After upgrade to Lion, Mailplane experiences repeated failures to connect I'm a happy longtime Mailplane (Mac gmail client) user, but it seems to have become buggy since installing Lion.

There's nothing official on the website about problems, so maybe its just me and/or my configuration.

Anybody else have problems? Any ideas?

FWIW, I have been using Mailplane on Lion on my MacBooks (Air&Pro) without any bugginess. (Have you contacted the dev? He's been very responsive in my experience.)

If you didn't do a clean install of Lion (or used MobileMe to sync preferences) you might want to backup

${HOME}/Library/Application Support/Mailplane
${HOME}/Library/Preferences/com.mailplaneapp.Mailplane.plist

(If you don't have your license file, be sure to save

defaults read com.mailplaneapp.Mailplane License

too.)

zip/email them to yourself and then delete them -- not just trash them -- from your system. Reboot.

Then try setting up Mailplane again.


Unable to sign out of iCloud on OSX Yosemite or disable Keychain Background

This appears to be an ongoing problem with many people.. In short, I'm getting a ton of errors in my system.log along the lines of:

CloudKeychainProxy[307]:  __39-[UbiqitousKVSProxy doSyncWithAllPeers]_block_invoke_2 <UBK-s-pC---> syncWithAllPeers (null), rescheduling timer

This happens once every 5 seconds - kind of silly, right?

The first thing I wanted to do was to sign out of iCloud because something has obviously gone wrong there. I open the system preferences, navigate to iCloud and try to hit Sign Out. One by one the iCloud services are all disabled, each asks me if I want to keep a copy of the data locally. This process finishes, and then I get an error stating:

Your iCloud account couldn't be removed at this time.

Turn off all iCloud services and try again.

The one holdout in the iCloud preferences pane is Keychain. When I uncheck the box, it immediately re-checks itself, the moment I answer the keep or delete data question (and regardless of the answer selected).

A look in system.log via Console shows this error appearing the moment the box is rechecked:

com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice[645]: [AOSAccounts] : [SetEnabled] : Did not call SSRemoveSyncedKeychainData as we had an error in SOSCCRemoveThisDeviceFromCircle for account myaccount@site.com  error: (null)

(actual email address replaced with "myaccount@site.com")

So. I can't sign out of iCloud since I can't disable iCloud Keychain. WTF?

Ideas that did not work

Repairing permissions, both in Disk Utility, and my home directory permissions from the Cmd-R-on-boot Recovery system. No effect.
Checking for disk errors - there are none.
Booting in safe mode - No effect.
Clearing every cache possible (via OnyX), including LaunchServices, dyld, XPC, kernel, boot, and system components. - No effect.
Changing my password on iCloud.com - this results in a prompt for a password which is never accepted, and attempting to cancel out of it results in System Preferences crashing!! After reloading it, it appears that my modified password was accepted, but no other changes have been made. No effect on the problem.
Removing all third party kexts (anything that shows in a kextstat | grep -v apple). Only stuff I had in there was Virtualbox and Little Snitch, both of which were uninstalled totally. No effect.
Signing out of all other iCloud devices, including another Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad. No effect.

Ideas that are not acceptable

Creating a new user account. This is a workaround, and does not fix whatever's been broken. The same problem could happen again, and just abandoning my account anytime it does really isn't a tenable solution.

Other notes

iCloud appears to work fine except for the keychain bits. New passwords saved in Safari do not synchronize across devices. Mail, notes, calendar, etc, work fine.

Apple Support was useless on this matter, suggesting everything I tried above, with the only other option being a full iCloud reset, which is both the nuclear option (all my synced data goes away), and may not fix the problem on the mac anyways.

Signing in in my iPhone and enable iCloud Keychain did the trick to me. So I restored the keychain in my iPhone and then the keychain switch in my Mac changed to  off state as magic


iPod doesn't appear in iTunes after being used as Windows hard disk I hope you can help me with my iPod Classic 6th generation 160 GB, 2007.
Few months ago I used my iPod to store my files from Windows. I had to format the iPod to use in order to save my information.

Now I want to use it to listen to my music, but I can't, because iTunes doesn't show it as a connected device. It does however, appear in Finder. Also in Windows, it can be read and written.

The format of the disk is ExFat.

I've tried to run in diagnostic mode, it seems that it is OK with values of IO. I reset many times also. Restarting the computer too.

Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility), click on your iPod in the sidebar. Select "Erase" from the tabs in the center. Enter a name for the disk, then from the dropdown, select any of the 'Mac OS X' options.
Click the "Erase" button in the right hand bottom corner. This will delete all your data on the iPod
Wait for it to finish formatting, and you should be good to go!


itunes - mp4 files randomly divided between "Movies" and "Home Videos" in library I'm using the most current version of iTunes on a PC, and streaming movies to an Apple TV (Gen4).  I've noticed that though all movies come from the same Windows folder, iTunes divides them up, placing some in "Movies" and some in "Home Videos".  Is there a way to organize that more intuitively so that all my true movies go into "Movies" and all my videorecordings of family go into "Home Videos"?

If you like using the Terminal, download and compile mp4v2, then run a command like:

mp4tags -i "movie" <filename>

Make a backup first, but I use this all time, works great.


Change input language in macOS Sierra beta when an external keyboard is connected/disconnected Not sure if it is possible - is there a way to make macOS Sierra beta change the input language as soon as an external keyboard is connected? I have a Macbook Pro Retina 13" with an US keyboard layout, but sometimes I connect an external USB keyboard from Apple that has a German keyboard layout. While it is not difficult to manually switch between the two input languages, is there a way to automate this?

Karabiner can be set up to activate a different keyboard layout only for an external keyboard.  See

Different key-maps/bindings for in-built keyboard and Bluetooth keyboard


Use a remote display as a local one I was wondering if I could use a display connected to another machine (Linux Mint XFCE) to extend my OSX desktop. Is this possible, and if so, how?

I am not aware of any Linux software that can do that, though there is some commercial OSX and Win software that enables you to use a screen as a second screen for OSX (over the network): http://avatron.com/apps/air-display#downloads

If you are running dualboot Linux/Win this maybe an option.

I use it with my MBP. The connection is fast enough for office, mail, browsing, etc.


Did Apple kill iCloud Keychain wifi password sync? Wi-Fi passwords used to sync between my devices via iCloud Keychain, a wifi password entered on my MacBook would end up on my phone via the 4G connection, and the phone would automatically connect, handy.

As of the last update this doesn’t happen, now I have to bring my phone next to my laptop and tap the share notification to pass it over Bluetooth to get the phone to connect, it’s slow, and half of the time doesn’t work.

Did Apple really scrap the iCloud sync solution to force everyone to use the Bluetooth one that is way more suited for sharing with friends rather than between my own devices?

I bumped into this question when searching for the problem.

And I figured out iCloud didn't set up (or logged in) on my Mac OS X. When I logged in to icloud, KeyChain access created a new tab for iCloud just under the Login tab.

Please be sure, you set up iCloud on your Mac OS X.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208682


Installing Xcode Command Line Tools I performed a fresh install of macOS Mojave 10.14. Immediately after that I installed Xcode Version 10.0 (10A255) from the Mac App Store.

Now, I wish to install Homebrew which requires Xcode Command Line Tools to be installed. My understanding is that installing Xcode also installs the Command Line Tools. Or not?

As per this answer, I checked if the Command Line Tools are installed by running:

xcode-select -p

which printed the path for the Developer directory as follows:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

As suggested in the answer, I also verified the return value by running:

echo $?

which retuned 0.

I also ran, gcc and make and bash was able to locate and execute them.

Thus far I am convinced that the Xcode Command Line Tools are installed. Now when I execute:

xcode-select --install

I get this alert:

What's the probable reason for this disparity? Will this install Xcode Command Line Tools twice? Or overwrite the existing installation?

As I understand, Xcode Command Line Tools can be installed without installing Xcode. Also, from my previous experience, if the Command Line Tools aren't installed separately from Xcode (by running xcode-select --install), they are not detected by Homebrew, i.e. when running brew config, the value for CLT: is shown as N/A.

Here's the complete picture (pardon the pun):

Although I am talking in context of macOS Mojave, the question remains the same with regard to previous versions of macOS.

What is the advisable approach to take here?

Note: After installing Xcode, I launched it, accepted license agreement and let it finish its run of installing additional tools (which is a one time activity).

Apparently, there is some distinction between the command line tools installed for use by Xcode and the tools installed for system-wide use:

https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/5002#issuecomment-425707878

For my machine, running xcode-select --install and choosing to install the tools from the window that popped up helped fix the problem. I was able to confirm that it was fixed when running brew config and seeing a valid entry for CLT:

macOS: 10.14-x86_64
CLT: 10.0.0.0.1.1535735448
Xcode: 10.0


Pool multiple drives into a single network share in macOS 10.14 or later I have a mac fileserver with multiple drives that I'd like to combine into a single pool (such that the filesystems appear to be combined together) and then have accessible as a network share, preferably using SMB.

The sort of drive pooling I'm after is similar to what's possible with filesystems like UnionFS, mergerfs, or mhddfs in Linux, or what can be accomplished specifically as a network share with something like Greyhole.

Edit: I should note that I need the drives to remain accessible as separate volumes so that I can protect their data using snapraid.

I've already found this question from earlier: Pool Multiple Hard Drives in ONE network Share

...but its answers are over five years old now and don't work in modern versions of macOS. In particular mhddfs is no longer maintained and isn't usable in macOS any longer. Unfortunately none of these other linux pooling filesystems are available for macOS.

Is there any way to accomplish this?

Oddly enough macOs (thru Catalina) offers doing a JBOD RAID array (what you are describing) as a part of Disk Utility.

Open Disk Utility
Select RAID assistant... from the file menu
Select Concatenated (JBOD) and click next.

Now there may be some limitations to making a disk pool with Disk Utility that I am not aware of as I have never actually done this myself but I would think it is, at least, worth investigating to see if it works for your setup and needs.


What is shutdown cause -60? Since installing Mavericks on my 2010 MBP, it seems to be giving me the spinning beach ball often. I think I may need a new HDD, as Disk Utility cannot repair it, but I also get this error:

Nov 21 20:33:38 COMPUTERNAME kernel[0] <Debug>: Previous Shutdown Cause: -60

-60 is badMDBErr (bad master directory block error)

It indicates that there is something wrong with the drive, and Disk Utility not being able to repair the drive supports this. Back up your data, erase using Disk Utility and reinstall OS X.

