How can I delete a whole list amongst my reminders? Seems like I’m missing a delete button at the bottom. I do not have family sharing enabled. How do I get rid of this list?

If you have another account (like Yahoo! or Outlook) linked in your iPhone settings in addition to your iCloud account, then it could be the culprit.

If that’s the case, try either disabling reminders from that account or try to visit the specific account settings pages and delete it manually.


iPhone 4 without a SIM card I just recently purchased an iPhone 4 on Amazon that doesn't have a SIM card. I was planning to use it as an iPod, because my parents wouldn't and couldn't buy me a phone with a plan. So I was just wondering if I could activate it on the spot when I get it in the mail.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but the CDMA (Verizon and Sprint) iPhone 4 does not have a SIM card slot, and thus doesn't require one to activate the iPhone on a carrier.


Connecting Thunderbolt 2 Mac to Thunderbolt 3 Display, what is the maximum resolution@100hz , will USB 3.0 work? I own a MacBook Pro 15" 2015 with a Thunderbolt 2 port.
I have recently bought a Samsung cj791 Thunderbolt 3 monitor
(3440 x 1440 @ 100Hz; 85W Power Delivery)
I plan on connecting the monitor to my Mac using: a) A Thunderbolt 3 male to Thunderbolt 2 female adapter and b) a regular Thunderbolt 2 cable
These are my questions:

Will this work at all (I have read it didn't before High Sierra)?
Will I be able to go up to the full 100Hz this way at the full resolution? (Another post said TB 2 works with 4K @ 60HZ which is the same data rate - a little more even)
I have read connecting 2.0 USB peripherals through the monitor is possible, does TB 2 also support USB 3.0 throughput?

Thanks.

Yes in general. I use the same adapter to run all manner of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 displays from 2013 Mac Pro and MacBook Air and Pro from the same era. You don’t get any extra resolution than the Mac could drive originally using adapters that shipped when the Mac in question was brand new.
I’m delighted with 5k displays running over the Thunderbolt 2 and all USB and Thunderbolt hubs I have tested work at full Thunderbolt 2 speed. Since USB-C and 3.0 is less speed than Thunderbolt - they all work fine in my experience.


Unsure of how to achieve my usage scenario with a repurposed iPhone I live in the USA. I want to purchase a used iPhone 5 and repurpose it and activate it with my existing Apple ID, and use it as if it were an iPod touch, without a service contract from a phone provider. I also do not want to jailbreak this iPhone.

I'm familiar with questions like this one and with Apple's knowledge base article "Using an iPhone without a wireless service plan", but my usage scenario seems to be different.

To the best that I can understand, Apple's instructions apply to a person who has an existing iPhone mobile service plan. In this scenario, said person buys a newer, second iPhone for use with his existing SIM card and mobile provider, but wants to keep the old iPhone and use it merely as an iPod touch. The instructions are to take the working SIM card registered to that person's mobile provider account for use with the new iPhone, and use it to activate the old iPhone once, remove the SIM card, and then keep the old iPhone for use as an iPod touch. But this presumes, unless I am mistaken, that both the new iPhone and the old iPhone will be registered to the same Apple ID.

I, on the other hand, have never had an iPhone service contract with a company like AT&T or Verizon. I honestly have no need for an iPhone. Rather, I have owned a succession of iPod touches over the years, which I use over WiFi every day. I don't want or need a mobile account with a service provider for an iPhone.

My old iPod touch 4th generation is no longer doing what I need it to do because today's apps run too slow on it. I don't want to buy an iPod touch 5th generation at this point because it only has an A5 processor, and I don't want to wait to see if Apple ever releases a newer-generation iPod touch.

So my question is this: Can I purchase a used iPhone without a mobile service contract, borrow an iPhone SIM card from a friend who has his own Apple ID different from mine, and use my friend's active SIM card one-time to register my used iPhone to my own Apple ID, not to my friend's Apple ID?

If this will not work, what method can I use, if any, to end up with a working iPhone-as-iPod-touch that is registered to my own existing Apple ID and nobody else's, considering that I have never had a mobile service plan for an iPhone at all?

I solved the problem by making an appointment at the Genius Bar at the local Apple Store, explaining what I was trying to do, and asking for their help. Even though I purchased a used iPhone 5c from a third-party, they brought out a working new Sprint SIM card and activated the iPhone with Apple (for use as an iPod touch only. with no phone service) for me. They also let me keep the SIM card in case I need it to reset the iPhone.

The new SIM card that the Sprint Store had given me earlier, for one reason or another, did not work.

The Genius in the Apple Store told me that Sprint SIM cards are very specific, and some would work in a 5c and others would not.

The Sprint SIM card model that did work with my iPhone 5C was Sprint part number SIMGLW406C.

The Sprint SIM card model that did not work with my iPhone 5C was Sprint part number SIMGLW406R.


Is there any way to recover your apple ID if you forget both your password and your recovery key? Is there any way to recover your apple ID if you forget both your password and your recovery key?

If this happens: would it mean you wouldn't be able to use your your iOS devices that used that apple ID with activation lock active?

Could you contact Apple to solve this issue?

I hope it never happens to me, but I'd just like to know this.

This happened to me! I created a new Apple ID using my device (because it was the only way to create an Apple ID without having to have a non-iCloud email account associated with it), didn't realise that Find My iPhone was switched on, and then promptly forgot both the password and the security questions/answers for the account. I could still use the device, but I was unable to switch off Find My iPhone or erase the device. So I force-restored the device, but was then presented with the activation lock.

Apple helped me reset the activation lock because I was able to prove that I purchased the device. Your receipt contains identifying information such as the Serial Number and IMEI number, so when I provided Apple with this receipt, they were able to remove the activation lock for me.

But I never recovered the Apple ID itself.


How do I get Split Screen to work on an iPad I have a 6th generation iPad running iOS 12.2. I have tried Split Screen (as described in Use Multitasking on your iPad), but can't seem to get it to work.

Open an app.
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the Dock.
On the Dock, touch and hold the second app that you want to open, then drag it off the Dock.
When the app opens in Slide Over, drag the dash icon down.

After point #2, I see the Dock (and a normal home screen) - not sure if this is intended. When I try point #3, it just seems to rearrange apps on the Home screen.

I have Multitasking features turned on.

When you swipe up, swipe up just a little so the dock shows. If you swipe up too much, it'll open the multitasking view or the homescreen, which isn't what you want. You need to be in an app the entire time for it to work.


How can I troubleshoot this re-occuring prompt to give a mysterious app security access? EDIT: Found some files, not sure if deleting them will fix the issue though.  Does anybody know if I can just delete these?:

For a couple months now, I've been getting this error, periodically, a few times a day, randomly. It's been happening ever since I've gotten my new Macbook (I did the thing where I connected both laptops with a USB-C and copied everything over the first time i launched the new laptop)

Never have I ever, on this laptop, or in my last laptop, installed this before, to my knowledge. I have googled the error and found nothing
This application also does not exist in /Applications or ~/Applications, and there's no process that looks like this in Activity Monitor.
I also did a disk search with sudo find / -name network and there were 0 hits that looked like this could be it
I also checked login items in my Account preferences, and this doesn't exist either.
Even if I restart my machine, it will eventually show up again
I also do not run much on my machine.  Here are my login items, and besides that day-to-day I use Xcode, SourceTree, and Chrome.
In the past I have used Shadow App and Parallels, I'm thinking maybe one of those apps may have placed something in that was just sleeping, and then got backed up onto my new machine... but I still can't find anything.
Does anybody know how I can troubleshoot this further? it's been driving me crazy!

This may be caused by extensions that were installed when the Eltima USB Networks Gate for Mac application was installed.
A couple of possible solutions I found:
This one from an Eltima forum which it's recommended to run in safe mode:
sudo /Library/Frameworks/EveUSB.framework/Support/uninstall

The other is from a Stack Overflow post that provides a script for finding and removing any Eltima USB Networks Gate for Mac extensions.


How to delete or rename files from inside the open dialog on OS X? By default I know that OS X does not allow you to do any modifications from inside the open dialog, like

rename files
move files
delete files
tag files/folders

Is it possible to tune the system in order to enable this functionality?

Why not do all this in Finder? Check this animation for a useful way to locate your file in Finder, directly from any Document window and Open/Save dialog:

I use this dozens of times every day.


Looking for car (cigarette lighter receptacle to lightning) charger for iPhone 5 Is there any way to charge an iPhone 5 in a 2005 Cadillac (in the cigarette lighter hole)? Or am I just out of luck with an old car?

I did some searches on google but nothing came up. I also saw some car kits but I didn't understand the description when they talked about "pins". I don't see any pins on the charger that came with my new iPhone.

I went back to the Verizon store where I bought it, but they weren't any help.
I don't think Cadillac could answer my question either. After all, they are sales people not techs.
I searched on the Apple website but found nothing regarding a 2005 car.

Due to the new Lightning connector introduced with the iPhone 5, you'll need a car charger specifically built for this connection. A quick Google search gave several hits e.g. Amazon iPhone 5 Car Charger - Lightning Connector or Belkin Car Charger with Lightning connector for iPhone 5 (10 Watt/2.1 Amp).

Nothing changed on the cigarette lighter side of things, so these chargers should work with older cars as well.


Macbook Pro keeps waking from sleep during the night and draining battery My 15-inch MacBook Pro (Touch Bar, mid-2017) has always been plagued by issues with sleep.

After not using it for a few months, I started using it again yesterday and found out that during the night it drained about 50% of the battery on its own and went into "Low-power sleep" at about 6 AM (the type of sleep that you can only wake from by reconnecting the power adapter).

Here’s my setup:

I use an external display with my MacBook, however the two were physically disconnected (USB-C to Thunderbolt adapter is unplugged) during the night;
There were a Bluetooth keyboard by Lofree and a second-generation Magic Mouse connected;
Among other apps, Spotify, Telegram, iOS Simulator, XCode, Google Chrome and Firefox were running. I mention these because I once noticed Spotify seemed to prevent sleep. I’m not sure it was the culprit in this case;
In Energy Saver, the following settings are engaged:

Under “Battery”:

Put hard disks to sleep when possible;
Slightly dim the display while on battery power;
Enable Power Nap while on battery power;

In “Power Adapter”:

“Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off” is disabled
Wake for Wi-Fi network access
Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter

I am aware Wi-Fi network access and Power Nap may be the culprits here, although if I remember correctly, past experimentation with these settings proved inconclusive.

