Install Windows 8.1 on Mac 2011 I'm trying to install Windows 8.1 on my Macbook Pro 15" 2011 model running El Capitan

I'm using Boot Camp and a 8GB USB

First of all i only have two options starting Boot Camp and not three like i see in a lot of guides about how to do the install.

My options are:

Get the newest software for Windows support from Apple
Install Windows 7 or newer

After i've marked the two options the download runs, but after it's done i get a message telling me that the installationdisk doesn't exists.

What am i doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

Usually with the 2011 and later Mac models, you have to use a DVD to install Windows using the Boot Camp Assistant. I would recommend a RW DVD. They take longer to burn, but are reusable. If your optical drive does not work, post a comment and you can discuss other ways to install Windows.

  Note: You will still need a USB flash drive to hold the "Boot Camp Support Software" from Apple.


How can i buy Sims 3 Mac platform? as the title, already looking at EA store site at http://store.origin.com/store/eara/en_SG/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.105153500/pgm.64539100

But seems they only sale PC version only.
But when i go to IE site it says sale for mac too???
http://www.ea.com/the-sims-3

The SIMS 3 for OS X can be bought online through GameTree -- they handle OS X online game distribution for EA.


How do I force iOS to check for updates? I've got an iPad2 that's supposedly susceptible to the latest encryption hole in iOS 7.  However, it's not offering me the update automatically.  Where can I go to force it to check for updates?

To check for it manually, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update.

Your device will then check with Apple's servers and let you update if there is newer software available, otherwise it will show you the current version and tell you that you're already up to date.


Why won't my MacBook work with my Raspberry Pi WiFi? I have my Raspberry Pi setup as a WiFi router, which works great! Except for one problem, my MacBook.

Connecting through my Galaxy Tab 3 Note? A-OK. Alcatel cellphone? A-OK. Chromebook? Sure thing.

Even my Roku 2, no problem.

But my MacBook? It connects to the WiFi no problem. I can even run a python -m SimpleHTTPServer on it and connect to the server via http://172.16.1.1:8000 and that works just fine. But if I try to ping 8.8.8.8? Well, that's where we start running into issues.

I actually tried running tcpdump on my Raspberry when I started pinging 8.8.8.8 from my MacBook, but none of the ping packets showed up. I just tried pinging from a different device and packets definitely showed up.

There definitely was traffic from the Mac - a lot of UDP traffic, some TCP. Most of the TCP packets from my MacBook were retransmissions. There were some packets that were routed back to the IP. Here are a couple of the IPs:

UDP:

65.55.223.48,21,17
64.4.23.170,148,142
50.242.151.22
37.59.40.88
208.64.201.169
162.254.199.136

TCP: (only these two IPs sent any TCP packets back)

65.55.223.37
208.64.201.169

So for some reason it appears that my Mac, and only my Mac, isn't doing something right. Any clue what could be causing the connection to fail?

Update:

It definitely looks like a DNS issue - Google Chrome provides an error DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET. Also, I can do telnet 216.58.218.206 80, and then interestingly enough it waits and waits and waits, but then it connects. After which

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: google.com
Content-Accept: */*

Returns with the Google 301 redirect to http://www.google.com

It looks like something was horked up with my routing table. Flushing my routes with

$ sudo route -n flush

at the terminal several times, clearing my custom DNS entries, and turning my wifi off and then on again allows me to connect properly.


Aggregate Table with Numbers.app I have a table featuring some outcome (column B) versus the day it happened (column A):

and I would like to produce another table with the unique dates in the first column and the total outcome of the day in the second column, looking like this:

I want the aggregated table to update itself automatically as new data are added to the first table, and I therefore tried to do it using formulae but it evaded me.

The formula for the right column of your aggregate table is:

=SUMIF(Data::A,A1,Data::B)

The parameters to SUMIF are:

The column of dates which you wish to group by.
The individual date you wish to output the sum of (i.e. the cell to the left).
The column which you are taking the sum of for the group.


Move iPad Screenshots to an album I have an iPad Pro, and I'm wondering if there is a way to auto save a screenshot from my iPad to an album name e.g.: iPad Pro

Is there an automated way in iOS that I can do that for only my iPad?

I found a way to do that in IFTTT but they detect any screenshot from all my iOS devices, even the one I took from my iPhone, and because of that it messed up the automation.

Please let me know if there is another way to do this in a fully automatic manner.

As an alternative, one way to accomplish this is to use the Shortcuts app by Apple, available on the App Store for iOS devices.

Here is the App Store Preview link for Shortcuts.

After installing the Shortcuts app, do the following:

Open: Shortcuts
Tap: Create Shortcut
Scroll down to Photos & Videos and tap: Get Latest Screenshots
Scroll back down to Photos & Videos and tap: Save to Photo Album
On the Save to Photo Album shortcut, tap Camera Roll and on the Album sheet select e.g.: iPad Pro
At the top of the Untitled Shortcut screen tap the Settings icon (the double switch).

From here, you can give it a name and set the various controls, tapping Done when finished.

The following is an image of the sample shortcut I created which, as initially set up, saves the latest screenshot to the e.g. iPad Pro album.

The following image shows the result of running the shortcut pictured in the image above, and as you can see the last screenshot was of the shortcut I created.

Obviously the screenshots were taken on my iPhone and are for demonstration purposes only, you'd install the Snapshots app on your iPad and use it there. You can also install and use it on your iPhone but its independent of your iPad install and not directly linked.


How do I get photo albums to sync via iCloud? I seem to remember photo albums that I created/edited on my iphone syncing via icloud with iphoto and my ipad. After a full restore and update, I can no longere make this work. Please help.

iCloud only synchronizes photos in your 'Camera Roll' through Photo Stream.
iCloud doesn't synchronize photo albums.

It is possible to synchronize photo albums in iPhoto with your iOS device, but for that you need to sync your iOS device with iTunes on your Mac.

Connect your iOS device with your Mac > click on your device in the left column in iTunes > click the 'Photo' tab > there you can select which photo albums you want to sync with your iOS device.


Over what protocol am I currently connected to a given server? At my workplace we usually connect to our server over AFP (I know it's been deprecated but the workers like to use the color labels). I sometimes use SMB to solve specific issues, including the inability to move/delete some files that lack AFP metadata, and just as a general "Let's try this instead" approach to solve problems.

To make sure we're connected over the protocol we want, we use the command-K interface and an address starting with afp:// or smb://. My question is this: Once a certain server appears in the Finder, regardless of how it got there (for example, from clicking a saved icon in the dock), is there a way to tell which protocol is being used to connect to it? This would help with troubleshooting, as when a coworker needs my help and doesn't want to disconnect from the server.

Basically, on Mac OS X Leopard and higher, any connection discovered in the sidebar that connects via SMB will have the beige CRT with the Windows BSOD.

Any AFP connection will appear differently.


What are some alternatives to the Mac App Store? I want something that will easily update all my applications. The Mac App Store doesn't do this with applications not purchased from the Mac App Store, I need something else. In addition, I would also like to be able to browse apps.

If you want an app-based app store alternative, then try Bodega.  It's a pretty good app that allows user to download/buy apps that existed before the app store did.  However, if that's not enough, you can always use different websites such as www.macupdate.com, www.iusethis.com etc.


Can't access App Store - email invalid I accidentally created my Apple ID with the email address ending ".con" not ".com". I've changed it on My Apple ID and can now log in on iCloud and the computer fine, but can't log in to the App Store on my iPhone as it still has my email as .con there and there's no option to change it, only to enter a password.

I tried:

Logging out of iCloud and back in.
The main suggestion I've found online is to change my Apple ID back to .con, log in to the App Store and then log out again, but I can't as My Apple ID won't accept .con as a valid email (a bit bizarrely given it let me set up the account with that in the first place without flagging an error...).

I've run out of ideas as to how to get into the App Store. Anyone have any ideas? This one's got me stumped!

Go to Settings > iTunes and App Store and click the email address at the top of the page.  You will get a popup with an options to signout.  Choose that, then you will be able to change it.


User update needed after updating to Mac OS X Yosemite A couple of days ago I updated my Macbook Pro to OS X Yosemite, the update was fine and everything seemed to be working. However since this whenever I had shut down then later logged back in or restarted my macbook I have encountered the screen pictured below.

My user profile has no picture and says [update needed] rather than my name. I can still select it, enter my password and log on. An update complete and then everything is ok. The same thing happens every time I go to log on.

Any ideas of how to solve this

Thanks

I got this message too and solved it easily:

Go to System Preferences;
Users and Groups;
Select the Admin User and click the padlock to make changes; enter the Admin's password;
Click on the picture of the Admin; the word 'edit' should appear;
Select Camera;
Take a new picture of yourself and save it;
Lock the padlock again;
Restart the computer.  You could probably take a different option instead of 'Camera' but I didn't try that.


Toggle Hidden Files without Relaunching Finder I'm pretty new here, and I looked for an answer to this question, and found some answers but none seemed to work for me.

I want to be able to run an applescript that toggles hidden files and immediately updates all the open finder windows.

Using the scripts in these threads:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29135878/what-is-the-quickest-way-to-toggle-hide-show-hidden-files-on-a-mac-os-x-yosemite

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21788558/automator-command-to-refresh-all-finder-all-finder-windows

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20469894/how-to-make-a-script-to-show-hide-hidden-files-in-mac-os-x

I've come up with something that looks like this:

try
    set state to (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles") as boolean
on error
    set state to false
end try

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles " & (not state)

tell application "Finder"
    set theWindows to every window
    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
        set this_item to item i of theWindows
        set theView to current view of this_item
        if theView is list view then
            set current view of this_item to icon view
        else
            set current view of this_item to list view
        end if
        set current view of this_item to theView
    end repeat
end tell

However, as of my version of OS X (10.11.5), this doesn't actually toggle the hidden files.  I need to relaunch finder in order to see the changes.  I know how to do this in the script with: do shell script "killall Finder", but I don't know how to get all my current windows back and repositioned to where they were.

