How do I check the country of origin for apps in the iOS App Store? How do I check country of origin for apps in the iOS App Store? My experience is that looking for the listed developer isn't always accurate and the App Store doesn't appear to show country of origin.

My current practices for estimating country of origin for security purposes:

Check for "Engrish": extremely broken grammar associated with automatic translation tools. Most Chinese knockoff apps have "Engrish" descriptions. However, bear in mind that broken grammar doesn't always mean "software from China" - it's common to have this happen with apps from Asia in general.
Developer or vendor appears to have a Chinese or Russian name. In these cases I usually do an additional Google search to verify this. Taiwan uses the same language as China (although their character sets are written differently) - another thing to check so I don't incorrectly flag Taiwanese apps as coming from China.
Check the developer's other apps. What languages and countries do they appear to be geared towards? If I see anything geared towards China or Russia, I usually reject the developer.
Check the listed language availability. Generally, an app that offers only English and Simplified (not Traditional/Taiwanese) Chinese is a telltale sign that it comes from China.
Online search (background check) for the developer. This often fails in the case of apps designed by extremely small teams or independent developers.

Here's a list of things that often go wrong when pinpointing where an app comes from:

Publisher or developer uses a front company outside their country to mask country of origin. I remember a recent instance of this where a Russian publisher opened a front company in Ireland and listed that.
Search turns up no results. A lot of app developers are small independent software companies with no name recognition, and many don't have a dedicate website or show up on search results.
Listed developer (below the app name) doesn't match the listed seller. In some cases, the listed seller is obviously a joke or incorrect. I recall one app where the seller was listed as "Michael Jackson", even though that clearly was not the developer's name.

Is there a better way to do this?

You are not safer in the Appstore than anyware else: the only thing that is scrutinized by Apple is how the app works correctly in OS and that it works only in the api (which already is a good direction) but it can still be a bad app.


Running Apple Arcade Alongside Other Applications I cannot seem to work in other applications when Apple Arcade is running. I run Apple Arcade on a secondary screen to keep the kids busy and want to continue working on my primary MBP screen. However, focusing any other application pauses Apple Arcade.

How can I run Apple Arcade alongside other applications?

This is a basic premise of computing.

Only one application can be frontmost at any given time. That is the one that will accept input from any connected devices, mouse, keyboard etc.

There is some leeway for such as the scroll-wheel, which can scroll any window the cursor is over, whether foremost or not, but that is an exception rather than a rule.
Also, such as a video or audio stream will continue to run, so you can watch YouTube or listen to the radio in the background

Games tend to alleviate the control issue by pausing when backgrounded - it saves your poor avatar from being squished/killed/juiced etc whilst you're not actually controlling it.

There is no way round this.


error message from apple diagnostics after fan replacement This is a late 2012 mac mini. I recently replaced the fan, which was making a lot of noise. The replacement is not from apple. Everything works fine, and the system is quiet. But I ran an Apple diagnostics which gives me the following error: 4MOT/1/40000002-Exhaust-0. Is this because the fan has not been installed properly or it is Daignostics not liking a non-Apple product? Many thanks for your advice

The "MOT" in the error code indicates, as you may have guessed, trouble with a motor of some kind.

It would be logical to assume it points to the fan you replaced.

I wouldn't expect it to be caught during a hardware test, although these fans are controlled by a chip that precisely modulates power, and could detect when the motor isn't acting as expected according to the input, which I guess could be described as "diagnostics not liking a non-Apple product."

Regardless, it does mean at the very least that the replacement part you used isn't identical to the factory part. Is the fan spinning at all? You say the system is fine, but also quiet. Could this be because it was installed incorrectly and isn't even functioning? I can't imagine how you could install the fan incorrectly, but if you don't hear it spinning at all, maybe you should take another look to see if everything is connected, and you didn't destroy the fan connector, which is too easy to do.

Where did you buy the part, and was it listed as compatible with the model you have? Even if it is a third-party part, I find it hard to believe that AHT would detect it as malfunctioning if it had the right specs and was actually connected to the board.


My Macbook Air fan is really loud My fan is running really loud. I have tried resetting the SMC and it didn't work. I have no applications running and my mac is not hot. If you have any idea what is wrong please help me!

If the SMC reset did not work it seems likely it could be a hardware problem. I would guess it's going into a fail safe mode causing the fans to always run full speed. This could happen if a temperature sensor malfunctioned , I would recommend taking the system into an Apple Authorized Service provider.


Restrict size of TimeMachine backups I have an external 2TGB HD which I use as a TimeMachine backup.
This developed problems and could not be repaired.

Repairing file system.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Invalid index key
Incorrect block count for file permStore
(It should be 17 instead of 0)
Incorrect block count for file shutdown_time
(It should be 1 instead of 0)
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
Disk full error
The volume Time Machine Backups could not be repaired.

I bought a new 3TB disc, created a 2TB partition, and attempted to copy Backups.backupdb.
Finder spent 24 hours "Preparing to copy"; then failed due to lack of space!

I reformatted and created a 2.5TB partition, Finder has spent 24 hours "Preparing to copy" and is now copying files.

I really don't need all the backups (which go back to 2012) and I don't want TimeMachine to use all the space on my new drive. Ideally I would like to restrict the size of the backup.

My questions are:-
How can I reduce size of Backups.backupdb? Is deleting the oldest directories OK?
Is there any way I can get TimeMachine to restrict the size of Backups.backupdb, other than resizing the partition?

UPDATE
  My attempt to copy failed after about 30% of the disk was copied.
  I attempted to use rsync but while this appeared to run could not create any new files Operation not permitted (1).
  Even though I had used sudo I probably should have used a root terminal.
  Ultimately this too failed, due to lack of resources.

I then use Disk Utility to copy the image and ran First Aid. This found a number of issues, but ultimately failed.

Repairing file system.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Invalid index key
Incorrect block count for file permStore
(It should be 17 instead of 0)
Incorrect block count for file shutdown_time
(It should be 1 instead of 0)
Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
Rechecking volume.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Incorrect block count for file permStore
(It should be 17 instead of 0)
Incorrect block count for file shutdown_time
(It should be 1 instead of 0)
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking multi-linked directories.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume bitmap needs minor repair for orphaned blocks
Volume bitmap needs repair for under-allocation
Checking volume information.
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Detected a case-sensitive volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
The volume Time Machine Backups could not be verified completely.
File system check exit code is 8.
File system verify or repair failed.
Operation failed…

I decided to return to plan A (copy Backups.backupdb), (having first made more swap space on my Mac by deleting movies) and closing down all running programs.

After more than 24 hours, this had completed the copy, and the files all looked OK.

I then enabled the disk in Time Machine, and ran a backup. This informed me it was making a new backup, and proceeded to copy 350GiB of data.

This was not quite as I hoped. Inspection of the file system indicated that none of the files were hard linked into the old backups.

As far as Time Machine is concerned, all my backups are there, and sample checks indicate all files seem OK.

Subsequent backups appear to working as normal, files are hard linked into the initial backup.

I did some pruning of earlier backups with tmutil delete, but it is obvious I am only going to get back to a 2TiB image with serious pruning.

I did toy with the idea of trying to combine the hard links, but decided I will leave the disk as is, and just accept that I now have a 3TiB Time Machine.
At least I do have all my historical backups if I need them .


How do I stop iOS updates nagging me? iOS7 allows you to delete the iOS8 update package if it has been automatically downloaded to your iPhone (Settings > General > Software Update > Delete). However, then Apple insists on notifying you again of the availability of the iOS8 update (though without downloading it), which means you permanently have a "1" by the Settings icon.

Is there a way of blocking this notification?

This is currently not possible.

If your device is jailbroken, you can install Software Update Killer or any number of badge-removing tweaks.


What does hitting the tab button do in terminal? In Terminal, if I hit  tab  twice, Terminal asks if I want to list all 1580 possibilities. What is this, and what is this used for?

Pressing 'Tab' in terminal autocompletes commands and/or paths. Pressing it twice while there are no any part of any command/path is entered proposes to you to show all possible commands.


Universal (MacOS and iOS) iCloud path to file? Is there a way to get a universal path to a file in the iCloud directory? That is, a way to copy a path to a file stored in iCloud which will correctly direct to the file whether you use the path on iOS or MacOS?

Specifically, I'd like to link to an iCloud file in my Bear note taking app. However, I want this link to correctly function whether I use it from my Mac or from my iOS devices. Is there a way I can get such a link?

Edit:
Ideally, a solution which also works offline would be best. For example, on the Mac, a link such as file:///Users/username/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Preview/Documents/my_file.pdf will reveal the linked file. However, this doesn't work on iOS. An equivalent link which works both on iOS and MacOS would be the ideal case. The first solution provided works as a device agnostic link, however, it does require an internet connection.

Not sure if this will do exactly what you want, but here's how to get a link to a file stored in iCloud:

On your Mac:

In Finder, open your iCloud Drive (found in the Go menu or Shift+Command+I)
Right click on the file and choose Share > Show People
Expand Share Options and adjust permissions as needed
Click Copy Link

On your iPhone/iPad:

Go to the Files app
Tap the file to open it
Tap the share icon (bottom left)
Tap Add People
Adjust Share Options as needed
Tap Copy Link

On the web:

Go to Drive on iCloud
Click to highlight the file
Click the Add People icon in the top menu bar
Click Copy Link
Adjust permissions and click Share
The shareable URL will shown


Create a .pkg file from a .dmg in order to be used for auto-install ( Casper Composer ) I would like to create a .pkg file using the Casper composer but  i don't know which files of the .dmg to include .

I appreciate your help .

Try http://resources.jamfsoftware.com/documents/products/documentation/Composer-9.7-User-Guide.pdf page 12:

Composer allows you to rebuild an existing package (PKG, DMG, or MPKG) by converting it to a package source. After converting it to a package source, you can make changes to its contents and save a new copy of the package.

