Why are the iOS keyboard settings changing on their own? I have an iPod Touch -- my first iOS device -- and I'm trying to figure out how to set up the keyboard layouts, because I'm going to be typing almost exclusively Japanese.

I went into the preferences, added the Japanese 10-key, added the Chinese (traditional) handwriting recognition, and removed all the others.  (I'm indifferent to the emoji keyboard layout, since it doesn't ever seem to appear, even when it's in the list.)

After a few minutes of using my iPod, the keyboard settings will have automatically changed.  The Japanese romaji keyboard will have been added, and the Chinese handwriting will have been replaced with the English keyboard.

I find this confusing and frustrating.  If I add these extra keyboards myself, then it doesn't muck up my preferences, but then I have a bunch of extra keyboards I'll never use, including the default keyboard.

I've been trying for a couple days to find a pattern (a particular app or operation that causes the keyboards to spontaneously change), but I've not found a smoking gun yet.  One symptom is that when the keyboards change, when I go into the preferences, it's back at the top of the main screen, instead of wherever I was last (regardless of whether I was in the keyboard settings or not) -- but I don't know the significance of that.

So a few questions about this:

Is this new in iOS 4 or 4.1?  Is it the sort of thing that Apple would recognize as a bug and fix in 4.2 (or even 4.1.x)?
Is there a workaround?  (I'm completely new to iOS so I haven't figured out all the workarounds for the OS bugs here yet!)
Is there a way to set the default keyboard?  (This wouldn't be nearly as bad if I could make the Japanese 10-key the default keyboard, but whenever 'English' is in the list, it makes itself the default, no matter where it is in the preferences list.)

Thanks!

I bit the bullet and upgraded to 4.2.  After upgrading, I removed all but the 2 'keyboard' layouts I wanted.

I've been running it for a whole day now, and it hasn't spontaneously changed my keyboard settings.  I'm going to call this one a bug in 4.1 that got fixed in 4.2.

Yay!


How do I install FFserver on macOS? I'd like to try FFserver. I've installed FFmpeg (4.0.2) with Homebrew. I've got ffmpeg, ffplay and ffprobe in my path, but no ffserver. In fact no files on my entire hard drive relate to ffserver.

Typing brew options ffmpeg does not mention anything about ffserver, neither does brew search ffserver. Searching the web for "ffserver missing" does not suggest anything.

So how do I install FFserver? (Or has it been deprecated or replaced or something?)

Update: On http://ffbinaries.com/downloads there seem to be no FFserver binaries for FFmpeg 4, so that may hint that FFserver is simply not available for FFmpeg 4. Any information regarding why, when it will be available, and any way to install FFserver with Homebrew is appreciated.

Well! According to https://superuser.com/a/1297419, "ffserver was removed from FFmpeg on 2018-01-06 due to a lack of user and developer interest." So much for that...


Cannot download Office 365 on macOS El-Capitan I have a powerpoint assignment due for my class but although I purchased Microsoft 365, I can't download it to my computer because my Mac won't update to Mojave. I contacted Apple support and even got an external drive so I could do a time machine backup and upgrade. Did it but the computer is still not taking Mojave.

I would do the assignment on iPad but narrations apparently are only available on Android devices. So, I'm back to square 1 trying to gain access/functionality from the 365 I purchased on my Mac. Apple Support said, it might be a hardware issue since I was practicing scripts on the terminal last year. Any thoughts? I have a week, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I can't download it to my computer..

App Store page says OS X 10.6.6 or later is required.

After sign-in, https://portal.office.com/account#installs you'll see  two different links for Office download. One for MacOS Sierra 10.12 or later and another for 10.10 or 10.11.

You can also see all available apps https://www.office.com/apps?auth=2&home=1 and use their online version with our without simplified ribbons. I never used them, so can't say about functionalities.

  computer is still not taking Mojave.

You can check compatibility for Mojave at https://support.apple.com/macos/mojave

For Sierra https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

and for  High Sierra at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969

  apple said it might be a hardware issue since I was practicing scripts on the terminal last year.

That is very broad.


Macbook pro touch bar spoiled with kernel panics After dropping my macbook pro, my touch bar has stopped working and I am getting frequent kernel panics

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this or which part of the macbook is faulty?

Thank you!

Since you've dropped it the first thing you should do is run some hardware diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your MBP
Restart your MBP
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.


Error when booting Mac with FileVault Encryption Ever since I encrypted my MacBook Pro I am seeing this error right after I type in my password at the initial screen.

Any ideas what this means, how serious it is or maybe even how to fix it?

Larger size

Apologies for the smudginess and reflection in the pic - it's displayed for a fraction of a second and it's the best one I've managed to take.

What is really is might be a bit of a guessing game, but the next step is clear.

Boot to your Recovery HD and see what disk utility makes of the volume itself.

If you lack a Recovery HD - then it's time to make a back up of any files you can reach (attach the drive to a sled / boot in target mode / install the OS to an external drive and copy things off using another OS.)

At that point, you can re-run the installer which may fix the issue for you and will certainly get you back to having an Recovery HD or expose a hardware problem if you can't even re-instal the OS on top of the data that is there.


"Print Layout" displaying strangely in Word 15 for Mac When I selected "print layout" in Word, it used to work as intended and display documents as they would print out.

Now, when I select "print layout" in any newly created Word document -- or in one document that I have been working on for a while -- the document appears as in this image:

https://www.evernote.com/l/AAMf7shnKeRKBIha8C7MQez56Uc5Jpj1_PE

That is, the height of each page isn't fixed; instead, it is set by the amount of text it contains. Also, the text on each page appear almost flush to the top of that page. Thirdly, there used to be a much bigger gap between the pages; while there is a grey line between the pages, there is hardly any gap at all.

If I create a PDF in Preview from this document, it appears as I would expect it to: with a big margin at the top, and with each page the same size. But that's not how the document appears in Word.

How can I go about troubleshooting this? I suspect it's a very simple setting that I've changed accidentally, but having spent an hour trying to fix it (including reinstalling Word from scratch) I haven't been able to find a solution.

A bit more Googling turned up an answer: https://support.office.com/en-my/article/My-top-margin-is-missing-993773e9-4be6-44ae-b9ab-7e0a5d2b8298

"point to the top or bottom of a page until the pointer becomes a double-pointed arrow, and then double click."


Number : calculate percentage using two cells I can't believe I ask that but my brain seems offline this morning
I have two column (D1 (Day units) / E1 (Night units)
I want to create a new column with the percentage of use between day/night (with is D1/E1), with day first percentage displayed then night second percentage

Percentage of D1 out of total units is D1/SUM(D1:E1). Replace with E1 for night units.


How do I start a new village on my second iOS device? So I have the same clash of clans village on my iPad and my iPhone.

How do I start a new village on my iPad while keeping the same one on my iPhone?

At this time it is a little late. You will have to factory reset one of them, redownload the game and start that game with a new gamecenter ID (do not use your old one for your base, but a brand new ID). Then you will have a new account. You can switch between the two by simply changing your Gamecenter ID from one to the other on either device. Without the factory reset, it will always default you back to your "original" base, even with a new gamcenter ID.


My iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1 recently started showing "invalid sim" message I recently forgot to pay for my cellular service, and when I paid the service my iPhone keeps displaying an "Invalid sim" message, then I have to reboot to recover the service.

The phone is working correctly with internet access, calls and messages, the only problem is that I need to reboot the phone two or three times a day to eliminate the "invalid sim" message.

This is a very common problem which has caused problems for a huge number of iPhone users, particularly outside traditional markets.

There is every reason to believe that it will be fixed by the imminent 5.1 iOS release.

It appears to have something to do with carrier settings, GSM frequencies, and/or SIM cards.

There is some detail in this thread ...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17769511?ac_cid=142432#17769511

If it is not fixed in the 5.1 release, there will be a lot of very angry iPhone 4S users!


How to make Siri set an alarm AND name/label the alarm at same time? How can I make iOS's Siri set an alarm AND name/label the alarm at same time?

I set many alarms on my iPhone5S running iOS7, and sometimes it's hard to remember what I set them for when they go off.  With a label I'm reminded the purpose (of the alarm).  I don't want to take time to manually edit the alarm after Siri sets it--that's what I want Siri to do for me.

Some discussion here with apparently no clear answer, or at least nothing that yet works reliably on my phone.

Exactly say this:

  Set alarm for [time] labeled [insert name here]

This works for me every time, thus it should work for your appointments or alarms too. Make sure you say labeled right: click here for the pronunciation and
just make sure the names aren't too long.

Names I've tried:

Hello
Triangle
Square


How to do an loop animation in Keynote? I wanna do an animation like the one when you search for something in the upper menu in OS X. Help > Search.

It's an arrow that keeps floating and moving.
I wanna do this trick.
Is there a way to do an endless animation in Keynote?

The best thing you can do is take a screen-shoot from the arrow, crop it with instant alpha in preview. Then you animate the picture in your favorite gif animation application. After that you can insert the animation into keynote and voilà, you got your looping arrow animation!

NOTE: It's a big hassle but I don't seem to find any other option than this on OS X Lion, in snow leopard you are able to create animated gif's in preview.app but it will take you a long time so try one of the animation applications


Is it possible to use a third-party remote with an Apple TV? I was thinking about this earlier and thought I'd ask. Can third-party remotes be used with the Apple TV (any and all versions)?

Yep. You can have your Apple TV learn the remote codes of any IR remote by going to Settings > General > Remotes. It will then ask you to hit buttons on your new remote corresponding to what it shows on screen.

Full instructions can be found at Apple's site: Controlling Apple TV with a third-party remote control


Oddly randomized mounted paths in Sierra for certain apps? I've noticed something very peculiar with 10.12 that was not happening with 10.11 and before.  An example app is PTHPasteboard.  I've seen this with a couple others, but it doesn't seem to always happen.

