Do I need to install CUDA and Nvidia Web Driver to use OpenCL on Nvidia GPU? I am working on writing OpenCL programs running on a MacBook Pro with built-in Nvidia GPU. I know that OpenCL kernels can run on the CPU, or the integrated Intel GPU. But if I want to configure it to run on the Nvidia GPU, do I need to install CUDA and other Nvidia stuff? Thanks!

No, you do not. OpenCL and Metal will run automatically on the Nvidia GPU. If you want to take advantage of Nvidia's CUDA architecture (which I highly recommend for software that takes advantage of it, like the Adobe CC suite), you need to install the CUDA driver. You do not need to install the Nvidia web driver because your machine has a built-in Nvidia card (the driver is built-in to MacOS).


Is there any way to get the path of a folder in macOS? I can do Get Info on a file or folder but this gives the path of the containing folder not the target file or folder. Say I want to copy a full path into a file dialog; how can I do this?

In macOS holding the ALT key ⌥ often shows extra options in context menus.

To copy a file or folder's path in Finder.app:

Right-click the item
Hold alt ⌥ key down
Click Copy "item" as Pathname

Done. Now you have the path, as text, in your clipboard.


Partition external SSD (Win10 already installed) for Mac My situation:
I successfully installed Windows 10 on a Samsung T5 external SSD (size of 1TB) which I can boot into using my MacBook Pro 13" (2017 model w/ 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports). Under Windows, the disk is partitioned as:
 - EFI Healthy Primary (or something to that effect) 200MB
 - Primary (Bootcamp C:) ~999GB or so (NTFS format)

Under the MacOs (Mojave in my case) the disk shows as one volume (Bootcamp), under the device name (which still shows as Samsung Portable etc. etc.), and it says 25GB or so used (which makes sense as that's the Windows10 OS, and 975GB Free.

What I want:

I installed WIn10 on the external for those rarer occasions I need Windows, but now I feel 1TB space is too much. I want to re-purpose quite a bit of space in the Samsung SSD for the Mac. Specifically I would like to partition so that I have

a TimeMachine volume (say 500MB - my MBP is only 256GB)
Extra space for saving other Mac files (I'm happy to make this exclusive to Mac, but can also think about using exFAT format for common use)
The rest of space (say 200-250GB) for the Windows10 OS as is. (basically I want to shrink Windows to a smaller size)

Is there a way I can safely do what I want without messing up the installation of the Win10 OS in the SSD? It was a tedious process to achieve and I already messed it up once. I first had partitioned in Windows, creating a clearly defined volume destined for the MBP. I then tried to partition that from the Mac, and somehow it gave me an error while erasing the partition (out of space?), and it actually caused me to lose the EFI volume that Windows needed to boot. That little bit seems to be indiscernible, and invisible to the MacOS and must have been tampered with. It rendered the external SSD unbeatable for Windows!

So, after having re-installed everything, can anyone recommend a safe method to tamper with the partitions now, without messing up the windows installation already residing in the SSD?
Thanks

The safest was is to do this from within Windows.  You want to shrink your Windows partition until it is 200-250GB and the rest is free space.

The easiest way to do this is to go to Disk Management in Windows, right click on the Windows partition and select "Shrink Volume".

If this doesn't allow you to shrink sufficiently (sometimes there are unmovable files) you can install the free utility Minitool Partition Wizard (again in Windows) which will move these files for you during reboot.

There is a full tutorial of both methods taken from Partition Wizard website here : Two Easy and Effective Ways to Free Shrink Windows Partition

macOS will not let you partition a drive if the EFI partition is less than 200MB (while Windows will by default create a 100MiB EFI partition) which would explain your previous problem.

As you say the EFI partition is now 200MB you can create your 2 new partitions in the newly reclaimed free space either in Windows or macOS Disk Utility as you prefer.  If you make a exFAT partition this can be formatted from either OS but the Time Machine partition must be formatted (erased) as HFS from within macOS.


How to move all pictures from 'photos' to a hard disk? I know that all pictures from 'photos' are stored in the photos library. I want to move the whole library to my hard disk due to space constraints. I know that they are located in the masters folder.

The problem is, pictures are located according to the date of import in many separate folders. Is there any method to get all of them into a single folder? It would be easier to browse if they were all in one big folder/fewer folders.

Is there any method to get all of them into a single folder? It would be easier to browse if they were all in one big folder/fewer folders.

You can use Finder to search for all files.

Open ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/Masters in Finder*
Press ⌘+F
Select Search: “Masters” in the toolbar
Select Type: Image as a search criterion, or
Use the + button to add more search criteria as required

This will show all photos as a flat list. (Thus, copying them will copy the individual files without the folder structure.)

For easy access, you can use the Smart Folder feature to store this search for later. Just press the save button.

* If you're using Mac OS in a language other than English, the folder may be named in your language, like ~/Pictures/Fotos-Mediathek.photoslibrary/Masters or ~/Pictures/Phototèque.photoslibrary/Masters. The easiest way is to type open ~/Pictures/*.photoslibrary/Masters from a terminal.


How can I get Mail to open .ics invites with my Google Calendar? Right now double-clicking the invite adds it to an iCloud calendar that I don't use, so I have to manually change calendars when I accept an invite.

I am researching this problem with how iPhones handle calendar invites defaulting to iCal instead of using my Google Calendar and found this easy fix.


How can I leverage multiple iTunes libraries in a LAN to create an office jukebox? Well, we all have Macs, we all have iTunes, and we want to be able to democratically enqueue songs on one of our Macs while being able to choose from everyone's iTunes libraries.

Is there such a tool?

You should be able to do this using shared libraries, which would probably be the easiest way and not cause any problems with permissions or anything like that, however it would probably end up with number of separate libraries rather than just having a one large library.

UPDATE:

Having had a bit of a look into the shared libraries feature it could be a decent option if combined with iTunes DJ - which can be turned on in preferences if currently off.

Essentially you would require everyone to turn sharing on for their iTunes library (or specific playlists) then have one of your computers acting as a master which has iTunes DJ setup. You can then add tracks from any of the libraries and have requests and votes for next tracks sent via the Remote app for iPhone or just shouted across the office.

May still not be quite what you're after, but essentially uses features already available in iTunes rather than a 3rd Party app to do it for you.

--

You could try having one folder for music and all linking to it, but you may hit permission issues or DRM or something silly like that.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1203

This tells you how to move the library to a shared folder for one computer to allow multiple users to connect to it, the actual library is still per user, so you may get duplicate files or have to update the library if new files are added. In theory this would allow multiple computers to connect to one collection of music, add to it and play the files others have added. Though my theory is untested and may be flawed (like all good theories).

On a different note:

I was able to have one library (so viewing the same apps, podcasts, music etc. without the need to update it each time you logged in or downloaded new stuff) for multiple users on one computer by copying the whole iTunes folder to the shared folder and then adding an alias to the shared iTunes folder in the Music folder for each users Home folder - which is a bit of a convoluted sentence - which may be of some help, but probably not as the library gets locked when it's accessed by a user, so i can't imagine it'd help for multiple computers. Just another way of doing things.

Hope that helps in some way, let me know id it's absolute guff though.


Apple TV (4th gen) - ability to prevent episodes from playing consecutively? I've upgraded from 3rd gen Apple TVs to the latest 4th gen model, and I've noticed that almost all apps now play episodes back-to-back until they are manually stopped—"Computers" does this, "Netflix," "Disney Junior" and others all seem to follow this model.

Is there a way to disable this—globally would be best, or at least for the aforementioned three apps? Our young children were used to watching one episode of a show, then being done with TV when the episode ended. Now it automatically starts up a second episode and they understandably want to keep watching.

This is currently not possible with any default app.

As a workaround, Plex allows this if you set up a playlist (Play Queue) for each item and play the queue rather than choosing an individual video from a collection.


in terms of battery life for the iphone 5, which battery is better? 3.8v1440mAh or 3.8v1560mAh? ok so if I have this right milli Amp hour= mAh, Whr = Watt hour, and v = Volt is charge capacity? Where is potential discharge or work capacity and V is the rate at which the "work" is being done?

The battery life of your iPhone depends on it's usage. 1440mAH or 1560mAH refers to the basic term that if your phone uses 1mA per hour(i.e 1 W/v) it can last for 1440 hours. But the usage will depend on what all software you are using. Like mobile network and heavy graphic intense games will use more power, applications that don't require a lot of processor power to work,(such as a clock) will not take so much amount thus you will have a longer battery life.

There are various articles explaining this online, if I find a suitable one I will post it in an edit soon.


Can I create an Automator application to start Tomcat when I need? I can start Apache Tomcat (installed via HomeBrew) in Terminal using

$ catalina run

But it does not work in an Automator application Shell script using bash

I tried to set up a bash Shell script in Automator like this:

catalina run

When I run the Automator application, it won't work and shows -: catalina: command not found.

What is the correct way to create an Automator application, or do I need to use AppleScript?

When you run a shell command or script in Automator it is passed your system's default PATH, not the one in your bash profile. This is why bash cannot find the catalina command.

You should always specify the full path to the command in shell scripts. If it was installed via HomeBrew this is probably /usr/local/bin/catalina but you can confirm this by running which catalina in a terminal session.


Check Camera Path through command line is that a command to type in terminal that lists all the webcams connected to my computer? Maybe using ffmpeg package?

The ioreg and system_profiler Will enumerate connected USB and other devices should you have a FireWire or other bus for a camera.

Sadly, ffmpeg won't see the path to these devices as described here:

Mac webcam - get the device

At least you'll have a starting point with the two commands to detect a connedtd device.


How can I get my Mac to use the full resolution of my external monitor? "UI Looks like" half resolution I added an external monitor to my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017, running Mojave), and the results have been pretty disappointing. When I open "System Report:", I see these lines under Graphics/Displays:
Displays:
  LG HDR 4K:
    Resolution:                     3840 x 2160 (2160p 4K UHD - Ultra High Definition)
    UI Looks like:                  1920 x 1080 @ 30 Hz
    Framebuffer Depth:              30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010)
    Mirror:                         Off
    Online:                         Yes
    Rotation:                       Supported
    Connection Type:                DVI or HDMI
    Adapter Firmware Version:       7.55

What is this "UI Looks like"? Is there a way to get the full resolution of my screen?

