Itunes backup for Iphone folder on Windows 10? I'm doing really hard on finding the backup folder, that Itunes uses for my Iphone 6s. The Backup worked fine, but I cannot find any Apple or Apple Computer folder in my AppData folder, which I access over %AppData% in my search bar. I also cannot find the place, where Itunes is installed, also the option when I right click on the Icon to go to the link folder destination does not show up.

Why is Itunes hidden like a needle in a haystack? Anyone an idea, why I have no Apple or Apple Computer folder in my metadata folder AppData?

If you install iTunes using the Microsoft Store on Windows 10, the iTunes backup location is %userprofile%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup instead. Try pasting that in to the search bar. I believe the change is due to rules about where apps on the Microsoft Store are supposed to store data. Here's a blog post I wrote going over the iTunes backup locations on different platforms as a reference.


How to enter @ and € on a German MacOS installation? On a German MacOS installation, with a German QWERTZ Keyboard connected to it (third party, not an Apple keyboard), What are the key combinations to enter the symbols '@' and '€' ?
If there are various options, please mention each of them.
The obvious guess AltGr+q for @ and AltGr+e for € ain't working, and unfortunately I'm about 200km separated from the Mac that causes the trouble, so your help is very much appreciated. Thank you.

If on the Mac you set the Input Source to "German Standard" (and not "German"), then you will have @ produced by Option/alt Q and € by Option/alt E.  That may be how your 3rd party keyboard is printed.
The layout shown in HT201794 reflects an Apple keyboard which corresponds to the "German" input source.  The newest Apple keyboards correspond to German Standard.


Gift free month of Apple Music notification I got this message and it took me to a website AppleMusic.co, but it was all in Spanish and said that something went wrong when I clicked on it.  What does this image mean?  Can I gift it to someone still?

In this case: all I had to do was wait a little bit.  I was able to gift the trial to someone through text message, and it worked perfectly, giving the person four months of Apple Music.


In which part of iOS is the auto-erase feature implemented and how does it work? I followed the Apple vs FBI case a bit, and I'm super curious how Apple implemented the auto-erase feature. Reading their documentation, it seems like it is as simple as erasing a key that is used to encrypt all the data. Is it actually a microkernel or something?

When a wipe occurs, the file system key is deleted. It's as simple as that.

Page 11 of the September 2015 iOS Security White Paper states that the file system key is stored in NAND.

  The metadata of all files in the file system is encrypted with a random key, which is created when iOS is first installed or when the device is wiped by a user. The file system key is stored in Effaceable Storage.

  Effaceable Storage: A dedicated area of NAND storage, used to store cryptographic keys, that can be addressed directly and wiped securely. While it doesn’t provide protection if an attacker has physical
  possession of a device, keys held in Effaceable Storage can be used as part of a key hierarchy to facilitate fast wipe and forward security.


My Mac doesn’t help an admin user?! Help! I have two Mac Book Pro's laptop with me.

In one of the laptop, I am getting the following popup prompting when I try to change the login options.

It is prompting me like this:

In my another Mac Book Pro, it's simply showing the prompt like this. So I guess, it should show the same prompt message in first Mac Book Pro too.

How to get administrator name to login into the first laptop?  I tried with possible usernames & password (I have never changed my password) that I am aware of but they are not working.

  How to find/get the administrator name back so that I can log in with my password.

Go to your terminal and type the following command in:

dscacheutil -q group -a name admin

This will list the admin username.


Start a video at a specific time using terminal I want to be able to start a video, 30 seconds in, using the terminal. I'd prefer to use IINA because it's awesome, but VLC would work as well.

/Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC --start-time 30 your_video.mp4

See Documentation:Command line for other options.


Display an overlay while a hotkey is pressed I have recently switched to a keyboard with a particular layout, and I'd like to setup a system-wide keyboard shortcut to display an image overlay on the screen while pressed. This image would be a reminder of the keyboard setup.

I've found a few apps that allow for displaying an overlay over the screen, but I'm looking for something that can be toggled on and off at the press of a key.

I ended up using Karabiner as suggested by CJK, with the following custom script which I placed under ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/custom.json. Just replace AppName with the name of your app and the "from" keybind to your preferred combination. The format is described here.

{
  "title": "Custom modifications",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Toggle AppName visibility",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "key_code": "f1",
            "modifiers": {
              "mandatory": ["shift", "control", "option", "command"]
            }
          },
          "to": [
            {
              "shell_command": "osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to set visible of process \"AppName\" to true'"
            }
          ],
          "to_after_key_up": [
            {
              "shell_command": "osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to set visible of process \"AppName\" to false'"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Then, inside of Karabiner-Elements, in the "Complex Modifications" tab, click on the "Add rule" button, then enable your custom rule (in my case, the application I want to toggle is Helium).


Why does my mac keep showing the message “Your computer restarted because of a problem”? I tried to completely reset factory my MacBook so I cleared all the partitions via internet recovery mode according to Apple support tutorial.

Then I reinstalled macOS and all the download process was successful, but I keep getting this message right after my mac downloading process gets completed and by the time the installation process is about to begin, this shows up.
This is how the partitions are organized:

MacBook Pro 2017
I would appreciate if anyone can help me fix this.

If you get that on a clean install, it’s likely you have hardware or a connected device that has failed and needs to be repaired or replaced.
Here is the official guide on when to look at software and when to get hardware support.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200553

In your case - repair the SSD - not the volume in it called Programmer. And if you erase the drive - erase the SSD - not the volume under it named Programmer or Macintosh HD or whatever - the name doesn’t matter - it’s the placement as an object contained inside the drive that’s the difference.


Recover Folder from xcode project I feel sick...

I just accidently deleted the www folder of my phonegap app in xcode 4.2. It's not in finder or trash. From what I read, its actually deleted. I have tested on my ipad.

How can I recover this folder and everything in it?
Can I somehow get the file from the app installed on the ipad?

Please help!

First, and most importantly: Use version control and push to a remote server at regular intervals.  There are multiple free options available, such as BitBucket.  You should never have put yourself in this situation.

As the www content in PhoneGap applications is interpreted at run time, you should be able to recover it from a device by syncing it to iTunes, then dragging the application out of iTunes as an ipa file.  The ipa file is just a zip file following some particular conventions, so rename it to .zip and decompress it to get the files in the application bundle.

And finally, because it's so important: Use version control and push to a remote server at regular intervals.  A programmer without version control is like a painter without overalls or a bicyclist without a helmet.


Is there a security concern when adding a user to sudoers? I want to add an user who is not in admin or wheel group into the sudoers file, but I don't want to risk some kind of privilege escalation.

Are there any additional privileges for users listed in sudoers other than running sudo commands with password prompt?

Since sudo -s makes you root, don't let anyone escalate their privileges with sudo until you've got a solid grasp of why you would let a non-admin user have limited or blanket ability to become an admin or root user.

There's really nor much else you could grant besides the ability to sudo so use that sparingly or come up with a better way to control data (encryption) or not placing it on the computer in question at all if you choose to let untrusted accounts have sudo privileges.


What are the advantages of formatting an external disk as journaled HFS+? The application Disk Utility /Library/Utilites/Disk Utility.app which is part of the applications that ship with the Mac OS allows to reformat an external disk.

Options include:

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (journaled HFS+)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
MS-DOS (FAT)
ExFAT

I'm aware that using the MS-DOS (FAT) format offers the good compatibility when sharing the flash drive with Windows users. But for this question I want to rule out compatibility preferences of the different options.

What are the advantages of formatting an external disk as journaled HFS+?

Taking aside the part that says which OS a particular filesystem is associated with, the main point is the word "journaled".

I include the following Wikipedia quote as there is no point re-inventing the wheel:

  A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of the
  changes that will be made in a journal (usually a circular log in a
  dedicated area of the file system) before committing them to the main
  file system. In the event of a system crash or power failure, such
  file systems are quicker to bring back online and less likely to
  become corrupted.

Taking that to one logical end, an external drive is by definition more likely to be removed from the system than an internal drive.  It's not possible to remove your laptop drive and keep the OS running, but perfectly possible with something USB or Firewire attached for example.  As such you run a greater risk of changes that need to be written to the drive failing to complete should you remove the drive too quickly, or without following the correct eject procedures.

Particularly if you use any form of caching, the data may be waiting to be written to the disk at the point of removal, thus losing your data.

A journaled filesystem helps to prevent too much damage in these scenarios by keeping a log of all changes it needs to apply, and noting when they are successfully completed.  In this way it can examine the log on a restart and work out of there are outstanding changes that were never completed.  This is far faster than simply running a chkdsk or similar command to check the entire filesystem for problems which you would need to perform on a FAT32 file system.

In addition to the protective side of things discussed above, is the fact that a HFS filesystem has all the Mac OS X hooks built in for automated indexing, backup, version control and so on that would not be possible on a FAT32 enabled filesystem.


Restoring of iPad using recovery mode fail due to 15 minutes timeout I forget a passcode for my iPad Air (model A1474). After several unsuccessfull attempts to enter the passcode, it become locked permanently and asked me to connect it to iTunes. When I connect it to computer, iTunes says "iTunes could not connect to the iPad “Ilya V. Schurov’s iPad” because it is locked with a passcode. You must enter your passcode on the iPad before it can be used with iTunes." And iPad still doesn't allow me to enter passcode. I also turned off "find my ipad" feature and cannot erase iPad with iCloud.

So I finally decided to use Recovery mode. I followed the official instructions, entered the recovery mode and began the restore/update process. Unfortunately, to proceed, iTunes have to download iOS 10 which is about 2GB. It seems that Apple's servers are overloaded and iTunes says it will take about 24 hours to complete the download (or even more). However, as the documentation says,

  If the download takes more than 15 minutes and your device exits recovery mode, let the download finish, then repeat these steps.

Indeed, after 15 minutes iPad exits recovery mode and restarts. The download is then stopped.

