What iPad app will allow me to present .PDFs or .PPTs that include OTF (and other) fonts? I do quite a bit of presenting using the iPad as a presentation tool, but I am a PC user. I have always created my slides in PowerPoint, converted to PDF and presented using GoodReader. I have done this dozens of times for clients and at conferences but I have run into a problem trying to use a number of more "sexy" fonts. "Museo Slab 500", "Lobster Two", "Bebas Neue" being a couple of example fonts… but there are loads more. See FontSquirrel for a comprehensive list.

Here's the problem: I prepare the slides in PPT, convert to PDF (PDF looks OK on the PC), drop them onto the iPad using DropBox and then open in GoodReader. However GoodReader won't render many of the nice fonts I want to use. Up to now I've just stuck with boring old Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, etc but this is starting to really hack me off.

I tried loads of other free/cheap PDF viewers and even a couple of PowerPoint viewers and get the exact same problem even when the PPT is saved with fonts embedded. Before anyone mentions it Slideshark has the same problem not supporting these fonts.

Now here's the funny thing. I downloaded the latest version of Adobe Reader for iPad and all fonts render perfectly. However Adobe Reader isn't the best presenting tool as you can't display full screen and the file caching isn't the best.

So, are there any apps for iPad which have the following properties?

Allows PDF or PPT files to be viewed full screen and renders ALL fonts in the same way that Adobe Reader for iPad does?
Caches files nicely so I don't have to wait for the next slide to load (like GoodReader does)

I've tried installing the fonts on my colleague's Mac to create the PDF from Keynote and converting the slides using various other PDF creation tools but that leads to other problems (I haven't found a PDF writer which allows the slides to be created to the correct aspect ratio. Using Keynote for iPad doesn't help because I am limited to the iPad fonts only.

If it helps to explain my problem I have uploaded font test slides to my Slideshare account: http://www.slideshare.net/thesaundi/font-test-10088015

It might be that the fonts aren't being embedded into the PDF, that would cause them to not render correctly on a computer that did not have the fonts installed and Adobe Reader may be faking the look of fonts that it doesn't have. Open the PDF in Acrobat on your PC and in the "File" menu select "Properties..." and then click on the "Fonts" tab. Each font listed should have a remark like "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset".

If that is the case, you may have to change your PDF creation settings (not sure how you are creating the PDFs, so I'm no help there) to make sure that all fonts are embedded.


Macbook pro 13" - 2017 - heating issues when connected to external monitor My question is about chassis temperature and overheating issues. I have a recently bought a Macbook pro 13" - 2017 with two thunderbolt 3 ports. The notebook is performing fine, but when it is connected to the external Dell monitor (2560x1440 resolution), it gets uncomfortably hot. The same monitor was previously connected to a 2013 Macbook Air (i7) and there were no heating issue whatsoever (it would get hot only when doing extremely intesive CPU work).

The temperature on the left speaker is 40C (104F) and the temperature of the USB-C adapter's steel case is 45C (113F). The chassis around touchpad has 37C (99F). Measured with an IR thermometer. The room temperature is 26C (79F). The CPU usage is low (91% idle). The fan is near silent (iStats report that it is at 1950 RPMs.

The monitor is connected via USB-C - HDMI konverter.

When monitor is connected, the current draw is apx 50% higher than what it is when monitor is not connected (regular browsing). This was not measured scientifically, but through iStat Menus current draw information.

The adapter gets uncomfortably hot very quick and so does the chassis of the Macbook pro. It is even worse if the Macbook is charging at the same time (using the other available USB-C port). I previously owned Macbooks and a Macbook Air and none of them exhibited such heating issues.

I saw possible solutions on how to adjust the Energy Saver not to use the external graphics card, but it seems that this is not the case for this type of Macbooks -- at least, the settings are not present in the Energy Saver.

This is certainly unexpected from my side. Are such heating issues normal? Is there a way to limit GPU power usage or 'something'?

With reference to Apple discussion:

The USB-C - HDMI converter I've been using was getting very hot. The heat was also transfering through the USB cable to the MacBook's body.
In addition to above, the Intel GPU is doing more work, so it is obviously getting warmer/hotter (you can see on the screenshot above, it is at 68 C).
In addition to that, the system controlled fan speed is too low (~1700 RPM) to allow for cooling when the skin temperature is rising over 40C.

I noticed that I can tolerate ~40C just fine, but 42C is not good for prolonged (more than 30 min) use. It gets annoying fast over 41C.

I replaced the mentioned USB-C to HDMI converter with a HooToo converter and that one is not getting as warm as the previous one. Also, the USB-C connector has much lower temperature than the previous one (so I guess heat transfer is not that much).

This didn't quite solve the heating issue, though.

I used iStat Menus to change the speed of the fan, so it is cooling more. With the fan speed set at ~5000 RPM, the skin temperature is around 39-40C with light use of computer (MS Word, browser -- 90% idle). I was even able to charge the computer, have it connected to the external display and use it with skin temp under 40C with the fan at its maximum speed.

IMHO, the cooling system of the MacBook Pro is not suited for "Pro" use --
 at least not in a comfortable way. I believe this could easily be adjusted with an OS/firmware upgrade, so that he OS would turn the fan speed up when reaching skin temperature of 40C.

I will also give MacFanControl a try, to see if can automatically adjust the fan speed .


Is there any Terminal command to find the files installed by a particular App? Is there any terminal command which allows the user to input the name of the application along with the command, executing which shows you all the hidden files and folders the app has created or installed on your mac

Files created by apps are usually in /Library and subfolders likes Application Support, Caches...

The files are not created by a specific user "AppName" but with your user account rights (or root one for some of them). So there is no way to locate App created files, unless if the app correctly named them.

So you can use the find command like that:

$ find /Libray -name "*AppName*"

http://www.techradar.com/how-to/computing/apple/terminal-101-using-the-find-command-1305633

Grep command can work too:

$ ls -la /Library | grep "AppName"


Can I copy from Finder the current Path? Possible Duplicate:
  Copying the current directory's path to the clipboard

Is there a way to copy to clipboard the current directory I'm at? (I'm running ML).

EDIT: There is an option to simply drag the file/folder from Finder to the Terminal and it will automatically enter the path name.

There is a service to open a selected folder in terminal, which can be enabled from System preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services.
It can either be assigned a keyboard shortcut, or be launched from the services menu:


Use a macbook Air for watching TV using thunderbolt I have a dish tv connection. The receiver has a VGA out port and an AV output port.

I want to see the tv on my macbook air. My question is -
Can I use a thunderbolt to VGA cable to view TV on my computer?

I assume the direct answer would be no, but may be with the help of some external software?

The answer is still no! The graphic card inside the MacBook cannot handle video input! Only output!

Second: There is currently no working adapter beside "HDMI to Thubderbolt". No converter yet!


AppleScript to identify the current status of Network Connection? What is the AppleScript to identify the current status of MacBook Pro's network connection (Yosemite 10.10.3)

Connected via Iphone USB on/off (Hotspotting to Iphone)
Connected via WIFI ON on/off
Connected via Ethernet on/off
No Connection

I want to add this condition check into my Automator Workflow, so workflows run similar to many of the IOS Apps that have the setting "do not send files / do not download unless connected to WIFI"

If you have Network menu bar item/icon in top right menu bar. You can do:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
    value of attribute "AXDescription" of menu bar items of menu bar 1
end tell

To get connection status. For example:

{"Wi-Fi, four of four bars, with WiFiNetworkName.", "Battery: Charged ", "Clock"}

Then you can parse the string/list to check if a certain word is present.


Quicktime Playback Speed is not functioning I am not able to change the PLAYBACK SPEED in QUICKTIME PLAYER on my Macbook Pro, MacOS Big Sur.
I know where the options are, but selecting different speeds has NO EFFECT.

I couldn't replicate the problem on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) & Big Sur. Both audio and video playback speed changes worked as expected. So it should be some specific issue.


Script that creates a mailbox (folder) based on the email subject I adopt the inbox zero approach, which means that I want to keep my inbox as close to empty as possible.

To achieve this, I need to archive emails quickly. The best method I found was to write a script that, when I right-click on an email, the script creates a new folder based on the email subject and then move this message to this folder.

This worked perfectly on Microsoft Outlook on Windows.

Now I switched jobs and I am using a Mac. Does anyone know how to achieve a similar result using Mail?

Thank you very much in advance.

For your reference, here is the script I used on Windows:

Sub folderCreation()

    Dim o_App As Object
    Dim obj_NameSpace As NameSpace
    Dim obj_folder As Folder
    Dim obj_NewFolder As Folder
    Dim obj_mail As MailItem
    Dim s_Subject As String
    Dim s_Date As Date

    Set o_App = Application
    If Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Count = 0 Then
        MsgBox "No item was selected!"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Set obj_NameSpace = o_App.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    Set obj_folder = obj_NameSpace.PickFolder

    If obj_folder Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "You did not make a selection"
        Exit Sub
    End If

    For Each obj_mail In Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection
        s_Subject = obj_mail.Subject
        s_Date = obj_mail.ReceivedTime
        Set obj_NewFolder = obj_folder.Folders.Add(Format(s_Date, "yyyy.mm.dd / ") & s_Subject)
        obj_mail.Move obj_NewFolder
    Next obj_mail
End Sub

I was able to get help from the official Apple Discussions forum, thanks to Barney15-E. Here's the reply:

In order to trigger it with a shortcut, you would need to create an Automator Quick Action.
Within that Quick Action you can run this script:

tell application "Mail"
    set selectedMessages to selection
    set mailboxName to subject of item 1 of selectedMessages
    set messageAccount to account of (mailbox of item 1 of selectedMessages)
    set newMailbox to make new mailbox at (end of mailboxes of messageAccount) with properties {name:mailboxName}
    repeat with eachMessage in selectedMessages
        set mailbox of eachMessage to newMailbox
    end repeat
end tell

To create the Quick Action, open Automator.
Select Quick Action from the document type selection.
Set the Quick Action to accept No Input in Mail.
Set the Image and Color to anything you want.
Drag a "Run AppleScript" action into the workflow area.
Replace everything between the on run/end run statements with the script above.
Save the Quick Action with a suitable name.