Moreover, I’m reluctant to disable Power Nap because it allows the Find My Mac feature to work correctly, and I’d like to keep that functionality intact.

I’ve uploaded the output of pmsleep -g log in hopes that it helps troubleshoot. Reading through it I couldn’t locate a clear culprit. You can find it here: https://gist.github.com/gabrielecirulli/34462c195d703a577f23a80c3fc9dd28

Broadly speaking, what I would do next is as follows:

1. Quit all applications and put the MBP to sleep overnight. Then,

If it's still draining battery power significantly, it's time to reset the System Management Controller (see below)
If it didn't drain the battery much during the night, then proceed the following night with only two or three apps running.

If it significantly drains the battery, then you've narrowed it down to one of those apps, so repeat the process until you identify the culprit.
If it doesn't drain battery, then repeat the process the following night with a different group of apps and repeat the process until you narrow down the app(s) causing the problem.

2. Reset the SMC

Fully shut down your MBP.
Press and hold the power button for at least 10 seconds
Let go of the power button and wait 5 seconds
Power up your MBP again

Once you've reset the SMC test your MBP again. If it's still misbehaving, reset the SMC again but with the following steps instead:

Fully shut down your MBP.
Press and hold the right shift key and the left option and control keys for 7 seconds before then also pressing and holding the power button (or Touch ID button) down for another 7 seconds (i.e. the keys will end up being held down for 14 seconds, the power button for 7 seconds)
Let go of all three keys and the power button
Wait 5 seconds
Power up your MBP again

Now test your MBP again. If you're still having problemss, let us know.


USB-Stick (Format: FAT) retaining incomplete files I'm having a problem deleting files from a USB-Stick, which is formatted with FAT.
I tried transferring files from my Mac to the USB-Stick, and if I remember correctly, removed it from the USB-port before it finished transferring the files. Therefore some files weren't transferred entirely, resulting in this:

The three bottom folders haven't been transferred completely, hindering me from accessing them. The top two folders contain files, which weren't transferred entirely.

If I try to delete the folders, by simply selecting them and pressing ⌘⌫ it deletes them for about a second, but then they return.
I have tried formatting the USB-Stick:

...but I get the following error:

  Deletion of the following medium has failed
  Following error has occurred, while trying to delete the following medium:
  The medium couldn't be deactivated.

Is there any way I can delete the entire content, so I have a completely clear USB-Stick?

It seems as if Disk Utility can't lock the device. This is usually because some other process has open handles on a mount point that resides on the drive. As it's an USB pen drive, I guess you already tried plugging and reinserting it. Thing is: As soon as it gets mounted, something immediately seems to request a lock. This MIGHT be Finder. If you want to know which process is responsible for this, execute sudo lsof /Volumes/Stick from terminal. This shows you all open handles and their respective owners affecting /Volumes/Stick.

Try disabling auto mount. Unfortunately it's a bit complicated.

Plug in your supposedly faulty stick. Open a terminal and wait until Finder recognizes the drive.
Enter mount. You will see something like
/dev/disk3s1 on /Volumes/Stick (exfat, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners). Note down the first part which refers to the device and the first part in brackets, in this example /dev/disk3s1 and exfat, the filesystem on that drive.
Run diskutil info <device> | grep "Volume UUID" in terminal, where <device> must be replaced with the device you noted down in the second step, so you'll end up with something like diskutil info /dev/disk3s1 | grep "Volume UUID".
The output of this command is a UUID. It should read something like Volume UUID:              03D819D9-49E0-387E-AC9E-2CB54BF0DDD9
Now unplug your USB drive and run sudo vifs. If you are not used to vi you want to put a EDITOR=nano afterwards. Edit the last line of the file making it read UUID=<UUID> none <filesystem> noauto, e.g. UUID=03D819D9-49E0-387E-AC9E-2CB54BF0DDD9 none exfat noauto. Exit the editor.
Now plug it back in. If you done the steps correctly, the drive won't be mounted automatically.
Try to format it again using Disk Utility.


How do I fix my SSD after installing Yosemite and Enabling TRIM? No boot & can't erase I recently upgraded to Yosemite, enabled FileVault and foolishly enabled TRIM (had no idea it wasn't supported).

Upon restart, my machine gets the grey screen with the crossed-out circle of death.

After figuring out what happened, I then attempted to restore from a Time Machine backup (10.9).  The backup failed almost immediately, but did manage to erase the HD (or at least the partition is gone).

Now I'm completely stuck.  Disk Utility can see this drive, but cannot erase or re-partition it.  The drive isn't mounted so I cannot access it with Terminal (at least with my level of knowledge).  cd /Volumes/mydrive doesn't work - no such directory.

I have re-installed Yosemite on my second hard drive and booted from there.  I tried Disk Utility again and I still have no options available to erase or partition my original disk, although it is there.

Can anyone help me get my original disk back into functioning form?  If I can just get the disk erased and partitioned, I can load my Time Machine backup and be off to the races.  Thanks!

A clean install is not necessary, you simply need to reconfigure your NVRAM (nvram boot-args=kext-dev-mode=1) to disable the kext signing requirement for OS X.  (After which, you can remove your TRIM enabler and reverse this change or leave it until the next time your NVRAM is changed/resets)

A very clear explanation of OS X 10.10 Yosemite's new policy with Kernel Extension (kext) signing now being required from the creator of Trim Enabler, as well as simple steps to recover the grey boot screen after TRIM/Yosemite mishaps:

https://cindori.org/trim-enabler-and-yosemite/


When I text someone, they receive it from 2 numbers Whenever I text or iMessage someone, they recieve it from both my number from my old phone that I transferred over, and the number on this phone. How do I make sure only 1 number is in use?

Open the Settings app.
Then, go to the "Messages" section.
Then, tap "Send & Receive".

After that, check to make sure that you only have one number checked.


On OSX grep can I use look ahead? This works:

$ echo "$Foo" | grep "Android SDK Build-tools" | grep -Eo "\d+(?:-)"
4-
5-
6-
7-
8-
9-

This does not:

$ echo "$Foo" | grep "Android SDK Build-tools" | grep -Eo "\d+(?=-)"
grep: repetition-operator operand invalid

Can I use lookahead if I want to with the OSX supplied version of grep?

grep in macOS does not support lookahead. For more information about the regex syntax supported in the default macOS binaries, see re_format(7).

If you need to use such a regex, you can install GNU grep with Homebrew (brew install grep) and use the -P option to enable Perl regex syntax which does support your regex.


Applications show as .app instead of  in Alfred & Spotlight I do not know the actual time or date of the change, but I noticed it today.

Example: I use Alfred which now shows "Word.app" instead of "Word".

Same goes for Spotlight.

EDIT: How do I remove the .app for my applications?

Maybe your Finder's (advanced) preferences is set to "Show all filename extensions" - I like that, actually!
So you would uncheck this box to hide the .app extension.


iPhone - How to add people to on-going video chat in Facebook messenger? I'm using an iPhone 7 running iOS 12.

When I'm in an on-going video chat, I can't find the "add people" button to add more people to the on-going video chat. In Android I can see that button just fine, so I'm surprised that iOS doesn't have it.

Do I need to activate it via settings or something?

I got it. It's not the iPhone's fault, it's the fault of the other phone which uses Messenger Lite. Messenger Lite doesn't have conference call feature (at this moment). So if Messenger (full version) calls Messenger Lite, the "add people" button isn't available. So I install Messenger (full version) for the other phone and try calling again, and now I can see the "add people" button.


How can I keep "Update Notifications" from disrupting a Keynote presentation? When I was in the middle of teaching class, using Keynote, my presentation was disrupted when TextExpander discovered there was an update available and threw up a dialog box asking if I would like to download the update.  Obviously, this was the wrong time to ask me.  In the past, I've had a similar experience with Time Machine ("It has been 10 days since your computer was last backed up with Time Machine").

I certainly can keep TextExpander from intruding by turning off the automatic checks for updates.  I could do the same with all other programs that have such update checks.  I'm not sure I can turn off the Time Machine request, other than by making sure to back it up frequently.

However, the automatic updates are a really nice feature.  I like having my apps updated and I don't want to make a chore out of going out and discovering if I have updates available.  To a certain extent, the App Store update process may make the update maintenance easier, but I'm sure I'll always have apps that aren't MAS available.

So, is there a general way to ensure my Keynote presentation time is uninterrupted?  Perhaps something I can run during the presentation to block update requests?  Or a setting somewhere to keep Keynote from paying attention to any update requests?

So, is there a general way to ensure my Keynote presentation time is uninterrupted?

Unless I know I'll absolutely need network access, I just turn off all network interfaces while I'm giving presentations. This effectively blocks any auto-update routines from running without having to disable and then re-enable the feature in any piece of software I might want to use during my talk.

I'll also shut down all the programs I don't absolutely need running during a presentation. In particular email, instant message and any sort of communication apps that could cause a notification bell or a preview to pop up on my screen get shut down.

I'll pause Growl (Growl icon in menu bar -> Pause Growl) so notifications don't interrupt my presentation.

And I'll switch from any customized backgrounds I might have to some corporate logo backgrounds.

I'll even clear my browser history. Not that there'd be anything lewd, but there might be competitor's websites or company-sensitive information that can be given away by URLs that auto-complete when I start to type in the browser.

That's my usual pre-flight check before I use my laptop in public presentation.


iPhone XR not seeing iOS 13.1 update I know roll-outs are staggered, but 10 days (and two minor releases) later I'm fairly sure I should have been offered an update (all other iOS/iPadOS devices in the house have been).

I've restarted the phone, logged on to various networks (plus cellular), and I'm still seeing

  iOS 13.0
  Your software is up to date.