Additional information. Thanks to @Alex for a solution that worked.
Examining the EDID data from the monitor, I see that its native resolution is 3840x2160. This is the resolution reported by "About this Mac/System Report". The "UI Looks like" half of that resolution. The Mac's native display is 5120 x 2880, which probably explains why the text was smaller and more stuff was fit onto the screen.
Going to Settings > Displays and selecting the "Scaled" checkbox allowed me to choose settings that made the text look more like what I expected on the machine's own display. Going back to "About this Mac/System Report" now shows the external display to be 6016 x 3384 and the "UI Looks like" value is again half of that resolution. I don't know if "About this Mac" is lying to me, or it really got the monitor up to that resolution.I was actually able to push it all the way to 6720x3780.
When I chose the very highest resolution, the resolution actually went back down to 3840x2160 but now the "UI looks like" was full 3840x2160 resolution.
Honestly, all I really wanted was for the Mac to put the monitor into its native resolution and then adjust the text height and other scale values to make it look right. But whatever. At least I can make it look good.

Go into System Preferences --> Display
Select Scaled
Pick one of the options - under the monitor icon it'll tell you the resolution. As others have said, Apple will automatically scale the display, but you can choose "More Space" to get a true higher resolution.


iPad displays "Not Charging" when plugged into USB ports.  What can I do? When I plug my iPad into my computer's USB ports, the iPad battery area displays "Not Charging".

I understand the iPad requires more wattage to charge compared to an iPhone or iPod, as evidenced by the iPad's larger power adapter (10W) vs the iPhone's (5W).

Is there anything I can do to enable iPad charging from my computer's USB ports? The computer in question is a desktop PC, and it has a 950W power supply.  I presume the motherboard's own USB ports are the issue, as opposed to overall power available :-)

So I'd like to know:

Are there external USB hubs that can supply enough power to charge the iPad?
Is there any other solution to enable a computer's USB ports to charge an iPad?
e.g. doubling up a USB port, as I've seen done with some external hard drive enclosures?

From the article, The iPad's USB charging caveat:

[Originally posted on Neowin.net by giga on 04 April 2010 12:26]

  The iPad specifications page clearly state the ability to charge with USB (with no mention of OS requirements) but Apple have additionally provided a support document disclosing that "some USB 2.0 ports and accessories do not provide enough power to charge iPad."

  Providing some further clarification to Macworld, Apple asserts that USB charging is supported but that it varies according to the state of the iPad and the power output of the USB hub:

  For the fastest charging, use the iPad’s included 10-Watt USB power adapter. This will fully charge the iPad in a few hours, even if you’re using the iPad at the same time.
  When connected to a high-power USB port—such as the ones on recent Macs and the iPhone Power Adapter—the iPad will charge, even during use, but more slowly. (We haven’t yet determined how much more slowly.) Some third-party powered USB hubs provide higher-power USB ports, but many don’t; similarly, the USB ports on most Windows PCs don’t provide this additional power.
  When connected to lower-power USB ports—those on older Macs, most Windows PCs, and most USB hubs (powered or unpowered)—the iPad’s battery is not charged while the iPad is awake, but is charged (again, slowly) when the iPad is asleep. What’s confusing here is that the message "Not charging" appears in the menu bar when the iPad is awake, which might lead you to assume that the offending USB port can never charge  your iPad. But rest assured, Apple says: once you put the iPad to sleep, the battery will indeed charge. (If you could see the screen while the iPad was asleep, it might even display the charging icon. It’s the modern-day “Does the refrigerator light stay on when I close the door?” mystery.)

  Further analysis from Apple's statements indicate that the iPad can only be charged off of USB connections that provide near 1 amp of current. The majority of USB ports on most older Macs and PCs only provide 500 mA and thus can't be used to charge the device.

  The USB 2.0 specification provides 500 mA of current to high-powered buses and 100 mA for low-powered buses. But in April 2009, the specification gained a new "Battery Charging Specification" which provided additional current to high power devices and it seems that Apple has started to incorporate it in their newer Macs.


iCloud Catch 22 - Cannot sign out of old dead Apple ID on iPads I have two iPads, both upgraded to IOS 9.02. I can't use iCloud on either pad because I can't change the iCloud Apple ID. Here's why:

I changed the Email address of my Apple ID primary account since the old one was at my previous employer and is no longer accessible. I made this change at Apple.com.

On both pads, I had no problem changing the App and iTunes store apple ID. I can download Apps and make purchases on both pads.

When I try to change Settings|iCloud it asks me to

  Sign in to iCloud for
    Apple ID "oldemail@oldcompany.com".

Attempting to sign out brings up:

  Enter the Apple ID for the "oldemail@oldcompany.com"
  to turn off Find My iPad.

No password is acceptable here. I cannot change the Apple ID back to  since I cannot verify the email and the change doesn't take effect until verification has been completed.  I have tried changing back to the old ID get a

  Account is Locked

message on the iPad when I try to use it - probably because of the unverified address.

Catch-22.

This appears to be the same unresolved issue from last year.

As well as this one.

Apple's 'community' has been less than helpful, filled with people saying
to go to the useless Apple iForgot and other such nonsense. It would appear that others just got sick of the whole thing and quit trying.

Prior to the upgrade to iOS 9.02 this was unresolvable without going to an Apple Store with proof of purchase.  With 9.02 it you can work around it.
The steps I used were:

At the Apple ID site, change the Apple ID email to "oldemail@oldcompany.com" -- this will never be verified.
On the iPad go to Settings|iCloud - It will ask for the password.
I logged on with the correct password - it now greys out the entire iCloud area and puts a Validate Email message at the top of the form, BUT does not grey out the Sign out.
I Signed out and it asked for the password twice again, paused for a long time and then was asking for a new iCloud Apple ID.
Back at the Apple ID site, change the Apple ID back to the valid account.
From the mail client, validate the Account with the correct password.
On the iPad, Settings|iCloud enter the new Apple ID and password.

Poof - problem solved


iPhoto 9.4.2 crashes on startup and reboots MacBook Pro 10.8.2 When I attempt to open iPhoto (9.4.2) on my MacBook Pro (10.8.2) iPhoto crashes and it reboots my laptop. iPhoto will open if I boot the MacBook Pro in safe mode.

What could be going wrong?

This link to Apple's Support page on Safe Boot, or Safe Mode, details what what is loaded and what is not, and may point you to possible problem areas.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564

But more details would be helpful. Which MacBook Pro, whether you've repaired disk, what manintenance utilities you run. Often, with crashing apps, removing its Preferences file cures the problem. Sometimes--not often, but sometimes--a fresh install of the app is the solution.

Also check your Crash Reports for clues--and google the problem as well. Of all Mountain Lion Apple apps, iPhoto is certainly the touchiest. If you have Photostream turned on, try temporarily turning that off.


Safari 7.1 Bookmark not closing properly I sometime notice this random behaviour of the bookmarks not closing and it leaves me with something like this, any suggestions?

I'm running Mavericks with everything updated.

Added as answer just to provide image…

I think you might be surprised how much memory Safari can use if you view all its processes Hierarchically… a rough tot-up here gives me about 2.7 GB ...


How can I adjust additional cinema display screen's brightness? I have an iMac27 run Lion, now I buy a cinema display 27, but at display setting only main screen have brightness adjust controller. And use keyboard to adjust screen brightness also only change main screen.

It's way simpler than that guys. The brightness on the display is controlled by simply pressing:

Control+F1 OR Control+F2 to adjust brightness on your secondary screen (the one without the menubar).

F1 and F2 to adjust brighness on your main screen (the one on which the menubar is located).

If you have adjusted settings in System Preferences for the Function Keys to behave as standard Function keys, you will need to hold the Fn key in addition to each combination too.

If your Cinema display has a USB cable (older models), you will need to plug it in.


Apple ID Moving country I've moved from Ireland to the UK and am now getting paid in GBP, so I decided i'd move my Apple ID to the UK store (even though I like the Irish top app charts more)
I found that after I move my account to UK and add a UK Card all my previous app purchases on the Mac App store and on the iOS App store are no longer in my 'Purchased' tab.
This is really annoying, I believe I can download any of the old apps i've purchased and a message pops up explaining that I can re download for free, but it's really not a good solution.
Anyone know what else won't work correctly now? will iCloud backups or iMessage mess up too?
This sucks - any fix to this ridiculous problem?

How can apple be so sloppy on this?

Eventually I had to call Apple senior support to fix this.


Can I transfer content from an existing iPhone to a new iPhone which is using a new (different) Apple ID? I am trying to cut myself off from the family shared AppleID. I've just bought myself a new Macbook and have set up a new Apple ID. I have also just got a iPhone 5 to replace my dying 4.

My question is, can I back up the contents of my iPhone 4 and then bring that content onto the iPhone 5 with the new apple ID. I understand that I'll lose the apps that would need to be purchased again, I guess I'm more concerned about the contacts, notes, and photos.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I'm a little hesitant to post this because I can't try it right now and there is, as always, a chance that it won't work. But, because you are willing to repurchase apps, the transfer should be fairly achievable.

I would first restore from a backup of your old iPhone to your new iPhone. If you have already setup the new iPhone then you would need to wipe it and start over which would erase any data that you have created since getting the new phone. Through this process, you will sign in with your old Apple ID. After everything is restored, I would delete the iCloud account off your phone. It should ask you whether you want to keep notes, contacts, calendar, etc. choose to keep all of those items. Sign into your new Apple ID and create a backup of your data.

Again, as I'm sure you are aware, you will still have to work through your apps and repurchase or download all of them again. Apps like Evernote are easy because your data is in your account and you would just have to sign back in. Other apps like games are notorious for losing data.