It is obvious that the repeating of these step will not help. Any other ideas how to restore iPad in this case?

This constantly happens to me and people I know.

Download the .ipsw file - links to true Apple Software are listed at https://ipsw.me
[files hosted by Apple, the site simply makes the files findable, as Apple doesn't publish the locations]
Place the file in ~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates or ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates depending on device.
Launch iTunes & connect your device
The ipsw ought to be discovered automatically.
Follow the on-screen instructions

ipsw.me has links to all iOS versions, however generally only the latest is still being signed by Apple & will therefore be the only one that works for a restore.


Pause iTunes with the spacebar while the Mac is locked I must be missing something as Google turned up nothing on this and I can't be the only one annoyed by this:

I have a MacBook Pro running Sierra 10.12.6.  I have iTunes on playing music all day for my work day, and frequently do work on a 2nd different computer.  After 15 minutes, my Mac automatically locks and starts the screensaver.  I mainly use the spacebar (on an external bluetooth keyboard) for Play/Pause in iTunes.

The issue is that once the Mac is locked, the spacebar no longer pauses iTunes.  So I have to unlock the Mac just to pause music.

Is there any way around this?

You can use the Play/Pause key (F8) on the keyboard to start/stop the playback. You can also play the previous track (F7) and the next track (F9), as well as adjust the Volume: mute (F10) decrease (F11) and increase (F12).


I don't know my SSH key passphrase cause Keychain managed it (pre-Sierra). What do I do now? After Sierra update, a new bug was found where ssh-agent no longer remembers the passphrase for keys added. Not surprised by their answer, Apple stated TL;DR: is not a bug, but a feature.

Many threads I've read revolves around using ssh-agent -A/-K but the problem is not the loading, but that I never wrote my passphrase down anywhere.

What do I do now? Can I retrieve my passphrase from Keychain?

PD: The reason I don't know my passphrase is the whole point of the setup was not to write down a passphrase but let keychain manage it in order to centralize passwords, as I followed some best practiced (I think it was GitHub's?) where they mentioned "using easy to remember passphrases are easy to crack; using random letters/number/symbols are hard to remember so you most likely will write it down, which is also insecure. The solution is letting keychain manage it" or something like that.

Nevermind, I just found this Leaving this open in case anybody panic as I did.

Steps:

Open Keychain
Search for "SSH"
Double click on the SSH file you want
Select Show password on the bottom-left corner
Unlock your keychain with the administrative password.


iOS app consecutive Expedite review Request I just made an "Expedite review" request to apple for a major bug yesterday and Apple approved the app in few hours.

Now (Today) I want to request Expedite review again of-course for a major reason.

What is the chance of approval again?

Will that affect my future requests?

I was tempted to vote to close this as dupe rather than opinion based but let’s set aside any presumption that we on the outside could know how many people run the exception queue and if it’s commonly abused by less than critical requests or they really don’t mind honest exceptions if they can manage the requests easily.

You can always request an exception based on the situation you face today, but clearly the people that run the review queue will eventually decline requests if a “boy who cries wolf” situation happens.

Can I request Apple to expedite the approval of a new version of my app to rectify a critical bug

If you continually fail to QA your apps, that’s a strong signal to reviewers to deny your changes. I would take your lumps and submit normal priority. The reviewers might see your second request and know it’s going to be easy to approve. Unless you are truly fixing something that puts the customer at risk, this next expedited request should really be for a big show stopper if you “ring the emergency help” bell again so soon. I’m sure if your issues are clearly seen as anomalies and actually critical, you’ll face no permanent sanction for using the expedite for two actual cases where it was called for in Apple’s eyes.


How to unhide files on Mac? I did: chflags hidden /Users/MyUser/Library/(theareawheremyfileis) and it hid my file.
I did this in Terminal, now I typed in ... unhidden ... and I can't seem a way to unhide the file I hid.

Along with that, I want a way to see all hidden files just using a terminal command, no matter hidden by the computer or hidden by the user using chflags.

So I need two different things.

chflags nohidden will unhide a hidden file/folder.

You can press Command+Shift+. to show all files regardless of any other state (in macOS Sierra and above.)

Alternatively, you can run the command defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true then relaunch Finder (any version of macOS.)


How do I disable volume/brightness popup? This is the volume pop up. How do I remove it? It's highly annoying when it appears when playing a movie

Like many things interface-y, there's a Terminal command for that. Excellent explanation already exists.


Facebook push not working I have an iPhone 4 with iOS5 and Facebook and Messenger push notifications are not working for me, or they're delivered hours after they should be.

I had jailbrake on iOS 4.x and always assumed that was the case for me not getting push notifications, but the problem is here again on a freshly restored phone with iOS5. All my settings are correct (i.e. notifications are on etc.), I tried the same thing on an iPad 2 with iOS5 and notifications work instantly.

You are experiencing something most of us do – the Facebook push notification server is notoriously unreliable. See this Daily Buggle article for both confirmation and a possible workaround using Boxcar.


Terminal: command overridden via shell script in /usr/local/bin not executed unless called directly I've created a shell script wrapping ssh to change my terminal background when connecting to a server following one of the many examples on this site and stackexchange.

11:22 ~  $ echo $PATH
/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/robertson/bin/android-sdk-macosx/platforms:/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/robertson/bin/android-sdk-macosx/tools:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/git/bin
11:22 ~  $ which ssh
/usr/local/bin/ssh
11:22 ~  $ whereis ssh
/usr/bin/ssh

As you can see, which ssh does correctly find the script I placed in /usr/local/bin, however whereis ssh does not, and when I run ssh user@example.com, I still get the system ssh without executing my wrapper.  I'm forced to call it directly via /usr/local/bin/ssh user@example.com to get the color change.

Any idea what's missing here?

Order of execution is based on PATH order - locations put first are searched first, if match is found it is executed, HOWEVER, programs mapping are cached so you need to refresh the cache before changes will take place (if you've used that app before). See http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/bash-shell-builtin-commands/ (point 3.):

  hash command maintains a hash table, which has the used command’s path
  names. When you execute a command, it searches for a command in the
  variable $PATH. But if the command is available in the hash table, it
  picks up from there and executes it. Hash table maintains the number
  of hits encountered for each commands used so far in that shell.

and

  You can delete a particular command from a hash table using -d option,
  and -r option to reset the complete hash table.

Sidenote: maybe try to create alias instead of wrapper?


How can I remove old SMB connections? Whenever I start up my old Mac Mini, I get an error indicating that it can't connect to an SMB share that I set up a long time ago:

So that this question is findable via Google, the text of this error message is:

Connection failed
The server "PROSECCO.STUDY.LOCAL" may not exist or is unavailable at this time.  Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.

I'd like to remove this connection, so that the Mac never tries to connect to the Samba share on the other (long-since expired) computer, but I can't find where to do this.  Can anyone tell me how to do this?  (The share doesn't appear in the Finder anywhere that I can find, and it's not shown anywhere under System Preferences ... -> Networking -> Advanced...)
(This Mac Mini runs Mac OS X 10.6.8, and is one of the models that isn't upgradeable to Lion.)

It depends on how this was set up to launch.  From boot, Go > Connect to Server > (click the dropbox) and select clear recent servers, if not using any.  Then go to System Preferences > Accounts and see if there is something set up in the Login Items tab related to the server and clear.  Restart and test.  If it continues I'd check Macintosh HD > Library > LaunchDaemons for a file related to mounting the server.


Screencapture with zooming In Snow Leopard when I used a screencapture program (⇧⌃⌘4) on the screen area that was zoomed in (by using ⌃ + mouse wheel) the resulting screen shot has the same zoom factor. Super useful when I wanted to take some small, detailed screen shot.

In 10.7 screencapture ignores the zoom factor and resulting screen shot is in 1:1 scale.

Is there some defaults setting, or anything else, that could bring back the SnowLeopard behavior?

The answer appears to be "No". I have also tested this with the commercial screen-capture utility SnagIt, and it behaves the same way, which is different in Lion from the way it behaved in Snow Leopard.

My suggested work-around is to use Automator's built-in "Scale Images" action to create a workflow to scale your screen shots to the size you want.

[Commercial programs such as GraphicConverter and Pixelmator can scale screen captures, and they also provide additional Automator actions with additional capabilities. You can see some of these in the example above--I own both GraphicConverter and Pixelmator, so these additional options are visible under Automator on my system.]


Accessing unmountable APFS Volume on a disk image I have run into trouble with APFS. I have an external hard drive (spinning plates) with two partitions. Some time ago one of these partitions stopped being mounted. Neither Disk Utility nor running fsck could repair it. Disk Utility in recovery mode could not repair it. The partition is not encrypted. All of this is happening on macOS 10.14.6.

I created an image from the entire external drive in hope that I would be able to access the data on the partition from there. This image, when mounted, correctly shows the uncorrupted partition, but the other partition is not mounted and greyed out in Disk Utility.

My investigation showed that the issue is the object map, which has come up a few times in my googling, but with no solutions.

sudo fsck_apfs -l -n -S /dev/disk4s3

** Checking the container superblock.
warning: checkpoint<->superblock disagree for xp 88
** Checking the EFI jumpstart record.
** Checking the space manager.
warning: spaceman chunk 916 free count 4294943744 > block count 32768
warning: spaceman main free count 351394375 does not match sum of free counts 351417927
** Checking the space manager free queue trees.
** Checking the object map.
** Checking volume.
** Checking the APFS volume superblock.
** The volume Extras was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.57.19) and last modified by apfs_kext (945.220.38).
** Checking the object map.
error: (oid 0x231dea) om: btn: invalid o_type (0x40000002)
   Object map is invalid.
** The volume /dev/disk4s3 could not be verified completely.

I believe the data on the drive is fine, but the few blocks of corrupted APFS make the whole drive unusable.

