What does "More…" mean in the Finder's "All my Files" view? In the Finder's view "All My Files", I can see a button "More…"... what does this button mean? Why is it there in the first place?

Edit: The button is not always there. If I click on it, the message "Searching All My Files" appears in the bottom, and the button disappears... ?!??

Sometimes when I click the button, it takes forever, and new categories appear, like "Events and Todos"...

I'm still clueless as to what this button is supposed to do.

Terrible user interface design, in my opinion...

Simply put, the aptly named button "More…" loads more results.

By default† the "All My Files" smart folder is arranged by kind and sorted by last access time. Arranging means those blocks that contains files belonging to its category type (e.g. Movies or Music) and sorting means the order the files are sorted within the block.

All My Files is all about you, so ask yourself: what would be your most typical use–case scenario involving this smart folder?

I use last access time for both arranging and sorting the folder. I have categories of "Today", "Yesterday", "Last 7 days", "Last 30 days" and "Earlier" and within every category the items are sorted by the last access time during its period.

Now, this is where the More… button shines: All My Files folder is a smart folder which means the contents are generated by a Spotlight search. That means the more results it tries to query the longer it takes to make the contents usable. Question is, would you rather

see the most relevant files quickly
see the whole lot of your files after staring at slowly updating, laggy, maybe blank Finder window for quite some time?

For reference, when both arranging and sorting the All My Files by last access time, the results I get after consequent presses of More… button are:

Today: 2 → 3 → 4
Yesterday: 14 → 15 → 16
Last 7 days: 185 → 193 → 198
Last 30 days: 354 → 364 → 373
Earlier: 9445 → 19425 → 72145

After the second press the button is gone, probably indicating all the available files have been found.

Now the odds are the file I'm looking for can be found from the initial search (which already returns 10000‡ results)—and if not, the All My Files folder may not be the best tool to search for the file in the first place.

Honestly, at times I'd wish for a Less… button, for even more responsive All My Files usage; 10000 results are more than enough.

Finally, if you happen to realize the All My Files folder doesn't quite suite your workflow, you can, of course, remove it from your sidebar.

†) I'm not 100% if these are the default settings, but I could assume so.
‡) You might notice that after the second press I get a total of 20000 results—there's some logic applied!


How to restore a hidden file in Time Machine? I accidentally deleted my ~/.zshrc file and I'd like to get it back from a Time Machine backup. When I enter Time Machine I can see my home directory, but all the dot-files in the directory are hidden in the Finder window displayed by Time Machine.

How can I restore a hidden file like ~/.zshrc using Time Machine?

Rest assured that Time Machine is backing up your dot-files! You just can't see them by default in Finder. In order to restore a hidden file like .zshrc you first need to turn off file hiding in finder. You can do this by opening a Terminal window and entering:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

Now enter Time Machine and navigate to where your hidden files resided. You should be able to restore them from there.

When you've restored all the files you want you can go back to having Finder hide them by entering:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

in a Terminal window.


Prohibition Sign and Can't Reinstall OS X I have no idea what happened, but my macbook pro's battery died, and when I went to turn it on, it took me to a grey screen with the prohibition symbol. When I researched the problem, most solutions were to reinstall OS X. I booted up recovery mode and went to do do so, but when prompted to select a disk to install it on, the menu was empty.

Went to Disk Utility, and the HDD is showing up there. Tried to repair, got several weird errors, so I used Internet Recovery mode instead. Trying to reinstall OS X on there also did not work as the menu is also empty.

This time, trying to repair the disk gave some progress, but I kept getting stuck on a "partition map failed while adjusting size for logical volume" error message. I went into Single User Mode and ran fsck -fy, which did return a successful "The volume appears to be OK" message, but when I try to repair the disk again, it still gives the same message.

I have no idea what to do and have exams in 4 days, so if anyone knows what to do or knows how I could access my files (class notes), I'd really appreciate it.

The computer is a mid 2012 Macbook Pro non-retina model, and I bought it in October 2013. It was running the latest OS.

Thank you in advance.

Wow. After a frustrating 6 hours, I managed to fix it 10 minutes after posting this.

Although I have no idea what I really did, I'll post my "solution" for anyone with the same problem who happens to come across this because the amount of frustration I felt at people who described my exact problem but never gave an update is unreal.

Anyways, all I did was kept restarting my computer, booting into internet recovery mode and just continuously repairing the disk over and over, ignoring the "this disk can't be repaired" and other messages. I only ran the "fsck -fy" command once in total. It looks like the key is just continuously repairing the disk until it starts to function again.

I knew it was working when it returned a success message and the disk showed up in the OS X reinstall menu, but I didn't even need to reinstall; I rebooted and everything is working fine.


Password prompted for app updates in phone 5 I have iPhone 5 and iOS 6.0.1 updated. Device prompts for password even while updating the apps. What is wrong with the device? Am I missing any settings?

Try disabling your restrictions. Go to General, then scroll down to Restictions and type in your password. Select disable and try to update apps again.

If this doesn't work, confirm that the apps are connected to the same iTunes account used in the device in Settings.


Macbook Air without Sound, and missing Input/Ouput device options I have an up-to-date Macbook Air on which the sound no longer works.

I had installed Soundflowerbed on it, and for a long time everything was working fine until a couple of weeks ago when it started to not work after a while.

Then it stopped completely.

I uninstalled Soundflowerbed, reset using:

command + alt + P + R, and
shift + ctrl + alt

but, still the sound does not work.

The Sound devices view look like this:

and, the input devices:

What can I do to get the sound back? I did the hardware tests (pressing D while booting), and there are no issues.

Also, I am pretty sure it is not a hardware issue.

Is there a way to reinstall the sound drivers or something like that?

I did a fresh install, reinstalling the whole system and the sound worked for one day, and now I have the same issue...

Shut down the Macbook
Press  shift + ctrl + alt and press the power button. Notice the change in power led color if the Macbook is connected to power. Note this won't start the Macbook.
Now, press command + alt + P + R, and press the power button. You will see the screen flashing a couple of times. This won't power on the Macbook either.
Now, start the Macbook normally.
Enjoy!


Mac Mail "Reply-To" address Mac Mail is changing my "reply to" email address on my emails. I have several accounts set up in Mail, and when I send an email from one account, and people reply to that email, it sends the email to a different account of mine than the one I had sent the email from.

There is nowhere that I can find in the Preferences to set a "reply to" address.
Apple's support documents indicate that the "reply to" address would be the address your email was sent from (makes sense) unless you type a different address in the "Reply To" field.
Even when I typed the address I was sending from into the "Reply To" field, the receiver of the email STILL had the different email show up when they hit reply.

I also tried this in the Terminal, found on an about.com site: "defaults read com.apple.mail UserHeaders"

The response was "The domain/default pair of (/Users/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist, UserHeaders) does not exist" which should mean that there isn't some overriding "Reply To" address set.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much all! Happy 2012!

Wow! It was somewhat obvious... in Preferences -> Accounts there is a setting for "Outgoing Mail Server" and that is where I needed to make some changes. Thanks everyone that tried to help!


60w charger only delivering 5.5w to battery? I've just bought and installed a replacement battery for my 15" late 2012 MBP (non retina).

The battery is not OEM but from iFixit as they are in my opinion the next best thing.

I was interested to see how the new battery fares, so I installed this battery monitor app to see how it was. See screenshot of report from battery app monitoring app below.

I'm currently charging on a 60W original Apple charger (as I understand it,  the 85W is optimal, but not necessary).

Is it correct that the charging with value = 5.5w, shouldn't it be c. 60w?

I'm also getting very long estimated charge times, it first started at c. 5hrs, and was slowly charging. But now it seems to be slowing down at around 40% charge, and is saying time to fill the battery is c. 10hrs.

Is it correct that the charging with value = 5.5w, shouldn't it be c.
60w?

This is expected behavior.
The 60W rating on the power adapter is the maximum amount of power that the adapter will supply.  Note that it's not the amount that will be "pushed," but the amount that can be drawn from it.
Slow Charging Speed

... for my 15" late 2012 MBP (non retina)...I'm currently charging on a 60W original Apple charger (as I
understand it, the 85W is optimal, but not necessary).

This is an incorrect assumption on your part.  The 2012 15" MacBook Pro requires the 85W charger - see Apple:  Find the right power adapter and cable for your Mac notebook
This is why you're seeing the very long charging times - your MacBook Pro is "asking" for more than your adapter can deliver and since the adapter can't supply any more, it lowers the power to the battery charger in favor of the compute requirements.
Your MacBook has two operations going on: powering the system and charging the battery.  In this scenario, priority is given to powering the system.  If you were to shut it down, the priority would naturally go to charging the battery.
Seeing only 5 to 6W of power being allocated to a running computer is perfectly fine (for the 60W charger); the power is being divided to account for your current use.  Use the correct charger and it will operate and charge correctly.
Further Reading
There's additional questions/answers on this very topic.  Please see the following links for further reading:

Danger of damaging 13" macbook pro by charging it with 85w charger?

MacBook 2007 charger

Other than speed, is there a reason that a 10W iPad charger shouldn't charge a new MacBook Pro 2016?

TL;DR
You're using the wrong charger.  Get the 85W charging adapter and your charge times will decrease to normal levels.


Missing ftp command line tool on macOS Use ftp to obtain source code.

I am following a linux command line book to learning compiling.

[me@linuxbox src]$ ftp ftp.gnu.org
Connected to ftp.gnu.org.
220 GNU FTP server ready.

I tried and it reported an error

$ ftp ftp://ftp.gnu.org/
-bash: ftp: command not found

$ ftp
-bash: ftp: command not found

How to solve the problem?

macOS does not come with an FTP command line tool. You can connect read-only (just for downloading things) to FTP servers using Finder. Open Finder and choose Go → Connect to Server (⌘K or ) and enter ftp://ftp.gnu.org/.

When prompted for a username and password, choose Guest if the server does not require authentication, which is the case with ftp.gnu.org.

If you do need ftp on the command line, you can install ftp using Homebrew:

brew install inetutils


Apple Error reporting suddenly turned off. OSX 10.9.4 So I was using my mac and usually when a game or application crashes it would produce an error report that will then allow me to either submit or not to apple.

