Why do I get a ‘Remote Management’ step when installing High Sierra? I got a 2015 MacBook Pro from eBay. I’m trying to install Sierra from scratch (after completely formatting the SSD) but I get this strange extra step (although the install USB is vanilla and done using Apple’s own bootable usb tool) that I can’t pass (pressing continue asks me to connect to a IBM private network, which I obviously can’t do)

Does anyone have any info about this. Where is this MacBook comming from? How can I disable this remote management step? Is this a custom firmwere, or where does this come from?

This Mac has been enrolled under Device Enrollment. Upon connecting to Apple, the device has received instructions to be managed by IBM.

This cannot be bypassed. You should contact the seller.

Mobile Device Management ‘locks’ enforced by Device Enrollment are enforced by Apple’s severs and are based on hardware identification, so cannot be removed by macOS reinstallation ― they’re defined to be enforced as soon as the Mac is unboxed for the very first time prior to any manual configuration.

About Device Enrollment


Can I add more math constants to Spotlight search? You can use pi to do calculations, but I also want to add tau and more math constants, is there a way to do this?

Spotlight can only perform the functions listed in the math man page (type man math in Terminal to get a full list of functions). Adding a new constant like τ would likely require modifying a library.


Will 27' 2560x1440 Korean IPS monitor (brand: Crossover) with DVI-D output work with MBP retina? I have a 15' MBP retina (which has HDMI and Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting to external displays).

I was planning to buy this 27' Crossover monitor (one of those Korean displays that have popular lately). I was planning to use it through a DVI-D to HDMI connector like the ones found here and here.

However, the monitor seller's listing on the page says:

Do not use with port convertor
No AD board internal GPU, APU, Laptop, Macbook are not compatible (sic).

I have read that HDMI and DVI video signals are identical and they only differ in the physical connectors.

If so, can I assume that my planned setup will indeed work with my MBP retina? If not, is there a workaround?

The problem with the high resolution is that the monitor uses a dual-link DVI-cable as it is needed to provide such a high resolution. The Dual-link cable is not a normal DVI-cable and therefore will not work as expected with a normal adapter. The adapter you have linked should suffice thou. But beware that the ad says no adapters and no Macbook, this could be a warning towards people trying to hook up a "HDMI to single-link DVI"/similar or to owners of an old Macbook. We can't know that from the information given from the ad and you should consider contacting the seller.

It can work(you can even say it should work), but looking at this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4036890?start=0&tstart=0
it's not guaranteed that it'll work.


How to install OSX on NVMe drive only (no SATA drive) I just pulled the 128GB NVMe SSD + 1TB disk drive (known together as a fusion drive) out of a late 2014 27" iMac. I put a new, blank WD Blue 1TB NVMe drive in (alone) but have been unable to install OSX so far.
The default OSX for this model was Yosemite. However, it seems Yosemite cannot see the NVMe module. I created a bootable Mojave USB which can see the drive (and was able to format it), but when I tried to actually install the OS from the bootable USB  I got the "installer is corrupted"
(Note: This mac has run every version from Yosemite up to Big Sur which I removed)
How can I install OSX on a blank NVMe SSD for a late 2014 iMac?

Apparently the downloads you get get off apples website use certificates that have expired. In order to work around this you have to download a "full" OSX install.
I re-downloaded an installer for Mojave using the following command on another mac
softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.14.6

Then created a bootable USB drive from this and was able to install successfully


How to get Automator to "Copy Finder Items" and only keep one copy? I've build a short Automator workflow.

It does a "Get Specified Finder Items" from directory "sourcesfiles".

Then does a "Copy Finder Items" to directory "targetdir".  The "Replace Existing Files" is unchecked.

I have a cron job set up to run it every 2 minutes.  It runs and works.  It copies the "sourcefiles" directory to the "targetdir/sourcefiles".

However, when the files are deleted from the "sourcefiles" directory, it copies an empty directory to "targetdir" ... that is, the backed up files in "targetdir" get deleted.

I tried checking the "Copy Finder Items > Replace Existing Files" checkbox.  But then it created a new copy every time.  I end up with this ...

targetdir/sourcefiles

targetdir/sourcefiles copy

targetdir/sourcefiles copy 2

targetdir/sourcefiles copy 3

targetdir/sourcefiles copy 4

... and so on.

QUESTION: How can I make automator make one copy of the newest file, but not delete the backup when the original file gets deleted?

I believe the following workflow answers your question: "How can I make automator make one copy of the newest file, but not delete the backup when the original file gets deleted?"


As a novice user how can I reinstall an old Mac? I have used IBM PCs, and clones, professionally from 1981 until I retired in 1999.
I have never owned/used a Mac.

My neighbor gave me his older Mac (I think he bought it 5 years ago).
I want to clean it up, get rid of music and apps that I will never use, rename it, setup up networking etc.

Where can I find out how to do it?

Technically this isn't an answer, but it's way to long for a comment.  If you come back with more details I will tailor the answer to suit your circumstances.

Where can you find out?  Asking here is a great start :)  I'll try to put some pointers your way below, but if you have the time and money, then I highly recommend the "Missing Manual" books (a different one exists for each version of the OS) which are probably the most comprehensive and accessible of any Mac user guides I have seen and read.

It would be really useful to know exactly what model the machine is, and what the current OS level is to understand any possible upgrade options etc.

Assuming you can log in and use it in any capacity, then click the apple logo in the top left of your screen, directly under that click About This Mac, you should get a box like this:

This gives us basic information about the machine, it's CPU and RAM (which will let us understand what OS is is capable of running) and it's current OS Level.

The best way to prep the machine is to wipe it clean and install the OS from scratch

If you got any install DVDs with the machine (they will have been supplied but whether they have made it to you 5 years later is another matter) you can factory reset the device to it's original state with those, but there is every chance that whatever it is currently running is newer than what it was supplied with originally.

If you don't have the discs, then you need to get some.  However it's not quite that simple, as these days all OS installs and upgrades are downloaded from the internet.  If your current OS is not 10.6.8 or higher, then you don't have access to the Mac App Store which is where you can purchase the upgrade from.  If it's 10.6.<8 that you can at least upgrade the machine to 10.6.8 by simply running software update (Apple logo > Software Update).  If you are on 1.05.x or earlier, this process is harder, but it can be done.

Assuming your machine will support it I would recommend running the latest available OS.  It's not expensive ($30 or so?) and will provide the best experience f you are new to Macs.  Now, there's every chance that either you don't want to for some reason, or are already on the most recent version (as per my screenshot) etc.  If you are on 10.7 or above you can try a re-install using the recovery partition which should allow you to wipe everything clean and start again.  No point adding instructions until we know what you are on or what you want to do, but we can clarify later how to do this.

Lastly, without touching the OS, there is a quick way to at least get the thing running with default settings on the current version you have which is to create a new user account, and log into that instead of whatever you are using now.  Click Apple > System Preferences... > Users and Groups and add a new user:

When you login as the new user all the settings and such will be as if you had installed the OS from scratch, but there may be non standard applications still available etc if they existed before, and other users files and settings will still be taking up disk space etc.


Can Mail show a folder's total message count next to the folder name? Apple Mail displays the number of unread messages in each folder in its sidebar:

Is there any way to make it display the folder's total message count (read plus unread) in addition to, or instead of, the unread message count?

Plugins/hacks welcome, as I’m guessing this won’t be a built-in option.

Since hacks are welcome:

The idea is to use AppleScript to rename folders. For example:

@REPLY

will be renamed to something like

@REPLY (34)

where 34 is @REPLY's total message count.

A working implementation of such a script that renames mailboxes prefixed with @ is (tested on OS X 10.8.2 with Gmail and AIM accounts):

-- Check whether Mail is running
tell application "System Events"
    if not (exists (processes where name is "Mail")) then return
end tell

tell application "Mail"
    -- Loop over mail accounts
    repeat with myAccount in accounts
        -- Loop over mailboxes
        repeat with myMailbox in mailboxes of myAccount
            if name of myMailbox starts with "@" then
                set nameOfMyAccount to name of myAccount
                -- Help Mail.app's AppleScript suite cope with Gmail
                if nameOfMyAccount is "Gmail" then
                    set nameOfMyMailbox to "[Gmail]/" & name of myMailbox
                else
                    set nameOfMyMailbox to name of myMailbox
                end if
                set currentMessageCount to the (count of messages of mailbox nameOfMyMailbox of account nameOfMyAccount) as Unicode text
                set messageCountShownInMailboxName to (do shell script "echo '" & name of myMailbox & "' | /usr/bin/sed -E 's/.* \\(([0-9]+)\\)/\\1/'") as Unicode text
                if currentMessageCount is not equal to messageCountShownInMailboxName then
                    -- Strip message count: "@TODO (3)" -> "@TODO"
                    set strippedNameOfMyMailbox to do shell script "echo '" & name of myMailbox & "' | /usr/bin/sed -E 's/(.*) \\([0-9]+\\)/\\1/'"
                    -- Append current count: ""@TODO" -> "@TODO (4)"
                    set newMailboxName to strippedNameOfMyMailbox & " (" & currentMessageCount & ")"
                    -- Rename mailbox
                    set the name of mailbox nameOfMyMailbox of account nameOfMyAccount to newMailboxName
                end if
            end if
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

The effect of the script is shown in the following screenshots:

Another implementation that only renames mailboxes specified in a list would be (again, tested on OS X 10.8.2 with Gmail and AIM accounts)::

-- Append message count to these mailboxes
global mailboxesWithMessageCount
set mailboxesWithMessageCount to {"My To Do", "To Reply", "Very Important"}

