Mavericks has wrong Russian layout Looks like the Russian layout included in Mavericks has wrong characters mapping. The layout image in preferences looks correct (see the image). But actual mapping of punctuation characters resembles the DOS ones a decade ago. E.g., to enter comma or dot i need to press Shift-6 and Shift-7 respectively, instead of Shift-? and ?.
This was a forced upgrade from previous mac os x version by my company. Any ideas how to install correct Russian layout?

My Russian PC layout works correctly.  It sounds like you are using Russian instead.  Make sure you have the Russian flag with the PC underneath showing at the top right of the screen.  Or that you have the layout called Russian removed from your active Input Sources.

If you have the right flag showing, do you have this problem for all apps including TextEdit?


Changing the default size of iTerm2 when it opens I feel like this is a pretty stupid question but I Googled it and played around with it and still didn't figure it out so here we go:

When I open iTerm2, it opens in a default size. How can I set it to open in a different window size?

The easiest way to have iTerm2 open with a specific size, position and number of windows is:

Get it all set up the way you'd like to see it when it opens. Have all your iTerm2 windows sized and place where you like them.
From the top menu select Window -> Save Window Arrangement and give it a name
Go to the Preferences and under the Arrangements section find the named arrangement, select it and press the Set Default button

Go to the General page and select Open default window arrangement

Now, when you start iTerm2, it'll use your saved arrangement to place, size and create the number of windows you saved. You can adjust the settings any time by placing things as you like them and re-saving the default arrangement.


Can I use my iMac as a display with my MacBook? Is it possible to attach my MacBook to my iMac and use the iMac as a display? What cable/connector would I need?

EDIT:

I have the newest MacBook and a Late 2009 21.5" iMac.

Which model of iMac do you have? Only the latest 27-inch model supports video in physically. There are software solutions if you don't have this model.

I'm not sure if this is the latest solution (I expect not), but it was a software solution to this problem. http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html

I'm sure I've seen something more recent than this, but can't find a link to it unfortunately.

Update: Found the software I was thinking of, the developers site is here: http://www.screenrecycler.com/ScreenRecycler.html


ADDTrust External CA Root certificate expired I'm running El Capitan (macOS 10.11.6, 15G22010) with Safari 11.1.2.

The ADDTrust External CA Root certificate expired today. This broke Safari navigation for many sites. Firefox and Chrome work fine on the same sites.

Can Safari navigation be fixed?

Same issue here; a temporary (not production-ready) fix is to set back your system date.


Cannot read keyboard shortcut text Some of the shortcut titles take up too much space and are truncated. System Preferences cannot be resized, so I cannot see the full name.

Is there any other way?

There are tooltips. Keep the mouse hovering over any of the abbreviated strings and a tooltip will show you the full text. This works in most of the OS.


Merging two calendars in macOS Sierra I need to merge two calendars in macOS Sierra Calendar App. I found instructions on the web that describe how to do this with previous versions of OS X, however these are not relevant for macOS Sierra. The answer to this question provides the same steps, which does not solve my problem.

Basically, the problem is if you export the calendar, then import the calendar, it will simply import back into the original calendar, giving you no choice to where you want it imported. There is never an option to select a target calendar as described in the previously mentioned steps.

Is it no longer possible to merge two calendars in macOS Sierra Calendar App? Are there any other ways to do this?

Actually, there's an even easier way with Sierra. Toggle the Calendar Sidebar if not already showing. From the Sidebar, select the Calendar you wish to merge into another. Select "Merge Calendar" from under the edit menu. Select the calendar you want to merge the Sidebar selected calendar into.

One additional note: If the calendar is "Shared," then merge is not available.


Can I pause the Mountain Lion download and resume it later? My internet service provider has its own broadband portal and the session lasts only 12 hours after which I need to relogin.  While relogging the download of the Mountain Lion gets interrupted because the connection resets.

I'd like to take my Mac to my friend's house for increased net speed. Will the download be resumed or do I have to start downloading all the way from the beginning?

I was just searching for that, and No, you can't, it has to be downloaded in one time only. If you paused; it'll restart from the beginning.

This is the source from Apple Discussions:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4139031


Copy apfs system partition to another mac I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports) that has broken keyboard and battery, so I will need to send it to Apple Store for service. I have another MacBook Pro with similar specs but 1 TB of storage with a macOS system and a Windows 10 system. My current plan is to shrink the Windows 10 partition, connect the broken MBP to the other MBP in target disk mode, use asr to copy the macOS partition over, and I should be able to boot of the other MBP. Would this plan work? Will asr copy blocks that have information on them (fs/meta/data) or will it conduct a block-to-block copy, including free blocks? I want to minimize read as the SSD have a limited lifespan.

I end up copying the system over using the "Restore" function of Disk Utility, by connecting the serviced mac in Target Disk Mode to the other mac and restoring the macOS APFS container over to the Windows partition. This process is slower (300 MB/s) then the theoretical speed (1 GB/s) and it took twice as much time as I expect because there is a verification stage after the copying stage.
After copying the system, I successfully booted into my copied system on the other mac with no weird or unusual symptoms. I installed macOS again to eliminate potential problems due to changed hardware.


MSFT Word window won't resize in office 2011 My MSFT Word document won't resize, beyond a point.  I'm trying to compared multiple documents on the screen at once.  Thus, I'm trying to shrink them to fit on my screen.

The window doesn't shrink past four inches or so length.

Any ideas?

Make sure no panes are open in the sidebar (Contents, Reviewing, Advanced Search).


How can I prevent my machine from automatically downloading deleted system files? I spilled coffee on my keyboard and most keys are now constantly pressed so the machine is not usable so I disabled the built-in keyboard in order to use an external keyboard but I am having some problems. I do not want to replace the built-in keyboard, I just want to disable it and use an external keyboard.

I searched around and found that I could disable the built-in keyboard by typing the following to disable:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/

And the following to enable:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/

I typed the above but it didn't work so I typed:

open /System/Library/Extensions

and deleted the file called AppleUSBTopCase.kext because I figured that it is the driver for the keyboard. This worked and everything is fine now but as long as the machine is connected to the internet, it will keep downloading the drivers after I delete them and the machine becomes unusable again once the keyboard is enabled. How can I prevent it from doing that (without disconnecting it from the internet...)?

I stumbled across this yesterday while performing maintenance on my server unit. Give it a shot and let me know the outcome (AFAIK this is only viable on Yosemite).

Open 'System Preferences'
Select the 'App Store' pane
Deselect the checkbox marked 'Install system data files and security updates'

Hopefully, OS X should stop repairing your Extensions folder each time you connect to the internet.

Failing that, perhaps changing permissions for the kext (rather than outright deleting it) will just cause it to fail to load but still be present and therefore not re downloaded.


Can't figure out how to correctly install .app I downloaded a dmg which apparently OS X mounted as a drive or something. Then I googled around to find out I should ctrl+clicked -> open the program and get past the warning messages.

I closed the app, and dragged the .app file to launchpad. Then I ejected the mount DMG and now launchpad can't figure out where the app is. Apparently it just created a link.

How do you install applications on a mac? As a developer I find it hard to believe it could be this complex without the OS offering any helpful hints.

Apparently you should not drag the app to the launchpad, instead, drag the app to the application folder (open a finder window), or just do a $ cp /from /to.

So the process is:

Open DMG (it mounts)
Drag .app (and possibly other files) to your "Applications" folder
Unmount/Eject the DMG
Ctrl+click (right-click) to "open" so you can approve the app


IOS 13.1.3 does not have a sync over wifi button on my phone, what do i do I have never tried to sync over wifi, but I have followed online directions, problem is, under my general settings there is no option to sync over wifi. It seems the button should be located next to VPN but its not there, has it moved? I have searched all through my phone settings, I cant find it

This button was removed in iOS 13 for no apparent reason. Since then, this button is missing so you have to wait for a fix for this in a new update.


For some reason I can't open files on drive I can't open the files on certain drive that is formatted as ntfs. I have Tuxera installed however. Here is an image on how they look:

The file with a lock is password protected as it should.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? For some reason the files I can't open are somehow transparent.

First thing, make sure that it's no locked and that you have the correct permissions :

If you have extended attributes you can get rid of those by doing the following :

1- Do ls -l@, under the file it will give you something like "com.apple.FinderInfo". Copy that
2- Do xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo path/to/file

If nothing works then your last option is to sudo it :
sudo open path/to/file

Also see if you can open it using a mac that those not have Tuxera installed on it.


Will changing an iCloud profile on iOS harm data on the previous account? I share an iCloud with my mom. If I delete iCloud on my phone, and created a individual one, Will it delete her data?

Delete iCloud? You mean sign out I suppose. If you want a separate account without harm of data, Go to Preferences > iCloud and somewhere there are sync options.

Disable synchronization (possibly other features), sign out of iCloud, then create a new profile and use it on your iPhone. You might need the previous password to continue.


Why everything counts from year 1970? So I've looked around and couldn't really find an answer to this.

I have an iPhone (jailbroke) and I notice in several settings there is a string usually in the .plist files that say something similar to "TimeIntervalSince1970". Now I know that all timers such as these need a base date and time to start with.

But my real question is why 1970?

Not everything counts from 1970.  Its the standard time of Unix.

  Unix time, or POSIX time, is a system for describing points in time,
  defined as the number of seconds elapsed since midnight proleptic
  Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of January 1, 1970, not counting leap
  seconds.

Unix Time

  Early versions of unix measured system time in 1/60 s intervals. This
  meant that a 32-bit unsigned integer could only represent a span of
  time less than 829 days. For this reason, the time represented by the
  number 0 (called the epoch) had to be set in the very recent past. As
  this was in the early 1970s, the epoch was set to 1971-1-1.

  Later, the system time was changed to increment every second, which
  increased the span of time that could be represented by a 32-bit
  unsigned integer to around 136 years. As it was no longer so important
  to squeeze every second out of the counter, the epoch was rounded down
  to the nearest decade, thus becoming 1970-1-1. One must assume that
  this was considered a bit neater than 1971-1-1.

