How update to latest Beta software of Mac OS X without having to update incrementally I'm right now on Beta 2 of Mac OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" (15A204h)

The Mac App Store wants me to update to Beta 3

I know that the latest Beta is Beta 7 (15A263e)

Redeeming the code for Beta 7 doesn't work.

It seems that this is the same code that got me Beta 1

Image from Purchases section of App Store:

And I cannot see in "Purchases" section of App Store Beta 7 available.

Is there a way to upgrade from Beta 2 (or any earlier version) to Beta 7 directly. Without having to upgrade 5 times?

You can't - Apple hasn't released a combo updater (yet) and we're at β7 build 15A263e.

You can duplicate this radar if you find it a waste of time.

http://www.openradar.me/22307567 The title isn't strictly correct - all installers so far are incremental.

So, your best bet is to get decent connection to the network and softwareupdate --download --all and then softwareupdate --install --all (or just straight install which downloads then installs)


iMac not recognising any keyboard I have an Apple wired keyboard and a wireless Microsoft keyboard. I have been working with the Apple keyboard for a couple of months. Today I started my iMac and it didn't recognise the keyboard, I plugged the Microsoft keyboard (I worked with it for a year before I had the Apple keyboard) which works via USB (but wireless) and the iMac did not recognise it either. I tried the SMC reset, as shown here but it didn't work.

Any idea of what's happening? I appreciate your help.

I had a similar problem. Brand new iMac that refused to detect my wired keyboard.

After a lot of experimenting, I resolved the problem by removing my bluetooth keyboard from the bluetooth devices list completely and then plugging in the wired keyboard.

Open System Preferences and select 'Bluetooth'
A list of the devices detected (both paired and unpaired) will appear.
Hover your mouse to the right of any connected bluetooth keyboard and press the 'x' that appears, to remove it from the list completely.
Finally connect your wired keyboard and hopefully 'voila'. For me, everything return to normal.

Good luck, hope that helps.

Sherie


Mavericks Random Spinning Beach Ball appears for less than a second and then goes away Ever since upgrading to Mavericks v 10.9.0, the swirly beach ball of death shows up randomly for a split second, even if nothing is currently loading.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem or is it a known bug?

Yes, I have seen this on two different machines. Its definitely a bug.

You can see a mention of it in lots of places, including here:

http://www.imore.com/round-table-review-os-x-mavericks


Search for files that begin with some letters and the search need to be non-recursive I want to search for a file or folder in the directory I am viewing. I dont need to search recursively into sub-folders.
In Windows, if I am viewing a particular folder and want to search for files or folders that begin with the word "abc" then I type abc(not in the search box but I just type directly) and it highlights a file/folder. And then when I type "abc" again then it highlights the next file/folder that matches
Using Finder I see that only the first file/folder is highlighted. Even if I press escape and type again it only highlights the first matching file/folder. So I used the search box(command+F) to find all files/folders that begin with a particular word but this would search recursively i.e includes the sub-folders as well
I do not have files/folders sorted alphabetically in the directory that I am viewing
How can I do the search in this situation?

The find command in mac OS is quite expressive, despite the fact that Apple still ships a 2011 vintage. man find will provide a list of all the arguments and options. There are some examples near the end of the man page.
N.B. this requires use of the Command Line Interface (CLI), so open/start/launch Terminal.app (it's located in the Utilities folder in Launchpad). If you're mac OS version is Catalina, you'll be using zsh by default; otherwise your shell will be bash. That's largely irrelevant to the answer here, but just so you know...
I'll try to get you started based on some details in your question:

I don't need to search recursively into sub-folders.

Use the maxdepth option to limit your recursion depth; -maxdepth 1 doesn't go below the specified folder. You can go deeper by increasing maxdepth beyond 1.

want to search for files or folders that begin with the word "abc"

Use the -name option (or a regular expression) to filter the results; in this case, -name "abc*", or if you wish the filter to be case-*insensitive* use -iname "abc*".
The type option allows you to filter your results by type; e.g. filter regular files with f, or directories with d. If you want files or directories, you may omit this option.
Assuming the folder of interest is /Users/YourName/YourData, the command to use is as follows:
find /Users/YourName/YourData -iname "abc*" -maxdepth 1

Let us know if you have questions.

Some References:

BSD man page for find

Know Your Tools: Linux (GNU) vs. Mac (BSD) Command Line Utilities


Why can't I add more options to the search in Finder? I used to be able to click on the + next to save. After I upgraded to Yosemite, the + now became a - and I can't add exact match anymore. Any idea?

Thanks

Start your Search from anywhere else except "All My Files"

I don't know why, but that has no +
possibly because it's already a smart list, under the skin


Font and object edge on Yosemite As a lot of people here, I updated my Maverick to Yosemite. I've a MacBook Pro 2011 (early) and a Apple Display connected with a Thunderbolt. My question is: am I the only one that see the font edge not so clear? It seems a little bit blurred but enough to be annoying.

In particular the font are really annoying in Safari tab title, and system bar.

BTW: I want back old font. Now.

I am using Macbook Pro 15" with Retina display and a 27" thunderbolt display. After upgrading to Yosemite the font on the macbook built-in display looks very clear, but that on the thunderbolt display looks blurry. I guess Apple did't consider the thunderbolt display users when they test the new font.


2018 MacBook Pro + LG 4k display = no 60hz I've got 2018 MacBook Pro 15" (Radeon Pro 560X), which I'm connecting to external LG 4K display (27UD69P-W) via Satechi Type-C to HDMI Adapter (says 4K/60hz on the box), but the display is running 30hz.

How do I make it do 60hz?

Thank you!

On my Philips 328P6V monitor, using a USB-C to DisplayPort cable with my MacBook Pro (15 inch model from 2019 with Radeon Pro 560X), I first was stuck at 4k@30Hz and couldn't get 4k@60Hz (even though the cable supports it). I had to do two things:

Enable DisplayPort version 1.2 in the monitor's menu.
Choose "Resolution: Default for display" in my Mac's System Preferences/Displays.

The first point is pretty obvious, given that DisplayPort 1.1 only supports 30Hz for 4k.

The second point, however, is a bit weird. The original setting was:

And this setting delivered 4k@30Hz. Choosing "Default for display" changed it to 60Hz. After that, even re-selecting "Scaled" keeps my monitor at 4k60Hz.

What I believe might have happened is, that when I had first connected the display, it was still set to DisplayPort 1.1, and I assume my Mac remembered this. Resetting SMC/PRAM didn't seem to help. Switching the Resolution selector in the System Preferences probably made macOS rescan the connection and remember the updated DisplayPort 1.2 capability.


WiFi problems after wake up (MBP2011 OS X 10.10.3) Suddenly yesterday my mac started to have WiFi-problems. I have had this mac since 2011 and it has always worked and I have only been using it on WiFi.

But today when I woke it up it didn't enable the WiFi. I tried to disable WiFi and enable it again but it didn't work.

I rebooted. It worked. After ~5 minutes it stopped working again.

Now I'm using my iphone (via USB) to connect to internet. Works fine.

Just before the problem occurred I installed the following updates:

Remote Desktop Client Update V3.8.4
Command Line Tools (OS X 10.10) V6.3

Does anyone have any tips for me?

Thanks in advance :)

Update: I add a section from my wifi.log file on the time of one of my failures

Wed May 20 16:45:53.489 <airportd[50]> airportdProcessDLILEvent: en1 attached (up)
Wed May 20 22:20:51.299 ***Starting Up***
Wed May 20 22:20:51.504 <airportd[50]> airportdProcessDLILEvent: en1 attached (up)
Wed May 20 23:19:39.448 <airportd[50]> _handleLinkEvent: WiFi is not powered. Resetting state variables.
Wed May 20 23:20:13.062 <airportd[50]> WARNING: Network Diagnostics (827) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.set_power, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release
Wed May 20 23:20:13.275 <airportd[50]> WARNING: Network Diagnostics (827) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.scan, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release
Wed May 20 23:22:20.165 ***Starting Up***
Wed May 20 23:22:20.198 <airportd[50]> airportdProcessDLILEvent: en1 attached (up)
Wed May 20 23:23:49.476 <airportd[50]> -[CWXPCConnection performScanWithChannels:ssidList:legacyScanSSID:includeHiddenNetworks:mergeScanResults:maxAge:maxMissCount:maxWakeCount:maxAutoJoinCount:interfaceName:waitForWiFi:waitForBluetooth:token:priority:reply:]: !!! SCAN request received 1.2470 seconds after previous scan request from 243 (locationd)
Wed May 20 23:25:10.549 <airportd[50]> _handleLinkEvent: WiFi is not powered. Resetting state variables.
Wed May 20 23:31:45.127 <airportd[50]> _handleLinkEvent: WiFi is not powered. Resetting state variables.

Update

Today (4 weeks later) my MBP couldnt enable the wifi when I woke it from sleep. I turned it off via the terminal and then I turned it on with:

networksetup -setairportpower en1 on

My computer froze. The most interesting I could find in the log is

kernel[0]: en1: Error configuring antenna diversity (index = -1).

I have no idea what that means though. Ideas?