TL;DR: Is there a nice way to force the Finder windows to refresh without having to relaunch Finder?  Or if there isn't, how can I keep my windows after a restart?

The trick of switching views worked well in Yosemite but no longer in El Capitan.

I've had to go back to the simple, yet annoying

set newHiddenVisiblesState to "YES"
try
    set oldHiddenVisiblesState to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
    if oldHiddenVisiblesState is in {"1", "YES"} then
        set newHiddenVisiblesState to "NO"
    end if
end try
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles " & newHiddenVisiblesState & "; killall Finder"

Rather than the much nicer version which worked before

set newHiddenVisiblesState to "YES"
try
    set oldHiddenVisiblesState to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
    if oldHiddenVisiblesState is in {"1", "YES"} then
        set newHiddenVisiblesState to "NO"
    end if
end try
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles " & newHiddenVisiblesState

tell application "Finder"
    set theWindows to every Finder window
    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
        set this_item to item i of theWindows
        set theView to current view of this_item
        if theView is list view then
            set current view of this_item to icon view
        else
            set current view of this_item to list view

        end if
        set current view of this_item to theView
    end repeat
end tell

Honestly, I'd love this answer to be wrong

BTW, Windows ought to reopen exactly where they were - but not if you have them spread over more than one Space; that's not possible.


WIFI and Bluetooth not connecting at same time..on my Tauras keyboard I have the iPad 2 and it has always worked, however, I have had it paired with the WIFI and Bluetooth and it has worked for 2 years, for the past week it will not connect the Tauras AKB34 keyboard to the Bluetooth and the WIFI  at the same time.  I am unable to use the keyboard, but the iPad 2 still works manually.
I have tried everything I know and nothing works.

I cannot find any battery to change on the keyboard, if there is one.
Thanks for your help,
Nancy Doyle
Maine.

It should have come with a charger, or you can use USB cable.

It has a rechargeable battery.

The keyboard has an internal battery that’s charged with the included miniUSB cable.


Export versions of a document (/.DocumentRevisions-V100) I'm trying to automate the following process:

get all versions of a document,
check in each version to a repository (Subversion, in my case)

As a half-solution, I'd already be happy with:

get all versions of a document,
name them to include a version info (an incrementing revision number, a timestamp, whatever),
place them in a common directory.

However, I couldn't find any tool, command-line or otherwise, to help with this. Nor does there appear to be Automator or AppleScript support for managing versions, or, some other means of browsing the /.DocumentRevisions-V100 database for a particular document.

I only seem to be able to browse to a particular version, mark it as current, save a copy, then repeat. Is this correct? Has anyone attempted to at least speed this up with UI scripting?

This is not an answer, but it is too much for a comment. Might be somebody can add information here.

You might think the different versions are stored within the file itself. This is not true. The different versions are stored in the following directory

/.DocumentRevisions-V100

You need admin rights to browse around in that folder, so changing its rights using the following command makes it possible to see its contents without admin rights.

sudo chmod -R 115 /.DocumentRevisions-V100

Now you can use Finder to look around in your versions.

open /.DocumentRevisions-V100

You will notice that the directory structure is a bit un-human, and it looks a bit like the iPod structure if you ask me. The different versions of all your files are stored within this folders. Probably, the /.DocumentRevisions-V100/db-V1/db.sqlite-wal file contains the most important information. But unfortunately I can only guess how these versions are stored.

It might be possible to create a smart folder that handles the contents of /.DocumentRevisions-V100 to fetch the versions you want.

(Most of this info is from: http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/everything_you_need_know_about_versions)

New:
The /.DocumentRevisions-V100/PerUID/[0-9] directory contains the files per user ID (run the id command in the Terminal to know your user ID). This is were the different versions of all your docs are stored. When I copied this Directory to my desktop and changed permissions, I was able to do spotlight searches on them and find all versions from 1 certain file.


HD filling up with cached data? I have a 256GB SSD which usually sits at around 30GB available space, but recently I've had a problem with what appears to be over zealous caching which has on a number of occasions eaten the entire 30GB.

Last time it happened my system was grinding to a halt with no space left at all, its amazing what breaks when there's no disk space, so I just deleted the offending files. This caused issues with my Keychain but I managed to recover.

Yesterday I got the warning again, and I was down below 10GB, I'm now sitting at 18GB without deleting anything since, so it seems to be rapidly up and down.

I've used Disk Inventory X to investigate and the culprit seems to be the folder:

  /private/var/folders/l2/khdpc8h92l187pz9yl490fhc0000gn/C/com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.32/fsCachedData

Currently there's 30,110 files in that folder using up 8.8GB, which seems a little excessive on its own! I'm pretty sure thats the same folder that eventually swells to fill up my HD.

As far as I know, WebKit is safari's engine? I use 4 Safari extensions which are: 1Password, AdBlock, BetterTTV and Reddit Enhancement Suite.

Any idea what specifically is causing this? or how I might identify the culprit? I'm also on Sierra 10.12.2 beta.

I had the same problem; wrote the following bash script and run it once daily with cron. Problem solved. When I first noticed this, I had over 50GB in the fsCacheData folder!

#!/bin/bash
DIR=/private/var/folders/6m/36p_j3ss0zjbfjh3r72qjtw40000gn/C/com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64/fsCachedData/
LIMIT=1
SIZE=$(du -h $DIR | cut -f 1)

if [[ "${SIZE%?}" -ge $LIMIT ]];
    rm -r $DIR
fi


Can't access certain websites I'm trying to access the site http://www.svenskadomaner.se but it's unreachable from my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.8.5). The domain belongs to a web hosting company and it's not only this specific site I can't reach but all sites on their servers.

What I've tried/checked:

Different browsers
Different connections (home, work, friends)
Different user profiles
Firewall (turned off)
No AV programs (as what I can see)
Checked /etc/hosts
Flush DNS
Changed to Google's DNS
Ping svenskadomaner.se (Request timeout)
Traceroute svenskadomaner.se (stops at first step)
Update to Mavericks

Their IP is : 5.150.255.189

I'm really out of options here. What is the next thing to try?

Note: I can access the sites through a proxy site

Look at your hosts file. You can find it by clicking on the "Go' menu in the Finder and select "Go to folder..." then type "/etc/hosts". Copy the file on to your Desktop and open it with Text Edit.

You'll see the following lines at the top of the file :

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1   localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

If you have others lines underneath, look for the domain "svenskadomaner.se" in a line such as 127.0.0.1 svenskadomaner.se. If you find a line like this, then your Mac redirects the domain to your localhost (your Mac) and of course it won't find the server. This is the technique to block a website on a computer. So delete the line, save the hosts file and replace the "/etc/hosts" file with the one that is on your desktop.

Then you can try again to go the website ;-)

Edit : It's possible that you don't have "127.0.0.1 svenskadomaner.se" in the file but something like "127.0.0.1 IP Address" where IP Address is the address of the servers of www.svenskadomaner.se.


I Bought a Game from the iPhone App Store, and I Installed it on my Macbook from the Mac App Store? I bought "Castle of Illusion" on my iPhone, and I am signed into my iCloud with my Apple ID and such on my laptop, and downloaded the app in the Mac App store. I pressed "Install" and it said "Installing". Did I just BUY the app AGAIN? Is it linked with my iPhone apps?

App Store on iPhone or in iTunes is specific to iOS. If you are buying an application from there will run on iOS devices only, not on OS X. Similarly Mac App Store is exclusive for OS X apps. You cannot buy an app from App Store on iPhone and transfer it to Mac App Store. Both apps are incompatible with each other.

In your case, you bought the apps separately for your iPhone and MBP.


What is the Sixth Step of MacBook Repair? My Macbook has crashed once or twice daily ever since I installed Lion. I am unable to return to Snow Leopard because my Time Machine is now coupled with Lion.

I went through the sequence:

Reset the PRAM: Hold down Command ⌘+Option ⌥+P+R on boot. Release after hearing the computer chime twice. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Reset the SMC:
Shutdown. Disconnect power adapter. Remove the battery. Press and hold power for 5 seconds.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Verify/Repair disk
Reboot into the recovery partition (press Option ⌥ while booting) and run Disk Utility. The disk had two problems, which are now fixed. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1782
Run the hardware diagnostics:
Reboot with the original OS X Disk 1 while pressing D. The hardware diagnostics (memory only, apparently) says all is well. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Reinstall OS X from the recovery partition:
Hold Command ⌘+R while booting.
Slight reduction in the rate of crash (but that's only an impression). http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

What would you try next?

Edit:
The machine is out of warranty and out of Apple care.

Take it to Apple and ask them to fix it under warranty.  If you have made a clean install, and can still demonstrate the problem, you almost certainly have some sort of hardware issue.

If you did a reinstall, then added something that has a kext, that might be responsible, though, so in the (unlikely) event, reinstall, don't install that, and see if that fixes the problem.


Why do some apps only Airplay the audio? For the background info: I have an iPod Touch [4g] running iOS 5.0.1 and an AppleTV 2 running the latest software.

I've noticed that while the majority of third-party video apps do AirPlay just fine (like Crackle, YouTube, AirVideo, etc.) there are some apps (like CNET TV, and NBA Game Time) that only send over the audio portion of the video to my Apple TV.

In other words, when I try to AirPlay a video it will continue showing the video portion on my local device while playing the audio on the Apple TV.

This seems very strange. I was wondering if this is because:

I'm doing something wrong?
The developers of those apps have blocked AirPlay?
The developers of those apps have not implemented AirPlay properly?
Or something else entirely?

The developers of those apps have blocked AirPlay video. Though the default is to allow video streaming, individual developers can make that call for their app. Older apps (before iOS 5) will all do it, as well many released after iOS 5 came out.

See the developer documentation, specifically "allowsAirPlayVideo" here.


Empty Directories in ~/Library/Mobile Documents I'm browsing the directory in ~/Library/Mobile Documents running the latest version of Mountain Lion and I see may empty folders that correspond to applications that I have used in the past, but whose iCloud data I don't necessarily care about (some shouldn't even have iCloud data).