Open Composer and authenticate locally.
Drag the package you want to convert from the Finder to the sidebar in Composer.
The package appears under the Packages heading.
Select the package and click Convert to Source.
When the conversion is complete, a new package source is listed in the sidebar under the Sources
heading.


iPhone 6 lockscreen message preview I just got my iPhone 6 and everything works fine. It's just that whenever I recieve a text message, the notification on the lockscreen pops up and says who it's from and then  "to you"  right below it.

I know that the notification is to me so how can I turn this off so I don't have to read this before every message preview in my lockscreen? Any response would be greatly appreciated.

Settings --> Notifications ---> Messages

Then just click the "Show on lock screen" button to turn it to off mode (no green showing).

Edit: As far as I know there is no way to turn off this feature with stock iOS. You may be able to find a specific app to change this feature with a jailbroken iPhone.


Writing Text in Cells in Numbers How do I get the cell in Numbers to expand but not merge with the other cell when the text is too long? To be clear, I want it to stay in the same line, unlike wrap where it'll just force the text down. Thanks!

Long text when Wrap text in cell is turned off does not merge with the next cell, it simply overlays on top of the adjacent cell if the adjacent cell is empty.  Numbers just hides the borders for readability.  If the adjacent cell has content, the text hides behind it.

There is no way, unfortunately, to expand the width of the cell to fit without expanding the width of the entire column.

Experiment with the text wrapping to get your desired result.

Hope this is useful!


How to gift an app on the App Store for iOS? In the olden days, we could easily pay for an app for a friend to own.

One route for this was through the iTunes app on a Mac. Currently in macOS Mojave, the iTunes app seems to no longer know about apps at all.

Old Answers here on Ask Different talk about using the Share sheet on the iOS device, inside the App Store app. But on iOS 12.3.1, I can find no such item in the Share sheet.

➥ Does Apple no longer allows gifting apps?

I see posts about the Mac App Store not offering the "gift an app" feature. Perhaps Apple has removed that from the iOS App Store as well?

Gift option is available under Share sheet for an app, in the App Store app in iOS. Also note that you cannot gift free items.

Instructions to gift an app, from the Apple Support document, Send App Store & iTunes Gifts via email - From your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

  Gift an app or another item

  Open the App Store app, iTunes Store app, or Books app. If you're not signed in, sign in with your Apple ID.
  Find the item that you want to gift. (You can't gift a free item.)
  Find and tap the Gift button:

  In the App Store, tap the More button  in the upper-right corner of the app's product page, then tap Gift App .
  In the iTunes Store, tap the Share button , then tap Gift .
  In the Books app, tap Gift .

However, it appears that the gift option is currently not shown. I have observed this in various devices running iOS 12.3.1. It's likely due to an error or an implementation change from Apple's end.

To resolve this, your best bet is to get in touch with their support team.

Apple Support (@AppleSupport) | Twitter

You can also submit feedback to Apple:

Feedback Assistant


Trigger an Automator action with a sound Is there any way to trigger an Automator action with a sound? I'd like to be able to record a sound and trigger an action every time my computer's microphone receives the sound.

Mac OS X comes with speech recognition (check System Preferences > Speech panel) but it can't easily recognize a generic sound, only built-in commands.

Now, it is possible to make an automator action or script that is triggered by an arbitrary phrase. However, if by "sound" you mean a beep, blip, crash or other sound that can't be  recognized as a string of phonemes (ie. speech in english or possibly another language) then we're into serious Objective C programming territory here.


Is there a way to make Siri listen properly? When writing a message using Siri, the software will stop listening for the message at the slightest pause.
For example:

Me: Send a message to John
Siri: Okay, what would you like it to say?
Me: Hi John...
Siri: Okay, your message to John is "Hi John", would you like me to send it?

And this continued every time I left a pause to think what I wanted to say next.
Really annoying. Especially when driving or cycling.
Is there a way to make Siri wait and listen properly?

As far as I'm aware there is no way to get around this if you want to continue to use Siri from the lock screen or by holding the home button.

Your only solution at the minute is either to make sure you say everything without pausing or enable and use the dictation feature on the keyboard - It listens indefinitely until you tap on 'done' so you will be able to pause to think without getting cut off.


Characters and notification bounce when Terminal loses focus OSX 10.11.2
Terminal 2.6.1

I have an intermittent issue that is driving me up the wall. I spend a lot of time in Terminal in full-screen mode on my 2015 11" Macbook Air. I generally have Chrome or Notational Velocity or something else up in one of the "Spaces" nearby and switch back and forth with the four-finger-swipe gesture (enabled in System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Swipe between full screen apps).

Over the last several months, one of the tabs in my Terminal will sporadically start giving me a "bounce" and the red 1 badge to single some kind of alert any time it loses focus. I usually notice it when I'm using a four-finger swipe to go back and forth to another space (which immediately shows a single bounce of the Terminal icon and the badge in the dock).

The terminal acts normal upon return to focus. I don't see any notifications or message other than a few odd characters. It was hard to identify exactly what characters, so I ran cat and then changed focus, and it looks like it's ^[[O^[[I. I thought this kind of looked like some of the sequences to make arrow and special keys behave in Terminal -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Keyboard, but I don't see any with those characters.

I get the same problem when in normal (not full-screen) mode and click on a different icon -- even in the same space -- and Terminal loses focus. Same characters, a bounce, and badge, so I don't think it's related to Mission Control.

I am often running tmux and have SSH connections to a few servers, but I haven't noticed it being exclusive to a tmux or SSH session. For example, currently I have a few Terminal tabs open, and it's happening in a tab running an SSH session (not in tmux), but not happening in another tab running tmux in SSH, and not happening in other tabs open to local directories.

I don't see anything obvious in Console.app and nothing from Terminal. I usually try to include a "WHYT" section to my stackexchange posts, but I can hardly figure out where to start here -- I'm stumped.

Not a major issue, but definitely annoying, and it shows no signs of leaving me alone over the last few months. Any help figuring this out would be greatly appreciated!

Some program you're interacting with has enabled terminal Focus In/Out events, normally used along with Mouse Reporting (aka “Xterm Mouse Tracking”). When enabled, the terminal sends events to the TTY to indicate when the terminal gains or loses keyboard focus (i.e., becomes active or inactive).

The terminal command for enabling focus events is:

CSI ? 1 0 0 4 h

(CSI = Control Sequence Introducer: ESC [.)

The focus in/out events that the terminal sends to the tty are:

Focus In:  CSI I
Focus Out: CSI O

These are the sequences you're seeing when you use cat to view them.

The terminal Dock-icon bounce and badge indicate when a BEL (Control-G) is sent to the terminal when it isn't the active/frontmost terminal. (There are preferences to control these behaviors in Preferences > Profiles > [profile] > Advanced.)

So it appears that some program has enabled Focus In/Out events and is sending a BEL in response to them.

It could also be that the program sending the BEL is not the same as the program that enabled the Focus In/Out events. For example, an editor like vim may have enabled them, but some intervening program like screen or tmux (or possibly ssh, although it seems less likely) is intercepting the Focus In/Out events and responding with a BEL to indicate that it considers the input to be invalid.

  …it's happening in a tab running an SSH session…

Since you didn't say, I'll assume you're just using a shell within that session and not some other program. If that's the case, it's likely that you ran some preceding program within that SSH session that enabled the focus events and then exited without disabling them, leaving the shell to receive them, and if you type ESC [ I or ESC [ O manually into Bash, by default it will emit a BEL to indicate that the input is considered invalid.

If you have only used a shell within that SSH session, then you should examine the shell startup/configuration files on the remote host to see if there's some code to enable the focus events.

You can simulate this situation by running the following command in Bash (and probably other shells):

printf '\e[?1004h'

Then you'll find that Bash beeps (sends a BEL) when you activate or deactivate the terminal view/window.


Tar excluding ._ files Is there a way to create a tar file in OS X (Sierra, preferably) that does not include the ._ files?  I've tried using the --exclude option, but clearly don't know the right pattern to use.

To suppress the creation of AppleDouble ._ files, use: --disable-copyfile

Example: tar --disable-copyfile -cf file.tar file


Is it possible to get OS X to remember my screen arrangement? I use my MacBook with an external monitor at work and home. Unfortunately, they are both the same model and this seems to confuse OS X.

At work, I have the monitor on the left and at home the right. But each time I move from one to the other, I have to manually change the arrangement.

Does OS X not remember arrangement for multiple monitors, or is using the same model the source of confusion here?

Even in 2019 macOS fails to preserve my monitor layout. I wrote a tool called displayplacer that lets describe your monitor layout as a terminal command. I then use BetterTouchTool to execute these profiles via hotkeys. It solved the same problem for me of using the same model monitor at work (in portrait mode) as at home (in landscape mode).

For example, on my 4 monitor setup at home I have this profile: displayplacer "id:A46D2F5E-487B-CC69-C588-ECFD519016E5 res:3840x2160 hz:60 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(0,0) degree:0" "id:F466F621-B5FA-04A0-0800-CFA6C258DECD res:1440x900 color_depth:4 scaling:on origin:(-1440,1437) degree:0" "id:4C405A05-8798-553B-3550-F93E7A7722BB res:1440x2560 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(3840,-363) degree:270" "id:18173D22-3EC6-E735-EEB4-B003BF681F30 res:1920x1200 color_depth:8 scaling:off origin:(960,-1200) degree:0"

Also available via Homebrew brew tap jakehilborn/jakehilborn && brew install displayplacer


Keeping wifi active during lock So I can find no good solution to this. I have a macbook pro running yosemite that will take down the interface when I lock it. How can I configure it so the network connection stays active when the computer is locked?

Also note that recommendations to install "lock me now" as a workaround won't work, as that app isn't available in my area (according to the app store).

I'm assuming when you say "Lock" you mean that the screensaver kicks in so that you are prompted for a password.

I use an app called Amphetamine (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amphetamine/id937984704?l=en&mt=12). It will make sure your Mac stays awake, but still allow it to start the screensaver (ie locking it). This way, any network activity continues (downloads, streaming, etc.), but your Mac is password protected.


