How can I make the new Podcasts app update iTunes played status? I currently have iTunes set to sync all unplayed episodes of all podcasts to my iPhone.  (I'm a bit behind - there are nearly 70 of them.)  Today I downloaded Apple's new Podcasts app, and was pleased to find that it "picked up" the podcasts that were already on the iPhone.  I have listened to a few podcasts today, and just now synced to my Mac (twice).  I was disappointed to find that the podcasts I had listened to were not marked as played, either in iTunes on the Mac, or in the stock Music app, and therefore not removed from the phone.

I can't seem to find any settings for the Podcasts app - either in the app or in the Settings app - that might affect this behaviour.  Is there anything I can do to make the Podcasts app update the played status in the Music app or in iTunes without manually marking them as played or scrubbing through them?

I upgraded to iOS 6 yesterday, and it seems that this has been resolved itself, either through updates to iTunes or Podcasts.app (or both).

When I sync with my Mac, the podcasts I had listened to in Podcasts.app were correctly marked as played in iTunes.  Yay!


Keyboard Issues Garage Band Alright so I've been working in Garageband for about a month and have made a few tracks, but I've just come across a problem that I have yet to encounter, and I can't find anything about it online. When I was playing on the keyboard, I accidentally hit some keys, I'm not sure which ones, wherein lies the problem, but it made the whole keyboard turn to a faded grey and then I was unable to play on it anymore. I can still see it but I can do nothing. I opened and closed the program but the keyboard is still like that. It seems to me that I just need to hit something to fix it, but I have no idea what that is. There is nothing in product support about it or anything in forums. Any help would be appreciated.

Also. If the keyboard is not faded. It might just be that you have the velocity turned down to zero. turn it up :). the velocity controls are right below the keys when you have the keyboard on musical typing mode


"Your system has run out of application memory." How is that possible? macOS is regularly popping up a "Force Quit Applications" dialog:

  Your system has run out of application memory.

  To avoid problems with your computer, quit any applications you are not using.

How is that possible if there are only a few open apps?

In my experience, this occurs when my main system hard drive is running low on free space.  Operating Systems use the hard drive for extra memory storage, called "virtual memory". (I've definitely always wished that the OS could just reserve enough space for itself, but it just can't predict how many applications we'll be running).

On top of that, it's worth noting that regular web use now requires far more memory than it did in the past.  In activity monitor, you'll notice that every single tab & window (every open web page) is it's own process, taking up a significant chunk of memory.  On top of that, account for all the ads, movies, flash, scripts, plugins and 360 videos etc. that we expect to run smoothly.  New OS's and new web pages just use a lot of memory to provide us with the services we expect to "just work" (eg. syncing across devices, notifications, automatic updating etc. etc.).

In short, in my experience there usually isn't a single process that's suddenly taking up a huge amount of memory (although a leaky program could indeed be a culprit - Sketchup 2016 does this to me, for example).  More commonly, it's the additional functionality we expect of many programs/web plugins.

I believe restarting the computer always alleviates this problem for a short while - primarily by unloading all the webpages and apps we had launched over time.  But if our expectation of the computer and hardware constraints stay the same (and we run the same number of processes without changing anything else), eventually we'll run into the problem again.

Two solutions that work for me:

1) Open fewer tabs/pages and fewer programs at one time. Close some web-pages/programs before opening the hefty apps, such as MS Office, Parallels, 3D CAD, Adobe programs etc.

2) Free up more space on the system hard drive (eg. move all your music and photos to another drive), to allow the system to handle your typical virtual memory needs.  For me, this means my 1TB OS drive needs >20% free space (200GB)!  Your requirements may be different.
If you're on an older Apple laptop or iMac or Mini, the OWC Data-Doubler is a really fantastic way to accomplish this.

Method (1) is my temporary fix, so that when I eventually enact method (2) I will have restored the snappy performance I expect while running many heavy-duty programs simultaneously.


Why don't Windows 7 bootable sticks start on MacBook? On Macbook air ~2014 when I created the bootcamp partition and the Windows bootable stick, it made a stick that can start an install just fine on Windows computers.

Why doesn't that bootable stick start anymore on Mac after the botcamp partition has been deleted? What special setup does that bootcamp do on the partitions/setup process ?

Can I re-create the proper environment with a partition manager starting with the blank hard disk ?

I tried erasing all paritions and then try to boot from that windows stick that bootcamp created but it doesn't boot a Mac anymore (boots fine on PC).

The USB stick cannot boot on Mac without Bootcamp. The Windows expects a BIOS, but Mac has EFI. That's why you cannot boot from that USB stick.


Use password window with script code in Terminal on macOS I wrote a small command script for changing file permissions in Terminal, but the user that runs the script needs to type in the password of the computer. This happens in the Terminal window itself.

Is it possible to extend this so it gets a popup box where you enter your computer username and password?

This would make the process look cleaner for people that are not into programming.

You can use AppleScript to perform a sudo with a GUI.

do shell script "…" with administrator privileges

In ‘…’ insert a command to be executed as sudo, for example a path to your script.

To run this from Terminal, you can use osascript.

osascript -e 'do shell script "…" with administrator privileges'


Is it possible to use a SD card as virtual memory in OS X Server? I have a 8gb High Performance SD card that I would like to use as swap (virtual memory).  Is this possible in Mac OS X Server, and if so how do I go about doing this?

You probably can use an SD card as a backing store.

However: you should not expect a good result. See the up-voted comments.


Display PowerPoint notes on iPhone during presentation? When presenting a PowerPoint (.pptx) document, I'll likely have a clicker but cannot count on having visible access to the notes I've written inside it for each slide to help me present.

The presentation will be running on a Windows machine.

Is there an app for the iPhone where I can not only open the PowerPoint document, but easily read the notes only, slide-by-slide?

Alternatively, what solutions do you suggest? Google Docs?

Have you taken a look at Slideshow Remote?
http://www.slideshowremote.com/

This is a well-regarded app (with both free and pro versions) that can remotely control PowerPoint on a PC and allow you to view and edit the presenter's notes.


Keynote Play presentation on 1 display and Just see my desktop on my second Is there a way to have keynote play full screen on one display and just let me have access to my desktop on a second display? It always shows the presenter notes. I want to just be able to access my desktop while the presentation is running.

This issue has been bugging me for ages. However, Apple has finally updated Keynote, half-assed but still.
In Keynote 10.1, there is finally the Play > Play Slideshow in Window option which does exactly that.
You'll have a window (where still the window bar shows up when you move the mouse, well done Apple!) with your presentation, you can resize it and move it wherever you want, share it with Zoom or another video conference tool and still be able to see your Desktop.


Add Touch Icon/WebClip for Blogger I use Blogger to run my blog, and I would like to use Apple's Touch icons. However, I'm currently having trouble and I'm not sure if it's because of the limitations of Blogger or something I'm doing. I've looked to other sites for examples and I just can't figure it out. It keeps showing a default Touch Icon, not my image. Here's what I've got so far.

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="//yoursite.com/apple-touch-icon.png?attredirects=0&amp;d=1" />

Other information

The file is a 60x60 png image
Google Sites' file hosting service needs those parameters on the end for the download link to work.
Blogger says there's a parsing error if I don't put a slash at the end, but every other site I go to doesn't use that slash, so maybe that's a Blogger thing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

So, the problem that I've seem to have diagnosed is that browsers will cache favicon information, which includes Apple Touch Icons. For me, that caused my browser not to update the icons.

What I did was add append a version attribute onto the end of the URL pointing to the image.

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="https://yoursite.com/apple-touch-icon.png?v=1A11a1AAaA"/>

Specifically, I added "?v=1A11a1AAaA" at the end of the URL. I hope this helps anyone with the same issue.


My iPhone 5 synced contacts from my wife's iPhone 5 My iPhone 5 (iOS 6.1.2) synced contacts from my wife's iPhone 5 (iOS 7.0.2) and changed many of them (changed names to contacts with similar numbers). She uses my Apple ID, but contacts transfer from her phone to mine. Does anyone know why does it syncs contacts?

If you use the same Apple ID for iCloud on both devices then it will sync data like contacts between the two. I would suggest you sign out of iCloud on your device and create a new Apple ID for yourself.


iPhone 5s Keeps Crashing to Safe Mode My iPhone is jailbroken and it keeps crashing to safe mode randomly.

I have two pastebins of crashlogs. Here's crash 1 and here's crash 2.

And here is a list of my jailbreak tweaks.

