Ghost Updates on Mac My dock tells me I have 8 available updates:

I also got the notification asking to install updates. However, when I open App Store, I only see recently installed updates (with no updates to apps or software visible):

If the updates are real, how do I update, and if not, how do I get rid of the bubble?

Edit (more information):

$ defaults read com.apple.appstore
{
    "NSWindow Frame Preferences" = "0 116 1277 661 0 0 1280 777 ";
    "NSWindow Frame window_prefs" = "20 51 1240 726 0 0 1280 777 ";
    SeenOSUpdates =     (
    );
    Storefront = "143441-1,13 ab:WJ6jMoo1";
    appStoreBadgeCount = 7;
    "com.apple.appstore.WebKit2DeveloperExtrasEnabled" = 1;
    "com.apple.appstore.WebKit2ShowsToolTipOverTruncatedText" = 1;
    "com.apple.appstore.WebKit2SuppressesIncrementalRendering" = 1;
    "com.apple.appstore.WebKit2UserInterfaceDirectionPolicy" = 1;
    "primary.WebKit2DeveloperExtrasEnabled" = 1;
    "primary.WebKit2ShowsToolTipOverTruncatedText" = 1;
    "primary.WebKit2SuppressesIncrementalRendering" = 1;
}
$

I would try the following command in the terminal to download and install updates available for your mac. All commands below require administrator privileges and will prompt for your password which is NOT relayed to the screen. You will not see the caret move at all as you type it in or be replaced by "*" per character of your password. This is normal.

sudo softwareupdate -ia

This downloads and installs all available updates.

If perhaps you have configured a different App Store catalog (Usually done in businesses) you can run the following command first and then the above command. You can run it anyway to restore the catalog to defaults if you're not sure.

Reset default catalog for App Store:

sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog

For business Macs that need to restore the catalog back to the business's you can do that with the following command:

sudo softwareupdate --set-catalog <URL GOES HERE WITHOUT BRACKETS>

The first command I stated should download and install all updates but sometimes bugs happen and things don't work. Another attempt to solve the issue could be the following command first.

Reset all ignored updates:

sudo softwareupdate --reset-ignored -ai

More edits! Lets try seeing what the app store thinks is needing an update with this command:

defaults read com.apple.appstore

Last possible option I can think off is to write that no updates are available. If there are updates available this won't fix that, but it'll change the updates available number.

defaults write com.apple.appstore appStoreBadgeCount 0

This may change the badge count.

Sometimes nothing works, and a reinstall may be the best option. Steps below.

Don't forget to backup your data!

Download MacOS Sierra from the app store.
Reinstall by opening it and running it

OR FOR CLEAN WIPE READ ON

Wipe a USB Drive or Partition it with 6GB minimum named Untitled
Run the following command after downloading Sierra to create a bootable USB.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

This may take a bit of time to copy onto the USB.
Now, boot into recovery mode by holding down alt/option directly after starting up your mac.
Here you will be presented with the USB option (Don't forget to plug keep it plugged in or it won't show up) NOTE If a firmware Password was set, you will be required to put it in to boot it up and choose a disk to boot from!
Booting up to the USB will be like recovery mode and you can wipe your Mac's HD/SSD and reinstall a fresh clean copy of OS Sierra.

Don't forget to backup your data!

Reinstalling via alt/option + command + r into the internet recovery (If available on your mac model) will revert and download and old OS that it came with out of Apple's Facility then to Sierra, so a bootable USB is a good option and you can keep it there for another use.


How to get Mountain Lion to recognise modifier keys from external Windows keyboard By default, Mountain Lion maps Windows-key to Command and ctrl to ctrol. I changed the modifier keys under the "Modifier Keys" menu in System Preferences, but it had no impact. I can tell this because I changed all modifier keys to "control", but still was able to use the Windows-key as the Command key and the alt key normally. Does Mountain Lion not respect these settings with Windows keyboard??

Should I be doing something else?

Did you select the keyboard from the menu at the top? (Edit: it is not shown if there is only one keyboard.)

If you have installed keyboard or HID drivers, try removing them.

You could also try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/.GlobalPreferences.*.plist.

Another way to change the modifier keys is to use KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <!-- <devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>KINESIS</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x05f3</vendorid>
  </devicevendordef>
  <deviceproductdef>
    <productname>ADVANTAGE</productname>
    <productid>0x0007</productid>
  </deviceproductdef> -->
  <item>
    <name>swap_command_and_control</name>
    <identifier>swap_command_and_control</identifier>
    <!-- <device_only>DeviceVendor::KINESIS, DeviceProduct::ADVANTAGE</device_only> -->
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_R, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>


How do I add the "explicit" tag to albums in iTunes I know how to add explicit tags to individual tracks, but I'd like to know how to add the tag to albums/the album title as well. I'm using windows if that affects anything.

It seems that this is a tag within the file. If you are using Windows, follow this guide here. Per Mod request, I've put the instructions below.

