Is Ethernet sharing over WiFi from a Mac supposed to hand out 192.168.2.1 as the DNS server? I have a MacBook Pro and I share its Ethernet connection to my iPhone and iPad as well as other wireless devices (enabling Internet Sharing in the Sharing preferences). However when I check on my iPhone what DNS it hands out, it shows 192.168.2.1. Should that be? That's not any actual DNS server, that's something local to the network. It's not even the home router, something about the Mac I think.

In the past I had problems where I couldn't use the Internet on the devices that were connecting to the shared WiFi unless I manually set the DNS server on each wireless device (not the Mac) to some actual server like 8.8.8.8. That was a workaround for my iDevices that let me make that change but not for other devices.

I've upgraded my OS to El Capitan since I made those initial observations, but I checked again and it is still putting out that same DNS server. I'm not sure if the Internet still wouldn't work on other devices since I'm not using them. But is that the right IP?

If relevant, here is my Ethernet settings:

...when I check on my iPhone what DNS it hands out, it shows
  192.168.2.1.

What you are seeing is completely normal.

To verify this, I setup Internet Sharing over WiFi with my Ethernet adapter as my primary connection and got the exact same results you did (the IP addresses varied some, but it's irrelevant).

I even tried it on a Windows Phone - here's the screenshot of the settings the phone got from my iMac:

When you enable Internet Sharing, it turns your Mac into a DHCP server and DNS forwarder - basically, it turns into a router along with NAT and firewall services to boot.

The IP address that you are seeing - 192.168.2.1 - is the bridge interface on your Mac.  It's what bridges the connection between the Wireless LAN you set up in Internet Sharing and your physical Ethernet adapter.

Executing ifconfig in Terminal brings up the following:

en0: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=10b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,AV>
    ether a8:20:66:39:2c:1c
    inet6 fe80::aa20:66ff:fe39:2c1c%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
    inet 192.168.10.100 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.10.255
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control,energy-efficient-ethernet>)
    status: active
en1: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 8c:2d:aa:3a:ec:83
    inet6 fe80::8e2d:aaff:fe3a:ec83%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
    inet 169.254.89.94 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 169.254.255.255
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active

bridge100: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    ether aa:20:66:93:de:64
    inet 192.168.2.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.2.255
    inet6 fe80::a820:66ff:fe93:de64%bridge100 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc
    Configuration:
        id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0
        maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200
        root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0
        ipfilter disabled flags 0x2
    member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER>
            ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 0 path cost 0
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active

If you notice, there is now a bridge100.  This is a virtual interface that was created on the WLAN adapter.  If you execute that command in your Terminal, you should get something similar.

As for your DNS, what is happening is that your phone/tablet will send the DNS request to your Mac, and then your Mac will take that request and send it to the DNS hosts you have listed.  When the response comes back, your Mac will pass it along to the wireless client that made the request.

I also tested browsing the Internet and fetching mail - all worked with no problem.  I am running El Capitan 10.10.5

Are you having that problem now?


How can I make the up arrow work in Terminal's nslookup command? When I open terminal, I'd like the up arrow go to the last command I typed within nslookup. Instead, I get a strange escape sequence.

What must be done to allow me to up arrow in nslookup?

Nslookup on OS X does not seem to use readline, so it does not support the arrow keys.

You can install rlwrap, which is available in MacPorts and presumably other package managers.  Then you can run

rlwrap nslookup

To get arrow key support.

Many thanks to this thread on the MacRumors forums.


Auto Pairing of iPhone with Toyota Prius Every time I want to connect an iPhone to the Toyota Prius, I have to do the following:

On the Prius, go to the audio screen, then select the bluetooth tab.
Press the connect button.
On the iPhone, go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and tap the connection to the car.
Wait until the two pair, then exit their respective screens.

Isn't there a way to have the two pair up automatically as they detect one another?

(Our Toyota RAV4 is not at home right now, otherwise I would go look in the manual to see what I did).

I know for our Toyota RAV4, that I was able to automatically pair my wife's iPhone with the car so that each time the car is turned on (and the iPhone is in range of the car), the bluetooth system takes over and lets us answer the phone through the car.

My suggestion is to look in your owner's manual and look up how to affect a default pairing. When my RAV4 comes home in a few hours, I can look up the steps we used.


Move referenced iTunes Audio files to another drive/folder well, my iTunes library is on my main HD whereas audio files are on an external drive. I have to change the drive for these files and / or folder name, how do I point iTunes library to that drive/folder?

Easiest way I think is to use the built in iTunes setting for choosing a library location.

First make a copy of your library on your external drive
Then change the settings in iTunes to reflect the new location
Profit

Apple also has support documents available to describe the required steps in more detail, both for Mac and Windows.


high sierra on MBP2010 microphone and card reader not working anymore I have recently upgraded my MBP mid2010 to HighSierra and I am struggling to get the card reader and microphone to work. I can see them in the system report but the mic isn't working and the card reader doesn't mount any cards.

I am using the new apple file system, I have the best specs I was able to get, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD so it's running nicely.

The card reader issue can be solved with starting "Image Capture.app" while inserting the card. The reference for this is here.


How do I tighten the screen hinge on my Macbook Pro (2010)? I have a 2010 MBP and the screen has started to wobble - not un-usably, but just enough that when it is sitting on its stand the screen bobbles around a little when I type.

I took it back to a Genius at the Apple store and he said this was expected behaviour, and because it held its position, they weren't able to do anything about it. With that said, he was in a massive rush and running waaay behind - and I wanted to get a second opinion.

Should it sit still / can I ask them (within the 3-y Applecare I bought) to tighten it? Or is there anything I can do?

Try calling Apple Care, and or taking your MacBook Pro to a  Apple Authorized Service Provider, they may offer a much higher level of services satisfaction than a "really busy" Apple Retail Store in my experiences (East Cost, USA).


AppleScript Setting Select Drop Down I am trying to enable dictation with applescript and so far have the following that works.
But, how do I set the drop down for the shortcut key using AppleScript?

Below is the AppleScript code:

tell application "System Preferences"
reveal pane id "com.apple.preference.speech"

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        tell window "Dictation & Speech"
            tell tab group 1
                click radio button "Dictation"
                tell radio group 1
                    if value of radio button "On" is 0 then
                        click radio button "On"

                    end if
                end tell
            end tell
            if sheet 1 exists then
                tell sheet 1
                    click button "Enable Dictation"
                    repeat while sheet 1 exists
                    end repeat
                end tell
            end if
        end tell
    end tell
end tell
quit -- optional
end tell

Using the shell Defaults command in an Applescript Do shell script seems to work ok for me. This will save on GUI scripting problems.

The script first reads the preference file. Then sets it to the opposite of its Bool.

set dictionToggle to (do shell script " defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.assistant.support \"Dictation Enabled\" ") as integer

do shell script "defaults write  ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.assistant.support \"Dictation Enabled\" -bool " & (not (dictionToggle as boolean)) as Unicode text

I always backup any preference files using the contextual menu compress "…."
to make a zipped copy of it.

The file com.apple.assistant.support.plist that is changed is found in your preferences folder

/Users/UserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.assistant.support.plist

If you have to use GUI scripting especially if you want to change the short cut keys. ( and since I cannot be Ars… to figure out which one of the symbolic  hotkey settings in the com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist is the right one)

Then this should work. (as it does on my Mac at least :-)  )

  set off to 1
set fnTwice to 3
set rightCommandTwice to 4
set leftCommandTwice to 5
set eitherCommandTwice to 6

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.speech"
    reveal (first anchor of current pane whose name is "Dictation")
end tell
tell application "System Events"

    tell application process "System Preferences"
        set theGroup to tab group 1 of window "Dictation & Speech"
        click radio button "On" of radio group 1 of theGroup

        try
            click button "Enable Dictation" of sheet 1 of window "Dictation & Speech"
        end try
        set thePopUp to pop up button 2 of theGroup
        click thePopUp
        click menu item fnTwice of menu 1 of thePopUp
    end tell
end tell
tell application "System Preferences"
    --quit
end tell


Does iMessage fallback to SMS on a per message basis? As we know, the messages app in the iPhone will detect if the party you are texting to is iMessage compatible or not, and will then send an iMessage instead of an SMS. This is great, and works as advertised with other iPhone users that have data plans.

However, what happens with an iPhone with NO data plan? (bought it unlocked, for example). The ideal situation for me, would be that the message is first tried to be delivered as an iMessage, and after some time it would time out and be delivered as an SMS instead, but I don't think that's the case.

Does anyone has experience with this? Will iMessage fall back to SMS on a per message basis?

Yes, it will.

I've experienced it a few times, if the message stays undelivered for something between one to five minutes (I haven't checked exactly), it will fallback to SMS.

This behavior can be changed in Settings > Messages > Send As SMS, checking it off will not send the message as SMS if iMessage is not available. Rechecking it will send the message not delivered (even if they were sent before).


How do I upload a new version of an app after an App Transfer? I know how to transfer an app from one account to another account as I have read the whole procedure for transfering apps from Apple's Documentation.

However, if I want to upload a new version of the app after transferring I need the bundle identifier to be the same as the previous version of the app. I don't have that same identifier.

How can I upload a new version of that app? Do I need to create a new provisioning profile?

I need the bundle identifier to be the same as the previous version of the app. I don't have that same identifier.

The identifier is transferred along with the app, so once the app is transferred you continue to use the old identifier which has been transferred along with it. Therefore you are free to submit updates as if you were submitting updates to the old app.

  Do I need to create a new provisioning profile?

Yes you will. You can do this from the Member Centre or Xcode as you would have done for the app on the old account.


Changes in /etc/hosts are undone I have a computer on my local network for which I would like to use a nice alias, and therefore I put an entry in /etc/hosts. After a while this change is undone. The entry is gone from /etc/hosts. It happens repeatedly for several days now.

Do you know why this is happening?

Are you using a Cisco VPN client?