-- Check whether Mail is running
tell application "System Events"
    if not (exists (processes where name is "Mail")) then return
end tell

tell application "Mail"
    -- Loop over mail accounts
    repeat with myAccount in accounts
        -- Mail.app's AppleScript suite gets confused with Gmail's [Gmail] folder
        if name of myAccount is "Gmail" then
            set mailboxPrefix to "[Gmail]/"
        else
            set mailboxPrefix to ""
        end if
        -- Loop over mailboxes
        repeat with myMailbox in mailboxes of myAccount
            -- Loop over mailboxes which should get the message count appended to their names
            repeat with mailboxWithMessageCount in mailboxesWithMessageCount
                if name of myMailbox starts with mailboxWithMessageCount then
                    set currentMessageCount to the (count of messages of mailbox (mailboxPrefix & name of myMailbox) of myAccount) as Unicode text
                    set messageCountShownInMailboxName to (do shell script "echo '" & name of myMailbox & "' | /usr/bin/sed -E 's/.* \\(([0-9]+)\\)/\\1/'") as Unicode text
                    if currentMessageCount is not equal to messageCountShownInMailboxName then
                        -- Strip message count: "@TODO (3)" -> "@TODO"
                        set strippedNameOfMyMailbox to do shell script "echo '" & name of myMailbox & "' | /usr/bin/sed -E 's/(.*) \\([0-9]+\\)/\\1/'"
                        -- Append current count: ""@TODO" -> "@TODO (4)"
                        set newMailboxName to strippedNameOfMyMailbox & " (" & currentMessageCount & ")"
                        -- Rename mailbox
                        set the name of mailbox (mailboxPrefix & name of myMailbox) of myAccount to newMailboxName
                    end if
                end if
            end repeat
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

The effect of the script is shown in the following screenshots:

Both scripts set the message count:

@REPLY -> @REPLY (34)

and, only if necessary, that is, when the message count has changed, update it:

@REPLY (34) -> @REPLY (29)

My original idea was to run one of the scripts above (or some variation thereof) every time a mail is received with a rule in Mail>Preferences>Rules:

but it can also be added to cron to run every 10 minutes like this (see crontab (5) man page for crontab syntax explanation):

Save the script to /path/to/updateMailMessageCount.scpt.
Open Terminal and type:

crontab -e

to open your crontab file.
Move with the arrow keys to the end of the file, in case there are any other entries, and press o (lowercase letter o), which adds an empty line and goes into insert mode.
Add this line (the 10 means "run every 10 minutes", change as necessary to match your needs):

*/10 * * * * osascript /path/to/updateMailMessageCount.scpt >/dev/null 2>&1

Press esc.
Save and close your crontab with :x!return (in case anything went wrong, type :q!, press return and start over).

(If you ever need to stop the cronjob, open your crontab file with crontab -e, position the cursor over the cronjob and type dd to delete it. Then save the file as explained above.)

You can use Launch Services, too (see this Apple developer document):

Create a script named ~/Library/LaunchAgents/updateMailMessageCount.plist with contents (600 is the interval in seconds, that is, 10 minutes):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>updateMailMessageCount</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>/path/to/updateMailMessageCount.scpt</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>600</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Load the job with:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/updateMailMessageCount.plist

(If you ever need to stop the job, do: launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/updateMailMessageCount.plist.)

(My favorite as long time Linux sysadmin is cron, but note that, on OS X, cron has been deprecated in favor of launchd. Both methods worked on my Mac running OS X 10.8.2.)

If you wish to refresh the message count with a keyboard shortcut you can create a service (see http://www.macosxautomation.com/services/learn/index.html for more information):

Close Mail.
Open Automator in folder Applications and choose Service:

Select Utilities under Library and drag Run AppleScript to the empty pane on the right:

Configure the service to receive no input in Mail:

Replace the line (* Your script goes here *) with one of the scripts above.
Save with a descriptive name like Refresh Message Count. The service will be saved to ~/Library/Services/.

Now set up the keyboard shortcut:

Open System Preferences, select the Keyboard preference pane and then the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
Select Services, scroll down to the service you previously added and set the keyboard shortcut to whatever you want with the following restriction: your shortcut shouldn't conflict with an existing shortcut in Mail. I've chosen controloption⌘R:

Open Mail. Note that there is a new service, accessible with controloption⌘R:

(For the curious: if you are wondering where service Reply and Move Sent Message to Current Folder above comes from, see How to save sent messages in same folder as message being replied to? -- warning: shameless plug.)

Now press controloption⌘R, wait a few seconds and watch how the message count of the folders specified in the script get updated.

Caveats:

Some folders can't be renamed, such as [Gmail]/All Mails or the Inbox folders.
Folders are not renamed in real time. That means that the number you see is an approximate value. If you implement the service, you will be able to refresh it with controloption⌘R, though.
It can be slow if you have many mailboxes, or if the mailbox has many mails
If you specify a set of mailboxes to rename, be careful that they do not match other folders, for example, "To Reply" will match both "To Reply" and "To Reply Later".

Advantages:

You will see the message count in any mail client, provided you use Mail.app on your Mac and one of these scripts.


how do i use 2 whatsapp accounts in my iphone? I have only one phone, an iphone, but have to access 2 whatsapp accounts. In android, we can use parallel space and have two whatsapp installations. But, iphone doesn't have any such option. Pls help me out.

Unfortunately without jailbreaking the phone or using untrusted sources there are no methods to use two different whatsapp account on the iphone


iPhone -- shutting off cell service, but not gps Airplane mode turns off GPS service as well as cell service.  Is this necessary under the new rules allowing most devices (at least on some airlines) to be used during all phases of flight?

If it's not necessary, is there a way to turn off cell service while leaving the GPS system functioning?

With my experience, being 30,000 feet above earth and traveling at around 500mph, the GPS has a very hard time finding my location. Even if it does find my location, the map itself doesn't load due to a lack of cellular data.

However, you can always manually turn off wifi, bluetooth, cellular data, and leave location services on.


Show When Applications Were Opened and Closed I'd like to be able to see a list of applications that were recently opened and quitted on a per user basis.

Ex:

19:25:34 Google Chrome Canary opened by John Smith
20:45:32 Pages quitted by Julie Smith

I checked the Console, but it didn't seem to specifically detail when apps were opened/quitted and by whom; it only detailed the processes that errored in those applications.

Is there a way (eg. a script I can run) that will show all applications opened and quitted within a certain time frame, and by whom?


Is it possible for an AppleScript .app file to retain its custom icon, even after edits have been made to the code? I've created an AppleScript .app file in Script Debugger.app.

I assigned a custom icon to this .app file by pasting a new icon over the default icon in the application's Get Info window in Finder. The custom icon is set immediately.

However, when I open the app in Script Debugger or Script Editor, to edit the code, and then resave the file, the custom icon disappears.

On save, the following icon immediately takes the place of the custom icon:

Of course, having to go through the process of setting the custom icon every time that I save (i.e., edit) the file is an inconvenience.

Is there a way for my custom application icon to remain in place, even after the .app file has been modified?

Here is a similar post:

App made in Applescript; Icon won't change

The answer to the above post gave me the idea to delete the default icon file located at /Contents/Resources/applet.icns (which I accessed by right-clicking the .app file in Finder and clicking the Show Package Contents context menu item). I then pasted my custom icon into this Resources folder, and renamed my icon applet.icns.

The effect of this was a custom icon in informational dialogs in my AppleScript application, but it did not actually change the actual application icon (i.e., the icon that is inserted into the Dock while the application is running). But, at least this custom dialog icon did remain in place upon re-saving/editing the AppleScript code.

I followed your exact same procedure and found the exact same problem on operating system Sierra as well. After trying a few things I decided (in addition to changing the main Applications icon in the get info window) to do the exact same thing in the get info window of the applet.icns file and change it's icon as well.  I then opened that script editor app in scripteditor and saved the file.  The new icons remained as I changed them.  Tested in script debugger also and my custom icons remained untouched.


Printing current date and time on each page I'm often printing several versions of a document (e.g. a paper in progress). To keep track of the printouts I would like to print the date and time of printing onto each page, regardless of which application I'm using (although it would be okay if it works for PDF files only, if it happens automatically). I have seen Windows printer drivers including this feature, but haven't found any settings here (e.g., Canon iR3225) nor any hidden-CUPS-feature-I-could-activate-in-the-config-file.

Any ideas? Some sort of preprocessing I could inject into cups?

(I'm using Mac OS X 10.6.7)

I finally found a usable solution using convert from ImageMagick, the PDF services mentioned by nathang and Automator.

Start Automator, create a new "Print Plugin"
Drag the "run shell script" action to the right and enter the following script:

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
convert -size 400x50 xc:white -font Arial -pointsize 24 -gravity center -draw "fill grey50 text 0,0 '`/bin/date`'" /tmp/stamp.png
cat

Add the "Watermark PDF Documents" action and add the file "/tmp/stamp.png" using the 'add...' button. (You probably have to create this file first, e.g. using touch /tmp/stamp.png in a Terminal). Then adjust the offset, scale and opacity as you like. I'm using x=480 y=820 scale=0.25 opacity=0.7.
Add the "Open Images in Preview" action.
Save the Automator script.

Now you should find a new action in the "PDF" drop-down menu of your printing dialog, which stamps the current date and time on each page and shows the result in Preview, from where you can print the document.


script to preview two .png s side by side? I want to display A.png and B.png together, A left / B right or A top / B bottom.
I can of course

preview A.png
preview B.png

separately, then resize and move the two windows next to each other,
but that's a pain if you do it a lot.  Can it be scripted ?
If not, is there an opensource preview-like that can display side-by-side ?

(I have 10.8.3 .
if-preview-app-in-os-x-is-not-applescriptable-why-does-this-work
on SO has a comment
"Preview does have an AppleScript dictionary by default in 10.9 but not in earlier versions of OS X."
)

Open the two files with Preview, then run the following to position the windows:

tell application "Preview"
    activate
    set the bounds of the first window to {0, 0, 700, 1000}
    set the bounds of the second window to {700, 0, 1400, 1000}
end tell

Customise the coordinates as you wish depending on monitor resolution.
Syntax: {x1, y2, x1, y2}

Enable AppleScript in Preview in OS X ≤10.8 by quitting Preview and running:

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSAppleScriptEnabled -bool true


"Unknown Error = -2,147,414,007" on creating certificate with Certificate Assistant I am getting "Unknown Error = -2,147,414,007" on creating a certificate through the Keychain app.