OS X Shutdown Causes


"Moving" MP3s from one mac book to the next? I imported my private MP3 collection (basically ripped from the CDs I bought years back) on my Mac into iTunes some years back. On my "Music" directory, I basically see my folder private, where I put my MP3 files with 15 GB, and iTunes, also with 15 GB. I guess that is where iTunes stored all the data after import.
I use the Music app1.0.6.10 on macOS Catalina 10.15.6 now instead of iTunes.
I am about to replace that old Mac book with a new one. My plan is to  copy that private folder onto the new machine, and import again but I worry it won't that like "double" all the existing entries.
I saw this very old question, but I am rather looking for a more basic explanation about "option space", and best practices.
How do I get the same MP3s into Apple Music these days?

By default, iTunes/Music copies audio files to /Music/iTunes. If you've got 15 GB of music in two locations, then you've probably got them duplicated already.
When you get a new Mac, you can use Migration Assistant to copy all your files and settings, and the process will be handled automatically for you.
If you don't want to use Migration Assistant, you can just copy the 'iTunes' folder inside /Music. The new app will update its Library database will all your data.


OS X El Capitan and Canon mg3600 I just purchased Canon MG3600 printer/scanner for use on OS X El Capitan.

I am unable to get my Mac to open the install CD for the printer. "No application available".

It will print and copy with scanner controls but not scan to computer. No computer control of scanner.  Any help? thanks

I NEVER use the drivers from the supplied media. I ALWAYS download the latest from the manufacturers website by googling (in your case) "Canon MG3600 Mac Driver."

Choose the top result that has "canon.com" as the domain (eg not an ad or a site specializing in driver downloads as they often bundle adware with the drivers) and you will (almost always) go right to the page where you can download the latest and greatest driver for your make and model of printer, scanner or any other 3rd party device that requires a driver.

It is possible that you got a Windows only CD or merely a defective disc. Regardless of that download the driver from the manufacturers site to ensure you have the latest and greatest version.


how to change my command prompt to show current working directory I'm trying to change my command prompt to display my current working directory, but it doesn't work for me. I have tried putting this in my bash_profile which is in my home directory:
PS1='\h:\w$ '
PS1='\h:$PWD \u$ '
and my prompt does change but it just shows the same as I'm putting in so it doesn't recognize things like \h and \w i think?
I'm running macOS Catalina 10.15.6

You are using zsh so the definition needs to go to .zshrc and it's slightly different (see man zshmisc for all options). The equivalent for \h \w \$ in zsh is
PS1='%m %~%# '

%m The hostname up to the first '.'.  An integer may follow the %  to  specify  how  many
components of the hostname are desired.  With a negative integer, trailing components of
the hostname are shown.
%~ Current  working  directory.   If  an  integer follows the %, it specifies a number of
trailing components of the current working directory to show; zero means the whole path.
If the current working directory  starts  with  $HOME,  that  part  is
replaced  by a ~
%# A # if the shell is running with privileges, a % if not.


Why do these apps "like to access the microphone"? The apps Google Maps and Waze request access to the microphone.

  Enable microphone access to play audio on bluetooth devices and more.

The explanation doesn't make sense to me. What does "play audio on bluetooth devices" have to do with the microphone? And what does "more" include?

It's a new permission that Apple added with iOS 7 to let you know which apps need to access the microphone.

Now, for those apps that do not relate to the microphone, my guess would be one of 2 things:

Developers of such apps did not update their apps to iOS 7, so the OS needs to ask for your permission on accessing the microphone, or
Developers did update their apps to iOS 7, but they did not address this API in their code yet.

Either way, we should see less of these pop up messages as iOS 7 becomes more mainstream and developers get the time to update their apps fully.

In my experience, not a single app "broke" for denying it access to the microphone, so it should be fine to hit "Don't Allow".


Replace string with new line + string in a big file I need to replace the string ),( with )\n,( in a 10GB file. The \n in this case obviously stands for a newline.
I've tried so with this command:

sed -i '' '/),(/ s//),\n(/g' bigfile.sql

However, that didn't really work as expected. It did replace the string, but it didn't insert a newline, but simply a "n" (so it just neglected the backslash and escaped it).
Any other takes on this, or where's my mistake in the above command?

Try

sed -i '' $'/),(/ s//),\\\n(/g' bigfile.sql

$'...' indicates that the string is a C-style string. This allows you to use the \\ and \n escapes, among others.
In place of your \n, we have a \\ and then a \n. This passes a literal backslash, and then a literal newline, to sed. This allows it to recognize that the newline is a part of the pattern, instead of terminating it.

The following also works:

sed -i '' '/),(/ s//),\
(/g' bigfile.sql


How to stop autocorrect from putting a space after it corrects a word If I type something like "Helko" and press the "Hello" button that shows up on the bar above my keyboard, it will add a space, leaving me with "Hello ".
If I wanted to type "Hello." then this is frustrating, because now I have to delete the space before adding the period.
As another example, say I wanted to send my friend just the word Hello, but instead I typed Helko. Is there a single button I can press to go from Helko to Hello? (Without an intermediate Hello ?)
Is there any way to stop the autocorrect bar from adding a space after I choose to correct a word?

If the autocorrect word is highlighted, then you can also accept it by just tapping Space. If you double-tap Space, it will accept and insert the stop, same as a regular word.

After question edits: this also works if you type any punctuation, bracket, question mark etc.


What are the pros and cons to updating iOS with a full install via iTunes versus a delta update via the Settings app? I can think of a few reasons to do it each way, but I'd like a complete list of them.

Advantages of full install via iTunes:

Device will be synced and backed up automatically during the update process
If at location without Wi-Fi access (and without an unlimited data plan), won't use up (large?) portion of the monthly quota
Device will be charging during the update

Disadvantages of full install:

Tethered to computer for the duration of the update (unless using Wi-Fi Sync)
Full update could be significantly slower due to the large upgrade file download

Advantages of delta update via Settings:

Convenient - no need to be tethered to a computer while updating
Delta updates are smaller - with potentially shorter total update time

Disadvantages of delta update:

Users might not back up devices if prior to running the delta update - a potential issue if the update fails
Update process might use significant portion of the device's charge on the battery, running risk of corruption if the battery dies during the update
If device isn't at 50% power, the device can't be updated via the update process unless plugged in (per this article):

  To install these updates, however, you need to have at least 50
  percent battery life on your device, or have it plugged into a power
  source.

I'm sure this list isn't comprehensive, but it contains most of the issues that I can think of.


Looking for a way to mimic the battery-saving behavior of closing the lid without actually doing so I'm looking for a way to keep the lid up, yet tell my Macbook Pro Late 2013 to do what it would do if the lid was actually closed. When I close the lid, the battery lasts for a long time, not so when the lid is open but I sleep the display.

I would like a way to tell my Macbook to sleep the display, yet if no interaction after a certain amount of time, then go into the mode comparable to closing the lid. All while keeping the lid open at all times because I have an external display and it's unnecessary having to close the lid when I'm done using it. When I'm ready to use it, I would just wake it using my bluetooth keyboard, or the power button. That would be comparable to opening the lid.

I have my hibernation setting at 3.

I'm sure there are some terminal commands to make this happen, I'm just unaware of it.

You can find these options in System Preferences > Energy Saver.

Drag the "Computer Sleep:" slider to the left.

Note that for newer Apple portables, Yosemite combines the sleep and display sleep option:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2013-mba-no-computer-sleep-setting-wtf-heres-why.1598329/


Is Mac OS X Server 10.6 upgradeable to latest Desktop OS X (without Sever.app) Around 2010, my boss purchased a Mac mini Server with 10.6. (Macmini3, 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM)

This server was retired last week.

Is the Server License (unlimited client) eligible to upgrade to a new release of OS X (Mavericks or Yosemite) or do I have to buy a new license?

Once all the updates have been installed and OS X 10.6.8 is installed the App Store suggest to upgrade to OS X 10.11.6.

Therefore, it plays no role whether it is an OS X servers or a "normal" OS X.
As soon as it is 10.6.8, it is eligible to upgrade.


App hangs when run: cs_invalid_page error in logfile I'm trying to start Sony Sound Forge Pro. It's worked before, but then I tried to update to version 2 of the app, and I started getting this error when I start it. I downgraded back to version 1 and I still get the error.
The error is in the Console and it looks like this:

5/1/14 8:15:25.000 PM kernel[0]: CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page(0x10d2c1000): p=490[CoreServicesUIAg] final status 0x1000a00, denying page sending SIGKILL
5/1/14 8:15:25.000 PM kernel[0]: CODE SIGNING: process 490[CoreServicesUIAg]: rejecting invalid page at address 0x10d2c1000 from offset 0x11000 in file "/Applications/Sound Forge Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Sound Forge Pro" (cs_mtime:1365521695.0 == mtime:1365521695.0) (signed:1 validated:1 tainted:1 wpmapped:0 slid:0)

Is there any way to "reset" Apple's code signing and allow this application to run again?

You could ad-hoc sign the program yourself if you know it is a valid program, and not malware or similar.

From Terminal.app run a command like this:

sudo codesign -f -s - "/Applications/Sound Forge Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Sound Forge Pro"

"-f" means to force replace the existing, faulty, signature
"-s -" means to ad-hoc sign

The rest is the completely path and filename of the executable you want to sign.


How to enable iCloud music or link Apple music to my account on macOS Catalina? When I try to turn on "Sync Library" in Catalina's new Music App I get this error:

This account does not have iCloud music enabled.
Apple music has not been linked to this account.

I do indeed have an iCloud subscription, so storage shouldn't be an issue.
How do I enable iClound music on my account?

It is a feature of Apple Music and you need a subscription to it to use it.


Section Tab Missing on Document Tool Bar I want to change the starting page number in a Pages document but I don't (seem to) have the Section tab on the Document side tool bar.  How do I get it bacK?

It was changed in Pages 10.
Mentioned here, but I found it to be tricky to get to, especially without much experience with this app. For one thing, you have to make sure thumbnails are visible with View -> Page Thumbnails.