I could also find the following in the log

 Wifiscript[1018]: dig attempt via
 Wifiscript[1022]: *** WIFI ERROR #1 DETECTED -- Trying again ***
 Wifiscript[1024]: dig attempt via
 Wifiscript[1028]: *** WIFI ERROR #2 DETECTED ***
 Wifiscript[1029]: ---> Bringing en1 down and waiting five seconds
 Wifiscript[1032]: ---> Turning off Airport and waiting five seconds
 Wifiscript[1036]: ---> Turning on Airport and waiting five seconds
 kernel[0]: LinkStatus 3011 Uncorrectible Errors 100000 Correctible Errors are: 30c1
 kernel[0]: Attempt to restore PCIe Config Space
 kernel[0]: en1: setting diversity to: -1
 kernel[0]: en1: Error configuring antenna diversity (index = -1).
 kernel[0]: en1: setting tx antenna: -1
 kernel[0]: en1: Error configuring transmit antenna (index = -1).
 Wifiscript[1042]: ---> Bringing en1 up and waiting five seconds
 kernel[0]: Vendor ID 0xffff is not validVendor ID 0xffff is not validen1: setting diversity to: -1
 kernel[0]: en1: Error configuring antenna diversity (index = -1).
 kernel[0]: en1: setting tx antenna: -1
 kernel[0]: en1: Error configuring transmit antenna (index = -1).
 kernel[0]: Vendor ID 0xffff is not validwl_recover_nocard: Timer already started
 Wifiscript[1045]: *** WIFI RECOVERY ATTEMPT COMPLETED ***

And now after some more reboots it says No hardware installed and I cannot get the card to work at all :(

I think my problems are solved. I opened my cover on the MBP and saw 2 screws that were loose. They were supposed to hold the WIFI antenna. I tightened them up and now it seems to work...

Strange that they opened themselves?


MacBook Air M1 battery drain when sleeping My new Macbook Air(M1 Chip, Big Sur 11.1) uses a lot of the battery during sleep mode I talked with apple support regarding this issue and I have been told to reinstall macOS. I reinstalled macOS and the issue has been left. Again I called them and they told me I should give the laptop to one of MacBook resellers to check the computer. I gave my new MacBook to Macfroum and I received this answer after five days: " The Battery drain somewhat when in sleep mode, but nothing out of the specifications Apple has published. Apple diagnostics report no issue with the battery."  However, Macfroum thinks drain battery 1% percentage every hour is normal!!!. I called Apple support again and they recommended asking Macfroum to reinstall the OS via Apple Configurator 2. Macfroum restored the firmware, erased, and reinstalled the OS via Apple Configurator 2.  I checked again the computer and I had the same issue look at the following picture. All applications were closed and did not install any program on the laptop.  I compare it with my old MacBook Air and the old one just lost 2 % battery with many open applications.  I had the issue from the first day that I bought this new MacBook Air(M1) and it is around two weeks I am trying to fix it and had contact with Apple to fix the issue.

Check the activity monitor under "Battery" for usage statistics.
Sort by "Energy Impact" & "12Hr Power" tabs to find the app that is using the most energy. If it's an app that you are not running on the foreground, then close those applications.
Also check if any apps are Preventing Sleep by sorting "Preventing Sleep" Tab.


How can I remove this half-downloaded app from my iPhone? On my iPhone homescreen there's an app which in an half-downloaded(actually, more like barely downloaded) state -

(In case you're curious, I was trying to download Rage during it's on-sale-for-free-period)

Now, I can't get rid of it from my home screen. I can hide it in a folder, I can install the downloaded app next to this "Loading" shell having downloaded the app later in iTunes.

iTunes won't let me delete this item from my home screen - the "x" overlay for uninstalling an app is not coming up either.

So, how can I remove it?

bmike just helped me with some troubleshooting, but we weren't able to get this question fixed, yet. Here's the conversation between the two of us. Would appreciate any other answers.

Reboot.

I had an app stuck in the Loading... state and a reboot of my iPhone cleared it away. I was able to re-download it again without any issues.

To reboot your phone hold down the Power button for 5 seconds. You'll see the power off slider appear. Slide it to turn the phone off. Once off, use the Power button to turn it back on.


Preview shortcuts to select editor tabs by index I am trying to switch rapidly back and forth between two related Preview tabs (different versions of a research paper). In other applications I would do this by selecting Command-[TabNumber]  e.g. Command-3 then Command-4 then back to Command-3.

What is the equivalent in Preview?  I did look at the help https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/preview-keyboard-shortcuts-on-mac-cpprvw0003/mac
 and also just tried a number of combinations without luck.

In Preview you can do the following:

Open the two documents in their windows;
Go to menu Window and click on "Merge All Windows"; this will merge the windows into tabs inside Preview.
Now you are ready to switch between tabs with Ctrl+Tab to go to next tab, or with Ctrl+Shift+Tab for previous tab.


AppleScript to copy cell range to clipboard as image is broken after Office Excel update 16.11 I have a simple script that opens an excel file and copy the used range to cilpboard as image. It was working for at least 5 years. Now with the latest update from microsoft it is not longer working and throwing parameter error (-50). I have tried all combinations of optional parameters with appearance and screen. No matter what I try I always get this parameter error. Please suggest how can I change the parameters to make it working or confirm that it is not working for you too and hence a bug that should be reported to Microsoft. I have following code. The excel file is opened but then I get error -50 stating Parameter error. Parameter 'used range' is correct according to  MS Excel dictionary documentation and the script works with Microsoft Excel 16.10.

    set filepath to "/Users/ayesha/Documents/ayesha/test.xlsx"

    set scriptFilePath to POSIX file filepath

    tell application "Microsoft Excel"

        launch

        set myworkbook to open workbook workbook file name scriptFilePath

        copy picture used range of active sheet

    end tell

Any script and file that you don't change and that works on Excel 16.10 (or Excel 15.41 from before the code base was changed / unified in version 16) and then breaks is a regression bug you should file with Microsoft. Version 16.10 has about 20 bugs we're taking with Microsoft and not all of them are fixed in Version 16.11 - some of the bugs are so bad that the ~/Library and container files become corrupt and the application itself will not even launch in Finder.

Full stop - file a bug with them after you have exhausted their support channels. Support is getting some pretty decent workarounds for some bugs, but version 15 to version 16 was a massive change so there clearly were (and today are still) tons of regressions.

In that bug you need to tell them (and us) what license you are using. The same excel program works differently based on how you license it. Features turn on and off so you don't have the same behavior based on licensing.

Now - I did try to dig into the Dictionary and see if I can find an error in your usage above, but your code is correct as the calls are documented. The problem is Excel - not your script.

I don't like loading older software - so the first thing I would do is try opening your file in Numbers and scripting there until the Excel version 16.xx works out all the kinks.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/release-notes-for-office-2016-for-mac-ed2da564-6d53-4542-9954-7e3209681a41

If you wanted to go back - here's the 15.41 installer - but you will need to consider cleaning everything potentially like Outlook identities, caches, preferences, etc... or installing this older Office on a new Mac OS or VM with a clean install or make a new user so you don't have old preferences that are from a newer version of the tool.


Media keys not working for iTunes (pause/play, skip buttons) I am being driven crazy by the fact that my media keys aren't working for iTunes. Such a pain! How can I fix this? I've tried the whole Chrome Extensions thing, that being I deleted all my extensions. Still, nothing has fixed this. Thanks to all who reply!

This is an intentional change in macOS High Sierra. Rather than the media keys always controlling iTunes, they will now control whatever media is playing at a given moment.

9To5Mac has detailed a way to change this behavior with a third-party application, macOS High Sierra Media Key Enabler for iTunes and Spotify:

  Apple just released High Sierra and it brought good things and annoying things : they changed the behaviour of the media controller keys, they no longer control itunes, they control the video playback in safari. This pissed off a lot of people including me, so I just created a menu bar app to proxy media key events to iTunes/Spotify while Apple fixes this. It doesn't support touchbar yet, only physical buttons.


Bluetooth Magic Trackpad not recognized after sleep When I put my MacBook Pro (2011, 13") to sleep and wake it up again, the Magic Trackpad doesn't get recognized. I have to turn Bluetooth off and back on again to get the trackpad to work. It shows up in the Bluetooth menu at the top of the screen, but telling it to reconnect doesn't do the trick.

I have a USB keyboard, so I don't know if the same problem would be true of the keyboard.

Why might this be? Is there a way to have Bluetooth automatically restart when I wake the computer?

EDIT: I should mention that this has only happened since I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion last week.

Try re-pairing the trackpad. Go to System Preferences then Trackpad then Setup Bluetooth trackpad... Select the trackpad and then Unpair. Then select it again (using your built-in trackpad) and select Pair.


How do I install a2ps for better printing? How do I install this program so that I can do postscript printing?

Currently I get -bash: a2ps: command not found

Well, first you'll want to install MacPorts on your Mac.  This allows you to easily install new command-line applications.

Then, just use the following terminal command:

sudo port install a2ps


After disabling Filevault 1, is it possible to enable it again in Lion? It seems that after disabling Filevault 1 in OS X Lion, there no longer is an option to choose between Filevault 1 and Filevault 2 functionality.

I actually prefer Filevault 1 over Filevault 2, since it does not interfere with my theft protection software and allows me to use a guest account.

Is there a way to enable Filevault 1 again?