Begin by downloading MP3Tag, whether the most recent version or a portable version.
Open iTunes and find a song that you’d like to mark with an appropriate tag. Click the song once, so that it is highlighted, and then press “Ctrl + I.” The next window will have a button marked “File.” Under it you can see if the track is an AAC or MP3 (iTunes calls MP3 ‘MPEG audio’). Unfortunately, adding these tags to an MP3 file is not possible, so any track you wish to mark must be AAC.
Right-click the track and choose to “Create AAC Version.” In our case, we’ll use a copy of Hard-Fi’s “Suburban Knights.” iTunes will play a tone when the AAC version has been created, and it will appear alongside the original version in your library. Use “Ctrl + I” again to double-check which file is the AAC version if you are unsure.
Open MP3Tag at this point, and right click the song in iTunes to see a list of actions. Choose “Show in Windows Explorer,” then drag the song into MP3Tag.
Right-click the entry within MP3Tag and select the “Extended Tags” option. The tag is not part of MP3Tag by default, so you’ll have to add it via the first of the three buttons.
After clicking the first of the three buttons, another window will appear asking for two properties: the tag name and the tag value.
Call the tag “ITUNESADVISORY” (without the quote marks), and choose the correct value. Entering “0” will mean that no icon appears, just as before. Entering “1” will give the song the “Explicit” tag, and entering “2” will give it the “Clean” tag. Leaving the value blank will give no tag.
After modifying the details for the song, press “Ctrl + S” in MP3Tag to get a window informing you that the changes have been saved.
Remove the songs you’re changing from iTunes. As iTunes cannot register changes to the song, you’ll have to remove and re-add them. Make sure you choose to “Keep Files.”
Drag the modified tracks back into iTunes, and you’ll see the corresponding tag. Sync them with an iOS device and the same remains true.


How to format new internal HDD on MacBook Pro I have just replaced the original HDD in my late 2011 MacBook Pro with an SSD.

I did the Command-Option-R startup procedure to install the OS from scratch, however when I try to use disk utility to reformat the disk it just shows up the 2GB internet restore partition disk1s1.

If I open the terminal and execute te command diskutil list I can however see the new disk disk1 at 1.1TB.

How can I reformat the new drive so I can install the (latest) OS?

Unfortunately, the Disk Utility UI included in Mac OS has become almost unusable (as you have discovered), but the grunt work can still be done in the Terminal.

If you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, visit this page from AppleGazette: http://www.applegazette.com/mac/pro-terminal-commands-using-diskutil/

I would first try simply erasing the disk and see if that gets you where you need to be. On the aforementioned web page, scroll down to the "Format and Erase Drives with diskutil" section and read about formatting and reformatting. Give that a try first and see what happens.

If you have problems with formatting/reformatting, try partitioning the drive instead. To do so, scroll down to the "Partition Drives with diskutil" section and follow the instructions. If done correctly, this should partition your drive and format it in just one step.

Good luck!


delete a standard account and log with the admin account I have an old Mac with one (admin) account. The mac can boot without any problem, but I don't remember the admin password. A friend of mine had the 'brilliant' idea to create a new (non-admin) user and set it to load by default.

Can I access the admin's documents with this new account and afterwards just delete the freshly created account?
Or is there a way to changer/recover the admin password?

Please see the following Apple KB on resetting the Administrator password:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274


Is it possible to connect an iPhone/iPad via WiFi Protected Setup (WPS)? I was wondering if anyone know if it is possible to connect your iPhone/iPad to a router via WiFi Protected Setup (WPS)?

I would like to bypass entering my password on my iOS device and speed pairing similar to how printers can get on the router with a PIN or first attempt.

No, you cannot do this (source). You should strongly consider not using WPS anyway, as it has a number of documented security issues. Apple has a page which describes recommended router setup for connecting an iOS device, which might help.


How to disable all caches in safari 11? I am using Safari to develop for a while. One thing I always liked is when you clear the cache, it really does, unlike other browsers I tried in the past. But in previous versions, specially when working in a code in a local testing server, just reloading the page will reload everything from disk. Now I have to use de shortcut command+alt+e to clear before reload or some new CSS won't load, even some http request will return old values. Just reloading the page won't guarantee to show me the last modifications.

I looked at preferences and develop menu but didn't find an option to just don't use any caches at all - the perfect option will be don't use caches when I have the web inspector opened, means I am developing.

Did I miss this option, or there is another way to disable all caches?

In the Web Inspector, under the Network tab, unselect ‘Use the resource cache when loading resources’. Blue means the cache is not used, black means the cache is used.

As you wished, this only takes effect when the web inspector is open. Note that this is a cache bypass, not a permanent ‘cache empty’, so when you un-bypass the cache, any cache from prior to the bypass will be used. To use the latest resources with the web inspector closed, empty the cache using the button to the right or Develop → Empty Caches (⌥⌘E).

Currently, in Safari Technology Preview there is a re-designed Network tab in the Web Inspector with a new cache bypass icon, which I expect to make its way to Safari soon.


Macbook Air 2012 single beep while on My MacBook Air 2012 is making a single beep during normal use. So far it has done this twice in the last 20 minutes so I don't know if there is an interval yet.

A cursory Google search only showed something about people having boot issues with multiple beeps when trying to start the machine. I am using this machine (it's already booted without issues) so I don't think that is relevant to me.

The machine isn't running hot, which would also be normal. So what does this beep mean? Insight appreciated.

SoundBunny has a free demo available which will work for 30 days, this app will show you every app which is makes a sound. That might help you track it down. You can also tell it to ignore apps which you have ruled out, which should help you narrow things down a but too. The purpose of SoundBunny is to let you set the volume for each app, but I thought it might help with this as well.

TJ Luoma posted this answer to a similar question here: apple.stackexchange.com.


How to change Console.app log queries' time format I'd like to change the time format from 12 to 24 hours in the log queries.

The logs themselves are already in 24-hour, but the queries show in 12-hour format.

I checked asl.conf's man page but I couldn't find an option, nor did perusing the actual file at /private/etc/asl.conf.

I also checked the default All Messages query file and a custom one, to no avail, at /Applications/Utilities/Console.app/Contents/Resources/ASLQueries/All Messages.aslquery.