Here's the output of df:

/Volumes/hostname_usr/Users/username/Library/PreferencePanes/PTHPasteboard.prefPane/Contents/Resources/PTHPasteboard.app  1.8Ti  630Gi  1.2Ti    34% 13477289 4281489990    0%   /private/var/folders/cb/72l1ml4267v5hdqmpk4__1p00000gn/T/AppTranslocation/3B5721C9-320C-429B-9141-68AB27C5BC8C

The problem with this is that this randomization causes macOS to think that it's a new app each time and does things like prompt if it is okay to open this app or Little Snitch prompts for network access, etc.  Of course this can be a hassle when opening multiple apps that do this at startup and the apps actually start right away and then these things timeout and won't run.

What is this behavior and how can I make it stop?  The apps are installed in /Applications (or in this case, in my prepane folder).

Found the answer for what's going on here, TL;DR:

Remove quarantine for the offending app, in my case:

sudo xattr -d -r -s com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/PreferencePanes/PTHPasteboard.prefPane

Apparently with 10.12 (Sierra) Apple has implemented something called "App Translocation" and is documented under the "What's New in OS X" -> "Security and Privacy Enhancements":

  Starting in OS X v10.12, you can no longer provide external code or data alongside your code-signed app in a zip archive or unsigned disk image. An app distributed outside the Mac App Store runs from a randomized path when it is launched and so cannot access such external resources.

There is further explanation in "OS X Code Signing In Depth":

  If using a disk image to ship an app, users should drag the app from
  the image to its desired installation location (usually /Applications)
  before launching it. This also applies to apps installed via ZIP or
  other archive formats or apps downloaded to the Downloads directory:
  ask the user to drag the app to /Applications and launch it from
  there.

  This practice avoids an attack where a validly signed app launched
  from a disk image, ZIP archive, or ISO (CD/DVD) image can load
  malicious code or content from untrusted locations on the same image
  or archive. Starting with macOS Sierra, running a newly-downloaded app
  from a disk image, archive, or the Downloads directory will cause
  Gatekeeper to isolate that app at a unspecified read-only location in
  the filesystem. This will prevent the app from accessing code or
  content using relative paths.

See this for further information.

I really appreciate what the author of that article notes here:

  Under what circumstances does App Translocation occur?

  First, the app must have a com.apple.quarantine extended attribute. If
  you delete the quarantine xattr, then App Translocation does not
  occur, and the app will launch from where it was unarchived, like
  normal.

  Second, the app must be opened by Launch Services. This usually means
  Finder, but it can also mean open from Terminal, for example. If you
  launch the app executable directly from bash, on the other hand, App
  Translocation does not occur.

  Third, the app must not have been moved — by Finder. If you move the
  app, using Finder, from the app's original unarchived location to
  another folder, even a subfolder, e.g., ~/Downloads/Test/, then App
  Translocation does not occur.

  However, if you move the app using mv from Terminal, then App
  Translocation will still occur. Normally you would move the app from
  ~/Downloads to /Applications, and that would cause the app to be
  launched from /Applications like normal, but the locations of the
  particular folders don't seem to matter.

  The mere act of moving the app using Finder stops App Translocation
  from happening. Indeed, once you've moved the app once, it will no
  longer experience App Translocation again, even if you then move it
  back to ~/Downloads.


Is there way to custom program an F key? I have an email address that is about 21 characters.  Is there way to program, say F15, to paste in the address?  This would be while in any app.

I would use Spark to program the F15 key to do what you want. It is free (although donations are accepted). The website for Spark says "Mac OS 10.9" but I find it works with 10.11.4 here.

Here is what Spark looks like on my Mac. You create a new hotkey from the File menu. In your case, you'll be making a new "Keyboard" type of hotkey. I am including a picture that shows what the new key would look like if your email address were the same as mine. You get to pick your own hotkey-- I picked Control-F12 because I don't have an F15 on my keyboard.

There are plenty of commercial hotkey apps that do more than Spark but "free" is nice and your needs will be met with it. See the link at the end of this answer.

Note: I am not affiliated with Spark or its developers in any way. I have used the product on multiple machines for many years with great results so I am speaking first-hand about how it works.

Link to shadowlab.org, where you can download Spark


How to create a service (shown in the context menu on the URL) in Safari? I want to create a service which will be shown in the context menu when I right-click on any link in the Safari (need get the URL into the service).

This is my current contextual services menu on the right-click to any Safari link, eg. want add the my service to this menu.

Any suggestion?

EDIT

For the simplicity, I want:

create a service (by the Automator or by any other way)
let say the service name should be: "Save URL"
the "Save URL" service should appear in the Services context menu when I right-click on any link in Safari
The real workflow of the service isn't the matter. Just want to know how to create a service which will appear in the context menu.
but, if you want - for the simplicity let's say - the service should do only one simple thing: open a new TextEdit document and add the URL of the given (right-clicked) link into it.

I tried to create an Automator Service, but the saved service doesn't show up in the menu.

UPDATE: I initially misunderstood the question. To learn how to create a service for the context menu in Safari, see part A of this answer. To learn how to create a service that takes no input and appears in the menubar > Safari > Services menu in Safari, see part B.

Part A: Creating a Contextual Text Service

Step 1

Follow part B's step 1 (I'll refer to it as B.1 from here on out).

Step 2

Follow B.2, but instead of selecting "no input," select "rich text."

In this case, you won't want to use anything else, because this is the step that makes it possible to see it from the contextual right-click menu when selecting text. This is because Automator requires some sort of input usually, and the type of input determines how it will get that input. If it's manual input, then it'll simply ask for the input when it runs, but if it's some sort of text that's already on the screen, it needs selected text to function. Note that you can't choose "URLs" because that does not mean that you can right click on URLs on the webpage, but that you can save the URL of the current page using the menubar. I chose "rich text" for this because it saves the text with its URL properties (i.e. you can click on it and it'll take you to the webpage once it's in the TextEdit document).

Step 3

As with B.3, write your workflow. In this case, it's really simple (there will be no download link because you can make it so easily):

In this case, all I'm doing is taking the input of the selected rich text as specified, and then copying it into a new TextEdit document, which should open up with the link once you've used the service.

Step 4

Finish things off by saving, as in B.4, and optionally do B.5 if you want to see where your services are located.

If you're looking to do something more advanced, like copying the URL from selected text, that would be more complicated, but feel free to experiment with it. You can always try URL shortening to create links, or perhaps have Automator open that webpage in a new tab and copy its URL as with the script in B.3.

Part B: Creating a Menubar URL Service

Step 1

First, you'll want to make sure that the workflow you created is a "Service" workflow. To do so, when you create a workflow, select the "Service" option like so:

Click on "Choose" and you're ready to create your service. You should see the typical Automator workflow builder window, as usual.

Step 2

Once you're there, make sure that you say your application is for Safari, using the menu at the top of the window. The other dropdown menu determines whether or not the Automator workflow takes any input. Depends on what you're doing, but in this case, I think you don't need any input, so select "no input."

Step 3

At that point, go ahead and build your workflow. It sounds like you already have a workflow you want to use, but here's one I built to do what you'd like:

At this point, you'll see that the service does not yet show up in the dropdown in Safari.

Step 4

In order to make it show up, make sure you've saved your Automator workflow.

The header on Automator should look like this:

If you check Safari now, your "Save URL" service should come up.

Step 5 (optional)

If you really want to check that your service was saved because it still isn't showing up in the menu, you can go to ~/Library/Services/ in Finder, where all workflows are stored. Keep in mind that the Library folder is hidden if you've never accessed it before. You can go here to find out how to view it and its contents.


xampp + mac os x issues just installed XAMPP and have tried setting up a local server but the address won't resolve. It will lead to a "Connection Was Reset" error. I tried looking in the logs but none were present so I'm instantly suspcious of something not being set up right.. but I can't seem to track it down..

here's my vhosts file (/etc/apache2/extra):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin johndoe@domain.com
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/site"
    ServerName site.local
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/site.local-access_log" com$
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/site.local-error_log"
    <Directory "/var/www/site">
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

and my host file (/etc):

127.1.2.3       site.local
127.1.2.3       www.site.local

Apache (when restarted) starts without any issues so not really sure what's wrong?

Thanks

127.1.2.3 should be 127.0.0.1 that corresponds to your localhost.


Hard drive full with 200GB of used space that I can't find All of a sudden I've run out of space. On my 250GB hard drive, 236GB is used up with only 13GB free.

I used Finder to find big files. Nothing significant.

I used tools like Disk Inventory X, OmniDiskSweeper and Purple Tree, but according to them I've only used up 40GB.

So somehow 200GB is used up, but I can't see where.

Time Machine isn't running (and never has). The disk has no partitions.

I scanned my drive with DaisyDisk, and as an administrator. (Instructions) I found 187GB in the hidden ".DocumentsRevisons-V100" folder. These are document versions which the OS autosaves (more info). It appears to be from documents primarily from the app Sketch.

Here's how I removed the files.

Open Terminal
Paste defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES (This makes all hidden files visible)
Relaunch Finder. You can hold down "Option" and then right click Finder. Click Relaunch.
Look within the folder Macintosh HD/.DocumentRevisions-V100/ (For me there were a number of underlining folders with lots of files within.)
Delete the folders and files within.
Empty the Trash
In Terminal paste defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO . This makes hidden files hidden again.
Relaunch Finder again. Click the System Apple top left, then "About this Mac" and then "Storage." Breathe a sigh of relief.

Here's some articles I referred to:

https://medium.com/@thomasdegry/how-sketch-took-over-200gb-of-our-macbooks-cb7dd10c8163#.kb2yopebo
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/20/clear-versions-history-auto-save-cache-data-in-mac-os-x/
https://dribbble.com/shots/2184593-Sketch-users-Free-up-some-space
https://www.designernews.co/stories/50043-hard-drive-mysteriously-filling-up


Focus the folders area in save dialogs Is there a shortcut to focus the folders area in the save dialogs? I've found the followings shortcuts, but I would like to be able to just focus the currently selected folder.