Check out this answer on superuser.com


Terminal timing out with wget I am using Terminal to wget images from a list of urls in a text file, using the command: wget -i septweetsimages.csv.

When the operation hits url and can't connect to its server, Terminal continues in an infinite loop to try to connect, prompting the following result:

"Connecting to wtim.es (wtim.es)|69.58.188.49|:80... failed: Operation timed out.
Retrying."

How can I get the process to continue on to the next url in the list after say 2 failed connections?

Below is an example syntax for how you can manage this:

wget --tries 10 --waitretry=30 -—wait=20 --random-wait -—referer="" -i septweetsimages.csv

In the above syntax, if wget encounters a failure, it'll retry 10 times with a waiting period between each attempt of 30 seconds. It also waits up to 20 seconds before downloading each new image.

Using the man wget command in terminal will provide a description of many other options you can use to manage bandwidth, capture a log file, etc.


Mountain Lion drops internet when waking Since updating to Mountain Lion I lose my internet connection every time that my 24 inch Mid 2007 awakens from sleep. It doesn't occur when going to sleep or during but only on activating it again. 100% of the time. Any ideas?

I called Apple Tech Support yesterday. My connection drops after waking from sleep, and it is a hardwired connection (not wifi). They told me it is a known problem with iMacs, and while it eventually will be fixed in a software update, the only thing to do now is to disable the machine sleep on the energy saver panel, which I did..


Tracking access or edit history for a specific file I am using a Macbook Air with High Sierra.
I need to find out which file was uploaded via Chrome on an exam website since I am afraid I upload the wrong one.

Is there any way to see the precise access history for a file. I cannot just look at the "last access" date/time because I touched all the incriminated files several times unfortunately.

What I am looking to find is some kind of log which tells me all the times that a file was accessed so I can see if I touched the correct one at upload time. Any suggestions? Thank you!

I checked the system.log and I also checked the audit files but nothing seems helpful.

macOS (and all other OSs that I know of) only record last access and do not log multiple accesses. It is possible that Chrome remembers in some way.


Outlook 2011 - how to disable auto correction? How can I turn off the Auto Correct feature in Outlook 2011?

I was not able to find anything about that in the web.

Edit:

Disabling all Auto Correcting in the Preferences as Buscar웃 suggested did not help.

Changing settings within Outlook didn't help. It appears that Apple has an overriding spell check, and when it's on, Outlook still automatically corrects words not in its dictionary, making them into embarassing spelling mistakes.

In my version of the Mac OS (10.9.4), the master switch is in:
   - system preferences
     - keyboard
       -text

Other versions of the Mac OS (Lion?) apparently have it in:
   - system preferences
      - Language & text
        - text

Thanks to answers.microsoft.com for pointing me in the right direction.


How to recover Apple account login when 2-step authentication without Apple device? I remember my Apple ID and password but not security questions so I cannot recover my account, since I do not have my iPad and not my iPhone anymore.

I processed Apple iForgot many times but they do not offer recovery by phone number.

My older devices: iPad mini and iPhone 4S, which I do not anymore have. I do not remember if my account has my phone number, at least, the iForgot does not try to send me an SMS.

On setting up two-step verification, a recovery key is provided. This recovery key helps you regain access to your account.

If you have lost both your trusted devices and your recovery key to an account secured with two-step verification, you are unable to regain access to the account.

  If you've permanently lost any two of these items, you can't sign in or regain access to your account. You'll need to create a new Apple ID.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT202649

Unlike two-step verification, two-factor-authentication does have a separate account recovery process, but this is only possible for accounts migrated to or otherwise protected with two-factor authentication instead of two-step verification.


Is X11 still used today? I have had X11 installed on my Mac for quite some time (as long as I have owned it I think) and have never used it. Do applications still use X11 or is out outdated at this point? Should I "learn" how to use it because I may use it in the future? The reason I ask is that I read that you can run X over SSH and I thought it might be useful to run a window manager to get some graphics from a remote machine. Then I realized I have never used X11 and launched it only to become confused. So should I use X11 and why?

The following is a list of popular programs that require X11:

Gimp - open source photo editing
Inkscape - open source vector drawing program
FreeCiv - open source version of the Civilization games
Scribus - open source desktop publishing software

Basically, if you plan on using only commercial software, you don't need X11. If you plan on using open source software, you may want to keep X11 around just in case. Many open source projects used to require X11 but now have native Mac versions (OpenOffice, for example).


Copy to clipboard buttons in browser no longer working Starting yesterday, all of the sites I use frequently that have a "copy" button that copies text to my clipboard no longer work.

I can still highlight the text and cmd + c to copy, but would really like to know why the browser buttons are not working. This occurs in safari, firefox and chrome so it isn't browser related.

Running OSX 10.11.5
13in MBP retina

It is also a company computer, so please no solutions of erase and reinstall OS.

Some websites' 'copy to clipboard' buttons require Adobe Flash Player depending on your browser. Make sure flash is installed and up-to-date; see if that helps.


Is there a way to merge Safari history databases? Recently Safari had a glitch and wiped out my browsing history. I only discovered this after a couple weeks but had a backup that ran up to almost the day of the loss. I've restored the history from that backup, and would like to append the recent history since the loss. Is there a way to do that? Specifically is there a process I can used to take one set of backup files (History.db-shm, History.db-wal, and History.db) and merge them into another set?

Keep one set in Safari and insert the other into another browser and then import it in Safari.
Chrome should work fine for that. https://github.com/Roman2K/hist_safari2chrome
Create a db file for Chrome and replace the empty one under the folder for Chromium in ~/Library.
Quit Chrome and import History in Safari.

Better way is to use sqlite to merge them.. but I'm illiterate in that language.


About Keyboard layout remapping I'm a student in Germany, so I have to type a lot in German.
There's four additional letters in German, ü ä ö ß. Since I'm using a computer with US layout, I can't type them directly but by using alt key.
Ü by typing alt+u once then u, occasionally shift switch also, Ä by typing alt+u then shift+a. So it's a lot of keys, not quite efficient.
Since I only have to type these 4 letters, is there any way to make it a bit easier?
Like alt+u directly for ü, alt+a ä, alt+o for ö?

Looking forward for Help!
thx

If you're going to be typing in German for a while, it may be useful to switch to the German keyboard layout as needed. Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources You can use a keyboard shortcut or the menu bar icon to quickly swap between the layouts when working on assignments (but with much faster access to the accented letters you want.

Otherwise you are looking at manually editing your U.S. layout to change the individual function of the keys, which is do-able but likely less desirable.


Mac display won't turn on I have an Apple HD display that has been in our IT depart for a few months now. It was working fine until recently (the past month or two). I can turn it on and it will work for a few days, but then it suddenly will stop working.  If I unplug the monitor, wait for a few days, and then plug it back in, the monitor will work again for a few more days.

I suspect the issue is the 90W power converter, but before I invest the 140 dollars I was wondering: Has anyone else had the same issue? If so, how did you solve it?

If it is new, then I suggest taking it back to Apple for repair, especially if it still under warranty so that you don't have to spend $140 on what is ultimately a guess.


applescript will not stop running I have an applescript that utilizes a named pipe and pipes data over to it.
I have my script passing said data in a while loop, which is working, but I find that I am unable to stop the script manually without quitting the Script Editor program.  I do not need to force quit.

Here is the relevant snippet of my script (d is a QT movie reference that is active and playing; aname is a valid POSIX path that specifies the location of the named pipe):

repeat while d is playing
    set currtime to (get current time of d) as string
    get currtime
    do shell script "echo " & currtime & " > " & aname
    delay 0.125
end repeat

Are you sure you have something at the other end of that named pipe actually accepting the data? "do shell script" will not exit until something actually tries to read from the pipe. If you want to work around this, you can use:

do shell script "sh -c \"echo " & currtime & " > " & aname & "\" &> /dev/null &"

This will keep spawning shells which will all wait until you actually use the pipe. Not really a great solution. Ideally you should have something waiting for data before you send anything to a named pipe, or spawn something to consume the data.


my texts and emails gone wrong I have a note 4 now but gave my daughter my IPhone 4 and it still has my icloud email and my number in it, my supervisor has an iPhone 6 so when she texts me or email me it goes to my iPhone 4 which my daughter has, how do I stop this so I can get the messages to my note 4

Since you still have your old iPhone to hand, you're in the best position to prevent any messaging issues, you should eliminate any funkyness with iMessage intercepting.

You need to head into Settings > Messages, then look for the iMessage toggle at the top of the resulting menu. Turn it off, and then try and send some messages to contacts you know have an iPhone to make sure it's worked properly. If you're presented with a sea of green, then all's good.

If you've already made the switch and are still suffering

Grab your phone and ring Apple support – check your local Apple website for the number in your part of the world. Get put through to Technical Support, have your Apple ID handy, and ask them to manually remove your phone number from the iMessage servers.


Updating iOS version with baseband damaged I just want to ask if it is okay to update the iOS version even though my baseband is damaged? My iPhone 6 service network keeps on “searching”.

if it is okay to update my ios version even though my baseband is damaged

Yes.

It is generally a good idea to update to publicly available version of iOS. The current latest version available for iPhone 6 should be iOS 12.4.2 which is a security and bug fix release.


.tblk file doesn't work I am trying to set up Tunnelblick on my computer. (I have Mac OS X 10.9 on a 13" Macbook Pro with 4GB of RAM.)

I started by downloading Tunnelblick.
Next, Tunnelblick automatically gave me the following file (called "config.ovpn"):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxYI7qMrKuDYV1BGUm4xQkZkbGs/edit?usp=sharing
After that, I followed the instructions by creating a folder called "Empty Tunnelblick VPN configuration" and copying "config.ovpn" to the folder. I then renamed the folder "Empty Tunnelblick VPN configuration.tblk".
I followed another set of instructions and then double-clicked the file "Empty Tunnelblick VPN configuration.tblk". However, I got the following error message:

What did I do wrong? How do I fix this problem?

Tunnelblick questions are better asked on the Tunnelblick Discussion Group (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/tunnelblick-discuss).