Additionally, looking at the Manage Storge section of iCloud settings on my iPhone, there are only 3 or 4 apps listed in iOS, so it seems these folders that are empty on my mac could be safely deleted. Is this the case? I don't want to delete these folders if someone can't confirm that its safe to do so, because I don't trust iCloud to do the logical thing in this situation, which would be happily accept the fact that I deleted these empty  folders.

Curiously, I have some applications that I know are syncing through iCloud, because I have the same data on my iPhone and my iPad, but don't have corresponding folders in ~/Library/Mobile Documents on my Mac. Do some iOS applications store their data in a different location?

None of this seems logical, so can anyone make sense of this and provide some insight into what iCloud is doing behind the scenes here?

~/Library/Mobile Documents is basically a mapped network location(to iCloud) and allows you to interact with the documents created by certain apps(default location) most likely they are left over from poor un-installers not cleaning up after themselves or left intact on purpose incase you decide to re-install at some point.

I would contend that it is safe to delete if you don't plan on using those applications, and also assuming if they are generated by an application that when they are needed they will regenerate themselves as needed. Make a copy of them and put them on your desktop and delete them to see what happens. If it breaks copy them back.

On a side note, are you doing this just to keep things clean? Are you in this directory through finder enough that these folders slow your navigation down? I appreciate wanting to keep things clean, however their existence probably won't slow down any indexing by spotlight, use any bandwidth by iCloud or take up a significant amount of HDD space.


As a developer, what if I don't support iOS 3.1? I am currently developing an iOS application. I'm considering not supporting anything less than iOS 3.1. I was wondering, can I expect a huge backlash from customers that buy this application and try to use it on devices that haven't been updated in years?

You can find Marco Arment's stats on iOS version he collected from his Instapaper app (as CanuckSkier say in the comment, Instapaper is generally used by tech-savvy people, so "real"-people usage might be slightly less).

Here's a graph:

As you can see, at least 98% of users are already on iOS 4.0 and 96% on 4.2. So I guess you can safely stop supporting iOS 3.x.


Using two keyboards, different layouts I use two keyboards on the mac, the default mac keyboard and a windows default (Microsoft wireless desktop).

I use the microsoft keyboard one for the left hand, and the mac keyboard for the right hand.

The problem is that when I press a key on microsoft keyboard like shift/ctrl/alt/esc, and another key on the mac it doesn't get detected as a combination. I have to press the full combination on the same keyboard.

Is it possible to override this?

I'm used to typing ⇧ (Keyboard A) and char (Keyboard B) in order to get an upper case char.

The Mac won't do key combinations across keyboards, even with an Apple external and a MacBook Pro internal.

I know of no utility to allow this, either.


How do I create a SSB for Outlook web mail using Fluid? Has anyone successfully created a fluid app for outlook web mail (aka live mail)?  I've tried but either the site opens in my web browser or (after white listing variations of the site url) I get an error message stating that I need to use internet explorer or an updated version of safari.  The site opens fine in my firefox web browser (my default browser) so I don't think it's a browser problem.

When you create a Single Site Browser (SSB) with Fluid, by default it only allows you to access specific URLs within it. The allowed URLs are by default (in this example): *outlook.com*.

What you need to do is open the SSB, enter it's preferences, choose the 'Whitelist' section, and add *live.com* to the whitelist. This should allow you to access both the login page, and actual Live Mail interface without issue.

If pages continue to open in your browser, take the URL and add it's domain to the whitelist.


Drive speeds ... PCIe vs external thunderbolt SSD I have a new 2014 MacBook Pro with 1TB internal PCIe SSD.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test is reporting read/write speeds of over 900MB/s.

I am debating whether to swap this machine for a 512GB one (saving $500) and using an external Thunderbolt SSD drive, which would be cheaper and more practical.

My questions are:

Is that 900MB speed realistic? Seems incredibly fast.
Could an external Thunderbolt SSD be that fast? Theoretically Tb can do 10Gb/s ~ 1200 MB/s...

The 900MB speed is realistic, this is achieved on a few of apple's new mac offerings.
An external Thunderbolt SSD would not be as fast, the only way to make it the same speed (or possibly faster) is if you have a multidrive thunderbolt enclosure running in something like Raid-0 with SSDs in all slots.

The prior enclosure would be rather expensive though. It is probably best to have as much of that internal storage as possible as that is not easily upgradable. I would stay with the 1TB model more internal storage is always better.


How can I text using my Mac without having an iPhone to Android devices? My 85 yo Mom doesn't have a cell phone but does have a Mac. My son is going to college and she wants to keep in touch but he only texts and has an Android. I think I can set-up iMessage on her Mac as she has an Apple ID, but can she send texts to Android phones?

She also has an iPad but has trouble using it.

Why not go with Skype?

It has clients for Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android.  It even has the option to send native SMS (text) messages but there really is no need if both parties have a Skype client.

Best of all, she can message, voice and video chat.


Safari 6: How to change default fonts? This is probably a duplicate. I can't imagine I'm the first person to notice this.

It seems that Safari 6 has removed the appearance tab from the preferences, and with it, the ability to change the default fonts.

How do I change the default fonts for Safari 6?

You can still use defaults:

defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2StandardFontFamily Georgia
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2DefaultFontSize 16
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2FixedFontFamily Menlo
defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2DefaultFixedFontSize 14

Another option is to set a CSS file like this as as the default style sheet in the advanced preferences:

body {
  font: 16px Georgia;
}
pre, code, tt {
  font: 14px Menlo;
}

Both options have precedence over the default stylesheet but not over styles specified by websites. So like the preferences in Safari 5 and earlier, they mostly apply to pages that would normally use 15px Times or 13px Courier.


What versions of the OS X support Safari 6? Our webapp requires Safari 6.0 or higher. What versions of OS X support Safari 6 or higher?

Safari 6 can be run on OS's Lion and Mountain Lion. The initial release of the browser was for Mountain Lion as stated here.


Can't format SD Card after OS X Lion update to 10.7.4 Today I tried to format my SD cards with no success. The only thing different that I did was updating to 10.7.4 this weekend. What can I do to re-enable this function?

The can't format part means I can't format to any filesystem. It shows "read only". The erase format is not enabled.

Another user here has confirmed the same problem. The SD cards in question format fine in a camera but I can't write to it when I plug it into MacBook Pro. This started to happen only after update to 10.7.4. The problems seems to stem from (or correlate with) Disk Utility greying out all options apart from 'verify disk'.

Inserting SD card to SD -> USB dongle works just fine, so it's only SD card slot which seems to have assigned 'read only' status.

It's weird it started to work fine for a while and again I can't write to or format the SD cards.

I've formated a SD card with both exFAT and FAT32 and tried to use it on my laptop with Linux and guess what happened? It was read only even in another computer, but I've formated it again using Linux utility and everything is fine.
But the SD saga continues on OS X Lion, as well as Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

It is annoying buying an Apple product and have this kind of headache, and the worst is that I don't have the possibility of walking in an Apple Store and ask a genius to solve it for me.

There are two likely possible causes for this:

It's a hardware fault that just showed up, or
It's a bug in OS X 10.7.4.

The best fix for both of these (currently) is to visit your local Apple Store's Genius Bar. In case 1, they'll fix your SD reader. In case 2, they'll pass the bug in OS X up the food chain so it can get fixed in 10.7.5 (they'll probably try to fix the hardware, too, just in case).


The iPhone cannot be backed because there is not enough iCloud Storage for that Where can I determine what apps make the incredible size of backup?

As you can see there is almost 30GB free space, but I cannot perform a backup because there is not enough space on iCloud. Why?

Using iOS 11, iPhone 6S Plus 128GB

Under Manage Storage > Backup there is following screen:

My question is different to the marked one as duplicated, because:

I have 50GB storage on iCloud including 30 gb free space
using iOS 11
my problem IS NOT about why backup still have 5GB, but why there is no space, even when backup is 20gb (what is rather impossible).

You can temporarily increase your iCloud storage ($1 per month) and do your backup. You can then check how big the backup is. I noted you have 128GB on your phone. If only a fraction of that is used it could be a lot. After your backup, you can reduce your icloud storage back to 50 GB to end the $1 per month charge.


Save .mov file with applescript I've installed the Perian addon for Quicktime so it can open .flv files, and then I can save them as .m4v or .mov.  I'm trying to make an Applescript to convert from .flv to .m4v automatically by using this tutorial and butchering their example applescript file, which normally converts ChemDraw files (.cdx, .cml, .mol) to .tiff, so that it instead uses Quicktime to save the .flv files as .m4v.  When I try to use it, though, I get an error "QuickTime Player got an error: document 1 doesn't understand the save message".  My save message is currently:

save first document in target_path as ".m4v"

which looks like the QuickTime dictionary's instructions:

save specifier : The document(s) or window(s) to save.
[as saveable file format] : The file format to use.

I've also tried "m4v", without the period, and still get the error.
Is my Save direction wrong, or is it probably an error from trying to use Quicktime instead of the original ChemDraw?  I tried to change references to .cdx, .cml, .mol, .tiff, and ChemDraw to .flv, .m4v, and QuickTime respectively, but maybe it's more complicated than that?
I would, in fact, appreciate any example showing how to save an application file (ex: a TextEdit .rtf or .txt), as I can't seem to get any kind of file to save using applescript.

Sorry, still too low to post comment. Are we talking QuickTime Player X or QuickTime Player 7? (very different .sdefs)

Also, can you post the script content leading up tosave first document in target_path as ".m4v"? (tell blocks can be important, as well as knowing what value type target_path is, etc.)


Unable to upgrade/update iPad 2 from iOS 5.1.1 (to iOS to 9.3) I have an iPad 2 (MC769LL/A) that is running iOS 5.1.1. I need to update the OS. The device is telling me there's an update for 9.3, but I'm getting an error saying unable to verify the update because I'm no longer connected to the internet.

Before you even suggest it, I did all these things mentioned here (and everywhere else): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7506344?tstart=0. Is this iPad in un-update-able hell? Is there some way I can manually update it to a lower version than 9 as a stepping stone?

