Do 64gb and 128gb SDXC cards work on the Macbook Air 2011? I'm considering getting a SDXC card to extend the drive space of my Macbook Air. I just want to make sure both the 64 GB and 128 GB SDXC cards work on the 2011 Macbook Air.

It appears to work according to several reports:

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/ultraportables/2011/07/26/apple-macbook-air-2011-133in-40093522/

  There has been some concern that Apple lists the MacBook Pro models on
  its web site as having an SDXC card slot, for high-capacity SD cards,
  and only lists the card reader on the Air as an SD card one. We tried
  a 64GB SanDisk SDXC card in the MacBook Air's card reader, and the
  system recognised it as the appropriate size and was able to access
  files on it. However, if you're looking to get a massive SD card in
  order to augment the smallish 128GB SSD built into the Air, note that
  the card slot leaves the SD card hanging halfway out on the side of
  the system, so it's not appropriate for full-time use.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3014714?start=0&tstart=0

  I got my Transcend SDXC 64GB flash card, and yes, it reads and writes
  perfectly in my MacBook Air.

According to iFixit it uses the Gensys logic GL822 SD slot controller which is a USB 2.0 high speed device (480mbps) and supports up to 2TB SDXC cards.


Streaming media from Mac to VLC for Android I have few media files in my Mac which I want to stream on my Android phone. I have enabled File Sharing and enabled both smb and afp protocol. When I check in VLC for Android app, I can see my Mac's name there. However when I try to connect it, it shows me a login prompt asking me to enter username and password.

I tried my Mac's only username and password, but it didn't do anything. The username have spaces in it, so I tried some combinations (such as all lowercase, no spaces etc.), to no avail.
For eg. If my username on my mac is Abc Xyz, I tried Abc Xyz, Abc%20Xyz, abcxyz, AbcXyz etc. But it showed me empty directories.

So is there any way I can make that login prompt work? I even tried with giving Everyone access to the shared folders, but it still didn't work. By not working, I mean, the VLC displayed error The directory is empty or a login prompt again.

PS: I am on macOS Sierra (10.12.6) and the user have admin access.

You can just enable guests to access shared folders. Go to Users and Groups and give access to Guests to Shared folders/Sharing.


MacBook MiniDisplay to HDMI does not work I have:

a MacBook Pro (6,2) Mid 2010
OSX 10.8.3
a Mini DisplayPort (I think) to HDMI Adapter
an HDTV

When I plug the whole thing together, my laptop flashes blue for a second, the TV detects that I've plugged an HDMI input, but then says "No Signal".

I've tried with 2 different TVs.

I'm trying to find out who's fault it is. The OS, the adapter, or the cable?
I don't have another cable or adapter around. I'm looking for ideas...

Most likely the adapter.  I have had cheap ($10) ones go out.

One solution is to buy the Apple brand ($30 ?).  I chose instead to buy two $5 replacements.  So far no problem, and the benefit of having extra ones is I can keep one at work, keep one at home without having to (remember to) unplug it, and also have one I carry with me incase I need to project somewhere.


How to quickly connect to AirPods in iOS 11? I have AirPods and I love them but I don’t love what a hassle it is to switch my phone to send audio output to the AirPods. I have my AirPods synced with multiple devices such as my Mac, so it doesn't know which one to connect to.

What I do now is:

Swipe up from the bottom edge to raise the control center.
Force press the wave icon in the top right of the audio playback control
Tap the audio out control button on the right to raise a list of output devices.
Select the AirPods from that list.

This is too hard. There must be a simpler way. Is there?

For instance, can I configure a single tap control center button to switch to airpods? Tell Siri to do it with a properly phrased command?

Just because one device sleeps does not make the airpods sync with another device. In such a case nothing happens and you have to manually connect on the device of your choice. I also struggle with this. My devices are not equal and I do different things on my iPhone, iPad, Macbook and iMac.
What would be perfect, as mentioned, is a Siri integration. But that would mean that the Airpods understand Siri, which they don't.
Thanks for the tip to go via the media control, far less hassle but not ideal.


When was the compact cube charger introduced for the iPhone? Does anyone know when the compact cube charger was introduced for the iPhone?

I am looking for an official source, either from Apple's website or an industry magazine / web article.

It was 2008 at the latest; I did find an Apple webpage on the 2008 recall of the AC mains prongs coming loose.

The cube charger was released with the iPhone 3G on July 11, 2008. A review of the 3G mentions it:

  The plug is pleasantly smaller than on the original iPhone's, but it's compatible with a standard USB cable.


External Hard Drive Doesn't Initialize I have just purchased an 2.5" external hard drive enclosure to accommodate my 2.5" SATA hard disk for use on my El Capitan 10.11.5 MacBook Pro Retina 15 (A1398) computer.

However, every time connect the USB external hard drive (in it's enclosure) the operating system is giving me this message, "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." with the options "Initialize... Ignore... Eject..".

I understand that the hard drive needs to be formatted, which I already have in various filesystems, for example: exFAT, OS X Extended (Journaled). I have also changed various schemes and partition tables in Disk Utility.

After the format, it appears as a working hard drive where I am able to copy items onto, fully functional. However, when I disconnect the hard drive I get the same message "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer."

I have tried this on Windows alternative also. Do you think it could be a defective enclosure? Or is there something that I need to do?

I have also used DiskWarrior 5.0 to repair filesystems etc.

Any advice would be great.

If OS X cannot erase and partition a new drive, then either you have a rare corrupt data or hardware problem. Have you tried booting to recovery HD and using disk utility to repartition the drive entirely.

Choose APM to make sure you can write a new partition map. Then repartition to how you want to use the drive. If that fails, seek hardware repair or start to isolate the cable or enclosure or drive as the thing that fails.


Fixed region/dimension screen snipping tool basically I'm looking to press a single keyboard shortcut, similar to Cmd+Shift+4, except rather than having to draw my own box, I'd like a box of a predefined dimension appear, such as 300px x 300px that I can move around.

Or an alternative would be to have Cmd+Shift+4 work at a fixed aspect ratio, for example hold down alt and it will be locked to 1:1

The only tool I've found to do this is Snapz X Pro but the price is a bit crazy when I only need it for make screen snips.

My job has a task that requires making multiple (dozens or hundreds) of 1:1 screenshots of various things, I can't fiddle with the mouse down to the pixel. I also can't deal with going through 3 menus and saving and typing my own file name either, but that wouldn't be the end of the world.

If I could just lock the aspect ratio with Cmd+Shift+4 I could start large and batch resize the snips when I'm done, that would be a good alternative.

You can use the screencapture tool, part of macOS:

screencapture -x -Rx,y,w,h /path/to/capture.png

x,y is the coordinates of the top-left point of the rectangle,
w,h is the dimensions of the rectangle,
-x mutes the capture.

You could wrap this in an Automator workflow or Keyboard Maestro macro and customise it to your desired output.


.NET 4.0 won't install on my Mac So, I go to the install components tab for steam and install .NET 4.0, but it doesn't work; it just says "Please wait while .NET Framework 4.0 is installed..." and goes on forever, which makes my MacBook blow air.  I have to manually kill the process in Activity Monitor. I installed dinput just fine so I think its just a problem with .NET 4.0.

Don't know if this will help: https://pastebin.com/dxyU7WwW

I'm using Wine 3.17

Have you tried installing it manually? By manually, I mean taking dotNet4.0 from another source other than the WINE build PlayOnMac tries to download and installing it as a separate program but on the same PlayOnMac virtual hard drive Steam is installed on? I've had success with this before.


Old version (macOS Sierra) for Pages, Keynote and Numbers, iWork I uninstalled my iWork tools - Keynote, Numbers and Pages - from my MacBook Air.

Unfortunately, I don't want to upgrade my MBA to Mojave/Catalina in order to install.

I looking for the working iWork version for 10.12 Sierra.

Is there some repository for old versions of iWork?

You need to have an old version of Pages, Keynote and Numbers installed in your Applications folder to be able to update them. If you lack these (either because you deleted them or never had them installed first hand) and never registered the purchase with your Apple ID, you need to work your way up through the missing years of upgrading, including the registration with your Apple ID to be offered an installation on any system that's older than the currently shipped Mojave:

Install an old iWork suite (from your original installation medium, or use the iWork ’09 trial suite that can still be downloaded from Apple.
You now have an iWork 09 folder inside your Applications folder, containing trial versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
Launch Pages, Numbers and Keynote, then quit each app. (This step was suggested by the instructions based on the 2014 article. It doesn't seem to be necessary any more - I had only launced one of the programs.)
The trial suite can be upgraded to iWork 9.3 with a downloader available at Apple - Support - Downloads. I cannot verify if this step is necessary since I had installed that upgrade. I suspect it can be skipped.
You still have an iWork 09 folder inside your Applications folder, containing trial versions of Pages (v4.3), Numbers (v2.3) and Keynote (v5.3).
Launch the Mac App Store, go to the updates tab, and activate show incompatible updates. Selecting one of those apps will take you to the app's page. There, select update. The store asks for purchase confirmation and your password (if required by your settings). Then it will attempt to update the application, and fail, telling you that they require 10.14. Repeat for all three (five, if you installed iMovie and Garageband from your original DVDs) applications anyway, since from then on this application will appear in your Purchased tab. (Note: The Purchased tab disappeared with MacOS 10.14 - High Sierra might be the last OS to handle this step)
Now your purchase is linked to your account, and you may reinstall those applications if they ever should get lost. So let's loose them: delete the iWork09 folder from Applications (or move it to the Thrash).
Go to the purchased tab in App Store. The applications are listed at the top of the purchased list. Upon selecting install, you will be prompted if you want to install the last supported version for your OS release.

You now have Pages (v8.1), Numbers (v6.1) and Keynote (v9.1) directly in your Applications folder. (Version numbers applying to High Sierra as of January 2020)

Alternative route
If you have access to another Mac running a version of MacOS currently supported by the App Store (As of Jan 2020, that would be 10.14 (Mojave) or 10.15), you could associate your AppleID with an account on that Mac, download (and thus register) the Applications you want to install on your older Mac there, and then use the Purchased tab on the older Mac to reinstall older versions of those apps on the older Mac.