  Note that a 32-bit signed integer using 1970-1-1 as its epoch can
  represent dates up to 2038-1-19, on which date it will wrap around to
  1901-12-13.

Why is 1/1/1970 the “epoch time”?


Understanding Files on iOS / iPadOS: Accessing stored files iOS 13 and the new iPadOS offer the Files app as a Finder replacement. I do not quite understand the integration with the rest of the system, however.

I have copied a set of image files into the "On my iPad" section in Files. They show up in Google Fotos (!) but not in other iOS apps where I would like to use them, eBay Classifieds in my case.

How do I access files stored in the Files app from another app?
I understand that Files is no real file manager, like Finder, but rather an interface to several cloud services that also happens to provide app-internal storage (what is visible as "on my iPad"). Is that a correct view?
If so, how can I access arbitrary user files somewhere on my iPad? I'm fine with restrictions on system files, but content I have created should reside somewhere on the iPad's file system... is there a proper Finder replacement for mobile devices?

How do I access files stored in the Files app from another app?

Some apps integrate with the Files app; these are called "Document-Based Apps" (according to Xcode). Apple's iWork apps and GarageBand are document-based apps, which means that you can open those apps and see your file system just like if you where in the Files app. It’s basically an exact replica of the Files app with some slight functionality changes.

There are also third-party apps, such as File Browser, that can access the same thing the Files app does, as well as other computers on your network.

  I understand that Files is no real file manager, like Finder, but rather an interface to several cloud services that also happens to provide app-internal storage (what is visible as "on my iPad"). Is that a correct view?

Some apps aren't document-based apps, like the ones I mentioned above, but have folders in iCloud or on the device to store files. A few examples of these are iMovie, Swift Playgrounds, Reality Composer, etc. These apps will usually let you save files to the Files app via a share sheet or export button.

The Files app lets you view files on your device, in iCloud, on removable media, or a third-party server. If you have both a Mac and an iOS/iPadOS device with iCloud Drive enabled for Desktop and Documents folders, you can transfer files to and from your Mac via the cloud.

One cool thing I will mention is the Minecraft's use of the Files app. It has a folder on the device and is one of the only apps I have seen so far where you can modify parts of the game by changing some of the files inside it. For example, you can replace a world's icon by replacing the file it's using in the Files app.

  [H]ow can I access arbitrary user files somewhere on my iPad? I'm fine with restrictions on system files, but content I have created should reside somewhere on the iPad's file system... is there a proper Finder replacement for mobile devices?

If you save something to your device in the Files app, it should be there. I have a Pages document and an image on my device. I can go to Files and view the image, or open the Pages document, just like you can in Finder.

I will say this; there seems to be a bug (I think) in iPadOS that won't show some on-device folders. Hopefully, they will fix it soon. Right now, you can save files in the root of "on your device," and you shouldn't have any issues viewing them.


Space Occupied By Other Files And Folders On Hard Drive I have been using VirtualBox to create a virtual machine to run Windows 8 on and after deleting the virtual drives and virtualbox due to having issues with Windows 8, I am missing a lot of memory from my hard drive. I currently also have 72GB of backups on my Hard Drive that I did not create, any ideas on how to get rid of them?

When I view my Hard Drive contents via Disk Inventory X it comes up that I have nearly 99GB of space occupied by other files that not even Disk Inventory X can identify!

Area of other files:

Have you attempted to empty the trash after removing the VM? Alternately, I believe that VirtualBox keeps its data at "~/VirtualBox VMs". Removing that folder may help you to reclaim drive space.

Here's more info on TimeMachine's local snapshots. If you'd like to disable that feature, you can use these commands to perform that action:

sudo tmutil disablelocal

Here's how you can re-enable local snapshots:

sudo tmutil enablelocal

Here's how to take a snapshot:

tmutil snapshot


Can we setup a local HTTPS Server in Mac OS X using swift I want to setup a local HTTP Server running in my Mac OSX machine which should be able to handle requests that are coming from web browser. But I am not sure whether we can setup HTTPS server using swift. In this https://swift.org/server-apis/ there is only info about HTTP but not HTTPS. Any help is very much appreciated

Yes, Apple's Swift language can be used to create a web server that accepts HTTPS connections. See Going Server-side with Swift Open Source for Apple's introduction to developing servers.

Using Swift, you have access to a range of included and third party SSL/TLS libraries. The language used to write the library is not important, so long as the library offers a C API.

Network.framework and AFNetworking

If you are a developer, consider using Apple's Network framework. The framework claims to provide easier support for secure connections.

Alternatively, look at using the open source project AFNetworking.

Apple's Frameworks

Given you want to focus on Apple's security offerings, you can pick from:

Apple's Network.framework (in beta at the time of answering)
Apple's NSURL* family of classes
Apple's CFNetwork
Apple's Secure Transport API

Be aware that most of these are ultimately built upon the low level Common Crypto code base.

Transparent Proxy

Consider using an existing web server, such as Nginx, httpd, or Caddy, to act as a transparent proxy in-front of your own service. The existing web server can handle the SSL/TLS security and pass back HTTP requests to your locally running service.

This is a fairly common configuration because it simplifies your service and puts the security burden on a well tested existing front-end server.

Not a developer?

If you are not a developer, consider using a pre-built web server with support for Lets Encrypt (free) TLS certificates. One such server is Caddy:

  Caddy is the HTTP/2 web server with automatic HTTPS.


Wierd character in zsh I have problem with zsh at command line for non English language characters
but after enter key the language show the right word.

~
❯ สว<0e31>สด<0e35>
สวัสดี
zsh: command not found: สวัสดี

i was check the locale everything is utf8

locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

and check if any fonts, it's have same problem.
i use zsh version 5.0.2 and oh-my-zh

Well, I found the answer.

Open ~/.zshrc file and add this option below at the end of file:

setopt COMBINING_CHARS

Then restart Terminal.


Terminal command to return network class I'm trying to construct myself a primitive network scanner, and I understand that there are multiple network classes and it has become necessary for my program to determine exactly what class of network the workstation is currently connected to.

I have trialled a few options which i consider to be needlessly complicated, such as truncating various commands such as ifconfig, however these methods are arduous and messy.

Is there a single Terminal command which can return simple output such as 10.0.0.0, thereby identifying the network class?

Please reconsider and reformulate your question.

You are mixing private IPv4 address spaces and classful networks (which are deprecated or at least "old-fashioned" since 1993) and you don't consider classless networks.

In the old-fashioned concept of classful networks the leading bits 0 (Class A), 10 (Class B), 110 (Class C), 1110 (Class D) or 1111 (Class E) you get by issueing a proper ifconfig or ipconfig command completely determine the class.

So all IP-addresses starting with

    0 - 127 belong to Class A
128 - 191 belong to Class B
192 - 223 belong to Class C
224 - 239 belong to Class D
240 - 255 belong to Class E

I can't add this as a comment because it's to long.


How do I shade the region between two curves in Grapher? How do I shade the region (or area) between two curves in Grapher?

I'm looking for a way to do this in a 2D graph. The only example which comes close to this is the "Evaluation and Integration" example, but I can't figure it out.

For example, I would like to shade the region bound by these two curves:

y = x^2 - 2
y = 0

I'm assuming it's possible based on this comment.

First select both equations in the sidebar, and then Equation » Integration… in the menu.

In the dialog, it has preselected Area Between Curves. Confirm it.

You can change the color in the inspector window.

Since your second equation is y=0, you could just select the first one, and integrate it, selecting Area in the dialog. The result should look the same.


Swipe To Delete songs in a playlist Is it possible to delete a song from a playlist with a 'swipe to delete'? I thought this was possible, but I am not able to do this. I'm running iOS 5.0.1.

Swipe to delete only appears to happen in the 'Songs' tab of the Music app. To remove songs from a playlist I only get the option of hitting Edit at the top of the playlist, then using the red icon on the left of the song name. - iOS 5.1


Serious Boot / Sleep Problems Two days ays ago I closed the lid of my macbook pre for the night as I have done for the last 2.5 years but when I opened the lid in the morning the screen didn't show. It seemed to be 'alive' (ish) i.e. the volume buttons made a clicking sound but when I tried to do a restart with keyboard shortcut there was no response so I had to shut down with the power button.

When I tried to start up again it got stuck on a grey screen with the laptop running hot. I powered off again and tried to boot recovery partition but got a scrambled blue screen with that. Tried to boot bootcamp and got a dead screen like the laptop was off. Tried to boot from a usb blue scrambled screen again.

I reset smc, pram etc. but nothing made a difference.

After trying the various boot options a few times of these I plugged in the power cable and all of a sudden I was able to boot into OS. Problem was that if the laptop went asleep the same thing would happen again and only after numerous restart attempts would it boot but once up and running no issues.

Possibly unrelated but maybe not, today all of a sudden the laptop got really hot so I loaded activity monitor to see what was going on but I couldn't open it as it kept hanging. Two restarts later and the problem disappeared.

Unfortunately the boot issue and the dead OS after sleep remains an issue, any ideas whats going on?

A few details on my setup - I'm running an early 2011 MBP with OS 10.9, I have 16GB RAM, a Crucial M4 SSD and the original HD in an optibay in place of the superdrive.

That is a tough one and some of the symptoms seem to indicate hardware issues but the fact that it came back to life may put the lie to that conjecture. Since you already reset the SMC that is also out. More troubleshooting steps around power issues (including resetting the SMC) in the Apple KB here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Some of (all?) of these steps may be redundant depending on what all you have done.

It sounds like there may be a software issue as well. I use Onyx for general system maintenance and have found it works well and causes no problems. That may be worth a shot.

However once you have gone through that and the issue still remains you may have an intermittent hardware issue.

If you have upgraded the RAM yourself, you can try removing the DIMM you installed. Same for any HD/SSD upgrades you may have done yourself.

Failing that it may be time for a visit to your local Genius bar...