Make sure you select View>Show Milliseconds to reproduce it, which seems to override the setting Medium in System Preferences>Language & Text>Region>Times>Customize….

I use Console.app v10.8 on Mountain Lion.

For El Capitan - macOS 10.11.6

Go to System Preferences->Language and Region and choose the Time Format.

Changing it to non 24hr seemed to give a quick response in Console but changing back seemed to need a restart of Console.app


How do I get a folder tree view in the left column of the Finder? I'd like to have a tree view of my current folder (it's children and it's parents) for navigation in the left column of the finder's UI. How do I get that?

Favorites in the left hand side is a flat list, but it's a good place to store some frequent destinations.

And make sure to select the third option (circled) so you can have a tree structure in your Finder.

Last but not least, you may notice that the screenshot has a Path Bar at the bottom indicating your current location in the hierarchy. And I think this is the closest thing if you are asking for a Windows Explorer type layout. Enable it in the Finder menu: View->Show Path Bar


Mac Wi-Fi / AirPort icon has an X through it I have a problem with my AirPort / Wi-Fi hardware on my MacBook Pro.

I updated to macOS 10.12, Sierra, and then the Wi-Fi would not work. Nothing I do has made any change. I have tried SMC and NVRam resets. Have used a different AirPort card. Different hard drive as well.

I just get the AirPort menu bar icon with an X through it. Any help would be great as it is doing my head in.

You are not alone in seeing this problem; the Apple discussion Hello, my iMac's wifi icon has an x in it and I cannot access wireless wifi on it, … has attracted a couple of answers.

Linc Davis's answer suggests the following possible cause and a multi-step solution:

Sometimes the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar may falsely indicate that Wi-Fi is unavailable. That could happen if you switch between network locations, one of which doesn't have a Wi-Fi service.

Open the Network pane in System Preferences. A list of available network services appears on the left.

If Wi-Fi is in the list, select it, then from the popup menu labeled with a gear icon at the bottom of the list, select Make Service Active. Click Apply.
If Wi-Fi is not in the service list, click the plus-sign button at the bottom of the list, and then select Wi-Fi from the  Interface menu in the sheet that drops down. Click Create, then Apply.

If there is a closed padlock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane, click it and enter your administrator password to unlock the settings.

If the above steps don't solve the problem, Linc goes on to suggest deleting the computer's /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist file and restarting.

Full instructions are in the discussion.


Error on transferring photos from iPhone onto Photos on Mac From time to time I would like to be able to save WhatsApp photos (on my iPhone) into Photos (on my Mac).

Here is how I proceed:

On my iPhone I allowed WhatsApp to access my Photos (read and write).
From WhatsApp within a chat I select a photo, and open the bottom left menu to save it:

.
I connect my iPhone on my Mac, using my USB cable.
On my Mac I start Photos, select my iPhone, select the photo to import, and click Import 1 Selected.

And I get the following error from Photos:

NB: there is no Cloud service involved here.

My question is simple:

What is the real meaning and cause of this error message?

Did I do something wrong?

Is this is a known bug?

False error

Yes, my method is correct. The problem isn't coming from WhatsApp and is more general to the process of transfering photos from Photos on iPhone toward Photos on Mac.

Here is the way I was able to get back my photo on My Mac, verify it was correctly transferred, and finally import it manually inside Photos.

On my Mac I made a search for any file with the name produced in the error window,
from Terminal I entered:

cd ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary
find . -name "6c65168d-*"
./Masters/2018/11/05/20181105-103812/6c65168d-da6c-4df4-8239-28ab4d59c9dd.JPG
./Masters/2018/11/05/20181105-103830/6c65168d-da6c-4df4-8239-28ab4d59c9dd.JPG
./Masters/2018/11/05/20181105-111753/6c65168d-da6c-4df4-8239-28ab4d59c9dd.JPG

The "6c65168d-*" argument to find means find any file which name begins with 6c65168d- and print it.
The 3 result lines I got are correct and due to the fact I tried with smaller set of images 3 times to focus on the image causing the error.

Next, if I try to open any of these files, they do without any error within Preview, and moreover they can be easily imported within Photos without any error.

Conclusion

The error message is inappropriate and seems like an internal error within Photos on Mac or within the transfer process from iPhone to Mac.

I will continue the analysis of this stupid bug and report it to Apple.

Errors are already enough of a problem.

False errors are worse.


How to reuse HDD from TimeCapsule without losing the data? I've upgraded my router from Apple TimeCapsule to Keenetic Ultra. Keenetic supports HFS+ and my external drive enclosure, however when I plug in the drive from TimeCapsule only one 1 GB partition is showing and it doesn't contain any data from the TimeMachine.