Sources:

2014 Redmondpie article
2014 Cult of Mac article
2018 osxdaily article "Where to Download Old Mac OS Software"
MacWorld article about missing purchases tab in Mojave App Store


iOS Simulator Mobile Safari I might possibly have a html5 game project coming up, that would need to run on iOS devices. However i dont own many of them, nor do i have the money to buy them. My friend did remind me i might be able to simulate on the iOS simulator, but im not so sure. My mac is currently experiencing some problems so i cannot check it for myself. But it would help if someone could answer:

Does the iOS simulator have safari browser on it? If so, how accurate
would you say it is at displaying html5 games?

The iOS simulator does have a Safari browser. Though the Safari browser found on the iOS and OS X are both based on WebKit, they are not exactly identical. So the Safari browser on the iOS is an approximation, not an accurate.

In addition, the WebKit on OS X is optimized to take advantage of the hardware in current Mac which at present performs faster than the slower hardware in current iOS devices.

I'd suggest that while it's possible to develop using the iOS simulator, it's best to test (for performance and reliability/crash) on the actual iOS device.


Can I build an OS X Image with preinstalled software? (Or, please help me move back one OS X version.) My MacBook Pro with Retina Display is a year old, and I'm in the mood of a fresh install. (I've got random stuff lying around, etc.)

For compatibility with some software I'd like to run, I'm moving back one version. This means that I need to do a fresh install. In doing so, I don't want to forego all of the installed apps that I use. I've made a list of the apps I'd ideally like to keep.

The process that I have outlined now looks like this:

Manually move over all of my images and documents to an external disk drive. (Music and TV shows live with iTunes in the Cloud.)
Completely wipe and reinstall my OS.
Install all of the apps on my list, one by one.
Move my files back.

I suppose I'm looking for a shortcut, or a good way to manage this process. If it helps, I've got a white plastic MacBook from 2010 with Mac OS X 10.8 on, which I can probably use to create a fresh image.

Is it possible for me to modify an OS X installer so that it installs a set of applications for me?  Alternatively, is it possible to move my files via Time machine and ignore the rest of the OS? What I'm really looking for is a tool do create some sort of starter image for me to work with, like what they do to deploy in enterprises, libraries, schools, etc.

What imaging tools do sysadmins use for this kind of thing?

Migration Assistant (in Applications/Utilities/ ) can restore programs and personal file data from a time machine backup.  I don't know if it would handle xcode or not.  Pretty much anything else in the /Applications/ folder it will re-install, though.  There might be some version conflicts with software that doesn't run in 10.7, etc.


How to bind contacts to another apple ID I have two iphones who were using the same apple ID, so they had the same contacts and this was not ok, because every iphone is used by a different person and we want to have different contacts. So I created another apple ID, and I logged with that account (settings->itunes store and app store->changed the apple ID and verified it).

But even if I changed the apple ID, the contacts seem to keep being bound to the old apple ID, so that from an iphone I can change the contacts that are displayed in the other.

If the contacts in question are coming from iCloud, you'll need to change the account in Settings → iCloud to a different iCloud account.

Your contacts may also be coming from a different account (or multiple accounts).  Check other accounts in Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars to see if any of them may also be a source of contacts.


iPhone 4s front camera not working When I open Camera, I can see the back camera is working but the front camera is not. When I press on the camera icon to switch cameras for a long duration, it shows 'AE lock'.

Can someone help me with regaining access to my front camera?

The camera's probably just stopped working and needs to be replaced. Check out ifixit.com for a step-by-step guide on how to replace it and then decide if you feel comfortable with the doing the repair. If not, there's probably someone in your area that can do it for you.

If it were me, I'd save any money I'd put towards a repair, back the phone up to iTunes, save the photos to my computer, and just upgrade to a newer iPhone.


Trying to connect to a device based wireless set up on a ship I'm on a ship in the Canadian Arctic and trying to link up to a wireless network that has been set up on a Windows 7 laptop, this is connected to the satellite system.  My MacBook Pro shows the signal under device when I click on the wireless symbol on the top right tool bar.  When I click on it and it connects with a check mark, all I get at the top is a greyed out computer network icon symbol.  What do I need to do under wireless network connections to make this work?

Here a couple of pics to show you what I am looking at.enter image description here

Thanks, Captain Marc

I would presume from what we are seeing in the WiFi menu that the Mac is connecting but not being given an IP address by the Windows 7 laptop. It's hard to know exactly without also seeing the "Network" preference pane with WiFi selected.

Check this article on sharing an internet connection on Windows.

You might also check that the WiFi on your Mac is set to use DHCP to get an IP adddress. In "Network" preferences click on the WiFi network then click the "Advanced" button and in Advanced click on "TCP/IP".

Make sure "Using DHCP" is selected.


How to log in using external keyboard on MacBook Pro I have a 2015 MacBook Pro in front of me that had an issue with water being spilled on the keyboard.  As a result of this, it was reported to me that the main issue was it appeared as if the shift key would intermittently press even when it was not.  As a result it is impossible to login in as random shifts are occurring making it impossible to enter the correct password.

I tried plugging in an external circa 2011 iMac wired USB keyboard I had, but at the login screen nothing happens when I type on it.  I tried plugging it in before powering up, once I have gotten to the login screen, and in all the available USB (A) ports.

I tried resetting the PRAM but holding down command+option+p+r before the screen comes on doesn't seem to do anything, it just boots up normally.  The same thing with command+s for single-user mode or command+r for recovery mode.

I was able to reset the SMC but this just dumps me to a screen where if I say "My keyboard isn't working when typing my password to log in" it tells me "if you were unable to use your keyboard to type your password it may not be compatible with file vault".  It then wants me to enter a password to disable file vault, which of course if I could do I wouldn't need to be here in the first place.

How can I log in using the external interface?  I tried searching for what keyboards are compatible with file vault but just got results about disabling it, which in unhelpful.  Other answers simply suggest a USB keyboard should just work.   Since it's an Apple keyboard I expected it to just work.

Update: Is there some way to reveal the characters I am typing into the password field? If I could see what I was typing, I could keep trying on each character until the case was right.  Or, if I could get it to actually show me my username instead of dots I could enter it there and try to copy it to the password field or at least get an idea when the shift key might be working.

You need to replace the MacBook keyboard.

(Or at least disconnect it from the logic board)

The problem is you have two keyboards "battling" it out for what keys get pressed.  The top case assembly which consists of the track pad and the keyboard are both USB devices.  You can have several of these devices plugged in simultaneously - in fact, I have 3 keyboards and one mouse (2 keyboards are for macros) and the iMac happily accepts input from all three simultaneously.

What's happening is you're keyboard is still plugged in and the ⇧ Shift key is acting like it's being pressed because the contacts are shorting out.  I wrote a lengthy answer on this very topic:  Keyboard key stuck or not being recognized; how to fix.  So, even though it's a different keyboard, you're Mac doesn't know; actually it doesn't even care.  It's going to process each key press as if you wanted it that way.

You're only (temp) solution is to disconnect it from the logic board.  There's no amount of resetting the NVRAM and/or the SMC, re-installation of the OS, etc. is going to bypass a physical problem.

You have a liquid damaged MacBook which means there's probably much more damage - like corrosion of the electrical contacts - that you're going to have to contend with.  Take it in for service!

Below is an image from iFixit.com showing the location of the keyboard connector.  Disconnect this to get your external keyboard working again.  You will need a mouse or another track pad.


How can I upgrade PHP on a jailbroken iPhone? I have an iPod touch running iOS 4.0 and an iPad running iOS 4.3.1, both jailbroken. They have lighttpd and PHP installed, however PHP seems to be an old version that I need to upgrade to use a WebSocket script.

How would I go about updating it? According to a phpinfo() call, it has been configured with parameters to do with iOS, would this matter?

Update 20/7/11 You can find my phpinfo at this tinypaste.

Thanks in advance for all of your help. Ad@m

If you build the iPhone toolchain in you local environment, you can compile PHP locally and then move it to iOS.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4001510/compile-php-with-gd-for-iphone-os-4-1

http://george.insideiphone.com/index.php/iphone-toolchain/

http://code.google.com/p/iphone-dev/

http://www.sj99.com/toolchain.html

I've not done this, but I'm curious, and will make an attempt myself over the next few days, and update this answer as I go along.


Replicate my Mouse config in command line How can I replicate my mouse config (in the images below) through command line?

Something like that should do it:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist MouseOneFingerDoubleTapGesture -int 0
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist MouseTwoFingerDoubleTapGesture -int 3
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist MouseTwoFingerHorizSwipeGesture -int 2
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist MouseButtonMode -string TwoButton
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist com.apple.mouse.scaling -float 3
defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist com.apple.swipescrolldirection -boolean NO

com.apple.swipescrolldirection -boolean NO disables Scroll direction: natural
MouseButtonMode -string TwoButton enables Secondary click right
MouseOneFingerDoubleTapGesture -int 0 disables Smart zoom
com.apple.mouse.scaling -float 3 enables fastest tracking
MouseTwoFingerHorizSwipeGesture -int 2 enables Swipe between pages with one finger and Swipe between full-screen apps with two fingers
MouseTwoFingerDoubleTapGesture -int 3 enables Mission Control


How is OS X able to authenticate to my router even when the disk is removed? I removed the hard drive from my laptop (MBP 9.1, mid 2012) and started recovery mode. Once I entered recovery mode, the laptop was connected to my router (secured with WPA2), even though I had not given it credentials. I pulled out the RAM (in case the creds were in volatile memory), put the RAM back in, and lo and behold, it was still able to authenticate to the router.  Is OS X storing keys from my keychain in NAND flash (where it stores the UEFI)? If so, I thought that the CPU couldn't write to the NAND flash (ROM -- read-only). The hard drive was disconnected the entire time. If this is happening, how do I securely erase the NAND?