Welp, I resolved this problem, or rather, iTunes decided to resolve this problem for me after some hesitation; it finally prompted me to update the device (after telling me it wasn't supported -_-). So if you're in my boat and exhausted all of those "turn it off and back on"-esque options, hopefully fidgeting with iTunes grants you the opportunity to update.


iCloud/Google calendar sync issues on OS X 10.9.1 I have recently upgraded to Mavericks, 10.9.1. I am trying to share my diary with my wife, we both use the OS X Calendar and I decided to sync using iCloud.

I also have calendars in Calendar synced through Google.

I went into System Preferences > iCloud and ticked Calendars. It told me it would merge all my calendars data in Calendars on My Mac to the Calendars in iCloud which is what I wanted.

I said OK, it then whirred away for about three minutes and then all my calendars on My Mac disappeared and were replaced by iCloud calendars, a bit more whirring and then I saw an error saying it couldn't access iCloud at this time, try again now or try later, I tried now several times and later as well all to no avail.

Getting desperate I went into System Preferences > iCloud and un-ticked Calendars. It told me all Calendar data would be deleted on my mac which I was not concerned about as I was well backed up.

All iCloud Calendars disappeared from the side pane leaving only the Google calendars left.

This is my challenge: I can't create a Calendar on My Mac. When I go to File > New Calendar, there is no option to create on on My Mac which was there before, in fact no option to create anything.

I have tried the usual computer reboot and logging out of iCloud to no avail.

I have logged onto iCloud and some of my Calendars are there but at this point I would be happy just to be able to get back to square one with my Calendars re-created on My Mac.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

You can't create events without a calendar to put them in, and you can't create calendars without an account. Since you have no available cloud service, you need to create the calendars in the On My Mac account.

Completely log out and remove all accounts that could store calendars, including iCloud and Google.
Open Calendars → Preferences → Accounts (Not Calendars → Accounts).
Select the On My Mac account and check the Enable this account box.


finding out iPhone usages information I would like to buy a 2nd hand iPhone. is there any service exist where i can check when it was activated or when actually the user started using this iPhone.

From this webservice provided by Apple you can get some data about the phone with its serial number.

It doesn't give you the purchase date but you can infer it from warranty end.


How to get list of users connected to file sharing? My desktop Mac mini (2018) shares files to other computers on the network. I've set it up in System Preferences > Sharing so that only known users can connect, with their username and password.

If I go to restart my Mini, I sometimes get a message to say that 1 or more users are connected.

Is there an easy way to find out which users are connected?

I used to use Server.app, and it would be easy to use that (or serveradmin on the CLI) to determine who was logged in. But since Server has been 'withdrawn', it doesn't seem so easy. I'm on Mojave.

last |grep "logged in" gives:

Ben       ttys000                   Sun Jun  7 15:24   still logged in
Ben       console                   Sun Jun  7 15:22   still logged in

which doesn't seem to include current AFP connected users, as suggested by the recommended article. Nor does it give those connected to TM sharing or other connections; however, those can be gleaned from Activity Monitor.

netstat -na |grep 139

just gives me a bunch of IP6 addresses.

tcp6       0      0  fe80::18cf:f908:.51390 fe80::cab:3d08:d.61984 ESTABLISHED
tcp6       0      0  fe80::18cf:f908:.61391 fe80::cab:3d08:d.61898 CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  fe80::18cf:f908:.54029 fe80::cab:3d08:d.61394 CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  fe80::18cf:f908:.64954 fe80::cab:3d08:d.56139 CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  fe80::18cf:f908:.50799 fe80::cab:3d08:d.51394 CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       0      0  fe80::18cf:f908:.52279 fe80::cab:3d08:d.61394 CLOSE_WAIT
6f249e60a5b12c27 stream      0      0                0 6f249e60a5b1396f                0                0
6f249e60a5b1396f stream      0      0                0 6f249e60a5b12c27                0                0

The best I've found is:

netstat -f inet -n | grep '.548 ' | awk '{ print $5 }' | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//'

which gives me IP4 addresses for all connections except SMB.

Ideally, something that lists the connection type and username would be ideal, but it does seem that this is going to require a script rather than a one-liner.

You can open Activity Monitor and the right-most column of the displayed data is Users. Click on users to sort the data by user. You can then see who all is on the computer. This method was explained in the OSX Daily article found here.


What takes place during an iPhone hard reset? In response to an iPhone 7 freezing issue I'm having, it was suggested to try a hard reset (holding power + volume down for 10 seconds for iPhone 7 or holding power + home on older iPhones).

This got me wondering what an hard reset actually does. After searching around online, I've sound some that say it is just a hard power-off (isn't this what holding just the power button does?) and others mentioning something about a library being rebuilt. Overall, many, at least from several years ago, cited it as a cure-all for various phone issues.

Does anyone know what a hard reset does? I'm envisioning something analogous booting a Mac in safe mode or doing a PRAM/SMC reset on a Mac, but online searches so far are leaving me unsure.

I do not know for sure that this happens but I was told that in order for IOS to do anything except just it's usual booting functions you actually need to do a hard reset three times in a row.

Not sure why, and this was advice I read (don't remember where) several years ago. Perhaps 3 hard resets in a row trigger some sort of flag that forces IOS to do some special maintenance, not really sure but I am throwing it out in case someone else has heard this or knows is it complete and utter BS.


Sort with case-sensitivity (lowercase before uppercase) in macOS in the Terminal I am trying to use the answer in GNU Sort by case-sensitive to sort a file in my Mac OS.

My file.txt looks like this:

"Best"
"A"
"BEST"

In the second answer to the mentioned question, it says that one can do:

echo -e "d\nD\nc\nb\nB\na" | sort --ignore-case file.txt

and the output should be:

"A"
"Best"
"BEST"

However, when I do it in my computer, I get:

"A"
"BEST"
"Best"

It does not matter if I use the --ignore-case or not, the output is the same.

Maybe LC_COLLATE=C can not be set in Mac OS?

Does someone know how to use sort and have lowercase < uppercase in Mac OS?

EDIT

@jaume recommended installing coreutils and using the GNU sort. I tried brew install coreutils and then gsort -f file.txt but still had no luck.

Sort order is defined in your locale.

locale
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

When LC_COLLATE is defined as LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8" on macOS, LC_COLLATE uses the C or POSIX definiton. The default behavior of sort is to sort in ascii order where uppercase has precedence over lowercase.

On Linux, when  LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8" the LC_COLLATE definiton is non-standard. The default behavior of sort is to ignore-case and lowercase has precedence over uppercase.

To mimic Linux default sort behavior on macOS, You can use tr to "translate" lowercase letters to uppercase and uppercase to lowercase, sort with the ignore-case option (-f), then change the case back again.

tr 'a-zA-Z' 'A-Za-z' <file.txt | sort -f | tr 'a-zA-Z' 'A-Za-z'

EXAMPLE:

cat file.txt
"cat"
"Best"
"A"
"BEST"
"Castro"
"alfred"
"a"
"CAT"

tr 'a-zA-Z' 'A-Za-z' <file.txt | sort -f | tr 'a-zA-Z' 'A-Za-z'
"a"
"A"
"alfred"
"Best"
"BEST"
"Castro"
"cat"
"CAT"


How to fade out/in in iTunes? Even in iTunes 11, there is no fade out when pausing playback or fade in when starting playback. How can I achieve this?

If you are using macOS, you can create a new Service with Automator, add a Run AppleScript action to it, and enter the following script:

set current_application to (path to frontmost application as Unicode text)
tell application "System Events"
    if process "iTunes" exists then
        tell application "iTunes"
            set current_volume to the sound volume
            if (player state is playing) then
                repeat
                    repeat with i from current_volume to 0 by -1
                        set the sound volume to i
                        delay 0.01
                    end repeat
                    pause
                    set the sound volume to current_volume
                    exit repeat
                end repeat
            else
                set the sound volume to 0
                play
                repeat with j from 0 to current_volume by 1
                    set the sound volume to j
                end repeat
            end if
        end tell
        tell application current_application
            activate
        end tell
    end if
end tell

You can assign a keyboard shortcut to it in System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services.


How do I recall the last sent message in Colloquy? In many chat clients you can get the last typed message by hitting the up arrow. It doesn't seem to work in this client. Is that not an available feature or is there some way to do it?

Per Colloquy's FAQ:

  Is there a way to see my sent history as well as to navigate around in the existing text with the arrow keys?
  Sent history is controlled by the up/down arrow keys while holding option, switching between panes in a window with command-up/down, and scrolling with home/end/page up/page down; you can use any other key combination to navigate or select text. Change this within the hidden preferences.

So; ⌥+↑ or
⌥+↓ gives you the last, or next message, respectively.

And per that Hidden Preferences link, it would appear that you can change it to use up/down arrows only by opening Terminal.app (either search for Terminal via Spotlight, otherwise you can find the app in Applications > Utilities), and enter:

defaults write info.colloquy JVSendHistoryUsesOnlyArrows -bool true

Restart Colloquy after entering this command if it was already open, and see if that works.


Cannot enable Time Machine encrypted backups since updating to Catalina I updated to Catalina recently and previously I was able to backup my MacBook using Time machine backups. After the update time machine backup failed because of empty password issue (don't remember full error message), and now when I try to enable backups I'm getting following error after entering the backup password:

  An error occurred while creating a System Keychain entry for encrypted Time Machine network backups
      You can try using the Keychain Access utility to edit the System Keychain.

Any suggestions how to fix this?

It seems like the issue was that Time Machine -dialog itself didn't have correct admin rights, but wasn't showing the padlock for unlocking them. Opening Time Machine from System preferences instead of the upper bar seemed to help, and that's how I was able to click the padlock and give enough rights for Time Machine to write into System Keychain.