This happens because the TimeCapsule disk contains 3 partitions with the same UUID (so much for being Universally Unique) equal to all "0". macOS comes with a utility to assign a new random unique ID to the volume.
You need to attach the TimeCapsule drive to macOS and unmount all partitions (use diskutil list and diskutil info diskXsY to find the disks and ensure the zeroed-out UUIDs, unmount with diskutil umount diskXsY).
After that you can assign new UUIDs for the two 1 GB volumes, leaving the main data volume as-is (just in case).
/System/Library/Filesystems/hfs.fs/Contents/Resources/hfs.util -s disk2s1
/System/Library/Filesystems/hfs.fs/Contents/Resources/hfs.util -s disk2s2

This should be enough to get the data volume to show up.
I'm not sure if TimeCapsule expects that UUID to be all 0. If it does then this operation will prevent the drive from working in TimeCapsule, and you can't set the UUID manually using hfs.util. The following snippet is constructed by observing the changes hfs.util -s does to the disk header. This is as safe as open brain surgery, but as far as I can tell the hfs.util only writes 8 bytes to one location on disk, 1128 bytes from the start of the partition. This python script zeroes-out that location, hopefully returning the drive to original state:
with open("/dev/disk2s2", "wb") as f:
    f.seek(0x468)
    f.write(bytes([0]*8))

All in all, this is very dangerous, make backups, at least of the header portion of the disk, but it still may corrupt data.
UPD:
Turns out Apple has open-sourced the hfs.util. I’m correct, this script does all that needs to be done, but the hardcoded offset is still a bad practice, since the FS header may be in a different place on the real disk.
If anyone seriously needs to zero-out the UUID on disk - you should modify the hfs.util itself: https://opensource.apple.com/source/hfs/hfs-183/hfs_util/
Or you can ping me in the comments, I’m willing to do it if anybody actually needs this.


Change the default Quicktime screen recording cache in OSX Mojave to be on an external flash drive instead? I currently am using Mac OSX Mojave and I record my screen using Quicktime and it usually stops when the cached recording exceeds what is available on my drive, which is only around 8 GB. I understand the default location for the cached file (which it then prompts you to save afterwards) is located at:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/

Is there a way for me to trick my computer into saving it onto an external disk instead? I've seen this post, How do I get QuickTime to store temporary recordings on another drive?, but the answers either involve creating a new user, or it doesn't work in Mojave anymore. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

For all I know, there might be a macOS setting to change where QT saves screen recordings, but I have not found that.

Without changing the path to the directory where QT writes screen recording files, you can change the directory to a symbolic link to a folder on your external drive.  The symlink acts as if it is a directory, but instead of holding files and using disk space to save files, it links to any directory you can get to through the file system.

I cannot confirm that you have identified the correct directory where Quicktime saves screen recordings in Mojave.  In Catalina, new screen recordings initially are saved on the desktop.  This is new in Catalina. If for some reason QT is not saving files to the directory you expect, obviously you will have to find the right directory and convert it to a symlink.

I am assuming you can find your way to the command line via the terminal app. I would guess there is a way to avoid using the command line for setting this up, I am going out on a limb and recommending the command line.

To convert a directory at

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information/

to a symlink connected to your external drive, you can try these steps:

Setup a folder on your external drive where you want to save screen recordings.  For this write-up, I am calling it

/Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

The command for that is

$ mkdir /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

If there are files you want to keep from

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information/,

they need to be copied or moved into the new directory at /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs. The command for that is:

for copy:  $ cp ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information/* /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

for move:  $ mv ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information/* /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

Obviously, you could create the new folder by copying the old one to the new location. The commands are similar to those shown for copy and move, you just skip the mkdir in step 1, and drop the /* at the end of the source element in the commands, something like this:

for copy and create new folder in the process:  $ cp ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

for move and create new folder in the process:  $ mv ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

Before you can make the symlink, you have to either rename or delete the folder QT has been using. In Catalina, you have to use sudo for these commands. I am not sure if this is needed in Mojave. sudo is used to execute a command with super user privileges.  If you do not use sudo when super user privileges are required, the error message is not always indicative of insufficient permissions.  The error messages can be misleading.  Assuming your account is of type "administrator," to use sudo, you just precede the command with sudo followed by a space.  You will be prompted for your password. You can avoid that by logging in as the root user, but then you run the risk of the directories being owned by the root user instead the account used when recording with QT, causing errors for lack of permissions to write to the directory on the external drive.

With all that as introduction, you can use these commands for renaming or deleting the default QT directory (I renamed mine, temporarily, then deleted it after every thing with the new setup was working for awhile.

rename: sudo mv ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information.backup

delete sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information

Make the symlink.  The symlink is going to have the exact same path as the original folder you are moving.  This is absolutely critical,  because QT is going to try writing files where it always has, at that path.  If there is no directory or symlink at that path, QT is going to choke.  The command to make the symlink is:

ln -s /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information

That command will put the symlink exactly where the directory was that you will have moved to the external drive.

To verify it is setup, you can list the directory from the commandline:

$ cd ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/
$ ls -alF

The symlink will look like this:

Autosave Information-> /Volumes/ext_drive_name/QT_screen_recs

Another way you can see the symlink is through Finder.  Navigate to

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/

You will see a folder named Autosave Information with a tiny arrow in the lower left corner, indicating it is a link.

Finally, when you make screen recording, if you have converted the correct directory, and have the permissions set correctly, you will find the screen recording files on the external drive.

This symlink thing is a good trick.  I used it to move most of folders in my home directory, including Downloads, Desktop, Music, and Movies to an external drive, conserve space on the relatively small SSD running as my system drive.


Can I make Firefox the default browser in iOS I really want to use Firefox as my main browser but can't find a way to make it the default browser on iOS: this make it's adoption much more complicated. Is it totally impossible?

Edit - Example of use case: while clicking a link in the Twitter app, I would like it to open directly in Firefox.

I won't jailbreak.

You cannot change the default browser (Safari) unless you jailbreak, which you do not want to do. You can however use supported apps. For example, just like how ads in browsers may open app store "sponsored" apps, YouTube will open Chrome if enabled to. If the app does not specify which browser to launch in when a browser-required link is clicked, Safari will be launched.

If programmed to do so, apps are well able to launch (and transmit data) to other apps. You cannot change Apple's iOS default settings but you can decide which apps you use such that the apps you like will be supported.

