One hookup docking station / port replicator They just got me (my very first ever) macbook pro at work.  I am really digging it thus far. One thing I would really like to do is "dock it" to my existing rig.. two dvi displays, keyboard, mouse, etc.

I know apple doesn't do docking stations so I was wondering what my options are?  So far it looks like I am going to have to plug and unplug up to 4 cables to accommodate my setup.  This is totally a pain.  I dock and undock my current laptop up to 5 times a day.  I don't want to have to mess will all these wires every time.  I thought apple was antiwire?

Ideally what I would like is:
One cable (thunderbolt?) that goes to a box that has two high resolution ports for displays (dvi, hdmi, displayport, etc) and a few usb ports for my keyboard, mouse, and other miscellaneous stuff.

I don't suppose that could also power my macbook?  If not, then I will just have to live with two cables I suppose.

So far I can only find these "boxes" with just one hi-res port.

There are few docking solutions available for MacBooks:

Belkin Thunderbolt™ Express Dock
Belkin USB 3.0 Universal Docking Station with Dual DVI
Henge Docks' Horizontal Dock *preorder
Zenboxx Zendock *kickstarter
LandingZone

There are probably few more options that were not listed above.

More info on Thunderbolt ports and displays: Frequently asked questions (FAQ)


Mac OS X 10.8.4 cacerts default password Yesterday I upgraded my Mac to Mac OS X 10.8.4, along with it came an update of the Java JRE (version 1.6.0_45). I want to add a certain CA to the list of trusted CAs by issuing

sudo keytool -keystore /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/security/cacerts -alias mycertificate -import -file the-ca-certificate.der

I am prompted to enter the keystore password. Until the day before yesterday the default keystore password was "changeit", but now "changeit" won't work anymore. I tried to find information about the changed default password with google, but no success.

Does someone of you know the new default password for the system wide Java keystore on Mac OS X 10.8.4 with Java 1.6.0_45?

Also ensure that it is not the SUDO password being asked for.


Buyer information provided by Apple to Vendor for AppStore purchases Since I'm not currently selling anything in the apple appstore it would be nice if someone  who does could help me out with some details on the information Apple provides to the developer about the people purchasing your apps in the Mac/iOS Appstore. Do you get any personal information like the email address?

I'm asking this because I'm working on a multi platform SaaS solution and I'm evaluating if I the appstore(s) could be integrated into my own account management as just an alternative payment method.

Apple provide no uniquely identifying customer information for App store app purchases to developers.  iOS Developers only get a count of the number purchases per day/week/month for each country in which the app is enabled for sale.


Is there a keyboard shortcut to move cursor one word at a time in Terminal? I love CMD-Ö and CMD-Ä (in German keyboards). Navigating through tabs is intuitive and comfortable.

But navigating through a command already typed into the terminals a pain in the ... - especially when the command is long. Trying to modify a command - may be correcting a spelling or adding an option flag or something - takes ages, because I have to navigate by cursor and it jumps only several positions per second.

On Linux machines you can hold some keys pressed to jump whole words and such. That is much faster. Is it possible to do that on a Terminal of Mac, too?

ESC and then B moves back one word
ESC and then F moves forward one word

You can change the terminal settings to more sane shortcuts like ALT +  B and such: here's a link on how to do that http://blog.macromates.com/2006/word-movement-in-terminal/


Draw a Pie and Bar Chart in Numbers Hello I am trying to learn numbers.

I have this table

| ------- | ----------- |
| Person  | Status      |
| ------- | ----------- |
| John    | Not Started |
| ------- | ----------- |
| Gary    | Started     |
| ------- | ----------- |
| Susan   | Completed   |
| ------- | ----------- |
| Peter   | Not Started |
| ------- | ----------- |
| Henry   | Completed   |
| ------- | ----------- |
| Igor    | Started     |
| ------- | ----------- |
| Adam    | Not Started |
| ------- | ----------- |
| arthur  | Started     |
| ------- | ----------- |

I want to plot a pie chart which shows the percentage of people who have Not started, started and completed respectively. (started 37.5, not started 37.5 and completed 25)

I also want to plot a bar chart which shows the number of people against their respective status. (started 3, not started 3, completed 2)

Every time I select the table above and try to plot a chart it just draws a solid blue circle with names of all people on top. and an empty bar graph with names of people on x-axis.

Edit: I can make this work if I manually add a second table which contains the summary values

| ------------ | ----------- |
| Status       | Count       |
| ------------ | ----------- |
| Not Started  |      3      |
| ------------ | ----------- |
| Started      |      3      |
| ------------ | ----------- |
| Completed    |      2      |
| ------------ | ----------- |

Now I can plot the charts correctly. But Can I do this without manually summarizing the first table?

You can use the COUNTIFS (count if satisfied) function.

You define the condition to be satisfied as a text string (e.g. "Not started") to be matched for each status in your table.


Fix name tag on a face in iPhone photos app I tagged some pictures with a wrong person in Photos app of iPhone ios 10.2. How can I fix that?

click "i" (for get information", click on the face of the person then in the name tag - and correct the name just as you would for any other mac item name change


Changing sim cards on iPhone 5s I have changed my network provider and inserted their sim into my iPhone 5s. The phone is unlocked, all my contacts were saved...  but the sim card has the default code 0000, and I want to change that - but can't find how to do it.  I have been to Settings - Phone -  but where I expected to see Sim Card on the list - it just wasn't there.  How do I change the sim card code now?

Settings > Mobile Data > Sim PIN

There's a Change PIN option there.
I can't provide a picture as I've never used a SIM PIN, so the screen looks fairly uninteresting ;)


Replacing Macbook Pro HDD & Installing Operating System Long story short I am in desperate need of help figuring out how to prepare for and replace my Macbook Pro (Mid 2012) hard drive. An SSD is not an option, to clarify, and I've already purchased a hard drive for the computer, so that step is complete.

I am having some issues creating a bootable flash drive with the operating system. I am currently running Mountain Lion on the computer, but obviously only have an installer for the most current operating system, which is High Sierra. I cannot seem to get the High Sierra on a bootable flash since I'm not able to run this update on my computer with a failing hard drive/S.M.A.R.T. Issues. So firstly, I need to know if I can somehow download the latest up to date operating system on the flash drive. If not, can I purchase it somehow on a disc or something from apple and reinstall it on the new hard drive? I want to simplify this as much as I can.

As far as I understand, you have a running Macbook Pro with an ageing HDD and want to upgrade/replace the current one and also move to Mountain Lion in the process.
I can suggest you the following.

Purchase a USB casing for your new HDD and temporarily convert it to a USB Drive. These are not too expensive and you'll see more benefits in the end.
Connect it to your current system.
Run the installer on your machine and choose to install on the connected USB drive instead of your current system disk.
After the setup is done, remove the HDD from USB casing and replace the system disk.
Use the system disk in the USB casing to have a high capacity backup drive.


AppleScript Get HTML of Chrome Active Tab Is there a way to get the actual HTML of a current active tab in Chrome?  Some websites use the position on the page to induce an AJAX call to expand the page further.  So working with a URL only won't cut it.  Actually grabbing the current HTML is what I'm after.

At the moment, I can ask Chrome to open a new tab with the source of the tab, but that's a bit cumbersome.  The libraries haven't shown me anything with regards to grabbing current active HTML.

Can I somehow use AppleScript to get the current active tab HTML?

Here is one way to grab the HTML of the active tab of the front window of Google Chrome using AppleScript:

tell application "Google Chrome" to set sourceHTML to ¬
    execute front window's active tab javascript "document.documentElement.outerHTML"

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.


Which phone number is shared by Apple Pay in a dual SIM iPhone? When adding a card to Apple Pay, it says that your phone number may be shared with the bank who emitted your card. But in the case of a dual SIM phone which number is shared? If you have a personal phone number and another one, can you choose which one will be shared with the bank?
Have anyone a personal experience with a dual SIM phone and Apple Pay?

Neither. Apple Pay uses a billing address and not a mobile phone. Your AppleID can have any phone you want, so either or none would get pre-filled into a form that asks for a phone.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204506
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205630

I would get your Apple ID correct with the number you prefer in case that is part of the messages activation process. You can see that in the settings app under iCloud then Name, Phone Numbers, Email. Also check under messages, under send and receive to select one, both or none of your mobile numbers.


Recurring window manager performance issues in 10.10.x I've been having graphical performance problems with Yosemite since early developer previews.  The main expression of this is trying to switch applications.  When going from Terminal to Messages or Adium or any other application that has a text entry field, it is readily visible that the app is very slow to respond in allowing the user to actually enter text into the field.  There is a 1.5 to 5 second delay each time one switches between such apps.

This is not an issue in Mavericks and after having spoken to some other developers, there is a known bug in the Window Manager that is causing some serious performance problems, but I'm not sure if it is this precise problem.

Has anyone seen this issue and / or been able to resolve it properly?

The only thing I have been able to do so far that seems to mostly resolve this issue is to go into System Preferences -> Accessibility and turn on Increase Contrast.  Once I do this, applications seem to be fairly responsive again, but this is a very troublesome issue for a few reasons; one of which is that some system UI elements are visually unappealing and hard to read (yes, funny when this is supposed to help, but buttons are particularly affected).

I'm running 10.10.2 on a Mac Pro (Mid 2010) with 48 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB).

This finally appears to be resolved with 10.10.4.  I am thrilled beyond measure at the moment and hope that others find the same relief that we've all been waiting for who have been experiencing this dreadful problem.


Advisability of using a OneDrive folder mounted on external drive for Time Machine? I want to use a OneDrive folder as the location to which Time Machine backs-up my internal drive. I'm pretty sure that Time Machine can't back-up to a cloud drive that is mounted on the volume that it is backing-up because it creates a loop (that is why I would mount the cloud drive on an external drive that Time Machine is not backing-up).

If my internal drive fails then:

get a new drive.
do a fresh install of OS X.
attach any external drive.
install OneDrive and mount the OneDrive cloud drive on this external drive.
point Time Machine at the OneDrive folder.
tell Time Machine to restore.
done.

I can rest safely knowing that is how it would work? Or, am I about to make a devastating mistake that leaves me with no Time Machine protection?

Theoretically it should work ok.