Here you can see the thumbnails on the left. On the right hand side you can only see Format and Document.

Finally after clicking on the thumbnail, Section finally shows up. IT WILL DISAPPEAR when you click in the document body.


Where does Mail keep its configuration files? I had to replace my hard drive and don't have a backup. I do have a copy of my home folder on an external disk but it was a simple copy/paste job.

I've been dragging my stuff from that disk to my new drive but I don't know where to look for Mail.app account configuration data. I need to recover the server name, username and password for one of my accounts.

Mail.app stores server credentials in your login keychain. You will find your login keychain in: ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Copy, rename, and open this keychain file with Keychain Access. Keychain Access is included with Mac OS X in the Applications > Utilities folder.

Within the Keychain Access application, search for your mail server using the search field at the top-right.

To retrieve a password, double-click on the item and enable Show password:.


Eject disk and get error message "Disk not ejected properly" when unplugging disk I have an external USB Western Digital disk I use for Time Machine backups.

I eject the disk, the disk icon disappears. I wait a few minutes, then unplug the disk. I end up with a "The disk was not ejected properly" error message. Disk Utilities show the disk, but as unmounted. I have the following entries in Console as I plugin the disk, eject it, and the remove it:

3/6/13 6:24:14.796 PM corestoraged[56949]: 0x7fff73b84180 unlockLVF: LVF=9C635715-6AC9-4201-B69A-368F287FECEF, "AES-XTS", status = "Locked"
3/6/13 6:24:14.000 PM kernel[0]: CoreStorage: fsck_cs has finished for group "6C97A32B-5930-44F7-B67B-A6011BE55B1A" with status 0x00
3/6/13 6:24:14.000 PM kernel[0]: CoreStorageFamily::unlockVEKs() failed to unwrap the vek, status = e00002bc
3/6/13 6:25:03.828 PM corestoraged[56949]: 0x7fff73b84180 groupChanged: no logical volume groups found, exiting...
3/6/13 6:25:03.000 PM kernel[0]: CoreStorage::recover() PV D1DF9E6F-7A72-401C-AD22-  DD49D16B2076 from group "Book of David Backup" (6C97A32B-5930-44F7-B67B-A6011BE55B1A) has  been marked missing.
3/6/13 6:25:03.000 PM kernel[0]: CoreStorage: terminating group "Book of David Backup" (6C97A32B-5930-44F7-B67B-A6011BE55B1A).

What is causing the error message.

I think I found the issue. There was some minor damage that the disk had. Disk Utility was able to fix the problem, and the dialog box no longer comes up when I unmount the disk and then unplug it.

I'm still trying to understand how this would cause the error message. It took over 40 minutes for Disk Utility to scan the disk before this problem showed up on the Disk Utility log. The error was Invalid leaf record count (It should be 23755134 instead of 23755132).

As I stated before, the Console doesn't show this issue. In fact, looking at the mount and unmount on /log/fsck_hfs.log, I see this entry:

/dev/rdisk2: fsck_hfs run at Wed Mar  6 18:35:07 2013
/dev/rdisk2: ** /dev/rdisk2 (NO WRITE)
/dev/rdisk2:    Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-557~393).
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN

which pretty much means a quick check on mount finds no errors. I have no idea how this would cause the error dialog box to show up when I unmount the disk successfully, and then unplug it.


iOS Calendar application shows old home address as home address I have this issue for a long time in iOS. But it's so annoying lately. Here is the situation, 5 months back I moved to new address. I changed my address in the contacts. When I try to create a new event and type 'home' in the address, it shows the old address as a home address and new address as 'John Doe Home'. Same happens for work address. But my MacBook shows it right. I use Gmail calendar in the calendar app. Is there a way to fix this? I tried following solutions and nothing worked so far

Unlinked my Facebook
Deleted home address and added again
Removed home address from significant locations in the Privacy section
Checked Gmail calendar settings, everything looks good


How do I find out what frequencies an iPhone supports? How do I find out what mobile phone frequencies an iPhone supports?  My wife has an old Australian 3G iPhone and we want to use it on a trip to the US, but we're not sure what mobile phone frequencies it supports and that may affect whether or not we can use it over there.

See iPhone 3GS - Technical Specifications:

Cellular and wireless

UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
802.11b/g Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR wireless technology

From Wikipedia:

  In North America, GSM operates on the primary mobile communication bands 850 MHz and 1,900 MHz. In Canada, GSM-1900 is the primary band used in urban areas with 850 as a backup, and GSM-850 being the primary rural band. In the United States, regulatory requirements determine which area can use which band.


repair_packages: command not found I've been having problems with WebRoot internet security ever since upgrading to Sierra.  I was told to run the following command from Terminal

sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /

When I did so, I got the following message

sudo: /usr/libexec/repair_packages: command not found

WebRoot said they couldn't help me.  They said I should contact Apple ... which I did.  Still no help.

Any suggestions as to why I'm getting this message and how to fix it?  I've already reinstalled Sierra once ... which should have fixed the problem, but didn't.

You're getting that message because the repair_packages command no longer exists in Sierra. Repairing permissions, which is what they're trying to get your system to do, is automatically handled during software updates now. I'm not sure what the underlying issue they're trying to fix is, but repairing permissions on system files probably is not the issue anyway, especially on a clean install.

Apple's not going to be able to help you because Sierra doesn't have that utility. You'll need to go back to WebRoot and ask them how to resolve your issue on Sierra.

(For a company that claims to be selling internet security software, you'd think they'd be a little more versed in the OS for that software, especially before asking a user to run a command in Terminal!)


Installing wine with osxwinebuilder I try to install wine with osxwinebuilder. When I do, I get the following error:

...
checking if ccache g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if ccache g++ supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the ccache g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... darwin12.2.0 dyld
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking ltdl.h usability... no
checking ltdl.h presence... no
checking for ltdl.h... no
checking that we can compile and link with libltdl... no
configure: error: cannot compile and link against libltdl
libgphoto2 requires libltdl (the libtool dl* library),
but cannot compile and link against it.
Aborting.

could not run configure command './configure --prefix=/Users/scott/wine/wine-1.5.16 --enable-shared=yes --enable-static=no --with-libexif=auto' in /Users/scott/wine/build/libgphoto2-2.4.14 - exiting

I am confused as what I should do. I have homebrew installed - should I install anything?

I will hazard the guess that you need to install libtool.  You can do that with

brew install libtool
brew link libtool

From what I understand, libltdl is provided with that.
http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/html_node/Using-libltdl.html

I don't actually use homebrew so I hope that my stab in the dark helps you find your solution!


Can't update to Windows 10 on MacBook Pro due to Apple Broadcom Built-in Bluetooth I've followed the instructions here : https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204990

I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina. Currently running Windows 7 64bit. I've got the latest OS X 10.11 El Capitan, all software updates applied. I've run the Apple Software Update in Windows 7 - all up to date.

When I click on the Get Windows 10 icon, it displays:

  "Unfortunately, this PC is unable to run Windows 10... because one or more things are incompatible.

Viewing the report, it says:

  "The device manufacturers haven't made these devices compatible with Windows 10, so they won't work. Check with the manufacturers for support."

  Apple Broadcom Built-in Bluetooth

  Apple Inc.

Try updating the bluetooth driver using the one found here: http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/downloads/ds031759

It should have the supported Windows 10 driver for the Bluetooth chipset found in that model (BCM20702).

Once completed, try the upgrade again.


Retrieve Voice Memos from device? iOS seems to refuse to allow me to email "long" voice memos, and I'm unaware of any way to extract them from iTunes backups of my phone. How can I retrieve entire voice memos that aren't really short?

This answer by jmlumpkin is canonically correct, all existing memos sync over to a special "Voice Memos" playlist in iTunes. However, if you like to record voice memos that you will retrieve later on your computer, my suggestion would be to check out DropVox. Instead of having to go through iTunes, DropVox uploads your recordings to your DropBox folder as soon as you finish recording, which for me is far more convenient than syncing and dealing with iTunes. Personally, I have completely dropped Voice Memos and now completely use DropVox for everything.

Another avenue to avoid iTunes but still use the Voice Memo app is to use a software package like PhoneView to grab your existing memos directly from the device.


How can I use NTFS-3G installed using MacPorts? After upgrading to Lion I'm having problem mounting NTFS drives in read/write mode. This is because NTFS-3G distributed by Tuxera does not work with Lion.

At their suggestion I installed NTFS-3G using MacPorts. But as far as I can see it does not come with the usual preference pane. Its not enabled by default.

Do anyone know how to enable it? Or how to have the Preference Pane for the NTFS-3G from MacPorts?

NTFS-3G from macports works perfectly fine. Check this detailed and well-written instruction: http://fernandofig.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/ntfs-write-support-on-osx-lion-with-ntfs-3g-f/


iPhone 7 battery quickly discharges after using Philips dual USB car charger I drove a car for about 3 hours and during the ride my iPhone 7 was connected to the Philips dual USB car charger. All this time screen was on and also was using Waze app. In addition to this another phone was charging during the ride.

After this trip I noticed that my phone discharges very fast every time I charge it in classic way from home. Does it mean that my battery could been damaged because of the ride? Is there any options to solve this problem? The phone is year and a half old.

I highly recommend using M-Fi certified chargers and certified usb wall blocks! These are crucial for the health of your iPhone’s battery! Your battery may not have been charged well with that kind of chord and wall/car socket! I suggest buying a certified car kit! They sell them on amazon for like $20 max


AppleScript: complex script for WIFI login, getting time and launch screensaver Experts!

I'm new to apple script and struggling with its complexity...But maybe someone can help.
The thing I want to do my iMac:

The iMac is used to work as a HighEnd slideshow for an artist work. Its extremely important that the iMac gets the correct time for displaying the slideshow.