Update (2019) : The "Share" option in iOS may be able to launch specific browsers, eg: Firefox has this option.


What's the best way to edit Microsoft Word documents on iPad? I'm on the road and have the need to update my CV which is a Microsoft Word document. My CV is accessible via WebDav but I've also got it stored on the iPad using the Synology DS File app.

What is the best way to edit my CV using the iPad? Is there a native or web based app that can do this for me? I would expect that the formatting and tables in the document to be preserved when it is saved.

Pages will indeed give you the native app and nice interface, but for true Microsoft Word editing, you have to try CloudOn!

After creating an account in the app on your iPad, you will be given choices to use your dropbox to reach the documents you wish to edit. Another option is to transfer it to the app via iTunes. When editing, you will be using the full version of Microsoft Word on your iPad. No catch. Simply the full version like you know it from your Windows PC desktop. It is amazing!

It takes a while to get used to running it properly on the iPad, but it's worth it when all your CV formatting is intact and editable.


Can't open News app after changing region/country After changing region/country, News can't be opened.
App Store shows installed, with "Open" button next to the App.
Tapping on it does nothing.

Asking Siri to open it, Siri says "can't right now".
I'm using an iPhone SE and the storage is not full.
The widget shows. Tapping on articles (in widget) opens Safari.

Anyone else had this, and solved it?

News App has been limited to specific countries.

You can change your country under Settings > General > Language & Region > Region to keep using News, if your country no longer has access to it otherwise.

  Note: you can always use the App's widget in other countries.

More:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202329 (Apple's page about News)
https://www.imore.com/how-get-apple-news-uk-australia-canada-and-more (an article explaining how to change your country in Settings)


How to give feedback for an Apple app not listed on the Product Feedback page? For example, Notes app is not listed on the Apple Product Feedback page. And I want to suggest adding a Horizontal Line, like HTML <hr/> to Notes app.

After suggestion from @user3439894, I had tweeted Apple Support and here is their answer:

  We love feedback. If you don’t see the Apple app you wish to leave feedback for, you can leave feedback by choosing the device you are using here: http://apple.co/Feedback

So, following that, I had posted the feedback using one of my devices as a channel, explaining in notes why am I using the device channel, and also listing all the OSs that I mean this feature request for.


Mac keychain is reset everyday Every time I restart my Mac, my Keychain option in iCloud is unticked, my mail passwords are forgotten and my wallpaper goes into default.

Everyday, I fix it by checking the keychain and changing my wallpaper and fixing my mail passwords.

How can I get the Keychain to remain synchronized?

It’s often a result of corrupted keychain files which can be fixed in three steps using Keychain Access first aid.

Open "Keychain Access” (Applications > Utilities)
Open the “Keychain Access” menu and choose “Keychain First Aid”
Enter the users password and check the “Repair” box, then click “Start”

After keychain repairs are completed, exit out of Keychain Access and reboot. You may be asked one more time for the login, but from this point on it should remember it.


Blurred fonts - Monitor NEC EA274WMi - MacBook Pro retina 13 - Yosemite my new monitor NEC EA274WMi looks sharp when connected to windows but blurred all font texts once connected to OS X. It's very annoying, I work with user interface, small texts, labels, icons.

I tried all every cables and adaptors: display miniport, DVI-D and HDMI. Same problem.

Other monitors with the same issue have solved forcing RGB mode instead of YCbCr, but this patch haven't worked for me http://embdev.net/topic/284710

Is there someone with the same NEC monitor that have resolved (or haven't) this issue?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Ste

This is my configuration:
Monitor NEC EA274WMi, MacBook Pro Retina, 13 inch, late 2012, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB, OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

This is a screenshot from my desktop, can you see how blurred is the number 1 in the red square aside the stack exchange logo?

Try disabling LCD font smoothing. Go to the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, then choose General. It's the last checkbox at the very bottom.


How can I set up DNS for Bonjour and AirPrint to advertise printers across subnets Several printers do not stay connected to clients--even though everything has static ip addresses--and they are not searchable across networks i.e. they do not appear with Bonjour.

Ideally I would like to setup DNS so that in all of my networks, printers could just be added with Bonjour, and then as well, the settings would continue to work the next day, assuming the IP addresses, etc. did not change.

Apple says very clearly at the top, here to "use DNS to print across networks," but unfortunately does not explain how to do this!  I suspect that gesture was aimed at converging Windows users.

All the resources I find online, seem quite old--for example, here is information that was really exciting, and from Apple, all 3 printers are listed here--but in the OSX Server interface, or the latest OSX, there is not even a way to add many of the services people describe.

To be specific; these are all HP Printers, which support Airprint, and the server is running Yosemite with 5.0.1 (the same problem existed on server 4 as well), with the clients either on Yosemite or 10.11.

The firewall settings for layer 2, 3, and 7 are all correct and not interfering with this, as far as I know (have experimented, with it off).  Also I have experimented with enabling and disabling IPv6.

I have solved this problem by allowing a selected group of the guests to be on the same LAN as the printers; however blocking them significantly with firewalls so that only the printers and a few other machines needed, can be reached from that specific wi-fi network.

If you see that I have provided this answer to my own question;  I'd still love to hear how to configure DNS for Bonjour in the current versions of OSX and Server, and otherwise forward Airprint or other protocols as examples.


How can I get Messages app? I deleted my Messages app but I'm not sure how to re-install it.
What can I do?
I'm on 10.9.1 by the way.