The problem is that line 88 of your configuration file contains a reference to a file named "ca.crt" and that file is not in the "Empty Tunnelblick VPN Configuration.tblk". All files referenced in a configuration file must be placed in the .tblk.

(The reason the paths are so weird is because Tunnelblick is referencing a temporary copy of the .tblk that you are trying to install.)


Are the iLife install discs still compatible with Mountain Lion? I'm about to install Mountain Lion to my Macbook Pro. But before I go for an upgrade, I've search some information about the Mountain Lion. Some says that their iLife was removed after upgrading. I'm using iLife 11 on Mac OSX Snow Leopard, and I still have the Application discs.

Are the iLife install discs still compatible with Mountain Lion?

Your version of iLife is fully compatible with Mountain Lion. It is actually the current version that ships with Mountain lion. There is no reason that installing Mountain lion should overwrite or otherwise remove your version of iLife. A standard installation should always preserve all of your applications and user settings.


FileVault - One account can unlock but preventing full login and forcing logout and login again with other user When I installed macOS I was able to do it on a newly formatted and APFS encrypted disk.

That worked fine.

Then installation went forward and on reboot I was asked for a DISK PASSWORD.

Installation rebooted a couple of times and disk password was prompted each time.

Until you add a user. Then that user password will basically automatically be able to read the decryption key it seems which is really NON ACCEPTABLE in a non-infiltrated Apple.

The original key should be the only key capable of decrypting the disk and that key should not be stored anywhere on the system.

Nonetheless, I proceeded to create a secondary user which will be able to decrypt as well and I revoked the first users ability to unlock FileVault because I wish to minimize the original exposure of the password I type 5000 times a day.

The disk decryption password should really only be entered once. When the system starts.

  How do I prevent a full login from the FileVault enabled user? Is
  there way to have the account password be entered once and then never
  fully logged in?

Side questions:

How did the disk password (in diskutil) become accessible from any user added to the system? For system to be able to do that, the original decryption key which is in my memory only, has to be encrypted with a user password, and then when the user provides a password it is decrypted and used to open the disk. Meaning the password is on disk in one way or the other once the disk is unlocked.
When I add a new user, that original password which might be in memory or disk is encrypted again with user password and then decrypted to reveal real password which is used to disk unlock.
Would it not be better if Apple just allowed DISK access? Why introduce this vulnerability which allows you to access main disk just by introducing a new user to the system? When creating a new user, apple is accessing the clear text disk password and encrypting it again. That's a problem since it must be that Apple is able to read the decryption key while system is running, and really allows anyone the ability to who gains access to any user on the system capable of adding users to grant disk access.
Is Apple here actually storing the original disk password in clear text in memory/disk or in some encrypted form with decryption key readily available when a new user is to be added?

Anyway. Main question is how to prevent full login.

I can answer this question myself out of accident which I somehow was able to even retrace what I did.

To prevent a login you do this:

Add a new user, preferably a non admin user, and enter that password for that user which you wish to use as a filevault password.
Revoke all other users right to use filevault using: sudo fdesetup remove -user "username" from terminal. Note, do keep the user you just created. In fact you can not remove that user. One user must be on the filevault user list.
Go into the user settings again. And reset the password for the user just created. That will through I guess a bug, in my case feature, only change the password and not the filevault user.

Now, restart computer. When you are prompted for the fielvault password it is the old and not the resetted password. This will unlock disk, but since the password is wrong for login, system won't be able to login user. Press esc and login your user.

You are welcome.


Does Spotlight index SSDs faster than HDDs? Ive been thinking about swapping my MacBook Pro's (late 2012) hard drive for an SSD for a while now, as there becoming more affordable at decent sizes. Apart from the read / write and startup time improvements, do they improve the Spotlight index time of your machine as the image below or is this a process that is carried out by the CPU so a new hard drive wouldn't improve it?

Quite simply, SSDs do everything faster.

Their downside would appear to be a limited read/write cycle lifetime, but so long as you're comprehensively backed-up, I wouldn't see that as an issue.

Adding a Samsung EVO 1TB as the boot drive to my Early 2008 Mac Pro has given it life I didn't know it had left in it.


I have just changed my Apple ID, but made a typing error. No verification. Not searchable via find my Apple ID Just logged in to amend settings on my Apple ID. When entering new email, must have typed it wrong. Never received verification and now can't log back in.
Can't 'find Apple ID' as I don't know what my typo was.

How else can I retrieve it as am now logged out on all my devices.

Open Keychain Access which should be in Applications > Utilities and search for "apple id" and it should show you the email address you used.


iTunes store not loading I have had this problem for about one month with my itunes store. I get a blank white screen. Tried upgrading to latest version (11.0.4 now) but nothing seems to be working.

Here's the screenshot

In order to get it working, I installed all my updates one at a time (instead of all at once since I was having a problem with updates installation).


My MagSafe to MagSafe 2 converter becomes extremely hot. Why? Out of nothing, my MagSafe to MagSafe2 converter became extremely hot while charging. So hot, I could not even touch it.

What could cause it?

I've been using it so I can leave multiple old 85W MagSafe chargers at various places, so I plug my new late 2013 15" Retina MacBook Pro without having to bring a charger.

Edit:

After inspecting for discoloured parts, I saw the flat side of the aluminium surface is a bit discoloured.

This is what I've done after it got hot:

I cleaned everything a couple of times with finger nails and a wooden toothpick (to prevent scratching: electric stuff doesn't like metal fragments).
The connector kept getting hot.
After turning the connector 180 degrees, it kept cold. If I turned the power plug 180 degrees or 360 degrees, it stays cool too.

Turning 180 degrees was suggested below by mbabineau and seems to fix the issue every time this happens.

Actually it should be RT (room temperature) like all the time.

Check the pins to see if one of them is getting discolored.

The only reson for your converter to get hot is a bad contact creating a arc, that creates heat.

Making sure the plugs sit tight (on both sides) and that none of the contact pins (on both sides) is discolored. Cleaning the pins could not harm.

Ultimately getting a new converter would be a good idea.


How do I remove an iMessage account from OS X (Yosemite) Messages app? I added my iMessage account to my work MacBook and now I want to remove the account, but Messages won't let me.

I Signed Out of the account and deleted the message history, but now when I start messages it still prompts me to login with the account, and if I go to Preferences the account still appears (inactive) in the list and the Remove button (- sign at bottom) is greyed out.

Is there any way to remove the existence of the account completely?

OK, I figured it out but it's not straightforward. I figured it had to be stored in a .plist file somewhere, so I searched all the .plist files in ~/Library/Preferences for ones that contained the Apple ID I used for iMessages. These were the ones:

com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.madrid.plist
com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.private.alloy.sms.plist
ByHost/com.apple.identityservices.idstatuscache.5A488A33-7FF1-56F5-A3F6-CBC792D5C705.plist

When I searched for com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.madrid.plist on the web I found a link to a very useful answer on the Apple forums that also helped out.

So basically, this is what I did:

Delete the .plist files I mentioned above (note, the last one with the UUID in the name is likely to be different for each user):

cd ~/Library/Preferences
rm com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.madrid.plist
rm com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.private.alloy.sms.plist
rm ByHost/com.apple.identityservices.idstatuscache.5A488A33-7FF1-56F5-A3F6-CBC792D5C705.plist

Then I removed all the chat history and archive:

rm ~/Library/Messages/chat.db*
rm -rf ~/Library/Messages/Archive
rm -rf ~/Library/Messages/Attachments

Then I restarted the Mac just in case. Now the account and everything about it that ever existed on this machine is gone :)


How to copy URL with page title from Safari to Pages In earlier versions of Safari and Pages drag&drop of an URL from Safari to Pages resulted in a link with the page title as the text, and the URL as a link "behind" it. It still works that way in Mail in Mojave.

But with Safari and Pages all you get with drag&drop is a link (without the page title), which you then need to edit to replace the displayed text with i.e. the page title.

Is there a way (maybe via AppleScript) to insert title & URL of a Safari tab into a Pages document without having to manually edit it afterwards?

The ideal solution, with the current tab of the front window of Safari set to the desired address, one would then in Pages press a keyboard shortcut to, at the cursors present location, create a website link matching the documents style (font size, etc,) having the Title and URL of the Safari target pasted into the Pages document.

Off the top of my head, if that's even doable, it would probably require using AppleScriptObjC, which unfortunately is not something I know how to do, rather than using plain vanilla basic AppleScript.

That said, let me offer an example that works for me in macOS High Sierra and Pages 7.1.

Using an Automator service1 with a Run AppleScript action, set for Pages, and assigning it a keyboard shortcut in System Preference > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, the example AppleScript code, shown further below, creates a website link on its own line directly after the line the cursor is on when the keyboard shortcut is pressed.

With this particular code, it needs to be done in this manner; however, one can then cut and paste it where desired in the document and remove the extra line added to the document. It's not the ideal solution, but it does get the job done with the least amount of hassle while using this particular method.

In Automator, create a new Service1, setting: Service receives [no input] in [Pages]

1 In macOS Mojave, an Automator service is now called a Quick Action.

Add a Run AppleScript action, replacing the default code with the example AppleScript code, shown further below.
Save the Automator service as, e.g.,: Add Safari Weblink to Pages
In System Preference > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > e.g. Add Safari Weblink to Pages, assign it a keyboard shortcut, e.g.,: ^⌘L (Control-Command-L)

Note: I wanted the least number of keys to press and something close to the default ⌘K, and ^⌘L was it. It also does not step on any other default keys in Pages.

In Pages, with a document opened, press ^⌘L to create the website link of the current tab of the frontmost Safari window.

With a little practice, the following steps will become second nature:

Select the target webpage in Safari, letting it be the frontmost Safari window.
In Pages, with a document opened, press:

^⌘L, and wait until Add Link pop-up dialog disappears.
⌘X
delete (Removes the added line.)
Set the cursor to where you want the website link inserted.
⌘C

This should only take but a few seconds total.