Yesterday this stopped happening, some of my application have crashed and there have been absolutely no error reports whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure what has changed. Is there a way to check that error reporting is actually on? and if not, how do I turn it on?

Thanks!

Euden

You can change it in Terminal. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and then...

Turn the Crash Reporter dialog box off entirely:
defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

Turn it back on to its default type:
defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType crashreport


OS X 10.6.8 Function Keys (brightness, playback control) no longer working I have a 27" iMac (2009) running the OS X 10.6.8 and using the Apple Wireless Keyboard.  Since around March or early April, I noticed that the function keys (F1-F9) have stopped working. I think it started with one of the recent software updates.

Now, I can no longer control the brightness or media playback with the keyboard function keys.  Looking at the on-screen keyboard, it's like the F1-F9 keys are not even registered by the OS.  The volume keys (F10-F12) do still work.

While I can still control the brightness in System Preferences, this is still a big problem for me because when I try to use the iMac in target display mode with a MacBook Air (2011), the iMac goes to full brightness and I cannot adjust it down anymore with the keyboard buttons like I could before.  This makes it unusable as a secondary display.

I have tried a lot of stuff but nothing seems to help.  I have noticed a few posts on the Apple support forums with similar problems but there doesn't seem to be a resolution yet.

Things I've tried so far:

restarting computer
PRAM reset
SMC reset
disconnecting and re-pairing the keyboard
replacing keyboard batteries
using a different keyboard
repairing disk permissions
toggling the "Use F1,F2 keys..." setting

Another weird thing I noticed is that now the keyboard defaults seem to be mapped weird - it says that the brightness controls are mapped to F14/F15 when I don't even have those keys.  And some of the other functions like Dashboard also got their defaults to different keys.

If I try mapping the brightness controls different keys such as F11/F12, I get the "invalid input" beep when I try pressing them.

Anyone know what could be going wrong?

Have you tried Change Keyboard Type in System Preferences -> Keyboard?


Mid '11 Mac Mini won't shutdown cleanly. OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 When I go to shutdown my mid 2011 Mac Mini (running OS X El Cap, EDIT* 10.11.6), it will not do so "cleanly." I close all applications, then click Apple > Shutdown and finder closes like it's going to shutdown, but it gets stuck. I have to hold the power button till it shuts down, then when it powers back on I get the error message (with a yellow exclamation point):

  You shut down your computer because of a problem. If you want to open the applications that were open when you shut down, click Open. If you do nothing, the computer will continue to login in 17 seconds...

So far I have tried:
 - Opening Disk Utility and running "First Aid" on the SSD. I get a green check mark when done.
 - Booting to Recovery (Cmd + R) and running First Aid.

EDIT: Apparently "First Aid" is not the same as repairing disk permissions! Looking into this... http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/04/verify-repair-permissions-mac-os-x/

EDIT2: As a result of the issue, I am unable to install any OS X updates and the only way I can reboot is via the terminal command sudo reboot now

EDIT3: Booting in verbose mode, I see many (about 20 or so) of these:
Could not open PlatformSupport.plist
and also...
ERROR!!! Recovery Image verification fail with status [0x800000000000000e]
Error loading kernel cache 0oxe)

What could be the issue here? Anyone know what logs files I can check and where? Thanks.

Firstly, you should update to OS X 10.11.6. It will solve many problems. Download 10.11.6 Update.

Secondly, reset SMC. Here is a link how to do it: Resetting System Management Controller.

If it doesn't help, try clean install: How to Clean Install El Capitan.

ADDITION:

If you can't do clean install using your own mac, make a bootable USB on another mac: Click here.

Also, go to Utilities and run Console.app for inspecting what's wrong with your OS: Click here.

It might be a problem with a hardware, so try single-user mode pressing cmd-s after startup 'chime' sound or verbose mode pressing cmd-v the same way. To read about it Click here.

And read an important post about 7 Mac Startup Options: Click here.


Family Sharing iPhone syncing I'm downloading family shared purchases (music) to my iPhone. It seems as though after I sync my phone to my computer it removes all the shared content I downloaded. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

If you can still see it on your computer in iTunes, you need to turn off your iTunes Match on your Phone and on your computer.

Disconnect and connect to refresh. Now on your phone, go to your Settings → iTunes & App Store and turn off the iTunes Match and it will give you 2 options: Enable or Cancel. Select Enable!

Then go to your computer on your iTunes, where you see your Phone, then on the menu bar where it says File, Edit, View, Control, Store and Help, go to Store and click the option where it says turn off your iTunes Match. Disconnect your Phone from the computer and connect again.


Deleting a phone from iCloud In the manage storage section on my phone, if I delete the backup of another phone from my iCloud, will I lose the pictures currently on my phone that were taken from this other phone?

The photos will remain on your current phone. You're only deleting the backup of a different phone and not affecting the phone you're using at all.


Launch a bash script from the dock I can't seem to figure this one out, there must be some really easy trick.

I have a bash script which sets my environment for an app and launches it with the correct parameters.  How can I put this script (or any script) on the dock?

Thanks,

Automator can be used to create an application "wrapper" around a script, so that you can launch your script like any other application (and it won't spawn a superfluous Terminal window in the process).

Open Automator, and create a new application type workflow.
Add a Run Shell Script action, and enter your script into the text field.
If your script takes input (such as files), make sure the Pass input setting on the action is set appropriately (either arguments, if you use $1, $2, etc. or stdin). Otherwise you can ignore this setting.
Save the workflow to your location of choice, then drop the resulting file in the Dock.


Mail for Mac will not accept my password I have an imac running OSX 10.6.8 on which Mail for Mac 4.6 is installed. I use this app to access my .mac account - this being a MobileMe IMAP account. Since midday today I have been unable to access my inbox or send mail - I am repeatedly told my password is wrong. I have repeatedly reentered my password to no avail. I am able to access my account through iCloud (web based) using my usual password, so clearly I know the password and am not entering it wrongly in Mail. I have checked all the other IMAP and STMP settings - they are correct.
I am also able to access the account through my father's iPad - but have had to set up 2 factor authentication for this to happen. I am wondering if I need 2 factor to access from Mail - but cannot find any way of generating or entering such a password. Help!

You need to set up an app-specific password, which is now mandatory on anything connecting to iCloud that doesn't support 2FA. See Apple's current instructions here, but they may change over time and so shouldn't be included in an answer.
If the link no longer works, search for "icloud app-specific password".

You will need to set up two-step (not two-factor, which your iMac doesn't support) authentication on your iCloud account.


Is it possible to create shortcuts for VLC using Automator? I see here that Automator can be used to create commands that then can be triggered globally.

I have no idea how to use Automator but see that it has some options for involving applications... Can a "service" be created for VLC that will then be bound to keystroke triggers?

What I want are simple commands like pause/play, back and forward that could be used with shortcuts no matter what other window application is on top.

You can create services like this:

Then give the services shortcuts from System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services.

I prefer using third party applications instead of services to assign shortcuts to scripts though. There has been a bug since 10.7 where the shortcuts for services don't always work until you hover over the services menu from the menu bar (or for example run a service once from the menu bar). There is also a noticeable delay before services are run, and the shortcuts for services don't work when an application that doesn't have a services menu (like Tower) is frontmost.

More examples:

tell application "VLC"
    if playing then
        tell application "System Events" to tell process "VLC"
            click menu item "Pause" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Playback" of menu bar 1
        end tell
    else
        play
    end if
end tell

tell application "VLC"
    set n to 60
    if duration of current item - current time > n then
        set current time to current time + n
    else
        next
    end if
end tell

tell application "VLC"
    set fullscreen mode to not fullscreen mode
end tell

tell application "VLC"
    volumeUp
end tell

Open VLC's dictionary in AppleScript Editor to see all supported terminology.


How can users identify which of their iPhone/iPad apps are still only 32-bit (and therefore won't work in future)? Many iPhone/iPad users still use apps on their devices which are only 32-bit. These apps will not work in future if users upgrade to iOS 11, unless of course the apps themselves are updated to run natively in 64-bit.

This being the case, users may want to identify any important apps they have installed that will become useless if they upgrade to iOS 11 in a few months. By doing this users can prepare for the upgrade by:

contacting the developer to confirm their future development plans, and
finding alternative apps that will meet their needs

How can users identify which of their currently installed apps are still only 32-bit?

In iOS 10.3 and above, users can:

Go to Settings
Swipe up and tap on General
Tap on About
Tap on Applications

A list will appear showing all of the apps you have installed that
won’t run in 64-bit mode. Now you can tap on any of your important apps
to determine if it is still available on the App Store. If…

you get a message indicating it is not available, it’s quite likely
that the app is no longer supported. You should try contacting
the developer to check whether it will be updated.
you’re taken directly to the App Store, then the app is still
available and you’ll need to contact the developer to confirm
their plans for 64-bit support.

This process is the recommended approach for ensuring you
don’t get caught out when iOS 11 is released later in the year.


Where is history stored with Safari 10.1 under OS10.11? Everyone else is worried about clearing all records, but I spent more than a year setting up all the tabs that I want open for my work. After an institutionally mandated "upgrade", numerous programs failed to function and I got remote help that resolved most of those problems. Unfortunately, the remote Tech closed and re-opened Safari without doing a "Restore Previous Session" and then closed it, again. Short of painstakingly pouring over thousands of websites that I have visited over the past 12 - 18 months, perhaps I can find where Safari stored "Restore Last Session" history file I need within Time Machine.
Any suggestions? I looked in ~Library//Caches/Metadata/Safari and found thousands of websites, but no "Restore Last Session"

First, close Safari, then enter Time Machine from /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Safari/.

Next, restore the LastSession.plist file.

Then reopen Safari and then you can "Reopen All Windows from Last Session" in the History menu.


How can I remove the key labels from my Apple Wireless Keyboard? I want to achieve something like this. What would be the best way to remove the print from the keys, or can I find a shop that sells those keys with out a characters on them?

You can't erase the print, because the "foreground" and "background" are two colors of plastic that comprise the entire keycap.  That's so the print doesn't wear off.

You could cover the print with paint or a sharpie, but that would wear off.

Stickers feel bad, and do wear off (I had this problem in an Avid video suite).