Can I make snapshots of an APFS non-bootable volume? I have a Samsung FIT external drive with two partitions. One is ExFAT for interchange with Linux Systems. The other partition is APFS (Encrypted). I would like to backup the APFS volume using snapshots so I can "roll back" changes in case one of the Virtual Machines I got on it gets broken. Is there a way to do this? Or is the APFS Snapshot utility only for Bootable Drives? I tried tmutil snapshot /Volumes/APFSVolumeName but when I tried to list local snapshots I got nothing.
I guess my only option is good old Disk Image of the Volume, right?

TL;DR: Use the hypervisor's native snapshots, and never use APFS snapshots on a volume with VMs.

Carbon Copy Cloner is a good utility to manually manage APFS snapshots. Open the program, switch the UI from Simple to Normal mode (in the menu). In the volume table in the lower left of the main window, you can click on any volume and a pane opens that shows the snapshots, and lets you delete old ones. You can create snapshots by running a backup task - even a dummy one that copies just one file to some folder.

The problem is that when you have a disk with VMs on it, you should only ever use one snapshot mechanism: either APFS snapshots, or the hypervisor's snapshots, not both. I suggest that you never use APFS snapshots on any disk with VMs, and use the hypervisor's native snapshots. They are a much more mature technology.

The snapshots work by retaining all of the old data, so their effective size grows over time - no data after the most recent snapshot's timestamp is ever removed from the disk. If you use hypervisor snapshots on top of APFS snapshots, the space usage doubles and you will run out of space while doing things that should conserve space.

For example, start with a single 600Gb VM, with VMware snapshots, on a 1TB APFS volume. You want to delete a 200Gb snapshot from that VM: VMware will integrate the snapshot into the higher level disk image. The problem is that this will effectively write 200Gb of "new" data to disk - APFS doesn't have deduplication!! Thus, the APFS snapshot will have to preserve the previous state of those 200Gb's worth. You think you should reclaim 200Gb of space, but you end up using 400Gb more, and get a full volume.

At least on macOS 10.13, AFPS has bugs and APFS volumes that run out of space due to APFS snapshot activity become unusable. You won't be able to delete the APFS snapshots, nor do anything else on that disk. It's nominally read-only, all write attempts will be failing with a weird "permission denied" error. Your only recourse will be to make a backup of the disk, then erase/reformat it (How do I know? It just happened to me and it's totally reproducible).


How to disable the power management of the CPU on a MacBook Pro? Since few days the battery of my MacBook Pro (Retina 15 inch, running macOS Sierra 10.12.4) is not working anymore.

Since then, my computer performance is really bad: everything is slow and freezing, a bit like when the battery is under 5%.

I tried to disable this power consumption feature. After some research on the internet I found the command pmset -b reduce 0 which is suppose to disable the reduction of the CPU consumption.

sh-3.2# pmset -b reduce 0
Usage: pmset <options>
See pmset(1) for details: 'man pmset'

But as you can see it's not working. Any idea how could I disable the CPU reduction?

Searching the man page for pmset (man pmset)  on macOS 10.11 - El Capitan for anything related to reducing CPU speed yielded no results; though I was able to find an Apple discussion thread dating back to 2008.

I suspect that the user ability to regulate CPU speed was removed at some point.

That said, the issue is that you have a failing/failed battery and it needs to be replaced.  Your CPU is throttling itself down becuase it has detected low reserves in your battery and is close to shutting down; this is by design.

You didn't mention which specific model you had, but generically speaking, you will have to get the top case replaced.

However, iFixit has some instructions on how to replace the battery without replacing the entire top case.  Warning:  It's difficult and involves at lot of work to release the adhesive holding the battery in place.


Can apps access my camera without telling me? Suppose I give an app permission to access my camera (and/or microphone) to take a picture.  After I take the picture, can the app access my camera without prompting me?

I thought of this while using the Facebook messenger app.  The app allows you to take pictures and send them directly into your Facebook messages. Can the app also "look" through my camera while I am scrolling through contacts (or doing anything else unrelated to photos)?

Apologies if this has already been answered.

This question over on StackExchange lead me to Apple's iOS Developer Guide, specifically, the background section. This lists the activities apps are aloud to run in the background, camera access is not one of them.

This would also be a terrible condition for battery life and so it is not surprising that it is not supported. While this doesn't guarantee that none of your apps will try to get access to your camera, you can rest assured that if anyone tried to, Apple would reject their app.

This also ensures that there's no API for background camera access, so unless someone has figured out a way to hack non-jail broken iOS at a very low level, we can all sleep safely with only the watchful eye of Siri upon us.

Edit:
Per my discussion with timothymh below, I realized you may have been asking about if you are still using a given app, having take a picture without switching to a new app. With more interesting reading from Apple's Developer Guide, we find that the camera API won't hand you data until a picture is taken or a video completed. Because the camera isn't handled by a daemon, it would be very difficult to be constantly polling the camera for input, even if you found a way past the API to get data without user input. Note I'm not an Apple developer, but from an official standpoint, it appears what you're talking about shouldn't be possible.


Weird pill shaped icon in the dock I have noticed a pill shaped object in my dock. When moving the doc it stays in the same place.

Restarting didn't resolve the issue.

Does anyone have an idea what this object might be and how I can get rid of it?

I saw this under the Downloads folder and later it moved under trash.

In Safari, downloads list, hit "clear".
In trash, select all .download files ( kind: "Safari Downloads") and right click > "delete immediately".
In Terminal, run

killall Dock


How to keep mac, iphone, icloud and gmail contacts in sync? I used to keep mac, iphone and Gmail in sync via Exchange till iCloud was released. Once I started using both Gmail contacts and iCloud for air syncing I started having duplicates on the address book, whatsapp and other apps.

After doing some research I found there are conflicts between Gmail and iCloud when syncing. For instance, Exchange protocol does not allow things like birthday dates, contact groups or custom fields (something I noticed before). I was tempted of using iCloud for that reason but then Gmail contacts would be out of sync and I'm not sure I would be able of syncing my Mac's address book either (not sure).

Anyway, is there any easy way (via software or not) of keeping mac, iphone, icloud and gmail in sync? Including custom fields, groups, birthdays...

Mail
use the Gmail template on iOS to have the best Gmail experience on iPhone, use Sparrow to have the best experience on Mac. It will use your Gmail contacts and the one you have on Address Book.
Contacts
Use iCloud for contact syncing on the Mac and the iPhone. You won't have the contacts on the Gmail webapp, but you can still find them on icloud.com.


How can I restore an ipad mini without an apple id password? My mom bought this ipad mini for herself but didn't like it and gave it to me...now I'm trying to restore it to factory settings, but when I try it says it needs her apple id password - only it won't accept it - says it's incorrect. How can I restore it without the apple id password?

You can't. You need to have the apple id password for both reseting from iTunes and from the device itself. If the device isn't accepting the apple id password, try reseting it from iTunes too. iTunes is more reliable and you can reset without the device password (not the apple id password) on iTunes.


What is the iPhone SMS database called in iOS 6? I need to migrate SMSs from an iPhone to an android, and I'd like to use solutions suggested here, but I can't find the SMS db file (reportedly named 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28) in my unencrypted IOS6 backup.

What is the name / how can I identify the backup file?

Also relevant: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/6904/6126

Inside MobileSync/Backup/<your_long_hex_string>/ you should find this file "3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28"

Then open it with SQLite (e.g. SQLite Firefox plugin or "sqlite database browser"), and execute this SQL query:

select message.rowid,
    case when message.date=0 then null else datetime(message.date,  'unixepoch', 'localtime', '+31 years') end as sent,
    case when message.date_delivered=0 then null else datetime(message.date_delivered,  'unixepoch', 'localtime', '+31 years') end as delivered,
case when message.date_read=0 then null else datetime(message.date_read,  'unixepoch', 'localtime', '+31 years') end as read,
    case when h1.id is not null then h1.id else h2.id end as interlocutor,
    case when message.is_from_me then null else message.text end as to_me,
    case when message.is_from_me then message.text else null end as from_me,
attachment.filename as attach,
    case when message.error=0 then null else message.error end as error_code
    from message
    left join handle h1 on message.handle_id=h1.rowid
    left join message_attachment_join on message_attachment_join.message_id=message.rowid
    left join attachment on message_attachment_join.attachment_id=attachment.rowid
    left join  chat_message_join on chat_message_join.message_id=message.rowid
    left join  chat_handle_join  on chat_handle_join.chat_id=chat_message_join.chat_id
    left join  handle h2 on chat_handle_join.handle_id=h2.rowid
order by message.roWID


Airport Extreme and os x 10.6.8 compatibility I have an imac os x 10.6.8 with 4GB memory and Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The Airport Extreme (already purchased) is compatible with os x 10.7.5 or higher.
What is the best and, most importantly, the easiest way to go about upgrading? Which os version should I upgrade to? Thank you.

The first thing to confirm is whether your iMac originally shipped with OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard or whether you've already upgraded it from an earlier OS X version. If your iMac came directly from Apple with an OS X 10.6.x version preinstalled, then the good news is that your system is directly compatible with Mavericks. Mavericks is a free download from the App Store and your system already meets the minimum requirements.

That said, I would strongly suggest upgrading your memory to 8 GB or more RAM. Your system will perform much better than it will with 4 GB. This isn't absolutely mandatory, but the performance difference would be noticeable. To determine exactly what model you have and how much RAM it can support, I recommend downloading the free Mactracker app from the App Store. The DIY repair website, ifixit.com, has great written- and video tutorials on how to upgrade your memory.

The best/easiest way to upgrade … That's subjective. The easiest way is to download the Mavericks installer onto your Snow Leopard system and just run it. After making sure you have a Time Machine backup from which to restore in case anything goes wrong, of course. This is called an in-place upgrade and apart from the time spent downloading and installing, there is little for you to do. If everything goes smoothly, and it generally does, you'll have a running Mavericks system with all your apps and data intact. Note that if you're using any legacy PPC apps via Rosetta, they will no longer work and you'll need to find suitable replacements.