To give the Quick Action a shortcut, open Keyboard System Preferences.
Click on Shortcuts tab.
Select Services from the list.
Find your Quick Action (probably under General).
Add the desired shortcut.

If you want to file each selected message into its own folder, use this script instead:

tell application "Mail"
    set selectedMessages to selection
    repeat with eachMessage in selectedMessages
        set mailboxName to subject of eachMessage
        set messageAccount to account of (mailbox of eachMessage)
        set newMailbox to make new mailbox at (end of mailboxes of messageAccount) with properties {name:mailboxName}
        set mailbox of eachMessage to newMailbox
    end repeat
end tell

If you want a version that checks for at least one message selected, use this:

tell application "Mail"
    set selectedMessages to selection
    if selectedMessages is not {} then
        set mailboxName to subject of item 1 of selectedMessages
        set messageAccount to account of (mailbox of item 1 of selectedMessages)
        set newMailbox to make new mailbox at (end of mailboxes of messageAccount) with properties {name:mailboxName}
        repeat with eachMessage in selectedMessages
            set mailbox of eachMessage to newMailbox
        end repeat
    else
        display dialog "You did not select a message."
    end if
end tell


How exactly does the new Mountain Lion filesystem work? I heard that the new filesystem only allows one level of folders. How does it work exactly ? Will my existing beautifully organized folder-tree be collapsed into one folder when I upgrade? As a software developper, I really need to work with multiple level folder hierarchy, and I can't imagine living without this.

I'm waiting to upgrade until I get better information about this. The article I read doesn't make me comfortable with such a flattening of the OS X filesystem if indeed that has happened. Can someone shed more light on this please?

Don't worry, the filesystem is really the same as in Lion. What you may have misunderstood is how the new iCloud integration works. Every app that supports it (it may even be built-in if you use the system-standard open/save components, I'm unsure) will display an iCloud tab in the Open/Save dialogs, but this is in addition to the standard Finder hierarchy that's been around forever.

This new iCloud storage doesn't allow nested folders, so you only get one level of hierarchy. The idea is to keep things simple à la iOS (it looks like and is conceptually the same as organizing apps on iOS).

For more detail and description, check out the iCloud and You section of John Siracusa's Mountain Lion review at Ars Technica.


What are "Active Calories"? The Apple Watch Activity app purports to measure what it calls "Active Calories" which it counts towards its "Move" goal. But Apple's definition of such calories is clearly its own, not counting (at least apparently), for example, calories from weight workouts, Pilates, or yoga or 7-minute workouts?

What is the (Apple) definition of "Active Calories"? What does one have to do to generate them?

Apple doesn't define active calories in the manual for Apple Watch, but they are a common measurement in sports physiology.

If you are in a coma, your body uses up calories from two of the three muscle types: smooth and cardiac muscle. The third type is skeletal muscle and that's what Active Calories tries to estimate using a physiological model that clearly considers average human statistics and then incorporates input data you feed Apple's Health App (height, weight, sex, heart rate) and then uses the accelerometer to pick apart your specific activity level for input to the model.

Presumably a large amount of PHD level research went into Apple's internal algorithms and models based on who they hired to work on the fitness teams in several internal laboratories.

Since you mentioned some sports, here are my thoughts:

The watch can't know about what weights you are lifting since it doesn't have sensors for that (yet). In fact, the algorithms may mess up since it's seeing your wrist move slowly yet your heart rate goes up much more than it might expect/anticipate. Active calories will be far more accurate for people that run, walk and move without machines or weights attached to their bodies. So pilates (non-reformer), yoga, and 7 minute workouts without weights will be more accurately reflected in Active Calories than will reformer pilates and weight lifting.

Hopefully, weight machines or extra data input can arrive some time later for people to get excellent results with weights. I could see non-free weight machines interface with an app or health kit directly to enhance the recording of your workout profile and progress. Also, indirectly your heart rate will reflect your weight lifting, so without needing specific input, the active calorie measure should still be useful in an absolute measure and highly useful for comparing one workout to another as you add weights and change your metabolic response to physical stress.


How to enter iphone passcode, which contains Foreign characters, on a Mac? For additional security, my Mac is requesting that I enter my iPhone passcode. My iPhone passcode contains non-English letters and other special characters. On my iPhone entering this passcode is done by accessing other keyboards or holding down a key for additional letters.

However, when entering the passcode on my Mac, I have no option for additional keyboards. And holding down a key does not provide additional letters, it just repeats the same letter. Also, I am hindered by being unable to see the passcode (only asterisks) so entering a character mapping code would be difficult, if that is even possible. The only option I see is to select "forgot your passcode?" even though I know my passcode. Is changing my passcode to a more limited character set, my only option?

On the Mac - open System Preferences.

Keyboard

You can use the Input Sources section to add Unicode Hex Input and enter any of the 120,000 characters in that standard by value. You might also know which type of characters you need and choose a country's input source to get accented or currency characters typical for that region.


Mission control - application windows cascade view I'm struggling to find a solution for displaying Application Windows into a stacked/grouped/cascade view. I'd like to point out that i'm not referring to the general Mission Control which displays all aplication windows. I'm referring when displaying windows of the same app.

For example now (by default) is shows like this http://screencast.com/t/X4IlAs5Dj .
The problem is i can barely see the tabs inside Chrome and i have to either remember perfectly in which window i had a certain tab or just click on them until i find the right window.

What i'd like would be to display the windows like this: http://screencast.com/t/RBqdpevli
Having them like this would be straight to the point. No wasted time nor clicks.

I know about the option called "Group windows by application", but this only applies to the general Mission control on all opened apps, not a certain one.

Thanks!

PS: I'm on MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

During your app expose, you can hover the mouse on the window you want and press the Space Bar to enlarge it allowing you to have a sneak peak in full size. It works in mission control too.

Also in mission control you can move your mouse to the app and scroll up to scatter the app windows, then you can use the Space Bar to have a sneak peak of the window at full size.


Terminal stuck at error won't accept any commands. I was trying to install CLI package from github but I messed up during the process and ended up getting this error. It is persistent and won't go away. Terminal wont accept any commands like mkdir, ls, clear screen. To fix this error I ended up deleting the info.plist file for the terminal ( I am not a very smart person) which somehow bricked terminal and it won't start anymore. I decided to download iTerm, and it still launches with the same old error. What am I supposed to do. Please help me .

Well the error you're getting sounds like you've tried changing the $PATH variable somewhere.
Possible candidates (not all of them need to exist) are

/etc/profile
/etc/bashrc
~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login
~/.bashrc
~/.profile

Find all lines starting with export that contain the path you've posted above in those files and prefix them with a # to disable them. Restart iTerm and the error should be gone.

Regarding the deleted .plist, do you happen to have a TimeMachine (or other) backup that you might recover it from? Before re-installing everything you could also test creating a new user and copying the file from this account to yours.


Set up 2 FW800 JBOD units as a RAID 1(mirror) I've got 2 GMax external drive enclosures, each one takes 2 3.5" SATA disks (up to 1TB per disk), configured to appear as a single 'JBOD' unit. I use FW800 out of the MacBook Pro into one unit, and then the pass-thru connector from that unit to the next one (each unit has a pass-thru connector; these boxes really were a steal at the price).

I use one unit as my main 'projects and laptop backups' drive, and the second unit is my backup copy of the first one. I've been managing the backup copies using SuperDuper!, manually initiating a 'smartcopy' of the main drive to the backup drive at least once a week.

The disks I had in one of the units recently failed, and now I've bought 4 identical new 1TB Seagate disks. Before I set things up much as they were before (2TB in each unit), I was wondering if I could make a software RAID 1 unit out of them? I thought that this would be an easier system for me to manage than manually backing-up.

Has anyone run a software RAID 1 drive on external drives like this? Is it worth the trouble, or should I stick to my current regime? I'm not looking to increase performance at all, I'm looking to minimise the human-involvement in my backup process. :-)

This would be on the current patch of Snow Leopard.

A RAID setup is not a backup. A RAID is a way of mitigating hardware failure, its value is that despite a piece of hardware failing you can keep working with no down time. In your case, the issue you had a (a failed drive) would have been handled just fine by a RAID, but the following would not:

Accidentally deleting a file (the RAID will happily delete it on both of the mirrored drives.
Data corruption due to bugs in any programs you are using (again, the RAID will dutifully store the bad data the apps send to it).

The above are software and user failures. If you are confident you (or an app) will never make a mistake where you need to rollback to an older version then you simply don't need a backup, and going to a RAID to mitigate potential HW failure is fine. If you are like the rest of us an make mistakes then you probably want actual backups, and to add a RAID in addition to that if down time is very costly for you.


where can I adjust emoji suggestions in iOS10 I want to adjust emoji suggestions in iOS 10, like what car is suggested after typing "car" in a message.
Or how can I add word-emoji links?

Thanks in advance

You can't. This data is hard-coded in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework in the file FindReplace.strings.

However, you can use those files on macOS to look up the keywords that differentiate the various cars. Here they are, I have made bold the unique words that can be used to summon each type of car.

race car, racing car, formula 1, formula one

police, cop

police, police car, cop

(not available)

taxi, cab, taxi cab

car, automobile, hatchback, vehicle

car, sedan

car, jeep, SUV, automobile

trolley, tram, street car


Where is the index.html on OSX 10.9 (Mavericks) Apache setup? I've started up Apache on my Mac and get the "It works!" message, but I have no idea where that file is.

I've checked the httpd.conf file and the location listed is:

DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"

Yet, when I go to the /Library/WebServer/Documents folder, it is empty!

This one is driving me crazy, any help would be appreciated.

There should be 3 files in /Library/WebServer/Documents:

index.html.en
PoweredByMacOSX.gif
PoweredByMacOSXLarge.gif

If these files are missing, it really shouldn't matter.

