Advice and information for installing a SSD into MBP with fresh Lion Tomorrow I am going to buy a OCZ Vertex 3 (240GB) and then I want to upgrade my MacBook Pro (late 2011) and install a fresh Lion system without copying any files with SuperDuper etc. Now I would like to know, whether it is necessary to flash the SSD via Windows (as I've sometimes...) before plugging it in to the MacBook.

Furthermore I would like to know whether I can install Lion without the need to pay the 23€ in the "AppStore of the Installer" (wanted to create bootable USB stick with Lion Installer on it - otherwise I must do the "Packages"-hack to prevent from online-check/download) as I have bought my MacBook only a few days ago with Lion shipped on it.

Last but not least, any further advice or things I must pay attention of?

EDIT: I found the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant which seems to be vera cool... however I want to know whether I can reinstall Lion on my new SSD without having to log on to the AppStore which was necessary for a time to check whether I have purchased Lion properly. Can anyone tell me whether this will work how I expect it to do so?

In the case of OCZ, it will make your life monstrously less insufferable if you ensure the drive has the latest firmware revision before installing it in your Mac, as OCZ does not support OS X (they provide a mixed bag of solutions that require a decent level of computer expertise and Linux distributions which are rickety at best). They make great hardware but have deplorable Apple support even after all these years.

You can view the latest firmware for your drive here. The utility requires either Windows or Linux and a working networking connection. It is also recommended you back up your data as the update could wipe it, so naturally it is best to do on a fresh drive. v2.1.5 has been out for a while so it is quite likely you won't need to update. Support forums are available in case you do.

If Lion shipped with the unit, you are in luck. The computer is capable of using both the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant or the Online Lion Recovery process (hold COMMAND+R after you hear the chime. Both will download Lion and install it for you. All new machines have their unique identifiers registered with Apple, so barring a complete logic board swap, they will always have access to Lion without the need to pay for the OS. In fact, your copy of Lion operates entirely outside of the Mac App Store.

Note: Be wary of partitioning tools (like SuperDuper, etc.) as Lion has a Recovery HD (weighing in at 650 MB) installed alongside the OS. This is there to either help with the reinstallation or diagnose and repair your system. It does not house the entire operating system, but rather things like Terminal and Disk Utility. Currently, partitioning tools do not clone this partition and the one's that are including this feature, are still in the experimental stages. Be careful.

Personally, I would verify the drive has the latest firmware revision and then install it in your Mac. Use either the Lion USB stick you created via the Recovery Disk Assistant or the built in Online Recovery and install Lion. That's it.


What is the maximum wattage an iPhone X will support for wireless charging? The existing chargers on the market are all either 5W or 7.5W for their charging capacity.

While higher capacity chargers dont exist on the market, what is the theoretical maximum that an iPhone X can handle for wireless charging?

I assume your question is about the software support for wireless charging and not the potential capacity the hardware may support.

Initially all iPhone models that supported wireless charging (i.e. iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X) could only receive a 5W charge from standard Qi wireless chargers, regardless of how much the charger output.

However, since iOS 11.2 Apple introduced support for 7.5W models and this is currently the limit.

It is unclear at this stage whether Apple can/will be able to further increase this limit if/when chargers supporting more than 7.5W appear on the market.


USB 3 not working on Yosemite MacOS 10.10.2 I have a MacBookPro11,3, Intel Core i7, 2,5 GHz, ROM: MBP112.0138.B14 with Yosemite natively installed. I also use FileVault.

Here are my problems with external USB 3:

One of my FAT32 external hard drive is not showing up (neither under Finder, nor in Disk Utility).
And for mounted disks (either FAT32, or Mac FS), read/write rate is always thus of USB 1.

The weird thing is that when I use another user account, exchange rate with same hard drives plugged in is thus of USB 3.

Any idea, where the issue could come from? Help very much appreciated, thank you.

So far, I have run Kext Utility and rebooted leaving the external drive plugged in without success.

Have you tried resetting your SMC and NVRAM? Doing both of these can help solve not only this problem but other problems you're having with your system as well.

See these articles from Apple.com for more details:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac


Will High Sierra also convert secondary drive into APFS during macOS upgrade process? I want to update macOS to High Sierra. This question is for precaution purpose before updating macOS.

I have two drives : SSD-Primary and HDD-Secondary

macOS is installed in SSD and HDD is for backup purpose.

Will High Sierra also convert secondary drive into APFS automatically, when I upgrade macOS to High Sierra installed on primary drive?

Should I disconnect secondary drive before the upgrade?

From the APFS Guide FAQ:

  How do I upgrade to Apple File System?

  The macOS High Sierra installer offers nondestructive in-place
  upgrades from HFS+ to APFS for bootable volumes. You can use Disk
  Utility to convert external volumes from HFS+ to APFS format.

(Emphasis mine)

Your secondary HDD is not a bootable volume (assuming it not a clone) so it will not convert unless you do so manually.

That doesn't mean your HDD can't use APFS.

  Can I boot macOS High Sierra from an APFS-formatted hard disk?

  Yes. macOS High Sierra supports Apple File System for both bootable
  and data volumes.

You will have to convert the second HDD after-the-fact.

But since you this question is getting info, (like you said) as a precaution, the best advice is to make a full backup before proceeding.


What's the shortcut for Show/Hide Playlist in VLC? I checked VLC's preferences but it seems that Show/Hide Playlist is the only player's button that doesn't have any keyboard shortcuts in Mac OS X version. Is there any way to control that?

Window Menu > Playlist…
 Opt ⌥   Cmd ⌘   P


Command line tool to convert DOC and DOCX files to PDF Is there any command line tool to convert DOC and DOCX files to PDF? If no, can it be automated by some Automator script (open-print to PDF-close)?

You can use the docx2pdf command line tool to bulk convert docx to pdf. It uses Microsoft Word to directly convert to pdf so you will need to have it installed. One macOS, it uses JXA (AppleScript for JavaScript) to talk to Word and on windows it uses win32com.

pip install docx2pdf

# single file
docx2pdf myfile.docx

# entire folder
docx2pdf myfolder/

Disclaimer: I wrote docx2pdf after getting frustrated at the lack of cross-platform tools to convert docx to pdf directly using Microsoft Word as I needed a perfect replica with zero formatting issues. https://github.com/AlJohri/docx2pdf


Upgrade iCloud storage from 50gb to 200gb then downgrade? I currently pay for the 50 GB iCloud plan for myself. I'm thinking of upgrade to 200 GB and share it with my wife using the family sharing.

But I was wondering what would happen if we use over 50gb together, and then eventually decide to stop using family sharing, and I go back to using my personal 50gb by myself. Will I no longer have space due to her files being used in it?

For instance: currently I'm using 30/50gb on iCloud. Let's say we switch to 200gb and use the family plan: I'm using 30/200gb and my wife is using 50/200gb. So total used would be 80/200gb. Then, if I turn off family sharing, and go back to the 50gb plan for my personal use, will I no longer have 20gb left?

The short answer is: YES, you can do what you're proposing and you'll still have the same amount of space left. You're essentially asking - if I 1) sign up for family sharing, and; 2) upgrade my storage to 200 GB, can I reverse this entire process and everything will be the way I left it.

The answer is YES provided that your storage amounts and your wife's storage amounts are unchanged in your example.

I think there is some confusion on how Family Sharing works. It does not merge your files... it doesn't actually insert your wife's files into your iCloud. It keeps them completely separate. You'll be able to see how much space her files take up by clicking on Manage Storage, but that's it - you won't have direct access to any of her files.

So, it will be a bar graph that will show something like this:

Photos - 20 GB
Documents - 10 GB
Wife's files (family sharing) - 40 GB

You won't be able to see your wife's individual breakdown of how her storage is used -- e.g., docs, photos, etc., just that she is using 40 GB (and she won't be able to see your breakdown either).

If you decide to disconnect Family Sharing, it will simply remove the '40 GB' block of your Wife's files from your account and you will both have to sign up again for paid storage in order to keep your files. But, you'll still have 30 GB in this case, and she'd still have 40 GB, and you'd each be fine with a 50 GB plan.

As mentioned by @Udhy, in order to downgrade, you must be under the allowable storage limit. So in this case, if you were using Family Sharing, you would need to pay for the 200 GB plan as the 50 GB plan is not sufficient for both you and your wife to use. And, once you downgrade, you'd each be fine with the 50 GB plan.


Can't get Apple Hardware Test to work So I'm trying to run the Apple Hardware Test. I start the computer up and hold "D". It boots into OS X like a normal startup. So, I plug in the Ethernet and hold option-D to do the AHT from the Internet. It tells me "Apple Hardware Test does not support this machine".

So, I try to install the "iMac EFI Update 1.8" from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1493 (which is for my iMac model, which is a iMac (Mid 2010)), but it says "This software is not supported on your system." I also tried the later version, v1.9, from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1498 but it isn't for my iMac and so I get the same error.

I also tried putting in my DVD 1 for my iMac, then starting up by holding both "D" and "option-D", but neither booted AHT from the DVD.

So now I'm stuck. What should I do now?

Do you have another mac? Can you boot the problematic machine in Target Mode (boot holding the T key). Connect to the other mac and run system utilities (Disk, etc) from there.

What is the problem with your computer that requires you to run AHT?

Hope this helps.


Empty Keychains "1" that cannot be deleted When opening Keychain Access I have a bunch of empty keychains named 1 as well as the normal login keychain. These cannot be deleted.

What are they and what are they for? How do I get rid of them? (Should I?)

Just found that you can press delete on each of them and remove them. Takes a while if yours is just like mine and had a few hundred but at least you can remove them.


Is there any way to run incompatible apps from future versions of macOS? I am running macOS Mojave 10.14.6 and I want to run an application which was made only for Catalina. I have downloaded “Noto” from the Mac App Store on another Mac (Running Catalina) and copied it on my flash drive. I did it using MY AppleID.

When I run it on Mojave it doesn’t start. It says that I have an incompatible macOS version.

I tried to edit .plst file in the package contents
I tried to run it through terminal

The app is not so popular so I can’t just download a .dmg .