The best (again, subjective) way to upgrade would be more work, but would give you a pristine base installation, including the Recovery Partition on the drive, which enables you to command+r before the startup tone and enter a special startup mode that is similar to booting to an OS X Snow Leopard DVD. More information about Recovery can be found here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

The specific steps I list below assumes that you have a working Time Machine backup that is current.

Purchase an 8GB USB Flash memory stick.
Download DiskMaker X and install it: http://liondiskmaker.com
Download Mavericks from the App Store, but do not run the installer.
Use DiskMaker X to create a bootable Mavericks USB installer.
Backup your Snow Leopard-based system one last time to Time Machine.
Boot to the USB image by invoking the Startup Manager: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
Go into Disk Utility and format your Macintosh HD (or whatever your volume is called) - Erase - with (Mac os x Journaled).
Quit Disk Utility when it's finished erasing your Snow Leopard partition.
Select Install OS X from the OS X Utilities screen.
Go through the normal steps of installation.
During the install process, you will be offered the ability to either create a user account or to migrate a user account from backup; select the backup option and point it to the location of your Time Machine backup.
After profile-/apps migration has taken place, the system will log you in and you're done.

The latter is a lot more work, but rather than upgrading an existing system with its many years of possible dross, you get a pristine OS, replete with Recovery Partition, and all your migrated apps and data. This is my personal definition of best. Your mileage may vary.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.


Mac App Store shows an update available for an app I didn't install Like this the picture below.

For the record, I did install some cracked apps which isn't available for demo from MAS to try them out. Could this be problem?

I'm on Mountain Lion, latest update. But I have experienced this problem on Lion as well.

According to http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120727110524438, you would want to check the /private/var/db/receipts/ folder for any files related to the app.

If the piracy messed with receipts, you may need exceptional records to clean up another app's receipt so this confusion might still be a result of your abuse of the normal app purchasing process.


How can I install Adobe Flash manually or without giving root access? Background info:
I've locked down my /Library folder so even the admin group can't write (only root can).

The Adobe update app opens the password dialog when I click "install". Is it possible to install without giving root access to this executable?

The ps command says the installer is running as $TMPDIR/FPUnpackPath/Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager. That file is a compiled binary (Mach-O).

I also found a single dpkg directory: Contents/Resources/Adobe Flash Player.pkg. Under this is Contents/Archive.pax.gz. The file list looks innocent enough, my existing installation seems to have the files under /Library.

Would the install be clean if I just run the dpkg file, rather than proceeding with their Mach-O binary? I take it that running the dpkg is safer?
(I have a feeling that the Mach-O only does installation-support stuff like making sure the old files aren't in use before replacing.)
Please support your answer with evidence, don't merely speculate.

Btw, Cmd-I when the Installer app is running will list the contents. Very nice. (See How can I open a .pkg file manually?)

Download the dmg from Adobe's website. Mount it and right click on the Install Adobe Flash Player.app and select "Show Package Contents."

Drill down into Contents > Resources:

Launch the Adobe Flash Player.pkg:

When the plugin installer launches, go to File > Show Files (or CMD + I).

There you will see a list of the files it installs and where. You'll need to use something like Pacifist to extract the contents, but once you do, you can install the files manually. And yes, the install would be just as clean if you used the pkg to install the plugin. It's not any safer, it's just an alternate route that doesn't have the Adobe wrapper (so it doesn't use Adobe's proprietary installer).


Enterprise Mac Mini Server - Remote Desktop Just purchased a Mac Mini server. Is there a way that we can allow for multiple sessions for Xcode development within the server?  Would RealVNC allow multiple remote sessions? If so how many?

You get two graphical interface log in sessions simultaneously on OS X (server.app or without server.app) and there is no configuration needed as this is the default settings. Just use any VNC client and set up two or more users local to the server.

You'll want to set up the Mac Mini with Xcode Server running and then have each developer run Xcode locally. When they make code changes, you can have the server compile things "continuous integration" style.

Similarly, you could just run your own CI infrastructure on the Mini running whatever OS you wish, but count on the server to only let two workers (either one local and one remote or both remote) to run Xcode GUI itself from each Mac.


Evernote overwrote a Quicktime shortcut There is a shortcut in Quicktime to start new audio recording that I use
^+⌥+⌘+N
But once I installed Evernote it overwrote the shortcut so now it launches Evernote every time. I have deleted Evernote and now when I open Quicktime and press the shortcut, Mac os 10.10 returns this error:

  There is no application set to open the URL evernote://start/.

My question is how can this be fixed?

In Terminal type

mdfind evernote

Now triple (3x) click on any line that contains evernote (that will select the line)..

Next right click and use Reveal in Finder,that will open new window in Finder and show you that file.

Verify and Delete.


iTunes music sync clarification Can someone clarify what these different synch settings in iTunes (v11) actually mean:

What is the difference between "sync only checked songs and videos" in the "Summary" tab of the iPhone and "Sync Music -> "Selected playlists artists, albums, and genres" in the "Music" tab of the iPhone?

I dont see any changes in sync behavior when I check or uncheck "sync only checked songs and videos".

Also what does "Manually manage music and videos" actually mean?

Sync only checked songs and videos

When you open the list view, the leftmost column is of check marks. You can use these to tell iTunes what to sync/not sync on a per song basis.

Selected playlists, artists, albums and genres

When you open the summary for your iDevice, there is a Music tab. You can select what songs to sync on a per playlist/artist/album/genre basis.

Manually manage music and videos

This means that iTunes will not sync all songs indiscriminately. You have to manually drag songs to the device to sync them. You can also drag albums and playlists.


Is it possible to disable a default keyboard shortcut for a special character, without the use of third-party software? I have set ⌥ + M to execute the command "Paste and Match Style", system-wide. I assigned this custom shortcut at the following location:

System Preferences → Keyboard → App Shortcuts → All Applications

However, instead of the desired effect of pasting and matching style, pressing ⌥ + M on my keyboard usually types the character µ instead. Only every so often does my shortcut randomly function correctly.

How can I disable the assignment of this special character to my shortcut, so that the shortcut is dedicated to my user-defined command? I never have the need to type this Mu character, so I have no problem with ridding it from my keyboard entirely.

I understand that one can use a re-mapping program (such as Karabiner.app) as a workaround to accomplish this. But, does Apple offer a built-in way to remove special character shortcuts?

As a workaround, since I know you use FastScripts, here's a suggestion.

Undo the changes you made in System Preferences > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts > All Applications, by first changing ⌥M back to ⌥⇧⌘V, then delete the Paste and Match Style command you added. Note that you could probably just delete it without first reseting it to its default key sequence, however I do it this way to insure it gets reset properly.

With things back to normal, create an AppleScript .scpt using the code below, saving it as Paste and Match Style.scpt in the Users Script Folder (~/Library/Scripts).

tell application "System Events" to key code 9 using {option down, shift down, command down}

Note that you can also use keystroke "v" in place of key code 9, I just prefer to use key code over keystroke most of the time.

In FastScripts > Preferences... > Script Shortcuts, assign ⌥M to: Paste and Match Style

Now you will not get the µ character when pressing ⌥M when FastScripts is running.


my photo stream has gone After doing the recent iOS 8.2 update, my photo stream has disappeared.

I have checked all through my phone and on the icloud and my photo stream is ticked.

All I have left is 3 folders: one says All Photos, one says Videos, and one says recently deleted.

There are three current components to Apple's online photos.

iCloud Photo Library (Beta)
My Photo Stream
iCloud Photo Sharing

I think from your wording you are referring to the smaller parts and not the entire Photo Library in the cloud. The photo stream FAQ is quite good:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201317

It mentions that you have a 30 day rolling window to save files that get stored in the stream. If you lost photos before that time - you can get help from this article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203511

Basically, you can use another iOS device or a PC/Mac to access the stream and see if the corruption is in the stream or on the device.

If you have backed up the photos, you can restore that iOS backup (or PC/Mac Backup) and get things back based on how recently your backups run.


Remove program from list of active apps When switching between running applications via Command-Tab one can see all of the currently running programs.

This is however somewhat cumbersome, for instance I don't want certain programs to be listed there, say Adium - I would rather click on the icon in dock to bring it up, since I need it not as often as other apps.

I guess the solution I am looking for is similar to the behavior apps minimized into Windows tray area - can I somehow have an app running on Mac Os, active in the dock but not in the list of switchable apps?

It should be possible from technical standpoint - there are windows which not registered in the Command-Tab list, for instance - Character/Keyboard Viewer.

This may not help you at all, but there a program called  Dockless that allows you to hide an application from the Dock. Unfortunately, I think it hides the menu bar too. Depending the exact situation, this may or may not work for you. Hope it helps though!


How to solve the flashlight and camera bug in iOS7? I recently ran into a very persistent bug on my iPhone 5 on iOS 7.1.2. All of the sudden the flashlight button in the control center is greyed out and the rear camera wont work, i.e. showing a black screen and crashing. According to the Apple forums I am not alone with this issue. For some people playing around with the camera worked. Most end up bringing the phone to the store. I am pretty convinced it is a software bug.

I tried so far (list will be updated):

Play around with camera settings (flash, HDR, ...)
Turn flashlight on/off with third-party app - app crashes
Regular iPhone restore from iTunes
Recovery mode firmware restore

No success. I have no more warranty and so I can't bring it to the store.
Does anyone have further ideas or even the solution?

If you have done a Recovery Mode firmware restore and you still can't use the flashlight or camera, you likely have a hardware problem. Make an appointment at the Genius Bar and see if they can identify the specific failure (no charge for a diagnostic at least in the U.S.).


Re-install Python on macOS I uninstalled Python on my Mac by moving all python-related files in my Mac (including system files) to the trash and emptying the trash. Now, I can't get Python 3 to work at all (despite reinstalling it). How can I get all of the deleted Python files back?

Update: I deleted the following files:

/Applications/Python
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework
/usr/local/bin/py

thon

Ideally you can restore whatever you‘ve deleted from a backup.