 Cmd ⌘   D Changes focus to your Desktop

 Cmd ⌘    Shift ⇧   A Changes focus to your Applications directory

 Cmd ⌘    Shift ⇧   H Changes focus to your Home directory

Edit: In other words, when the save dialog is open, you can press tab 8 times to focus the folders area. But I would like to know if there is a shortcut to get the same result quicker.

It looks like there is no shortcut to do this, which is a shame. If you're trying to do it slightly quicker than pressing tab 8 times, you could hold ⇧ and press tab 5 times to get there in the other direction.

A somewhat more direct way is to use the third-party Shortcat utility (currently in free beta), which enables keyboard selection of graphics UI elements.

In the save dialog, you can trigger Shortcat (by default, ⇧-⌘-Space) and then start typing the name of any folder that's visible in the folder list. As soon as the folder is highlighted (and no other UI elements are), press return. You can then navigate from there with the arrow keys.

Another built-in method that's so close, but yet so far, is to press ⌘-⇧-G, then start typing the path of the folder you want. (Instead of ⌘-⇧-G, you can also press ~ to start from your home directory, or / to start from the root.) While typing the path, you can use tab (or stop typing for a moment) to autocomplete folder names.

This would work quite well if the folder list automatically updated to show the directory corresponding to the path as you entered it, but unfortunately it doesn't update until you press return. Then if you want to continue navigating, you have to press ⌘-⇧-G again to continue from where you left off.

A final possibility is to use a scripting/macro utility (like BetterTouchTool, or FastScripts) to make a global keyboard shortcut that presses tab 8 times for you. Seems a bit inelegant, though.


how to downgrade from iOS 6.1.3 to iOS 5.1.1 in iPhone 4? I have an iPhone 4. It has network lock from Switzerland. I want use Gevey SIM on this phone. Gevey SIM is more compatible for iOS 5.1.1.

how to downgrade from iOS 6.1.3 to iOS 5.1.1 in iPhone 4?

It's not possible. Each time you restore an iOS device's OS, Apple must sign as valid the version you are trying to install, and once a version has been considered as deprecated, which usually is a couple of weeks after a new iOS version has been released, Apple stops providing a valid certification for it.


Multiple tabs in Safari In Safari on my iMac there are tabs open for just about every website I been for along time. I keep closing them individually, but more keep appearing. I have recently upgraded to Maverick

You can go to System Preferences → General and tick "Close windows when quitting an application".

When ticked, open tabs will not be restored when you re-open Safari and therefore not "build up". So just shut down Safari from time to time (cmd + q).


Changing User permissions - Seagate Hard Drive All of a sudden, my hard drive has stopped working. I can only view its contents but can't store anything new now. I also can't change its permissions. What is the issue?

Without a third-party utility like NTFS-3G, OS X can't write to NTFS formatted hard drives. Did you reformat the disk recently or reinstall OS X?


New (clean) install of iOS 9 while retaining Health/Activity and Apple Watch data I'm planning on doing a new clean install of iOS 9 on my iPhone because I really like to have a clean slate when changing iPhones and upgrading iOS. However, the fact that Health, Activity, and Apple Watch data isn't synced to the cloud has made this difficult this year.

Is it possible to do a clean install of iOS 9 on my iPhone and also retain Health, Activity, and Apple Watch data? Or is it only possible to upgrade / restore from backup to keep that data?

No, you cannot only restore Health data from a backup. Only encrypted iTunes backups and iCloud backups store Health.app data.


How can I locate my MS Office license key? I want to install MS Office on my other iMac. So I can have it functioning on 2 iMacs. I believe I purchased 3 licenses, but can't find the key.  How can I locate my license key?

From Microsoft.

Launch application and click Enter your product key.
Review the Software License Agreement and click Continue.
You must agree to Software License Agreement. Click Continue.
Enter your product key and click Activate.

  The Activation Wizard automatically contacts the Microsoft licensing
  servers through your Internet connection. When you activate the
  product by using the Internet, the product key is sent to Microsoft
  through an encrypted transfer. If you decide to activate the product
  through the Internet and you are not already connected, the wizard
  alerts you that there is no connection. Click either Activate by Phone
  or Activate later.

  Note Do not lose the product key. Keep the packaging, or note the
  number. Keep the number information in a safe location.

  Your product key is a unique sequence of 25 letters and numbers
  divided into groups of 5.

  If you purchased a box with a DVD: The product is located on the back
  of the Office for Mac DVD sleeve.

  If you purchase through a web site: The product key is sent to you in
  email with the title Microsoft Office for Mac – Order Confirmation”


Is it safe to remove ~/Library/Mail folders I just traded in Mail.app for Sparrow and want to clear up some space on my hard drive. Is it safe to remove the ~/Library/Mail/V2/IMAP-[mailbox] folders for any mail accounts that I have removed from Mail.app?

EDIT: In response to the two "if by safe I assume" answers. I meant both "won't break Mail if I open it again and re-enable those accounts." and "won't delete the messages on the IMAP server"

By safe, I assume you mean "will not delete message on the server?" That's correct, you can go ahead and delete those - think of the as a "cache" of your emails. As long as you aren't deleting and emptying the trash from within whatever mail client you are using, they will remain on the server.

Do consider a backup before deleting ANYTHING from ~/Library (or any other Libraries on your Mac).

In this specific case, I would explicitly rebuild the mailbox indexes just in case the system will clean them up once you're done deleting things...


How to know what is backed up in local backup? (esp. Health Data) I don't use iCloud and want to back up my iPhone on my Mac. I followed this guide to do so and checked the "Encrypt local backup" box, since I also want to back up my health data from my iPhone and Apple Watch.
One big question is, is my health data really backed up? I think so, but I wanted to make sure, since this data is really important to me, and on the website it said "If you want to save Health and Activity data from your device or Apple Watch..." but then it didn't even give me a choice/overview where it specifically said it's backed up.
Here is the overview of my screen:

Thanks a lot in advance!

Yes, when you choose to encrypt the local backup, the Health and Activity data will be backed up.
Had you chosen not to encrypt your local backup, the Health and Activity data would not have been included in the backup.
Always remember when dealing with backups: You haven't really backed anything up before you have tried restoring it.


Remove McAfee Safe Search bar The McAfee Safe Search bar is not aesthetically pleasing, and will never be used by me, is it possible to remove it from the Safari browser, while keeping McAfee and its internet security benefits?

Open a terminal, and run:

cd /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins
ls

Does it show "something something McAfee"?

If yes, try moving it somewhere else (to be able to restore it later, if something goes wrong), replace McAfeeFooBar with the actual name (you can press tab to complete the name):

mv McAfeeFooBar ~/
killall Safari

and start Safari again. If the Toolbar is gone and McAfee still works, you're done!

If you get something along the lines of "permission denied" while trying the mv command, prepend it by sudo and enter your password when requested.

If this doesn't lead to the desired effect, or McAfee breaks, revert your changes by typing

cd
mv McAfeeFooBar /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/

again prepending the mv command with sudo if necessary.


View/search iPhone text message history How do I read and/or search the history of text messages from my iPhone? Some messages are SMS, others are iMessage, often interleaved within the same conversation. My understanding is that the phone keeps the entire history (which is why there is the "Load Earlier Messages" button, which is incredibly tedious to use, slows down with each additional click and offers no [obvious] way of searching).

On iOS 7, swipe down on the homescreen to bring up the search tool. You can search for SMS/iMessages and they will be brought up as you type. For iOS 6 and others, you can go one page to the left of the homescreen to do this.


Missing storage after deleting boot camp partition Using an iMac 27 inch - Late 2012. I deleted my bootcamp partition and lost 300gb. I didn't let it uninstall properly, rushed and closed the window and thats where all the errors and lost space problems stemmed from. Can anybody help me, I do not want to format my hard drive and lose everything because I can't back it up.

Your APFS container is not the maximum size it can be.
You can expand the container to all the available free space using

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0


Time capsule - external drive via Ethernet I just bought a Time capsule. At home I have a USB hard drive that I typically use to read divx from connecting it to my tv that is able to play avi files. I'm wondering if I can connect it to the TC via an Ethernet port (that the external drive has) so that it can stay connected to the tv and I can manage movies wirelessly through the capsule.

So:

Mac --> wifi --> time capsule.                    ## CONNECT
time capsule --> Ethernet --> HD.                 ## SHARE FILES
Tv --> USB --> HD.                                ## READ MOVIES
Mac --> wifi --> time capsule --> Ethernet --> HD ## TRANSFER FILES

Hope this makes sense :)

It sounds like your external HD is actually a Network Attached Storage device. If it somehow supports simultaneous access via the network (SMB which is windows file sharing) AND plugged in to USB (to your TV) then that might work out really well. Unfortunately I don't believe that there are devices that can do that.


iPhone Lightning Dock Model A1717 not supported by iPhone XS Max I just bought an iPhone Lightning Dock Model A1717 (08/2019 says on the box) and I want to use it with my iPhone XS Max, but I get the error:

  This accessory is not supported by this device

iPhone iOS 13.4 - just updated. Both the iPhone and the Dock are original Apple

I have tried to restart the iPhone while connected to the accessory - no effect

I have tried to switch to Airplane mode while connected to the accessory - no effect

I have cleaned the lightning port from my phone and dock lightning jack - no effect

Not to sound flippant, but we (or I) can’t provide you support beyond what Apple’s going to provide so if they consider it “closed” we can’t go beyond that.  However, I can advise you what to do next:

Return it from where you purchased it (it may be defective)
Ask someone at Apple (on-line sales via phone or chat, or in person at the Apple store) what models the Lightning Dock is compatible with.

