Which incoming ports do you need to open in osx firewall? I use pf (BSD packet filter via Terminal). The recommended use of pf is to block all incoming ports and then open those you need.

I want my system to work properly and don't miss things like Automatic Updates, AirPlay, AirDrop, etc.

I came across the following list but it doesn't specify if it is incoming or outgoing.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202944

How can i find out?

As a rule of thumb: If you provide a service on your Mac, you have to open the appropriate incoming port(s).

Example:
If you have a standard web server running on your Mac, you have to open the incoming port 80 (http) and/or port 443 (https). You may customize those ports in the web server config (e.g. 10080/10443) and then would have to open the respective ports and close the default ones. To access the web server you would have to enter www.mywebserver.home:10080 in your browser.

From the viewpoint of a client the ports mentioned in the Apple list are all destination ports (To which port do i have to send a message to get a proper reply?). The source port may be an arbitrary one (mostly above port ~10000).

From the viewpoint of a server the ports mentioned in the Apple list are all source ports (or "incoming ports").

So if you don't provide any services you may block all incoming ports.
As such Automatic Updates is no service you provide on your Mac, because you don't run a Software Update Server.

A different thing are AirDrop, AirPlay (and besides some push services), which don't look like servicing (like a traditional server) but indeed do. If you didn't exclude local networks previously in the firewall settings, you have to open the respective incoming ports on the servicing host(s).


How to clear list of servers "Choose a mac" list in OS X Server App How can I clear the "Choose a Mac" list? I have 3 entries of the same machine, same ip address but different host names?

I have the latest OS X Server 5.1 installed on a Mac mini with a static ip address. I use OS X Server on my iMac (local network) to connect to it and manage the server settings. I have reinstalled OS X Server on the mac mini a couple times and used different host names. Now the list is long, with entries/logins of the same machine.

On the client mac (non-server):

Quit Server.app

Activate Finder, hit Cmd-Shift-G and navigate to ~/Library/Preferences

Find "com.apple.Server.v4.plist" and change its name to "com.apple.Server.v4.OLD.plist" or something similar.
Move it to the Desktop if you wish, but don't delete it so that you can easily reinstate it if necessary.

When you reopen Server.app it should present the first-time splash screen, asking what you want to do.
Select the option relating to 'another machine'.


How can I diagnose what is interfering with my Wifi signal? I have a mysterious  process on my Macbook pro which I can't isolate which comes around every 5 seconds and interferes with my connectivity.

My ping history looks like this:

    4 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=12996 ttl=53 time=93.144 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=12997 ttl=53 time=22.797 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=12998 ttl=53 time=23.122 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=12999 ttl=53 time=23.674 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13000 ttl=53 time=23.827 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13001 ttl=53 time=21.925 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13002 ttl=53 time=22.654 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13003 ttl=53 time=754.820 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13004 ttl=53 time=1448.052 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13005 ttl=53 time=1144.956 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13006 ttl=53 time=165.125 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13007 ttl=53 time=22.109 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13008 ttl=53 time=22.513 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13009 ttl=53 time=23.716 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13010 ttl=53 time=22.804 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13011 ttl=53 time=22.349 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13012 ttl=53 time=21.941 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 13014
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13014 ttl=53 time=1200.319 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13015 ttl=53 time=933.177 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13016 ttl=53 time=206.759 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13017 ttl=53 time=23.897 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13018 ttl=53 time=22.536 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.194.174: icmp_seq=13019 ttl=53 time=21.755 ms

I can tell that this is local to my machine (and not the network) because these results don't change when I switch networks and other machines on those networks don't show the same intermittent stagnation.

I have closed every application that I can including the obvious background ones (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) but the problem persists.

At this point I'm at a loss as to how to pinpoint what service or process is doing this. I'm hoping someone has some remedy or third party tool I can use to isolate the culprit and shut it down.

A request timeout on ICMP (ping) going from your Mac to your your network device simply means that the device, not your Mac failed to respond to the ping request in a given amount of time.  There is a good explanation of that here.

This can happen for any number of reasons; network congestion, device load, wifi signal interference, power loss, etc.  Most importantly, it has absolutely nothing to do with services that are running on your Mac.

Based on the address you used, it looks like you are pinging google.com.  This means that between your Mac and Google's servers there are a number of "hops" that your packet must go through.  Your Mac to your Wifi is one hop.  Wifi to your router/modem is another hop.  Modem to your providers gateway is another hop and so on until you get to Google.

To see how your hops are performing, issue the command traceroute google.com and it will output something similar to the following:

    1  pfsense (192.168.10.1)  0.401 ms  0.176 ms  0.223 ms
     2  96.120.36.197 (96.120.36.197)  23.503 ms  8.269 ms  8.470 ms
     3  xe-1-3-0-0-sur02.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (68.85.82.157)  9.371 ms  8.740 ms  8.517 ms
     4  xe-11-2-2-0-sur03.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (69.139.183.46)  10.091 ms
        xe-11-2-0-0-sur03.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (69.139.183.14)  20.572 ms
        xe-11-1-1-0-sur03.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (69.139.183.177)  9.440 ms
     5  te-9-1-ur01.wellington.fl.pompano.comcast.net (68.85.219.25)  16.879 ms  9.370 ms
        xe-1-0-7-0-ar02.stuart.fl.pompano.comcast.net (68.85.219.29)  16.575 ms
     6  be-20214-cr02.miami.fl.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.90.205)  10.963 ms  12.427 ms  11.617 ms
     7  68.86.82.74 (68.86.82.74)  10.475 ms  11.337 ms  9.979 ms
     8  23.30.207.242 (23.30.207.242)  47.521 ms  45.935 ms  47.899 ms
     9  209.85.241.136 (209.85.241.136)  10.958 ms  10.625 ms  10.479 ms
    10  216.239.42.79 (216.239.42.79)  10.616 ms  11.121 ms  10.590 ms
    11  mia07s35-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.192.110)  17.763 ms  16.857 ms  11.290 ms
traceroute to google.com (216.58.192.110), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

That's my currently traceroute for Google.  Yours will definitely be different.  Either way, anything in between could be contributing to a dropped packet which is the request timeout error you are seeing.


Why does Spotlight pick the DVD Player app when I enter the math equation 5*3? I only use Spotlight for quick math. Because of that, I decided to modify my Spotlight preferences (System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Search Results) to only show results for Conversion and Calculator (everything else is unchecked).

However, when I enter the equation 5*3 it picks the DVD Player app. Note that if I do 5 * 3 (with added spaces) it shows the calculator results, which is what I desire. So far, only 5*3 triggers the DVD Player app.

I'm guessing Spotlights results are cached, and it's just using the cached results. Long story short: when trying to get Spotlight to show only calculator results, I unchecked everything in Spotlight's preferences except for Calculator. However, then Spotlight didn't work at all, even for simple equations. I tried to tinker, and checked Applications, and entered 5*3 and hit enter, assuming the Calculator would be used, but instead the DVD Player app was opened. I unchecked Applications and checked Conversion, which made the calculator work. But now 5*3 results in the DVD Player app opening, not the calculator.

Is my hunch that Spotlight caches its results correct? If so, how long is this cache valid for (i.e. when will 5*3 result in the calculator being used instead of the DVD Player)?

Simple screen capture:

The first thing I would do is remove the Spotlight local store on your boot volume :-

sudo mdutil -E /

Do the above at a Terminal Prompt.

You might also try adding the entire volume to the "Privacy" pane in System Preferences→Spotlight.


How do you control the security of Firefox browser in Yosemite to run educational Java app? I am trying to run the following Java applet in the following web page:

http://artint.info/demos/rl/q.html

However, Firefox is blocking it due to a security issue. Not sure if it's an Apple issue but I tried adding it to the exceptions but it didn't do anything.

I have attached screen shots of what the browser is showing me:

and this too:

and:

Anyone knows how I run can it on my computer? In the browser or not?

The issue isn't with Firefox or Apple. It is Java itself that is blocking the application.

The way to fix this is to add the website to the Exception Site List within Java Control Panel.

Open System Preferences and click on Java, which should launch Java Control Panel.
Select the Security tab and click the "Edit Site List..." button near the bottom.
Then on the Exception Site List window, click Add to add a new blank line and paste in the address for the website. Then click OK on the Exception Site List window and you should now have something like this...

If you close and reopen Firefox now it should prompt you to "Allow artist.info to run 'Java Applet'?" and if you click allow it should now load the applet.

If you've tried this and it hasn't worked, something might be remembering a previous decision. Try clicking the "Restore Security Prompts" button at the bottom of the Security tab in Java Control Panel, or clicking Firefox's plugin icon in the left corner of the address bar (the one that looks like a Lego brick) to get it to allow the Java plugin.

Adding the site to the exception list, closing and reopening Firefox worked for me with Firefox 37.0.2 on Yosemite 10.10.3 and Java 1.8.0_45.


I want to add a 5TB HD (NTFS) to my time capsule and have access to it from both my Mac and my PC's I want to add a 5TB HD (NTFS) to my time capsule. I have both Mac and PC's and will like to access the drive from both. I can see that the drive is attached in airport utility on my windows pc but I can't access it(probably because of the NTFS partition). I am not seeing anything at all in airport utility on my Mac (probably because it's not in HFS+ format).
I think I can partition the drive into two drives, one NTFS and the other HFS+ but I will only do that if it's my only choice. I would rather have access to everything from both Mac and PC............

HELP!!!

Here is a link to Apple's instructions on how to mount the drives on both sides if they don't seem to show up. How to mount a Time Capsule HD

The only disk formats that the Time Capsules support are HFS (Macs default), FAT16, and FAT32. Supported HD for Time Capsule. Since you have a large HD you cannot use FAT16 as it is made for smaller HD's (<2GB).

If you would like to use Apple's Default (HFS) you will have to install software on the PC in order to write to the drive. Paragon-software has the tools needed to use HFS on windows computers

If you use FAT32 both your windows and Mac will be able to read/write from the HD.