Why is it required to have your MacBook Pro plugged-in in closed-clamshell mode with an external display attached? open MacBook Pro + connected external display -> no power cable required
closed MacBook Pro + connected external display -> power cable required

Why? Why not allow or require it in both cases? Why require the power cable in the case, in which the battery will last longer?

Why? Why not allow or require it in both cases?

The default behavior when you close the lid on your MacBook is to put it to sleep.  According to Apple:
To further expand on this point, let's look at the default behavior when the lid is open(ed) - the MacBook is awake.  This makes sense as this is the generally accepted method of using a notebook.  The external display, and USB ports are also, by the inherent nature of the computer being awake, functional.

You can save energy by putting your Mac to sleep when you're not using
it. When your Mac is sleeping, it's on but consumes less power. And
waking your Mac from sleep is quicker than starting it up after it's
been shut down. To put your Mac to sleep immediately, do one of the
following:

Choose Apple () menu > Sleep.
If you use a Mac notebook computer, close its built-in display.
Press Command (⌘)–Media Eject(⏏).
Tap the power button on your computer.

(Emphasis mine)
Having the AC adapter connected is just one of the components needed to override the default behavior; you need to have the AC power, keyboard and mouse connected, as well as a monitor. See Use your Mac notebook computer in closed-display mode with an external display for more details.
Why did Apple do it this way?  Ultimately, only they can give you the official answer, but a little deduction tells us that if closing the lid puts the machine to sleep, how would it know to stay awake if the user wanted to operate in closed-clamshell mode?  Answer:  attach a monitor and the AC adapter.
Can you override the default behavior
Yes.  Using pmset
To disable wake/sleep on lid state:
sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

To undo the last setting
sudo pmset -a lidwake 1

Though you can do this, I don't recommend it, because disabling this feature means when you close the lid on your laptop it remains awake; even when you pack it in your laptop bag and put it in the overhead compartment.  It (the battery) will most likely be DOA, plus it tends to get quite hot in that scenario, shortening the life of the battery.


Review of apps don't show up! I wrote 3 reviews for an app, one of them showe up once and the others never did.  This app is almost useless and I feel that others should know that.  So why isn't my review appearing?  It's negative, but professional.

In my knowledge, you can't make more than one review for one version of an app.
So if you tap the review button and you have already made a review, it will show the old review again and you can edit it.


Investigation about read errors on my SSD Definitely more than a year ago I replaced the internal 1TB Apple SSD in my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2015) with a Samsung SSD 970 EVO 2TB unit (and an adapter). Quick story, no problem so far - SMART stats say 47TB data unit reads and 27TB data unit writes.
Since a couple of days I'm seeing some sporadic failure in reading a few files. SMART "Media and Data Integrity Errors" count has increased. The problem is sporadic because if I test the file that triggered the error (e.g. by computing a MD5 from command line) I see "Device error" at first, but it then becomes ok after retrying.
Is it possible to understand how serious is it?

End of the story: Samsung acknowledged that the unit was defective and replaced it under warranty.


Is it possible to download and install multiple versions of Safari on macOS? Is it possible to download and install multiple versions of Safari on macOS?
I need to test something out on my MacBook with the latest version of Safari (13), but I don't want to update my current Safari browser to the latest version. I want to be able to keep my current older version of Safari UNTOUCHED and the newest version of Safari both installed and usable on my Mac computer. Is this possible?

Updates to Safari tend to include updates to the WebKit system framework on which Safari relies. (The WebKit framework is separate from the app, and is then available to other apps.)

Executing an app that was built for a different framework from the last one you installed is likely to cause problems.


Can the content of an iPhone backup be extracted? After upgrading my device from iOS 4.3.3 to iOS 6, iTunes doesn't allows me to restore from an old backup, saying that it is an incompatible backup.

Why is this? Is there any way I could restore from this old backup? And, if not, is there any way I could retrieve the data from this backup?

There are several apps for extracting backups.
The one I have used is Iphone/Ipod Touch Backup Extractor, it's been around for a while now and it is freeware, just make a donation if you find it useful to help the developer keep it updated.

You simply select from which backup you want to restore by pressing the button "Read Backups", then select from the list of application settings that can be restored.
There is a detailed step by step guide here


remove albums from music on iOS I have some music albums that while I want them, I don't want them to show on a specific device.

The albums are not downloaded to the device. So there songs are not on there, but the album covers still show.

How can I set it up so that the album covers for non downloaded music dont show on the device?

You can disable Apple Music on your iphone to stop showing cloud purchases. Head into iPhone Settings > Music > Toggle Show Apple Music to off.


Mac Mini Won't boot with a PC keyboard The Mini was installed with Windows 2003 now and its the only OS installed. It's a Mac Mini A1176 and now I want to install reformat the box and install Mac OSX.

But the problem is unlike any other Mac products I have, by holding 'c', 'shift', 'option', or 'd' on the keyboard immediately after power on the box cannot successfully change the booting sequence, it only boots from hard disk which is installed with Windows now.

I think the problem is that I'm not using a Mac keyboard, but a normal PC keyboard, is that because it doesn't recongnize the keyboard at the booting stage?

Please tell me what to do to force the box to boot from CD, because I don't have a Mac keyboard with me right now.

(reposting my answer from your Stack Overflow question in case you don't check that one)

If you have Apple's Boot Camp utility installed in the Windows installation, you should be able to choose the startup volume from its' control panel. Insert your OS X install disc, choose that as your startup volume, and reboot.


Generate and view macOS system performance report I want to generate a system performance report for my Mac. I would like that this report have CPU, Memory, disk and network activity statistics over a time period.

Like, I start the report generation in the morning morning and turn it off on the end of the day, or choose to record for an entire week.

This way, I wish to show to my boss that most of the time, my Mac runs at almost its maximum capacity. I have real data to backup my necessity of a new one.

I am looking for an app that can let me do so. If it is possible, I would appreciate a free one, but if there are no options, a paid one would also work.

iStat Menus can record up to 30 days of CPU utilisation, load average, memory pressure, memory usage, swap usage, disk usage and network upload/download rates, among others.


Ping and curl resolve to one IP, dig/nslookup/host resolve to another OK, I have a very interesting case. I have a custom DNS server that is vending out IP addresses to varying servers in my test network. If I use dig, nslookup, or host, it tells me that it's properly resolving the IPs. If I ping or curl the hostname, it resolves to the actual external internet IP.

In my Network settings, I have only my custom DNS server, and this is correctly reflected in /etc/resolv.conf. I do not have this host in my /etc/hosts. If I add them, it will work, but I have multiple hosts that I'd have to add and remove, and I really want to know why this isn't working.

I've tried dumping the DNS cache using both dscacheutil and restarting mDNSResponder. This has had no effect. If I lookup the hostname via dscacheutil, it resolves incorrectly.

Clearly, Directory Services is messed up somehow. I've opened up Directory Utility, but I'm not too sure what to look for there.

Running dscacheutil -configuration shows:

azkaban:dnstest kylar$ dscacheutil -configuration

DirectoryService Cache search policy:
    /Local/Default

Unable to get details from the cache node
Unable to get cache configuration information

Any suggestions as to what to look for next? Also note that I'm using fully qualified domain names, i.e., foo.example.com or www.example.com.

UPDATE:
I also have a VPN enabled, but it's second in the Network list. The VPN is vending me a "lookup domain" that is the same as the domain that I'm trying to lookup. Somehow it's vending me a DNS server that is overriding the DNS server that I have set (Looks like a case of most-specific lookup). How can I tell it NOT to look via that server?

And I found it. The VPN config was auto-configuring it's own DNS servers, which were overriding my setup, because the VPN was also telling it to look up hosts in the domain that I was overriding. This caused the Directory Services to use the VPN vended DNS servers.

To fix, I added my custom DNS server as the first lookup entry under the VPN DNS config, and that worked.


localhost doesn't find all files in Sites-Folder I have a strange problem:

I installed XAMPP long time ago and created a folder with an index.php file in my sites folder. When i start XAMPP and go to the browser localhost/~username i can see the folder-structure.

  I click on the folder i created some month ago, and safari shows me
  the index.php file.

  But now i create a new folder, with a new index-file in it, and
  navigate to it, i'm getting an 404 Error.

  Both folders are in the same Directory: ~/Sites

Open localhost/~username and i can see all folders in the ~/Sites - Folder
Clicking on the folder created long time ago: works
Clicking on the new folder created few seconds ago: Error 404

I think there is a problem in the apache-config file, but i do not understand why apache finds only the new file.

Ok, i don't know why but i changed the Document-Root-Folder in the XAMPP-Config-File to match /username/Sites.

Now the other folders work, too.

I don't understand why one folder works with the old configuration, and newer ones don't.

To all with the same problem:

  The XAMP-Config-File must be the same document-root as the /etc/apache2 - config file on the mac

Strange thing, on my other Mac the Document-Paths are different but work.


Move Escape key on Touch Bar I keep accidentally hitting the Escape key when I'm typing. I'd like to move to more towards the center of the Touch Bar, or require a double-click to activate it. Is this possible?

There’s no native way to move (or adjust the sensitivity of) the escape key on the Touch Bar.

Some potential solutions:

Upgrade to a new MacBook with a physical ESC key
Use Better Touch Tool to temporarily hide your entire Touch Bar (solutions below)
Use an external keyboard

Using BTT to hide the Touchbar

This solution was posed in a BTT GitHub issue:

  Uncheck "Show MacOS Control Strip" and "Show Escape Button" in general touchbar settings.
  Create a button with no action and put a bunch of blank spaces in the name and make the button black (this moves the button you'll
  create in the following step over to the right so your pinky won't hit it).
  Create a "Toggle BTT Touchbar" button with "Toggle BetterTouchTool Touchbar" as its action. This let's you get the standard touchbar back if/when you need it.