Is there an alternative to the five-finger swipe out gesture, allowing me to copy things to/from the desktop? On my MacBook, I frequently end up with lots of overlapping windows on the screen, obscuring the desktop. I recently discovered the five finger 'swipe outwards' gesture that displays the desktop. Unfortunately this doesn't do exactly what I want; as soon as I select an application (typically a Finder window) from the dock, all the windows swipe back into place. Normally I am wanting to copy a file to/from a Finder window that's already open, via drag-and-drop, to the desktop - but I can't do this as the desktop is once again obscured.

Are there any other shortcuts which could help me? For example, minimize/hide all windows to show the desktop?

I should add I'm using OS X 10.8, if it's relevant.

I would suggest you set up a hot corner to show the desktop (this is what I do):

Open System Preferences
Click Mission Control
Click the "Hot Corners..." button at the bottom
Set the corner you want to use for "Desktop" (I use the top right)
Click OK

Now you can move a file from a Finder window to the desktop with just the mouse:

Click and drag the file you want to move to the hot corner you set up, which will show the desktop
Drop the file on the desktop


System time growing an accumulating latency High Sierra 10.13.6. I have my system clock displaying the hours, minutes and seconds in the upper-right corner of the screen.
I have had this laptop for years and the time has always been 100% accurate (from what I can observe). Meaning: my cell phone and laptop always keep in sync with each other and the minute segment changes at almost the exact same time.
Over the last few weeks, I have noticed an accumulating "lag" in the time as maintained on my laptop. First, I noticed it was about 15 seconds behind my cell phone and the other computers in our house. A few days later I noticed it was 25 - 30 seconds behind. It is now several minutes behind! For instance it might be exactly 9:00 AM EST but my laptop is showing 8:57:43 AM EST, etc.
The main question here is: how can I "resynch" my laptop with the actual time (as maintained by all the "atomic clocks" I hear about, and likely what all devices are synched with)?
Secondary to that, anybody have any ideas as to what could have caused this? Just curious on that one! My disk storage is very full and I keep getting warnings about that, so maybe its impacting the time somehow?! Thanks!

In System Preferences > Date & Time, you should be able to use a Time Server by checking a checkbox and specifying a time server:

Depending on where you live on the globe, the available time servers may be different.


iPhone/iPad/iPod turn-off blocking? Its possible to block turning off the iPhone/iPod or iPhone?
For example, in case of loss, theft?
The point is that the thief could not turn off the iPhone, so I could find iPhone through Find my iPhone always..

No.

Even devices locked with TouchID can be turned off without unlocking. Even if you could restrict it, the device would eventually run the battery dead.


How to automatically mount network share when iPhone backup screen is opened in Finder? I would like to trigger a script that mounts a drive when I open the iPhone's device page in Finder (like shown here).

Currently, I have the iPhone backups in an APFS volume, which is inside a SparseBundle, which is on a SMB share on my NAS.
Before running an iPhone backup, I mount the drive by manually running a shell script.
Since I work on a MacBook the LAN with my NAS is not always available, hence the detour with mounting manually. But triggering the mount process automatically when entering the page in finder seems a good idea.

Is there any event fired to attach such a script to?
Or maybe there is any other sensible method to mount the drive automatically?

Yes, a script can be triggered when the iPhone is connected...
When the iPhone is connected to the Mac, the following file gets modified:
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

Using a Launch Agent with a WatchPaths key it can be determined if the iPhone is connected to the Mac when the NetworkInterfaces.plist file is modified.
For testing purposes, I created the launch agent as:
$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.me.iphone.connected.plist

Contents of the com.me.iphone.connected.plist file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.me.iphone.connected</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/iPhone</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

In the XML PLIST file, /usr/local/bin/iPhone is a shell script that gets executed when there is a change to the   NetworkInterfaces.plist file and the contents of the shell script is:
#!/bin/zsh

iPhone="$(/usr/bin/defaults read /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist | /usr/bin/grep -m 1 -o 'iPhone')"

if [[ -n "$iPhone" ]]; then
    if [[ -d "/Volumes/Data" ]]; then
        if [[ ! -d "/Volumes/iPhone Backup" ]]; then
            open "/Volumes/Data/iPhone_Backup.sparsebundle"
        fi
    fi
fi

When the example shell script is executed it assumes I'm already connected to the Network Share, in this example it's "Data", but it first sets the value of the iPhone variable by using the defaults command to read the .plist file and pipes its output to grep to return the first occurrence of "iPhone" if found. If the iPhone is connected, then iPhone="iPhone" and the test in the first if statement succeeds.
The next test succeeds if I am connected to Data, and the subsequent test succeeds if I'm not already connected to my iPhone Backup sparsebundle. It's coded in this manner so as not to try opening the sparsebundle if it's already mounted if the NetworkInterfaces.plist file is modified again while the sparsebundle is already mounted. In other words, the sparsebundle is only opened if it's not already mounted.
If you also want the mounting of the SMB share to occur in the, e.g. iPhone, shell script, you can add the following example command directly after the opening of the first if statement. In other words, literally between the first two if statements:
/usr/bin/osascript -e 'mount volume "smb://user:@server/share"'

This uses AppleScript code to mount the target share and assumes the credentials are already stored in your Keychain. It also is not problematic if the SMB share is already mounted, then the command just fails silently.

Notes:
Had you included the script or code you are already using, I would have created a working example that would have incorporated it, however what I've submitted is an example that works for me tested under macOS Catalina.
I recommend you read the manual pages for launchctl, launchd.plist and launchd. You can read the manual page for command in Terminal by typing command and then right-click on it and select: Open man Page
After creating the $HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.me.iphone.connected.plist file I loaded it using the launchctl command, e.g.:
cd "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/"
launchctl load com.me.iphone.connected.plist

Once loaded, it will automatically load when you login to your account, so you shouldn't need to do it manually again under normal circumstances. To unload it, use the unload subcommand with the launchctl command.
After unloading it, you can use the disable subcommand so it doesn't load again or you can delete the .plist file, if/when you want to undo changes you've made to your system.


Which version(s) of Mac OS X have Ruby installed by default? I'm thinking about using Ruby to write an installation script, but I'm not sure if all major versions of Mac OS X install it by default.

Which version(s) of Mac OS X have the Ruby interpreter installed by default?


Caps Lock key not working The caps lock key in my MacBook Pro (mid 2015, running MacOS Sierra 10.12) is not working. When I press it, the led doesn't turn on and it has no effect. However, if I logout from my account and go back to the login screen, then it works normally, which means it is some user preference setting. (by working normally I mean the led turns on and the sign of caps lock turned on appears in the password field)

The problem is, I have no idea what kind of setting it might be. In the system preferences, under keyboard, caps lock is assigned its normal function. I do have a few apps for remapping system input: Karabiner, BetterTouchTool and USB Overdrive, but I don't have any setting involving caps lock in any of them.

I understand this problem is often caused by Karabiner Elements.


Apple Wireless Keyboard not connecting automatically on wake Recently I'm using my MacBook Air mostly in clamshell mode, with an  Wireless Keyboard and an  Magic Trackpad paired. Sometimes, weeks pass by without even opening the lid: connecting it at the office, putting to sleep, connecting it at home etc.

From time to time, the bluetooth keyboard does not connect back on wake automatically, as the bluetooth trackpad does: I have to open the lid, type in my password, then pair the keyboard to use it.

What is the problem and how can it be fixed?

Resetting the SMC should be able to fix the issue. Note that this will reboot the MacBook, so you will lose any unsaved work.

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to
the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option
keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.


Very quiet audio output under Windows 10 (Late 2016 MacBook Pro) After installing Windows 10 with Boot Camp Assistant for my Late-2016 15" MacBook Pro, I'm finding maximum volume to be almost inaudibly quiet under nearly all uses. The audio is deafeningly loud at full volume under macOS, so something is definitely wrong

Windows shows the volume is maxed. Nothing obvious in control panel. The driver is apparently "Cirrius", but I know nothing about it.

Searching around yields a lot of similar complaints from 2009, and advice to install Realtek drivers, but that's so out of date I don't suspect I should risk it. Any ideas?

I have the same problem on a MacBook Air with the Cirrius drivers. I managed to get the volume to boost a little by checking the "disable all enhancements" box on the sound properties (as some online had suggested from a few years back), but still no where near as load as it gets on a Mac. It is certainly a driver issue but so far I've yet to find a fixed driver.


Attaching External HD to Airport - Is It Secure? I am thinking about attaching an external HD to my Airpot (ac), which I will use to back up my computer using SuperDuper on a nightly basis. However, I am concerned about security. I know that I can set a password to access the disk. But is the disk available via the internet? I'm concerned that someone outside my network might be able to access the disk.

Disks connected to an Airport router aren't, by default, accessible from the Internet. This is for a few reasons:

Your ISP is almost certainly running firewalls that would make it hard to do this anyway.
By default, disks are only accessible from your local network.

That said, it's possible to make a disk accessible from the Internet if you want to - see this post on the Apple support forums. If you don't specifically take those steps, the disk won't be publicly accessible.


Mouse cursor disappeared on external display when rotated I have a MacBook Pro 13-inch 2017.
My macOS High Sierra has the version 10.13.4 (17E199).

So my problem is that, after the last macOS update, my 2nd external monitor doesn't show the mouse cursor anymore. This monitor was rotated 90°.

What I tried:

rebooting
making the cursor bigger (read that tip somewhere)
when shaking the mouse the cursor is shown in big but the hides again
when rotations is set is to default the cursor is there again
when in any rotation both external monitors doesn't show the cursor

So anybody has a idea to fix that?

I actually just solved that problem on my Macbook Pro.

Tried all possible solutions. What worked was to make the cursor bigger.
However, depending on your screen resolution you will need to play with different sizes.

There is a discussion in Apple forums with more details: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8342495


Change the function of caps lock to insert underscores when the spacebar is hit Is there a way I can change the function of my caps lock key so that when it's on it inserts_underscores_instead_of_spaces_when_i_hit_the_spacebar?

It's fine if it just works in Textmate but would be handy in other apps.