I know of boysoft data recovery software, but I am not interested in individual files or images etc. from this drive, I want the entire partition (I do wonder however, how is this software able to access files on unmountable drive). I know that had this been HFS system, DiskWarrior could probably rebuild the whole partition, but due to not-fully-documented nature of APFS (WTF Apple?), DiskWarrior people can't help...

I would like to know if there is any way of accessing the data on the unmountable APFS Volume? Or maybe fixing the object map so that the drive can be mounted and browsed?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated...

Welcome to Ask Different. Maybe you can mount the APFS volume by using the 3rd party app Mountain. Others have had good luck using this app. The app is not free but has a free trial. It's easy to download and give it a shot. I'm not associated in any way to Mountain. I'm just a happy user. The app requires macOS 10.8 or later.


how do i restore my wiped erased imac OS X My iMac was stolen,using the find my iphone app I erased, wiped it. 2 days later I got it back. I'm trying to get it workin again.Was told to take it to a apple dealer to be fixed.The closest one is 200km away. Any help would be great.

Unfortunately if this would be so simple, the whole feature would be useless.
If you have a time machine backup, you could get it back online. The other possibility is to use forensic software to restore the disk like http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php.

As long as you are not using FileFault, there is at least a chance.


Is there a way to delete only documents/data of an app without deleting the app itself? I am running out of space on my iPhone and since iOS 5 I can see the worst offenders in Settings -> General -> Usage.
Some apps while being very small themselves have accumulated a lot of data. I want to keep the app itself on the phone but would like to get rid of the data.

Is there a way to delete the data/documents directly on the phone without deleting the app itself?
Or is re-installing the app the only possible way?

If the application doesn't provide a way to delete documents, uninstalling and reinstalling the app is definitively the best option here.


Turn off retina internal display while connected to external monitor in Sierra How do you turn off the MacBook retina internal display with the lid open while using an external monitor on Mac OS X 10.12.6 Sierra?
All the previous method doesn't work!
1.Turning down the brightness is not the same as turning off the display as the GPU still sends a signal to the internal display and the external monitor.
2.These were the terminal commands to achieve this on Mavericks:
Enable
sudo nvram boot-args="iog=0x0"
Disable
sudo nvram -d boot-args
3.sudo nvram boot-args=niog=1
4.sudo pmset -a lidwake 0.

So, how can i do it without use the third party app?
Thank you

From  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201834 Published Date: Jun 6,
  2017

  ...

  You can use an external display or projector with a Mac notebook while
  its built-in display is closed. This is known as closed-clamshell or
  closed-display mode.

  Requirements for closed-display mode

  To use closed-display mode with your Mac notebook, you need:
  - An AC power adapter
  - An external keyboard and mouse or trackpad, either USB or wireless
  - A USB-C to USB adapter if you're using a USB mouse or keyboard with MacBook (2015 and later) or MacBook Pro (2016 and later)
  - An external display or projector

  Enable closed-display mode

  Use these steps to enable closed-display mode. If the external display
  isn't recognized when it's connected and your Mac is powered on, try
  connecting the display while your computer is asleep or off. Then wake
  or turn on the computer after you connect the display.

  If you're using a USB keyboard and mouse

  Make sure that your Mac notebook is plugged in to an outlet using the AC power adapter.
  Connect a USB keyboard and mouse to your Mac.
  With your Mac turned on and the display open, connect the Mac to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the
  display or projector on. Use an appropriate Apple video adapter if
  necessary.
  After your Mac notebook's Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer's lid.
  When you close the lid:

  In OS X Lion 10.7 and later, the external display changes to a blue screen, then shows your Desktop.
  In OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard and earlier, you can wake your Mac by clicking the mouse button or pressing a key on the external keyboard.
  You can now use your Mac notebook as you normally would with a USB
  keyboard and mouse.

  If you're using a wireless keyboard and mouse

  Make sure that your Mac notebook is plugged in to an outlet using the AC power adapter.
  Verify that Bluetooth is turned on in the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences or the Bluetooth menu icon Bluetooth icon.
  Pair your Bluetooth keyboard or mouse with your Mac.
  In the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences, click Advanced and make sure the checkbox next to Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this
  computer is selected.
  With your Mac turned on and the display open, connect the Mac to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the
  display or projector on. Use an appropriate Apple video adapter if
  necessary.
  After your Mac notebook's Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer's lid.
  When you close the lid:

  In OS X Lion 10.7 and later, the external display changes to a blue screen, then shows your desktop.
  In OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and earlier, you can wake your Mac by clicking the mouse button or pressing a key on the external keyboard.

  You can now use your Mac notebook as you normally would with a
  wireless keyboard and mouse.

  Disconnect your Mac notebook from the display after use

  It's best to put your Mac to sleep by choosing Apple menu > Sleep
  before disconnecting your display.

  Some DVI and Mini DisplayPort displays — including Apple's
  aluminum-framed DVI displays and the 24-inch and 27-inch LED Cinema
  Displays — can be unplugged without putting the computer to sleep. If
  you aren't sure whether your display supports this feature, put your
  computer to sleep before unplugging the display.

  Opening the internal display while in closed-display mode

  Opening the display on your Mac notebook while it's in closed-display
  mode will have different results based on the operating system you're
  using.

  OS X Lion 10.7 and later     If you open the lid of your supported Mac
  notebook computer running OS X Lion 10.7 and later while in
  closed-display mode, the display flickers to a blue screen after a few
  moments, and then both displays become active. Close the lid to return
  to closed-display mode.

  OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and earlier     If you open the lid of your
  supported Mac notebook computer running OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and
  earlier while in closed-display mode, it might appear to have no
  video. This is expected behavior. When your computer is in
  closed-display mode, the built-in display is disabled and all video
  memory is allocated to the external display.    To reactivate your
  built-in display, put the computer to sleep and then wake it, or use
  the Detect Displays button in the Displays pane of System Preferences.
  You can also press Command-F1 on keyboards that don't have a Numlock
  key.


Merging multiple folders I have multiple folders within a folder. Each of these folders contains only files (no subfolders). None of the files have duplicate file names.

Is it possible to merge all of the folders to concatenate the files together in a single folder? I could only find information about the ditto command, which seems to be for merging only two folders.

cd containing_folder
mv */* .

or, if you want to get rid of the empty folders afterwards

cd containing_folder
mkdir ../foo
mv */* ../foo/
rmdir *
mv ../foo/* .
rmdir ../foo


How to erase the working blocks on a partially broken drive? I have a (partially) broken drive which I will send in for replacement. I’d like to wipe the blocks that can still be read / written. I tried using diskutil with the Terminal command given below, but this seems to simply stop when it encounters any bad blocks (the progress bar gets to 1%, but then it stops, reporting “Input/output error”):

$ diskutil secureErase 0 /dev/disk1

Is there some way I can tell diskutil to not stop but rather continue with the next block it can still write? Or is there another command I could use?

HDAT2 5.0

Version 5.3.0 of Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) includes HDAT2 5.0.

A July 2014 Apple Support Communities topic – Storage problems, Core Storage, Disk Utility, checksums, fsck_cs and cksum mismatches – included photographs of me using the 'most powerful test' of HDAT2 with a 2009 MacBookPro5,2. (That topic no longer exists, only parts of it were saved locally. I'll append this answer with some of that topic content, slightly adapted.)

Amongst the other features of HDAT2, there's the ability to destroy data …

Suggestion

In brief:

download the UBCD image
burn the image to CD
set aside plenty of time for the destruction
boot the Mac from the CD, this is very quick
use the keyboard to select and open the Diagnosis submenu
use the keyboard to select HDAT2
accept a default
at the command prompt, type hdat2 then key Enter or Return
… and from there things should be self-explanatory

– just take care to select the correct drive before proceeding with destruction.

(I'm working from memory, whilst my copy of UBCD is running in my other Mac … the actual routine might differ slightly from what's above but the general idea should be the same.)

Hint: HDAT2 is powerful and versatile, so the documentation may appear daunting, but this should not be an obstacle. If you skip the manual, the on-screen routines are well-designed – alongside technical phrases, in many areas there are plain english hints.

In Super User

How to erase a hard drive with unwritable sectors?

– a few good answers, but the accepted answer there involves ddrescue, which is not integral to OS X.

Originally posted to Apple Support Communities

If ever you see the following phrase in red in Disk Utility –

  ... cksum mismatch ...

– treat it as a red alert that should not be ignored.

Whilst a subsequent run of Disk Utility may complete without error – whilst the utility may state that a volume appears to be OK – you should not assume that the affected storage is completely OK.

Aim to check all affected devices. So if the checksum mismatch affected a Fusion Drive – or any other application of Core Storage that involves multiple devices – aim to check the whole of each physical device within the affected Core Storage logical volume group (LVG).

Precautions

Some approaches to identification of failing drives (failing e.g. bad blocks) may cause dataloss. So, the usual advice:

be thorough with backups.

Example

On Friday 2014-07-11, whilst running running a released version of OS X on a MacBookPro5,2 with an internal solid state hybrid drive (SSHD), ￼some software behaved in ways that made me suspect a failing disk.

Saturday morning, from a Disk Utility log:

2014-07-12 08:01:41 +0100: Checking volume
2014-07-12 08:01:41 +0100: disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers
2014-07-12 08:01:41 +0100: disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels
2014-07-12 08:01:41 +0100: Invalid Disk Label @ 132817997824: cksum mismatch

Minutes later, a subsequent verification completed with no mismatch. Disk Utility described volumes as apparently OK.

I could have ignored that mismatch as a one-off – maybe something transient. However, the previous day's observations – some of which are confidential (and unrelated to Apple) – made me believe that neither fsck_cs nor fsck_hfs would be capable of revealing the nature of the problem. (It's not clear what approach to scanning is taken when fsck_hfs is used with option -S, and so on.)

I decided to boot from Ultimate Boot CD 5.3.0 and use the most powerful test in HDAT2.