If you removed the standard Python installation of macOS, boot into the Recovery Partition (if any) and reinstall macOS from there. This should leave your other files intact, it‘s not a bad idea to do a backup before nevertheless.

Alternatively, you can through Homebrew.

Once Homebrew is installed, run:

brew install python@2

That won't likely install the same 2.7 revision you were using.

If you need an exact match, or don't/can't use Homebrew; I'd build it from source (if so, comment for further instruction).

Python 2 is end of life by January 1st 2020. Please don’t use it unless you are sure you are using an OS default.

If I am not in mistake, as of June 2020 macOS 10.15.4 (i.e., not fully up to date) is still at Python 2.7 (2.7.16).

If you are at 10.15.5 or later you are welcome to comment your mileage.


Is it ok that a MacBook turns on from sleep with the lid closed when MagSafe is connected/disconnected? I have a mid-2012 MacBook (non-retina). Recently I've noticed that after closing the lid to put it to sleep, once it's sleeping if I pull or attach the MagSafe connector to it it will turn on from sleep, with the lid still closed, and go back to sleep after around 30 seconds.

Is this behavior normal? Should I be worried? Is there a way to disable it?

This should not be happening.  I have this same problem and it started happening after the most recent MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Update 2.0 was installed on 11/9/2012.  Prior to this update install, the laptop would never wake up from sleep when the adapter was connected or disconnected.  Does your also try to eject the DVDROM drive when you unplug it from power after it's been asleep for a while?


RAM Upgrade for Mid-2010 MacBook So I have a Mid-2010 MacBook and I tried to upgrade the RAM. I put in 2 4GB sticks and it started to beep. I took out one, and it still beeped. When I put in one of the original 1GB sticks and a 4GB stick, it worked. Any help on getting it to 8GB?

Edit: I figured out only one of the 4GB sticks work in the 1/4 configuration.

You should search for info about your mac on Everymac.com. I searched there for your mac and assuming I did it right I found this brief comment.

  Apple officially supports a maximum of 4 GB of RAM, but third-parties have determined that it actually supports 8 GB of RAM running Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and 16 GB of RAM running OS X 10.7.5 "Lion" or higher and the latest EFI update.

Sounds like it depends on which system you are running. I suggest you go there and see what else you can find or go to OtherWorldComputing or here  which reports they sell upgrade kits for your specific Mac.


Software or method for moving between Thunderbolt display and laptop resolution I have a 13" MBP and a 24" Thunderbolt display. I use the Thunderbolt display as my main and only screen while at my desk. The problem for me comes when I disconnect and take my laptop to a meeting or another location and now all the windows are over-sized for the laptop screen (ie. edges off the screen and windows much larger than the laptop screen).

Is there a quick method or a piece of software that will auto-resize all open windows to fit in the current display?

Have a look at Stay or Moom.

Stay is specifically designed to combat this problem. It remembers window positions for a given display configuration, then switches between them as you switch displays. So when you disconnect your Thunderbolt display, your windows will resize to your settings for internal only.

Moom is a bit more of a general purpose window manager, it has a lot of different ways to reposition windows, but it also allows you to save sets of window positions, and you can set it to load one of those when the display arrangement matches certain rules.


How to export a growing Aperture Smart Album repeatedly without creating duplicate files I have a smart album in Aperture which contains a steadily growing set of pictures, which I want to share with others. To do that, I use Dropbox and export the smart album every now and then to my dropbox, which then creates a web album for the folder.

However, when Aperture encounters a file with the exact name of a picture that it wants to export, it appends " (1)" to the file name and creates a duplicate for the web album. To avoid this, I have to manually delete all files in the dropbox folder before I export. This is tedious and sometimes I forget to do so, having to export all files again.

Is there any way to get Aperture to not export the duplicates?

One method you might consider is using Aperture itself to create your web gallery. Use File > New > Web Page to create a web album, then fill it with photos from your smart album. Aperture won't duplicate photos in this album even when you drag in duplicates, so you'll end up with one copy of each image after all of your updates.

When you publish the web album (using the Export Web Pages button), Aperture will replace any folder with the same name, again avoiding duplicates. This perhaps isn't quite as good as just skipping duplicates -- it does waste time, deleting old files and recreating identical new ones -- but it nevertheless achieves your goal.

But if you want to stick with your current system, the bad news is that there is nothing that will force Aperture to directly overwrite existing data. It's one of the fail-safe mechanisms of the program. There is a thread on the Apple discussion forum on a nearly identical question, and one of the respondents there suggests creating an Automator action that will delete the existing images on your Dropbox, and then export a new set of images from Aperture. Again, not ideal, but it does achieve your goal.


Is there a way to make Windows-style SMB share paths launch correctly? We have a mixed Windows/Mac network, with Windows fileservers, and an Exchange/Outlook mailsystem.

The Windows users send out emails with links to the shared files that look like:

\\FileServer01\topfolder\subfolder\shared.doc

If you right-click on the link in Mac Outlook 2010, it seems to have a pseudo-URL of:

file://///FileServer01/topfolder/subfolder/shared.doc

Mac Outlook 2010 makes that link clickable, but fails with an error:

The file ///FileServer01/topfolder/subfolder/shared.doc could not be found.

Given that we're not going to be able to get people to stop copy-pasting in Mac-unfriendly SMB links, is there any way to get the Finder or some handler to rewrite the URL into something the Mac can open?

I'm in a similar position at work, with a mixed environment. We use WinShortcutter, which is freeware. The allows you to right-click on a UNC path (such as \\FileServer01\topfolder\subfolder\shared.doc) and Open as Windows Link:

It's quite configurable as well, and allows drive mappings (so when you are sent a link that starts S:/folder, it will allow you to Open as Windows Link).

This works quite reliably for us.


OS X Finder hangs on tagging I'm having a problem with the new tagging feature in Mavericks and I have a feeling it might go deeper than just the tagging.

The problem is this:
When tagging anything on Mavericks the Finder becomes unresponsive for anything up to 15 seconds and beach-balls. I am using a Mac Pro Mid 2010 with 16GB RAM so power is not the issue.

At first I thought the problem might have been due to having done an upgrade install of Mavericks, but after seeing tagging working fine on an upgraded Air and iMac I decided to try a clean install. Alas, the problem persisted.

Since I was installing on a DIY Fusion Drive I had created back in the early days of Mountain Lion, that became my next suspect. To "quickly" test my theory I installed Mavericks on an external slow & tiny USB drive. Zero problems. Tagging was instantaneous and no beach balls in sight.

So, it seemed likely to be one of the drives. First I tried installing Mavericks on a newly created Fusion Drive (using the same component drives; an OCR Vertex 3 and a regular WD HDD) from the Mavericks recovery partition terminal in the hope that a newer CoreStorage would fix things. Same problem.

Next I tried the drives individually, but after having installed a fresh Mavericks on both (I know, tedious) and still having the problem I feel I am running out of options. Is it my SATA controller? And why just on the tagging?

I have made a few Activity Monitor Spindumps which I'm hoping anyone with the knowledge & inclination could glean some information from.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
:/
Teo

Spindumps:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d86hdy2xcq8jryy/Mavs%20Finder%20Tagging%20Spindump.txt

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ilmaceo8szhp9s8/Spindump2.txt

UPDATE 17 May 2014

I have now identified the source of the bug (on my system at least).

I noticed that on a completely fresh user account everything works as it should, new tags are added without hangs or even delays.

The moment I enable the "iCloud->Documents & Data" option the problem manifests: hangs occur on adding any new tags. Even more unfortunately, disabling it again does not make the issue disappear. Once enabled the system isn't working properly anymore.

My guess is that there's something buggy in the way the system is trying to check for tags across iCloud but strange that the problem remains after removing it.

Any new info/suggestions are welcome.

UPDATE 1 October 2014
This problem persists in Yosemite 10.10 GM

6 months or more of this problem...

my 2013 Mac was hanging when saving files, making outlook 2011 hang often! and slowing down workflows... and after reading this post it dawned on me...

before Mavericks I used 2 different tagging appx, TAGS and Leap. When installing mavericks, tags were quite well, though they became increasingly slow.

I I deleted both programs and amazingly and thankfully, For now at least, the hangs in Outlook and find have stopped, it feels like a new Machine. I can only hope its permanent.

Whilst on this topic I had a similar problem with my Mavericks finder a tad's. The centre of the Finder screen used to become transparent and you could not see the files. Drove me insane. Rebooting reinstalling wasting time. I do realise I had an older program called total Finder, Which is really good, installed before I use no bricks. After months of having this problem, then deleting that program, The problem is fixed.

Moral of the story, if you have installed an app to add functionality and apple then adds the functionality into osx, chances are the app will slow down a your mac.

Mental motor self and all reading ... uninstall apps of such nature.


Is it possible to omit password from fast user switching and/or login screen? I'd like to keep user passwords and require them when doing any administrative tasks as they are required in the default installation on Mac OS X.

Is it possible to be tweaked/hacked so that OS X won't ask for password when switching users? Or so that OS X won't ask for password in the login screen?

It is also essential that password is required for any remote login attempts — as they're in the default installation — be it SSH, SMB, VNC or the like.

I'm using OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6

Case example (added after first answer):

I have two administrator accounts which I would like to allow log in and switch to locally without entering password. With "locally" I mean the login screen that is shown when computer is booted or user has logged out; and also the fast user switch password prompt, which is shown when the password-protected user is selected via fast user switch menulet.

Password should be entered if an administrative task is initiated. (I would rather not want a one common administrator account, but separate users and separate passwords.)

If user wants to login in, for example via SSH, the password should be entered. (I would rather not want separate "remote-access accounts", because I would like to use my accounts' resources hassle-free.)

Is it possible to be tweaked so that OS X won't ask for password when switching users? Or so that OS X won't ask for password in the login screen?

As long as they are not administrative users, yes. (Since you indicated you still want passwords for administrative tasks.)

  It is also essential that password is required for any remote login attempts — as they're in the default installation — be it SSH, SMB, VNC or the like.