As soon as you create your own HTML file and place it in that folder, the "It works!" message should be replaced with your new index.html file.

Hope this helps.


Missing app transfer link for new app in iTunes Connect I have created a new app in iTunes Connect and filled in the basic details such as description, screen shot, etc.

After I created the app I can see the ‘View in App Store’ link but not ‘App Transfer’ link.

When is the app transfer link enabled?

There are a number of criteria for app transfer to be available, but since you mention that you've created a new app and only filled in the details, it's likely the app hasn't met this restriction:

  The App must have had at least one version that has been released to the App Store.

App transfer criteria - iTunes Connect Developer Help


How do I keep the new line/line break/end of line in a file consistent across mac and windows I use DropBox on both a windows and a mac.

Whenever I add lines to a .txt file on my mac and sync it with DropBox to my windows, the "new lines" are skrewed up when reading the file on my windows, and vice verse.

My mac insists to use it own form of new lines even so that the file was created with a different type of new lines. The end result is a file with mixed new line types.

I know that new lines are different on windows and mac os x (and on linux for that matter) and I know that this is the problem.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline

I would expect textedit in OS X to detect the type of new line used and stick with it.

Is there anyway that I can accomplish that ?

Which editors and viewers do you use?

This topic describes how to set newline in BBedit and Textmate. Also you can use TextWrangler and Notepad++ which are freeware

PS: I commonly use Vim in Windows and Mac (MacVim). In this editor I do ":set fileformat=dos" to convert to CR-LF


How does Find My Mac work exactly? My Macbook Pro 13 (2015) was recently stolen. I activated FMM about an hour after the event and two hours later received an update that the machine was erased. Questions:

1) What does this mean exactly? Is this message triggered when the wipe is initiated or after the wipe is completed. Can I reliably infer that the HDD was wiped? What's to prevent the baddie from simply turning off the machine when the wipe is initiated? I'm just trying to understand the possible outcomes here, especially with the data on the drive.

2) The HDD was encrypted with filevault 2. Does this provide effective protection from anyone getting at the data?

3) Is the machine bricked (like an iOS device would be) or can it still be resold as a working computer?

I am assuming that you clicked on the option to "Erase your Mac" when you activated FMM.  If you got a message that the machine was erased, then the drive was erased.

As for the HDD, filevault does offer good protection against the most common of thieves, but nothing is perfect.  Chances are they can't crack the encryption.  However, if you wiped the drive, this is moot.

Is the machine "bricked?"  I don't know.  Did you lock it with a PIN code?  If you didn't, it can still work.  However, if you locked it down with a PIN, you have effectively bricked it.

Now...did you file a police report?


How do I show hidden files in Finder with a keyboard shortcut? What is Ubuntu's CTRL+H equivalent in OSX Lion Finder to toggle display hidden files?

My all searches point me to use: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE which is not exactly the same and its effect is somewhat permanent.

⇧⌘. shows hidden files in file dialogs and in some third party applications like TotalFinder. Transmit also has a menu item for toggling hidden files, but it's assigned to ⇧⌘B by default.

There's nothing equivalent to that in Finder though. But you could assign a shortcut to a script like this with FastScripts or by creating an Automator service.

k="com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
[[ "$(defaults read $k)" == 0 ]] && b=true || b=false
defaults write $k -bool $b
osascript -e 'quit app "Finder"' && open -a Finder


Time Machine Backup Failing with Error 11 I've been trying to run a Time Machine backup for the last couple of days (OSX 10.7.5 and Porsche LaCie 2TB); however, it has been constantly failing. Console is producing the following crash messages

16-01-01 3:56:47.345 PM ReportCrash: DebugSymbols was unable to start a spotlight query: spotlight is not responding or disabled.
16-01-01 3:56:49.601 PM com.apple.backupd: Indexing a file failed. Returned 1 for: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ProKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/zh_CN.lproj/NSProAboutPanel.nib, /Volumes/LaCie/Backups.backupdb/Main’s MacBook Pro/2016-01-01-125749.inProgress/DD6E0FAD-0DB6-45EA-B196-73EAB917DF42/Macintosh HD/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ProKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/zh_CN.lproj/NSProAboutPanel.nib
16-01-01 3:56:49.601 PM com.apple.backupd: Aborting backup because indexing of file failed.
16-01-01 3:56:49.601 PM com.apple.backupd: Stopping backup.
16-01-01 3:56:51.870 PM ReportCrash: Saved crash report for mds[844] version ??? (???) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2016-01-01-155651_localhost.crash
16-01-01 3:56:54.817 PM com.apple.launchd: (com.apple.metadata.mds[844]) Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault: 11
16-01-01 3:56:55.094 PM mds: (Normal) FMW: FMW 0 0
16-01-01 3:56:55.309 PM com.apple.backupd: Copied 926318 files (32.1 GB) from volume Macintosh HD.
16-01-01 3:56:55.309 PM com.apple.backupd: Copy stage failed with error:11
16-01-01 3:56:55.509 PM mds: (Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
16-01-01 3:57:07.134 PM com.apple.backupd: Backup failed with error: 11

I went to Disk Utility to verify/repair my disk, and I encountered the same problems as in this problem with volume bitmap I followed the solution there about restarting in Recovery Mode and repairing with Disk Utility. This solved the issue with the volume bitmap. After this, I started another backup attempt, anticipating success. What was different about this was that the previous failures would tell me that it was backing up 40 GB, but then it would 40 GB and continue getting larger, unto about 130 GB, and then crash. This backup started by saying that it was backing up the entirety of my drive (roughly 400 GB). Much to my dismay, it got to about 40 GB, and then crashed with the error messages that I referenced. What can I do to correct these errors, and successfully backup my system?

It took a while, but I found that I had some corrupted file that kept crashing the backup. Once that file was gone, the backup went smoothly.


Where can I find the log of all mounted volumes? To be more specific, I mean the file that keeps a history of every disk image/volume ever mounted. I know it exists because I found it once, but it was a long time ago and I have no idea how to find it again. It is similar to the InstallHistory.plist file, which logs every program ever installed.

You can find the information in /var/log/system.log (or using the Console application). But the information is not kept forever.

For example:

Aug  4 07:34:34 ******** kernel[0]: hfs: mounted External on device disk3
Aug  4 07:34:44 ******** kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Time Machine on device disk5

and and a DMG

Aug  5 07:53:25 ******** kernel[0]: hfs: mounted Xcode on device disk6s2

After a while system.log is compressed and archived. To search in all the stored logs

cd /var/log/
(sudo cat system.log; sudo gzcat system.log.*) | grep mounted


Pass a variable (folder pathway) to AppleScript in Automator I am trying to pass a variable that has been set in Automator to an AppleScript within Automator. My Automator workflow is as follows:

Ask for Finder Items (only allowing folder type)

Set Value of Variable (variable set to "chosenfolder")

Get Value of Variable (chosenfolder)

Run AppleScript

property odd : true -- set to false to get odd numbers

on run {input, parameters}

set thefolder to (input as text)

set TheNumber to (odd as integer)
tell application "Finder"
    set FileList to every file of thefolder
    repeat with oneFile in FileList
        set Ex to name extension of oneFile
        set NameString to text -4 thru -1 of ("000" & TheNumber) & "." & Ex
        set name of oneFile to NameString
        set TheNumber to TheNumber + 2
    end repeat
end tell

return input
end run

This returns the error:

Can’t get every file of "Macintosh SSD:Users:etc....

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the chosen folder in automator cannot be accepted in the AppleScript?

Note: I understand that I can just use "choose folder" in the AppleScript instead of using the Automator workflow items, but I truncated my actual workflow just to show this portion. The variable is needed elsewhere in the Automator workflow in addition to passing it to the AppleScript.

When using on run {input, parameters}, input is a list, and as such you need to change the following line of your code:

set thefolder to (input as text)

To:

set thefolder to (item 1 of input)

That will fix the Can’t get every file of ... error.

Also, while you didn't state the complete settings of the Get Value of Variable action, I'll assume that under Options, you have checked the [√] Ignore this action's input checkbox to unlink it from the preceding Set Value of Variable action. Otherwise, it passes the variable twice to the Run AppleScript action! That is, in this example workflow you've presented.


In Pages on iPad, formatting to add line over paragraph? I’m writing a document with Pages on iPad. When I select the “Heading 3” style it puts a line above the text, like this:

I can't find how to create that kind of formatting manually, outside of the named styles. Where is the option? Here is the part of the screen with formatting controls. I don't see anything to create a border or line above a text block.

AFAIK, you can't add/edit text line styles on i(Pad)OS.
You can edit text line styles in Pages for macOS (Format sidebar > Text > Layout), though, which then carry over/display in Pages for i(Pad)OS.


What is the performance bottleneck when launching large applications on OS X? I have an Early 2011 13" Macbook Pro (i5 2.3Ghz).
I've upgraded it to have 8GB 1333 ram and an OCZ Vertex II (120GB) SSD.

There are a couple of heavy lifting apps on my mac that take roughly around 10 seconds to launch (WebStorm being one of them).

I was hoping that having an SSD in the machine would increase performance (and it has) but I'm still too impatient for these waits.

I'm considering installing a second OCZ Vertex III (120GB) SSD into the superdrive slot and configuring it in a RAID0 in hopes of increasing disk performance even further.

My question is, what are the primary bottlenecks that are causing apps to launch slowly on my Mac? If it's something other than the disk, I might as well save my $$$.

Activity Monitor is a good starting point. At a minimum, you can determine whether your system is becoming CPU-bound when you start the large application. It can also show how system memory is being utilized and whether excessive swapping is taking place. An Apple KB notes:

  Tip: Page outs occur when the Mac has to write information from RAM to
  the hard drive (because RAM is full).  Adding more RAM may reduce page
  outs.

This Quora post has a reference to another good tool - the Shark utility from the Apple Developer Tool Suite:

  Shark from the Developer Tools suite (CHUD) provide even more powerful
  process inspection capabilities and organizes bottom-up and top-down
  trees of where your time goes for the entire space of function calls,
  and is even decent at explaining where the bottlenecks are, sometimes
  suggesting low-level optimizations.