During use of HDAT2

After use of HDAT2

I booted from a different physical disk (external), and refrained from unlocking all Core Storage logical volumes on the affected disk (internal) – whilst I await replacement, I wish to minimise use of the drive.

Because Disk Utility can not display S.M.A.R.T. information for disks where Core Storage is used, I ran the nearest available alternative (SMART Utility, on trial) to gain an alternative view of the state of the SSHD. In this case, things seem perfectly clear; the disk is failing:

Reviews with Apple Disk Utility

Subsequent runs of Disk Utility, e.g. from Recovery OS 10.9.4, continue to describe the affected volumes as apparently OK.

Related

In a topic in MacRumors Forums: Disk Utility, checksums, fsck_cs cksum mismatches and disk/storage problems. Note:

  I should not treat Yosemite as a cause of storage-related problems of
  this type. …

Other parts of that Apple Support Communities topic are lost to me.

Update, 2014-12-12

Still using the same disk, checksum mismatches have been rare. A summary, maybe not comprehensive:

2014-07-01 22:18:42 +0100: Invalid Disk Label @ 132809609216: cksum mismatch
2014-10-02 13:01:37 +0100: Invalid Disk Label @ 133167747072: cksum mismatch
2014-10-07 09:41:43 +0100: Invalid Disk Label @ 133176135680: cksum mismatch
2014-11-08 04:13:17 +0000: Invalid Disk Label @ 133163552768: cksum mismatch
2014-11-13 18:25:07 +0000: Invalid Disk Label @ 133163552768: cksum mismatch
2014-12-02 09:02:58 +0000: Invalid Disk Label @ 133171941376: cksum mismatch

I no longer plan to replace the drive; I'll get a newer computer.


How to tell which websites take your MAC address of your iPhone/iPad when visiting? how can you tell when viewing webpages, which ones are taking down your device info like MAC address, when you use an iphone or ipad?
Or how to prevent that information being taken?

It isn't possible for a website to get the MAC address from an iPhone or iPad.

For that to work, Apple would have to expose that information through JavaScript. They haven't done that. Don't take my word for it though, try a web search for something like "javascript get ios mac address" and you'll find lots of people asking how to do it and lots of people replying that it isn't possible (except in Internet Explorer on Windows in some very specific conditions).

Years ago you could get the MAC address of an iPad or iPhone if you wrote an actual iOS application. However Apple changed that in 2013 with iOS 7 as detailed here.


How can I make crisper screen shots on MBP Retina? So we all know that the Retina has a double density screen. As such, when I take screen shots they are 144ppi instead of 72ppi. These are great when I am looking at them in Photoshop, but if I paste them into an e-mail or post them to my blog, they're twice as large as they should be. Scaling them to 50% makes them look terrible.

Here is a screen shot I took directly, and should be 400x170 px, but it is clearly larger than that (click here for direct link, which shows it is actually 800x340 px):

If I bring it into Photoshop and change the resolution from 144ppi to 72ppi, it switches to the right dimensions, but the resampling is absolutely terrible (direct link):

I just want crisp screen shots at the right size, without losing the beautiful crispness of text during normal usage. In other words, I'm hoping there is a solution to this problem without changing this setting (sorry the screen shot is double actual size!):

I'm afraid that there really isn't a way to do it.  I've been running into the same issue.  The effective resolution at 1440x900 is actually 2880x1800 pixelwise- so the reason that you see crisp text is because you are looking at an image with 2880 x1800 resolution on a capable display. Because scaling down usually involves smoothing, the images will look terrible in email /on other peoples computers.
One solution is to download a program such as SwitchResX that allows access to "non-HDPI" resolutions.  This would allow you to set the display to a true 1440x900, take the screen shot, and switch it back.
Best of luck!


When I upgraded my iPad to ios 7, I was forced to restore to factory settings. I lost all of my photos and videos. Are they somewhere? When I upgraded my iPad to ios 7, I was forced to restore to factory settings. I lost all of my photos and videos from the past 3 years. Are they "out there" somewhere?

Have you ever backed up your iPad? Camera roll photos will be in your backup.  If you have ever synced your iPad to iTunes on your computer then you will have a backup on your computer.  If you had iCloud backup turned on then you will have a backup on iCloud. Go to Settings>General>Reset on your iPad and select 'Erase all Content and Settings', follow the prompts and select restore from iTunes Backup and connect your iPad to your computer, or select restore from iCloud Backup and wait for your backup to be downloaded from iCloud over the air.


Getting error message, "You must install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime?" I'm getting the following error when trying to launch my application after upgrading Mac OSX:

The more info says to go here and download this file.

Click "More Info…"
This will take you to this page.
Click "Download."
When it finishes downloading, run the installer.

tl;dr — literally just follow Apple's instructions and you should be set.


Unable to be Repaired & Further Problems I'll start off with some information about my USB. I use a SeaGate external hard drive USB with 1 TB. About ~250 gb of it is partitioned and formatted to create a Time-Machine compatible partition. The rest of it is just a normal partition, formatted exFAT, which I use to store data.

I use a 2013 Macbook Air on the latest version of Yosemite.

This drive was working fine until last night, when I attempted to resize it (with iPartition, so I could keep my data) to give the Time Machine Partition just a bit more room. It seems to have worked, but immediately following that OSX gave me a message saying that the larger partition (which I called MISC) was unable to be repaired and should be backed up and reformatted (or something along those lines) ASAP. My Time Machine partition (which I called OSX) seems to be working properly, but I haven't made any new back-ups since then. As far as I can tell, this would not have happened without the iPartition, but I can't be sure.

I really do not want to lose all my data, since I have no way to back up. This is my only large USB and my hard drive is too small to contain the data I had there. So, I am currently trying to use Drive Genius 3 to repair it (only MISC, but I'm fine with it if I can only repair the entire hard drive at once) WITHOUT losing my data. However, it seems I'm not able to repair it because it's set to read only (this was said in an error message given by Drive Genius). I checked the MISC partition using the "Get Info" tab, and it seems that it is set to read only. However, I'm unable to change permissions. I'm pretty sure this is due to whatever caused OSX to give me the message saying that it was unable to be repaired (Disk Utility gives the same message; it also said something like, "You are not able to write to this drive"). It only says something along the lines of, "You may only read this drive." When I get home, I will provide more clear quotes. It doesn't give me options to change the permissions, so I can't just do that.

My questions are:
1. How do I change the permissions on the MISC partition? I'm ok with just forcing this through Terminal if that would work.
     a. Would Drive Genius actually be able to fix it? Because if not, then there's no point in trying.
2. Are there any other ways to fix this problem without losing all my data?
     a. Note: I'm fine with losing my OSX partition's data, because I can just make a new back-up (and also that partition works fine and doesn't have an error message).

If I can't do this using Drive Genius, unless you guys give me some other possibility, I'll try to use testdisk 7.0 for the task. I'm not quite familiar with it, so if anyone has experience with it that would be greatly appreciated. Failing that, I'll simply have to do it the regular way that involves losing all my data.

I'm really terrible at a lot of this stuff, so I'll need a lot of handholding unfortunately. Please provide screenshots if possible (and I will do so as well!) for your instructions, especially if it involves Terminal, but mostly for anything. If you know of any programs that might be able to do this, even if they cost money, please link them to me!

Thanks for the help!

You need to buy a new drive onto which you will copy your data from the borked drive. Preferably, this new drive will be a brand other than Seagate, which has the worst failure records in the industry. Once you have safely copied your data to the new drive, you can then begin to worry about how to deal with the Seagate drive.


How effective is Deep Sleep Mode? I got frustrated from turning on my Retina MBP and waiting a few seconds while the systems  loads from Deep Sleep Mode.

I disabled it using sudo pmset -a standby 0

However, I would like to know what I am missing now. Will I start losing a lot of battery power while the laptop is sleeping normally (basically not in Deep Sleep Mode) ?

For example, in 1 hour (or 2-5 hours), how much percentage will battery I lose on Sleep mode, and how much would I lose when its in Deep Sleep Mode ?

Your Mac might last a week in sleep where it might last a month in deep sleep.

If you travel with a power adapter or would rather end up with no battery than wait a few seconds longer each wake, then keep deep sleep turned off.


Where does iTerm store user preferences? Where exactly is iTerm's user preferences file located? What I want is to sync this file over Github between several machines.

~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist

Also note that you can set a custom location in iTerm Preferences under the General tab.


iOS 14.2 - No text notification when message is open but screen is off I think this issue started after upgrading to the new iOS.

iPhone 11
iOS 14.2

Steps to Reproduce:

Open Messages.
Open a specific person's message thread.
Lock your phone screen without closing the page.

Expected: The next time a text comes in from that person, you get the normal text notification via sound/banner/notification center.
Actual: The next time a text comes in from that person, you will not be notified via sound/banner/notification center.

Go back to the general Messages list of texts from all people OR go to the home screen and keep the app active OR close the app altogether.

Expected & Actual: The next time a text comes in from that person, you will get a text notification, like normal.
I want to know if anyone else has seen this issue and if they know of a way to resolve it.

This is a common bug that started early in iOS 14.2 beta and was never resolved for public release.
The workaround is always going back to the list of conversations before closing the Messages app, as you’ve already found.
The beta release iOS 14.3 RC 2 reportedly resolves the issue, so hopefully the issue will be resolved in the public release of iOS 14.3.


Deleting all iCal events and cleaning out iCal, so I can start new I had downloaded meetup iCal reminders, and now my iCal is inundated and there seems to be no way to remove meetup events from it. They just keep loading in, and I can't change it.

Moreover, I would basically like to reset my iCal so it is a blank slate and I can create the various events as I want.

Close Calendar/iCal. In Finder, press cmd + G. Type in "~/Library/Calendars". Press return. This folder contains all of the contents of your Calendar app on your Mac. Drag all of the contents to the Trash. Now launch Calendar/iCal again. It should be restored to its default settings.