In a word, No

There are differences in macOS versions, and if an app says "macOS Catalina or later" it means that it requires something that is specific to, introduced in and not in earlier versions of macOS.

For example if you have an app that requires macOS High Sierra or greater it will also (likely) work on Mojave and Catalina too, but not on Sierra.

So, sorry, but that app was written to use a feature of Catalina that is just not there in previous versions of macOS.

You could contact the developer and ask if it is possible but I would bet no.


App Store not allowing app downloads The iOS App Store is a great place, normally, but recently I discovered that I'm not able to download apps due to some error.
The error is that whenever I want to download an app, I click GET, then it goes to the loading circle for a few seconds, then the button goes back to GET and my app doesn't download. Any solutions? I'm using an iPad Air 2 running the latest version of iOS.

This happens to me sometimes too, what I end up doing is killing the App Store application (going into the application switcher and the closing it) before trying to download again.
If it is still not working is usually reboot the iPad and try again.

Alternatively you can try to see if the app is in your bought history on the app and try to launch a download from there.


Clarification on Apple version identification? I want to know the exact version of an older iPad.

After looking up the serial number, it states iPad2,2. I know it is a second generation iPad, but what does the number after the comma identify?

Does this mean this is iPad2 second generation, where iPad2,1 would be iPad2 first generation?

I thought the generation was the first number, so iPad1 is 1st generation, iPad2 is 2nd, and so on.

How do I properly identify iPad2,2 and other iPads?

A general statement regarding Model Identifiers (example: iPad1,1) is first number indicates generation and the second number indicates variant. However, there are many instances where simply reading the model identifier and trying to decode it cannot identify a device.

Comprehensive lists are available at EveryI and The iPhone Wiki. Note that there are several instances of overlap (example: iPad1,1 for both WiFi and WiFi+3G models)

The model/family/"A" number (example: A1234) may also be useful in identifying a given device (though some also overlap, such as A1395 for iPad2,1 and iPad2,4).

The model/part/"M" number is even better, typically allowing identification of more specific detail.

The iPad2,2 specifically refers to the iPad 2 WiFi+3G (GSM).


How to block internet access of all apps (except browser) when using 3g usb modem? Is there any app that helps me to block all apps for accessing the internet when using 3g modem?

Yes, (assuming you are using Mac OS X), but you're not going to like the answer: pfctl. (Prior to OS X 10.7 Lion, the firewall was ipfw.)
Also, alternatively, you can use the GUI to configure pfctl (or ipfw).

Also, OS X includes an application firewall :

Allowing specific applications
To allow a specific app to receive incoming connections, add it using Firewall Options:

Open System Preferences.
Click the Security or Security & Privacy icon.
Select the Firewall tab.
Click the lock icon in the preference pane, then enter an administrator name and password.
Click the Firewall Options button
Click the Add Application (+) button.
Select the app you want to allow incoming connection privileges for.
Click Add.
Click OK.
You can also remove any apps listed here that you no longer want to allow by clicking the Remove App (-) button.

There is also a third party application that is very popular called Little Snitch that will do what you ask.

Although I wouldn't recommend it for your purposes unless you were using it to learn about it for its own sake, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and above includes a sandbox facility (be sure to read the man pages listed under "SEE ALSO.")


MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012) yellow tint when watching Netflix or YouTube in fullscreen I noticed recently that when I try to watch YouTube videos or Netflix in full screen on my Macbook Air, the whole screen will wash out with orange and yellow and I can't see anything. But it's perfectly fine if I don't watch it in fullscreen. And on Netflix, if I use subtitles, it's normal when someone is talking, but when the text disappears the screen gets an orange tint again.

I've tried calibrating the colors through the display section of system preferences but it always tells me that there is an error. I've searched for someone who is having a similar problem but haven't found anyone.

I noticed that this yellow tint problem just occurs on chrome but not on safari. I updated chrome and tested it out - still happening. I then restarted my MBA and it disappeared. Will observe that problem for the next days but I hope that helps anyone. Also, I hardly restart or shut down my MBA, it's been on or in standby for over 2 months.

Update: still happening but found a new solution. I deactivated my extension 'Magic Actions for Youtube' and the problem disappeared. Again I will check if it still occurs.


using rEFInd to get around lack of boot screen when using unsupported GPU in Mac Pro I am trying to upgrade a 2012 Mac Pro (model 5,1) to Mojave.  I have installed High Sierra and updated bootrom to MP51.0089.B00.  I've got a required "metal capable" graphics card (Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX580), which unfortunately does not support the Startup Manager.  I want access to the Startup Manager, to be able to access recovery partitions and bootable external media.

My plan: rEFInd seems like a good solution to my problem. Before installing the unsupported GPU, if I can get rEFInd to appear as an option in the Startup Manager, I can select it as the default using the control key when selecting the boot option (this does work on my machine).  Then once I install the unsupported GPU, the rEFInd main screen will appear on startup and I can select whatever I want, including recovery partitions and external media. (Obviously I must be careful never to change the default in SystemPrefs->StartupDisk, or I'll have to temporarily re-install the old GPU and change the default back to rEFInd !).   Does this sound like a workable plan ?

I've installed rEFInd, with default options, and it does not appear in Startup Manager.   To get it  to appear in Startup Manager, I believe I need to reinstall it with the --usedefault option.   How do I reinstall ?   Do I need to uninstall first (since I first installed it without the usedefault option) ?  Uninstalling looks somewhat problematic.   And what argument do I need to use with --usedefault ?   I've looked at a wiki and a manpage, but am still confused.  When I ran 'mountesp', I got:

sudo mountesp
The ESP has been identified as /dev/disk0s1; attempting to mount it....
The ESP is mounted at /Volumes/ESP

The only file in that volume is: /Volumes/ESP/EFI/APPLE/EXTENSIONS/Firmware.scap

That's it.  I am out of my depth, and would appreciate help.

Removing rEFInd from the EFI partition.

If you use refind-install without any options and/or the --usedefault option to install rEFInd into the EFI partition (disk0s1), then use the following steps to remove rEFInd from this partition.

Make sure the EFI partition (disk0s1) is unmounted. Use the command given below.

diskutil unmount disk0s1

Mount the EFI partition (disk0s1). The command is given below.

sudo diskutil mount disk0s1

Use the Finder to open the EFI folder on the EFI volume.
If any of the following folders exist in the EFI folder, then move each folder to the trash: BOOT, refind and tools

In other words, if the any of the following folders exist, then the folder should be removed.

/Volumes/EFI/EFI/BOOT
/Volumes/EFI/EFI/refind
/Volumes/EFI/EFI/tools

Empty the trash.
Use the command given below to unmount the EFI partition.

diskutil unmount disk0s1

Installing rEFInd to appear in the Mac Startup Manager

  Note: If rEFInd already exists in the EFI partition (disk0s1), then the instructions given in this section may fail. You should make sure rEFInd is removed from the EFI partition (disk0s1) before proceeding.

The commands to install the current version of rEFInd is given below. You should enter these commands from macOS.

sudo $HOME/Downloads/refind-bin-0.12.0/refind-install --usedefault /dev/disk0s1
diskutil unmount disk0s1

Below is the output when the above commands were entered using the current version of Catalina (macOS 10.13.6).

  Note: When testing, I received the error message sed: -i may not be used with stdin. This error did not effect the installation of rEFInd other than not unmounting disk0s1

The rEFInd Boot Manager should now appear in the Mac Startup Manager with the label EFI Boot. Both the icon and label can be customized.


Install direct downloaded IOS 6.0.1 I've downloaded IOS 6.0.1 from direct link(not using iTunes). My download can't complete in iTunes as my internet disconnects before completion. So, guys, can anybody help me how can I install downloaded IOS on my iPhone 4S?

iOS Updates Using a Downloaded IPSW File

Note that .ipsw files are specific to the device (i.e. the iPhone 4 GSM is distinct from the iPhone 4 CDMA). Make sure you download the correct one.

Plug your iPhone into your computer with the USB cable (Wi-Fi won't work for this).
Open the iPhone device page in iTunes (either from the sidebar in iTunes 10, or the Devices button in iTunes 11).
While holding down option (or shift in Windows), click the Restore button. You should get an open file dialog.
Select the .ipsw file you downloaded, and click OK. Your iPhone should start to update normally.


Keyboard shortcut to open Terminal at the current folder location in Finder Say I am in a Finder window (eg: ~/Documents/code ) and I want to be able to  use a keyboard shortcut to open a terminal window with the prompt
user@computer: ~/Documents/code$

Most of the questions are answered using mouse.

In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services under Files and Folders there is a New Terminal at Folder shortcut which you can assign a keyboard shortcut to; however, it only appears on the Finder > Services menu, or the right-click context menu, when a Folder is selected. So if you have a Finder window open but no additional folder selected, it is not available. This may be fine for one's particular usage, but if not, then here is an alternative.

For example, say you have a Finder window open to your Downloads folder, which is selected in the Sidebar, and you want to open a Terminal window there. Well the built in service isn't available because an individual Folder isn't selected and what's selected in the Sidebar doesn't count...

One way to open a Terminal window at the location of the current Finder window, using a keyboard shortcut, is to use AppleScript in an Automator Service (Quick Action in macOS Mojave), then assign it a keyboard shortcut in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > ...

Create an Automator Service adding a Run AppleScript action, then replace the default code with the example AppleScript code shown below.
Save the service as e.g. Open Terminal Here with the settings as shown in the image below. Then assign it a keyboard shortcut. It should show under the General section of the aforementioned path.

Note: After assigning it a keyboard shortcut, you may have to trigger the new service one time with the mouse from the Finder > Services menu for it to work subsequently using the assigned keyboard shortcut.
Additionally, the assigned keyboard shortcut cannot be one that is already in use by Finder. I wanted to use ^⌘T but it would not work, so I settled for: ^⌘\
Accessibility privileges for Automator may need to be granted for this service to work properly.