Looking for the ultimate IDE for Mac I am a little disenchanted with development on the Mac right now. I need a single IDE that can handle all of my development needs. I did notice there are other questions on this topic already, but those did not cover my specific needs of:

Must support at least HTML, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails and PHP syntax highlighting, bonus if there are more language plug-ins available
Must support the ability to connect to FTP and SFTP
Must support handling of projects/sites
Must have some level of code completion, even if it is just at the variable level
Must support syntax formatting
Must be able to recognize and highlight ERB/TPL files as HTML

Are there any suggestions for such an IDE out there?

I actually think the idea of a single, unified, development environment like what you're after is somewhat antithetical to OS X design principles. One of the great things I've found, since switching to OS X for development work about a year ago, is that many OS X application developers share my own personal philosophy when it comes to software: do less, but do it really, really well.

As such, my current development environment on OS X is less unified than it was on Windows or Linux, but far, far more stable, robust, and ultimately: productive.

For coding I use TextMate. It seems almost trivially simple at first and then you discover bundles and it's built-in command line filtering and it takes off. It will handle the highlighting tasks you requested. It has projects, and while they seem kind of loose at first, you'll grow to appreciate it. Trust me. And it does handle code completion, tag closing, tag matching -- the sort of stuff you'd expect -- it's just not obvious, but it's there in Bundles and waiting for you to customize it.

Update: I've moved off TextMate and on to Sublime Text 2. The regular updates and the Python-based extensions were a major draw. It's been a year now and no regrets with that switch.

I use Kaleidoscope for diffs. It's just an a beautiful diff tool.

My git tool is Tower and my Subversion tool is Versions. Both awesome.

For permanent, remote drive access via ssh I use MacFUSE to connect to the remote location and mount it as a drive on my Mac. This is a superior option to built-in ssh or ftp support in the IDE because all the programs on my Mac can now work with files on that share.

I also use CyberDuck for it's awesome cost and excellent Amazon S3 support. I could even get away with just CyberDuck, no MacFUSE, if I had to. But I don't. :)

Update: I've switched to ForkLift 2 as my primary means to interact with remote file systems. It's got a nicer UI than CyberDuck and a few less "quirks" to it. I'll still occasionally open up CyberDuck when I need to deliver a signed URL to an S3 object.

Finally: iTerm 2. A terminal app befitting OS X. It really is quite a fantastic terminal. Bookmarks make it easy to get to my AWS machines quickly. The UI is clean. And tabs.

All of those things replace the clunky IDE (Komodo Pro) I use to use on Linux and Windows (and never really liked, just tolerated). And I don't even know that they're not all "unified" in one cluttered, modal window. No sir.

For reference, I write a lot Python, some HTML, JavaScript, Perl, and Java. And the occasional bit of C and C++.

Update: There's more Go in my day to day coding now. My toolset integrated that relatively young language without so much as a hiccup.


How to disable Finder's "is available on your computer" message I've set up an SSH tunnel to SMB on a remote Windows server, and want to access it using the Finder.  I set up the tunnel using the command:

ssh warren@sshserver.local -p 3484 -L 1445:windowsserver:445

(445 is the default Windows file sharing port, which I haven't changed.  My SSH server is configured to use port 3484 instead of 22).

The tunnel sets up all fine and dandy.  Then, in Finder, I click "Go -> Connect to Server," enter "smb://localhost:1445" and hit return.  I immediately get the error "The server 'localhost' is available on your computer.  Access the volumes and files locally."  Except, of course, that's a dirty lie, since localhost:1445 is a tunnel, not the ultimate destination.

Is there any way to suppress this behavior and force Finder to actually connect to the tunnel despite the fact that it has "localhost" in the name?

You should be able to mount the server from the command line with mount_smb:

mkdir /Volumes/sharename
mount_smbfs //smbusername@localhost:1445/sharename /Volumes/sharename


iMac Startup I/O Error Despite Successful Disk Repair My Early 2008 iMac with OSX 10.8.5 no longer boots beyond grey screen with spinning gear. Verbose mode shows a load of I/O errors. Disk Verify/Repair run via recovery partition completes successfully, as does fsck terminal command in single user startup mode (it modified the files on first run but not second). I reset the NVRAM too.

However none of these have helped, same I/O errors afterwards. Thinking it might be due to OS files being corrupted I created a USB drive with installable version of OSX (actually 10.9 Mavericks), but it crashes during install.

I wanted to try Apple Hardware Tools diagnostics but the startup shortcuts D or opt+D don't work - I read it's been removed so presumably I'll need to find a way to reinstall it first. I've tried the usual fixes such as safe mode (won't boot), removing all peripherals, even the RAM sticks.  I can't hear the drive making any grinding sounds.

Is there anything else I can try to fix this? Is it likely the HD has died even though Disk Repair is returning success?

Disk I/O errors literally translate to input / output errors, which occur when the system is unable to communicate properly with the hard drive.  This is very indicative of a hardware failure, whether it be with the hard drive itself, the logic board or the SATA data cable that runs between the two.  Given the age of your Mac (5~ years) I would assume that the hard drive is to blame.  Disk Utility repairs the volume on the disk at a software level,  often it will report when hard drives have a hardware failure but there are also times when it repairs correctly despite communication errors still being present.

Apple Hardware Test (AHT) IS pretty good at giving you a solid answer but as you've found out it's no longer on your hard drive, likely lost during an old upgrade or re-install.  You should be able to boot to it using the gray restore discs that came with your iMac.  Discs from another iMac/Mac will not work unless it's identical to yours, these are very hardware specific.  AHT should be on the disc labeled "Applications Install DVD", with a small mention of AHT and its version number.  Holding down D while booting with that disc inserted should boot the Mac to AHT.


Why emacs commands work everywhere on macOS? I can use emacs commands everywhere on macOS, which is good.
But why?
For example, in forms in Safari, I can use ctl-a, ctl-k, etc...
I can use them in Note.app, too.

My guess is they are actually Unix commands and emacs borrowed them?

I can use emacs commands everywhere on macOS, which is good. But why?

Normally, asking “Why Apple does this, that, or the other thing” would be considered off topic, however, this one actually has an answer based in history.

The short answer to this is because the Emacs keybindings support is implemented in the Cocoa Text System.

  My guess is they are actually Unix commands and emacs borrowed them?

They are not, however, Unix commands, because already pointed out in another answer, they are not found in the Unix specification. Also, they are not “universal” and cannot be used everywhere.  They can only be used where the application(s) make use of the Cocoa Text System.  For example, they cannot be used in Microsoft Word.

So, what does Cocoa have to do with anything?  Well, Cocoa is derived from OpenStep which was a project developed by NeXT and Sun Microsystems to provide a NeXTSTEP like environment to non-NeXTSTEP operating systems.  NeXT produced an OpenStep variation for its own Mach-based Unix.

Now remember, the macOS Unix kernel is Mach-based.

So, how did Apple get its hands on Mach and OpenStep?  Well, on February 7, 1997 Apple acquired NeXT (along with Steve Jobs).  The derivative products from that purchase was, you guessed it, macOS based on the Mach kernel, OpenStep, and all the other goodies NeXT had in their portfolio.

So, why did Apple bring over all those keybindings as they developed Cocoa?  It only made sense for Apple bring over an environment developers (lots and lots of them from the Unix-verse) were already familiar with.  Cocoa, derived from OpenStep, implemented the Emacs functionality already built into OpenStep.


osx 10.8.2 update - wrong smc the last update caused a white screen with a grey symbol. OSX 10.8.2 doesn't start.
I have a MacBook Pro Mid 2010
I can do nothing. Recovery, Internet Installation, everything failed.
I found out that the wrong SMC Version was installed. It installed 1.68f99 and i need 1.62f7 (SMC 1.6)
The boot ROM Version is right.
What can I do?
Can somebody help me?

BR Stefan

Incorrect firmware could be something that you can not recover from and result in a trip to the Genius Bar or another authorized service center where they can work with engineering to determine if user error or a bug resulted in the incorrect firmware loading or if they need to re-flash the EFI or just replace the logic board to get back to the proper / supported version of firmware for your hardware.

In the past - when a firmware revision has been problematic and there are reasons for a substantial portion of the user base to want to regress to an earlier version of firmware, Apple has released firmware recovery toolsto the public. In your case, I don't see public versions of the firmware you seek, so these may only distributed to service centers and not end users or not something Apple has released a tool to remedy. You still can seek service options since firmware is something that can be exchanged with a part swap as part of a repair.


Permanently swapping option and command keys on a non-Apple keyboard Whenever I plug my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard into my MacBook Pro, I have to swap the Command and Option modifier keys.  How can I prevent these keys from reverting to their default settings whenever I unplug the keyboard?

I assume you already know about the Keyboard Pref Pane. I had exactly the same problem with an Ergonomic and an Arc. The settings didn't stick with external keyboards.

Install KeyRemap4MacBook. It works for any Mac, btw. It remaps keys on all keyboards of a Mac - try to use Enter as Right-Cmd, e.g.

Set Cmd to Alt etc. for all keyboards in KeyRemap4MacBook (both right and left).
Switch the keys in the Keyboard Pref Pane for the internal keyboard.
Et voilà!

I figured out that weird hack some time ago. It turned out to be rock solid. Only thing to remember: hardware based utilities such as SteerMouse use the 'real' keys, so you need to switch around some things.


Dead backlight on iMac, LCD and all else OK The screen on my (desktop, not laptop) iMac is not working .. the backlight only works sporadically.

If I hold a flashlight up to the dead screen, I can see the pixels; the video is working, just not the backlight.

I've connected a second display (it is mirrored; both show the same desktop), so I can still use the computer.

The interesting thing is that if the computer "sleeps", upon being woken up, the iMac's display works briefly for a fraction of a second, then it goes dark again.

According to a sticker on the back of the panel, it uses CFL compact fluorescent lamps (not LEDs). The inverter is located on the mainboard (underneath the CD drive); the wires are soldered to that board.. the other ends are soldered directly to the CFL lamps.. but there are connectors in the middle of each wire.

BTW, the capacitors on the inverter board look OK, I don't see any burn marks, or broken wires, or bad solder connections on that board.