Some caveats:

Ensure that you are not syncing calendars from iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, etc. (You can check in System Preferences or Calendar/iCal Preferences to be sure).
Do not empty the trash until you have ensured everything is working well. In a worst case scenario you can right click on items in the Trash and select "Put Back" to restore them if you want to undo all of this.


Using Nickname or Contact Photos in Facetime I recently inherited a broken iPad which I fixed (hooray) and I have decided to use it by putting all my kids games and apps on it, so there is less risk of my daughter accidentally messing with my work and personal apps etc. and so that I don't need to worry about her breaking my newer iPad.

Other than her own apps with which she is familiar, I am wanting to make it easier for her to FaceTime a few people (mainly her grandparents) with ease.  To do this, I have setup a new iCloud account, and arranged it to login using that address for FaceTime/iMessage and so on.

Everything works as expected, but my issue is that Facetime only shows contacts in the "Firstname Lastname" format, and does not use the nicknames that I have setup, or show any contact photos.  This makes it difficult for her to tap a name and know who she is calling, even with a tiny contacts list of 3 people.  She's not able to read properly yet, and also obviously refers to most family members as Mum, Dad, Grandma etc (which are her sort of comprehension level, she's good with M is for Mum type phonics at present), not by their real names which she simply doesn't know yet.

I have Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Short Name > Prefer Nicknames set to on.  In iMessages I get both the photos and nickname, which is great and allows her to see who sent her a photo for example.  Can I do the same for FaceTime?

I would try to create a Favorites list in Facetime.

In your Favorites, you can add or change your contacts' photos.


How often can a user rate an iOS app? There are 2 rating dialogs in the AppStore, one for the current version and one for all versions. Does that mean that a user can rate every update of an iOS app?

Yes. Current version ratings are reset after each update. Some apps even say in the update text "Please rate us each time we release an update".

If you previously rated an app, and a new version is released, if you go to rate it again your prior rating (and review text) will be pre-entered, but you can change it.

So, if you religiously review the app each time it gets updated, you could have "reviewed" each version, yet it's unlikely that your star votes add up and your new review seems to replace any/all older ones each time you update it.


Is it possible to only sync favorite photos/videos to iCloud from my iPhone? So, I've accumulated a lot of photos and videos on my iPhone and I'm happy to sync a few to iCloud, but I don't really want all of them there. Partially because there are lots of near-duplicates and also because I don't have enough space in iCloud.

Instead, I would like to ONLY sync favorites to iCloud and not bother with the non-favorites. Any ideas on how to do so?

iPhone 6
iOS 10.1.1

No, but it's possible using Apple's iCloud Drive.
With iCloud Drive, you can safely store all your presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, images and any other kind of document in iCloud — and access them from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC.
Following are the steps to upload your favourite pics on iCloud:
Step 1: Open your favourite photo from photos app which you would like to upload on iCloud.
Step 2: After opening it, go to options

Step 3: Select Add to iCloud Drive option

Step 4: Select iCloud drive from the list. If you want to save your photo inside a folder present in the iCloud drive, choose that. For example, here if I want to save the photo in AI T2 folder I can choose that by tapping on it.

Here's the pic after upload:

NOTE
Make sure you have iCloud Drive app on your iPhone. If you don't have it then go to the App Store and search for iCloud Drive. Since, you are on iOS 10 you can download Apple's builtin apps from App Store (and delete them too). If this doesn't work, Go to Settings -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> Switch Show on Home Screen to On.
Here's the iCloud Drive app on the homescreen.


How to add a user from the command line in macOS? In Terminal, I used, useradd liao2, as I would also do in Linux, but it failed:

useradd liao2
-bash useradd: command not found

I also tried using sudo:

sudo useradd liao2
Password:
sudo: useradd: command not found

How can a user be added from Terminal?

A similar tool to useradd is /usr/sbin/sysadminctl on macOS . There isn't a manual but /usr/sbin/sysadminctl -h is explanatory. You should be aware that the command and options will be stored in your shell's history. Note the last line of the help output so that the user password is not stored in your shell's history.


Why does a .DS_Store file keep appearing on the desktop? Every time I delete it from the desktop, I get the same file ".DS_store" created after some time. Is there a reason why this happens ? And can I permanently stop it from being created ?

Type this in Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app):

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

The first command sets the hidden files visibility to hidden; the second one forces Finder to restart. This is needed for the first command to take effect.

You can also log out/reboot instead of killing the Finder, but the first command is needed to change a hidden preference (one that the Finder can’t change using the normal Finder view options or preferences).


Removing icon from menu-bar Does anyone know how to permanently remove an icon put in the menu bar by DYMO label maker software?  I can right click it and remove it, or drag it off the menu bar.  However, it returns upon a reboot.

So I downloaded dyno marker software on my Mac for you and I found a simple solution to your problem but before I tell you the solution, make sure of the following:

DYMO label marker app should be quit
Make sure the app is in your Applications folder

After making sure then run the following in terminal app:

rm /Applications/DYMO\ Label.app/Contents/Resources/DYMO\ Label.icns

Then open the app and check if you are still able to see the icon in the menubar.


Mojave App Store is only showing Updates tab Installed Mojave yesterday - everything is fine except the App Store doesn't show Discover or any of the other tabs - it only shows Updates - see screen grab. The search function works so it's connected fine. I've tried deleting all caches, etc

I have found the solution (and origin) to this problem. Thanks @charles for giving me the insight.

The problem occurs because the new Mac App Store app CFBundleVersion is marked as 1 so if you have any copy of the old Mac App Store (which had CFBundleVersion over 459) in the system, macOS will think is the most recent version and will try to use it on the background.

This is why if you go the the Apple Logo > App Store… it tries to open the old version.

Deleting the old app bundle from the system resolves the problem.


Putting an individual contact's calls on do not disturb Here's my problem...I have one contact who will call me 4 or 5 times in a row to "be sure" I really can't talk. They're driving me NUTS. But I'm job hunting and don't want all my calls to go directly to voicemail...is there any way I can put just this person on DND?

The thing is, I don't want to hurt their feelings by "ignoring" their calls every time. I'd rather them think my phone is off completely. I read that going into messages and turning off notifications would work, but it didn't. I've tried talking to them about it, but they aren't getting the hint and I don't want to resort to being mean.

There is a 3rd party app called YouMail. The free versiin of it will allow you to set different conditions for different contacts. You can change which voicemail message someone gets. You can send a certain contact directly to voicemail. And you can also prevent callers from being able to leave a voicemessage. I had someone who would also call me 4-8 times in a row and no matter how many times I asked him to stop and explained why, he just kept doing it. With him, I would vary between the silent ringtone strategy mentioned by Tyson and YouMail’s ditch call.


Disk Utility reports "missing thread record" on my external HDD I have an external 500 GB HDD that's about five years old. I just turned it on and it made a bunch of clicking noises and failed to spin up immediately, though it did so after a few seconds.

To be safe, I figured I'd run Verify Disk in Disk Utility to see if anything was wrong with it. It reported the following:

Missing thread record (id = 14183615)
The volume OWC On The Go was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.

It's now running the repair process, which it says will take about 1.5 hours.

Is this a serious error and/or should I do anything else? The fact that it seemed to have trouble spinning up is a little concerning...

UPDATE: The repair process stopped and now it says:

Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

Sounds serious. Is the drive failing?

That sound you hear is often referred to as "The Click of Death": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_of_death

Head reader errors, motor errors, anything of this sort indicate physical failure, and possibly imminent device death. Get your data backed up off of that disk NOW.

Afterwards, and only afterwards, check and see if it's still in warranty. :)


AirPort Time Capsule Connection to Internet I bought an AirPort Time Capsule to store my backups and read that it can also improve the speed of my Wi Fi; I have a mini Mac, a mini iPad2, an iPhone5 and until now I go in Internet with the Wi Fi Modem-router provided by the local telephone Company.

Would it be better to connect the Airport directly to Internet instead of using the modem-router, or do I have to use the modem anyway and the AirPort as an extension for all my Apple devices, they profit from the enhanced signal?

First - download and read the setup guides for your Time Capsule. See help.apple.com for your location and your model of time capsule.

You should aim to replace your current WiFi (from your modem) with a new WiFi network (from the Time Capsule). You can extend your modem's WiFi with your Time Capsule's WiFi but this is usually more complicated and will not improve anything.

Your time capsule should be set to create a WiFi network, select that WiFi network on your Mac Mini and you will be able to use the Time Machine backup function.

Connect your Time Capsule to your modem router with an ethernet cable so that the Time Capsule can connect to the internet through your telephone company's modem.

You can choose to set your Time Capsule to 'bridge' mode so that the DHCP connection-sharing is handled by your modem router. Or you can set your modem router to bridge mode so that the DHCP connection-sharing is handled by your Time Capsule. You may need to check with your internet provider which method is the best in your area.

The Apple documentation includes guides on how to set it up correctly in either mode.

Your Time Capsule WiFi network may be quicker and faster than your modem WiFi network. This makes your local network faster, but it will not make your connection to the internet any faster.


What are some reasons to run Windows on a Mac? I'm interested in knowing why one would run Windows on a Mac. I may be required by my school to do so, and I'm curious about potential reasons.

So, what are some of the reasons to run Windows on your Mac?

Games
Internet Explorer: If you are a web developer and want to test your website in IE (which you have to).
Also some corporate intranet applications work only on IE(6/7/8 compatibility mode).
Microsoft Office: Yes, there is a version for the Mac, but some prefer the Windows version (I remember reading sometime before somewhere, (unable to find the link) that the Windows version is better). Also, people like me who have a Windows PC (my wife's) and a Macbook Pro at home, I can buy one Office Home and Student edition (it comes with licence for 3 installs) and use it on both.
Learning Windows specific technology. For instance I want to learn C#. C# is best learnt in Microsoft Visual Studio (IMHO).
Games
Games
Games

There was something else too... oh yeah, games.