Some blank-keycap keyboards are for sale, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard, but they're not exactly what you want.

Some vendors sell replacement keycaps, like http://www.ebay.com/itm/281064247677 , but they may not have blanks, because they get theirs from other Apple keyboards instead of making them themselves.

The best, but not quick-and-dirty, solution would be to take RTV molds of the original keycaps (pry them off like this: http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/product/MC184D/B/1/QK2AFXHXKKA2J7AXA ), and then mold your own keycaps from scratch.


Paging Up/Down in irssi Running In The iTerm2 Terminal Emulator I can't figure out how to actually page up and down in irssi's history to see previous conversations. The majority of posts claimed that first hitting Ctl+A, then using Shft+fn+[up/down], which didn't work either.
I'm sure this is a meta-character terminal translation issue, but I have no idea where or what to start tinkering with. If anyone knows what is going on or how I can fix it, I would be ever so grateful :)


Macbook Pro Retina suddenly stopped mounting Huawei USB modem I recently bought a MacBook Pro Retina. The first day I was able to connect my Huawei E352 3G USB modem and it worked all the day. After a couple of day I needed 3G connection again, but my MacBook Pro Retina does not recognize the modem anymore. There is a micro SD card in it, and it also does not mount. The modem works with my iMac flawlessly. All the MacBook Pro Retina USB ports work flawlessly, and recognize any other devices (pen drive, Blu-Ray writer, USB 3 external hard drive).

Any ideas as to why the modem doesn't work anymore?

The issue is probably that by pulling out the modem without safely ejecting it first, the MicroSD card became corrupted and/or the modem itself was damaged.

The simplest and quickest fix may be, unfortunately, to get a new modem.


How to find replacements for Dashboard widgets in macOS Notficiation Center I have been hesitating "upgrading" to macOS Catalina from Mojave because of its loss of the Dashboard.  I know that the Notification Center's "Today" view is supposed to replace the functionality of the Dashboard, and I'm willing to adapt to a new workflow if it's possible to recreate it in the newer OS version, but thus far I haven't found the same set of widgets that I use in the Dashboard.

Notification Center seems to have a different set of working assumptions than Dashboard.  That is, instead of installing widgets, you have to install an application that supports a Notification Center extension.  Apps produced these days are mostly trying to grab your attention (hence "Notification" Center) rather than providing useful functions.

Specifically, there are a couple of dictionaries, including the built-in dictionary app and a 3rd party foreign language dictionary, that I frequently use in the Dashboard.  There is also a general-purpose web clipper tool that you can use to create a new widget out of a website.

Is there:

Some secret rich repository of Notification Center widgets I don't know about where I might find a replacement for the dictionaries I use?
A way to search the Apple App Store for applications that offer widgets?
Some magic I can do with Script Editor to expose a widget from a current app like the macOS Dictionary?

For the record, I've updated to macOS Catalina now.  The Notification center now has an "App Store" button that takes you to Apple's AppStore, where there is a section for Notification Center Widgets.  Although the selection is somewhat limited, it's nice to see a small collection of widgets.

Although there is no widget to replace the dictionaries I described in the original post, it is not hard to use ⌘-Space to quickly get Apple's Dictionary App.  It is pretty straightforward to add various foreign language dictionaries to that application.

All in all, it has been possible to replace the features I liked in the discontinued Dashboard with Notification Center Widgets and other applications.


How to never logout and never retype password App store Apple App store is really annoying with all their security. Is there a way to never logout and never retype your passwords?

I newer log out, but it seems something logs me out (sign out) automatically?

This would be a 2 part question.

Part 1 (Password)

Apple Store has 2 levels.

One is general level

you can stay always signed in to that one by simply not singing out.

It will know it is you since it will show your user name:

It will show you your Updates and your Past Purchases.

The next level will always require you to confirm it is you. (what a strange English that was :)

If you want to make a Purchase or change your account settings then the Password is required.

Now to the "Automatic"?? log out part.

Normally once logged in you will stay logged in. The Apple store does not log you out.

One possible reason would be if you change the Computer user, that would lead to log out of the Apple store.

Also your user account might have a problem, so try if you stay logged in in another user account (if you have one).


OS X mavericks update issue am trying to update my iMac 21.5 inch mid 2010 from os x mavericks 10.9.1 to 10.9.5 to work on Xcode 6 but it always fail and give me the alert message OS X Update could not be verified . It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading . Click download and check the update again

can anybody help

If you're running antivirus software, you may wish to try disabling it and downloading your updates from the App Store again. If that doesn't work, try downloading the combo update from here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1760

You may find that this works where downloading from the App Store fails.


Swapping HDD RAID 1 with SSD in Mac Mini I have a Mid 2011 Mac mini with 2x 500G HDD configured as RAID 1.
Recently one of the HDD died.

I planned to

replace the dead HDD with a 500G SSD, and
let the RAID 1 rebuild

Is this a viable option?

If viable, should I

Leave the setup as is, or
Buy another 500G SSD and replace the other HDD

OS is Yosemite.

Update:

Since the question and the answers, I had went ahead to buy 1 SSD, replaced the disk in the Mini by following videos on Youtube.
The RAID rebuilt without a problem.

The system "appears" to be more responsive than before.

Is it a viable option?

Yes.

You could do either of your options given that you are using RAID 1.

That said, I am not a fan of software based RAID.  It consumes CPU cycles that could otherwise be used somewhere else.    Given that SSDs are far more reliable than TSM (traditional spinning media), the chances of a drive failure go down significantly.

What I would do is use the SSD as my primary drive and the second hard disk as an internal Time Machine drive.  You will get increased performance, more reliability and much quicker backups


Unknown error message in Terminal When I open the Terminal I keep getting this message, which I suppose is some error:

  /Users/sinisasasic/.zshrc:export:48: not valid in this context:
  Support/GoodSync:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin

Can anybody help me in translating what this exactly means and what should I do to resolve it, if it’s some problem?

.zshrc is a file run when you start an interactive zsh shell, found in your home directory. The error message says you have an export command which is written incorrectly on line 48. not valid in this context means you're trying to export something that's not a variable. It looks like you're trying to add stuff to your PATH, but are substituting the current path inside the zshrc file. Check that line in the file, there's probably a line along the lines of:

export $PATH=/some/directory/to/add/to/path/:$PATH

You just need to remove the first $ because it's substituting the current path there instead of assigning the PATH variable:

export PATH=/some/directory/to/add/to/path/:$PATH

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22394367/zsh-error-export54-not-valid-in-this-context


Do iPod Nanos have USB 2 or 3? Which version of USB do iPod Nanos have?

Apple's tech spec says it works with a Mac having 2 or 3, but USB is backward compatible so that doesn't help...

All iPhones and iPods with the Lightning connector use USB 2.0. From Wikipedia:

  The Lightning connector … provides an interface to USB 2.0 (for data and charging)

Also, if you look the USB end of a Lightning cable, it doesn't have the additional pins for USB 3.0.

There is actually no point to having USB 3.0, since the flash memory in iPods and iPhones is not fast enough to benefit from its speed.


Upon boot up why is there usage in Inactive and Page In for memory? I understand the concept behind the various memory usage, but I don't understand why there are Inactive memory and Page In upon boot up.  There are no applications that have started which hasn't quit, and what was in RAM that was written to HD that is being brought back as shown in Page In?

The Inactive memory is probably the result of the boot process itself. Any of the files the boot process used, and then no longer needed are still cached for retrieval until something else needs the space.

I believe the page-outs have to do with the way OS X handles loading of dynamically linked libraries and files. Say you load an app called ReallyComplexApplication. This may point to a number of different libraries of code, but don't all need to be loaded into RAM when the app first loads. So OS X loads the core program into memory, and sets up RAM in such a way that if ReallyComplexApplication tries to grab code or data from BigLibraryOfCode it is automatically loaded from disk to memory.

That would be a page in. The OS expects data to be in RAM, but it isn't really there. This isn't really a problem, per say, because it is designed that way. But it is still considered a "page fault"

[EDIT]
Source: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Performance/Conceptual/ManagingMemory/Articles/AboutMemory.html

In that article they actually differentiate, so what you're probably seeing is what they call "Soft fault."

On my machine that has been up for 2 days, I have 16GB of RAM, 0 page-outs but 22,288,514 page ins.


Why does my iPhone 5c say it cannot take new photos even after I delete 100 or so? I tried to take a photo but got an error message saying storage was full.

So, I deleted about 100 photos (from both Camera Roll and Recently Deleted), but I still get the same message.

On top of that I also deleted about 40 mp3s and 3 or 4 apps and restarted the phone, but it's still the same.

Whats the deal?

Restore from a backup.

It looks like there are a lot of cached files on your phone that shouldn't be there. Usually restoring from a backup will clear all of this system trash as it only backs up personal information.

Note: an iTunes backup will be more complete and will contain a lot more app data than iCloud, so that is recommended if you are able to use iTunes.

iTunes (recommended)

Make an iTunes backup. Connect your phone to your computer, and open iTunes. Select Your iPhone (in the top bar) - Summary - Back Up Now.
Disable Find My iPhone. Go to Settings - Apple ID - iCloud - Find My iPhone and turn off the switch. You will have to enter your Apple ID password.

If you have forgotten your Apple ID password, go to iForgot

In iTunes, click Restore iPhone.
Wait for the restore to complete
In Setup Assistant, select that you'd like to restore from an iTunes backup and follow the directions from there.

iCloud

Make an iCloud Backup. Go to Settings - Apple ID (big thing with your name at the top) - iCloud - iCloud Backup - Back Up Now
Disable Find My iPhone. Go to Settings - Apple ID - iCloud - Find My iPhone and turn off the switch. You will have to enter your Apple ID password.

If you have forgotten your Apple ID password, go to iForgot

Wipe your phone. Go to Settings - General - Reset - Erase All Content and Settings.
Wait for your phone to do a full wipe.
In Setup Assistant, select that you'd like to restore from an iCloud backup. Choose your desired iCloud backup.

That's it! See if it worked.


Is it possible to redownload enterprise apps through Apple ID's? To me, it seems as if this should be possible. With a normal app, you can go to 'Purchased' and re-download any previously downloaded apps.

Is it possible to do the same with an enterprise app which was not downloaded through the app store?