When visiting Settings / General / Software Update

Automatic updates are On, iCloud setup is fine (backups working, etc.), and this phone is not enrolled in any betas. The update from 12.x to 13.0 was via iTunes, but I've done that before and (as expected) it's had no effect on future OTA updates.

Any magical bonus steps I might take to cause the phone to discover the update?

The sure fire way to get an update now is to use Apple Configurator 2

https://support.apple.com/apple-configurator
Connect over USB and update

OTA updates are staged and depend on caching / CDN and other things out of your control the first 7+ days of a major release in my experience. One way you could pick this apart is to use USB networking and capture the traffic between iOS and Apple’s update servers and perhaps see an error condition.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/network/recording_a_packet_trace

Charles Proxy is excellent for this sort of deep dive as well when networking isn’t working.

The above tools do not need Apple support or a paid developer account. The below option I believe is only available if you have a log in as a developer or Apple sends you the profile as part of a support engagement.

There is a software update debug log profile and if you instal one that’s properly signed by Apple, you can get text logs from your specific device to answer why it’s not updating or perhaps know when the checks happen or what might be blocking them:

https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/profiles-and-logs/?platform=ios&name=Update

The above documentation has a PDF guide and the Configuration Profile required to enable logging for this situation.


How do I make my iPhone 4S use EDGE? We recently upgraded from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4S. In general it has been a good experience, however we aren't sure how to turn off 3G and go to the EDGE network on the 4S. It doesn't appear to be an iOS 5 thing since older phones with iOS 5 still retain the ability to turn off 3G and switch to edge. Instead of turning off 3G being an option (which would kick us back to edge) we can only turn off cellular data, but calls don't revert networks.

This is very important when using the iPhone in our area since the 3G and 4G networks are loaded down and very spotty. With the 3GS I could turn off 3G and switch to EDGE and go from 1-2 bars to 5 and go from 4-10 dropped calls a day to 0. With the iPhone 4S and 4G, I still have the spotty service and dropped calls, but no easy workaround.

You cannot at this time.

The option to disable 3G no longer exists for the 4S. No word on why Apple disabled the feature. It may be a proactive move to dump old technology as the phone still supports 2G and will switch to the slower network if 3G is not found.

There is a rather large discussion regarding this matter on Apple's forums.


Is my keyboard compatible with MacBook Pro I have ordered a Hyperx alloy elite RGB, but I was wondering whether it would be compatible with my MacBook Pro [Mojave 10.14.] In some forums I read it might not be compatible. If it is not compatible is there any possible way that I can make it work with my MacBook Pro?

Will all the letters & numbers work?
Yes.
You'll probably use the Windows key as Command, the others as labelled. Choosing a PC keyboard layout in System preferences may be helpful too.
Will all the media buttons & customisation options work?...

Features
Set up lighting and effects freestyle or by zone
Create and store macros and button bindings
Customise your keyboard’s Game Mode
Library of game profile presets
Adjust your mouse’s DPI settings
Monitor battery life and adjust audio

No.
There are no Mac-specific drivers or custom control panel available.


Separate multiple comma separated values in Numbers One of the CSV files I'm using has lumped the address into one single cell, separated by commas.

For example: 12 Fairy Tale Lane, Wonderland, Oz, Neverland

I need to separate these into Address 1, Address 2, Address 3 and City columns

Here is a suggestion from https://discussions.apple.com/message/26532955#26532955

  In order to import comma-separated CSV into Numbers.app properly, you need to set the decimal separator to period in System Preferences. If decimal separator is set to comma, Numbers.app can only import semicolon-separated CSV.

  Quit Numbers.app;
  Set the decimal separator to period, temporarily, in System Preferences; [/Language & Region/Advanced]
  Launch Numbers.app, import the CSV file and save the resultant Numbers file;
  Quit Numbers.app;
  Reset the decimal separator to the original (presumably, comma) in System Preferences;


I'm shopping for a used iphone to take to Brazil. Should I buy GSM or CDMA? I'm shopping for a used iphone here in U.S. to take to Brazil. I’m not sure how to evaluate if I want to prioritize GSM or CDMA for this area.

Is there advice or references that can help me decide?

I'm shopping for a used iPhone to take to Brazil. Should I buy GSM or CDMA?

This answer applies to any country and (technically) any phone.  Therefore, I’m writing it as a canonical answer for future queries of this nature.
You need to find out what type of technology is being used.
The best place would be to contact the local carrier.  In Brazil, it’s Vivo, Claro, TIM, and Oi.  You will want to check with them because different carriers use different technologies.  Here in the US, AT&T uses GSM, while Verizon uses CDMA, for example.
However, you can get a good idea of what technologies are being used in a country with the help from the web site GSM Arena.  They maintain a fairly comprehensive database of the different radio types and frequencies used in a particular country.  Below is a screen grab of their entry for Brazil.

Here we can see that for 2G they use GSM, 3G they use UMTS and for 4G the use LTE.  CDMA is nowhere to be found.
It’s always best to check directly with your provider (whether it be cell services, email hosting, or even personal services) rather than with “the guy from the Internet.”  My information is accurate today, but I’m not a representative of the company and all of it can change tomorrow.  I’d rather you know how to obtain the correct info rather than hope the info is still correct.


Turning off FileVault I'm currently trying to recover my formatted external hard drive with testdisk.
Testdisk takes forever to load on sudo on Mac Terminal, so I tried to approach it from a live Linux Distro, Gparted.
It works so, however it can't write to the Mac HFS+ Drive. At the moment I'm currently trying to partition a separate partition for testdisk to write the recovered files to, however FileVault is in the way.
FileVault is taking forever to finish, (~3 days) and so I followed this  solution and got the following progress.
Logical Volume Family FA9F7FA6-0592-4361-A641-1DAE403816E0
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Encryption Status:       Unlocked
    Encryption Type:         AES-XTS
    Conversion Status:       Converting
    Conversion Direction:    -none-
    Has Encrypted Extents:   Yes
    Fully Secure:            No
    Passphrase Required:     No
    |
    +-> Logical Volume 21F83719-063D-40EC-8958-36FBD021EE78
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk1
        Status:                Online
        Size (Total):          998973898752 B (999.0 GB)
        Conversion Progress:   Paused
        Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)
        LV Name:               Untitled 1
        Volume Name:           Untitled 1
        Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Seems like it has started to revert, but it is paused and hasn't actually started the process. FileVault on the Settings pane now shows as paused.
How to make revert process continue?
EDIT:I forgot to mention, the Drive Untitled 1 Is my new 1Tb hard drive, which I have swapped out the Mac's original 500Gb drive. It is made by the same company, HGST, and had the same specifications. So there shouldn't be much capability problems.

The last step in the FileVault conversion process is to restart.


How do I fix this annoying Chrome for macOS scroll bar issue? Sometimes when I navigate code-formatted text that is long enough to have scroll bars, the bar doesn't disappear after I've finished scrolling and stays stuck inside the block of code, obscuring it.

Is there a way to get rid of this for good? Sometimes refreshing the page works but not all times.

Here's a block of text formatted as code if you want to give it a shot.

this is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong block of pre-formatted text

Here's what it looks like when it happens:

Try going to system settings > general > show scroll bars > always.


Running Multiple X11 Servers Simultaneously I used to run multiple X11 servers on different DISPLAYs with different Window Managers, but now I get a return code of 1 when starting a second X11 server (or startx hangs waiting for the X11 server to start). This apparently started with xorg-server 1.20.8. My previous version was 1.20.6 so I apparently missed a version, where this might have broken.

My OS is 10.15.5 Beta (19F62f) (which may be a problem).

Has anyone run multiple X11 servers with xorg-server 1.20.8 and Catalina (any version)?

Thanks.

Duplicate /Applications/MacPorts/X11.app to another name, edit the other name's Content/Info.plist, change both “org.macports.X11” to another name.

Not sure changing both is necessary.


How to nuke everything from imac and start it at the beginning from scratch like i first bought it I have some problems that i cannot resolve on my iMac and now I would like to delete everything and start it from scratch like when i first bought it a few years ago.  Please show me the steps.

Thanks,

Jon

The easiest way is as follows:

You will need the original (or a newer) Mac OS X install disk for the computer. Do not use and older version than originally came with the Mac, and do not use the install disk from any other model of Mac.

Insert the disk and restart the computer pressing the Option key as it restarts. After about a minute when it loads, click the arrow under your installer DVD to boot from it.

When it starts, click continue on English. In the menu bar, select Utilities and select Disk Utility. Disk Utility may be under a different menu on some install disks.

Select your disk in the left column (select the disk, not the partition (select the one labeled something weird, not "Macintosh HD")) and follow the instructions to erase the disk. For best results choose the option to "securely erase" the disk, or to overwrite the data with 0's rather than just mark as free space. It will take longer but is more secure (if your data was valuable) and cleans the disk better. Then close Disk Utility and install the operating system on the newly erased disk.

Viola! Brand new Mac OS X. Enjoy the startup video ;)


Mid 2012 MBP shuts down claiming no power with charge at 30% or 40% or more I have two mid 2012 MBPs. Sometime last year they both started randomly shutting down and showing the 'please plug me in to power' image when trying to start them up. That would be fine if the batter was at 1% or less but this happens when the battery is at anywhere from 30% to as high as 48% full. The power cycle info says 500 cycles or so. Both of them do this. They are both patched current, always. I asked Apple they suggested NVRAM PRAM and SMC reset, as expected, which had no effect. Any ideas?

Your battery is shot.

A battery's life is determined more by age than the number of cycles.  Yes, number of cycles do play a part, but the biggest culprit is age.  In short, you have a 4 year old battery.  A 4 year old battery that was never used is going to perform about as well as a 4 year old battery with 500 cycles.

MATH FINDS TOP CULPRIT AS LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES AGE

As far as what you are seeing, this is not an abnormal symptom.  Your MacBook Pro has no sensor to be able to determine how quickly a charge will dissipate within the cell.  All it can do is measure the voltage under load and calculate how much charge is left.