Apple's Developer Library notes:

  Shark is an advanced tool for sampling or tracing a single application
  or all running applications. Like Instruments, Shark provides a set of
  powerful analysis tools with an easy-to-use interface to help you
  gather performance data. Shark helps you isolate problems quickly by
  providing a rich set of data-mining features and is an indispensable
  tool for finding performance bottlenecks. It provides optimization
  tips and help with analyzing assembly-level operations. Because it
  traces operations down at the kernel-level of the system, Shark can
  also provide you with tremendous insight about the behavior of your
  application relative to the rest of the system.

  Among the types of operations you can perform in Shark are the
  following:

  Statistical sampling of your application over a period of time
  System-level tracing
  Malloc tracing
  Static analysis
  L2 Cache profiling
  Processor bandwidth analysis
  Java code analysis

  In addition to basic sampling, Shark also offers the windowed time
  facility feature for several of its sampling options. The windowed
  time facility tells Shark to record and process a finite buffer of the
  most recently acquired samples. This feature lets Shark record data
  continuously and for long periods of time in the background. You can
  then direct Shark to stop sampling only after something interesting
  occurs in your code and to display the samples related to that
  interesting behavior. Thus, you can use this feature to determine what
  part of your program’s execution is interesting after it occurs.

  For a quick example of how to use Shark, see “Using Shark.” For
  detailed information about Shark, see Shark User Guide.

The page also lists a number of other tools in the developer tool suite that can be used to monitor your system's performance and hopefully pin down any potential bottlenecks before you buy the second SSD.


Can iPad show percentage when charging by USB, and does iPad 2 charge slowly too? I found that my iPad might be half charged after a few hours by USB from PC... too bad I can't find the wall adapter...  but when I turn it on, it says "Not charging" without saying the Percentage it already has charged up.  Can it show somehow?  Maybe by tapping the "Not charging" message but I don't really need to see it so many times. (but tapping doesn't work)

Does the iPad 2 also have the same issue of slow charging too?

The reason you get the Not Charging message is because most machines don't send enough power through USB to charge the iPad. The iPads battery is more like a laptop battery than a phone battery. Newer Macs will send enough power over some of their USB ports.

As for the percentage, If you turn on "Battery Percentage" I think under Settings, General, Usage. This should show it up in the top right.

Due to the iPad 1 and 2 sharing many other similarities, the iPad 2 should also display the 'not charging' message. Although, a new iPad 2 will come with a Wall Charger as well. You can purchase off-brand chargers on amazon or ebay, extra wall chargers at the apple store, and some third party companies make chargers like Griffin


(macOS) Two windows side by side: is there a way to allow stretching one window to minimum width? My daily case: I usually have .pdf viewer for articles + MS Word side by side and Web browser + markdown side by side.
My struggle is windows stretching - for example, when I read .pdf I would like to shring MS Words window to minimum, however, macOS allow me to like 35 % (my guess), some goes for the Web browser + markdown.
Is there a way to set the stretching percentage of each window?
This is an illustration of my question:

You can do this with Applescript. Set the boundaries for the front window to be a certain width. Then after clicking on the window you want to shrink, run your Applescript. Name your script something like narrow_front_window.sc.  The script could look something like:
tell application "Finder" to set the bounds of the front Finder window to {36, 115, 511, 674}
Just run the script after bringing window to the front.  The widows do have a minimum size.


Setting up TimeCapsule with existing Router(with DHCP disabled) I have an existing Belkin modem-router, and a new Time Capsule. I would like the Time Capsule to act as the router and DHCP server, and the belkin modem-router to just be a modem.

I connected one of the LAN ports on my Belkin Router to the WAN port on the Time Capsule and then disabled the DHCP server on the Belkin Router.

Now when I set up the Time Capsule I'm not sure what settings to choose?
On Manual Setup on the Internet tab, should I choose share a public IP address or Distribute a range of IP addresses or bridge Mode? It is also asking for settings like DNS server? Surely the WAN IP and DNS Servers should be handled by the modem?

And In the internet tab, under TCP/IP should I choose Manually or DHCP.

Basically I want my Belkin router to be only a modem, and the Time Capsule to do the DHCP, NAT, Wireless, etc.

Disable NAT and DHCP on the router.  Plug the Time Capsule's WAN port into the router's LAN port.  Better yet, see if the router has a "bridge" mode.  The Time Capsule usually would run in 'distribute a range' mode, which IIRC means DHCP and NAT.  'Share a public' would be DHCP only.  And bridge is a simple pass-through mode (much like we've just tried to put your Belkin into).


How do you say "numeral" in french for Siri to get numbers right? In english you would say "Hey Siri, Play Led Zeppelin *numeral* 4" in order for Siri to detect that 4 is a number rather that a word like "for".

Do you know the keyword that replaces "numeral" when Siri speaks french?

(I tried "numéro", "nombre", "numérique", "numéral"... none seem to work)

The solution is in the official Apple documentation, you should say "numérotation quatre" to input "4".


Why are chrome, safari and firefox rendering Open Sans 400 as Extrabold Today half the web looks ugly. That's because half the web uses Open Sans 400, and on my macbook pro in all browsers it has suddenly started rendering as "Extrabold". Even on the Google Webfonts site the 400 weight version is rendering in the browser as extrabold. Baffled.

I have already tried "Restore Standard Fonts" in Font Book.

Screenshot:

Not sure if you got an answer to this question, but I had exactly the same issue myself. Didn't have Open Sans open in Suitcase and it wasn't in my System Folder BUT I did find Open Sans Extrabold installed in my Creative Cloud assets using Typekit. I removed it, restarted machine and problem solved. Hope that helps if you hadn't gotten to the bottom of it!


What are some best practices for a family sharing a single Apple ID? My family shares an apple ID, and I can't chose whose contacts I want to sync with when I set up Icloud. For example, I own a Mac and an iPhone. I want my content to only be synced between MY Mac and MY iPhone. Instead, everything including my contacts gets jumbled and duplicated together with my parents' pc and my families' iPhones. Because of this, I have three different instances of my sister in my contact book. My moms version my version and my other sisters version.

Does anyone have advice on how we should go about organizing out content and apple ID?

Here is what I do, where I share one appleid for purchases among 3 family members. Number one, only use the appleid for purchases just for purchases. then, each member should have a separate iCloud account with a unique appleid for mail, contacts, iCal, etc syncing.  Then, on all devices set the appleid for the store to the purchase id and on the individual devices set the iCloud id to the appleid for each individual separately. Works great for me.


Using iPhone SIM in an iPad? Background - earlier this year, Verizon ran a BOGO sale where I was able to get an iPhone 8 for 'free', the catch being, I needed to add a new line of service. Given the bump from 3 lines to 4 was only $10, I took the deal.

My question is as the title shows. I am looking to buy a new iPad Pro.

And from the spec page, it takes a Nano-SIM. The iPhone 8 I got shows this

Also a Nano-SIM.

Are these cards interchangeable? Of course, I'm aware I'd need to buy the cellular Verizon compatible iPad, and am not expecting to be able to make calls from an iPad. Only internet access.

I was just at an Apple store getting a battery update on my old 6, and asked this question. They told me 'no', but didn't really explain why.

For what it's worth, I just finished a chat with Verizon, they said it wold not work -

This is why I am here, hoping a member has already tried this. Whether it failed or not, I'd trust an answer here more than anything I get from Verizon.

It depends on the carrier. Generally, iPad SIMs from a carrier are so-called ‘data SIMs’ as they only provide the data service. A normal SIM can act as data SIM if the carrier supports it with an appropriate carrier bundle. You can speak to your carrier or see if anyone else has asked your carrier on a forum, e.g. UK's EE. That chat with Verizon appears like you're talking to a misinformed person — the SIM will easily fit, and the size difference of the iPad itself is obviously not a concern.


Reopen Swift 2.0 migration tool in Xcode 7 I just opened a Swift project on the new Xcode 7.

I didn't really look on what button I clicked and closed the migration tools without migrating anything.

Any idea how I could reopen it?

To begin migration to swift 2.0 latest syntax, open your Xcode project with xcode7, Click Edit > Convert. See this link:
https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/


Sign out iCloud - can't keep a copy of data. Download never ends I have a small iCloud account of 5Gb and because i chosen to sync desktop and some other locations, now pending list of files to sync is very long and I just want to keep all data in mac and get rid of iCloud account. So I:

System Preferences / iCloud / Sign Out / Keep a copy

but downloading never ends and notification tells "iCloud drive needs to finish updating before continue with sign out" . I have been waiting for a whole day and it still never ends. Tried to relaunch few times - same, never ends. Also tried to move some folders, that I need, to other location (other that iCloud sync) and then sign out without downloading data, but it still throws same notification - "iCloud drive needs to finish updating before continue with sign out".

I ran EthreCheck and it points a major issue about huge list of pending files to be transfered to iCloud. Mac machine sometimes is a bit slow and ventilator is very noisy.

I was really stupid to use those free 5Gb from iCloud. I will never use it again (sorry for saying that, but it's a very big dissapointment, I paid A LOT for this computer and never expected to have such issues, when I dont buy something I get punished...)

Can anyone help to solve this?

High Sierra 10.13.4
Internet speed is ok

You should resolve the pending transfers issue first. Move files to non-synced areas of your computer until the size of your iCloud Drive-synced folders is small enough the sync completes. Once it has completed, then you can disable it.


Is it possible to turn off the iPhone Calendar invitations badge/list? Is it possible to turn off the new invite badge and the list of new invitations within the Calendar application on the iPhone?

My boss has his assistant review his invitations and accept/deny them for him, so he has no need to do this from his phone.  He therefore doesn't want to see the red badge on the Calendar app icon on the home screen, or the red badge in the bottom right hand corner of the screen within the Calendar application that says he has six new invitations, and he doesn't want to see the list of new invitations upon clicking that button.

I've recreated this on my iPhone and have screenshots available as an example (however because I'm a first time poster it won't allow me to post them).  Any help someone could provide would be appreciated.