Even if the creation tools are gone or hidden very well from us, you point out Lion is happy to keep running a user that has been migrated in so you can take advantage of that to get what you had back again.

Lion makes it several steps with some minor "complications" - but you should be able to Migrate another user shell in and move your current data into that older style account.

It's slightly tricky to juggle the users - you'll want a backup and need to set up a second admin account to do the move. You'll delete the user, but not the files and import the old user (clear the old data) and finally move the new data into place using the old storage mechanism.
You'll need one of

a running Snow Leopard system or boot disk (to make and then migrate a FileVault 1 user)
a backup of the system from Snow Leopard days (even if the user data is wrong - you just need the account settings and shell sparse bundle to migrate in again)

I keep an external USB drive with 15G partitions around with the last OS but no real user data. You could install Snow Leopard onto an external disk or partition and make shell user with FileVault 1 enabled or you could use any backup from your Snow Leopard time to move in another copy of your user with FV1 - and simply move the current contents into the old encrypted sparse bundle storage.

Let's start a new question if you want advice HOW to actually do this (since it will depend on your specifics) - this question stands well just with the simple fact that the built in tool to do this isn't available on Lion.


Status of Multitasking in iPad2? iPad 2 has the same OS however a new dual core processor should allow a workaround this limitation and allow for app-switching by freezing whatever apps are inactive at the moment. I ask this question because this is generally how I work...

A pdf/djvu file open
Mp3 player running
Blog being updated
Browsing internet

Could someone tell me their experience with such a thing on an iPad? If I switch from a browser to a pdf, does it open in the same page? If I switch back to the browser with a half written blog post, is that preserved or does it refresh? Can a playlist of songs run while I'm doing all this?

I know that its just a tablet and it doesn't promise to be a substitute for netbooks, but this is the way I work even on the go.

On a related note, do SE sites look like this on an Ipad? I hope there is no problem in rendering Latex/Mathjax

With iOS 4.2 and later, both the iPad and iPad 2 will allow multitasking by freezing apps in the background. Some things, such as playing music, will run in the background. Therefore, you will be able to do all of the things you want, but you will only be able to look at one at a time.

No, the SE sites do not look like that. I used the Develop menu in Safari to change the user agent, and it rendered exactly the same for the iPad as for the default view. However, it is different for the iPhone (still not the same as the page you linked).


How can I modify the hosts file on MacOS Catalina? I need to test out a site before it's actually live for customers, and doing so with a specific hostname. For this I'd like to modify the well-known hosts file, however it doesnt seem to work.

An answer here mentions to do a copy of the file and modify, and then paste it back to the original /etc/hosts location. I've tried it but doesnt work.

I've tried the guide here too, with restarting the DNS services (sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder) on my computer. Doesnt work either. I've made a complete reboot too, to no avail.

Have Apple prevented people in MacOS Catalina (10.15.X and later) to modify this file? It seems a lot of people are having problem with this.

Thanks for your help!

Update: To clarify: I can successfully change the hosts file and save it, but it seems to have no effect.

So it actually did work.
What I did wrong (it seems) is that I had too many spaces between the ip and the hostname inside /etc/hosts. I fixed the spaces with the nano editor and now it works.
It's worth to point out that using nslookup will not work however to test your dns change (found reason here):

nslookup only does proper DNS resolution, which is significantly
different from the Name Service Switch subsystem that your other
applications use; that is to say nslookup ignores /etc/hosts and mDNS.


Why OSX symlink cannot Relative PATHs? System in OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan

$ cd $HOME
$ ls .
> Dropbox
> BTsync

Code which creates unsuccessful symlink

ln -s BTsync/ Dropbox/

Code which creates working symlink

ln -s /Users/masi/BTSync/ /Users/masi/Dropbox/

Evidence in size difference with files

$ cd $HOME
$ ln -s $HOME/BTsync/wfdb.zip $HOME/Dropbox/
$ ln -s BTsync/wfdb.zip Dropbox/wasi.zip
$ ls -la $HOME/Dropbox/
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    41 May 17 22:45 wfdb.zip -> BTsync/wfdb.zip
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    46 May 17 22:45 wasi.zip -> /Users/masi/Dropbox/wfdb.zip

Evidence with directories

$ ln -s /Users/masi/BTsync/cam\ local/ /Users/masi/Dropbox/
$ ln -s BTsync/cam\ local/ Dropbox/camLocal2
$ ls -la $HOME/Dropbox
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    37 May 17 22:52 camlocal -> /Users/masi/BTsync/cam local/
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    25 May 17 22:53 camLocal2 -> BTsync/cam local/

and visually same in Finder

which shows that the two commands are not the same in El Capitan.
Using absolute PATH only works.

Evidence with Relative PATH

$ cd $HOME
$ ln -s ./BitTorrentSync/cam\ local/ ./Dropbox/camlocal3
$ ls -la Dropbox/
lrwxr-xr-x   1 masi  staff    27 May 17 22:58 camlocal3 -> ./BTsync/cam local/

and a new screenshot

Why OSX Symlink cannot Relative PATHs?

This isn't about relative paths. Relative paths work fine.

If what you're trying to do here is create a symlink from Dropbox to BTsync, the problem is that Dropbox already exists. This means the symlink is created inside the Dropbox folder, named BTSync. Delete Dropbox and try again.

If you really meant to create a symlink inside the Dropbox folder, then both these commands work identically.


Parallels VMs double counted for disk space usage? My Mac claims to be running out of storage, and when I look at my storage breakdown, this is what I see:

However, when I look through the files, this is what I see:

Documents appears to only be about 60 GB, and almost all of that is due to Parallels VMs (I have a Windows 10 VM and an Ubuntu VM so I'm not surprised about the size of that folder).
So it looks like my Mac doesn't realize just how much storage it has... is there a way to fix this?
UPDATE:
Here is what the disk utility shows:

And here is what running diskutil list gives me:
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            240.1 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 42.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                510.4 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

UPDATE 2:
Here is what Disk Inventory X says:

So it turned out that there was hidden folder that was causing my woes... it was 58 GB in size! Disk Inventory X helped me catch it.
The Mac storage analyzer was counting that stuff as Documents, which was causing the weird discrepancies. That hidden folder was something that could easily be deleted since it just contained junk.


Can google inbox on iPhone NOT show contact pictures I am using the google inbox app for iPhone. Is it possible to set it up, so that it does not show pictures of people who is writing to me?
I need to recieve work relevant emails from persons whos profile pictures I find offensive, and do not want to look at.

I have been through all the settings I could find and I don't know of a search term or documented feature to allow this

Try changing their photos in your saved contact so that your photo of them shows up instead.


How to manage remote music library but at the same time have some music still on the MacBook (preferably in sync)? How can I keep my whole music library on my NAS and comfortably access it and manage it there and at the same time have a music selection locally stored on my MacBook that I can manage while away and that gets synchronized with my NAS library when I get back.

Is there way to do that?

My Setup: a Synology DS412+ with DSM 4.1 and a MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion

Update:
The idea is to have a master library on the nas and a slave library for mobile use that merges all changes back to the master and gets updated information from the nas. Like a selective cloud sync.

Update (2):
The purpose of this usage is to be able to play music without having access to broadband internet (train, plane, car, public places, ...) without maintaining two libraries.

You could set up something like this (Make sure that your iTunes Library File (iTunes Music Library.xml) is on your mac, not on your NAS):

Create a playlist "On the go"
Use this script to move the files in the playlist from your NAS (iTunes media location) to your mac.
On the go, with no connection to your NAS: iTunes will tell you that the files are not available when you click to play, click "search" and select the folder you´ve synced the files to.
When you add new music on the go, iTunes will copy that to the default location  (/music/iTunes/) on your mac.
When you have access to your NAS again: Check that the iTunes Media Location is your NAS (Settings > advanced) and click File > Media Library > Organise Media Library. All Files you added while on the go will be copied to your NAS.
Delete the Files in your local iTunes Media Folder.


Difference between iTunes Connect App Version and Build Version When preparing an App for iOS App Store release in iTunes Connect, there is a field under the App Store tab where you can type in a version number.

But when uploading the builds, under the Activity tab we have a version number that is taken from the info.plist in Xcode.

Why are there two places for the version number?  What is the difference between them?  How are they supposed to be used?  Is there a best practice for this?

It may be necessary to submit multiple builds when submitting or updating an app (due to finding bugs before the app completes review, etc.).  iTC requires that the build numbers be different (and ascending) for each subsequent build submission for same version update to an app.  Thus two different fields, one version number for the App store visible (e.g. marketing) version of the app or app update, and one build number for one or more uploads before app review starts or completes (and without changing the App store visible or marketing version number).

It's also handy when testing many dozens of incremental builds of an app on your devices and iOS Simulators to have some way of telling them apart other than mucking with the marketing version number (which you might want to be a nice clean looking 2.0 or something).


Can we open/run a file/executable in Finder using the keyboard? In Windows, we can select a file/executable in Explorer and on pressing Enter with the keyboard, the file/executable is opened. Is this feature available on Mac OS? In Finder, if a file/executable is selected with the mouse and then we press Enter, it wants to rename the file.

On macOS, to open the selected item, press:

Cmd + O (letter "o")
or: Cmd + ↓ (down arrow)

Alternatively, to Quick Look the selected item press:

Space
Then space again to close Quick Look.