You should be able to achieve this with Ukelele.  I tried to do this myself but got distracted and then gave up.  The documentation isn't exactly stellar.

Note:  Ukelele is just a GUI to simplify the process of editing the layouts manually as they are large XML files with slightly ambiguous element names.


Is it possible to upgrade from ios 4.3.5 to 5.0.1 even though the current version is 5.1? My iphone has ios version 4.3.5 (8L1). I want to jailbreak/unlock it. I see that the latest jailbreak is for version 5.0.1 (by redsn0w). Itunes only allows me to upgrade to the latest version which is 5.1. But if I do that the jailbreak would be undoable.

Is there a way to upgrade to 5.0.1?

If not, is there a jailbreak available for 4.3.5?

Actually, you don't even have to hunt it to a Bittorent. You can just download it from the Apple servers by visiting the RedMondPie website. Links are listed below the page.


Sluggish performance with Airport gear on 5 GHz I've a network that is powered by an Airport Extreme and extended by an Airport Express. My Airport Extreme broadcasts 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels separately.

2.4 GHz operates on channel 4 and 5 GHz operates on channel 44. The network is WPA2 protected. 'Router Mode' is off. 'Radio Mode' is 802.11 a/n - 802.11 b/g/n (Automatic). And my 'Country' is selected to United States.

Also everything, including my network gear and things that connect to it, is up-to-date. And I'm not on any other DNS.

Recently I made the Airport Express extend the 5 GHz channel instead of the 2.4 GHz one because of 5 GHz's better performance.

But now when I connect to my 5 GHz channel I get worse performance than my 2.4 GHz one.

Below are the screenshots of my tests on both of the channels. The faster one is the 2.4 GHz one. (by the way, I know it's a shame but unfortunately that's the situation in my country at the moment, hopefully there will be fiber soon)

What exactly is causing this woeful performance on 5 GHz? What am I missing here?

The 5GHz is all hype.  It can be faster, only if you're close to it.  2.4GHz is still superior in range and as you know, WiFi speed drops off the further away you get from your access point.

The only time I've found 5GHz useful is: When many other networks are interfering with mine. (in between two large apartment buildings with 12+ networks bouncing within the corridor, it's nice to switch off of the 2.4GHz)

Or, if I'm in the same room as the AP, I can get a strong signal.  Then 5GHz is sometimes faster.
here's something interesting from wirecutter.com

No matter what they are called or technology they use, repeaters start out with a minimum 50% throughput loss. The reason is that a repeater must receive, then retransmit each packet using the same radio on the same channel and with the same SSID. If the repeater is very efficient, then your loss will be close to 50%. But if it’s not, throughput loss can be higher.”

Thanks to that 50% loss in bandwidth right off the top, just about all wireless extenders suck.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-extender/


Mac Pro - Early 2009 - 4,1 wont boot under OSX Having some issues with Mac Pro I’m hoping you can help with.
I received a Mac Pro 2009 4,1 from my work place after a user noted it ‘it just died’

Our guys here looked at it and could only conclude the fault could be hardware related but they were unsure what exactly.

I took it home and installed a hard drive I had to hand with Windows 7 pre-installed, powered in on and after about a minute it loaded Windows normally despite not hearing the Mac start up tone.

While browsing around in Windows I noticed the keyboard and mouse would go unresponsive intermittently. This was temporarily resolved by restarting Mac.
This gave me some hope so I installed El Capitan on an external drive using a friends Mac, installed it in my Mac. It fails to boot.

Symptoms:

Blank screen on power up

No start up tone is audible on boot up

The power led appears and is solid.

All fans spin up

The hard drive spins up despite not booting

The red led on the processor tray flashes briefly on power up – as it should

Keyboard num lock led doesn’t light up

What I’ve done so far:

Reset the PRAM battery

Replaced the PRAM battery

Swapped hard drive into every available bay

Swapped graphics card into another available expansion slot

Successfully booted to Windows from HDD

Tried booting from Ultimate Boot CD to run diagnostics. Fails. Probably has something to do with it being an ISO file?

Attempted firmware restoration here: https://support.apple.com/kb/dl976?locale=en_GB
This fails due to the power button remaining solid when held in

So at this point I’m fairly certain (unless I’m missing something) the fault is hardware related. Whether it’s the backplane or the motherboard tray that needs replacing I’m not sure but I thought I’d run it by the community for any suggestions before sinking money into either, or both. Any help is appreciated.

You have moved drives around, what about memory? Set it up with the minimum memory, then try with other memory modules, maybe you have a bad stick or two. Maybe one of the memory daughter cards is bad. Swap those, will a MacPro boot without an (empty) daughter card? Not sure about that

Also try unplugging the Optical drive.

You tried the Video card in another slot. How about another video card?

Anything that can be removed, should be removed to see if it is at fault.


I have removed all mail accounts from my iPhone and reset it. What's using storage? I have deleted all my e-mail accounts from Mail from the iPhone -- iCloud, my work account, etc., and have reset the phone (powering off and then back on) a couple of times.

In Settings/General/Storage, I still show 186 MB of data being used by mail. Is the Mail app itself 186 MB? If not, how can I free up some of the space being "used" when there are no accounts at all on the phone?

I struggled with this and spent a whole day trying to figure out why my mail app on my iphone suddenly took up 2.5.gigabytes of storage!  I did all of the suggestions on various websites to no avail.  I did however finally FIX IT.  I deleted all of my mail accounts and then DELTED THE MAIL APP.  Presto!  This seemed to be the key to fix the problem.  I was able to recover 2.5 gigs of storage back to my 16gb iphone.   I then reinstalled the mail app and started over again.  This seemed to work for me.  Another thing to try is to download one of the many (and good) third party email apps.  Hope this helps you all.
-Patty


Email client with Send Later and colour-coded flags features Is there an OSX email client, which allows schedule sending emails and has colour-coded flags?

This function is less about the client and more about the server supporting server side rules. Send later needs both to agree on that functionality. Color coding is certainly a client side feature and possibly server side if you expect those to sync to other clients or webmail.

One client certainly has all of what you ask:

Microsoft Outlook - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-outlook/id985367838?mt=12

One such combination you'll want to check is Microsoft O365 Subscription and Outlook 2016 for Mac. It works really well for sending later and the color categorizations that mimic the colored flags.

Tons of automation and other features are available as well including server side rules and archiving, etc... but it hits your two main requirements out of the park for several organizations as well as individuals I support.

You could also set up AppleScript automation to fire and launch mail and send a message, but that would be pretty complicated to set up and maybe not as reliable as outlook.  I’d start there for free trial or for a month paid to see if that suits your needs.


How to make display PDF images with mouse hover in iTerm2 after " ls -l '? On Catalina 10.15.2, Sometimes, in iTerm2 terminal, after a ls -l command, I can visualize some pdf files (a popup window appears suddenly) when my mouse is over the list of PDF filenames.

But this is not systematically and I would like to know how to make appear this popup window into which the image of filename pointed appears (that would be very useful because this popup window is relatively large and we can distinguish details).

If someone could know what to do to activate systematically this behavior with mouse (maybe it is a shortcut with mouse or other things, I don't know), this would be nice to explain it.

You can activate this behavior in iTerm2 by activating the "Look up & data detectors multitouch shortcut. On Force Touch trackpads, by default, that means a force press by default while the cursor is placed over the filename.

You can confirm your settings in System Preferences, by viewing the Trackpad pane.

You may also wish to hold CMD and click on the filename to open it directly.


Move Photos from iPhone to iPad I have to help someone do this, so I do not have the devices in front of me to play around with.

There are three devices involved:

Macbook (don't know what model)
iPhone (don't know what model)
iPad (don't know what model)

The objective is to move some photos from the iPhone to the iPad.

What is the most straightforward way to accomplish this using iTunes?

Also, if there are any AppleScript hackers out there with experience in iTunes, a stub of an AppleScript to perform this task would be really helpful!

FYI, in my case using the internet is not really an option, so iCloud and the like are out.

Use Image Capture to import the pictures to your computer.
In iTunes, connect and select your device, then in the Photos tab select the folder that you put the photos when you imported them.
Press Sync.

Once you've done this once, it become easier. You already have the folder set up in Image Capture and in iTunes, so all you have to do is…

Connect your iPhone (you can set up Image Capture to open automatically when you connect your iPhone in System Preferences).
Click Import.
Connect your iPad and click Sync.

Alternatively, you could purchase an iPad Camera Connection Kit, then use a USB cable to connect the iPhone directly to your iPad and use your iPad to import the photos.


Force apps to not suspend, auto restart apps I have at least two apps which must run all the time in background, otherwise there is no point about it:

HID Mobile Access: Opens doors via Bluetooth LE, when phone is locked/in pocket
Noke: Opens my bike lock via Bluetooth LE, even when phone is locked/in pocket

I try hard to not kill these apps; I always leave them running and they are in the apps list when I double tap the home button.

However, both apps I mainly need twice a day (morning/evening) and in about 50% of the cases it just does not work. After minutes of desperation, I take the phone out, unlock, restart the apps and it works. That's absolutely unuseable!

Background data refresh etc is on for these apps. I think iOS puts them to suspend so they do not respond via Bluetooth LE even though I haven't killed them and they are in the apps list.

I can see similar behavior with MiniKeePass which I like to keep open so I have quick access to my passwords. But sometimes I still need to re-enter my (long) password although I haven't killed it.

Also, there must be a way for apps to keep running: Whatsapp, Threema but also ParcelTrack respond even when I killed them.

When apps for a longer time have no activity iOS will freeze them down, unless they receive a notification to get 'active' again.


How to speed up an iPad 2? My iPad 2 (32gb) is about one year old and he is getting very slow. I've tried restarting the iPad and quitting all apps but with no real success.
There is about 5 GB of free storage space.

Any other ideas on how to speed things up?

Have your tried backing it up to your computer, then restoring it? That might help. Make sure it's backed up.


How to map Option+X but not change Option+Shift+X in KeyRemap4Macbook? I want to map Option+X to something. But this mapping effects Option+Shift+X key binding as a side effect. Is there a way to prevent it?