Example AppleScript code:

tell application "Finder"
    if exists Finder window 1 then
        set currentFolder to target of Finder window 1 as alias
    else
        return
    end if
end tell
tell application "Terminal"
    do script "cd " & quoted form of POSIX path of currentFolder & "; clear"
    activate
end tell

As an added bonus, you can also use the example AppleScript code saved as an AppleScript application in Script Editor and place it in the Toolbar of Finder, thus allowing one to click the icon to open a Terminal window at the current location when one wants versus using the keyboard short assigned to the Automator service. No third-party app required!

In Script Editor, save the example AppleScript code as an AppleScript application, as e.g.: Open Terminal Here
In Finder, give it the same icon as Terminal.

From Finder, open the Get Info sheet for both the e.g.: Open Terminal Here app and Terminal, by selecting each and pressing: ⌘I
With both Get Info sheets showing, select the icon in the upper left corner of the one for Terminal and press: ⌘C
Now select the icon in the upper left corner of the one for e.g.: Open Terminal Here and press: ⌘V
Close the Get Info sheets.
Drag an drop, while holding the ⌘ key1, the app bundle for the e.g.: Open Terminal Here app onto the Toolbar in Finder.
        1 Required in later versions of OS X/macOS.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.


How do you close an open port in Mac? Using Netstat (within Network Utility), I discovered an unusual IP address -- this IP address occasionally uses 9 different open ports, including ports 9998 and 9999. I also did an Zenmap scan, and it said the service name for port 9999 is "abyss" -- I looked up this up, and apparently it is a malicious service.

The unusual IP address appeared within the Netstat option, "Display the state of all current socket connections". The IP address does not appear to be associated with any applications on my computer (e.g. it isn't from Apple, Amazon, etc.)

The unusual IP address appears to be using the following open ports: 22, 80, 110, 143, 443, 993, 995, 9998 and 9999. Apparently ports 80 and 443 use the "http" service.

I've been trying to figure out how to close these open ports, but I can't figure out how; it is very frustrating. I'm using Mac OS Sierra. The "lsof" command in terminal doesn't work. I type in lsof (for example, lsof -i:9999) and nothing happens. Is there a terminal command (other than lsof) than can close open ports?

One option which doesn't work is the "tcpkill" command, which apparently can close TCP ports, but it must be downloaded and I can't figure out how to download it.

Also, is there a Mac program that specifically closes open ports?

It's really annoying that programs like Network Utility (Netstat) and Zenmap tell you what ports are open, but then don't tell you how to close them.

Also, is there a way to blacklist (block) a specific IP address so that it can't connect? (Can it be done in terminal?) This would be useful for ports that I probably want to keep open (such as port 80) but want to block a specific IP address from connecting to it.

Edit: I discovered that the unusual IP address is a Tor IP address, and it only occurs when I use Tor Browser -- however, it is not associated with any of the Tor "nodes" I am currently using, which is weird. When I say that the IP address is "using" a TCP port, what I mean the following: within Netstat (and using the "Display the state of all current socket connections" option), in the "Foreign Address" column, the mysterious Tor IP address appears -- and in the (state) column, it says "ESTABLISHED" (meaning, an established connection). The Tor IP address appears to be using port 9999. I also occasionally see a second mysterious Tor IP address in the "Foreign Address" column. That entity uses "http" (not "https"), which is also weird.

Also, as I said earlier, the mysterious Tor IP address appears to be using a number of other ports on my computer, such as ports 80, 443, and 9998. I will use lsof to try and stop the port 9999 process.

Ports on macos only open when a process requests to listen on that port.

First order of business is to list the process tree and hope one single running process has that port open.

sudo lsof -i:9999

Should that fail, now you have a special helper process that will register non-running processes that get woken or spawned when packets come in for them. This process is launchd Think of it like a doorman that lets the system idle until a process is needed to handle something over its registered ports.

Since your question has about five sub questions, let’s leave this small answer to a very large question and perhaps you can ask a follow up question detailing how to learn launchd and where it stores it’s configurations. That alone would be a couple times larger than your original post. As is a summary of firewall operations. Each of these depend on specific MacOS versions for the details that are relevant.

To summarize, you close a TCP or UDP port by identifying the process that opened it and stopping that process or changing the configuration file that tells launchd to listen as a proxy.


Is there a common reason for a Macbook battery to disconnect from the logic board? I changed my Macbook Air's battery one month ago. It is a mid 2011, 11".
I've changed it for a cheap battery bought on Amazon :

It worked fine for one week, then the battery started disconnecting on a regular basis from motherboard. The little connector from the battery to the board "jumps" pretty often from its place. I then can use the Mac only if plugged in (the battery icon has a little cross on it + message "no battery available"). Until I reopen it, and reconnect the battery. Pretty annoying.

I wonder if it is more likely that :

Shocks do that. Not very likely to me as I tried pulling on the connector with my finger to see if this can happen.
Some "ejection system" kicks my battery out. As if the system detected overheating or such thing and decided to eject the battery.
Any other reason ?

It's option 3 - "Other."  There are two possibilities for your battery becoming disconnected with your logic board and both have to do with the molex connector:

The connector on your battery is broken/defective.  If this is the case, the warranty on the battery (provided you are still within the warranty) should get you a replacement and have this fixed.
The connector on your logic board is broken/defective.  If this is the case, the only surefire way to fix it is to have the connector replaced.  This will involve soldering of the logic board.

If repairing/replacing the logic board is out of the question and the everything works fine with the exception that the connector won't stay connected, you can secure it in place with some Kapton tape.  It won't be the most elegant solution, but for under $20 for the roll of tape, it's a much more cost effective solution.

As for your first two speculations...

Shocks. The amount of destructive force your Macbook would have to go through to "shock" the connector out would destroy your Macbook completely.
Ejection system.  You would see some sort of mechanism to do this.  If your MBA senses things are getting too hot, it shuts the computer down.  There's nothing in any computer that "ejects" connectors.


How to delete old audio interfaces I used to have WavTap and Airparrot but their audio interfaces are still straying in my other audio interfaces, and I would like to delete them.

How can I do this? I tried Audio / MIDI configuration but can't click the (-) sign to delete them.

Example image:

Just a thorough answer for uninstalling WavTap quickly:

Open a terminal and clone the official WavTap project:

git clone https://github.com/pje/WavTap

cd into the directory (cd WavTap)
Run sudo make uninstall to remove all drivers and traces of WavTap
You can then remove the WavTap source directory.


Use 27" Thunderbolt Display with iMac I have an old MacBook Pro (2011) which I use with an external 27" Thunderbolt Display. I'm now thinking about getting a new iMac. Is it possible to connect my Thunderbolt Display to the iMac as a secondary screen?

Any Mac made in 2011 or newer has the Thunderbolt port needed to use this, so any new iMac would work fine.


How to remove my daughter as the AppleID organizer My daughter is the organizer for our family Apple account.  I'd like to remove her, my credit card is attached.  Can I do this without accessing her phone or do I need to cancel my credit card and create a new apple account?

TLDR; Don't cancel your AppleID, Do suspend the card or ask anyone using it to replace it whether they are in a family group or not. Then sort out the family sharing group - any account can leave at any time on their own. Then make a new group with the new organizer. Repeat leaving and joining as needed

Since only the Organizer can disband the group, individuals may have to leave if the organizer is unavailable or unwilling to act. When this happens, only a temporary loss to updates of apps happens - no data is lost. Keep each account intact - no need to make new accounts unless someone is sharing an account and needs their own personal AppleID.

To switch the grouping - have the "soon to be new" organizer AppleID leave (voluntarily any account can leave or by having the organizer remove them). Then the new organizer makes a new family group as them as the new organizer.

At that point anyone is free to choose to stick with the old group or join the new group and when I say anyone - that's the action taken by each AppleID.

Billing needs to be sorted out on an account by account basis. Each AppleID has billing - and if you are not in control of that AppleID or can't wait for them - you have to cancel that card or suspend that card temporarily. This can happen no matter who is in the family group, or whether an account is an Organizer / Parent or member of the group.


Restoring Time Machine backup do a different user folder location I have a 27" iMac. Its original 1Tb drive failed a few days ago. I decided to replace it with a 2Tb drive and replace my CD/DVD drive with an SSD drive. The SSD drive is small - 128Gb. I intend to only have the OS and install apps there. All user data will be on 2Tb drive. Restoring all data on OS drive and moving it over is not an option - complete backup is 465Gb. Is there a way to force TM to restore my files where I want them?

Simply mount your time machine backups volume then navigate to /Backups.backupdb//Latest.  Under there is your latest backup.  You can then copy and paste the files manually wherever you want them.


Import iBooks folder? I was running iTunes 11 under Snow Leopard and syncing to an old iPad, the very first one.

Now, the latest iPad (pro) needs iTunes 11, which needed higher than Snow Leo, so I'm running it under Yosemite. All apps seem to have moved ok, but the iBooks were all left behind.

Is there a simple way to import the folder of iBooks to iTunes 12 to load to the iPad?

Since Mavericks, iBooks is the app that handles the books/PDFs, you can "add to library" the books right from the old iTunes folder, and then sync to your iPad.

It offers features to handle books that iTunes didn't, such as adding categories and organizing from the application on the Mac, instead of doing it from your iPad.


How do I get make, gcc, clang, Xcode? It has been almost a week as Apple has disabled downloads from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/ due to a security breach.

If you don't have App Store set up for whichever reason, how are you supposed to be using your brand new Mac for development?

Is there a copy of Xcode hidden somewhere within a brand new mid-2013 MacBook Air?

How do I get Xcode if I don't have an App Store account?  Nothing works without Xcode, I can't even use MacPorts to install the stuff I need, because it all depends on Xcode.

Use the OS X GCC Installer. Download it here, since you have a brand new Mac you'll want GCC-10.7-v2.pkg. This will get you GCC, LLVM, clang, the Developer CLI tools, and the DevSDK headers.


Is it possible to mirror my MacBookPro's screen to my iMac? Both are using the latest Mojave. And I'd like to have the iMac just as the display output of my MacBook Pro. Is that possible?