How to determine what is causing Mac Pro to automatically log out and where to find logs of logout events? For the last week or so, I've been coming in to the office every morning to find my Mac Pro has logged itself out.

Mac Pro Late 2013
macOS Catalina Version 10.15.3 (19D76)

I have been randomly trying to disable/uninstall things that I thought might be causing the issue but so far no luck.

This morning, I thought that I had finally nailed it as when the screen came  up, it was just asking for the password as opposed to username and password as it has started doing since it started logging itself out. Turns out I had started working on a Microsoft Word document which I hadn't saved when I left for the day so that stopped the logout process in its tracks and I was greeted with:

All of the usual suspects are not the issue. E.g. I do NOT have 'automatically log out after x minutes' set. I do not have any energy saver settings that would log me out:

The user account settings also don't seem to have anything that would cause a logout:

In security and privacy, the "Require password after sleep or screen saver" is set to "immediately", and "Disable automatic login" is checked.

Most frustratingly about this whole endeavor is that after searching and grepping for longer than I'd care to admin, I absolutely can NOT find logs indicating who or what is causing the logout. Console.app is not helpful; searching though /var/log/ and /private/var/log both as regular user and root (via sudo -i) for things like "log out", "logged out", "logout" along with many variations thereof have yielded no help.

It seems like there should be a straightforward term and/or location where this info would be logged and I'm hoping I just can't figure out what it is.

I'm also certain that this is a logout and not a sleep/wake deal because the last 3 or so mornings when it has happened, all of the applications I had opened when I left for the day are closed and gone.

There have been no notable new software installations of note; but there was an OS update within the last week or so. Unfortunately I can not for sure be certain if this issue started immediately after running that update.

Where can I find out what is causing my machine to log itself out sometime between when I leave around 5pm EST and when I get back in the next morning around 9am EST? There should be logs that detail this basic info shouldn't there? In addition to where I might look, what would be good search terms to use to find these types of events? Obviously "logout, login, logged-out" etc. aren't doing the job (NB: grepping for these terms with case-sensitivity off).

More screenshots of searching for logout etc not helping:

And checking for software updates leads to nothing being available:

| => softwareupdate -l
Software Update Tool

Finding available software
No new software available.

Update:  just had a logout in the middle of the day: login[6335]: DEAD_PROCESS: 6335 ttys000

In your utilities folder, in your Applications folder, you'll find the console app. You can use this app to look at the system logs. The console app, when started looks like so:

There are several log files listed. I suggest you double-click on the system log and in the search box at top of window search for logout.


How do you force quit an application in iOS 7? In iOS 6 and below I could double tap the home button, tap and hold an app, and  click the red - to close an application(s).

In iOS 7 this does not work. How can I restart an app that's exploding without resetting the entire OS?

In iOS 7:

Double tap the home button
Scroll to the app you want to force quit
Flick up on the app's window.


Wet iPhone 4 doesn't know its IMEI and ICCID and displays connect to iTunes but lacks passcode Well, due to a bit of an accident, my iPhone 4 got wet. The bright side is that it seems to not have suffered CPU damage, since it still boots up fine. The downside? It displays the connect to iTunes screen, and doesn't know its IMEI and ICCID when the information icon is selected. Naturally, I connect the phone to iTunes, since that's what it wants. Unfortunately...

  iTunes could not connect to the iPhone "iPhone" because it is locked with a passcode. You must enter the passcode on the iPhone before it can be used with iTunes.

And naturally, there's no place to enter the passcode on the iPhone, as it continues to display the connect to iTunes screen. Now I suppose I could take it in to Apple, and they'd probably give me a replacement if I'm lucky (I hear water damage isn't covered), but I'd prefer to get this phone working again, since I haven't backed its photos and contacts up before. (I do know it still has those before when I go to the emergency call screen, it does display my normal photo background as the background). So any help?

I dropped mine into water shortly after buying it and I saw some weird behaviour too.  I figured that it was submerged for such a short time, less than a second, that not much water would have penetrated the case so that maybe the weird behaviour was down to some shorting that was happening in the dock connector and the headphone socket so I made sure these were clean and entirely dry.  I plugged a dock connector in and out lots of times and after a day or so the weird behaviour stopped.  You can also try putting the phone into a bag of rice which will dry out any residual moisture.  You could wrap it lightly in tissue paper to prevent any small pieces of rice from entering the body of the phone.


Windows File Sharing user checkbox uncheckable I seem to be unable to complete the setup of sharing a folder via SMB.  I have turned on file sharing and have checked 'Share files and folders using SMB' but I cannot choose a user account under the section called Windows File Sharing:

  Sharing files with some Windows computers requires storing the user's
  account password on this computer is a less secure manner.  When you
  enable Windows sharing for a user account, you must enter the password
  of that account.

I can see my computer on the network from another computer but I cannot access the file shares with this mac's username and password.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

This might help ... basically you need to create a "share-only" user on the Mac.

http://chriswrites.com/how-to-share-files-folders-between-the-mac-and-pc/


Rename the "Terminal" app in OSX Is there any way to rename the Terminal app?

When I try to rename it by right-clicking it, that option is greyed out.

Apple doesn't allow user to rename any app that comes with the O/S


OS X 10.9 - Home Directory for Share Only Account? I created a new Share Only user account but I am not able to find the home directory for this account in Finder, or under /Users.

I know for sure that the account was created correctly, because when I try to recreate the same Share Only Account, the system tells me that an account of this type already exists.

Where can I find the home directory for this specific account?

My other accounts (Standard User Account, Administrative User Account and Parental Control User Account) appear in the /Users directory.

Sharing Only accounts do not have home folders. Home folders are really only used during a local login session, and Sharing Only users cannot log in locally, there's no real point to having one.

If you want a Sharing Only account to have a their own private file storage location, create a folder (where doesn't really matter), use System Preferences -> Sharing pane -> File Sharing service to add it to the shared folder list, then set the owner to the Sharing account (and optionally limit access for other users).


If I delete photos/files why aren't they actually deleted? How come they can be recovered? I am trying to delete some photos from my daughter's Photos Library/Hard Drive. What I have done so far is that I have moved the photos to the trash and emptied it.

Now the problem is, deleted files/photos can be recovered using any Recovery Software out there in the market. (According to my husband)

I am confused. If someone deletes/erases a whole internal drive - how come the deleted files are recoverable?

My daughter’s computer is a 2014 iMac running El Capitan and it has a 500GB SATA hard drive.

Short answer

By moving a file to Trash and then emptying the trash, or by doing a quick format of a traditional hard drive (i.e. not a solid state drive), you're actually not deleting files. Instead, all you are doing is deleting the information about those files. This means the operating system has absolutely no idea those files exist, let alone where on the drive they exist.

Long answer

Okay, let me explain this by using an analogy.

Imagine you’re at a library and this particular library contains 100,000 books. All these books are indexed in the library’s catalog. This catalogue is accessible via a computer that allows you to search by title, author, date, etc. Most importantly, each index tells you exactly where that book is located. This makes it easy to find what you’re looking for when you need to. You simply conduct a search of the catalog and it’ll tell you exactly where that book is (i.e. what section, row, and shelf it’s sitting in).

One day, someone accidentally deletes the record of a particular book from the library’s catalogue. The book itself is still there, sitting in exactly the same spot. But no-one knows it’s there and/or where it is!

The next day, someone breaks in and steals the computer containing the library’s catalogue. All of the books are still there, but if you walked in and wanted to find a particular book about Steve Jobs, you’d have no idea if that book is in the library and, if so, where to find it!

Now imagine that your hard drive is that library. It contains 100,000 files (documents, photos, videos, music, etc).

When you move a file to the Trash and then empty it, it’s akin to someone accidentally deleting the record of a particular book from the library’s catalog.
When you erase a hard drive, that’s akin to someone stealing the library’s entire catalog.

So, using our analogy, the books are still on the shelves. They haven’t gone anywhere! But if you wanted to find that one book you’re looking for, well, you’d have absolutely no idea where to look.

Likewise when deleting files or erasing a hard drive. Your computer has no idea whatsoever what data is on that hard, or where it is. So, as a user, if you navigate around the hard drive you won’t see those files because your Mac isn’t aware of them and therefore isn’t displaying them. They effectively don’t exist.

But, if you were to use data recovery software, then that’s akin to a library hiring someone to go in and walk up and down every row of bookshelves and opening each and every book and taking notes of their titles, authors, location, etc. The data recovery software has no idea what’s on your hard drive initially, but it will interrogate every block of space to actually see what’s there and can then recover it. In other words, it’s making what’s already there visible again.

When you empty the trash or erase a hard drive and then start saving new files to your computer, over time macOS will just overwrite the previous data because it just doesn’t know there’s any data there. It just sees it as free space and therefore available to write new data over. That’s why recovering data is always more successful soon after you’ve deleted something, because there’s less chance it’s already been overwritten.

If you want to be fairly certain those intimate photos aren’t recoverable, you can:

Secure erase the hard drive (since you’re on El Capitan, read this question and its answers How to get the "securely erase" function of Disk Utility on El Capitan & Sierra)
Manually fill the empty space of the hard drive with other data, preferably large files (e.g. a whole heap videos) and then when it’s full, delete this files. In this way, the blocks containing the previous photos should be overwritten with other data.