So what the iMac needs to do:

iMac wakes up every morning at 8 AM and gets to sleep at 11 PM (done by Energysaver)
iMac toggles Wifi on and off (see script1 below)
Starting Safari (script 2)
iMac finds the correct Wifi and logs in (missing)
Login Page of Wifi needs a "click in checkbox" to accept terms of use (SCRIPT 3 I tried to adapt a script found on the net, but doesn't really work)
iMac waits until a dedicated time (9 AM) and launches screensaver. (SCRIPT 4 is launching, but waiting until specific time is missing)

Any helps & suggestions would be very much appreciated!!
Andreas

What I have:

--SCRIPT 1

set status to do shell script "networksetup -getairportpower en1"

if status ends with "On" then

    do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en1 off; sleep 2"

end if

set status to do shell script "networksetup -getairportpower en1"

if status ends with "Off" then

    do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en1 on"

end if

--SCRIPT 2

tell application "Safari" activate

end tell

--SCRIPT 3 clicking the box to accept terms of use

to clickID(theId)

    tell application "Safari"

        do JavaScript "document.getElementById('" & theId & "').click();" in document 1

    end tell

end clickID

--SCRIPT 4 is needed to get the time, wait and launch screensaver

set ntpdPID to do shell script "pgrep ntpd; exit 0"

if ntpdPID is not "" then

    do shell script "systemsetup -setusingnetworktime On" with administrator privileges

end if

try

    tell application id "com.apple.Screensaver.engine" to launch

end try

WIP

Script 1

repeat 2 times
    set status to do shell script "networksetup -getairportpower en0"
    if status ends with "On" then
        do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en1 off"
        delay 2
    else
        do shell script "networksetup -setairportpower en1 on"
    end if
end repeat

Script 2

tell application "Safari" to activate

Script 2.5

Use @CJK code to connect. Then use Script 3 to accept terms and conditions.

Script 3

Safari > Preferences > Advanced > Show Develop menu in menu bar
Develop > Allow JavaScript from Apple Events

3.

tell application "Safari"
    activate
    make new document with properties {URL: "http://captive.apple.com"}
    if not (exists document 1) then reopen
    tell current tab of window 1 to set URL to "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24500011/how-to-wait-for-webpage-to-fully-load-before-proceeding-script"
    set the_state to missing value
    repeat until the_state is "complete"
        set the_state to (do JavaScript "document.readyState" in document 1)
        delay 0.2
    end repeat
    set theId to "WillBeAddedOnceCodeIsAddedInQuestion"
    do JavaScript "document.getElementById('" & theId & "').click();" in document 1
end tell

Script 4

If the script is working then do the following:

Cron Method (Depreciated)

1.

export VISUAL=nano; crontab -e

2. Copy and paste the following

0 9 * * * osascript /path/to/YourAppleScript.scpt

3. Press ^O (Control + O)

Press Enter

Note: Cron will not execute if the computer is asleep

launchd

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mycompany.plist
Copy and paste the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.mycompany.daemon</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
        <string>/path/to/YourAppleScript.scpt</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>9</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Press ^O (Control + O)
Press Enter

5.

 sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mycompany.plist


Synchronise/Merge MP3 collections without duplication or huge copies I have one drive containing about 90GB of MP3s which is used at home, it serves three Squeezebox players though the Slimserver software running on one of the desktop Macs.

I have a separate firewire drive containing about the same amount of music which I am very slowly cleaning up with Song Genie and I've finished the process of getting all the covers in better than 300x300 using CoverScout. Good tools if you are prepared to work more or less manually, they can come up with some pretty strange suggestions for covers & tag info at times. All this is from CDs I have in storage and I've even scanned some of the covers I couldn't find online. It's a long-term project and one day I want to know all of it is perfect.

Some of the music on the home collection isn't on my firewire drive, and vice versa. If I copy all of the firewire contents over the home collection that would probably work. However I'd really like to know what music is in the home collection that I haven't got because there's no way I'm copying un-tagged un-covered music over my fixed versions.

I could copy all the firewire drive MP3s over the home drive, then call the home drive contents the new cleanest and completest version but copy 90GB twice seems like a waste of time and there must be a clever way to do it?

Sounds like you need a merge/sync solution.  I personally often use arRsync - but there are lots.  Find one that allows you to prioritize one folder over the other when a match is found.  You may need to tag and apply album art to both copies, before they will be recognized as the same, though.


Why aren't all my garageband loops present? It says I have to update the software but there isn't an update for garageband on the App store.

Not everybody uses Garageband's wide spectrum of pre-recorded audio clips to use in their own mix. As they take up a lot of space on your harddrive, the average user will be very happy to save that extra space.

People who require more loops can download them via the Software Update:

Open the Mac App Store.
Click on the tab "Updates".

This is the normal procedure of getting the free, extra audio clips.

Wat you are experiencing could be an error. Are you seeing any error message that you could add to your question? This would give us more information to help you. Otherwise, you could take your Mac to an Apple Store and ask for a helping hand.


How to remove supervision from my iPad imposed by my school that I’m not attending anymore My iPad is supervised by my school, but I’m not at that school anymore. Does anyone know how to remove the supervision without a factory reset?

You'll need to contact the school to have them remove the supervision from the iPad. They can do that remotely, but any apps, etc. that you got from the school will end up being deleted, as an erase of all contents and settings is required.

You cannot remove the supervision yourself.


Restored phone without backing up first I have never backed up my phone (stupid, I know) and just upgraded to iOS 7. Unfortunately something went wrong and it reset everything. It gave me options to set up as new phone or a previous back up. The last back up I did was from my old phone 2 years ago! Is there a program out there that can help restore my old photos/info?

No. If your iPhone have been wiped all data is lost.
I just wondered why the last backup is 2 years old because before the iOS upgrade a backup should have been made.

You should consider using iCloud so regular backups of some data (contacts, calendar, notes, photos, App data) will be made without your interaction.


iCloud backup restore from iOS 8.4 to iOS 9.3 possible? I’m sending a relative my old iPhone 5s running iOS 9.3.2 because her beloved iPhone 5c has finally given up the ghost. Her iPhone is running iOS 8.4.1. Ordinarily I’d advise her to upgrade to iOS 9.3.2, but unfortunately her device only has 250 MB available, which I don’t believe is sufficient to update iOS. And she doesn’t have access to a Mac or PC for performing the update via iTunes.

My question is will she be able to restore an iCloud backup made with iOS 8.4.1 on to the replacement iPhone running iOS 9.3.2? I know that sometimes the restore process can be fussy about major version number differences.

Thanks in advance.

There shouldn't be a problem. I believe I've done an iCloud transfer from iOS 5.1.1 to iOS 7.0.4, which is a much larger gap.

If anything, going from iOS 9.3.2 to iOS 8.4.1 might be a problem, but you aren't doing that, so you'll be fine.

iCloud is built with moving to a new device in mind. It wouldn't make much sense for Apple to make it impossible to restore a backup from a previous iOS version.


Create event in iCloud calendar for different time zone How do I create a future event in a different time zone than I'm currently on?

For example, I reside in Toronto (UTC-5) and I am going to Hong Kong (UTC+8). When I'm still in Toronto, I want to be able to create an event (in Hong Kong time) so that when I arrive in Hong Kong, the event appears correctly in the local time.

I am assuming that you are using the website for this.  Go to iCloud, and open the Calendar app.  Click on the gear at the top-left, then click preferences.  Go to the advanced tab, and check "Enable time zone support".  Now, when you edit an event, you can select the time zone in the event information.


Is there a way to hide the title bar of applications? Is there anyway to hide the title bar aside from fullscreen mode?

I think the short answer is no.

TinkerTool is one of the best utilities out there for modifying the way your system appears/behaves. They do not have any options to remove the title bars from applications in general, although there is one setting to hide the title bar of windows in Quicktime X Player.

The longer answer would be for open-source applications you could potentially modify the code generating the UI.


Why won't scanner show up for Scanner Sharing? I have an HP ScanJet 4890 connected via USB to my desktop Mac Mini running Lion. Recently, HP finally! updated scanner drivers and my scanner is recognized and works on that machine (connected to a powered USB hub). But I unable to set up scanner sharing. There are two related problems:

When I open Print & Scan system prefs and and click the '+' to add the scanner, the scanner does not appear. I tried first starting the HP scanner app, but the scanner still doesn't show up in Print & Scan prefs. I also plugged the scanner's USB cable directly into the Mini instead of the powered USB hub, with no change.
Probably due to #1, if I enable Scanner Sharing under Sharing prefs, the scanner does not show up for selection.

FYI, I do have other devices - a fax modem and a printer - connected via USB to the Mini, and both are recognized and shared over my LAN.

I've searched through Apple StackExchange, but haven't found anything addressing this problem.

Suggestions?

I also have a HP ScanJet 4890 and it has never worked natively with neither Snow Leopard nor Lion. The fixed communication to the HP software seems to be by design. As @kremalicious says, that also makes it not work with built-in tools as Image Capture or Scanner Sharing.

While I can live with that, it's quite annoying to wait more than a few months for new working HP drivers and software after a new OS X version is released.


Warn if a Time Machine backup is still in progress before shutting down or sleeping a Mac Before I shut down or sleep my Mac, I want to be warned if a Time Machine backup is still in progress.

Is there such a thing?  Or at least something that makes it very obvious that a backup is in progress, so that I avoid shutting down the machine before it is finished?

Right now the only visible sign that a backup is in progress is the little spinning circle up in the "task-bar", it's very easy to miss.

I searched but could not find a solution for this.

You've asked what you want, but not why you want it.  I am guessing that this is a preconception that you think it needs to complete in order to be successful.  Time Machine isn't just a standard "backup job" that will create individual backups that depend on the success of each backup, it's more a permanent process.

Effectively each time you change a file, whether by addition or alteration of the contents or metadata, it gets added to the list of files that need to be backed up.  The list grows and grows all the time, and it's built into the actions of the filesystem that whenever it makes a change, it also adds the file to the list.  Every hour (or whatever you have set if you are using a non-standard config), Time Machine will start at the beginning of this list of changes, and start to plough through them and copy the changes to the backup disk.  At the end of the process, when there are no more files to include in the backup, it stops.

But there is no need to wait for it to stop.  If you have say 100 files in the queue, and it only processes 45.5 of them when you shut the machine down, the completed files are removed from the list only after Time Machine confirms they were completely backed up -- any partly-completed files will not be flagged as complete. Then, next time you boot up, wait another hour, the process will start again.  You will have the 55 files that were not transferred last time at the front of the queue, followed by any other changes that have been made in the first place.