Use a backup

If you have a Time Machine backup (or other backup of the system), you can restore the file from there. Browse to the folder in Finder and enter Time Machine, go back in time until the file is found then restore it.

Copy the file from another system or a trusted person's machine

If you have a second machine with a comparable build of OS X installed on it, you can copy the file from it. Feel free to ask for the checksum of a file in chat to compare it to if you wish to make sure that the file is correct (not modified accidentally/purposefully).

Pacifist with OS X install media

If you've got an OS X install media and Pacifist, you can browse the install media and grab the file.

If you have Pacifist but no install media, it will prompt you to download the installer.

Reinstall OS X

If you've got the ability to reinstall OS X through the Recovery HD, Internet Recovery or an OS X install media then reinstalling OS X will 'repair' your install and copy any missing/broken system files back to your system.


secure erasing empty space without destroying the disk I know I can use Disk Utility to secure erase a disk.

My question is: I have a disk half empty. I would like to know if there's a way to secure erase the empty part of the disk. I mean, an app/command that can identify those empty sectors of the disk and give them a secure erase treatment.

thanks.

If you are referring to a partition, then you can also do it with Disk Utility:
First, select the partition on the list on the left, go to the "Erase" tab on the right and use "Erase Free Space ...". On the dialog that shows now you can choose the level of security (i.e., how many times the data should be overwritten) and then click "Erase Free Space".

If you are talking about space on a disk with no active partition then I think you need to create a partition first that you can then erase.


Keyboard shortcuts for new window in Chrome or iTerm2 Is there any functionality in Chrome, iTerm2, or a keyboard shortcut app that will let me open a new window (Chrome or iTerm2) in a global environment?

It should open a new window regardless of whether previous windows exist or not.

To make a single hotkey always create a new Chrome window, launch Automator. Tell it to create a new Service Have the service take no input. Assign a single action to the service: Run AppleScript (in the Utilities list of actions).

Here is the AppleScript:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        activate
        delay 0.1
        make new window
    end tell
    return input
end run

Save the service with a name like "New Chrome Window". Then, in System Preferences assign an unused keyboard shortcut to the service. You can then create a new Chrome window no matter what application you are in.

To improve the service substantially, replace "Google Chrome" with "Safari". :-)

To create a new window in a different scriptable app, replace "Google Chrome" with the name of the app you want to create a new window.


Different language for Mac OS and AppStore's softwares My OS X (Mountain Lion) is in English, and I want to keep it like this.

But, for some softwares in the AppStore (not necessary all), I would like to turn it in French when supported (like OmniFocus) because all my colleagues are working in French, and it's hard for me to tell them what to do when they have a problem:

The translator of the software does not necessarily use the same words as me, and it become difficult to navigate through the menus in some cases.

So, is it possible to configure just some software (or all of them as a last resort) to use a different language that the one used by the Mac OS?

Yes! You can launch a single app into any other language with this nifty tool: Language Switcher. I use this all the time when I need english error messages for writing questions on stackexchange.com etc.


How do I get iTunes to just play one album? I'm new to iTunes and I was wondering how I get it to play just one album? At present I have "Grid" view enabled. I select the artist I feel like listening to, and it switches to Album by Artist view (songs and artwork).

I double click on the album and it plays through, but then it continues down and plays the next album by the artist... Quite annoying!

How can I get iTunes to just play the album I've told it to?

You can go to the menu bar and select View » Column Browser » Show Column Browser. Then you can pick an Album in the third column, and only songs on that album will appear in the iTunes window. Note that this will switch you from the Grid view to the List view.


How can I permanently suppress the firewall access prompt while developing a server program I have a server process that I am developing that opens listening TCP sockets. Each time that happens, the firewall opens a dialog with the text "Do you want the application “server” to accept incoming network connections?", prompting me to "Allow" or "Deny" this program rights to bypass the firewall. I never need to allow, since I only ever connect to this server while developing from the local machine.

This dialog is incredibly inconvenient and poorly behaved from a UX perspective, and in some cases, I have literally dozens of instances of this thing coming into being and terminating as automated tests are run. The barrage of dialogs is frustrating, to say the least.

I'd really like to permanently suppress this dialog in some fashion. Things that I am not interested in doing:

Turning off the firewall
Adding a port exclusion (the test suite runs the server on different ports each time to avoid conflicts due to parallel test execution).
Any sort of "signing" step, since the binary is frequently regenerated, and therefore I would need to integrate the signing step into my build process.
Needing to run as root or start the server with additional privs, for obvious reasons, and because much of the test suite is automated.

Any thoughts how to make this incredibly irritating dialog go away?

I fully understand your needs, but do not know specific answer.

Since you are a programer,you will be able to figure it out using the

Configuring IPFW firewalls on OS X

if you need special features like:

Firewall filters that include qualifiers on host or network addresses
Firewall filters that operate on other than TCP or UDP protocols
Firewall filters that include the whole range of ipfw qualifiers,
such as IP options, ICMP types or TCP flags
Per-filter logging configuration, including the ability to log
allowed connections and the option to not log certain types of denied
connections
NAT port forwarding or other custom NAT configuration
Different filter configurations on different network interfaces.
A persistant, searchable firewall log entry database with graphical
log viewer
Scriptable control of your firewall, such as via cron or other shell
automation
Access and ability to easily edit the raw firewall configuration
text, including an integrated ipfw filter syntaxchecker.

...then you should consider using Flying Buttress.