Steps to Recreate:

Open the Keychain Access application. Select Certificate Assistant > Create a Certificate in the application menu (Keychain Access). Only Modified Parameters are listed. The remaining options are kept with default values.
Name of Certificate = gdbcert
Identity Type = Self Signed Root
Certificate Type = Code Signing

Check the Let me override defaults checkbox, and click Continue.

On the next page, leave Security Number to be 1, and set Validity Period to 3650.

Then click Continue once again, and keep doing so to skip the next six screens until you see the one entitled Specify a Location For The Certificate.

For the only property, Keychain, choose System from the drop-down list. Lastly, click Create, type in your password, if prompted, and click Done.

Update: I'm able to create certificates to the Login Keychain. The issue is only when I try to create certificates for the System Keychain.

Was able to get this to work. The purpose for creating a certificate was to codesign gdb on Mac. Here are the steps for the same:-

Create a certificate with all the parameters mentioned above.
Instead of saving the Keychain under location System, save it under
Login.
Then, unlock the System Keychain by clicking on the lock icon
on the top left corner and drag the certificate from Login to System.
Right Click the Certificate, click on Get Info and and under Trust, set to Always Trust.
Restart taskgated in terminal: killall taskgated
Enable root account:
Open System Preferences.
Go to User & Groups > Unlock.
Login Options > "Join" (next to Network Account Server).
Click "Open Directory Utility".
Go up to Edit > Enable Root User.
Run codesign -fs gdbc /usr/local/bin/gdb in the terminal.
Disable Root Account again and you should be good to go.

Credits:

Keychain Access error when creating new system certificate
https://gist.github.com/hlissner/898b7dfc0a3b63824a70e15cd0180154


If I buy an app from the app store, do I have to stay logged into the app store? This question says that you can install the same purchase of Lion on multiple non-commercial Apple machines.

The accepted answer states the same applies to all App Store purchases.

My question however is, once you install something from the app store onto a 2nd machine, do you have to remain logged into the app store.

For example. My girlfriend just got given a mac with Snow Leopard. I want to log into the app store on her machine, install Lion, but then log out, and leave the app store logged into her Apple account.

Is that ok?

Yes, although there are many questions that cover the same ground already on SE.

You can DL app store apps (including Lion) on your girlfriend's computer. Then she can log into her own apple account and buy other apps. The only thing you need to be aware of is that for updates, you can only update the apps you bought with that particular account. So if you want to update Lion (not likely as it will come through software update) or other apps, you will have to re-log into your account.

I believe most apps have a 5 computer limit.


Cannot copy/paste anymore in tmux 2.1 I just update to tmux 2.1(OS X10.11.3 Terminal.app),  and my .tmux.conf（accroding to http://joehanchoi.com/quick-fixes-for-tmux-2-1-on-osx/）

set-option -g mouse on
bind -n WheelUpPane if-shell -F -t = "#{mouse_any_flag}" "send-keys -M" "if -Ft= '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -M' 'select-pane -t=; copy-mode -e; send-keys -M'"
bind -n WheelDownPane select-pane -t= \; send-keys -M

but the problem is after I start tmux, the mouse pointer becomes a plus: +， and I cannot copy/paste anymore.
And right click on Terminal does not work, no popups

How to solve this?

This is happening because you enabled your program to capture and use your mouse inputs so that your terminal app has to forward all mouse events.

However, most terminals have 'override' capability. In most cases holding something like Shift or Ctrl key brings control back to terminal and enables to select text, right-click and make other actions.

I found out that for Terminal app the override key is Fn; for iTerm2 it's Option.


Upgrade iMac12,2 from Mac OS X 10.6.8 I have an iMac12,2 with Mac OS X 10.6.8. I want to upgrade to the newest possible Mac OS. If I click the Software update button it says "Software Update doesn't have any new software for your computer at this time.". If I want to download High Sierra from the App Store it says "This update requires macOS version 10.8 or later."

What should I do? How can I upgrade my mac?

On Apple's How to Upgrade page it states

  Upgrading from OS X Snow Leopard or Lion. If you're running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or Lion (10.7) and your Mac supports macOS High Sierra, you will need to upgrade to El Capitan first.

You will have to first upgrade to El Capitan, then to High Sierra. You can follow these instructions to get El Capitan.


How do I create files in Finder without Terminal? On windows, when you right click then you have option to create files.

I want to do that too on Mac, how can I do that without terminal?

What is the intention of creating an empty file? To open it? Then why not simply open the app in the first place?

But,
If you want to have a couple of files ready to get something started, you can make them, and then use Get Info on them and set the Stationary Pad option. If you then double-click such a file, the app will start with an untitled copy of that stationary file.

If you have a few of those stationaries, you can put them in a folder or in the dock for easy access.

If you want to create empty files for another purpose, let us know...


Menus don't respond on mouse hover I'm using OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5. No matter what application I'm in, the menus don't respond to the mouse hovering over them. If I click a menu, then it responds with the appropriate action. I've rebooted and tried a different mouse. If I right click something and get the menu, when hovering over it, it doesn't respond to the mouse.

I'm pretty stumped on this one. Not even sure what to Google. Any help would be appreciated.

Assuming you're referring to the system menus, they're not meant to do anything when you hover over them, you have to click.


How can I set system audio + microphone as the audio input for video conference software? I am trying to set up my audio devices in a way that I can stream a mix of my voice (internal MacBook microphone) and the Mac's system audio via a video conference software.
The software I am trying to use specifically is Microsoft Teams, but the same question could go for Skype or Zoom or any other video conference software that let's you select the audio input. I saw some online articles that suggested you create a "Multi-Output Device" in the Audio-MIDI-Setup software. But I tried that and I cannot get it to connect to Teams (i.e. I cannot select this Multi-Output Device as my "microphone" in Teams).
Does anybody know how this can be achieved? Thanks!

Usually, whenever you need to stream the audio from your PC, you only need the audio from a single programme, because otherwise also the incoming audio from your conference members in MS Teams would be streamed back to them as well. When you start screen sharing, or sharing a particular programme, there should be an option to share audio as well, at least this is how MS Skype works so I think Teams will do it similarly. So in order to share for example the audio from a video file, you can open it with whatever software you want, and then just share this software with the screen sharing option. I tried this with many different programmes and different hardware devices, and it always worked quite well, even if the video is just a random video from YouTube that I stream down over the web to my browser.


How do I install certain applications on a server I have an Ubuntu server that uses netatalk by which I am able save files and backup to it. I want a way where the installation of an application in mac happens in the server and my mac is able to read the respective data from it. Till now I have not been able to do such a thing. Any idea?

It is likely that the file system in use on your Ubuntu server does not support all of the things that HFS+ does meaning that somethings just can't live on a different file system, applications and other types of package files spring to mind.

However a disk image file is designed to be a self contained archive that can transit all sorts of file systems. You could put a (read/write) .DMG file on your Linux server and then mount it across the network to your Mac and run your applications from there. Just remember that some (many?) apps are not designed to run in such a container and that many will want to write their preference files and the like to your local home directory.


How to type dʒ symbol (IPA) on Mac? I want to type in dʒ on macOS but I don't know how I can type it. I tried ⌥ + keys but it seems that none of the keys is mapped to the symbol. It's not listed on this page.

I use the US Extended keyboard: So how can I type this symbol?

With ABC (formerly US) Extended, ʒ is made by typing option-shift ; and then z.

In general, to see which key does what, use Keyboard Viewer.

More info about ABC Extended can be found here. And here.


Macbook pro GPU temperature Limit On GPU intense tasks like gaming, my laptop starts with increasing the GPU temperature and frequency ( to 85 degrees and max GPU frequency ) then after 5 min or so reduce the temp to 67 degrees Celsius and GPU core frequency and stay there.
This happened both on macOS and Windows Bootcamp.
How to set GPU temperature to the usual standard (80-degree celsius )?
Every laptop I owned use 80-degree celsius as max GPU temperature.

My Laptop Specs :
15 inch MacBook Pro 2018
Cpu: Intel 8850H
GPU: AMD Pro 560X

[ It has a T2 Security Chip ]

Problem solved on Bootcamp with GPU Driver's provided by AMD.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/apple-boot-camp
Make sure to remove Apple stock GPU Driver with "Display Driver Uninstaller" on Safe mode.
Do not use the "Apple" or "bootcampdrivers.com" drivers.
You must install Radeon pro driver ( It has blue system tray icon )


Backup MX record with same public IP? I have two Mac Mini's - both provide redundant DNS and Open Directory services. I want to use Mail service so that everything is integrated with my user accounts.

Unfortunately I only have one public IP address. Is it possible to make my second Mac a backup MX server? I would basically have the public DNS of my domain MX record point to the public static IP. Could I then use internal DNS to setup a backup email server? If I add two IP's to the same mx.example.com then mail could potentially round-robin which I don't want. I need mail to always go to primary server first, then if down, go to the second.

This is for personal home use. I know its not best practice but I'm also not spending $30-50 a month for backup mx service. I just want something to prevent losing mail if I upgrade/replace the primary machine.

Your setup isn't clear: if these are home servers, isn't there a router routing all mail requests to one of your servers?

Still, to (partially) provide an answer to your question, in your situation, you shouldn't worry about losing email: according to RFC 2821, section 4.5.4.1 about Sending Strategy:

  Retries continue until the message is transmitted or the sender gives
     up; the give-up time generally needs to be at least 4-5 days. […]

RFC 5321 adds:

  It MAY
     be appropriate to set a shorter maximum number of retries for non-
     delivery notifications and equivalent error messages than for
     standard messages.

So you should have 4 days before losing your email. Then, if you're using a router, you could just make it route incoming traffic to email port to the backup MX server in case you need to do maintenance work on the primary one.


Unable to install git using homebrew I am trying to install git using homebrew:
brew install git
Terminal reads:

==> Searching for similarly named formulae... Error: No similarly named formulae found. Error: No available formula or cask with the
name "git".
==> Searching for a previously deleted formula (in the last month)... Error: No previously deleted formula found.
==> Searching taps on GitHub... Error: No formulae found in taps.