Packages

3x4 Centered (No Icon Labels) Iconoclasm Layout - 1.0

4x3 (iPhone 5) Iconoclasm Layouts - 1.0

4x5 Dense Layout for Iconoclasm - 1.0

7-zip (POSIX) - 4.57-3p

Activator - 1.8.4~beta6

adv-cmds - 119-5

animate - 1.0.1-1

Animate fix for iOS 7.x.x - 1.0

Animer7 - 1.0

AppInfo - 1.6

AppList - 1.5.7

Applocker - 2.2.5

APR (/usr/lib) - 1.3.3-2

APT 0.6 Transitional - 1:0-23

APT 0.7 (apt-key) - 0.7.25.3-3

APT 0.7 HTTPS Method - 0.7.25.3-3

APT 0.7 Strict - 0.7.25.3-6

APT 0.7 Strict (lib) - 0.7.25.3-11

AutoPause - 1.0

Base Structure - 1-4

BaSic-AdBlocker7 - 1.0.2

BatteryLife - 1.3.1

Berkeley DB - 4.6.21-4p

BigBoss Icon Set - 1.0

BioCentered HD - 1

biteSMS - 8.1.3

Bolt - 0.7.0

Bourne-Again SHell - 4.0.17-13

BytaFont 2 - 2.1.3

bzip2 - 1.0.5-7

CameraTweak 2 (iOS 7) - 1.0.1

CleverPin - 1.8-3

ColorBadges - 1.0.3-2

ColorFlow - 1.0.5-1

Coono - 1.1-4P

Core Utilities - 8.12-12p

Core Utilities (/bin) - 8.12-7p

Crash Reporter - 0.2g-1

cURL - 7.33.0-8

customLS - 1.2-1

Cycript - 0.9.501

Cydget - 0.9.4011

Cydia Installer - 1.1.9

Cydia Substrate - 0.9.5001

Cydia Translations - 1.1.8.1

Cylinder - 0.13.2.15

Darwin Tools - 1-4

Debian Packager - 1.14.25-9

Debian Utilities - 3.3.3ubuntu1-1p

Diff Utilities - 2.8.1-6

Disable Parallax Effect - 1.3-1

diskdev-cmds - 421.7-4

DockShift - 1.4-2

Eclipse - 1.1.3-3

evasi0n 7.x Untether - 0.3

Exigency - 1.1.1

f.lux - 0.986

f.lux Flipswitch - 0.2-1

file-cmds - 220.7-3

Find Utilities - 4.2.33-6

FlagPaint7 - 1.0

Flex 2 - 1.928

FlipControlCenter - 1.0

Flipswitch - 1.0.3

GIFViewer - 1.0-1

GNU Privacy Guard - 1.4.16-1

grep - 2.5.4-3

GridSwitcher - 1.0-2

gzip - 1.6-7

HASHBANG Productions Common - 1.0

Hattori Hanzo Font - 1.0

HomeLock - 1.2

iCleaner Pro - 7.1.3-1

IconBundles - 0.1-3

Iconoclasm - 1.9.1

IconSupport - 1.9.2-1

iFile - 2.0.1-1

iOS 7 Blank Keypad - 0.0.2

iOS Firmware - 7.0.6

iPhone Firmware (/sbin) - 0-1

iTunes Radio Unlimited - 1.1.0

Lato Light Font - 1.2

libhide - 2.4.1-1

libstatusbar - 0.9.7.0

LockSafety - 1.0-1

lscameragrabber - 1.1

LZMA Utils - 4.32.7-4

MessagesCustomiser - 2.3.4-2

NCAllOnly - 2.2-1

NCSingleTapClear - 1.0-2

New Curses - 5.7-13

Nitrous - 2.4-5

No Yahoo! - 1.0-1

NoAnnoyance - 0.2.0~beta4-1

NoDelay64 - 1.1-2

NoSlowAnimations - 3.0.1-3

NoStoreButton7 - 1.0-2

OpenSSH - 6.5p1-2

OpenSSL - 0.9.8y-10

PAM (Apple) - 32.1-3

PAM Modules - 36.1-4

pcre - 8.30-5p

Phantom - 2.6.3-1

Photo Blackground - 1.0-8

PhotoTorch - 1.3-7

pincrush - 0.9.2-1

PowerSoundDisabler - 1.1.1-6

PreferenceLoader - 2.2.2

PreferenceOrganizer 2 - 1.0-2

Profile Directory - 0-2

Pulse - 1.0-1

readline - 6.0-7

RocketBootstrap - 1.0.1

SameStatus - 1.0-1

SandCastle 2 - 2.2-1

sed - 4.1.5-7

shell-cmds - 118-6

Show Notification Dates - 1.0-2

ShowCase - 1.3.4.1-1

Shrink - 1.0.7.0

SlideForUsage - 0.0.4

Springtomize 3 - iOS 7 - 1.1.0-2

SSH Switch - 1.2

StatusBarFix2 - 0.1.2-1

StatusHUD 2 - 2.0.0

StatusModifier - 2.0.1

StoreAlert - 1.0-2

Substrate Safe Mode - 0.9.4000

Subtle7 - 0.1

SwipeSelection - 1.4.1-1

SwitchSpring - 1.0.1

syslogd to /var/log/syslog - 1.0.2586-2

system-cmds - 433.4-12

Tape Archive - 1.19-8

TinyBar - 0.0.4-1

UIKit Tools - 1.1.8

Ultimate M'Flat Icon Collection - 1.7

Uniformity - 0.0.1~beta4-1

unrar - 3.6.8-2p

unzip - 5.52-5p

WiFi Booster - 2.0

WinterBoard - 0.9.3915

YouTubed - 1.2-2

Zanilla - 2.1.1

zip - 2.32-5p

Sorry I can only post 2 links since I'm a new member. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for looking!

Use Crash Reporter.

Crash Reporter will attempt to guess the cause of a crash. After installing, next time your iPhone crashes, you can check the 'Possible Causes' list in Crash Reporter for its guess on the cause. You can then try to delete the package in Cydia and see if that fixes the problem.


How to Connect Multiple Monitors to a MacBook Air Usually I connect my MacBook Air 11" to a secondary display via the Thunderbolt port.

What do I need to connect it to two external monitors?

As has been mentioned, you couldn't daisy-chain multiple Thunderbolt displays on pre-2012 Airs. Two possible add-ons that'll allow you to connect an additional external display:

Matrox DualHead2Go (in action hooked up to an 11" Air)
DisplayLink adapter

I've used the latter and they work pretty well for non-intensive applications.


open folder with one click Is it possible to open folders with just one click in Mac OS 10.11? Renaming could be done using context menu with right click then.

It's not possible to open folder with one click in default "Icons" view in Finder. However switching to "Columns" view (cmd-3) will allow you to open folder with one click.

Also it could be faster to just use hotkeys instead of trackpad/mouse. Use arrows to navigate inside "Icons" view, cmd-down to open selected folder and enter to rename selected file or folder. When no file or folder is selected, you could just type in file/folder name and Finder will select closest match for you.


How to add Folder Actions in Mountain Lion I'm trying to add an Apple Script to my Download directory. From what I read on the Internet I need to copy the script to Macintosh HD -> Libraries -> Scripts -> Folder Action Scripts - however, I don't see this directory on ML, what should I do?

Thanks.

You need to drag it into your personal library, not the system-wide.

Switch to Finder
Shift-Cmd-G and enter ~/Library/Scripts to open a Finder window
In case there isn't a Folder Action Scripts folder inside the newly opened window, just create one manually
Copy the folder action scripts into the folder called Folder Action Scripts


macOS: MacBook goes hibernate during night and does not restore all windows after turning on Using MacBook Pro 13 2015 with macOS Sierra.

Just closing my Mac lid.  Went to sleep.

Mac is connected to external monitor with miniDisplayPort, though monitor power turned off during the night.

Mac is running on AC power.

Next morning trying to login to my Mac, I'm seeing spinning circle on my monitor (not opened mac lid till now).

Waiting some time, some seconds pass, spinning wheel just goes on.

Tired of waiting, opening mac lid and pressing power button.

Mac starts in login screen, suggesting me to use my credentials to login.

It starts off with just one app I left before.

Is this normal behavior at all?

Also, I see that uptime is going on:

Mac:Google sevenfourk$ uptime
11:42  up 1 day, 16:41, 3 users, load averages: 1.97 1.76 2.08
Mac:Google sevenfourk$

I mean, it actually hibernated.

Note: Currently having Bootcamp partition in place.

Ok, I see here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201635

  OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 supplemental update 2.0 introduced a feature that lets your Mac enter safe sleep after four hours of being connected to AC power. This complies with European Energy Standards (ErP Lot6) and happens when there's no network activity and no activity from connected devices like external hard drives.

that my Mac could have hibernated after four hours of inactivity. But would not that restore all of my work.


Prevent MacBook Pro 2016 from sleeping (High Sierra) I need to prevent my 13" 2016 MacBook Pro from sleeping. I'm using the Sonnet Echo Express III-D and when the Mac sleeps, all cards in the devices are disconnected and won't come back until the Mac is restarted or Thunderbolt 3 cable is removed and reconnected. I have a case open with Sonnet, but until then, I don't want my Mac to sleep.

The Mac is running High Sierra and there appears to be no setting in Energy Saver that keeps the Mac from going to sleep while on the Power Adapter, other than this:

In earlier versions of macOS, there used to be a second slider that allowed you to set when the Mac sleeps, in addition to controlling the display.

Now, no matter what, my Mac will sleep whenever it wants, with no apparent way of controlling this.

I have tried Amphetamine but it appears the way this works is, when the computer tries to go to sleep, it interrupts it and keeps it awake. This won't work for me, since that's long enough for the cards in the Sonnet to all get disconnected.

How can I prevent my Mac from sleeping?

Use this on the terminal :

caffeinate -u -t <time_awake_in_secs>

It will keep the screen awake, avoid any restart till the time specified.

Use only

  caffeinate

if you want to endlessly keep the system awake.

To end this mode press control c or kill the terminal


When enabling Water Lock on the Apple Watch, do the hardware buttons also stop responding to input? When using an Apple Watch Series 2 or later, there's an option that can be activated from within the Control Center that locks all screen input; this is useful when swimming whilst wearing the Watch, but also prevents accidental taps during everyday use. I'm wondering whether activating this setting also disables input from the hardware buttons - I was mainly thinking the on/off button - it would be useful to know if the Emergency SOS feature can still be activated when it's enabled.

Hardware inputs still work. During waterlock, you'll need to turn the Digital Crown in order to expel the water from the watch and disable waterlock.


Why does mdworker keep spamming the logs on Lion? After upgrading to Lion I keep noticing strange spamming of mdworker on the logs, even though there doesn't seem to be any noticeable CPU or IO work being done. The machine is snappy but I just can't figure out why these logs keep periodically appearing:

29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>PanAndZoom</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>Style</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>ShuffleSlides</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>Parent</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>GUID</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>PanAndZoom</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>Style</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>ShuffleSlides</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: <key>Parent</key>
29/08/12 10:17:13,861 com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0: *** process 55341 exceeded 500 log message per second limit  -  remaining messages this second discarded ***

Any ideas about what do they mean? Even googling for the keys doesn't seem to show anything useful.

The messages are coming from Spotlight search.

The message themselves are in relation to iPhoto's data on your images.  The tags can be found in the AlbumData.xml written out by iPhoto for sharing use (such as Spotlight and other media sharing tools)

Without more information about the version of iPhoto in use, or whether you have any issues with iPhoto itself (and Spotlight's integration) there's not more more I can tell you.


This iPad is supervised by another computer and cannot be used with this computer I was given an iPad 2 16 GB with Wi-Fi running iOS 7.0.4. I do not know who the former owner was...I do not have a passcode...it has been wiped clean. When I turn it on it says "iPad disabled - connect to iTunes". I did that and get a message that says "This iPad is supervised by another computer and cannot be used with this computer"...I have not registered with Apple and do not have a user name. What now?

It looks like you might have a stolen iPad. How can you 'get' an iPad without knowing the former owner? You cannot use the iPad until you know the Apple ID that was combined with the iPad.


Seeking improved fixed-width font rendering in Kindle for Mac reader I purchased a programming book from Amazon which I'm reading on the Kindle for Mac application.  The rendering of the fixed-width font (the code examples) is just insane.  Is there a way to fix this?  Are there alternative readers that do a better job?