Note that you cannot specify a folder as the Time Machine backup destination. You'll need to create a sparse bundle by following these steps, from a MacRumors thread:

In Disk Utility, select File > New Image > Blank Image.

Enter your desired filename and set Where to your OneDrive folder on the external drive. You can choose the size here, too.

Ensure Format is set as OS X Extended (Journaled), and Image Format is "sparse bundle disk image".

Once it's created, unmount the bundle by clicking the Eject button next to it in the list on the left.

  In Finder, double click the sparse bundle image file to mount it, or use the mount command in Terminal.

  Now set Time Machine to use this sparse bundle:

sudo tmutil setdestination /Volumes/<path-to-sparse-bundle>

  When you start Time Machine, it will create a Backups directory within the sparse bundle for your backups.


Endnote app icon persists in Macbook launchpad after deleting all files Please help with the above. I uninstalled the files but the icon won't go away! I tried the terminal, went into Applications and I can see both "EndNote Cite While You Write" and "EndNote X8" (without the .app in the end and with spaces between words, which is unusual) but when I try to remove with rm -rf, it says "files do not exist". How do I get rid of it , please?

In the future, try using AppCleaner (http://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/). The Mac way of removing apps is to just move them to the trash, but that almost always leaves junk behind. AppCleaner helps gather that junk and send it to the trash, too.

Disclaimer: I'm not employed or endorsed my FreeMacSoft, the developers of AppCleaner. I'm just a fan.

Good luck! :)


Permanently Disabling System Integrity Protection I have disabled system integrity protection on El Cap following this Ask Different question but it keeps coming back every time I reboot which is annoying.

Is there an extra step I need to perform to stop SIP switching itself back on after reboot?

There should be no extra step required - in fact, reading through the excellent article linked from that question, I found this…

  Because SIP’s configuration is stored in NVRAM, SIP’s protection settings will apply to the entire machine and will persist even if the OS is reinstalled.

This would perhaps imply your NVRAM is not correctly holding data -
perhaps try a reset,  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   P   R  at the chimes & keep holding until you hear the chimes a second time.

Source : System Integrity Protection – Adding another layer to Apple’s security model

If after resetting NVRAM one time, you can’t make SIP status stick the next steps are to repair and wipe your drive and then seek hardware service is a freshly erased and reinstalled OS won’t allow you to disable SIP.


How can I repair a hard drive that Disk Utility and Disk Warrior can't fix? I have a Mac Pro running Mac OS X Lion, and one of my hard drives has acted weird since attempting to repair permissions. I used Disk Warrior, but it says the HD can't be rebuilt. When I try to format it with Disk Utility, it takes forever to unmount.
I'm wondering if there is a surefire way to format the HD with another program or through the command line.

The HD is 2TB, and the SMART status is verified, so I doubt it is a physical issue.

Many problems can cause such a problem. SMART status is unreliable, but it's good that it's at least 'OK'.

If you don't care about data and just want to format and repartition your HDD then you can:

Check the disk for bad sectors. If it contains bad sectors it may be not a good idea to use such a disk at all. Here are some nice tools that can be used for this.
wipe the disk using dd (make sure that you wiping right drive):

dd if=/dev/zero of=[path to device] bs=1M
Partition it using Disk Utility


How could i use an iMac as secondary monitor for a Windows 7 laptop Recently (less than one year ago) i bought an iMac 21,5".
Now i would like to use it as secondary monitor for my laptop. (My laptop runs Windows 7).

Is it possible? (I found conflicting opinions on the web, even on the Apple forum).

What type of cable do I need?
(I will appreciate also a link to the product on some online store: amazon, ebay etc.)

Thank you in advance.

UPDATE:

I tried air display... i'm not satisfied at all...

typical scenario: browser window on the main Windows laptop, dev tools/firebug on the secondary iMac screen.
The mouse goes fast between the 2 screens (GOOD), but when i changed the selected tab nothing happens. I had to drag the dev tools window to the main screen to get an update of the selected tab.
My test is ended here.

I'm still waiting for other answers.

I will prefer an answer that suggest me what kind of cable i've to buy, and where i can find it on the web.

Thunderbolt-equipped iMacs prior to iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) (see this document), like your iMac (Mid 2011), support Target Display mode:

  Target Display Mode lets you use your iMac as the external display for
  another, “primary” computer.

Thunderbolt-only solution

NOTE: This won't work for iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) and later iMac models as they don't support Target Display Mode.

If you happen to own a laptop with a Thunderbolt port follow these simple steps to extend your display (Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable required) (from KB PH4469):

Connect the Thunderbolt cable to the Thunderbolt ports on each computer.
Make sure the iMac and the primary computer are turned on and awake.
Press ⌘F2 on the keyboard of the iMac.

(As a side note: Older iMacs with Mini DisplayPort also support Target Display Mode. The steps to configure and enable Target Display mode are very similar.).

A comment on DVI to Thunderbolt adaptors

You can't use Mini DisplayPort to DVI or VGA adaptors:

to connect a computer with a DVI/VGA port to a Thunderbolt display (from this thread):

  I can confirm that Mini DisplayPort to DVI converter works ONLY from a
  Mini DisplayPort computer port to a DVI display. The reverse direction
  is not supported by those converters,

There is some hope, though, as the post goes on to say:

  but there are other much more
  expensive ones that will convert DVI computer ports to Mini
  DisplayPort display.

The poster is probably refering to a product mentioned earlier in the thread: the Kanex C247D Single-Link DVI to Mini DisplayPort Converter, advertised like this:

  Connect a (...) LED Cinema Display to your DVI-equipped
  MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, or PC with this (...) Kanex solution.

However, opinions diverge on whether it will work with a Thunderbolt display at all:

  I am sure that Kanex don't do anything that will help you no matter
  how expensive it may be.

  As far as I am aware, and I have done a lot of reading about this, you
  can connect an older display to the new Thunderbolt port of a new MAC
  but you CANNOT connect the Thunderbolt display to anything other than
  a MAC with a Thunderbolt port.  The Kanex thing works from a
  Thunderbolt port into an older display, DVI or whatever but you cannot
  convert MAC DVI into Thunderbolt......I think

I've noticed that the LED Cinema Display is listed as a Mini DisplayPort display (from http://support.apple.com/kb/SP502):

so the adaptor may indeed only work with Mini DisplayPort displays, not with Thunderbolt displays, and as far as I can tell, your iMac will act like a Thunderbolt display.

It's up to you to try it, although $129.90 (as of this writing) is a steep price to pay for the Kanex adaptor just to test it.

Software-based solution

If the solutions described above aren't feasible or cost-effective, you can use several software solutions. One is Air Display:

  Use your iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac or Windows PC as a second (or
  third) monitor with no messy cables or wires

There is a free trial version here.

Note: Windows 7 Starter edition is not supported.


What will be removed if I sync my device with another iTunes? I had to blow my old iTunes installation. I have all my music and a up to date backup, but I still want to sync my device to change some content. iTunes warns me that "the content of the iPhone will be deleted". What is "content" here? Does it include contacts, messages, apps? Or is just music, books and pictures?

The answer depends on how your phone is configured for synchronization.  Note: If you back up your content from the phone to the local new computer first, then though some data will be erased, it will then be copied right back on to your device.

Entertainment files:
In most all situations, your music, movies, podcasts, books, and TV shows will be lost as they are replaced with information from the new computer. Apps will usually be preserved.

Contacts and calendars:
If your contacts and calendars are being synched through a cloud service, like most people today, your contacts and calendar data won't be lost. If your contact and calendar data is being synched locally through the computer directly, then yes, it would be lost and replaced with the new local data.


Updating iTunes Says It Will Change My Hard Drive When trying to update my computers with itunes version 11.4, a message says it will change my personal computer's hard drive. What will it change?

This happens when a application (like iTunes) or other try to modify your hard drive and install files on it, but your settings are such to prevent that.

It is advisable to set that alert so to prevent applications installing without your explicit approval.

The settings are in the system preferences - Security & Privacy - general tab.

Here you can set your choice what happens when a new Application tries to Install it self.


Determine if hard disk was ever disconnected from MacBook How do I determine if my hard disk was ever disconnected from my MacBook Pro 2012 and then reconnected? Can I use the Disk Utility log or any other tool? OS X 10.8.5 is the version.

You can't.

There's no tamper evident devices in the Mac computers.  Once you turn off your Mac, there's no logging facility to detect anything by the virtue of it being off.

To draw a parallel comparison, how would you know that someone removed and reattached the transmission in your car after you parked it?

PCs, on the other hand have been using intrusion switches for many years (mostly in the enterprise), but this is just something that Apple hasn't implemented.

You have three options for detecting/preventing tampering with your MacBook:

Take it with you.  This is the most reliable option; people can't tamper with what they have no access to.
Turn on FileVault to protect your data.  It's close to impossible to decrypt a drive that's been encrypted and this option will cover you if you lose it if you've "taken it with you."
Use video to see who's (if there is one) the culprit.  Get a wireless camera to watch/record the area where your MacBook resides (I've used Arlo in my office to see who comes in and rifles through my desk)

Any/all of these will help protect you against malicious users.


How to block updates to Mac OS X Catalina? Mac OS X Catalina will be released in a few days, so how can I block updates to that OS so it doesn't get downloaded and, ideally, I don't even get prompts to upgrade.

I have 32-bit software I intend to keep on using, so I can't update since this version of OS X will support 64-bit apps only.

You can not block major updates after 10.15.5

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210642

Before that update (and similar Summer 2020 updates to older OS - namely the 2020-03 update for High Sierra and Mojave, this command no longer works), you can ask Apple’s Software Update to ignore specific available upgrades to macOS Catalina:

Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder in the Applications Folder)
Run sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina"
Enter your login password if asked, hit Enter and you should get confirmation that “macOS Catalina” updates will be ignored.

Later, when you decide you want to allow the updates again, you can use:

sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --reset-ignored

(With the Software Update preferences pane open, you can see the effect straightaway.)


Why can't I jailbreak iPod Touch 4g 4.3.3 (8j2)? Every time I go to jailbreakme.com on my device, the site says "Not supported on your device."

Like I said, I have an iPod Touch 4g, ios 4.3.3. And the site clearly says my version and device is supported. Help please, thank you.