Example AppleScript code:

if not running of application "Safari" then return

tell application "Safari" to set |Title & URL| to {name, URL} of current tab of front window
delay 0.1

set the clipboard to first item of |Title & URL| -- Title of front Safari document.
delay 0.1

tell application "Pages"
    activate
    delay 0.1
    if name of front window is in {"Choose a Template", ""} then return
end tell

tell application "System Events"
    key code 124 using {command down} -- Right Arrow Key - Send cursor to end of line.
    delay 0.1
    key code 36 -- Enter Key - Send cursor to beginning of new line.
    delay 0.1
    keystroke "v" using {option down, shift down, command down} -- Paste and Match Style. (Title of front Safari document.)
    delay 0.1
    key code 123 using {shift down, command down} -- Left Arrow Key - Highlight pasted Title.
    delay 0.1
    tell current application to set the clipboard to second item of |Title & URL| -- URL of front Safari document.
    delay 0.1
    keystroke "k" using {command down} -- Pages > Format > Add Link > Webpage -- (When some text is highlighted.)
    delay 0.1
    keystroke "v" using {command down} -- Paste (URL of front Safari document.)
    delay 0.1
    key code 36 -- Enter Key - Needed to set pasted URL, otherwise it stays as the default URL.
    delay 0.1
    key code 53 -- Escape Key - Dismiss the Add Link pop up dialog box.
end tell

set the clipboard to ""

Note: The example AppleScript code makes use of the Clipboard in order to use Paste and Match Style in the Pages document, and then clears the Clipboard. Keep this in mind so as not to loose something that's there and nowhere else if applicable. Additionally, if the length of Title exceeds the length of the line it's pasted to, only the last line of the pasted Title will be highlighted when the website link is created. This is one of the drawbacks of using just plain vanilla basic AppleScript verses AppleScriptObjC.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and sans, if not running of application "Safari" then return and if name of front window is in {"Choose a Template", ""} then return, it does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.

You might also find that the value of the delay command, in some instances, may need to be adjusted for use on your system, adjust as/if necessary.


What is the quickest way to send some text from desktop\laptop to iPhone? I usually send emails to myself, but I wonder if there is a better way to share something quickly from my PC\laptop to iPhone.

I use Messages - it is built-in to OSX and you can drag and drop text and images really easily.


Can't authenticate using SSH key when running script via launchd I have a Bash script that executes an rsync command to sync files with a remote server.

#!/bin/bash
rsync -auvzP  --exclude=.bundle --exclude=node_modules --exclude=tmp  '/Volumes/Norman Data/me/.bash_profile' '/Volumes/Norman Data/me/Documents' --exclude=remote me@example.com:backup/

This works when I run it from the terminal as I have ssh key authentication set up for my user at example.com. However, when launchd calls this script, I get the following error indicating that it cannot find my user's key file or it is invalid:

  Permission denied, please try again. Permission denied, please try
  again. me@example.com: Permission denied (publickey,password). rsync:
  connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
  rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at
  /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/rsync/rsync-52/rsync/io.c(453)
  [sender=2.6.9] I am specifying my user name in my plist file and when
  debugging, the script says it's being run by that same user both when
  running it from the terminal and from launchd alike.

My BackupDaemon.plist:

<?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>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>HOME</key>
        <string>/Volumes/Norman Data/me</string>
    </dict>
    <key>GroupName</key>
    <string>staff</string>
    <key>InitGroups</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>BackupDaemon</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Volumes/Norman Data/me/backup</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/BackupDaemon.err</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/BackupDaemon.out</string>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>16</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>6</integer>
    </dict>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>me</string>
</dict>
</plist>

I can't figure out for the life of me what the issue might be or how to even go about further debugging. Any insight anyone has to share will be greatly appreciated. Thx!

So this is what I ended up doing to get it working. For my use case it is sufficient, but I don''t think it's the best solution. Hopefully someone (see @Allan's comments in OP) can come up with a more universal solution.

I added the -e option to my rsync statement which allows you to specify the exact ssh command used.

rsync -auvzP  -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_scripts" '/Volumes/Norman Data/me/Documents' me@example.com:backup/

The important part in there is ~/.ssh/id_rsa_scripts - I generated a secondary set of keys for that server, with this set having no passphrase. This is different from how I connect to that box via SSH by default and thus why it needed to be specified in the rsync command.

That was the only way I could get it to work when running unattended (as a Global Daemon). Although it is ok under my set of circumstances, a passphrase-less key is not the best idea in many situations, which is why this is not the ** best ** solution.

Hopefully someone can figure out a way to allow launchd to execute a script requiring SSH authentication using keys with a passphrase.


How to know which apps to shutdown when there is overheating? I once unfortunately closed a program that I found in the Activity Monitor to be using a lot of resources. A bit of Context: that day my macbook pro was suddenly heating up like crazy and the usually silent fan started blaring up! So I guessed that it was the root of all the trouble and force-quoted it, only to be subject to a screen of death notification!

So, in order to avoid this, I ask you to help me to be a better judge of the applications for situations as these!

The recent Firefox release (32) has a tendency to run in to conflict resulting in very high CPU consumption. That leads to high speed fans.

Mozilla has released a fix (32.01), but the results are yet to be seen.


Can't boot from Big Sur installed on a USB I'm trying to install Big Sur on a USB so that I can boot from the separate installation on the usb. Note, I'm not trying to create an installation USB. I followed the directions here and everything worked, except after installation, at the final stage of the boot it just hangs.
I've tried this on a few different macs, and they all hang at the same step. Booting up in verbose mode gives the following final output before hanging (this may be a little off because I used OCR, but I tried to correct what seemed relevant, note in this log it was attached to a thunderbolt port):
...
<date> locathost com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] <Notice>: Early boot complete. Continuing system boot.
ALF, old data swfs pid_entry <ptr>, updaterules_msg <ptr>, updaterules_state <ptr>ALF, old data sufs pid_entry ptr> updaterules_msg <ptr>, updaterules_state
<date> localhost con.apple.xpc.Launchd[1] (com.apple.iomfb_fdr_loader.31) <Error>: Missing executable detected. Job: `com.apple.iomfb_fdr_loader`
Waiting for DSMOS...
dev_init:297: diskl devi accelerated crypto: (compiled @ Jan 24 2021 20:57:23) dev init:300: diskl device_handle block size 4096 block count 122061321 features 16 internal solidstate
nx kernel mount :1134: diski initializing cache w/hash_size 8192 and cache size 32768 nx_kervel_momt:1482: diskl checkpoint search; Largest xid 8330371, best xid 6330371 @ 20
container unload:1497: vnode_close() invoked in the container unload path ALF, old data swfs pid_entry <ptr>, updaterules_nsg <ptr>, updaterules state <ptr>8810018268us
AppleThunderboltGenericHAL::earlyWake - complete - took 8 milliseconds
AppleThunderboltGenericHAL::earlyWake - complete - took 0 milliseconds
IOThunderboltSwitch(100)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for rid = 1 route = 0x0 port = 9 plug = 1
IOThunderboltSwitch(100)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for rid = 1 route = 0x0 port = 9 plug = 1
IOThunderboltSwitch(100)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for rid = 1 route = 0x0 port = 10 plug = 1
IOThunderboltSwitch(100)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for rid = 1 route = 0x0 port = 10 plug = 1

It seems like maybe the problem is with com.apple.iomfb_fdr_loader but I'm having trouble finding anything related to this erring.
Some things I've tried:

I've tried booting on several different macs (all running Big Sur) and this happens on all of them. So it probably has something to do with the usb or installation.
I've tried reinstalling mac os on the drive several times, and none of them booted so it wasn't a fluke with writing.
I was able to turn this same usb drive into a mac installer drive, and that booted up fine, so it seems likely there's some nuanced flag I forgot to set on the usb.
I tried resetting the parameter ram, but that didn't help.
I tried installing Catalina instead, but all I could find was the dmg for Catalina, and didn't want to go through the process of first writing that somewhere then trying to install it, but that may be my next step if a separate drive doesn't work (see below).

The one thing I haven't tried is seeing if I follow the same process for a different usb drive if I encounter the same issue. That should at least narrow it down to the process of installing or the image itself.
Updates
Using a different device with the same image did work, so it seems like this is a hardware problem with the usb device. However, I've been unable to get this to work with multiple different usb-c devices.
Catalina also worked, so this seems to be something funny with Big Sur.
I've also be unable to upgrade from Catalina to Big Sur once the installation is working.

Get a new drive. That process is quite a bit longer than needed, but it’s correct. If you have errors with the install it’s likely these are the causes in order:

Bad USB storage
Bad download of the installer (very unlikely, but it happens)
Not following the guide
Failure of the Mac (more likely USB port or cable or hub)

Catalina is probably a safer bet for this activity for another couple months - Big Sur is still getting some edge cases patched up. So maybe get that downloading the next time you can let it run.


Can I block ports and network traffic when using Personal Hotspot? I would like to block ports and network traffic when using my jailbroken iOS device as a Personal Hotspot.

The reason is I don't want my backup program, computer updates, or any high bandwidth usage applications to be able to download or upload too much data.

Is there a way to do that using iOS itself or an application?

For outgoing connections, the only jailbreak application that exists is Firewall iP. It behaves similarly to the Mac OS X application Little Snitch.

For incoming connections, you will have to use a regular firewall system such as ipfw.

Disclaimer: To anyone actually looking to use ipfw on iOS, you're going to have to patch the kernel to include support for pf. Documented, nobody has ever done it, but it's not technically impossible. The jailbreak itself patches the kernel upon boot, so this would require the same exploits used during that process. If you have happened to patch pf into the kernel, then proceed with my original answer below.

Add the http://theworm.altervista.org/cydia/ repository in Cydia > Manage > Sources > Edit > Add. Then install the MTerminal app from the BigBoss repository and the network-cmds package from The Worm repository. Then you can go into the terminal app you just got and run ipfw. This will let you write to your firewall tables. If you need a tutorial on how to use ipfw, there's a good one here.