If I input brew doctor, I get the following:

Warning: Suspicious https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core git
origin remote found. The current git origin is:
https://github.com/Homebrew/brew With a non-standard origin, Homebrew
won't update properly. You can solve this by setting the origin
remote:   git -C
"/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" remote
set-url origin https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core

However, if i do git -C "/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core" remote set-url origin https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core, nothing changes and I get the same output with brew doctor
command line tools is installed:
xcode-select --install

xcode-select: error: command line tools are already installed, use
"Software Update" to install updates

I have tried reinstalling brew, brew update and brew cleanup
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know the problem with homebrew but there are other ways to load git. This link lists several ways to load git. If you've loaded the Xcode comand line tools git may already be installed. Type git --version to see if git is already installed.  It was on my machine. The link also lists ways using MacPort.


What data can only be migrated to a new iOS device using backup and restore? I think this will be a useful community wiki reference: excluding device settings, what iOS user data (the kind of data that is created and stored over time) can only be migrated to a new device through the use of iCloud/iTunes Backup and Restore from Backup?

This can be relevant to anyone buying a new iPhone or other device to replace an old one — if you decide to set the new device up as a "New iPhone", even though you had data on an old iPhone Backup, you will immediately start creating two streams of data that cannot be merged without using 3rd party tools.

This contrasts with data that can be re-downloaded to a new phone after logging in with an Apple ID (iTunes app/music/video purchases, iCloud Mail/Contacts/Calendars/Drive), as well as data that can be migrated piecemeal using iTunes (app documents).

Apple Watch Data

As this support article indicates, the only way to pair an Apple Watch with a new phone and maintain continuity of your data is to restore the new phone from a backup.


make airpods microphones disabled by default when pairing with a mac when pairing airpods with a mac, the sound quality is poor due to the fact it also uses them for microphone by default...

when I switch the audio input (microphone to internal), then quality of the airpods sound is excellent.

I don't want to do this step each time I pair airpods, is there a way to make the default microphone for mac is the internal one.

Ok, here is a script that would select Internal Microphone..

Copy Paste following in the Script Editor in Utility folder.

Run it, if you like it we can make it a keyboard short cut.

tell application "System Preferences" to activate
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "input" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell

tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
        delay 10
        select row 1
        tell application "System Preferences" to quit
    end tell
end tell


/private/var/folders not getting empty after reboot on macOS Catalina /private/var/folders is not getting empty after reboot. The folder is 200 GB! I tried safe mode too and it didn't change.

How can I thin out the folder(s)?

It's likely that unneeded files will be cleared if you perform a Safe Boot. And then restart normally.

However, a detailed account of cleaning out /var/folders can be found here,

http://www.magnusviri.com/Mac/what-is-var-folders.html

which seems to indicate that not everything gets deleted on a Safe boot.

But unless you are desperate for storage space or experiencing some issues, I wouldn't recommend wholesale deletion of the entire contents.


Can't log in to Music/iTunes store on MacBook When Apple TV+ came out, I wasn't getting the one-year offer as I should have and got the advice from Apple's online chat to try just completely logging out and back into my Apple account.

I logged out of the apps and iCloud in Settings, restarted, and logged back in, in Settings. Now I can't log back into Music, TV, or Podcasts (although Books and the App Store are just fine). I go to the Account menu → Sign In..., put in my username and password, and the login window disappears as if it's going to log in, but nothing happens in Music or TV. Podcasts actually says "something went wrong during authentication (0)". I don't get a two-factor authentication notice, and if I go back to the Account menu, it still says "Sign In..." instead of showing my account name and balance. Given the affected apps, it seems to be an issue with the iTunes store. Indeed, in Music I also (usually) can't get into the store - if I click on it, it may rarely work, but mostly it will just spin forever, or give me error 11556.

Interestingly, making a test user, I can log in. I figure it has to be a plist or another setting that's been corrupted, but would be fresh on a new user. Going to the Library preferences, I deleted the iTunes store plist, and now I can see the Store, but still can't log in.

What plist should control iTunes login? Or have an idea where other Apple Media Services files live?

I would exhaust other options before a reinstall.

I just got an email from the engineer I had spoken to on my last call to Apple Support and it turns out there were some server issues on their side. They asked me to try logging in again and lo, and behold, now it worked perfectly.


iMac and connected external displays, all as monitors for MacBook Pro? Say I had an iMac (assume newest models) with 2 external displays (USB-C/Thunderbolt 3?) in my office. If I bring my (assume latest) MacBook Pro into the office and would like to use it rather than the iMac, could I connect the MacBook Pro to the iMac and then use the iMac and the 2 displays connected to the iMac as monitors for the MacBook Pro?

If so, what would I need to do to accomplish this?

Update: (I realized I didn't clearly state my goal)

Goal: I would like to have a desktop station in the office, but a laptop for when I'm out and about. If I was working on something on the laptop and don't feel like waiting/causing some sort of syncing between the laptop and desktop, i'd like to just use the laptop as the computer and the displays for more screen real estate. (Usually, I would just use the iMac in the office and the laptop when i'm not in the office)

Update 2: Perhaps a KVM switch is the way to go? Maybe they don't yet exist for thunderbolt3, but maybe this would be the best way? Have 2 monitors that go through a KVM to get to the iMac, but could also get to my laptop this way?

Short answer:  No, this can't be done.

At the very minimum you would need to set your iMac into "Target Display Mode."  The last iMac that will support this is the Mid 2014.

Now, if you happen to have a compatible iMac (not the "newest model" you referred to), it still wouldn't work.  Target display mode turns your iMac display into an external monitor for your compatible MacBook with a Thunderbolt port.  It doesn't turn it into a "thunderbolt hub."

I am assuming you don't want to use the iMac and instead just use your MacBook and your goal is to get three monitors going...  I suggest just getting a third monitor and hooking that up to your MBP and bequeathing your latest iMac to a worthy coworker.  I am a huge proponent of finding the simplest solution and not layer it with complexity.


Is the App or the iPhone causing the issue? So about a month ago I started using the Nike+ GPS app and everything was working fine until a few days ago while using it, my ipod starts skipping and the voice control automatically pops up. At first I thought the app had glitches but then even after i close the app, my ipod was still skipping and that voice control thing popped up. So should I restore? Is there a problem with my phone itself? Or is the app the one that caused this issue?

Thanks in advance for your input.

I don't think it's the app that's causing the issue. And I believe there are two separate issues with separate causes.

First, the skipping issue could be caused by a corrupt iPhone music DB - this is fixable by re-syncing the iPhone with iTunes.

Second, voice control could kick in automatically if you use some kind of accessory such as headphones. Try not using this accessory for a while and see whether the voice-control issue is sorted.


Task Switcher moves to non-primary display on Mavericks-Catalina I'm running OS X on a computer with two displays that are not mirrored.

One of them is configured as the primary display using the menu bar location in Displays System Preference, pre-Mavericks style. (Although both displays actually have the menu bar.)

Problem: cmd + tab Task Switcher sometimes appears in secondary display instead of the primary. Once it starts appearing on the secondary display, it might soon move back to the primary, too.

Questions:

Why does this happen? I have seen it more than once but haven't yet figured out the pattern.
How to configure the task switcher to appear only on the primary display?

According to this similar question, How to choose on which display Application Switcher shows?, the behavior depends on which display has the dock. Follow-up variant question:

2'. How to configure the dock to appear only on the primary display?

This also happens on all later releases through at least Catalina.

I answered a similar question here - cmd-tab behavior on Mavericks with multiple displays

The Task Switcher does follow the Dock.  If the Dock is on screen 1, the Task Switcher will appear on screen 1.  If the Dock is on screen 3, the Task Switcher will appear on screen 3.  Etc.

To make your Dock appear on a screen you can use a couple of methods.

Method 1 - Move your mouse to the bottom of the desired display.  Don't stop once you reach the bottom of the display though, try to move it further down, as if you're pushing down on the bottom of the display with your cursor.  This action tells the Dock to move to this display.  This is temporary however, meaning the Dock will stay on this display until you perform this action on another display or reboot your Mac.

Method 2 - This will change the default starting point for your Dock.  In System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement you can drag the menu bar from one display to another in this windows display icons.  See the attached picture for reference.  This alters the default preference to always show the Dock on the desired display, the one you drag the menu bar to in this preference pane, when you boot and/or login to your user account.  You can still use method 1 to temporarily change the Dock's location but upon a reboot it will return to the display specified here.


Is it possible to get rid of the delay between right-clicking and seeing the context menu? I'm finding that in OS X there's a delay between right clicking and actually seeing the context menu (or whatever I'm trying to get at).

I've never noticed a delay like this in other operating systems. I wonder if it's a 'feature' (or otherwise) of OS X.

It's not a long delay, it's probably ~250ms; enough to cause a little frustration anyway. The machine obviously isn't stressing about it, it seems to just be an arbitrary delay.

Tapping with the trackpad has a delay while the trackpad decides which gesture you are performing. Disabling some gestures will remove this delay in certain cases:

If “Smart zoom” is turned on, then a two-finger tap needs to wait to see if you are performing a two-finger double tap.
If dragging is enabled (“with drag lock” or “without drag lock”), then a one-finger tap needs to wait to see if you are performing a double tap. (This setting hides in the Accessibility preference pane.)


Sorting Contacts in Other Languages I use the iPhone in English, but I save the names of my contacts in Russian. The problem is that they all appear now under (#).

Is there any way to fix that?

I had a similar problem. Have several contacts in Serbian (cyrillic) others in English. I solved the problem by adding to each contact written in cyrillic new fields for phonetic spelling for the last and the first name.


Can i download soundfiles directly into itunes on my iPad/iphone I was wondering if it is possible to download content like an mp3 or movieclip from the internet and directly having it added to the itunes library. So you wont have to connect to the computer to have files sync with your iDevice. Or you can download a movie trailer and automatically have it show up between all your movies.

Is this possible, and if so, how?

