating software to version 5.2 Last night just as we were about to watch an already-rented movie, our AppleTV showed a notification that a software update was available, which my wife selected.

After the update was completed, it is no longer working with the iTunes Store. While we don't use these features often, it is especially frustrating that we have already paid for the rental and cannot watch it.

The Main Menu screen no longer shows our rental at the top. Selecting Movies or TV Shows from the main menu briefly shows the next screen with the menu across the top, but no content; after a few seconds, a spinner appears and it returns to the main menu. (It looks to me like a crash and recovery.) The main screen does show cover art and titles for the top movies and TV shows; selecting them fails as well.

Using Settings → iTunes Store → Check for Rentals shows a little spinner but just sits there.

We are still able to play content from our computer's iTunes Library, stream Netflix and Hulu, and use AirPlay without problems. From our computer, we can access the iTunes store just fine.

I have restarted it several time, both via the menu function and by unplugging it.

I attempted to fully restore it with Settings → General → Reset → Restore. It showed a message indicating that it was downloading software, but the progress bar did not advance. After several minutes, it again appeared to recover from a crash, and returned to the main menu, with all our settings intact.

AppleTV 2 (Model MC572LL/A);
Software Version 5.2 (6010.96)

I was able to accomplish a restore by plugging the AppleTV into my computer with a Micro USB cable, and using iTunes to restore it.

(I kept digging and found this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4367)

After doing the restore, re-connecting to my Wi-Fi network, and putting in our iTunes account info, the rental showed up immediately, and we can browse the store content again!

Still haven't had time to watch it the movie, though...

Edit: We were able to successfully watch the movie last night.


Are non-Apple lightning cables and power transformers safe to use? I need to buy an Apple 12W USB Power Adapter for my iPhone 5.

In eBay you can find replicas for one third of the price. Do you know if these can ruin your phone? I am more cautious about a third party adapter than just a simple cable, so if you could address if a third party cable were OK or more safe to use with an Apple Power Adapter.

Don't these accessories come standard with your iPhone 5 when you buy one?

I was travelling across China a few years ago and I bought a dozen of those 'cheap' adapters. They still charge my iPad and iPhone. So they do work and at first sight, they don't cause any harm to my devices.

But bare in mind Apple's adapters are probably the most safe ones to use. It makes sense a 19$ adapter provide more power, safety and guarantees then a 0,19$ adapter from eBay, DealExtreme,...  There are even people claiming they will harm your iPhone (or your house).

Ken Shirrif has compared like 12 adapters and his findings are written in his blog.

To give a short answer, I have no bad experience in using "fake" adapters (which is no guarantee or reference at all!), but if you want to play safe, just buy the real stuff :)


Restore iPod Touch without passcode or power button How could I reset my 4th gen iPod Touch just using my computer and a cable? My power button doesn't work and I have the white screen of death. The only way to reset the device I've seen is to hold the power and home button and then use restore on iTunes, but I can't do that for obvious reasons.

Are there any fixes for this?

You might be able to use RecBoot. Here is some information quoted from their web site:

  RecBoot is a free utility for Windows and Mac users which allow you to put your iPhone / iPod Touch in recovery mode easily. Its a
  great utility for for those iPhone users who's iPhone Home or
  Sleep/Wake button is not fully functional. Moreover this utility saves
  you from learning the 3-4 steps of putting your iPhone into recovery
  mode manually. Normally you need to put your iPhone into recovery mode
  when your want to do a firmware restore.

Once you put it in Recovery Mode, you see a popup on your computer screen saying "iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode". From here, you should be able to restore.

Windows Download


Way to copy-paste through airdrop with other people Is there any way to copy/paste from one device to another where the two devices are not logged in to the same iCloud account?
Essentially, I'm looking for a feature similar to the Continuity feature that lets me copy and paste from all of my own devices but for devices that are not logged in into the same iCloud account.
When working together on a project with someone else side by side, it would be super helpful if there was a way to quickly share something, be it a paragraph of text, an image, or a slide in Keynote, without having to save it to a file and then Airdrop the file to the other person.  Anyone aware of a way to do this?

Apple's Universal Clipboard only works with devices that are signed into the same account.  With AirDrop, it requires a piece of content - you can't just paste your clipboard into AirDrop. However, if you want to share things with other people, there are a few things you can do:

Shared Notebook like Notes or OneNote (I personally use OneNote).  Each person can have access to the same notebook and changes are instantaneous.

Send links and documents via Messaging.  iMessage, Skype, etc. all have the ability to share links, documents, etc.

 Built in "Share" feature.   For example, on Firefox (Safari and Chrome as well), you can share a webpage via the services you have configured in System Preferences → Extensions → Share Menu.  AirDrop is one of these item and as long as the other person has a compatible device, you can share your content via AirDrop.