So, in summary, unlike a traditional backup which requires completion to ensure validity, the Time Machine backup is an ongoing process that can be interrupted at any time, and you do not have to wait for it to finish before shutting down.  Indeed, if you are doing something disk intensive, feel free to temporarily turn Time Machine off or interrupt a backup that is in progress while you do stuff, then when you turn it back on it will just pick up where it left off.


How can I disable Mail.app when I click on an email address? By default, clicking on an email address from another mac app (such as Slack) launches the Mail.app application in a compose view to that email address.

I would like to disable this - I never use the Mail.app and most times I encounter an email address I'd like to copy/paste it somewhere else, not compose an email to that person.

Is there a way to disable that behavior?

Notwithstanding any sneaky Terminal commands I know not about, OS X will always have the need to open some app upon clicking an e-mail link. Literally any app of your liking will do.

Such an app might be an app you don't mind being opened. Like… the Finder!

Open Mail Preferences and go to the first tab, General. Choose the pop-up menu for Default email reader and pick Select….

Choose Macintosh HD (or whatever you've renamed your boot volume to) → System → Library → CoreServices → Finder.app.

Try it out! (I can't post mailto: links here though. )

If you work with spaces or full-screen apps, clicking a mail link might switch spaces. But at least no apps are launched. On my computer, not even a new Finder window is opened.


Why are my Terminal.app colors different from iTerm? I have set the ANSI colors of both terminals to be the same (see 1st screenshot), but the colors for Terminal.app are really bright, and almost unreadable, and not like the colors I set at all.

It's not just the prompt as well. Even with Vim the colors are different.

EDIT: It's like in Terminal.app, something is overriding colors. B

There has been some discussion on the web about iTerm2's color accuracy being off,

https://github.com/altercation/solarized/issues/257
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7278267/incorrect-colors-with-vim-in-iterm2-using-solarized

Including a bug report on iTerm2 issue tracker, https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/issues/3989.

Sounds like it might just be a iTerm2 issue.


How to move a file from within the app to another folder? When I download a PDF from Safari and it opens automatically (which I want), I then want to be able to drag the document title thumbnail to a folder and MOVE it to that folder. Instead, it creates an alias to that file. I know if I hit Option and move it it will COPY it to the folder I drag it to. I want the default behavior to be that when I drag the thumbnail without holding anything down, it will MOVE to where I'm dragging it. Can you direct me to some tweak or terminal command that can make this happen?? Thank you!

OSX: El Capitan

Drag protocol can be a bit confusing, however, it does follow a recognisable pattern…

To the same volume

Drag will move - unless the file is in a protected location [root level of the volume, or in a protected System folder], in which case it will copy
 Opt ⌥  drag will copy
 Cmd ⌘  drag will override the simple drag behaviour for protected files & move instead [but will need Admin authentication].

To a different volume

Drag will copy
 Opt ⌥  drag will copy
 Cmd ⌘  drag will move [ie, copy, then delete the original.]

So,  Opt ⌥  always copies, but  Cmd ⌘  reverses the default behaviour of just dragging.

Worst case scenario - you can change your modifier key & check the added icon on the file you're dragging to see your end result, right up until you let go of the mouse button.

Just to complete the set -  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥  dragging will make an Alias at the destination.

edit …& after all that I realise that Preview will not adhere to that behaviour… Move appears to not be an option at all.
Best guess is that you cannot move an open document & even hope that an app could keep track of where it went.
The Finder can. You can move the file in the Finder whilst open in Preview, but then Preview will tell you you are working on a copy & you need to save a fresh version.
Pretty safe & sensible behaviour, really.


Why are "spindump" and "sandboxd" eating up all my CPU? I am using MacOS Big Sur 11.3 on a 2019 MacBook Pro. Recently, I started noticing that some programs (specifically MATLAB) have been running really slow, the cursor and mouse are lagging, etc. Programs other than MATLAB (e.g. Safari, Music, Photos, etc.) all work fine. This happens even when MATLAB is idle (i.e. I am not running any sort of computationally-intensive simulation).
When I look at the Activity Monitor, MATLAB is consuming less than 10% CPU and <2 GB of memory. However, there are two other root processes called "spindump" and "sandboxd" which are eating up a ton of CPU. In particular, "sandboxd" is consuming >98% of CPU and is almost always at the top of CPU usage when running MATLAB (although occasionally disappears). The "spindump" process is a bit rarer but occasionally shows up eating up >40% of CPU.
Can anyone explain why this is happening so I can decide if this might be a Mac / Apple support issue or something I should take up with MATLAB?

I would say these are expected processes and they are designed to capture logs for analysis in the case of spin dump. I would focus on what apps are non-responsive and open a support case with each app owner.
The sandbox is odd, so unless MATLAB has configuration to minimize that, I would start with Apple support to see about what is driving that CPU usage. Both of those processes are needed and just like kernel_task, they respond to what is happening on the computer so you don’t “fix” them as much as understand why your workload is causing them to consume resources.  Once you nail that, you can have your battery life, heat generation and performance back. They are valuable clues as to what is happening on the system.


What Are The Correct/Default Volume/Folder/File Permissions For A Time Machine Image? Months ago, I created a disk image on a large external drive to house my Time Machine  backups.

Yesterday…something went sideways with the permissions of my entire installation.

Included in this permissionpocalypse, is somehow my Time Machine dmg.

I am, now, unable to backup to Time Machine because the disk image is considered read only by 'system' and Finder informs me that I do not have permission to change the permissions of the image.

When I attempt to Verify the image in DiskUtility, I am told that: 'The image does not have a checksum so cannot be verified.'

So…before I investigate ways to super user sidestep my lack of permission to change TM dmg permissions, I figure I should probably know what those desired permissions are supposed to be.

Thank you.

EDIT: I'm using Mojave 10.14.6 (18G2022)

Time Machine sparsebundles use a very customized set of ACLs on the image file itself and the enclosing folders. Here's an example from a image created by a TM server for a Mac laptop  (Qwe's laptop).

>ls -lae
total 16
drwxrwx---+  5 Ben  staff   170 14 Jul  2018 .
 0: group:com.apple.access_backup allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child
 1: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 2: user:qwe allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit
drwxrwxr-x@ 32 Ben  staff  1156 29 Nov 11:59 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 qwe  staff  6148  2 Sep  2015 .DS_Store
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow read,execute
 1: user:qwe inherited allow read,write,execute,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
-rw-r--r--+  1 Ben  staff     0 21 Jul  2016 .com.apple.timemachine.supported
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow read,execute
 1: user:qwe inherited allow read,write,execute,append,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwx------+ 11 qwe  staff   374 10 Dec 19:05 Qwe's MacBook Air.sparsebundle
 0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
 1: user:qwe inherited allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit

.
It's generally better to backup directly to an HFS+ format drive directly connected to your Mac, without using an image, if you can. Using disk images is reserved for network volumes and disk formatted to other file system types.


Is there a way to prevent those pesky .DS_Store files from being ever created? Is there a way (eg. a binary hack into Finder) to stop it from creating .DS-Stores on LOCAL Volumes?

I am using Leopard, therefore these don't work:

Asepsis (requires Lion)
TotalFinder (requires Snow Leopard)

Also, BlueHarvest slows down my computer.

To prevent those ugly .DS_Store files from showing up there seems to be a relatively new option to do this cleanly, not only for network drives, like:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true

but also for USB-connected volumes:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool true

Relative to the OPs question title, this is the best solution without hacks, since it addresses not only the network misbehaviour but is also effected  for most connected disks. And those might be the biggest annoyance for most users sharing devices like USB sticks between different environments. It uses only Apple provided options and doesn't interfere with normal operation in any way.

Relative to the concrete situation explained in the OPs body it is of limited value, since this USB option is only available in later versions of OS X/macOS. Further, this still does not address the problem of .DS_Store creation on internal disks, where they can be also a hassle to deal with. Although in that place they might actually serve some kind of purpose.

A more comprehensive solution to this problem, albeit a more hackish one, that works on most versions of the Mac operating system is as follows:
To completely nuke this nasty behaviour on all disks – and with a binary patcher/code injector like the question of the OP longs for – there is DeathToDSStore / with source.

Both of these options assume that anyone still uses Finder…
Using a different file manager would also solve this problem.
There are numerous contenders to replace Finder for file management on macOS. Two of the top dogs in this field are Pathfinder or XFile.


After upgrading to El Capitan, OS X imported my email accounts from my iPad I just upgraded from Snow Leopard to El Capitan on an iMac from 2009. I guess my iPad was connected or something, but I found that the operating system's mail application now had the accounts that I had on my iPad! This is a huge no, no. I wasn't even asked for it to do this, not to mention I don't know how it could have done this since only iTunes, AFAIK, syncs with iOS devices. How do I disable this?

More than likely, your Mac synced with your iPad and got data from iCloud. Go to Settings -> iCloud, and see if Mail is turned on. If so, and you do not want these to sync together, turn it off. Then, you can simply delete the accounts from the Mail app on your Mac.

In regard to your question about other "surprises," while you're in Settings on your iPad, take a look around any other areas, such as Notes, Calendar, etc. that you may not want to sync to your Mac.


iPhone 4 updated and now wants me to restore or setup as new I just updated my iPhone 4 from ios 4 to ios 7 and it looked as if everything was going fine. I saw things backedup; I saw firmware and software updated, and I saw things restored from backup. When the update was finished, I got the "swipe to set up" screen. It wanted to know what WiFi network I wanted to use, and it did not remember the password for that network. After reentering the password, it asked me to set up my Locations preferences. Then it asked me to do one of the following:

set up as new iPhone
restore from the cloud
restore from iTunes

Since I had backed up to iTunes prior to updating, I chose option 3. Although my iPhone was connected to iTunes, it asked me to connect to iTunes. I ejected the phone from iTunes (which sees the phone as it always did), and unplugged/replugged it. It said connected to iTunes for a while, and then went back to saying Connect to iTunes.

I cannot get past this point.

My worry is that the backup performed in ios 4 is not good enough for ios 7 and if I set up as a new phone and restore from my backup it will go back into the same loop.

I would really like to get my phone working soon.

I went to the Apple Store the next morning, and the person went into the "Set up as new iPhone" option and found a "Skip" option that I had not seen. This bypassed the whole set up process.