The Author has stopped supporting it, but can be reached here:

Web site http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill

Support web site http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill

Support e-mail brianhill@mac.com

One more try: with something called Little Snitch

Silent Mode – Decide Later

There are times where you don’t want to get interrupted by any network related notifications. With Silent Mode you can quickly choose to silence all connection warnings for a while. You can then later review the Silent Mode Log to define permanent rules for connection attempts that occurred during that time.


How to type in the redundant symbols in Simplified Chinese keyboard layout on MacBook? I consider buying a new MacBook, but just found that the Simplified Chinese keyboard layout option has been added to the new model.

However, as far as the picture goes, it seems there is no difference between the Simplified Chinese and US English with regards to the basic functionality. The picture below is from Apple Store China:

The only difference is some redundant symbols on backtick, number 4, 6, and two braces, and comma and period (and caps lock is another key but I understand that it is for switching languages easily).

However, I don't understand how you can type in these symbols. How can you type in these characters?

The two sets of symbols are supposed to reflect how the keyboard behaves differently when the input source is set to Simplified Chinese Pinyin and when it is switched back to US via Caps Lock.

Even without the new keyboard, Pinyin input should work that way in Sierra, where the [ ] keys, for example, now produce 【 】.

The new keyboard is also available in the US online store.


How to convert internal boot SSD from HFS+ to APFS? Many web pages claim that when you install 10.13 on an SSD, you have an option to convert to APFS.  Many others claim that when you install 10.13 on an SSD, you will be converted to APFS whether you want it or not.

Neither was the case for me.  I have an internal SSD that upgraded to 10.13 and continued to the current 10.13.6.  Default disk utility knows it is SSD and HFS+ but will not convert it.  Recovery partition won't convert it either.  And in none of my upgrades was I ever offered the choice.

I don't want to erase and do a multi-hour install, then have to do a multi-hour restore from backup.  Especially since I recently did (10.13.6) from recovery partition and it did not convert.

One page said you can't do it on your boot volume till 2017.  But 2017 is long gone.

SSD was in this refurb when I bought it from the Boston Apple store January 2017.  I used Migration to put apps and accounts on it, Software Update since then.  Never used FileVault nor RAID nor Bootcamp.

UPDATE: As detailed in the question and the "half-answer," there was never an automatic update nor an offer to do so nor were any of my attempts to get around it successful as of August 2018.  I gave up on the idea at that point.  However, I noticed in disk utility today (13 Aug 2019) that my boot SSD is now APFS.  I have no idea when Apple did the conversion without asking, but it was after the updates to 10.13.0 through 10.13.6.  Now I have 10.14.6

Configuration info (when the question was asked—before the surprise conversion):

MBP-WWG:Desktop Admin$ 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:          Apple_CoreStorage ISSD                    1.0 TB     disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS ISSD                   +1.0 TB     disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 1687664E-6E25-4DBD-9293-A6B0E4D90B0A
                                 Unencrypted

MBP-WWG:Desktop Admin$

Well, I have the beginning of an answer:

MBP-WWG:~ Admin$ apropos apfs
APFSUserAgent(8)         - APFS new container observer
apfs.util(8)             - APFS file system utility
apfs_hfs_convert(8) !!!! - convert an existing HFS file system to APFS file system
fsck_apfs(8)             - APFS consistency check
mount_apfs(8)            - mount an APFS volume
newfs_apfs(8)            - construct a new APFS volume
MBP-WWG:~ Admin$ man 8 apfs_hfs_convert

But the challenge is when the Terminal is open in recovery mode, how many environment variables do I have to set to make it actually work?  I know it comes up with PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin but none of those directories exist in recovery mode (they're all on the main volume).  I don't know whether redefining PATH is sufficient.  Some commands may need other environment variables to function.  (shared libraries, manpath,

Tempted to try it on the old machine that has a spinner instead of an SSD.


Can I buy one time membership of iCloud to backup my mac? I was going to buy an external hard drive to backup my mac to upgrade to macos sierra , but I was wondering if I could back it up with iCloud (200gb) account, then download it back to my mac paying just $3? Is it possible?

No, you can't backup your Mac with iCloud (via Time Machine).


Stop iPhone alerting me when I'm in a phone call When I'm in a phone call, I still get alerts for emails and texts. The noise will play and, if the phone is on Speaker, it will vibrate -- often leading the person I'm talking to wonder what that weird noise was.

Surely there must be a way to silence the phone while you're talking on it. It's very distracting to have beepings going off right next to your ear!

Set Settings > Sounds > Vibrate on Silent to OFF; then while on the call you can flip the hardware switch to Silent. This will disable all sounds and vibration.


Is it possible restart Mac from 2nd monitor only without mouse? My Mac has an issue where sometimes the primary monitor won't wake up, but the Mac thinks it is connected. So In such cases, I only see my secondary (much smaller) monitor.

Typically I cannot find the mouse cursor so I'm left with a monitor but no way to do anything. Restarting fixes it but I end up having to force-power-down by holding the MacMini power button then restarting... is there a way I can access the Restart menu option in this scenario instead?

You can set a key command to it, same as any menu item, though you're flying blind. If any app wants you to confirm save/discard you may not see it.

Whilst I'm aware this is really an XY Problem I've answered the Y ;)


Why do I get different results for my IP when I type google "What is my IP" and when I type in macOS' terminal "ifconfig |grep inet"? I get different results for my IP when I type google "What is my IP" and when I type in macOS' terminal ifconfig |grep inet

Why are these results different on macOS version 10.13.2 High Sierra?