The information is stored in your NVRAM and potentially in a keychain on the Recovery HD. You can clear it like this: How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac

See this for more details: How to prevent storing the WiFi password on the recovery partition?


iTunes 12: Is there a way to increase album art size in the Album View I remember in earlier versions of iTunes it was possible to increase the size of album artwork in the Album View via a slider - so, for example, I could have fewer albums with large cover art per row or more albums per row, but with tiny cover art.

However, I can't find this function anymore in iTunes 12. Does anyone know how to do this? :)

I have the same question but no solution.

Someone somewhere advised an app: Swinian. It has the slider for changing the artwork. Very nice app. one month free trial.

Other (obvious)workaround is changing the screen resolution. I use an app Switchres.Easy and fast but ofcourse it changes the resolution everywhere and not just iTunes album view.

It works but not ideal or perfect.


Is there a way to get live power usage I'd like to monitor how much power is being used by my Mac.  The tools I've found so far either list the maximum power (85W for my laptop charger) or the processor's usage (Intel's Power Gadget).  I'd like a number that would be the same or close to what a Kill-a-watt meter would read.

Does a utility like that exist (preferably CLI)?

You can use iStat Menus to read the sensor values, which include voltage, amperage, and wattage of various components in the system.

Source: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/240561/118960


Removing items from Finder Toolbar I'm on Mac OS X 10.7.5. In Finder windows, besides the sidebar, there is a sort of "upbar", right below the name of the folder you are viewing but before the colum/list/icon view of it, where you can put shortcuts to files. This is a screenshot of a typical window on my computer:
Edit - it's called the Toolbar, I've edited the Question title to make it easier for others to Google.

As you can see, next to some buttons which include view controls there are 6 item buttons: a txt, a tex, a tex, a jpeg, a doc(x) and a tex. They all got there by accident and I can't find a way to get them away. How do I remove them?

I remember seeing that from time to time in the past. Just command click, hold, and drag them off.

They have removed that weird feature in Yosemite (and perhaps earlier.)


My Mac won't connect with Ethernet but will to wireless I apologize if this is a stupid question, but I'm not very tech-savvy. Using a iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010), running El Capitan version 10.11.6. Router is Amped Wireless ATHENA, High Power AC2600 Wi-Fi Router with MU-MIMO (RTA2600).

I have a Mac computer that is hardwired for Internet (I have a cable plugged into back of computer). My husband also has a computer hardwired, which is not a Mac. We also have wireless service.

Earlier we had to reboot the modem and router.  Now, my husband's computer will work with Ethernet, but mine will not. I can only get connectivity with my Mac via wireless (192.168.X.XXX). I've checked network settings and it says Ethernet is connected but cannot connect to the Internet.

Why not? It is setup as DHCP. I have no clue what to do.  Again, none of this happened until we rebooted/reset the router and modem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I did do a "renew" as suggested and the IP address came back as 169.254.xxx.xxx. I also noticed the "router" field is blank. Subnet mask is populated.

the IP address came back as 169.254.122.206.

The 169.254.xxx.xxx address is a "self assigned address."  It gets this address because it didn't get a DHCP lease from the DHCP server.  This could be due to either of the following:

No connection between your iMac and the router/switch
DHCP server is down

Check your cabling from the back of the iMac all the way to the router.  Make sure everything is plugged in properly.  If you look at your Network Settings, it should be "green" and say "connected".

If it's yellow, that means it's plugged into a switch (getting power), but not communicating with anything.  Check the settings on your router to be certain that the DHCP server is up and running.


How to move files from a lot of folders into a single folder without moving the folders themselves? Let's say I have the following files and folders.

High-Resolution Pics (Folder)
----WashingtonDC002.jpg
----WashingtonDC004.jpg

Low-Resolution Pics (Folder)
----WashingtonDC000.jpg
----WashingtonDC001.jpg
----WashingtonDC003.jpg

WashingtonDC005.jpg

WashingtonDC006 (Folder)
----WashingtonDC006.jpg
----UnimportantFile.txt

WashingtonDC007.jpg

WashingtonDC008.jpg

WashingtonDC009 (Folder)
----WashingtonDC009.jpg
----UnimportantFile.txt

I want to move all the images that are in the WashingtonDC folders into High Resolution Pics without taking all of the unimportant files along with it, and all the WashingtonDC images that aren't in WashingtonDC folders into Low-Resolution Pics. How would I go about doing this through the terminal?

This is what the final result would look like.

High-Resolution Pics (Folder)
----WashingtonDC002.jpg
----WashingtonDC004.jpg
----WashingtonDC006.jpg
----WashingtonDC009.jpg

Low-Resolution Pics (Folder)
----WashingtonDC000.jpg
----WashingtonDC001.jpg
----WashingtonDC003.jpg
----WashingtonDC005.jpg
----WashingtonDC007.jpg
----WashingtonDC008.jpg

This is what you're looking for ?

mv *.jpg Low-Resolution\ Pics/ Moves all '.jpg' files in current directory to low res folder.

mv WashingtonDC00*/*.jpg ./High-Resolution\ Pics/ Moves all '.jpg' files in folders beginning with 'WashingtonDC00' into High res folder.

Files before:

.
├── High-Resolution\ Pics
│   ├── WashingtonDC002.jpg
│   └── image0.jpg
├── Low-Resolution\ Pics
├── WashingtonDC005.jpg
├── WashingtonDC006
│   ├── WashingtonDC006.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC0061.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC007.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC008.jpg
│   └── rubbish.txt
├── WashingtonDC007.jpg
└── WashingtonDC009
    ├── WashingtonDC009.jpg
    └── rubbish.txt

Files after:

.
├── High-Resolution\ Pics
│   ├── WashingtonDC002.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC006.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC0061.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC007.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC008.jpg
│   ├── WashingtonDC009.jpg
│   └── image0.jpg
├── Low-Resolution\ Pics
│   ├── WashingtonDC005.jpg
│   └── WashingtonDC007.jpg
├── WashingtonDC006
│   └── rubbish.txt
└── WashingtonDC009
    └── rubbish.txt


Restore a potentially compromised iMac - best course of actions Long story short, a friend of mine received a "unrecognized IP successful login" alert on a Microsoft mail account he owns. The conditions of the "hack" (timing, password used etc) are such that the only viable option other than a "false positive" alert (which is still very likely) is that the password was somehow stolen from the client - an iMac -  used to create the account in a very short timespan (the "compromise" date is just 5 minutes after the original account creation) - if you like, you can find more details in this question on Information Security.

Anyway, the point is that if there was a compromise, then there must be some keylogger or similar malware on the machine. I did some basic search but found nothing. Also tried to install Little Snitch, but the network filters didn't show anything suspicious.

That said, since I can't find any infection to remove nor I can be sure that the alert my friend received was a false positive, I was planing to "restore/reinstall/format" the machine, even if that means sacrificing all the data contained on it. But I must admit my ignorance... even if I also own an iMac I never had the need to restore it after some compromise, so I don't really know how to proceed.

I am therefore asking for suggestions about the best approach here. I assume I will have to download an operating system iso somewhere on Apple site and then use that to restore the system but I am not sure. This page seems to indicate that I should enter "Restore Mode" and work up from there.... but... does that mean that the "restore" component is still tied to the currently installed OS and could have been compromised too in a way that could give an infection the ability to survive the "wipe"?

Sorry if those questions seems a little confused or paranoid, but having found no trace of the alleged infection I am now starting to evaluate any possibility.

Here's how to detect keyloggers:

Run this command in terminal: kextstat

Something like this should appear:

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
    1   90 0xffffff7f80a46000 0x9d90     0x9d90     com.apple.kpi.bsd (16.5.0) D4161E07-43B8-4D47-ABFE-7DF2D693ED9A
    2    8 0xffffff7f80dff000 0x3940     0x3940     com.apple.kpi.dsep (16.5.0) 6B33C49C-82D8-4830-AC91-ECF9B9EE3A8C
    3  116 0xffffff7f80a04000 0x21040    0x21040    com.apple.kpi.iokit (16.5.0) E2BA46F4-C06A-4ACE-81E5-D9A4B6E061AA
    4  122 0xffffff7f80a26000 0xd200     0xd200     com.apple.kpi.libkern (16.5.0) 21ABA52A-C45A-4A1B-8824-F6EB5295ADDE
    5  110 0xffffff7f80a00000 0x3dd0     0x3dd0     com.apple.kpi.mach (16.5.0) E18B885B-776C-4F3A-88D4-C823FAFE12A1
    6   61 0xffffff7f80a34000 0xbbf0     0xbbf0     com.apple.kpi.private (16.5.0) F0CD0AC2-92DF-4FF9-80A5-21B68641D28E
    7   71 0xffffff7f80a40000 0x5890     0x5890     com.apple.kpi.unsupported (16.5.0) 4AE97C68-EB51-4545-A2EB-007EE5A66503
    ...
  140    0 0xffffff7f81f9e000 0x9000     0x9000     com.apple.filesystems.autofs (3.0) E79E1801-8AB8-3BB1-A1F2-3CA5F9C7C648 <139 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  142    0 0xffffff7f8272a000 0x18000    0x18000    com.apple.driver.AGPM (110.23.17) 3E92E313-274C-3175-A659-2CB88F03A707 <115 108 99 89 12 6 5 4 3>
  143    0 0xffffff7f823f4000 0x5000     0x5000     com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor (1.9.5d0) AFB68EC7-205B-3499-B796-DAE93A4BA543 <5 4 3>
  144    0 0xffffff7f83463000 0x5000     0x5000     com.parallels.virtualhid (1.0.3 3) B0C355DF-4268-359B-9654-0A67F4305F7B <37 5 4 3 1>

So my first 143 kexts all start with com.apple, so they should be safe (unless somebody uses Apple's bundle id, so look closely at each of one and see if there's something wrong with the name) and I have installed parallels, so it should be safe too.