No. The built in player doesn't do downloads (which would also bypass the parental controls and ratings the app is intended to enforce if set). You only get the App Store to pick apps that do this (there are numerous that do this) but they store the downloads in their own "sandbox" - not the iTunes music store.

The only non-jailbroken App I know of that injects music or movies into the main "sandboxes" is the iTunes App Store app which doesn't really go for arbitrary movies or mp3.

If, however, you are jailbroken there are numerous apps that can inject music into your library.

MewSeek allows for downloading music, editing tags, and injecting music.
iFile now also includes an option to add music to your library if you also have Celeste.


How can I change the location which Anki uses to save files? The program Anki saves its data to the Documents folder. I would like to move this folder to my Dropbox folder. Anki has no settings which allows you to change the location that data is stored.

Is there any way to move this folder to another location and point Anki to the new folder via Mac OS X? I tried moving the folder and then creating an Alias in the same location (with the same name) by ⌥+⌘ dragging the file in Finder, but Anki doesn't see the files in the new folder.

You may be able to use Symbolic Links to create a link between where Anki stores its files and a folder within DropBox.  Information on how to create symbolic links and how they differ from Aliases can be found here:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643


iphone 4S not playing voice memo Cannot play a voice memo I recorded earlier this week. It appears to be there but when I hit the arrow to play, nothing happens. When I sync my phone up to my pc only 2 of the voice memos show up yet my phone tells me there are 4. I can play 3 of the 4 but no this one. Please advise.

Your voice memo is being played through the earpiece speaker. You can listen to it, just tap play and put your iPhone up to your ear, as if you were taking a phone call.

To play through the loud speaker, like almost everything else, tap the speaker icon in the top right, it should turn blue. Now play your voice memo like you normally would and it will play through the loud speaker, as opposed to the earpiece speaker. If it doesn't, ensure that the silence switch on the left side of your iPhone is up and that the volume is on.


How compatible are Apple Airpods with Android phones? I want to buy the AirPods but I only have an Android phone.

The functions that would be ideal:

Stereo and mono sound works like iOS when you take one AirPod out and charge it and then put both AirPods back in your ears.
Tap function - is there no / some / complete parity with iOS tap features
Voice assistant - is there no / some / complete parity with Hey Siri and tap / manual Siri voice commands

Basically, how feature compatible is the Android OS and hardware with AirPod features beyond simple Bluetooth microphone and headphone function?

They work like standard BT headsets for music and calls. Mono is played on both ears. Haven’t seen any usable tap/click functionality on non-apple devices, no voice assistant either. That last one is probably because Siri initial processing is mostly on-device, which other platforms don’t have.


Instagram not available among share suggestions in iOS 13 When I wish to share a Facebook post to Instagram on iPhone running iOS 13, Instagram does not appear among the Share Sheet suggestions, not even when I hit MORE...  I have seen numerous how-tos about hitting EDIT and toggling on the applications listed under Suggestions, but Instagram is not listed at all, although I have the app on my phone and use it all the time.  How can I add it to my Share options?

Apps get added to share when you install them. They get removed when you remove them. I would check that your app has uploaded everything to Instagram online and then remove the app.
Once it's gone, power down the phone.
Power it up, and then reinstall the app.


Failed "Unable to complete Touch id enrolment" Recently I updated my Macbook Pro 2019 2.4 GHz to Catalina-10.15.4. Suddenly I realized that my Touchpad not working properly. I even can't add a new touch id after entering password showing following error
Unable to complete Touch id enrolment.
Then googled about this problem and did try several ways such as
i) Reset SMC
ii) Run safe mode
ii) Removed old fingerprint
Not a single solution worked for me.
Is there any better solution for this problem without resetting OS or I just have to wait for the next update.
I should mention that's I am new to MAC. I don't know a lot of stuff about OS.

You've done all the software things you can do to make sure macOS is up to date and running, but the Touch ID runs on a separate computer and not the main system. This part is the T2 chip and your fingerprint gets registered in to the Secure Enclave - not on the main OS or storage. The T2 also controls the Touch Bar - so this procedure works to remedy issues there once you've verified it's not SMC or macOS causing the glitch.

I would make sure you have a good backup since one of these steps will guarantee everything is erased on the drive if you follow all the steps below. Nothing will be recoverable, not from vendors or undelete software - the data will be cryptographically erased / sanitized / destroyed.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207054#setup

The above guide will walk you through the steps once you attempt to revive (or erase/restore) the Apple T2 Security Chip firmware. Revive just reloads the T2 and restarts it. Restore erases everything - all data keys, all fingerprints, everything - complete factory reset of your Mac. The first link us unlikely to change - search for the Apple Configurator user guide if these links change as the document gets updated (or you prefer a different localization / language than English).

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/apple-configurator-2/welcome/mac
https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/apple-configurator-2/apdebea5be51/mac

If you are not comfortable loading your backup and reinstalling the Mac operating system, you might want to have a trained tech do the work in Apple Configurator and the person restoring / reviving needs a second Mac to connect and update your Mac firmware.

For your MacBook Pro - the steps to prepare it for the revive (which is less invasive - I would try that first) is as follows:

  Prepare the Apple portable computer to revive the firmware

  Press the wake/sleep button for about 5 seconds to shut down the Apple portable computer.
  Plug the cable into the right Thunderbolt port on the left side of the Apple portable computer.
  While holding down the power button, at the same time press all three of the following keys for about 3 seconds: Right Shift key +
  Left Option key + Left Control key

  Note: You won’t see any screen activity from the Apple portable computer.

Also, be sure you have the time to do this - I would set aside 35 minutes to get ready and then print out your steps, take a break and then allow an hour to try this the first time. When the instructions say 5 seconds - I would have a clock and be like someone defusing a bomb - precise, exact. If it says right key - the left one will not do, etc...

Once you've got Apple Configurator - all the exact cables, this can be done in 15 minutes for the first Mac and then 5 to 8 minutes for each Mac of the same type you need to work on, but give yourself time the first pass and be sure your backup drive is ready and tested. If you choose the wrong "r" command - you will not get a chance to stop the erase - it happens in an instant.


Sub-window hidden behind another window... any way to retrieve other than minimizing? My one grievance with how MacOS handles window management is that sometimes windows get hidden behind others and do not appear in the dock as they are not minimized. The only way to find these windows again is to minimize the windows in front of them. Is there a quick way to see all windows like in Microsoft Windows, where every window gets a spot in the dock?

For example, you are using the Mail app. You start writing an email. You start doing work in other windows without minimizing the message draft window. Lets say you open up 3 or 4 other windows. The only way to find that message draft window is to minimize those 3 or 4 windows. Is there a way to make the message window always appear in the dock so you can retrieve it from there?

In current versions of macOS (the last few, in fact) allow you to tap the F3 key to show all windows of the current application. On MacBook built-in keyboards and Apple's own keyboards the F3 key has an odd looking icon that represents this. Similar to the F4 grid of squares that brings up Launch Pad.

Windows will shrink in size so they can appear all together on screen allowing you to tap on the window you want to restore the App with that window frontmost.


How to Enlarge Disk Image in VirtualBox? I have VirtualBox 5 in OS X El Capitan 10.11.3.
There is an option in Windows's VirtualBox to enlarge the image here described.
However, I cannot find a similar way for OS X.

My storage looks like this

Clicking the 8.00 GB you get

Choose disk image and you get

so no similar view as in Windows.

DavidAnderson. The user manual's page 150 is here.
It just describes about the command VBoxManage modifyhd but not how you can get it in your commandline.

Terminal approach

In VirtualBox 4, there was VBoxManage command to enlarge the image size, as described here about How To Resize A VirtualBox Disk (Window and Mac)

VBoxManage modifyhd “<vdi_file_full_path_and_name>” –resize 40000

I solved the PATH problem by not changing the PATH but uninstalling Macports as described here by the recursive forceful deletes, so I can now call the function without explicitly having /usr/local/bin/VBoxManage in the start of the command.

klanomath. I run successfully

/usr/local/bin/VBoxManage modifyhd "/Users/masi/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 14.04 64bit/Ubuntu 14.04 64bit.vdi" --resize 10000
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

I login successfully to the encrypted system. I login successfully to my Ubuntu's user account but the session only stays in the view

where the Ubuntu on the host stays stacked infinite time. The encryption of the virtual disk should not be a problem because I managed to get the login view of the OS. I have not been able to login to different TTYs of Ubuntu inside the virtual machine, to debug the case further.

I login successfully as Guest and I get

which indicates that the size of my disk for the OS is too small.
I increase successfully the space to 20 GB by the following command but I still receive the complain about no disk space in the Guest login

VBoxManage modifyhd "/Users/masi/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 14.04 64bit/Ubuntu 14.04 64bit.vdi" --resize 20000

The space looks ok inside and there should be enough space

The storage looks now like this where the actual space increases dynamically

Login to my User account still stays stucked forever, like one of the screenshots indicates.

Thread in Oracle's VirtualBox Forum

I opened a thread about the issue in Oracle's VB forum here.
I got this answer

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=50661
Pay close attention to step 2

Also if you selected to use LVM when you installed you would need to use LVM to extend the primary partition. Seek assistance from Ubuntu on how to do that.

where I do not understand the thing about LVM and not content provided in the link.

The last point was solved by completely removing the existing disk and doing reinstallation of Ubuntu with 50 GB dynamic disk size.
For long term stability, this method is the safest. I had backups of the files in the disk.

How can you enlarge disk image in VirtualBox?

Your vdi path is wrong:

  VBoxManage: error: Could not find file for the medium

In your resize command either use the uuid of the vdi or a proper path (no backslashes!) :

VBoxManage modifyhd "/Users/masi/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 14.04 64bit/Ubuntu 14.04 64bit.vdi" --resize 10000

or (with backslashes but no quotation marks)

VBoxManage modifyhd /Users/masi/VirtualBox\ VMs/Ubuntu\ 14.04\ 64bit/Ubuntu\ 14.04\ 64bit.vdi --resize 10000

or after entering VBoxManage list hdds:

#replace UUID and size below by the appropriate UUID and the required size
VBoxManage modifyhd UUID --resize size

If your PATH doesn't work properly you may have to prepend /usr/local/bin/


Why is iOS unable to find my apps? Since updating to iOS 11, search is unable to find my apps. Is this a new feature of iOS 11; a bug; or something that will eventually resolve itself over time?