All of my data except some passwords and bluetooth pairings seem to have been preserved.

Suggestion: There should be a fourth option, something like "Use existing data". The three options presented, along with the failure to go further, certainly made it look as if I had lost all of my data. Why would one choose "Set up as new iPhone" if one had data they wanted preserved?


Manually enter "Where From" text for screenshot Metadata? What I would love to be able to do, is the opposite of what this person asked about; I want to ADD the "where from" text (in my case, a URL I could copy-paste from a browser tab) for screenshots I take of genealogical documents online.  I realize what I'm asking isn't the intent of this metadata field, but for my own use, it would be extremely useful.  If Info Sheet via "get info" (command+I) could accommodate a text-box for this field, that would be surreal, but any alternative method is worth knowing about.  The goal is that this could be done very quickly and without too much effort after I copy the URL.

This particular question relates to this question I posted a short while ago, which is far more important; a way to auto-launch Info Sheet after a screenshot is captured, as a reminder, to force me to paste the URL into the Comments box (which isn't the perfect spot for my needs but nevertheless far better than not having the URL at all).  Thanks all!  I'm a bit of an idiot with code but learn a great deal from all of you.

Along with the information window, a dialog can be put up to get the whereFrom text, with a little AppleScriptObjC (since a shell script has been posted in another answer) to add it.  Extending the Automator folder action in my answer to your previous topic, the replacement Run AppleScript action would look something like:

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions

property useBinary : missing value

on run {input, parameters}
    repeat with anItem in input
        tell application "Finder"
            activate
            open information window of anItem
        end tell

        set response to (display dialog "Enter text to add to whereFroms:" default answer "" buttons {"Enter", "Skip"} default button 2)
        if button returned of response is "Enter" then
            addWhereFrom(text returned of response, anItem)
        end if
    end repeat

    return input
end run

to addWhereFrom(newItem, filePath) -- add to existing whereFroms, trimming duplicates
    set whereFroms to readWhereFroms(filePath)
    set end of whereFroms to (newItem as text)
    set whereFroms to (current application's NSOrderedSet's orderedSetWithArray:whereFroms)'s allObjects()
    writeWhereFroms(whereFroms, filePath)
end addWhereFrom

to readWhereFroms(filePath) -- get a list of whereFroms from the extended attribute
    set filePath to quoted form of POSIX path of filePath
    set attribute to missing value
    set useBinary to missing value -- keep track of which it is
    try -- get existing attribute as property list
        set attribute to (do shell script "xattr -p com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms " & filePath & "  | xxd -r -p | plutil -convert xml1 -o - -") -- convert from binary
        set useBinary to true
    on error -- oops, not a binary plist, so try XML
        try -- skip error if no attribute
            set attribute to (do shell script "xattr -p com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms " & filePath)
            set useBinary to false
        end try
    end try
    if attribute is in {missing value, ""} then return {}
    # deserialize the list from the property list string
    set theData to (current application's NSString's stringWithString:attribute)'s dataUsingEncoding:(current application's NSUTF8StringEncoding)
    return (current application's NSPropertyListSerialization's propertyListWithData:theData options:(current application's NSPropertyListMutableContainersAndLeaves) format:(missing value) |error|:(missing value)) as list
end readWhereFroms

to writeWhereFroms(theList, filePath) -- set the extended attribute to a list of whereFroms
    set filePath to quoted form of POSIX path of filePath
    # serialize the list into a property list string
    set theData to (current application's NSPropertyListSerialization's dataWithPropertyList:theList format:(current application's NSPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0) options:0 |error|:(missing value))
    set plist to (current application's NSString's alloc's initWithData:theData encoding:(current application's NSUTF8StringEncoding)) as text
    if useBinary is false then -- set XML plist
        do shell script "xattr -w com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms " & quoted form of plist & space & filePath
    else -- convert and set binary plist
        set bplist to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of plist & " | plutil -convert binary1 -o - - | xxd -p"
        do shell script "xattr -w -x com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms " & bplist & space & filePath
    end if
end writeWhereFroms

To use the above script by itself, just remove {input, parameters} from the run handler declaration, and replace the input variable or set it to your own list of file items, for example from a choose file dialog.


Read old/previous/past console log entries from an iPhone I know there are plenty of ways to receive real-time log messages from an iPhone - e.g. the Console app on a Mac, Apple Configurator, and cfgutil syslog. But is there a way to look back at older messages, say from an hour before I plugged the device into my Mac?

I have macOS 10.13 and iOS 11.2

I found that a way to do this is to generate a sysdiagnose and AirDrop it to your computer. The sysdiagnose tarball contains a file called system_logs.logarchive which can be opened with Console.


Is there anything similar to TouchDown for iOS? Is there any app like NitroDesk's TouchDown Android email client for iOS?

Just for background info, many companies force you to have the latest version of iOS installed to access Exchange Server, or you can have a secure client like TouchDown. That means you're out of luck if you're on an unsupported phone such as iPhone 2G which cannot have the latest version of iOS and cannot run TouchDown since it's Android only.

EDIT:

I know the latest version of iOS Mail App has similar features to TouchDown. I'm asking this question because some users may have an iPhone 3G which will not be upgradeable to iOS 4.3, hence they will not be able to access Exchange from their iPhone unless there is an app similar to TouchDown available.

how about the iOS version of TouchDown? :-)

http://nitrodesk.com/touchdown/ios/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touchdown-for-ios/id560596861?mt=8


Need AirPlay and a network drive - is having two devices my only option? I am replacing a PC in my house with a Macbook Air, and there are two primary functions that the Air won't replace:

Streaming music to a whole-house audio system.
A home-base for my main photo/video/document hard drive.

I'm interested in the AirPort Extreme for the network drive feature.  But, sadly, it doesn't have AirPlay and audio out like the AirPort Express does.  I can buy both... but I'd like to be able to take care of the two functions in one device.  Are there any other solutions that might work for this?

I thought of buying an Apple TV instead of the Express — if I had to have two devices, am I missing anything by getting the TV instead of the Express? It seems like an obvious choice, so I feel like I must be missing something.

I believe that most of the features offered by the Express would be redundant with the AirPort Extreme, so perhaps the Apple TV would be a more appealing option. Since the Apple TV is exclusively a media device, you gain a remote control and video streaming.  The Apple TV will only output audio over HDMI or Optical, so you would need to ensure that your current sound system is compatible. The AirPort Express outputs audio over standard 3.5 mm as well as 1/8" TOSLINK optical.

An alternative would be to replace your current sound system's receiver with one that features AirPlay streaming: http://usa.denon.com/us/Airplayus/index.html
This would be significantly more expensive than an Apple TV or an Airport Express, but would cut down on the number of devices involved in your set up.


how to make Mac use latest openssl instead of /System/Library/OpenSSL I just (in June 2016) ran the following instructions to update Openssl (in /usr/local/openssl) on my Mac, but when I check the version, it's showing that I'm using a version built in 2015 (the System/Library/OpenSSL version).

Question: what can I do to get my Mac (running El Capitain) to use the latest version I installed?

The commands I ran to use the latest version:

cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.2h.tar.gz
Extract the archive and move into the folder.

tar -xzvf openssl-1.0.2h.tar.gz
cd openssl-1.0.2h
Compile and Install
Configure, compile and install into /usr/local/openssl-1.0.2h.

./configure darwin64-x86_64-cc --prefix=/usr/local/openssl-1.0.2h
make depend
make
make install
Create a symbolic link that points /usr/local/openssl to /usr/local/openssl-1.0.2h.

ln -s openssl-1.0.2h /usr/local/openssl

When I run openssl version in the terminal, it shows me this output (the important part is that it was built in July 2015 and is the System/Library/Openssl)

openssl version -a
OpenSSL 0.9.8zg 14 July 2015
built on: Jul 31 2015
platform: darwin64-x86_64-llvm
options:  bn(64,64) md2(int) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,16,int) blowfish(idx)
compiler: -arch x86_64 -fmessage-length=0 -pipe -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -fasm-blocks -O3 -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -DL_ENDIAN -DMD32_REG_T=int -DOPENSSL_NO_IDEA -DOPENSSL_PIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -DZLIB -mmacosx-version-min=10.6
OPENSSLDIR: "/System/Library/OpenSSL"

Determine where the binary file openssl is located.

find /usr/local -name 'openssl*' -exec ls -lFd {} +

The binary file should have /bin/openssl* at the end of the absolute path. Also open a Finder window to view the file system in the GUI with the command

open /usr/local

Remove any symbolic links that you have created so far then make a new symbolic link to /usr/local/bin/openssl.

This thread also has helpful details on openssl options and managing your path to select an alternate version.


Performance on Parallels shared folders I using windows 10 x64 virtual machine on Parallels on macos on macbook pro 16" 16G of memory (last year model). I configured the vm to use all CPU 16 cores and 6G of memory.
On windows I do Qt/C++ coding and I noticed macbook fans go full noise frequently (not to say all the time).
I shared a folder from macos to windows (parallels shared folder) and I work on that folder all the time from windows and macos at the same time. I do all I can on macos but since the app I'm coding is a windows app I need to build on windows side.
The shared folder was on iCloud before and I recently moved it out because of performance concerns. I'm not sure this helps or not.
As I said, on windows side I build my code on a shared folder (parallels shared folder from host to guest). An alternative is not to work on a shared folder, however this way I cannot use macos simultaneously.
Do you guys see my working environment setup is causing a performance issue? I was not expecting the fans to go high that much.
In order to further study the issue I configured a windows laptop where I can login using windows remote desktop from macos thus being an alternative to virtual machine. And I compared the build time, on vm it takes around 1.5x (100s vs 150s) of the time it takes to build on real hardware on the windows laptop. I actually was expecting it to be the around the same. Is this reasonable?

This is all very anecdotal, but the 'best' number of cores to assign for maximum performance is 'the actual number of cores, excluding virtual cores'. In your case 8. You could probably get away with giving it more RAM too. 8GB is safe out of 16, though you might get away with 12.
You'll never get a VM to compile as fast as a hardware install, if all else is like for like. Compiling is always going to work the machine hard - or it's not going as fast as it can. The trick of using all the 'real' cores is that you leave yourself enough breathing room to still be able to work without hinderance on the Mac side at the same time.