Try going to Settings>General>International and choose region format "Hawaii United States". Then open www.jailbreakme.com again from Safari.


How can I adjust brightness of 3rd Party external monitor on iMac, Macbook or Mac Pro via keyboard? Apple stopped Thunderbolt display and Cinema display line.
Recently announced an ungodly expensive 'reference monitor'
beyond the need and budget of most people.

For my iMac, I bought two Apple-recommended 4K Dell monitors to go with my retina iMac. The Dell 4K monitors work fine.

But Apple dumped its monitor business without creating a way to adjust 3rd party monitor brightness from the keyboard. That's unfortunate since there's an industry standard DDC protocol to make it possible to control brightness 'over-the-wire'.

Adjusting Dell monitor brightness from the physical panel button/menu is   a hassle. It's tedius, multi-step, awkward and worse if you have more than one external monitor.

I haven't found any good apps that resolve this.  There's one on the App Store I found that looks like it works well, but it's badly implemented. It simply inserts an overlay graphic with an opacity setting so it darkens the screen by covering it.

The problem is it darkens screenshots, ruining them!
The apps I tried are flaky, badly implemented, limited, badly designed...

I've found Lunar.app and it syncs the brightness from your PC to the external monitors. It has a lot of other features that I not yet have played with, but a uniform brightness is already great. The app looks nice, so thats a plus (and it's free).

Here is an article on lifehacker.com, because the information on the Lunar site is really sparse.


El Capitan froze and rebooted (Macbook Pro Retina Mid 2012) 2.3 Ghz Intel Core i7 8GB DDR3:
Was running NetAdmin Pro which is monitoring
my office LAN, processors consumption was at
~15 - 20%. Simultaneously I ran WiFI Explorer,
3.7% no more than 5% CPU usage. And I was
updating Xcode to v 7.3.1 and was browsing and
watching video from playground.ru
Watch the videos until half of it (20mins) the
Video froze I moved the mouse and turned out
the whole OSX is frozen.
littleSnitch v 3.7 has no reaction
I immediately pull the Ethernet adaptor and
MacBook just went to black screen. I then
switch off the wireless router. (My MacBook Pro
is connected to the network via Ethernet
adaptor and via WiFi router bearing different IP,
I was thinking of cutting both network
communication, in case it was an intrusion)
MacBook just restarted itself to login screen,
after 15-20 sec of black screen and total
silence)
I again restarted and booted into Recovery
mode use disk utility. After completing disk
check.
Login and previously opened programs resume
back (NetAdmin Pro, WiFi Explorer, Yandex
browser, Activity Monitor and AppStore)
AppStore doesn't resume the download
everything else is functioning normally and in
Addition I have got my calendar open after login
(I did not launch accidental nor was it set to
start with system login)

Question 1: Are there any way to know what was happening and what was OS El Capitan last reaction before it froze and rebooted?

Question 2: Are there any software better than "Console" v10.11 to interpret what was going on before it crashes?

P.S. Thank you in advance, I will try to upload the Console messages later from the MacBook Pro

DDT-2:~ Chaleune$ syslog | grep -i "shutdown cause"

Jun 22 14:15:37 DDT-2 kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 22 20:34:46 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 23 15:18:23 DDT-2 kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 24 17:58:32 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 24 20:09:52 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 24 22:58:15 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5Jun 25 14:43:36 DDT-2 kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 25 21:55:31 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 3

Jun 25 22:20:57 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Kext com.apple.driver.AppleOSXWatchdog failed to load (0xdc008012).Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 26 10:18:44 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 26 12:09:45 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 26 18:00:31 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 27 13:05:58 DDT-2 kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 27 22:56:11 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

Jun 28 14:18:27 DDT-2 kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: 5

*Jun 29 18:56:21 localhost kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: -128*

Jun 29 23:31:22 DDT-2 kernel[0] <Notice>: Previous shutdown cause: -128

Opensource.apple shows the following

dsIllInstErr                  = 3,    /illegal instruction error/
dsChkErr                      = 5,    /check trap error/
userCanceledErr               = -128

macwizard gave the following interpretation:

03 Illegal Instruction
The computer has a specific vocabulary of machine language instructions it can understand. If a computer tries to execute an instruction that isn't in its vocabulary, you see this error code. It's less likely than error 02, but still very common.
05 Range Check Error
Programmers can use an instruction in the Motorola 68000 to check if a number is within a certain range. This error indicates that the number tested isn't in the specified range.
-128  userCanceledErr         User canceled an operation

Run a sysdisgnose. That is how Apple receives feedback from seeding/beta customers. The keyboard shortcut is Cmd Opt Ctrl Shift Period.

You can also run sudo sysdiagnose -f ~/Desktop/ in Terminal. The former will save to /var/tmp and the latter will save to the Desktop.

Sysdiagnose will contain pretty much A to Z.

You should be sure to check the disks.txt, diskutil.txt, errorlog.txt, logs.txt, and the diagnostics folder.


How can I get two calculators going? Is there anyway I can have two instances of native Calculator app running simultaneously.

The quickest, simplest and arguably most correct way of doing this is using the open command in Terminal.

In a new window, run the command

open -na Calculator

This will open a new (-n) instance of the application (-a) Calculator.

If you want to have this handy at the click of a button, you can type the following commands into the Terminal, and it will create a shortcut named calc or calc.command on your desktop that will always open a new instance of Calculator

cd ~/Desktop
echo open -na Calculator > calc.command
chmod +x calc.command
exit

Mind that you don't already have a file named calc.command on your desktop, or it'll be deleted!


How to get my Mac (High Sierra) to recognize custom Quartz filters I created to reduce file size? I want to create custom Quartz filters to reduce file sizes to custom specifications when exporting a PDF in Preview.
I found a helpful article on how to do it with an old operating system.
I found the code to modify here on Ask Different: How to decrease .pdf size without losing quality
My only problem is I can't get my Mac to recognize and use the custom files I created. It looks like the file structure has changed as Mac has upgraded its operating system. I have tried placing the files in the following locations and none of them have worked.
Library/Filters/ (created a new Filters folder)

Library/Users/my_user_name/Library/Filters/ (created a new Filters folder)

Library/PDF Services/

Library/PDF Services/Filters/ (created a new Filters folder)

System/Library/Filters (not allowed to edit)

This was my reference, macrumors.com, for where to place the files.
I am running High Sierra 10.13.4.

I have had success on macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 with putting Quartz filters in a Filters folder within my user's Library folder:

/Users/my_user_name/Library/Filters/

in other words:

Macintosh HD > Users > my_user_name > Library > Filters

However, your Library folder is normally hidden. An easy way to navigate to it is to click on the Go menu in Finder and while the menu is down hold the Option key. Library will then appear in the list. Once you open it you can create the Filters folder which probably doesn't exist, and put your filters there.

For reference, the filters I am using are those that Josh Carr posted to GitHub.


Keep ethernet connection live during screen sleep I have a MacBookPro running OS X 10.8.5.

My understanding is Control ⌃+Shift ⇧+Eject ⏏ puts the Mac into a sleep mode. This is fine but what I want to know if there is a way to keep the ethernet port active while in this mode?

When I come out of this mode, I notice I am signed out of my messaging, disconnected from VM's I have running, etc... The connection comes back right away but I want to prevent the connection disruption.

I was also looking at this answer to "Equivalent of Win-L on Mac" which I really like as well. But again, it turns off the ethernet which I don't want to happen.

Control+Shift+Power …or… Control+Shift+Eject turns off the monitor without putting the computer in sleep mode.


MacBook Air 13" data access My MacBook Air won’t turn on. The charger is also not working and I don’t have a backup on Time Machine, so is there a way to get the backup if it’s not turning on?

It’s gone for service now but if it comes back with no previous data is there a way to get it back?

In the slightest possible case, if the hard drive remains untouched, you stand a chance of getting all your data intact (OS + user data).

In the current scenario, without a backup, there is no way to access your data from MacBook Air.


AppleScript calcule time I'm trying to do if statement with the current time,

e.g

  if Time is between 14h and 14:30 then ... if time is between 14:30
  and 15h then ...

and so on.

time string of (current date)
set Timeleft to missing value

if time string is in "14:00:00" and "14:29:60" then

end if

now obviously time is not a string like i did in my script, how can I make that working?

Also here is my system time format :
current date

  --> date "Saturday 9 December 2017 at 14:10:09"

Found a work around

set myTime to time string of (current date) as Unicode text
##set Timeleft to missing value

if myTime > "14:00:00" and myTime < "14:30:60" then
    display notification "!"
end if


Installing LaTeX on iMac For years I have been a LaTeX user on Ubuntu. I want to know how to install/use LaTeX on Mac.

I generally use it to write mathematically intensive documents and make slides (on beamer). In future I am likely to use a lot of photographs on my slides.

I would be glad if someone can tell me what is the good way to install LaTeX on Mac. (..and also how to run it..) I am comfortable compiling it from some terminal.

I was looking at MacTeX, is that good (or the only one!?)

I was wondering if that comes bundled with a text editor too optimized for LaTeX. If not then kindly suggest me a good editor too. I am used to GEdit on Ubuntu.

For editor I was looking at TeXShop.

So will I have to install both TeXShop and MacTeX ?

TeXShop is already included in MacTex (also LaTeXiT, which is probably more interesting for you). Basically, MacTex is a carefree package, which should include everything you would ever need in a  LaTex distribution. This really is the best way to install LaTex on a Mac, it's easy and requires little to no configuration (basically what you get used to on a Mac).

If you just want a text editor and run all the LaTeX command in Terminal, you can use TextWrangler, which is free and very good. It's not LaTex specific though and doesn't do any LaTex highlighting. If you want that, you may want to look at Aquamacs Emacs, which does very good highlighting.


Does a removed version of Catalina use storage that generates a "low volume storage message Early 2015 Macbook air with a 128 GB hd

I installed Catalina, realized all of my 32 bit applications would not run, so I resorted to my older os(Mojave 10.14.6) from time machine.
I now get notifications that my disk is full and memory is running out. I have 2.83 GB available according to "about this mac"
Is there a Catalina hang-on lurking in my machine?

The first thing is to look at your storage allocations.