Trouble installing from Remote Disc My MacBook has no optical drive. I have a Mac installation disc mounted and shared on a local Ubuntu machine and can access it, on the MacBook through the Remote Disc device in Finder.

However, the installation package and all sub-packages, have been stripped of the dot in their file names. Hence it is not recognised as an package.

Why is this and how can I install the software?

Thanks

(To share the disc I used openssh-server on Ubuntu and Macfusion on the Mac.)

How about:

On the Ubuntu machine, make a ZIP file of the installation package.
Copy this file across to the Mac, using your existing sharing setup.
Expand it on the Mac and run it.

Edit
The actual solution can be found in the comments below: use sudo mkdir /media/test; sudo mount -t hfsplus /dev/cdrom /media/test to mount the CD on the Ubuntu machine.


In Pages 5, how to get a table to span multiple pages? I have a two-column table in a document in Pages 5. The table starts mid-way down a page with content above it.

When I add rows to the table, if there isn't enough room to fit the entire table on the same page, the entire table jumps to the next page, leaving a big empty gap in the document.

How do I get Pages to instead start the table at the original page, and span the table onto the next page instead?

Looks like it happens because "Prevent widow & orphan lines" option is activated by default.

Select the text where the table is located, in the Inspector panel look for "More" and uncheck "Prevent widow & orphan lines". I had the same problem and found the solution this Apple Support Communities thread.


Create list of Safari bookmarks I want to create a list of my Safari bookmarks (folder, webpage title, and URL) to put into Numbers or a database app. This will help me find duplicates, tell me where a certain bookmark is, and keep from saving bookmarks again and again.

Safari Bookmarks can be exported as an HTML file.  This file can be opened with any text editor and reviewed or even cleaned up with a little HTML know-how.  Then it can be reimported after clean up.  Recommend cleaning up a copy of the original in case you need to revert.

To export:

From the Menu: File > Export Bookmarks...
Choose a location to save the HTML file.
Open in a text editor.  (Drag the file to the text editor's application icon or option+click and choose Open with
Examine the file and make changes.
Reimport using File > Import From > Bookmarks HTML File…

Alternatively, if one just wants to examine in a spreadsheet, Excel for Mac will open HTML files.  Even though the result is easier to read, the data is harder to manipulate unless you understand Hyperlinks.


Can I make FaceTime the default audio- and video-call app when other call apps are installed? I installed Microsoft Teams on my iPhone because I need it for work. But now when I click a Favorite in the Phone app so I can call someone, the default in the list for making an audio call or a video call is Teams. I have to click the tiny drop-down button to select mobile for calls or FaceTime for video calls. Is there a way to move Teams down the list so I can default to regular phone calls and FaceTime for video calls?

Also from any Contact screen, clicking Video to make a video call defaults to Teams at the top of the list.

Not jail-broken. iPhone 8. iOS 13.4.1

Yes, you can make Facetime Default audio video call app on your iPhone by following below mentioned steps:

Tap Apps & Notifications.
Tap Advanced.
Tap Default Apps.
Under Default Apps, you will find 'Phone App' which you can tap to change the default.


Is there a way to combine sound settings on iOS? I have discovered that iOS (5) has two sound settings: "Sound effects" and just "sound" with no title. Due to this I often have sound effects muted but not other app sounds, and it's not easy to mute/enable one type of sound and not the other.

Is there any way in iOS 5 to change both sound effects and general sounds using only the volume rocker?

I believe the setting you are after is in

Settings -> Sounds  Change with Buttons = On


Is there a way to let Mail always mark the messages coming from a domain as spam? I keep getting emails from a domain, which always use the same email address; every time I mark them as junk in Mail, but Mail keeps showing those email in my inbox.

Is there a way to force Mail to consider those emails as junk? Do those emails contain a header that forces Mail to consider them acceptable messages? As far as I can see, I only have the problem with those emails; other emails that I mark as junk are never shown again in the inbox.

The emails I receive are not in my Google Mail account.

Update: Mail allows to set some custom actions for junk mail. I forgot to say I edited those settings to be as in the following screenshot:

I simply added the last condition to the default ones used by Mail, to avoid messages coming from Drupal.org would be moved to the spam folder (it can happened that I receive messages about spam on Drupal.org, as I am a site maintainer there). As the condition before the one I added is "Message is Junk Mail," and as the spammy address is not in my address book, it not in my previous recipients, and I have already marked the email as junk, I would expect the emails to be marked as spam, always.

In the "Junk Mail" tab, those custom actions are enabled.

Still, even after I changed the settings for junk mail, I am getting those junk messages as if they were normal messages. This means that, having changed the settings didn't help, or make things worse.

Mail.app has a feature called rules that enables you to automate your mail tasks.

You can define rules in the Mail preferences.


How to download OS X El Capitan without Apple hardware I recently purchased a MacBook (Mid-2009), but the hard drive is empty, no OS X and etc. I want to download the Install OS X El Capitan.app and install it, but I don't have any other Mac hardware to do that with. What should I do?

Go to Apple Store and purchase the install disc?
My friend has iMac and ask him if he could download the installer and make the USB Installer?

There is no OS X El Capitan install disk. OS X is distributed through the App Store now.

Yes, ask your friend to create a bootable installer for OS X El Capitan. It should be a fairly straightforward process.

Once you have the drive, hold down the option key while restarting your Mac to boot from the installer USB.


MacBook Pro 13" 2016 - How to set up dual monitors? I own the MacBook Pro 13" 2016 model. It has two thunderport 3 ports on the left side of itself.

I have two Samsung monitors with a HDMI IN on both monitors.

Do I need to buy two Thunderbold 3 to HDMI adapters, to connect both my monitors?

I just tried connecting them with a HDMI Splitter, but it only shows the same content on both monitors. I just found out, that a single HDMI cable can only show content for one monitor or split the same content to two monitors. So that just failed hard.

But the only option is to then have two adapter connected at the same time, to get use of both my monitors...?

EDIT: I've tried to search for similar answers but could not find anything. Also I have a HDMI splitter, which just simply displays the same content on both monitors, so that was little to none help.

I've got on Thunderbolt to HDMI, 2x USB and another Thunderbolt port.

Best solution would be a adapter with one Thunderbolt port but with two HDMI ports.

If you want a single cable solution, have a look at the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station.

You will need to go from DisplayPort to HDMI and then Thunderbolt/USBC to HDMI (another adapter), but you will be able to connect two HDMI monitors ultimately from one (Thunderbolt) USB-C cable from your Mac.

Now, if your Samsung monitor supports Display Port, I would use that interface instead of going to HDMI.  So, I would use a Display Port to Display Port cable and a USB-C to Display Port adapter (instead of HDMI).

There's a really good review of it on YouTube


Is there a way to have Siri make a web call? I can use the Google Assistant app to make a web hook call to IFTTT.  It’s just a simple URL.  This calls IFTTT with the hashcode at the end to authenticate.  This then runs a recipe which tells my pinhole ad-blocker to shut off for 2 minutes.

http:example.com:1969/admin/api.php?disable=120&auth=abc123

I’d like to say, Siri, shut your pie hole which calls that URL.

Is this possible? Unfortunately Google Assistant doesn’t run in the background or I would just use that.  Can Siri open a favorite link in Safari?

This can now be done with the Shortcuts app. All you need to do is create a shortcut that runs the “Open URLs” action. Inside this action, you need to put the URL you want to open when run. When you have finished, name the shortcut the command that you want to tell Siri to run it.


How can I draw freehand circles on screenshots? In Windows I can happily fire up MS Paint and draw freehand circles with the brush tool on top of my screenshots.

In OS X if I open up a screenshot with Preview and use the pen-looking thing and draw a freehand circle, it's automatically converted into a soulless oval. I also can't draw squiggly arrows or poorly scrawled text.

Short of launching Photoshop (or whatever non-default app), is there a baked-in way to draw freehand circles in OS X?

But you can draw freehand circles in Preview, just select the shape you want to use in the upper left corner after you draw the shape. If you don't see the controls as below, go to View → Show Markup Toolbar


Change app name without uploading new binary? Am I able to change my app name shown in App Store without uploading new binary and going though the whole submission process?

In order to change your app's name, you have to create a new version. There is no other possibility.


iPhone Safari: Clearing the cache does not seem to be enough I'm developing a mobile website and am using an iPhone for testing it. One of the .jpgs used was faulty and displayed as a black rectangle in the iPhone's Safari browser. The code was then changed and there is now a .png image instead.
For some reason even after clearing Safaris cache that image is still black, and I need a new phone that has never visited the website before in order to display it correctly.

Why is that happening and how can I fix it?

Sounds like an iPhone bug/feature where it will cache some images (and not clear them properly).

The fix seems to be to put a random number in a query string after the images on your site.

eg  picture1.png?2011242424

Some web frameworks will do this automatically (eg rails). Otherwise you could do this on just the affected image and see if it fixes it.


Cannot join WIFI, previously no problem My Macbook runs El Capitan, 11.5. This morning, it failed to connect to my home network - which has been working for years. I'm now getting the

  Cannot join wifi network X “please move closer”

message. My other devices still connect. I have tried from this question to connect manually and it chucks the following error:

  com.apple.wifi.apple80211API.error error -3905

I have also:

deleted my network preferences etc
reset PRAM
reset SMC
changed modem channel

Tethering to my phone still works, but that's not through WIFI. Any suggestions?

You can change the channel of your router, maybe it is the problem with it.
Another possibility is that a Firewall is preventing this. Go to System Prederences-Privacy and Security and then find the Firewall option. Check if it is turned on or off. Change it to either way and check if you can connect now.
Additionally, you can go to Keychain Access app and try to remove everything related to the router such as its password or ... But be careful and don't remove important passwords.
You can also use the built in diagnoser, which is in System Preferences- Network-Assist Me. See what it suggests. It usually says that you'd better turn your router off for a minute and turn it on again.
You actually have to play (!) with three files in your System Configuration, which the link below explains how.