No, if it was not originally purchased/downloaded from the Apple App Store, you will not find it in the Purchased section.

Usually, enterprise apps are distributed from that company's 'app store' only.  If they are deleted from your iOS device, you can revisit the company app store and re-download the app again.  It's up to that company if they want to have a Purchased tab or some other way of seeing previously downloaded apps.


How much broadband data does Apple TV use in the menu screen? We have a house in a rural area where broadband data is capped at a really low rate (only 9 GB per month upload and download total, then $10 per additional GB) - the only way to get broadband other than satellite is through a local provider that uses a wireless signal.

Once we have set up our Apple TV (which we have used very easily at a location with unlimited broadband), will it use data at all while we are streaming content from iTunes?

Since the Apple TV menu shows you the Netflix, YouTube and iTunes Store options, among others, I assume some data usage is inevitable.  Does anyone know how much - more importantly, how little - that data usage would be if we are just quickly checking the menu, rather than actually streaming a movie from Netflix or downloading something from iTunes?

The other option is to disconnect the wifi router from the modem when we watch Apple TV - but that's a hassle.

If you consider a movie to be changing data 24 frames per second and compare the size of the menu art compared to the size of a movie screen you will quickly realize the menu items are negligible.

You will blow through a months worth of menu data in less than 4 minutes of a TV show through netflix or one short youtube video.

Do watch your data consumption - streaming music is moderate use - streaming video is heavy use.


Automatically hide notifications from Notification Center while in fullscreen I usually enjoy the notification center and need persistent notifications to bother me so I actually get stuff done.  However, I would like these notifications to be suppressed (not dismissed, but simply hidden or appearing below) while I am in fullscreen mode (either in a web browser or a full screen app).  How can I accomplish this?

Example of desired results:

Regular window mode: notifications on and stay on screen until dismissed
An app enters full screen mode or I watch a movie on YouTube and turn on full screen: notifications temporarily become invisible
I switch back to a normal workspace or exit out of the YouTube movie: notifications appear as normal and stay on screen until dismissed

As far as I know this behavior is supposed to be default in Mac OS.  Perhaps it is a bug.  I am running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

Update: This behavior appears to be sporadic.  On some days the persistent notifications will disappear when I enter full screen, other days they will not.  This appears to be the case with in browser fullscreen such as YouTube and Netflix using Chrome and Safari.  Other applications, such as Minecraft, always hide the notifications when I use full screen mode.

This is still an issue with Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.

This isn't a perfect answer, but it's a smooth workaround.  In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control you can map a keyboard shortcut to "Turn Do Not Disturb On/Off."  I chose command shift spacebar as I believe it does not overlap any default keyboard shortcuts and it's similar to activating Spotlight.  Now I simply hit those keys to quickly hide and show notifications.


MacBook Pro 2013 keyboard and trackpad completely freeze The problem

Every once in while the keyboard and trackpad completely stop working and I have no way to affect the software. The mouse pointer is left frozen exactly where it was when the problem occurred and nothing on the keyboard works. The only solution I currently have is to push and hold the power key triggering a forced shut-down - implying keyboard funcitonality, but I'm wondering if this bypass is actually separate from the keyboard processing for the reason I am using it.

I really don't know what this is as it's impossible to diagnose with no interaction tools!

My system

MacBook Pro Retina, 13 inch, Late 2013
Processor 2.4 intel core i5
8gb 1600mhz ddr3
OSX Yosemite 10.10.2

Usage

typical developer machine: ITerm; Sublime; browsers; FileZilla; Slack; MAMP; Sketch
frequently have 30 or 40 Chrome tabs open
ten or so applications in total running at any given time
rarely restart formally, just sleep, I kind of assumed Macs are good at handling this

There are no obvious signs of overload like sluggish responsiveness.

My hunch

Is that it's something to do with overheating, there seems a flaw in the design that means it doesn't handle sitting flat very well (work bought us stands for this purpose) though I haven't noticed a correlation between the fan noise, heat and this event yet.

Try plugging in an external USB device, such as a phone or keyboard. I have found recently that this fixed my intermittent keyboard/trackpad issues perfectly.

As for why this is, I read on another site that the internal keyboard and trackpad on Macbooks connect over USB internally, so if the internal USB hub gets reset, it would force the keyboard and trackpad to reconnect. And after thinking about it, I am pretty certain that any time I have had keyboard/trackpad freezes like yours, I was also plugging in my Android phone, either to charge it or run diagnostics. I am pretty sure that plugging in my phone has been causing these issues.


iPhone 4s not activating fully with AT&T sim I bought a used iPhone 4s from eBay and, of course, when I recieved it, it was inactivated.  I put in an old At&t sim I had in the house (not sure where it came from as I've never had At&T), and I was able to get past the activation screen and enter some info and set up Siri and iCloud.

However, it never actually gave me the message that is was now activated and when I try to put my sim from another carrier in, it reverts back to the inactive screen. It is not currently unlocked (I am attempting to complete that but must get past the inactive screen).

I have the latest iTunes installed and I have tried doing a backup and restore from backup and also just a hard restore all after fully rebooting the device.

Is it the sim or am I doing something wrong?

What you describe is consistent with an iPhone that is still locked to AT&T as the sole carrier. You can go to the AT&T websites and fill out a form to see if the phone could be unlocked. If you can't get AT&T to unlock the phone, then you could take that up with the seller of the phone or perhaps see about jailbreaking the device and unlocking it by force as opposed to by social convention.


How to check if any audio is currently playing via Terminal? Sometimes I turn up the audio on my MacBook, but then forget to turn it back down. Is there a terminal command I could use to detect if audio is currently playing (sound coming from the speakers)?

I need something similar to How to detect that the sound is currently playing in Linux? or Testing if audio devices / sound cards are currently playing?, except that neither of those work as they are for Linux.

I actually happened to find the answer recently, and I'll post it here for anyone who might need it:

if [[ "$(pmset -g | grep ' sleep')" == *"coreaudiod"* ]]; then echo audio is playing; else echo no audio playing; fi

I discovered the pmset method from this post, but I added some things to it.


How can I wipe my iPhone to start over with Find My iPhone active? I want to get rid of an old email Apple ID on my iPhone 5s. At this point I just want to wipe the entire phone clean and start over. How can I do that if I can’t turn off “Find My iPhone”?

This can't be done with Find My iPhone active. You need to disable Find My iPhone before you can erase/restore the device.

If you restore the device in restore mode, then you will enter Activation Lock. This cannot be 'bypassed'—you will have to have it disabled by Apple if you can not enter the Apple ID credentials. For more information on Activation Lock, see:

How can I bypass Activation Lock?


Whatsapp Notification to use number of people instead of number of new messages for push icons? Sometimes I see Whatsapp with a balloon that says 8. It might mean I have 8 new messages from persons or 3 from 1 and 5 from another.

Is it possible to configure Whatsapp on the iPhone in a way that it shows the number of people that sent me messages? 8 messages from 2 people would show a 2 in the push icon.

So that a Whatsapp icon as such would give a number based on the number of people that have sent me messages, rather than the total number of messages.

Not possible at the moment. Maybe you can send them a suggestion.


How to capture a screen shot of all spaces Regularly I use more than 4 spaces in my Macbook Pro ( lion/10.7.1 ).

Can I get a screenshot of all spaces at one time ?

screencapture ~/Desktop/1.png
osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to key code 124 using control down' # ctrl-right
sleep 0.5
screencapture ~/Desktop/2.png
osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to key code 123 using control down' # ctrl-left
# montage ~/Desktop/1.png ~/Desktop/2.png -tile 2x1 -geometry +2+2 ~/Desktop/`date '+%y%m%d%H%M%S'`.png

montage comes with ImageMagick.


Notes saved as a document? Can I save a Note I created in my documents?  I don't know how to save a note to my documents folder or elsewhere.  I know there is Text Edit, but I have had it lose some important docs and don't trust it.  I would use it if someone could tell me how to find a doc that wasn't saved then computer shut down.  In Microsoft Word it auto saves.

You can export Notes as a PDF in MacOS Sierra (10.12) or above. All you have to do is Choose File > Export as PDF.

Notes for macOS Sierra: Import or export notes

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22616?locale=en_US

Or you can copy the text and paste it into a Pages or Word document.


Why won't kern.maxfiles setting in /etc/sysctl.conf stick on macOs 10.15? i was getting some strange errors and crashes on some apps including the finder.
I figured out it happens due to the
kern.maxfiles
kern.maxfilesperproc
settings
i was following the advice from here
Why won't kern.maxfiles setting in /etc/sysctl.conf stick?
i created the /etc/sysctl.conf and added those lines
kern.maxfiles=20480
kern.maxfilesperproc=18000

but after restarting the same default settings of 10240 are applied.
I also made sure that trailing spaces are removed.
As this article is quite old i was thinking if something might have changed in macOs.
Can anyone help me getting this sorted?

I found the solution. Actually sysctl.conf file works when starting the computer in safe-mode.
So i removed the sysctl.conf and then removed all launchDaemons and started the computer normally. Suddenly the defaults for kern.maxfiles and kern.maxfilesperproc
where around 200000/100000.
I copied one after the other launchDaemon back and restarted.
It turned out that two .plists caused the values to go down to 10240, wich are related to Anydesk:
com.philandro.anydesk.Helper.plist
com.philandro.anydesk.service.plist

I contacted the developers of Anydesk about my findings and hope they will optimize their software.


My itunes songs won't appear at all on my mac book On my old computer I had a bunch of songs on itunes, and when I went on my mac there are no songs on that computer even though I am logged on my itunes account. Where are my songs?

The only way that iTunes automatically syncs music between computers is if you have iTunes Match enabled. This costs $29/year.

If what you want is to have the music you have purchased from the iTunes Store available, you will have to download that music to your new device.

If you're using iTunes 12, click the iTunes Store tab in your Music view. Then click on "Purchased." You should then (presuming you're connected to the Internet) see all of your purchased music. You can download it by clicking "Download All" in the bottom right of that window.


Showing a Delayed Webcam Image I have a Logitech USB webcam, and need to display the image from it on a second monitor, delayed roughly 15 seconds ish. How would I do this?