Open system information and click on the storage tab. If it shows a blank area - just quit all your open apps and set the machine to not sleep for an hour and return

Once the space is there, if you have purgeable data - that will go away when you need it (and if you're reading things correctly, you'll purge with that little space). If you don't have data that's able to be purged, click on the manage button to decide which bucket needs cleaning.

It's unlikely you have a second OS sitting, but it is possible.


how to set afplay as default media player for wma files in mac OS Hi I am using a vim plugin named eblook which turns vim console into a dictionary. The problem is that the implementation of the plugin is using a default player for WMA file to play the sound file (for example pronunciation of a certain word in the dictionary).

I would like to use afplay as the default media player in Mac so that when I use the plugin, all sound can be played without need to use iTunes or any other UI based media player (due to overhead of iTunes or any other UI based media player)

You can only associate file types to GUI apps. You should be able to make an Automator app that is a wrapper for the afplay command, and that will have minimal "overhead".


MacBook Pro wont boot at all (El capitan) My MacBook Pro stopped working. I was using it without a problem, then all of a sudden the screen went Blue.

It didn't respond at all so I did the obvious, force shutdown. Since that moment the computer starts but won't boot the OS.

OSX: El-Capitan
HDD: Momentus XT by Seagate (Hybrid)
FileVault: On
OS starts and gets stuck in the middle (progress bar)

What I've already tried:
Tried boot it with Cmd + D,
Cmd + C,
Shift Key (safe mode),
Disk utility won't even start,
Reset nvram (didn't work),
Swapped my HDD to another MacBook Pro (works flawlessly),
And finally tried booting from an USB stick with El Capitan OS X.

I've read around that it could be Hardware related problem, I'm looking around with no luck. Any suggestions?

This definitely sounds like hardware issue, based on the fact that the HDD worked on a similar Macbook Pro.

Before we rule it as hardware, lets perform an Apple Hardware Test .

  Apple Hardware Test (AHT) contains a suite of diagnostics that will test the hardware of your computer. It's a great way to rule out a hardware issue when troubleshooting your computer.

If your Mac was released after June 2013, use Apple Hardware Test.

Otherwise, if your Mac was released prior to June 2013, use the Apple Diagnostics Test.

Fortunately Apple does a great job with documentation, so I'll avoid repeating the instructions mentioned in the provided links.

Once the test is complete, please reply with any error codes presented.


Mojave: Macbook Pro (2011) loads endless after password so I try to fix this annoying problem of a pretty aged Macbook Pro (2011) with Mojave.

What I've done?
I created a TimeMachine Backup to move from the old HDD to a new SSD. The creation and importing of the TimeMachine worked like a charm and I can see the old user. Since there is currently no password for this user all I have to do is pressing enter to start to login. But here is the problem: The loading animation never ends and the login process runs endless.

I've already tried to several things to fix this problem:
- Reinstall Mac OS
- CMD + OPTION + R + P to reset NVRAM and PRAM
- Let it stay untouched (more than 20 minutes) but no progress

Do you have any tips how to fix this?

Thanks in advance :)

Interesting... this is an issue when you haven't set a password. I set a password with a different admin user and now it works.


High memory usage, macbook pro retina feeling sluggish My Macbook Pro Retina seems to be feeling sluggish and I don't think it should at all.

I'm running: photoshop, 1080p movie on VLC plugged into a Thunderbolt Display.

Looking at the activity monitor there's pretty much 100% RAM usage. I've read that 100% RAM usage is desired so the hard drive doesn't have to be accessed but I usually see max usage of around 8gb, not the whole 16gb... and there shouldn't be any Swap at all right?

It looks more like 8gb usage (as it says is in use in App Memory).

Is this correct or something up? Photoshop is extremely sluggish and it shouldn't be.. surely?

This is my iostat whilst the Mactop is being sluggish:

      disk0           disk1       cpu     load average
 KB/t tps  MB/s     KB/t tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
40.40   8  0.33   173.17   0  0.06   4  3 93  1.91 1.58 1.43
21.07  10  0.20   951.14   1  1.30   5  4 91  1.56 1.52 1.41
39.87  50  1.93   910.67   1  0.80   5  7 88  1.47 1.50 1.41
17.27  24  0.40   854.00   1  0.50   4  9 87  1.56 1.52 1.42

Your information is very good for RAM and CPU, but I don't see anything amiss and things look quite balanced. Yes, there is one program that's busy and not responding, so you could kill that to rule it out as something that's slowing down Photoshop.

My hunch is you will need to examine storage to find the slow down.

My reasoning is Photoshop does a good job of pre-allocating disk space for swap of it's own (so it doesn't even swap to the OS swap) as well as pre-allocating all the RAM it thinks it will need. Even without seeing the normal RAM and CPU charts you posted, it's unlikely your Mac is paging virtual memory to disk based on the stats you posted from a snapshot in time.

Open terminal app from /Applications/Utilities and run two commands to list the attached drives (so you know which is disk0, disk1 etc...) and another to monitor the actual input and output for the drive.

df | grep disk
iostat 30

The second command will run continuously until you press control+c or close the terminal app or window.

My guess is you will see that there is continuous load on one or more disks and quitting the programs that are causing the disk to be busy will make Photoshop more snappy. You've already ruled out high CPU load and memory contention (the pressure would be yellow or red if that were to slow down Photoshop) so the next likely candidate is that the system is waiting for the storage.

The other suggestions to try killing other applications are good ones, but you will be more successful if you can measure the exact slow item and then change things and re-measure later.

Here is a sample of what you might see on an idle system:

Mac:~ me$ iostat 30
          disk0           disk1       cpu     load average
    KB/t tps  MB/s     KB/t tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
   36.80  20  0.71    24.99   0  0.00   6  3 91  1.34 1.61 1.65
   32.00   0  0.01     0.00   0  0.00   1  1 97  1.32 1.60 1.65
    0.00   0  0.00     0.00   0  0.00   1  2 97  1.37 1.61 1.65
    4.00   0  0.00     0.00   0  0.00   1  2 97  1.31 1.58 1.64
   28.57   1  0.04     0.00   0  0.00   4  3 93  1.48 1.61 1.65
    9.85   3  0.02     0.00   0  0.00   2  1 97  1.44 1.60 1.65

Here is what first a minute of activity on the internal SSD then idle, then a minute of activity on the Time Machine drive and idle, and finally Time Machine running with both drives having equivalent activity (read from one = write to another):

Mac:~ me$ iostat 30
          disk0           disk1       cpu     load average
    KB/t tps  MB/s     KB/t tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
   36.95  20  0.71    42.93   0  0.00   6  3 91  1.99 1.90 1.75
    8.1 1266 10.09     8.00   0  0.00   8 12 81  1.94 1.89 1.75
   10.18 774  7.69     0.00   0  0.00  22  9 69  1.64 1.82 1.73
   18.42 125  2.25     0.00   0  0.00  11  4 86  1.50 1.77 1.71
   32.27  21  0.67     0.00   0  0.00   6  2 92  1.40 1.73 1.70
   12.29  48  0.57     6.78 223  1.47  23  8 70  1.74 1.78 1.72
   20.30  14  0.28     9.61  53  0.50   2  3 95  1.39 1.69 1.69
   17.73   5  0.08    14.75   0  0.01  11  2 87  1.23 1.62 1.66
   32.30  23  0.73     0.00   0  0.00   4  2 94  1.50 1.67 1.68
   13.14   3  0.04     0.00   0  0.00   6  1 92  1.45 1.64 1.66
   21.07  24  0.50     6.12   0  0.00   9  3 88  2.23 1.80 1.72
   40.77 197  7.86    37.93 202  7.47  13 10 77  2.27 1.83 1.73


Macbook Air (Mid 2013) keyboard and trackpad not detected I was holding down a key (can't remember which) and then my keyboard and trackpad were no longer responsive. Multiple restarts, PRAM, and SMC resets did not do the trick.

I can use the keyboard and trackpad perfectly in my Windows partition (which I bootcamped) but can't seem to use it in my OS X partition or the recovery partition. It can however detect external keyboard and mouses. I have Googled endlessly for hours.

Anyone else experience this issue or have any suggestions?

I am desperate. I will travel to Alaska and hit option 5 times at this point.

This sounds like the kext that controls the built in keyboard / mouse is either missing or damaged.  I believe the kext in question is something along the lines of "IOUSBFamily.kext". I doubt this would be a hardware/firmware issue though since Windows recognizes input from the built in keyboard/trackpad.

You might try repairing the disk using Disk Utility in the recovery volume and then repairing permissions using Disk Utility while booted to your Macintosh HD volume.

If those don't resolve the issue then I would attempt an archive & install of the OS...

To boot to the recovery partition you need to power it off

On start up, using the USB keyboard, press command + r or if that doesn't work press option until you see your partitions, then select recovery 10.x

Wait for the recovery tool to boot
Select "Reinstall OS X"
Follow the on screen prompts to reinstall OS X

This process SHOULD preserve your data but as always it's a good idea to have a backup of any pertinent data beforehand.  The reinstallation will go through and reinstall the base system files, which should include the missing/damage kext responsible for the problem, while leaving any files you've added  alone.

Hopefully all goes smoothly and that fixes it for you!


Numbers: is it possible to add multiple select elements? I'm working on template in Numbers. Some cell in template can have only specific values from code lists, so I decided to add pop-up format for them.

But some cell can have multiple values from code list, so what I need is to add multiple select box (where I can choose several values from dropdown list). Is it possible to do with numbers?

Unfortunately it is not currently possible to make multiple selections from a dropdown list in Numbers.

One possible work around would be to use multiple columns.  Then use a formula to CONCATENATE the cells into a single string.  Not very elegant.

Apple Support Community - Make a pop-up with multiple selections


Way to select HTML tables by column and add them to the pasteboard? Whenever you try to copy an HTML table to the pasteboard, it will select by row. Sometimes, I'd like to select by columns. Is there a way to do this? If not out of the box, any extensions that enable this kind of functionality.

As far as I know, there's no way to do that in Safari or Chrome, but in Firefox you can select ranges of cells by holding option and command.

You could also copy the whole table and paste it to a spreadsheet application or use something like pbpaste | cut -d $'\t' -f3. But it might not work if there are cells that contain br elements or rows that start with empty cells.