Is it any better if you use the Kindle Cloud Reader (read your Kindle books in a web browser)?

https://read.amazon.com/


How can I stop from having my music transfer between my iPhone and my HomePod? What initially seemed like a clever feature turns out to be ridiculously annoying: the transfer of a song between a HomePod and an iPhone.

I have a HomePod in my office, on my desk, and whenever I take out my iPhone to do something, even though the iPhone is a good 2 feet away from the HomePod, it transfers from the amazing speaker of the HomePod to the little crappy speaker in the phone.  This literally happened like half a dozen times in the last song I played.  It significantly degrades the listening experience  both by interrupting the song (there is always an extremely noticeable delay when transferring) and by forcing my to play on a radically inferior speaker.

How can I make this stop?

I have looked through the configuration for the HomePod and can't find anything to allow me to turn off this misfeature, or (better yet) adjust the proximity required, or add a confirmation before the transfer.  This seems like an obvious failure on the part of Apple to test this feature well or provide necessary settings, but since I can't make them fix it, what can I do?

There is no other furniture in my office that is suitable for the speaker, so moving it is a terrible option.

I tried turning off Bluetooth on my phone, and that surprisingly didn't thwart it.  (I would have guessed that Bluetooth was used for detecting proximity.)

When the notification appears to tell me of an impending transfer, flicking it away quickly has occasionally seemed to prevent the transfer but this has been very inconsistent, and there is a very short opportunity to do that.

To add insult to injury, as I've tried testing various methods I've found that the proximity detection often fails even when I want it to work, making it impossible to test whether some behavior is stopping it.

Update: I've found a solution to turning it off completely (below) but I'd still be interested in other approaches if anyone finds a clever way of controlling how this works.  The ideal would be a way of having it turned on, but having it work reliably only when I actually intend it to, not when I'm just using my phone from a couple of feet away from the speaker.

Okay, it turns out this is controlled in settings for the iPhone, not the HomePod.  I think of it as a HomePod feature, but whatever.

It's under Settings → General → AirPlay & Handoff


is there a way to disable being able to move icons on an ipod touch my 3yr old son loves using it, but everyday he manages to reorder everything, and places all the objects in 1 folder

I have found how to disable the delete ablitlity, but is there a way to prevent the object icons from being moved
thanks

Unfortunately, it is not possible to disable icon movement on a non-jailbroken iOS device.  As great as some of the "child-friendly" apps are, the stock UI of iOS devices is not designed to keep curious children at bay.

You could always load up an app for kids with built-in parent controls.  Then you'd want to protect the Home button from being pushed -- perhaps with a product like BubCaps.


How to prevent iOS 10 apps from "resetting" when activated after being backgrounded? Sometimes, I'll get a notification for an interesting story on the Medium app, tap it, opening the story in Medium, but then get interrupted, so I switch to another app, putting Medium in the background. If I'm especially busy, it may stay backgrounded like this for several hours, until I have time to read the story.

Unfortunately, what happens when I bring Medium to the front later is that it "resets" itself to a default landing page, making it difficult to find the story again (the notification is "cleared" by tapping it, so I don't have it to reopen the story.

This happens in other apps, too: I open a specific content item, background the app for some time, then returning to it, only to have my content item replaced by whatever default screen the app thinks I should want to look at.

Is there a way to tell these apps to just open right were I was and stop trying to "help" me so darn much?

I suspect it may have something to do with background refresh or whatever it's called… Thanks in advance.

Edit: Follow-up: Turning off "background refresh" for Medium did not resolve this issue. After leaving an article open in the background overnight, visiting the app this morning "reset" itself again to the home screen. There may be nothing for it.

This is due to the restrictions iOS places on app developers.

Apps are only allowed to stay open in the background for a few minutes (this saves RAM), so if the developer doesn't have the app save where you were last, the app will reset to its start page. So no, you can't do anything about this.

This is why you don't really need to close your apps in the app switcher.


Installing Snow Leopard or Leopard on an early 2009 MacBook Recently, my sister picked up an Early-2009 MacBook at a Flea Market. Everything worked fine, but it had belonged to a school, and it had DeepFreeze installed on it, and it really bothered her. She got her hands on a Snow-Leopard Installation Disk, and tried to reinstall OS X. When she put the disk in and held down C, it booted up in Snow-Leopard, but it said "this OS X Cannot Be Installed On This Computer", and proceeded to try to go to TimeMachine. So this is where it gets interesting. She read somewhere to ignore any messages that pop up, and she went ahead and in the Disk Utility, she deleted the "Macintosh HD", so there is no longer an OS on the drive.

I am a PC guy, and I have no idea what to do now. Is there any way to get the Snow-Leopard OS X disk to work on an Early-2009 MacBook, or will I have to torrent a Leopard Image and go through the process of putting it on a proper DVD?

Leopard  (10.5) came out in 2007, Snow Leopard (10.6) was in 2009.  Most of the time when this error occurs, it's because the hardware didn't exist when the installation media was created, so it doesn't know how to install.  Typically, the hardware contains hardware for which the installation media doesn't contain proper drivers.  More importantly, though, Leopard and Snow Leopard are out-of-support.

The early 2009 MacBooks will support the latest version of OS X, Yosemite (10.10).  To ensure you're running a supported OS, I would install OS X 10.10.  If you or her were to take this laptop into an Apple Store, they can assist with installing Yosemite.


My MacBook Pro doesn’t wake up after sleep mode I have a MacBook Pro 13" (2013). After it goes into sleep it does not wake up. I see the tabulator key light goes on if I press it, but the monitor stays black. I can only restart the Mac by pushing the on/off key.

In cases like this you should try to do a PRAM and an SMC reset. You can see how to do that here and here. Don't worry you won't loose any data.


How can I deactivate iCloud to avoid "MobileMe Services Stopped Working" message? I keep getting the message MobileMe Service Stopped Working each time I open Outlook 2007. I have to click on the Close Program button in the error message twice each time it shows up while Outlook is trying to load up. Then I am able to use Outlook. I never use my iCloud account and would like to know how I can deactivate iCloud so I do not have issues with my Outlook.

Took me a few days, but found this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2992
That worked for me
Uninstalling the MobileMe Control Panel for Windows 7 and Vista
To uninstall the Control Panel, follow these steps:

Click the Start Menu.
Choose Control Panel from the Start Menu.
In Control Panel, choose Uninstall a Program, which is under the Programs section (If you are using Classic view in Windows Vista, open the Programs and Features Control Panel).
In the Programs and Features Control Panel, under the listing of Programs, select the MobileMe Control Panel.
In Windows 7, click Change. Then, click Remove from the pop-up window. In Windows Vista, click Uninstall.
Follow the onscreen directions to remove the MobileMe Control Panel.

Uninstalling the MobileMe Control Panel for Windows XP
To uninstall the Control Panel, follow these steps:

Click the Start Menu.
Choose Control Panels from the Start Menu.
In Control Panel, choose Remove a Program.
If you use Windows XP, choose Add/Remove Programs.
In the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel, under the listing of Programs, select the MobileMe Control Panel.
Click Uninstall, and follow the onscreen directions to remove the MobileMe Control Panel.


How to print an image across two pages I have a long image that's about 8 inches wide by 20 inches tall. It's open in Preview. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to get the top half of the image to print on one sheet of letter paper, and the second half to print on the second sheet.

Every time I try, it prints only on one sheet of paper. If I select Scale=100%, it prints a zoomed in part of the middle of the image on one sheet of paper, ignoring the top and bottom of the image. I tried Googling for an answer but the results are bad due to the generic-icity of the words "preview, print, mac, pages" - most of the results I saw were about printing multiple images on one page.

How do I print a PNG across multiple pages?

Here is how to use Safari to print an image to span multiple pages:

1) Open the image to be printed in Safari.  If it is a local file, then choose File -> Open File....  Or if you already have the file open in Preview, you can drag the icon of the file from the title bar of the Preview window onto the Safari window or Safari icon in the dock.  Otherwise, load the image from the Internet however you usually would.

2) Go to File -> Print... and then change the Scale (%) so that the image is the desired size. If you do not see the place to change the Scale, you may need to press the Show Details button. Safari will show you a preview of how the image will appear on each page, so you can see how big the resulting image will be.  For the example, you can get the entire width on a single page, but the image will span 2 pages in length.

You may want to choose borderless printing if your printer supports it.  For instance, for my Canon inkjet, I set the paper size to US Letter (borderless).  However, I was not successful in achieving borderless printing in my one trial; Safari still left white borders around the image that I later had to trim.

3) Click print. Collect your prize from the printer.  Trim away white space and then combine the different pages using tape, etc.


iPhone: doesn't change views when tilted When browsing web pages I like to tilt for landscape view. It seems that I can't get it to rotate the image anymore.

Is there a setting for this?

Found the answer to this question: http://support.apple.com/en-us/TS3805

Make sure that Portrait Orientation Lock is off.


How to extend bootcamp partition? When I was installing windows 7 on my mac I allocated 55GB to my bootcamp partition, I now realise that it is not enough for me. is there a way to extend it, without loosing any data and re-instaling windows?

Additionally, is it possible to store files on Macintosh HD partition (as it shows up when I access my computer from windows) while using windows?
That would solve the problem, however I'm not sure if it will work.

Late note: iPartition cannot handle CoreStorage or APFS volumes & is no longer supported by its author. Coriolis is now a single page site, with unsupported free license downloads for some of its old software.
If you are still on a pre-CoreStorage macOS, then it is still very much the tool to use.

For all my partitioning, I use and recommend iPartition.
iPartition allows you to modify Boot Camp partitions just like regular partitions. iPartition will reconfigure the Windows partitions automatically.

You can use iPartition on drives that contain Boot Camp volumes; in fact, you can even resize your Windows partitions, and let iPartition take care of reconfiguring the Windows boot process for you.


How to set Fn and left Control keys as shortcuts to change between tabs in Safari I don't like native shortcuts for "Show Next Tab" and "Show Previous Tab" in Safari, I thought that Fn would be great for previous tab and Left Control for next tab because I don't use that keys in Safari at all, however I wasn't able to set that keys as shortcuts in Setting>Keyboard>App Shortcuts, how can I do that?

Both the control key and Fn key are modifier keys, which generally aren't intended to trigger anything by themselves. I think that even a macro program (e.g. keyboard maestro ) probably won't trigger on just a mod key. I know that Alfred won't trigger a workflow on a mod key.