This solution is from the Apple discussion board:

  Click "TouchBar"  Click "General Touch Bar Settings"  Check "Enable
  Touch Bar Support"    Uncheck "Show macOS Control Strip"  Check Show
  "BTT icon in Control Strip"   All Other items are unchecked   Click
  Close     14  ￼   Click "+ TouchBar Button"   Give the button a Name...I
  chose "Unhide the Touch Bar with Satan Spawn ESC key" For "Predefined
  Action:" choose "Toggle BTT Touch Bar” ￼    Click "Advanced
  Configuration" for the button and choose where you want it to
  appear...I chose the right side for "Item Placement..."   ￼   Now my
  Touch Bar looks like this:   ￼   With nothing else on the Touch Bar:
  ￼
    This Touch Bar persists across all apps. If I tap the button, the
  regular Touch Bar returns

NOTE: You may also need to hide the BTT icon in settings, as it will replace the ESC key when the Touch Bar is empty.


Do any Amazon S3 clients allow automation for setting expiration headers? I am using Transmit and the Firefox extension S3 Organiser.   Neither completely satisfies my requirements  as both tools lack the ability to set an expiration header.

This makes me cry, as I need to manually run a script to download files to a local machine, use an S3 API to set the expiration header, then upload the files back to the S3 server.  This is time consuming.

Does anyone know of a tool or client for Mac that allows the user to specify an expiration header?

I'm not 100% sure if it meets your needs, but Cyberduck allows you to set the Cache-Control header. See this link for more information (see the section on Cache Control Setting).


DMG or Package Installer If I need to download an App, what method of installer should I prefer DMG or Package Installer? Which has greater advantage.

DMG is easy drag and drop install for softwares that don't require specific installations;

Package Installer is for softwares who need to have specific parts installed in a specific place (libraries, plug-ins...)

I would prefer the first one, because you can make easy and clean (un)installation with 1 mouse's click.


Since yesterday I can't login to iOS developer forum. What's going on? Since yesterday I can't login to the iOS developer forums, and I just subscribed 3 weeks ago. This is the error I get:

What's going on?

Maybe the site was swamped, everyone trying to access at once, because of the announcements yesterday?


What are the most commonly used data backup methods for Mac OS X Yosemite version? Please tell me in detail about that. I need some reliable solution for my Mac OS X.

The most common solution by far would be Time Machine, which comes included with Mac OS X. Just by an external drive of (say) twice the size of your Mac's drive, plug it in, and Mac OS X will probably just ask if you want to start using it for Time Machine automatically.

If you're smart, you'll buy two drives, set them both up as Time Machine backups, and then rotate them between backing up your system, and being stored elsewhere.


Apple developer account restrictions I intend to open a new Apple developer account (for a friend), are there any restrictions for offshore companies / offshore bank accounts?

(Both his company and bank account are in Seychelles)

Sorry if I misplaced the question, I didn't find any better suited category.

Contact Apple Developer
You should contact Apple Developer directly. Only they will be able to provide the definite answers you need.
Legal Requirements to Enroll
Apple publish a guide covering Before You Enroll and an Enrollment Support page. The support page mentions the following criteria:

Organizations enrolling in the Apple Developer Program will need:
Legal Entity Status
To enroll in an Apple Developer Program, your organization must be a legal entity so that it can enter into contracts with Apple. We do not accept DBAs, fictitious businesses, trade names, or branches. The legal entity name will appear as the “seller” for apps you distribute on the App Store and Mac App Store. Example: Seller: ABC Company, Inc.
A D-U-N-S Number
Your organization must have a D-U-N-S Number so that we can verify your organization’s identity and legal entity status. These unique nine-digit numbers are assigned by Dun & Bradstreet and are widely used as standard business identifiers. You can check to see if your organization already has a D-U-N-S Number and request one if necessary. They are free in most jurisdictions. Learn more
Legal Binding Authority
As the person enrolling your organization in the Apple Developer Program, you must have the legal authority to bind your organization to legal agreements. You must be the organization’s owner/founder, executive team member, senior project lead, or have legal authority granted to you by a senior employee.


Perian gave Finder broken 'click to preview' UI feature. Now, how do I get rid of it? I understand that Perian is (a) not being developed by its creators anymore and (b) it doesn't work on 10.9/Mavericks even though someone appears to releasing updates to it on GitHub (gathering from trying Perian on 10.9, none of said updates seem to be related to 10.9 support).

I uninstalled this now apparently useless framework by clicking the Uninstall button in preferences, then removing the prefpane and rebooting.

The problem is that FLAC files still are read as a 'musical' MIME type - or something - by Finder. They have the preview music icon when they should be blank, but more confusing is that hovering over them gives a Play/Pause functionality which never actually plays anything (the icon just starts 'spinning' when you click it) Check the screenshot.

How do I get rid of this leftover broken functionality?

Also note: when I press space on a selected FLAC file, Quick Look correctly makes no attempt to play it - but Perian has left another annoying mark as QL throws up the musical notes icon - as if you could play it in QL):

Alright, here's how I got rid of
- FLAC files having those ‘click to play' icons and their ensuing endless 'preview loading' spinning wheels.
- FLAC files with those Quicktime/iTunes style music icons

We don’t want either because at least in 10.9, neither Quicktime nor Finder nor Quick Look can play them (even with Perian installed). A fresh installation of OS X simply gives you no option to play FLAC files whatsoever, but when you uninstall Perian, which is supposed to let you play such exotic formats, the option to preview FLAC in Finder et al is not removed.

Apparently the problem is caused by Perian associating FLAC files with the Quicktime Player.

Right click on a FLAC file with a specious ''
Choose 'Open With' and select 'Quicktime Player'
Quicktime Player says ‘converting’ in the video window for a couple of seconds then gives you a dialogue box saying it cannot play the FLAC file after all.
Close Quicktime
Close Your Finder windows and reboot OS X.

Think of this as a way to completely remove all traces of Perian after you've uninstalled it.

Now when you interact with FLAC files in Finder they should look like this again:


manually edit shortcuts on os x 10.9 (Mavericks) I'm using TotalTerminal on 10.9 Mavericks and while it's not great, it's the best quake terminal I've found right now. I usually show/hide the visor using command-escape but unfortunately can't seem to pull this off as I'm being told there's an existing universal shortcut for this key combination.

I've gone through the keyboard preferences shortcuts and can't find anything that maps to command-escape. The only thing I can think of is that this used to be front-row (which is no longer installed by default on new macs).

Does anyone know how I can set command-escape manually in total terminal via config file? I'm happy doing that by modifying the apple keyboard shortcuts and erasing whatever is mapped their now or editing a totalterminal config.

Thanks in advance

Run plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist.
Quit Terminal.
Edit the plist in a text editor:

<key>ToggleVisor</key>
<dict>
  <key>KeyCode</key>
  <integer>53</integer> <!-- escape (see Events.h) -->
  <key>Modifiers</key>
  <integer>9437184</integer> <!-- command -->
</dict>

Terminate the cfprefsd process from Activity Monitor.
Open Terminal.

Preference files are cached in 10.9, so if you edit a preference file directly, just quitting and reopening the application does not apply the changes. You can also run defaults read com.apple.Terminal instead of terminating cfprefsd.


Does my new iPad 3 have an audio input ...? I bought a Griffin guitar cable when I picked up my iPad 3. It plugs into the headphone socket which I assume is supposed to act as an audio-in jack.

It didn't seem to work and after testing and much checking online, including the tech specs at apple.com, I was left with the impression that the iPad doesn't have a combined input & headphone output on the headphone jack (like say the 13" MBP). I took the cable back to the Apple store and the Genius guy patronised me at length and insisted that either the cable was faulty or my iPad was. I will be taking it to see them in a few days so see if there is something wrong with my iPad, but deep down, I am convinced I am right. I would appreciate someone settling this for me one way or the other. Do I need an audio interface that works via the dock or should this simple cable work with my headphone jack doubling up as a line in?

Thanks for reading.

The new iPad, like all iPads, have a combined audio input/output jack, like the iPhone and newer MacBooks. The Genius was correct: Griffin cable should have worked. If it didn't, either the cable or the iPad was faulty.

One other possibility is that it was the software. This isn't very likely, but it's possible that the software you were using had some sort of compatibility issue with the new iPad.


Constant beachball and freezes without high CPU usage, "nspace-handler-update: did not find token" message We have a 2015 MacBook Pro here with OS X 10.11, which gets extremely (unusably) slow when starting a Time Machine backup.  All applications freeze from time to time and the spinning beachball keeps coming up.  The backup only goes to a few kilobytes and doesn't finish even after several hours.

During this time the CPU usage is not high, and the memory is not full.

What could be the cause and how can we fix this?

Other symptoms:

nspace-handler-set-snapshot-time: and nspace-handler-unblock: did not find token messages keep coming up in Console.app.  After searching for these I found many complaints about the same symptoms online, but I found no solution.  This is one example of a forum thread discussing these problems.  The answers there suggest checking that there is enough free disk space and running a disk check.  Yes, there is > 400 GB free space and the disk check finds no errors.

Finally this gave the clue.

It was caused by Sophos Antivirus.  Uninstalling it fixed the problem.


How does Apple achieve the all aluminium enclosure with RF on the MacBook Pro? Since 2016, Apple has been able to make these laptops with no visible “window” of plastic or glass for RF signals to travel through. As an electrical engineer, I’m intrigued.

If you look at older MacBook pros, they have a black plastic hinge. For the Pixel chrome book, it’s got a whole glass half of the lid for that.

My guess was the hinge or the glass screen, but neither would work when the lid is closed, and you can very much use your MBP while the lid is fully closed with WiFi and Bluetooth (think when you have external displays).

How does Bluetooth and WiFi work on the 2018 MacBook Pro models?

Apple cleverly places the WiFi antenna assembly adjacent to the cooling vent to seemingly "circumvent the laws of physics" and get around the Faraday cage problem.

Looking at the underside of the MacBook Pro (15" 2017), you can see a cooling vent that goes for about 80% of the width of the machine.

The WiFi antenna assemblies are put on either side of the MacBook directly adjacent to the cooling vent.  So, while it appears that the WiFi antenna is hidden behind an all aluminum case, it's actually out in the open which is how it receives WiFi signals in closed-clamshell mode.