Native sharing in Apps like Word, Excel, Pages, etc.  All of these Apps have supported sharing/collaboration natively for a long time.    Instead of one person having the file and opening, extracting the data you want, then creating a new file, instead, share the file in a common location where everyone has access.

Look at paid apps.  There are tools like Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, Slack.

Most of the paid applications (especially Sharepoint) will be overkill, but smaller products like Teams and Slack may be your next step as you grow.  The other items are free to use and with some creative IT structuring you can share things whether you're next to each other or halfway around the world apart.
My personal go-to is OneNote.  I share both entire notebooks and individual sections and/or pages. I share almost anything via those notebooks like links, documents, images, lists, web pages, etc.  And because it integrates with Microsoft To-Do that also integrates/syncs with Reminders, Outlook, Exchange, Calendar, etc. I have a simple platform for collaborating with others on my team.  I can assign and (accept assignment of) To-Dos for others right in the App, have the due dates pop up in both Reminders and Outlook and in the "notes" section of the To-Do, I can link a OneNote page with the content I need shared.
The best part - all of that is free.  With a little creativity, you can get a pretty good solution for what you're looking for.


Method of searching any application installed or any file related to that on Macbook? Recently I installed LogMeIn app, and installation was done properly. There was no icon of app was made. I am searching but I am not getting the file or app related information in the system file. I am not sure whether it is Hidden or not. Or it got uninstalled automatically. Now, What I want is, how can I search my entire Macbook which looks into all files either hidden or not hidden, and tells me whether there is any file related to that app or not with complete surety.

Note: I did search about this app on internet and people are saying that it is hard to locate the files of this app and it is hard to delete and does not show up in normal search, even I tried their methods but it is not helping. So first I want to make sure that whether that app is there or not.

First off, if you just google the words uninstall logmein mac, you will find the vendor's Help entry on where to find and delete the relevant files...

In general, it's rather difficult to track every file installed by one application installer (that is if the application files are not consequently self-contained within the .app file).

A) The Finder's Spotlight search has an option to search files by their date of addition, but the Spotlight search doesn't include Library and System folders. A better search application I would recommend instead would be Easy Find (freeware by Devon Technologies). It has extensive search options and will walk through the whole system, and includes hidden files/folders.

B) If the application installer came as a standard installer package, a '.pkg file', you can often use the package tool Pacifist (shareware by CharlesSoft) to open it and list the contained files with their target folder locations (in Unix: directories) on the machine. Then you go to these folders in Finder (or the Terminal) and delete files/folders 'manually'.

(Hey I'm not affiliated with any of the companies and don't get money for mentioning them or something. These apps are just tried-and-true classics on the Mac.)


Reducing the size of a black-and-white scanned pdf I have a 352 page pdf that is a scan of a black-and-white text. The file size is 60.9 MB, which seems excessively large too me. (Is it indeed?)

Is there an easy way to convert this file to a more compressed one?

Edit. Here's a little sample:

A great PDF compressor is Ghostscript (gs), which is native in most Linux distributions and easily installable for Mac OS X and Windows.

Daniel summarizes summarizes it best here, with the key quote being his preferred options:

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH \
    -sOutputFile=foo-compressed.pdf foo.pdf


Apple TV gen 2 will send optical audio signal when i patch it though a TOSLINK 1to2 splitter to my Bose speaker My Bose system only has one optical audio input so I added a toslink 1to2 splitter.  I can play my TV sound going through the optical audio cable to the splitter and then to my Bose system, but the Apple TV optical audio cable will not work when I put it though the splitter.  It does work if I put it directly into the optical audio input on the Bose?  What is going on?  Any help would be appreciated!

You need a optical switcher, not a spitter. A splitter has one input and distributes to two (or more) outputs, and is not reversible.

Two possible products are available from Amazon and Audio Authority. The second does automatic switching, which may be what you're looking for.

Disclaimer: I have no financial or otherwise tangible connections to either Amazon.com or Audio Authority.


How to compress iPhone QuickTime screen recording's file size? I've recorded my iPhone screen through QuickTime on my MacBook and made several recordings already. Unfortunately, the resulting files are too large. They get saved in .MOV format, and 10 mins takes up about 600-700 MB.

How can I compress these iPhone 7 screen recordings made through QuickTime so that the file sizes become smaller?

If you want to compress the video without losing much quality use HandBrake with these settings:

Choose .mp4
Tick the Web optimized box
Quality, constant quality: 25
Framerate: same as source, variable framerate.
x264 preset: Slow

(- Btw use x264 instead of x265 if you want to be able to watch the video on most devices)


How do I get Messages to appear in the Notification Center? I've configured Notifications to display Messages in the Notification Center, but no messages ever appear there.

Is there another setting that I'm missing? Are only certain kinds of messages displayed in the Notification Center?

This appears to have been a (temporary) bug that sometimes happened shortly after an app is first configured for Notification Center. The settings indicated in the original question should be sufficient to get messages to appear in Notification Center.