In that case, you must only allow logins for administrative users.


Disable ssh password authentication on High Sierra I want to disable password auth - ie keys only - on SSH. I've done this many times on Linux variants, and some searching here suggests it's the same on Mac, ie:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Then add/edit:

PasswordAuthentication no

However, this seems to have no effect - ie I can still log in with a password. Is there any different trick to do this on High Sierra?

For High Sierra, to prevent authentication without publickey, in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, set

PasswordAuthentication no
UsePAM no

To restart sshd (which is required to have it reread the config file), use

sudo launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd
sudo launchctl start com.openssh.sshd


Script to toggle between fn keys (with Touchbar) I'm trying to write a script to toggle between Fn keys and app controls on the Touchbar using macOS High Sierra. There a few apps out there that say they can do it but none seem to work for Touchbar. So I'm now trying to write script that opens up the System Preferences, keyboard settings and toggling the Touch Bar setting. So far I have the code below which toggles "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light". I just need to adjust to select an option from the Touch Bar drop down menu.

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set the current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
end tell

quit application "System Preferences"

You can check the components of the UI interface of the application you're trying to script with the "UI elements" command

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "System Preferences"
        get the UI elements of the window "Keyboard"
    end tell
end tell

you can then drill down the list to find where the required item is

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "System Preferences"
        get the UI elements of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"
    end tell
end tell

actually using the Accessibility Inspector app (part of Xcode) can help you to identify which element to inspect

For our purposes, it looks like the popup we are interested into is the
 pop up button 2 of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"

Since it is a pop up, to interact with its menu, you have to click on it and then to select the item you want to activate. It can be done by specifying the whole label of the menu item to click, I preferred to simulate the keystrokes needed to switch the selection (either the up or down arrow and then the return)...

tell application "System Preferences"
    -- activate
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell

delay 0.5 -- this depends on how fast is your mac

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "System Preferences"
        set thePopup to pop up button 2 of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"

        tell thePopup
            click
            delay 0.2

            if the value of thePopup begins with "App" or the value of thePopup begins with "Expanded" then
                key code {125, 125, 125, 36}
            else
                key code {126, 36}
            end if

        end tell

    end tell
end tell

quit application "System Preferences"

by the way, in another question, someone noticed that if you don't activate the System Preferences app, the scripts will still work but without showing its window (you will still see the popup menu being switched, though)


MacBook connects to network over Ethernet but not WiFi I'm visiting my relatives and trying to get my MacBook on their network. If I connect over Ethernet, everything works fine and I can get online without a hitch. But if I connect over WiFi, I can't actually get on the Internet.

In System Preferences > Network, under AirPort, it says that it's using a "self-assigned IP address" and "will not be able to connect to the Internet." Furthermore, under Advanced > TCP/IP, the settings don't look correct when I compare them to the other computers in the house - the format of the IP address is different, the subnet mask is different, and the IP address of the router is blank.

I've tried copying the settings when connected over Ethernet (IP address, etc.) to use as manual settings for the WiFi, and it still doesn't work.

Other than this MacBook, there are two Windows laptops and two iPhones in the house (one theirs, one mine), and all of those other devices can get on the Internet over wifi with no issues. I'm stumped!

UPDATE: I never solved this, but the situation recently came up again – this time with a totally different computer – and I had the same exact issue: connects to the local network without a problem, but no Internet connection. So that tells me it's something wrong with the network/router, not the computer, but I still don't have any idea what it could be.

Under System Preferences > Network, choose AirPort, click on Advanced, select the name of your wireless network and click the - button to remove it.  Turn AirPort off, wait a few, turn it back on, and try reconnecting to it.

You might also want to open the Terminal up and run the command:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Failing that, create a brand-new user account on the MacBook, log into that account, and see if it can connect.


App Store download/installation status? Does the AppStore not provide download / installation status?

I clicked on get app, and all I see is "installing". No status, no feedback, nothing. Is this normal? I know Xcode is a big download, so I know it will take a while, but feedback would be nice.

From Check Download Progress on the Mac App Store:

  How to See Download Progress of Apps Coming from the Mac App Store

  Want a general idea of an app downloads progress? Here’s what to do:

  From the Mac App Store, click on the “Purchases” tab to see the active list
  Locate the app(s) you are downloading that you want to check

Also if Launchpad is in your Dock it typically shows some information too.


My MacBook Pro won’t turn on, shows me only the installer log Of course right before a deadline. I told clicked “try tonight” and this happened

I login and instead of going to my desktop, I get an installer log that begins with

  1 Jan 1 10:44:17 localhost opendirectory[186] Failed to open file  [2: No such file or directory]

And ends with

  509 Jan 1 10:45:13 MacBook-pro opendirectoryd[186]: [auth] failed to write file

When I try to reinstall the OS is says there’s no space on the drive...

Sorry to trouble you on a Friday with this question, but I don’t know what else to do. Normally, I’d take a photo of the entire screen but the brightness is very low and I can’t adjust it.

Advice is welcome! Thanks so much.

It has the wrong date. There might be an issue with your battery - that you allowed it to discharge completely. If the issue was only temporary, you can try to set time and date in Recovery (Command R). From there, you also have other options like checking your system partition. Then you restart and hopefully all works again.

Also, there might be menu options where you get the error where you can choose the start up disk. The same you can do by starting with the ALT/Option key.

PRAM reset and SMC reset may also help - and then maybe setting the date again in Recovery.

Additionally, it looks like something was uninstalled which the computer looks for at startup. If you start into safe boot (Shift), the computer may start and you can try to undo what you did, or cleanup the remains of something you deleted. Check the forums for launchagents, cache and such to see what you need to delete. Also check the time and date on your computer while at it.

If the issue is caused by a full hard disk (the reinstall error points to that), delete some unneeded files - cache, downloads and so on, to get enough space. Easiest done by starting from an external disk. If you don't have such a backup-OS, get yourself an empty disk, connect it, start in recovery, and install OS X on it. Then you can start from there and use Finder to make more room on your main disk. That might already resolve the issue.

If that fails, you can now also reinstall the operating system, as you can free enough space on the disk. Before you do that, if you don't have a backup, save the content of your hard disk by copying all the needed data from the system disk. I suggest installing the same version you already have on the system disk, or a newer version. This is easiest from the Recovery mentioned earlier. However, this will not fix all such issues - you might still get the error.

If you do, you have to delete your system disk (never without at least two backups on different disks you are sure to be fine), install the system anew, and restore the last functioning backup or just your data and reinstall your apps.

Edit: There might also be a hardware issue - for instance if you can't access your disk even in Internet Recovery. In that case, you will need a repair before you can use the computer...


Imagemagick installed via Homebrew, convert missing I tried installing Imagemagick using 'brew install imagemagick'. The end result I was hoping for was the existence of commands mogrify and convert. It had apparently been a long time since I ran Homebrew; tt thought for a long time and then went about updating a positively frightening number of packages. It ran for perhaps 45 minutes, and I really have no idea how much it updated. Dozens, scores, perhaps hundreds of packages. Including Ruby and Python, which was pretty scary in its own right.
After all that time Homebrew reported failure because something it was trying to instlal required a later version of Xcode than was installed. It turns out that the version it wanted was part of Catalina, and my OS is still at Mojave, so I can't upgrade Xcode to satisfy Homebrew.
When all was done, the mogrify command exists and works but the convert command is nowhere to be found.
I have tried redoing 'brew install imagemagick' -- it says the package is already installed and refuses to do anything. 'brew upgrade imagemagick' worked once but there is still no convert command to be found.
Do I have to uninstall and start over?

Think I resolved the problem. convert is present in /usr/local/Cellar/imagemagick/7.0.10-28/bin as a symlink to magick; which led me to look in /usr/local/bin where mogrify exists as a symlink; convertis present there too. Running rehash (hash -r) brought it into visibility on the path.


How do I make symbolic links invisible in the Finder? I use SetFile via the terminal to render files and folders invisible inside Finder windows. This does not appear to work on symbolic links: the symlink destination is made invisible, rather than the symlink itself.

I see a number of symlinks in / which are invisible in the Finder (e.g. /etc -> private/etc), so it seems to be possible. Can I duplicate this behavior?

To hide:

chflags -h hidden <symlink>

To show again:

chflags -h nohidden <symlink>


"Alert when I need to leave" reminds me 15 minutes too early. How can I turn that off? Say I create an event starting at 2 pm and at a location that takes me 10 min to walk to. I also add the alert Time to leave as the only alert.

Then, I will get a reminder at 1:35 pm. But I want the reminder only at 1:50 pm, exactly "when I need to leave" (without setting the reminder manually to 1:50 pm, of course).

How can I achieve this?

I know that I can snooze the notification, which will make it reappear in 15 minutes. But, then I am distracted from whatever I'm doing 15 minutes too early. So it is not a solution.

Edit: I want the event to still be displayed as starting at 2 pm in my calendar.

Edit 2: Also assume that I do not know the travel time when I create the event. So the mechanism of Time to leave that adjusts flexible to my location is still necessary.

I think here is the answer,

  When you create the event, make sure that you enter the location of the meeting in the event. Like in image, where you can see the greyed out portion with a caption

 2.

  Add Location (let it get recognize the event through the map app in
  the background -- you do not have to do anything, this will happen
  automatically based on your internet speed, so just give it some time,
  and once you the location listed, select the desired location from the
  options or the nearby location.)

3.

  Once you do that, if you try to set your event time say
  08:00PM-09:00PM.  Automatically you calendar will recognize this event
  as a remote location and will prompt you differently like this,

This will update you about the meeting at the right time accounting for your traffic and weather conditions.

Good Luck !


How can I edit the Calendars shown on the Mac notification sidebar? In my Calendar App on the Mac I can see all my Google, iCloud and Mac calendars. This is great. In the sidebar (Notification area), the Calendar widget does not display the full events especially of the other Calendars. I have many events happening today but only showing one?

Is there a way to show all my Calendar events in this window? Picture below.