Does this sound like a problem w/ the inverter board, or with the connectors in the middle of the wires that go to the lamps?

EDIT: this is a 2008 iMac 20" 2.66/2x2g/320/wm/wk

Try to reduce the screen brightness to minimum. Put the computer to sleep and wake it up.

Better (90%)?

--> e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSzmyqQFZ2M

Not better (10%) -->

Toast your graphics board in the oven

e.g. https://macman860.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/baking-a-graphics-card/

Better (90%) --> You're welcome

Not better --> New inverter board


My PC has over 200 GB of free storage but iTunes won't back up my iPhone with 64 GB I have an iPhone 6s with 64 GB of storage, all of which is used. I'm using iTunes version 12.10.6.2 on a Window 10 laptop. When I try to back up my iPhone using iTunes, I get the message "iTunes could not back up the iPhone 'xxxxx' because not enough free space is available on this computer."

Why am I getting the message that there's not enough space when I know I have plenty on my laptop?

Usually when I see this issue, it's one of the following:

The iTunes backup folder is missing, damaged, or has incorrect permissions.
The iTunes backup folder was previously redirected to an external drive that's now disconnected (a fancy variant on missing really :))

There's two locations for the iTunes backup folder, depending on whether you installed iTunes direct from Apple or via the Microsoft Windows 10 store.

Direct from Apple:

In the Windows search bar type %appdata% (with the percents) and press return/enter. A file browser window will open to the Application Data folder.
From there, navigate to Apple Computer -> MobileSync -> Backup.

From the Windows 10 store:
 1. In the Windows search bar paste %userprofile%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup and press return/enter. A file browser window will open to the iTunes backups folder.

Do you have one or both of these folders? I usually like to start by recommending renaming the existing Backup folder and making a fresh new folder named Backup (must be named exactly Backup) and seeing if that helps.

My blog post about how to find the iTunes backup folders:
https://deciphertools.com/blog/where-are-iphone-backups/ (Obvious disclaimer: I'm linking to myself as a reference.)

I have more suggestions about fixing an error making a backup here https://deciphertools.com/blog/fix-iphone-backup-corrupt/ under the section "iPhone Backup Corrupt or Not Compatible - Can't Back Up" There's tips about errors restoring a backup as well, but please don't try those for this issue!


What's a good PDF score reading app for iPad? As a chorus and opera singer, I frequently download public-domain scores in PDF form and read them with my iPad. There is a built-in PDF reader on the iPad, and it is serviceable for music performance. But there are flaws:

Some PDF files containing high-resolution scans of the score take a long time to display. The degree of lag is a function of how the PDF file was made. In some scores it seems like the page starts off blurry and comes into focus.
It's difficult to jump to arbitrary points in the score (e.g. director says, "let's skip to page 166", those with books turn easily, I fumble fumble on the iPad)
It's hard to add bookmarks to PDF files to correspond to rehearsal numbers, to speed up jumping to points in the score.
There's no way I know of to make annotations on the score during a rehearsal, even an "x" to say "review this later".

A good PDF score-reading app for iPad would fix these problems:

App should read ahead in the PDF file, digesting the next couple of pages of the socre, so that when I turn to the next page it appears instantly -- for all PDF files, even those with high-resolution scanned images.
Easy ways to jump to page numbers and rehearsal numbers quickly, while rehearsing.
Ways to add bookmarks to scores for rehearsal numbers
Some way of annotating the score.
I can think of many features which would make the app even better.

Can any of you recommend iPad apps which work well for you as PDF score readers?

forScore

This is the app I use--it's extremely stable and has a fantastic feature set. Only $5, too. What initially drew me to it was how easy it is to get files into the app--you can download them from a URL, from your Dropbox, upload from iTunes, use a built-in store, take a picture of a physical score with your iPad's camera... There's also a neat feature to share scores with other iPads over Bluetooth--something I've on occasion done with my piano teacher.

I don't even use all of the many features, but it's an app designed specifically for PDF sheet music reading and performance, so here are some I know off the top of my head:

Lots of options for metadata, categorizing, and bookmarking exist.
Annotations are built-in and very easy to use.
It's got a handy "performance mode" that disables extra functions except for the page turns.
It can even make use of a Bluetooth foot switch accessory for page turning.
You can rearrange/duplicate/crop the pages of your PDF so you have a linear set of page turns to deal with cuts, repeats, and codas.
You can bind page turns to an audio track for rehearsal or performance purposes.
Built-in metronome and pitch pipe for rehearsal purposes.


Retrieving phone call duration on iOS? I'd like to see data on past voice calls using an iPhone.

How far back can you check for a time duration that was made on my behalf without resorting to contacting a cellular carrier or looking at my past billing statements?

Within the UI (user interface) itself you can only view the history of the past 100 calls, irrespective of whether those calls were all made within the past day or past month etc. However, this is an inconvenient way to view your call history if it's something you want to analyse, especially if it's on a regular basis.

For something a lot more convenient, such as viewing your call history in a spreadsheet or text file, you can use 3rd party software such as iExplorer.

With iExplorer you can access, view and export this data, either directly from your iPhone or from an iTunes backup of your iPhone. This is important because:

the option of access this data from an iTunes backup means you can go over the call history of past iPhones you've owned (i.e. if you have Time Machine backups or you manually keep old iPhone backups)
being able to view your call history in a text or csv file is so much easier to analyse

If you're interested, you can read How to Export Your iPhone Call History.

NOTES:

I am not affiliated in any way with the iExplorer software.
Not all functions are available without a purchase, however you can view your call history without purchasing it (but you won't be able to export the data)


Screenshot Folder Actions Ideally, I would be able to take a screenshot and paste the image directly into iA Writer. Since iA Writer doesn't store images, however, this is not possible.

In order to not have to manually drag every screenshot into iA Writer, I would like to be able to

take a screenshot,
save it in a folder
copy the file path to clipboard
paste the file path into iA Writer.

So far, I've changed the default folder for storing Screenshots and added a folder action. I found a script that copies the screenshot to my clipboard as a file. However, I can't figure out how to copy the file path to my clipboard instead, so I can easily paste it into iA Writer.
Any ideas? Could there be a better way?

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    set the clipboard to (read (last item of added_items) as TIFF picture)
end adding folder items to

This should work for you

property thePath : missing value

on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theNewItems
    set thePath to POSIX path of theNewItems

    set the clipboard to thePath -- copies the file path to clipboard
    -- set the clipboard to POSIX file thePath -- copies actual file to clipboard

end adding folder items to


Clearing TEMP files on Mac OSX I'm sure that my Mac is filled with crap by now, being 2 years old. Is there an app that will clear the temp files away? Or is there a list of locations filled with TEMP stuff I can safely delete without killing my Mac?

I tried the Beta of CCleaner, and it cleared out 10 GB of stuff, 7GB from the Trash. It's free and worked great


Best way to delete "SetupAssistantPlugins" on Yosemite? I noticed that in the InternetAccounts folder in the System Library on my iMac's HD (late 2012) that there are a bunch of folders that contain ".iaplugins" from such unwanted companies such as Facebook, 126, 123, AOL, Google, LinkedIn, Flicker, Yahoo, and Twitter. I have no idea what these are for and have no desire to have my Mac associated with any of these "accounts" (there are a few for Apple accounts, such as iCloud, Mail, Notes, AddressBook, etc.). I assume I should leave the Apple plugins, but is it safe to delete the third-party plugins, and, if so, what is the best way?

These aren't third-party plugins, but actually first-party plugins (created by Apple) for third-party services. It is not recommended to delete these, as with anything in the /System directory, however you can if you wish, using Finder or Terminal (authentication will be required).


merge empty above the startup disk with startup disk trying to merge empty greyed space above my yosemite startup disk to make my entire 500 gb hard drive just one whole disk, instead of 250 gb grey above my 250 gb yosemite startup in disk utility?

The live expansion only works from a lower numbered partition to expand to a larger one.

If you get the BSD disk number from terminal: diskutil list or the Info button when you select it is disk utility.

assuming you have data on a disk numbered 2 and the free space is 1, you would need to boot to recovery HD (or another OS and perform these steps).

Restore from the Macintosh HD to the free space that will be a lower disk number than the Macintosh HD. (restore is in the edit menu for the app)
Restart to make sure the new copy works.
Erase the old Macintosh HD - the higher number one.
Expand the new partition to take the whole space.

Since this takes several reboots and a copy, if you have a backup it might be faster to just erase the Mac and restore from the backup. I would make a backup before you start just in case - so you won't save any time doing the live shuffle and live restore. If you don't have a backup - I would do that first unless you're comfortable and have done this many times and can spend the time to start new without a backup if anything fails or errors out.


Why would my new 2015 Macbook pro make more fan noise than my 2013 model? I've had a 2013 13" MacBook pro with a small SSD, 8GBs of ram and a i5 since I bought it new. I was always impressed by how I rarely heard the fan turn on at all during normal usage and when I did it was still very quiet.

I just bought a used 2015 model 13" MacBook pro with a 2TB SSD, 16GB of ram and an i7. I haven't used it extensively yet, but I've already noticed the fan running much more frequently and loudly. I was just installing Xcode and it sounded like it was on full blast for the entire process.

Is this to be expected because of the i7? Or due to some other difference in internals? Or is this indicative of some issue?

The computer is used but only has 260 battery cycles.

There's nothing about i7's in particular the determine that they should always lead to more fan noise than an i5. In many cases, i5's and i7's have similar thermal design power points.

Note that you're comparing an 2013 MacBook Pro with an i5 with a 2015 MacBook Pro with an i7. They're different in many ways. Therefore you cannot really say anything meaningful about whether it is due to an i7 or some particular other thing.

However, if you're annoyed by the noise, I would suggest cleaning the fans. Your laptop has potentially seen 4 years of use in an environment you do not know. The fans could be very dirty and that could in itself lead to a lot of extra noise. It might also be possible to reduce noise by reapplying cooling paste to the CPU.


SQL-Coding App for iPad I'm searching for an iPad App where i can write and proceed SQL Statements.