IMPORTANT: If your daughter has Time Machine backups, then all those intimate photos will almost certainly be in those backups as well.

A final word...

Another option users can take is to encrypt their Mac startup drive. This will secure your data because everything on the disk is encrypted. If you delete files, these will be unrecoverable or, more to the point, they can be recovered, but they're encrypted and therefore inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have the right credentials (e.g. login password, recovery key).

For more info on how to use FileVault refer to: Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac.


Automated Deletion of Messages From OS X Mail Okay, so I know this is a tricky issue as OS X's Mail seemingly lacks the ability to automatically delete or archive old messages, even though it has the necessary date-based rules to do so.

As such, I'm currently using a smart folder to find all old messages (except in mailboxes I prefer to keep) so that I can periodically delete them by opening the smart folder, selecting everything and hitting delete.

This is a bit more convenient, but I'd still prefer the process to be automatic. Is there any way that I could have Mail, an Automator script, Applescript or something similar find old messages with some criteria (or use my smart mailbox) and delete them, so that I can schedule the process to run automatically?

Okay, so I've found a solution using AppleScript, it's a fairly big script but it's not actually all that complicated; it simply loops through the mailboxes of every count, skipping any specified in a list, and looks for read, undeleted messages older than the specified number of days.

 on run arguments
    # Don't run if Mail isn't open
    if application "Mail" is not running then return

    set defaultExpiryDays to 45
    set dryRun to true

    # Standard deleted message mailboxes, used to relocate mail when "deleted"
    set trashMailboxes to {"bin", "trash", "deleted messages", "deleted items"}

    # These mailboxes will be ignored (messages won't be processed)
    set ignoreTheseMailboxes to trashMailboxes & {"all mail", "archive", "archived", "drafts", "junk", "junk e-mail", "sent", "sent items", "sent messages", "spam"}

    set numberOfArguments to number of items in arguments
    if numberOfArguments is greater than 0 then
        set expiryDate to item 1 of arguments
        if number of arguments is greater than 1 then
            set ignoreTheseMailboxes to ignoreTheseMailboxes & rest of arguments
        end if
    else
        set expiryDate to defaultExpiryDays
    end if
    set expiryDate to (current date) - (expiryDate * days)

    set countdown to 10
    repeat while countdown is greater than 0
        try
            return processMail(expiryDate, ignoreTheseMailboxes, trashMailboxes, dryRun)
        on error number -1712
            set countdown to countdown - 1
        end try
    end repeat
    return "Communication with Mail timed out"
end run

on processMail(expiryDate, ignoreTheseMailboxes, trashMailboxes, dryRun)
    set messagesDeleted to 0
    set messagesMoved to 0

    set results to {}
    set newline to "
"

    tell application "Mail"
        set theAccounts to every account

        repeat with eachAccount in theAccounts
            set accountName to name of eachAccount
            set accountNameWritten to false
            set accountTrashMailbox to false

            set theMailboxes to every mailbox of eachAccount
            repeat with eachMailbox in theMailboxes
                set mailboxName to name of eachMailbox
                set mailboxNameWritten to false

                if ignoreTheseMailboxes does not contain mailboxName then
                    set theMessages to (every message of eachMailbox whose (deleted status is false) and (read status is true) and (date received is less than or equal to expiryDate))
                    set mailboxResults to {}
                    repeat with eachMessage in theMessages
                        try
                            if accountNameWritten is false then
                                set the end of mailboxResults to accountName
                                set accountNameWritten to true
                            end if
                            if mailboxNameWritten is false then
                                set the end of mailboxResults to "  " & mailboxName
                                set mailboxNameWritten to true
                            end if

                            # Find this account's trash mailbox (if we haven't already)
                            if accountTrashMailbox is false then
                                repeat with mailboxName in trashMailboxes
                                    set foundMailboxes to (every mailbox in eachAccount whose name is mailboxName)
                                    if number of items in foundMailboxes is greater than 0 then
                                        set accountTrashMailbox to first item of foundMailboxes
                                        exit repeat
                                    end if
                                end repeat
                                if accountTrashMailbox is false then set accountTrashMailbox to missing value
                            end if

                            if accountTrashMailbox is not missing value then
                                set the end of mailboxResults to "      Moved:  " & (subject of eachMessage)
                                if not dryRun then move eachMessage to accountTrashMailbox
                                set messagesMoved to messagesMoved + 1
                            else
                                set the end of mailboxResults to "      Deleted:    " & (subject of eachMessage)
                                if not dryRun then delete eachMessage
                                set messagesDeleted to messagesDeleted + 1
                            end if
                        end try
                    end repeat

                    if number of items in mailboxResults is greater than 0 then
                        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to newline
                        set end of results to mailboxResults as rich text
                    end if
                end if
            end repeat
        end repeat
    end tell

    set messagesMatches to messagesDeleted + messagesMoved
    if messagesMatches is greater than 0 then
        set statistics to {}
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
        if messagesDeleted is greater than 0 then
            set the end of statistics to (messagesDeleted & " message(s) deleted") as text
        end if
        if messagesMoved is greater than 0 then
            set the end of statistics to (messagesMoved & " message(s) moved") as text
        end if

        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ", "
        set the end of results to (statistics as text)
    else
        set the end of results to "No messages were deleted."
    end if

    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to newline
    return results as text
end processMail

The script deletes messages by locating an account's trash folder (if it has one) and moving them, which is a very slow process if it has a lot of e-mails to move initially, however it prevents the need to rescan. It will only use the regular delete option if it can't determine the trash folder (i.e - didn't find one from the names in trashMailboxes), while this is faster it may result in messages being reprocessed if the script is run frequently (e.g - daily).

To configure the script's setting you can change defaultExpiryDays to the number of days of e-mail to keep, everything older and read is deleted. The dryRun setting is set initially to true, which means the script will report matches but won't actually delete or move anything, once you're happy the script is matching the e-mails you expect it to then you can set this false.

The trashMailboxes lists the mailbox names that the script will move e-mail to if found for an account. The ignoreTheseMailboxes list contains mailboxes that shouldn't be processed, and covers most common ones, including folders that Mail's normal mailbox behaviours should cover already.

The script can be run by anything that can trigger an AppleScript, such as iCal, in which case it will use its defaults. It can also be triggered via a shell script or launchd using a command such as osascript /path/to/script.scpt, which will likewise use the defaults, or you can specify additional arguments in which case the first is the number of days to keep, and any further arguments are additional mailboxes to skip, for example osascript /path/to/script.scpt 14 foo bar will keep the last two weeks worth of read e-mails, and will skip any mailboxes named "foo" or "bar" in addition to the defaults.

If you want to automate the process with launchd then you can create a file under ~/Library/LaunchAgents with the extension .plist, and contents such as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.example.Mail.Clean</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>~/path/to/script.scpt</string>
        <string>45</string>
    </array>
    <key>EnableGlobbing</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>15</integer>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>13</integer>
        <key>Weekday</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Which will keep 45 days worth of e-mails, and will run every Sunday at 1:15pm (remember to set the path to your script under program arguments!).

Once saved the launch agent will then load either next time your shutdown/restart, or you can run launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/agent.plist with the correct name for your plist file.


rails error on macos mojave 10.14.5: config/load_config.rb:5:in `require': cannot load such file -- configurate (LoadError) Im trying to install ruby and rails on macos using rbenv.

On running rails new myapp and rails -v

it gives error:

5: from bin/rails:8:in `<main>'
4: from bin/rails:8:in `require_relative'
3: from /Users/jagtarsingh/config/boot.rb:8:in `<top (required)>'
2: from /Users/jagtarsingh/config/boot.rb:8:in `require_relative'
1: from /Users/jagtarsingh/config/load_config.rb:5:in `<top (required)>'/Users/jagtarsingh/config/load_config.rb:5:in `require': cannot load such file -- configurate (LoadError)

Im following these sources

http://guides.railsgirls.com/install#setup-for-os-x
https://gorails.com/setup/osx/10.14-mojave

I don't have a good search term that can help me figure out this error. Where might I start to research or diagnose this?

That guide is very polished and super close to getting you an install, but I fear it isn't sufficient to get rails running.

The two things I've been able to reproduce is the rbenv isn't calling the proper version of gem to get rails installed and even after you rehash things, rails is still being called from /usr/bin and not where homebrew and rbenv are stashing the non-system version of these tools.

To check which location in your PATH the key tools are being called:

which ruby gem rails rbenv

On a clean system, you would see this:

$ which ruby gem rails rbenv
/usr/bin/ruby
/usr/bin/gem
/usr/bin/rails

After following that instructions, your gem is still not calling the /usr/local version so you're installing rails against the system framework and not the intended one. I don't have a full solution yet, but this might help someone that knows how to search for the gem command to get us both other this error in the install guide and not have to pick apart the scripts to figure what other steps are needed.


AirDrop between WiFi networks I have a Fritzbox acting as WiFi Access point and handing my home DSL connection, DHCP etc. I also have an Airport Extreme connected via network cable to the Fritzbox, only creating a Wireless network.

The wireless networks on both the FritzBox an Airport have the same SSID, password etc. I can only see one WiFi network SSID when I search for available WiFi networks.