A very stupid solution is to use TeamViewer, however the display effect is quite bad.

Model of the Macs:

MacBook Pro 15-inch, 2016
iMac iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)

Unfortunately target display mode was removed starting with your iMac model.

You could use the built in screen sharing function if your computers are on the same network.

On MacBook
System preferences -> sharing -> check of “screen sharing”

On iMac
- Open finder
- Under network in your left sidebar, you should see your MacBook
- Click on this
- Just under the top menu bar you should see “share screen”
- Click this, and a prompt will ask you for a username and password
- Enter credentials for your MacBook use account
Viola! Latency should be pretty minimal for this, and you can even control your MacBook this way!


Best practises for battery/charging MBPr I have purchased my first macbook recently and would like to know what are the best practises for keeping the battery in good condition.

Apple provides a number of recommendations for MacBook batteries at their battery information page.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

There are a number of tips that Apple provides for maximising the lifespan of your battery on this page, summarised below.

Make sure you plug in your battery and let it charge fully for the first time.

  Be sure to fully charge your portable when you plug it in for the first time, and then run Software Update to ensure you have the latest software. Apple periodically releases updates that may improve battery performance.

If possible, don't leave your battery on charge all the time.

  For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time.

Charge/discharge at least once a month.

  Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month. Need a reminder? Add an event to your desktop’s iCal.

Don't store a flat battery for a long period of time.

  If you don’t plan on using your notebook for more than six months, Apple recommends that you store the battery with a 50% charge. If you store a battery when it’s fully discharged, it could fall into a deep discharge state, which renders it incapable of holding any charge.

Don't store a fully-charged battery for a long period of time.

  Conversely, if you store it fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may experience some loss of battery capacity, meaning it will have a shorter life.


Adobe Flash Player installation failed Background
When the Adobe Flash player update was auto-updated, I had to quit Safari and then continue the installation.
Accidentally, I started Safari again right during the installation procedure.
This resulted in a never-ending install that I had to force-quit.
So, I downloaded the Uninstall Flash Player software to completely remove flash from my system and then re-install it.
Problem
The (new) install failes with the folloing error report:

How can I install flash now? How can this error occur even though Flash was apparently completely removed from the system?

A restart fixed the problem. The installation worked without interruptions.


shortcut for starting and stopping youtube video on second screen on mac I often watch tutorial videos from youtube on my macbook.
So i want to watch the tutorial on my second display and work on my macbook.
Because i often have to start and continue the video i always have to move my cursor back to the other monitor and then tap on the small start button and move back to my macbook display.
i would love to have a shortcut e.g. option-s which starts/stops video or maybe two, one to start, one to stop.
is this possible?

YouTube videos are correctly detected as media in Safari, so the media keys will control playback. F8 (or fn-F8 if function keys are enabled) on Macs without Touch Bar or Play/Pause in the Touch Bar control strip will play/pause the YouTube video.


Can't get inheriting TM to work (Big Sur) I have a similar problem as described in
Inheriting Time Machine and merging old history
and after cross-checking the tmutil man page and other posts on the issue I am pretty sure that this solution should work for me as well.
My mount point on the old computer was 'Macintosh HD', the mount point on the new one is also 'Macintosh HD' but time machine created the new name 'Macintosh HD Data' for the snapshot volumes. Thus the old snapshots all have snapshot volumes 'Macintosh HD' and the new ones have snapshot volumes 'Macintosh HD Data' and an additional directory 'Macintosh HD' which has
the time stamp of the latest snapshop before changing to the new computer and is just carried forward from snapshot to snapshot.
I tried
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a "/Volumes/Macintosh HD" "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb/Christian Fischer’s iMac/Latest/Macintosh HD"

and variations like
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a "/Volumes/Macintosh\ HD" "/Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backup/Backups.backupdb/Christian\ Fischer’s\ iMac/Latest/Macintosh\ HD"

including pasting the paths from Finder - without success.
I keep getting the error message
Usage: tmutil associatedisk [-a] mount_point volume_backup_directory
A local volume mount point and a snapshot volume path are required.

Am I doing sth stupid ? Or did the syntax change (I am using Big Sur 11.01 and read elsewhere that there were some syntax changes in tmutil delete...) ?

I had the same issue.
Seems to me that the -a option of tmutils is broken in Big Sur (11.2.1).
However, instead of letting tmutils perform the association on all volume stores:
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a "/Volumes/Macintosh HD" "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb/Christian Fischer’s iMac/Latest/Macintosh HD"

you can do the association for each volume store yourself:
for f in "/Volumes/Time Machine Backup/Backups.backupdb/Christian Fischer’s iMac/"*; do if [[ -d "$f" ]]; then sudo tmutil associatedisk / "$f/Macintosh HD"; fi; done

This worked for me like a charm ;-)


Rebooting the MBP in recovery mode When I reboot with Control-R pressed as suggested by many, I see the spinning wheel for more than half hour and the laptop does not show the recovery options. I have Yosemite and want to go back to Mavericks for various reasons. Any suggestions.

I assume that was a typo.

It is not Control-r it is the command-r to get in to recovery mode.

In order to get back to Mavericks you will need the Mavericks Installer file on a USB stick.


10.11: Good Samaritan message not showing on Filevault2 unlock screen You can set up a lock Message under System Preferences => Security & Privacy => General => Set Lock Message.
This Message is stored in NVRAM. Under 10.9 Mavericks it was not only shown on Login/Fast User switch window but also on the FileVault2 Login Screen after a cold boot which makes a whole lot of sense. On 10.11 El Capitan this feature is gone. The Message is only shown on the normal Login/Fast User switch window after the machine has already been unlocked.
Is there a way to revert 10.9 behaviour?

I fixed it myself by updating my user picture under System Preferences => Users & Groups after setting the Lock Message. Now it appears again on FileVault2 Screen


AFP File Sharing not Working I am having trouble with AFP Sharing a backup drive from one computer to another. Yesterday it was working fine and today it's not. I don't think any settings have changed since yesterday. When I try to connect via AFP in the Finder, I get this message

  The server "192.168.1.6" may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again.

I have used ping on both computers to make sure the LAN is working, and it is. Any suggestions?

Disable IPv6 and WiFi.  Plug both in via Ethernet.  Verify your targets IP.  Turn AFP and all other sharing settings off on the target, and wait for it to disappear from the sidebar on the machine you're connecting from.  Then re-enable AFP sharing on the target, and see it come back on the source.

Ping the IP, or even the name (foo.local if the computer's name is foo).  Try connecting by clicking on it from the sidebar - failing that try using the Go menu (connect to server) and putting in a URL in the format afp://<name or IP here>.

Let us know how it goes.

EDIT: then, once that works properly, change one thing at a time.  Enable WiFi on one machine and remove the ethernet cable.  Then test.  Then do the same on the other machin, and test.  Then enable IPv6 on one.. test.  Then the other.  Etc, until you've worked your way back to how you want your machines to be set up.  This can also help us isolate where the problem is happening (if you re-enable WiFi and sharing stops working...)


User /System Permissions none.(Set to 000) A previously called friend of mine (As for now, after this he is no longer called that way) was messing up with my computer without my knowledge , and ultimately he set the System folder permissions to be 000 for all files in it.

Well, as I realized everything froze and as soon as I restarted the computer it won't go pass Apple screen, however I'm able to run gnome on it. Is there any way I could reset the permissions for that entire folder anyhow? Or if there is not, is there any way I could extract some files on the hard drive? I'm completely desperate.

Boot into single user mode (hold ⌘S on boot), then enter:

mount -uw /
chown root /
chmod 1775 /
exit

This will reset the permissions for the entire drive and all its contents allowing full read and write, and may take a long time — don't interrupt it. Once you are booted back in, go to Disk Utility and do a permissions repair to set the permissions correctly per OS X.


macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 - Missing Disk space three weeks ago I've installed macOS High Sierra on my MacBook Pro 13" (Early 2015).
I've an internal SSD with about 120 GB (Apple Logic) disk space. Before the update I had about 30 GB of space lost. But after the update it seems that some of the disk space is "lost" or got filled with some random crap.
This is a screenshot that shows the information about my Macintosh HD (the text is in german):

As you can see the overview tells me, that there are about 28.38 GB free space with the information, that 21.36 GB can be deleted.
So my first question is what can be deleted? After some googling I found out, that these are files that were not really needed because they can be downloaded or found somewhere in the cloud. But at the moment it's not clear to me which files are really meant.
I first recognized the problem when I wanted to download the latest version of Xcode and the AppStore.app told me that there is not enough disk space and I've to clean up my disk.
I've then also checked the complete usage of my disk:

As you also can see, the app shows me that the system requires about 88.14 GB disk space, which cuts me really off. For what is this disk space needed?
I've checked my personal data and as you can see I've only a few programs installed and the needed disk space of my personal data is also really low:

The most space is taken by all the developer tools. My personal data like images, etc. were stored on a SD card.
When I run df -h in iTerm2 it tells me that in fact only 6.4 GB are left on my disk and it also shows me that there are many TimeMachine backup snapshots left on my disk. Normally TimeMachine stores the backups on an external usb hard drive:

So my question is, how can I get my disk space back and why is the system using so much space?

I had a similar problem. I ran 'dd' to fill up the SSD and then deleted the files afterwards:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/zero.1.out bs=1048576 count=10240

I created a few of those (10GB each and some larger - 30 GB) until the SSD was nearly 100% full.

I then deleted the files with: rm /tmp/zero.*.out

Finally: df -h /
now reports the correct allocation with one oddity:
ifree read 9223372036854041010 which seems incorrect.

Disk Utility (First Aid) was not picking up any issue although the reported available space was clearly off by 50 GB (almost 50% of the entire capacity of my SSD partition).

Hope this helps.


Is this possible to improve boot time? Is there a way to accelerate the boot process? Can we disable some (rarely used or not useful) services?

I do not know of a way of shortening the actual boot time: from power on to login dialog window. You might however be able to shorten your login time by removing items from your login items list.

You can find the list of user login items here: System Preferences → Accounts →  → Login items.