As your battery ages, there is a build up of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI).  This layer is what "transfers" the electrical charge from the chemical reaction.  As this layer builds, the performance degrades.  This layer continues to build from the time the battery is manufactured until the time it is recycled.  There's no stopping it.

In short,  your MBP is calculating that you have 30-40% of battery left; it's only a calculation as it cannot account for or measure the SEI layer buildup.

Just to provide you a reference, I am working on a Dell Precision M4300 laptop (installing FreeBSD).  The battery reports 100% and healthy.  If I unplug, I get about 30 seconds before the battery dissipates and the laptop turns off.  So, I have the same symptoms you do, except it's happening at 100% charge.  This laptop and battery are 8 years old so the behavior is not unexpected.  What would be unexpected is if the battery held any charge at this point.

The Good News

It's pretty easy to fix.  iFixit.com has an excellent guide:  Battery and Trackpad. Disassembling MacBook Pro 15" Retina 2012-2015 and the prices are relatively low (less than $45 on Amazon).

Disclaimer:  I have personally used two of these exact model batteries on MBP's and both are still running strong.


Lion version of vim crashing repeatably - caught deadly signal SEGV whenever I work on multiple files in different vim buffers/tabs and do a :w to save, vim crashes with a segmentation fault.

I'm using vim 7.3 that came long with Lion (Actually with SnowLeopard which later I upgraded to Lion).

Is this issue Lion specific or is this only affecting upgrade users? Any one seen similar issues.

I've been a linux user for most of the time but just bought a mac recently and also upgraded to Lion recently.

It's quite aggravating to spend so much money and now can't use vim :(

There are two avenues when you have located a repeatable crash (and from the comments and discussions it sure looks like the shipping version is more crash than ideal for the latest shipping OS).

File a bug at bugreporter.apple.com - it's free if you sign up for a free developer account.
Use something like homebrew to get a newer (or older) version of vim that isn't crashing.


How to do multiple conditions in one formula; and/or use a string as a condition? I’m trying to make a formula that does different things under different conditions in different cells. What I have is:

IF(BM16=−1,1,"O")

This produces the letter ‘O’ for open in my case.

What I want is the above plus if BK16 is >0 and/or if BM16 is greater than >-1 then the cell will produce a blank. Can this all be done in one formula?

Another way, and possibly better, to do this in my sheet would be IF(BM16=−1,1,"O") plus check for a string generated in an adjacent cell by a different conditional: resulting in the above formula plus IF ‘string’ in a specified cell = X OTM, then generate a blank cell.

Replace the "0" by the second formula

=IF(BM16=−1,1,if(BK16>0, "", if(BM16 > -1 , "", "O")))

anything after = is a formula and can be used where you want a value


Wrong app is focused when quitting another one? I have Firefox and the Finder open (neither are hidden), with PDF files in the current Finder window. If I open one of the PDF files, it opens in Preview. When I quit Preview, rather than Finder being focused, Firefox is focused instead.

This did NOT used to be the case in previous versions of OS X. There is an order in which apps are focused, and that is whatever was last focused. So, when quitting the PDF file, the Finder should have been focused. This has occurred since I upgraded to Mavericks.

Anyone know how to fix this, or if it is indeed a bug? This happens with Firefox and the Finder, most frequently.

Just asked the same question and saw yours after…
It's actualy not related to Finder/PDF/Preview:

I had the issue with a first Mac (iMac): every time an app was quit (auto or by me), MAMP software (that I always let hidden) was reactivated. I thought it was a MAMP bug, but I just updated to Mavericks on another Mac (MBP – yes, I'm a bit late), and exactly the same thing is happening with Firefox (I have MAMP installed on it too).

So I just think this is a Mavericks bug…
https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/ !


Can I update an early Airport Time Capsule? I have an Apple Time Capsule model A1254. It has a 1Tb drive. Is it possible to replace the drive with a larger capacity unit? It seems a shame to replace the whole unit. Thanks

It seems to be possible: Here is an ifixit.com article.

In the comments there the following successful upgrades are mentioned:

WD Red 3TB
WD20EARS 2TB
Seagate ST4000VN000 4TB

At youtube you'll find several movies demonstrating how to replace the HDD (e.g. Apple Time Capsule Hard Drive Upgrade)

Check the power consumption specs of your new HDD as well as the comments about reliability issues of the power supply unit of the Gen 1 Time Capsules all over the net.


set audio alarm for when charger is disconnected My macbook air is getting old, so the battery is rather unreliable. This means I have to keep it constantly charged, or my computer may shut down suddenly as the battery plummets. But the charger is also old, and so sometimes if i shift the computer around it disconnects suddenly without my knowledge. Is there a way to set an audio alarm for when the computer disconnects from the charger? The only solutions online i found are for when the battery gets low, which may not occur because the battery drops and raises its percentage without warning, or unavailable in singapore.

thanks

This can be done by using the pmset -g batt command. The first line of output from this command indicates your power source, e.g.:

Now drawing from 'AC Power'

Or

Now drawing from 'Battery Power'

A possible use for this might be to change various commands together in a batch file, e.g.:

pmset -g batt | head -n 1 | grep "Battery"

In the above example, you'll only get output when you're running on battery power. So, a reasonable approach might be to use a bash script running via launchd or as a hidden Login Item in your profile. Something like this would work a charm:

#!/bin/bash
while true; do
  if $(pmset -g batt | head -n 1 | grep -q "Battery"); then
      say "Running on battery";
      sleep 5;
  fi
sleep 5;
done


AirPlay option disappeared? I have the AppleTV connected via WiFi. I tried AirPlay via WiFi using my iPhone and it mirrored perfectly. The next day, the AppleTV was sleeping before I turned it on using the Apple Remote. However, the option to mirror my iPhone (or even my iPad and MacBook) is not there anymore! I tried using the AppleTV via the remote and works fine, it's just that the AirPlay option is gone.

Why is that?

Unplugging the AppleTV from the power source and plugging it back in got the AirPlay option back. Is there a way to make sure this doesn't happen again ?

Edit: Using an Ethernet cable fixes the problem, however I do not wish to keep it wired. Why would the AppleTV have problems only on wireless?

It's hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing there was a problem with the network discovery service. Apple uses Bonjour to advertise various network services (iTunes sharing, file sharing, AirPlay support) without the need to manually input configuration data. Unfortunately it can be a bit prickly at times, so if somewhere along the way the "Hey, I'm an Apple TV" message got lost, didn't get sent or received by your iPhone or Mac, it won't show up as an available device.

Unfortunately, the way Bonjour broadcasts the data seems to be a bit temperamental at times. I'm not aware of any real fix, but a restart almost always seems to fix it. If you're on a Mac, you can try restarting the daemon responsible by running the following two commands in Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

But that will only fix things if the problem is the Mac not receiving the messages properly - if it's on the Apple TV's end, then restarting that is the best fix.


Both deleted and new audiobooks show in iTunes, but not on iPhone Today I

finished an audiobook;
deleted the book from the iphone (i.e., did not do anything in iTunes)
used iTunes (PC) to transfer a new book to the iphone.

Neither of the books shows on the iphone, but both do show in iTunes. The new book is greyed out with dotted circles next to the chapters; the deleted book is in black.

This is an iphone X running ios 11.3.1, and has plenty of storage (50GB).

What steps do I need to take to truly delete the old book and to be able to see the new book on the iphone? (Specific steps appreciated, vs. generalizations.)

Found some old (iphone 8) information that suggested it's a syncing problem related to manual syncing, and led me to figure out this answer for the iphone X.

Disconnect iPhone from iTunes.
In iTunes, delete the unwanted book from the library and move it to the recycle bin. (Note: This step might not be necessary, but I did it as an extra precaution/preemptive step. If I wanted to keep the book, then I'd just have to remember to retrieve it from the recycle bin.)
Still in iTunes, go to Edit > Preferences > Devices
Uncheck "Prevent...from syncing automatically"
Reset Sync History
Click OK.
Reconnect iPhone to iTunes. Wait for the synching process to complete.
In iTunes, edit preferences to manually sync again (assuming this is the state you want to revert to).

Note: I was nervous about auto syncing because I thought it might transfer all music and all audiobooks to the phone, which I definitely did not want. Am happy to report that in this case, the only audiobook synched to the phone was the one I'd already transferred.


How does the hardware manage to save the current workspace state so efficiently? Basically, how does the system save every state in the workspace (windows, desktops, open programs etc) when you do a restart ? Does that affect the efficiency of the software in the long run ?

For example, when I do a restart in windows I know that the laptop restarts completely. Resetting the hardware/software states etc. However, a restart on the macbook pro is like a hibernation in windows, how do they do that ? Is the power to the RAM not cut in the restart process ?

EDIT

There seems to be a clash in responses down there .. Is the image cleared on reboot or not ?

When you restart a Mac it is the same as restarting a Windows machine as far as clearing out the contents of RAM. The difference is when you log in the state of all of the running apps is saved when they quit so they open to the same place they were. This is dependent on how well the application is written. Apps where less attention was paid to saving state don't come back to exactly where they were. Apple apps are very good at this so it appears as if they were never quit.


Windows 10 on 2011 Macbook: is audio fixable? I've been trying to install Windows 10 on an early 2011 Macbook Pro. It's not officially supported, but I  read everywhere it can be done. There are some troubles though.
I have successfully installed it alongside MacOS High Sierra actually, and everything works fine except for audio. I get the exclamation point on Device Manager and a message saying the device couldn't be started properly.
I found out audio doesn't work because Uefi Windows 10 installation somehow keeps a Cirrus audio-related device from working. At least that's what I understood after googling myself to death.
So I tried to install Windows 10 in Legacy/Bios mode. I chose "Windows" for the setup DVD instead of "Uefi Boot" at boot.
But just before the point where Windows usually asks which disk to install on, it actually asks for a missing driver. This doesn't happen when installing in Uefi mode. I tried feeding it Intel xHCI drivers with usb keys, it sees the keys but says it doesn't find any driver.
I wasn't able to use Boot Camp and had to prepare everything by hand, since I don't get the option to install Windows 10 from Boot Camp, only 8 and 7. If I try to install Windows 10, Boot Camp says the OS is not supported.
I conclude this behavior due to the fact the disk is partitioned in Uefi mode.
Is it impossible to install Windows 10 in Bios mode in such a setup?