Actually, this functionality has been moved into the Notification settings for Calendar items (Settings > Notifications > Calendar).

In that view you'll have the option to change notifications for: Upcoming Events; Invitations; Invitee Responses; and Shared Calendar Changes. Each one give the ability to select: whether its shown in notification center; notification sound; badge app icon; show on lock screen; and the alert style!


Can the thief erase and clear my iPhone before "Find My iPhone" has a chance to detect its location? I have lost my iPhone5 and had a sick feeling that the phone has been erased and cleared before Find my IPhone has even had the chance to detect it. Is this possible?

Yes. Sadly, a thief might steal 10 phones and discard the ones that are locked hoping that some are not protected with Find My Friends like yours was.

The phone can only report location if it has a viable network connection, so it is entirely possible it was taken to (or placed in) an area with no cell coverage and no WiFi coverage and/or simply turned off.

However, if the thief or anyone else does erase the phone, the iOS 7 activation lock will eventually report back to you since the device will need a viable network connection to become active again once it's been erased so you might keep that device in your iCloud list even for 6 months or longer in case the thief is patient and hopes to resell it at some point down the road.


MacOS - Enable SSH server on different network interface I enabled "System Preferences" -> "Sharing" -> "Remote Login". The dialog is telling me

To log in to this computer remotely, type “ssh user@10.11.12.13”.

And this works fine on the 10.x network. However, I have two network adapters in the system, and I want to connect via SSH on the other network. How do I make the SSH Server open port 22 on all network interfaces?

I think this message should be reworked since the sshd daemon listens on all network interfaces and this just tries to show the same IP address as the default IPv4 route to the internet as one address that could be used.

You should be able to ssh in on all IPv6 and IPv4 addresses on the Mac irregardless of what this message says.

Unless you've modified your sshd configuration or network firewall, this should work out of the box. If you port scan one of the addresses to find it's not listening - then check firewall before you check the ssh configuration.

Also, the system logs can show you that ssh is listening and processing connection attempts, but this probably is just an imprecise message causing you to worry needlessly.


Boot Camp Additional Software Offline? I'm trying to install Windows on my Mac, and I don't have my OSX installation CD with me. I see an option of Boot Camp Assistant to download the drivers online, so I select it - and it says the download is unavailable. Does anyone have a work-around? Or experience the same issue when they try it? I have a 13" Mid-2010 MBP.

Thanks!
Zach

There is no work around. I spent hours attempting to find one. If I were you, I would just wait until Lion, which will certainly have a work around, because there is no install disk.


External display black on rMBP 11,1 I have a Dell LCD monitor connected to my Macbook Pro with Retina display (late 2013) via Mini DisplayPort/VGA adapter. It was working fine at the end of last week when I took my laptop home. When I came back to the office this morning, I have the following symptoms:

Powering on both devices from cold powered-off state, my Mac boots normally and the LCD power indicator goes from amber to green as normal as it detects a signal
The LCD backlight turns on
The display is completely black
OS X (Mavericks, 10.9.4) detects the display, because I can arrange the two screens in System Preferences and even move my mouse pointer off the internal display
I can even change the resolution of the external monitor (when I do, the power indicator goes from green to amber back to green as it re-syncs)
The LCD panel's menu works fine, so the panel itself is OK

I have tried:

resetting SMC and PRAM
changing resolution of the external
closing the lid of the MacBook Pro
booting into the Yosemite Beta on another partition
resetting external monitor settings to default

I think it's either the Mini DisplayPort adapter or something in the monitor's signal processing electronics? But until I can get either an additional monitor or another computer to check things...any suggestions?

You have a solid troubleshooting technique, so I'd agree the adapter, or the VGA cable are  likely culprits. Sometimes it's as easy as the cable not sitting well in the connector, and that could mean it connects the necessary pins for detection/sync but not for actual display.

One other thing I could think of is if the monitor has a source selector, i e if it has multiple inputs for VGA/DVI etc, and the right one isn't chosen. That's probably not the case though as you say it responds to resolution change.


IPhone 5s ITunes Radio not supported I try to listen to my iTunes Radio. And I'm currently on the latest iOS. And it says it's not supported. What's going on?

Do you fulfil these requirements?

Apple Music Radio requirements

To listen to Apple Music Radio, you need:

iOS 8.4 or later on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
iTunes 12.2 or later on your Mac or PC. Get the latest version.
An Apple ID.

Apple Music Radio is available only in select countries. Find out what's available in your country.

Apple Music Radio features vary by country.

In some countries, an Apple Music membership is required to listen to Apple Music Radio.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204944


Jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 Is there any way to safely jailbreak an iDevice having the iOS 5.0.1 on it? I know a jailbreak is never going to be 100% trustworthy but there's a certain level of acceptance when some experienced users try it and those who are not, can go give it a shot.
Thank you.

It appears that a jailbreak has been developed for non-A5 iDevices running iOS 5.0.1, but no jailbreak yet exists for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, which use the A5 chip.

Note that this is a rather localized answer; it seems quite likely that a jailbreak will eventually be developed, but as of January 2, 2012, this seems to be the state of things.


Erasing Mac HD and keeping Parallels If I erase my Sierra OS startup disk, will it erase the Parallels partition too? I can't seem to find an answer anywhere.

If by Parallels partition you mean:

the Parallels Virtual Machine (or .pvm file) usually located within the Documents > Parallels folder, then yes this will be deleted.
your running Parallels from a Bootcamp partition, then as long as you're not erasing the Bootcamp partition (i.e. you're only erasing the macOS partition and not the entire drive), then no this will not be deleted.
something else, then please clarify your question.


Applescript to change desktop background positioning (e.g., Fill to screen I have the script

tell application "System Events"
    tell every desktop
        set picture to "/Users/jackson/Pictures/Backgrounds/backpic.jpg"
    end tell
end tell

That changes my desktop background to a specific image. The default is "Fill Screen," which I dislike. However, I cannot seem to script the dimensions.

Edit: the default seems to be whatever it was set to last, but I'd still like to know if you can control it from AppleScript

I read here that it might not be possible to directly script the answer (though it may have changed since then), but I was thinking there's probably some GUI scripting that could be done. Anyone have any ideas?

I pondered and researched this for some time, and with some help from this answer here, I have devised an AppleScriptObjc script that, on High Sierra at least (but should also work on Mojave), permits some customisation over the way the desktop background image is scaled to the (main) screen:

use framework "AppKit"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# PROPERTY DECLARATIONS:
property this : a reference to current application

property NSWorkspace : a reference to NSWorkspace of this
property NSScreen : a reference to NSScreen of this
property NSColor : a reference to NSColor of this
property NSDictionary : a reference to NSDictionary of this

property fit : 1 -- NSImageScaleAxesIndependently (will never clip)
property centre : 2 -- NSImageScaleNone (will never clip)
property best : 3 -- NSImageScaleProportionallyUpOrDown (no clipping)
property fill : 3.1 -- NSImageScaleProportionallyUpOrDown (clipping)

property black : {0, 0, 0}
property white : {100, 100, 100}
property grey50 : {50, 50, 50}
property red : {100, 0, 0}
property green : {0, 100, 0}
property blue : {0, 0, 100}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# IMPLEMENTATION:
on run
    scaleDesktopImage to fill over blue
end run
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# HANDLERS:
to scaleDesktopImage to scalingOption over {r, g, b} : {50, 50, 50}
    local scalingOption -- fit, centre, fill
    local r, g, b -- 0 to 100

    set clipping to false
    if scalingOption is not in [fit, centre, best, fill] then return false
    if scalingOption = fill then set clipping to true

    set sharedWorkspace to NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace()
    set mainScreen to NSScreen's mainScreen()

    set options to {NSWorkspaceDesktopImageScalingKey:scalingOption ¬
        , NSWorkspaceDesktopImageAllowClippingKey:clipping ¬
        , NSWorkspaceDesktopImageFillColorKey:RGB(r, g, b)}

    set imageURL to sharedWorkspace's desktopImageURLForScreen:mainScreen

    set [success, E] to sharedWorkspace's setDesktopImageURL:imageURL ¬
        forScreen:mainScreen options:options |error|:(reference)

    if E = missing value then return success
    E's localizedDescription() as text
end scaleDesktopImage

on RGB(r as real, g as real, b as real)
    NSColor's colorWithCalibratedRed:r / 100 ¬
        green:g / 100 ¬
        blue:b / 100 ¬
        alpha:1.0
end RGB
---------------------------------------------------------------------------❮END❯

If you're not familiar with AppleScriptObjC, then observe the script is split into three sections: PROPERTY DECLARATIONS, IMPLEMENTATION, and HANDLERS, the first and last of which I suggest you don't try to adjust too much or at all, unless as a learning exercise.

That said, I'm sure you won't go far wrong if you decide to add your own custom colour properties to the grouping in the PROPERTY DECLARATIONS sections, each of which is simply a 3-item list specifying the red, green and blue colour components with values between 0 (zero contribution) and 100 (full contribution).

The second section of the script, headed IMPLEMENTATION, is the functional bit containing the explicitly declared (for clarity only) run handler.  It's singular command is a call to the handler scaleDesktopImage, which is the line you'll be most wanting to play with to suit your needs.

It takes two forms, which I'll illustrate by example:

scaleDesktopImage to fill over blue

or:

scaleDesktopImage to fill

In other words, specifying the colour over which the desktop image is laid (i.e. the background colour), is optional.  If omitted, the background colour defaults to 50% grey.  Of course, you needn't use a pre-declared property to specify the background colour; you can supply directly a list of RGB values:

scaleDesktopImage to best over {100, 25, 50}

The remaining parameter is mandatory, and there are four possible named values:

fit: Stretches the image to fit the desktop's width and height;
centre: Centres the image without enlarging, however it will reduce the size of an image that would otherwise spill outside the boundary of the desktop;
best: Enlarges or reduces the size of the image to occupy the maximum possible area of the desktop without going outside the desktop boundary and preserving the aspect ratio of the image, i.e. a proportional size adjustment;
fill: Sizes the image to cover the full area of the desktop, preserving the aspect ratio, but extending beyond the boundary of the desktop along one of its axes if necessary in order to cover the background.