Next check if one of the extensions links against something that doesn't make sense, like an audio extension linking with a networking library. You can see what they are linked to by looking inside the angle brackets <>. For example, item 114 (com.parallels.virtualhid) links to item 1, which is com.apple.kpi.bsd. as 1 is inside the angle brackets (<37 5 4 3 1>)

If you find something suspicious, remove it, but before you go on be sure that you have the right kernel extension. Disabling the wrong kernel extension can make life really hard. They are usually found in System/Library/Extensions and end with the extension .kext.

Now if you really want to completely reinstall macOS, follow these steps:

Copy the files that you need to another place
Boot into recovery mode:
Shut down your computer, then power it up while holding Command-R.
Erase your computer:
Select "Disk Utility" from the menu

Click on Erase and confirm the dialogs (May take a while to erase)

Reinstall macOS
Select "reinstall macOS"

Follow its instructions
Complete!

Note that installation may take a long time, especially when your internet connection is slow as it actually downloads the OS from the internet.


The Insert key without 3rd party apps on MacBook Air in VirtualBox running Linux Hardware setup

I use MacBook Air with what seems to be an English international keyboard layout. My Input Sources are set to Polish - Pro in the Keyboard settings.

Software setup

I run Debian 8.6.0 in a VirtualBox with a dwm window manager and xterm as the default terminal app there. The way copy and pasting works there is to select the text and press either Insert or the middle mouse bottom to paste the selection elsewhere.

My problem is that I cannot find a way to simulate pressing either of them. Is there a way to do it on MacBook Air with any 3rd party apps to remap my keyboard? I'm just looking for a way to copy and paste text in Debian Linux running inside the VirtualBox.

Here's what I've tried so far:

Insert key:

fnEnter
fnEnter, fnEnter
fnShiftEnter
Controlfnm
fnm (prints m obviously)
ControlfnShiftm
Controlfn⌫ (prints 5~)
ControlfnShift⌫ (prints 6~)
fni (prints i obviously)

Neither of which work.

Middle mouse button:

Press the touchpad with two fingers simultaneously.
Press the touchpad with two fingers simultaneously holding Shift.

Neither of which work.

References:

Where is the insert key on a MacBook Air?
How do I simulate the Insert key in Windows on a MacBook Pro?
Insert key on keyboard for Macbook Air Mountain Lion OS

It is not what I am looking for but it is a fine solution for the time being. If someone suggests a way to simulate the Insert key on MacBook Air I'll be happy to accept their answer.

A workaround in the Debian Linux itself

If you run xev to see what keycodes are actually being sent when you press keys you'll probably notice that fnEnter produces keycode 104 KP_Enter instead of keycode 36 Return.

I decided to remap keycode 104 to Insert with xmodmap -e "keycode 104 = Insert".

As a result I am able to paste with fnShiftRight AltEnter.

References

Missing Apple MacBook Keys: How to map the INSERT key in Linux/VirtualBox
xmodmap on ArchWiki
Remap the insert key


Problems setting up startmail client on ipad I've tried twice from scratch to set up an IMAP account for Startmail on my ipad and the steps appear to be simple however when I try to use it I'm told that either my userid or password is incorrect on my imap connection.  I've verifed these and they are correct.  I'm familiar with setting up an IMAP client to Startmail because I've done it on other hardware.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

I had previously logged into the Startmail web client on the iPad and iOS stored the password automatically without my being aware of it.  One of the security features of Startmail is that it assigns a new password to any device that accesses it using IMAP.  When I set up the IMAP account on the iPad I entered the new, device specific password but iOS over-rode it with the stored, web-client value.  Since it was typing in a password field I couldn't see it.  When I found the stored password and deleted it I was able to set up the IMAP account following Startmail's instructions.


Should I play games natively on Mac OS when they are available? Lots of games are available for Mac:

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=&sort_by=_ASC&os=mac&page=1

Should I play them on Mac or should I boot into Windows 10? (I have a copy of Windows 10 already so buying it is not an issue).

tl;dr: Play games on the platform where you want more games available in the future.

Some software work better on certain platforms. Many applications, especially games, are usually made with mainly Windows in mind*, and only afterwards ported to other platforms. Sometimes companies/developers don't invest enough money/time/effort on making the non-Windows versions work quite as well. Of course, the reverse may be true too, but usually PC games are primarily targeted at Windows users.

Depending on how you want to shape the world, you have a couple of choices:

Full OS X: If you want more games on OS X in the future, play as many of those games on OS X as possible. More gamers on non-Windows platforms makes developing games for non-Windowses a more viable and attractive business for game companies.
Fifty-fifty, the golden mean: just try out both versions and see for yourself which one works better.
Full Windows: If you're serious about PC gaming, and don't care about affecting the status quo, Windows is your best bet, as that's where most of the games are.

* since that's what most PC gamers use (which, in turn, is because that's the platform that most games are made for, because that's where the most PC gamers are, etc.)


iOS 7 Jailbreak, iPhone 5S question So I have the 5S and the iOS 7 Jailbreak came out the other day. See one problem though is that mobile substrate and preferenceloader don't quite work with any 64-bit devices. Anyway, the whole point of the question is if anyone knows any information on excatly when those two very important Cydia packages will be optimized for the 5S/Any other 64-bit devices.

I wouldn't expect a patch anytime soon. If you read the twitter strem of @saurik you will see that the author of substrate wasn't given time to work with the team that released the jailbreak and that there are at best - strained relations and differing motives and at worst, possibly a disengagement of iOS 7 patches for some time.

https://twitter.com/saurik/status/414743665362231296

Read through the posts up to 24 dec for more of the back story of what doesn't work and why.


App for hi-res frame capture from a webcam I need a simple app to capture single frames from a high-res webcam. Like PhotoBooth, but saves the full resolution of the camera is what I'm looking for.

A similar question was asked here What app to use for high res webcam photo capture? - but I'm looking for an app that just does frame capture, not a more complicated app that does a bunch of other stuff, with the frame capture requiring multiple user steps.

Update: it's for capturing images off a microscope, so live preview of the camera output is essential. Something like Cheese for linux is what I'm looking for.

How about imagesnap. If it's simple you want, then that's a free (with source) command line tool with the following options:

USAGE: ./imagesnap [options] [filename]
Version: 0.2.4
Captures an image from a video device and saves it in a file.
If no device is specified, the system default will be used.
If no filename is specfied, snapshot.jpg will be used.
Supported image types: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, BMP
  -h          This help message
  -v          Verbose mode
  -l          List available video devices
  -d device   Use named video device

I've just tried it on my 10.7.3 Macbook Pro (early 2011) and it captures images at 1280 x 720 from the built-in camera (which I beleive is its full resolution).


zsh can't see and doesn't load the ~/.zshrc startup file After upgrading to Catalina and encountering the zsh upgrade reminder when launching Terminal, I've decided to switch to zsh.
The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.

However, I'm having trouble getting Terminal/zsh to recognize the .zshrc startup file located in my home folder. ~/zshrc isn't loaded on launch, and executing source ~/.zshrc returns source: no such file or directory.
The file only contains one line, an alias tying python to python3.

The issue turned out to be that .zshrc had a hidden .txt file extension. Somehow it was automatically named .zshrc.txt, probably when I used TextEdit to edit it, and source doesn't infer the text extension. Finder also doesn't display the .txt extension by default unless you inspect the file, so I hadn't noticed the issue.


Can't open iCloud in system preferences I'm trying to open iCloud prefs in System Preferences, but I get a preferences error saying "could not load iCloud preference pane" (see screenshot). I have run disk permissions, and even installed a new OS using recovery mode, i can however open iCloud prefs using another user account on the same computer, any ideas anyone?

Well you have already given us the first clue as to where the issue is:

  i can however open iCloud prefs using another user account on the same computer

While it is possible that a combo updater will fix the issue it is more likely (IMHO) something specific to your user profile. How I would do it.

Hold down the Option key while in Finder and select "Library" from the Go menu.
You want to look for items with "icloud" in their name and move them elsewhere. I usually use the desktop or a folder on the desktop.
There will be files in "Preferences" and "Application Support" and possibly elsewhere. Don't remove the folders, just any files within making note of the path each file was at.
It is possible that there are other files in the same locations that deal with iCloud. poke around and move ones that might qualify.
Once that is done, reboot and try opening that preference pane.

Note that you don't just delete the file in case the law of unintended consequences rears it's ugly head. So if things get worse put the files back. But I am betting that won't happen.

I am thinking that there is a damaged preference or icloud support file somewhere in your user folder and "/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/" is the most likely place for said file to be.

A reboot should cause  macOS to rebuild the missing files and opening the iCloud preference pane should finish the job.

Note that it is possible that you will need to re-enter your iCloud account information once you get it working.


Subscribed calendars not shown on my device, but they can be opened manually [iOS 14.4.2] I am trying to write a PHP service to make calendars from some data. Anyway, the example it returns (it is static during the test) shows up normally when trying to get it by http://my_domain.com/ics.php or just to download response as an .ics file (location, URL, description, alert fields have been shown properly, I can save it on my device or CalDAV/Cloud server), so the iCS syntax is OK. But when I try to subscribe to it through webcal://my_domain.com/ics.php, its events do not show up on my Calendar timeline (although I can still see it in the "Calendars" sections and even "refresh" it). When refreshing it, the events still can't be seen, but the server notices the request to my_domain.com/ics.php.
I tried:

Rebooting the device & server
Making a static .ics file and subscribing to it
Adding response headers like Content-type: text/calendar and
Content-disposition: attachment; filename=index.ics
Disabling iCloud & Google Calendars accounts on the device
Generating another event in the calendar

And nothing above helped. The subscribition works on Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird on Windows 10 device. On my i-device there was another public subscribed calendar, but it also did not worked.
The example of generated ICS can be watched here.
What should I change to make it subscribed and shown properly?
I will appreciate any provided help!
Added: now when accessing through webcal:// safari responses that "Can't opent the page because it is invalid"

Solved!
To make those events to show up, put a UID parameter inside every VEVENT. Example:
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:41e9d941b4ae063b9b6236fdc6f2479d-20210424T191741:username@example.com
BEGIN:VALARM
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:English
TRIGGER:-PT2M
END:VALARM
URL:https://zoom.us/j/99999999999
LOCATION:209
DESCRIPTION:Read The Cather in the Rye
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210425T154000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20210425T162000
SUMMARY:English language, ENG-9-1
END:VEVENT

Also UID can be absolutely random line, e. g. ae063b9b6236fd, but it must be unique for every event in your calendar and outside of your calendar. If the client meets two events with same UID's, the last one mentioned in iCal response will be shown. If there is no UID, the event will be ignored during parsing.
Client needs UID to prevent duplicating events and merging events with TODO lists (if supported), etc.