There is a program called Ukulele that lets you edit your keyboard layout, and that would make it possible to remap your keyboard's behavior to your heart's content, but either you'd need to live with those keys being remapped all the time, or you'd need to select the alternate keyboard you created when you're in Safari.

Long story short, I think it's possible but will take some work and be annoying.


Cannot open games or video on ipad I updated some games on my ipad mini, in addition to downloading several new ones. Now every time I try to play anything, nothing works. I click on a game, and it will not open. The same is true for all the videos. What do I need to do?

Force restart your iPad:

  You should force restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as a last resort, and only if it's not responding. To force restart your device, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home button for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201559


Subtitle editor for OSX? I have a video in mp4 (MPEG-4) and I would like to add subtitles to it. What tool or application would you recommend to help me write and sync the subtitles with the video?

Never tried this, but is is cross-platform: http://www.aegisub.org/

After i read your comments - IMHO you will need:

Make .srt subtitles in any tools what you can manage to work (timing)
Optionally repair .srt files in any texteditor - skip this if not needed
Test the .srt subtitles with VLC or Quicktime/Perian
If everything is OK - embed subtitles into video with http://code.google.com/p/subler/


How can I disable the tweet sound when using Click to Tweet in Notification Center? I really like being able to send tweets on Twitter from Notification Center, but I can live without the sound that plays when you click Send. Is there a way to disable or customize the tweet sound?

The "tweet sent" sound file is located at

/System/Library/SocialServices/Twitter.socialplugin/Contents/Resources/TwitterSent.caf

If you remove or change that file, then the sound should change accordingly.


iPhone 5 backup to iCloud not starting I have tried to start my back up manually because the automatic back up isn't working for some reason. The last backup was June 3, 2015. I have the icloud backup on and I have plenty of space in my icloud!

In- order to Fix the Automatic iCloud Backup not Working issue on iPhone do the following steps ;

Step:1

Delete your iCloud profile in iPhone

Step:2

Now again reconnect the icloud profile

Step:3

Now you get message sync automatically..

Well also , check this below article to troubleshoot this issue ;

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT203271

Hope this helps...


Tool for randomized signatures Is there a tool for randomizing signatures (for 10.8/.9)?

I.e. I'd like to maintain a list a signatures (e.g. with different quotes, etc) and swap them randomly or every such-and-such minutes.

I'm using different email apps for different accounts so something that would simply change the signature text file that's then loaded in to Thunderbird, Mail, etc. would be great.

About the only luck I've had, other than writing scripts myself, is using SignatureProfiler.  Note that it's not free ($12).

It's mostly overkill for what I need, which is just the random signatures, so I've implemented a few little scripts to get this working on my own machine - Random Signatures for OSX

Note, however, that something seems to have changed in 10.10 that is now preventing Mail from updating the signature when the signature file itself is updated (until I manually trigger it, or restart mail).  They must have some kind of caching in mail now for the sig files so that it's not read in every time.


Simplest way to record voice on Macbook Air I'm looking for the simplest way to record voice -- a two people conversation -- with a Macbook Air. The goal is then later to listen to it on the Mac and transcribe it.

Scenario 1: You're both in the same room

Open up QuickTime Player. Select File -> New Audio Recording.... Make sure the source is set to Built-in Microphone (see screen shot below). Hit the big red Record button. Talk away.

Scenario 2: You're using Skype or something like it to converse

This is a little trickier but not impossible. You'll need the SoundFlower app from Cycling '74. If you're using Skype you'll set it's audio output to be the SoundFlower input. Then in QuickTime you'll set the audio input to be SoundFlower's 2-channel output. This routes the audio from Skype in to QuickTime. Record as above.


Is audio and video slightly out of sync when iPhone is used with a Bluetooth earphone? Because wireless audio through Bluetooth is usually slightly delayed, so when a Bluetooth earphone is used, is the audio and video slightly out of sync for:

YouTube videos
Videos in general, such as Facebook videos, and movies on iTunes
What if Apple's own Airpods is used, is it optimized for (1) and (2) above?

A quick Web search reveals this article, which claims to have done quite some good research on the topic:

AirPods Latency

  Disappointingly, and contrary to what I had hoped, AirPods have the worst latency of everything I've tested so far. For context, a wired connection achieved latencies of 61ms playing Tapt, and 106ms using the iOS keyboard. The AirPods had latencies of 251ms and 296ms respectively, in the same tests.

  Even the worst offender in my previous test, the JBL Flip 2, achieved significantly shorter latencies (218ms and 258ms, respectively). In contrast, my £30 Brainwavz Bluetooth eabuds achieved respective latencies of 199ms and 249ms in the same two tests.

  I would theorise that perhaps the need to ensure both AirPods play sounds in sync necessitates some small amount of additional communication, and thus latency. Hopefully it's something that could be improved with software updates in future. Of course any wireless technology is going to be slower than a contemporary wired solution, and I didn't expect the AirPods' latency to be on par with wired audio, but their failure to beat the latency of much cheaper Bluetooth earbuds is a downer.

However, it could be taken with some grain of salt as it an almost 2 year old article and software updates may indeed have fixed the noted latency issue. As is a general trend, the performance and bug fixes are rolled out over period of time, subsequent to release of any new hardware by Apple. The article was written about time the AirPods were newly released.


How can I append to a file using dd? On Linux systems, I can append to a system file like this:

echo "# New data" | sudo dd of=/etc/config_file conv=notrunc oflag=append

But the dd command under OS X doesn't have the oflag option. Is this possible under OS X?

Notes:

I need root access.
I'm not asking for alternative solutions, I'm asking if dd has the capability.

You can seek to the end of the target file:

sudo echo "# New data" |
    dd of=/etc/config_file conv=notrunc bs=1 seek=$(stat -f "%z" /etc/config_file)


Problems syncing MobileMe mail with an iPad 2 I'm having a problem syncing MobileMe mail with an iPad 2. When I set up the syncing either through general preferences or through the mail app the only syncing option is Notes. I've tried deleting and recreating the account and readying the iPad but with no luck so far. MobileMe syncs with my iPhone so I dont think the problem is there. What could I look at next?

To help you in focusing your troubleshooting - here are the variables:

Your MobileMe account status
The network between the iPad and the MobileMe servers
The steps you take to configure it
on the iPad
The software on the iPad
The iPad hardware

You seem to have tried #3 again - so unless you have never successfully entered a MobileMe account into an iOS device and had it work, it's unlikely having someone else do the entering will help solve your problem.

To really rule out #4 - I would transfer all purchases and back up the device. Then I would rename the device to "test" and restore it. Once it's restored, I would not load a backup and set it up as a new device. Second thing after joining a network would be to try MobileMe setup. If it still fails you can rule out #4. Then you could restore your backup to get everything and the iPad name correct again.

You'll need to take your account to another device to rule out #5. This is unlikely since if the hardware is failing, everything should fail equally. There's no little chip inside the iPad that computes the sync data - it's all software for that.

Eliminating #2 should be easy and it's highly unlikely to be the cause - possible, but very unlikely.

Lastly, you will need to get help from Apple MobileMe support if you need someone with access to the servers to see if your account is having problems. I needed their help last year to realize that my iDisk was over quota and syncing having errors as part of that space was needed to store my data during a sync. MobileMe is an evolving thing and something that caused problems in the past might now be fixed and new things could be causing your account to not show other data to be synchronized.


Does latest ios version gets updated on all the iphones I am thinking of learning ios development. I have a noob doubt- right now the latest ios is 13 so my doubt is whether the latest ios gets updated in all the iphones or not?
Basically, I want to learn which ios version centric app development should I learn- I have ios 12 and ios 13 in my mind.
p.s - I don't use iPhone.

iOS 11–12 are supported on all iPhones since iPhone 5s (2013)
iOS 13 is supported on all iPhones since iPhone 6s (2015)

Generally support is for n-1 from the latest major release of iOS. If you support iOS 12, you'll include every device since iPhone 5s. It's assumed people will be running the latest or n-1 version of iOS on their device.


macOS Bluetooth headphones connection I use a set of Bluetooth headphones (Bose QC35) that can connect either with good audio or with a microphone and some distortion. This works well with my iPhone usually in the audio mode, but switches when calling or answering the phone.

On my Mac (macOS Sierra 10.12.4) they work as audio only.

How do I switch the headphones between modes?

On audio only they do not appear in the System Preferences -> Sound output.

On odd occasions I have made them appear in degraded audio and microphone mode by moving out of range and losing the connection and then moving back in range but this does not occur reliably. In this case the headphones do show up as a microphone in System Preferences.

I do know that the degraded quality can be fixed by switching the Mic (Input device) to your Mac's mic rather than the headphone's mic. It's a software issue as far as I know.


Apple Script Time interval I used a great script from CJK with no issue , but not sure what happen, recently I noticed some invalid result :

startDate = "2019-05-31" (US Format)
Then converted to "31-05-2019"

MyDate (now) = 01-06-2019

Result 31 days

    set creationDate to "2019-05-31"
    set [YearValCreation, MonthValCreation, dayValCreation] to the words of creationDate
    tell (current date) to set startDate to dayValCreation & "-" & MonthValCreation & "-" & YearValCreation --->>> "31-05-2019"

    set MyDate to short date string of (current date) --->>> "01/06/2019"
    set [dayVal, MonthVal, YearVal] to the words of MyDate
    tell (current date) to set MyDate to dayVal & "-" & MonthVal & "-" & YearVal ---->>>> "01-06-2019"
    set DateText to ""
    on timeInterval from startDate to endDate by units : 1
        tell (current date) to set [startDate, ¬
            day, [day, its month, year]] to ¬
            [it, 1, words of startDate]

        tell (current date) to set [endDate, ¬
            day, [day, its month, year]] to ¬
            [it, 1, words of endDate]

        (endDate - startDate) / units
    end timeInterval

    set dayResult to timeInterval from startDate to MyDate by days
    set dayResult to (round (dayResult * 1)) / 1 as integer
--->>> 31

Just release  if  the date is 30-05-2019 instead of 31-05-2019 I have a correct result

It's because you are supplying dates in the format dd-mm-yyyy, where you need to be supplying them in the format yyyy-mm-dd.  So your creationDate was already in the correct format before your script adjusted it.

There's no need to replace slashes with hyphens—the handler is, for the most part, indifferent to the delimiter being used (notable exceptions include "." and "+").


Hard drive free space discrepency between System Profiler and Finder System Profiler says the amount of space used on my hard drive is different than what Finder Get Info says. Why are they not the same?