This discussion in Apple Discussions is also noteworthy : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6354581?tstart=0


Can you add blank space to a photo in Mac Preview? I would like to add a title above or below a photo that is open in Preview.  I know how to annotate the photo that writes over the photo.  I want to add a new blank area where I can put the annotation.

A simplified method that works just as well:

Open your picture in Preview.
⌘ command + A and then ⌘ command + C to copy it to the clipboard.
Go to Tools > Adjust Size... and enlarge the image to the overall size you want for the canvas. (I would make it bigger than you need as it is easy to crop at the end.)
⌘ command + A and then delete to remove the enlarged image
⌘ command + V to paste back the original, smaller image onto the enlarged canvas.
Choose Convert when asked to "Convert this document to PNG" (as you can always convert back to JPG later).


Cannot install Ubuntu One - nowhere to drag to? I am trying to install Ubuntu One on Mountain Lion. I follow the instructions here but when I open the DMG file, I can see nowhere obvious to drag it to as below:

I can run it fine by double clicking, but then I cannot unmount the DMG and Ubuntu One doesn't open when I restart, so it's not really properly installed. Any ideas? (maybe this is a noob question, I'm new to OSX)
Thanks!

You can just drag the application to your Applications folder. Open Finder and navigate to /Applications and drag and release the icon there.


iPad apps suddenly non functional I play Criminal Case on my iPad and was asked to join  a criminal case group. I clicked "yes" on the invitation and now I cannot access anything on my iPad.

If I click on any App,  it will open up and then immediately shut down.

Any suggestions as to how to fix?

I'd take a closer look at the link you used to join the group just to see if it looks normal.

In the meantime I'd restart the iPad and then see if the apps work. If not you may have to backup and restore your iPad. I'm sure that (if necessary) should help clean up that issue. If not, you'll have to go back to factory settings.


Left Shift/Control/Option keys don't work Yesterday the shift stopped working most of the time (it works 1/100) suddenly (did not spill anything), and the weird thing is that today the Control & Option keys joined the party — they stopped working (only left keys).

It's a MacBook Pro "Core i7" 2.2 15" Mid-2015 (IG) (MJLQ2LL/A).

I have tried the keys in my Windows VMWare and they don't work. In keyboard viewer in Mac they are not highlighted when tapped.

How to know for sure if this is a hardware issue (with keyboard or elsewhere too) and how can I fix the problem?

Update: External bluetooth works fine

Try resetting the NVRAM on your Mac using this guide - https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204063

If those keys do not work even after the NVRAM reset, then you will have to consult with a repair shop or go to the Apple Store and ask to get your keyboard fixed or replaced.


How can I connect multiple wireless headphones to the same iPhone at the same time? I like to listen to audio files on my iPhone 6 while jogging outdoors.
My girlfriend wants to join me (jog with me and have her own headphones listening to the same audio).
How can we both pair our wireless headphones to my iPhone simultaneously so that we're listening to exactly the same thing?
(And these audio files are not available in some shared location like Spotify.)
(Also, we own a headphone splitter, but using wired headphones is inconvenient since cords make running difficult.)

There is another "workaround" that DOESN'T involve Bluetooth. I often train multiple students students for 5K's, 10K's, etc. Since I train multiple students at a time and often use 1-hr long DJ mixes to set paces for everyone, I connect my iPhone to an FM broadcast device (usually limited from a 30-100 feet range). I additionally, I encourage trainees to use wireless devices such as nano shuffles, etc. that can pick up radio FM frequencies. There's no pesky Bluetooth "pairing" compatibility issues and anybody can join in by simply tuning in to my FM frequency; even those with nothing more than a simple portable radio/MP3 player. Although these devices were originally intended for tuning into your car radio, I've found they work just as well as for other mobile devices that can receive radio FM frequencies. They're not that expensive, either.

Link


Flickering horizontal line when I click on Reading List link Something strange going on with my iMac; it's hard to describe.

When I click on any link on my Reading List sidebar, for a split second there is a flickering line which goes across the screen. When I say line, what I mean is, a faint copy of the link below flickers for a split second horizontally across part of the screen.

It only happens on Safari (11.1). No other app, so it must be a problem with Safari only. I have macOS 10.13.4 installed. I have tried resetting Safari, resetting SMC and NVRAM and even deleting the plist file from my Library folder and repairing my disk in Disk Utility......

A short video showing my problem can be viewed here, about 2 seconds into the video......

Youtube

Anybody have this and found a solution?

It's more of an annoyance (bug) in Safari than an actual problem because it doesn't cause anything to fail.  It's also definitely not something that can be fixed by resetting NVRAM, the SMC or performing First Aid on your disk(s).

What you are seeing is a dialog box that pops up; usually when you are hovering over a link.  I extracted the frame from your YouTube video clip to see what was being shown and it appears to be the link below the one you have selected.

As you have already said, the problem only manifests in Safari.  Your best course of action would be to provide feedback to Apple so that they can address the issue/bug.  Provide them with a link to this question/answer so they get the full picture (no pun intended).

Bottom line:  It's nothing more than a box with a document title/link in it and it only appears for less than a split second.  Annoying?  Perhaps.  Problematic?  Not so much.


Where is downloaded adobe file stored before its extracted and installed? When downloading a trial product from adobe through the creative cloud manager, where is the compressed install file temporarily stored before its extracted and installed?

Check the /Library/Application Support/Adobe and ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe folders. The installers and updaters are downloaded as .dmg files. You might also find them listed in Disk Utility in the Sources pane.


What version of OpenSSH is included with macOS Catalina (10.15) beta? I'm interested to know which version of OpenSSH ships today on Catalina beta

Can someone running the beta version of Catalina run the following command in Terminal for me and provide the output?

/usr/bin/ssh -V

For macOS 10.14 the output is OpenSSH_7.9p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3

So I'm after the output in macOS Catalina beta.

Lastest macOS Catalina Beta shows the identical version to the current Mojave ssh

$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.15
BuildVersion:   19A536g
$ /usr/bin/ssh -V
OpenSSH_7.9p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3


Cutoff to prevent overcharging Where is the cutoff for overcharge protection in the iPhone 6? Is it in the charger or in the actual unit? I purchased a wireless charger adapter and pad for my phone and want to know if it is safe to leave overnight. once the electricity reaches the adapter it has no where to go.. if it were connected it would go back into the wire right? So is this wireless charging safe?

Your terminology is slightly off. The "charger" is actually a chip INSIDE the phone that manages everything about the way your phone is charged, including overcharge protection, thermal protections, and much more. The power adapters are just that: power adapters. They're used for providing DC power to the charger within the phone.

I'm honestly not sure how any kind of 3rd party wireless charging solution works.


What is the difference between Full Disk Access and Files & Folders access in Catalina? From security preferences pane we see below info:

What is restricted internally for each of these?

  Files and Folders access: Allow the apps below to access files and folders.

  Full Disk access: Allow the apps below to access data like Mail, Messages, Safari, Home, Time Machine backups and certain administrative settings for all users on this Mac.

Full Disk Access feature is much like a security check at an airport. When you grant “Full Disk Access” to an app it is added to the whitelist of applications that are now marked as safe to work with your data. At the same time, all other applications will be greeted with “You Shall Not Pass.” The protected areas that require Full Disk Access permission are your Mail, Messages, Safari, Home, Time Machine.

According to Apple: “So if your app attempts to access any data that is part of one of the protected categories the system will automatically terminate it.” And by “terminate” Apple really means a forced crash.

In the other hand regarding Files and Folders,

In macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple has further extended the number and range of User prompt that can be generated when code attempts to access certain locations and functions.

In order to prevent attackers enabling FileVault with a secret key via fdesetup, a possible avenue for a ransomware attack, Apple has introduced a new prompt that requires user approval before FileVault can be used to encrypt the drive programmatically.

Programmatic access to user’s Desktop and Documents folders will now also require user approval, as will access to the Downloads folder, iCloud, mounted volumes and cloud storage folders like Dropbox, OneDrive and similar. As on Mojave, the list of approved apps can be viewed and managed in the System Preferences Privacy pane.

The prompt takes the form of a message “SomeApp would like to access files in your Desktop folder” with “Don’t Allow” and “OK” as the options; there is no password required for this approval.

In brief:

Apps on the Mac will need permission - asked once, when first needed - to access files in your Documents or Desktop folder, in iCloud Drive, and on any external volume connected to your Mac. You'll also be prompted when any app can capture your keystrokes or take a screenshot or video of your screen.

macOS will run in its own private, read-only volume, so there will be no way for malicious apps to write files to the volume or alter existing files, or no way for you to accidentally delete key files. The installation of macOS Catalina creates two volumes, one with the operating system, and another with data, segregating the two types of files.

Apple is doubling down on security and privacy, and this is an impressive list of new features. We'll keep you posted as more information about these key features becomes available.


Reverse tethering of Android device to OSX over WIFI or HOW TO Find OSX wifi sharing on an android device

I have setup a mac mini (Mountain Lion) with internet sharing to devices using WIFI. My iPhone and iPod both see and can use the connection but none of the Android (Samsung, Nexus 4) can see it.

Any hints as to how I can share the mac mini's internet access with an Android device?

UPDATE getting the terminology right seemed to help my search.
Instead of searching on WIFI Android, searching on Ad-Hoc nerwork android gave me

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1718053

which I will try tomorrow - however I assume this only works if the network is visible

  Step 2 : Configuring the android device :

  Now, we will configure the android device to make it able to access this new adhoc network

Go to setting on the menu of your device
then wireless and networks then wi-fi settings then activate wi-fi .
Right click and choose advanced .
Check the "Use static IP"and fill in :
ip address: 192.168.137.5 (for example)
Gateway : 192.168.137.1
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
DNS 1: 192.168.137.1
DNS 2 : 172.168.137.1
then right click and save.

  Finally, click on the adhoc network (and input password if you use WEP security) then connect.
      And that's all ...enjoy internet with Google Play download supported...
      If you encounter problems connecting ,try to disable then to reactivate wifi, else reboot your android device.