Ask them if there is a compatibility list.
Ask them if it works with your specific phone

If you get satisfactory answers, purchase it.

If it fails again, open a customer service inquiry and escalate. (If you do the pre-sales question via chat, you’ll have a record).  It may be completely incompatible with your phone and its a perfectly valid, albeit horrible, response/answer.

If you happen to be in store, open the box, hook it up, and make sure it works in font of the sales associate.. Tell him/her exactly what you’re doing and why.  At the very least Apple will be made aware of the deficiency, but most importantly, you’d have saved your money rather than fork over $40USD to a company worth a trillion dollars.


Do all magsafe power ports have the same form factor? I have a MacBook6,1 with a 60W magsafe power adapter.  The cord on the adapter got chewed up by my rabbit (she's fine) and I would like very much to replace it.  But I really don't want to spend the $79 on the Apple Store!

I've seen magsafe adapters for as low as $27 elsewhere, but the connectors look different than mine.

This link, from Amazon, also 60W, claims to work for MacBooks (all of them, or some of them?), but is much less expensive: http://amzn.to/f3Xsc7

Inspecting the connector in the picture, the only difference I can see is mine is "L" shaped and the the one in the picture plugs straight in perpendicularly.  If the connectors have the same form factor and the power specs are the same, it seems that I could get away with the cheaper one.

So, will all magsafe adapters plug into my macbook and charge it?

Yes - the computer side of things is the same, but the newer cord layout is needed for Airs or when the space around the port is restricted.

The 'L-shaped' MagSafe adapters were just a newer design which meant the cable went backwards instead of outwards.  They should fit just fine and I've used one or two third-party ones in the past.  Just as long as you pick the right power-output you should be fine.  Here's a TUAW article on the matter


Ejecting USB-Partitions on boot - works but not entirely I have an USB drive with four partitions. SuperDuper uses these partitions to back up my mac. Since SuperDuper is scheduled, I have the USB drive constantly connected. But quite frankly the noise of the USB drive is driving me nuts. So I eject the partitions every time I boot the mac up. SuperDuper is configured so that it mounts the partition when it is scheduled to back up and unmounts it again.

I am trying to find a way so that I do not have to manually eject the partitions. I have two methods that work. I edited the /etc/fstab file with the UUIDs and prevent the partitions from mounting and I tried the method of making a logon script that calls a "do shell script "diskutil unmount....."". Both methods work. The partitions do not get mounted. BUT the drive motor does not "turn off". I have to go into Disk Utility and eject the unmounted (light-gray) drive again for the USB drives motor to be quiet. It doesn't really matter which one of the four drives I choose to eject again, ejecting one does the trick.

I also noticed that if I automatically eject three of the drives on boot and then manually eject the fourth one that the USB drive powers down. So there seems to be a difference between ejecting via script and right-mouse click "eject".

Does anyone know why this is? Is there a way to eject the partitions so that the USB drive understands this?

Thanks

As Harald suggested the solution is to use "diskutil eject" not unmount.

For anyone else looking at this thread, my login script looks like this:

delay 5
try
   do shell script "diskutil eject \"/Volumes/MYPARTITION\""
end try

Thanks again!


Free (if possible) Video Converter I've been getting along with VisualHub (defunct) for a while now, but recently I've needed an expanded set of Codec's, in particular Theora and VP8.1

FFmpeg might be what you're looking for. It is free and supports Theora and VP8.


When will my Mac (15inch MacBook Pro Mid 2012 ) become a vintage product? When will my Mac (15inch MacBook Pro Mid 2012 ) become a vintage product?

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

Generally speaking, based in part on information in the linked support article in your question the vintage designation is a 5 to 7 year window, so the two Mid 2012 15" MacBook Pro models vintage windows are shown below:

The MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012) was discontinued in October 2013. So October 2018 would be the start of the 5 year window, with October 2020 being the 7 year window.
The MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) was discontinued in Feburary 2013. So Feburary 2018 would be the start of the 5 year window, with Feburary 2020 being the 7 year window.

That said, if you live in Turkey, California or France, make note of what it said in the article, quoted below.

From Vintage and obsolete products:

  Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. Apple has discontinued hardware
  service for vintage products with the following exceptions:

  Mac products purchased in the country of Turkey. Owners of vintage Mac products may obtain service and parts from Apple service
  providers within the country of Turkey.
  Products purchased in the state of California, United States, as required by statute

  Owners of vintage Mac products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers within the state of California, United
  States.
  Owners of vintage iPod products in the state of California may obtain service from Apple Retail Stores or by contacting AppleCare at
  1-800-APL-CARE.
  Owners of vintage iPhone products in the state of California may obtain service from Apple Retail Stores or by contacting AppleCare at
  1-800-APL-CARE. For products purchased in France, see Statutory
  Warranties of Seller and Spare Parts.


kernel_task Virtual Memory Size too high I'm using MacBook Pro ("Core i7" 2.5 15" Mid-2015 (DG) 2.5 GHz Core i7 (I7-4870HQ) 16GB RAM) with MacOS Sierra 10.12.4 on it. After connecting a new LG 34UC98 Monitor I faced some heat problems and started investigations. First thing that was really strange for me is this:

As you can see the Virtual Memory Size is to way higher then the Real one.

Is this normal/expected behavior and how can I wipe/clear this and avoid such kind of memory load in the future?

PS: Attaching Statistics as well:

Yes, this is normal behavior.

You can do nothing to wipe/clean it - except rebooting your computer.

There's no benefit from wiping/cleaning it, and no disadvantage from kernel_task having a high virtual memory size in itself. There's no real point in trying to avoid it in the future.


Need help understanding command I am having a problem with imported photos showing in thumbnail, but coming up blank with exclamation mark.  I am trying to follow suggestions found on the net.  But, I don't know what the symbol behind the command symbol means??  I assume it is another key, but don't see a corresponding one on my macbook.  HELP!!

Try repairing the library. Hold ⌘⌥ and open iPhoto, then choose Repair Database.

If that doesn't fix it, hold ⌘⌥ and open iPhoto again, and select Rebuild Database.

It's the option key. Also called the Alt key on a windows keyboard.

It's the key to the between command and control.


Search text annotations in Mac Preview I've added text annotations to a pdf with Tools > Annotate > Text. I'd like to search the text for a specific word, like 'Todo'. Unfortunately, doing a cmd+F to search for this text doesn't work.

Is there a way to make text annotations searchable (by this I don't mean highlights and notes, which I know can be searched)?

I'm using the latest version of Preview (Version 8.1 (877.7)) on OS X El Capitan.

You have found what I consider to be a bug in the spotlight importer for several types of documents that Preview can use. I tested making an annotation with a slightly nonsensical word that spotlight had zero matches for on my Mac. (at least until this text gets indexed as a safari history item)

I tested a PDF and a PNG file with text annotations and none of the importers put that text into spotlight. I have filed a bug with Apple on that, but I would do so as well yourself. If the person screening the bug thinks it's a bug, usually one well document report gets things on the list to be fixed. If Apple considers this a feature, normally many reports asking for the same thing will be needed to change the minds that think not indexing annotations is actually beneficial to the system design.

On the outside, we don't know and can only file reports to change the things we want changed.

Here are the terminal commands I used to verify the bug in case someone has a workaround or knows of a better spotlight importer for PDF/PNG that would index the annotations.

mac:Desktop me$ mdfind ZZqwijibo
mac:Desktop me$ strings annontation.pdf |grep qwijibo
(ZZqwijibo) /AAPL:AKExtras 95 0 R /DA (/Helvetica 59 Tf 0.987 0.129 0.146 rg)
(ZZqwijibo) /DA (/Helvetica 59 Tf 0.987 0.129 0.146 rg) /F 4 /Q 1 /Subtype

The text is plainly stored on the filesystem, but the PDF importer is skipping the annotation text altogether like you report.


Mail: how to download newest first? Can I tell Mail to download the newest messages first?

My Mac is my second computer. When I check e-mail, it has often been 2 weeks since I last opened Mail. Currently, I have to wait for hundreds of messages from 2 weeks ago to finish downloading before I can open that one message my client just now sent to me.

If you're using Mail to access your work email on an Exchange server, it's quite possible you'll be able to see the mail on Outlook Web Access (OWA).

To find out the address for OWA, check your Accounts preferences, and look for the "External Server" entry, simply point your browser to https://external.server.com (make sure it's HTTPS and not just HTTP) and you'll be able to login and view all the messages just like with webmail.


Outlook for Mac SMTP failing on Google Apps I have recently set up a client on Google Apps for Business. They would like to use their email via Outlook. Everything from Google Apps is perfectly synced, including folders. The client can receive emails, but they cannot send anything.

I have used these settings to configure Outlook:

Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server - Requires SSL

imap.gmail.com
Port: 993
Requires SSL:Yes

Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server - Requires TLS

smtp.gmail.com
Port: 465 or 587 (have tried both)
Requires SSL: Yes
Requires authentication: Yes
Use same settings as incoming mail server

Full Name or Display Name: [your name]
Account Name or User Name: username@your_domain.com
Email address: username@your_domain.com
Password: password

I am receiving the following error:

  Outlook cannot find the server. Verify the server information is entered correctly in the Account Settings, and that your DNS settings in the Network pane of System Preferences are correct.

I have attached a screengrab of the Outlook configuration. You'll see that the client has 3 email accounts.

Your screenshot says stmp.gmail.com. The correct SMTP server for gmail is smtp.gmail.com.

See Google's support document, Sending mail from a printer, scanner, or app, for other configuration settings.


Is there a way to get a public URL for individual iCloud photos? I understand it's possible, through the Photos app and iCloud, to create a sharing stream of photos. What I am wondering is if it's possible to get a public URL from any given photo in iCloud.