Use diskutil without firmware password Diskutil found some problems on my drive that need to be fixed in recovery mode. However the it department installed a password in the firmware. Is there anyway to start diskutil without the firmwarepassword? It only needs to fix some issue is in the partition table.
I tried to launch in single user modus. But apparently this only works if you don't install a firmware password.

If you don't have the firmware password, you cannot boot into recovery mode, and thus you cannot make distil bypass the protection. Even worse, there's no way to reset a firmware password than going to recovery mode to disable it (which requires the original password), or taking it to the Apple store with the original receipt so they can disable it for you.

If the problem has to be fixed, talk to the IT department and have them fix it for you.


How can I make my iOS app "Sold Out"? I have an app available on the App Store and regardless of the reason, I want it to be "Sold out" for the next month while still having the ability to release updates.

Is this possible and if yes, what’s the best way to go about this?

I am considering changing the price of the app to the max tier and writing "Sold out, restocking on xx.xx.xxxx" in the promotional text.

I want it to be "Sold out" for the next month while still having the ability to release updates.

There is no such provision available on the App Store, hosting the app while users can’t purchase/install it. Most likely explanation would be that it interferes with the overall UX and has the potential of causing confusion.

  I am considering changing the price of the app to the max tier and writing "Sold out, restocking on xx.xx.xxxx" in the promotional text.

Hiking the price temporarily would not be an advisable approach. It will likely bring negative publicity to the app. This approach (especially with regard to the promotional text) could also cause the app update to get rejected.

If you would like to control when the app update gets released on the App Store, you can choose to manually release instead of automatically release when approved when submitting the app update.

Manually release a version - App Store Connect Help


Music collection is not sorted by Album on iOS 8.4 I "upgraded" to iOS 8.4 and the Music App now has a new icon and different functions.  That's awesome, except I cannot figure out how to view my music collection by album instead of by artist.

I tap the MyMusic icon at the bottom of the screen.  There is a drop down selector 1/3 of the way down that (when tapped) presents "Artists, Albums, Songs, etc. etc"

When I select Album, it groups by Album, but sorts by Artist.  I want it to sort by Album.  I'm hoping I'm missing something obvious here, but I cannot figure it out.

Go to Settings > Music and under Library check if "Sort Albums" is set to Artists or Title

Change to "By Title" to sort them the way you described.


Script to change downloaded mac wallpaper automatically? I want to change my mac wallpaper daily with microsoft bing images.
I found this script that download the daily picture automatically, but I sill have to set the wallpaper automatically.
Is it possible to write a script (either terminal or applescript) that set the downloaded picture as wallpaper automatically?

Solved! I used the Bing Wallpaper.app found here that does exactly what I needed.


Removing the sleepimage file in /var/vm in macOS permanently I run high sierra, and the large private/var/vm/sleepimage file has been bothering me. My computer has 16 GB of ram, which means sleepimage takes up 16 GB on my drive. I have read tutorials on how to remove it, but it does not work for me. I tried typing sudo rm -R private/var/vm/sleepimage in the terminal, but the terminal responds rm: private/var/vm/sleepimage: No such file or directory. What do I do?

That file can be deleted - no need for -R but be sure to have the full path:

 sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

One you "delete it", the space will not be freed until the kernel and other processes close the file, so restart your Mac. The image file will be recreated next time you need to sleep - so if you had a HDD with that file contiguously allocated, you will make things worse when it's allocated non-contiguous blocks. SSD won't care either way.

I would focus on cleaning / relocating other files long term than this one.


Remove delimiter section from filename with Automator I'm creating an automator script that copies files from one folder to another and then runs an AppleScript to rename the file by splitting via delimiter and resaving with the second item. For example, using file names of:

a new file$SG789.jpg
file_2$123-456.jpg
file_name$LG123.jpg
this_file$558-432.jpg

I'm trying to split the filename by the "$" dollar sign to create the following new files:

SG789.jpg
123-456.jpg
LG123.jpg
558-432.jpg

However, when I run the script, I get the following error:

The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error. Can’t get item 2 of alias "Macintosh HD:Users:downloads:Archive:a new file$SG789-PROC.jpg".

This is the code I'm running in the Run AppleScript workflow:

on run {input, parameters}
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "$"
    repeat with anItem in input
        set fileName to item 2 of anItem
        return fileName
    end repeat
end run

What am I doing wrong?

You're doing many things wrong:

If you set AppleScript's text item delimiters to other then its default {}, always reset it to {} when finished with the temporary delimiter.
input is a list and as such you should return a list and do it outside of the repeat loop.
item 2 within the repeat loop needs to be text item 2, however, anItem within the repeat loop in this use case must also be text, so it needs to be (anItem as text).
fileName needs to be a list because you are processing a list and you need to return a list.

That said, here's an example Automator workflow with an AppleScript action coded in an example manner of how I'd write the code. Note though, that while it returns a list of the filenames after the $ delimiter, I'm not sure what good it's going to do you as it all depends on additional code not currently present in this example.

AppleScript code for the Run AppleScript action:

on run {input, parameters}
    try
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"$"}
        set theFileNameList to {}
        repeat with thisItem in input
            set the end of theFileNameList to text item 2 of (thisItem as text)
        end repeat
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {}
        return theFileNameList
    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} ¬
            default button 1 with icon caution
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {}
        return
    end try
end run


Is it better for the battery to leave the iPad plugged when charging is done? I charge my iPad. Later, I notice that the battery is charged at 100 %.

Now, what is better to preserve the battery capacity ?

Unplugging the cable.
Leaving the cable plugged.

The answer may vary depending on whether I leave the iPad sleeping or whether I use the iPad.

It doesn't really matter. You're already using up some capacity when you charge past 50%.

For long term storage, Apple recommends that you only charge the device up to 50% and then power it off. Basically if you are concerned about the longest capacity of your battery, you wouldn't consume it at all and you'd just charge it to 50% and then put it in a box for 6 months as it slowly self-discharges. You would then power it on and charge it back to 50% and put it back in the drawer off.

Realistically, just use the iPad and follow the instructions Apple gives to the letter. As long as you disconnect it from charge and regularly deplete the battery you won't have meaningful problems with excess wearing. As long as you're not in a long term storage situation, disconnect the cord when it's convenient to you.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/


Canon Printer is producing garbage characters I have a Canon MF-4800 printer/scanner. It's been working fine up to last week. Now as you can see from the screen shots, it is mangling characters when printing. It scans ok, and prints test prints ok - also shown in another screenshot.

The machine is connected to my local network and is used by three Macs computers running slightly different versions of High Sierra.

I've tried:

Cleaning the printer,

Reconnecting the printer to my network,

Downloading new drivers

Any ideas would be welcome.

It seems there has been a change in Apple's handling of printers -- at least mine.

When I print using the latest beta, the characters are malformed. When I print using 10.13.2, the printing is perfect.


AppleScript and Music I have created a small AppleScript that queries Music App if it is playing, and if it is then it queries and gets artist and song name. Now I want to query some more information.
Where can I find the documentation regarding the available commands and information that I can use from Music app? For example, I now use something like:
set a to "Now playing: " & artist of current track & " - " & name of current track

what else can I use except artist of current track or name of current track? Where can I find what other information can I query/use?

Where can I find what other information can I query/use?

Check out the Library in Script Editor.
Script Editor > Window > Library    ⇧⌘L
You can also query the properties of the current track to see what else is available specifically to it, e.g.:
tell application "Music" to get properties of current track

On my system at the moment, it returns:
{class:file track, id:181, index:8, name:"Brain Damage", persistent ID:"C2EE4E8E7AD4C9A6", database ID:157, date added:date "Saturday, November 21, 2020 at 3:59:39 AM", time:"3:50", duration:230.757995605469, artist:"Pink Floyd", album artist:"", composer:"Roger Waters", album:"Dark Side Of The Moon", genre:"Rock", bit rate:192, sample rate:44100, track count:9, track number:8, disc count:1, disc number:1, size:5595268, volume adjustment:0, year:1973, comment:"", EQ:"", kind:"AAC audio file", media kind:song, modification date:date "Tuesday, September 6, 2005 at 1:08:28 PM", enabled:true, start:0.0, finish:230.757995605469, played count:1, skipped count:0, compilation:false, rating:0, bpm:0, grouping:"", bookmarkable:false, bookmark:0.0, shufflable:true, lyrics:"", category:"", description:"", episode number:0, unplayed:true, sort name:"", sort album:"", sort artist:"", sort composer:"", sort album artist:"", loved:false, disliked:false, album loved:false, album disliked:false, cloud status:unknown, work:"", movement:"", movement number:0, movement count:0, location:alias "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Music:Music:Media.localized:Pink Floyd:Dark Side Of The Moon:08 Brain Damage.m4a"}

Also have a look at: About Scripting Terminology:

The terminology for an app is found in its scripting dictionary, an
.sdef file stored in the app bundle. The dictionary describes the
commands, classes, and properties an app supports. This information is
used by the scripting components of the operating system, the app
itself, and any other apps or scripts that interact with the app
through scripting. It also serves as a reference, which you can
consult in Script Editor for guidance as you write a script. See
Figure 10-1.
Figure 10-1Example of a scripting dictionary in Script Editor


Airplay without itunes I have some remote speakers hooked up to an Airport Express. While they work with iTunes as intended, I would like to stream sound that I play in other applications. Is there some facility for using the remote speakers from the rest of the system?

From googling (nothing found so far) and looking at this question, I get the impression that no ready-to-use solution is provided by Apple. Assuming this is the case, I'd be curious about commandline-oriented or implementation-level information: What do the remote speakers look like to the iTunes API? How does OS X handle sound output, and is there any chance of arranging for remote speakers to be exposed as a sound device at the OS level? I'm currently running Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8).

Update: a) Thanks to @TonyWilliams, I now know about AirPlay, a third party solution. Still hoping for information on doing it directly, though. b) I've also come across this question, which would allow a bit of commandline access to the airplay speakers (if I can get it to work).