I have the solution for audio to work UEFI windows 10

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/350469/319791

This took 4 years to figure out


macOS Sierra slow to accept password at login In the last 2 days, I have found it difficult to login when I start up my mac pro retina. When I try to type in my password, I either have to retype the same letters multiple times or press the same letter key a few times before it is accepted.

I tried NVRAM reset, SMC reset - no different. I tried Apple support via chat and was instructed to set up a new test admin account - same problem remained. I rebooted in safe mode - the issue resolved. So I was told it was best to reinstall macOS Sierra in recovery mode, but the problem persisted after I reinstalled macOS Sierra.

It would probably be easiest to get a Genius Bar appointment and for an expert to look at my Mac, but I am going away for 6 weeks. Hopefully, I can get by until I return, but if anyone has any suggestions what could be the causes and what else I need to investigate to eliminate the problem, please let me know!

Today I've received my Macbook from warranty due to same problem and they have replaced I/O Board. Issue has been fixed.


Is there any Mac software out there for scientific image management? 30 minutes of research on google yields nothing except the defunct phylum. Features I would need:

referenced/in-place management (images should remain where they are found on the drive)
support for eps/pdf/png/gif and some movies maybe
heavily customizable metadata (for me, the images are software generated, they are visualization of simulation data. It would be nice to embed some information of these simulations into the images.)
smart folders based on metadata

Optionally:

version control/non-destructive editing
quantitative image comparison

Picasa is a good start, too bad it doesn't support eps or pdf, which makes it less than ideal for older LaTeX stuff. Just realized it also doesn't support smart folders... Big fail ! I guess I'm spoiled by Apple but I would have thought this would be pretty much standard in any app by now...
Any other suggestion? Also, this might not be the most appropriate SE site for this question but it's pretty generic and since I'm looking at something on the Mac, I thought I would start here... Thanks in advance !

Metadata and smart folders are supported as part of OS X and integrated into Finder. Very basic example:

In Finder, pick any file(s) you want and select Get Info
In the Spotlight Comments field, enter tags, such as @fluid or @simulation (separate them by spaces).
From the File menu, select New Smart Folder
Click the plus icon to the right of Save
Select type Spotlight Comment (under Other...) and enter the tags you want in this smart folder, for example @fluid
Save and add the new smart folder to the Finder sidebar
Select the new smart folder and you will see all files with the @fluid tag

Preview.app can view all of the above file types you've mentioned (and Quicktime + Perian can do so for movies). Now you just need an image editor for the rest.


Silencing "Your disk is almost full" notifications. What works? I've tried this Silencing "Your disk is almost full" notification

That didn't work.

I've tried deleting "diskspaced" from the disk using sudo, it didn't allow me to delete it.

What's a fool-proof way to silence these bloody notifications?

From this Apple-recommended answer on this discussion:

  When that message appears, it should not be ignored. The only way to stop it from appearing is to increase available storage space so that your Mac can continue to work normally.

Cache can take up a lot of space.

To remove cache folders:

  Open a Finder window and select Go in  the menu bar.

  Click on “Go to Folder…”

  Type in ~/Library/Caches

  Delete the files/folders that are taking up  the most space.

  Now click on “Go to Folder…”

  Type in /Library/Caches (simply lose  the ~ symbol)

  And, again, delete the folders that take up the most space.

When the message appears you can also click manage and see what options optimise storage offers. This moved unused files to iCloud.

Alternatively, you can check your Mac for unused files or download a file cleaning application.

To find out what is taking up your space go to manage storage.


Is there a quicker way to pause Photos uploading to iCloud? Photos.app on Yosemite takes forever to upload its library to iCloud, and can slow the WiFi network to a crawl while it does so. I know that I can pause it in the app's Preferences, but this is complicated to explain for friends and family who are not good with computers!

I would like to make some sort of easily-accessible icon/button for pausing/unpausing the upload, that I could put on the desktop/dock/menubar.

Is there any way of doing this (for example with Automator or AppleScript)?

From playing about with opensnoop, what seems to happen when you click "Pause" is that Photos (by way of cloudphotosd) adds something like the following two lines to a file within your photo library called private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/State.plist

<key>pausedUntilDate</key>
<date>2015-04-30T23:57:01Z</date>

However just editing that file doesn't seem to be enough, because it also seems to do something with some other binary files, for example private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/Engine/statistics.bin. But given that they appear to be in a binary format it's a little bit more difficult trying to work out what Photos is doing.

Here is the full trace from me running opensnoop while clicking Pause in Photos' preferences window. Maybe someone else can fill out the rest of the picture.

  501    395 cloudphotosd  45 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/Engine/statistics.bin
  501    273 Finder        36 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/Engine
  501    273 Finder        36 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/Engine/statistics.bin
  501    273 Finder        36 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex
  501    273 Finder        36 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/State.plist
  501    273 Finder        36 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/State.plist
  501    273 Finder        36 ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/private/com.apple.cloudphotosd/CloudSync.noindex/syncstatus.plist


iPhone 3G blacks out and displays random static Last night the iPhone 3G (my friend's iPhone, not jail-broken) went black and a white fuzzy line would move around the screen.

Powering off and starting again seemed to remove the problem.

We have not been able to reproduce the problem since yesterday. What hardware/software fault could be a likely cause for this?  So it would be possible to tell an Apple Genius next time it happens.

It's the display connector cable inside the iPhone which can come a little loose. You can open it up and reseat the cable if it happens again. Ifixit.com have guides.


How do I change Sourcetree icon shown in Dock? I have an app that is very useful, but from time to time it changes its icon in the Dock, which I found disturbing for my workflow.

I would like to prevent that as I am perfectly satisfied with the standard icon.

I've tried following the instructions in the article, How to change Mac app icons but as soon as the app starts, it changes the icon back.

I've also poked around Contents/Resources directory in the app bundle, but could not find the said icon.

Does anyone have a workaround?

If anyone is interested, the issue was Pride icon on SourceTree app. I've found the solution here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Sourcetree-discussions/The-way-to-change-icon-for-Sourcetree-app/td-p/1110914

Go to https://github.com/alexzielenski/ThemeEngine
Switch to releases tab (I took the latest pre-release)
Download .zip and extract it
Open the Sourcetree.app with right click - show package contents and navigate to Contents/Resources
Copy Assets.car and sourcetree.icns to any folder
Run ThemeEngine from the zip in step 3
In ThemeEngine click "Open Document" and open the Assets.car
Find the icon named Pridetree
Open sourctree.icns with your preferred app - I used preview. Clicked on second icon pressed cmd + a to select whole image and pressed cmd + c to copy it.
Clicked on first image in Pridetree ThemeEngine and pressed cmd + v to paste it.
Repeat with second image.
Save the document
Replace Assets.car in the app Contents/Resources with modified Assets.car.

Do not forget to backup your files. Your are doing this on your own risk as I do not know if it actually breaks the EULA.


Recovery partition fills up half of the disk, cannot resize So I noticed something was wrong with my partitions in Disk Utility as the Mac HD only occupied half of the storage, I booted into UBuntu on a USB and from there I found out that the recovery partition was occupying half of the disk, I don't know why, I could not resize it in Disk Utility, or via the Ubuntu live, a search suggests that it is related to Boot Camp, but I never had that set up.

I was able to fix it by erasing the recovery partition with diskutil eraseVolume JHFS+ Blank disk0s3 and resiizng the main partition in Disk Utility, but I am still not sure why it got that big in the first place.


Is it possible to make Preview prompt a dialog before quitting? I had multiple documents open in Preview, and then I accidentally pressed Cmd+Q, which quit the entire Preview program. Is there a way to make Preview prompt me asking if I want to close all documents before quitting?

There's a global setting, which all Apple apps respect [in fact there are two, either of which may help]

System Preferences > General >
Ask to keep changes when closing documents &
Close windows when quitting an app

Checking the first will then ask about unsaved changes, though not about any document that is unedited.
Unchecking the second will make it so that simply re-launching Preview will restore all documents that were open at last Quit.


How do I turn on calculator in spotlight without enabling conversions? In Yosemite spotlight sends all requests to multiple third parties depending on your settings.  I've disabled all of these options, leaving "Calculator, System Preferences and Applications" out of principle. Disabling conversions however, seems to have disabled the calculator too.

My question is how can I enable the calculator without enabling conversions?

This seems to be a bug in Yosemite. Disabling Conversions shouldn't disable the calculator entirely, but it does. You can provide feedback and file a bug report Apple here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
https://bugreport.apple.com/


Automatically change input source I have two languages I am actively using. English is my default, but in some applications such as Skype I use Russian. Every time I am switching from Skype to Safari I have manually switch back from Russian to English and this is annoying. How can I configure so that language switch is handled by operating system  automatically when I am changing windows?

In Keyboards->Input Sources I've ticked Automatically switch to a document's input source but it doesn't work, still if I've switched to Russian it will stay while I will change it again.

I am on Yosemite 10.

Thanks for any help!

Here's what I'm experiencing on El Capitán...

The key here is "document's input source" so when switching from Skype to Safari, if no document (web page in this case) has focus the input source will not change. If you then select, for example, a field on a page, the input source should change to whatever the last input source was when you were last in that document. So one application program can have multiple documents each with its own input source and the OS won't switch input sources until a specific document within the app has been selected.

If you open a new safari window or tab, the currently active input source will be used for that new "document."


Email account deleted and 2.69 GB still showing up I deleted my email account on my iPhone 6 because it has 2.69 GB of mail and attachments. The 2.69 still shows up with the deleted email account. What can I do to regain the storage?

I also rebooted the phone. It acted up when I shot an 11 minute video and tried emailing it.

Have you checked your Drafts folder? The email draft with the video attachment should be there. Try to delete that specific email draft.


iPhone 4s only producing mono sound Related to: iPhone 4S stereo sound

This is strange. I know people with the iPhone 4 (not the 4S as I have) who are getting audio from both "boxes". In addition, I don't get stereo with headphones either. I get stereo output but both L and R channels produce just R - meaning the R channel is outputting to both. What is this?