Connecting Macbook Air to Sony HDTV via HDMI I own an apple Macbook Air early 2015 version, I am not able to connect it to my Sony HDTV through mini DP to HDMI converter. Can somebody Help?

The Macbook Air (2015) edition has a thunderbolt output. You'll need a adapter from Thunderbolt to HDMI to get this working.

Also:

did you checked the HDMI cable if this one is working
Is the channel set properly on your Sony TV?


What could cause swapping when there is no memory spike? I had a performance issue recently, which I was able to capture in the Monitor. It looks like there was plenty of free memory, but then suddenly the graph goes red, with no real spiking.
Could this occur when the size of an apps memory pages are nearly as large as free memory?  In my mind, that would lead to green-level memory usage, but would go to red every time said application did its business.
I'd like to avoid having performance hits like these, but I'm more interested in understanding the way the OS works.  Thanks

update: This issue did disappear after a Chrome update and reboot.  The computer + Chrome hadn't been restarted in a while before the issue occurred.

See here for a basic, decent overview: https://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/osx/understanding-memory-pressure-in-os-x-mavericks/.

My guess is that something is hitting a bug, maybe doing something like getting into a memory allocation loop or something until that process crashes and gracefully reboots, freeing up that memory. I would check for Chrome updates.

The reason I suspect Chrome is two-fold: one is that I have personally experienced Chrome's resource usage going off the charts, and also because in your screenshot, the 'Force Quit' dialog shows Chrome as being paused - I initially just assumed that was because it was 'the' offender, and that lined up nicely with the theory I already had about Chrome - but in retrospect it could have been not because it was 'the' offender per-se, but the next biggest user of system resources after the kernel itself.


Bluetooth and WiFi interfering with one another since Yosemite Note: The only thing that changed in my setup is installing Yosemite.

Since installing Yosemite, I'm having a somewhat peculiar problem: WiFi works fine, and BT works fine. But WiFi + BT working together at the same time is a different story.

I first noticed this yesterday. Two things happen, and the second is more prevalent:

I was using Apple's Magic Mouse + wireless keyboard, and began downloading a large file. Once this happened, mouse movement began being really slow, as if I'm trying to move the mouse on a very uneven surface. Pausing the download would bring the mouse's movement back to normal.
But then something else started happening: Turning BT on would effectively kill my internet connection. From the moment I turn on BT and start using mouse & keyboard, my download speed would go quickly from 1.3MB/s to 500B/s (yes, Bytes), and die slowly from there. When this happens, my mouse movement is just fine. Upon turning BT off, download speed shoots back up to 1.3MB/s.

So to me it seems like BT and WiFi are "competing" with each other, like they're sharing the "same lane" when they shouldn't. Either the normal WiFi speeds will make my mouse move really slowly, or, if my BT is working fine, then my WiFi download speeds will be abysmal. This seems to only happen (or be noticeable) when I'm downloading something like a big file.

I've tried many solutions — PRAM, hardware tests, etc..nothing seems to have helped.

WTH?

Note: This question isn't about the (seemingly more common) WiFi dropping issues, please don't hijack it.

Update 1: There seem to be more people having this issue.

Update 2: Problem persists even after updating to OS X 10.10.1.

Update 3: Over 5 months later, and Apple still haven't fixed this.

Update 4: (29/10/15) One year later (on the latest OS X El Capitan), and my rMBP is still suffering from this issue. Work perfectly on their own, but together they get very challenging. For those who suggested to just get a 5GHz router — I appreciate your responses. However, I don't think I should be obligated to buy a new router just because Apple messed up their software. This is no fix for the underlying issue that is clearly still there for many people. The answer selected as "correct" was auto selected since this was a bounty quesiton.

Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11/b/g/n (WIFI) use almost the same frequency bands:

Bluetooth: 2.402 - 2.480 GHz (79 channels)
WIFI 2.4 GHz (IEEE 802.11/b/g/n): 2.4 – 2.4835 GHz (11, 13 or 14 channels depending on the country)

Usually Bluetooth uses frequency hopping and changes the possible 79 x 1 MHz bands 1600 times a second to avoid disturbances while WIFI uses fixed channels.

Obviously something went wrong developing the latest Bluetooth- or WIFI-drivers.

The only workaround until Apple gets their drivers fixed is using dual band wireless access points. Those devices use two different frequency bands:
2.4 – 2.4835 GHz and 5.18 - 5.825 GHz (with some gaps).
Connecting to WIFI 5 GHz (IEEE 802.11a/h/n) will not interfere with Bluetooth.

Almost all Macs sold since 2006 support 802.11 a/b/g/n.

Apple's answer: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: Potential sources of wireless interference

BTW: Not only typical RF-based devices (like wireless phones, etc) but also bad-shielded USB3-devices and cables interfere with WIFI (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth.


Prevent mac from requiring login screen at home I would like to prevent my mac from sleeping when I'm at home. I trust the people in my house, and would like to stop it from being locked.

Or even better, maybe it could only require a password after 30 minutes?

If you open terminal and type caffeinate it will never sleep until terminal is quit (when you get home).


How can I take screenshots of web browser including a select input? How can I take a screenshot of the entirety of a web browser (or just the HTML page) which includes the select input?

I can get the following images with Apple shift 4 and clicking space:

but I want something more like the following, where I had to manually choose the boundaries

As a UX Designer I very routinely need to capture menu dropdowns as well as the selected item within the drop down menu. Most of the time (though not always) I am able to do this via CMD-SHIFT-4 by first clicking the field, keeping the mouse pressed in one hand while pressing CMD-SHIFT-4 with the other hand. Most of the time the dropdown and even selected menu item will "freeze" and remain stationary on the screen while you draw your marquee around the screen area you want to capture. Then you release and have your custom shaped image. (I just did this on Youtube.com, Chrome Browser 64.0, High Sierra 10.13.3 )

Though quite often on a multitude of sites you can do this all via CMD-SHIFT-4 and thus no-need to later crop, the dropdown and selected item does not always "freeze" while you marquee around it. And there are also many times when I want to show an on-screen notification or confirmation effect in addition to the menu choices and selected item. In both cases I absolutely must resort to CMD-SHIFT-3 and, yes, crop afterwards.

I believe Leonard Challis's answer is sound and I know of no other way to achieve this than to use the full-screen screenshot command as he described. So what that it then requires having to crop the full-screen image captured to isolate the area you want to show. Maybe someone has found 3rd party software that let's you achieve your goal on the fly. Perhaps there is a Chrome or other browser extension that will freeze the screen to display the menu-dropdown selection state. Or maybe recorded Screen-capture is the better tool, particularly if you want to document a whole sequence of interface/selection instructions. And you can select key frames to crop into images. Doesn't appear anyone has provided any such suggested software.

I specifically and categorically disagree with grgarside's answer claiming that the CMD-SHIFT-3 solution is "even worse than OP's already described ⇧⌘4 for selecting a region, since you then have to open the image in Preview for cropping for no added benefit over taking a screenshot of a region." That's completely incorrect as the OP specifically wanted to be able to display the drop down menu. That's the added benefit.

ONE ADDENDUM:  The CMD-SHIFT-4 "all in one" action also works the majority of the time on most sites when right-clicking a link and wanting to capture the pop up menu and your selection. 2 EXAMPLES right here on this thread:


Can I use external graphic card with MacBook Pro? I have a MacBook Pro Retina display late 2013.

processor  = 2ghz Intel core i7
memory     = 8GB
os         = Mavericks 10.9.2
graphic    = 1GB Intel graphic card

Can I use any external graphic card as we use an external hard disk?

There is a way to do so, you might want to check this article: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/162652-diy-external-thunderbolt-gpu-turbo-charges-macbook-air-graphics-performance-by-7x

As for a regular user I can say that there is no way yet to use external gpu.


Procedure to Upgrade SSD without borking-up MS-Office License I have upgraded a Macbook 500GB to a 128GB SSD.  MS-Office 2011 detected the change and the licensing failed.  I would like to avoid this problem in the future if at all possible.

I would like to upgrade a 128GB Macbook air to 1TB: is it possible to create a 128GB partition to let Office think that it is on a 128GB drive and not bork-up the license?  If yes, how is it this done?

I am seeking to avoid dealing with licensing keys if at all possible and simply upgrade the SSD

Don’t think so. I’m guessing MS makes a signature of your h/w. If you replace or add parts, your changing the signature. Hence the problems.

You should be able to reactivate your license.


How to reformat and re-install an old G5 I was given an old G5, and the existing installed OS is locked, and I don't have the password. I don't care about erasing its whole content. I have a bunch of CDs, and I want to know how can I restart this machine so it boots from the CD and reformat the whole system. I am very new to MAC world.

I realise this is a MAC 101 question type, but I need to start somewhere......

Thanks :-)

You can restart while holding down the C key to boot from a valid Mac OS X Install CD / DVD for that G5 based Mac. To pick and choose what disk your machine can boot from hold down the option key while starting the Mac.

Also depending on which version of Mac OS X is installed there are different ways to reset the password in single user mode. This may be an option for you if you just want to  unlock and add / remove users and you have a startup CD/DVD for that Mac.

See  Changing or resetting an account password for some instructions on how to reset the password.


Font Book reports "serious problems" with Code 2000? I just downloaded Code 2000 from Wayback Machine but when I tried to install it Font Book reported a serious error but no further details.