I have so many apps that the only practical way to find them is to search for them, and in the past this has worked perfectly. E.g. simply typing "stack" (in fact just "st") suggests several apps including the one I'm looking for, 'Stack Exchange' listed right at the top of the screen.

Now however I get a very different result:

A bunch of useless search results at the top, and a suggestion from the app store for an app I'd never want. No sign of the frequently used app sitting right on my device.

What's going on here. Is there anything (short of restoring iOS 10) that I can do do address this?

Judging from the behavior I'm seeing I wonder if Apple hasn't changed the meaning of the Siri setting for apps from meaning "search in the app" to "search for the app": the only apps I see at all are ones where this setting is enabled. Is that perhaps what's happened (or does having this on just get those apps indexed first)?

If you are unable to search for apps you could once find, check your settings to see what apps you prevented Search from searching within.

Apple recently changed the behavior of the relevant setting (Siri & Search). Prior to iOS 11 disabling this setting for an app prevented Search from showing results from "inside" the app (e.g. Dropbox listing files). With iOS 11 this behavior has changed: now this setting must be enabled for the app itself to appear in Search results at all.

Note that while this appeared to have been "fixed" in the betas of 11.2 with a new explicit option, "Show App" to search for the app, this seems to have been released (in 11.2.1) as "Suggestions in Look Up" which doesn't achieve the same result.


How to launch pf at startup? I am looking for a pretty elegant way to launch the pf - a.k.a. Packet Filtering - process at startup. Using the launchctl or the pfctl commands, root privileges are required and so it is useless to add them into .bash_profile. Are there alternative solutions to this issue?

By default pf is silenced at startup, a launch daemon com.apple.pfctl.plist exists though in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/. To enable pf while booting you would have to add an -e switch in the plist.

Since all files in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ are protected by SIP in macOS 10.11 and later you have to disable it first.

Then, after booting to the main system, edit the launch daemon plist:

sudo nano /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist

and replace

  ...
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/sbin/pfctl</string>
    <string>-f</string>
    <string>/etc/pf.conf</string>
  </array>
  ...

with

  ...
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/sbin/pfctl</string>
    <string>-e</string>
    <string>-f</string>
    <string>/etc/pf.conf</string>
  </array>
  ...

Reboot to Recovery Mode and enable SIP again.


open safemac.co in safari, is it adware? I'm new to macOS and Safari, while surfing, occasionally when I click on white page (empty screen, no links, etc) a new tab to a strange url opens, it redirects multiple times, then forwards to safemac.co.

I think it's an adware.. How to get rid of this?

Just happened again, redirected to this url:
http://securemacfix.com/landings/197/?affid=mzb_349.40938911.1480466987.1111.mzb&utm_source=prpllr&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign=mk_prpllr_wl_rmnt_ww&utm_term=&utm_content=&userDefiner=mzb_2952&alert=10&trt=29_3121511156&tid_ext=814559

It seems because of Awesome Screenshot Extension I have installed on Google Chrome Here says it's a malware.

I installed Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on macOS and scanned system, it found Adware.Awesome Screenshot then removed it. Everything seems Ok after a restart...


Duplicate songs when sync with iPad 1 When I connect my first-gen iPad to my Mac, I have in duplicates in my iTunes. This song have a gray font and have a circle next to their names. Here is a screenshot:

Any idea how to remove this songs? Why do they always show up even after deleting all of my songs off of my iPad?

The songs that you are seeing aren't on your iPad - they are simply still downloading. I believe you can stop them from downloading from the iTunes Store on your iPad or your Mac.


How to restart sshd in OSX Lion? I have configured ssh keys for github. I have multiple ssh keys configured already.
I need to add new ssh keys for bitbucket. But it does not seem to be working.

How do i restart sshd in OSX Lion?

How do i restart sshd in OSX Lion?

You probably know this already, but I'll say to be complete: if you kill sshd processes you'll terminate active SSH sessions to the machine. The sshd daemon provides ssh access to your machine. It handles incoming ssh connections. Not outbound connections.

If sshd is really what you mean then...

Before you restart it, try sending it a SIGHUP signal so it re-reads all of its configuration. You can do that with

ps -ef | grep sshd | awk {'print $2'} | sudo xargs kill -HUP

If you really want to kill all the sshd process on the machine:

ps -ef | grep sshd | awk {'print $2'} | sudo xargs kill -KILL

But try this stuff below first!

All that being said: if you're looking for keys for outbound sessions from the machine to be refreshed, killing sshd processes won't help you. What you really want to do is to add the new keys to the ssh-agent process with ssh-add -- that is usually sufficient to get new keys to be known to the agent.

The ssh-agent process handles all keyfile-based authentication for you. It's started automatically by Lion for each logged in user and it even integrates with Keychain.

If your new keyfile is ~/.ssh/bitbucket you would add it like so:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/bitbucket

Now the key would be available to new ssh sessions initiated from the terminal. No need to kill or restart anything.


Infection (according to ClamXav) in "/private/var/db/PreviousSystemLogs.cpgz"? How do I fix this? What does it mean?

I'm not sure what do to, I am very good at OS X and Mac Software, but I've never gotten an infection notice by ClamXav and let alone in /private/var.

EDIT: Also, infection name: Html.Exploit.CVE_2012_1537_1.

I wouldn’t worry. You can safely ignore it. After looking up the CVE ID, the malware in question is only a threat to one running Windows; there’s no threat in an OS X environment. Here’s the description of the ID on CVE’s database:

  Heap-based buffer overflow in DirectPlay in DirectX 9.0 through 11.1 in Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, R2, and R2 SP1, Windows 7 Gold and SP1, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted Office document, aka "DirectPlay Heap Overflow Vulnerability.

See also the accompanying list of the specific platforms affected.

Even good, non intrusive AV-software such as ClamXav is prone to false positives. If you want, you can still safely remove that file. It’s just an archived log. I would just tell ClamXav to ignore it.


Can I put heavy keyboard on the macbook pro? I recently bought Massdrop Alt High Profile keyboard. It's pretty heavy at 43oz or 1.3Kg (the weight equal two or three normal mechanical keyboards).

My question is, can I put it on the MacBook Pro so that I can use it with Magic Trackpad (not put on the screen)? Will it damage MacBook pro?

The weight of the keyboard is one thing.  I have seen students put a stack of textbooks on top of their MacBook laptops without any damage.  I can't tell you what the weight was nor do I want to embark on a testing procedure to find out what its weight tolerance is.

However, what I have found is that it's not so much the weight, but the activity that impacts the MacBook.  I have seen MacBook laptops used as everything from a cafeteria tray to a seat cushion to even a mirror for putting on makeup.  These machines were returned to our depot for repair because of what they was done to them, not what was placed on them.

In your case, you want to use this as a keyboard stand for a mechanical keyboard (gaming perhaps?) so you will be "pounding" on this keyboard for any length of time.

The (rethorical) question is - is this worth it?  Is a damaged top case worth this activity?  I can tell you that these assemblies (keyboard, case, track pad, etc.)  are not covered under Apple warranty when damaged and it's quite expensive to repair.  I'd find another solution.


How Do I Disable the Webcam on an External Thunderbolt Display I've got an iMac 27" paired with a Thunderbolt 27" display that's rotated to portrait mode.   Both of them have integrated webcams.  Some applications are screwy and inconsistent about letting me pick which webcam to use.

I always want to use the webcam on the iMac and never the one on the Thunderbolt display, especially as it's rotated so the webcam image is not only off-center, but 90 degrees in the wrong direction.

Is there any way (defaults setting or something) for me to disable the webcam on the thunderbolt display, but still let the webcam on my iMac to function?

Apple don't provide any way to control camera devices centrally, it is left up the program in use to provide the ability to choose.

Generally, well written programs give you a choice, and poorly written (and, generally, poorly supported) programs don't. (Photobooth, I'm looking at you.)

The only way I know to force a program to not use a camera is a hack that's been around a while and that is to use something like iChat to make the other iSight busy so it's not picked up by any other program.

Another, older, hack is to remove the kexts that support the devices, however, that would stop all the iSights from working, so, in this case, not a good idea.

So, in the end, there's no answer, but I'm sure there's an app that people would pay for in there somewhere.


Updating the Apple Multiport USB-C Adapter (HDMI Dongle) on High Sierra Here's the problem: High Sierra (as of 10.13) ships without the firmware update for this A/V dongle. This update package normally rests at "/System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates", but this folder is empty following the update. So if you're stuck at an older Firmware Version (pre 2.33, article: Apple Support Article HT205858) there is no separate download for it, and you are on your own until Apple releases a hotfix.

If you know your way around a terminal follow this guide to get it solved. First off, make three checks; first that you are on Mac OS X High Sierra (Build 10.13 or greater), that your Multiport Adapter reports a firmware version below 2.33 (around 1.53 is old), and finally that the folder "/System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates" is empty.

At a high-level, I guessed that I would find the firmware update package in an old Mac OS Combo Update file. Hunch turned out to be right, and I was able to install the firmware update. Lets trace those steps so you can do the same.