If you have Time Machine Local Snapshots enabled (and I'm fairly sure it's enabled by default), then it's going to use some of your free space for creating these local snapshots. However, Finder doesn't take the space used by this feature into account, pretending it is actually free, because if the user starts filling up the disk, then the local snapshots get deleted -- it will only use `idle' free space, so to speak. See this other question for more details.

So, don't worry, if you actually need the extra space reported by Finder, then it will be made available to you when the need arises.


Move all contents from a folder to another with shell script Why does this work?

mv /Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Youtube/Novas/* /Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Youtube/Tratadas

…but the commands below don't work?

mv "/Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Youtube/Novas/*" "/Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Youtube/Tratadas"

I had to rename the folder "Youtube" from "Youtube - Downloads", just because this don't work:

mv "/Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Downloads - Youtube/Novas/*" "/Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Downloads - Youtube/Tratadas"

I want integrate this in an Automator app. Is there a better way to move all contents from an folder to another with Automator.app?

The space character is used by bash to separate different parameters to a command so you need to protect/escape it if it occurs in filenames (or other parameters):

mv /Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Downloads\ -\ Youtube/Novas/*  /Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Downloads\ -\ Youtube/Tratadas

You can also use quotes to protect the space characters from being misinterpreted by the shell but need to move the * outside the quotes then to allow wildcard expansion:

mv "/Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Downloads - Youtube/Novas/"* "/Users/diogosaraiva/Music/Downloads - Youtube/Tratadas"


Why would port 19421 be open on an iPhone? Following up on the Zoom vulnerability, I decided to run nmap and scan my local network for devices with port 19421 open. One of the devices turned out to be my iPhone!  What service would use that port on an iPhone, and should I be concerned about it?

It's not a standard service. I would suggest rebooting the iPhone and checking again. Then you can start one app after another until you get to one that opens that port. Possibly the port number is dynamically allocated, so that you wouldn't fall upon the same port number again.


Terminal.app ignores ~/.profile file settings Terminal started to ignore profile file settings, which I didn't change in a long time. How can I force Terminal to respect the file again? I tried to delete and recreate but it didn't help...

My setup is Lion 10.7.3, Terminal.app reports version 2.2.2 (303). ~/.profile file has following attributes: -rw-r--r--@

Ok, what shell (bash, zsh, ...) are you using? Bash for instance reads .profile in absence of .bash_profile and .bash_login, though of you are NOT using bash as a login shell it will most likely go straight to .bashrc

A similar question was asked on this forum before, and pjmorse added this link:

http://hayne.net/MacDev/Notes/unixFAQ.html#shellStartup

which describes what files are read, and in what order, by a shell in OSX.


ld: library not found for -lgcc After a brew upgrade every time I try to compile a .c file I get the following error:

ld: library not found for -lgcc
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Wrappers like mpicc still work though. I tried relinking with brew link --overwrite gcc, but got no working results, as it is already linked. brew doctor doesn't give me a hint.

I'm not sure with it's like this, but if I compile with gcc-4.9 (as the gcc version I have instaled is version 4.9.2) instead of gcc it works as it should. So the compilation sentence that seems to work is gcc-4.9 -o exec_name program.c. If someone knows why it is like this I would be interested to know.


Jetbrains'IDE can't start after upgrading to OS X Yosemite Yesterday I upgrade my MBP to OSX 10.10 Yosemite, everything went well. But When I try to start Pycharm, it shows me this

It means "You need to install old Java SE 6 runtime to run Pycharm".

It seems I'm not the only one run into this problem
https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/entries/27854363-IDE-doesn-t-start-after-updating-to-Mac-OS-Yosemite-or-Mavericks

There're some hacks from the link above, but I would like to find an "official way" to solve this. I'm also curious about the cause of this problem.

Thank you!

You can also solve it by doing the following:

Locate your Installed package (PyCharm or IntelliJ), right click, show package contents

Under contents, open up Info.plist

Locate the JVMOptions dictionary entry, and find the key titled "JVMVersion"

The default value for that key should be "1.6*". change it to "1.6+".

Save it, and re-launch the IDE again.

You should be able to use it without JDK 6 installed.


Getting full HTTP request from website I am doing a project in which my Arduino needs to connect to a simple web page and retrieve the content of a text file. I want to use curl to see the response I would get if I sent the following HTTP request once connected to example.com (the website in my actual project is a different one) so that I can devise a parse for the contents of commandPage.txt:

GET /commandPage.txt HTTP 1.1
Host: example.com
Connection: close

How can I use curl to send the request and see the full response?

What you're asking for is simply:

curl http://example.com/commandPage.txt

This will get you the contents of that URL.

If you need to see the headers as well, you can add -v.

Otherwise, you can even use telnet to do so. Just use:

telnet example.com 80

And paste the full request as quoted above, followed by one empty line.


Bootcamp Windows 7 installed but no wifi capability or USB drive? So I installed Bootcamp with Windows 7 Professional on my late 2013 15in Macbook Pro with Retina and I have it installed and booting up Windows 7, however it doesn't seem to pick up any of my hardware (Aside from my keyboard and trackpad). I read that the solution it to download the bootcamp udpate, but I have no way of getting it on the Windows partioned hard drive it it doesn't pick up my USB. It also does not let me drag and drop the update file into the Windows hard drive while using OS X.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Tuxera is an app that makes NTFS filesystems fully readable & writable. There is a 15-Day trial for it. So you can download Windows Support, and just put it into for example your C:\Users\User\Desktop instead of putting it on a USB.

If you cannot find the BOOTCAMP partition on your Desktop. Press Command+Alt+G and type /Volumes/ and there search for your Windows partition. And then you just drag & drop the Windows Support file to your Windows Desktop.


brew Install encounter error /usr/local/share/texinfo is not writable ==> Installing ffmpeg dependency: texi2html
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/texi2html-5.0.high_sierra.b
==> Downloading from https://akamai.bintray.com/52/5259ab2074f122f4725058d247723
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring texi2html-5.0.high_sierra.bottle.1.tar.gz
Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
Could not symlink share/texinfo/html
/usr/local/share/texinfo is not writable.

any ideas?

Try running the command:

sudo chown -R `whoami`:admin /usr/local/share/texinfo

and reattempting the installation.


How to find all modified PDF files I have a folder of 6000+ PDF files (chapters, articles, etc.). I'm trying to weed out/sort those that I've just downloaded but never annotated. Is there a way to do this? Those PDFs that I've never annotated usually have the same "created" and "modified" dates, so I was thinking those criteria could be used (i.e., look for files whose modified date is later than/not the same as the created date), but I have no idea how to do that.

In other words, I need to be able to find any PDF on my computer that has been modified.

Thank you for any help!

Per info in the OP and comments, this will do as you asked.

In Automator:

Create a new Workflow.
Add a Find Finder Items action.

With settings, e.g., Search (Documents)
(All) of the following are true
(Kind) (is) (PDF)

Add a Run AppleScript action.

Replace the default code with the following example AppleScript code show further below:
Note: If Skim is not in the /Applications folder, then modify the value of the skimpdfPathFilename variable accordingly. You should not need to modify anything else unless you want to set the
value of the offsetInSeconds variable, e.g. set offsetInSeconds to 60, to a different value. This variable is used to help find the files that really have been modified since they were created. The granularity differential between the creation date and modification date when a file is first created can be from 0 seconds to a higher value, which is not a consistent value depending on how the file was created. Make adjustments as you see fit for your use case.

What the Workflow and example AppleScript code does:

Finds all PDF files in the target folder, including all subfolders.

This is done with the Find Finder Items action and its output is passed to the Run AppleScript action.

Creates a list of all PDF files that have been modified after the creation date, per the value of the offsetInSeconds variable.

This is done in the first repeat loop. Files meeting the criteria are stored in modifiedFilesList to be used in the next repeat loop.

Creates a list of all files that have annotations made in Skim.

This is done using xattr to get the extended attributes of the target files. If a file has the target extended attributes a flag is set to true and if not, set to false. The files flagged as true go into annotatedSkimFilesList to be used in the next repeat loop.

Embeds in place the annotations made to the files in Skim.

Using the skimpdf utility within Skim on the files in annotatedSkimFilesList, annotations are embedded in place. Thus no need to export to a second file, then delete the original and replace it.

NOTE: While I have tested this and it works without issue for me, nonetheless do not run this until you are sure you have a proper backup! You should also test the workflow on a small sampling of copied files placed outside of the actual search folder the workflow will be run on after testing is done.

Example AppleScript code:

on run {input, parameters}

    set skimpdfPathFilename to "'/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/skimpdf'"

    set offsetInSeconds to 60
    set modifiedFilesList to {}
    set annotatedSkimFilesList to {}

    repeat with i from 1 to count input
        set fileInfo to info for item i of input
        set cDate to creation date in fileInfo
        set mDate to modification date in fileInfo
        if mDate > (cDate + offsetInSeconds) then
            set end of modifiedFilesList to POSIX path of item i of input
        end if
    end repeat

    repeat with i from 1 to count modifiedFilesList
        set withNotes to (do shell script "xattr " & quoted form of item i in modifiedFilesList ¬
            & " | [ $(grep -c \".*_notes$\") -ge 1 ] && printf 'true' || printf 'false'") as boolean
        if withNotes then
            set end of annotatedSkimFilesList to item i in modifiedFilesList
        end if
    end repeat

    repeat with i from 1 to count annotatedSkimFilesList
        do shell script skimpdfPathFilename & space & "embed" & space & ¬
            quoted form of item i in annotatedSkimFilesList
    end repeat

end run

Understanding the do shell script command in the second repeat loop:

When a PDF is annotated in Skim and saved, extended attributes are set on the file, e.g.:

$ xattr Filename.pdf
com.apple.FinderInfo
net_sourceforge_skim-app_notes
net_sourceforge_skim-app_rtf_notes
net_sourceforge_skim-app_text_notes
$

The output is piped | to:

[ $(grep -c \".*_notes$\") -ge 1 ] && printf 'true' || printf 'false'

Which tests the output of grep counting the occurrences of the pattern and if grep finds one or more occurrences of the pattern, then the value of the withNotes variable is set to true, while being set to false otherwise.

Note that Skim does have a built-in command line utility, e.g. /Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/skimnotes that can be used to test if a PDF has annotations made in Skim, however because of its output this utility is better used in an shell script run in Terminal then a do shell script command, and why I used xattr and grep instead.

Note: The example AppleScript code above is just that, and does not include any error handling as may be appropriate/needed/wanted, the onus is upon the user to add any appropriate error handling for any example code presented and or code written by the oneself.