My end goal is to use the URL in a shell script that would replicate CloudApp or Dropbox screenshot sharing, only using iCloud storage. Can't seem to find anything on the web that explains if this is/isn't possible.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated :)

There is no way to get the URL from the Photos app that I am aware of. However, you can create a public album (see screenshot) which will then give you an album URL. You could scrape that page for image URLs. Psuedo Xpath to do so: //div[@class="view image-view canvas-image-view"]

(Note that the page is written in such a way that only the photo[s] visible on-screen are present in the HTML code, so your script would need to scroll through the window to scrape all the necessary URLs.)


Visual hints to better spot the currently active window? My workflow involves a lot application windows, mostly terminals. With a very large dual screen setup, I find myself regularly looking for the currently active window. More than often I type in the wrong terminal, or even start typing in a browser window, because I thought the active window was somewhere else.

I could not find a way to change window properties such as opacity and border / title bar colour. My title bars are either light grey (active) or very light grey (inactive). I am looking for hints on how to make it visually more prominent where the currently active window is.

(Note: I am not looking for keyboard shortcuts or anything that requires interaction)

There isn't a lot that's easily customizable about color schemes on OS X. One suggestion is that if you're using the Graphite color scheme, switch to the Blue color scheme. In earlier versions of OS X,there used to be quite a bit of difference between them, and many developers went with the more subdued Graphite scheme, but by Lion, one of the only surviving differences is the traffic-light dots in the upper left corner of a window. In the graphite color scheme, they're all grey, but in the "blue" scheme, they're colored when the window is the active one.


Need help repairing mac partitions In the process of trying to create a bootcamp partition I messed up my partitions. At this point, I just want to merge the empty 40GB drive with my main one, giving that storage back. Here is what I get when I run a diskutil list. I nuked whatever was on the disk partition beforehand.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         202.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED             8.0 GB     disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_APFS                         40.8 GB    disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +202.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            150.7 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 44.6 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.4 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0: EF57347C-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC                        *40.8 GB    disk2

To give a little bit more info on my mac:

The macOS partition is working, and I am using it to post this question. The laptop originally only had 1 hard drive, the stock one included in the model. I have included a picture of my system specs below.

In the Disk Utility app, Click the 'Partition' Toolbar button, then in the big pie chart in the revealed tab, click on the partition you want to erase, then click the minus button ('-') at the bottom of the chart. That partition will be deleted, and the other partition will be expanded to to include the newly-emptied space.

If you're doing this by command-line I think you can use the following (based on the diskutil output shown above):

diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk0s4

The third and fourth terms (JHFS+ "Macintosh HD") are actually dummy terms in this context; they are not used. Assuming that disk0s2 — the main partition — is in an expandable format, this should preserve everything in that partition and overwrite the other two. Per the diskutil man page:

  If force is not given, and the first partition has a resizable file
  system (e.g. JHFS+), the file system will be preserved  and grown in a
  data-preserving manner; your format and name parameters are ignored in
  this case. [If] the first partition is not resizable, you are prompted
  if you want to format.


What is the most OSX or Darwin-like command-line experience available (without buying an expensive Mac or hauling my production machines home)? I want to emulate the command-line experience from OSX with a small netbook and practice my skills with the comfort of this small machine.

Surely Apple offers actual Darwin Links for developers or sysadmins...  their url is even "OpenSource.Apple.com," but so far the images I've found in web-archives seem even older; see for example this post or this unix & linix post.

I thought FreeBSD would provide this, and I'm loving using FreeBSD, but OSX has incorporated so much more into the systems that I feel like it is not accurate training or the answer to my question.

It is possible to get an .iso of so-called Pure Darwin (The successor to Open Darwin), but it seems like it focuses on VMware images and getting people into a GUI (which is cool, but not my goal here), plus it is naturally a bit out of date.  Thanks.

Use ssh on the netbook to log into a remote Mac and learn the commands that way.


How can I rebind the return key so that it works consistently across all applications? I tried rebinding my keyboard with Ukelele to switch the return key with the ' key. This works fine most of the time. There are just a few websites (that I've found so far) that aren't compatible with this change:

Facebook: Sending IM messages no longer works.
Google Docs: Does not allow you to insert new lines when editing word documents.
StackExchange: Pressing shift+return at the end of a bullet list does not insert a new bullet.

How can I get this rebinding to work flawlessly everywhere in the operating system?

I'm using Chrome 18.0 beta.

These are the applications I've found which don't recognize the return key after rebinding it:

Chrome
Microsoft Word (specifically when a dialog is open and the OK button is the default button. Pressing return should be the same thing as clicking the OK button).
Java apps

You probably need to step a level further down the tree of software and hardware, to the level of KyRemap4MacBook - which acts as a filter between the physical keyboard and the keyboard events reported to MacOS.

The software keyboard map is an optional thing - software can intercept keyboard events at a level that bypasses it, if they wish, and it sounds like some of what the browser does with key binding is touching on that.

A lower level remapping may bypass that problem.


iTunes half-star ratings gone from iOS7 I had enabled half-star ratings in iTunes: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/itunes-half-star-rating/

However since iOS7 has been released, the half-star ratings don't appear in Music app anymore. Instead they appear to be rounded down.

Does anyone have any idea/official word on this?

I haven’t seen any official announcement about this, but since it’s an undocumented setting, it’s not surprising that the functionality would’ve silently disappeared. If you’d like it back you might consider filing an enhancement request.


How to export all images and videos from Photo Booth to finder? Images and videos can be exported from Photo Booth one by one by either

Right-clicking in the file in Photo Booth -> Export, or
Drop and dragging the image/video from Photo Booth into a finder folder

The problem is, neither method works for multiple images/videos: if you have n images/videos, you have to drop and drag n times, which, needless to say, is exceptionally tedious.
How can multiple images / videos be exported from Photo Booth in one go? (i.e. avoiding manually doing it one by one)?
Note: if there's some work around to access the raw .png's .mov's, then that is just as good - the end result should be some image and video files that can be opened with any standard media viewers/players (not just Photo Booth)

The easiest is probably to simply find the photos in Finder.

Open Finder
Locate the PhotoBooth library file (usually in user/pictures)
right click on it, hit show package contents
Copy all files from the Pictures folder (if you want to have the original photos without effects on them also copy the Originals folder)

You can read in a bit more detail here: OSXdaily


iPhone mic transmit to earpiece? I am deaf in one ear and have trouble conversing in a noisy restaurant. I am looking for a way to place my iPhone 5 on the table in front of my partner so that the sound picked up by its built-in microphone is transmitted to an earphone I would wear. Suggestions ?

You could try the Mimi Music app, which has that feature. The App Store page lists iOS 9 as the minimum requirement, so there's a good chance it will run.


How to contact Apple about connection issue on bugreport.apple.com? I have been trying to log into their bug reporter system (bugreport.apple.com) for about a month.

Every time I log in, I get redirected to an error page, which tell me to report the problem. The thing is, I have reported the problem through the email-address they provided in the error page and also through the "Report Login Issue"-link at the login page.

I have only received an automated message, which tell me they received the message and I haven't got any other update (and I still can't log in).

I have waited almost a month, what should I do?

Here's a screenshot of the error I get when I log in:

I tried connecting with Safari (6.0.2), and it wasn't working:

When using Chrome (versions 15 & 25), I am asked to sign-in using my Apple ID on this page: http://bugreport.apple.com/

I have no problem at all:

Make sure you are using the latest update of your browser. Or use a different one such as Opera, Firefox, etc.

Take note of this, from the page, where you enter your Apple ID credentials:

  Note: Safari is the suggested browser for use of the Bug Reporter.
  JavaScript and Cookies must be enabled to access the Bug Reporter.
  Idle time to disconnect is 120 minutes.

If you have tried with different browsers, and it still doesn't work. I suggest you try repairing disk permissions in your disk utility, if you are on a Mac.

If it still does not work, try downloading the newest Safari, and reinstall it. You can also try this link to the login-page.


Is Wifi enabled in iOS 5 even when the device is put to sleep? I've been under the impression that iOS shuts down WiFi when the screen is off - which is good as far as battery savings.

Lately I've been suspecting that WiFi remains on, and I did a test. My iPhone's screen has been off for like 15 minutes. I opened iTunes and did a WiFi Sync, it worked! Does that mean my WiFi is on 24/7??

Thanks

EDIT: I don't have a data plan and I selected cellular data OFF. Maybe it's related?

iOS 4

If the phone is connected to a power source, then Wifi remains enabled, even if the phone goes to sleep. If the phone is not connected to a power source, then Wifi is disabled once the phone goes to sleep.

This of course was by design in an effort to reduce battery consumption.

iOS 5

iOS 5 looks to have altered the behaviour of the device. If iTunes wireless syncing is enabled and iTunes is running, the device will listen to any Wifi connection and wake for it (even SSH, which requires a jailbreak to install). I've tested the device with iTunes not running and it indeed behaves as it did in the previous iteration of iOS, refusing to allow a connection through SSH until I woke the device.

However, it seems this is not consistent. Leaving the phone unconnected and iTunes running, I started an SSH session and began transferring some files. When the phone went to sleep, the connection was lost. So it looks like the answer is "yes, but don't count on it?" Clearly iTunes wireless syncing throws us a curveball here.


Internet connection very slow only in my house and only with my Mac I bought a brand new MacBook Pro 13" 2015 (8GB RAM, i5, 128 SSD) 7 months ago. The thing is, my Mac works and I love it, but a couple of months ago, without doing anything, loading web pages even with Chrome as with Safari is extremely slow. My girlfriend has a Windows laptop and it works perfectly and when I connect to a different Wi-Fi router it works great. So my guess is there is a problem with my Mac related to my router.