You can simply go to System Preferences → Sound → Output and choose your output device. Lag applies here too.


Missing .bash_profile and .bashrc files I don't have .bash_profile or .bashrc files and I am definitely using the bash shell. I am using Mac OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan.

How do I permanently modify my $PATH to cut down the default values Apple ships?

.bash_profile and .bashrc do not have to exist for $PATH to work, they're for bash configuration. According to the bash docs,

  When Bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable.

To add a path to your $PATH variable for a single terminal session, do so as follows: export PATH=$PATH:pathToYourDirectory, for multiple directories export PATH=$PATH:pathToYourFirstDirectory:pathToYourSecondDirectory ...
To see what's in your $PATH: echo $PATH or cat /etc/paths
/etc/paths is the file that holds your system path variables

Run man path_helper for more information.


iOS 12 notifications appearing twice or not at all Hi everyone I have 2 problems with my iPhone 6s since upgrading to iOS 12 (not sure if this has anything to do with it).

For the past week I’ve been getting Messenger and text message notification banners show up twice. So for example, the banner will pop up on screen whilst unlocked, then later the notification will pop up again on my lock screen. Or the same banner will show up twice within a few minutes whilst unlocked.
Sometimes my messenger and text message notifications don’t show up at all, either when unlocked or on the lock screen. This is annoying because then I’ll go for a long time waiting for a reply when in fact I received it a while back and didn’t know.

Does anyone know what might be up?

Thanks!

just thought I would add this started happening a few weeks ago and that my boyfriend (who I suspect is slightly psychopathic) has access to my passcode and often says stuff about me he shouldn’t really know. Yesterday I googled phone hacking and cyberstalking and mysteriously the double notifications seem to have disappeared... please help!


Automator Calendar and Events Dissapears after OS X Update I have some Applescripts that I schedule to run weekdays to do various things.  I record radio programs for offline listening, I download CSV files for analysis, and do file folder cleanup.  These actions run at different times of the day.  These are scheduled in the "Automator" calendar as Events.

For the 4th time, I have noticed that all of my Automator events are gone and I have traced this to an OS update.  Prior to going on a short vacation, I updated OS X from 10.11.5 to 10.11.6.  When I came back, I noticed that none of the Automator actions had taken place.  Upon investigation, I found that all of the Automator Events were gone, even past ones; it was like they never existed.

After some reflection, I realized that this usually happened after an OS X update.  The Automator scripts were still there, they just didn't exist in Calendar.  Strangely enough, my Exchange, and Holidays calendars with all their events were (and still are) completely intact.

Has anyone seen behavior such as this and if so, have you found a fix/workaround?

My solution to this was to abandon the Automaton Calendar in macOS and instead opt for using launchd.  My other option was cron but that has since been deprecated in OS X

  Darwin note: Although cron(8) and crontab(5) are officially supported
  under Darwin, their functionality has been absorbed into launchd(8),
  which provides a more flexible way of automatically executing
  commands. See launchctl(1) for more information.”

I have created and backed up all of the .plists that I need running on my machine and created a bash script that installs all of them in case I need to do a clean install of macOS in the future.

Full documentation on lauchd can be found on Apple's Developer Website


Yosemite printer panasonic DP C265 not print. Says: "Stopped - 'Filter' failed" 21/04/15 22:14:15,014 powerd[48]: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "(null)".
21/04/15 22:14:19,195 sandboxd[405]: ([1457]) foomatic-rip(1457) deny file-read-data /usr/local/etc/foomatic/filter.conf
21/04/15 22:14:19,233 _192_168_15_20[1455]: The function ‘CGContextErase’ is obsolete and will be removed in an upcoming update. Unfortunately, this application, or a library it uses, is using this obsolete function, and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system performance.
21/04/15 22:14:19,579 sandboxd[405]: ([1461]) sh(1461) deny file-read-data /dev/tty
21/04/15 22:14:19,598 sandboxd[405]: ([1461]) sh(1461) deny file-read-data /
21/04/15 22:14:19,619 sandboxd[405]: ([1465]) bash(1465) deny file-read-data /dev/tty
21/04/15 22:14:19,638 sandboxd[405]: ([1465]) bash(1465) deny file-read-data /
21/04/15 22:15:15,015 powerd[48]: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, "(null)".

It IS being sandboxed. One solution is to disable sandboxing:

  Edit /etc/cups/cups-files.conf and add this line: "Sandboxing Off",
  restart cups: "sudo launchctl stop org.cups.cupsd"

However, another user has written a script which identifies those printer descriptions which need explicit path/to/file information, and automagically adds it.

I have used this script to allow me to print to my HP 5850 from Yosemite. My other printers (modern drivers) were not affected.

This solution is not mine. I found this answer through others' answers here  (https://discussions.apple.com/message/26887951#26887951). Good luck!


Are TB3 cables in any way different than USB-C cables? My company provided me a Lenovo USB-C dock when I received my Mac Book Pro 2017 model. That dock worked to a certain degree, but I happily replaced it with the Lenovo TB3 dock this week (which basically works much better, not having the quirks of the USB-C dock).

What caught my attention: the TB3 dock comes with a cable that has a "lightning" label (probably to indicate it can transmit power) and a "3" printed on it.

Thing is: the USB-C cable is a bit longer (like 40 cm) whereas the TB3 cable is a bit shorter. So I tried connecting the dock using the longer cable ... and interestingly enough it worked, but one of my two monitors connected to the dock would stay dark.

According to this here, USB-C cables should be "equivalent" (unless getting to long), but I just experienced something else.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Are there physical differences between these cables?

The "lightning" does not indicate that it can transmit power - it is actually the Thunderbolt logo indicating that it is a Thunderbolt cable.

All Thunderbolt 3 cables have USB-C connectors. Note that this is just the connector itself - it doesn't mean that the rest of the cable is the same.

Ordinary Thunderbolt 3 cables (i.e. cobber-based) also work as USB-C cables. In this manner they are compatible. You can buy optical Thunderbolt 3 cables (eg. if you want a 50 meter cable) - these are normally not usable as a USB-C cable.

On the other hand any USB-C cable is not Thunderbolt 3 compatible. It might be (as ordinary Thunderbolt 3 cables also work as USB-C cables). In general they are not.

The differences are mainly the design and quality of the cable, and to which standard they have been tested before leaving the factory. For example Thunderbolt 3-cables are generally specced to allow much higher amounts of power delivery than USB-C cables.


New hard drive in Mac Book Pro leading to occasional crashes and kernel panics Ok, this is kind of a long story because I don't know what facts are relevant.

I fell off my bike and my 2010 13" MacBook Pro receives blunt trauma.   It's in a protective sleeve so I don't think about it.  I arrive at school and the computer wakes up from sleep and works, but I can't save anything and it's giving me weird hard drive errors.  So I restart.  Then the computer gets stuck on the Apple start up screen indefinitely.  No matter what I do I can't get it to start up.

Everything else works fine.  I can run it off of the Mac OS X CD.  The guys at the fake Apple store (I live in Israel) can run it off an external hard drive.  They tell me it's a hard drive problem and give me a way too high price to fix it.

So I buy my own hard drive.  Its a Seagate 750 GB 2.5 inch, but I don't think it's important.

Luckily I had backed up recently to an external HD.  So my sister and I installed the new Hard Drive (easier than I thought!), reinstalled OS X, and then got all my stuff from the back up.

Now everything works well.  Or seems to.  Until Chrome crashes giving me some error about my user profile.  Then when I try to open Firefox it says it can't be opened because it's already open (which it isn't).  Then Microsoft Word gives me an error that has to do with not enough memory.  Then I get long stretches of a rotating beach ball while my computer thinks. Sometimes I also get a Kernel Panic.

I tried running disk warrior.  I tried running disk utilities.  I tried erasing the hard drive and starting again.  I still get crashes.  I usually restart before I get to Kernel Panics but I can feel them coming.

I don't see any pattern to when it happens.  Sometimes I use my computer for hours straight - streaming music and playing games - with no problem.  Sometimes it crashes right away.  There are no other problems.  I can save files to the HD no problem.

Any ideas?  What else can I try?

Try resetting NVRAM just to be safe. I do this whenever I service a MacBook.

Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

You may also want to make sure your RAM chips didn't dislodge when you dropped it. Here's how to find your RAM bank.

Hope this helps!


CommanderOne: Clear the servers history I am using CommanderOne to connect to smb shares. To connect to a share I press command+K. The presented history is pretty cluttered with old shares and I want to clear the history of the list. Where is the history stored?

I got my answer from the CommanderOne support:

To clear the history of the list, use the following command in Terminal (Ctrl+O):
defaults delete com.eltima.cmd1 TCXWindow.connect2addresses
Please, note that settings ID (com.eltima.cmd1) varies based on Commander One version, that you have installed:
Website: com.eltima.cmd1
AppStore free: com.eltima.cmd1.mas
AppStore PRO: com.eltima.cmd1.pro.mas
SetApp: com.eltima.cmd1-setapp


OSX Calendar zoom in on specific date In OSX Calendar (El Capitan) I am on the "Month" view. I browse around and then I see a date that interests me and want to see a full day-view for that date.

My instinct is to double-click on the date, but it creates a new event.

How do I zoom into a specific date?

Just double click exactly on the number of the day, instead of double-clicking in the "body" of the day.

For example, if you want to have a day view for July 1st, double-click on the "1 Jul".


Instagram alternative for iPad I'm looking for an iOS app that will offer features similar to that of Instagram. This app should be designed specifically for the iPad.

Feature I'd like to have are:

apply filters to photos
take photos within the app itself
export photos to social networks or camera roll

Can you recommend such apps which have been made specifically for the iPad?

Process is my darling at the moment for iPad capture, edit, post and is most similar to the workflow for creating content comparable to Instagram.  It lacks the hosting and discovery aspects of the former, but has much more serious editing capabilities and is more like a Photoshop than an iPhoto for iOS.