I want to connect to my own Server.

Are there any Apps out there? I can only find MySQL Apps which are offering GUI-Editing of my Database.

There are quite a few SQL clients in the App Store, PostGres, MySql, Oracle, SqlServer

Impathic make one for just about every database such as

SQL Server Mobile Database Client

I've not used these products myself, but they are known to be limited to creating queries graphically, you can't write your own SQL.

The higher end versions, do allow you greater flexibility and the iPad apps are pretty good, however and this is a caveat, if you run SQL that returns lots of data, the query runs slowly since the amount of data being returned can be large and the handling of the large amount of data is limited by the iOS devices memory.  Write more concise SQL to return only the data you need and the apps run fine.


Can the contents of a partition be recovered after partition table is overwritten? I ran a command to make my external hdd bootable knowing that it was risky considering the command itself did not allow me to specify a partition to which to write. (In hindsight, I would now call this a stupid decision - but at the time, I tried this command:)

$ sudo dd if=/Users/MyUser/Downloads/Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso \
> of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m

For which the output I received was:

645+0 records in
645+0 records out
676331520 bytes transferred in 98.578444 secs (6860846 bytes/sec)

I knew right away that it was fishy since /dev/disk1 was split into three partitions, all of which were hfs.  Since it's next to impossible to find good information on making a bootable partition from an external USB device, I tried this in spite of the risks.

I did no further writing to my external HDD after this point, since now the only partition I see when I mount the drive is 'Fedora 17.'

What is the likelihood of recovering the files I had stored in my Backup partition?  And how should I have done this in the first place?

NOTE: This is how my partitions were before I tried dd.

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *160.0 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            159.7 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Linux                   50.0 GB    disk1s2
3:                  Apple_HFS Backup                  500.0 GB   disk1s3
4:                  Apple_HFS Misc                    449.6 GB   disk1s4

Quick and Simple: Since it's a GPT disk you can run gpart recover /dev/disk1 to fix the table. You blew away the first ~700MB of the drive, so any partitions touching that area are gone too (more or less). The rest of the disk should be fine. I'm not sure if OSX comes with gpart, so you may need to download it somewhere.

The longer details: Concerning the partition(s) that were only partially overwritten, some of the files may be recoverable. The tools to do so are much more complicated and you'll be wanting to find someone who really knows what they're doing for this. If you're concerned with any of these files don't even try anything except unplugging the drive. Also, the overwritten data can probably be recovered by a data recovery service, but this would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Also, if this was a MBR disk you'd be completely hosed unless you happen to know the exact size and offsets of all partitions. This information can be printed from fdisk, but it's best to simply not make mistakes like this.


Installing App using iTunes I've downloaded a game from iTunes to my PC and want to install it in my iPod Touch. I've synced it so many times, but can't install the app. Can you tell me how to do it?

First check all of the following values (see yellow arrows) in the "apps" tab in iTunes. Does the icon show up in the simulated screen on the right side ?

Then, right-click on the your iPod in the devices section of the left column in iTunes and choose "reset warnings."

Then sync again (by clicking on the "Apply" button at the bottom right of iTunes) and see if iTunes shows you any error messages.


Disk Utility won't erase my USB flash drive ("Couldn't open device") I am willing to dual-boot my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) macOS Sierra to install Ubuntu.

I am having some trouble with my USB flash drive when I try to erase it using Disk Utility. It says:

  Erase process has failed. Click Done to continue.

  Unmounting disk
  Couldn't open device.
  Operation failed...

Open Terminal, and type

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *8000.1 GB disk4
1: 0xEF 12.3 MB disk4s2

It cannot display the USB.  To erase the USB completely, run:

$ diskutil eraseDisk free EMPTY /dev/disk4
$ diskutil list
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *8.1 GB disk4
1: EFI EFI 12.3 MB disk4s1


How can I re-run the initial Setup Assistant on Mountain Lion? As described in my write-up on custom keyboard layouts, in some situations it can be useful to re-run the Setup Assistant (the app that you get when you start a new Mac for the first time, or do a fresh OS X install) to change some settings for the current user.

This used to work fine in OS X 10.7 Lion and earlier versions:

sudo "/System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Setup Assistant"

However, in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, this command exits early with the following message:

  ...System identity already exists for domain com.apple.systemdefault. Done.

It seems the Setup Assistant has gotten “smarter” in that it detects all the settings for the current user have already been entered. Is there any way to bypass this detection so I can run the Setup Assistant again (to change the global system keyboard layout)?

Actually, you should be able to do it by removing a hidden system file which tells OS X that setup has run. Delete this file:

/var/db/.AppleSetupDone

It's a hidden file, so you will have to remove it using Terminal, or show hidden files in Finder. You can remove the file like so:

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

To show hidden files in Finder, type the following into the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

…and then restart Finder.


Diagnosing a MacBook that decided to stop powering. (A1342) I have performed a series of upgrades on my MacBook 2010 (A1342). However, I dropped a screw, opened the device back up and fished it out and then closed it again. But when I then hit the power button, suddenly, nothing happens.

I always unplugged the power plug from the motherboard...but now it wouldn't even seem to accept the MagSafe connection anymore, as the plug does not even light up green nor orange.

So, I would like to know how I could diagnose this situation. I would guess that something is wrong with the power - but what would be a good way to do so?

The symptoms are not good. The first thing to check on MagSafe issues is to replace that sub assembly since it’s cheap and easy. If you are not able to source that part, you could disconnect the battery and the display to see if you can get the mac to boot as a minimal system (or at least the MagSafe light to work).

Hopefully you don’t need a new logic board, but by disconnecting things that aren’t critical, you should be able to build up a working system assuming each part works.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

For any Mac that’s not vintage, Consider a flat rate repair at Apple for situations like this. Assuming the internals aren’t mangled badly, they can and will test each part and repair all (including reasonable number of missing screws) for the paid flat rate cost.

Since this is vintage, your best bet is sourcing some cheap donor machines in hopes of getting enough spare parts to validate which item has failed here.


Shell script to combine PDFs, renaming output I am trying to automate some accounting tasks. For this purpose I have employed Noodlesoft Hazel's help to rename and sort documents. However, I am stuck at trying to combine PDFs that really belong together (i.e. invoice from vendor with receipt from payment portal for the same purchase).

More specifically, the names of the documents to be combined have the same first part, say:

2017-02-01 Vendor1 - invoice1234.pdf
2017-02-01 Vendor1 [PayPal] - transactionID.pdf

Is there a way to combine them automatically (i.e. running a shell script in Hazel), possibly using pdfunite? It would be important to retain the name of the second file, but combine the two into one PDF.

I have some basic scripting knowledge and would be up for the challenge!

A linked question How can I combine PDF files and automatically create a table of contents? offers a program to do this. I don't know the syntax for scripting it with hazel/applescript/automator/ruby what have you though.


How does the iPad auto-correct work exactly? When I type in something incorrectly, or if I'm in the middle of typing, the iPad sometimes shows up an auto-correct suggestion. If I click on the suggestion to choose it, it disappears. And then, when I type the word again, the auto-correct  doesn't appear.

How do I get the iPad to actually respond to my auto-correct choice? I tried Googling, but it didn't turn up any results.

AutoCorrect will automatically replace the word unless you cancel it manually by tapping it. (Note the small × sign in the suggestion bubble indicating that tapping it will cancel the suggestion.)

So, as soon as an AutoCorrect suggestion appears that you want to use, just hit Space (or insert a punctuation mark) and continue typing.


What is the python-style equivalent of virtual environments but for a user account on a Mac OS? I want to install different packages and software but I really don't like the idea of doing a sudo command to install anything.

I use Homebrew and MacPorts for getting any apps I need but is it possible to install applications, libraries and packages specific to a python style virtual environment and if I think I don't want these packages to collide, I can just delete a virtual environment or simply use a different environment?

Please let me know if the question does not make sense. Ever since I started using virtual environments in Python, I can't imagine not working with virtual environments and I was wondering if there is something equivalent or a pattern of installation that people recommend that would mimic that behavior?

ps> I know there is Fink also but I don't use it.

Version 2:
I think I need to verify my question further.
I already use virtualenvwrapper and do everything Python related in virtual environments. The question is independent of Python. Its just that virtualenv inspired me to see if there was an equivalent, user-account-wide.

What I figured would be awesome, came up when I was trying to install libjpeg, PIL, FreeType2, Pillow etc.
I wanted to install these libraries or packages like libjpeg, FreeType2 in a virtual environment of the OS. If I felt like the Homebrew version of these library installs was not to my satisfaction, I could just work in a different environment or try some other installation procedures and switch between environments of the installed applications.

So, I was wondering if something like that exists for OS X or are there some tricks one can do to emulate it?

If you are dead set on that paradigm, then virtual machines seems to be a logical next step, no? Grab Virtualbox and do your thing in a VM.

Note however that package managers solve many problems virtualenv addresses. The libs you mention won't change interfaces radically, they are stable releases.

It's python libs which are the most volatile, not things like FreeType. I would just use whatever version X11 is using.


Can I use my Mac keyboard as input to another Apple device? Is it possible to use the native keyboard on one Mac, to control the keyboard input of another Apple device, especially another Mac?

And so doing, without having to completely redirect the input device, i.e. disconnecting/connecting a Bluetooth keyboard to switch it between devices.

In my setup, I have a MacBook Pro and an iMac. Ideally, on the MBP, I would like to press a keyboard command or an GUI icon to connect the built-in keyboard as input for the iMac.

Note: Screen sharing is not a viable answer for this question.

1Keyboard is an OS X app that allows a Macintosh keyboard to type on another Mac, iOS devices like iPhone and iPad, Apple TV, PS3 and Android.
I followed the pairing instructions, and while it didn't work the first few tries, it does now. Once I got it up and running, it has worked just fine. Copying, Pasting, keyboard shortcuts and Media keys (Volume, Playback) are supported.
You can set keyboard commands to connect to different devices. I use Shift + ⌘ + > to connect to my iMac, Shift + Ctrl + > to connect to my iPhone, Shift + Alt + > to connect to my iPad.


iOS app with subscription on remote server First of all, I'm uncertain if this is a question for AskDifferent. If not, please point me to the correct section.