Unable to send email from Mac Mail App to one specific email address (all emails to all other emails addresses are sent) We have been trying to send emails to a specific gmail address that certainly does exist for many months now but we are unable to and receive this message: 'Cannot send message using the server x...x@x...x.com' - a message we usually get when our internet connection is off. We are still able to send emails using any of the servers to all other email addresses except this one. How could we fix this issue?

Thank you!

I found a easy way to result this trouble. that's will work for gmail account.
1-First you have to delete the account follow system preferences -> internet account-> select your gmail account in the left bar and delete it.
2-Open your mail app go to preferences and tap the + sign for add a account. Select gmail and login into the new windows that show up.
3- select the google account to the left bar of mail app and synchronize "google" by making a right click. that's it you will able to receive and send mail.


iOS third-party keyboard with functionality to swipe down on letters to enter numbers/symbols? On some Android keyboards (for example), the main display is a full QWERTY keyboard with numbers or symbols under the letters. You can either press directly on a letter to type it, or swipe down on the letter to type the associated number/symbol. This allows you to enter numbers/symbols much faster than if you had to switch to a separate numbers/symbols pane. Is there any third-party iOS keyboard with this functionality?

FancyKey by Pinssible Labs allows for this, and is the best replacement keyboard for iOS I've used. Setup is simple, and turning on Swype is as easy as switching to the FancyKey Keyboard, tapping the gear icon, and tapping the "Swipe input" switch on. Your keyboard with default to the custom keyboard until you change it by tapping the globe icon.


How to start homebrew Apache on boot? I've switched out the default apache for the homebrew version. I've stopped the default apache starting on boot with:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

However, the homebrew version does not start automatically. The httpd process is running (as confirmed by brew services start httpd) but the server is not running, until I execute

sudo apachectl start

(apachectl here refers to the homebrew version at /usr/local/bin/apachectl)

I'm using macOS Mojave, and the homebrew Apache version is 2.4.37.

If you run:

brew services

The last two lines of the output gives the answer to your question:

If sudo is passed, operate on /Library/LaunchDaemons (started at boot).
Otherwise, operate on ~/Library/LaunchAgents (started at login).

So, to start apache at boot run:

sudo brew services start apache2

and to start apache at login run:

brew services start apache2


Hotkey to switch button in confirmation window Is there a hotkey to choose another button than the highlighted in a confirmation window, like:

You need to enable Full Keyboard Access in keyboard preferences (Preferences.app). Then You'll be able to switch highlighted buttons by pressing TAB and press this button with Space bar.

Image taken from this thread: https://superuser.com/questions/473143/how-to-tab-between-buttons-on-an-mac-os-x-dialog-box


How can I convert an AT&T iPhone 3GS to a Verizon iPhone 3GS? I have someone who is not using their AT&T iPhone 3GS. They are willing to give it to me since they have a later model. How can I convert an AT&T iPhone 3GS to a Verizon iPhone 3GS?

What hardware changes need to be made?

You can't convert a GSM iPhone to run on the CDMA network, unfortunately. Neither the functional nor the cosmetic components are interchangeable.

If your friend is willing to give you his iPhone and if it's still in decent condition you could probably sell it for enough to fund the purchase of a Verizon iPhone. If it's not in great condition and you still have the urge to tinker, you may be able to find cheap cosmetic parts to restore it to salable condition.


How to find word with underscore in pdf file? I need to find word "evolve_model" in pdf file. Ho to do this? It seems that viewer does not understand underscores (_).

Preview.app, the default OS X PDF viewer, sees underscores and allows you to search them fine.

You can search for words or phrases with underscores by using the underscore in the search box, as below:


Highlighting touches/gestures on an iPad I use a note taking app (BlankBook) to draw diagrams on my iPad while talking to people on Zoom. It works very well, but sometimes I want to point to something on the screen.
What I would like is for something visible - like a circle - to appear whenever I touch the screen with my finger. Is there an app or some kind of setting that will do this? I think I've seen something like this in screen-captured videos before, so I think it's possible.
I have seen a few pages like this one that say you can do this by enabling "AssitiveTouch" and creating a custom gesture, but that really doesn't work very well. (When it's turned on the app can't receive any gestures other than a single tap, so you have to turn it off in order to draw on the screen, then turn it on to point at what you just drew, turn it off to scroll, turn it on again, etc.) So I'm looking for a different solution, other than AssistiveTouch.
In case it makes a difference, I should mention that I'm using Zoom on my Macbook rather than the iPad, and sharing the iPad screen via the USB cable.
(Note: there is a similar question from 2018, but that question is specifically about recording a user's interactions with the device for development purposes. The link in the only answer is broken, but is it's this app it's really quite specific to web development - it wouldn't work for my issue.)

As far as I know, doing this in the way you say, seems to be impossible (thats not to say it might not be changed).

I think I've seen something like this in screen-captured videos before, so I think it's possible.

This was almost certainly on an Android device, where there is a system setting to enable visual presses. If only it was also an iOS feature.

What would I do in your situation?
Take advantage of the fact that the iPad is plugged into the Mac, and use the mouse to point out bits you want to emphasise (I'm not entirely sure how Zoom works on Mac/how plugging in the iPad works, but if the cursor doesn't show up, you could try screen sharing your entire desktop not just the ipad screen app)
If that doesn't work for you could try;

Attaching a bluetooth mouse to your iPad and using that to point at anything (works better than the mac if you want to be able to use the mac for other things)
Circling whatever you want to draw attention to, then undo after
Using the assistive touch icon on the screen as a makeshift 'cursor' by dragging it around the screen to where you need it, then letting it go back to the edge when you don't (although its quite big, and will continue to take up space on the screen even when not in use)
Changing applications to something that has a laser pointer tool

Making a blank keynote presentation > opening thee 'more' menu (3 dots in a circle) > rehearse slideshow > annotate (the icon that looks like a pen drawing), will allow you to do basic drawing and pointing, although you might be able to find something else
If you do end up changing apps, check the settings of each app you test, as the devs may have added a touch input setting, (I have seen it in very random apps, although none of them would fit with drawing diagrams)

Hopefully you can get something helpful from this.


Categories from Outlook for contacts in iPhone I use Outlook and have my contacts under categories, e.g. home, clients, family, etc.

When I sync from Outlook to my iPhone I get all the contacts, but I cannot find the categories.

How can I search in my iPhone the contacts for categories I have in Outlook, for example 'family'?

Go into Contacts.

On the upper left corner, select "Groups". If you have any additional Contact files, they should be available to view there. Note that this only applies to Exchange accounts and local Groups more than likely will not show.


macOS built-in spell checker performs badly - what can I do? macOS Mojave cannot detect that I made a mistake at badd and cannot guess that "approximately" was spelled incorrectly.

How can I improve the built-in spell checker? (i.e. I don't want to use a spell checker inside Microsoft Word or similar third party application that has its own spell checker)

There is a good thread here, but no solution either:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7502895

I also tried Grammarly. That company promises in tons of online ads that its app and browser extension can help you identify “errors that other spelling and grammar checkers just can’t catch.”.

“...First Do No Harm” would be a better founding principle. IMHO Grammarly is not a good product because it caches many errors that aren't. Take any error-free text and look at what Grammarly does with it. Here, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Next I tried SpellCatcherX who was 100 times better when it worked, but it doesn't really work anymore.

http://www.rainmakerinc.com/products/spellcatcherx/

What can be done to improve this?

There is a small application that runs in the background called popclip which has add-ons to check your spelling. Seems to work almost everywhere. It has many other add-ons to help you work. I've been using pop=clip for years with no problem. The spell checker seems to run everywhere and if you select the misspelled word and double-click it, popclip presents you with an alternative spelling.


What is this security feature called? What is this "System software from developers" security feature called and where can I find the technical details for how it works with applications (like AVG)? I believe this is a kernel extension, but how exactly does it work?

It is called Gatekeeper on Mac.

How it works.

It verifies at bare minimum if a app is:

blacklisted,
code-signed,
code-signed by Apple or a certified developer,
code-signed and the code-signed contents still match the signature.

As you can see from your screen you have control over it.

As of High Sierra, Apple has removed the Option to Download from Anywhere, but you can still enable it if you whish, or use Allow as in your screen.

AVG Technologies CZ, s.r.o. is a Czech security software company headquartered in Brno, that was founded in 1991 by Jan Gritzbach and Tomáš Hofer and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Avast since 2016.


Restrict iPad's 3G internet connection to certain applications When I am using my iPad out of home (using 3G connection), I only check twitter or email, which uses very low bandwidth. But after the minutes, I can see that it consumes almos 50MB of data, so it seems to me that it is using other applications in the background (itunes, system, whatever ...).

I would like to know how can I force my ipad to only use internet connection for certain applications (mail, echofon) when I use 3G connection, and blocks internet access for all other applications.

This is possible as of iOS 7.

To disable certain apps' ability to use Cellular Network data, open the Settings.app and select "Cellular". Scroll down and you will notice a list of Apps which request cellular data access. These are all on by default.

This list is helpful for two things: first, you can see which apps have consumed the most data; second, you can disable certain apps from using the cellular data network. Keep in mind, when you disable that app, it is only preventing it from using the cellular network, and the app will still function normally on wifi. You can now go through and curate the list as you see fit. Even system apps, such as Mail, and Settings, are in the list.

At the bottom of the list, you can see another line titled System Services. In there is a list of non-adjustable services that use the data connection. It will tell you how much data has gone to each one. You can use this list to determine if you should make any other changes. For example, Personal Hotspot is at the top of my list. This doesn't surprise me and is fine. However, for you, if it is at the top of your list and you doesn't use that feature, this could be a concern, and you should verify that the feature is disabled. Also, Siri (if your device supports it), and iMessages are in the list. Both of the features can be disabled elsewhere in the Settings.app.