My only experience with this issue was never resolved as Android at the time did not support ad-hoc networks.  According to this article, you may need to use 3rd-party software.


Song cannot be played on this iPhone I have recently added a number of songs to my iTunes playlist (all mp3s). When syncing them over to my iPhone I get an error saying that 'X track cannot be played on this iPhone'.

What could be the reason for this? The file isn't from the iTunes store so I don't think DRM on the track.

What could be the issue?

I had this issue this morning. I had to force quit iTunes, unplug my iPhone, reboot it, then reconnect it and sync the playlists that wouldn't sync earlier. It seemed to work, as I now have those playlists. I think iTunes experienced a technical issue somehow with its encoding process.


Does Time Machine restore whole system? I've never used Time Machine before and I pretty much know how backups work but I'm wondering if my system will work out of the box once restored from Time Machine backup?

I mean I have tons of stuff on my Mac and configuring it all once something goes wrong will take me days. I'm talking about my whole programming environment including multiple Docker images, databases, hundreds of npm packages, custom system files (like "hosts"), hundreds of Applications with custom settings, some games etc.

If I decide to backup EVERYTHING and things go south can I just grab a brand new MacBook, connect my external hard drive with TM backup and it will import EVERYTHING meaning it will work just like my system before crash?

BTW I'm using a standard external HDD.

Time Machine by default backs up nearly everything in your macOS partition. It excludes log files, Spotlight indexes, caches, temporary files and trash (have a look: On OS X, what files are excluded by rule from a Time Machine backup?). The backup includes docker files, npm packages, your personal files etc. When the backup is completed, the hard drive will NOT be bootable, meaning that you can't run macOS from your Time machine backup.

You can restore from a Time machine backup without or after installing an operating system. If you restore without installing an operating system:

All the backup will be restored to your disk, including the operating system (for example Yosemite). [NOTE: If the Mac you are restoring to does not support the version of macOS in your TM Backup, it will still not be able to boot from the restore].
It can be done from either Recovery or Installation USB. No internet access is required.
After the backup is restored, everything will be exactly how it was while you were doing the backup.

If you restore after installing an operating system:

Only personal files and the files you select can be restored and will not restore the operating system.
Might not restore packages, system tweaks and files that are stored in directories other than traditional ones (for example "/MyApp/mysourcecode.cs" will not be restored by default).

If you think this contains misinformation, please comment because I never actually restored after an operating system installation.


How can I monitor network in OS X? I met a problem recently.

Sometimes the Google shows me a page says that my computer is sending frequent requests to Google so that I must enter the number in the picture to continue to use Google's services.

Obviously, I would not do such thing.

The applications installed in my Mac are all from trusted sources(e.g. official websites).

I have no idea 'who' is doing such thing.

How can I monitor the network to find out the 'worngdoer'.

Try typing netstat in terminal.app
First I would type man netstat to get a better understanding of how it works and what it is capable of and what the results mean.

Try searching a tutorial about the command on stackexchange or youtube.


Check FTP status using AppleScript I have an AppleScript Automator application that, when double-clicked, opens FTP and displays an alert confirming the same. It is working perfectly as expected. However, I am looking to make it a tad more intuitive so that it opens FTP ONLY if FTP isn't already open. If FTP is already open on my system, the app should close it.

So, basically I want to use the app as a toggle switch which opens or closes FTP depending on its prevailing status. The code I am currently using to open FTP and display the alert is as follows:

set ipaddr to IPv4 address of (get system info)
set sun to short user name of (get system info)
do shell script "sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist" with administrator privileges
tell application "Finder" to display alert "FTP Launched and ready for file-transfer" & character id 8233 & character id 8233 & "User Name: " & sun & character id 8233 & "IP address: " & ipaddr

Can anyone please point me in the right direction? Is there any system variable that can be used to retrieve the FTP status? On Terminal, I could use this:

ftp localhost

And the results would tell me if it's open or closed. But how can I let AppleScript know the same?

Additional info: Output of "ftp localhost" on Terminal

Here's the result of ftp localhost when FTP is closed:

And here's the result when FTP is open:

Here, I just hit return without any input and then it gives this:

This works as a shell test, if you replace  with your target.

echo "QUIT" | telnet <host> ftp 2>&1 | grep  "Escape character is" > /dev/null

We're using hardly any complex tools, we just send a command to the server that makes it close our connection. If this works, the ftp-server is up and running. If we couldn't connect at all, this line returns 1, else it returns 0.

Digested to an AppleScript it's something like

set hostn to <host>
try
    do shell script "echo \"QUIT\" | telnet " & hostn & " ftp 2>&1 | grep  \"Escape character is\" > /dev/null"
    display dialog "Online."
on error
    display dialog "Not online."
end try


What is storagekitd? I'm actually surprised I'm asking this as I would've thought there'd be something online regarding what this process is. I apologize if I didn't search hard enough...
I'm curious to know what exactly storagekitd is and why it might be taking up so much of my memory! I'm on an M1 Mac mini with 8 GB of RAM

I don't have deeper knowledge why this might take up so much RAM but this is what I found. You could also try to find out more about the process by clicking the info button in the menu bar. Do you see any connections to a certain program you are running?
Here they describe it as a part of the Disk Utility Program.

Open Disk Utility in Sierra or later (possibly El Capitan and earlier too), and watch in Activity Monitor for the appearance of storagekitd. This is the StorageKit daemon which runs as root and performs most of the work for Disk Utility. One reason that Apple has adopted this level of complexity is that many of the actions which Disk Utility has to perform require root privileges. Disk Utility runs in userland: in Activity Monitor, its user is you. To give it secure access to actions requiring root privileges, storagekitd is a helper, running as root.

On this website it is described as:

storagekitd is used by the StorageKit framework for disk state keeping and privileged operations. It is used by various clients in macOS. It
is not meant to be invoked directly.

Maybe this helps to find out why it is taking up so much of the RAM. Do you have anything running that might be connected to disk utility?


Any way to edit and/or add autocorrect entries? Perhaps a silly question: But let's say I have a word that I love to misspell. Okay, maybe not exactly. But maybe Lion has a problem with ReiserFS and keeps:

Suggesting something else (autocorrect).
Marks it as incorrect.

Is there anyway to:

Stop Lion from suggesting something else for ReiserFS. (I still want to keep autocorrect on!)
Add this word to the dictionary so that it's no longer marked as misspelled.

Cheers!


How to transfer iMessages to the computer for archival? My iPhone storage space is almost all used up, mostly because of my messages. I don't want to just delete all my conversations.

Is there a way I can transfer my messages onto my PC?

You can create a PDF archive of your messages on your iOS device using PhoneView:

  Export messages as beautiful PDF files. PhoneView also automatically backs up your messages whenever your iPhone is connected.


Error starting apache httpd-2.4.4 configured with mod_jk I'm trying to configure mod_jk with httpd-2.4.4 and getting the below error when starting apache.

httpd: Syntax error on line 500 of /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf:
Syntax error on line 2 of /usr/local/apache/conf/other/httpd-mine.conf:
    Cannot load /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_jk.so into server:
        dlopen(/usr/libexec/apache2/mod_jk.so, 10):
    Symbol not found:
        _ap_log_error\n  Referenced from: /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_jk.so
        Expected in: flat namespace\n in /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_jk.so

How can I fix this?

I'm on OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

I compiled httpd and mod_jk from the source and both the build went fine.

Here's how I built and the conf info.:

# compile instructions for httpd
# apr, apr-util in srclib/
httpd-2.4.4$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --with-included-apr --with-  pcre=/usr/local
httpd-2.4.4$ make
httpd-2.4.4$ sudo make install

# compile instructions for mod_jk
tomcat-connectors-1.2.37-src$ cd native
native$ ./configure CFLAGS='-arch x86_64' APXSLDFLAGS='-arch x86_64' --with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs
native$ make
native$ sudo make install

#Content of /usr/local/apache/conf/other/httpd-mine.conf
NameVirtualHost *:80
LoadModule jk_module /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_jk.so

Found the problem. I was pointing to the wrong apxs version (httpd-2.2) while configuring the mod_jk build.

native$ ./configure CFLAGS='-arch x86_64' APXSLDFLAGS='-arch x86_64' --with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs

After compiling mod_jk with the right apxs file, httpd started without any issues.

native$ ./configure CFLAGS='-arch x86_64' APXSLDFLAGS='-arch x86_64' --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs


Create Yosemite install disk on a Windows machine I have a 2009 Mac with a new blank SSD. I have a Snow Leopard install disk but it doesn't work (it was a replacement installer disk and has never worked), so I don't have a working OS X install.

I do have a Windows 7 machine.

How should I go about installing Yosemite? All instructions I can find require OS X at some point in the process. I can't even download it from the store unless I'm on a mac.

It is not possible without access to an OSX machine. If you have the old disk from your Mac it might have the recovery partition on it. If you can put it back in, boot while holding down command-R. You can put the SSD in an external enclosure and use the recovery partition to install Yosemite on to it.

Maybe if you go to an Apple Store and ask nicely they will let you install Yosemite onto the SSD? Or at least get the installer onto a USB stick.


Terminal command to quit Google's "Backup and Sync"? Is there a terminal command I can use to quit Google's "Backup and Sync" software?  I am writing a Bash script to set the machine up for maximum battery life and I would like to shutdown all non-essential software that I usually have running in the background such as Backup and Sync.  I tried the usual suspects (osascript -e 'tell app "Backup and Sync from Google" to quit' AND killall 'Backup and Sync from Google') without success.

Weird, just tried killall "Backup and Sync from Google" and it failed.

Try killall Backup\ and\ Sync, that worked for me for some reason. Adding \ from seems to break things.


Is there a quick way to lock my Mac? On Windows you can hit the keys Windows+L to lock your computer if you step away.

I don't want to have to remember if sleep currently asks for a password, if there is a time out where my screen isn't locked during a short period. Even with Lion supporting resume of many apps, I don't want to log out.

I do want to be sure data is secure when stepping out for lunch or a smoke break.