I have tried several solutions already - I changed all of the DNS servers you can imagine in macOS and on my router as well, restarted my network settings, excellent namebench to see which is the right DNS for me, clearing caches... But nothing helped.

I must say that I don't have this problem 100% of the time, but more like 70% of the time. Sometimes it's like suddenly the problem goes away.
Speed test gives me 52.42 mbps download and 3.09 mbps upload and I always connect via Wi-Fi and not ethernet.

Follow-up:

This is the result of the following command:

ping -c 100 -s 1992 -q 192.168.1.1
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 20 packets received, 80.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.424/10.420/56.773/11.580 ms

80% packet loss sound like a lot. What should I exactly do with iStumbler?

Internet or Wi-Fi problem

Open System Preferences... > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced... > TCP/IP
and note the IP address of your Wi-Fi router.

Let's say it is 192.168.1.1.

When you are in your bad network situation,
open a Terminal and enter the following command:

ping -c 100 -s 1992 -q 192.168.1.1

to check your Wi-Fi quality of connection and let run this command for nearly 2 minutes.
Make a copy of the result and include it in your question.

If is tells 0% packet lost, then your problem is a general Internet problem. If it tells your that you have some packets lost, then your
problem is on the Wi-Fi side.

I suspect that this might be your case.

Analyse a Wi-Fi problem

Download the iStumbler software:

iStumbler

This version is free:

iStumbler 99

This is an excellent quality software and running without problem on from Snow Leopard to Yosemite (I didn't yet tested it on El Capitan or Sierra).

When you are in your bad network situation,
let iStumbler run for 10 minutes, order the output along the Level
column in decreasing order. Make a screen capture and include it in your question.

IP or DNS problem

Open a Terminal and enter the following command:

dig www.apple.com

This command will ask your DNS server how it does resolve the www.apple.com in an IP address.

Include the output in your question.


Are there any iOS SSH terminal apps that support truecolor (i.e., 24 bit color)? There are quite a few capable SSH terminal client apps in the App Store — Termius, Blink, Prompt, etc..

Do any of them support truecolor? This is also known as 24-bit color. It represents millions of colors as opposed to 256 colors.

As far as I can tell, this gist on truecolor has the closest thing thing I can find to a current, authoritative list of which terminal clients do and don’t support truecolor. I don’t see any iOS SSH clients on that list, sadly.

It turns out Termius supports 24-bit color, as does Secure ShellFish


How is the Compressed Mem column in Activity Monitor calculated? Say we have something like

Process Name   Memory    Compressed Mem
Firefox        2.60 GB   1 GB

What do the figures mean?

Is it:

1GB is compressed and we don't know how much it's compressed by so the app is using somewhere between 1.6 and 2.6 GB but we don't know how much
1GB is the amount of memory saved by compression - ie the app is using 2.6 - 1 = 1.6 GB of actual memory
1GB is the actual memory being used - ie after taking into account the compression of parts of the 2.6GB, we've been able to save 1.6GB and the process looks like it's only using 1GB
Something else?

I intuitively thought it was (2) but a friend thought it might be (3). Now I'm thinking it's actually (1)!

Through various tests on my machine, I have discovered that: The app is using 2.6 GB in addition to the 1GB of compressed memory.

On the Safari Webpage Content processes, if you max out the memory used on your machine, you will see the memory go down as compressed go up. This is how I tested it, and I assume it will work for other apps, but safari usually uses the most memory for me.


How to change or delete Personal Hotspot password on Mac side? My Mac and my old iPhone 6 used to work with personal hotspot just fine.

I replaced my old iPhone 6 with an iPhone 7 and transferred all my apps and data from the 6 to the 7.  Most things worked fine, but not Hotspot.

My Mac remembers my old iPhone 6 and remembers the Hotspot password for that old connection. I think that my Mac thinks the new iPhone 7 is the old iPhone 6 because they have the same name. The Mac shows the Personal Hotspot item in the Wifi menu, where it used to work. When I select the item, the Mac tries to connect using the old password. Now, if I remembered the old password, I could change it on the new iPhone 7 side, but I don't remember the old password.

I can see the password on the iPhone 7, and I want to input that password on the Mac. But I can't find the place on the Mac where I can delete the old password, or change it, or delete the Hotspot item and have it try again from scratch. It just keeps pounding away and telling me "failed to enable Personal Hotspot..."

I tried Personal Hotspot through WiFi. I tried Personal Hotspot through Bluetooth. I tried rebooting.

I just want to find the data on the Mac side and change or delete it (I think if I delete it then the Mac will try again from scratch and prompt me for my password).

EDIT: I found the iPhone entry under the Network -> Advanced -> Wifi gadget and deleted it.  Still "failed to enable."

I took the pair of the Mac and the iPhone 7+ to the Apple store. I demonstrated the problem, we rebooted both machines, and demonstrated the problem persisting.

The troubleshooter gave the phone a "Vulcan death pinch" squeezing the lower volume key on the left simultaneously with the usual power key on the right, holding them until the phone fully rebooted to the Apple icon on the screen, releasing only then. He said it's a hard reset, and different on different iPhone model numbers. After that, we toggled the Personal Hotspot button in the Settings app on the iPhone, making sure it's on, and chose the Personal Hotspot from the wifi gadget on the upper right of the top menu bar of the Mac and the Mac asked for the Personal Hotspot password, which I copied off the phone.

To repeat and emphasize, we hard-reset the iPhone without changing the Mac. We didn't have to do anything extraordinary on the Mac, not even open the System Preferences Network dialog.


After a recent update to 10.14.4 trackpad stopped working on a Macbook Pro 2017 Today I was prompted by the Mojave OS that I need to install an update, so I did. After the update was installed and I logged in I immediately noticed that trackpad does not work at all

As apple support suggested through their chat I've done the following without any success:
1. Restarted my macbook
2. Attempted to reset SMC by holding Shift+Control+Option+Power button.
3. Attempted to reset NVRAM by holding Command+Option+P+R. While holding these keys my macbook would turn on the screen for a couple of seconds (just a black screen, no logo) and then it would turn off entirely for about 10 seconds, then again lit-up black screen for a couple of seconds and so on. So I suspect I was never able to actually reset NVRAM successfully
4. Launched my macbook in the safe mode by holding Shift and then restarted it in regular mode.
5. Launched diagnostics mode by holding "D". It said that all hardware is fine.
6. Launched recovery mode by holding Command+R and then performed an HDD check. It didn't find anything that needed fixing.
7. Then again in recovery mode I reinstalled Mac OS. This did not help with the dead trackpad either.

So at this point I guess the only thing I wasn't able to do is to reset NVRAM properly and maybe there are other options to reset it other than to hold Command+Option+P+R. Or maybe there's some boot log somewhere that would indicate what went wrong while I was holding these keys and macbook failed to boot.

The next step I am considering is to factory reset this macbook. Will this help somehow or is it essentially the same as reinstalling Mac OS from recovery mode that I already did (without disk erraising).

I guess the last option is to consider that it is a hardware problem but if it is the case it seems kinda odd that trackpad stopped working right after I've installed the update.

I’m currently faced with this problem. I’ve tried all the suggestions and one that seemed to fix it for a week or so was turning the unit off and holding CMD + q and then turning the unit on whilst holding it until you get to the login screen.


Why doesn't a stripped/cracked MagSafe power cable shock? Behold, the fate of all (poorly handled) MagSafe power cables:

Why doesn't this shock me?  I've read that MagSafe cables are low voltage, but I don't even get a tingle.  Is there any danger of shock, arcing, and/or fire from a MagSafe cable in this condition?  If so, is a strip of electrical tape over the exposed wire a sufficient 'fix'?

Bonus question: what is the source of the green and yellow discoloration?

Magsafe cables only carry voltages ranging from 14.5 to 20 volts, which is not nearly enough to be able to feel. For more information, see this Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange question. You would not be able to touch the actual conductors anyways as the metal "wire" that is visible in this picture does not carry any current, as it is just shielding around smaller insulated wires. It is unlikely for arcing to occur, but you should still get the charger replaced soon. Like iPhone and iPad chargers, always buy MagSafe chargers from an Apple Store or the Apple website as ones bought on eBay and Amazon are known to be non-UL listed counterfeits.


Apple Pay - what's the new limit? Apple Pay increased the transaction limits recently.
In the UK it used to be £30, but is now 'higher' - without a limit being mentioned in Apple's Cashless made effortless page [UK link].

Though it's not usable everywhere - stores must update their equipment to use it apparently - I've paid for the weekly shopping at Sainsbury's for a bill of over £100, which I was slightly wary it may have rejected - but it didn't.

Is there a published limit anywhere, or is it up to your bank/card supplier to enforce their own transaction limit?

There's no limitation on Apple Pay itself. The limitation comes from the terminal that the store uses.

If you have a terminal that supports contactless cards and nothing else the limit is £30 per purchase, £100 per day, just as for a contactless card. The limit is low to avoid someone stealing your card and going on a shopping spree. And the stupid terminal doesn't realise that you have an iPhone that is much better protected than your card.

If you have a terminal that recognises Apple Pay, that terminal would know that you are really there with your phone in your hand, with the user of the phone pressing a button, so the transaction is much safer and the limit is much higher. What the actual limit is will depend on your bank.

Note: The difference isn't that one is unsafe and one is safe, the difference is that in the first case the terminal doesn't know it's safe, and in the second case it knows.


Apple iOS 8.0.2 cannot open jpeg files. Only opens winmail.dat As soon as I downloaded IOS 8.0.2 I'm no longer able to read emails correctly… My staff send me email and I'm receiving pictures as winmail.dat and they're jpeg.