Cannot maximize a window by simply clicking on the Photoshop CC app icon My OS is Yosemite and I work in CC apps daily.
I minimize several ways (clicking on the minimize button in the window, command + M, etc.) but I used to be able to just go down to the Photoshop app icon in my dock, simply click once and all my windows within would maximize.
Please note: I'm not trying to zoom.
Currently I have to go to the icon, click and hold then highlight "Show all Windows" in order for the windows to maximize again.
Does anyone know if there is a system fix? I prefer NOT having to add a source app. Thanks

I know you specifically asked for a system fix, but I'm going to suggest an alternative.  I can understand your frustration with the issue as I've worked with CS apps too.

With option-clicking ( ⌥ + left click ) the program icon in the dock, you toggle the entire app's windows on or off.  It leaves the current state of all open windows and their current position/size.

The click-and-hold method you're using would seem frustrating.  You can get to that quicker by just right-clicking the icon (or in case of a trackpad, 2-finger click), or you could just use the hotkey control + down ( ⌃↓ ).

To be clear, the command + M combo you're using will minimize just whatever window is focused, and the trick I mentioned earlier will not restore it - you will still have to get that back via either the Window menu or the other methods we've discussed.

Also you aren't referring to actually maximizing windows, but rather restoring them I believe.  Maximizing can occur on windows in Yosemite by option-clicking the '+' "full screen" button on a window.  There should also be a shortcut somewhere.


How to create a read-only shadow for existing RAM disk on macOS? Read-only RAM disk can be created with method described in this post, so how to create a read-only shadow mount point for existing RAM disk while keeping the original mount point unchanged with command line on macOS Catalina?

Start by finding the device node for your RAM disk by running the following in the Terminal:

diskutil list

You'll find that the ram disk is probably listed as something like disk3, disk4 or similar.

Then mount the RAM disk as read-only:

mkdir ~/MyReadOnlyMountPoint
mount -o ro /dev/disk3 ~/MyReadOnlyMountPoint

I assume that you have formatted the whole RAM-disk with your file system. If you have created instead an APFS container with an APFS volume inside, you'll want to use the volume device node instead (suck as disk3s1 or similar).

Note that you'll only want to mount the RAM-disk once at a time. macOS does not natively support the bind mounting feature of Linux that you mention in your question.

If you need to have the RAM-disk mounted twice (i.e. you cannot use symlinks, file permissions or other means to achieve what you need) - you could look into non-native options such as bindfs or osxfs to be able to mount the RAM-disk into two places at the same time. Performance will be different though.

For example with bindfs, you can easily provide an extra read-only mount point for you RAM-disk like this:

bindfs --perms=a-w MyMountPoint MyReadOnlyMountPoint.


Wireless mouse stopped working with monitor USB port Setup:
* MacBook Pro 2017
* Mojave
* DELL U2717D Display
* Logitech unifying receiver and mouse m705

Mouse & receiver work have worked for a year. I upgraded to Mojave 2 weeks ago, and it has been working fine for the last two weeks.

Beginning today 10/7/18, mouse no longer works when the receiver is plugged into any port on monitor.

Mouse works when receiver is plugged into Mac with USB C adapter.

I checked USB ports on the monitor and they still work with other USB devices.

I checked with two different Logitech receivers and mice and neither worked.

I reinstalled the Logitech software and restarted.

Still doesn't work.

I'm stumped. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Shutting down the Mac, unplugging all the cables from the monitor, and unplugging monitor power for several minutes solved the problem.

I had tried unplugging the monitor briefly earlier, but that was insufficient.


Scrobble iTunes Radio With the release of iOS7 and new OSX people will use iTunes Radio more and more. I've been using it for a while now and would love to be able to scrobble my songs in Last.fm.

I've done some research and found this software:
http://www.easyclasspage.de/lastfm/seite-19.html

However, it crashes and doesn't seem to work for me.

Are any alternative options to scrobble iTunes Radio available out there?

I don’t use iTunes Radio, but judging from the nature of how iTunes plays music, I can safely say you can scrobble to Last.fm with Bowtie.

I don’t know if there any apps that can scrobble to Last.fm on iOS though since streaming to iTunes Radio requires the official app, which can’t be used by third party apps.


how do I turn free space into a useable partition? I have read a few answers to this sort of question already, but don't know how to do it. I had some problems with my partitioning, it seems the operating system has been somehow installed on bootcamp, not Macintosh HD.

Obviously Bootcamp is the bottom partition regardless of this and so when I decided I'd just delete the other partition and expand bootcamp I got left with about 70gb free space i can't seem to expand into.

The answer seems to be turning the free space into a new partition and going from there however, the thing I think is meant to be doing this has been saying 'modifying partition map.' for a very long time now and I don't know if it's even doing anything...?

As far as I know you may resize MacOS Extended partitions with Disk Utility but not foreign partitions like ExFAT. One option is to use the restore facility in Disk Utility: restore e.g. on an external disk, erase and recreate a bigger partition, restore from the external disk to the new partition.


security dump-keychain -d I'm having troubling finding an details on what -d switch means in security : https://ss64.com/osx/security.html
In the commandline :
security dump-keychain -d login.keychain , what is the use of the "-d".

Online manpages can be outdated or incomplete. Check the command itself:

$ security help dump-keychain

Usage: dump-keychain [-adir] [keychain...]
    -a  Dump access control list of items
    -d  Dump (decrypted) data of items
    -i  Interactive access control list editing mode
    -r  Dump the raw (encrypted) data of items


Same file reappears on Relocate Items after each macOS update The following file keeps reappearing after each macOS update:
/Users/Shared/Relocated\ Items/Configuration/private/etc/shells.system_default
Ages ago I modified the file /etc/shells to add the latest bash version from Homebrew and after macOS changed to this new read only file system for the OS I see this on every update. I also noticed that private/etc/shells seem to be hard linked to /etc/shells, changing one file has an impact on the other (and I don't see a symlink).
The file under Relocated Items is not the modified file but seems to be the default file from macOS without changes (my file /etc/shells still has my changed for the Homebrew bash).
Is there anything I can do to avoid this happening after each update? I always delete the whole Relocated Items folder (not just the shortcut under the Desktop) but it keeps coming back.

Feeling kinda stupid as I found the explanation on the PDF named What Are Relocated Items? under the Relocated Items folder. The relevant part for the clarification is:
Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or customized, but the changes were allowed to remain installed. The system_default version of the file is provided to demonstrate what the Apple supplied version of this file would look like. It is recommended that you compare the two and evaluate whether you wish to integrate any changes Apple may have made to the default version.
As I modified this file, looks like Apple will always provide the default version of this file so I can manually compare it with my modified version and merge any relevant changes. So no way to avoid this behavior but finally I understand why this happens after each update.


Mac 10.13, 10.14 where are the hash passwords located? I ran to view the contents of a shadow file for a user:

sudo plutil -p /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/<username>.plist

but when I get to Default it says permission denied, either as a user or root, any ideas?

10.14 protects these files with SIP, so even root cannot access the files without using the directory services command.  If you need to get this information deactivate SIP.  Remember to reactivate SIP after you are finished.  If you attempt to access using the directory services call shown above then you do not need to deactivate SIP.


How to downgrade iPhone 4S from iOS 9.0.1 to iOS 7.1.2? (Please read the whole question before flaming me)

Today I updated my iPhone 4S (Model A1387) to iOS 9.0.1 from 8.4. Since the Wifi doesn't work with either of these versions I decided to downgrade the software to iOS 7.1.2.

After I downloaded myself a IPSW-File for the iPhone 4S and tried to [Shift]+Update my phone in iTunes I received the error code 3194.
After a quick web search I booted the iPhone into recovery mode and tried it again. After that I tried adapting my hosts file in Windows as showed on apples support page. This also didn't work.
I also tried downloading the I P S W-File from different providers and also tried to use a third party tool called "The Firmware Umbrella". Then I found out, that recovery mode is not enough and I have to go in DFU mode.

Since the black screen is an indicator of the DFU mode I was sure that it will work this time, since the DFU mode seems to be some kind of ultimate firmware override mode, but after hours of effort I'm still stuck with iOS 9 and nothing has worked out to bring me back to iOS 7.1.2.

So as the title states: How can I downgrade my iPhone 4S to iOS 7.1.2?
(As I am going to jailbreak this device afterwards, you can also show a direct way to load a jailbreaked firmware)

You cannot downgrade to anything less than 8.4.1 now. Apple signs iOS software, they currently only sign 8.4.1-9.0.1. This means that you can't downgrade to 7.1.2.


How to get Java 6 in OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)? OS X 10.8 removed Java 6 and the Java Utilities switcher and made Java 7 the default jre making it hard for engineers like me who work exclusively on Java 6. How do I get back my Java 6? Note: I tried Google but many of the supposed solutions are outdated.

The simplest solution I found is to

Download the jdk6 (download button is on top right)
Unpack it to somewhere. Preferably to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6. This is what it looks for me:

> ls /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6
Classes       Commands      Home          Info.plist    Libraries     MacOS    Resources   version.plist

Set your $JAVA_HOME to your new location by doing export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home/ before your $PATH in your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zschrc) file
Prepend $JAVA_HOME to your $PATH by doing this export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/us..........
Restart your shell or do source ~/.bashrc


What maximum OpenGL context do the Macbook Pro's support on Bootcamp Windows I'm Looking to get MacBook Pro. Is there a max OpenGL context?
I understand that on OS X it is 4.1, does this change when booting in Windows, and is this diferrent or the same for the three models?

Models 2015:
13 inch integrated,
15 inch integrated,
15 inch with amd graphics.

13 inch integrated:
Intel HD graphics - supports OpenGL 4.5

15 inch integrated
Intel iris pro 5200 - supports OpenGL 4.3

15 inch discreet:
AMD radeon r9 m370x - supports OpenGL 4.5


How do I find and delete these 447mb of files? How do I find and delete these 447mb of files?

click Go in the menu bar then click Go To Folder then type /Library/Audio then delete the Apple loops folder.If you want delete the other Garage Band Files.