On macOS High Sierra, there is a standard key sequence and Apple menu item to lock your screen.

Control-Command-Q or ^+⌘+Q

For older OS, ⇧+⌃+⏏ puts the display (only the display, not the whole computer) to sleep and will then prompt you for a password if you have enabled Require password [amount of time] after sleep or screen saver begins under System Preferences > Security.

If your Mac does not have an ⏏ (eject) key, you can use ⇧+⌃+⌽ (power).


Is it Possible to RDP into a BootCamp Image running Windows 8.1? I have forwarded a port on my router to my Mac mini OS X server which is running OS X and Windows 8.1 in Bootcamp.  Can I remote into the BootCamp image using remote desktop or VNC?  If so, what settings must be changed to accomplish this?

I use RDC all the time and I know a few things about it. I have a similar setup as you, Apple based server but with a windows 8 partition. I RDC into the partition from another Mac and it all works fine. Here are a couple links that should help you with the setup on your Windows. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/remote-desktop-connection-faq#1TC=windows-7 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKUcU4KBb8s. This should help you get up and running. The setup I have on the Mac is the Domain is the internal IP that you will get from your Windows and obviously the Username and password... are the username and password to your Windows. Hope I haven't been too blunt, but feel free to ask for help.

Nick


Using an iMac as a monitor for a mac mini I currently have an old 21 inch iMac that won't run Lion because it doesn't have a 64 bit chip. Other than that it works absolutely fine. I am however a part time developer and so I really need to make sure I have a machine that runs Lion for testing as a minimum.

Looking at new Mac minis they seem ideal to solve this problem being relatively low priced and able to do a few other things I'd find useful. My question is if I just get a new mac mini, could I somehow use the existing iMac as a monitor for it by using for instance screen sharing software. If I do then what will the performance of the screen be, I'd only really like to look  at this if the screen sharing looks the same as if I had connected a monitor directly to the mac mini.

You could use the iMac to remotely connect to the mac mini over the network with apples remote desktop software. If you have a gigabit wired network between them then performance would probably be good enough to be usable for most tasks except 3d gaming or hd video I'd say. You cannot directly attach the iMac as an external display using a video cable however. Also, remote desktop access over wifi would probably not be ideal for everyday use

To actually perform this, just do the following:

In Finder, click the 'Go' menu option and then 'Connect to Server'
type in vnc://mac-name.local:5900/ or vnc://mac-ip-address:5900/

This will connect the two computers and you sign in with the credentials of the account on the remote Mac


How to tell if certain pre-2015 app is 64 bit? As there are quite some rumors, about iOS 11 dropping support for 32 bit apps, I need to know, how to tell if an app is 64-bit. I know, that if it was published after february 2015, or if it was updated after june 2015, it has to have 64-bit support. But the app in question - IPELA Communication Mobile by Sony Corporation - was last updated on June 10th 2015. How can i be absolutely sure, that - just in case the rumors come true - I can still use it?

The easy way for me is to install the app on iOS 10.3 (or later) device.

Then open the settings app.

tap general
tap About
tap Applications

iOS will report on the possibility to update all 32 bit apps you have installed on the device by letting you tap to each entry in the App Store where the developer web site is another tap away.


Change space with mouse wheel + modifiers I hate that I have to use both hands on my keyboard to change spaces (one for control, one for arrow keys). A much more practical shortcut would be, for example, control + mouse wheel. However I don't know if it's possible to do so. I'm using 10.10 Yosemite.

I'm also open to third-party software.

If you use the Apple Magic Mouse you can change between spaces by "Swipe left or right with two fingers".

You should check if you have active this option on System Preferences → Mouse → More Gestures.

Additionally, if you want to change it with only one hand, you could change the shortcut for "Move left a space" and "Move right a space" under System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Mission Control to something easily usable with a single hand like ⇧+ctrl+z and ⇧+ctrl+x


iPad deleted all my books from Books app without asking me A few days ago I was making a video with my iPad Air 2 camera. A pop-up alerted me that the 32GB memory was almost full, inviting me with a pop-up "Manage your space" or like this in Italian "Gestisci Spazio". I clicked the pop-up and was asked me if I would delete apps that I don't use so often. I accepted and Ipad deleted some apps. OK I said.
The day after I realized that the Books app was without my 80 books previously present! Ipad had deleted all my books whithout asking me! Very frustrating :-( . All my books (most of them pdf) had been downloaded from safari or emails so not from the apple store. A learned that the backup doesn't include pdf from Books, so a cannot restore an old backup I done in October 2020. I didn't have activated the iCloud Books switch in iCloud menu under settings, so not recovery is possible.
I already asked apple support without help at all. I read that I'm not alone with this big big bug.

Steve Jobs wanted to give his product usable and user-friendly. I think as developer and user that for iOS the combination of Itunes, Icloud and Icloud drive with all your stupid and strange sync, limitations and stupid and illogic combinations between them changing each year (Itunes doens't allow to save your book distinctly, the icloud backup some time ago saving the pdf inside ibooks app, now not anymore, but they (pdf) can be saved in icloud drive, the photo are sync in icloud but not in the backup,.. and so on..) promoted that ecosystem to be the worst and less usable implementation I could see today. Jobs said that Microsoft doesn't have taste, I think that iOS after 14 versions is also worst than MS Windows 95. I'm on the field and I'm very confused and scared to deal with an Ipad for important things, except to navigate with safari. My teams never would have designed a so painful and not usable system, complicated also for a developer. It canceled my data, but other than that I procrastinate thinking I have to find a way to save my pdf from the IPad to a PC, to save my photo etc. stupid things allowed by a 100€ phone. I have to send and email at my address to add a book to my library :-)! Read the hundreds of messages on apple community how they lost important data after the stupid connection with Itunes, that decides for itself to restore the data it decided and rewrite yours in the device. At the end of the day all that mess just to sell some extra space in icloud. Let me to pay much your device, but at least allow me to use it and manage my data. Painful!


New File Action in Finder Why finder doesn't have 'New File', but 'New Folder'?
Is there any way/tool for having 'New File' in Finder?

ADDED

Pathfinder provides the feature of making 'New File'. I need this function in Finder.

The idea in OS X is, that you open an Application and create the file while you are working. This simply because creating the file beforehand is kind of awkward:

  Create file > open file > edit

Of course if you just need dummy files, then you can make those from Terminal.app, but I'd be careful with that if you are not used to it already.

The command is: touch filename


1920x1080 resolution for MBP 13" 2015 Retina - Different settings from attached monitor I am using Retina Display Menu (RDM) to give me a higher resolution for my MBP, and the sweet spot that I have found is 1920x1080.

However I get 2 different display options for this resolution depending on the monitor I am connected to
- Acer V243HQ (regular) resolution
- Samsung U28E590D 28-Inch

However with the Samsung I get the attached where the resolution has a lighting bolt which actually shows the text well rendered

My question is why does this happen only with specific monitors, and how can I get this even without having to plug my external monitor

UPDATE 1: Could it be that the Samsung has 4K support? could it be related to that?

The lighting bolt icon indicates that it is a Retina (HiDPI) resolution.

Essentially when you're picking 1920x1080, a 1920x1080 resolution signal is generated and sent to the monitor. This is supported by both monitors.

When you pick 1920x1080 Lightning, in actual fact a 3840 x 2160 resolution signal is generated and sent to the monitor. This consists of the ordinary image, you're used to see - but magnified with a factor of 4 so it looks like 1920x1080 in physical size when rendered.

One of the notable exceptions is though that the text is actually rendered in the higher resolution with a higer font size, so it has the same physical size, but is "prettier" (i.e. less blurry/jagged).

You only get the Lightning choice with the Samsung monitor as it is the only of the two that supports a 4k (3840 x 2160) resolution.


Add specific media types to iTunes without copying them to the iTunes Media Folder? I have some media that I'd like to stream to my AppleTV that's quite transient. I don't need it in my iTunes Media Folder proper for more than one viewing of the media. Is it possible to have iTunes not copy specific media types to the iTunes Media Folder when I import it in to iTunes? In this case, I'd rather iTunes didn't copy and automatically organize video media when I import it. But I'm okay if it copies and automatically organizes audio media when I import it.

Hold down option whilst dragging into the ITunes window to add to the library, without it also being copied into ITunes fodler


Issue with deleting user account I want to delete a user account before selling my machine, so I chose the secure delete account option in System Preferences > Users & Groups. I think I saw a progress bar at first as it was deleting the account.

I've come back to the machine after a few hours. There is no progress bar. System Preferences is open and if I try to quit, it says "Users & groups is removing a user account and home directory". In grey writing, it says "Deleting Account..." under the user name. In Activity Monitor I can see that 'writeconfig' is using 10+% of the CPU, followed by 'opendirectoryd' and 'mds'.

Is it doing anything? How long is it supposed to take? It's been 6 hours already.

To add on to the existing answers and offer a different solution, you can securely erase the drive instead of just one user account.

If you want to sell your machine but also include installed software, there is a better way to set this up that will ensure none of your personal data is on the machine, as well as provide a better box opening experience for your buyer.

I would suggest doing a secure erase of your hard disk first.
Then, reinstall your OS.
Configure a dummy user account named "test" or "admin" or something generic
Install the software you want to include
Restart your machine in Single User mode
Very carefully, do the following:

  mount -uw / (This mounts the root volume so you can make changes to it.

  rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone  (This removes the flag that tells Setup
  Assistant that it's done)

  rm /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/"shortname".plist (Replace "shortname" with the user account name you set up before. This removes the user plist)

  rm -rf /Users/shortname  (Replace "shortname" with the user account name you set up before. This removes the User directory)

  rm -rf /Library/Preferences  (This resets preferences)

  shutdown -r now  (This restarts the computer)

Verify that your machine starts up to the Setup Assistant and you're done. That way, your buyer can start up the machine to the Setup Assistant and still retain the software you want to provide them with.

Good luck.