How to navigate google search results in Safari 8 with keyboard? A while ago I remember being able to navigate through search results using J and K.

Is there anyway to do that in Safari 8?

I've tried changing tab behaviour in Safari prefs to tab through every item, but that's too many tabs to accomplish what I want to do.

Here's an extension that will let you do it in Google Chrome: https://github.com/nqzero/knogs

At the bottom of that page is a link to do the same thing in Safari (I can't link to it directly from here because I don't have the reputation for it).

I haven't tried either version though.

Personally, I use Mafuyu (http://wakabamac.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-1013.html). Instead of using J and K to navigate and return to open the result, you use 1-9 or 0 to open the result directly.


How can I press escape on a Bluetooth keyboard with my iPhone? I sometimes use a BlueTooth keyboard with my iPhone, which is lovely for writing emails, but I run into difficulties when using terminal on the iPhone - I like to edit files with vi(m), which requires quite a lot of presses of the escape key, but every time I press escape, the iPhone interprets that as a request to go back to the home screen and sends me out of the app.

Any ideas?

Terminal hasn't been updated for nearly a year now, so unfortunately there are some imperfections as things change in iOS.
But for this case, though, I believe the escape key is actually controlled by SpringBoard, not any apps, which means Terminal can't capture and send the escape key to the command-line program.

The iPhone Wiki article on Terminal has information on keyboard shortcuts, and it says that the key shortcut for escape is Ctrl + [ (• + [ on the virtual keyboard).

However, if my assumptions above are correct, the only way to use the real escape key would be to write a tweak to redirect the escape command to Terminal.


Strange folder in trash does not delete even in safe mode I have a very strange folder in trash that cannot be deleted, even in safe mode. It looks like this:
a/b/a/b/a/b/a/b/a/b...

"STM32NucleoPowerControl is the name of my old programming project I don't need anymore. Maybe this odd structure was generated by some crazy IDE? When I try to delete this folder, Finder says that the folder cannot be deleted because item "gcc" is in use. When I skip it, item "ARM" is in use, and so on with other files. Therefore, I have to skip all these files every time when I empty the trash. Thanks for help!

I just had to use rm -r on the directory without root.


Finder is not finding my books on the mac I am trying to sync my books from my mac to my iPAD but the finder is not showing my books so nothing is synced.

Even PDF files are not showing in the finder.
I am using MacOS 10.15.3

The best way to sync your books across Apple devices is using Books app. Just tested on the latest versions of macOS & iOS, and it works perfectly.

So, you need reproduce the next steps:

Open Books app (Spotlight Search -> type "Books" -> If needed, log in)
Drag and drop your .pdf, .epub or other file
Done. Your book is available across all devices where you signed in


Screen rotation bug and reset Poked at the system settings, display settings, and changed screen rotation setting to 180.
Immediately after rotation setting became read only, and then after 30 seconds it crashed.

After reboot i cant'go to system setting any more, it just says to me that it cant open display settings and hangs.

NVRAM reset (options+cmd+R+P) does not reset screen rotation setting, only everything else.

So. How to do rotate display back to default? Command line options anyone?

Macbook Pro 13", 2013, OS X 10.10.2

Accepted answer didn't work for me but the following free command-line tool did;

https://github.com/CdLbB/fb-rotate

Once compiled (see readme) just ./fb-rotate -d 0 -r 0


Dell WD15 Dock with 2017 MacBook Pro - Displays question I have a Dell WD15 dock connected to a 2017 MacBook Pro. I have one monitor connected to the dock through HDMI at 1920x1080, and a second monitor connected to the VGA port. However, the monitor connected through the VGA port does not display anything unless the HDMI connected monitor is disconnected.

Is it possible to get both displays showing simultaneously through this dock and these connections, preferably with extended display mode? As far as I can tell from the WD15 manual, 2 monitors should be supported at this resolution.

No, that is not possible with that dock.

The WD15 manual does not state that this is a supported configuration. It is only supported for Windows, not macOS.

In order to do what you want, you'll need a Thunderbolt 3 dock instead of a USB-C dock. This is due to the way the signal needs to be demultiplexed in order to drive two separate displays. Essentially this particular dock uses MST (multi-stream transport) in order to drive separate displays - the MacBook Pro does not support that.


How much does an iMessage cost on Mobile data? How many Megabytes does an iMessage use when sent over mobile data? I’m asking because I’m on a pay as you go plan and I want to send iMessages on mobile data. I want to know how much will it cost me?

To answer your question as best as possible, lets look at the major points of where the data fluctuates. You didn't say if you had an SMS (Texting) plan with your carrier either, so if you do, just use that.

Media messages with pictures/video will be considerably higher than a basic message.
A basic message is kilobytes in size and very small.
iMessage was developed as a free messaging service between Apple devices via Wifi networks which wouldn't count toward you texts per month/data plan.

So the answer to how much it will cost you is not available from the AskDifferent community without knowing how much you'll be using it and what for.


Where did /usr/bin/git come from? I have a small problem. At some point I used git but I don't remember if it was installed by default on Lion.

Here is the version and path of git:

$ git --version
git version 1.7.5.4
$ which git
/usr/bin/git

I also have a newer git in /usr/local/git

I would like to use the newer version but I don't know if by removing the old one (/usr/bin has precedence in the path variable) I'll break something.

What is the proper way to resolve this conflict?

git is installed by Xcode. I doubt you'll have any problems if you replace it, but I can't give you a definitive answer to that…

What I'd do is rename the old /usr/bin/git to git_old, then rely on your path to select the new one.
If that doesn't work, move the new one to /usr/bin. I doubt Xcode is picky about which version of git it's using.
If that still doesn't work, move git_old back to /usr/bin/git and use either a direct path, rename, or alias for your new one.

I doubt you'll have to go past #1 above, though. That should be enough.

Edit: I read your original post backwards. The first thing you should do is make sure your path includes the new git directory BEFORE the directory that contains the old git.


Triple Boot 2010 Macbook Pro with Dual Drive I have a 2010 Macbook pro running Mavericks and Windows 7 on a 250gb SSD. I just removed the cd drive and installed my old 250 gb hard drive. So now I have two drives. I would like to make the hard drive purely for a linux distribution.

How should I go about doing this?

Some things to note/ consider:
1.   I have no CD drive so I would like to boot up from a USB.
2.   I read that Mavericks has issues with dual booting. So I can't trust many sources?
3.   What file format should I erase the new drive to.
4.   Also should I use rEFInd for booting purposes?
5.   I am aware there are plety of tutorials that walk you through installing linux but I want to have
     A second hard drive JUST for linux.

My current plan is:
Reformat drive with Mac OS Extended (journalized).... Install rEFInd.... Burn ubuntu ISO to flash drive... install ubuntu though rEFInd?

I have no clue if this is at all correct

Thanks in advance...

Save yourself a lot of pain (and time) by using virtual machines. VMware Fusion is $50 and lets you run multiple Mac OS, multiple Windows OS, linux, DOS etc. all at the same time.

I do web development, so I need to use Internet Exploder in 4 different versions. I can't do that on one boot, but I can have 3 instances of windows open at once. My job would take a LOT longer if I had to multi-boot my machine.


How to use Applescript to open a printer app and select items within? I have absolutely no knowledge or experience in using Applescript or Automator. I'm hoping by using either to create an app (or script) that will print a test page off my printer automatically. I know how to open the printer app (Canon iX6800 series.app), but I'm stuck from there with the dialog box not knowing how to continue to do the following steps:

Run "Canon iX6800 series" - I got this part…
Select "Settings" or Command S
Select "Utility"
Select "Print Test Page"
Click "OK"
Quit the app.

Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated. I can send the actual app to whoever might need it. Thanks in advance.
George

I believe I've roughly translated your steps into a working AppleScript:
tell application "Canon iX6800 series" to activate -- Run "Canon iX6800 series"
delay 0.25
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Canon iX6800 series"
    click menu item "Canon iX6800 series" of menu "Window" of menu bar 1
    click menu item "Settings" of menu "Printer" of menu bar 1 -- Select "Settings"
    click radio button "Utility" of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 -- Select "Utility"
    click button "Print Test Page" of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 -- Select "Print Test Page"
    key code 53 -- escape key (selects Cancel)
end tell
tell application "Canon iX6800 series" to quit -- Quit the app

Note that the part at the beginning (with the delay and window selection) is necessary to ensure that an active window is open in the printer app; otherwise, the Settings panel won't be able to open if a window isn't already open.

Although the following isn't what the OP is asking for, in case anybody else is looking to do this with a printer that doesn't supply a "Print Test Page" option in the Settings panel, here's an alternate solution:

Open the "Canon iX6800 series" app
Click the "Print Test Page" menu item in the "Printer" menu
Quit the app

To accomplish this, replace lines 5–7 of the above with click menu item "Print Test Page" of menu "Printer" of menu bar 1.


How to install app from App Store again on Mountain Lion (or on the new OS X)? I had the game "Plants vs Zombies" purchased on the Apple App Store (for Mac) when the computer was using Lion.  Now I made a new partition and installed Mountain Lion on the new partition.

And when I use the App Store to try and install the game on Mountain Lion, it says it is "Installed", and using the "search" at the top right part of the screen, it actually can find "Plants vs Zombies" and even won't list that it is on "Mac HD" (some apps will show "Mac HD" to tell it is not on this new partition of Mountain Lion, which is call "Mac HD 2".)  So it can let me run it... but I think it may be less clean that way.

So is there a way to install it on Mountain Lion?  I think it is more robust if the app is installed on Mountain Lion instead of relying on an old partition.  (what if the old partition is to be deleted a year from now?).  If I Optionclick the "Installed" word on the App Store, it will not do anything.

(I also don't want to just "copy" the app from the old partition to the new partition, as it is some what a brute-force copy and may not be too robust that way).