I've had to use something like this with a few tables that contained br elements:

ruby -e '`pbpaste`.scan(/<tr>.*?<\/tr>/m).each { |r| puts r.scan(/<td>(.*?)<\/td>/m)[2] }'


How to track hardware resource usage statistics on OS X? Are there any applications that persistently track statistics like those displayed with iStat Menus (network, CPU, RAM, temperature, etc.)?

Having this data would be cool on its own, but it would also be useful if such a program broke down the data by day of the week, time of day, programs running, location, etc.

Hardware Monitor has the features you need, but only evaluation version is free.

  definition of artificial sensors that monitor aspects of the
  operating system, e.g. CPU load, number of processes, disk usage,
  memory usage, paging activity, network interface activity (only in
  10.4 or later)

Or you can make Bash script, and then import created CSV file into Google Docs or Excel to build chart.


macOS Sierra SSH Active Directory login not working I have a really strange problem with my macOS Sierra Server. It is connected to the Active Directory server and limited access to the login window only for few people. This is working without any problem. (Really only these users are allowed to login on mac server with their domain credentials)

Now I activated SSH because I need this for GIT repositories. I gave the domain user access rights on using ssh but I always get "Permission denied" when I try to connect. If I use a local account it works.

In the logs I only can find:

  com.openssh.sshd.... Service exited with abnormal status code 255
  com.openssh.sshd.... Service exited with abnormal status code 1

Do you have any idea whats going wrong here?

Your question is hard to answer because it would need more details, AD and OS X configuration details as well as Group Policy settings.

In a new Active Directory environment with some joined OS X clients and an OS X server, the set up works as expected.

After creating a global security group SSH-OSXUsers and adding some arbitrary AD users one has to add this network group in macOS' Sharing PrefPane > Remote Login > Only these users > + > Network Groups > SSH-OSXUsers (or in the respective settings in Server.app).

To connect to this server I recommend to use ssh user@hostname or ssh user@fqdn. With a proper PTR record for the OS X server in the reverse DNS tree, it should also work with the IP.

Connecting with a user of the SSH-OSXUsers group who never logged on to the server host, you will get the error Could not chdir to home directory /Users/domainsshuser: No such file or directory because the user's home folder is missing, but you can execute commands.

If you connect with a managed network account or a mobile account user with a home folder on the server host you won't see this message.

One step to get a more detailed ssh error message may be changing the standard error path from /dev/null to /tmp/ssh.stderr in the launch daemon after disabling SIP.


Start Terminal application as separate app I want to use WeeChat on my MacBook. In a dream world I want to be able to launch it using Spotlight, and then preferably it will open a Terminal window that is not tied to Terminal. When I Command + Tab it will have its own separate icon. It would be preferable to have it act as if it is another application than Terminal, as I usually have a lot of Terminal windows open.

I assume I have to write custom plist-files (if it is even possible), but I am kind of stuck currently.

Is there a way?

You could download something like iTerm - it's a different (free) application entirely that acts as a terminal replacement with different UI options. In my experience it behaves exactly like Terminal with its own configuration, so it might be easier than creating a special instance.


PC shutoff during Migration Assistant transfer to Mac My PC shut-off in the middle of transferring data to a MacBook using Migration Assistant. The MacBook still shows "transferring your information".

How do I get my PC to pick up the MacBook again and continue the migrate from where it left off? Is that possible?
if not, what is my next step?

You will very likely need to delete the user on the Mac side and start the migration again. Depending on your setup, this might be a bad choice of steps, but most people run Migration Assistant as part of the first boot process, so I made the assumption that you also did that. Your next step might be to decide if you want to get help from Apple (they support all new Macs for free through AppleCare and the retail stores) or if you want to provide us with more details and see if we can guide you to how to reset things and start the migration over.


External screen turns off after macOS boots - Mac Mini When I plug in the screen and I turn on the Mac Mini, I see the Apple logo and the OS loading. After macOS boots the external screen goes black.

I had the same issue with EV3237 Monitor. Also, when I was lucky that the Mac Mini somehow started to send a signal, then the screen would go black randomly for a few seconds while I was working on it.

I tried the PRAM and SMC thing - no difference. I tried HDMI - no difference. On the other hand, I had no issue on a LG 4k 27" Monitor.

Finally I found a way to stop this: On the EV3237, I turned off the power saving feature. Now, my Monitor will only be off when I turn it off. On the other hand, I have a stable screen now. Somehow the signal from the Mac Mini seems to initiate a power saving on some monitors I guess.

So try to turn off power saving on your monitor.


MacBook 7,1 randomly shutting down (shutdown cause -102) I have a MacBook 7,1 (mid 2010) and sometimes it randomly shuts down. This only happens when I am doing something very resource intensive (like gaming). After the shutdown I can use my Mac for "normal" things without any issues, but as soon as I do the same thing as before the shutdown, it will shutdown again.
When checking the console, it says "Previous shutdown cause: -102". The only thing I could find was "Overvoltage shutdown protection", but I wouldn't know why there would be an overvoltage. Disconnecting the charger and using the battery doesn't help.
Resetting the SMC seems to help, but after a month or so the problem starts occurring again. I ran an Apple Hardware Test (both regular and extended version) and it doesn't find any issues. What can be causing this? Is it an issue with the motherboard?
Just to make sure: Is it possible that it's the 6Gbps SSD (Samsung 860 EVO) that I installed (while my Mac officially only supports 3Gbps), somehow messing things up?

On a ten-year-old laptop with a non-removable battery, I suspect that the battery chemistry has aged to the point that it can't reliably provide an appropriate supply of power. I'm vaguely surprised that it's over voltage protection, but the chemistry of an aging battery is a complex topic.
iFixit indicates that you can get a replacement battery for $95 and that the replacement process is easy (only five steps!). Their guides are generally excellent, and this one looks like no exception. They'll even sell you the weird trilobe screwdriver you need to pull it off.
Even if this doesn't solve your problem, it will almost certainly improve your overall experience with this aging laptop.


How to save text to speech as a voice recording? say "Hello World"

is pretty neato, but it requires the terminal to stay open. Is there a nice way to save the recording from what a "say" would output as a file?

To save to a file use,  the -o <file name> option.

$ say “Hello World” -o helloworld.aiff


iPod touch sync problem - play counts An example situation:

Let's say I have a song on my iPod (in iTunes Devices > iPod > Music) and it shows a play count of, let's say 16. I disconnect my iPod, play the song, then connect it again and check the play count again. I would expect it to be, of course, 17. However the play count almost doubles every time (for a song with 16 plays, I suddenly got 31).

This is quite a problem for me, as I want to scrobble my tracks to last.fm, but I can't if my play count increases on some freaking exponential scale (when I do what I described above (disconnect, play the track once, connect + sync), the last.fm scrobbler suddenly has 16 scrobbles of the same song to upload).

Is there any known way to fix this? Most of discussions I read about this were years old and without any solution.

You could try using the CloudScrob app that lets you preview the Scrobbles and edit them before it sends them.  Perhaps it could sidestep the bug?


Can I use the promotional Apple images in my apps tutorial screen? Hey I am using the stock apple iPhone images to place my screenshots over: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/marketing/guidelines/#images. My app has a tutorial screen in it where you can swipe between screens and get instructions on how to use the app. I would also like to use these images for the tutorial. Is this allowed? I noticed there are two points on the page:

2.2 Image use
The Apple product images of iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch can be used only to promote your app available on the App Store. Feature only products for which your app is currently developed.

As it isn't for promotion an it's within the app does that mean I can't use them? I also noticed:

2.8 Rendering and illustration
Do not render in 3D or create any simulation of an Apple product. Do not use illustration to depict an Apple product, except for instructional material. If generic portable devices are illustrated, do not include details that are unique to Apple products, such as the round Home button or ring/silent and volume controls.

Well my tutorial is instructional, so I am wondering if I can use them...Any pointers on this  would be really appreciated! thanks

If it's purely for instructional purposes, then you should be all set to go ahead and use the images. However, I don't work for Apple, so I don't know the exact details regarding their image use policy.


Connection through telnet only works in safe mode I'm running Xamarin's iOS Build Host app on my machine. It uses telnet on port 5000 to allow connections to it. Suddenly, this connection no longer works.

telnet localhost 5000
HELO

returns nothing.

However if I boot my Mavericks into safe mode and do the same, I first get a question if "mtbserver" should allow incoming connections. Afterwards, the telnet connection succeeds.

Back in normal mode, I have already tried to disable the firewall but without success.

Any tips?

I had AirServer installier which uses port 5000. It won't be started in safe mode.


Will a Disk Wipe Be Logged? Currently I'm running Mac OS Yosemite. I've booted into the recovery partition and I'm using disk utility to perform operations on my main partition. My questions are:

If I erase other partitions using the Recovery Disk Utility, will the actions taken by Disk Utility be logged on my primary partition?
Will the recovery partition or any other partitions with Disk Utility log the actions made?

Welcome to Apple Stack Exchange!

If you use Disk Utility from the recovery partition, any other partition affected by the actions you take will not be visible after a reboot.
Assuming you're in the recovery partition, no logs will be produced by the recovery partition because it is a read only partition (supposedly). The reason being, is that the recovery partition is meant to be stable and non-corruptible.

Hope this helps. Tmanok


Custom notification size on iPhone I would like to receive customized notifications from any specific app on my iPhone so that I can never ignore it because they are super important.

One solution I thought of is to show notification as a popup on the screen while using the iPhone or show it large size when phone is locked. I'm not sure how to implement it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

PS: I have also supervised my iPhone through MDM.

Not resizing, but you can set the banner to be permanent/ persistent instead of temporary in Notification Settings.


Trying to make terminal alias I'm trying to create an alias in my .bash_profile to run an application in the terminal window (Julia programming language), the same way you would run Python from the terminal window by typing "python".

I created a .bash_profile and put

alias julia="path"

But it says 'No such file or directory', and in fact I tested it out with directories that I know exist, and no matter what I put there, when I type the command in the terminal it still says it.  Can anyone troubleshoot this for me?

Thanks.

To answer your question:

alias julia="/Applications/Julia-0.3.0.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia"

tested.

(You need to make sure the alias goes inside the OS X app package all the way to binary.)


what is com.apple.coresymbolicationd in caches? Doing some cleanup on my Macbook Air with a 128GB SSD looking for big files to reduce the space used.