Is it possible to maintain Chrome's ⌘-shortcut for background tab, while using AppleScript to automate the creation of a new tab? I have a custom system Service on my Mac, entitled Google Search, that places the selected text within a defined URL and then opens the URL in a new tab (adjacent to the current tab) in Google Chrome.

My Service receives selected text in any application. The Service is exclusively triggered via the right-click context menu for selected text, systemwide and in all applications. No third-party app or keyboard shortcut is involved.

By default, whenever one clicks on a link that opens a new tab in Chrome while holding ⌘ command, the current tab in Chrome does not change. The new tab is opened to the right of and immediately adjacent to the current tab, but the new tab is not made the active tab.

I would like the ⌘ command key to have the same effect when I run my Service. So that:

if <the command key is being pressed when the Service is triggered> then
    Open URL in a new, adjacent tab.
    (Do not change the active tab.)
else
    Open URL in a new, adjacent tab.
    Change the active tab to the new tab.

My Service consists of one "Run AppleScript" action. Here is the full code:

on run {input, parameters}

(*
    When triggering this Service in applications other than Google Chrome, such as TextEdit, the Chrome window opens in the background. This command brings the Chrome window to the foreground:
*)
activate application "Google Chrome"

(*
    Converting the selected text to plain text to remove any formatting:
        From: http://lifehacker.com/127683/clear-text-formatting-on-os-x
*)
set selectedText to input
set selectedText to (selectedText as text)

(*
    Removing any line breaks and indentations in the selected text:
        From: http://stackoverflow.com/a/12546965
*)

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {return & linefeed, return, linefeed, character id 8233, character id 8232}
set plainTextSelectedText to text items of (selectedText as text)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" "}
set plainTextSelectedText to plainTextSelectedText as text

(* Assigning variables: *)
set baseURL to "https://www.google.com/search?q="
set finalLink to baseURL & plainTextSelectedText

(* Opening webpage in Chrome: *)
(*
    The following tell block creates a new tab, located immediately after the currently open tab, which is what I want to occur.
        From: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/271702/applescript-how-to-open-a-link-in-google-chrome-in-a-new-adjacent-tab/271709#271709
*)
tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
end tell

end run

My complaint with the above code is that it sets the current tab to the new tab, even if ⌘ command is held down when the Service initiates.

Is it possible to have the current tab not be changed to the new tab if and only if the user holds down ⌘ command when the Service is run?

I only expect the ⌘ command key functionality to work when the right-click context menu is clicked in Chrome.app. For example, if this Service is triggered from within Preview.app, while it would be nice to still have at my disposal the ability to use the ⌘ command key to not change the active tab of the Chrome window, I understand that this is probably asking for too much.

I understand that AppleScript has no mechanism to check if a key is being pressed mid-script. However, I wonder if there is an alternate method to create a new tab in AppleScript that makes Chrome do all of the listening so that Chrome can respond to ⌘ command as it does naturally.

I think this will do what you're asking. I've modified your original code to see what process is frontmost at the time it's run, in order to branch and test appropriately based on the conditions expressed in your question by use of checkModifierKeys*. to see if the ⌘ command key was pressed when Google Chrome is the frontmost process at the time the service is run. *(I have no affiliation with Charles Poynton’s blog or Stefan Klieme’s checkModifierKeys other than to have been using this program for a few years without issue.)

As coded, it assumes that the checkModifierKeys is located in /usr/local/bin/. Modify as needed.

See the comments in the if theFrontmostProcessWhenRun is "Google Chrome" then block for its logic flow.

    on run {input, parameters}

        --  # Get the name of frontmost process at the time the services was run.
        --  #
        --  # This is used later in an if statement block for when if Google Chrome was frontmost process when run
        --  # to check that the value returned from checkModifierKeys was for the command key being pressed.

        tell application "System Events"
            set theFrontmostProcessWhenRun to get name of process 1 where frontmost is true
        end tell

        (*
    When triggering this Service in applications other than Google Chrome, such as TextEdit, the Chrome window opens in the background. This command brings the Chrome window to the foreground:
*)
        activate application "Google Chrome"

        (*
    Converting the selected text to plain text to remove any formatting:
        From: http://lifehacker.com/127683/clear-text-formatting-on-os-x
*)
        set selectedText to input
        set selectedText to (selectedText as text)

        (*
    Removing any line breaks and indentations in the selected text:
        From: http://stackoverflow.com/a/12546965
*)

        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {return & linefeed, return, linefeed, character id 8233, character id 8232}
        set plainTextSelectedText to text items of (selectedText as text)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" "}
        set plainTextSelectedText to plainTextSelectedText as text

        (* Assigning variables: *)
        set baseURL to "https://www.google.com/search?q="
        set finalLink to baseURL & plainTextSelectedText

        (* Opening webpage in Chrome: *)
        (*
    The following tell block creates a new tab, located immediately after the currently open tab, which is what I want to occur.
        From: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/271702/applescript-how-to-open-a-link-in-google-chrome-in-a-new-adjacent-tab/271709#271709
*)

        if theFrontmostProcessWhenRun is "Google Chrome" then
            --  # Google Chrome was the frontmost process when the service was run.
            if ((do shell script "/usr/local/bin/checkModifierKeys") as integer) is equal to 256 then
                --  # The command key was pressed when the service was run.
                tell application "Google Chrome"
                    --  # See Note: below.
                    set activeTab to active tab index of front window
                    tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
                    set active tab index of front window to activeTab
                end tell
            else
                tell application "Google Chrome"
                    tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
                end tell
            end if
        else
            --  # Google Chrome was not the frontmost process when the service was run.
            tell application "Google Chrome"
                tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
            end tell
        end if

    end run

Note: When Google Chrome is frontmost at the time the service is run and the ⌘ command key is pressed, this gets the current active tab index and sets it back to it after making the new tab. This is intended as a workaround as it's a bit kludgy, but better then nothing until a more elegant solution to a problem can be found.


Can reminders have a custom location? Is it possible to move the location pin in the Reminders app, or otherwise set a custom location?  I want to set a reminder at a place with no address.

(This is on an iPhone 7, so 3D Touch is available.)

Introduction
The iOS Reminder application does not allow for free moving of the locator pin. The best you can get is entering the address of where to place it (logically), as most people want to be reminded when arriving at or leaving a pre-known location.

Potential Alternatives

While it is not possible to move the pin around on the map, you may
find that you can physically get to the location ahead of time and
use the Remind at Current Location option to set future reminders.
Obviously, this depends on the distance between you and that
location, but if you use it frequently, you set up correctly once
don't worry about it again. This should be made easier with the next idea.
I would recommend that you use an app like Maps to get the exact
location that you require and extract the address from it. If it is
a public space or company, this is often enough of a locational
marker to import straight into the Reminders app. This would be my
go to method.

Conclusion
The native Reminders app does not allow you to move the locator pin but perhaps 3rd party apps do, however this is beyond the scope of your question. If you are looking for more ways to use the Reminders app for location-based reminders, take a look at this article from Apple.
I would be interested to know how you made out. Let me know.


How to update packages installed via Homebrew? I've installed packages in my macOS using Homebrew, and installed GUI apps using Homebrew Cask.

How could I update my extensions and packages?

To have your packages and apps you just need to run these commands in your terminal:

brew update && brew upgrade && brew cask upgrade


What is Firmware.scap in the /EFI partition? I'm looking at the /EFI partition, and it has 2 .scap file.

/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP112_0138_B18_LOCKED.scap

and

/EFI/APPLE/EXTENSIONS/Firmware.scap

They both have 2 files with GUID's that are present in the other, however the contents of each are different.

The file with the GUID C3E36D09-8294-4B97-A857-D5288FE33E28 in /EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP112_0138_B18_LOCKED.scap contains the text $IBIOS$  MBP112 88Z 0138 B18 1610201654 Copyright (c) 2005-2016 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

However the file with the GUID C3E36D09-8294-4B97-A857-D5288FE33E28 in /EFI/APPLE/EXTENSIONS/Firmware.scap contains the text N $IBIOS$ ROMEXT1 88Z 0002 B00 0710231738

What is the Firmware.scap file, and how come when I delete it, nothing changes except that it boots faster?

I suspect the second file is a security update. The 1st one most certainly is a no-fly zone.
Has to do with firmware I think.

However, never ever mess with your (U)EFI partition, or you may have a very expensive Apple doorstop on your hands...

Well, my own EFI partition is mounted here. You can mess around with it all you like on an external bootable USB stick.

I'm doing this just to see if I'm able to run an unallowed version of OSX on a very old, already scrapped Mac Mini.

OS bootloader seems to depend on (U)EFI, namely...
Revive a broken bootloader/ EFI partition, and you may do wonders. I think.

Just look at this:
http://xpcboot.weebly.com

Have fun, but don't break a working Mac...


How to transfer audio files directly from Android device to iPhone 5s I have some audio recordings on an Android device that I wish to transfer to my iPhone 5s. I don't get a solution using iTunes.

I have to say that there are a ton of files and i don't want to have copies in the iTunes.

There are various ways this can be accomplished. A simple solution would be use a online file sharing service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Box etc. Simply install the chosen app on your Android device and backup files using chosen service.

This should be straightforward as Android allows file system access in general and there are various 3rd party apps which will allow you to browse the device filesystem.

Once the files are synced (uploaded to the cloud services's server), simply install the iOS counterpart of the same app and access the files. You will not automatically get access to the audio files in your iOS device. However, depending on the container format of the audio files, you may be able to playback them in the cloud service app itself (Dropbox, Google Drive, Box etc.).

However, the most likely case is that you indeed wish to playback the audio files on your iOS device. In that case, it would be advisable to install VLC for Mobile app for iOS and copy over the files using file sharing feature build into iTunes for desktop.

For the aforementioned, you'll need access to a desktop computer. Simply connect your Android device to the computer and copy over the audio files to your computer. Now install iTunes desktop app and connect your iOS device. Make sure you have already installed VLC for Mobile app for iOS. Now select your device within iTunes, select file sharing in the sidebar, click on VLC and drag & drop to copy over the audio files.