The fact that people say they are getting sound from both grills at the bottom of any iPhone is total nonsense, all models have a Microphone and a speaker at the bottom.

If Apple replaces the microphone with a speaker, the phone would be rendered useless as there would be no way of it picking up speech.

It is a very common misunderstanding.

A couple of things to check.

Clean the headphone jack - any dust or fluff can cause the signal to break
Go to -Settings>general>accessability>Mono audio make sure this is off
Compare with a friend's phone, same model, same track, same head phones, then try new headphones, and after that a new song.
if there is still a problem go to an Apple store.


Can't delete old Time Machine backups I changed hard drives for my Time Machine backup. I can't delete the backups on the older hard drive. I get an error code after I use "Move to Trash": -8072. It spends 45min deleting some 1,000,000+ files to end in error -8072. A google search didn't turn up the reason for the error.

Also, for some reason creating a backup on this hard drive locked all my other folders and subfolders. I can unlock them one at a time but this will take a while. Is there a faster way?

On Lion, you can use tmutil to clean things up properly.

To delete backups one by one (snapshot by snapshot).

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/mac_name/YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss

If you are sure you have selected the correct path, you can delete all backups from that one Mac by not passing in the time and letting it delete the entire folder:

sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/drive_name/Backups.backupdb/mac_name

The sudo command needs your password (and it won't echo to the screen, so just type it and pause to be sure you're dating the correct files before pressing enter).


Everything is noticably slow, restored to new 1tb ssd Everything on my computer is noticeably slow. Before I thought that my hdd was dying (which it may have been) and (regrettably) bought a 1tb ssd to restore all of my data to. Before, my computer was so slow that I couldn't back it up, with no other apps open. Now, on the ssd (after re-installing macOS Sierra from the recovery partition), my computer is noticeably slow. It can't even run Grand Theft Auto on low settings, which it should be able to do with ease.

Before I re-installed Sierra, my computer (running on the ssd) began to gradually slow down, until all of the apps stopped responding, and disk utility said that there were problems with the ssd.
 From there, I rebooted into the recovery partition, ran first aid on all volumes (which said that there was no problems), and re-installed Sierra.

Is there any way to make my computer running from an ssd fast, like it was for a while when running on an hdd, or even faster?

This is a '15 mid-2012 MacBook Pro (the model with a superdrive), with the ssd running from an adapter in the superdrive's place (the hdd flex cord died).

Mac computers will cut down the CPU power down to 50% if the battery is not supporting it.

In your case  been without working battery, is the reason for slow down.

PS, you do not need iStat to see CPU usage. Use the Activity Monitor


Burning disks fails with error 0x80020022 on MacbookPro 2012 My Macbook Pro is about 22 weeks old and I keep getting this error:
0x80020022 (communication with drive failed) when trying to burn DVDs or "attempt to burn a disc failed"/unknown error -3 in iTunes.

I read the usual "venting-anger-and-sharing-solutions"-thread, but I'm expecting that, just like the last time my SuperDrive failed, it's just a bunch of voodoo solutions, ie.:
Nothing works for everybody, everybody tries everything and if it happens to work right after, they believe in it until it fails again.

I've burned less than 10 discs with my drive and I don't feel like spending two whole days on failing to fix it again. Do you think this is a warranty case? Or is there any site where the knowledge shared in Apple discussions is meaningfully combined so that I don't have to wade through ideas like "Restart Finder 11 times, worked for me".

If I were you, I would take it back to your Apple Reseller and tell them your problem. You're still under warranty, so most likely, it won't be an issue.


Resizing preview pane in Finder column view When dragging the border of a Finder window in column view with preview visible to resize it, it seems arbitrary whether Apple will take or make space by adjusting the preview pane size or by showing more or less of the ancestor columns.

Is there a way to resize just the preview pane?

Is there a way to show more or less of the columns while keeping the size of the preview pane?

Finder's column view can be a painful experience, which is why I seldom use it. I find if I resize the window by the bottom right corner (like all us old-timers grew up doing), the preview is on a one-way trip to thumbnail land. If you increase the window size, you get extra columns while the preview stays the same size. But if you then decrease the window size, it's the poor old preview that bears the brunt and shrinks in size. What a crazy state of affairs.

A far easier way of previewing files is to just use Quick Look… Select one of the files and press spacebar. You can reposition and resize the preview to your heart's content, and the preview window updates as you navigate through your files.

If you really want to use column view to preview files in the same window, here's how you can resize the preview:

Resize the window down until you can only see the desired number of columns (minus the width of the preview column).
Scroll to the far right so you can see the preview again.
Hover the cursor over the right edge of the window until you see the column resizing icon. It has a vertical line in the middle and two arrows either side…

You need to approach the edge of the window from the left. If you approach from the right, you'll get the window resizing icon instead (two arrows with no dividing line).
Once you see the correct cursor, click and drag to the right to resize the preview column, thus enlarging the preview image.

It's not pretty but it works. (Hint: Use Quick Look instead!)

Oh and by the way, we'll be getting another option to preview files in macOS Mojave called Gallery View. It looks like it replaces Cover Flow. While it takes away the list of file names, it does add a metadata panel for the selected file which could be quite a useful little feature.


Time Machine often says, "No Backups for # Days" even though it should back up every weekday I have a late 2014 MBP that I hook up to power and an external hard drive at work every weekday for 8 hours. I've been running Yosemite for less than a week, and before that I was running Mavericks.

Time Machine only seems to complete a backup once or twice every 2 weeks. Today I got a message that said, "No Backups for 10 days." I see similar messages all the time, and I think usually they say there haven't been any backups for 5 or more days. If I open Time Machine, I can see numerous entries in the timeline for the past several days--I assume these are the "snapshots."

What could be causing Time Machine to fail to complete for so many days in a row? Is there something I can do to improve its success? If not, am I at least safe as long as it completes once in a blue moon and shows recent snapshots in the Time Machine app?

Edit: after connecting at work today, the Time Machine settings dialog said something to the effect of, "Next backup: when disk is connected."  I unplugged the disk, then plugged it back in at 1:57 PM and it changed to, "Next backup: Today, 1:47 PM." I still don't understand why it doesn't seem to detect the disk when I initially connect it.

Are there any console errors?

I would start with removing the plist, reboot, try again
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist


When is the nano-texture glass Pro Display XDR better than the standard one? I've seen both the glossy and the nano-texture version of Apple Pro Display XDR in real life, and the image quality of both is stunning.

I did notice that while the glossy version reflected the bright lights in the Apple store, you could see hardly any glare on the nano-texture version of the display. However, the text displayed on the nano-texture version was perhaps a tiny bit less crisp and the colours were not as vivid as on the standard glass version (I did look really close, though, which I wouldn't do under normal circumstances).

So I wonder, except for the obvious case where one works in an environment where there's plenty of bright lights, are there any other contexts where the nano-texture is better suited than the standard glass? I.e. video editing, working with text, photography, etc.

Or is it simply the question of personal preference and whether someone likes to see their reflection in the screen or not?

In your answers, please assume that while I have plenty of experience using Apple displays to work with text/code, I have only beginner-level knowledge of video and photo editing, so any observations you share are valuable.

You kinda got it all... that's it. It's just an improved matte display that minimizes reflections and glare, at the cost of some saturation and crispness. The only difference is how the matte effect is done: in a standard matte display, it's a coating, while on the Pro Display XDR, it's etched into the glass.

In a professional environment, the requirements are really the same as a non-professional one: while the glossy version is better if you can work in a controlled lighting environment, that privilege isn't always available (such as on-location shoots), and the benefits of the matte display can outweigh the downsides. It really does just depend on preference and working environment.


Does a "Hello" screen mean my iPhone was erased? I'm preparing to ship my old iPhone 6 to a new home. When I press and hold the lock button, a white screen saying "Hello" in various languages appears. Does that mean I erased all of my data? I haven't used the phone in months so I can't remember what I did to get the phone to that screen, but I want to be sure that my data is erased before getting rid of the device.

TL;DR Is it possible to get an iPhone to the white "Hello" set up screen without completely erasing the previous user's data?

The "Hello" screen does not necessarily mean you have erased the phone. It could just mean that iOS was updated. I would complete the setup steps (you can skip many of them) then go into Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings to be sure. You will also need to remove the device from your iCloud account or it will be bricked to the new owner.


iPhone/iPad "Reader" mode distorts presentation of or doesn't show content http://jsfiddle.net/verbatim/fng4ef4k/

http://jsfiddle.net/verbatim/yg8amddu/

I have a contact us page. It has the usual information: Write, Call, Fax, Email, Web.

I am checking my pages with iOS Simulator.

The Reader mode of Safari on iPhone/iPad seems to distort or delete content on the page.

Desktop Safari Reader mode does not seem to have these problems.

Both of the Fiddles above have very similar markup. Yet the first example hides all the contact details in Reader mode. The second example changes font sizes on some contact info and has formatting I do not like and would like to change, but cannot seem to figure out how to.

Can anyone please provide some guidance on the best way to revise my markup to overcome this issue?

Any help is much appreciated.

I'd suggest you disable Safari reader view for the page in question. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2999600/how-to-disable-safari-reader-in-a-web-page


Issue installing Win 7 on Mac I have been following this answer to install Windows in Boot Camp.

Seemed to work absolutely fine until the command e:\setup in step 9. When this command is run "The subsystem needed to support the image type is not present." is returned.

setup.exe is available in the directory though.

I'm unsure on how to proceed from here, as it has been some years since I last fiddled under the hood of a windows product.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Worked out what the issue was. Double checked the specs of my machine and realised it was a mid 2007 model. Upon checking with Apple using the link in the linked answer I found the specific bootcamp file and that I had to use Win 7 32bit. Altering these files and using the correct disk image allows the installation to start.

Thanks for your help David.