Remove stuff that has been added there that you do not want. Use some common sense though. E.g. if you use a calendar app that notifies you of appointments, it might be a bad idea to remove the calendar helper app from your list of login items.


Create a table from other table depending on a value NUMBERS I have a table with a list of items, and I want to create a new table with all the values that contains a certain value.

In the first list, are all the profucts that I usually buy and a cell with "YES or NO"

In the second list I want to put only the items with a "YES" on the first table.

See image below.

Thanks for your time.

I don't know how to remove empty rows from the second table, but I can make only the ones with YES show up.

Making it happen

First, select the first cell of your second table ("carrot", the headers don't matter), and type this in it:

=if(

You'll see it transform into a function. Then click the YES/NO column of the same row to add it to the table. Click on the dropdown in the new addition to the formula box, and check "Preserve Column".

This will allow you to copy and paste over the entire row without worrying about the referenced column changing. Add = "YES" to the end. You should now have something like this:

IF(<Table 1::$B2> = "YES"

Next, add a comma, and click the corresponding cell in your first table:

IF(<Table 1::$B2> = "YES",<Table 1::A2>

Do not preserve the column on this one. You want it to show the corresponding cell in the table. Add ,""), like so:

IF(<Table 1::$B2> = "YES",<Table 1::A2>,"")

Hit the big green checkmark, and copy and paste the cell to fill the second table (or just as many items as you want to show), and you're done!

So what does all this gobbledygook mean?

The IF command has three parts:

IF(condition, if-true, if-false)

If the condition is true, it shows the if-true portion, otherwise it shows the if-false portion. So it shows the value of the other cell if the deciding cell is "YES", or blank ("") if not.


How should I prep a laptop for a return? I'm returning a Macbook Air I purchased last week at an Apple Store (not because I don't like it, I just need a bit more screen real estate) and I want to make sure I put it in an acceptable state. I'd like to remove all the data that I've put on it in the last week but I don't want to go overboard.

Should I format the drive and return it with no OS? Format and reinstall the OS? Leave it as-is and trust Apple refurb to not look at my data?

If you're pressed for time, and since you mentioned the Macbook Air was new and purchased last week, it probably was installed with OS X Lion which has full-disk encryption. If this assumption is true, then

Back up your data. I'd recommend using Time Machine (so you don't
have to re-setup your user id, install apps, etc).
create another "throwaway" admin id, and log in to your "throwaway"
admin id
and delete yourself from the Mac using System Preferences -> Users & Groups preference pane.


Can the haptic feedback level be lowered on the ForceTouch trackpad for MacBook Pro? The haptic feedback on the Force Touch Trackpad is too loud/clicky for my preferences. I run macOS 10.12.3 (16D32) on the 15 inch TouchBar model MacBook Pro if that matters - but this persists to the 2018 hardware and macOS 10.14.4 well into the last few versions of Mojave.

If I disable force click, that turns off the haptic feedback entirely. I also have reduced it to the minimum force which helps, but is still too loud.

That's not what I'd like, though - I want force click enabled with a significantly reduced haptic force click sound.

Is there a setting to change this whether it's a hidden preference or adjustment or if it's something in the system preferences?

According to Apple's support docs and as also noted by several reviews, the late 2016 MacBook Pro does not have the "Silent Clicking" option offered on the 12" MacBook and the Magic Trackpad 2.

(As an aside to ward off disappointment, Silent Clicking is not completely silent anyway: the actuators still trigger to generate the haptic effect and thus a small amount of attendant noise.)


Keychain trouble after changing password I have recently migrated from a time machine backup of my previous mac. I have three different accounts on both my macs and two of these seem to work well. However, when I log in to the third account, I have some problems, especially on the new mac.

I have changed the password for all three users using the dialogue in system preferences.

Every time I log in, I see a screen that asks me to change my keychain password, or create a new keychain. When I choose to change my password, no input seems to be valid. When I create a new keychain, that does not seem to help either.

After choosing either continue logging in or choosing to create a new keychain, my mac will then ask me to log in with my apple id, which I can also decline.

If I continue past the apple id dialogue, my mac tells me: "Setting Up Your Mac..." which is pretty scary, considering it is already "Set up". Fortunately so far it has not wiped my HD.

It then logs me in into my user account and most of the time I get a lot of messages telling me that this and that process wants to access my login keychain.

I have tried deleting my keychain folder located at ~/Library/Keychains, as well as changing my password for the different keychains and checking the synchronise my keychain my user account checkbox under the preferences of the keychain utility. I have also tried to use the "Reset My Default Keychain" button. Two of these strategies are listed here. Unfortunately none of these seem to work.

Sometimes when I try to change the keychain password I find that I have to use my old password, sometimes the new one, and sometimes no input appears to get accepted (the last case happens when I try to change it from the dialogue that pops up when I try to log in).

On my previous mac I was also experiencing problems with this account. In particular it seems that any system preferences that I modified for would only last for one session, and would be forgotten when restarting my mac. One example is the hiding of the dock and also on my new mac osx forgets that I want to hide the dock.

Question: Does anybody know what is causing all this?

Strongly related: How do I delete or fix my Keychain after changing my password?

There might be a problem with the users home folder permissions.

Repairing Disk Permissions in Disk Utility, will only affect things outside your Home folder, though.

There is a home folder reset routine if you boot into Recovery (cmd+r).

Once booted, Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.

Type resetpassword and hit return. (no worry you will NOT be resetting the password)

Select your hard disk, then the user.

Click the Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs button.

Quit the utility and restart.


Exporting MobileMe Contacts into Outlook I've just been through a bit of wringer with this! :-)

I have a client with a MobileMe account and about 350+ contacts in there. He asked me to see if there was "an easy way" to copy the contacts from MobileMe into Outlook 2011 (Mac).

My background is primarily Windows-centric so I researched possibilities this way.

The first thing I did was export all the contacts from me.com into a multi-vcard file. I found out quickly that Outlook doesn't support importing multi-vcard formatted files. I found applications that would do it, but I preferred to stay away from buying something if possible.

So, I happened upon an Apple KB article about syncing with Outlook. It looked dead-on-simple. Turn on the option and away one goes. I did this on a Windows machine with Outlook 2010 x64.

Welll, it didn't turn out to be that simple.

What ultimately happened is that any MobileMe contact information that didn't conform neatly to Outlook's built-in fields was simply lost. This was a bit of a disaster since that malformed data then neatly (and succinctly) synced BACK INTO MOBILEME and spread it's erased mischievousness across the client's iPhone and three other Macs.

I had made a backup, so I've just finished restoring the original exported data. It's not perfect. Group memberships and contact photos were lost, but the client is not worried about those things.

So, I'm doing now what I, perhaps, should have asked in the first place. Can I accomplish the original goal?

I am loathe to reconnect MobileMe and Outlook through any sort of sync partnership. I have the original exported vCard but I still have the issue of fields within the vCards that do not conform to Outlook fields.

Has anyone else successfully done this? Any tips?

Cheers,

M

Do you have access to an Exchange server?  Is your Client using Outlook 2011 for Mac in an Exchange Environment?

If so, it is super simple to get your data into Outlook.

Connect the Mac to Exchange (Address Book settings)
Move all address book cards from "On My Mac" to the Exchange Account
Open Outlook and...   Bang! there they all are.

Well... the "bang!" was a little dramatic... really you will need to wait a bit while the address sync over..

I have done it a million times.


Taking a screenshot of a tooltip I am attempting to take a screenshot of a tooltip that appears when a user hovers over it, and immediately disappears upon any key press or cursor movement.  Unfortunately, this means the typical shortcut I use for screenshots (⌘+SHIFT+4) causes the element to disappear.

Is there any way I can capture this tooltip, preferably without installing any third party software?

You can do this using the screencapture CLI:

screencapture -T 5 -C ~/Desktop/screencapture.png

Define a delay using -T <seconds>. Use -C to capture the cursor too.

Add -i to capture interactively. This uses the normal capture region selection available from ⌘⇧4, however you can combine this with -T to add a delay so that it captures the tooltip in the region.


Setting up Family Sharing/Apple ID without using school email I am trying to set up Find My iPhone on an Apple 5s for my 16 year old son.  However, he does not want his email address used for the Apple ID because it is connected to his school.  Would there be any drawback to setting him up as an "under 13" child so he doesn't have to use his school email?

Why would you do this? When creating an Apple ID you are also creating an iCloud account. Just use the iCloud email generated as part of the process, or create a new email address for this purpose using any other free email service of your choice such as Gmail. (If you state he is underage, Apple will force you to use the iCloud email and will not allow you to use a non-Apple email for the account.)


How can associate particular contacts with appropriate 'from' addresses in Mac Mail? For the most part, there is a one-to-one relationship between any given contact and the email address I select as a 'from' address.

Is there a way to configure Mac Mail to change the value of the 'from' field according to whom I am sending mail?

OS X 10.10

You can't do it by addressee.
By default it will reply from the email address you were sent the email to.
Otherwise, you could try
Prefs > Composing > Send new messages from...  Account of selected mailbox,
for an on-the-fly solution.


How to prevent process / daemon from running on macOS? I installed an app called "ShadowsocksX-NG" and then whenever I restart my computer, /Users/admin/Library/Application Support/ShadowsocksX-NG/ss-local -c ss-local-config.json will be running in the background. This is undesirable. Obviously this process is not in my Login Items. Where and how does macOS handle daemons?

First, Shadowsocks has an active GitHub site where you can ask this question directly to the people working on the project. They're likely to know a lot more about it than anyone here.

That being said, Shadowsocks (from our discussion, above) creates these launchd plist files programmatically, so there is no easy way — short of going to GitHub and becoming a project contributor — to stop it from doing so. I assume you want ss-local to be running while Shadowsocks is running, you just don't want it to be running the rest of the time. You can do this manually through terminal using the launchctl utility. First you need to get the Label of the launchd job, so open the plist files that Shadowsocks creates in a text editor and look for something like this:

<key>Label</key>
<string>com.Shadowsocks.something.whatever</string>

The bit between the <string> tags is the launchd job label, so if you run the following command in terminal (once for each plist file):

launchctl remove com.Shadowsocks.something.whatever

It will remove the job from launchd, which shuts down whatever processes those jobs are running. I assume that Shadowsocks will restart the jobs when you launch it again, but if not, you can do that manually as well, using:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/<filename>.plist

You could script this in a couple of different ways, I think, but I don't know what scripting languages you're familiar with (if any), and it would be better to go to GitHub and ask for a developer solution regardless.