This will effectively copy the files into your iOS device. However, the files will be accessible only within VLC for Mobile app. However, it's highly likely that you'll be able to playback them as VLC for Mobile app supports a vast variety of formats.


Unable to eject disk images or drives in High Sierra I am running a MacBook Pro Early 2015 13" on High Sierra 10.13.5, and keep getting the "X disk cannot be ejected because one or more programs might be using it" message, when apparently there is no program using that disk (not even Dropbox, Preview).

It happens sometimes when I try ejecting  an external thunderbolt Drive, and always when ejecting any .sparseimages
I only managed to "solve" this issue and be able to eject the disks by going into Terminal and "respringing" Finder:

killall Finder

However, I find this solution really inconvenient considering how often I use External Drives and disk images.

I would appreciate if anyone knows any other possible cause or solution, or if my solution is better than forcing the disk to eject.

Edit: After checking what processes were running, it seems there are  "cloudd",  "diskimage" and "QuickLookUIService" processes using a video file from the sparsedisk that are preventing me from ejecting the mounted sparseimage.

Thanks

Often when a drive is plugged in Spotlight begins to index the entire drive.  While this is occurring Spotlight is "using" the drive and therefore can't be ejected.

Try adding a Spotlight exception:

System Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy
+
Select your drive
Choose


Is there an OS X dashboard widget for notes from the iPhone Notes app? I'm looking for a Dashboard widget for OS X that allows you to read and edit notes—the pieces of text in iPhone Notes application and Mail.app. (I.e., something analogous to the To Do Widget which shows the same To Do items that you can access through iCal.)

I don't use Mail.app regularly and would like some quicker way to access the notes synced from my iPhone.

Edit: To reiterate, this question is specifically about the notes in iPhone's Notes app (screenshot below) and in Mail.app. (And not e.g. about alternative notes apps for iPhone/OS X or iCal's To Do items.)

If you are looking for a way to sync and edit notes, then I suggest Simplenote. It isn't a Dashboard widget, but it's very lightweight and all of your notes are saved to a central server that all of your devices can see.


I'm getting my iPhone 5 6.1.2 replaced - any way to AVOID getting stuck with iOS 7? My iPhone 5 64GB 6.1.2 has a malfunctioning camera sensor so I'm getting a warranty replacement.  However I badly want to avoid iOS 7.  Presumably, any refurbished iPhone 5's at this point (December 2013) are all going to have iOS 7.  Since my phone has never had iOS 7 and all my backups are 6.1.2, is there going to be any way for me to restore my backup onto my new (replacement) phone EXACTLY as it was?  (The ultimate goal is for it to feel as though the whole thing never happened).

Since the 64GB model is quite rare, is it possible their old stock still has iOS 6?

It's possible that a refurbished iPhone could run with iOS 6, but it's an extremely slim chance, so I wouldn't count on it. If you do end up getting iOS 7 on your iPhone, there really isn't a way to downgrade to iOS 6 without jailbreaking.

Eventually however, you will have to "swallow the pill" and use iOS 7 (or whatever future update that comes out).


Updated to iMovie 10.1.6: Movies and projects missing (MacOS: Sierra 10.12.1 , iMovie: 10.16)

UPDATE:
I see now I have TWO iMovie folders, one on my local drive (with some valid projects and movies) and another on my eternal drive (where everything was supposed to be).  With iMovie, I can only see the final movies only on my local drive. No Movies are found or visible that are on my eternal drive. So questions are:
1. I am simply unable to see, open, find ANY final movie via iMovie that resides on the external drive.  Where are my movies?  iMovie is really inconvenient to say the least.
2. How can I move/merge my local drive projects, folders, and etc into my external drive folder?

ORIGINAL:---------------
I am missing movies and projects once I update to 10.1.6. When I attempt import from standard folders, the individual clips are imported into the wrong events and other projects aren't showing anyway.  It seems every time I update iMovie a huge mess is left behind.  Any thoughts on how I can proceed?  Thanks!

OK, it works properly after I uninstalled iMovie entirely and ran an 'app cleaner' to be sure and reinstalled. iMovie proceeded to properly recognize and import previous iMovie 10 and 9 versions.


Where has dictation and speech gone on Sierra? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202584 says

  Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Dictation & Speech.

I'm sure it used to be there, I've set it up in the past, but now I have Sierra, I cannot find it. Apple - system preferences - View gives me this list:

and I can't see dictation there. I looked under Accessibility, and there is a dictation feature there, but this is all it says:

and that looks different. I looked under Siri, and that has settings for speech output accent (it's a really awful accent, too, I can hear the quantisation, not enough bits) but not for dictation. I looked under Sound, and it's not there.

Where is Dictation and Speech Preference on Sierra, please?

It's moved to the keyboard settings. Apple - System Preferences - Keyboard - Dictation.

I used the Search feature in System Preferences to find it. I didn't even know there was a search feature...


How to stop 'iCloud Download' column from reappearing I don't want the iCloud Download column in iTunes; it really does nothing for me. Whenever I turn it off, it is there next time I open iTunes. This is so frustrating - is there any way to turn it off for good?

Check the "Only Music Available Offline" option in the [View] menu. Do this not only for Music, but also for Movies and TV Shows (switch to these views from the [view] menu also. THEN remove the iCloud Download column. It should remain gone now. :-)


Should iMessage not be silently updating my phone when I'm at my Mac? I've been using iMessage with a friend of mine over the past two days. When I get the message on my Mac, I also get the message on my phone. That's great, BUT why all the alerts and buzzes on my iPhone? It's very annoying.

Should iMessage not see me receiving the message on my Mac and silently update my iPhone?

No, it doesn't (yet) have any methods of muting alerts on other devices even when it has reason to know that the alert has been read etc.

I'm sure that it will arrive soon, but as it stands every device is treated independent of each other with regards to notification settings, or to put it another way, notification are "device independent", and you are waiting for them to be treated as "notification independant", as it were.


Iphone unwanted download stopping me from accessing main screen I plugged in my Iphone 4 into my computer to charge it, and I believe I turned off the Itunes from coming up (not quite sure).  Anyway, when I went to take my Iphone off the charger, there is something that is now downloaded or installed on my phone that I did not ask for.

It first comes up with "Hello", then "Bonjour", then "Hola", then hello written in Chinese, and all the other languages one by one appear... Some sort of voice over thing starts happening, it starts talking in different languages.

It is preventing me from going to the main screen unless I put in my network information.  I cannot access my icon home screen.  Help!  Without installing this software, whatever the heck it is, how can I get past this.  It has different languages, asks you to select yours, then asks for your network info.  Help!!!

That is the the "welcome page" after you update your iPhone. Everything is fine just do everything they say on that page and you will be good.
Now why did he updated without you knowing well the only cause I can think of is that when you connected it to your computer iTunes started the upgrade automatically.

If that pages looks exactly like this you're good:


Help needed to recover Unsaved 'Notes' on Mac OS X 10.6.8 I had written some notes on the phone with a client and Outlook crashes and lost my notes. They were indepth... and I am embarrassed about asking the client to run through all the information again... And I need for a meeting tomorrow.
Please, can anyone hayelp me (she asks hopefully)
Thanks

It is possible that the data is in a different folder than the app. I use a little app (on my Mac) that allows me to read the contents of iPhone data, grab photos, etc. It might work for you. Here's the link. Hope it helps.


How do get photos from your photo stream on your PC Ok so I downloaded the iCloud program for Windows and synced my photo stream with my PC but only 100 pictures went onto my PC. There are still another 500 pictures in my photo stream on my iPhone. How can I get them to download to my PC as well?

I believe that turning on Photostream on any particular device will only start to pull new photos added from that point in time onwards, and not grab the historically stored photos.


Clips app on iPad: How do you export a single clip from a project? I ran into a frustrating problem at my parent's house over the holiday weekend.  My brother has Down Syndrome, and spends most of the day using his iPad.  He uses Clips to make little videos.  They are just local to the iPad -- he never publishes them, and in fact does not have any social media, e-mail, or other accounts at all.  This is probably key to my question.

He has a Clips project with about a dozen clips, and we wanted to move one clip to another family member's iPhone.  To be clear, we didn't want to export/publish/send the project, just the one clip in the project.  As best as I could tell, this action is impossible or at least very well hidden.  Here's what I ran into:

When you select a clip, the export button disappears.  That leads me to believe that you can only export the entire project.
You can "favorite" a clip, but that also does not seem to offer any new export options.
Any attempt to export the entire project seemed to require an account of some kind (YouTube, iMessage, etc.), which for privacy reasons we don't want to set up on that iPad.  I just want to move the file between machines, locally.
I would have tried the method in #3, but when connecting the iPad to the MacBook, I ran into yet another probably unrelated problem in that, even though the iPad is fully set up, registered with iCloud, and has been used for weeks, iTunes only offered to Restore or Set Up as New iPad when I plugged it in.  This led me to believe that either option would have erased everything.

So in short, how do I export/move a clip (not a project) from Clips to another iPhone (or to an iPhone indirectly via our MacBook), without deleting the rest of the clips in the project, or creating some kind of account on the iPad?

I'm using Apple Clips version 1.1 - you can save individual clips to the Photo Library on your iPad. From there you can AirDrop it or share it in another way.

Select the clip
Save to Photo Library
Share from the Photos app


Right click in Ubuntu Virtual Box guest VM is not working I am running Ubuntu in Virtualbox in Mac OS.

I found that rightclick in the guest Ubuntu, by tapping the trackpad while pressing ctrl key, doesn't work. E.G.

it doesn't show the menu for file properties and removal option, when right clicking a file under Nautilus.
in chrome browser, when right clicking a link, it doesn't show option to open it in a new tab.

when I connect a wired mouse to macbook pro, right clicking works i.e. brings out properties of a file, etc. So does two-finger tapping the trackpad.

How can I troubleshoot this?

When ever  I'm setting up a guest OS, I find it helpful to do two things.