Ross


What does the 'Camera' category in Geekbench 4 refer to? Long story short: I haven't allowed Geekbench 4 to access the camera, which means that the application shouldn't be able to use the camera. However, in the benchmark result a category named 'Camera', with the unit 'images/sec', caught my eye.

Since Geekbench 4 is available on the App Store, I doubt that they're using any method to bypass system permissions. The only realistic possibility I see is that this is somehow simulated, but this begs the question: is there a way to accurately simulate this metric without actually using the camera?

Screenshot for reference:

https://www.geekbench.com/doc/geekbench4-cpu-workloads.pdf
Try going to that PDF. It's from Geekbench themselves and they explain the different methods of each workload.
In this case, Geekbench processes photos rather than take them. It applies filters etc. and decrypts, compresses etc.
From that PDF:

  Camera replicates a photo sharing application like Instagram. Camera merges several
  steps into one workload
  * AES decryption
  * AES key generation using PBKDF HMAC SHA1
  * SHA2 checksum generation
  * JSON parsing
  * JPEG compression and decompression
  * PNG decompression
  * Image compositing
  * Image filters (gaussian blur, contrast)
  * SQLite (INSERT the processed image metadata into a database)
  All steps run on the CPU and are not accelerated by the GPU.


OS X prefers case insensitivity but TimeMachine seems to require case sensitivity? As per What are the downsides to using Time Machine? the first item reads Time machine requires an Apple specific HFS+ filesystem to store backups. Which is a Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) disk. But then, OS X of course wants Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Just like most everyone else I get:

This volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup.

After hours of googling, I've not read that there is absolutely no workaround.

The linked answer doesn't say that Time Machine requires ...Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled).... It only says Time machine requires an Apple specific HFS+ filesystem to store backups and it should be read as the Apple specific HFS+ filesystem.

With other words: Time Machine can't backup data directly to NTFS/FAT32 or EXT3/4 volumes.


How can I change the picture used by this AppleScript? I am using this:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to
    set desktop picture to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Earth Horizon.jpg"'

to set the desktop on a lab of computers. How can I select a different picture instead?

You can see all the images in that folder by opening a Finder window,  pressing Cmd-Shift-G, and entering the folder name /Library/Desktop Pictures; or by running ls '/Library/Desktop Pictures' in Terminal.

pse@Mithos:~$ ls '/Library/Desktop Pictures'
Abstract/                   Desert 4.jpg                Galaxy.jpg                  Reflection 1.jpg
Abstract 1.jpg              Desert 5.jpg                Grass Blades.jpg            Reflection 2.jpg
Abstract 2.jpg              Desert 6.jpg                Hawaiian Print.jpg          Reflection 3.jpg
Abstract 3.jpg              Desert 7.jpg                High Sierra.jpg             Reflection 4.jpg
...

Choose one of the images and then put its name in the place of Earth Horizon.jpg in your script like this:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to
    set desktop picture to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/FILE_NAME_HERE.jpg"'


Can't change Dock size I can't change the Dock's size. I tried deleting the file com.apple.dock.plist from the Preferences folder but it didn't resolve the problem.

After deleting the "/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist" file you will need to reset the Dock for it to take effect. You can do this simply in a Terminal window with killall Dock.

You could also just try editing the plist file in a text editor. The tilesize parameter is the one that determines the dock size. It should look something like the following.

<key>tilesize</key>
<real>50</real>

You should also be able to resize the Dock by clicking on the dividing line between the application tiles and the file/folder tiles.

If resizing just doesn't work at all, there is a way to prevent changes to the Dock by making the size "immutable". If that has happened you can re-enable changes by entering the following commands in a Terminal window.

defaults write com.apple.dock size-immutable -bool false
killall Dock


Path to user directory when username is unknown Some colleagues and I have our cloud storage (e.g. Dropbox) syncing to our macs.

The local path to a particular folder in our synchronised cloud storage looks like /Users/{$USERNAME}/CloudSync/Projects/Hello World/

When we share links with each other we currently share the links provided by our cloud service which opens the app or website to view them. It would be great if we could just share a path to our local copies with each other, but obviously I don't want to have to manually type their usernames into the path each time. Is there some sort of alias for username that can be used instead?

The standard path to /Users/[current user] is tilde ~

So the path to /Users/{$USERNAME}/CloudSync/Projects/Hello World/ for any user is

~/CloudSync/Projects/Hello World/


Why does /var/vm on MacBook Pro tend to show sleepimage and nothing else? 2020 edition, Catalina 10.15.7 on MacBook Pro.
I've looked at /var/vm (not touching anything in there per advice).
It used to fill up with 1GB files and they'd be deleted upon reboot, but now it's just sleepimage as the only file in there; is this usual, even when doing web browsing or using Pages etc.?
Also, why does it have the option to eject it when it never used to?
I'm slightly confused by this, having used Mac desktops since 2011.

All is well - the system is managing this space better and better over time. As the system gets sliced into a user space overlay and a sealed and signed system overlay, it’s natural to have transient files like caches in a third filesystem.
All this is unlocked and enabled by APFS containers.


How to convert two columns of text in a pdf into one column in a new file? So that I can listen to it with a phone app, I am trying to copy a textbook with two columns of text into a file with one column. Selecting all and pasting results in the right-hand column of each page appearing before the left, so that half of each page is out of order (the reader app perceives the text the same way, and reads each page right-column-first).

I would be very grateful for insight. How can I create a file with correctly ordered text?

There is an app named k2pdfopt that, according to the website: "K2pdfopt optimizes PDF/DJVU files for mobile e-readers (e.g. the Kindle) and smartphones. It works well on multi-column PDF/DJVU files ".  This app supposedly converts 2-column PDFs into 1 column. I haven't used it so I can't vouch for it. The app is free though so it should be worth a try.


Alternative alarm clocks I have iPhone 6 and iOS 10. I notice that if the mute button is on or the volume is at zero then the alarm doesn't go off.  I see many others note the same thing.

Is there an non-native app I could use to get around this issue until some new update resolves it? I keep forgetting to check my volume and mute settings before bed and am getting into professional trouble. Thanks!

No.  All non-system apps are forced to obey the volume setting and/or the mute switch.  Only Apple's Clock app can produce audible alarms in these cases.


Cross opening URLs between computer and mobile phone? I am looking for a solution that would allow me to cross-open an URL between computer (OS X) and phone (iPhone).

Here is the use case: using the iphone to barcode scan an QR code that opens an URL but I do want to open this URL on the computer, not on the phone.

How can I achieve this?

You can enable iCloud and use the iCloud tabs feature of Safari. On all the connected devices you will see the open tabs of the others.

See Set up and use iCloud Tabs


Mavericks calendar events longer than 3 hours I am using Mavericks.

I use Calendar in monthly mode and with times in 24 hour mode.

When I enter or edit an event in Calendar.app it seems to be limited to 3 hours.
First you have to deselect the whole day then the list of end times only goes to 3 hours, which I can live with. But if I close the drop down and try to edit the end time end time directly as if I put in a later time Calendar changes it to 3 hours. However only sometimes (about 50% success)

How do I enter an entry longer than 3 hours?

I use the + quick event button which is the same as Command-N to enter:

meeting from 10am to 5pm on thursday

It makes blocking specific times quite easy using Calendar app. I also often use the week or day view and create a default event and drag the bottom of the event to the end time.

Lastly, I select the hour when I mouse to raise the quick interval drop down and rather than use the mouse to change the end time, just type the hour and tab to the minutes field if necessary.


EE blocked my stolen phone's sim, will this prevent Lost mode from taking effect? I had my iphone 6s plus stolen in a nightclub at the weekend, I activated lost mode straight away but the phone was offline. I then phoned EE to report the theft and they blocked the sim, but I've since realised that the phone has to connect to the internet in order for Lost mode to take effect and lock my phone and enable tracking to occur, so have I played into the thief's hands by having the sim blocked?

If you phone was stolen (and you didn't just lose it) you did the right thing having the sim blocked because it would also work in any other phone - once in possession they would be able to remove the sim, insert it into any other device and you would then be liable for any costs which occur.

Assuming that your phone was protected with a passcode, anyone trying to switch on the phone would not be able to access its content or reset the phone to keep for themselves or sell on.
However, due to the difficulty thief's have trying to re-enable locked phones, its most likely that your phone will have already been taken apart and sold for its parts.

If however you had just misplaced the phone and it was in fact not stolen, then with the phone being offline already, there would again be very little else you could have done anyway. You can still put it in lost mode, lock it, or remotely erase it. The next time your device is online, these actions will take effect.


AppStoreConnect - Disable "following build has completed processing" email? Each time one of my build is uploaded to TestFlight, I receive an email soon after telling me that my build has completed processing. I would prefer not too, just for the sake of useless notifications (we have a daily build sending our app into our inner TestFlight).
I tried disabling "app state reports" in AppStoreConnect/users but it has no effect. I also tried to disable "emails" in the TestFlight app, but it seems it is more regarding when a new version is available for me in TestFlight.
Any idea ? Thanks

Got an answer from the Apple support, there is no such option.


Filesystem not showing correct size I installed a new HDD and transferred my old data to it by using dd on my old HDD and then dd again to the new HDD. However, when booting from the new HDD, it does not recognize the new, larger disk space, and still thinks it has the old size.

My old HDD was 160 GB and it was near capacity, new HDD is 1TB.

The command I ran to write to my new harddrive was

>: sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk3 of=/dev/rdisk0s2 bs=131072

>: df -h
Filesystem      Size   Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2   149Gi  146Gi  2.4Gi    99%    /

>: diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.9 GB   disk0s2

How should I fix this? I can run another round of dd again if need be.

dd copies the filesystem exactly, byte by byte.
It is not the best way to duplicate a filesystem, however, now that it is done, you can use Disk Utility to resize.
Select the Drive (not partition), then Partition tab, and you can drag the partition to the desired size.


How do I use homebrew less instead of system less? I've installed less via

homebrew install less

but less starts the system version of less, not the one installed via homebrew. which less shows:

$ which -a less
/usr/local/bin/less
/usr/bin/less

where /usr/local/bin/less is a symlink to ../Cellar/less/487/bin/less (homebrew less)
and /usr/bin/less  is the system less. echo $LESS returns nothing. How can I start homebrew less instead of system less by default?