Can Mac Messages connect to more than one apple id? Say I have two iCloud accounts, personal@example.com and work@example.com. My iPhone is logged into personal@example.com, while the Messages app on my work computer is logged into work@example.com.

Is there a way to get text messages on the Messages app? I've tried going to "Messages > Preferences > Accounts > +" to add an account, but the only option seems to be Jabber.

You can set up two iCloud accounts on a mac.
In System Preferences you can go to Internet Accounts, there you can see al your accounts, and you can easily add another iCloud account.

You can then select what you would like to use with the new iCloud account, keep in mind though that only one of the iCloud accounts can be used for photo stream at a time.
This answer on the apple support community site also explains it.


Why cannot I see any browsers in system preferences? Already filed a bug in Apple's bug reporter, ID is 25949722

What I want to do is to set Canary as default browser, but when I opened system preferences, I cannot see any browsers listed.

What's wrong with my Mac (OS X 10.11.4 - El Capitan)?

It looks like you may need to rebuild the Launch Services database, which is what the Mac uses for its "what apps can open this type of file" structure.

You can either do it in Terminal, using

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user ; killall Dock

then restart,

Or Onyx (freeware) can do it for you - Maintenance tab > Rebuilding - check just the first box & execute.


HiDPI on Lion: Most windows blurry In order to make an app I'm developing Retina compatible, I enabled the "HiDPI" mode on my Mac (OS X 10.7.4 Lion), since I don't have a Retina MBP. The Quartz Developer Tool worked as indended, and I can select the HiDPI modes in system preferences. However, almost everything is rendered in scaled mode, i.e. pixelated. Only some parts of the "shell" are rendered with sharp fonts; the menu bar, the dock, Launchpad and Mission Control, and the "About this Mac" window. Everything else looks bad, including the app I intended to fix.

I remember this used to work, at least for a couple of applications (and my own, if I edited the Info.plist file accordingly). Is something broken on my system, or did maybe an update remove this feature for non-retina-MBP Macs?

The screenshot doesn't really do it justice. You can see the effect better if you view it in another tab. Also note that while the Firefox version shown might not have Retina support (I don't know), this happens with every other app on the system.

Compare the window controls and fonts, between background and foreground windows (and please excuse the German text :-)).

Fixed it. I had a defaults key "AppleMagnifiedMode = YES". After deleting it, I get crisp apps in HiDPI mode.

$ defaults delete NSGlobalDomain AppleMagnifiedMode

(See also http://lists.apple.com/archives/carbon-dev/2012/Jun/msg00003.html for details on the key.)


Faulty power button on an iphone 3g and upgrade to 4.1 I have a jailbroken 3.1.3 iPhone 3G with a faulty power button. I would like to upgrade it to the newest version of iOS possible, but obviously it needs to be done without using said power button - can it be done? And if so, what would be the best way to approach it?

I'm not sure of the details of your question - but you can use 'Activatior' to give another button all the funcationality of the power button. (one of the volume switches perhaps)


On the iPhone lock screen, how can I see just the number of unread mails? As a Windows Phone user, I can see the number of new mails for an account on my lock screen.

I'd like to have the same effect on my iPhone, without seeing the mail's preview content. Is there a way to do this without jailbreaking the phone? Note that I realize I can have mails in my notifications area, but that involves seeing a mail preview.

Settings, Notifications, Mail.

Change "Show Previews" (all the way at the bottom) to off.


How to prevent an app from being opened What is a non-destructive way to prevent an app from opening?

Command line code is OK (as long as it isn't "rm (appname))
Applescript is OK
The app may want to be used in the future, so corrupting it is not allowed
Answers like "Just don't use (app)" should get you shot into the sun, but, alas, our space budget just isn't what it used to be
Not a start-up issue.

Make an account managed by parental controls, and blacklist the app. Whenever you do need to open it, it's easy enough to enter your admin password and whitelist the app.

Alternatively, if you don't want to go to the hassle of moving all your stuff to another account, you can make another admin account that exists solely for the purpose of enforcing parental controls on your main account.


Unable to connect display(s) to MBP 13'' Mid 2014 via Tunderbolt / mini DisplayPort Okay, so I've spent almost the entire last day on this problem, and I've googled the crap out of it, I hope someone here can help me.

First off: Yes, I've cleared the NVRAM/PRAM several times and I've reset the SMC more than once too.

I have a setup with two displays on my desk that are connected to my desktop PC. I sometimes used one of those displays with my MBP via HDMI. A couple of days ago, I've decided to use both of those with my MBP and an external keyboard/mouse just to have a more tidy experience on my desk.

So I got two DisplayPort to HDMI cables to realise this extravagant folly.

Now, when I plug either of them in, nothing happens.

The (internal) display will flicker for a second, but the external displays are not detected. Neither via the old "hold option and click detect displays in Preferences->Displays" nor via "put Mac to sleep and wake it up". I've cleared the NVRAM and reset the SMC several times. I've booted up in safe mode and tried it. No dice. They don't show up in the system information box either.

To be clear, I'm not trying to connect both displays at this time. Neither of them works with neither cable.

The cables are not faulty, as I've tried both cables and both monitors with my MacBook Air Mid 2011, and they work just fine in all possible combinations.

Both displays work just fine with the MBP directly via an HDMI cable or with my mini DisplayPort->VGA adapter.

So, surely, it must be some software issue.

Now, I've tried to use one of those hellish cables to connect my MBP to my TV, and --voila-- it worked. So my MBP is indeed capable of using those cables.

So, I've ruled out

a) the cables

b) the displays

and c) the notebook as a source for my woes.

Neither is it the combination of a & b (works with MB Air), a & c (works with TV), or b & c (works via HDMI and mDP->VGA).

What am I missing?

Here's the displays, sorry for not including them in the original post:

BenQ XL2411
Samsung SyncMaster P2770

The TV that for some reason works with the cables and the MacBook is a Panasonic TX-32ASW504. I'll try and go around town and plug my Macbook into other people's HDMI to test out other displays.

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.2 on a MacBook Pro Retina 13'' Mid 2014.

So it looks like you have systematically ruled out all hardware issues on all components, so you're right and it sounds software related. And since you were using at least one of the monitors before, it's likely not a compatibility issue.

Just in case, I would connect an external monitor (even though it appears unusable) and then check for software updates in the App Store - maybe there's a necessary firmware update to install that has yet to be triggered.

What I would do next is to test the issue in a new user account - if it happens there, it's a system-wide issue. If it doesn't, the problem could be with a corrupt system preference file somewhere in your user library that needs to be regenerated. If you have a backup from before this issue occurred, restoring your user's home folder from the backup would actually be the quickest and easiest solution to this problem, as hunting down individual preference files can be tedious when you don't know the exact one causing the issue.

If it's a system-wide issue, it's likely OS related not system library .plist related as you still had the same issue in safe mode. (Although if the monitors are identical it could be a driver issue and I would check the manufacturer's website for new drivers, but if they're different and both are not working that is highly unlikely.)

Next I would back up your system and then reinstall the OS from the App Store to see if that fixes it. I know that's time consuming but I usually set mine up before I go to bed and it's done long before I wake up.

Last but not least is an Erase and Install from the Recovery Partition, but let's hope it doesn't come to that!


Added LG monitor and cannot get display icon to show MAC 10.3.6 cannot get the display icon to show up on the menu bar of my macbook pro AND the attached monitor.

(older) LG 24M47H-P
Display preferences show LG Full HD

✔ Show mirroring options in menu bar when available.

What am I missing, this worked with my old Mac running Snow Leopard.

To show the Apple Menu Bar on both displays, (and thus see the Monitors menu item,) Check "Displays have separate spaces" in System Preferences > Mission Control.


Zsh using 100% of CPU during iWork install I've been trying to install Keynote and Numbers, but they hang like so:

This is associated with a shell script consuming 100% of a CPU:

That process is defaults delete com.apple.helpd com.apple.helpd.sdmMapsCreated, which looks like an operation that shouldn't be long-running at all:

Killing its grandparent process results in the "an error has occured" message in the app store. What gives? I don't even know how to begin debugging this.

I was able to solve this, but I still don't know what caused it.

Iteratively:

Watch for a hung sh job.
Run the command in a terminal.
Kill the parent of the hung job with kill -9.
Return to 1 until no more hung jobs appear.


Can I give away my iPhone apps with my phone? I had an iPhone 3G that I've given to my friend. I had a number of paid apps that I left on there in the hope my friend would be able to use them, however when he tries to sync iTunes tries to delete them all.

I no longer have an iPhone and so have no need for these apps - is there any way that I can give these apps to my friend?

TL;DR

technically: yes

practically: no

legal: untested, your mileage may vary

Of course you can give away whatever is in your possession. Your friend can keep the apps as long as he clicks carefully and doesn't allow iTunes to delete them.

I am not a lawyer, but I don't think you own the software - just a license to use it. If you look at the current store terms, it asks us not to transfer a license among other restrictions.

  You may not rent, lease, lend, sell, transfer redistribute, or
  sublicense the Licensed Application and, if you sell your Mac Computer
  or iOS Device to a third party, you must remove the Licensed
  Application from the Mac Computer or iOS Device before doing so.

To complicate things, there may be local laws that prevent this sort of language or restriction, or other problems with an "agreement" where one party might not be able to change or negotiate any of the terms. Get legal advice if you are worried about this end of things.

Technically, the apps will run until the phone needs to be restored or the user removes one or all of the apps. The next software update will have that person either losing the apps, needing your password to download them again, or needing use of a computer that is authorized to transfer your apps to that device.

If you give them the password to your account, they could be nice and only access the apps or run up charges against your name or account (or even change your password).

The best technical workaround if you want more than one account's apps on one device is to let him sync his apps from his computer and you place your credentials on that device and download whatever purchases of yours that you want on that device. Every time the device syncs - the apps from the computer should update and it will offer to transfer your purchases - but the warning that the other password is needed to transfer will pop up each time a sync happens. Your apps won't update or delete during a sync. You could log in to update them. In practice - it's a nice way to try some things, but your friend will likely tire of the warnings and delete the apps and buy the ones he wishes to keep so his syncs are fast and warning free.

In the old days when it was just music and less powerful iPods, I seem to remember 5 being the big number to remember. 5 accounts worth of protected music could run on any one iPod. Your account would work on 5 computers and there was no restriction how many iPods connected to a mac so the whole neighborhood could have connected and gotten music from your one computer.