I'd try VLC in Terminal:

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC qtcapture://

Ask on their forums. If there isn't an option to delay the direct display, you can always "stream" it to another VLC process and let it buffer for 15 seconds.


Editing the master of a single slide in Keynote In keynote, I know how to edit the theme and create a new master slide. (By going into View -> Show Master Slides.) However, I would like to edit the master of a single slide.

Here is an example of why I want to do this:

Is there some way I can unlock an element of the current slide's master (i.e. that horizontal line), without editing the master itself for other slides?

It is the purpose of masters to make all slides look the same - you cannot ask to have masters and differently looking slides at the same time.

Copy the master, modify it and assign that one slide to the modified master.


How can I log OS X Server disk performance? I know Activity Monitor exists to view disk i/o and other performance metrics. However, does Activity Monitor have the ability to log any of these metrics?

If not, how can I log these metrics into a database or csv file and how often should these be logged? Every second?

I'm looking to run reports to see at what times of the day the server has a lot of disk i/o for capacity management. Also want the ability to log used and free space every 15 minutes.

You can use traditional unix tools to start monitoring now.

iostat 60 | tee /tmp/iostat_60.log

The free space statistics can be generated with the df command, but you might just set your warning levels on server app and rely on alerts to notify you when space fills. I can't imagine needing to track storage space more than once a day to graph the growth or manage things, but your needs might be quite different.

I'd say 15 minute (900 seconds for iostat) snaps of io activity would be sufficient and hourly or daily disk space logs would be overkill for most servers. You would probably decrease the monitoring interval during an investigation / performance tuning period, but day in and day out these
stats usually just chew up CPU and disk space and don't really help you manage the server.

Once you decide upon how often you want to capture the data, you can get more fancy with a wrapper to start and stop the script / cut and process the log files daily, etc...

I would say you're going to want to instead look at the tools you want for actually analyzing and acting on the data. For one server, you could probably get away with one free instance of splunk running and just log the data to syslog.

From there you can graph / extract to spreadsheet / act on the data in a very flexible manner. Also, you might look at elasticsearch, logstash and kibana.

There is an excellent write up at http://krypted.com/windows-server/stashbox-turning-a-mac-mini-into-a-logstash-server/ by Charles Edge explaining the how and why you would use those tools to tame the logs and graph things. If you had that, sending the statistics to the system log might be a very easy way to solve your problem of monitoring IO on your server.


Siri: play all songs NOT shuffled Does anyone know a way to ask Siri on iPhone or iPad to play an artist, but have the songs go in album order instead of shuffled?

I have tried asking "don't shuffle" and "play X in order" and also "play albums by X"...

By default it will shuffle it, you may have better luck asking Siri to play a playlist instead.


how to force a factory reset of an iPhone? I once used a sequence of button presses to force an iPhone to downgrade to its original iOS version, and its factory settings.
IIRC is involved holding down the power button for 10 seconds and something else.
 Is that still possible?  what is the correct sequence of button presses?

I believe what you are referring to is a DFU restore. To do this, first, turn the phone off by holding the Power Button and shutting off the phone. Next, with the phone still off, hold down the Home Button, and plug the phone into your computer (while still holding the Home Button). What you should see is a message in iTunes that the phone is in restore mode with the option to Restore the phone, while the iPhone screen remains black. If the iPhone screen is not black, you are not in DFU mode, and you should try again.


Terminal switch tabs not working Yosemite I had added keyboard shortcuts and those were working pretty fine on OSX Mavericks but not working in Yosemite. On pressing shortcut for switching tab terminal just flashes. Check screen shot of my settings
I want my shortcuts working on Yosemite like those were working on Mavericks

You have to modify the menu title to enter the exact name of the menu command you want to add.


Why doesn't Siri call a contact that it clearly understands? I have a contact entry with no first name and a last name of "Charles Schwab Customer Service". When I tell Siri "Call Charles Schwab Customer Service", it shows the words on the screen exactly as I've spoken them, so it clearly understands what I've said. But instead of calling the contact, it asks, "Call Jones Communication Customer Service on 336 Post Office Rd...?" Obviously, Siri doesn't connect what it knows I'm saying to the contact entry I want it to call.

What do I need to do to get Siri to make the call I want it to make?

when you ask Siri to call a company and it finds the company name on the web Siri gives you what he finds on the web.
try for example to create a contact called Subway than ask Siri to call Subway you will see he looks first on the web.


Opening a specific page on Mac Preview from Terminal How I can modify the open filename.pdf command so that I can open a desired page number directly without having to scroll down.

Unfortunately the open command does not have an option to pass to Preview to tell it to go to a given page.  Additionally, Preview does not have an AppleScript Dictionary to make scripting a solution easier, however it's not impossible.  The bash script below takes two arguments, the filename of the document to open and the page number to go to. Note that if the target file to open is not in the working directory in Terminal then the fully qualified pathname must be used.

You'll need to create a file to place this code into and make it executable. It should be in a directory that is in the $PATH, otherwise, to use it, you'll have to provide the fully qualified pathname to the executable or use ./executable if at the working directory of the executable in Terminal.

For this example, using the default Terminal, which opens to one's Home Directory:

touch OpenToPage
open OpenToPage

Now copy and paste the code, from the Code: section below, into the opened document and save it, then close it.

While still in Terminal, make the file executable:

chmod u+x OpenToPage

To use OpenToPage:

./opentopage /path/name/to/filename.pdf 3

Or:

./opentopage '/path/name/to/file name.pdf' 3

./opentopage /path/name/to/file\ name.pdf 3

Code:

#!/bin/bash

if [[ -z $2 ]]; then
    [[ -z $1 ]] && printf "\n Missing Filename..."
    printf "\n Missing Page Number...\n\n"
    printf "   Syntax: OpenToPage Filename Page_Number\n"
    printf "   Example: OpenToPage Filename.pdf 3\n\n"
    exit 1
else
    open -a Preview "$1"
    sleep .5
    osascript -e 'tell application "Preview" to activate' \
              -e 'delay 0.25' \
              -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "Preview" to click menu item "Go to Page…" of menu "Go" of menu bar 1' \
              -e 'delay 0.25' \
              -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"$2\"" \
              -e 'delay 0.25' \
              -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 36'
fi
exit 0

Notes: If the target filename and or pathname has spaces, the spaces must be escaped with a \ (backslash) or the target filename and or pathname must be quoted, but not both.

The sleep and delay times can be adjusted if/as necessary.  As the script is presently written the timings adds 1.25 seconds total to the whole process and should probably be fine as is. If I had to adjust anything I'd change the value of sleep, to .75 or 1, before modifying the values of delay.

The naming of the bash script file in this answer is arbitrary, name it whatever you like, e.g. otp or o2p for open to page, etc.


launchctl plist has a stderr that talks about how getcwd operation not permitted so how do I fix it? TLDR for those who googled and found this

In Catalina, launchd can't read files or run scripts located inside your ~/Documents folder. Just avoid putting your scripts there and rewrite your scripts not to read files in ~/Documents. Creating a new file or symlink will work, though. See the answer below for details.

Original question

I came via this answer to help me create a script that will update a symlink every day.

And there was an article it links to teaching me how to use plist and launchctl

SO this is my plist com.journal.today.plist which is installed in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

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

    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.journal.today.plist</string>

    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>

    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/Users/kim/journals/stderr.log</string>

    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/Users/kim/journals/stdout.log</string>

    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
      <key>PATH</key>
      <string><![CDATA[/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin]]></string>
    </dict>

    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/Users/kim/journals</string>

    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>./makeTodaySym.sh</string>
    </array>

  </dict>
</plist>

When i check the stderr I saw the below

shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent
  1 bash: ./makeTodaySym.sh: Operation not permitted

stdout.log was empty

How do I solve this?

My original script

#!/usr/bin/env bash

date=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %A"`
folder="." # replace with full path to desired folder
file="$folder/$date.md"

if [ ! -f "$file" ]; then
    touch "$file"
    echo "Created file: $file"
fi

ln -sf "$file" "$folder/today.md"
echo "Created link to file: $file"

After trying out jksoegaard answer, the last part of my plist looks like this:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
  <string>/Users/kim/journals/makeTodaySym.sh</string>
</array>

Latest change after taking jaume comment

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
  <string>/bin/bash</string>
  <string>/Users/kim/journals/makeTodaySym.sh</string>
</array>

Latest change

in the bash script

folder="$1" # replace with full path to desired folder

in the plist

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
  <string>/bin/bash</string>
  <string>/Users/kim/journals/makeTodaySym.sh /Users/kim/journals</string>
</array>

I have also tried

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
  <string>/bin/bash</string>
  <string>/Users/kim/journals/makeTodaySym.sh</string>
  <string>/Users/kim/journals</string>
</array>

And now I get this

shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: Operation not permitted
/bin/bash: /Users/kim/journals/makeTodaySym.sh: Operation not permitted

thanks to @jaume with great patience, he/she/they have helped me get to the point where I realized that the only thing that worked was to move away from the Documents folder in Catalina.

I did find this link https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250719819?answerId=251683647022#251683647022 suggesting to create a fake bash clone, but I didn't try.

Also a big thank you to @nohillside

One useful thing I learn is to load and unload plist without restarting laptop

first unload

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.test.today.plist

then load

launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.test.today.plist

Analysis

After a long chat session, it turns out that the root of the problem was that bash can't fully access the Documents folder. The OP had shortened the actual path for makeTodaySym.sh: instead of being located in /Users/kim/journals, the script resides in a subfolder of ~/Documents.

The Documents folder is sandboxed, as explained in this Apple document:

  In macOS, data in critical areas is itself sandboxed — which ensures that users remain in control of access to files in Desktop, Documents, Downloads and other areas from all apps, whether the apps attempting access are themselves sandboxed or not.

and bash can't read its contents from within the .plist file.

Two solutions

Place the script outside of ~/Documents

Interestingly enough, although bash can't read the contents of the Documents folder, it can write to it.

So one solution is to move makeTodaySym.sh outside of ~/Documents. For instance, if placed in /Users/kim/bin/makeTodaySym.sh, this should work:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
  <string>/bin/bash</string>
  <string>-c</string>
  <string>/Users/kim/bin/makeTodaySym.sh /Users/kim/Documents/Apps/CompanyLevelApps/OILD/16-journals</string>

(Tested on macOS 10.15.5 Catalina.)