This appears to work okay, however I haven't figure a way to Airdrop from my phone which is often connected to the Fritzbox WiFi network, and my Mac which connects to the Airport WiFi network (due to location in the house).

Is there a way to set this up so Airdrop (and probably bonjour?) can see devices on both WiFi networks?

Basically, you need to establish a permanent wired Ethernet connection from one of the LAN ports on the FritzBox to the WAN port on the AirPort Extreme.

Then, configure the AirPort Extreme to create a wireless network using the same wireless network name, same wireless security settings and same password as the Fritzbox router.

The last step to check would be to make sure that the AirPort Extreme is configured to operate in Bridge Mode, so it will function correctly on the network.

From https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5152388?tstart=0

If you've already done all this, make sure that your cables are good and everything.  If all else fails, try turning it off and on again


How to reset iMac to factory defaults? I want to sell my iMac (2011) and I want to reset the system and remove all my data. I tried the Command-R method. It wants me to enter my Apple ID and password but I don't want to do this! I want to pre-install the fresh OS X and let the new user finish the set up as he would after buying a new iMac (enter/create his own Apple id, time zone, etc.).

Any ideas how I can do this?

Based on this answer and personal experience with a Yosemite iMac I recommend

Hold ⌘+R during boot to boot to recovery console.
Use Disk tool to erase main partition.
Exit disk tool, launch system reinstallation instead.

I was very surprised that skipping step 2 I ended up with a fresh install which nevertheless contained the account I had on the machine before. Not factory default.

The disk erase step allows choosing the tradeoff between speed and security. So if you have personal data on the machine, better do a slow but thorough erase there.


Install Ubuntu on Yosemite - no detected operating system I have a 2012 MBP running Yosemite and a Live CD of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. It runs fine, but when I get to the install part it only gives me options to delete the hard disk (no operating system detected) or something else (which im not comfortable with).

I've googled for hours and still am no where. Has anyone had this issue/know how to get around it?

You have to have a hard drive partition that is formatted in the way Ubuntu uses. You can't do that using Yosemite so you will have to do it via the live cd using the disk utility. A nice guide can be found here -> http://www.ubuntulinuxguide.com/ubuntu-1204-lts/hard-disk-partition/


Upgrading RAM/HDD in latest MBP I planning to buy a 13 inch MBP this month. Is it a good idea to stick to the standard 4GB of ram and 500GB harddrive, and upgrade it myself to 8GB/1TB? This would save me about $350. I have experience opening/repairing laptops, but I never had a MBP.. would this void my warranty?

that's an excellent idea. Apple clearly overprices hardware upgrades.
And don't worry, it's super-easy to do (be sure to buy a Philips #00 and a T6 torx screwdriver) and it doesn't void your warranty!
for detailed step-by-step guides you can go to ifixit.com .


Macbook Pro: Yosemite crashing all the time I just bought a brand new Macbook Pro 15 Retina Mid 2014 and it comes with Yosemite.

yesterday the Contacts app was crashing and refusing to open and giving me the following error: Contacts quit unexpectedly with a long description of the error.

Today the contacts problem is gone but I can't open iTunes, when i do it opens normally but if I tried to do anything it tells me can't find server even though the internet connection is perfect and working, then after few minutes it quits and tells me: iTunes quit unexpectedly with a long description too.

I tried to update Yosemite to 10.10.3 but it fails all the time.

What can I do ? is this normal ?

The first two things I try when running into mysterious OSX problems is "Repair Permissions" and "Repair Disk". After that, reset your SMC and reset your PRAM. Like so...

In OSX, open Disk Utility (⌘ + Space and then type "Disk Utility")
Select your OSX partition on the left, on the right, click "Repair Disk Permissions"
When that is finished, click on "Repair Disk". If that is greyed out, select "Verify Disk" instead.
To reset SMC, shut down your Mac and connect it to power. While it is turned off, on the left side your keyboard press Shift + Control + Option + Power
You might not see anything happen at all. That's normal.
Next, reset PRAM. Turn on the computer and VERY QUICKLY press and HOLD Command (⌘) + Option + P + R (this takes two hands usually)
Wait until your computer does the restart ding a couple of times, and then release the keys. Let it finish booting.

At this point, any weird issues should be fixed. If you still have problems, you may need to reinstall OSX. If you still have problems after that, you have a hardware issue and need to take the computer to Apple for evaluation and repair.


Is there a way to use the Intel GPU when running Windows 7 from Bootcamp? Alright, so the problem I'm currently facing is that when I run Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro (Early 2011, 15" 2.2GHz CPU) with OS X 10.8,

I used Bootcamp 5 to install Windows 7.

Windows does not recognize the Intel HD graphics 3000 GPU but it does with my second GPU AMD Radeon HD 6750M.

The Error is:

  "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing
  the software."

I tired following without success:

I downloaded all of the drivers I would require for me, and moved
them to my flash drive. Contained on that flash drive is the driver
for the Intel Graphics chip, though when I run the setup it displays:
"This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing
the software."
Also, I have tried to add the hardware from Device Manager with no
luck. I just find it hard to believe that apple would supply the
driver, but not allow access to the Intel GPU.
Resetting PRAM and SMC has no impact.

This accepted answer is no longer correct for newer models. Newer Macs don't let you use the Intel Graphics Card on Windows. Here is a thread with explanations and a really complicated workaround.

For older Macs:

Let's start with this from Intel.

Then go here and select the right driver.

 EDIT: Since we still have the problem lets go back to BASICS:

What do I need to install Windows 7?

This table shows the required Bootcamp version.

Try removing application receipts:

If you're reinstalling an application or updating an existing one, try removing the application's receipts. Look for any receipts that bear the name of the application in the the Receipts folder inside of the main Library folder (/Library/Receipts) and move them elsewhere. Then try installing or updating your software again.


How to periodically show alert message *in foreground*? I want to have an alert / dialog box to fire up periodically in foreground.

I tried a combination of AppleScript and launchd and managed to have the script (actually converted to a app) fired up periodically via launchd. However, the alert box does not show up in front of all other windows (rather totally hidden until I tab to it – though it does get started via launchd). How can I get it in front?

My script is as follows:

on run
    activate me --> tried to get alert in foreground
                --> didn't help, though
    display alert "Should show up in foreground..."
end run

My launch.plist is (in /Users/bernhard/Library/LaunchAgents/):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>bernhard.sitstraight.plist</string>

    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Users/bernhard/programming/periodic.app/Contents/MacOS/applet</string>

    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>

    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>1200</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Try using open instead of launching the program directly. open more closely matches double-clicking to launch the AppleScript application.

open your application

To do this, replace the Program key value pair in your launchd job ticket with a ProgramArguments array to provide the path to your AppleScript application:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/usr/bin/open</string>
    <string>/Users/bernhard/programming/periodic.app</string>
</array>

By default, the open command attempts to bring the launched application to foreground.


Will iTunes Match organize my local files? Today I organized some of my songs/albums on my Macbook Pro while I was at work. My main/local files are on my PC at home which is also connected to Match.

After organizing songs in the cloud, will that sync down to my local PC files and organize them there?

I think if you organize in iCloud this will organize in iCloud in your PC. This is normal to do, but for you want that this organize the local files in the pc you need to go to the preferences and enable the option to keep your directory organized! :)


Sierra Asks to Set Up Mac Each Boot Since upgrading to Sierra, every reboot OSX asks me to set up Siri then says "setting up mac".

How do I stop this?  It seems to be blowing away my KeyRepeat settings in NSGlobalDomain

Hold Control+Shift+Option and press the power button.  Release and power on normally.  This works... surprisingly


iPhone 4s not connecting to the Internet using the sim and heating up in standby I purchased an iPhone 4s on eBay. The phone is as if permanently locked in 'Searching... ' mode (the top left hand corner of the display). The phone is not connecting to the Internet, or the WiFi, and neither does it seem to connect to phone services through the SIM card inserted. And while the phone is in this state, it is heating up on the right-hand side, with display facing upwards, and gets drained of battery in about 40 minutes, even when it is in standby mode.

I have replaced the battery, and then the antenna, but to no avail.

What could be the problem? Please help!

The next things to replaced once you've replaced the antenna and the battery are to double check the wires and connection points and then replace the logic board which contains both the cellular chip and the firmware/software to run that part of the system.

Field test mode might also let you know what signal levels are being reported/measured and compare them with other iPhone 4S if you have them handy.

iPhone 4 has 3G connectivity but can't access internet
iPhone field test instructions


OSX “Microsoft Remote Desktop (MSRD)” redefine shortcut not works Typically on OSX remaping of keyboard shortcuts works well.

In "Microsoft Remote Desktop (MSRD)" it works well too but previous keystrokes still exist:

OSX > System Preferences > Keyboard > App Shortcuts > Add
Application: "Microsoft Remote Desktop"
Menu Title: "Close Connection"
Keyboard Shortcut: "Alt+Shift+W"

I can close with Alt+Shift+W and also with the default Cmd+W.

This is not OSX default behaviour so I think it is BUG.

Does anybody have a solution?

I think it's a bug too.

As it has 2 versions of Close, both Close Connection & just Close [when there's no window open] I thought adding both those as key commands would do it - but no,  Cmd ⌘   W   still closes the connection.