I am using Mojave on a MacBook Pro.

Did you tried to open the settings of the calendar?
Calendar > Preferences... > Account

[x] Enlable this account


VLC shows up in all desktops I have VLC media player installed in my MBP (EL Capitan). Recently when I play a video file in the VLC media player it shows up in all the desktops.

I mean I have multiple desktops in the display and the vlc plays the movie in all the desktops excepts for the ones where I have an application in fullscreen.

Can anyone tell me how I can revert to original settings so that I can only view the VLC window in one desktop?

Right click the VLC icon in the Dock, select Options & select something other than All Desktops


My iPhone storage space is never released I have an iPhone 5c with 8GB of storage, out of which approximately 3GB is taken by the operating system.

I've always had issues with running out of space, notwithstanding the very few things I keep stored on it, but since some days I'm having the whole memory completely taken and I'm unable to take any picture.

I keep on deleting files (e.g. I delete media from WhatsApp/Messages and I move pictures from the iPhone to iCloud), but still the memory is never released and always stated as 100% taken, and I'm talking about a significant amount of files deleted/moved (approx. 200 photos and 10 videos).

I hence try to restart the device, close the applications (trying more generally to make the OS re-initializing the memory stats), but still no luck. The only (weird) thing that makes the memory release a bit is when changing the language.

My operating system is iOS 9.0.

I'm wondering what's going on, are the deleted/moved files cached somewhere? Is there any effective way to completely release their memory cells and get back my memory?

Open the Settings App on your iPhone, go to Photos & Camera.

Under the mentioned menu, you will see 2 options: Optimize iPhone Storage and Download and Keep Originals.

If Download and Keep Originals is selected, this is the cause of your issue.
Choose Optimize iPhone Storage. (Be sure that your Photos are Synced/Backed up on iCloud or on your PC or Mac - This option should not delete any photos from iCloud, but just to be safe).

Hope my answer solves your issue. I checked the settings on my iPhone 6s 64gb.


How to delay MacBook Pro sleeping I need to know how to delay the automatic sleep on the Macbook Pro. It sleeps too early.

If I leave it for one minute it sleeps. I tried the view options but it didn't work.

Look in System Preferences -> Energy Saver. You may need an admin password to change settings.


Why does airdrop work with my Macbook, but not iMac? I have a 2011 Macbook Pro (Retina), and a 2011 iMac.  Both are running macOS 10.12.6.  I'm trying to share files between my iPad Mini 2 (retina) running iOS 10.3 using the app Groovebox.

Airdrop works perfectly fine between the iPad and Macbook, no issues at all, it "just works".  But between the iPad and iMac doesn't work at all and I can't figure out why.

I've tried, in no particular order:

Rebooting iMac
Rebooting iPad
Quit & relaunch iOS App
Deactivate/reactivate Bluetooth and Wifi on iPad
Deactivate/Reactivate Wifi on iMac
Deactivate the iMac Ethernet Service leaving only Wifi running
Disconnect the physical ethernet cable from the iMac
Open Finder on iMac and open AirDrop window

I'm out of ideas on why this refuses to work.  The iMac just doesn't appear to the iPad at all, only the MBP shows up.

EDIT:  I'm wondering if it could actually be the same issue asked in this question?  I seem to recall that my iMac didn't support Bluetooth LE but I could be wrong.

I beliieve I've managed to answer this for myself.  All my previous research only turned up issues around Airdrop not working with laptops, but I think the issue is the same.

Found this thread on the Apple discussion forums that says that you need a 2012 or later iMac to use Aiirdrop.  Missed it by that much!

  AirDrop system requirements To send items to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod
  touch, or to receive items from those devices, you need a 2012 or
  later Mac model with OS X Yosemite or later, excluding the Mac Pro
  (Mid 2012).

  To send items to another Mac, you need:

  MacBook Pro (Late 2008) or later, excluding the MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2008)
  MacBook Air (Late 2010) or later
  MacBook (Late 2008) or later, excluding the white MacBook (Late 2008)
  iMac (Early 2009) or later
  Mac Mini (Mid 2010) or later
  Mac Pro (Early 2009 with AirPort Extreme card, or Mid 2010)

The good news is inexpensive and very small USB adapters can add BTLE and AirDrop to older Mac with macOS versions that otherwise support AirDrop.

Asus BT400, IOGEAR GBU521 and GMYLE all seem to do the trick in several articles


Removing Advanced MacCleaner Icon from Lauchpad Had problem with "Advanced Mac Cleaner".  After some effort, and plenty of time, I think I have found and removed all files concerning this malware.  My only apparent remaining problem is that the Advanced MacCleaner icon remains in my Launchpad.  I really, REALLY don't want to bring any of the amc files back from trash unless I absolutely have to (and would prefer to empty trash entirely after I am sure this whole problem is solved.)  Anyone got a fairly easy fix for this final step that a basic laymen (computer wise) like me could implement w/o too much difficulty?  Thanks.

Pretty sure this has already been answered here. They used a terminal command to remove the application. This is the command that was listed:

sqlite3 $(sudo find /private/var/folders -name com.apple.dock.launchpad)/db/db "DELETE FROM apps WHERE title='APP_NAME_CASE_SENSITIVE';" && killall Dock


Sync Exchange calendar with iPhone I've had a work Exchange email account on my iPhone for over a year and recently wanted to sync the calendar as well.

I go into account settings on my iPhone, turn on Calendar syncing and opt to keep my local iPhone calendar. The calendar events (and the actual additional calendar) never appear, any ideas?

We use Outlook 2003 and Kerio Mailserver, however this setup works fine with my iPad (where I have the additional calendar).

I changed my server name to one of its aliases and it refreshed the account and started working: it created a new Exchange calendar and synced the appointments.

I can only conclude that the different aliases map to different ports (I need to speak to our systems admin to confirm), though a colleague was using my "old" alias and his iPhone was syncing fine.


Trying to get Hadoop to work; "connection refused" in Hadoop and in Telnet I was trying to get Hadoop working in standalone mode on my MBP (OS 10.9.5), but I kept getting "connection refused" errors. I found that telnet localhost 9000 gives the same error, which is what I was told to try as a diagnostic. The same thing happens if I try 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost, or if I try ftp instead of telnet. However ping localhost and ssh localhost work fine.

I had messed around a while ago with setting up an Apache server, and I'm concerned I might have broken something. At some point, I had apparently added the line:

127.0.0.1    test.local

to /etc/hosts. I also had modified httpd.conf to use the folder ~/test as my DocumentRoot, and had changed to extra/httpd-vhosts.conf as well.

I restored the original httpd* files from the /etc/apache2/original folder, and I restored the /etc/hosts file to its original state. apachectl configtest gives me:

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using <username>.local for ServerName
Syntax OK

So what do I do? How can I get my computer to stop refusing the connection? I don't know much about networking or servers.

For completeness, here's the original telnet error:

$ ssh localhost
$ telnet localhost 9000
Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
Trying fe80::1...
telnet: connect to address fe80::1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host

and my /etc/hosts file:

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

and the Hadoop error which uses the same "connection refused" language as telnet:

java.net.ConnectException: Call From <username>.local/<ip> to localhost:9000 failed on connection exception: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused; For more details see:  http://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/ConnectionRefused

Following the link in the error (http://wiki.apache.org/hadoop/ConnectionRefused), I read the following:

  If the application or cluster is not working, and this message appears in the log, then it is more serious.

  Check the hostname the client using is correct
  Check the IP address the client is trying to talk to for the hostname is correct.
  Make sure the destination address in the exception isn't 0.0.0.0 -this means that you haven't actually configured the client with the real address for that
  service, and instead it is picking up the server-side property telling it to listen on every port for connections.
  Check that there isn't an entry for your hostname mapped to 127.0.0.1 or 127.0.1.1 in /etc/hosts (Ubuntu is notorious for this)
  Check the port the client is trying to talk to using matches that the server is offering a service on.
  On the server, try a telnet localhost <port> to see if the port is open there.
  On the client, try a telnet <server> <port> to see if the port is accessible remotely.

  None of these are Hadoop problems, they are host, network and firewall configuration issues. As it is your cluster, only you can find out and track down the problem.

and indeed I fail on the second-to-last step, which apparently should work; hence this question.

It's normal getting conection refused if you ftp or telnet to localhost, at least if you haven't up and running that kind of servers, and by default, you don't.

The /etc/hosts should look like 127.0.0.1 localhost by default. To use apache and avoid the error you mentioned, you must add ServerName  localhost to httpd.conf. Restart apache and should works fine.

Don't know if this solve Hadoop error too. Can't help you on it. Just try and let me know.


What do the numbers after an invitee's status in iCal mean? After the text describing the status of an invitee in iCal (in the context menu for the invitee) there is a number. For example I nearly always see numbers like 1.1 or 1.2:

and occasionally I see "n/a":

More importantly, I've recently discovered that one of my invitees is consistently not getting my invitations, and his status (uniquely among all my contacts) shows a different number, 5.1:

What do these numbers mean and why does one of them seem to be associated with an inability to receive invitations from me?

I am using OS X 10.7.2, iCal 5.0.1, and iCloud. The invitations in question are all being sent to mac.com or me.com addresses.

These numbers are only present for users who have enabled the iCal "debug menu", using a third party configuration tweaking utility, or the command line

defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu 1

which adds them, as part of an additional entry in each invitee's context menu, after his e-mail addresses:

The numbers themselves contain information about the invitee's version of
MobileMe or iCloud.


Lion: Application's window size doesn't persist after quit/re-open (Disclaimer: I'm not sure if my question is isolated to Skim.app – if so, it's fine if someone changes the title to reflect that – or if it's a Lion thing.)

I'm using Skim to read PDFs.

Every time I …

Open a document
Resize the window to cover my whole screen
Quit the application
Re-open the document

… the application's window revert to small size (about 2/3 of my screen instead of the whole screen.

I find this very annoying, as I expect the application's window size to persist after closing and re-opening the app.