Here is an example mapping that I use:

<item>
    <name>movement home</name>
    <identifier>private.movehome</identifier>
    <not>VIRTUALMACHINE</not>
    <autogen>
        --KeyToKey--
        KeyCode::C,ModifierFlag::OPTION_L,
        KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT,ModifierFlag::FN
    </autogen>
</item>

<autogen>
  __KeyToKey__
  KeyCode::C, VK_OPTION | ModifierFlag::NONE,
  KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, ModifierFlag::FN
</autogen>

The use of | ModifierFlag::NONE prevents other key combinations from being remapped.


How can I convert a NTFS drive to HFS+ without having to move the data? How can I convert a NTFS drive to HFS+ without having to move the data?

It is an external drive of 2TB and I don't want to spend too much time moving the data.

This is required in order to be able to share the drive on Lion (smbx)

Sorry but there is no way to reformat a Hard Drive while keeping the current data intact. You can either move the data off, reformat to HFS+ then move the data back on or add a second partition that is HFS+, move the data to that partition then remove the old NTFS partition and expand the HFS+ one.


Please share your hidden macOS features or tips and tricks Do you know any hidden or little-known nice feature of macOS (née Mac OS X)? It doesn't matter what it is—maybe just a short terminal command or a keyboard shortcut. Share your experiences on hidden Mac OS X features with us..

Please post one tip per answer. Please also check to see if your answer has already been posted - duplicate answers will be deleted. To search answers for this question use inquestion:400 (or inquestion:this, directly from the question page) in addition to your search terms in the search box in the upper right hand corner of this page.

Also provide details on how to achieve that feature, and if possible, include a relevant image too!

In any Finder window or Open/Save dialog, you can hit ⌘⇧G (just '/' also works in Open/Save) to get a location bar from which you can directly type in the directory to go to. It even supports ~ for home and tab completion.

The Open/Save dialog has several other useful shortcuts:

⌘  R -
Reveals the selected item in a new
Finder window.
⌘  I - Info window shows for the selected item.
⌘  ⇧  > - Shows/Hides hidden files in the dialog
⌘  F - cursor jumps to the Find text field
/ or ~ - Opens a Go To Folder dialogue.
⌘  D or ⌘  ⇧ D - selects the ~/Desktop folder as a destination
⌘  ⌥  L - selects ~/Downloads folder as a destination
⌘  ⇧ O - selects ~/Documents folder as a destination
⌘  ⌥  S - Shows/Hides sidebar
⌘  . or esc - Cancels and closes the dialog window


How to know if a SSD will work on OS X? I have a 2010 Macbook pro with a hard drive, and I'd like to replace it with a SSD.

Information I've read about OS X and SSD is generally quite old, and not reassuring (not all SSD are supported, and the thing about the TRIM command not enabled for non-apple SSD…).

So: is there any problem anymore with OS X and (non-apple) SSD?

This question is intended to be generic, but to give an example here is the SSD I'm considering to buy: Samsung 840 EVO 750Go.

I replaced my stock HDD with a similar Samsung SSD in my 2010 MBP without any issues. It's a huge improvement over HDD as well. You will need to enable TRIM though. I used this trim utility on Mountain Lion. (Caveat: it WILL work without TRIM, but I wouldn't advise it. A good discussion on the topic is on SU here.)


MS Outlook Version 16.16 doesn't show calendar event reminders For some or other reason MS Outlook doesn't show reminders when calendar events occur.

Generally, my meetings' reminders are configured for 15 minutes before events occur, however I never ever get any popup reminders that events are about to occur.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Microsoft Outlook for Mac Version 16.16
Product ID: 03109-000-000001
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

The Mac version of Outlook actually has an app that is in charge of displaying/sounding reminders, so it is nothing that you can access outside of Outlook.

If you launch Outlook and go to the Outlook menu the fourth item down should say either "Turn off reminders," or "Turn on reminders."

If it is the former you may want to reinstall Outlook as something has happened to cause the reminder application to not work. If it is the latter... well, problem solved.


What is the MacOSX.sdk file? Where do I find it? I am trying to do a build of Cyanogenmod, that outputs the error:

Can not find SDK  at /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk

However, the /Developer/SDKs directory does not even exist. I know that most of the libraries have been moved to Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/, but I don't know where to look. What is this MacOSX.sdk file? Where can I find it?

Also note that the wiki of Cyanogenmod says that I should Install the Mac OS X Developer Tools from my DVD, but I upgraded to Mavericks with the App Store. What do they mean by Developer Tools? I do have things like make and gcc (Command line tools in Xcode).

This is the wiki page I found the instruction to install dev tools from DVD:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Template:Build_on_Mac_OS_X#Install_Developer_Tools

As mentioned by Mark in the comments the instructions are made for older versions of Xcode.

In my opinion you can simply link a MacOSX sdk to /Developer/SDKs:

sudo mkdir -p /Developer/SDKs
sudo ln -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.8.sdk /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk

additionally you can add a link named MacOSX10.6.sdk

sudo ln -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.8.sdk /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk

Another tip is to edit build/core/combo/mac_version.mk and changing:
mac_sdk_versions_supported := 10.6 10.7 10.8
to
mac_sdk_versions_supported := 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 10.10

I strongly recommend to use a virtual machine (Mountain Lion) and an older Xcode version (4.6.3). This version as well as all other versions are freely available with an Apple ID at Downloads for Apple Developers


App/solution for having alerts for emails I have following case: when something bad happens with services I'm responsible for, I get email to specific email account. And I'd like to get alert about it from my phone.

But I don't mean just notification with a single sound. I want the alert to sound until the email is deleted or I actively disable the alert in the phone. This is for the cases when alert is raised in the night, and I just don't wake up after single, even loud, notification sound.

So is there any solution or app that would let me define something like this:

  When there is email in a specified imap account, play a configurable sound, perferably with rising volume, using loudspeaker in the phone. After the sound finishes, wait 30-60 seconds, and repeat the procedure, until the mailbox is empty again or I do something on the phone to silence the alert.

Apple does not allow 3rd party applications in the iOS App Store to interact in such a way with the default Mail application to make such a feature possible. 3rd party applications run in a sandboxed environment and are strictly prohibited any access to your mails.

On the other hand, Apple also does not allow 3rd party mail clients in the App Store, which theoretically could implement such a feature, but will never be accepted after the App review process (unless Apple would choose to change that policy in the future).

You could circumvent these limitations by jailbreaking your iPhone. However, even then it is very unlikely you'll find a ready-made solution which works exactly as you described it. You'd probably have to develop such an app yourself, and then install it on your jail-broken iPhone.

If you don't want to jailbreak, nor go through the trouble of actually developing such an app yourself, I suggest you go for a different approach. You could for example keep resending the notification by the server until you confirm reception at the server-side.

I also suggest sending an SMS through an SMS gateway instead of an e-mail. This has the added benefit you can configure a custom tone (and a more attention grabbing one if you will), just for that specific contact number. Also SMS notifications can be configured to repeat every 2 minutes for up to 10 times, so you would only need to resend the SMS every 20 minutes. Finally, this would also work when you don't have a data connection available (for example when roaming), and in case you don't have a push mail account it should reach you faster than an e-mail too.

You could also do both SMS and email for yet another fail-safe. I'll leave it up to you on how critical these notifications actually are!


Contact names are gone, but still shown in Messages My iPhone 6's contact names are gone, but the numbers are still there.

However when I go to messaging and add a new message and type for a contact by name, all the contacts show up with both the name and the message. Therefore I know that the iPhone still has the names stored somewhere, because it shows up when searching in the messaging search.

What can I do to get all my contact names back, because I know that they are stored somewhere.

I don't have any backups, but I shouldn't need any, because my device seems to have the contact names somewhere, as I see them when I add a message and search.

Try these possible fixes :

Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > iCloud > toggle Contacts on and off

The Second fix only applies if you have multiple email accounts synced with your iPhone (iCloud,Gmail etc) :

Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Gmail or whichever you use > toggle Contacts on and off

Also check the Default Account in Settings to see which email account is selected.


Circumvent the App Store to install Fortnite on Mac? Is there another way besides the Mac App Store to get Fortnite installed?
While I haven't played it yet, I am interested in trying it. I understand it is free to play, and items like player skins can be bought in-game. So I'm wondering why Epic needed Apple's App Store distribution channel to begin with, but is it available for download by other means (maybe Steam, .dmg download, etc)?
Sorry if I'm asking something obvious to most gamers here. I didn't see a way to download an installer from Epic's site. Thanks.

You can download Fortnite directly from Epic Game's Fortnite website.
You may need to sign-up and log-in before downloading. The download is a .dmg file.


Why does lsof exceed kern.maxfiles? Running Mojave 10.14.3 I notice there are currently more files open than the maxfiles allowed.  How is this possible?  In this case I do not have any symptoms or error messages, but in the past I have seen an error message about too many open files, and that time when I checked, lsof was exactly 10000.

Side node: Is there any harm in increasing maxfiles?

$ sysctl kern.maxfiles
kern.maxfiles: 10000
$ lsof | wc
   13242  124035 1982117

lsof lists more than just file handles. Most notably, it includes program text mapped into all processes (e.g, the executable and all libraries it's using). There are a lot of these mappings in most GUI processes -- I count over 270 for the Finder, for instance -- and they don't consume file handles.

If you believe you are hitting the system's open file limit, go ahead and change kern.maxfile. However, it's more likely that you're hitting the per-process open file limit, which defaults to a lower number (7168 on my system) and can be changed using ulimit.


Which filesystems support symbolic links? I'm copying a big archive of files from a Linux host to an external USB hard drive, that will then plug into a macOS host.  The copy should preserve the archive's many symbolic links (ln -s).  What filesystem should I format the external disk as?

Not exFAT, because that doesn't support symlinks.
ext4 can be mounted only read-only, via e.g. ext4fuse.
Something else, that can mount read-write?  (Must also be writable by the original Linux host, Ubuntu 16.04.)

HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled)

Why?

Supports Symlinks
Read/write on macOS natively
Easy installation for read/write on Linux

See this for Linux installation tutorial.


2017 MacBook Pro can't connect to Dell P2715Q via USB-C to DisplayPort cable I purchased a USB-C to DisplayPort cable from Amazon to connect my 2017 MacBook Pro to a Dell 2715Q however it does not seem to be working.

From what I've read and from some of the cable reviews, there shouldn't be an issue yet my MacBook does not recognize the display. The monitor seems to know that it is connected to a device and shows a message saying that there is no signal coming from the computer.

Is it possible that there is some setup I need to do, or is there a compatibility issue between the display and cable? Or is it possible the cable is no good? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I used the Star Tech USB to DisplayPort Cable to a similar model monitor, and it worked.

On 1 monitor I had to manually change the DP version.


Why TexStudio for MacOS is not being installed? I tried to install TexStudio several times but every time it shows error. Error "macOS cannot verify that this app is free from malware."
How to resolve this error?

Do you wish to get a notarized / signed copy of the code - you can reach out to the people that package it and ask they sign the code.
If not, you would need to do the checking yourself and perhaps relax the gatekeeper settings. Since you don’t specify anything about which version of the OS / which version of the program, hopefully this general guidance helps you research what step to take next.
Here is my advice - if you’re not sure how to figure out a security error or just don’t want to be bothered, it’s best to not relax security / GateKeeper. It is a significant bit of responsibility to add and you lose that protection for all software - not just for this, so be sure to re-protect with GateKeeper as soon as you run software that can’t be bothered to protect you from malware.
Also - you could have legitimate malware and be one step away from unleashing it. Be sure you have a backup before relaxing Apple security in case you have a tampered product you downloaded. Just because it came from the proper web site, doesn’t mean that web site or your network wasn’t compromised.


Set iPhone ringtone for filtered email messages Is there a way on the iPhone that a certain subset of incoming emails (coming through Exchange) will ring a specific ringtone (a real one, not just a beep)?

In the Blackberry world, you would set an email filter that marks these emails as priority 1, and have a different ringtone for priority 1 messages. I'm hoping to accomplish the same thing with an iPhone.

Thanks

I don't believe there's a native way to do this, but you could set up server side rules (via Outlook Web Access, server side so they always process) to forward particular messages to a notification service, such as Boxcar (www.boxcar.io), then configure individual sounds using their iOS app.

Here's a page that shows how to setup forwarding rules in OWA (chosen randomly via Google):
http://programs.cocc.edu/OWA/FW/default.aspx

One catch with this is that, as far as I can tell, the Rules functionality is only available in Internet Explorer, at least with Exchange 2007. I tried this in Chrome and Safari on my Mac at home and the option isn't available.  I've heard non-IE browser support is better for Exchange 2010. If you don't have access to IE, Google a bit to see if you can find any tips for using IE 8 or 9 on OS X. I found one, but I'm not exactly sure of it's legitimacy, so I chose not to post a link.


Macbook Air 2015 High Sierra cannot merge free space partitions I think I messed everything up when I erased the content of a partition from bootcamp.  Please give simple instructions.  I have no knowledge about how storages work.  Thank you.

The simple fix is:

Back everything up (apps and files and settings and possibly keychain passwords if you don’t have them written down / recorded elsewhere)
Boot to internet recovery
Erase and start with one partition

Using the command line to merging containers requires you to clearly understand quite a few items and processes and concepts and one mistake ruins the data. It’s like several passes on a trapeze at the circus, without a net. It takes months of experience to make it look effortless and years of experience to always succeed.

Here’s your guide to easy and the site will be here as you gain storage knowledge.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065


Is multi desktop more resource expensive? I want to understand if connecting a second or third monitor to my MBP means exactly the OS to draw 3x output and stuff, so it is at least 30% more under stress.

YES ! it is , but not sure about 30%, it would not be a linear function, since generating a picture is one task, distributing is another, and it will depend on your monitors demand.

There is great new feature in Mavericks - Activity Monitor that could help you.

It is called the Energy.

So just connect one monitor at the time and observe it.

It shows energy consumption which can be used to interpolate the load to the CPU/GPU.


Apple ID: How to avoid changing password? Whenever I try to log in to iCloud or https://appleid.apple.com/ from my PC I am getting forced to change my password ...

I do not want to change it. Is there any way to stop these messages?

This message is part of the security measures of iCloud. The only way to get rid of it is to actually set a new password adhering to the rules listed.


What is the max resolution output by the HDMI port of the MacBook Pro Retina? Does the MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) output 2560x1600 to the HDMI port?

The reason I ask is that I would like to drive 2x30 inch 2560x1600 monitors while still using the Gigabit Ethernet adapter. (My backup plan is to get the USB 2 to 100 Mbit adapter and use that and then just use the Thunderbolt for graphics). So I would appreciate any additional caveats to this plan as well.

If it's HDMI 1.4 as noted above, it should support "4k" resolution (4096×2160p24)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#Version_1.4


Screen capture app that captures a window even when minimized? I'm looking for a mac app that captures the screen (video) on specific app window (for example, Safari), and keeps recording what that window sees even when minimized to the dock for example.
Or even if a finder window is over it (without recording that finder window).

Anyone knows an app that can achieve what I'm talking about?

You are making the assumption that windows are always updated when minimized. This is not the case. This also applies to apps present on other spaces.

In other words, this is not possible.


Disable Macbook internal display I own a Macbook Pro 13 2017 (2 thunderbolt ports), and I would like to disable the internal display when an external monitor is connected to it through USB-C.

I have ruled out the following

Turn brightness all the way down in mirrored display mode: Not the best, because the GPU's framebuffer is still doing extra work on that internal display (processing power and battery affected).
Using Clamshell mode: Again, not the best. I only got two USB-C ports, one would be taken by AC power which is a prerequisite for this mode, and another displaying to the external monitor.
Add "niog=1" on NVRAM: Sounds OK, but still a hassle to reset NVRAM every time I want to work on the internal display.

I can think of two solutions

Simulate what is happening to macOS on Clamshell mode without actually closing the lid.
Simulate the Macbook on AC adapter power so I can use Clamshell mode with one USB-C port free.

I would appreciate feedback on this, it would be great to nail this issue.

Why not put a small and not super powerful magnet on the specific area of the sleep wake sensor so that the system thinks the lid is shut?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203315

With power and keyboard connected, you'll have it running in closed-clamshell mode with full benefits for your use case and no need to move the actual display.

There are amazing USB-C pass through docks now - some that sit flush and others with a stand off cable so you can get around the limitation of only having two ports if that's the only sticking point for clamshell mode.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hyperdrive-world-s-1st-usb-c-hub-for-ipad-pro--2#/
https://www.amazon.com/CableDeconn-Thunderbolt-Charging-Multiport-Adapter/dp/B07BK4TRG8/

The good adapters are still in the $50 US range, but the knock off ones are rapidly approaching $10 so you can pick metal or plastic and your warranty / support model of choice if you run out of ports.


Can't install El Capitan in VirtualBox on High Sierra I am installing El Capital in VirtualBox on High Sierra. The reason I am doing this is that I have an enterprise application that stoped working in High Sierra and so I am going the VM route.

When I need to select a disk to install the OS, there is no option for me to choose except the dmg file.

I am guessing that it might be the APFS on my MacBook Pro that is causing the problem but I have no solution. I tried using a USB external drive but it does not appear too after plugging in.

Does anyone have a way around this?

Well I just figured out that you have to click view>all devices in Disk Utility before you can see the virtual drive and format it or install to it!


Mac App Store Update Today I was checking if there are any updates on Mac App Store and look what type of message came out. What do I need to do ?

Check your internet connection. This could happen for example if you're connecting through a corporate network or wireless hot spot that proxies all traffic through a central server.

If you are using your normal internet connection, where OS X Update usually works, and this is the first time you get this error message, it could be a cause of concern.


Can't delete file on external USB drive I am running Mavericks on a Mac Mini. I was attempting to move my iPhoto library to a different Mac by copying it onto an external USB drive. The iPhoto Library is 98GB.

I left it running for 3 hours, when I came back it said it had 14 days to complete.  So I tried to cancel.  The Finder popup said "Stopping..." but stuck there.

I have since rebooted the Mac but Finder says the file is still on the USB drive. If I tried to delete it again it just says "Deleting..." and then Finder freezes.

It seems like the iPhoto Library that I tried to copy is corrupted on the USB drive and now it can't be deleted.  Finder says the file is 98GB even though it still had 14 days to run.

How can I get rid of this file?

Try deleting it with Terminal:

rm -rf /Volumes/diskname/path/to/folder

This command will remove (forcefully and recursively) the path given. Be careful when entering the path to ensure you delete the correct folder, as there's no protection against deleting everything. Note that Terminal will show no progress whilst this is being carried out — the prompt will return when it's complete.


iTunes opens automatically when CD inserted I don't use iTunes, but I can't prevent it from automatically opening every time a CD is inserted.

I have already changed the system preferences for when a CD/DVD is inserted to "ignore" or to "open other program"-- but it seems that iTunes 12 overrides these system preferences.

I've also looked at the preferences within iTunes, but there is no option to "ignore" when CD is inserted (though I am almost certain there used to be!)

Try changing the system preference (as per your screenshot) for "when you insert a music CD" (or whichever one is causing you an issue) to "Open in iTunes" and then immediately back to "Ignore". For me that seemed to reset the preference to ignore.


Can a Mac with Thunderbolt effectively use a PCI Graphics Card using an external cage? I was wondering how good thunderbolt is for adding a beefier PCI graphics card to my MacBook Air.

If I use a PCI enclosure like this, will the card integrate with the Mac to enhance the performance of the computer or a display?

Unfortunately, there isn't currently a graphics card on the market that has a Thunderbolt-aware driver.  Without that, the solution isn't going to work.  All of the manufacturers of such enclosures have stated that there is significant demand for exactly what you're inquiring about here, and you might be best served to join some of their mailing lists to keep up with changes, i.e. cards that become compatible.  Magma for instance, has a list of "coming soon" cards on their site for their particular enclosure, but not a single graphics card.  Yet.