Grant full disk access to bash

Another solution is give bash full disk access. Just add /bin/bash to System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Privacy>Full Disk Access.

Note that even with full disk access, permissions would prevent bash from reading arbitrary files in the file system, but you have one fewer level of protection.

(Tested on macOS 10.15.5 Catalina.)

Two suggestions

I'd suggest that you do the following two changes to your configuration:

Remove reference to working directory

I've noticed that setting a working directory in the .plist file:

<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/Users/kim/Documents/Apps/CompanyLevelApps/OILD/16-journals</string>

causes this error:

  job-working-directory: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: Operation not permitted

Your script doesn't need the WorkingDirectory key to successfully create the symlink, so you may want to remove it to get rid of the error.

Create symlink with relative path

Your script creates the symlink:

ln -sf "$file" "$folder/today.md"

with an absolute path:

  today.md@ -> /Users/kim/Documents/Apps/CompanyLevelApps/OILD/16-journals/2020-06-10 Wednesday.md

To may want to use:

ln -sf "$(basename "$file")" "$folder/today.md"

instead to create a relative symlink that is easier to read:

  today.md@ -> 2020-06-10 Wednesday.md

Full path in plist file

It's important to note that providing the full path for makeTodaySym.sh (as explained in jksoegaard's answer) was a necessary change for the .plist to work properly, as relative paths are not supported.


iPad's update to iOS 8 already taken almost 2 days MY iPad 2 was updating to iOS 8 since 2 days ago and up till now, it's still not finished. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but the progress bar is at the same spot for a whole day already. Can somebody help me?

No, that's not normal. Restart the installation.


How to add Automator Folder Action from command line Is there a way to add Folder Action to Automator tool from the command line?

When I typed Automator I get very basic CLI options (-D, -i, -v)..
Can someone please add an example of how to do it?

See Attaching a Folder Action using Applescript for an AppleScript, an Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) language, solution. You can use osascript on the command line to run OSA scripts:

  Your syntax was OK in old versions (at least up to macOS 10.6.8). Since it has been depreciated and it must be replaced by "make" :

tell application "System Events"
    make new folder action at end of folder actions with properties {enabled:true, name:"FolderName", path:"path:to:my:folder}
    tell folder action "FolderName" to make new script at end of scripts with properties {name:"myScriptName.scpt"}
end tell


Is there a command like namei for OS X? I'm sifting through some incorrect permission issues and discovered the namei command for Linux. Homebrew doesn't currently have a Mac port.

  namei - follow a pathname until a terminal point is found

Is there a command or series of commands that can be used to accomplish the same thing on OS X?

Macports has a port of it: https://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/devel/util-linux/Portfile

I did try to make a homebrew recipe for it, but there were some issues getting it to compile. It's definitely possible, but there are some problems to work out.

Update:

I've made a formula that can be installed with:

brew install mkdryden/homebrew-misc/namei

This is the original version, not the version pulled into util-linux. (not sure how much has changed since the original)


Set up headset to use with iMac? I just bought a bluetooth Headset (this one). I paired it with my iMac and set it as "use as audio device".

Now it works with some application but not with all applications:

It works fine with:
+ music played with iTunes.
+ system sounds

It doesn't work at all with:
- online radios played with my browser (Chrome)
- Skype

I want to use the headset as the device for Input and Output audio.

Do I need to set those app (Chrome, Skype...) something like to grant permission to use the headset.

Use the "Sound" preference pane to set the default input and output to use the headset and then in Skype and other apps you will also need to go to their preferences and choose the headset there.

I have had to follow the same steps with a USB connected headset.


Changing icon of app using CandyBar failing on OS X 10.4.11 Tiger So I'm using OS X 10.4.11 Tiger on Power PC (old iBook G4 - gift/joke for Christmas) and I installed and am happily using CandyBar to customize the icons.

However, I want to customize the icon for TenFourFox, as it isn't all that esthetic. I have the .png, .ico, and .icns of the icon I want to use, but whenever I try to use CandyBar to change the icon, it just takes the placeholder for that type of file, as you can see here:

Default TenFourFox in CandyBar:

Trying custom icon (drag-and-drop):

Does anyone have any clue what is going on and how to fix it?

BTW, I'm using CandyBar 2.6.1, if that could be part of it. The newest version only supports 10.5+.

Version 2.6.1 unfortunately didn't have Pixadex built in, and those image wells only supported the actual Icon of whatever it is that gets dropped in them. For example, the .png files you dropped in currently have the icon of:

and that's exactly what it's giving you. So essentially what gets dropped in those image wells needs to be represented (having the icon) with what you drop in there. If you try dragging anything that already has a custom icon associated with it into the image well you'll quickly understand how it works.

I found the best way to manage icons before CandyBar 3 was to use Pixadex in addition to CandyBar 2, since it allows drag and drop between the two apps. It's precisely why they eventually merged the two, because they really did belong together.

• Pixadex 2.0.2 download (works with 10.2+) and other older icon related things.


3 referenced files in your library will not upload to iCloud Photo Library error Select referenced files in your library and choose “Consolidate” from
  the File menu to copy the original files into the library.

I get the following error messages when I try and sync my Photos Library on my mac with iCloud and then it just says 'Updating' indefinitely.

Does anyone know how to fix this? I have selected all files and click Consolidate and it says 'No files to consolidate'

I solved this problem by looking for all the filenames prefixed with "Copy - " and deleting them.


SourceTree: how to show commit information panel if once hide? On one of my machines, I have somehow hidden the panel which shows commit information, such as the commit hash and the full commit message.
I'm sure it's just a setting somewhere to bring the commit panel back, but I can't find it. Can anyone help me out?
Thanks!

Run this in the terminal & restart SourceTree

defaults delete com.torusknot.SourceTreeNotMAS "NSSplitView Subview Frames repowindow_LogViewDescSplitter"

Source


Nvidia 9400M vs Intel HD Graphics 4000 I have done some searching on Google and found some tests saying HD 4000 is a great improvement over the previous generation, but I didn't get any tests that compared it with discrete chips.

Could any of you guys that are more into hardware tell me if the Intel HD 4000 will be better than Nvidia 9400M?

The integrated graphics is in the Mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro with 2.9 Ghz Core i7, while the Nvidia part is in the 2009 13" MacBook Pro 2.53 Ghz Core 2 Duo.

P.S. I only play Diablo 3 on my laptop. I don't care about graphics as long as the framerate is good. Currently, with the Nvidia chip, it's really bad. It is listed as low-performance on Blizzard's site, but the Intel HD 4000 is, too.

According to the benchmark comparison tool here, the HD 4000 has between 2x and 6x the benchmark scores of the 9400M. (How relevant the scores are to your gaming experience is yet to be seen. Some of these are synthetic benchmarks, so they may not be wholly relevant.) The list is ranked with faster cards first, and the HD 4000 is #181, while the two 9400Ms are at #302 and #310.

tl;dr: It seems that the Intel HD 4000 should be better than the Nvidia GeForce 9400M.

Note: to be able to select the 9400M in the list, you need to deselect the "Still available (not archived)" box to show old cards.


Applescript and SpeechRecognitionServer: reading in a file as "listen for" In place of the list in

tell app "SpeechRecognitionServer to set theQueryList to listen for {"list item 1", "list item 2"...}

I'd like to read in a text file that contains the list. Something like

set theQueryList to read POSIX file "/Users/username/folder/text.txt"

The file text.txt contains a list, written out as

"list item 1", "list item 2", ... "list item n"

without brackets and in utf8 (I hope) format. (I created the file by cat'ing it in Terminal.)

This works, somewhat. I mean: I can display the list from text.txt  in a dialog, and I can use it in a repeat loop. But it doesn't trigger SpeechRecognitionServer when spoken. (I don't know a better way to say this.) I should mention that when I paste the list from this file into the script, it works fine. So the list items don't seem to be at fault -- nor how I say them.

Apologies if I'm a bit fuzzy in my wording here. Grateful for your ideas. Thanks.

The items to listen for need to be in a list, so you will need to extract the items from the text.

If the items in the text are separated by end-of-ine characters:

list item 1
list item 2
list item 3
list item n

you can just get the paragraphs:

set theQueryList to paragraphs of (read POSIX file "/Users/username/folder/text.txt")

If the items in the text are separated by commas (or tabs, or whatever):

list item 1,list item 2,list item 3,list item n

you can use AppleScript's text item delimiters:

set separator to "," -- the separating text
set fileText to (read POSIX file "/Users/username/folder/text.txt")
set {tempTID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, separator}
set theQueryList to text items of fileText
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tempTID -- restore original


Is there a way to disable a Messages account via command line? I'd like to stop/start receiving SMS/iMessage via command line, to avoid having to go into system preferences.

Is there a way I can manipulate settings for Messages to enable/disable an account?

It turns out stopping was more logical than expected:

tell application "Messages"
     repeat with s in services
            set n to name of s
            log out s
     end repeat
end tell

It doesn't seem to work the other way around. I've tried and I've tried, and I can't get no satisfaction.


Why does my Macbook Air get so hot when playing even a simple game? Basically, even small games like Rogue Legacy, Battle World: Kronos, Magicka, Crusader Kings, etc. These are not graphic intensive games, yet the laptop reaches temperatures over 90 C. However, this doesn't happen with Hearthstone. So, out of curiosity, why does this happen? Will it happen with a current-gen iMac?

Although the games may not be graphically intensive, they may still be intensive on the CPU, and it is likely the CPU temperature you are seeing rise.

A way to check this would be to use Activity Monitor.app while playing a game to check out the CPU usage. Or if you are comfortable and able, SSH into the Mac while playing the game and using the top command to check.


Recording with Audacity using Soundflower causes echo/reverb I'm using Audacity and Soundflower to record sound internally on my MacBook Pro. For example I can play a YouTube video and listen to it with head phones, while recording the sound output. All that works fine, the problem comes when I click record in Audacity. It records the sound, but it is adding an echo or reverb which distorts the sound, especially the bass drum in techno music. How do I turn this echo/reverb off?