Anyone know what might be the problem? Are there any online resources that allows me to verify a font's integrity and hopefully could give me some more details about any potential issues?

In my experience Font Book warnings rarely have any real consequences.

It's also hard to imagine any issues that could not be easily fixed by just removing the font.  Install it manually in Home/Library/Fonts and see if you find any problems.

To get to Home/Library, hold down the option key while doing Finder > Go.

If your goal is to ensure complete Unicode coverage, I suspect MacOS already has more of this than the very old Code 2000.  To expand coverage beyond what Apple offers, I would recommend the Google Noto fonts and Symbola.

To see what font has a specific character when Apple's Character Viewer is empty, try Fileformat.


How to prevent apps from from not letting you restart Mac OS When I press restart button I mean it. Though Netbeans, iTerm, XAMPP think that they know better than me, and I get an error that the process has been stopped because of one of these apps.

Is there way to stop this circus once and for all, for all the apps together? I don't want any app at all to be able to stop me from restarting the system.

The idea is to make original "restart" button ignore other apps. I understand many apps won’t exit cleanly, I’m ok losing work and not being warned, I just want the fastest way to get on with the restart and not have it pause for any dialogs.

Ideally, I can set this in the restart menu and change that system wide. If not, how can I automate a tool for this without typing much.

Use a text editor to create a new file "Shutdown.command" and place it in your Desktop folder. The file should contain the following:

#!/bin/bash
/sbin/shutdown -h now

Then when you double-click the new Shutdown file on your desktop, the system should immediately proceed to shut down without waiting for your apps. Your user needs to be an Administrator on the Mac for this to work.

I read from your comments to the original question that you assume that this is the same holding the power button on the computer - that is no so. Holding the power button on the computer simply shuts down the power supply to the computer, which is not good as this can lead to problems with file systems, data not being saved, etc.

When you use the above mentioned script, the system shuts down cleanly. This means that data still in RAM that hasn't been written out to disk will be written out to disk, and file systems on internal and external drives will be unmounted cleanly.


What does photolibraryd do whenever I log in to my Mac? Whenever I log into my MacBook Pro the CPU cranks up to 100%+ for a few seconds, my board gets hot, and the fans start going.  I open up Activity Monitor to find that the culprit is 'photolibraryd'.  What's going on?  What's it doing that uses so much CPU?

It also matches photos that are on your local library and in iCloud. So for instance, if you have a sync problem, you can toggle iCloud Photo Library in Photos app → Preferences → iCloud and this will cause a complete re-sync of the local and the iCloud photos.

When this happens (at least on my 51K photo library), it takes 24 hours or so of photolibraryd running to match photos and sync the changes.


How to Assign CTRL-Super-T to BASH Shell I would like to assign said hotkey to the BASH shell.  How can this be achieved with native High Sierra capabilities?

Open automator, New > Workflow/ Service.
Add "Launch Application" to the workflow:

Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Right click on the General > Show in Finder. Or alternatively navigate to /Users/you/Library/Services.
Copy the workflow there.
In system Preferences, it will show up and then bind a shortcut to it.


VMware Windows and resizing the desktop So I install two Windows 7 VMs through VMware fusion 4. The desktop resizes very nicely in the first: Windows senses the resizing and uses smaller icons.

In the second VM Windows simply magnifies its desktop to a rather ugly one: the desktop uses more real estate, but it's just a magnified image of a low-resolution desktop.

I'm not aware that I have changed any setting related to the desktop. How can one intentionally get the former behavior?

Sounds like you might not have VMware Tools installed in the second VM. Do you see the VMware Tools icon in the taskbar tray?

If not, you can select "Install VMware Tools" from the "Virtual Machine" menu (mine says "Reinstall" as I already have it installed)


Cannot delete shared files I have Vmware Fusion 4 on my Mac. I used it for work for awhile and had windows 7 installed and was joined to a AD Domain. When I left the company I had to un-join it from the Domain. Now, I cannot delete files that were shared between the mac (iOS 6) and Windows. How can I change the permissions so I can clean up my mac?

You should be able to turn off folder sharing between the VM and the Mac using Fusion's "sharing" settings and then shut down the VM.  After that, you should be able (from the Mac Finder) to move the shared folder to the Trash.  You may need to type an administrator password in the process, but that would be an administrator for the Mac host, which is presumably you.

If that doesn't work, please provide more details, such as where the files are as seen by the VM, where the files are as seen by the Mac, and what happens when you try to delete the files from the Mac.


Windows 8 RP says no network adapter found under boot camp in the new Retina MBP. Can anyone help me get the driver for the network adapter? http://www.anandtech.com/show/6008/windows-8-on-the-retina-display-macbook-pro

"The problem is Apple doesn't provide a Boot Camp driver set for the Retina MacBook Pro yet. I had to use the Broadcom wireless driver from my SNB MacBook Pro to get WiFi working under Windows."

Okay, after a bit more of searching online, found the driver, installed it and it works. Here's the link for anyone else who might need: http://www.wireless-driver.com/broadcom-wireless-driver-utility-winxp-vista-win7-ver51001968/

Thanks.


Getting a Text from someone that does not have my mobile number but has my email I am getting text on my iPhone from clients that do not have my mobile number.  Is it possible that they are sending text using my email address that is linked to my iCloud account?

Hello Mario and welcome to Ask Different community. Yes, this is possible and you may have it configured from Settings to receive SMS through your email. As pointed in this related question cant get my number to change from email to my phone number

  Messages is NOT sending a message via email. It is simply using the email (which is likely your Apple ID), as an identifier of your device. This lets other Apple users send you a message to either your phone number or email address. This is useful on iPads, iPod Touch, and Macs, who can not send to phone numbers, because they do not have phone service. So, with Messages on your iPhone, someone on their Mac can send you a message, and you can message back!


Is it possible to restore a macbook pro to an earlier date without an external hard drive backup? I've read that "Time Machine" is the appropriate tool for restoring a Mac to an earlier state.  Time Machine requires the use of some external storage device.

If I remember correctly from Windows, you could revert the state of your computer to a previously set "restore point" -- even without the use of an external storage device.  Does this possibility exist in macOS?

Time Machine doesn't require an external drive but it does require a dedicated partition. Without more info about your system its hard to be more specific. If you have an internal drive with little or nothing on it you can partition that drive and use one of the partitions for Time Machine, given its big enough. Setting partitions will erase the drive.

Why are you avoiding an external drive? I use an external drive for my time machine and it works fine. If its due to the time involved there are workarounds for that.


What happens when answering an incoming FaceTime call from an Apple Watch? If an incoming FaceTime call is received on an iPhone paired to an Apple Watch, the call will ring both on the phone and the Watch. I realise that it's not currently possible to make/receive FaceTime calls on an Apple Watch directly due to the lack of a camera, but if a FaceTime call is answered on an Apple Watch, what happens?

It’s an audio call only.

You can make audio cellular calls, so it stands to reason FaceTime would follow suit.

This article expands on using FaceTime audio on the Apple Watch


See upload and download speeds of each process Is there a way I can see the internet bandwidth being used by each process on my MacBook?

iStat Menus has this functionality in the Network menu bar item. Each process bandwidth is shown in the Processes section. This is calculated by keeping track of the sent/received bytes (something you can see in Activity Monitor for each process) since the last time period and calculating the bandwidth from this.


How can I backup and restore Wi-Fi profiles in Lion? I want to reinstall my Macbook, but i do not want to loose all my saved WPA/WEP Wi-Fi profiles.

Is there a way to back them up and restore them after the reinstall?

If you backup your keychain as well as the file /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
and restore them on a new installed Lion, you won't lose them.

Another way would be to use the Migration Assistant on a Time Machine Backup of your old system, but this would restore ALL your system settings. That's probably not what you want, otherwise you wouldn't consider reinstalling.


Is charging my iPhone all night harmful? I normally charge my iPhone all night to get 100% power. Does this harm my phone's battery?

Update [Oct 1, 2017]: Thanks for all your great answers. I noticed there is a related video which addressed my question well.

Technical
Lithium Polymer batteries, such as those used in the iPhone, are a very well understood battery chemistry and use specific chargers to manage their charging.
While the latest charging ICs Apple uses are proprietary (they work with Dialog for their power management ICs), it is unlikely that Apple performs a significantly different charging process than every other battery charging IC manufacturer.
This process charges the battery as quickly as reasonable while protecting the battery from damage or increased wear and tear. Please note that the charging IC - or Power Management IC - is located inside the iPhone.  So this applies regardless of the external USB powering device you use to charge it.
When the battery is full, the charger turns off the charging process.  The battery is left alone without current going into or out of it.  This is because most Lithium chemistry batteries don't like trickle charging (a process you may hear from others where a constant voltage and low current is applied to a battery all the time to keep it topped off).
Charging ICs therefore turn the current completely off and power the phone itself from the charger. This is the only time the battery isn't charging or discharging - when it's full and the phone is plugged in.
The battery isn't discharged and charged in some sort of cycle after charging is complete.  I'm not sure where this myth stems from, because it would actually place additional wear and tear on the battery.
Self Discharge
Every battery has a "self-discharge" rate.  This is the battery's natural capacity loss when not connected to anything.  For Lithium Polymer batteries, this is a low (compared to other rechargeable battery types) 5% per month.
The charging IC does check up on the battery and if it loses significant charge over time while plugged in, it will start another charging cycle.  But this would occur perhaps once every two weeks after several percent of the battery charge has been lost - certainly not overnight.  If you leave your phone plugged in for a month, it might start another charging cycle once or twice in that time.
Conclusion
The phone and its battery, therefore, will suffer absolutely no damage being plugged in for days at a time.
Long term storage
There is one caveat to this answer: Lithium chemistry batteries don't like to be stored with full charges.  They degrade more quickly if they aren't used and have a full charge.  If you are going to store your mobile device unused for more than a month, charge it up fully, then discharge it (watch videos over wifi or play video games) until it's 40-50% charged.  Then turn the device fully off.
Long term use
If you are using an older iPhone in a fixed installation (picture frame on the wall, data collection, baby monitor, etc) while turned on and in use with it plugged into a charger all the time, you should consider disconnecting the charger and discharging it fully once a month.  Similar issue to the above - the battery doesn't like being "stored" for long periods of time at full charge, and the charger will keep it near 100% the entire time - degrading the battery a bit more quickly than desired. Going through a discharge cycle will exercise it and help it to last longer.
Personal
While I use a newer phone now, I charged my iPhone 3GS every day for 8+ hours a day (ie, overnight) regardless of how much charge was left - and more often than not, I had used less than 20% on a given day. I used it for 4 years that way, and never replaced the battery -  it still lasted much longer than a day. Since then (3 years now), it's been essentially an iPod touch, being charged for days at a time when no one is using it, and being left in the car discharged for days (or weeks!) at a time when it's forgotten.  Battery is still going strong, and this is certainly more than 900 charging cycles for this device.
My iPhone 5 and iPad (3rd gen) were used the same way.  No negative impact from having them charge all night every night.
I'm now using the iPhone 6+ the same way.  This is an expected use case for a mobile device, and it's running just fine. I expect that to continue to be the case.
You can leave your iPhone plugged in all night and it will not be harmful to your iPhone.