I've run into this before, and there really isn't a perfectly clean way to do it. However - if I wanted to trick it...
If you unmounted the disk/partition that had the existing copy on it, then App Store couldn't find it. Have you tried renaming the existing copy, or temporarily moving it off the Lion partition to USB key, then rerunning App Store?


Mac Numbers - how to copy multiline text without quotes When I copy a cell that has multiline content, and paste elsewhere, Numbers puts quotes around it.

How do I paste without quotes, I want to paste multiple line, as it is seen in the cell.

Try Command+Shift+V to paste without formatting.


APFS - Have I reinstalled MacOS correctly? I tried to dual boot into linux the other day and accidently ended up messaging my boot volume - the machine ended up booting only into Grub resuce.

I ended up using diskutil to erase the Linux filesystem and swap memory but was forced to erase my MacOS boot volume. I keep backups of everything so it wasn't a huge problem.

My question is have I reinstalled MacOS (High Sierra this time thanks to internet recovery) in the correct location. As it currently stands I think I've installed it directly onto the disk rather than a volume - is this normal with APFS containers?

Output of diskutil list is as follows:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         2.4 GB     disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         248.3 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +2.4 GB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +248.3 GB   disk2
                                 Physical Store disk0s3
   1:                APFS Volume MACOS                   15.1 GB    disk2s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 22.8 MB    disk2s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                506.6 MB   disk2s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk2s4

Do I need to change anything based on the above disk configuration?

You have a useless APFS container with a size of 2.4 GB (disk0s2/disk1) and a second APFS container with a size of 248.3 GB (disk0s3/disk2) with the default set of APFS volumes.

A default install of macOS High Sierra on your internal SSD is expected to look like this:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.7 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.7 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume MACOS                   15.1 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 22.8 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                506.6 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode or a second boot drive I would completely erase disk0 to one APFS container and either reinstall macOS High Sierra and migrate personal data with the Migration Assistant or restore a current Time Machine backup.


How can I go to the previous desktop in Mission Control using a hot key? Say, I have 10 desktops. I'm on the desktop 2. I switch to the deskotp 7 using the F3 key and touchpad. Is there a standard hot key for switching back to the deskotp 2? And then back to the deskotp 7.

Similar to Alt+Tab, but for the desktops.

Using keyboard shortcuts to switch Desktops.

Open System preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts.

Click on the Mission control.

Desktops will show there with number associated to it.

Check all you want to switch.

Use "ctrl" and press number to switch.


How do I disable the media keys (play, pause, skip, etc.) on the macOS login window? When playing music on iTunes or similar and then locking the screen (accomplished by hitting the ⌃⌘Q key combination or selecting "Lock Screen" from the  menu), how do I prevent the media keys from functioning?

In particular, the play, skip, and pause buttons are still functional at this point. This is problematic because I tend to lock my screen in order to prevent my cat from wreaking havoc on my laptop when she steps on the keys -- but she's still able to mess up my music via the above, usually…

Two solutions:

Solution 1: the aforementioned one to toggle the Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys and then lock the screen via an AppleScript invoked by a system-wide hotkey:

display notification "Toggling fn keys and locking"
-- toggl fn keys
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

-- lock screen
activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "SystemUIServer" to keystroke "q" using {command down, control down}
end tell

Then, the next steps are saving this as an Application, and creating a service in Automator to launch this, and setting a keyboard shortcut for that service.

However, this was too slow and also had the irritating side effect of me having to write another script to un-toggle the Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys setting after logging back in.

Solution 2: I ended up using KeyboardCleanTool, which solves the problem more directly by locking all the keys on application startup until one clicks the relevant UI button:

  KeyboardCleanTool is a super simple little tool which blocks all
  Keyboard and TouchBar input.


How do I run two AppleScripts simultantiously I'm trying to figure out how to have two AppleScripts run simultaneously by clicking on the one icon. Currently I'm trying to use

set contentFile to myFolder & "Contents/Resources/Secondary.scpt"
do shell script "afplay " & quoted form of contentFile"

But I know the "afplay" is for audio not scripts. Any help would be great.

You can use path to resource to get the pathname of the .scpt file that's in an App's Resource folder, and then run the .scpt file using osascript e.g.:

set scptPath to POSIX path of (path to resource "Secondary.scpt")

do shell script "osascript" & space & scptPath


How to disable Top Sites in Safari on High Sierra I've found instructions for previous macOS versions, but none that work for High Sierra. Does anyone have  solution that keeps your favourites, but just removes top sites permanently.

The answers that I've tried and no longer work are:

macOS Lion: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/97533/15131
macOS Lion: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/112554/15131
macOS Mavericks: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/157737/15131

So turns out you can just secondarily click them, then disable Show Frequently Visited Sites from the menu that appears.


Two-factor authentication "You have sent too many codes to verify your phone number." I recently tried to enable 2FA for iCloud - whenever I enter the code sent to my phone, it keeps telling me to try again. I've sent so many codes that it now says that it won't send me too many codes (as quoted in title).

Why does this happen and how to fix?

EDIT I kept getting "Try entering your verification code again." I discovered I reside in a country where 2FA does not apply. Rather strange that the Apple software does not recognize this and prompts me to keep trying.

Wait for 8 hours and then try again. If the codes dont work the 1st 2 times, click didnt receive code and try another offered method (like text me, call me, didn't receive code). It sounds like you have a software issue. Maybe a backup and restore can help in the long run, but for now just wait the 8 hours.


Where can I find a projector case which is compatible with the iphone 5? I've managed to locate numerous cases which are what I'm looking for but none are available for the Iphone 5 model. I have an adapter cord but obviously that defeats the purpose of having the device be a case.

Is such a case in production currently? When can I expect one to come into production?

http://dx.com/p/a50p-2-in-1-pico-projector-battery-pack-for-iphone-5-ipad-mini-samsung-galaxy-s2-black-201546

I have ordered many items from DealExtreme so far and I am overall satisfied with the quality-price and their great support and after sales team. You can trust.


Mac OS terminal tab separate histories Terminal gets bash to go through an elaborate dance to keep separate histories for each tab.  Normally (for me anyway) after a restart of Mac OS these separate histories are lost and you are left with just one.

At one time (years ago) the separate histories survived a reboot (much to my delight) but after yet another OS upgrade it went back to the old behavior.

Over the intervening period I have done sporadic searches trying to find out if I imagined this and what the expected behaviour is but turned up nothing useful.

So, was I imagining this and if not how do I get terminal to preserve individual histories between reboots/logouts?

There is this post which I think addresses the same issue but the answer is bit cryptic for me and it isn't clear where you should add the trap command.  Although it may explain why the behaviour comes and goes if that trap is at the in /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal and then another OS release comes along without it!

The answer is simple and obvious — i just never thought of it until I did it by accident.

You need to shut down the shell in each tab before you exit terminal.  Then when you restart the histories get restored as expected.  Shutting down bash causes it to execute the hooks that save the history properly


How do we extend trackpad touch area all the way to the edge in OS X? For example, when touching on the very edges of the trackpad, OS X ignores gestures. In Linux, I can use the full trackpad.

How do I use the full trackpad in OS X? How do I tell OS X not to ignore the edges of the trackpad?

EDIT: oops, looks like I posted a duplicate: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/233928/how-to-enable-touch-on-the-bottom-edge-of-the-trackpad, but no responses there yet. :(

Sadly, you can't. This is just a system software thing, and unfortunately, you can't go in and modify system software. There's no setting for it and I don't imagine there's a third-party app for this.


Permanently Stop iTunes Auto-Loading I have an early 2013 Retina MacBook Pro and I'm absolutely fed up with iTunes loading.  I never use it and I never will.

As far as I can tell I've tried every suggestion to stop it from loading of it's own accord.  The most common suggestion is to remove the iTunes Helper from my accounts Login Items which I have done ... repeatedly.  It always worms it's way back in somehow.

How can I disable this app permanently?  I simply don't want it to ever run ... ever.  Only if I launch it manually.

Short question, many solutions

The easy way

Using the Terminal, unregister all the links from you file types to iTunes    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -u /Applications/iTunes.app

If you still have trouble and iTunes opens automatically, check out RCDefaultApp. Old, but still working (right click->open...)
http://www.rubicode.com/Software/Bundles.html#RCDefaultApp

Install, go to system preferences, disable all the "media" links to iTunes

"Quick and dirty" (Teminal)

First, do

sudo chown -R $USER /Applications/iTunes.app
chmod ugo-x /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS

This will prevent iTunes from starting EVER.
To start iTunes manually, do

chmod ugo+x /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes; open /Applications/iTunes.app; chmod ugo-x /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

The way for the brave

Use duti, http://duti.org/documentation.html. Install using "brew install duti", make sure to have homebrew installed first (http://brew.sh).
Remove all links to iTunes.
Make sure to read Change file association in terminal? to get all current file types.


Is the increased weight of the ipad 4 worth the retina screen, in comparison to the ipad mini? I'm trying to decide between purchasing a iPad mini or an iPad 4--this will be my first tablet.  I went to the Apple Store and was struck by how heavy the iPad 4 feels in comparison to the iPad mini, but also by how gorgeous the iPad 4 screen is.  The main question is if the weight and heft of the large iPad is worth the retina screen in comparison to the smaller, lighter, but not so crisp iPad mini.  My primary uses of the device will be ebooks, rss reading, document viewing, social networking, streaming video, light emailing, occasional gaming.

No. Unless you are showing clients pictures or using a remote desktop access to control a computer and do work, the mini is so much lighter than the retina iPad that it's not even fair to compare them in terms of ease of use.

Yes, you can tell the difference between something drawn with retina versus the mini screen - especially for foreign texts and line art, but in practice it doesn't matter much.

I have and use both and easily, my use slants 10 to 1 in favor of the lighter mini - especially for short bursts and casual reading and gaming. For several apps, I do increase the font size one notch from what I prefer on the retina display, but I don't find any critical failure in not having a retina display despite using the device heavily for work and pleasure.