Btw, if I listen to the music with my headphones, through Audacity, but I don't click record, the sound is great. The problem comes when I begin to record.

I had same problem just fixed it, so assuming you are trying to record audio from Sound Card. The echo reverb is cause by the microphone in your comp, go SoundFlowerBed-->Audio Setup--> Then right click SoundflowerChannel(The one you've setup)---> Set as "Use device for sound input". And that way the microphone its trying to listen to doesnt exist in that channel.


leopard forgot password+launch_msg socket is not connected I was working on increasing the speed of an ancient (6 years old) iMac running Leopard when I accidentally set the password incorrectly. I then turned to the internet to look for an answer and found:
http://www.macyourself.com/2009/08/03/how-to-reset-your-mac-os-x-password-without-an-installer-disc/
Which seemed to work fine until I reached

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

Which returned the error

launch_msg socket is not connected

I decided to ignore this and see where this would lead me, when I got to:

dscl . -passwd /Users/username password

It told me that I had to run:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServicesLocal.plist

which returned the same error.

Additionally the system is very slow despite Activity Monitor telling me no programs are using more then 2% cpu or 50 mb ram. Could this be connected?

It's also worth noting that the disc reader was damaged some time ago and is useless.

Anyone got a fix?

The above worked on osx 10.5.8

I didn't use the "/" in mount -uw and once I did that it let me reset the password

Working command: mount -uw /


Multimedia Key Binding How exactly does Apple "register" the multimedia keys? I notice that Play/Pause, Rewind, and Fast-Forward are active Application aware. By which I mean that it will control Front Row, or iTunes, DVD Player, or Keynote, all uniquely, not at the same time if all of them are open.

How exactly is this registered? And can it be "extended" to work with other applications?

(Obviously all the rest of the function keys are of a more "global scope" and aren't really involved here.)

[edit]
I'm revisiting this question, because I've seen it come up a couple of times now that I'm discovering things like Vox.app and the like, but I'm still a bit stumped as to how the process can be so "intelligent".

If you browse to /System/Library/CoreServices/rcd.app/Contents/MacOS and run something like strings, less, vim, or any hex utility against rcd, you'll see some very interesting things. Namely, embedded/hard coded AppleScript.

To the best of my knowledge, this daemon controls the IR remotes, as well as the media keys on the keyboard. Given that some key events (Play/Pause, Fast Forward, etc.) are shared between multiple apps (iTunes, Front Row, Keynote, to name a few), I still want to know how the correct one is "chosen" to receive the event from rcd.

I assume this to mean that, in order to "extend" rcd to other apps, you would have to break codesign validation, and directly alter the binary in some scary perplexing manner.

You might want to look at the code for KeyRemap4MacBook.  There is functionality in there for remapping these keys to whatever you like, I'm not sure however if it would become clear how to "register" those keys.


"Your computer restarted because of a problem" when installing macOS Big Sur in external SSD? I have a 21.5 inch retina iMac (2017) which has a malfunction internal SSD, so Ive been using it with a SAMSUNG external SSD connected via USBC/Thunderbolt port to the iMac.
This has been working for a couple of years now, the problem is that I was on Mac OS Mojave and when I want to update either to macOS Sierra, HighSierra or Big Sur, the installation process fails and enters in one of the following scenarios:

Message "Your computer restarted because of a problem" when installing, this generates an infinite loop and the installation is never finished.
Just a infinite loop, for example when is in "Installing software update X%" it restarts and enters in a infinite loop.

I've tried installing macOS with a Bootable USB and with a Software update from Mac OS Mojave, none of this works.
Is there anything that I can do? If I go and install Mac OS Mojave, everithing goes well.
Also is important to mention that anytime I try to do a bootable USB installation, I erase the SSD to "AFPS" and rename it to "Macintosh HD".
Thanks in advance

Apparently the Big Sur installer has issues with certain external drives.
I tried installing Big Sur on external flash drives (SanDisk and Samsung), neither a fresh install, nor an update from Catalina worked (resulted in endless reboot loops or kernel panics).
I ended up installing 11.2.3 on an external HDD (from LaCie).
Although I also got a kernel panic on the 2nd reboot that occurs during the install, it rebooted and went on to finish the installation without further issues.
I then used CarbonCopyCloner to clone the HDD onto the flash drive and was successfully able to boot and use the system.
(You might be able to perform the clone with disk utility as well.)


ssh hangs after authentication I used to connect to a remote Linux server through ssh -v remote from my osx client. Now the connection hangs after authentication:

debug1: Entering interactive session.
debug1: client_input_global_request: rtype hostkeys-00@openssh.com want_reply 0

This is happening with both remote servers I have available. I can instead successfully do remote port forwarding (with a not-interacting session) ssh -fN remote. I have removed the .bash* and .cshrc and .profile files on the remote servers.

I have checked that the ssh to my remote servers is working correctly on my Linux box that I run on osx within a virtual box.

I am using the following configuration for ~/.ssh/config

ServerAliveInterval 120

Host            *
ForwardX11       yes

Host            remote
HostName        remote.address.uk
HostKeyAlias    remote.address.uk
User            myusername
LocalForward    localhost:5903 remote:5904
LocalForward    localhost:5902 remote:5901
TCPKeepAlive    yes
IdentityFile    ~/.ssh/id_rsa

The problem was that the x forwarding is broken on my osx. I have disabled it and now I can connect again


External monitor's (DELL U2415) refresh rate locked at 59.88 Hz (NTSC)? I bought a DELL U2415 monitor and connected it via a MiniDP to DP cable that came with the monitor. Surprisingly the refresh rate of the monitor was locked at 59.88 Hz (NTSC), unlike a U2414H connected via HDMI, which has its refresh rate configurable as either 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

59.88 Hz looks like a strange number to me as well as the NTSC that came with it. Is it possible to change the refresh rate, e.g. by using some other software or using HDMI cable instead of DP cable? Is there any potential downside to this refresh rate? I feel the colors slightly faded but maybe that isn't related to the refresh rate per se.

I have the same problem with my MPB 2012. I have a DELL P2418D monitor and connected to Thunderbolt to Display Port. After hard time searching a solution I discovery that cable is the problem. My solution was buy a HDMI adapter from ICZI that supports 4k but my MPB 2012 need 2k and works very well with 60 Hz.


chunkeddownload error in trying to upgrade to Mac OS Mojave I have a Mac Mini Late 2014 model on macOS Sierra. I'm trying to upgrade it from macOS Sierra to Mojave using App Store. After clicking on installer, it gives me an error -

The operation couldn't be completed.
(com.apple.installer.chunkeddownload error 6.)

How can I fix this issue?

I am having the same issue. I downloaded Mojave from the app store and it too gave me the 22MB installer file. I was doing some research and found that was normal, and basically grabs the rest during the install. Im having the worst time just trying to upgrade to a SSD with a fresh install of MacOS. Ive deleted the install file and redownloaded from the app store and I get the same file. It downloaded that file fine, but during the install process, after choosing which hard drive i want to install on, I received this error approximately halfway through what was going to be a 5 hr install. I've booted and done this in safe mode and this is the furthest ive gotten.

I've just followed the link posted above by Buscar. That link gave me a link to the app store.  After deleting the file again, I downloaded it again from this path and I got the same result, 22.8MB file. I am attempting the install again.


Downloading multiple files with curl with different proxies I'm trying to download multiple urls from different domains using different proxies.

It should do all these in one row of code, running curl just once:

do shell script "curl --proxy 1.2.3.4:800 http://domain1.com/somefile.txt"
do shell script "curl --proxy 2.3.4.5:80 http://www.domain2.com/otherfile.png"
do shell script "curl --proxy 3.4.5.6:8080 http://domain3.com/file.jpg"
...

This fails:

do shell script "curl --proxy 1.2.3.4:800 2.3.4.5:80 3.4.5.6:8080 http://domain1.com/somefile.txt http://www.domain2.com/otherfile.png http://domain3.com/file.jpg"

Taking the code from an answer below I tried to run

set url_list to "1.2.3.4:800 http://domain1.com/somefile.txt
2.3.4.5:80 http://www.domain2.com/otherfile.png
3.4.5.6:8080 http://domain3.com/file.jpg"

do shell script "xargs curl --proxy < " & url_list

but this fails as well.

When you have a long URL or multiples, use xargs instead:

do shell script "xargs curl --proxy < url-list.txt"

url-list.txt

1.2.3.4:800 http://domain1.com/somefile.txt
2.3.4.5:80 http://www.domain2.com/otherfile.png
3.4.5.6:8080 http://domain3.com/file.jpg


I erased Macintosh HD in disk utility, now I can't reinstall macOS Big Sur So I wanted to reset my 2019 Macbook Pro, so I used CMD + R and went to disk utility and erased Macintosh HD... I then went to reinstall MacOS Big Sur and I got about halfway through the reinstallation but then it stopped and went to a prohibitory symbol with a black background and just states to go to Apple Support.
What have I done wrong, how do I fix this and get my Mac to reset properly?
Please any advice?

If the recovery mode on your Mac won't let you install macOS, then the next trick is "Internet Recovery Mode". See this web page for a description of how to use it to reinstall your Mac's OS: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/recovery-mode-internet-3636668/#internet%20recovery
The important thing to note here though, is that you need to be connected to the Internet in order to use it (the clue is in the name) and that a large download is involved, so it will take some time to start the recovery mode. I think it's about 12GB or so.


Dell D3818DW: How to connect KVM between PC and Macbook pro mid-2012? I just bought a Dell 38" Ultrawide (D3818DW) and I wanna get all the cables I need while I wait for it to arrive.
I want to use the KVM feature of this monitor between my MBP mid-2012 and my PC so I can switch seamlessly between them.

I've read that I need a Mini-Display Port to Display Port cable to connect my MBP. And to use the KVM feature, I have to also connect a USB downstream cable to the MBP.

However, I also read that connecting a MBP via USB-C can bypass having to connect a USB Downstream to use the KVM feature. My Mac has a Thunderbolt 2 port and two USB 3.0 ports.

So, can I just use something like the StarTech TBT3TBTADAP TB 3 to Legacy TB adapter for display and KVM? So I won't have to have two wires sticking out of my MBP when using the KVM feature.