I found something named com.apple.coresymbolicationd that is 1GB in the /System/Library/Caches folder I don't recall seeing it before.  Running Mountain Lion.

What is this and is there a way to clear it?

By the way I am using DaisyDisk to show the files and sizes.

Symbolication means replacing memory addresses with symbols (like functions or variables) or for example adding function names and line number information. It is used for debugging and analyzing crash reports.

/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.coresymbolicationd/data was also about 600 MB on my account, so I guess it's normal. Deleting files in cache folders is generally safe, and /System/Library/Caches/ is even excluded from Time Machine backups.


Why do I get a HTML unescaped context menu in Chrome? When I right click on any of the input enabled controls in Chrome on my macOS Sierra, I now-a-days get this first option, which I could get using Cmd + Ctrl + Space. Looks like something's broken?

See the second item here:

On textareas (in Ask Different too):

this issue has been fixed via the next update. Sorry for the late response.


How Do I Stop the Native Podcast App from Removing Played Episodes? I often listen to podcasts as I fall to sleep.  The result is a podcast may finish playing without me actually having finished it.  The annoying thing is the Podcast then removes the episode thinking it's played & no longer needed.

Is there a way to stop this behavior.  I would rather the app simply keep the last X episodes, regardless if it believe they had been listed to or not?

I know I can add them back, but it's somewhat tedious to keep doing that.

I tried looking in both the settings for the Podcast app & while it's connected to iTunes, but couldn't find anything.

In iTunes on the computer when the iOS device is connected choose the device in the sidebar. This will goive a page with a menu on top allow select od Podcast. Like this

The second oval shows that I have selected to sync podcasts automatically keeping the 5 least recent unplayed.

Alter these options to either keep updates manual or choose new rather than unplayed.


Check if Network Accounts are avalible We have a domain running Microsoft Active Directory and in that domain there is a number of Mac computers running Leopard and later. Sometimes the users are met by a red dot at the login screen, saying "network accounts are not avalible". The user are still able to login, and we can SSH to the computer, but the user can't use all the domain functions. Is there a Terminal command that allows us to check if the user currently logged in is connected to the domain correctly?

A quick check that I will use is the id username command in terminal, replacing username with a user other than the one you are logged in with.  For example, if I'm logged in as SJobs I would instead use the query id TCook, assuming that TCook is another user within the domain but not on this computer.  This will attempt to query the domain for the specified username and return all of it's values.  If you are not currently connected to the domain it will instead return "no such user".

If this fails I go back, check my binding, check my network connection, log out and login again.

Hope that helps!


How to Uninstall Qt in El Capitan? I know the thread How to uninstall Qt Creator on Mac Yosemite but I cannot locate Qt folders in $HOME/Library/.
The following command is also unsuccessful

sudo QtSDK/SDKMaintenanceTool.app/Contents/MacOS/SDKMaintenanceTool

I think Qt version is 5.1. The whole package took about 14 Gb which I cannot keep anymore in my system.

How can you uninstall Qt in El Capitan?

New location of Qt folders is at /Users/Masi/Qt where you can find SDKMaintenanceTool which you just double click and select uninstall all components. Source here.


MKV files wrongly considered as "Other" in Storage stats When looking at the disk stats in the storage tab of "About this Mac", mkv files are showed as Other instead of being grouped with other videos on the disk.

When browsing the disk with the finder, mkv files are correctly displayed as videos when sorting files by kind.

Is there any way to make the disk stats consider mkv files as videos ?

Thank for you answers

Unfortunately there isn't a way to force the system to recognize *.mkv files as videos from the 'About This Mac' window. Macs do not natively support this file type (you'll notice that neither Quicktime nor iTunes will play them) and lack the specific decoding algorithm for the *.mkv format by default (also known as a 'codec'), so the system actually doesn't know what to do with them. Technically the *.mkv format is actually considered an open standard container format (not a video format), which means that it's not limited to any specific coding format (it can hold pretty much anything). Macs group 'container' files that aren't natively supported media types as 'Other'.

I know what you're thinking, and YES, it IS weird that it can figure it out in Finder though. I have no facts on why, only a guess. It might be because we've installed a 3rd party media player capable of handling and decoding the file. So basically the 3rd party player knows what an *.mkv file is, the system knows that the 3rd party player is in fact a video player, but unfortunately it doesn't come back around to close the information loop. It would be nice if that 3rd party player could pass that info on to the system though, wouldn't it?


What repair options exist for iPhone 5s I bought an iPhone 5s about 3 days ago. Unfortunately I've discovered that the headphone jack is broken.

The left side of my headphones doesn't produce sound. I tried the headphones in another device and they worked fine. So the problem lies with the iPhone 5s.

When I took it back to the store, I was told it would take 2 weeks to get it fixed because they had to send it away for repair.

What options do I have to get it fixed?

If you bought the phone from an official Apple retailer, and it is new and within the warranty period, then there should be no issues with returning the phone for a refund or replacement.

The sales policies of Apple are at http://www.apple.com/legal/ and http://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/sales-policies/retail.html

What complicates matters in many cases is the carrier. Unless you purchased an unsubsidized phone, you may have the carrier balk at a return and have to wait for them to clear your subsidy.

In the meantime, the issues sounds like the phone connector jack internal to the phone, you could attempt a DIY repair by inserting the headphone connector and giving it a good wiggle and spin about in the socket, this could get it working. If not, then read up on the policies and see if the store is willing to work with you to find a solution.


Is it possible to have an external developer in Xcode just using exported cert+prov Is it possible to have an external developer in Xcode without being logged in with an account, but using a exported certificate and provisioning profile?
Is it possible to select an imported certificate and provisioning profile without signing in with the account in Xcode?

We do not want him to have access to our Apple developer account, but need him to use a specific provisioning profile, to be able to send out test versions.

How do you solve this?

If you don't want him to have limited, handing your cert is not the way to go.
Add him as a team member on iTunes Connect, adjust his permissions and remove him when the QA ends.

To add a second user to your account:

https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/ra/ng/users_roles

Add the Apple ID for the person you want to be able to sign and don't let them upload.  This works for individual accounts as well as enterprise / corporate accounts.


Cannot boot into osx after partitioning in macos So I have Ubuntu and high sierra working fine, but yesterday I decided to expand the ubuntu disk space. So I free up space in the macos by deleting application and then doing a partition(this is how I remember allocating space for ubuntu when I installed it). The partition was done in osx. After a reboot, the option to boot osx is gone, so I can only boot ubuntu with reFind. I'm guessing the macos might have unmounted it self after the partitioning or it might have to do with the new mac file system which reFind doesn't recognise.

Booting into recovery with command-R all I get is internet recovery and error code of -2002F meaning I cannot connect to apple server.

Thanks for the help!

I need more information about your partition tables. Please do the following.

Boot to Ubuntu.

Use control+option+T key to open a Terminal window.

Enter the commands shown below.

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
sudo gdisk /dev/sda

The gdisk command is interactive. Enter the P key followed by the Q key.

Post the output from these two commands to your question.


Can Spotlight show results for disconnected drives? I have several external hard drives which I would like to search for files with Spotlight. They cannot be all connected at the same time.

How can I get Spotlight results for offline external hard drives ?

You can't, Spotlight stores the search index in the root folder of the volume. When the volume is disconnected, you cannot get search results from it.


Display arrangement keeps changing My iMac keeps changing the arrangement of my two add-on displays. The third one, the one in the middle, is the computer itself which always stays in the middle.

I'm running High Sierra 10.13.6. It's a mild annoyance, but still annoying nevertheless.

All three monitors have the dock and menu bar. Apparently no one else is having this problem because I cannot find a fix anywhere.

How can I ensure that the way I arrange my displays does not change?

I wrote a free terminal tool called displayplacer that lets describe your monitor layout as a terminal command. I then use BetterTouchTool to execute these profiles via hotkeys. I have the same issue as you, when I plug in my monitors the layout randomly changes.

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

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


How to erase personal data from an iPad with dead battery? I'd like to recycle iPad 1. How do I clean all personal info?
The battery is dead, I tried to recharge it for an hour.

open the ipad and smash the motherboard.
dissasembly instructions online at ifixit.com.

they can't recycle circuit boards anyway!


Fixing up a HFS+ filesystem enough to rescue some files I have a HFS+ formatted drive that just died on me. I have a back up but it's a about a week old. Unfortunately, I have a few files that I've changed and added since then that I would like to rescue before throwing it out.

Running fsck on it gives this output:

tangrs:~ new_tangrs$ sudo fsck_hfs -d /dev/disk1s2
Password:
journal_replay(/dev/disk1s2) returned 0
** /dev/rdisk1s2
    Using cacheBlockSize=32K cacheTotalBlock=32768 cacheSize=1048576K.
   Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-557~393).
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
   Missing thread record (id = 18)
   File record has hard link chain flag (id = 14050171)
   File record has hard link chain flag (id = 14050178)
   File record has hard link chain flag (id = 14050182)
...
   File record has hard link chain flag (id = 9464626)
   File record has hard link chain flag (id = 9464630)
   File record has hard link chain flag (id = 9464633)
   Missing thread record (id = 2056093)
   Missing thread record (id = 2056272)
   Missing thread record (id = 3885380)
...
   Missing thread record (id = 21227307)
   Missing thread record (id = 21479379)
   Missing thread record (id = 21504654)
   Incorrect number of thread records
(4, 154)
    CheckCatalogBTree: dirCount = 3230, dirThread = 1815
   Incorrect number of thread records
(4, 154)
    CheckCatalogBTree: fileCount = 3640, fileThread = 1935
   Unused node is not erased (node = 40959)
** Checking multi-linked files.
   Incorrect number of file hard links
    filelink prime buckets do not match
** Checking catalog hierarchy.
** The volume   could not be verified completely.
    volume check failed with error 2
    volume type is pure HFS+
    primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
    alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
    primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
    alternate VHB is at block 1329072302 0x4f3808ae
    sector size = 512 0x200
    VolumeObject flags = 0x07
    total sectors for volume = 1329072304 0x4f3808b0
    total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00
CheckHFS returned -1317, fsmodified = 0
tangrs:~ new_tangrs$

Obviously the volume is beyond the help of disk utility.