This might be due to bash's hash table of commands in PATH still using the old value. Remove the hash of less, or clear the hash, so that bash re-searches PATH:

hash -d less
# or, hash -r

You can also manually add a path to the table:

hash -p /usr/local/bin/less less

From the Bash manual (emphasis mine):

  If the name is neither a shell function nor a builtin, and contains no
  slashes, Bash searches each element of $PATH for a directory
  containing an executable file by that name. Bash uses a hash table to
  remember the full pathnames of executable files to avoid multiple PATH
  searches (see the description of hash in Bourne Shell Builtins). A
  full search of the directories in $PATH is performed only if the
  command is not found in the hash table.


What is this 'findmydeviced' in my location icon on the top menu bar? I have location services on (for Maps & Safari only) and I randomly get this location notification on the top menu bar saying:
" Apps using location: findmydeviced"

What does this mean?

"findmydeviced" is a daemon process that runs on OS X when you have enabled the "Find My Mac" option under the iCloud preference pane.

For some reason, it doesn't show up under "Security and Privacy" as an authorised system service (although this could be by design so that a non-Apple savvy thief wouldn't find it if s/he searched there).

If you no longer want to be able to track the location of your Mac via iCloud, you can uncheck the option by navigating to the iCloud preference pane. You may need to reboot in order for the daemon to unload fully.


How do I change the default font for comment boxes in Keynote I am using Keynote '09 and whenever I create a comment, it is formatted in Marker Felt 16. I want to change that to something like Arial 20. How can I do it?

I tried to apply the point 5 in this answer, namely to create a comment in the master, format it and then select it and choose Format > Advanced > Define Text for All Masters. However Define Text for All Masters is greyed out for comments boxes.

Any other ideas?

This applies to Keynote 09 (5.3):

Create a comment on a master page, style as you wish.
With the comment selected, choose Format > Advanced > Define Comment for
all Masters
You may now even delete the comment on your master page.
New comments in the presentation will still be in the chosen format.

Hope this helps!


Update App installed via Apple Configurator with other Apple ID We installed iBooks through Apple Configurator to hundreds of iPad all with the same Apple ID. Now the users want to update the app but iOS is asking that Apple ID's password.

Is there a way to allow users to update iBooks with their Apple ID instead of the one which the .ipa thrown to Configurator  was downloaded with?

We didn't manually assigned the Apple ID to iBooks and when each iPad was activated we gave an individual Apple ID to each in the iCloud step but still iBooks remained signed with the Apple ID the .ipa was downloaded with

Any ideas?

As far as I know you don't have a way to do that.

However, try and delete the app and download the new version of it with user's Apple ID.

It takes the same amount of data and time as to update it.


Increase Audio Volume of MOV-Video in OS X I have a MOV-Video file and I want to increase the volume of the audio layer without reencoding the entire video.

Is there a way to solve this problem?

One thing you can do is use a video viewer like IINA on macOS, which allows you to go beyond the 100% volume limit. It allows you to set the volume up to 1000%, so if you are trying to view an unusually quiet video, you can increase the volume in IINA without having to crank up your computer's volume too much.

In IINA: You can set maximum volume (100-1000%) in Preference, and use ↑ to set volume larger than 100%.


Using a headset with a Macbook pro mid 2009 Does this Macbook support any kind of dual 3.5mm connection headsets ? Acording to this link there is in fact an audio in port but I have never seen that symbol for "audio in" been used

That symbol indicates "Audio line in/optical digital audio in port".

It is a combo port, and it supports Optical connection.


Use Mail.app in English? I'm trying to use Mail.app in English in Yosemite. The reason for this is that when the app is in another language, it uses that language's headers for replies and can be very distracting to the other reader.

So the two possible solutions are a reply-header fix (like Outlook's "Use English for message headers on replies and forwards and forward notifications" option) or a Mail.app language fix. There supposedly is a way to fix a single-app's language, but they don't work.

Here is what I've tried:

defaults write -app Mail AppleLanguages -array en

defaults write -app Mail AppleLanguages -array en-US

Editing the file:
/Users/[username]/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

and adding an "AppleLanguages" array and then as the first String value, adding "en", which is what the defaults command does.

To modify Mail to use another language than the default system language open Terminal and enter
defaults write com.apple.mail AppleLanguages ‘(“preferred_language”, “default_language”)’.
In your example: defaults write com.apple.mail AppleLanguages ‘(“en”, “fi”)’ (assuming your default language is finnish)


I puchased a new iMac and there is one entry in my contacts app that no longer works with Messages I recently bought a new iMac running Catalina and I used Migration Assistant to load some of my old stuff on my new computer.  This appears to have worked well and my new computer is running fine. There is a problem however. I have several contacts that I text with a few times a week. One contact however doesn't work. I always get a return notice on the messages I send. I can use this contact on my iphone and my iPad and the messages go thru. But it doesn't work using my computer. The other contacts I communicate with work fine from my computer. So I'm lost on what to do. I've tried restarting Messages and restarting my iMac. Neither helped. I also made a new contact card but that didn't help either. Does anyone have an idea of what I can try to do to fix this?  thanks.

I found the answer from bmike. It is given here and here. In words the method to solve the problem is:
From you iphone:

Open Settings.
Scroll down to Messages
Tap on 'Message Forwarding'.
Ensure that all the devices are selected.


iPhone Apple Calendar How do I remove the factory loaded Apple app known as "Calendar" from my iPhone 5?I have tried to remove this application by placing my finger on the application's icon. All app icons on the iPhone "jiggle" and display an "X" in the upper left hand corner of their icons.  When touching the "X" on any given app icon, the app then disappears, and is essentially removed from the iPhone's memory.   However,  the factory loaded Apple application named "Calendar" icon does not display an "X" in its upper left hand corner of its icon.  Therefore I can not remove the "Calendar" application.  Is there a procedure which will allow me to remove any factory loaded applications on my iPhone 5?

Simply…
You don't.

You cannot remove the base set of Apple apps - Calendar, Clock, Weather, Stocks, etc, etc.

Possibly Jailbreaking would allow you, but that's outside my knowledge-base.

The usual workaround for any undeletable app you don't want to see is put it on the last home screen, in a folder if you really need the screen-space


“The Install OS X Mavericks application can’t be used from this disk” OS X 10.9 Installation Error I am trying to install OS X Mavericks on my Mid-2011 iMac. Before you tell me to upgrade, Mavericks is my favorite version and anything after it runs like crap.
Please help me fix this!

UPDATE: I have successfully been able to fix my problem. I started off by making a Mavericks USB installer, then I made a disk image from the drive. My mistake was making a .cdr file and burning it. I tried again by making a .dmg file instead. I now have Mavericks installed. It also took significantly quicker to get into the recovery menu.


How to Auto-Hide the address bar in Google Chrome? How can I hide the address bar in Google Chrome?  I found this article but I am unable to find a solution for macOS.  Ideally, I would like all toolbars to disappear similar to how they do in QuickTime. see images:

Is there such a solution available?

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're asking, but I think you mean in full screen mode judging by the tags.

Simply uncheck View > Always Show Toolbar in Full Screen (⇧⌘F):


Boot Camp ‘saving support software’ holds indefinitely So, there's quite a few other “Boot Camp Assistant's handling of the ‘Windows support software’ is terrible” questions; but as far as I can tell, none of them directly relate to my problem:

On a machine on which Boot Camp Assistant doesn't give the option to use external install media¹, I get stuck at the “Saving Windows support software …” step, when the progress-bar is at 100%:

Screenshot of Boot Camp stuck http://ell.io/i1l8hv+

I've left it sitting at that screen, this time around, for around 24 hours. I do have a rather large disk (2TB OWC Aura SSD), so I decided to give it some time … but it's pretty clear at this point that nothing is happening. (I'm also afraid to stop it; because last time I gave up on it, it took a solid hour to ‘remove created partitions.’ Took nearly as long to un-do, as I'd given it to do. :P)

To be clear, the download phase completed; it's stuck at the ‘Saving’ phase. Unlike old-school Boot Camp, I can't just uncheck the option and download the drivers manually; it forces me to go through this step.

So, tl;dr: Is there any way to skip the ‘downloading and saving drivers’ steps, or use pre-existing install media, or otherwise get Boot Camp working on a MacPro6,1, or "2013 Mac Pro"?

Mac-side: macOS Sierra 10.12
Windows-side: Windows 10 Pro 10.0.14393

Older Boot Camp, and current Boot Camp on some machines, gives you a list of checkboxes to decide what you want it to do. Unfortunately, current Boot Camp on the 2013 Mac Pro does not do this.

  “If the Select Tasks step doesn’t appear, you don’t need a USB flash drive or hard drive to install Windows. Follow the instructions in Install Windows on your Mac without using a USB hard drive or flash drive.”

I've also taken some additional information — current disk partitions, process-sample for Boot Camp Assistant (spoiler: it's sitting around doing nothing.), and etc: https://gist.github.com/ELLIOTTCABLE/5f0c13cbe38a7ab952b82ec11ae4ed2e

I second ELLIOTTCABLEs answer. When I was stuck at that exact phase, after giving it a good thirty minutes or so at 100% bar fill, I simply ignored it and went ahead and restarted my computer and it starts on windows. I don't know why this happens or why this works but it did... give it a shot


What features won't I get with a Magic Mouse under Windows XP and 7? I like the magic mouse for the two-finger scroll and other features under Snow Leopard.  Which of those features will not work under Windows XP and 7.  I have XP on a home machine and 7 at work, so I care about both.

I have a Magic Mouse on my laptop, and dual boot between OS X and Windows 7.

The basic mouse functionality works well, but the scrolling does not work at all (neither vertical or horizontal), and the gestures do not work either, as all of these functions are done by software and don't use the standard MouseWheel commands that windows expects.

I set it up a long time ago so my memory has faded, but I think you may also have to install the some apple mouse driver package from the Snow Leopard Boot Camp DVD too, but hopefully I'm wrong and you don't need this.