Now it's a little harder to remember - 5 computers get purchases, up to 10 can auto download purchases and no word on how many can manually load or how many accounts are "allowed" technically on one device. The hassle factor keeps me from getting any more than two or three accounts purchases on any one device at the same time.

I hope I didn't go on too long here - there's always that edit button :-)


Repartitioning a HDD A pal has an external, 1TB, Glyph HDD.
It has two partitions; one has his Time Machine backups & the other has a clone of his internal HDD.
He is running OS Mojave.
His plan is to purchase another external HDD, erase the clone of his internal HDD from its current partition on the external HDD.
What he is trying to determine is if, using using Disk Utility, he can go to that partitioned external HDD and resize it so he can use it in its entirety for his TM backups without destroying/harming the TM backups currently residing on the other partition of that HDD.

I did this.  I had several partitions on my external hd that I had the time machine partition.  I deleted the partition after my time machine partition. I expanded my time machine partition.  All is well.

I'm running 10.l0.5.

He may consider cloning his startup drive to the new hd before erasing the old partition.
R


How do I restore a Mac to its original macOS version? I've just followed the steps here to try to format my wife's laptop so we can sell it: https://superuser.com/questions/959422/reinstall-os-x-without-cd-dvd-or-apple-id

Unfortunately I'm still getting a message saying "to download and restore OS X, your computer's eligibility will be verified with Apple" and when I proceed further in the installation, it says "signing in to App Store" and there is nothing I can do but sign in.

It's my understanding that the Apple ID needs to have the relevant OS X paid updates (so in this case, El Capitan) so if we sell it in this state, wheover logs in with their own Apple ID won't be able to use it.

Any suggestions on how to restore it back to it's original state? Many thanks

FIRST: Please read What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac on Apple's website.

As for your question, it doesn't state what model MacBook you're trying to sell, so it's not clear if Mac OS X El Capitan is the original OS it shipped with.

However, your best bet is to boot into macOS Recovery using the ShiftOption⌘R keyboard shortcut. This keyboard shortcut is designed to install the version of macOS that originally shipped with your Mac.*

To do this:

Fully shut down your Mac
Power up your Mac again but immediately press and hold the ShiftOption⌘R
Keep the keys down until you see either an Apple logo or spinning globe appear on screen (Note: If you have a firmware password set on your system, then let go of the keys when the password prompt appears)
Once the Utilities window appears you'll be in macOS Recovery Mode

Now choose to reinstall macOS and follow the prompts.

* For users of older Mac models this option will install the closest version of macOS still available to the original that shipped with it.


Are there any apps that copy files to another location whenever they change? I've been trying to change my IDE from NetBeans to Sublime Text.

The most important thing that keeps me using NetBeans is the "Copy files from Sources Folder to another location" feature.

I can't find a plug-in for Sublime Text that can perform this task.

Your problem can be solved using 'Folder Actions'. You can create folder actions using AppleScript or Automator. If you do not know what 'Folder Actions are, you can read the Folder Actions Reference page on the Apple site to get you started.

  Folder Actions Reference

  Folder Actions is a feature of OS X that lets you associate
  AppleScript scripts with folders. A Folder Action script is executed
  when the folder to which it is attached is opened or closed, moved or
  resized, or has items added or removed. The script provides a handler
  that matches the appropriate format for the action, as described in
  this chapter.

  Folder Actions make it easy to create hot folders that respond to
  external actions to trigger a workflow. For example, you can use a
  Folder Action script to initiate automated processing of any photo
  dropped in a targeted folder. A well written Folder Action script
  leaves the hot folder empty. This avoids repeated application of the
  action to the same files, and allows Folder Actions to perform more
  efficiently.

  You can Control-click a folder to access some Folder Action features
  with the contextual menu in the Finder. Or you can use the Folder
  Actions Setup application, located in /Applications/AppleScript.

Note: you can create your own 'Folder Actions' using AppleScript Editor or Automator.


Apple Software Update behind Websense I'm trying to keep Mac OS X updated behind an ancient Websense (pre-Cisco websense.com) and corporate IT won't play along. To anything other than Windows, Websense appears as a man-in-the-middle.

So, (rightly) all bogus certificates are refused, and I can't update (an SSH tunnel is impractical for any transfer > 1MB.)

Suggestions?

If IT is being intractable even when you tell them that you are prevented from updating your OS (which in itself is a security issue), you have three options:

Download macOS updates directly from Apple at https://support.apple.com/en_US/downloads/macos.  You can download these off site (if necessary) and copy them to USB external storage.
Use a mobile hotspot
Physically take the Mac to another network without this restriction (like you home for example)

It still surprises me that they are completely unwilling to assist - they could literally bypass the rules or  put it on the DMZ for the duration of the update and return the machine back to the being protected after the update.


How can I download WWDC 2013 videos straight to my iPad? I want to download some WWDC session videos to my iPad. I don't want to download them to iTunes, then transfer them to my iPad. Is there a way to download them directly?

Not really a way to how to download them directly. In order to get in touch with your iPod, iPhone and iPad using a computer is actually iTunes since iTunes will sync the iOS Software.

This might help : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4030410?start=30&tstart=0

And some more here : http://www.copytrans.net/support/install-apps-to-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-without-itunes/

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-sync-music-to-your-iphone-without-itunes/


Keyboard shortcut for right-click in current cursor position on OS X? ('Menu Key' on Windows) On windows computers there is often a key for this. Called the 'Menu Key'

There is also a keyboard shortcut in windows, when the key is missing. Shift + F10

A similar request was made here  but the question was not sufficiently clear and the answers provided demonstrate how to make a right-click where the mouse pointer is on the screen, which is not useful.

What we need is a shortcut to make a right-click where the cursor is on the screen. The same as the windows functionality.

Mouse pointer:

Cursor:

4] http://www.gmr-publishing.com/ecards/images/copy-paste_04.gif

In researching this particular issue, I ran a accross a particular app called Shortcat.

You can create a keyboard shortcut to select an element and click or right-click where your pointer is.

Note:  the right clicking function that brings up the menu where the pointer is seems to be OS X convention.

I tried this in Word and One Note for Windows as well as OS X.  In Windows, when you press the "right click key" or simply right click, it will bring up the contextual menu where your cursor is.  In OS X, it will bring up the contextual menu where your pointer is.


Clone all of an iPhone's data I'm looking for a way to copy all of the data from my iPhone to a Windows PC, with accuracy down to the byte that could be used for forensic purposes. The iPhone in question is an iPhone 6 running iOS 9.3 and is not jailbroken.

Is there any software (the cost of which is not important) that would do just that? Basically, I'm wondering how the FBI did it.

The output file is NOT important. Even if it's all encrypted, it's ok—it just must be every single byte that can be taken off the phone (a complete copy of the iPhone's hard disk).

Could iTunes do this based on the presumption that nothing is left behind when iTunes+Windows makes an iPhone backup?

In a sense there are multiple answers to your question.

Law Enforcement

You asked how the FBI did it. In a nutshell you won't get an answer here as they paid a huge sum of money to obtain the vulnerability, which in itself only applied to a particular model of iPhone running a specific version of iOS. So the approach the FBI used most likely wouldn't work for you, but even if it did, no-one is going to be able to tell you how they did it.

Law enforcement also uses a tool developed by Zdziarski five or so years back, however current versions are not available to the public. Even if you could source one of the earlier versions originally available to the public, this is not likely to work with iOS 9.3.

Forensic options

There are a number of forensic options available, none of which are cheap. However, since you stated that the cost isn't important, here's a few you may find of interest:

Lantern 4 - US$1,999 up front, US$800 annual maintenance
Spotlight - US$2,000 up front, plus the cost of compulsory training
UFED - There are a whole range of options/versions available

'Disk Image'

Once you have your disk image of the iPhone you will need analysis tools that are capable of connecting to and analysing a mounted iOS image. In your case you're likely to find that some of the open source community tools are powerful enough for a search and retrieval investigation. Here is a list of some of these tools for you to research:

Scalpel
DD
Find
Stings

iTunes backups

In terms of whether iTunes will perform a full bit-by-bit backup, the answer is no. Even selecting the "Encrypt local backup" option will not result in a full backup, although it will capture account passwords, Health data, HomeKit data and various other additional files not usually included in the backup.


Unable to run vsftpd command I am using Sierra 10.12.6 and by using Homebrew, vsftpd is installed so that I can set up an FTP server my iPad can connect to.

However, I can't run the command vsftd:

zsh: command not found: vsftpd

But when I try to install vsftpd again, i see that

*Warning: vsftpd 3.0.3 is already installed

I can do man vsftpd and that works fine.

I run which vsftpd at root, this returns vsftpd not found

I went to the vsftpd config file and also set listen=YES

So how do I run vsftpd?

vsftpd needs to be in your PATH

If it's not in your PATH, it will not run nor will you be able to find it with the which command.

You can add it two ways:

Append your PATH to include the directory /usr/local/Cellar/vsftpd/3.0.3/sbin
Make a symlink to vstpd in your /usr/local/bin directory

I would choose the second option as you have less items to modify (.bash_profile for example):

sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/vsftpd/3.0.3/sbin/vsftpd /usr/local/bin/vsftpd

That said...I wouldn't be using an insecure protocol like FTP to transfer files - scp is a much better option.  See this blog for details


Mac Mini (late 2012) No boot, heavy fans after upgrade Not sure where else to turn - just upgraded two Mac Mini (late 2012 models) to include 120GB SSDs.

The first one went fine - took the update and booted properly. Great.

Second one, after closing the case, connecting power and turning on, I get the power light and the fan progressively spins up until it is running like crazy. No beep, chime, or screen output. I tried putting the old hard drive back, but same behaviour.

I double checked every connection both before and after the problem so I'm pretty sure that's not it. My gut says I shorted the logic board (possible) - has anyone any experience with this or these symptoms? I have worked through Mac will not boot, and no display output.

Thanks in advance!

Were you ASD safe? If not there is a good possibility you had some static discharge that shorted the board or the memory.

Actions to take:
Does it let you reset PRAM?
Try unplugging the Mac mini and holding the power button down for 10 sec. Apple and others may say you do not need to hold the power button down but I have found with some models or issues it help.

Check to see if HDD sensor is shorted/damaged.
If none of this works the you will need to start part isolation or bring it to someone who can.
i.e.
Take out the RAM and see if you get an error beep.

Good luck.