This is a symptom of Outlook sending incorrect formats to Internet-based e-mail addresses. It's been a problem for many years. Have your IT staff look into the problem here:

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/958012

If you're the only one who is receiving these wonky mails, it could be that your entry in Contacts is forcing the supposedly not an RTF problem to be exactly an RTF problem. It can be checked in Outlook:

Open that specific contact by double clicking the item in the Contacts folder.
Hover on the email address of the contact and an Address Card pop-up will become visible.
On the right side of the contact card you’ll see a menu button. Click on it and from the list choose; Outlook Properties.
Make sure that the “Internet format” is set to “Let Outlook decide the best sending format”.

Let us know how you get on with it. It can be a pesky problem to sort out.


Ethernet bridging Mac Mini I would like to be able to use my home server (2012 Mac Mini) as a OpenVPN client with two network interfaces.  My plan is to connect a small switch with an Apple TV and Roku to one thunderbolt ethernet port and then connect the internal ethernet port to my wider network for internet access, sort of like this;

Apple TV 3>>>
              dumb switch >>> eth1 >>> Mac Mini > OpenVPN > eth0 >>> fibre router
Roku 2 XS >>>

Any ideas what I would need to do to make this work?

Mostly, you can just overload the one ethernet hardware port with two or more IP settings. As long as your switch can handle things, this works the simplest.

Or you could drop an thunderbolt to ethernet adapter on the back of the Mac Mini and have two hardware interfaces to let the Mac Mini sit between the two networks and route as needed. You would run OpenVPN on the adapter en0 which connects to fiber.

All of this is controllable over the normal system preferences for networking but I've been able to accomplish all of what you describe without needing the unix command line. Just drag the default route interface to the top of the service order listing and you should be good to go.


MacBook Pro with screen damage Recently, I accidentally cracked my new MacBook Pro screen. There are rainbow lines going across the screen in different directions. I sent it into my school's IT place and they were going to send it into apple with an estimated cost of $800 since it was a tier 4 accidental damage. However, a while ago, the corner was dented from dropping it (I had a case but the case did nothing). Will apple fix that while they are fixing the screen? Or will my screen not be covered because my MacBook has a dent in it? Will it cost anything extra?

Any and all accidental damage (including that dent you're worried about) will be fixed when sent out to depot at tier 4 pricing. The glass, LCD, and housing will all be replaced- basically the whole top of the computer.

The only way it wouldn't get fixed is if the repair facility tech determines your computer "beyond economical repair" and that only happens if either a)every part in it is damaged or b) it contains some kind of biohazard (like insects, or bodily fluids) If that happens they just send the computer back not repaired at no cost. Basically on a 13" computer 755+tax is the most you can pay so they should fix anything/everything that is wrong/damaged and if they don't you should complain/send it back.

Honestly if you're close at all to an Apple store, display repairs are often significantly cheaper than flat rate tier 4 repair. When I left Apple in 2016 MacBook Air displays were around 425$ or so after labor, and 13" MacBook Pro screens only a little more than that. Way cheaper than 755 if nothing else is wrong w/ your computer. An in-store repair would also include repairing the glass and dented housing because in-store technicians don't replace just the LCD, they replace the whole display assembly.

Source: worked at the Genius Bar for 4+ years


Facebook messenger calls, show only short name When someone calls me on my FB messenger I can only see their short name. I noticed this change after I updated my iPhone to iOS14. Does anyone know how can I change it back? I have multiple people with the same short name and it is very difficult for me to understand who is who.
I'm positive that I configured contacts properly like this yet messenger refuses to show full names.

You could try setting the Messages display name and see if Facebook Messenger respects it; however, I'm not sure if this will help.

Open Settings and go to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” then scroll down to the ‘Contacts’ section and go back to “Short Name”, then
choose one of the following options:

First Name & Last Initial – good middle ground choice
First Initial & Last Name Only
First Name Only – the annoying default
Last Name Only – OK if you’re on a football team
Optionally, set “Prefer Nicknames” to your preference

Go back to Messages and view a thread to see the change.


Creating the same, double applications for iOS permitted? To get more exposure in the App Store for iOS apps I found out that creating a second application for 'top keywords' is vital for getting more downloads. I am considering creating 4 or 5 iOS applications that are identical to each other (in code) with a completely different design on a top search keyword.

To give an example, let's say I've created an iPhone game with the name "Pokemon Center". To get more exposure on the popular search term "Pokemon game" I simply create 4 other games with exactly the same content in a very different design. "Pokemon Center for Kids", "Pokemon Center Fast Play", "Pokemon Center Red" etc.

An better example: "2048 original", "2048 lite", "2048 for Kids", "2048 for Adults"

So far, it worked as I have 2 identical applications in the App Store. And I'm getting more downloads & revenue. My games (or game) is actually getting really positive reviews from players.

Is this permitted?

Apple can reject apps which are duplicates:

  2.11
  Apps that duplicate Apps already in the App Store may be rejected, particularly if there are many of them, such as fart, burp, flashlight, and Kama Sutra Apps

Source: Apple App Store Review Guidelines

You should only create one app and spend your efforts promoting this app. Furthermore, if you seek to make apps that appeal to users with clear functionality, Apple's interests and your interests will align. In the case where you are looking to ride hot search terms, unless your apps are really what you are seeding in the search terms - trying to work the system shouldn't work in the long run.


start ntpd with launchdaemon I would like to start an ntpd on my MacOSX 10.8. ntpd is configured correctly and runs when started manually.
I would like to start it on boot time with lauchdaemon.

I created this com.stefan.ntp.plist file in /Library/LaunchDaemons:

<?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>com.stefan.ntpd</string>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/usr/sbin/ntpd</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string></string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</plist>

Added it to the Launchdaemon with

launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.stefan.ntpd.plist

However, it does not start.

sh-3.2# launchctl list | grep ntpd
-   0   com.stefan.ntpd
sh-3.2# launchctl start com.stefan.ntpd
sh-3.2# launchctl list | grep ntpd
-   0   com.stefan.ntpd

Any ideas?

There should be an ntpd process started by /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ntp.ntpd.plist by default in 10.8.

The plist is also missing <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>, but I couldn't get this to work either:

<?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>com.stefan.ntpd</string>
  <key>Program</key>
  <string>/usr/sbin/ntpd</string>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key>
  <true/>
</dict>
</plist>


Is there another way to boot into Recovery Mode without using the built-in keyboard? I am getting the folder with question mark issue in my 2014 Macbook Air (Catalina) and I need to boot into Recovery Mode.
Unfortunately my MBA's keyboard already had issues beforehand, and some of the keys including R doesn't work (I normally just use external keyboards).
I can't go to Recovery Mode using my wireless BT keyboard. I also tried plugging in my mechanical keyboard via USB (Anne Pro 2) but CMD+R still doesn't register on boot.
Would there be other ways of booting into Recovery Mode other than CMD+R? Should I try and use other cheaper USB keyboards?
Or is there another way to fix the blinking question mark problem? (I think I messed it up after erasing a disk and restarting right away without re-installing macOS).
Any pointers would be appreciated, thank you!

I was able to fix the blinking question mark issue by using a bootable USB installer to install Catalina on the Macbook Air—plugged in the bootable flash drive while holding Opt key. It was able to detect the installer.


Plist in /System/Library/LaunchAgents not loading on reboot I have created the plist and placed it in /System/Library/LaunchAgents/. However, when I reboot my Mac it does not load like it is expected to. I am able to load it from the Terminal with launchctl load and unload commands and it is perfectly loaded from there. And also I have checked the console after reboot and it does not have any entry related to the plist.

How can I get this plist to run on boot?

Is the property list owned by root? If it is not, it is not loaded on login even if launchctl load (without sudo) would load it.

$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
launchctl: Dubious ownership on file (skipping): /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
nothing found to load
$ sudo chown root /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist
$

If the program is meant to be run when the property list is loaded, set RunAtLoad to true:

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

Also you can normally use /Library/LaunchAgents/ instead of /System/Library/LaunchAgents/. From man launchd:

~/Library/LaunchAgents         Per-user agents provided by the user.
/Library/LaunchAgents          Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
/Library/LaunchDaemons         System-wide daemons provided by the administrator.
/System/Library/LaunchAgents   Per-user agents provided by Mac OS X.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons  System-wide daemons provided by Mac OS X.


Removing modem icon from menubar I had borrowed a USB modem which I used briefly with my Snow Leopard MacBook, and while setting it I had told System Preferences to show modem status in menubar. Now I have removed the modem services, but after doing so I have realized that I cannot remove the modem icon from menubar anymore. Is there a way to do so, short of finding and reinstalling (and uninstalling) another modem?

Hold ⌘ and drag it out of the menubar. Also, in the networking system preference, you can often find a show icon in the menu bar preference. I can't recall if this checkbox is easily shown when the hardware is no longer present, but it's an alternative to dragging the icon out directly in some cases.


Limit battery charging to a certain level? I have some iPhones which are connected via USB to a computer 24/7.

This set-up drastically reduces the battery life-time: The integrated battery is swelling every 1-2 years in a way that the iPhone nearly disassembles itself (the device has a gap in the middle of more than 5mm so that you can right look into the device and the display is a bit "curvy").

As the devices nearly constantly are powered via USB the battery I don't care if the battery is charged 50% or 100%. Is there a possibility to limit the maximum charge or is it possible to disable charging on a jailbroken device?

Note other answers like "don't charge the device the whole night" are useless to me as the phones have to be connected via USB 24/7 because the devices are accessed via SSH over USB. And answers that indicate that there is no risk in charging a device 24/7 are obviously wrong as I have multiple devices that continuously get a swelling battery after a certain time if they are connected via USB 24/7.

There's really no option in the iPhone to limit it to charging the battery to 50%, or temporarily disable charging.

However, I suggest that you turn the problem around and look at it differently. Namely just stop supplying power to the phone, when you do not want it to charge. You can leave the cable plugged in and have data transfers continually, but just don't supply the +5V for charging.