I also do use the normal camera regularly in combination with iPhoto and/or Snapseed for certain types of edits and sharing.


Finder window resizes by itself Every time I restart the computer or just Finder app the Macintosh HD folder will be resized to the default size without remember my configuration. Why? Does someone know how to fix this?

I solved by copying a .DS_Store from another folder to Macintosh HD.
I don't know why but Finder wasn't going to create it by itself.


How do i modify the command to read temperature and time How do I modify the command sudo powermetrics --samplers smc |grep -i "CPU die temperature" to also provide a timestamp in terminal?

I use date -u before commands.
date -u && sudo powermetrics --samplers smc |grep -i "CPU die temperature"


Disable an account in Apple Mail? I have an email account under a domain that has been decommissioned. The domain still has an MX record, but its been disabled at the mail server. When someone tries to use the email address, they get a "550 Domain has been disabled" response back.

I cannot figure out how to disable the account. I've tried right clicking and "Take Offline", but that does not seem to help. Apple Mail still prompts me incessantly for a username and password. In addition, Apple Mail will no longer exit properly. It wants to throw a dialog for a password before it exits (that eventually requires a Force Quit).

I don't want to delete the account because I may need to refer to emails in the account.

How do I disable the account in Apple Mail?

(The operating system is OS X 10.8.5 (fully patched). Mail Version 6.6 (1510)).

There are few ways to do this.

My Preferred way is::

Move all mails and folders you want to keep to "On My Mac" location.

Then in Mail app open Preferences--Accounts.

Uncheck the "Enable this Account"

It is now deactivated, but you still have the copies of the emails in your "On my Mac" location.

Sorry, the instructions are for 10.9.5.

As you will see the account is still there but grayed out, thus you can reactivate at any time.


Looking for a screen measuring app for macOS I need an app to be able to measure distances at the very least that would correspond to real values. Let's say I have a graphic that has a few points on it instead of having to print out the paper and measure the distances between points by ruler, I'd like to do it on screen.

Could you suggest the best on screening measuring tool that there is? If it would come with other tools it would be really great.

Cmd-shift-4 brings up a screen capture utility. As you move the new cursor it displays the number of pixels you move in x and y directions. So you can easily measure pixel distance between 2 points. You don't have to capture the screen area, just opt out of that option.

I've also used the app PixelStick ($7 but free trial) that brings up a screen measuring tool. It lists current pixel, the distance between pixels, and the angle between two pixels. You can calibrate the pixel distance to other scales and has a built in map mode. It also has a screen capture button and a color grabber.


Disk Utility fails with OSStatus error 22 during cloning/recovery operation Background:

I need to upgrade the drive in my Macbook Pro. Following are some of its specs:

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)
OS: High Sierra, v 10.13.6
HDD: 500 GB SSD, w/ Macintosh HD & BOOTCAMP partitions

The Problem:

I need to upgrade the SSD to 1TB. I can accomplish this by cloning the 500GB drive to the 1TB drive. I will use Disk Utility from the Recovery HD volume to do this since both source and destination volumes in the cloning process will need to be unmounted.

I did this previously when upgrading the original mechanical HDD to SSD, but it was HFS-to-HFS. I quickly reviewed this article to verify nothing had changed. Finding no warnings, cautions or surprises, I began the process:

boot with command-R to get into the Recovery HD volume
start Disk Utility
select Restore option
designate source (500GB) & destination (1TB) drives
Go!

This ran overnight (many hours). But instead of seeing a "Success" message this morning, I saw an error:

Inverting target volume...
APFS inverter failed to invert the volume - invalid argument
The operation couldn't be completed. (OSStatus error 22.)
Operation failed...

Research on this led me here. I initially concluded Apple had simply not upgraded the Recovery volume or the apps in it, but this proved not to be the case. Here's what I've found:

  The upgrade to High Sierra converted the 'primary' volume to APFS, but left the Recovery volume as HFS.
  The version of Disk Utility (DU) in the Recovery volume of my MBP is the same version as DU in my 'primary' High Sierra volume - it was apparently upgraded concurrently with the High Sierra upgrade.
  Whatever the version of DU in the Recovery volume, the failure I experienced seems rather chronic.

The source disk is a Crucial SSD, a few years old & no known issues; the destination disk as also a Crucial SSD - about a week old. Nevertheless, I have now checked all volumes on both disks with First Aid in DU, and all are reported as "OK".

Based on all the above, I've concluded that my Recovery volume is unreliable and not fit for purpose.

I've found a 3rd party alternative solution, Carbon Copy Cloner. It has now successfully cloned the 500GB drive, and restored that to the new 1TB drive - I am "whole" again :)  My questions (at last) are:

Can the Recovery HD volume be upgraded - perhaps by installing a later version of Disk Utility from Mojave or Catalina, or a 3rd party app such as CCC?
Could the Recovery HD volume be converted from HFS to APFS and restored/installed on the internal SSD?
Can a Recovery HD volume be created on a thumb drive which could be made bootable?

I came here because I was looking for solutions about the error you quote, but instead your actual questions at the end of your text are about something else. It would be nice if you'd change your question title accordingly.

To answer your questions about recovery partitions:

If you install, even temporarily, a newer macOS, you should get a newer recovery partition along with it. I, for instance, have a separate 10.14.6 recovery system on one of my Macs (however, I wonder how that came to be, as there's also a Recovery APFS volume insider the container where the Mojave system resides, so why would there also be a HFS+ partition with one?). Be aware that if you install a newer system on your current system disk, it might convert your current system volume from HFS to APFS. To prevent that, install it to a separate partition (though even then I'm not sure that Apple won't simply convert all volumes on the disk to APFS), or best install it to an external disk.
Converting it into APFS is not needed and inadvisible - it would not gain you anything. Basically, the Recovery system is just a small EFI-based loader that'll then load the BaseSystem image into a RAM disk and load the Recovery system from there.
I have copied entire HFS+-formatted recovery partitions to external USB disks, so I assume you could as well copy them onto a USB stick, as long as you format it with a GUID partition scheme first. The copy operation may be tricky, though - ideally, Disk Utility should let you do that with its Restore command - but it turns that that the new Disk Utility won't even show Recovery partitions any more, so that's not an option. The old Disk Utility from pre-10.11 systems may be able to, still.

Here's what still works in my testing on Mojave with Terminal commands to copy a HFS+ formatted Recovery partition to an USB thumb drive (with GUID partition scheme):

asr --source /dev/diskVsW --target /dev/diskXsY --erase

Where diskVsW and diskXsY are the identifiers for the source and dest Recovery partitions that you'll find with diskutil list.

You could also use hdiutil to create an image file of another Mac's recovery partition and then later restore that with Disk Utility.

Also keep in mind that modern Macs can always load a recovery system from the internet, so there's no need to keep one around for them.


MacBook doesn't find any Bluetooth device After running sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always because I wanted macOS to use only external Bluetooth dongles instead of the internal one I cannot find any Bluetooth devices anymore when the external dongle is not connected. I already ran
sudo nvram -d bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior
 to reset the setting, restarted macOS several times, reset the NVRAM, reset the Bluetooth module, etc..

Is there anything I missed after using these Bluetooth devices with my external dongle? When now plugging in the external dongle again, it finds all the devices properly.

I tried to search for the devices with my iPad (Magic Keyboard 2), and it instantly recognizes it.

Edit: I just erased my macOS installation and reinstalled High Sierra, but the problem persists.

Edit2:

The system report is showing me that seemingly there are devices connected (when the internal device is active) although I removed all devices via the menu bar option. Is there maybe a correlation? Is there an option to manually remove the bluetooth connections?

Devices (Paired, Configured, etc.):

24-1b-7a-21-aa-da:
Address:    24-1B-7A-21-AA-DA
Major Type: Miscellaneous
Minor Type: Unknown
Services:
Paired: No
Configured: Yes
Connected:  No
Class of Device:    0x00 0x00 0x0000

ac-e4-b5-c9-98-6b:
Address:    AC-E4-B5-C9-98-6B
Major Type: Miscellaneous
Minor Type: Unknown
Services:
Paired: No
Configured: Yes
Connected:  No
Class of Device:    0x00 0x00 0x0000

78-fd-94-5e-f6-a6:
Address:    78-FD-94-5E-F6-A6
Major Type: Miscellaneous
Minor Type: Unknown
Services:
Paired: No
Configured: Yes
Connected:  No
Class of Device:    0x00 0x00 0x0000

dc-9b-9c-ca-a4-e0:
Address:    DC-9B-9C-CA-A4-E0
Major Type: Miscellaneous
Minor Type: Unknown
Services:
Paired: No
Configured: Yes
Connected:  No
Class of Device:    0x00 0x00 0x0000

I had the same problem, after inserting an external bluetooth dongle my Macbook pro 2018 internal bluetooth control has gone, tried everything, resetting SMC, NVRAM, installing a bran new Mojave on an USB disk
I opened a ticket to Apple and after a morning of retries they concluded my internal controller hardware is broken.

I suggest you to run "Bluetooth Explorer" (I was able but "Bluetooth Explorer" does not detect my internal controller..)


Finder constantly not responding/freezing My system

I've read about a dozen similar questions to this. I'm running a 13" retina MacBook Pro and using El Capitan 10.11.6.

System is generally stable.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,1
  Processor Name:   Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed:  2.8 GHz
  Number of Processors: 1
  Total Number of Cores:    2
  L2 Cache (per Core):  256 KB
  L3 Cache: 4 MB
  Memory:   16 GB
  Boot ROM Version: MBP111.0142.B00
  SMC Version (system): 2.16f68

The issue

Annoyingly the same time I went abroad for several months in a region with no Mac stores without taking several flights and unreliable internet access, the system has basically stopped working.

Well, anything to do with Finder doesn't work. Any time you open a new tab or window it freezes (goes Not Responding) in Activity Monitor and Dock. I get spinning beach ball for 10+ minutes but it usually recovers eventually.