No, that product cannot be used for this purpose as it does not transfer the actual display signal (i.e. what would be called Alternate Mode in USB-C), nor is it for connecting newer TB3/USB-C devices to an older computer - it is actually for connecting old TB/TB2-devices to a new TB3 computer.


rsync + chmod multiple files I have a source folder

source/

-rw-------@ 1 user  staff    41B Mar 23 13:59 aws-1
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff   112B Mar 23 14:36 aws-2
-rw-rw-rw-@ 1 user  staff   2.3K Feb  5 17:15 google

the destination folder doesn't exist yet. And I try to rsync the 2 aws files into a destination folder. Here is my command:

rsync \
  -avh --chmod=a=rw \
  --include="aws-*" \
  --exclude="*" \
  "source/." "destination/"

What I'm trying to do is to rsync the 2 aws files and change their permissions once in the destination folder. After running the command, I got an error and the files are not in the destination folder. Only the folder is created. Here is the error:

building file list ... done
created directory /Users/user/destination/aws
./
rsync: recv_generator: failed to stat "/Users/user/destination/aws/aws-1": Permission denied (13)
rsync: recv_generator: failed to stat "/Users/user/destination/aws/aws-2": Permission denied (13)
rsync: recv_generator: mkdir "/Users/user/destination/aws/." failed: Permission denied (13)
*** Skipping everything below this failed directory ***

It says permission denied without copying the files. I don't already understand which permission cause problem. My source file and directory seems fine. The created destination folder seems also fine.

PS: I precise my rsync command happens inside a bash script

The problem you are having is almost certainly due to rsync attempting to create a directory that already exists.

Given that your source and destination are on the same computer then using rsync is overkill. Instead try

mkdir -p /Users/user/destination/aws ; cp source/aws-* /Users/user/destination/aws

This creates the destination directory if it doesn't exist and then does a copy.


restoring ipod touch forces update I have been trying to restore my 5th Generation Ipod touch from a backup which is stored on my computer. The restore process works fine, however after its' completion there is a white screen lock with a SLIDE TO UPGRADE option that prevents me from using the Ipod, unless I upgrade.

Since I do not wish to upgrade the software on the Ipod from the currently installed iOS version (9.2.1), is there some way to circumvent this lockout by Apple?

The "slide to upgrade" screen doesn't update your iOS firmware; it simply prepares your backup for iOS 9.


Pictures are very bright when using the flash Every time when I take a picture or video with flash, it turns out very, very bright on my iPhone 6s. Especially at night the glare is so bad you really can’t see anything.

Some cases do not leave enough of an opening around the flash LEDs. The edges of the case then reflect light from the flash onto the camera sensor, resulting in a lot of glare during flash photography and video recording.

The only solution is to not use that case while using your camera’s flash. It would be best to simply switch to a different case with a wider/better-designed rear camera opening.


I have a Dual G5 Power Mac I can only start in safe mode Processor: Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory: 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM

I can only start with a safe boot.

I've used the Leopard disk to run Disk Utility to repair the disks. There appears to be no problems. Verify disks returns no errors and a repair disks also finished with no errors.

I'm stuck for ideas...

Based on what you have described, it appears that there is an issue occurring with a kernel extension, driver, or something along those lines.  This is what is causing your machine to kernel panic when attempting to boot up normally. Safe mode is disabling the problematic "thing" and that is why you machine boots fine in safe mode. For more information on whats is going on when you boot in safe mode see Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?, this may be valuable in diagnosing a cause of the kernel panic on start-up.

So some next steps for you to take:

First thing is figure out what is causing the kernel panic. Boot into safe mode and then open the Console program. Located at /Applications/Utilities/Console

When in the Console application look for the logs noted as PanicReporter, if we are lucky there should be one for each time you tried to boot the machine with a failed boot up. According to Mac OS X: How to log a kernel panic, kernel panic logs for Leopard are stored in /Library/Logs/PanicReporter, so check for logs at that path in console.

If you find logs do a quick read thru of of the first 20 or so lines and see if you recognize the name for a piece of hardware /software or something, feel free to post what you find as well to help in solving the problem.

Once you have figured out what driver/s or extension/s is causing the problem the next step is to determine if it is a driver that you installed. If it is then look up how to remove and additionally re-install it or update it if it is something you need.

If its a driver for something else built into the computer it could be indicating a hard ware failure for some kind of device, eg network card, etc. Or it could be just a corrupted software driver, and you may need to backup your date and re install the Mac OS.


Very sporadic Wi-Fi Issue with Lion (Connection Timeout) I have tried many a thing to solve this matter. Long and short of it is I am getting the standard "connection timeout error" but only on some networks (which are successfully connected to by other Apple devices).

What I have done (after extensive reading) and things worthy of note:

More power cycling than I can count. Both of Wi-Fi and computer.
Creation of new places with various changes or not changes in Network preferences. Manual resetting of DHCP Lease or adjusting of MTU's as per other suggested fixes.
Deletion of SSID related files in the Keychain.
Deletion of network configurations as per other recommendations.
Reset NVRAM.
Fresh install(s) of Snow leopard (x2) and Lion(x2).
Checked religiously for updates on software.
Used Network Diagnostics, Assist Me, and Join other network (Both with attempts with accurate password and inaccurate. The dilemma seems to be that it won't successfully make contact to my home Wi-Fi, even to tell me if the password is correct).
Wi-Fi works almost everywhere but my home (regardless of how close my computer is to the station or if all other nearby devices that can cause interference are off).
Did not have this issue with Snow Leopard 10.6.0, but became an issue upon an update (which is required for any form of computer use that involves the internet as I discovered as every file out there required the highest end of the operating system to be used, such as Flash or Java).

My computer is a late 2007 MacBook that cannot run an OS higher than Lion.

OK, lets try to Manually connect to your WiFi.

Use following in your Terminal app (located in the utility folder).

Turn On (skip this if it is on already)

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

Find (skip this if you know the WiFi name and the passowrd)

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

Connect

networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN WIFI_PASSWORD

Just replace the "WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN" with your WiFi name


Why does iPhone 5s have so many different models for GSM and CDMA netwrok? Very confused? I am quite confused about GSM and CDMA models of iPhone 5s.

Please read this in Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5S:

Connectivityof iPhone 5S

List All models:

GSM model (A1533)
LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25: 2100, 1900, 1800, AWS, 850, 900, 700c, 700b, 800 MHz, 800 DD).

CDMA model (A1533)
UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (1700/2100 MHz), CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz), (except China model:)LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25: 2100, 1900, 1800, AWS, 850, 900, 700c, 700b, 800 MHz, 800 DD).

CDMA model (A1453)
UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (1700/2100 MHz), CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz), LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26: 2100, 1900, 1800, AWS, 850, 900, 700c, 700b, 800 MHz, 800 DD).

GSM model (A1457)
LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20: 2100, 1900, 1800, 850, 2600, 900 MHz, 800 DD).

GSM model (A1518)
TDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA[6]

GSM model (A1528)
LTE (unofficial)

GSM model (A1530)
LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 38, 39, 40: 2100, 1900, 1800, 850, 2600, 900 MHz, 800 DD, TD 2600, 1900, 2300), (with software operator version China Mobile 15.6 or above:) TD-SCDMA

Why doesn't Apple make iPhone 5s to be "world phone" like iPhone 4s. World phone means it can use for any network in the world whether CDMA or GSM.

If they can't make Worl Phone, then at least they should create 2 models only. 1 for GSM & 1 for CDMA.

However, surprisingly, iPhone 5s has so many different models. It has 5 different models for GSM?
so
Does that also mean 5 different iphone 5s with 5 different hardwares?

Likewise, it has 2 different models for CDMA.

Why it has so many different models for the same network. Before that they only have 1 or 2 or max 3 models (iPhone 5).

The big question.

What if you buy the wrong model (even for the same network)? For example, I am a user & I just roughly know that my carrier using GSM, then:

How do I know which model (A1533, A1457, A1518, A1528, A1530) to chose?

Very confused? or Apple is trying to confuse the ones who buy the unlocked phone so that they can make more $$ from contract with carrier?

How to make sure I buy the right one.

This is only a problem if you are buying the phone (unlocked) in another country from the one you want to use it in.

If you are buying the phone in the same country that you intend to use it, then all you have to do is see which model of phone is sold by the carrier with which you intend to use the phone, and then buy that same model.

If you are in a different country, ask someone to visit a shop in the country where you intend to use the phone, and check the models sold for your intended carrier.

I suspect that the real reason is not to somehow punish and confuse potential customers (they really don't want you to buy the wrong one, despite how it feels to you now), but is more to do with available chipsets for the various LTE bands.


When will Finder use large amount of memory? Sometimes I see the iMac with 4GB of RAM having a few MB of swap file only, and after I left for a few hours and come back, the swap file is 2.7GB.

Looking into the Activities Monitor, the Finder is using 796MB.  How can it use so much memory -- could it be due to some "Search" that was left over in a Finder window?

I then chose File -> Close All (by pressing down the Option key while clicking File, and closed all Finder windows, only that it still won't close but just hidden, and looks like the only way is to reboot.  How can this situation be prevented?

This  inconvenience is caused by a finder prefs entry:

"show in new window: all my files"
this is consuming too much mem. Select a different folder and all is fine


USB wireless keyboard works from one USB port, but not the other I have a wireless USB keyboard/mouse combo (Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 1000) which is working perfectly on a 2013 MacBook Air running Yosemite, the keyboard & mouse work perfectly - but only when the USB receiver is plugged into the right-hand USB port.

When it's plugged into the left-hand USB port it doesn't respond to the mouse or keyboard at all. The left-hand USB port works for other devices such as a USB hard disk.

So, the left-hand USB port is working, and the keyboard/mouse is working (including on a separate MacBook), but they're not working together. This is a pain due to the configuration of my desk, otherwise I'd just live with it.

I've tried resetting the SMC and NVRAM but this has no effect. Any ideas for how to debug this further?

You can look at the USB device tree using the System Information application, launched either from the "System Report" button in the "About this Mac" dialog, or by looking in /Applications/Utilities.

Select usb from the sidebar and it will display the device tree. See if you get different information when you reconfigure your devices.

Also look in the system log (via Console.app also in utilities) to see if there are any messages when you change your config.