Open up the OS X system preferences and review every setting on every tab of the mouse and trackpad, paying particular attention to multi button and multitouch gestures and shortcuts.
If you use a trackpad or touch device, connected multibutton mouse over USB to make sure that those settings are passed along to recognized

At that point, you will want to be sure any guest OS additions are loaded in the guest VM. That will make the guest most likely to receive the best input and have drivers on the ubuntu os configured to take advantage of the multi touch / right click events. You can always check the virtual box support forums once you have a specific set of OS versions - you might uncover a bug in the code or they decided to program things as they work intentionally.


How can i drive my display? I have just bought a 2560 x 1440 monitor for my macbook pro. I've tried the mini DisplayPort to DVI and the mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables to connect to the display but both will only push 1080p to the monitor. Will a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable run the resolution or do I need the dual link DVI adapter?

Mini Displayport to Displayport is the best solution, provided your monitor has a Displayport input. A mini Displayport to Dual-link DVI adapter is also a possibility, but those tend to be expensive and not always reliable. If Displayport is an option, go with that.


Kernal Panics, High Sierra : Late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina 15" I've fully wiped my SSD and installed a fresh copy of high sierra using internet recovery. I've made sure to not install all the apps I usually use. I still get a Kernal Panic every now and then and it's worrying.

I've attached a pastebin link with the Problem Report that generated.
Kernal Panics Macbook Pro retina - [link]pastebin.com/f2UhbLMH)

Usually kernel issues are related to software but they can also be caused by bad hard drives. I would boot the Mac into recovery mode (turn mac on, hold down "command" + R until you see the Apple Logo. And then go to Disk Utility and run a First Aid on your Macintosh HD hard drive (do all hard drives anyway just to make sure). If it passes then try reinstalling macOS (OS X). If it fails I'd replace it and do a backup of it ASAP.


How can I show the remaining time for a caffeinate command? After running caffeinate with a command such as caffeinate -s -m -i -t 172800 &, how can I show the remaining time with a subsequent command

pmset -g assertions will show the caffeinate-generated assertion (among others) along with how many seconds remain:

   pid 23694(caffeinate): [0x0013076c0005a0ed] 00:37:55 PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep named: "caffeinate command-line tool"
    Details: caffeinate asserting for 7200 secs
    Localized=THE CAFFEINATE TOOL IS PREVENTING SLEEP.
    Timeout will fire in 4924 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease


Add a watermark to a PDF without installing new software Can I add a watermark to a PDF without installing additional software?

Ideally, I'd like to do it using a shell script or something but appreciate manual processes at this time too.

Automator can do this with Preview's Watermark PDF Documents action. You can create this workflow as a service to receive a PDF document and add a watermark to it.


Change an AT&T iPhone 3G to another provider? How can I change my no-longer under AT&T service iPhone 3G to my new sprint service? Sprint doesn't use sim cards.

You can't.  AT&T and Sprint use incompatible technologies.


iPad suitable for 18X7 environment? An industrial application needs a barcode scanning kiosk and upload scans 18 hours a day,7 days a week.  Users are not expected to touch the display, however, the display will be on broadcasting instructions and providing feedback that scans are successful.

Has the iPad been tested or used in 18X7 duty cycles or similar high duty cycles?

Our iPads in factory settings are less expensive, faster to interact with and break less than all the other hardware we deploy. This includes corrosive atmosphere environments, metallic dust and all manner of things that tend to short out gear. Even if they failed at a rate twice of computers, they’re still cheaper to replace than other options we could use for our application.

The resale value of lightly used iPads is so high I’d start a pilot program immediately if you’re on the fence.


Reset my Macs password? I still have SSH access I recently changed my password and promptly forgot it :P What is the best option for resetting it? I can still access the mac via SSH (ssh key auth method), can I do anything with that?

No - the typical ways to reset a password or delete the file that lets the Mac reboot to the setup assistant where it lets you create a new admin user that will have a known password all require you to know a working user/password combination that works for sudo.

You'll want to boot to the Recovery HD or install media or into single user mode to make a new admin user (which can be deleted once you've reset your password) or use the normal OSX procedure to reset your password.


Does OS X Mavericks have Activation Lock like iOS 7? I have bought a used MacBook Pro Retina, and after three mounths using it, I think I could do a clean install for my Mac. However, if it has an activation lock will that stop me using my Mac after a clean install as it could ask me for an iCloud account?

Macs do not have Activation Lock.

The only Find My iPhone lock that is present on OS X is the force lock from selecting the device in the Find My iPhone device list and clicking Lock. Simply reinstalling OS X can't lock a Mac unlike iOS Activation Lock.

Note that Find My Mac will register the serial number (or other hardware identifier) for the purposes of recording a single Mac and that reinstalling OS X will not remove this identifier from Apple's servers and may show a "Find My Mac is already in use" message if you attempt to set it up in the future.


How do I stop my iPad's passcode buttons from lighting up? I have a jailbroken iPad 2 and I was wondering if it is possible to stop the passcode buttons from lighting up when they're pressed. Is there some sort of image somewhere that can be changed to keep this from happening?

The image you're looking for is /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/DeviceLockKeypadPressed~ipad.png  Using iFile (or SSH), make a copy of DeviceLockKeypad~ipad.png into the same folder. Delete DeviceLockKeypadPressed~ipad.png, and rename your copied file to this. You could also edit the image to be a color other than blue.


What is CUPS on port 631? I recently ran an NMAP scan of my Mac's open ports and discovered port 631 (ipp) was open. Intrigued, I saw it was for the CUPS web interface, and after enabling it I found it had something to do with printing. But what exactly is CUPS?

From the CUPS website:

  CUPS is the standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple Inc. for OS X and other UNIX®-like operating systems.

On OS X it provides local printer services as well as shared printer services for other Macs to access your printer via the service if the printer doesn't have its own sharing capabilities. CUPS has become fairly ubiquitous across the Linux/UNIX contingent of OSes as the print server if choice.

That open port you found is because printer sharing is turned on on your machine. You can close port via System Preferences > Sharing and uncheck Printer Sharing.


Order of the VPN connections in the VPN menu Is it possible to change the order of the VPN connection in the OS X VPN Menu?

Rename them ;).  They are ordered alphabetically.  If you put a white space (edit: or any other name that precedes in the alphanumeric order) in front of the second VPN's name in System Preferences > Network (by selecting the VPN Service and clicking on the cog symbol below the services: click "Rename Service..."), then un-tick and re-tick "Show VPN status in menu bar", the order will change.


How to determine what process has opened a network connection? Whereas on Windows it's possible to use Netstat -b, which tells you what connections are open and what program has each one open, on the Mac it seems that Netstat does not allow this.

Is there another way to get this information if Netstat isn't the tool for that job?

> lsof -i :58199
COMMAND   PID USER   FD   TYPE             DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
Transmiss 304 Fyodor    8u  IPv4 0x2fbc34fe135e3895      0t0  UDP *:58199

lsof = list open files. See manual for more details.

/usr/sbin/lsof

You can see with "ps -ef" more info about the PID "lsof" gave you.


On a MacOS machine, is there any risk or trouble I'll encounter if I put some of my documents into a path that's not under my home ~ directory I used to store all my files, documents under the ~ path.

I am wondering if I put my files out of my own directory, will there be any risk (like losing the files, or messing up my computer)

Yes, very much so. You break the convention that the files belonging to a user are located in his or her home directory.

If you „retire“ a user, only files and folders in their home directory are saved.

Catalina, for example, plainly forbids creating folders in the root directory (/).

To make a long story short: There are reasons for the home directory. Do not fight those. I for my part enjoy the peace of mind this gives me. And the fact that I do not have to search all over the OS. Let alone Time Machine Backups.


What activities cannot be interrupted? Time was, Macs crashed a lot. (Maybe PCs did too, but I've only ever used Macs). And over time, I became wary of doing two things at once.

Today I wouldn't interrupt a back-up but I'm wondering -- is it okay to touch the keyboard during other long-running stuff like a big delete or download? Are there times when one should just leave an activity alone?

Well, first of all, touching the keyboard will not crash you computer, even if you're doing heavy process.

So if you're deleting a big number of files or downloading a big file, you can still go ahead and browse the web or write on a text editor, or whatever.
And even if Safari or Pages would crash, the OS is robust enough not to let this crash affect the download.

To sum it up, go ahead multi-task! Mac OS X is a really strong OS and you shouldn't worry about asking him to do multiple things, he's great at it.


External keyboard doesn't show as separate keyboard to configure MBP 14,1 (13" 2017 two TB ports)

At work I have a Dell USB-C dock that my external keyboard connects to - display is connected differently. There, like everywhere else I've seen this, when I connect an external (normal PC) keyboard it asks me to identify it ("press the key next to shift") and after that I can configure the external keyboard separately from the internal one (I like to switch alt+cmd on the PC layout).

I have a new LG screen (27UK850-W) at home that connects to the MBP via USB-C. It charges the device and transports display on that connection. The screen also has two USB-A ports - they work (I connect a mouse and my default external keyboard), but the keyboard doesn't show up as a "separate" device - if I remap the keys (alt+cmd in my case) this is also done for the built-in keyboard.

Any ideas how I can work around this?

If you are looking for Modifier remap, in keyboard.prefPane exists a modifier button where you can edit it for external keyboard.
For more advanced ways, you should checkout keyboard Maestro for Macro keys and this answer to figure out what you want to do.


Are Applescript dictionaries shareable or available without access to the app? I wish to write (what should be) a fairly simple script for an application on another machine that I don't have on my machine. I do need to know what some of the available command are though. How can I get hold of the dictionary for that app without installing the app on my machine?

Any help or insight will be much appreciated.

The AppleScript Dictionary, an XML file with a .sdef extension, for a given app is typically found within the application bundle, e,g. for iTerm2:

/Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/Resources/iTerm2.sdef

You can copy the .sdef file to your computer and open it in Script Editor.

That said, you may not be able to compile the script without the App installed, so debugging your code may be difficult.

A trick I've used, to just compile the code but not test the code, is to create a dummy application bundle of the target application. Just make a folder of the application's name with a .app extension.