When I try to mount it, it just kicks me out with a weird error message.

tangrs:~ new_tangrs$ sudo mount -o ro -t hfs /dev/disk1s2 /Volumes/HDD
mount_hfs: No such file or directory
tangrs:~ new_tangrs$ sudo dmesg | tail
hfs_mountfs: encountered failure 2
hfs_mount: hfs_mountfs returned 2
hfs_mounthfsplus: cat_idlookup returned (2) getting rootfolder
hfs_mounthfsplus: encountered errorr (2)
hfs_mountfs: encountered failure 2
hfs_mount: hfs_mountfs returned 2
hfs_mounthfsplus: cat_idlookup returned (2) getting rootfolder
hfs_mounthfsplus: encountered errorr (2)
hfs_mountfs: encountered failure 2
hfs_mount: hfs_mountfs returned 2
tangrs:~ new_tangrs$

Can anyone help out here?

Disk warrior has saved my bacon more than once:

http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/


What are the private and public keys associated with an Apple Distribution Certificate? I'm following this guide on how to generate a new Apple Distribution Certificate, and on the ‘Download your certificate’ page it says

Download your certificate to your Mac, then double click the .cer file to install in Keychain Access. Make sure to save a backup copy of your private and public keys somewhere secure.

What are these private and public keys? Are they contained in the certificate? When I download the certificate and Get Info, it has information about a public key but not a private one.

The certificate contains a copy of the public key. Having the certificate without the private key is meaningless in terms of distributing iOS programs.
The private key is created automatically when you create the certificate signing request as described by the linked to guide. The private key is stored on your local computer, and can be found in the Keychain program.
The private key is not contained in the certificate nor it is not downloadable from Apple's developer web site. You will want to keep the private key, well, private - and secure.


How can I run iPhone app in Simulator without opening Xcode using command-line utility I know that there are some utilities which allows us to install iPhone apps to Simulator. But I found problems installing in this way when I have two Xcode versions installed on the system.

I want to set the environment variable for that utility. How can I set the private framework path for that utility?

https://github.com/Fingertips/ios-sim  : Link for the utility.

For more details please go through my stackoverflow link

Ok, I have found the solution to this question and it is their in my StackOverFlow link.

OR

http://blog.abrahambarrera.me/2010/12/iphonesim.html

Thanks to Abraham Barrera.


Why is "recently added" playlist under iCloud control empty on iPhone? The playlist "recently added" is a smart playlist (created by iTunes) and lists quite some songs in iTunes on the Mac. The library is kept in the iCloud by iTunes match, so the songs and the playlists are synced automatically to the iPhone. But "recently added" always is empty on the iPhone (unlike most other playlists).

You're not the only one suffering from this issue. A lot of people are complaining on the internet about this.

A solution would be to turn off iTunes Match on your iPhone, delete all your music on your iPhone (it's all in the iCloud, right? So you won't lose any) and then activate iTunes Match on your iPhone. You'll be able to download all your play-lists, including the recently added.
This should do the trick.


Forcing/Getting app to run on lower Mac OSX version I bought some software; on the back of the cover it says the minimum version that it supports is 10.4.11 which is the same as my Mac. However, after copying it to the Applications folder, it says it can't run on this version of OS X (I have checked in About this Mac, and the version matches what's on the CD cover).

I right clicked the app, Show Package Contents and opened its info.plist; there it said the minimum version supported is 10.5, so I changed this to 10.4.11, saved the file and tried opening the app, but it still wouldn't open. The message box looks like it's from the OS rather than the application, so the app hasn't even started before I get told I can't open it.

Is there a way to trick it into allowing it to open, and hopefully nothing will go wrong, seeing as according to the box it can run on my Mac.

NSBundle and CFBundle aggressively cache the contents of application bundles to improve performance. Although you edited the Info.plist, the Finder and Launch Services don't yet know that the application is any different.

Running the following command in Terminal to touch the application bundle will force the Finder (and Launch Services) to re-register the application, thereby noticing the changes you made to the Info.plist:

touch "/Applications/My Cool App.app"

After running that, deselect the application, then reselect it in the Finder, and then try launching it.

Note that this won't necessarily guarantee that you'll be able to launch the app. The developer would need to make sure they set a deployment target of 10.4 and/or use weak framework linking to assure that the app will be fully backward-compatible.


How do I open a file from TextEdit on MacOSX? How do I create a link in TextEdit on MacOSX that will let me open an external application?

Doing TextField / Edition / Edit Link (Add Link if you've got any text selected)or Command+K, will let you add an Hyperlink.

Typing file:// before the application's file path will give you a bluish clickable text, which, on click, will open the file path. Here's how it should look like:

file:///Applications/NameOfTheApplication.app

It won't open the Application, but will open a new Finder window with the item already selected.


How do I import my OSX Keyboard Shortcuts? After a clean OS install, is there any way to recover my OS Keyboard Shortcuts from a backup of my previous User folder?

Is is somewhere in Library/Preferences?

I tried copying ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist (based on another thread here) but that did not seem to work.

(I'm referring to various shortcuts set up in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, particularly > 'App Shortcuts')

See Where are keyboard shortcuts stored (for backup and sync purposes)? which mentions some relevant files in ~/Library.

(Also helpful: Globally edit all keyboard shortcut settings  – which talks about manually adding/editing shortcuts.)

Copying ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist from my old account worked, however, I had to log out and do it from a separate account, otherwise OSX will undo any changes to the file.


How to set Adobe DC PDF reader as default for ALL pdfs without having to open security preferences every time I recently switched to Mac from Ubuntu and I'm trying to set Adobe Acrobat Reader DC as the default pdf reader for all pdfs. I assumed this would be straightforward, however, when I download a new pdf, it defaults to Preview because if I try to set Adobe DC as default I get the following message

  something.pdf can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the App Store and identified developers.

Then I have to go to security preferences and explicitly approve Adobe Reader. This is incredibly annoying because Preview doesn't support tabs and I tend to have several pdfs open at any given time and don't want to open each in a separate window.

Is there a way to change the security preferences such that all opening all pdfs with Adobe reader is allowed by default?

I'm on MacOS Mojave.

Select a pdf file in Finder and click the Command-I keys to display the Get Info panel. Click on the lock icon at bottom of the panel and enter your password. Then  click on the "Open With" pull down and select Adobe DC and click the "change all" button. This sets Adobe as the default for pdf files.


What app does macOS Mojave use for screen recording? I just upgraded to macOS Mojave on Macbook Air. I press command + shift + 5 on keyboard, it prompts a window where I select part of screen and then I begin recording my screen. The video quality is good and even the default microphone works well.

However, it is a little mysterious to me what program it is using for this. In the past, it would use QuickTime. However, I do not see QuickTime or any menu bar visible when this screen sharing utility launches. Also, after I save, and open it, it suggests to open in Quicktime.

Is it using QuickTime behind the scenes, albeit without a menu bar?

If you start screen recording then open the activity monitor.
You will see a process name screencapture.
Click process info botton will see more detail.
It seems like a system level functions and use intel quick sync to encode.


Is there a keyboard shortcut for 3 fingers slide? I really like having applications in full screen mode and switch between them using the 3 finger swipe feature.

But can I have a shortcut for it?
Maybe like command + -> , something like this?

That would be the

  Ctrl-Left or Right Arrow

to slide between full screen applications.


Purchased new MacBook Pro on 16th October 2011; question about Up-To-Date program I purchased a new MBP and am eligible for their free Lion upgrade program; I applied for it but it would take anywhere between 5-7 business days for my country. If I purchase Lion now, will I get a refund after entering update code into iTunes?

Probably not, but you should contact Apple in your country to get a definitive answer.


What does en0,en1 etc (en) stand for? So on Linux it's eth0, eth1 etc which stands for ethernet interface 0 etc

So what does en0 on mac stand for? (the "en" part)

It stands for "EtherNet" as far as I know.


Messages on MacBook Pro not working I can't get Messages to work on my Macbook Pro (retina).  One day it just went offline, and I can't get it back online.  When I try to login I get this screen and it won't accept the password, even though I input the correct password. Can anyone help get it back online?  I've tried all the suggestions listed here so far without luck :-(

Do you have 2-factor authentication set in your Gmail account? Sometimes, this seems t lose the password for a device with symptoms like yours.

If that's the case, a solution is to go to your Gmail account settings (at Google, not on your MBP), revoke the password for the MBP and create a new one


In Terminal, where it displays XXX@YYY , what is XXX and what is YYY? I transferred a backup to a new mac.  However the names got changed, and one has a -2 added to it. Now my terminal reads name@name-2 -$.   In Finder it appears like so:

`name (2)`
  `HardDriveName`
    `Users`
       `name`

Trying to identify what name (2) is and how I can change it if possible.   Was never prompted in the migration and not sure why the -2 is appended in the terminal now.

name (2) is your computer's hostname. You can change it in the 'Sharing' section of System Preferences:


Unable to install iTerm2 using brew I am trying to install iTerm2 terminal emulator on macOS Sierra 10.12.1 using Homebrew.

I tried to download iTerm2 from its main site. However, the page is taking too long to respond. So, after searching the internet for alternates, I found and ran this command : brew cask install iterm2

I am new to MacOS and would appreciate if someone can help me out with this.

Here is the traceback:

kshitij10496@Kshitijs-MacBook-Pro  ~  brew cask install iterm2
==> Satisfying dependencies
complete
==> Downloading https://iterm2.com/downloads/stable/iTerm2-3_0_12.zip

curl: (28) Operation timed out after 300976 milliseconds with 0 out of 0 bytes received
Error: Download failed on Cask 'iterm2' with message: Download failed: https://iterm2.com/downloads/stable/iTerm2-3_0_12.zip
The incomplete download is cached at /Users/kshitij10496/Library/Caches/Homebrew/Cask/iterm2--3.0.12.zip.incomplete
Error: nothing to install

Homebrew had the same problem you had when you tried to download iTerm2 directly from its website - I imagine the website was temporarily offline (it seems to be OK now - I've just downloaded iTerm2 successfully).

I'd suggest trying again. If it still doesn't work, check the website on downforeveryoneorjustme.com, and wait until the website is back up.


Prevent image resizing in Pages If I paste in an image into Pages '09, it scales the image, creating something that is either too small, or too large. Trying to resize these is driving me crazy, how can I either prevent this from happening, or quickly get it back to its original size?