Dragging selected text using the Three Finger gesture Mountain Lion here. I can select text using the Three finger swipe. But to drag that text (for copying into another window, for example), I have to resort to the old fashioned (:)) press-click-on-trackpad-and-drag-with-second-finger. Is there is some way I could drag the selected text via the same three finger movement (maybe by pressing some modifier key to signal that I wish to drag and not select)?

After selecting the text, place your three fingers on the trackpad and don't drag for a half-second or so. Then, slowly drag your fingers until you see the I-beam cursor turn into the mouse pointer. Then you can three-finger drag normally.

When using click and drag for text, you need to hold the click for a half-second or so before the system realizes you want to drag the text instead of selecting it. This procedure replicates that with the three-finger drag gesture. (As you get better at this place-hold-slow-fast gesture, you can speed it up to a point where you're comfortable with the speed and it still works.)


Which Chroma to use for my setup? I have AppleTV 4K and Sony X900E. AppleTV picked Chroma 4:2:0 with an option to select 4:2:2

Which one to use? I don’t know what those are supposed to do but I just want to take the most of my setup

To give a generalized answer, the larger the numbers, the better. However, some material may be optimized for 4:2:0.

Some Sony TVs are able to handle 4:4:4 (no subsampling) when enhanced mode is enabled, check if you can enable this for optimal signal.

Press the HOME button on the remote control
Select Settings
Select External inputs in the TV category
Select HDMI signal format and set to Enhanced format


Terminal auto complete and arrow keys working incorrectly I am using Macbook Pro 2017 (with touch bar) with macOS Sierra.

When using terminal, the autocomplete adds a character.

For example, typing 'cd Des' + tab, I am expecting 'cd Desktop' autocomplete.

Instead, I get Desktop/k

At this stage, if I click backspace, the letter 'k' always remains. Only able to remove characters before 'k'. Example: Desktopk, Desktok and so on.

If I click left or right arrow keys, I get weird characters as follows:

Deskto^[[D^[[Ck

If I just click enter to get out of the above mess, followed by clicking up arrow to get the previous command (in this case cd Desktop), I get the following print out instead.

^[[A

Is there a way around this to get auto complete without the extra character and arrow keys to work properly (as in up arrow brings up previous commands and left/right works to move between characters)? Had no similar issues on my previous macbook pro 2015. Please assist.

The above issue was caused by using ksh shell which seems to be the default for my laptop. After switching it to bash shell, all the above issues have been resolved.


Why do I see this port as a leave? How to know if I really can get rid of it? Once I've installed an svn, I need it.

$ port echo requested
...
subversion                     @1.8.1_3

As I understand, this port is important for subversion:

$ port echo depof:subversion
...
curl-ca-bundle

Then I take a look on what is important for it:

$ port echo depof:curl-ca-bundle
perl5

So as a conclusion, svn needs perl5, right?
But:

$ port echo leaves
...
perl5                          @5.12.4_0+perl5_12

How is that possible? Doesn't leaves: installed ports that are unrequested and have no dependents. mean I don't need perl5? So I need it for svn to work or not?

Perl is a build dependency for curl-ca-bundle. Build dependencies are only needed at build time and can be removed afterwards, which makes perl5 a leaf in your case.


Running Angry Birds 2 on my iPads I have two iPads laying around, and I would like to play Angry Birds on them. I realize that Angry Birds 2 is likely an inferior offering filled with dark patterns and ads, but I don't seem to have much choice so here we go.
One of the devices is iPad mini MD537E/A. It says it is on 9.3.6. Says it's the latest one for that device. App Store will only install some old version of Angry Birds 2, which will display splash screen, ask to log into gaming center (or whatever) and then tell me that I have to upgrade to newer version. Newer version needs iOS 10.0+. I guess this device is too old and it's end of story here?
The other one is iPad Pro 12,9" 2nd-gen MP6G2RU/A. It is on 14.4, which makes it look like a better prospect. However, this one performs even worse: it will start a splash screen, offer me to log in to gaming center, and then nothing happens. Splash screen just stays here. It never goes further.
This iPad previously belonged to a relative and sometimes it pops up a prompt to login into the old account, despite being more or less moved to a new one. Maybe it affects the outcome somehow.
What do I do? How do I actually get some of these devices to play Angry Birds for my daughter?

The fact that the newer iPad is still prompting about an old account indicates it was likely never reset after the transfer of ownership.  Even when giving a device to a trusted family member, wiping is always a good idea; the new owner likely doesn't need or want any of the older owner's data.  Wiping it will also likely resolve the issues you're experiencing--and even if it doesn't, it will dramatically narrow down the cause.
The caveat is that by wiping it, you will be removing all of your data from the device.  You should back up anything important first.  If your daughter has already been using the device, it may be difficult to guess what needs to be backed up.  Some data, such as game saves, may not be reasonable to back up and restore after wiping.
If you decide to go through with wiping it, follow Apple's latest instructions; they tend to change across iOS versions.  As of writing, the process looks roughly like this:

Make sure your device is up-to-date.
Make sure you've backed up anything you want to save and have a plan for restoring it to the device--I recommend using both a cloud backup and an offline backup via your computer.  If the iCloud account on the device is the previous owner's, then keep in mind that you will lose access to any iCloud backups when you wipe the device.
"Go to Settings > [your name] > Find My, tap Find My iPhone, then turn it off."  This is important.  Note that [your name] may actually be the previous owner's name.  As of writing, this option is usually at the very top of the Settings page.  It's possible that the device isn't connected to anyone's iCloud account, in which case you'll likely see a prompt to log into iCloud in its place.
"Tap Settings > General > Reset", then tap "Erase All Content and Settings"


Software to duplicate external hard drive formatted ExFAT I have an external hard drive with a 2.9TB ExFAT partition that I keep my photos and other media on. (ExFAT so that I can also see and edit my media on Windows computers.) I just bought a second hard drive that I will set up the same way so that I can back up my media. Normally, I use SuperDuper! but that only works with Mac formats. Is there any Mac or command line software that can check for exact duplication? Due to the size of the drive (2.9TB with 1.8TB used), I don't want to do the duplication manually.

I'm assuming you have nothing on the new disk and essentially want to mirror what is on the old disk to the new disk.

You can use the following command line, substituting the proper names for Source-Disk (old) and Destination-Disk (new).

rsync -xavH /Volumes/Source-Disk/ /Volumes/Destination-Disk/

Note: The slash at the end of each path has significance, so don't forget to include it when changing the name of Source-Disk (old) and Destination-Disk (new).  Also, if there are spaces in them, make sure you either escape the spaces with a backslash \ or quote the pathnames, but not both.

Explanation of the options used:

-x, --one-file-system    don't cross filesystem boundaries
-a, --archive    archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)

    -r, --recursive    recurse into directories
    -l, --links    copy symlinks as symlinks
    -p, --perms    preserve permissions
    -t, --times    preserve times
    -g, --group    preserve group
    -o, --owner    preserve owner (super-user only)
    -D    same as --devices --specials
        --devices    preserve device files (super-user only)
        --specials    preserve special files

-v, --verbose    increase verbosity
-H, --hard-links    preserve hard links

Note: Because symlinks are being copied to the Destination-Disk volume the volume name of the Destination-Disk will need to be renamed identical to the Source-Disk, afterwards, for the links to files on the disk itself to track.  See the SYMBOLIC LINKS section in the rsync man page for additional options that can be used to modify how the symlinks can be treated.


How do i cancel a pending purchase in the App Store? I have a pending purchase and i just want to cancel it. Its seems that thou may not have an option for this issue.

My experience is that the transaction doesn't take place at the moment you authenticate it.

The download of an app commences, sure, but they don't necessarily take any money out of your account. I saw a week pass until I was invoiced and I'm wondering the same thing the person asking the question is, as I "bought" multiple apps when I had money in my account, then went out the next day and spent what I thought I had left.

I am now constantly being asked to verify my payment information a week later as they never took the money out in the first place, and have restricted my use of the App Store to merely browsing the apps, I can't download or update any of them and they won't allow me to cancel it, it's ridiculous and their customer service is appalling.


PDF reader on iOS with autosync Usually I find ebooks/PDF I want to read while browsing on my PC from work or my Mac at home. I'd like to send them to Dropbox (or any other service) and have them automatically sync to my iPad so I can read them offline while commuting to home/work. My iPad is always connected to WiFi while I am at work or home.

iOS apps can't run in the background constantly to do this task.

Dropbox can do this if you're willing to open the app whilst on network. Add the PDFs to a folder on your Dropbox, then in the app, choose Make Available Offline for that folder.

In the future, you can add files to that folder on your computer, then simply open the app on your iOS device to load the PDFs.


How can an old Apple ID be merged into the newer ID? When I first creed an Apple account, years ago, I used a password which I've been using ever since. Later I joined Me.com and I was assigned an email address that also became another Apple ID for me. More recently, with the new iCloud it looks like only my email address will be accepted as the ID t... So, how do I merge my now "old" ID into my newer @me.com address? Thanks.

As of now, you cannot merge multiple Apple IDs into one Apple ID. It has been rumored but it is not possible at the moment.


Technical information about the iPhone touchscreen controller? I want to make a driver for low-level access to the iPhone's touchscreen controller, the Texas Instruments TI 343S0538, so I can try to detect fingerprints. However, I can't seem to find any information about it, because the Google search results don't return much information, apart from lots of pages showing the iPhone specs.

So does anyone know anything about the controller, or is it secret because it's used by Apple?

As Global nomad said in the comments, this seems to be a custom chip, and their website doesn’t contain any information on the chip.

However, ABI Research has a teardown of the chip, although I don’t know how comprehensive or thorough it is. The (paid) report can be found at http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1009855. The list of the documents in the report reads “Specification”. This could be provided by Texas Instruments, or it could be compiled by ABI.

The search results on the website say, "This file is not available to the public, but it is available for purchase.” There isn’t an obvious buy button, so it’s possible that we can’t purchase it. But that might be worth chasing up — that’s the best that I can fine.