Sleeping Apple Devices Responding to ARP Requests for the Default Gateway Hoping to get some insight regarding a bizarre issue that is being seen at a few of our networks, as well as others (based off reddit and NANOG posts). The short story of what is happening is that Apple devices (primarily MacBooks as well as some iMacs) that are sleeping will hijack the default gateway IP for the wireless VLAN that they are in, as well as responding to ARP requests asking who the default gateway is. This behavior makes the AP's log a message "CAPWAP detected next hop MAC changed from correct_DG_mac_address to apple_mac_address."

We have tickets open with Cisco who is blaming Apple, and Apple who is stating we need logs that are utterly impossible to get as we cannot recreate this behavior. Apples current workaround? Push out a script to completely disable sleep on all Apple devices.

More specifics:

This is only affecting 3802i WAPs that are in flexconnect mode, and
we are seeing this at multiple sites, on two different wireless
controllers. The 3802i's do not reboot - they lose connectivity,
recover, repeat.
Wireless subnets are generally as large as /20 and contain the AP's
as well as all clients. We plan to move AP's to a different subnet as
a test, but we are hesitant due to the fact that if AP's no longer
log the CAPWAP message/drop from Prime - then we will not know when
this behavior occurs making it harder to track.
The ARP entry on the switches NEVER changes. For this reason, I
believe DAI/DHCP snooping would not be an effective solution as I've
seen others suggest.
We think this behavior may be related to sleep proxy that can we seen
with out of the box Apple TV's, but have yet to prove that.

My question is - has anyone ran into this type of behavior before. In addition, does anyone have any suggestions as far as how to remedy this behavior so it no longer occurs?

We've been experiencing this issue and we're running Cisco 3802 Flex Connect with a WLC 8500.

We are going to attempt DIA This weekend but from both Cisco and Apple they are saying there isn't much we can do. Cisco is saying they will have a patch for the Wireless Controller to introduce ARP security for this in about a month and Apple won't release to the public what is the issue or when their patch would be out to fix it.

Some Options that have been floated to us as a Temp Solution
-- Downgrade the WLC to 8.2 from the current recommended version 8.5.140
-- Upgrade the WLC to 8.5.140.11 a special release not provided without support consent that will require DHCP reassociation on every device when roaming. Not a great Trade off.
-- Remove Flex Connect and re design your WLAN to Central which would tunnel the ARP traffic to the WLC and use built in security for ARP protection. "We are not going to do this"

What we will be trying!
Enable DIA on the Switching platform and log the drops. The hope is if this is from a sleeping Macbook then the getting dropped won't matter and we'll see some kind of containment.

This is our last option.


iPhone 4 dropped in the toilet briefly and now it won't turn on or be recognized by my computer I dropped my iPhone 4 in the toilet for literally 3 seconds, dried it off with a towel, and it was actually lit up and working, so I thought I had just cheated my poor phone's death when all of a sudden it went black. It continued to vibrate when receiving messages and then began to vibrate every few seconds until it stopped working completely. I quickly put it in a bag of rice and the liquid indicating sensors don't seem to be activated but it still won't respond or be recognized by my computer. Is it time to give up or should I be patient and give it more time? If so, how long is long enough to know that it has reached the point of no return?

The liquid sensors are only there to determine if the device is still good for warranty, they're placed in strategic spots where the Apple so-called "geniuses" can quickly look and tell you that your device isn't eligible for warranty anymore (even if your problem happens to have obviously nothing to do with water damage).

In fact, the places where the liquid sensors are located on your device (dock and headphone connector) aren't that vulnerable to water and you can usually wipe whatever liquid is in them and the device would still work. This has changed with the iPhone 5 though, and the liquid contact indicator is now inside the SIM tray, which is tightly closed and water is unlikely to get inside accidentally (you'd need to completely submerge the device, in which case it'll completely kill it).

If you happen to be lucky and your device is still under warranty I suggest you go to an Apple Store, you'll get it replaced immediately.


Transfer disk image from one MacBook Air to another I'd like to migrate into a new MacBook Air I bought this week, from the previous version of MacBook Air. SSD size is the same.

Can I somehow image my older SSD and "move" it to the new SSD?

If both MacBook Airs have Thunderbolt, the easiest way would be to use Migration Assistant over Thunderbolt:

Get a Thunderbolt cable (borrow or buy).
Boot the old Air into Target Disk Mode (hold down T while booting).
Connect the MacBook Airs via the Thunderbolt cable.
On initial boot of the new Air, you'll have the option of using Migration Assistant off another Mac.
Select the types of items you want to copy.
Wait while Migration Assistant does its magic.
Et voilà, your new Air is just like your old one except newer and faster.


Using a macbook pro keyboard for developing software. Typing square brackets and curly braces Recently, I replaced my Windows laptop with a MacBook Pro. I'm very happy that I've made the choice to switch to OS X. It's indeed very user friendly. I've noticed that when you press a key on your keyboard longer than normal that you can choose different variants (with accents and things like that). As a student in electronics engineering I need te curly braces {} and sqaure brackets[] often. Can I change the way that the ( and ) keys work and add the square brackets and curly braces to it so they appear as an option when pressing the () keys?

Edit: (I know I can type them by using option and option and shift key, but I find the little popup menu very nice feature)...
Edit 2: If this is possible, I definitely want to add the ohm sign, and other symbols that I use on a regular base...

Navigate to /System/Library/Input Methods/PressAndHold.app/Contents/PlugIns/PAH_Extension.appex/Contents/Resources/.
  Make a backup of the relevant keyboard file for your locale. In my case, this is Keyboard-en.plist or Keyboard-en_GB.plist.
  Add custom characters or change the characters that you wish, then save the file.
  Log out and back in for the changes to take effect in all apps.

For example, you can add the following:

<!-- language: xml -->

    <key>Roman-Accent-0</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Direction</key>
        <string>right</string>
        <key>Keycaps</key>
        <string>{ [</string>
        <key>Strings</key>
        <string>{ [</string>
    </dict>

Files in /System are protected by System Integrity Protection. If you wish to edit the file, you will need to disable this if you haven't done so already.

  To disable System Integrity Protection, you can do the following:

  Boot into the Recovery HD by restarting whilst holding ⌘R.
  Open Terminal (from the Utilities menu).
  Run the following command in Terminal:

csrutil disable

  Restart.

Disable OS X El Capitan Rootless and permit write actions to System Integrity Protection locations

You can re-enable it once you've edited the file.


SMB share deadlocks since High Sierra Probably even since some very recent macOS update i'm experiencing quite frequent crashes of SMB connections i use which run on Windows Server 2016 on a local vmWare Fusion machine.

Performance is normally absolutely fine but especially when i'm copying or creating new Files the folder listing blanks out and i get the beach ball. Finder is completely unresponsive and also trying to force umount via Terminal is of no help. Can't properly shut down so only a hard reboot is left to do.

I've tried mounting alternatively via cifs:// instead of smb:// but no luck (except slower performance) and also seen this happen the day before on a colleagues MBP.

Pretty much the same as someone reported back when Yosemite arrived. No answer here as well. Older quite similar question:
Samba issues (deadlocks and instability) in OSX 10.10.1?

I can find many similar error descriptions on various older posts in the apple discussion forums but none ever had any solution.

Tried this (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208317) as well but didn't make any difference.

So trying here, anyone seen this behavior and knows how to get this fixed?

UPDATE January 12th, 2018:

Some new suspicion. I have a lowered MTU size configured due to a static VPN in the network to MS Azure cloud machines. I recently lowered the MTU even further down to 1400. After that i was experiencing Kernel Panics on the WiFi device instead of the SMB deadlocks. After raising MTU back to 1472 the Kernel Panics stopped and the SMB deadlocks returned. Now i've reset the MTU to the default of 1500. So far no more deadlocks or Panics, but it's been only a couple of hours with that change.

UPDATE January 23rd, 2018:

[default]
streams=yes
soft=yes
signing_required=no
protocol_vers_map=2
file_ids_off=yes

Is my final /etc/nsmb.conf which resulted in stable usage of SMB shares for over a week now.

Got a workaround that worked in our organization.
This changes for macOS the SMB behavior to v2.
Changed the following setting in the /etc/nsmb.con file.

#!/bin/sh

echo "[default]" >> /etc/nsmb.conf
echo "protocol_vers_map=2" >> /etc/nsmb.conf

exit 0


Where does Apple announce upcoming press events? Most tech news web sites publish stories a few days before upcoming Apple hardware/software announcment press events.

How do they know that there will be a press event?
I couldn't find that information on Apples web site.

Information about an invitation-only press event isn't posted to the Apple website in advance  Those who are invited to the press event receive email invitations; those who aren't invited just report that there is a press event because they've seen the reports elsewhere.  The announcements that are made at the invitation-only press event will be posted in a press release after the event.

Apple rarely announces hardware or software outside of invitation-only press events.  One exception is their annual Worldwide Developer Conference, which starts off with a keynote address that is attended both by the developers who paid for the conference, as well as invited members of the press.  This keynote address includes announcements of new hardware, software, and operating systems.  It is the only part of WWDC which is publicly available and not covered by a non-disclosure agreement.