In the "Inspector" on the "metrics" tab click "Original Size".

And for inserting images I prefer from the menu "Insert" and then "Choose..." or ⇧+⌘+V


What might cause mouse and keyboard freezes after updating to OSX 10.8.2? After the 10.8.2 update, keyboard and mouse input is hanging intermittently on my 2011 MacBook Air. It occurs in several applications (have tested with Safari and App Store). The keyboard input and mouse just stops working for a few seconds, then some of the typed text is input at the cursor.

Does anyone know a solution to this or tip to help me find one?

More details

Here is a video of the problem by someone with a similar issue.

Console log shows a lot of these

2012-09-22 15:22:16,000 kernel[0]: AppleUSBMultitouchDriver::_deviceGetReport - DeviceRequest for reportID 0x0 returned with result 0xe000404f - retrying

Several users have found this to work (and as far as I can evaluate, it fixed it for me as well):

Log in/switch to an administrator account
open Terminal
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist


PDFs randomly open in Preview instead of Acrobat Not a major but a semi-annoying problem is that totally out of the blue all PDFs will start opening in Preview instead of Acrobat. All PDF file icons change from the PDF icon to Preview, as if the default program switches. Then it goes back by itself, for no apparent reason after I manually drag PDFs into Acrobat. Just happens randomly and I wonder why that is and how to prevent it, because it happens often enough to be a minor nuisance.

Right click then select get info. open drop down that says "Open With" then change app.


opening or unzipping Xcode 8.3.2.xip.file How can I "unzip" or extract files from Xcode.8.3.2.xip.file on 2009 MacBook?  Would you have to do it from the command line?

So you asked two questions, and I'll address the second one first, "Would you have to do it from the command line?", no, it does not have to be done from the command line.

As to your first question, "How can I "unzip" or extract files from Xcode.8.3.2.xip.file on 2009 MacBook?", you would have to have the Late 2009 MacBook, which supports macOS Sierra, and have macOS Sierra installed. Then assuming the Xcode.8.3.2.xip.file was in your Downloads folder, you simply double-click it.

This will cause Archive Utility to expand the file by first verifying the digital signature it contains, and expand it to the Xcode.app application bundle, at first located within the TMPDIR, e.g on my system it was /private/var/folders/7c/wmqb3p_14hq_6g1vtj20rv0h0000gn/T/Cleanup At Startup/.BAH.vW5Gr/Xcode.app and then it gets moved to the, e.g., ~/Downloads folder, where you'd then manually move it to /Applications.


Found Virus Bloodhound.PDF.20 on the time machine external drive, how to remove Just got a bran-new work-issued macbookpro loaded with Symantec endpoint protection (not by choice), it's less than 2 weeks old. Created backup using the time machine software, and endpoint kicks in every time I plugged the drive in when i get to work, and started to scan the drive. I usually stops the scanning process.

This morning I plugged the drive in and went to get some coffee, when i came back endpoint identified a virus Bloodhound.PDF.20 on a file under ./DocumentRevisions-V100 in the backup folder. So I have a few questions:
1. /.DocumentRevisions-V100 require root access therefore endpoint can't scan into on my computer (not the external drive), that means it's likely the virus also resides on my computer as well? If so, how can get rid of it. I can't cd into further folders under .DocumentRevisions-V100 even with sudo command. Haven't tried sudo su yet.

Is it possible to get endpoint to scan the .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder with root privilege?

I am going to reformat my external drive and start a new time machine session. At this point, my concern is my own computer and whether it has an virus or not.

Any suggestion is appreciated.

ps. Yes I've considered to rm -rf /.DocumentRevisions-V100 but it's heavily advised against after some googling

When you delete a file, all the revisions go away, so you will want to first attack the file with the problem by deleting it.

If you can't delete it, move it to an external USB drive and then delete it.

At that point, you can let the scanner see if backup copies are still affected - but you are correct - you never want to use rm on backed up files. Delete them using the Time Machine interface to delete one file in all backups or one instance of one file or one backup instance. You can also use tmutil delete to remove snapshots from the backup drive.

How can I manually delete old backups to free space for Time Machine?


Play a sound when another application outputs to console I currently have a program that I can't get the source-code to so I'm trying to find another way to do what I need. I was thinking of having an applescript just constantly listening to console and then playing a sound when a certain message is played. The app has to load information and then it outputs to console when it finishes. Would applescript be a good way to go about this?

Thanks!

Try running a command like this in a Terminal window instead:

syslog -w|while read l;do [[ $l = *'message text'* ]]&&afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Blow.aiff;done

syslog -w is a shorter alternative to tail -f /var/log/system.log.


Get current app from two instances with same name by Apple Script How to address an active window of an active app by AppleScript when two instances of the same app are running?

The script below addresses the other app. Probably because the name and id of the app is the same and it picks just the first one from the list by name.

tell application (path to frontmost application as text) to tell front window...

I use that script to maximize the current window but it does not work for the two instances of the same app:

tell application "Finder" to set {0, 0, dtw, dth} to bounds of window of desktop
try
    tell application (path to frontmost application as text) to tell front window
        set bounds to {0, 0, dtw, dth}
    end tell
on error
    tell application "System Events" to tell (process 1 where it is frontmost)
        try
            click (button 1 of window 1 where subrole is "AXZoomButton")
        end try
    end tell
end try

It's not possible to get the right instance of the frontmost application because these two instances have the same path and the same bundle identifier, the application will always be the first open instance.

You must use the frontmost process, like this:

tell application "System Events"
    tell (first process whose frontmost is true) to tell front window to if exists then
        set position to {0, 0}
        set size to {dtw, dth}
    end if
end tell


Transfer iPhone contents to iTunes How do I transfer the contents of my iPhone to iTunes before I get a new iPhone? I want to be able to then load all my contacts, text messages, photos, etc. to my new iPhone.

You can use iTunes that will transfer your old phone data to your Mac (and back to new phone)

or

You can use iCloud that will back up your old phone to iCloud (and back to new phone)

Do not forget the actual Phone function (the SIM card), use the old or use the new (if you got one).

Very specific instructions for all methods above are available from Apple here..

I personally prefer the iTunes to my Mac method.


Using tab key to advance to next file in Finder for numerically ordered files I have a directory of files named like:

it(0).png
it(1).png
it(2).png
...
it(10).png
it(11).png
...

In Finder my directory is arranged by Name and the files are in correct numerical order. I like to use space preview to view the files, then I press Tab to advance, but the selection advances in alphabetical (ASCII?) order rather than numeric:

it(0).jpg -> 1 -> 10 -> ... -> 19 -> 2 -> 21 -> ...

Is there a way to advance in the numeric order that Finder displays the files in? I am on OS X Mavericks 10.9.3

To reproduce run this in Terminal.app

mkdir /tmp/alphanum && for i in {0..29}; do touch /tmp/alphanum/$i; done && open /tmp/alphanum

Select the first item and press Tab to advance.

So long as they are all named following the same format (test1.jpg, test2.jpg etc.) you'll get the behavior you're looking for. tab will advance you alphabetically. Down will advance you now the list in the order the files are currently displayed in the finder window.


Jump straight to passcode when finger isn't recognized but Touch ID? When I'm sweaty (e.g. jogging), I find it very difficult to unlock my iPhone 7 with touch ID. I use my fingerprint-registered finger with the home button, but I get stuck in a loop of it forever saying "Try Again", rather than it giving up and letting me use my passcode instead.
Using a different (not registered) finger doesn't seem to make a difference. Likewise, giving only a very brief press of the home button doesn't reliably open the screen to enter passcode, though that does work when I'm not sweaty.
This can be a bit frustrating, as after a run I can spend a full minute stabbing at the home button to try and unlock the phone and tell Strava I'm no longer running. I accept that touch ID probably isn't going to reliably work when my fingers are sweaty, but is there a way I can more reliably jump straight to passcode entry?

Rest your finger on Touch ID.
It says ‘try again’, don’t lift your finger.
Depress and release the button.
The passcode screen will appear immediately.


Spotlight indexing appears stuck, what can I do? My Spotlight index got corrupted, preventing me from searching messages in Mail.app. I added my HD to Spotlight's privacy list to delete the index. I then removed it from the privacy list so Spotlight would reindex the drive from scratch.

I have done this before with no real problem.

However, this time Spotlight appears to be stuck. It's been "Estimating indexing time" for about 6 hours now.

What can/should I do?

You can try to temporarily disable Spotlight, removing its files and then reenabling it.

The process to do this involves executing Terminal commands, so please pay attention and triple check each step.

Open a Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type:

cd /Volumes
ls -l

Examine the output of that, one should be your “broken” Volume. Once you have it identified, proceed with these steps, all in the Terminal. The first time you execute a command, your password may be required, this is normal.

The output may look like:

lrwxr-xr-x   1 root    admin     1 Sep  2 12:23 MacintoshHD -> /

So the name you’re after is “MacintoshHD”.

Step Number One: Disable Spotlight for your Drive.

sudo mdutil -i off "/Volumes/the_name_you_have_identified_before"

Step Number Two: Remove the indexes from the Drive.

sudo mdutil -E "/Volumes/the_name_you_have_identified_before"

Step Number Three: Eliminate all Spotlight Files from the Drive. (two commands)

cd "/Volumes/the_name_you_have_identified_before"
sudo rm -fr .Spotlight-V100

Be careful with the last command, make sure you type it exactly as it appears.

Step Number Four: Re-enable spotlight in the Drive.

sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/the_name_you_have_identified_before"

Now this should trigger a Spotlight complete re-indexing. You have to be extremely patient with it. Spotlight sometimes appears to be frozen but it’s really indexing. It’s best to leave it overnight and be patient.


How to access a video podcast playlist on the AppleTV 2G In my iTunes library, I have a playlist which contains several video podcasts.

However, I cannot seem to access this playlist on my AppleTV 2G although all of my music playlists show up as do the TV Show playlists.

In the Audio & Video settings, I have set Show Playlists to All rather then music only.

Is there something I am missing or is this not possible?

The part I was missing was that I was viewing the "unwatched" list of podcasts which does not show the playlists. I simply switched the view and the playlists option appeared at the top.

Everything works as expected.