Don't also forget - Thunderbolt in its current state has a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 10Gbps (that's gigabits), or 1.25 gigabytes, per second and is made up of a DisplayPort signal coupled with PCIe 2.0 x4.

As you may be aware, most high end graphics cards on the market are PCI 2.0 (or even 3.0 now) and run best with an x8 slot or ideally, x16.  That kind of bandwidth — from 4GB/s on PCIe 2.0 x8 to 16GB/s on PCIe 3.0 x16 — is way over the ability of Thunderbolt.

So, even if there is eventually a card that would work, with a Thunderbolt-enabled driver that was available for your Mac - you won't likely get much more performance out of it that you couldn't get out of, say, the GeForce 650M chip in the current 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (mid-2012).

For practicality's sake, I'd suggest thinking about how if your current laptop's graphics capabilities don't suit your needs, perhaps you might consider upgrading.  It will be likely be a long time before there's a card that will run in the configuration you are contemplating.


How to fix this OS X Dock Tooltip encoding problem? I'm running Lion in French and have had the following bug in my Dock for the last couple of weeks. It doesn't go away if I reboot or kill the Dock.

Have you ever seen something like that before?

You could find the strings file (which holds the translations) and do a search and replace on nonstandard characters.


How can I rotate my images directly from the finder? I would like to rotate my images directly from the Finder.

The best would be one of these:

a button to click in the menu bar of every Finder's window
a button to click in Quicklook

But, if it can be done with a keyboard-shorcut, it would be fine also.

Is one of these features possible? And if yes, how can I do?

Yes - you can use Automator to make a service for Finder (or all applications) to perform rotation of images. Then you can assign a keyboard shortcut to that action.

I'm not aware of quicklook plug-in that rotate, but that's something that might exist. Modifying finder's shortcut bar might be the least likely way to activate things, but hopefully an Automator service (or app / droplet) will do.


How to improve the performance of a Ubuntu Virtual Machine running in VirtualBox? I'm using VirtualBox 6.0.4 to run a Ubuntu 18.0.4 guest on a MacBook Pro 2018 host with macOS Mojave. The MacBook host has an i7 processor and 16GB of RAM. In addition to VirtualBox, I'm running Google Chrome. According to Mac Activity Monitor, the CPU is mostly (90%) idle.

The virtual machine is too sluggish - whenever I drag a window across the screen it moves slowly, and rather than moving around the screen smoothly, it abruptly changes its location.

Currently, the Virtual Machine has the following configuration:

12 GB base memory
6 processors
Acceleration: VT-x/AMD-V, Nested Paging, KVM Paravirtualization
128 MB video memory
3D acceleration enabled
IDE Primary Master: VBox Guest Additions

I've read some suggestions here and in other forums, but I haven't found a solution that works. So far I've tried the following:

Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions
Installing VirtualBox Extension Pack
Increasing the base memory up to the maximum (valid)
Increasing the number of CPUs to 6 (from a total of 12)
Increasing the video memory to the maximum
Switching the graphics controller to VBoxVGA
Enabling 3D acceleration

I've read that decreasing the number of CPUs and the base memory results in better performance, but I've tried this as well (and multiple other combinations) to no avail.

Are there any settings that I should check which I haven't mentioned?

If you have found a configuration "sweet spot," I would thank you if you could point me in the correct direction.

EDIT:

Below are a few screenshots showing CPU usage and memory pressure.

I could not find a solution to my problem by using VirtualBox. After a week of trying out VMware Fusion I can say it has given me no issues. It runs smoothly and works well with my use-case. I don't see any apparent issues there in terms of how windows or other GUI elements lag.


no wifi hardware installed on Mojave update After Mojave install I get a "No WiFi hardware installed" when trying to connect the wife. Computer response is so slow it's almost useless. Same results on iMac 27" Retina Display Mid 2015 and Mac mini Late 2012. Tried NVRAM and SMC resets to no avail. iMac worked fine when I reverted back to High Sierra but backup for mini is on the WiFi network.

I edited the /etc/sysctl.conf file. There are three settings adjusting socket buffers to improve broadband performance. I doubled the numbers there and it fixed the networking issues.
   There was a constant stream of error messages saying sockets were unable to allocate buffer memory. Apparently, there is a process crashing somewhere and not releasing it’s socket buffers. I don’t know which one is doing it because it is hard to track down due to the sluggishness.


How to checksum for a DVD under Panther? I'm helping a friend checking if a DVD was burned properly but he's saying that  under Panther there's no Images menu in Disk Utility.

It looks like Panther's hdiutil supports checksumming, even if the Disk Utility GUI might not:

hdiutil checksum myimage.dmg -type MD5

(The supported types of checksums are listed in the man page. A common one seems to be UDIF-CRC32. If you use UDIF-CRC32 or UDIF-MD5 the checksums will be calculated separately per partition.)

Or you could always simply use the md5 command:

md5 myimage.dmg


my App Store is broken for Mac High Sierra 10.13.5 I will click featured or something else and it automatically redirects me to updates.

What sequence of things can I try to unstick this or reset the application so I can browse the features and other sections of the Mac App Store?

You can solve this problem by omitting the AppStore and installing all system updates through the terminal.

Open Terminal and type:

List all available updates:

sudo softwareupdate -l

Install all available updates:

sudo softwareupdate -i -a

This update fixes the app and returns proper function.


Connect MacBook Air to Cisco 2811 Console (RS-232 serial) I'm trying to console connect into my business's Cisco 2811 console with my MacBook Air with a Thunderbolt to Gigabit adapter. I've googled around for a day and haven't found any information.

How can I connect to my router with my MacBook Air using the Thunderbolt adapter?

EDIT:
I've purchased the proprietary Cisco console cable which is an RJ-45 to DB9 rollover
cable.
Then I purchased a DB9 to usb adapter to plug into the MBA but when I try to follow

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/connectedgrid/cgr1000/hardware/cgr1240/app.console.html#wp1049053

I don't get anything under usb.

Serial is not Ethernet, these are two different protocols, so connecting it to your thunderbolt adapter won't work. You can use a USB-serial cable for this, I've had good experiences with cables with a PL2303 chipset on OSX.


Why would the iPhone constantly remind for google calendar entries? My wife finds that her iPhone constantly reminds her of google calendar events (accessed via the exchange trick). None of the google events have reminders enabled. The phone preferences don't ask for reminders. Yet reminders she gets.

By default Google calendar is configured to send notifications for events. Go to http://calendar.google.com/. Select the Calendar Details -> Notifications. There is an option 'By default, remind me via...'. Click on the remove link to get rid of the default notification.


How to launch the onscreen Accessibility Keyboard with a keyboard shortcut too? With ctrl + cmd + space, macOS launches Emojis & Symbols, also know as the Character Viewer.

Is there a shortcut to launch the Keyboard Viewer?

There is no built-in way to use a keyboard shortcut to display or hide the accessibility keyboard.

I'm understanding your question to only be about showing & hiding the accessibility keyboard with a keyboard shortcut and not about how to use that keyboard or any other accessibility feature.  If that's not correct, please edit your question or add a comment to clarify.

One-sentence answers are usually not very good but in this case there's not much more to add that would improve the answer.


Boot Camp missing Coprocessor, SMBus Controller Drivers I installed Windows 7 on a user's Macbook Pro yesterday (Aug 2010 model I believe) using Boot Camp, then I used the Mac OS X disc to run the Boot Camp Drivers installation.  I then restarted as normal and went about the myriad other installs, when I entered devices and noticed the "!" symbol on the computer.

Lo and behold, 3 drivers were missing: Coprocessor, SMBus, and a third that I can't recall at the moment.  I found several references to the missing Coprocessor and SMBus online, but the posted solutions (to install nVidia drivers, to run the Intel Update service, to let Windows 7 try to find the drivers itself) all failed (some of the driver installations reported the incorrect hardware, some installed but didn't resolve the missing drivers in Devmgmt).

I've installed Windows 7 on 10+ Macbook Pros and never once run into missing drivers after installing the boot camp driver pack.  Everything seems to be working fine: display, ethernet and wireless, sound, track pad, eject button all function perfectly, but the ! in Device Manager are driving me crazy.  Any ideas?

You can resolve this issue by using the latest drivers from Apple. If not resolved using the latest update try installing the missing drivers manually and locate the folder where the Apple drivers are put. Hope it helps.

Cheers.


Which application to preview .md files? Is there an application to preview markdown files (.md files) on OSX (for instance on Maverick)?

The superuser question, Markdown Live Preview Editor?, provides a wealth of options:

BBEdit
TextMate
Mou
Marked
MarkdownLive
Atom
Marked 2
MacDown

In additional to those, you can install a markdown QuickLook plugin for Finder based previews.

MarkdownLive

Mou

Marked 2


Individual terminal tabs running emacs become buggy/corrupted over time I generally work with a terminal window with a half-dozen tabs open, and that window lives for a week or so.  Every once in a while, tabs (running emacs) become corrupted or something [every other line is missing, new text appears as blank spaces, first few lines are missing, etc] --- where emacs no longer accurately displays what's in the file, and modifications don't appear correctly (while the files themselves always seem to be fine).  Only individual tabs are effected, and I've only noticed problems in emacs.  New tabs always work fine, so closing the tab and opening a new one effectively works-around the problem.

This has only happened since I upgraded to Mountain Lion.

Has anyone had similar problems?
I'm having trouble even coming up with directions or search-terms to try to investigate the problem; does anyone have any suggestions?

One way to keep emacs running stable for a long time is running it as a separate GUI app. I installed GNU Emacs for Mac OSX and it runs without any redraw issue. It will pick up your normal .emacs configuration and if you do not like the GUI elements like the toolbar you can hide them on startup in the variable default-frame-alist.


Service for imported iPhone I bought a grey-market import iPhone 7 plus in the Phillipines. It's a Hong-Kong phone, per the authorized agent in Manilla.