This can be done by plugging the iPhone into a hub that supports per-port power control and then plugging the hub into a computer, where you can use uhubctl to turn on/off ports as you like:

https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl


How to enable true color mode in an OS X Terminal? NeoVim recently added support for True Color mode in terminals that support it. I've tried both Terminal 2.5.3 (343.7) and iTerm 2.1.1, and neither one can display more than 256 colors by default.

This is a script used for testing terminal color capability. When I run it, the 3-byte color mode section at the bottom is just black and green, indicating that support is absent.

Is there a way to enable True Color mode in any OS X Terminal application?

True color mode is enabled by default in iTerm 3.0+.

The default MacOS Terminal.app is still limited to a 256 color palette.


Does OS X respect Windows Server 2012 AD DS Fine-Grained Password policies? Trying to setup fine-grained password policies, but Mobile Accounts on OS X seem to be hitting the default domain policy versus the fine-grained policy applied to the users.

Does the OS X AD plug-in support the fine-grained policies?

Based on my testing and research, the answer is "no".

According to Best Practices for Integrating OS X with Active Directory

"Are subject to the organization’s domain password policies".

It doesn't reference anything more specifically than the domain password policy, which is the only object that my test clients seem to recognize.


How to classify "unknown artist", "unknown album" in Itunes? I have a cd with x mp3 files on it. After importing them to iTunes (Apple-O, Add to Library), songs appear on disk at

I can't seem to be able reference these files form iTunes in any form. Search for any of the songs reveal nothing.

How can i access these songs in iTunes to help me name them appropriately?

You want to re-import those songs into your iTunes library. When viewing the songs, sort by the date added field. (You can add columns by right clicking any information header in the song list and adding check marks to the menu that shows).

Since the exact steps vary based on your OS and the version of iTunes, you can add that to your question or use iTunes help on importing songs from the computer folders and it will show you how to add those missing songs to the Library database that iTunes maintains.

Once you have an imported song, you can use iTunes to add titles and albums so that the storage on your filesystem is proper.


cannot remove com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist I am on High Sierra (MacOS 10.13.6) and I am failing to remove com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist which is in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

ls -l
-rw-rw-r--@ 1 me  staff    1  8 Oct 17:57 com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist

So I fail to see why I cannot.  Yet:

rm -r com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist
remove com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist? y
rm: com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist: Operation not permitted

similarly,

sudo rm com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist
Password:
remove com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist? y
rm: com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist: Operation not permitted

I rebooted in single user mode, used chflags noschg and tried to remove the file with no success.  What I did manage to do as single user was to basically delete the content of the file with vim.  I cannot rename the file BTW.

Any idea of (1) what is going on and (2) how I delete said file?

Well I realised the folder ~/Library/LaunchAgents was locked -- I changed that and I could remove the file.  Mystery solved.


Starting Apache2 on Mountain Lion I have tried every option to get apache2 to work in Mountain Lion, and I am baffled by how impossible the task seems to be.

I just got a new iMac and on a fresh, clean install, I went about setting up apache to serve local sites.

Using the usual suspects of possible configuration changes, I can get apache to actually "start" but then things go downhill from there.

No matter how I define the local server root, I always get a Forbidden error. I can chmod the directory structure to 777 and I still get a Forbidden error.

I have set the server root as the default /Library/WebServer/Documents/, set it to /Users/myUserName/Sites/, /Users/myUserName/Documents/Sites, /Volumes/ExternalDrive/Site/ and any other possible combination, modifying /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and/or /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf as well as the vhosts file and the myUserName.conf file. Nothing makes a difference.

I have restarted apache with sudo apachectl restart as well as sudo apachectl stop followed by sudo apachectl start.

Nothing works.

Can someone help me get this issue resolved? I am beginning to want to throw my brand new iMac against the wall.

Note, I am not a novice at this and I have set up dozens of Macs. However, nothing seems to work this time. I even reformatted and reinstalled the system again.

sudo apachectl start starts Apache and enables /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist.

To make http://localhost/~username/ work, save something like this as /etc/apache2/users/username.conf:

<Directory "/Users/username/Sites/">
    Options Indexes MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

I didn't have to edit any other files or httpd.conf.


Get the process id of the app, which called the service I have an service in automator, which is binded to the Safari ,no input option.

Now is there any way for the service in automator to get the process id of the Safari, which called it ?

New to applescript and automator. Thanks for the inputs.

As you launch the service from Safari, the application will be the one in the foreground.

You can use this Applescript in the "Run AppleScript" action.

tell application "System Events"
    set x to first process whose its frontmost is true and name is "Safari"
    return unix id of x
end tell


Error while trying to clean install OS X El Capitan (Apple ID auth error) I am trying to do a clean install of El Capitan using guide on support.apple.com. I reformatted they drive as told, but now I am getting an error while trying to do the new install. Every time I try to log in with my Apple ID, I get the following error:

AMD-Action:authenticate:SP

I have no clue why this is happening. I am doing a reinstall of macOS Sierra on my other mac and this is going as it should. I also see the device logged into the Apple ID when checking it on appleid.apple.com.

Does anyone know how I could get out of this? I don't have any backups, so I really need to do this install.

it's an Apple id problem.
Solution:
Power on your Mac and keep Command+Option+R (CMD+ALT+R)
Then connect your wifi network and install without Apple id.
i tested, it's work.


How to enable Sqlite on a Mac OS X Mavericks I upgraded my Mac with OS X Mavericks last week.  It appears to have taken away support for Sqlite -- not Sqlite3, but sqlite.  I need that for a website I work on.  I went to Sqlite's website, but all I could find was older versions of Sqlite3.  Where can I find a version of Sqlite?  I've been through the php.ini and can only find one reference to sqlite.  In short, how do I get Sqlite support on my Mac?  I have Sqlite3 enabled and the issue isn't going away.

I uncommented pdo_sqlite in the php.ini and I still have the issue.

As it turned out, this was only an issue because I was using Zend Framework 1.12 and Apple upgraded to PHP 5.4 and 5.4, which in turn dropped some Sqlite support in favor of Sqlite 3.  Here are instructions on how to upgrade Zend to Sqlite 3 support.

https://github.com/gencer/zend-cache-sqlite3


Is there a way to share a wi-fi connection over wi-fi? The problem is that here is a router (at a cottage), which only allows 2 connections. but we need wi-fi for 8 devices. so the plan is to create another wi-fi spot to share our connection. is there a tool or tutorial for that?

In order for a Mac to create a local Wi-Fi network, it needs to have a wired Internet source. So what you need to do is:

Connect an Ethernet cable from the router (the wired source) to a Mac.
On that Mac, choose System Preferences > Sharing.
Select Internet Sharing.
Choose Ethernet from the “Share your connection from” pop-up menu.
Select AirPort in the “To computers using” list, then click AirPort Options and give your network a name and password.
Connect the other computers to the new Wi-Fi network you just created.

If needed, there are more details on this Apple help page: Sharing your Internet connection.


Opening Mobile Documents folder in Finder on Sierra As of Sierra(?) opening ~/Library/Mobile Documents in the Finder actually takes you to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs. This the Finder stylizes as "iCloud Drive" and only has folders for certain applications.

It is still possible to access Mobile Documents proper through Terminal, but even when opening the directory in Finder directly from Terminal it redirects to com~apple~CloudDocs.

Is it possible to access the root Mobile Documents folder from Finder?

I found a really nice type of workaround for this from here. Essentially you need to run the following command in Terminal:

ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ ~/Desktop/Real\ iCloud\ Drive

This will create an alias on your desktop that shows all the folders in the Mobile Documents folder when you open it. You are free to browse it to your liking—albeit with one caveat: you can't directly open any folders. You'll have to use the list view's ability to expand folders and then view files from there.


Is the lock screen PIN secure enough when sending in for repair? The button on my wife's iPhone 4 has become unresponsive and I would like to get it repaired. Like most people, the phone contains important emails, documents and photos which she would not like to fall into the wrong hands (identity theft etc.). Due to convenience I probably wont send it into Apple and will take it to a local repair shop instead (not that I would trust Apple much more).

We are not celebrities or big shot executives, so I can't imagine that someone would go to great lengths using special hardware/software. Is the phone's lock screen PIN secure enough to be in the repair shop for a few days? Or can someone take a dump of the phone's contents via the standard USB cable and easily crack it at their leisure.

Is the phone's lock screen PIN secure enough to be in the repair shop for a few days?

I'd say no. There are forensic-type applications can that extract your phone data without requiring the screen to be unlocked. It's fairly easy to backup and then wipe your phone, and later restore it from that backup. Might as well do it and rest comfortably knowing none of your personal data is in the hands of someone else.

Besides, you may not get your exact phone back. They may be able to swap it for a new phone or a refurbished phone if they're an Apple Authorized repair depot. In that case your data may be left on your old phone and sent off to a depot for reconditioning.

Who would want that uncertainty?

Backing Up Your Phone

Before you wipe your phone to send it in make sure you have a backup!

If you're using iCloud back up your phone go to Settings -> iCloud -> Storage & Backup and click the Back Up Now button to do a backup.

If you're using iTunes to backup your phone connect to iTunes and do a backup.

Wiping Your Phone

DOUBLE CHECK YOU'VE MADE A RECENT BACKUP!!!

To wipe the phone go to: Settings -> General -> Reset and click the Erase All Content and Settings button. This will set you back to factory defaults.

Send it in for repair.

Restoring Your Phone

When you get it back it should behave as if it's a new, never used, iPhone. In this case, after you pick your language, you'll be asked if you want to set it up as a new phone, restore it from an iCloud backup or restore it from an iTunes backup.

Select Restore from iCloud Backup and follow the prompts if you used iCloud to back up your phone.

Otherwise select Restore from iTunes Backup and follow the prompts.