If you find the window size of one app not retaining the window size value after closing it, the suspect is the .plist for that app. ~/Library/Preferences/ should contain the file. Deleting it while the app is closed and re-opening it will forcibly rebuild it with minimal negative impact to the app itself.


How do I prevent the mirror-effect in video recordings in Photo Booth? I am trying to record a lecture using Photo Booth on my Macbook but I want to be able to record what the professor has on the board. Unfortunately, photobooth seems to have a mirror image, so that all the writing is reversed. How do I get the camera to be a normal non-mirror camera?

In the menu bar click Edit, then "Auto Flip New Items". After you do that, the photos and videos you take will capture what the camera sees, and not reverse it.


How to keep connections alive on ssh MacOS Catalina? I am trying to keep connections alive to my university server. It keeps disconnecting after 2-3 minutes of inactivity and it gets very frustrating to keep relogging in. I tried many things online but I am unable to edit any of the files.

I have tried following instructions here: https://www.a2hosting.com/kb/getting-started-guide/accessing-your-account/keeping-ssh-connections-alive

Perhaps the problem is that I dont have a ~/.ssh/config file - changes I try to make to the below given files, I keep getting this:

-- INSERT -- W10: Warning: Changing a readonly file
E45: 'readonly' option is set (add ! to override)
"sshd_config" E212: Can't open file for writing

When I try to create it (copy and paste the command you use here), it says this:

mkdir: .ssh: Permission denied

I am happy to answer any further questions you may have :)

This is what my /etc/ssh looks like:

This is what ssh_config looks like:

and this is what my sshd_config looks like:

Is there a better guide to creating my ssh config so I can have my client ssh keep alive the connection to the server?

Catalina is same as all the older OS X and macOS for this. For you, it seems the hidden ssh folder is what’s stopping your attempt to configure the file. My commands make the directory and then clobber any file you may have so don’t use the cat > and expect to keep old file contents. You can then edit the file once it’s set.

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
cat > ~/.ssh/config << EOF
Host keepsdroppingme.com
ServerAliveInterval 120
EOF

Of course you need to put the host you care about having the 120 second keep alive traffic being synthetically generated whether you’re typing or not. On the server side, they can still enforce a timeout, but this often works wonders.


network computers renamed after Yosemite install Yosemite install (from Mavericks) has automatically changed the names of my network computers as shown in the Finder sidebar. For example, my name IMac now displays as my name iMac(2). My two additional Mac Airs are displaying the same problem.

I have tried changing the computer names in System Preferences (sharing/computer name/edit) to no effect with or without rebooting.

How can I return to the original computer names?

UPDATE 3: Updating to 10.10.4 fixes this problem. In this point release discoveryd is replaced by the previously ousted mDNSResponder.

The originally supplied workaround follows...

There is a bug between Yosemite (the daemon discoveryd) and sleep servers. These servers reside in Apple TVs and Airports and act as a proxy for a sleeping machine. For now the only fix seems to be:

On your computer, go to System Preferences --> Energy Saver, and untick "Wake for network access" (or maybe it is "Wake for Wi-Fi access", I think it depends on your interface type).
Shut down your Apple TV/s and/or Airport/s.
On your computer, go to System Preferences --> Sharing, and rename it as you wish.
Reboot your computer and check that the name change has stuck (a reboot is probably not necessary but I did so for good measure).
Power-up your Apple TV/s and/or Airport/s.

I no longer have the incrementing computer name problem, unless I re-enable "Wake for network access".

UPDATE 1: Updating to OS X 10.10.1 (and Apple TV to 7.0.2) didn't help.

UPDATE 2: Whilst improved, it's still broken in OS X 10.10.3. But the buggy daemon discoveryd has apparently been replaced in the 10.10.4 beta by the previously ousted mDNSResponder. So here's hoping it's fixed in the next release. Source: 9to5Mac.


Selectively restore from a time machine backup created on snow leopard to a different machine running mountain lion I have a current time machine backup on USB from an older machine running snow leopard 10.6. How can I selectively restore applications and data from this time machine disk to a new mac running Mountain Lion 10.8?

You can just copy folders and files from /Volumes/*/Backups.backupdb/ normally. Finder and cp don't preserve hard links.


Which SSD to choose for a white late 2009 macbook Currently there are many reviews on SSDs, and different types of SSDs as well.

What I would like to hear is what cost effective SSDs that exists that aslo has TRIM support and will work well with Lion.

The System Information app says that the SATA interface can do 3 Gb and the link speed is 1.5 Gb (on the stock 250GB HDD)

I would like around 256 GB.

Which models and brands would be a good choice for this model ?

If you don't use your optical drive I would recommend Crucial M4 128GB as best bang for a buck SSD from big name manufacturer. And buying SATA 9.5mm caddy from ebay to put SSD inside it. So you still have your 250GB HDD + 128 GB of SSD


Start iTunes after Network Share Mounted I have my iTunes library on a network volume that is mounted on startup.  I did this by dragging the volume icon into my login items.  When I restart my computer iTunes starts before the network share is mounted.

Currently iTunes appears in the login items before the network share.  Do login items get started in the order they appear?  If true if I re-add iTunes so it appears below the network share will that fix my issue?

Last resort I can create an applescript that starts at launch that will connect to thet network share and then start iTunes.

Thanks in advance, Scott

I ended up creating an Automator application and adding the Automator app to my login items instead of iTunes and the network share.


Look Up in Dictionary with "All" filter I like the fact that I can launch the dictionary app by highlighting a word in any any application and then going to (Application Name) > Services > Look Up in Dictionary.

However, this selects the Dictionary filter (instead of All, Thesaurus, Apple, or Wikipedia). I would prefer if it selected the All filter instead. Is there any way to create such a global menu item/shortcut which would do the same thing as lookup in dictionary but have it select the All filter instead of the Dictionary filter?

The only way I could get this to work is by creating a new service that looks up the word and than tells Dictionary.app to use the "all" filter.

Open /Applications/Automator.app and select the services template
in the top right part of the screen, you should see that the default input parameters Automator has selected ("Service receives selected text in any application") is just what you want
in the left hand search field, search for an Action called "Run Applescript" and drag it into your workflow
replace the part "(* Your script goes here *)" with the following Applescript, and than choose File->Save. Automator will ask you for a name for your new service (eg. "lookup in all dictionaries" and from that moment on, your service will be available in all applications.

set dictLocation to "dict:///" & input
open location dictLocation
 tell application "System Events" to tell process "Dictionary" to keystroke "0"    using command down

(optional) You might also want to define a shortcut for you new service by going into  "System Preferences">"Keyboard">"Keyboard Shortcuts">"Services", finding your Service in the list of Services, and double-clicking the whitespace next to it do define a global shortcut.


AppleScript: How to open a link in Google Chrome in a new, adjacent tab? The following AppleScript code will open the link in a new tab, at the location of the very end of the current tabs:

set myLink to "https://www.google.com/"

tell application "Google Chrome"
        activate
        open location myLink
end tell

Is it possible to open a link in a new tab, that is located immediately after the currently open tab, using AppleScript?

For example, if my current Chrome window has 10 tabs, and the currently displayed tab is the fifth tab, then I would like the new tab to be inserted as the sixth tab, pushing all of the subsequent tabs over to the right one. I also do not want the new tab to be hidden; I want the currently displayed tab to be changed to the new, sixth tab upon its creation.

You can witness the desired behavior by using Chrome's built-in Google search feature. Right-click any selected text on a webpage, select Search Google for "SelectedText", and a new tab will be created, adjacent to the tab in which the search was initiated.

It's possible, like this :

set myLink to "https://www.google.com/"
tell application "Google Chrome"
     activate
    tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:myLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
end tell


MacBook Pro Serial Number Not Available Today, I opened up an application to see check how my battery is going along, health, etc. It said that my Mac had an unknown manufacture date and no serial. I opened up About This Mac, and saw that for some reason, it says my serial number is "Unavailable", and it doesn't show the exact model of my mac (It just shows "MacBook Pro" instead of "MacBook Pro, Retina Late 2013" like it used to, even when I click on it)

I do have the serial number written down, and checked my warranty with Apple. I do have a valid purchase date, and Apple Care for 1 more year.

I have had the display replaced under warranty a few months ago, but I am pretty sure that that did not do it.

The best way is you should ask Apple to fix this.

If you wanna DIY (WARNING: at your own risk), with a tool named Blank Board Serializer (ver 1.1 part number 063-7137, please google it if you want), you can set your serial number onto your Apple computer board. There are some step by step video that should be found easily on YouTube.

Steps:

Burn the BBS disk image to a CD/USB.
Boot the compute and press the option key (i.e. the Boot Picker).
Insert the CD/USB and select it for booting.
Once the Blank Board Serializer has started, follow on-screen instructions.


MacBook Pro not booting from hard drive I got a MacBook Pro that has a problem booting, or even seeing the hard drive. I have used the recovery console to install OS X onto a USB drive and have booted into that and can't actually see the internal disk at all.

If I boot to Recovery Mode and open Disk Utility I can see it fine in there, and can see the files on it. If I check the disk using the repair option it also verifies fine.

If I take the drive out and put it in a USB caddy I can pull off all the files just fine using HSFExplorer on a PC, and have backed up most to an external drive from the PC. I can't quite work out why the Mac won't boot though as according to Disk Utility it's fine, but from inside OS X it cannot be seen, and also booting off it gives a question mark.

The question mark means that it cannot find its boot partition.  On any OS X drive, you are going to have several partitions.  It might look something like:

 #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *55.9 Gi    disk0
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         31.5 Ki    disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_Boot Boot OSX                128.0 Mi   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_HFSX Macintosh HD0           25.0 Gi    disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot                         128.0 Mi   disk0s4

Using this drive as an example, you can probably see what is on "Macintosh HD0" which is disk0s3.  To boot, you need the "Apple_Boot" partition or disk0s4 partition.

You should be able to fix this by running the installer and having it repair the OS X installation.

Make sure you back up your files first (it sounds like you did).