How can I get it serviced by Apple, as the authorized agent doesn't want to cover the work, given it's import status.

It sounds to me like the store you bought it from, imported it as a grey import from Hong Kong. However, all iPhones come with a global warranty, so you will be covered.

You need to contact Apple directly - someone there will be able to organise something for you. You may need to provide proof of purchase, so have that ready (scan it in if you haven't got a digital copy).

For your info, below is a similar experience I'm aware of firsthand.

I recently helped a lady who purchased a new iPhone from a local online store. About 10 months later the iPhone developed a fault, and while it was definitely under warranty, it took a while to establish this fact because the serial number came up as having been purchased in Thailand, and because it was dated about 7 weeks earlier than when she had purchased it.

In this case, she needed to show her purchase receipt to correct the commencement date for her warranty, as it was originally showing as only 8 days remaining compared to the two months she thought she had left. It did get all sorted, but the issue had to get escalated before it was resolved.


What does "SE" stand for in font name "Chalkboard SE" I'm looking at two fonts that come with macOS: Chalkboard and Chalkboard SE.  What does the "SE" stand for?

Looking at the two Font in Font Book and seeing nothing other then Chalkboard SE has a Light version of the Font, where Chalkboard only has Regular and Bold versions, I decided to look at the two fonts in a Hex Editor. I noticed they were copyrighted six months apart:

Chalkboard, was copyrighted in 2003-04, by Apple Computer, Inc.
Chalkboard SE, was copyrighted in 2003-10, by Apple Computer, Inc.

I'd imagine that Chalkboard SE was created after Chalkboard as a second edition.

So, I'd say SE stands for Second Edition.

Update Note: Looking at the Get Info sheet, it shows the Copyright. I guess I should have looked there first.


Are AirPods damaging to your health? I was looking online and found links to two articles about the potentially harmful effects of AirPods on the body.

This is the first article.. It links to a video where the EMF intensity of the AirPods was tested and compared to other bluetooth headsets. It was concluded that they emitted a relatively high average EMF intensity. It allegedly also has a "consistent field intensity... in the 7-10 milligauss (mG) range" as opposed to a varying amount, which is apparently has a greater magnitude of effect on "brain chemistry." Do note however that this site sells supplements, if that makes any difference in its validity.

This is the second one. It tests the AirPods (again, in a video) and sees that they emit EMF exposure which has a magnitude of 3500mV/m, which is ten times higher than an iPhone in a phone call (which is emits this exposure at a magnitude of 300mV/m). This also apparently continues to occur "even when you are not on the phone and not listening to any music." The author even tries to give an explanation for why this is occurring (such as because they need to transmit information to your iPhone continuously as they can't process "Hey Siri" on the devices themselves).

As the first article suggests, this might be a cause for concern, given that these AirPods literally sit inside your ears and many people don't even take them off for hours on end (even though they continue to emit this "EMF exposure"). I definitely would do that if I didn't know anything about this (which the average consumer most likely doesn't).

Additionally I've seen information about the AirPods being a Class 1 bluetooth device (power output 100mW, theoretical range 100m, anecdotal range ~50m), which does seem strangely high for such small devices which stay so close to your body.

Apple's RF Exposure legal site doesn't list AirPods for whatever reason – only Macs, iPhones, etc.

I'm not sure what to do here. I was on the fence about buying the AirPods but these concerns temporarily stopped me. If I should only wear them minimally to avoid potentially dangerous effects, it rather defeats the point of them in the first place, and it would put me off from spending $160 on them.

I haven't been able to find any actual studies of AirPods, only the aforementioned articles from these two sites (and one or two other random ones). As a side note, it's quite hard to find specific information about this online, as different sites come to wildly differing conclusions. It also doesn't help that on Internet forums there are many "armchair scientists" who claim something as being true based purely on personal belief or what they read somewhere instead of in fact. It doesn't help that there are sites like this one which criticize EMF-emitting wireless headsets (with what looks like a picture of a person wearing AirPods), which is likely to promote their own product.

I don't know how reliable the sources I linked in the beginning are, although I do know the latter was written by a "trained electrical engineer." The first one however is on a site which sells supplements, one of which enhances the "body's natural healing," which seems kind of fishy? I don't exactly know what to make of that one.

I must say that I do doubt that Apple would make such a rash decision as to put out a device on the market which could be detrimental to a person's physiological health. I'm not sure whether these articles are just spreading FUD or if they have a valid point (the articles do seem somewhat 'sincere,' although that admittedly doesn't say much).

What can I do? Should I avoid AirPods take these issues as valid concerns?

The only question I could find in your entire statement is

  Should I avoid AirPods take these issues as valid concerns (sic)?

You posted info from sites that indicate it the levels of EMF emitted are both safe and not safe.

Apple has stated their products meet all applicable safety and health laws (although we all know these standards change over time).

For every site that I saw that stated it was safe, I found other sites (mostly natural-medicine sites) that said the opposite.

So to answer your question, it's completely up to you if you want to use them or not. I would say that based on the fact that you're concerned about this enough to do all this research (and still not come away with a definitive answer) that you should stay away from them and find another product that makes you more comfortable.


Are there any keyboard shortcut prompt applications? I've been dealing with repetitive stress injury in my mousing hand for many years.  Each time it's flared up, I've managed to find something to delay the inevitable (e.g., switching from traditional mice to trackballs).  It's flaring up again and it's clearly being aggravated by any pointing device.  I've even tried using pointing devices for my non-dominant hand and even those hurt after a short period of time.  While I'd love to go completely pointerless, that's not really a practical option.  I've tried KeyCue, but end up not using it because it takes so long to find the right shortcut for a given situation.

So, I'm looking for software that will let me use a pointer device, but when I try to do something with it that has a corresponding keyboard shortcut, I'm shown that particular shortcut.  An option to prompt (e.g., a short delay between a pointer click and the action being completed so that I can use the keyboard shortcut or just wait for the action) and an option to require the keyboard shortcut (e.g., it shows me the keyboard shortcut and won't complete the action based just on the pointer click).  For example, when I click the x on a tab in my browser I would be given a Growl pop-up to the effect:

Close Tab
⌘W

Something like this would help me learn the keyboard shortcuts while minimizing the impact to my current workflow.  Does anybody know of any applications that do this or could easily support this type of user prompting?

While this is not a solution you're asking for, you can try adding shortcut in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Application Shortcuts for menu item 'Show Help Menu' (I'm not sure if it's enabled by default).

Then after pressing this shortcut you can type command name and help system will search for that in menu. I guess names of actions fairly often - Close Tab is quite easy to guess, as you just need to start typing 'Close'.

I hope this will help.


Wake on lan with MacBook Air 2018? is it possible to use wake on lan via wifi on the macbook air 2018?

What iOS app (or terminal command?) can you recommend to use?

I want to wake of the MacBook Air with my iPhone which is in the same network.

Take a look to this article:
http://osxdaily.com/2013/12/14/wake-on-lan-mac-iphone/
Let me know if it is useful


launchd initiated process receiving signal 15 (TERM) I've installed TotalFinder (a plugin, of sorts, for Finder) and it's randomly being killed off several times a day. I contacted the developer and he didn't have any ideas, but did say a quick google search revealed others experiencing the same launchd issue with other software.

Log shows: com.apple.launchd.peruser.502: (com.blah.blah) Exited: Terminated: 15

Source code: https://github.com/binaryage/crashwatcher/blob/master/main.m

Anyone have any idea how to debug this further? I'm on 10.8.2 on a MBPro Retina.

In the past when I need to diagnose something like this I've used the kill.d script from Brendan Gregg:

dtrace:::BEGIN
{
    /* Print header */
    printf("%5s %12s %5s %-6s %s\n","FROM","COMMAND","SIG","TO","RESULT");
}

syscall::kill:entry
{
    /* Record target PID and signal */
    self->target = arg0;
    self->signal = arg1;
}

syscall::kill:return
{
    /* Print source, target, and result */
    printf("%5d %12s %5d %-6d %d\n",
     pid,execname,self->signal,self->target,(int)arg0);

    /* Cleanup memory */
    self->target = 0;
    self->signal = 0;
}

Running it and then running killall Finder in another shell results in:

[user@fozzy Scripts]$ sudo kill.d.sh
 FROM      COMMAND   SIG TO         RESULT
  155      launchd    15 4294900609 -1
66872      killall    15 66687      0

Which tells you what (killall at PID 66872 with Signal 15) killed which process (in this case, 66687 my then-running instance of the Finder) and the result. It does slow down the system somewhat while running, but should provide you with the results you need - just make a note of your Finder PID before hand, and then let it run (either while you are working, or overnight to avoid disrupting your work) and look to see what killed that PID.


determining Preferred Language in OS X via cli I was hoping to do something like:

defaults read -g AppleLanguages | awk -F, '/[^(]/{print $1;exit}'

but if only one language is listed in "Preferred Languages", then defaults read -g AppleLanguages returns an error:

  The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, AppleLanguages) does not exist

It works fine if multiple languages are listed.
Does anyone have a reliable way of determining the language selected for a given user in OS X?

The only difference is the comma.  Conditionally remove the comma if it's there.

defaults read -g AppleLanguages | sed -n "2p" | tr -d ,


Can't Delete iTunes Content I have a MacBook Pro running the latest version of Yosemite and the most up to date version of iTunes.

When opening iTunes up it shows that I have 6 songs, I've tried to delete these songs multiple times by right clicking, pressing 'show in finder' and then moving them to the trash, but they still won't disappear from iTunes no matter what I do. I've even removed the caches folder but no luck even after restarting.

Removing them from your hard drive has no bearing on whether they show up in iTunes. You have to actually remove them from iTunes, too. (Right-click > Delete or Edit menu > Delete while the song is highlighted) The (nearly) only time iTunes knows whether a file in the iTunes library actually exists on the hard drive is when you try to play it.

Also, if you use the above method, it will offer to remove the song from your hard drive at the same time it is removing it from iTunes.