Restoring apps and preferences to a clean install I have a mid-2009 MBP currently running Mavericks and suffering from the slow performance problems that others have been mentioning.

Initially I thought it might have been something to do with a battery replacement warning I was receiving, so I had that replaced. Things got a bit better, but not by much. I'm planning on getting a SSD but that will take a while to ship.

The tech at the Apple Store suggested a clean install of Mavericks from a USB stick, which is what I'm going to attempt next. (if that doesn't work I'll probably try this as kernel_task seems to be taking up a lot of memory and CPU usage)

Is there a way to do a clean install but keep all of my apps, preferences, etc.? Could I just make a Time Machine backup and restore from it?

Is there a way to do a clean install but keep all of my apps, preferences, etc.? Could I just make a Time Machine backup and restore from it?

Short Answer : Yes you can. OS X has an App called "Migration Assistant" that is located in "/Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant.app", which can easily restore user-chosen stuff from a backup or an external HDD or external Server Partition or a Thumb drive if you wish to do so.

The Long Answer :
As a clean install is always helpful, don't try to simply run away from your problems. OS X can be a very sensitive System and Mavericks has its problems.
(And thank god there is Stackexchange for every Problem that might occur)

I would consider using certain tools to clean your mac and make sure it is checked carefully. Some common Apps are OnyX or CleanMyMac.

Also try creating a whole new user and compare the performance with your own account. Using this way you can find out if there is something in your account that makes your machine so slow or if it is the overall System.

Also try using the PRAM and SMC -reset, Boot your mac from a recovery partition or CD/DVD to repar the Disk if neccessary or to check if everything is ok.

If nothing changes during all your steps, a clean install is your last resort. If even this does not seem to fix the problem it won't be a software issue and you should take the Computer to an Apple Store for Hardware checks. (you can use the build-in hardware check first if you want to save some time)


iTunesConnect iOS app on iPad? The iTunes connect site has a link for the native app, when you browse from an iOS app. On iPhone the download link works fine, however on iPad it opens the iTunes app (rather than the app store) and doesn't seem to ever load anything?

Does the app exist for iPad (or if you can install it, does it only work in 2x mode)? And is there another way to to get to the app page?

I have the same issue on my iPad, and if you search the store, it seems to be hidden. If I search the store on my Mac in iTunes, it shows up though.

The direct link to it is http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itunes-connect-mobile/id376771144?mt=8

It also is a universal app, so it has an interface designed for the iPad.

Clicking this link on my iPad though still doesn't take me to the actual app. I think this may be a bug in the App Store. I can see it in iTunes on my computer and add it to my iPad that way.

After syncing it to my iPad through my computer, it launches fine, will connect, and looks good. The copyright on the app is 2010 though, so it looks like it hasn't been updated in a while (for example, no retina graphics on iPad). I did have a few times it threw an error saying it couldn't connect. I also don't have any apps in thee right now to test.


How can I quit an app using Terminal? I want to quit certain applications on my Mac using Terminal. For example, how do I kill “Slack”? Do I need its PID number?

You can use AppleScript to tell the application to quit:

osascript -e 'quit app "Slack"'

this will tell the application to quit and will start all the save and cleanup tasks. Or you can send the TERM signal with pkill but it could be that the application will not shut down cleanly

pkill -x Slack


iCloud Photos: What happens when deleted from phone If I delete photos from my All Photos, will they be deleted from iCloud also?

If you enable iCloud Photo Library all your devices stay in sync. So deleting/adding a picture on one device will delete/add it on all others (and the Cloud) as well.


How can I restore Spotlight to menu bar? I removed the Spotlight icon from the menu bar. I would like to restore it.

I tried the recommended method:

sudo mdutil -a -i on
sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search
sudo killall SystemUIServer

…which did not help. The command keys still work, but I would like to see the icon. I read the suggestion to reinstall the system and would prefer not to do that.

Does anyone have a different suggestion?

Problem solved: The article from OSXDaily worked perfectly. Thanks to all who responded.

Just to make an official answer.

User M K referenced an article in osXDaily that explains how to both hide and un-hide the Spotlight icon.

  Show the Spotlight Menu Again

  Getting the Spotlight icon back is a matter of bringing the permissions back to their default setting in OS
  X. Go back to the Terminal app by relaunching it from
  /Applications/Utilities/, and then enter the exact command syntax
  below: sudo chmod 755
  /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

  Hit the return key, then follow this up with killing the
  SystemUIServer process again: killall SystemUIServer The system menu
  bar will refresh, and the Spotlight menu will be visible again.

I just tested this on OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 with success.


Complete a movie download on different Wi-Fi I am downloading the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But because I am using hotel Wi-Fi, it is slow and I will be leaving the hotel before it finishes.

So here is my question: If I disconnect from a network before the movie finishes downloading, but then later connect to a different network, will the movie resume downloading from where it left off?

I am using an iPad mini (don't know if it is 2/3) running iOS 10.2. I am downloading the movie via the iTunes Store.

Yes, if you switch to another network, the download resumes from where it was interrupted (the download will pause as long as you not connected to a wifi, in your case).


Speakable items always activated after reboot 13" MBP running on OSX 10.8.2:

Problem is that after reboot Speakable items is always on. I have to go all the way to Settings - Accessibility - Speakable items to turn it off again. I don't know why it's turned on by default after reboot. Can somebody help?

The Systems Preference app preferences file, just like that of any other app, can become corrupted. There are utilities--none free that I know of--that will check your preferences files, or you can simply move this file from ~/Library/Preferences to the trash and see if that fixes the problem. Close System Preferences first.

And I assume you've checked your login items.


iPhone 3Gs got dropped in water. Is it pretty much done? My old iPhone 3Gs got dropped into water (completely submerged for a second or two).  When I took it out, the screen was barely visible.  Then it went off completely, but it appears from time to time (barely visible though).

Oddly enough, I can still sync it to iTunes.

Is the phone pretty much done or can it be repaired?  Obviously the warranty is long over.

When this happens don't turn the device on or try to sync it right away. Instead, remove the battery (if possible) and put the device into a sealed bowl that's half full of uncooked rice, crystal cat litter (make sure it's pure crystal) or the desiccant crystals often sold in garden centers. These will all draw the moisture from the device and absorb it.

Leave the device in the sealed bowl for at least 24 hours. 48 is better, but you might want to check/change the rice after 24. No need to bury the device either--just rest it on top or suspend it on a block of wood, a couple of dowels, or whatever else you can one up with. After 48 hours inspect the device.  If you think it's dry go ahead and test it.

No guarantees, but with luck you'll be pleasantly surprised.


Detect whether clipboard item is image data using AppleScript This started because I wanted to be able to paste screenshots or pictures copied from Safari into Finder folders. Here are the steps to get to where I am:

Install pngpaste using brew install pngpaste.

Make Automator Quick Action, and configure as:

osascript -e 'set formattedDate to (do shell script "date +'%Y-%m-%dat%H-%M-%S%p'")' -e 'tell application "Finder" to set thePath to the quoted form of (POSIX path of (insertion location as alias) & formattedDate & ".png")' -e 'if ((clipboard info) as string) contains TIFF picture then do shell script "/usr/local/bin/pngpaste " & thePath' -e 'if ((clipboard info) as string) does not contain TIFF picture then tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using control down'

Save and close.
Remap default paste:

Assign default paste to trigger service:

THE ISSUE: No matter what type of file I have in my clipboard, the script always detects it as a TIFF and pastes it as a PNG. How do I fix this?

Having to write and maintain an osascript command as you have is really not the best way to go in this use case IMO.
Using a Run AppleScript action, instead of a Run Shell Script action, the following example AppleScript code will resolve the issue you are currently having, and makes the code much easier to read and edit:
on run {input, parameters}

    set cbInfoAsString to (clipboard info) as string

    if cbInfoAsString does not contain "«class furl»" and ¬
        cbInfoAsString contains "TIFF picture" then

        set formattedDate to do shell script ¬
            "date -j '+%Y-%m-%d at %I.%M.%S %p'"

        tell application "Finder" to set thePath to ¬
            (insertion location as alias) & ¬
            formattedDate & ".png" as string

        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/pngpaste " & ¬
            the quoted form of the POSIX path of thePath

    else if cbInfoAsString contains "«class furl»" then

        tell application "System Events" to ¬
            keystroke "v" using control down

    end if

end run

Notes:

POSIX path is a part of Standard Additions not Finder, and should not be wrapped within a tell statement of Finder.
If not setting the date with the date command, use the -j option.
I modified your date command to use 12-Hour Time as typically 24-Hour Time does not use AM/PM and have added made additional modifications to make it more readable, and in line with the system default used with screen shots.
If you want  24-Hour Time then use e.g.: "date -j '+%Y-%m-%d at %H.%M.%S'"
As coded, if there is anything other than a file(s)/folder(s) or just an image, the script will not attempt to process text if that's what's on the clipboard.


How to add keyboard shortcut for 'move focus to next window' It's bound to ⌘+`.
When I'm using the laptop's own keyboard it works fine,
but when I work with HHKB, ` is just too far off. Can I add a secondary shortcut for the same Move focus to next window?
I'd like to do it with ⌘+esc if possible.

It can be done!
Option 1: Create a new shortcut using Keyboard Maestro
NOTE:

You can do what I've outlined here within the free trial of the app I believe, but I can't guarantee that'll always be the case.
I am not affiliated with Keyboard Maestro or advertising for them, I just happen to know that you can create system shortcuts using their app.

Steps:

Download and install the Keyboard Maestro Trial
Once you open the app an editor window will appear. On the left you'll see folders, in the central column you'll see a bunch of actions, and if you click on one you'll see the configuration options for each action
Click + on the bottom of the middle column to create a new action

Give your action a name
The important bit Click on New Trigger and select Hot Key Trigger, then type ⌘ + esc to set it as the trigger.
The other important bit Click on the box the says 'No Action', this brings up an action picker on the left

Type 'Keystroke' into the search box
Drag the action called 'Type a keystroke' into the actions box
Click where it says 'Simulate Keystroke' and tap ⌘ + `

You'll need to allow Keyboard Maestro to start on startup for it to monitor things in the background (right click on app icon -> Options -> Open at Login)
You now have an uncle called Robert

Option 2: Change the System Shortcut (This doesn't add a secondary sadly)

Open System Preferences -> Keyboard

Then select the Shortcuts tab at the top
Select Keyboard in the panel on the left
Click on the ⌘' symbol next to Move focus to next window
Type what you want it to be on your HHKB keyboard