EDIT:

Per comments... OSX used to have to have a system for creating logout hooks through the Window Server, but that was deprecated back in 10.4, and I don't know if it still works. So instead, I'm going to tell you how to create a background script app that should do what you want.

Here's the script, follow the instructions below:

(*
  add the job labels for the plist files Shadowsocks creates to the following
  list. This assumes that they follow the normal convention where the file name
  is the job label with '.plist' attached. If not you may need to adjust things
  in the cleanUp() handler
*)
property labelList : {"joblabel1", "joblabel2"}
global isDirty

on run
    set isDirty to false
end run

on reopen
    display alert "Do you want to quit?" buttons {"Yes", "No"}
    if button returned of the result is "Yes" then quit
end reopen

on idle
    tell application "System Events"
        -- I'm guessing this is the process name as it appears in system events.
        -- You should double check
        if exists process "Shadowsocks-NG" then
            -- if SS is running, mark the condition as dirty
            set isDirty to true
        else
            -- if SS is not running, and isDirty is set, clean up
            if isDirty is true then
                my cleanUp()
                set isDirty to false
            end if
        end if
    end tell

    -- have the idle loop run every 15 minutes.
    return 15*minutes
end idle

on quit
    (*
      when this app quits (which it should only do at logout, unless you quit it
      manually), clean up
    *)

    if isDirty is true then
        my cleanUp()
    end if
    continue quit
end quit

on cleanUp()
    -- remove launchd jobs, if loaded
    repeat with this_label in labelList
        try
            do shell script "launchctl remove " & this_label
        end try
    end repeat
    -- delete launch agent plist files
    tell application "System Events"
        set launchagents_folder_path to folder "LaunchAgents" of library folder of user domain
        try
            repeat with this_label in labelList
                delete (first file of launchagents_folder_path whose name is this_label & ".plist")
            end repeat
        end try
    end tell
end cleanUp

Copy script into a Script Editor window, making the appropriate adjustments as noted in comments:
Choose 'Save' from the file menu
Change the 'File Format' pulldown to 'Application'
Click the check box that says 'Stay open after run handler'
Save it under whatever name you like, wherever is convenient
Go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Accessibility and add this app to the list of apps allowed to control your computer using accessibility.
Open System Preferences and add this to your list of Login Items so it runs automatically.

Assuming that you have the launchd job names and the process name of Shadowsocks correct, this applet will sit and watch for Shadowsocks to quit, and whenever Shadowsocks quits, this app will remove the launchd jobs (shutting down the processes they are running) and delete the launch agent plist files. It will do the same thing when it quits, at logout, restart, or shutdown.

I've set the idle time to 15 minutes, which seems reasonable (on average, ss-local will only run for 7.5 minutes after you quit Shadowsocks)

Once you're sure it works the way you want, you can turn it into a proper background app. Quit the app and open its info.plist file - right-click on the app and choose "Show Package Contents"; info.plist will be down in the 'contents' folder — and add in the following key-value pair (being careful not to mess up the other key-value pairs):

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<true/>

This keeps the app from becoming visible (no dock icon, and it never becomes frontmost or takes over the menu). It can still display alerts (useful for error debugging) but that's it. You can quit it manually by double-clicking on the icon again; that's what the reopen handler is for.


panorama photos on iPhone 6 are too narrow I'm trying to take panorama photos with the camera of the iPhone 6s and the resulting files are shorter than what I am seeing when I capture.

The photo I've attached (scaled down because upload-limit) should have an angle of estimated 160 degrees instead of maybe 110 degrees. Basically, the image saved is shorter than the preview indicates on the phone.

But when I open the image in the Mac photo-app it shows only the first part. So to say: The beginning of the desired panorama. The rest (further to the left of what is shown) is somehow gone.

I'm doing it exactly the way it is explained in several youtube-videos: Keeping the arrow as exact as possible over the line while turning the device.

Am I doing something wrong or what troubleshooting approaches work to get a wider panorama photo?

What I have figured out myself by trying:

Hold the iPhone vertical (Portrait mode).
Start the picture-taking by pressing the software button.
Turn the phone in the direction in which the arrow points.
Move the phone rather slow but steadily.

Keep the tip of the arrow as close on the line as possible.

You are shown some kind of thumbnail image. That is the panorama view which you got already recorded. If the whole thing works you can see how the panorama view grows.

By the way:
You can change the direction of the arrow before you start the picture-taking by tipping on the arrow.

Finalise the picture-taking by pressing the software button again.


Turn off automatic download of attachments on iOS Mail I have "Load Remote Images" turned off on my phone and "Load remote content in messages" turned off on my mac.

I got a suspicious message on my phone, but wanted to check it out because not many make it through my filter these days. I noticed that there was a .pdf attachment and that it was immediately downloaded (not ideal). The message was sent to a gmail account I was accessing through IMAP.

Then when I went to my mac to mark the message as junk (I can't remember why I didn't mark it on my phone) the .pdf showed up inline and it was definitely spam. At this point I was irritated and then remembered that my phone had downloaded the .pdf when I opened the message before.*

What setting keeps my phone from downloading attachments automatically? I know it would be better to not open messages that might be spam, but sometimes I can't tell from just the subject.

*I'm assuming because it was downloaded on my phone, the mac Mail decided it was ok to download, or possibly accessed a version that the phone downloaded. Otherwise I need to ask a separate question about how to keep macOS Mail from downloading attachments.

Currently there isn't  such a setting on iOS Mail app (as of iOS 12.0.1, Oct 2018).

A workaround that may help with detecting some unfiltered spam messages would be trying to preview the message before opening it. It could help increasing the preview size: go to Settings > Mail > Preview and increase it to 5 lines.

* image from https://www.imore.com/how-to-manage-mail-settings-iphone-ipad


How to make MacBook require password after closing lid but NOT after sleep/screensaver? For both battery-life and environmental reasons, I prefer my MacBook (Sierra) to enter sleep mode fairly quickly if I'm not using it. For security reasons, I would like for it always to require a password when it's opened. But it seems like the only way to make it lock when closed is to make require a password every time it goes into sleep mode.

Meanwhile (also for security purposes), I have a pretty long/random password -- one I don't want to have to enter every time I leave my computer for five minutes.  Surely I don't have to choose between security and battery life?

It seems like both would be pretty standard concerns for Mac users.  All I want is for my machine not to require a password when it wakes up, and to require one whenever it's reopened.

Is there a way to achieve what I want?

You'll need to run a command that locks the Mac when the lid is closed that means when Mac goes to sleep, the command that needs to execute every time the Mac goes to sleep is:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

To run a command when the Mac goes to sleep you can use Sleepwatcher you have at least two options to install it:

Downloading the files from the URL above and follow the instructions on ReadMe.rtf
Installing a package manager like brew and after install it running brew install sleepwatcher, if you are familiar with some linux flavor then this is like the package manager apt-get for Ubuntu or dnf for Fedora and so on.

After installing sleepwatcheryou'll need to decide if you want to run it like a daemon or by command line:

Running by command line:

/usr/local/opt/sleepwatcher/sbin/sleepwatcher -s "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend" &

Maybe you'll need to change the path to sleepwatcher

Parameter -s, taken from man page:

  Execute sleepcommand when the Mac is put to sleep mode.  sleepcommand
  must not take longer than 15 seconds because after this timeout the sleep mode is forced by the system.

The command needs to be between quotation marks

With this option you'll need to run sleepwatcher manually on every logoff, restart or shutdown.
If you decide to run sleepwatcher as a daemon, then you'll need to create or modify (in case you download the program from the web) a plist file that works as a configuration file to start a daemon, the plist file that I modify looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/opt/sleepwatcher/sbin/sleepwatcher</string>
        <string>-V</string>
        <string>-s /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

To start the sleepwatcher as a daemon you'll need to run the following command:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher-ybr-localuser.plist

You'll need to change the path to the plist file, the location of this file should be at:

/Library/LaunchDaemons

or

~/Library/LaunchAgents

The first path is to run sleepwatcher for all users, the second path is to run per user.

With this option sleepwatcher starts and stops automatically on every logoff, restart or shutdown.


"No administrator was found" in Startup Security Utility My friend got a new MacBook Pro from office, later on he resigned and in a hurry erased the "Macintosh HD", now we are trying to install Mojave using Bootable USB but it won't allow because "External Boot" is not allowed, also when we try to access "Startup Security Utility" it shows an error saying no administrator was found, so we can't enable "Allow booting from external media". Somehow online installation from recovery mode is also not working and throws 202 error at the end.
Is there any luck?

I had a similar issue with my 2018 Mini: I had to delete the .AppleSetupDone file and run the "Welcome to Mac" routine, creating a new admin user there before I could alter SecureBoot, even though the disk had been imaged with an admin user.

Peter Thorn's answer here gets to the exact cause of the problem and provides the solution for a working Mac that has MacOS installed.

If you don't have MacOs installed, you could try booting it in Target Mode from another Mac, which I understand bypasses the Secure Boot! (Though if the drive is encrypted, you'll need the password, unless you're wiping it anyway.)

Alternatively, take it to an Apple Store. The SecureBoot settings can't be changed unless there is a valid admin user, so you can't boot to an external. Recovery is another option, but you say that's not working.

PS. I'd love to work somewhere where you get to keep your laptop when you resign!


Some information about an extra SSD drive in MacBook Pro I have a MacBook Pro (6,2; mid 2010; 4GB DDR3, 2,66 i7) And for a while now, I've been thinking about building in a SSD in my Mac.