Apple will occasionally simply update a product with no event at all, such as the recent iPad update.  In this case, they simply drop a press release and let it make its way out into the world.


MacBook Pro 2016 + 4K 60Hz display maxes out at 30Hz Hardware:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016) \w Radeon Pro 460 on Sierra 10.12.2
IOGEAR USB-C Docking Station with Power Delivery
DisplayPort 1.2a cable
BenQ BL3201PT display (4K@60Hz via DisplayPort supported)

Expectation:

Display can always run in 4K@60Hz as a single screen (mirrored to internal display).

Reality:

Initially (every startup/boot) the display did not get a signal, while the MBP recognized the display as if it was functioning correctly. In that situation, repeatedly sleeping/unsleeping the computer served well in order for the display to receive signal and run 4K@60Hz. But as of late, it went straight to 4K 30hz mode (without other problems) and I have not been able to get 4k 60hz mode out of it ever since. Highest frequency supported via 4K in the display menu is 30hz.

What I have tried:

Installed SwitchResX and tried forcing 4K@60Hz, yet it says it was a 'possibly invalid' configuration that it cannot handle.
Connected a direct power source to the MBP in order to rule out possibility of the docking station not having enough power to drive the monitor.
Reset NVRAM
Reset SMC

Further information:

I have never owned a MBP nor any Apple computer before, so I might be overlooking something. Out of frustration I ordered a direct DisplayPort to USB-C cable which is due in a week, but unsure whether that will solve the problem. Your help is much appreciated!

I assume you have 2 GPU's in that MBP- try this util and see if enforcing to run on NVIDIA/AMD instead of INTEL helps:

https://gfx.io and check if it's displaying a little d or i letter in menubar.

i - means integrated GPU.
d — means discrete higher-powered GPU. I got a 2012 1st retina MBP and the integrate GPU is bad, slow and unusable with 2880x1440, so I doubt it even could be connected to a 4K screen. Good news is there is also the d discrecte GPU that is either one of AMD or NVIDIA mobile powerhorses and they are quite good.

So, first try to switch from one to another and see if anything changes.
I don't know the new MBP specs, but I am almost certain that you got some kind of integrated/discrete GPU combo. I had similiar issues when the first retina come out in 2012- soo im not sure if the new MBP runs also some kind of hybrid intel/amd or intel/nvidia- but nothing else would make sense ;)

Try one of those utils then, swap resolutions, fiddle with configs.

RDM freeware
Resolutionator paid app
QuckRes paid app

You can manually enforce screen options -check my other answer here to ~ related ~ issue, but let's keep things simple first.

Cycle (disconnect/connect) your screen and post the output of sudo dmesg immediately after cycling somewhere (pastebin,.. etc.) We can check what it says about your screen, swapt the resolution etc. a few times and see if you can see anything in the log (openup console) about errors etc.

Then do:
defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist
Post the output of the command above- but take out any device serial numbers first.

You can also gather all diagnostic info about your mbp with:
sudo sysdiagnose -f ~/Desktop/, then selectively post the info
about your system and especially graphics/screens config to http://pastebin.com/ or gist or whatever.

Forgot to ask, are you familiar with *nix/bsd or linux?

Important! Don't forget to delete private information before you post anything anywhere, anything like your device serial number, ip, mac address, user names, login, mail etc. that can be used by someone else.


How do I wipe the hd on an old iMac that is pretty well bricked? I have an old iMac that I got probably sometime in 2000. It's the kind that has a big old CRT monitor built into it, so I dare not take it apart myself. I haven't used it in a very long time, but it has been taking up valuable space for a while. I don't think there is anything sensitive on the hard drive, but I want to wipe it to be sure. After plugging it in again I've discovered that the level of difficulty is as follows:

A long time ago, around 2004 I think, I tried to install ubuntu on it. This was a failure, but I can't remember why. The practical effect of this is that the old OS will not boot when powered on.
There is no firewire port.
I burned to cd a program that would wipe the HD on boot up, but the cd drive will not accept any disk. It is unknown if there is already a disk in there. I've tried several methods of removing a stuck disk and while they produced a lot of mechanical noises from the drive, no disk was ejected. Probing with a paperclip gives the impression there is something blocking the slot on the inside.
When I power it on now the screen flickers continuously in a way that makes me nervous.

Has anyone had a similar experience, or know of another way to get at the HD?

Or is this a Kobayashi Maru scenario?

I would suggest, that assuming you can physically--and safely(!), taking note of the comment about voltages and CRTs--removing the hard drive and taking it apart. Most times you can get the actual platters/discs out without too much trouble and carefully smash them. Most are, I think, a metal coating on glass of some sort, so watch splinters wear eye protection, etc. This can be easier than smashing the metal case of the hard drive which might not actually destroy the platter(s).


How to get RFID scanner to connect to MacOS I am using a RFID scanner: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1857525758.html

This scanner connects via USB to Windows and Rasbian without special firmware. When I plug it into my Mac, however, it lights up, but does not scan RFID tags.

It is detected in the system information, which displays:

IC Reader:

  Product ID:   0x0035
  Vendor ID:    0xffff
  Version:  1.00
  Serial Number:    08FF20171101
  Speed:    Up to 12 Mb/sec
  Manufacturer: IC Reader
  Location ID:  0x14100000 / 28
  Current Available (mA):   500
  Current Required (mA):    200
  Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Because MacOS is Unix-based, I assumed it work the same on the system. Does anyone know how to get the RFID scanner to connect to my Mac?

I have a scanner that looks exactly the same and works perfectly on Mac.

Essentially this device works like a USB keyboard, and thus requires no special operating system or driver support.

The device is NOT supposed to show up in The Finder sidebar, contrary to other suggestions here.

To test the device, open Notes, TextEdit or similar app - then scan a tag with the scanner. The number should show up (make sure you can enter numbers with your normal keyboard - i.e. a text input area needs to be in focus).

If it doesn’t work it can be an issue with the port, cable or similar. Check System Report to see if the device is reported as connected on the USB bus.

Update: After you have added the USB information from System Report to your question, it is clear that the hardware you have is a non-standards compliant "China clone" (for example the vendor code is 0xffff), which does seem to be USB HID, but not emulating a keyboard.

In this case, you will need a driver. It seems multiple people have had problems getting this device working on Linux, and someone used a lot of time reverse engineering the Windows program supplied with the device, as the manufacturer is obviously not interested. You can download the Linux software here:

https://github.com/merbanan/rfid_app
https://github.com/Simpleyyt/libfunction_so_usb

It uses libusb so it can probably be compiled and works on a Mac as well. I haven't tried though, as I haven't got the exact device you have.


Is there an equivalent to Problem Step Recorder (PSR) for OS X? Possible Duplicate:
  Is there an equivalent to the Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder on MacOSX?

I would like to find an application that reproduces the functionality of PSR on OS X as closely as possible. Thank you.

Having only become aware of PSR from this post and some minor sleuthing, I can't speak to it's full functionality.  The main task of screen recording can be accommodated by using Quicktime (this example has a few unnecessary steps at the beginning but you'll ge the idea.)  If you need additional diagnostic information from log files, point the user to the Console application in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

If there's additional functionality I didn't glean that you require, please let us know!


Symantec alerted an attack: OSX Apple File Print Remote BO from TimeMachine Symantec Endpoint Protection reported that there are attacks from my TimeMachine with Attack Name:

  OS X Apple File Print Remote BO

The attack happens at least twice a week. From Symantec documentation, it only happens in old Mac OS X only (Mac OS X 10.3 or below). Is this a false alarm?

Versions:

Mac OS X Sierra 10.12.3 (iMac 21.5-inch, Late 2013 model)
Symantec Endpoint Protection for Mac 12.1.6 (12.1 RU6 MU6) build 7061 (12.1.7061.6600)
Virus and Spyware Protection Definitions: Friday, 17 March 2017 r8
Network Threat Protection Definitions: Thursday, 16 March 2017 r001

It's not necessarily a false alarm - the endpoint protection application is just looking for a packet that's addressed to a certain port and formed a certain way.

192.168.200.248 is a Time Machine device, so it very well could just be talking in a way that the EP program doesn't like, but it is possible, albeit very unlikely, that the time machine is compromised being used by an attacker as a foothold into your network. Are you getting any other alerts? If not, I think you can write this off as nonsense. Especially given the age of the vulnerability.

(Network security is great for ramping up your paranoia...)

In any case, even if you didn't have the endpoint protection, it's not a danger to you. This bug was fixed back in 2004 - no system from the last decade is even vulnerable to it.


SMS Message doesn't state it has been sent I have an iPhone 4, sometimes I get the green sms bubble and sometimes an iMessage bubble.  At times it states sent as text message and sometimes it doesn't.  When it doesn't does that mean the message has been sent out?

When the bubble is blue, the message is send as an iMessage. If it turn green, it is send as a regular SMS.

The iMessages have a build in delivery report and is will tell you tings like 'delivered' or 'read' when the message gets delivered/read.

However, a regular SMS doesn't provide these options, so you'll have to install some 3th party software to get this kind of feedback. So you have to trust your provider to make sure your message gets delivered.
If you have jailbroken your device, there is an SMS Delivery Report repository in Cydia.

If you don't like your iMessages to be sent as a regular text, you can simply turn this feature off in the Settings < Messages < Send As SMS