How to know what nsurlsessiond is downloading I turned off all iCloud drive stuff and it seems something else is using it. I don't have photo sharing and photo syncing on between my Mac and iPhone. And I've turned off whatever I can. But still nsurlsessiond downloads over 400 MBs every time it runs; which sometimes is triggered with a restart of the system.

I did a sample process on it; but I have no idea what it means.

That daemon (or system process) is invoked and handles network download requests from many apps and many other services on macOS. (And iOS and tvOS and watchOS)
I haven't found an easy way to get summary details or statistics from the session manager, but since it works on a queue to upload or download things, my guess is you have one or more job(s) timing out.
Here are some ways to pick apart the activity on your system:
sudo lsof | grep nsurl
ps -ef|grep nsurl
sudo fs_usage -w | grep nsurl

The first lists open files and sorts for matches of “nsurl”. The second lists all processes and sorts again. The third lists file system activity.
That will let you monitor things and see which of the several nsurl daemons is running when you measure 400 mb of transfer. You can also get a dump of the system activity with sysdiagnose nsurlsessiond
If you determine that it's really iCloud Documents, you'll likely need brctl log -w to watch that subsystem instead of monitoring the worker threads that do the lifting.


How to clean up emails when replying in plain text? I have a problem that I want to solve after many years of using Mac OS X Mail.app... I generally like to send plain text emails that are full width (format=flowed) and nicely indented for quote levels. When I receive emails that are in HTML my problems begin. I have the option of switching them into plain text before I hit reply (using alt+cmd+p) or after I hit reply (using shift+cmd+t). Please no replies telling me to answer rich text emails with rich text replies. I want my cake on this one.

If I switch to plain text before then generally the plain text will be wrapped to a specific width and also, in some cases I'll get lots of ">" where there should be vertical line quote indents.

If I switch to plain text after then I may loose a lot of the quoting levels. What I want is to be able to end up with clean flowed plain text replies with nice quote levels.

Has anybody else seen this behaviour or seen a plugin/app that can solve these issues?

I haven't seen a good universal solution, but have found that by selecting only the bare minimum text I need to reply to, I can often get a clean, clear reply that doesn't need substantial (or even any) clean up when replying in plain text.

Sadly, the best solution for presenting these emails cleanly is a powerful email client like elm. BBedit, Safari's reader and Coda 2 are all in my toolchain for taking a complicated HTML document and thinning it down but it's awkward to send the text to a second program, operate on the document and then get it back into a reply using Mail.

I wish I could serve you up a delicious cake of a plug in, but sadly, the Mail plug in scene isn't lucrative and this use case doesn't have a champion that's programming a better converter than the one Apple has provided.

Of the reviews of plug-ins, these are the best:

http://www.tikouka.net/mailapp/
http://www.macworld.com/product/collection/6866/mailaddons.html

And if QuoteFix won't work for you, you may have to program this yourself. It might do the trick by deleting trailing spaces, but without a sample of your mail in question, it's hard to tell.


Does jailbreaking an iPhone have an impact on performance? I'm using iPhone 6s plus 64Gb with 9.3.3. Does jailbreaking have an effect on performance/speed?

No. Jailbreaking itself doesn't cause slowness. It's what you do with that that causes trouble. And since you have a 6s.. I wouldn't bother jailbreaking it until iOS 10, since it's so close.


Outlook 2016 HTML Signature I'm trying to add an HTML E-Mail signature to Outlook 2016 for macOS. The method that got me closest to my goal is documented here:

http://mydesignpad.com/how-to-create-an-attractive-html-email-signature-for-microsoft-outlook-2016-for-mac/

This approach works perfect when I add the signature in Outlook Web Access (owa). As to say the recipient sees the signature formatted as intended and the image is downloaded from a external server. Also the message shows no attachment clip in the inbox of whatever E-Mail client.

But when I add the signature to Outlook for Mac (Version 15.36) the embedded image is being downloaded before sending a E-Mail and gets included as an attachment. So the message does show an attachment clip in the inbox of whatever E-Mail client.

Does anybody experience same issues? Has someone found a solution/work around?

Outlook works best with a restricted version of HTML for the signature, so if you can't use the webmail signature generator and copy / paste that into your Mac Outlook - look for a third party tool to assist.

One that works well is this utility from the App Store. It fixes the problem with Outlook breaking HTML signature. Costs about USD 3 though but for me it's worth it.

HTML Email Signature for Outlook - Daniel Caspi


Is there an El Capitan Update only? The title is a bit confusing so I will explain below:

The El Capitan downloaded from the Apple Mac Store is big enough to do a fresh installation as well as an upgrade to your current OS version.

The size of this however is very large.

My Question

Is it possible to download just the update from OS X 10.10.5. For example to update from 10.10.4 to 10.10.5 there is an updater which is smaller than the combo update. Is there one for an update to 10.11.0/1.

Hope this makes sense

No, there isn't. El Capitan is a major release which replaces a lot of (or even most) files of the OS. So the "big" Installer from the Store is both an Installer and an Updater.


Connecting to a new WiFi network In iOS 10, is there an easy way to connect to a new WiFi network if automatic connect is turned off? I turned that off because it's way too annoying.

So right now, connecting is a multi-step process going through the Settings app. Am I missing a hidden way to do that from the start screen.

If it's a new wifi network, the only way to connect (not including any 3rd-party app) is to go thru Settings -> Wi-Fi.

If you're open to 3rd-party solutions, perhaps you can edit your question to add that?


"t" key is delayed and doesn't capitalize All of a sudden my "t" key is having issues. About half the time it simply doesn't work, other times it works but it prints delayed, so as I'm typing a sentence it will show up 3-4 characters too late, sometimes appearing in the next word.

It also won't capitalize. Holding shift (tried both of them) works with every key except "t." Caps lock results in every key being capitalized except the "t."

I have the same issue with an external mechanical keyboard so it's definitely not a hardware issue.

This is on a second generation Macbook (not Pro) wih macOS 10.14.3

Resetting PRAM and SMC seems to have done the trick...


iPhone 4 with updated iOS 7 not synching some contacts Since updating to iOS 7 on my iPhone 4, the home address of some of Outlook contacts do not sync to the phone.  Some contacts will show home and work, and some will not show any address on the iPhone. How do I fix this?

We saw the same issue on my wife's iPhone 4 and were able to get around the issue by adding a quick new dummy address. Suddenly the home address displayed for the person. Certainly not easy to do for all your contacts, but it is a quick work around if you know you had someone's address and want to get it without going to your computer.

I do not have the same issue on my iPhone 5. But I cannot confirm that the issue is the phone though. I rather suspect the issue is more related to the exchange servers used by our different employers.


Can't install Apple app updates on a new Mac mini I just got a new Mac mini and I'm trying to update Apple apps as requested, e.g. Pages, Numbers etc. App store asks me to sign in to iCloud which is fine, then gives me 2 messages:

Your request is temporarily unable to be processed.

followed swiftly by

Could not assign applications to your account.

Any thoughts on how to resolve these issues?

From this Apple Discussion:

  This message is basically directly related to the payment method that is linked to your Apple ID. This message will appear if you have an unpaid balance on your account or the payment method itself is invalid (for any reason).

To fix this you need to provide a payment method or chose “none”. If there is a payment due or if family sharing is enabled you won’t be able to choose “none”.

How to change your payment:

From this Support article:

  Go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes
  & App Store.

  Tap your Apple ID, then tap View
  Apple ID. You might be asked to sign
  in.

  Tap Payment Information, then
  change or remove your information.
  To remove the payment method,
  select None. Get help if you don't see
  None or can't select it. Learn more
  about what payment methods
  are available in your country or region.

  Make sure that your name and billing address exactly match the information on file with your financial institution, then tap Done.

If you can't choose None when you edit your Apple ID payment information - Apple Support


Make OS X Mail show the most recent message in conversation I like how Mail groups related messages together in a "conversation", but I hate how it always by default shows the oldest unread message in a thread--even if it is months old! This has gotten me on a couple of occasions where I will see a new email come in, click it, and see a message from months ago, but not realize that I'm not seeing the one that just came in.

Anyone know how to make Mail always scroll to the top/newest message in a conversation when clicking a message?

In Mail preferences, at the bottom of the Viewing pane, under Viewing Conversations, there is a checkbox to Show Most Recent Message At The Top. I think that's what you want.


If I buy a new fan online will the genius bar install it for me? I need a replacement fan and they only cost about $10 online. If I take it to the genius bar, will they install it for me?

No, they will not. They will only install equipment that you purchase at the Apple Store.


How to set up dragging on trackpad? All fine, then suddenly I'm not able to drag with my trackpad.
I can not find an option about how to change settings and I have no idea what happened?!
Any idea someone how to make it back to normal?

Go to System Preferences → Trackpad and make sure Three finger drag is enabled.


how to run stickies ONLY on desktop space 1 I enjoy using Stickies on Desktop 1.  However, when I switch to Desktop 2 I'd like to have no screen clutter whatsoever.
I can't find a right click option that allows me to Open stickies only on Desktop 1 space.  It seems that whatever option changes I make to stickies, in Desktop 1 or Desktop x, the stickies then uses that option for all desktops.
I'm running Catalina OS, stickies version 10.2

Open Stickies on the Desktop you want the app to only show on. Or, if it's already open, change to the Desktop you want to app to only show on.
Right-click (or control-click) its Dock Tile
Mouse over: Options
Under Assign To, click: This Desktop, or if you already have numbered Desktops showing, then select the one you want it to only show on.

The image above is from a default install with additional Desktops added but having never selected a specific one for an app yet. You may see menu entries e.g. Desktop 1, Desktop 2, etc.


Back up specific IMAP mailbox? macOS 12.13.5, Mail.app 11.4. with an IMAP email account, Time Machine

I'd like Time Machine to automatically and regularly back up a specific IMAP mailbox and its contents — even better would be the preservation of the mailbox's nested folders — so I have a local copy, independent of the IMAP server. The Mac's contents are now backed up using Time Machine, but neither this specific IMAP mailbox nor its contents appear in TM. I have some anxiety about an inadvertent deletion: without maintaining a local copy, the emails would be gone and things would be difficult.