My first plan was to switch my 512GB drive with a 512GB SSD, but the prices of those things made me think again.
Then I learned about OptiBay, a company which allows you to switch your optical drive with a secondary hard drive.
So I came up with the plan to switch my drive with a 128GB SSD where I'll install Mountain Lion on and by so keeping my 512GB drive for all the data.

But the world of SSD is fairly new to me. So I've got some questions for those who are more familiar with this topic.

Which method would you use to switch the drive with the SSD? (OptiBay,...)
I heard some rumors about the performance of the SSD, something about limited times you could read/write the drive. Are those rumors true?
Is there a way to recover my optical drive and use it as an external drive (I think OptiBay offers such a way)
When will I gain the most performance gain? Installing only my OS on my SSD or when I install all my extra software on the SSD as well? Or which combination will give me the most performance gain?

Crucial. They've got a 4.5-star average review out of 810 reviews on Amazon. Further, their 128GB model only sets you back $104.97.
OptiBay is the only option I've heard of for this type of modification, and I have yet to read anything negative about it.
I've never heard any such rumor, and I've actually gone and installed the 256GB variant of that same Crucial drive I linked in my own 2011 17" MacBook Pro with nothing but outstanding results.
This post at MacRumors would go along with your idea to use an enclosure from OptiBay:

  First, I ordered a kit from Optibay, you can google their site. The
  base kit comes with the "frame" for the SSD to fit into your Macbook
  Pro, as well as a USB enclosure for a slot load SuperDrive. The cost
  of the kit is $99, a bit pricey, but it was well worth it and came
  with the enclosure.

5.As far as performance is concerned, you're gonna find the most bang for your buck by installing the operating system on the SSD for sure, as well as any apps that you find yourself using most often.


Copy to same drive or separate drive? Is there a benefit to copying (with Carbon Copy Cloner) large amounts of data (400 GB) from one physical drive to another (both WD My Passport external USB 3.0 HDD), rather than to a separate partition / volume on the source drive?

I imagine that using the same drive might be slower, since it must do both read and write. While with separate drives, each drive does only read or only write, so maybe it's faster.

Copying data to a different drive negates the risk of losing all your data due to physical failure of your primary drive (as would be the case if you merely partitioned it and used the other partition as a backup).

Since that’s the principle cause of data loss (way easier to repair a corrupted partition scheme than a broken HDD/SSD), it makes sense that copying data to a different physical device is the most effective method of backing up — it’s the only one in which true redundancy exists.


Trusted apps from the App Store Im curious why Apple support recommended that I download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, an app that is not available for download from the App Store. That seems strange to me. Why is that app not on the App Store?

Unlike the iOS App Store, the Mac App Store isn't the single repository for all apps you can install on the platform (excluding jailbreak). Developers are in no way obligated to make their apps available via the Mac App Store; in fact most choose not to.

As to why, that discussion is probably off-topic on this site. However there are many technical restrictions placed upon App Store apps that are generally incompatible with the way an antivirus-type application (eg. Malwarebytes) needs to operate.

This is why Apple Support would routinely point you to an app that is not available on the Mac App Store.


Is it possible to remove Emergency call feature on the lock screen? Is it possible to remove this feature? It's really annoying when you miss-click on it. Since my iPhone lags a lot this happens too often.

iOS version: 4.2.1
iPhone: 3G

Unfortunately there is no way to do this in native iOS (without a jailbreak).

The emergency call option is available with both the simple and complex passcode.

I assume the goal is that it would allow anyone to make an emergency call even if they don't know or forgot the passcode, and as a result could be an important safety feature.

The only way to disable it is to turn off the passcode - something with obvious undesirable effects.


How to Uninstall non-drag-and-drop Program? I dragged a software (Abbyy Finereader 8 - old version) to external disc and noticed that it does not work there.
I dragged it back and noticed it does not work there because of some internal problems, probably in registers.

I removed the drag-and-drop Abbyy Finereader 8 and installed it again.
The same problem persists.

How can you clean the registers and other materials related to the installation?
I want to install the app then afterwards again.
The installation package does not have any app to fix the application.

When you install application software on any operating system it doesn't store anything permanently in processor (also known as CPU) registers. On Windows operating systems, application software does typically store information permanently in the Registry. OS X does not have a Registry, however applications may store similar information in PLIST files in the /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences folder.

Typically if you want to remove every trace of an application, you need to check the following folders as well as removing the application bundle itself.

 /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences
 /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Application Support/APPLICATION OR COMPANY NAME
 /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Caches/APPLICATION OR COMPANY NAME
 /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Documents/APPLICATION OR COMPANY NAME

Rarely software may also store files in the following extra folders. Be VERY CAREFUL making any changes within these folders. Make a bad decision and your Mac might not boot anymore.

 /Library/Application Support/APPLICATION OR COMPANY NAME
 /Library/Caches/APPLICATION OR COMPANY NAME
 /Library/Extensions
 /Library/LaunchAgents
 /Library/LaunchDaemons

As you can see it can be quite a lot of effort, which is why unless you are confident in what you are doing it is probably a good idea to use something like AppCleaner as recommended by Kevin in the previous answer.


LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error 10810 in iTerm2 running tmux on Yosemite [~%]open ~/Pictures/upload.png
LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -10810 for the file /Users/bryanhunt/Pictures/upload.png.

Before this update I used to be able to open images, PDFs, etc. from the command line.

Now I have to open the directory, and click on the file to open it, which is a waste of my finger strength.

Anyone know how to make it work again?

The fix.

Install homebrew.

Install reattach-to-user-namespace:

 brew install reattach-to-user-namespace

Then create an alias which your shell can use:

 alias open='reattach-to-user-namespace open'


Need to Switch from Mac Thunderbird to Apple Mail. But First I want to backup Mac Thunderbird. How Can I Do It? I recently switched to a new company. As I am the sales head, I receive a lot of emails to look at daily. Earlier I was using Mac Thunderbird as my daily email client but now here it is mandatory to use Apple Mail. So I need to switch from Mac Thunderbird to Apple Mail. The only thing that I require is to backup all my emails before I make the switch so that I don't loose any while migration. I am looking for a quick backup solution that won't take long to do the backup procedure.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Have you tried Time Machine to Backup your emails?

A more elaborate procedure is explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2YaBCXpaM

You can also opt for third party applications: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Mail-Backup-X.shtml

I hope this helps. Thanks


What does the Thunderbolt Display offer besides a display? Is the Apple Thunderbolt Display just a display, or something more?

The thing that confuses me is that they say it has a Thunderbolt cable and it helps data transfer between your Mac and Display to be much faster. What data transfer? Isn't it just a display mirroring whatever is already showing on the MacBook display?

Does it have a hard drive or something?

The thunderbolt display actually has a number of additional peripherals in it:

Gigabit-Ethernet Network interface card.
Firewire 800 interface
4 USB ports on a PCIe-USB adapter
Webcam ("Facetime") camera (connected internally via USB to the USB-PCIe adapter)
Speakers and a microphone (ditto)
It also has a laptop charger (magjack) for convenience.

This is accomplished via the fact that thunderbolt can carry PCIe signals in addition to the normal display image, so the peripherals in the display act like they're built into the laptop.

  Thunderbolt combines PCI Express (PCIe) and DisplayPort (DP) into a serial data interface that can be carried over a single cable. Thunderbolt controller chips multiplex data lanes from these two sources for transmission via a duplex Thunderbolt lane then de-multiplex them for consumption from receiver chips.

There is actually the potential to even have an entire GPU in the external display, though no current devices implement the option.


iPhone 4 no longer detects SIM card, how can I fix it? Since 3 months I do have an iPhone 4, 3 weeks ago i started to get no SIM card installed error increasingly more frequent. Right now the phone is unusable. I went to a sales office of my mobile supplier, they tried a different sim card. But this did not solve the issue unfortunately.

They want it now for reparation, which means i loose my iphone for 2 or 3 weeks. Are there any other possibilities, on the internet I read a few sites which speak about sticky tape or applying some glue to the simcard slider. But I don't want to run the risk of losing my warranty and ruining the iphone's interior.

I have the feeling that the problem is only at the slider, so I'm a kind of dissatisfied with the iphone being taken in 2 weeks for service.
Are there any other options?

Take it to the Apple store if there is one near you. Usually they will switch out the phone if still under warranty.


Can I specify WiFi network AP to connect to using MAC address? I would like to connect to a specific AP in a mesh network of 12 APs.  My Mac automatically connects to the AP with the highest signal strength, but this unit is misconfigured and can't connect to the internet.

Since every AP node in the mesh uses the same BSSID, I can only tell them apart by their hardware MAC address.

Is there a way to tell MacOS to connect to WiFi by MAC instead of by BSSID?

I've looked at the "networksetup" command and don't see how to do it.

Thanks!

Open up the Terminal application, and try the following:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport --associate=XXX --bssid=YYY

Where XXX is the SSID/network name and YYY the MAC address of the access point you want to connect to.


How to open a .lwp file on a Mac? I need to fill in a form that was sent to me in .lwp format... So far:

The App Store couldn't find any compatible apps;
I found out it's a Lotus WordPro document;
By using Word's Recover text from any file, the content is all messed up;
I don't have access to a PC to use WordPort nor Kvlotus.exe;
I read the solution is to install IBM Lotus Symphony...

...but before I download a 250MB+ package and install it for a one time thing, did anyone here face the same problem just to come to a more elegant solution to convert this file to a more useful format?

Later edit: installing Symphony doesn't support it either:

So my question remains: how do you use a .lwp file on a Mac?

I used www.fileminx.com to convert my LWP file into MSWord.


Stop information syncing between iPad and iPhone How do I stop my iPhone and iPad from syncing? They currently sync website history, texts, and calls. My iPhone is company owned and iPad is personal.

Apparently, you have signed into iCloud on both your devices using the same Apple ID. Devices setup with the same Apple ID sync a lot of user data between them for built-in apps by default.

If you concerned about keeping company and personal data segregated, it is recommended to use different Apple ID for your iPad and iPhone (personal Apple ID for iPad and a separate one for iPhone).