How can I export a list of files within a volume or folder? I would like to export a list of files contained in a Volume into legible text, or a spreadsheet document that I can easily share.
Things I have tried so far that didn't work:
TextEdit: If I select all the folders on the volume, for example when the Finder window is presenting them in a column, then Copy then Paste into a Plain Text document, only the names of the folders will be copied, not the contents.
I could present the folder in List format in the Finder window, but then I would have to manually open all the folders one by one before copying/pasting. Too time consuming.
TextWrangler: The output is ok, but I feel like I would like to have more options regarding how many levels deep the exported file list is, otherwise I end up with 33k lines of text. Good but not customizable.
Terminal: Some courageous experts have shared how to do it with Terminal, but I'm not super comfortable with it, and most importantly, the Volume I tried to execute the command on didn't load ("No such file or directory") - maybe because there are spaces in my Volume names? (this tip did not work when trying to add a Volume name with spaces in a Terminal prompt to output file names...). Did not work.
At the end of the day I ended up purchasing a paid app, but since I use several different user accounts across several machines, I would love to know if there is an easier and free way that I can use in the future.
Machine: iMac Mid-2011 with High Sierra.

Open Terminal.app from the utilities folder
Inside the terminal window, type cd then a space
Open the parent window of the directory you want a listing of in finder (One folder / directory up from the one you want a listing of. It should contain the directory you want a listing of)
Drag the directory you want a listing of into the terminal window, then hit the enter key inside the terminal window
Inside the terminal window type ls >> ~/Desktop/listing.txt (making sure that listing.txt isn't the name of a file that already exists on your desktop) then hit enter
listing.txt will get created on your Desktop
Optional: Open listing.txt on your Desktop and confirm the contents match the directory

This is going to produce the contents only for that folder, not it's subfolders. if you want to recursively list the entire contents use ls -R >> ~/Desktop/listing.txt instead in step 5
For a recursive listing in a different format, replace ls with find in step 5 (don't add -R to the end)


Change the Volume OSD position Is it possible to change the position of the on screen display (OSD) of the volume indicator that appears when you change the volume with the keyboard? Right now mine is very low, and I thought it was supposed to be centered vertically on the screen. I'm on Mavericks if it matters.

No that is not changeable, I have seen no hacks that allow the changing of that graphic.


Globally Disable Notifications on Lock Screen I'm using macOS High Sierra (version 10.13.3) on a 27"-iMac and on a MacBook Pro.

Almost every time when I'm going to log in, I see various notification on the lock screen, even before I've entered my password. This means, that everybody, who passes by and moves the mouse or presses a key (or opens the lid on the MacBook), will see this notifications too, without being logged in. This is a security issue.

I know, that in the settings, I can deactivate Notifications on Lock Screen for every application. But there are 31 applications that are able to send notifications, and I don't want to click through all of them to deactivate this setting for every application separately.

I might oversee one of them, and when I install a new application, I might forget to deactivate this insecure behavior.

So I want a button where I can deactivate this insecure behavior globally, i.e. for all installed apps, and for all apps that might be installed later.

Is there such a button? If there is one: Where is it?

A simple solution (to cancel one by one more complicated):

A new option "When the screen is locked" has been added under notifications -> do not disturb section in Catalina OS as below:


Can't Sync m4b files to iPod My m4b audiobook will NOT sync to my ipod. Can play in iTunes but shows up grayed out in the list. Why?

iPod 5th gen and iTunes latest

In iTunes, what happens if you select that m4b, then look at "Create New Version" in the menu?


Can you, and if so, how, set a repeat rate for mouse buttons? I have an external mouse, with programmable buttons. I'd like to set some of those buttons to repeat if I hold one of them down- similar to how keyboard keys repeat, but don't see where to do that.

You can do this with a a product called ControllerMate.  They have a feature called the  Auto-Repeater Building Block

  The Auto-Repeater building block provides a way to automatically
  repeat events at a fixed rate.

  An Auto-Repeater building block has one ON/OFF input and one ON/OFF
  output. While the input is ON, the output turns ON and OFF at a
  predetermined rate.

  To configure an Auto-Repeater building block, enter the rate at which
  it should turn its output ON and OFF. The rate can be given as the
  number of repeats per second, or seconds per repeat.

(They provide an example on the page linked above)

Basically, if the Building Block detects an "on" state of an input (holding the button) it will auto repeat whatever you tell it to repeat at a set rate.

You will have to bypass the programming of the mouse and use this to program it.  I have done this with my Logitech MX Professional mouse and a second (Logitech) keyboard which I have reassigned keys to complex macros.

Controller Mate has an unlimited trial period that is limited to 10 "building blocks" meaning you can have a single work flow of 10 blocks or 5 flows of 2 blocks or whatever combination so long as it has no more than 10.  However, at $25, it's a very reasonable solution.


Is it safe to delete large OS X font files? Is it safe to delete some bulky fonts stored on OS X, such as the ones shown below?

What's the worst that can happen? Would things simply disappear or if a font can't be found will it just be replaced by another, possibly lower quality one?

EDIT: Talking about library/fonts here, not the System Fonts

Deleting any fonts in /System will require the disablement of System Integrity Protection ("rootless feature") on OS X El Capitan. SIP reduces the potential attack surface for system exploits; disablement is not recommended.
The recommended method of deletion for any other fonts is through Font Book (rather than a direct deletion using Finder, Terminal or a cleanup application).
This question and accepted answer were originally linked to a Lion issue, but the basis should still apply:

You can save several dozen megabytes by deleting certain Asian fonts if you don't need them. Don't delete system fonts directly in the Finder.
Rather, do it through the Apple Font Book application, which will prevent you from deleting the "reserved" system fonts that Mac OS X expects to see when it boots up, but permit you to delete "non-essential" fonts.

If OS X is unable to render the character set with the required font, it is likely that a "substitute symbol character" will appear instead.


Installed application using brew, but now it's saying it can't find it? I have installed an application (dsniff) using brew, but when I try to run it I get a "Command not found" error.  I even tried going to the directory it was installed to:

/usr/local/Cellar/dsniff/2.4b1/sbin/

confirming that it was there (it is) and running it, but I get the same error.  Any idea why this would happen?

Dsniff links its programs in to /usr/local/sbin instead of /usr/local/bin. The sbin/ directory is for more sysadmin-oriented stuff and isn't on the path for non-root accounts. Most other Homebrew formulae don't link there.

Dsniff will even warn you about this during the installation.

$ brew install dsniff
==> Downloading http://monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/beta/dsniff-2.4b1.tar.gz
#
[ ... ]
==> make install
Warning: /usr/local/sbin is not in your PATH
You can amend this by altering your ~/.bashrc file
==> Summary
/usr/local/Cellar/dsniff/2.4b1: 35 files, 420K, built in 11 seconds

So, add /usr/local/sbin to your path in the same place that you add /usr/local/bin, probably in ~/.bashrc, and you'll pick up dsniff.

In general, when you run in to things like this, and you're not sure where the files went, you can use find to search for them. For Homebrew, they'll always be somewhere under /usr/local, if they're anywhere.

$ find /usr/local -name dsniff
/usr/local/Cellar/dsniff
/usr/local/Cellar/dsniff/2.4b1/sbin/dsniff
/usr/local/Library/LinkedKegs/dsniff
/usr/local/opt/dsniff
/usr/local/sbin/dsniff


Is there any way to access Google Tasks on iPhone? How do I access Google Tasks on my iPhone or, even better, sync them with the iPhone's Reminders app?

One of the best ways to access Google Tasks is via the webapp. Here is the iPhone version:

And the standard basic HTML view:

Hope that helps!


Image in email attachment is not saving to the Photos app I'm trying to save some images from an email attachment in the Mail app. There are five images, but for some reason, only three have been saved in the Photos app. I have tried long-pressing the images and tapping "Save Image" and "Save 5 Images". All five images are jpg files. Nothing so far has worked. What is the problem here and how can I fix it?

I would imagine it's the same story as saving a screenshot or any other photo from online etc.

Pictures like that are not automatically added to the Photos app, you have to import them yourself.

You can do this from the Photos app: File -> Import then select whichever ones you want. It's handy if you always save them to the same folder(maybe Downloads or a handy custom folder on your desktop).

In regards to why some of them saved but others didn't, I'm not even sure why some of them did save in the first place.


Taking the front fans out of an Mac Pro Early 2008 to clear out the dust? So I unscrewed the screw in the upper right hand corner of the fans encasing that's attached to the motherboard.

But I still can't pull them out.  It seems like it attached somehow in the lower left hand corner.

All I want to do is clean the dust off the fans.  What am I missing?

There is only one screw holding the main pair of front fans in the Mac Pro 3,1 - but the assembly itself must be pulled square towards you, as it's slotted... and can be a bit resistant to being removed first time [especially as it's had 10 years to set itself firmly in there].

Note: If you've a full-length graphics card in, you will have to remove it first, in order to remove the aluminium cover over the CPUs. That's magnetic & just pulls away.
You'll also find the CPU heatsinks will be clogged more than the fans you're trying to clean.

This is the screw you already found...

Once that's out, pull square from the top right & bottom left - here it looks like they're using a PCI slot cover to assist, though I've never used anything other than bare hands

This is what you're trying to overcome - the drag on this channelised slot which keeps it all square, plus the fan plug/socket behind the assembly.

Picture Source: Apple - Mac Pro 3,1 2008 Service Source
The rest - experience ;)

I just looked at iFixit's take apart - though they lump the 1,1, 2,1 & 3,1 all in the same category - they mention a second screw at the bottom of the assembly; which I don't recall ever seeing on a 3,1.
However, it looks like one of those screws that the first engineer to disassemble it takes out & never replaces because it's so awkward to get to ;)

I don't have a 3,1 I can open up right now to check - & it is most definitely not mentioned in the specific 3,1 service source manual.


Adding "Lookup in the dictionary" in the pop-up list in Firefox? Is it possible to add the item "Look up in Dictionary" in the right-click popup menu when you have selected a word on a web page, in Firefox (just like it is available in safari) ?

There is a firefox addon to add this in the context menu: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/look-up-in-dictionary-7261/


Why is the audio is not working after upgrading to Yosemite? After upgrading my Macbook Pro to Yosemite, the volume icon at the top right is greyed out and sound does not work.