What are good sources for iPhone 4/iPad wallpapers? There are plenty of sites out there that compile wallpapers, but most have a very low signal:noise ratio. I don't want to deal with so much 'rough' to find a couple 'diamonds'. Are there places that have a generally high level of quality?

Mantia (who now works for Apple) has a nice selection of geeky iPhone/iPad wallpapers. Some of his stuff is featured at the Iconfactory, along with some other wallpapers by Dave Brasgalla, Gedeon Maheux and others.


Auto reply to text and/or iMessage? Is it possible to set up an auto-reply to an incoming text or iMessage, either on my iPhone (or the connected Message app on my Mac)?

Ideally I'd like to customize this depending upon the sender.

Apple does not provide this on iOS 11 or earlier since there are automation hooks to send a message, but not to be notified and act upon incoming messages. The Workflow app is the first place I look on iOS to see if there are hooks, but since Apple bought that company - we'll see what happens with iOS automation and iOS 12. I wouldn't expect this is the sort of automation that Apple rolls out first, but I could be wrong on that speculation.

On macOS - you might have more luck with AppleScript and the Script Editor - there is a standard message suite that used to work with IRC / chat for received messaged. I would start on MacOS to script something if you don't mind leaving your Mac logged in, not sleeping and handing off the reply ability.

  addressed message received ve : This handler is called for incoming
  messages that are addressed to you. If the handler returns a text
  value, it will replace the incoming message.

  addressed message received text : The text of the incoming message

    from buddy : The buddy who sent this message
      for text chat
      with text : A text description of the event

The buddy object would let you link this to the send assuming this triggers for iCloud messages in addition to old text messages.

The Messages app dictionary has a send command that accepts text so you should be able to make a simple script to send a stock message to a specific contact. The dictionary also has an event handler suite where received messages can be processed - so you could also test that.

I don't know of anyone writing up code, but the basics look to be there on macOS but not on iOS.


El Capitan dock and cdock 2 problem After updating cdock 2 to the latest version on my Mac running El Capitan, all the icons moved up from center and now look like on the image below.

How can I fix this?

Reported and…

This has been reported to the developers as ticket 23:

  With the latest release of cDock2 the icons are up too high on the Dock, making contact wit the top edge of the Dock. See image.

Given this is an open source application, consider donating to the cDock maintainer. They will likely respond better if their efforts are rewarded.

…fixed in v0.10.4

The developer has responded to the bug report saying it is now fixed:

  Reverted in 0.10.4


Other Mac storage taking up 90GB! Help! I currently have other storage around 90GB on a 120GB internal drive so pretty much all of it. I have optimised to iCloud and deleted all large extra files and documents etc. However, on the omnidisksweeper it is showing there is 20gb just in updates and 13gb on system but I am unsure what I can delete. Any help will be appreciated!

I woudn't be concerned too much with those two since they are only 33 gigs total. The 90 GB space should be of more concern. I suggest you get Daisy Disk or Grand Perspective to give you a color graphical mapping of your disk drive. These color maps make it easy to see what is hogging your disk drive. Daisey Disk, if obtained from developers site has a free trial.  Grand Perspective is free.
I'm not familar with omnidisksweeper.


iCloud sign-in asks for password of MacBook that's running my Fusion VM of OSX 10.11, then rejects the correct password. Fix? I am the original owner of a mid-2012 MacBook Pro, which is currently running 10.14.6. On it I am running VMware Fusion 11.5.5. I created a VM of OSX 10.11 El Capitan so I could help a relative who uses it.
I do not want to use my personal iCloud account on this VM so I created a new Apple account, validated it, and it now works on a spare iPad. Let's call it my "Test Apple Account".
When the 10.11 installation on the VM reached the point where it asked for Apple Credentials to set up iCloud, et al, I enter the Test Apple Account ID and password, received an approval request on the spare iPad, allowed it, entered the 6-digit code, things were looking good, and then the following dialog box appeared.

I entered the password I always use to sign into this MacBook Pro and after several seconds red text appeared in this dialog box saying it's the wrong password. I tried a couple more times thinking I was misspelling it and now that account is supposedly locked for 24 hours.
I've seen a few forum posts on the Interwebs about this issue but they all veer off on sidetracks, including one on the SuperUser forum. My application is about as clear cut and legal as it gets.
Suggestions?
BTW, as a test I used the same Test Apple Account for setting up iCloud in another User account on this MacBook Pro. It worked fine. So what's different about this attempt to sign in to iCloud is that it's on an OSX 10.11 VM in Fusion stead of a 10.14 meatspace MacBook Pro.
Hmm. I wonder if I should be running the VM from that account? I'll check that and report back.

This is a new authentication method. It really doesn’t have anything to do with your app or your VM - Apple is using another trusted device to prove you’re in control of the sign in request.
This all started around April 2017:

iPhone asks for Mac password (or Mac asks for iOS password)


My iPad has a popup saying I have a virus When I went to a website in Safari, it opened up another website with popups claiming my iPad has a virus.

I deleted some of my apps to try and get rid of the virus, but the popup keeps showing up every time I open Safari. Can someone help me?

You likely do not have a virus.
It's probably just a popup that gets launched every time you re-open Safari.

Go to:

Settings > Safari > "Clear History and Website Data."

You won't lose any bookmarks, it will just clear your browser history and open tabs.

Let us know if that works for you!


How do I change GNU Screen's meta-key to Cmd-a? GNU Screen's default meta-key is Ctrl-a, which is really inconvenient for me because I frequently use Ctrl-a and Ctrl-e to move the cursor to the beginning or end of the line.

I'd prefer to change this to Cmd-a instead. I know this can be changed in my .screenrc file, but how do I encode the Cmd key?

I generally think the command idea is a bad one, because it is intended to be the system key for app manipulation. Cmd-l appears to be unbound in the application menus, but I couldn't use any tricks to view what it's keycode may be. Thus, I would suggest Shift-Ctrl-a.

Having said that, if I understand the man page, and a resource on the Ubuntu Forums on the topic, I believe you can change it to Shift-Ctrl-a either by using the -e flag (which I suggest you use to test with before putting it in your ~/.screenrc).

You should be able to run screen -e ^AA. ^ is a common identifier for "Ctrl", and A means capital-a (shift + a), as opposed to a lowercase a, meaning the character by itself.

If that works, you should be able to add a line into your ~/.screenrc that says: escape ^AA for it to automatically take place on any standard execution of screen just by itself.


How to restore my iPod How can i restore my jailbroken iPod 4th gen iOS 6.1.6.
When i restore from iTunes it shows an error" iPod could not be restore an unknown error(3096) occurred".

What can i do for restoring my iPod .

You need to put it into DFU mode. See this OS X Daily article for instructions. Basically

Connect the iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes
Turn the iPhone off (hold down the power button at the top of the iPhone)
Hold down the sleep/power button and home button together for exactly 10 seconds, then release the power button
Continue to hold down the Home button until a message appears in iTunes telling you an iPhone in recover mode has been detected

When you are in DFU mode your iPhone screen will be completely black. Even though the screen is black, that doesn’t mean the device can’t be interfaced with either iTunes or a custom firmware client (for jailbreaking, etc).


Is there a solar panel to charge a MacBook Pro 2016? I want to buy a MacBook Pro 2016, probably the 15" model.

Since I travel around on my bicycle a lot, I'd find it really nice if I could charge it with a solar panel.
Does anyone know how much Output a solar panel would have to have to power a MacBook Pro via USB?

What I would recommend is going iPad Pro and keep a Mac mini somewhere else for things you simply cannot do locally. Since you are looking at the new models that accept USB C charging, you have lots more flexibility to use solar / iOS type chargers than before. The early 2017 lineup has 4W to 35W processors instead of the much higher wattage ones from 2016 and older.

Even so, running LTE network and remote access to where you have AC power for your Mac keeps your bicycle build light and reduces your cost for solar 10x or more.

I personally wouldn't bike with anything bigger than the MacBook with USB-C charging or iPad, but you could be thinking of a trailer where 35 pounds of gear and Arizona type sunlight would make a MacSafe MacBook possible. Also, the MacBook come with 29W, 61W, or 87W USB-C Power Adapters so you can pick a solar panel that would mimic those recharge rates. It's possible you could get away with a 29W charge on the biggest MacBook if you didn't run down the battery but 1/5 of the way each day and had good times to charge it (i.e. all day on the back of the bike in clear conditions).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204360

I have heard of people using the 13" and 15" MBP for light work and running all day on a 10W range iPad charger. They lost battery charge all day and watched CPU intensive tasks, but for email, light web, no video or no encoding work - they made it most of the day with less than 10% battery loss and regained 25% battery charge with the Mac sleeping all night on the iPad charger. Now you have USB-A to USB-C charge capability with a small cable instead of lugging a MagSafe AC to DC transformer.

http://www.goalzero.com/p/179/nomad-20-solar-panel
http://www.belkin.com/us/Resource-Center/power-delivery/
https://www.amazon.com/ALEKO-85W-85-Watt-Monocrystalline-Solar/dp/B007YT9WHC/


iTunes stops working every time I launch it Recently I've updated my iTunes to the latest version, 11.4.0.18. Prior to updating it, iTunes didn't stop working, neither did it have any problems. Only after I updated it to the latest version, the dialog box will come up with "iTunes has stopped working" every time iTunes is launched.

Edit:
I'm running on Windows 8.1, 64-bit. The user profile I'm using is an Administrator account.

That version of iTunes is for Microsoft Windows.

I suggest that you follow the instructions in this Apple troubleshooting article.


How to restore from a Time Machine backup when there is already a user account set up? I can't figure out how to access my Time Machine backups since Apple replaced a defective hard drive.

Some Background:

My setup: iMac 24" (Early 2009), 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, OS X 10.7.3. I have been running Time Machine to back up all files.