First up, kick off the download (around 1.5gb) of the macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Combo Update: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1931

At the same time, ensure Homebrew & XCode utils are installed on your system from brew.sh

Install pbzx, for extraction of update pkg Payloads.

brew install xz && brew link xz
git clone https://github.com/NiklasRosenstein/pbzx.git
cd pbzx
clang -llzma -lxar -I /usr/local/include pbzx.c -o pbzx
#Install pbzx to path
mv pbzx /usr/local/bin/

Once the download has completed, mount & extract the update dmg.

open macosupdcombo10.12.6.dmg
#Expand pkg contents to tmp folder.
pkgutil --expand /Volumes/macOS\ Sierra\ Update/macOSUpdCombo10.12.6.pkg /tmp/sierra/
cd /tmp/sierra
#Extract payload contents to current directory
pbzx -n macOSUpdCombo10.12.6.pkg/Payload| cpio -i

Move the firmware update package from the extracted files to a local path, we'll use the user's home directory.

mv System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware\ Updates/USB-C\ Multiport\ Adapter/adapterupdate1.pkg ~/

Finally, execute the installer and reboot. Before you execute the installer - ensure that the Multiport adapter is plugged in, with nothing else plugged into it. Ensure that you have power connected to one USB-C port, and the Multiport adapter to the other. Apple's article recommends doing USB-C power-pass through, this did not work for me. You can try different configurations if this doesn't work.

#Kick off the install
sudo installer -pkg ~/adapterupdate1.pkg -target /
#Then reboot
sudo reboot

If all went well, System Information should report your USB-C Multiport Adapter is at firmware version 2.33.


How do I reduce the delay when unlocking my Mac? There is a ~1 second delay every time I input my password to unlock the Mac, regardless if it is correct or not. I'd like to turn this off, or at least reduce it. How can I do this?

This sounds like normal behavior to me, especially if the machine is a bit older.
As far as I know, there is no setting you can change to speed this up.

I can confirm that on a solid 2017 15" MBP there is a ~0.5 seconds "wait" time after hitting enter and the screen unlocking. But this not only varies from machine to machine, but especially from the programs that are running and if you have multiple monitors connected.

What you could try, but IMO is not worth it, make a clean install (preferably on an external SSD) with just one sample user with no other programs installed and check if you still have the delay.

If the answer is yes, then it's definitely normal behavior
If the answer is no, you might want to look into programs that are continuously running in the background, which could impact general performance.

In general though, I suspect investigating this (IMO) non-issue will take you more time than "waiting" one second every unlock.


Why is my iPod nano reading everything out loud and functioning abnormally? I just reset my iPod nano 7th gen via iTunes to remove some broken tracks and then resynced it, and when I unplugged it after disconnecting it, everything was quite broken.

First of all (with a headset plugged in) the iPod is reading everything out loud....screen dim, music, double tap to open, etc. But then, in conjunction with this, I can't control the screen like normal...you have to double-tap to open anything and I can't swipe side to side to get to settings so I can't try to change whatever mode this is. When you slide a finger over the icons, a little selection square moves over them with you.

What's going on?

It's in VoiceOver mode (an accessibility feature). I don't have an iPod nano, but on iOS, under General, there's an Accessibility menu where you can turn it off.


Switch between ringer and vibrate based on schedule? Certain times of the week I would like the phone to be on vibrate and other times of the week I want it to be on ringer.  I would like to setup a schedule for these changes to happen automatically.  Can this be done?  If not natively is there an app that can do this?


Exchange clipboard only with a virtual machine running in Parallels 14 I am using Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac, running Ubuntu in the VM, with Parallels special software installed within Ubuntu.

Out of security concerns, I always turn on the Configuration setting on Security panel for Isolate Linux from Mac. Unfortunately, I would sometimes like to transfer some text between the host Mac and the guest VM.

Is there a way to allow only the clipboard to be exchanged with the Mac and VM but otherwise isolate it (no shared files, etc.)?

Clipboard sharing should not be affected by the "Isolate..." selection.  Check Options > More Options in the VM configuration to confirm "Share Mac clipboard" is enabled.

That being said if you want to disable the "Isolate..." option, the individual sharing settings are distributed in several locations.  Shut down the VM first as deselecting the "Isolate..." option immediately re-enables the sharing features while VM is running.

Here are various sharing configuration locations that I am aware of, but I suggest looking through all the sections to be sure I haven't omitted some.

  Options > Sharing

  Options > Applications

  Options > More Options

  Hardware > Printers

  Hardware > Sound & Camera

  Hardware > USB & Bluetooth


How to use Dropbox to share files in Finder by right click on Mac OS 10.8? In Mac OS 10.7, when I right click a file in Dropbox folder, there's a "Dropbox" option which could share files or get the URL of the file. Also there's a "Dropbox" button in Finder's toolbar.

But in 10.8, that feature disappeared.

How can I share files using Dropbox by right clicking in Finder?

this might help:  https://twitter.com/Dropbox/status/228603324440657921

long story short.  Update dropbox is what they say.

worked for me, so should work for you :)


Macbook runs consistently hot sometimes, but consistently cool other times It doesn't seem to be a function of the programs I'm currently running, since I've run the same programs in both states, and it seems to vary beginning at startup: Most of the time when I start up it runs consistently at 180-210°F to the point of occasionally shutting down from heat, but sometimes when I start up it runs consistently at 140-160° regardless of programs being run.

Are there any startup items or background programs that could be causing this between different startups?

I have the fans constantly running at 6200 RPM using a fan controller to automatically set them at this speed and the fans themselves work just fine. So fans don't seem to be the problem.

It is not normal to have computer overheating to the point of shutting down.

You can look up in your Activity monitor to see who is consuming CPU.

Possible problems:

You cooling fan is not working at all or sporadic.

Your SMC (that controls the fan) needs to be rested.

Follow the instructions here based on your model to reset SMC.

You can also download the Intel Power app that will tell you what your CPU is doing.

The CPU is the single highest source of heat generation followed by GPU.

However, sometimes (rarely) the battery can do that due to the edit currents (internal) that will heat it up. Check you battery status and condition.


Wake on LAN for MBP late 2009 Is it possible to wake my MBP via Magic Packets from power down? I read Is there a way to power up a Mac Mini remotely?, but that does not seem to work from power down. "Wake for network access" in "Energy Saver" prefpane is ticked.

No - the only (recent) hardware that had Lights out Management (LOM) is the now discontinued Xserve. You will need separate hardware to control the power in response to WOL packets (or other signals) to start the current line up of macs from a powered down state.

Apple's current implementation is focused on sleep. The macs need to  - first boot up as they leave the network interfaces listening to wake from only from sleep. Powering down the mac turns off all power to the network interfaces.


Unable to format pendrive, diskutil error When I insert my USB Pendrive in my iMac i see this message:

I tried to format it both with DiskUtility and with diskutil command in terminal but I get this error:

iMac:~ User$ diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ PenDrive disk2
Started erase on disk2
Unmounting disk
Erasing
newfs_hfs: WriteBuffer:  pwrite(3, 0x108551000, 131072, 0): Device not configured
newfs_hfs: write (sector 0): Invalid argument
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk2 with name (null) after erase
Error: -69832: File system formatter failed

How can I solve it?

Click on "Initialize..."

or if the useer your login with can adminastrat the computer then try adding "sudo " and entering your password when prompted.

So:

sudo diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ PenDrive disk2


Can Mail.app be configured to always load remote images from certain domains? I like how Gmail gives me the option to, for example, Always display images from allsongs@n.npr.org.

Is there a way to have Mail.app do the same? I can only find the global option for displaying remote images in HTML messages.

Short answer

There is no specific option for this. But you can define a rule and run an applescript.

Solution

Save applescript below with any name and to any folder you want.
Go to Mail app > Preferences > Rules and click Add Rule. Give name theRule to your new role and select conditions that you want to display remote images. For your question this should be From > allsongs@n.npr.org.

You could also select Sender is in my Address Book to display remote images for all mails come from  your contacts.

Under Perform the following actions: section, select Run Applescript and choose the file you wrote at step 1.
Save the rule.

Applescript

--BEGINNING OF SCRIPT
using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
tell application "Mail"
activate
repeat with eachMessage in theMessages
open eachMessage
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Mail"
set loadButton to a reference to button 1 of UI element 1 of row 1 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of front window
if loadButton exists then click loadButton
end if
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
--END OF SCRIPT


How can I preserve the battery cycles on my MacBook Air? I recently got my MacBook Air, and the battery cycles is already at 12. Is this good/average? I don't know if I am not charging it properly or something, because I don't want to ruin my battery in the first year of having it.

Earlier today, I didn't even run the battery all the way down to 0% (it went down to 6%) and then I charged it up to 94%, and the battery cycle count has increased to 12, but that is not a full cycle, or is it? I'm confused about this whole battery cycle thing, because I'm used to a desktop and not worrying about batteries.

So, how can I preserve the battery cycles and not use as much cycles in a week? Maybe I am charging it too much or something?

Don't stress about it so much.

A Battery cycle refers to, more or less, one mostly full discharge and recharge. Typically, your battery should be rated for somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 cycles. Eventually, the battery just won't hold a charge for as long as it did when it was new, but that's why batteries are easily and affordably replaceable. It's a consumable part. If it dies prematurely (which is the only thing you should really need to pay attention to cycles for), then it's covered under your warranty. The 'Battery Cycles' indicator is mainly there so that you can diagnose this. If, in a years time, your laptop's battery only lasts half as long as it did when it was new, but you've only used say, 400 cycles, well, that's not performing up to spec, and it should be covered under your warranty. If you've used 1500 cycles (doing that in a year would be some pretty heavy and impressive use though, I've gotta say), well, that's to be expected. You used your battery a lot, and it wore out.

Use your laptop as normal. Battery cycles are not a scarce and precious resource to be hoarded. 12 cycles in about a week and a half sounds pretty normal for a new laptop being used heavily to me. That's about, what? 6 hours/day unconnected to a power source? If you're using it on the go, that's a perfectly reasonable amount of consumption.


Macbook Pro weight increased after battery replacement After my battery died I have replaced it in Authorized Service Provider. This costs nearly 140$.
However after replacement I noticed that the weight of my Macbook Pro Retina (Mid 2014) has been significantly increased. Is it something I should worry about or there is a chance that they put some not genuine battery into my device? Is there any way to check this? Has anyone had the same experience?

You can check what the weight of the MacBook Pro should be from Apple's specifications and compare with the current weight of your machine. If it turns out that your machine is heavier, you can then do something about it.