Can I do anything to have my iPod Touch (2nd gen) louder? To me, It's quite difficult to understand podcast when there is some noise around, for instance in noisy subway. I think I've read something about the weak output sound level of the iPod touch 2nd gen...

Is there any means to increase the sound of poscast on that device ?

Directly on the iPod, I don't think so, if your sound settings are maxed.

Try

  Settings > iPod > Volume Limit : Off

and

  Settings > iPod > Sound Check : Off

On iTunes, go to the "Info" window of the podcast audio file, and in the Option tab, try to see if you can set the audio volume to 200%. I know it works on music, but it should also be available for the podcasts.


Automate removing the first page of a bunch of PDFs I have the cpff, and I would like to let my Mac automate removing the first page of many PDF's. I already have a script to remove the last page from my previous question, Automate removing the last page of a bunch of PDFs.

How can I change the code in the answer to that question to remove the first page instead of the last?

I've done this using the Coherent PDF Command Line Tools Community Release.

You can download either the pre-built tools or the source code to compile the later on your own, however the latter requires OCaml be installed when compiling. So the pre-built tools are the easiest way to go. The downloaded distribution file, e.g. cpdf-binaries-master.zip, contains binaries for Linux, OS X/macOS and Windows and is ~5 MB in size.

Once downloaded and extracted (double-clicking the .zip file) you'd copy the, e.g. ~/Downloads/cpdf-binaries-master/OSX-Intel/cpdf, file to a location that is defined in the PATH environment variable, e.g. /usr/local/bin/ to make it globally available on the command line in Terminal. If it's not in the PATH then you'll have to use the fully qualified pathname to the cpdf executable or ./cpdf if it's in the present working directory (pwd). In Terminal, type echo $PATHso show the PATH.

The syntax for removing the first page when the PDF file has 2 or more  pages is:

cpdf in.pdf 2-end -o out.pdf

Because cpdf reads the original file (in.pdf) and writes to a new file (out.pdf) the out.pdf filename needs to be different if saved to the same location as the in.pdf file, or save it to a different location with the same in.pdf filename as the out.pdf filename, or whatever out.pdf filename you want.

Below, I'll show two examples of automation using cpdf to remove the first page of a PDF file, assuming it has two or more pages. One using an Automator workflow as a Service available in Finder on the Services Context Menu and the other as a bash script, to use in Terminal.

As an Automator Service Workflow available in Finder on the Services Context Menu:

In Automator create a new service workflow using the settings as shown in the image below and copy and paste the code below the image into the Run Shell Script action and save as e.g.: Remove First Page from PDF

To use Remove First Page from PDF, in Finder select the PDF files you want to remove the first page from and then select Remove First Page from PDF from the Context Menu via right-click or control-click, or from Finder > Services > Remove First Page from PDF

for f in "$@"; do
            # Get Page Count.
        p="$(/usr/local/bin/cpdf -info "$f" | awk '/Pages:/{print $2}')"
            # Get file extension.
        ext="${f##*.}"
            # Get filename without extension.
        fn="${f%.*}"
            # Rename original file to "filename (original).pdf".
            # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
        mv -n "$f" "${fn} (original).${ext}"
        case "$p" in
            1)
                    # PDF file has 1 page. Make a copy to the
                    # original name for consistency of output.
                    # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
                cp -n "${fn} (original).${ext}" "$f"
                ;;
            *)
                    # PDF file has 2 or more pages.
                    # Remove the first page.
                /usr/local/bin/cpdf "${fn} (original).${ext}" 2-end -o "$f"
                ;;
        esac
            # If you don't want to keep the original
            #  file, remove '#' from the next line.
        # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}"
done

Note that the PATH passed a Run Shell Script action in Automator is, /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin. So the code above is using the fully qualified pathname to the cpdf executable, /usr/local/bin/cpdf as that is where I placed it so as to be available in Terminal by way of using its name cpdf, only.

Also note that if you do not want to keep the original files, then uncomment (remove the # from in front of) the # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}" command, just above the last line of code done.

As a bash script to use in Terminal:

Create the bash script in the following manner:

In Terminal:

touch rfpfpdf
open rfpfpdf

Copy the code block, starting with #!/bin/bash, below into the opened rfpfpdf document and then save it.

Back in Terminal:

Make the script executable:

chmod u+x rfpfpdf

Now move the rfpfpdf script to, e.g.: /usr/local/bin/

sudo mv rfpfpdf /usr/local/bin/

You can then change directory cd ... to a directory that has the PDF files that you want to remove the first page from and then simply type rfpfpdf and press enter.

The original files will be moved to "filename (original).pdf" and the newly create PDF file sans the first page, if 2 or more pages, will have the original filename.pdf name.

#!/bin/bash

for f in *.pdf *.PDF; do
    if [[ -f $f ]]; then
            # Get Page Count.
        p="$(cpdf -info "$f" | awk '/Pages:/{print $2}')"
            # Get file extension.
        ext="${f##*.}"
            # Get filename without extension.
        fn="${f%.*}"
            # Rename original file to "filename (original).pdf".
            # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
        mv -n "$f" "${fn} (original).${ext}"
        case "$p" in
            1)
                    # PDF file has 1 page. Make a copy to the
                    # original name for consistency of output.
                    # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
                cp -n "${fn} (original).${ext}" "$f"
                ;;
            *)
                    # PDF file has 2 or more pages.
                    # Remove the first page.
                cpdf "${fn} (original).${ext}" 2-end -o "$f"
                ;;
        esac
            # If you don't want to keep the original
            #  file, remove '#' from the next line.
        # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}"
    fi
done

Note that the code above assumes the cpdf executable is in a directory that is within the PATH environment variable, e.g.: /usr/local/bin/

Also note that if you do not want to keep the original files, then uncomment (remove the # from in front of) the # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}" command, just above the last line of code done.


Enlarging APFS OS Volume - Unknown partition scheme I have my OSX install on a seperate AFPS partion, my home folder on another (HFS). In order to enlarge it I deleted a Linux partition following it, and now I get an error that it is not an AFPS device when I try to enlarge it. Given some other users problems with rebooting when they have this unknown partition I'm wondering if I should be concerned. The output of diskutil list follows:

Last login: Thu Mar 19 15:22:12 on ttys000
User-MBP:~ username$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               51.7 GB    disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Untitled                47.8 GB    disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Untitled                900.0 GB   disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +51.7 GB    disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume OS                      39.6 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 21.6 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      4.3 GB     disk1s4

Here is the output of diskutil info disk0s2 | grep -e Offset -e Size:

User-MBP:etc username$ diskutil info disk0s2 | grep -e Offset -e Size
   Partition Offset:         209735680 Bytes (409640 512-Byte-Device-Blocks)
   Disk Size:                51.7 GB (51722964992 Bytes) (exactly 101021416 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

You need to boot to macOS Recovery. Instructions for booting to macOS Recovery over the internet can be found here. Once booted to macOS Recovery, open a Terminal application window and enter the following commands.

diskutil unmountdisk disk0
gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0
diskutil unmountdisk disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 101021416 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

After booting back to macOS, the commands given below will add the space formally used by linux to the partition where macOS is installed.

diskutil eraseVolume free none disk0s3
diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0


Location of iTunes Playlists (for restore after crash) My computer crashed and I lost everything. But, due to the awesomeness of Backblaze, I have all of my files and libraries and music, so nothing's lost. The problem is... all of my playlists that I've spent years tweaking, I don't want to lose them! I'm wondering where the file is within iTunes so that I can recover it.

Note that, whenever I search for this online, all the results I find are all about exporting the playlist and then importing it again. But since my computer crashed and I had to install everything anew on the new computer, I don't have the possibility to export the playlist from iTunes.

I'd love any pointers or help. Thank you!

-morgan

According to HT1660 playlist information is stored in

~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

(and in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml but that is generated from the file above by iTunes and primarily there to give other applications access to your music library). If you restored your Music folder from the backup the file should have gotten restored as well.


Macbook Pro 2011 Wifi stops working after a few minutes, needs PRAM reset to get working again My 2011 MacBook Pro is running High Sierra and has a WiFi problem. It stops working after a few minutes and shows "No wifi hardware installed" after reboot. A PRAM / NVRAM reset sorts this out until the next time. SMC reset also temporarily solves the problem.

The computer also has Windows and Ubuntu installed and the wifi works fine in both. Does anyone know a fix for this?

Normally I would just update to fix most Apple problems but the latest update (2018-001) won't install as it will render the Bootcamp partition unbootable!

I would start with something simple and boot into Safe Mode and test how well your Wi-Fi works while in Safe Mode.

Follow these steps::

Fully shut down your MBP
Restart your MBP
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice. Also note that booting into Safe Mode can take a while!)
Take a note of what happens (i.e. can you now connect to the Wi-Fi network and stay connected?)
Exit Safe Mode by restart your MBP as normal and test again

The act of booting into Safe Mode will actually perform a number of background tasks, and this often resolves issues when you've rebooted normally.