Source of original problem: 1 TB hard drive developed problems while the machine was still under AppleCare.

The fix to the original problem: I took the machine to my nearest Apple store, where the diagnosis was to replace the hard drive. I got the repaired iMac back three days later.

The current problem:

When I got home and powered the iMac up for the first time, I noticed that the Apple techs had already set up a new user account. Everything has been working fine, except that this new user account is not the same as the old one on the machine (i.e. the one I was using prior to the hard drive problem).

As a result, I can't seem to access any of the Time Machine backups I made prior to having the iMac repaired.

Question:

How do I access the Time Machine backups made before the repair? Is there a way to query the Time Machine backups for the user account for which they were created?

Migration Assistant

This is the built in data transfer tool for Macs.

You can find it in /Applications/Utilities. You'll want to do the following:

Plug in your Time Machine backup drive, open Migration Assistant and select the From another Mac, PC, Time Machine backup, or other disk option:

Select the From a Time Machine backup or other disk option:

Select your Time Machine backup and click Next.
It should show you your old user account, which will have a drop down menu to select all the things you can restore.
Follow the prompts to restore.

This method will create a new user account alongside the one the Apple Store folks created for you. You'll be able to log out of the account they set up and log into your own.

Another option would be to:

Navigate to /var/db by pressing Shift + ⌘ + G and typing in the path.
Find the .AppleSetupDone file and delete it. It will likely ask you to authenticate as an administrator.
Restart your Mac.
Use the Setup Assistant to select a Time Machine backup to restore from.

This method does not delete the existing user account, but simply creates a new administrator account alongside it and allows you to use the Setup Assistant to restore from the backup.

You will need to delete the account the Apple Store folks set up for you if you don't want it anymore.

Good luck!


Supported codecs for .m4r file? What codecs can be used by iOS ringtone files (.m4r). I know only about AAC and ALAC, is there anything else? I can't find any official information on this question.

I dont know if this will help you at all but I use DBPower Amp Converter and batch converter for all my sounds. It has a lot of codecs to choose from not sure if this is what you need but give it a shot maybe it;ll work.


Where do my apps go when I run out of screen space? Didn't realize I had ran out of home screen space on my iPad and I purchased a new app. The App store shows it is installed, and if I search for it I can find it, but I cannot find it on any of my screens.

I've since deleted some other apps and consolidated some into folders, so there is space, but I still cannot find it to place it.

1st Generation iPad
iOS version 5.1.1

Suggestions?

The iPad can contain up to 11 pages on its home screen, each page containing up to 20 apps (not counting folders). If all the spots are full when a new app is downloaded, the app will download and install, but not have a spot on the home screen. You can run it through search, the fast app switcher, etc., but not from the home screen.

If space is cleared on the home screen, it appears Apps don't fill in automatically. Rebooting has been known to help.

Now that folders allow more than the 220 apps, I'd recoommend making sure you have an empty spot for the app to appear before purchasing.


Where does the huge amount of "" iCloud Keychain items come from and what is their purpose? I just discovered that there is a huge amount (hundreds) of items in my iCloud Keychain that I can not explain. They were all created starting from 7th of January up until 13th January.

When I right-click them to see detailed information,
there isn't any information visible. When I click on "access", under access groups "com.apple.security.octagon" shows up. However I couldn't find anything mentioning that particular URL through googling.

Can anyone explain what purpose those keychains items serve and where they come from?

Messages and FaceTime does per device encryption, so these would map to key pairs generated for device to cloud encrypted devices.

The com.apple is simply a naming convention for the subsystem that claims the entry - and not an actual dns name.

I wouldn’t worry about them till you have tens of thousands and you can always sign out of messaging on all your devices and then try and clean things, but in my experience these self regulate and don’t impair performance if you just focus on the items you know and interact with.


How to revert Safari 6 Web Inspector? The new Safari 6 Web Inspector UI is a usability nightmare for me due to loads of tabs/panes with small icons and no labels.

It also seems to complicate common tasks like showing a list of XHR requests and their responses.

Is there any way to revert the look and feel of the Web Inspector in Safari 6 to (more) how it was in previous versions?

The new Web Inspector was made to be a bit closer to Xcode.

There is no direct way to get the old one back, without reverting to other means. For example:

running Lion in a VM (to run an older Safari).
Running a nightly build of WebKit - but this may only have the new inspector
Using Chrome (while still WebKit, it still uses something that seemed closer to me like the old inspector).

So no, at this time, it doesn't look like its possible to revert back to an 'older' version of the inspector. The best bet would be to submit bugs at http://bugreporter.apple.com. If it is missing features that the old one had, possibly future revisions would bring some of this back.


How to escape modal dialog in Safari? A certain Safari tab is asking for a username/password that I do not have.  I can click "Cancel" on the authentication dialog but it immediately pops up again.  The dialog is modal, meaning that it disables all other UI elements of the window except the minimize/resize buttons.

How can I close the problematic tab without quitting the application?

Open Activity Monitor, look for the process corresponding to the tab and quit it.


How can I change the resolution of a PDF I have scanned a document into a PDF at 300dpi.  The document file is larger than I would like.  Is there a simple way to down-sample the document so that it has a lower resolution?  Or do I just need to re-scan the original document?

You can use ImageMagick's scale or resize operators.

  ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, compose, or convert
  bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats
  (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD,
  PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF.

For example, from a terminal:

convert input.pdf  -resize 50% output.pdf

or

convert input.pdf -scale 50% output.pdf


Need help comparing the 13" 2016 MBP with the 15" 2015 MBP My current MacBook (13" early 2011 model)is old and showing signs of ageing. As new the new MacBook Pros have just launched, the prices are quite high. Last evening I visited a store and found out the 15" mid-2015 model is cheaper than the 13" late-2016 (Touch Bar) model. As I do lot of software development work, and use Xcode and Android Studio, along with localhost server work, I just wanted to know if the 15" will handle this type of world well? Sometimes I also do movie editing and steam gaming too.

I would be using the new laptop for a minimum of 3 years.

Models:

13-inch (2016)
Intel Core i5-6267U @ 2.9 GHz
512GB HD
8GB RAM (2133 MHz)

15-inch (2015)
Intel Core i7-4870HQ @ 2.50 GHz
512GB HD
16GB RAM (1600 MHz)

This really gets down to personal preference and in that sense your question will invite people to express opinions, rather than providing an answer to a problem.

The best way for you (and I dare say anyone) to make a decision is to identify what are the most important requirements for your intended use. For example:

CPU - The 15" mid-2015 MacBook Pro has a 4 core processor, while the 13" late-2016 MacBook Pro only has a 2 core processor, so if processing power is critical the mid-2015 model is a better choice.
Battery - The 13" late-2016 MacBook Pro, by virtue of its smaller screen size, will run longer on battery than the 15" mid-2015 MacBook Pro, so if running on battery power is critical, the 13" model is a better choice.
RAM - The 13" late-2016 MacBook Pro you're considering has 8GB RAM, while the 15" mid-2015 MacBook Pro has 16GB RAM, so if the apps you run are memory hungry, then the mid-2015 model is a better choice.
Display - The 15" mid-2015 MacBook Pro has a 15" screen (obviously) which has a native resolution of 2880x1800 pixels, while the 13" late-2016 MacBook Pro only has a 13" screen 2560x1600 pixels, so if the amount of desktop real estate is critical the mid-2015 model is a better choice.
Weight - The 15" mid-2015 MacBook Pro weighs 2.04Kg while the 13" late-2016 MacBook Pro weighs 1.37Kg, so if you're going to be carrying it around a lot, then the 13" model is a better choice.
Ports - It's well documented that the 13" late-2016 MacBook Pro has four USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The mid-2015 model on the other hand has two USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, an HDMI port, an audio in/out port, and an SDXC card slot. Only you can decide which one is a better choice for the next three years!

You get the idea. Basically you need to decide your most important requirements and then do a comparison based on that.


Send data to apple watch I have apple watch series 4 and an iPhone. I want to send data like links,images,text to my watch. Usually I emailed these data to myself and open it on my watch .

  Is there any efficient way to do it ?
  Any app or something ?

My watch is constantly connected with iPhone via Bluetooth.

A simpler method would be to use Messages to send a message to yourself with the text, links, and images. They would show up as notifications on the watch making it easy to tap into them - instead of having to open up Mail, find the right mail, open attachment, etc.


Schedule jobs with at or crontab on Mac OS X and some alternatives Using the command line of Mac OS X system, are at and crontab the correct utilities to use to schedule jobs/processes/scripts? Especially my own scripts.sh?

I am aware that both at and crontab (actually I am not sure about crontab) comes installed by default with Mac OS X but I have this feeling that I need to use something else in order to have it work properly on a Mac OS X system.  Of course I am aware of third party application/software/mdm etc. but I am interested with what comes installed by default inside the Mac OS X.

launchd

On macOS, launchd is Apple's replacement for cron. I don't know what the "official" replacement for at is.

See the StartCalendarInterval key in launchd.plist(5) to get started.


iPhone 4 Stuck on Headphones Mode I took my headphones out of my phone after a run and I figured out that it is stuck on headphones mode. I've read the forums and tried...

to plug in and out my headphones (I even used two different pairs
I blew into the headphone port (similar to an old Nintendo system)

Something to note:
My alarm works and when I unlock the phone during the alarm I get the click sound.

I have this problem happen occasionally with many of my audio "gadgets".  I generally follow troubleshooting steps in this order and have always gotten it working again.

Step one is plugging/un-plugging headphones.  This almost always corrects it (but apparently it has not in your case).

Step two is power-cycling the device.  For an iPhone, I would recommend resetting it by holding down both the sleep/wake and home buttons until you see the Apple logo.

Step three is carefully checking the port for damage, or an object that might have become lodged in there.  And if it's not fixed by this point...

Step four is getting it serviced by the manufacturer.  Sometimes problems are simply beyond our ability to fix them ourselves.