Why can't I acces my Mac's webserver from my iPhone using the Mac's ad-hoc WiFi? I want to do a demo of an iPhone optimised WebApp using my MacBook Air with a local server, so I don't have to depend on getting an internet connection or WiFi access from my client.

The Air is running Lion 10.7.2 and the iPhone is on iOS 5.0.1.

When I create a network on the Mac I can join from the iPhone, but when I open "http://my-macbook-air/" in Safari, it doesn't work.

Strangely it doesn't seem to utilize the WiFi, as the indicator never appears (but shows connected in the Settings app).

Possibly related:
Why is my iPhone unable to connect to an ad hoc wifi network? (though my question is Apple <-> Apple, so I expected it to work).

It is probably related to resolving the host name.

Try using the IP address of the Mac instead of the name:


Problems with Parallels and backing up with Time Machine I use Macbook Air and Lion. I use Time Machine to back up on my Drobo FS. All seems to be ok until I use Parallels. The Time Machine seems to take my virtual machine as one file so every time I open it Time machine wants to back up the WHOLE virtual machine although I maybe have changed only a word in a file. This leads to huge back ups of 20-30 G. Is there anything I can do about this unnecessary backup? Or is there any way I can tell the Time Machine not to back up my Windows files? Can I use tmutil and in that case how?

Camilla

Parallels have instructions here for making their software (version 6 or later) work better with Time Machine. You can either optimise your VMs for Time Machine backup, or disable backup for them.

  Parallels Desktop for Mac includes improved integration with Time Machine.
  When backing up the virtual machine, it will only backup the recent changes (the latest snapshot), but not the whole virtual hard drive.
  Thus, the backup process will take less time and use less space on your Time Machine storage device.

  To enable improved integration with Time Machine, please go to Virtual Machine Configuration, choose Options and hit Backup.

  Select "Optimize for Time Machine" in SmartGuard menu.

  If you do not want your virtual machine to be backed up by Time Machine, you need go to Virtual Machine Configuration --> Options --> Backup and put a checkmark on “Do not back up with Time Machine”.

In Parallels 7 the control panel looks like this:

Note that when you enable this feature, it will take up more space on the disk. Also, Auto Compress will be disabled.


macOS Sierra: Configuring Subversion/SVN on Apache Every Mac OSX/macOS update brings further challenges to get svn working after the update.  Sierra's the latest.

I have a subversion repo in ~/svnRepo

I run some windows development stuff in a VM running on 172.16.99.4 which can connect to the Mac host using http://172.16.99.1.  I use Tortoise and Visual Studio.

Normally I build the SVN server on the Mac using the current method.  Last time I 'brewed' my own.

Sierra has subversion running,  e.g. terminal> svnadmin info ~/svnRepo returns info about the repository.

Questions:

Is it possible to use the native subversion server to serve up subversion to the VM?
Must another subversion server be installed and configured on Apache?
How can Sierra be configured to connect to my pre-existing repo?
Is there  a quick and easy way doing this?

Yes, you can run a native subversion server on your Mac to serve your virtual machines.

If your virtual machines can access services on your Mac, as your question suggests they can, then you can offer a subversion service natively on your Mac.

svnserve

The easiest approach is to use subversion's standalone server, svnserve:

  The svnserve program is a lightweight server, capable of speaking to clients over TCP/IP using a custom, stateful protocol. Clients contact an svnserve server by using URLs that begin with the svn:// or svn+ssh:// scheme. This section will explain the different ways of running svnserve, how clients authenticate themselves to the server, and how to configure appropriate access control to your repositories.

A copy of svnserve is included with Xcode:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/svnserve

svnserve does not require an Apache httpd instance or any other server to work. The svnserve process listens and handles connections from svn clients.

Security Considerations

You can add tunnelling over ssh and other approaches to add security. Without additional configuration, a plain svnserve instance is not recommended for exposure to the Internet; it is not secure by default.

However, for your local-only situation svnserve is likely enough.


How can I modify Info.plist under EI Capitan 10.11.4 or Later This problem bothers me since I tried to add a hardware(smartcard device) information to the support list, so that I can use this smartcard device under my macintosh. But I don't have permission to modify this list file(Info.plist) on EI Capitan 10.11.4 or 10.11.5. Before 10.11.4, there is no this permission thing, I can't see why apple doing this.

Anyone knows how to modify the Info.plist(directory: "/usr/libexec/SmartCardServices/drivers/ifd-ccid.bundle/Contents/")?

The culprit (as suggested by klanomath) is likely System Integrity Protection, that protects (except others) also the /usr directory. To switch it off

Switch off your Mac
Boot into recovery (when you press power button, you should be already holding cmdR keys, hold them as long as the display is clear white)
In the recovery system, go in the menubar to Utilities > Terminal
Terminal window will pop-up. Enter:

csrutil disable
Confirm with enter
Close Terminal, restart the computer through Apple logo in top left corner

From here on, the SIP is disabled and you can edit your file. It should be noted, that after you are done with your modifications, you should definitely re-enable the SIP. The method is same as above, the only difference is that you will type into Terminal:

csrutil enable


Wi-Fi Calling over Ethernet in Airplane Mode Does WiFi-Calling over Ethernet (with a compatible Ethernet-Adapter) work on iPhones with airplane mode enabled and no WiFi connection? I am using iOS 14.

It seems like this should work, but it doesn't. If you enter airplane mode while connected to Ethernet and attempt a call, you will receive this message:
"No Network Connection. Connect to a Wi-Fi network or disable airplane mode to place a call."
If you're on Verizon, a usable workaround is to download the Verizon Message+ iOS app. You can enable Calling within the app and it works to make and receive calls on your normal number. Texting also works, but it's standard SMS (no iMessage). Caveats: The app is meant for handling calls from another device and will tell you calling won't work properly on your primary device. This is normally true, but those problems are nullified while in airplane mode. Additionally, it will complain that WiFi is turned off, but happily works anyway with Ethernet.
One more note: iMessage through the Apple Message app should function in theory, but it doesn't work quite right. I can sometimes receive iMessages there, but not send.


Copying (Drag & Drop) mutliple emails of Mail.app to Finder/Path Finder I sometimes copy (drag & drop) emails from Mail to Finder/Path Finder. But, when I try to copy multiple files outside Mail, I can't do that. I have to copy one by one.

Why is this? Is there any way to copy(drag & drop) multiple emails from Mail.app?

I know your emails from the default Apple Mail application in the following location: Macintosh HD/Users/(Your User Name)/Library/Mail/ - there will be some files in there, choose the folder that has the account with the emails you want. Then, click on the folder inside of the account's folder that contains your email's folder (inbox, sent, trash, etc.). Then, select the messages you want by using Shift-Click and drag them to the Finder. Hope this helps!


Ejecting disk after failed mounting I have a RCA VR5220 voice recorder, with a built-in USB connector.

Because this thing was clearly built by Windows-minded engineers, the only way to access the files in Mac OS X is to plug it in and hope that it detects as a FAT32 disk. If it doesn't (i.e., I plug it in and nothing happens -- no disk is mounted, device is invisible to Disk Utility), my options appear to be:

Remove the disk without unmounting, hopefully not wiping it in the process.
Reboot my computer, removing the device after the power-cycle.

I'm a journalist who uses this thing for interviews. It's only happened once, but after a number of times unplugging it without rebooting, the device decided it needed to be formatted -- requiring me to run disk recovery software to save the files I needed that day for my story.

While this is a big enough nuisance that I'm considering buying a new recorder, I could probably get by if I knew a way of ejecting the device without potentially compromising my data.

How does one safely eject disks that haven't mounted properly?

Thanks!

Mac OS X does have built-in read/write support for FAT32, and read support for NTFS, so it should be able to at least see any Windows-formatted volumes. That said, it's possible that Finder/Disk Utility cannot see it, but the system might still know that it's there and something is connected, so we might be able to safely unmount it via the command line.

To see if that's the case, open up Terminal, and type
diskutil list. This will output a list of all the volumes connected to the system, even if they're not mounted. They'll appear under a header showing what physical disk they're connected to. In the example below, diskutil is able to see a disk with a NTFS Bootcamp partition, as well as an HFS+ partition.

/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk3
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS mmotm                   409.0 GB   disk3s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                90.8 GB    disk3s3

To eject the pesky device, type in diskutil eject disk# substituting the # for the actual disk number (the part that appears after /dev/).

This has worked for me in similar situations.


Move files from CineXPlayer to OPlayer on iPad? I have found myself in quite a difficult position; before travelling I transfered some movies in the .MKV-format to my iPad-app CineXPlayer, unknowing that that app could not play that file.

Now I have no computer that I can use to transfer to another app, OPlayer for iPad, but fortunately, CineXPlayer offers an easy way to transfer files from device to device - unfortunately for me, I don't have two devices. It works by letting you access your files through your iPad's local IP-address via port 8080, and accessing it from an iPhone works fine, but not from the same iPad. Any ideas how I can do this?

Any other ideas as to how I can transfer the files from app to app? Both feature a download-function with a browser, so if I could access the local 8080-port, I should be able to transfer the files internally.

Thanks for any and all help/ideas/thoughts!

If it is jailbroken, nothing could be simpler. Use iFile (downloadable from Cydia store). If it is not, tough luck, I have no idea. You might make it with FileBrowser from the AppStore, but no promises here. Good luck!


Hiding emacs backup files in Finder I would like to find a way to hide all the *~ files in Finder, which are used as backup files by Emacs. Is there a general approach to make Finder hide all the files with their names matching certain patterns? Thanks.

If you don't like all the #*# and *~ files floating around in your working directory, put the following elisp code in your .emacs file.

;; Put autosave files (ie #foo#) and backup files (ie foo~) in ~/.emacs-backups/.
(custom-set-variables
  '(auto-save-file-name-transforms '((".*" "~/.emacs-backups/autosaves/\\1" t)))
  '(backup-directory-alist '((".*" . "~/.emacs-backups/backups/"))))

;; create the autosave dir if necessary, since emacs won't.
(make-directory "~/.emacs-backups/autosaves/" t)

Reference: http://snarfed.org/gnu_emacs_backup_files