These SE questions are close:

Mail.app in OS X — IMAP and Archive Mailbox subfolder creation

Can I backup or mirror an IMAP mailbox on Mac OS X?

How can I back up a complete IMAP account?

but aren't helpful, particularly as I'm not facile or very comfortable in the Terminal.

Can any of you offer a solution or pointer?

Here's my solution to my question:

First, I found that the contents of the IMAP mailbox I'm interested in are indeed stored on the Mac. Each email is an .emix file, and they are many many layers deep within ~/Library/Mail.
Second, I use ChronoSync to nightly create a bootable backup of the Mac's SSD boot drive. To handle this new email backup job, I created a Synch task in ChronoSync that nightly backs up this group of emails from within ~/Library/Mail to a new folder located on the drive which contains ChronoSync's bootable backup. Because the Mac runs SpamSieve for the IMAP email account, the Mac is always on and available to run this job in the middle of the night.

Of course, I see now that having discovered where the emails were backed up already, I could as easily (save for the annoyance of navigation) find those .emix files on the Time Machine backup, or on ChronoSync's bootable backup. So it was a lot of worry for little or no gain.


How to Add Ringtones for iPhone X Do you know how you can add ringtones to your iPhone? I just noticed that my iPhone X has default ringtones still just like the older ones.

If you're feeling creative, you can create your own ringtone using GarageBand.
When you're done simply tap the Share icon and then tap Ringtone.

Good luck! :)


How can I tell if a game will run on my machine? I just bought my first 13" MacBook Pro. Before purchasing new games for my Windows notebook, I used to check the compatibility with Can You Run It, but that site doesn't list Mac compatibility or requirements.

Is there any other website where I can check game compatibility for Mac computers?

Specifically, I'd like to play Call of Duty 4 and Civilization V. Can I play these games on my 13" MacBook Pro?

Edit: my system's specification

Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50b)

Graphics  Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

Memory  4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Processor  2.7 GHz Intel Core i7
13-inch, Early 2011

with these specifications can i play any of these game on my system?

About the graphics of the MBP
The Macbook Pro 13'' uses integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. But Intel HD 3000 graphics are used in different processors. The performance varies depending on whether it's a mobile or desktop CPU. You need to read benchmarks with caution:

ULV processors core ix-2xx7 (base freq. 350MHz, turbo 900-1000MHz) (Macbook Air)
LV processors core ix-2xx5 (base freq. 500MHz, turbo 1000MHz)
standard dual and quad-core  ix-2xx0 (base freq. 650MHz, turbo 1100-1200MHz) (Macbook Pros)
desktop K processors (base freq. 850, turbo 1100-1350MHz)

Gaming Performance
On notebookcheck.net I've looked up some statistics. They keep benchmarks on how different games perform. I find these real world tests quite useful.
If you follow the link, you can click on the single fps results to see each system configuration.

Conclusion
You should have a minimum of 24-30 fps to enjoy playing. Considering this, I'll say that playing those games on a MBP 13'' of 2011 will possibly work, but not result in the maximum fun :).


Is there a way to play YouTube videos in the background? I remember that once upon a time I was able to start a song on the YouTube app (or Jasmine), then go and do other things on the phone.

That doesn't seem possible anymore with iOS 10.  Am I missing something simple?

Yes! You only need to enter from safari and not from the app. You choose the song you want to listen to, press the home button, swipe up to multitask and press play!


can you take out the iPhone's sim card and use wifi outside of america? I'm traveling overseas and I wish I had a regular iPod touch so that I can just use WiFi to check emails without paying a roaming fee. I have an iPhone with an AT&T sim card. I was wondering if I could remove the sim card and turn it into an iPod touch without having to pay a roaming fee? Does the phone still know it belongs to me even without the sim card?

gentmatt's answer is correct, however if you don't need to make phone calls at all you can also just turn on airplane mode. I have done this many times abroad. Turn on airplane mode in settings, then turn wifi back on. Your cellular signal stays off.


Mix two different types of 2 GB RAM in iMac Can I mix the two 2 GB RAM chips in my iMac 21.5″ (late 2009) with two other type of 2 GB RAM chips? I have not opened my RAM slots yet but Apple says I have two 2 GB DDR3 chips. I want to add two PC3 8500 chips to it. Will it hurt to try?

As a general rule, you can mix sticks of RAM as far as brands/speeds/timings/sizes.

Your computer should accommodate different speeds/timings by scaling down speeds/timings on the faster sticks until they match the slower sticks.

Brands will matter as far as they do for everything else: everyone wants you to buy their brand of stuff, but they'll generally work. I've stuck random brands into random Apple/Windows machines and the ones that aren't just terrible do always work.

Depending how far apart the specs on your sticks are, you may have stability issues, but those are easy to fix - remove the stick you added.


How to rename a hard drive? I tried to rename the hard drive of my Macbook from "Macintosh HD" to something else without the freaking space. However, after renaming it, many of my applications showed errors immediately and I stupidly restarted my computer.

Right now, I cannot log in to my user account because of an error. Everything is blocked.

If someone can tell me how to change the harddrive name back without logging into my previous account?

It seems you have another system - in that you are able to post the question. If it is a mac, you can start the problem system in Target Disk Mode (if it has FireWire), connect it to the working system with a firewire cable and you should be able to change the name remotely.
If you can start in single-user mode (s) that may allow you to bypass the problem.
If you start in verbose-mode, (same link as above), you may be able to see the problem.
If you can start from the Lion recovery disk, or a DVD, that will also allow you to change the drive name.
Finally, if you do get the system restarted, I urge you to check it through Disk Utility (applications > utilities).

I hope this helps.


Network TimeMachine backup errors - System keychain problem? I've been using Time Machine to backup my MacBook Pro to my local OS X Server for years, but I recently started getting errors when attempting to backup. When running either an automatic or manual backup, I receive notification that the system couldn't complete the backup. After examining Console logs I'm seeing the following error from the NetAuthSysAgent process:

ERROR: AFP_OpenSession - Login failed with 80

Additionally, the com.apple.backupd process is reporting an authentication error, and hints at System keychain problems:

Authentication error (80) - the correct user or password info may not exist in the System.keychain or the server may no longer allow access for this user.

I've confirmed that a keychain item exists in the System keychain for this connection, and that the keychain item should be functional (its type is Time Machine Password, it contains the correct password; Access Control for the item is always allowed for NetAuthSysAgent).

I've tried to remove the backup disk and re-add it through the TimeMachine System Preference. This seems to add the correct item into the System keychain, but the system still won't perform backup.

I've attempted to set the correct destination manually by performing the following command (trying the server's DNS name, IP address, and mDNS name without success):

sudo tmutil setdestination -p afp://USER@SERVER/TimeMachine

Each time that command runs, I can confirm that the correct Keychain Item is being created in the System keychain (but the system continues to provide the error mentioned above).

Lastly, manually connecting to the network share that hosts my Time Machine backup works normally, and my account has "Full Control" of files in this share.

How can I get my network Time Machine backups to work again?

I found an answer on the Ars Technica forum, which helped to get the issue resolved: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=1225417

The file at /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist contained the following text:

<?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>DLDBSearchList</key>
   <array/>
   <key>SecItemSynchronizable</key>
   <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

It was necessary to remove the DLDBSearchList key and array from that file:

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

After removing that entry, Time Machine network backups are working normally (as NetAuthSysAgent is now able to locate the correct System keychain item).


Can't connect to any site on MacBook. here is the problem. On my MacBook Pro with mavericks I can't connect to any site with working wifi(checked it on ipad). Also, Skype and utorrent are working fine, but all browsers can't connect. Restart MacBook and wifi didn't help.

If you are able to use Skype and uTorrent, but not able to use Safari or Chrome, I would recommend that you try resetting the SMC. In my comment above, I recommended trying to ping external addresses which would determine the status of your network connectivity.


Is there any way to use iOS Remote to control an Apple TV without Home Sharing? This is an office environment and while we all have iPhones and would like to use Remote with the Apple TV we don't want to all use the same Home Sharing account to do so.

You can't (yet)
Currently, the official Apple page:

Doesn't make any indication of how to do this. Neither does a quick Google search.
But...
This Monday (June 10), Apple is expected to unveil iOS 7. There might be some changes there that accomplish what you want!


Use iphone to connect to Wi-Fi and share connection to USB How to share Wifi connection from iphone to mac?

I would like to know if an Iphone can share its Wi-Fi internet connection over its USB connection.(IE Use the phone as a wifi card for a mac)

No, that is not possible, at least not without jailbreaking or a dedicated app. I do not really know, if apps are allowed to create an network interface over USB.


Native Paid VPN Service I was in a situation where I wanted to use a tunnel-all VPN, and went to Hotspot Shield's site. Much to my dismay, they ship an installer in order to use their service.

Is there a commercial, high-quality VPN service that supports one of the built-in OSX protocols definable in the Network Preference Pane? L2TP over IPSec, PPTP, or Cisco VPN?

As it turns out, TUAW had an article on this subject earlier this month. How I missed it (or didn't remember it) is beyond me.

Due in part to price (as opposed to karmatic's suggestion), and also the features, namely choice of hosting regional, I'm going to sign up for OverPlay.


Can I use HP:s HTML config on macOs Sierra somehow? I've bought a HP Laserjet Pro M12 (M11-M13 series). I'm trying to setup the wireless part. No firmware has been released for Sierra yet. I have installed the drivers 10.11 instead. When I click open HTML config, I get sent to http://localhost:5050/SSI/index.htm, it seems to be a webhost provided by the printer via USB.

The first page I visit renders fine, but when I click any link the page breaks and it says safari can't connect to the server "localhost".

Is there some way to get this working? I've tried other browsers.

I just solved this by replacing localhost:5050 with 0.0.0.0:5050 in the domain name, ie  http://0.0.0.0:5050/SSI/index.htm

Not sure why it worked but it did :P