I have a website that features paid subscription based content. I would like to create an iOS app in which users login and have access to the app's functionality only if their subscription on the website is valid.

Is this something that is allowed as per Apples app guidelines? I've heard rumors that it's not, but wasn't able to find anything regarding this specific scenario.

Thanks

Yes this is allowed. However you are required to let users sign up through the iOS app. You get 85% and Apple gets 15%.

3.1.3 Content-based “Reader” Apps
Apps may allow a user to access previously purchased content or content subscriptions (specifically:
magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video, access to
professional databases, VoIP, cloud storage, and approved services
such as educational apps that manage student grades and schedules),
provided the app does not direct users to a purchasing mechanism other
than IAP.
3.1.4 Content Codes
Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc. In limited circumstances, such as when features are dependent upon specific hardware to function, the app may unlock that functionality without using in-app purchase (e.g. an astronomy app that adds features when synced with a telescope).

Source: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#content-based-reader-apps


MacBook is attacked but can't find any threats Recently, I was installing an unofficial software on my mac. It's a mistake, I know, but I was so confident that I can register if something is going wrong.

Coming to the point, I give the permission to run from an unidentified developer and start the installation. However, I did noticed that the installation is weird, you can tell with a little bit of experience, so I stoped it immediately, but it was too late. My mac is going too slow, even when I'm just browsing the internet and not doing any hard work, it's getting overheated and I also noticed that the battery is wasted significantly fast, even on sleep mode. So, I'm pretty sure that there is some sort of viruses running in the background.

I did tried several antivirus programs, malware scanners etc. but it all says the same "No viruses or malware found". Really don't know what to do, anyone have suggestions for advanced scanners or something like that? Just without formatting the device please.

Here is a screenshot from my Activity Monitor:

"Going slow" is not really an indicator of malware. Most malware can do its job without using significant CPU, and malware designers want their software to be unnoticed.

If several malware apps have said "it's not malware", then that's probably true.

It's much more likely that there are other problems with your Mac. Check Activity Monitor, and see what is using excessive CPU. Remove third-party Launch Agents or any other software that runs in the background. Test a new user account, and see if that it better. If so: it's a user account problem.

Make sure you have low memory pressure (also in Activity Monitor), and that you have plenty of free disk space.


On iOS, how can I insert a date/time stamp while I'm writing something? I often write short text documents on my iPhone, and want to insert a date stamp in the format YYYY-MM-DD.  Is there a utility or other means by which I can quickly insert a date stamp instead of typing it manually each time?

Sadly, the Shortcuts app is one item short of doing this pretty much natively.

It has a text function that pastes in the value of the current date, but there isn’t ISO formatting option.

I tried a Pythonista script that works very well to get the values you need, just am missing some glue to turn it into a shortcut.

import datetime
iso = datetime.date.today().isoformat()
print(iso)

Siri can even trigger this shortcut (or share sheet) for you, once I figure out how to get the two connected.


How can I remove this icon from the menu bar? I am seeing attached icon in the top right menu bar. I tried deleting MenuExtras by going to /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extrasbut it didn't help, please help to hide or remove it.

That item is the VMWare fusion menu bar icon.

The vendor has this article and steps to allow you to disable and configure it.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015330

To modify the behavior of this feature:

Go to Virtual Machine > Settings.
Click Application Menu (Applications in Fusion 3).
Click the Applications Menu tab if using Fusion 3.
From the Show applications menu in menu bar drop-down, choose Always, Never, or Only when Fusion is running.


Can't access AppStore when connected via 3G When my iPhone (3GS) is connected via 3G, I can't connect to the AppStore. It just loads a while and then says "Could not connect" and that's that.

When I have a WLAN connection, everything works fine.

This has been like this for quite some time now - it also didn't change after rebooting or updating to new versions of iOS.

What's going wrong there?

I also had a problem where the App Store was working on Wi-Fi, but not on 3G and 4G networks. I solved it by going into:

Settings → Mobile Data (also called Cellular). Under the heading Use Mobile Data For, enable App Store.


MacPorts gcc_select doesn't contain gcc_select I want to use different gcc versions easily (to build some whimsy python library). I've installed gcc_select-0.1_6… but it doesn't contain "gcc_select", is it a bug or gcc_select is just a stub now an I should use some different method to select default gcc instead?

What should I do?

If you read the description with 'port info gcc_select', you'll see that it says, "gcc_select installs files that allow 'port select' to switch the default version of gcc."


Can I mark a SD Card as permanent storage? I own a PNY - StorEDGE 128GB and I remember that it was initially recognized as a fixed/permanent disk like a hard disk.

I reformatted it to add encryption but now the disk is shown as a removable device. This keeps tools like SkyDrive from using it as a target.

Can I set the volume type somehow?

Yes! You can change the volume from a removable device to a fixed disk by flipping the removable bit. Lexar made an application for Windows called 'Lexar BootIt', a well known application for this task.

I found a solution involving DD, but I have not tested it and I'd severely recommend backing up your card before doing anything with DD/Terminal. I created these instructions quickly. If you aren't comfortable with Terminal, use Windows! I am not responsible if your SD card is permenantly damaged in this operation. dd is exceedingly dangerous!

Use diskutil list in a Terminal instance to list all volumes. I found my hard drive under /dev/disk1. Remember to substitute disk1 in the later commands with your own disk name.

Don't forget to unmount the disk:

hdiutil eject disk1

And now the command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk1 bs=1 count=1

Again, back up EVERYTHING before doing anything with dd!


How to open the wifi sign-in page when it doesn't pop up automatically One time I was at a hotel and I couldn't access the free wifi because the sign-in window didn't pop up.

Since every webpage has a URL, is it possible to get to the wifi sign-in page through a browser (Google Chrome)?

Knowing how to do this is good for future reference, in case I experience problems connecting to wifi networks again.

When the log in gets eaten by other software or times out, just open your chosen web browser and navigate to http://captive.apple.com

Some interesting tidbits:

How captive.apple.com is used by non-Apple devices?
How to disable captive.apple.com?
A clear question and answer on implementing a captive portal with key triggers documented for multiple vendors and versions of OS


Administrator user can't visit pages in Safari as they are not approved in Parental Controls I experience troubles regarding accessing some websites with Safari from the local network or outside.

The error says:
Ooops! You can’t even see pages on this website.
You can’t see the page “https://www.google.com/…” because it’s not on the approved list in parental controls.
To add this website to your approved list, contact your network administrator.
To return to the page you are looking at, click Go Back.

As you can see, the message says that parental control does not allow me to access this page. At first, I thought that the issue is that my network administrator does not allow accessing some pages but they told me that is not the case. Please note, I'm an admin on the system.

I checked online what the problem could be. They commonly say that parental controls could be set up or that /etc/hosts could blacklist some pages. I checked both, the parental controls are not enabled at all nor /etc/hosts contain anything that it should not.

The interested part is that I can access all the webpages without any issues through Google Chrome and Firefox.

The problem was related to the fact that Parental Controls were enabled for my account (A) under Users & Groups but I was unable to disable it since the checkbox was grey. Also, the Parental Controls in System preferences didn't shown that anything is set.
Since the only user that can disable the checkbox is another admin I did the following:

Created a new admin account, lets call it B,
Logged in with the account B,
Disabled the option for the account A,
Logged out from the account B,
Deleted the account B.

Once I did that, everything that did not work started to work without any issues.

The affected stuff were:

Web pages I could not visit,
Siri deactivated w/o possibility to be activated
Dictation deactivated w/o possibility to be activated
Captive unable to load the login page on WiFi hotspots


How can I make an Automator service run a Terminal and display the output? I'm using Automator to run a shell script (Rar selected files) as a 'Service', so that I can just right click a folder and select the service. It works fine, but i've added verbose and testing (to see the progress and test results) so I need to see the output of the Terminal window to make sure the archive is ok. Is there a way to see the output in real time? or to take it an extra step echo the results?

here's the script that works in automator but the output is silent.

on run {input, parameters}
set nbFiles to count input

if nbFiles = 0 then
    display dialog "No files selected!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
    return
end if

tell application "Finder"

    set archiveDir to (container of (item 1 of input) as string)
    if nbFiles = 1 then
        set archiveName to (name of (item 1 of input) as string)
    else
        set archiveName to "archive"
    end if

    if exists file (archiveDir & archiveName & ".rar") then
        set i to 2
        repeat while exists file (archiveDir & archiveName & "-" & i & ".rar")
            set i to i + 1
        end repeat
        set archiveName to archiveName & "-" & i
    end if

    set archiveDir to quoted form of POSIX path of archiveDir
    set archiveName to quoted form of (archiveName & ".rar")

    set listFiles to " "
    repeat with i in input
        set listFiles to listFiles & quoted form of ("." & POSIX path of (name of i as string)) & " "
    end repeat

end tell

do shell script "cd " & archiveDir & "; rar a -ol[a] -mt8 -m5- -y -s -m4 -t " & archiveName & listFiles

return input
end run

THANKS!!

Change the following line of code:

do shell script "cd " & archiveDir & "; rar a -ol[a] -mt8 -m5- -y -s -m4 -t " & archiveName & listFiles

To:

tell application "Terminal"
    do script "cd " & archiveDir & "; rar a -ol[a] -mt8 -m5- -y -s -m4 -t " & archiveName & listFiles
end tell


MDM iPad - Mass update without downloading update X times This is a difficult one. I'm going to update around 30 iPads (iOS 8 to 9.2.1) on location with a bad internet connection. Because of the speed and wifi signal I want to download the iOS update only once and install it on all iPads. The problem is, when I connect the devices to my macbook it wants to configure as new or want to use my own last backup.

Does anyone know how to update all iPads without downloading the same iOS update X times?

Thanks a lot!

An OS X/macOS server with the caching service enabled will prevent all the iPads from fetching the same update from Apple's.