Once you've tried the above let me know how you go.

[Update 1]

Since we've established the issue is still present during Safe Mode and that it still keep recurring after resetting NVRAM, let's next test your hardware for signs of any problems.

Run Apple Hardware Test

Your model MBP uses Apple Hardware Test. To use this, follow these steps:

Shut down your MacBook Pro
Restart your MacBook Pro
Press and hold the D key before the gray startup screen appears.
After a while, Apple Hardware Test (AHT) will start.
When prompted, select your language and click the right arrow.
When the AHT console appears, you can choose to run Basic tests by clicking the Test button. However, I suggest you select the "Perform extended testing" checkbox before you click the Test button.
Your test results will appear in the window in the bottom-right of the console.

Note 1: that the extended test will take some time. Take a note of the results and report back.

Note 2: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

[Update 2]

Another option worth trying is to remove your Wi-Fi service, restart, and add your Wi-Fi service back.

To do this:

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Network
Select the Wi-Fi service on the left-hand side
Click on the cog icon at bottom-left and select Make Service Inactive
Now delete the service by clicking on the minus sign (i.e. the - button) at left of the cog
Click on the Apply button
Exit Network preferences
Restart your MBP
Go to Apple > System Preferences > Network
Click on the plus sign (i.e. the + button) at left of the cog
In the pop-up window, ensure that Wi-Fi is selected from the drop-down menu
Click on the Create button
Make sure Wi-Fi is on and connected (it should remember your previous settings, but if not just re-add your Wi-Fi network again)

Let me know how you go.


How to run a command at startup I want to automatically start my MongoDB Server at startup. The command for it is

mongod --dbpath="/Users/prateek/Desktop/Mongo Database"

How do I configure this in Mac OSX El Capitan?

Note - I have installed MongoDB using Homebrew

Create a file named org.mongod.user.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents with the content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.mongod.user</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>mongod</string>
        <string>--dbpath=/Users/prateek/Desktop/Mongo Database</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

This requires that mongod is in your path.

If mongod is not in your path, use the whole path in the first string of the ProgramArguments array (e.g. /usr/local/Cellar/mongodb/3.2.1/bin/mongod)

If you need stdout or stderr (which can be helpful if something fails) add the following in the dict section of the plist:

    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.mongod.user.stderr</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/org.mongod.user.stdout</string>

Load and start mongod with:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.mongod.user.plist
launchctl start org.mongod.user

To connect to your MongoDB database enter:

mongo localhost

Again this requires that mongo is in your path. Otherwise use the complete path (e.g. /usr/local/Cellar/mongodb/3.2.1/bin/mongo).


How do I mount Ext4 using OS X Fuse I installed OS X Fuse on OS X 10.9.4  as outlined in http://osxdaily.com/2014/03/20/mount-ext-linux-file-system-mac/

Unfortunately it does not mount any of my Linux filesystems (on external HD or SD card), either directly or with Disk Utility

Has anyone had any success with this? I note a few others seem to have similar problems.

Is any other package required?

NOTE I can read the data on a Linux machine, so do NOT want other suggestions, but it would be convenient to read on my Mac.

Download and install FUSE-Ext2 as described here and then run something like

mkdir /Volumes/Linux
sudo mount -t fuse-ext2 /dev/disk2s6 /Volumes/Linux

You can figure out the device from looking at the output of diskutil list.


close all the instances of google chrome except first I can close google chrome with following bash command:

kill -9 $(ps -x | grep "Google Chrome" | awk "{print $1}")

It closes all instances of google chrome.
But I need command that close all the instances of google chrome except first, because music is playing there and I don't want to stop it.

I use word instance to express new google chrome window which opens after I press super N.

To close all windows except the frontmost window, run:

osascript -e 'tell app "Google Chrome" to close (windows 2 thru -1)'

To close all windows except the window opened first, run a script like this in AppleScript Editor:

tell application "Google Chrome"
    if number of windows < 2 then return
    set min to id of window 1
    repeat with w in windows 2 thru -1
        if id of w < min then set min to id of w
    end repeat
    close (windows where id is not min)
end tell

"Instances" are usually called windows in OS X, and windows are not separate instances of a process like the instances opened by open -n.


How to fix a Lion upgrade that killed SSH keys? I just upgraded to Lion and find now that my ssh keys are not working properly when trying to log into various servers via SSH.

I've checked permissions on the ~/.ssh directory and the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file, and they are properly set to 0700 and 0600 respectively.

What can I do to fix this issue?

Here is a sample of the ssh connection process:

$ ssh -v 70.32.90.120
OpenSSH_5.6p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8r 8 Feb 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/gonzo/.ssh/config
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to 70.32.90.120 [70.32.90.120] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/gonzo/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/gonzo/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/gonzo/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /Users/gonzo/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_4.3
debug1: match: OpenSSH_4.3 pat OpenSSH_4*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.6
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host '70.32.90.120' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/gonzo/.ssh/known_hosts:61
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,gssapi-with-mic,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /Users/gonzo/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /Users/gonzo/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Next authentication method: password
gonzo@70.32.90.120's password:

Ask your administrator to look at the sshd log. Or more likely you will need to ask them to run a second instance of sshd on a secondary port with debug turned on, doing this should tell you what the key error is.

sshd is quite a bit tricky when it comes to this, for good reason. On the server you are ssh'ing to, the administrator will have to run a command such as /usr/sbin/sshd -d -p 2222

When running sshd in debug mode, it will handle the first connection, spew out lots (and I do mean lots of output), and then terminate the server. Issuing -p means run the server on port 2222, which is necessary because it can't take over the default port of 22 where the server is normally running.

You will then have to run ssh -p 2222 70.32.90.120 (you don't need -v in this instance). The server's logs should then give you the exact reason that your private key is being rejected from the server. Note that this exchange may need to occur multiple times, because ssh is very stringent when it comes to security, and you may find multiple failures in the process.


Sending USB and audio to LCD through thunderbolt It is disappointing to me that in order to use my monitor's USB ports, I have to send 2 Data cables from my MacBook to my monitor: Thunderbolt->DVI and USB->USB.

In order to use my monitor's inbuilt speakers, I require at least one more cable (speaker power), which requires an awkward transformer.

It seems like bad design, the monitor should power its own speakers, and USB should automatically extends through the data cable.

It is sometime since I bought my kit. Is it now possible to do this? Do modern MacBook video outputs at modern monitors support this?

There is no Thunderbolt to DVI adapter. You're using a Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter. Mini DisplayPort doesn't support anything other than DisplayPort data. USB cannot travel over this. If the monitor requires an external power supply, presumably Mini DisplayPort doesn't have enough power either. If this was a Thunderbolt monitor, it would likely still need a power cord, but it wouldn't need the USB cables, because Thunderbolt basically supports everything.


WiFi access without internet sharing? I would like to have wireless access to a mac running OSX 10.8, but without internet sharing, i.e. only local access to the mac from a connected WiFi client. In principle I can share the Ethernet port over WiFi but if no cable is connected to the Ethernet port the WiFi access point goes down. Possibly one could share localhost (that is always up) but there is no such option in the graphical interface. Of course I could have a dummy switch or something else connected to the Ethernet port but this seems a bit odd. Any ideas how to solve this? Is it possible to set up internet sharing from the terminal in order to share 'localhost'?

You want to be able to remotely access a Mac via WiFi, but NOT have that computer be connected to an external network? I'm not sure whether you can do that with the built-in Internet Sharing, because as you noticed it will shut off sharing if there is no connection available to share. However, you ought to be able to solve this with a cheap wireless router. Even with no WAN connection the router should hand out addresses, so you can connect to the Mac by assigned IP.


Is it possible to sync my iTunes Up Next list with my iPhone? Currently, I don't have any of my music syncing between my computer and my iPhone, mostly because I have too much music to store it all on my phone. Is it possible to use the new Up Next list from iTunes 11 as a source for the music to by synced?

I've tried making a Smart Playlist and I've looked at a few other routes to getting this functionality, but to no avail. For anyone who is familiar with it, what I'd like to have is something like Rdio's "Sync to Mobile" feature, but with my own music library and using the "Up Next" feature. Thanks!

No, the Up Next list is something that is not portable in any way; it can't even be accessed by AppleScript, so you can't make a playlist even by using a script.


Repartition an AirDisk When I first set up my 1Tb external disk with my AirPort Extreme I partitioned it into two 500Gb disks, one for Backup and one for Media storage but I have no memory of how I did this. I seem to remember being prompted when I first connected the disk.

Now, over a year later the backup partition is filling up but I don't really use the media partition at all. So, i'd like to know if it's possible to re-partition this disk into a 800/200Gb split without wiping the disk and starting my backups over again?

Disconnect the External Hard drive from the Airport Extreme and connect it directly to ur Computer, then resize the partitions in disk utility.


changes to .bash_profile causing Terminal shell to not load but keep looping with PATH settings I was trying to make some changes with PATH (mostly add a new PATH) to my .bash_profile and the last line entered was source .bash_profile.

After I saved and restarted the Terminal app, instead of the shell prompt I see PATH values continuously popping up on my Terminal window tab. Only CTRL+C will kill it but now I see 'Application Closed' message and that's the end of it. What do I do to restore the shell back to my previous status? I tried running the repair permissions under Disk Utility but that didn't seem to fix my issue.

Thanks in advance.

You should remove the line:

source .bash_profile

from your .bash_profile. This line is causing the infinite loop by continuously loading the file. As you have discovered, repairing permissions will not solve this issue.

Since you can't access terminal, you can edit your .bash _profile in TextEdit. Here's how to do so:

Open TextEdit Application and select Open (under File).
Navigate to your home folder.
.bash_profile will not be shown by default, since it begins with a period and is
hidden. Type Cmd-Shift-. to view all hidden files.
Then, open up your .bash_profile and remove the source .bash_profile line.