At half the weight and almost all the power, the mini is the device to get except for some very specialized situations. You can also put the money you save into AppleCare plus or a wireless keyboard or just apps and have a better all around solution.


Can I increase the resolution of a 13-inch MacBook Pro? I have a 13-inch MacBook Pro with the default resolution 1280x800. I would like to know if there exists the possibility of having a better resolution?

Sorry, no. The resolution of the display panel itself is only 1280x800, so there is no way to display more without physically replacing the panel.


Remove header columns in Page 5.0 In the new iWork Pages, there is by default 3 cells or columns in the header and I cannot remove the column back to its original one column header just like the normal header in Pages 09'.

If you see that in the image, it is NOT a table, but the header when the cursor hover on it.

In fact what Apple did here is better than before :

If you write in only one of these 3 columns it behaves as if there were only one column.


Emptying the Trash on MacBook Pro I emptied the trash "non-securely," and now I want to find those files and delete them permanently, in order to free space on my startup disc.  I learned from Apple that they go into an "invisible" trash folder, but I can't find it.

How do I find this folder and delete it for good?  I need space on my startup disc.

Your question is actually based on a misunderstanding of how deleting files works (not a criticism - many people get confused by this because the process can be different based on OS and the type of storage device).

In a nutshell, if your only concern is that you want to free up space on your startup disk, then emptying the Trash will have already done this (regardless of how you emptied it). This is because emptying the Trash means the OS no longer has a record of the data you emptied, and this means wherever the data was stored is now free for the OS to overwrite with new data. In other words, that space is now available (free) for you to use.

A bit more detail

Your comment that you emptied the trash "non-securely" actually has no bearing on free disk space. The option to securely erase data basically means that the data is actually overwritten with random data. This makes it a lot harder to recover the original data (hence the term secure) but it's still writing data to that space. However, once complete, as with a normal empty trash the OS has no record of that space being used and therefore it is now free space.

Trash keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts may be of interest to you:

CommandDelete - moves any selected item(s) to the Trash. (If you've selected an item already in the trash it'll then put them back to their original location.)
ShiftCommandDelete - Empties the Trash.
OptionShiftCommandDelete - Empties the Trash as above, but without a confirmation dialog box.


Am I missing something by using outdated data cable and wall charger? My wife has iPhone 3G and I recently bought iPhone 4 for myself. Since we can easily manage charging for both of our phones from just one wall charger, I actually never unpackaged mine and data cable is still packed as well.

But few days ago I noticed that my phone refusing to sync with even older data cable (from 3rd gen iPod nano) although iPhone 3G does sync with it.

So that got me thinking, do I missing something by not using updated accessories? Faster charging time or data sync maybe? Any thoughts?

I have a total of 5 charging cables (and my partner has another 4) ranging from the 3G days until now. I still use my original 3G cable (the one where you had to press buttons on the side to release it) to plug my iPhone 4 into my iMac, and nothing has gone wrong so far :)


Migrating Mac to Mac via iCloud Is it possible to migrate MacBook completely via iCloud? When you restore iPad iCloud backup from another iPad you get everything -- settings, apps, data. Is it possible to do the same on MacBook, including cloning the installed applications and all the data and settings?

Although you can get whatever you can on your iPad via iCloud also on your new Mac via iCloud, you can not completely migrate Mac to Mac via iCloud. But, note that, this is actually (via iCloud) how I migrated to my new MBP last year as I preferred to have it set up fresh and I don't have too much data (just a few GB) outside pictures and music.

Even if you enable every iCloud category in System Preferences > iCloud, iCloud only synchs your user data files such as office documents, pdf files as well as pictures, contacts, calendars, etc.

Unless you are subscribed to Apple Music or iTunes Match or they reside as regular files under the Documents folder, you won't have access to your music via only iCloud. iCloud will neither install the applications you have on your previous Mac onto the new one nor customize them or your system settings the way they are on your previous Mac. However, you can download the applications you have obtained from App Store with your previous Mac by signing in with the same Apple ID in your new Mac from App Store again.

Apple recommends that you migrate from one Mac to another using Migration Assistant if you wish to do it as completely as possible.


How to send an email from command line? How to send an email from command line or script? I want to be able to run the script programmatically by passing the receiver and the message.

There are two programs that I am aware of which will easily allow you to configure your Mac to send email from the command line.

I have written up HOWTOs for both of them:

mailsend
msmtp

Of the two, I suggest msmtp.

Configuration is complicated enough that I'm not sure if I should replicate all of the steps here, but I will mention that if you use
Homebrew
you can install msmtp using

brew install msmtp --with-macosx-keyring

Then the rest is just a matter of setting up the related configuration files

The first is /usr/local/etc/msmtprc

# Begin msmtprc
# Set default values for all following accounts.
defaults
tls on
logfile ~/.msmtp.log

# A first gmail address
account example@gmail.com
host smtp.gmail.com
port 587
protocol smtp
auth on
from example@gmail.com
user example@gmail.com
tls on
tls_starttls on

# this next line is crucial: you have to point to the correct security certificate for GMail.
# If this doesn't work, check the mstmp documentation
# at http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/documentation.html for help
#
# This next line should all be on one long line:
tls_trust_file /path/to/Thawte Roots/Thawte SSLWeb Server Roots/thawte Premium Server CA/Thawte Premium Server CA.pem

# Set a default account
# You need to set a default account for Mail
account default : example@gmail.com

# end msmtprc

Note that tls_trust_file line should point to wherever you have downloaded and installed the certificates from https://www.thawte.com/roots/index.html.

I put mine in ~/Dropbox/Thawte Roots so that I can have it on all of my Macs.

Then you need a ~/.mailrc file to say where the msmtp binary is located. If you use brew it will be /usr/local/bin/msmtp so the file would look like this:

set sendmail="/usr/local/bin/msmtp"

The last but crucial step is making sure your Keychain has the information exactly in the format that msmtp will expect it:

I think that covers most of the details. See http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/04/msmtp-a-free-tool-to-send-email-from-terminal/ if you want a few more specifics.


Can't pass by apple loading screen I own a 17inch MacBook Pro late 2011.
While working on Photoshop I experienced a screen distortion with vertical strips and then it got stuck. I was forced to restart but I couldn't pass by this screen.

I tried everything. Resetting PRAM, checking disk in Single User Mode (sbin/fsck -fy), I was able to mount a drive and back up my data. Sometimes, I was able to boot normally, but I had the same issue again after a while. Finally, after many attempts, I was able to boot in recovery disk and reformat my os, I did a clean install. At first it seemed to work fine and I upgraded, all happily, to El Capitan.
While still testing the Mac if was working properly, I had the same issues again. Now, no matter what I try, it refuses to do anything except Single User Mode.

What's wrong? Is it the logic board? Is there something I can do? Unfortunately, Genius Bar is not an option as I moved away from uk.

The problem was solved by replacing the logic board. I went to a local merchant who complies with Apple, and they told me they will replace it for free. After being pressed by its customers (in US) who were complaining for this issue and even sued the company, Apple filed an issue for free replacements during the last five years.
More info here and here


How to delete Time Machine Backups that were moved into Recycle Bin Trash? I use Time Machine on an external drive to back up my files. The external drive was getting close to be being full so I moved all the backed up file folders to my Recycle Bin (Trash) on my Desktop to permanently delete them. When I go try and empty the trash though it is taking forever because there's so many files in there now. Does anyone know if there is a quicker way around this - a way to delete these files and get them out of the trash without it taking hours or days? Thank you!

If the drive is getting close to be being full, TM will free the space automatically.

You can empty the Trash (delete the files) much faster with Terminal command

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

However, you will probably corrupt your entire backup by deleting specific TM snapshots (folders with datetime in the name). Learn how TM is actually storing the data on the drive (hint: symlinks).


How to copy/export emails from old iPhone I use iPhone’s Mail app to get my emails. I got a new iPhone and found emails are not copied from the old iPhone. It seems the logic is to download emails from the email servers again. However, one of the email service has shut down and no service anymore. How can I retrieve/export emails from this email account? I have catched emails in my old iPhone.

If at least one of the Mail Accounts available on both phones you can

create a mail folder in this account
copy all mails from the shutdown account into this folder (on the old phone)
wait a while to have the phone sync the mail folder back to the Server
access the Mail folder from your new phone


How to run Microsoft Access on a Mac? I am a small business owner and I have been working and developing a property management system in Access 2017. It works great and I've invested years and sweat & tears over this system. I run Insightly, FileMaker Pro, JotForms and other Mac based business software platforms on my Mac with iOS Sierra. FileMaker Pro is the biggest pain when it comes to external connectivity where I have to use ODBC drivers that are propriety to the FMpro people and not generic like in normal Windows ODBC connections. Besides, nothing beats Access for ease of use, form design, database application design, etc without the need to learn ASP.net, SQL Server, programming, etc.

After reading this and this, I am thinking the answer to this question is simply, "No! There is no best way to run Access".

The ONLY way I've managed to run Access was to use Windows Remote Desktop, and actually run Access 2017 on a separate Windows machine. I've tried some "
"Windows" emulator programs on the Mac, and frankly they just don't have the smarts for running Access 2017 in Windows, with the ability to run Macros, or  VBA, which are designed into my ACCDB database file.

I hate to have to use RDT software to remote into a separate machine whether it’s on my local network or cloud based / remote.

Given that I already know I can remote out and have dismissed these options, How can I run MS Access on my local Mac with no network connection elsewhere?

Unfortunately you have found the conundrum Microsoft has placed before you. There is no way to run Access natively on a Macintosh. You can try Parallels or Bootcamp to run Windows on the Mac, and then within Windows, Office Access, but that seems a little like a Frankenstein solution.

I know this sounds heretical from the completely Mac-centric IconDaemon, but sometimes Microsoft wins and you have to bite the bullet and run a PC.

Have you considered purchasing access (pun intended) to a co-located Windows server? This company offers such a service. (No financial or other ties to Colocation America - I just Googled and this was the first company to pop up.)