Relaunching or Force Quitting doesn't help at all. There is no CPU spike or anything like that.

Other apps freeze/crash/go Not Responding on start too and never seem to recover. Every single time I try to use BetterTouchTools, TextExpander, Excel or uTorrent they cannot run. I suspect it is related to the more fundamental Finder issue. Weirdly, Word will run fine as will Transmission.

Just tried installing Commander One as an alternative. Hang immediately on opening too.

I put some crashlogs on Dropbox if somebody wants to have a look: CommanderOne, Excel, uTorrent.

What I've tried

booting into safe mode to reset Finder settings
resetting SMC
HDD benchmarks and SMART info is fine
killing Google Drive
Nothing obvious in system.log
mv ~/L*/S*/*finder.savedState Desktop followed by killall Finder

Edit: also tried restoring from several Time Machine backups as far back as November and the symptoms persist. Wtf is this????

HALP?!

How odd. But I solved it.

Of course, I lost about half my files with the system restores through Time Machine before I worked it out.

nohillside ♦ pretty much got it spot on. It was me using autofs to mount network shares. Quite why a network share going down or being unavailable means that the entire system is unusable is beyond me. It fact, thinking about it, it's utterly insane.

I wonder if now I have to write some really hacky script to automatically disable autofs if it can't connect to the server a few times in a row.

Another thing that I fear will remain an eternal mystery is why various other apps completely locked up and failed to start. Why TextExpander and BetterTouchTool? Why any file manager? Why Excel but not Word?!

TL;DR - how do I fix it?

Simply deleted the auto_nas file with:

$ sudo nano /etc/auto_nas

I kept the line in /etc/auto_master


Why is iPhone adding a '1' to my phone numbers when sending a text? I sent a text message to (123) 456-7890 and an error message immediately appeared to "use a valid 10-digit phone number" and showed the number I used with a 1 before the area code. I tried deleting the contact's number and re-entering it, but the same thing happened. Why is the phone adding a 1? I've searched through settings (and I did turn off international dialing help to no avail). Is this a setting issue or...?

The US telephone system use a #1 in front of USA area codes.

If you with in the same area then you do not need to dial it.

Even if you dial '1 in local calls it will be just ignored.

You phone automatically adds a #1 anyway so you do not forget it.

However if you are outside the area then #1 is needed in front of the number.

In modern days devices the #1 is hidden but it is dialed automatically.


Shortcut keys mapper viewer/checker available? Is there a tool or method to check what shortcut key is mapped to what?

I used Command-Space for special purposes, after installing this and that, and changing this and that, when I click Command-Space, I see some black screen showing 'No items selected'. It seems that the Finder or something hooks the key, but I'm not sure.

Any idea?

I find that Key Cue shows the assigned shortcuts for everything. I wish, I can get the same information.

Try System Preferences->Keyboard and look at the Keyboard shortcuts tab


Webcam not working since upgrade to El Capitan I have a Creative Labs webcam (VF0700) that was working fine on Yosemite, but since the upgrade to OS X 10.11, it has stopped working.
It is recognised under the System Report in 'About this mac' and if I shut the mac down, plug it into the USB port before rebooting, it works fine ... until I unplug it and then it doesn't work again.

I have asked Creative support, and they say 'it's not supported' but the fact that it works with a reboot gives me some hope that there may be a workaround and I don't want to have to buy a new webcam for the odd few times that the iSight camera is not suitable.

Is there a command I can use to force the USB port to restart (as if I rebooted the Mac) or some other method I can use to get the webcam working without needing to do a complete reboot each time?

Open activity monitor
Search for usbmuxd
Click on terminate process
Enter Admin password if required
Reinsert your usb device

This worked for me a while back when my usb modem wasn't working on Yosemite.


Is there a way to configure the keyboard on an iPad I just got an iPad 2 and I find the keyboard difficult to use, because the keys always show as caps.

Is there a way to modify the keyboard to display lower or upper depending on what the what the case of the next typed character will be?

Or better, is there a way to change the keyboard to a better one, perhaps with numeric keys accessible from the main keyboard?

Unfortunately what you're looking for is unavailable as of iOS 5.1.

The letter keys you type are lower case unless the shift key is blue. This does match a physical keyboard so hopefully you can get past that lack of displaying exactly what you get.

From a design standpoint, each app can add to the keyboard or replace the keyboard entirely, but you can't load a different keyboard if you don't like the ones that are delivered from iOS.

One example of an augmented keyboard is the Prompt ssh application by Panic.

One modification you can do to the keyboard is to "pull the keyboard apart". Using two fingers start in the center of the keyboard and slide your fingers towards the side of the iPad as if you were stretching the keyboard apart.

Also, if you're interested in editing in a language other then your device's default you can go to Settings -> General -> International then select one of several dozen languages available including Hebrew, per your comment. Once you've selected an alternate language you can tap the international icon to cycle through your selected languages as noted in the image below.


Two computers to one new one using time machine I want to transfer both my computers info to the new one.  I did it, but it came out in two different places.  Can I merger the two?

(It probably goes without saying, but I haven't actually tried this myself. YMMV. Make backups before you start this. Use at your own risk, etc.)

You probably can, but if there are conflicts between them, one of them will have to be the designated 'winner'.

The easiest way to do this is probably to run /Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app twice. Whichever one you run last will overwrite any of the existing settings from the other one.

A more complicated way to do this would be to use rsync to move the files to the same destination, however it should be noted that rsync is one of the Un*x tools which is hugely powerful and very easy to misuse to disastrous effect. Be sure that you have a separate backup of these files before you try to use rsync on them.

A third option would be to use Transmit which has the ability to move folders and merge them. You'll have to decide which one 'wins' but it’s probably a more granular approach than Migration Assistant without getting into the complexity of rsync.


BigSur Blurry Text on external monitor I have looked all over the internet and I have seen this issue popup all the time, but none of the 'fixes' seem to work for me.
I have recently switched from a pc to a mac.
I run 3x monitors off my computer and on PC I have had no issues what so ever.
I have a 2019 MacBookPro which is now running Big Sur. (I have recently formatted the computer also to start fresh after my switch from the PC about a month ago).
My initial 1080p monitors (hdmi to displayport) work perfectly fine on the pc, but on the mac I am having issues.
I use a Kensington SD4900P hub to connect all my bits and pieces to the mac.  Everything works fine other than the displays.
I thought they might be the monitors so I upgraded all three to the LG UltraGear 27GL850-B 27" thinking that Mac work with LG to create a 5k monitor that LG would be the way to go, but still nothing is working for me.
I have purchased a USB-C to DisplayPort cable to see if this helps, but nope, nothing there either.  The only difference with the cable running directly into the mac is I get a 'High Dynamic Range' option, which when ticked seems to work a bit, however, it does make my monitor really dull, which is a bit frustrating.
I have also tried resetting my SMC and also the following commands (all with a restart between them)
defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool FALSE
defaults write com.apple.Safari CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool FALSE
defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 3
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 2
defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO

Nothing seems to be helping.  I have already spent upwards of $3k (nzd) on trying to get this to work I really don't want to have to go and switch back to my pc for work.
Are there any other suggestions that I can try to get this to work?  It is also starting to give me a bit of a headache / sore eyes, which is not good as I stare at my screens all day.
I should also mention that my mac display is perfect.

So for my issue so far I have changed the view mode on the monitors from 'Vivid' to 'sRGB' and it seems to have sorted out the monitors a fair bit.
I will still try another cable, but for now, things are looking a lot better


I am unable to to project my screen from a Windows laptop to iMac using HDMI to Thunderbolt 2 I am unable to project my screen as an extended screen to my Late 2012 21 inch iMac from my Dell XPS L502X.

Please guide me through steps which I can follow. I am using an HDMI to Thunderbolt 2 converter.

I am unable to project my screen from a windows laptop to iMac using HDMI to Thunderbolt 2

This is impossible.

First off, there's no such thing as HDMI to Thunderbolt (1, 2 or 3).  Thunderbolt is a multiplexing of several signals:

DisplayPort
PCIe Bus
USB
Power (Thunderbolt 3 only)

HDMI is a video signal and there's no way to convert a video signal to to anything but a video signal.

Secondly,  the requirement to use Target Display Mode (assuming you have a supported iMac) is that it must originate from a  DisplayPort or Thunderbolt port.  It can't originate from HDMI.

Finally, the late 2012 iMac will only support a Thunderbolt connection; DisplayPort is unsupported. So, unless you have a Thunderbolt port on your laptop (your Dell L502X does not), you can't do this.


What's the best way to control two Macs from one laptop? I have an MBP and a MacPro. I tend to use the laptop a lot of the time but have need to control the workstation (e.g. for iTunes, DVD Player, TV tuning etc.) from another room or when I'm working at the MBP in front of the Pro.

Currently I use Screen Sharing to do this, but it is perhaps not the optimal solution when dealing with multiple monitors (3 on the Pro). Ideally I'd like to be able to move the pointer off the screen of the MBP and have it appear on the monitors as if the laptop were connected directly to them.

I think I saw an open source solution about six years ago but I can no longer locate it. Does anyone have any leads ...?

It may not work ideally for every use case (you'd need to be near the monitors), but I can highly recommend QSynergy which will allow you to use one machine's keyboard and mouse to control the other.


Lock Screen Recording In Privacy (System Preferences) I made a standard account to try to put a password to system preference. When I go to privacy, everything is locked except "Screen Recording". I can change "screen recording" without having to unlock with the admin password. Anyone know why that is? And how to fix that? I would want the standard account not to be able to change anything in system preference

Some settings in System Preferences are shared among all users (same for everyone), and some only affect the currently logged in user (each user can customize). The Screen Recording panel only affects the currently logged in user, so the standard account isn't affecting settings for anyone else.

To really restrict a user from Screen Recording, you can do this:

Open System Preferences...
Screen Time
Content & Privacy
Apps
Disable Screen Recording

Or just set an App Limit for System Preferences so that it can't be used at all.