Alternatively, if you have reasons to use the same Apple ID, you can selectively choose which data to sync. On your iPad/iPhone, go to Settings app → Tap on your name and picture shown on the top (Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store) → iCloud and under Apps Using iCloud section, turn-off the switch in front of all the apps for which you do not wish to sync data.

Specifically, to disable syncing website history, turn-off iCloud for Safari (it will also stop syncing bookmarks and open tabs from one device to the other), for text messages, turn off iCloud for Messages. If the SMS from your iPhone are also showing up on your iPad, you will additionally need to disable Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone. For that, go to Settings app → Messages → Text Message Forwarding and turn off the switch shown in front of your iPad.


How can I position windows with the maximize button? I was watching this video when the instructor was able to position a window by using the maximize button and clicking on one of four positioning options, as seen in the image below.

This was also not specific to the program, as it was done in different windows for different applications.

Is this a native OS X feature? If so, which settings were enabled? If not, are there known applications allowing for this feature?

This looks like Moom which Is available from the App Store

http://manytricks.com/moom/


if application "Safari" visible is false then (AppleScript) I would like to check if Safari is visible, my AppleScript code was this, but it doesn't work ... How can I check the visible with AppleScript?

if application "Safari" visible is false then
    tell application "Safari"
        activate
    end tell
end if

Try this,,,

tell application "System Events"
    if visible of process "Safari" is false then
        tell application "Safari" to activate
    end if
end tell

That will only work if it's running, but hidden, btw. If you simply want the script to 'fetch' Safari, just activate it without any check


How to import data into numbers properly So I have a file with data, see link below:

http://www.epsilon-uitgaven.nl/bijlagen/E76/E76-tweelingdata.txt

I'm trying to import this into numbers, but what I get is the following:

Instead of having separate columns for 1, 167, 2, and 4 (this is the first cell), I just have one column for the entire data. I would like to separate this and have 5 separate columns, but I have no idea how.

Could someone help me out?

The datum need to be separated by commas, like so:

fam, lengte, gender, twin

1, 167, 2, 4

1, 167, 2, 4


Will Find my iPhone app still run when my iPhone restarts? Will the Find my iPhone app stop when my iPhone 5s restarts?

Since Find my iPhone is a service rather than an app, it is retained when the device is restarted, and your device will still be available for accessing through Find my iPhone providing there is still an internet connection.


"A Bluetooth audio error occurred" I'm getting this popping up on my Mac multiple times a day:

I have an Apple keyboard attached via Bluetooth, and nothing else. It doesn't say anything else is connected either, just this alert pops up every so often.

Disable external requests by checking the Reject incoming Audio requests!

Also check your BT settings to make sure you do not have Audio devices set up.

It is possible you get the error from there.


Need help figuring out how to save 1500 pictures between 2 iPhones and and iPad while traveling I need help.  I have been traveling for 5 months and have 2 iPhones with me as well as my iPad.  One of my iPhones is a 4, this is my work phone.  I have approximately 1500 pictures on this phone that I would like to be able to save before I turn my phone back into my company. (it will then be reset to factory settings). So far I have not been able to figure out how to successfully place my pictures in the iCloud so that I can access them from my personal iPhone 5 or my iPad.  I am in a very remote area and do not have a desktop or another computer with me.  Also, the wifi is often patchy.
Do I create a photo stream on the work phone?  Do I need to email myself each and every picture?
I have about a month and 1/2 more of this trip and my work phone is telling me that I am out of storage and unable to take anymore pictures.
Help..if you can.
thanks
A

For part of your solution you could try Dropbox to upload the files for later retrieval.

Download the app on you iPhone 4 and setup an account.

To upload your images follow the instructions here (with visual aids). Which are:

First navigate to the location within your Dropbox where you'd like
to put the photos. Then do the following:
Tap the ellipsis (...) icon at the top right of the screen to get a
drop-down menu.
Tap Upload (+) from the menu.

(Optional: To put the photos in a new folder, tap Create Folder from the menu first before uploading.)

Tap the ellipsis icon to get a drop-down menu.
Select the album you'd like to upload photos from.
Select the photos and videos you want to upload.
Tap the Upload button at the top of the screen.

You could install the dropbox app on your personal iPhone login and the download the images from dropbox. But oddly dropbox do not do a multiple download to the iPhone photo library only single. ( pain)

It is possible to use third party app and logging into your dropbox account through it would allow you to do multiple downloads

Also dropbox have a new auto upload which may help you when you take new photos.

  The Dropbox mobile app gives you different ways to upload files from
  your phone or tablet to your Dropbox account. Once files are uploaded,
  they will sync with Dropbox on your computer and all your other
  devices.

  Upload photos and videos automatically

  Dropbox can automatically upload photos and videos taken from your
  iPhone. This feature is called Camera Upload, and you can turn it on
  when you first install the app or by going to the app's settings. You
  can also choose whether to allow uploading when your device is
  connected to a cellular network.

Keep in mind you get about 2GB+  free.

1500 images may that up most of that space. You can see how much by looking at the usage settings on iPhone ( amount will include video sizes)


Is it possible to make the pointer "stick" to one display when using multiple displays? I use multiple displays, and often find the mouse pointer moving to the other display when going to the scroll bar or pressing the close button on an application, for example.

Is it possible to make the mouse "stick" to one display? To see what I mean, you could try to slowly drag a window to a side of your display. It will stop when the edge of the window touches the edge of the display for a little while, unless you push it further. I essentially want this behavior for my mouse pointer.

I found something similar to this for Windows, but unfortunately that's for Windows, not macOS where I need it!

Try EdgeCase for US$14.99 from the MAS.  It has 4.5/5.0 stars with 53 reviews.  It should 'lock' your mouse to 1 display.  It might not be an exact duplicate of the one you found for Windows, though.
The application description states:

The app prevents you from ever accidentally losing your cursor into a rarely-used secondary display, or from overshooting as you flick to an OS X hotcorner or the menu bar.  EdgeCase prevents your mouse from moving between multiple monitors by putting a temporary barrier between the edges of your screens.
When you do want to switch to another screen, EdgeCase provides several shortcuts that allow you to cross screen edges manually. Simply perform a 'bounce' gesture, wait for ½ second, or hold a hotkey. Your cursor will then move into the next screen freely.


Share folder in VirtualBox Host=Mac OS, Guest=Debian how can I share a folder in VirtualBox between my host-OS Mac OS and my installed guest-OS Debian 6? I installed the guest additions and created a shared folder, but I cannot find it

Not sure about Debian but in Ubuntu I had to do the following after setting it up in the VB GUI:

mkdir /home/username/OSX # one time
sudo mount -t vboxsf OSX /home/username/OSX # each time


Can you listen to music using AirPods without an Internet connection? I hate smartphones, don't own one, but have a 6th gen iPod touch with iOS 12.
I want to listen to music with it using AirPods without an Internet connection using the Bluetooth connection. I want to double check that this is possible.

You don't need an Internet connection at all.
Per the Technical specifications under System Requirements:

iPhone and iPod touch models with the latest version of iOS
iPad models with the latest version of iPadOS
Apple Watch models with the latest version of watchOS
Mac models with the latest version of macOS
Apple TV models with the latest version of tvOS

It makes no mention of an "active Internet connection."  You can play stored music without one and I've controlled Siri on many occasions when my ISP has had an outage.  She obviously can't do lookups, but will respond to local commands.


How to mount a specific file system on a disk image in OSX? I have a disk image file containing multiple file systems, such as HFS (Journaled) in addition to Joliet or UDF.  I want to mount whatever non-HFS file system is there.  First, I attach the image without mounting:

$ hdiutil attach -nomount path/to/image.iso
/dev/disk3             Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1           Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk3s2           Apple_HFS

Then, the man page for mount seems to say that I can mount non-HFS file systems like this:

$ mount -a -t nohfs /dev/disk3s2 /tmp

But the response is

mount: exec /System/Library/Filesystems/nohfs.fs/Contents/Resources/mount_nohfs for /private/tmp: No such file or directory

which sounds like it just doesn't understand the documented "no" prefix for filesystem types that you don't want to mount.  Is there any way to make this work, or must I know what specific file system I want to mount?
(This motivation for this question involved building CDs for software distribution.  That might not be of interest here.  But people on StackOverflow suggested that there might be more expertise on the mount command on this site.)

You should parse the output of hdiutil, and mount the filesystems you're interested in - because you can't do what you're trying to do with mount.

The first few lines of the man page show supported syntax:

 mount [-adfruvw] [-t lfs | external_type]
 mount [-dfruvw] special | node
 mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t lfs | external_type] special node

Notice for -a, there are no options to specify a node path, which makes your command invalid syntax.

(Also, I'd suggest testing with a proper image file - one that is an actual CD image.  Your image is a hard-disk type, with an Apple Partition Map, and no non-HFS partitions.  In Disk Utility, choose New -> Blank Image and note all the selections carefully.  You want "CD/DVD"; you can then edit the partition map after you've created it; say, to change to two partitions.)


Recommendations for headset (+ mic ) for macbook in 2012 I'm looking for a stereo headset and not simply in-ear headphones for Skype at affordable prices.

From past experience, I own a dual-jack headset Logitech from my PC. Sound came out but the mic never worked on my Mac mini. A HP XA490AA headphone worked great on PC but was never recognized on OS X.

I'm thinking about a headset directly compatible with Mac OS X. I prefer a single-jack input over USB since it doesn't use a USB port, but USB is fine. What options exist and what standards will allow me to know a single-jack mic/headphone combination that will work with a Mac?

EDIT: I know iPhone/iPod/iPad headphones are compatible with MacBooks. But these are headphones.

What I read today and for sharing

  The difference between USB and jack: USB uses the motherboard card. Jack uses the sound card. Usually laptops have crap sound cards. So go for USB.

EDIT May 31 2012: I finally bought a Logitech USB Headset H530 . Satisfied with skype clear voice. For most USB headphone, do not forget to turn on System Preferences > Sound > select the device in input and ouput tabs.

I've got the in-ear headset buds from Apple; they have a single jack and they're excellent. Purchased retail in Austria for around €70.