How can I fix this issue?

This can be caused by the default sound settings being changed.  If you go to System Preferences --> Sound --> "Sound Effects" you will see a pull down list labeled Play sound effects through... On my machine there was the following listed: Internal Speakers and my monitor.

For some reason after the OS upgrade my monitor (and HDMI) was selected instead of internal speakers.  Switching to Internal Speakers fixed this.  You should select the appropriate item for your setup.  Also, you can go to the Output and Input tabs and verify that the correct item is selected as well.  See this picture for additional information:


How do I turn the echo service on in Snow Leopard? I'd like to temporarily turn on the echo service (TCP and UDP port 7) on in Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).  I guess this involves using the launchctl/launchd?

Port number 7 is traditionally labeled "echo", but AFAIK no modern OS implements it.

Note that this is completely different from the ICMP_ECHO used by ping.  That is enabled by default, although it will be blocked if the firewall is placed in stealth mode.


iTerm ZSH - Missing Right Prompt I'm using oh-my-zsh and iTerm2. I've also enabled the zsh-vim-mode plugin from oh-my-zsh. One of the annoyances I've encountered is my right prompt (RPS1 & RPROMPT) doesn't seem to show up. I'd like it to indicate what vim mode I'm currently in.

I'm using the robbyrussel theme. It seems my $RPS1 variable is set. I'm wondering if there's a configuration option I'm missing.

I'm running 10.7.

Same issue in 10.8.

Try wrapping your RPROMPT in single quotes. I've seen double quotes cause issues for others with their prompts before.

I would also ditch the precmd > setprompt process for the moment and just set RPROMPT directly to simplify for testing. Start with something like

precmd() {
  ...
}
PROMPT=$'\n$(rb_prompt) in $(directory_name) $(git_dirty)$(need_push)\n› '
RPROMPT='%{$fg_bold[cyan]%}$(todo)%{$reset_color%}'

and refine from there.


Mail.app out of office rule I am a new mail.app user. I am going to be out of the office for a few days. I have 3 accounts in mail.app.  Can I set one out of office rule for all 3 accounts?

Mail doesn't really do out-of-office emails, because the application would have to be running to send a response. From Mail help:

  Mail must be running to automatically reply to messages, because rules aren’t processed while your computer is shut down or you’re logged out. To set up automatic replies while you’re on vacation, ask your email service provider how to set up an out-of-office reply.

So, as the above says, you'll have to work with your email service provider to set up an out-of-office response.
If you post and tell us who your email provider is, we can help you set that up.


Can I customize the launchpad grid? my launchpad feels congested. each screen displays 35 icons made up of 5 rows and 7 columns. i would like to have more space and wanted to try a 4x6 grid instead.

I tried looking in system preferences but couldn't find any way to configure the launchpad. I also tried right clicking on its dock icon, but this only gave me the option of removing it from the dock or launching it. when it is launched, there's no way to see its preferences.

Can I customize the launchpad grid to try a 4x6 grid?

Yes, this is totally possible, assuming you're okay to run some terminal commands.

Follow these steps:

Launch Terminal (usually found in Applications > Utilities)
First enter the following command (just copy and paste it) and press enter:

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 6
Second enter this command (just copy and paste it) and press enter:

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 4
Finally enter this command to quit and relaunch the Dock and Launchpad  (again, just copy and paste it and press enter):

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;killall Dock
Once the Dock reappears, open Launchpad
Now you'll see a screen similar to the following:

Be patient and wait for Launchpad to reload all the apps.

Now you'll have a 6 x 4 grid. You can also change the values at the end of the commands at Steps 2 and 3 to other values.

Finally, if you'd like to restore the defaults, you can run the same commands again and replace the values with the original 7 columns and 5 rows. Remember to also run the command at Step 4 whenever you make changes.


Apple lossless through iTunes Match to iPhone? I have some songs that are encoded in Apple Lossless on my MacBook Air. They are in iTunes Matched.

When I add the songs I get 256 kbps. I cannot add via iTunes because I have Match enabled.  If I turn off Match, my songs get wiped from the iPhone.

How can I get my Apple Lossless songs to coexist with my Match library without wiping them every time I switch?

You could use a different media player app that does not use the iPhone music library but uses it's on memory. Then you can upload your lossless music files to that app and play it. Something like AnyPlayer might be suitable.

Or, if you have a dropbox account, you might find songbox helpful.


Missing autoconf/automake in Xcode 4.3? After I purged Xcode 4.2 and installed Xcode 4.3 from App Store, I can not find autotools (automake/autoconf) through the command line. I've tried to run find /Applications/Xcode.app -name 'automake', but apparently they are not there..

Does anyone knows what is Apple's point to remove these essential toolsets?

For what it is worth- (and others stumbling onto this problem like I did) in the latest XCode (4.6, 4.5 and friends) autoconf is not even available in the command line tools.

I have manually installed just autoconf and a few friends, but still have trouble with some of the automake-ish software out there.

See http://jsdelfino.blogspot.com/2012/08/autoconf-and-automake-on-mac-os-x.html for a how-to to manually install.


diskutil coreStorage in Lion fails to create a concatenated LVG, error -69886 I would like to create a logical volume group (LVG) with two physical disks.

Issue

The command:

diskutil coreStorage create LVGNAME /dev/disk1 /dev/disk2

returns:

Started CoreStorage operation
Error: -69886: Invalid request

More info

Tested with two USB drives, two SATA disks (one internal, one external FireWire 800).

I can format them with Disk Utility.

I can unmount without a problem.

MacBookPro8,2 with Mac OS X 10.7.4 (same with 10.7.5)

diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

With one disk alone I can create a non-composite LVG:

diskutil coreStorage create LVGNAME /dev/disk1
Started CoreStorage operation
Unmounting disk1
Repartitioning disk1
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Rediscovering disk1
Adding disk1s2 to Logical Volume Group
Creating Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Switching disk1s2 to Core Storage
Waiting for Logical Volume Group to appear
Discovered new Logical Volume Group "05F84BFF-DC4D-4DD2-94DB-116FC7F8C804"
Core Storage LVG UUID: 05F84BFF-DC4D-4DD2-94DB-116FC7F8C804
Finished CoreStorage operation

Operating system

Can you reproduce the problem with Mac OS X 10.7.5?

If -69886 arises from a failure to unmount

Expanding upon a hint in an answer to a linked question, try this before the Core Storage operation … for the device that apparently can't be added:

diskutil unmount /dev/disk2s2

– then if the unmount fails, to discover what's open:

sudo lsof /dev/disk2s2

Reference

Currently limited by Apple to Mac OS X 10.7.4: diskutil(8) OS X Manual Page


Automatic network location in Lion I'm looking for a Lion compatible application similar to AirportLocation that will automatically change the Network Location based on my current location.

It's becoming a bigger and bigger pain to change it every day, manually. I have different settings for home and for work. I'll also be adding several new places in up coming weeks.

It's a shame that AirportLocation isn't compatible with Lion because it's exactly what I was after and more!

Edit: I've seen an application called Sidekick, but I'm preferably after a free application, bash script, whatever.

I forked MarcoPolo for the explicit purpose of getting it working right on Snow Leopard and Lion.  I use it on Lion everyday, everything should be working perfectly.

http://controlplane.dustinrue.com/

https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane


How to add a set of keyboard shortcuts for document/text applications in System Preferences with Automator? I have a MacBook Pro that is using the 10.10.5 (Yosemite, the second one, I believe) operating system, and I want to change some "text"/"document" keyboard shortcuts for specific programs to have a unified shortcut functionality across all software I use.

System Preferences doesn't seem to have any way to change them, and I had called a technical support person at Apple to see if there was any way I could. There was not, and I simply continued to search online if there was ANY way they can be changed.

I came to a website, seeing someone wanting to add a new shortcut, for documents (not as simply as I would want, but...), using Automator. It is actually a big surprise what it can do!

I was wondering how may I add two keyboard shortcuts of the same thing, just different directions (they involve Ctrl+Up / Down arrows, doing what Cmd+Up / Down arrows do in text-type applications. Again, that is the thing I can not change in System Preferences | Keyboard Shortcuts.

I do not want to switch around Ctrl and Cmd as the other's modifier key for any type of text documents; the prominent ones I have that I simply use most are Notes, Pages, and Scrivener (I would think there can be an option for adding for all text-type applications, but that is why I'm asking, that I can know).

What would I select in Automator (the services document in it, as the start), and then what to type in to add those two commands (and I can answer what the commands are in more detail).

Those shortcuts will help me immensely, since I also do much writing and typing, and would like some uniform cursor-movement options.

Follow this guide from Apple about how to make a system-wide service in Automator.

The service will not require any input, but should be made available in any application.

Add a Run AppleScript action.  Enter this code in the text box:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "System Events" to ¬
        return (key code 126 using command down) -- Command Up

end run

This is the AppleScript code that will simulate pressing ⌘+▲.

Save the service, naming it something like Command Up.

Finally, go into System Preferences and create a keyboard shortcut for this service.  It will appear towards the bottom of the services list:

Assign it the shortcut ⌃+▲ (ctrl+up).

Now, when you press ⌃+▲, the system will issue an automatic ⌘+▲ keypress, allowing you to hijack its function.

Now repeat the process for your other key combo.  The AppleScript for that one, which will be simulating a ⌘+▼, is:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "System Events" to ¬
        return (key code 125 using command down) -- Command Down

end run


Cannot sudo anymore - macOS Catalina I have a problem. I have 2 users user (normal user) and admin (admin user). I normally work on user user and when I wanted to update some files  (as for example /etc/hosts) I did:

$ su admin
Password:
$ sudo nano /etc/hosts
Password:

However from some time (probably from update to MacOS Catalina). It's not working anymore.

I can switch to admin user (1st command) however when I try to run 2nd command I'm getting message "sorry" although I'm 100% sure I type valid password (I copied this password to text editor and pasted this password to 1st command and it's working fine but it doesn't work for 2nd command).

It seems the solution was after running 1st command to run:

sudo -s

Somehow it fixed situation and now again both commands are working without any problem as they did before. Hard to say what was the reason for this (maybe introducting zsh) but now I can again edit files I need