Unless your computer is directly connected to your ISP via the modem, your computer's IP address is actually assigned by your router (either provided by the ISP or yourself). The IP address you see when you go to a whatsmyip website is the public IP address that the ISP has assigned your router, which is the only IP address devices on the internet can talk to when trying to talk to a device on your network. Using a technique called Network Address Translation your router allows multiple devices (e.g. your laptop, your phone and your PlayStation) to share that single public facing IP address from your ISP among each of the devices.

Likely your devices connected to your internal network have IP addresses like 192.168.XXX.XXX or 172.16.XXX.XXX - 172.31.XXX.XXX or 10.XXX.XXX.XXX. These are Private IP addresses reserved for internal networks and are not usable on the wider internet.


What is an alternative to a BAT file on Mac? What is the alternate for BAT file (Windows) on Mac? Does different version of OS X have different format of BAT files? I am trying to create a BAT file on Mac which normally changes directory while the file is open.

Being pretty unfamiliar with batch files, I'm not sure of the functionality available, but there are two main scripting methods on OS X which are similar:

AppleScript

AppleScript is a scripting language which lets you control OS X and many applications.

AppleScripts are generally easy to understand and write whilst providing a lot of advanced functionality. Here is an AppleScript which counts the files in the Applications folder:

tell application "Finder"
    if folder "Applications" of startup disk exists then
        return count files in folder "Applications" of startup disk
    else
        return 0
    end if
end tell

For more information about AppleScript, see:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/applescript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/AppleScriptX.html

Shell script

A shell script is a script for a Unix shell.

The equivalent shell script to the above AppleScript is the following:

if [ -d "/Applications/" ]; then
    ls -1 "/Applications/" | wc -l
fi

As you're probably going to use bash, this is a good guide to get you started:

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/


How to change the boot order of APFS volumes? I recently set up a new APFS volume to support dual boot for the macOS Catalina beta alongside my Mojave install. Unfortunately, this new "beta OS" volume seems to have set itself up as the default boot volume.

How can I change the order of volumes so that the more stable OS takes priority?

I discovered the answer on my own:

Open System Preferences
Search for "Startup Disk"
Click the volume that you'd like to be the default


How to set environment variable permanently on macOS Catalina? I am trying to set two environment variables on macOS version 10.15.5, I've opened a terminal and tried:
vi ~/.bash_profile

Added the exports to that, saved and exited vi, closed and reopened terminal, I don't see my new exports.
I've also tried:
vi ~/.profile

Added the exports to that, saved and exited vi, closed and reopened terminal, I don't see the exports there either.
What haven't I done?

Sorted, vi ~/.zshenv.
Added the exports, save and exit, restart terminal, my system was using the zsh terminal.
Or without restarting the terminal, just add:
source ~/.zshenv or source ~/.profile
After editing.


Does anybody know what app this icon in the menu bar belongs to? Also nothing shows up when I type into the search box.

The menulet belongs to VMware Fusion. It's a start menu similar to the Windows start menu and usually shows apps installed in a/the Windows VM.

You can turn it on temporarily/on/off in: VMware -> Preferences -> General


Fix 'Home' and 'End' keys on non-Cocoa applications Found that it's a common problem that the 'Home' and 'End' keys don't function as-expected on MacOS. Found this fix, posted on LifeHacker:

http://lifehacker.com/225873/mac-switchers-tip--remap-the-home-and-end-keys

The issue is that this fix only works on native/Cocoa apps and doesn't work on many of the other apps like ThunderBird and Eclipse. Will be thankful for any help, regarding this.

PS: I frequently switch between the beginning and end of the line and this has been so annoying lately that I switch to a vim window to edit code and use Eclipse only for debugging it.

You can do this with Karabiner's 'Use PC Style Home/End #2'.
This remaps Home and End to ⌘← and ⌘→ respectively.


Ipod nano touch podcast sync issues (can't delete some podcasts) As you can see in the photo, my iPod has several podcasts.  But iTunes only displays one.
It doesn't always show the subscribed podcasts, sometimes does, but not always. If I drag (copy) a podcast to the ipod, it then shows on iTunes, but it may dissapear later.
In the iPod, the podcasts always show, but I can't delete the ones I don't need anymore.

How can I solve this?
Should I manage all podcasts through subscription and not drag individual episodes? or can I mix both methods?

The podcasts part of iTunes just manage those you have either subscribed to, or subscribed and unsubscribed but still have episodes. It looks like your issue is related to trying to manually manage these, which will let you add the files to your iPod, but iTunes really doesn't know about the structure behind them.

I would recommend having it manage them for you. In that case, you can also tell it to delete those (or keep those) you want after you listen.

For example, I have a couple of concerts from NPR on my iPod that I keep, but my other daily/weekly podcasts delete after they have been listened too.

I expect the reason you are seeing the difference between iTunes and the iPod is the way you are currently mixing the two methods.


how do i stop the predictive typing suggestions I have an iPad Pro running ios 11.2.2...and, I can turn off the gray bar using the  “general>keyboard>predictive” switch...but the prediction just pops up in a bubble next to where i am typing.

this is a SIGNIFICANT SECURITY ISSUE as password predictions pop up when the first or second letter is typed...anyone using the device can easily see any password that i regularly use...so, how do I stop the predictions from occuring?

Prediction and autocorrect are two different features. What you are describing is autocorrect. You can disable autocorrect by following:

Settings > General > Keyboard > Toggle Auto Correction off.

The issue you are describing however sounds like it stems from you accidentally entering a password into a plain text field which has been added to the autocorrect dictionary. You might try resetting the dictionary first to see if it resolves your problem:

Settings > General > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary.


How to change location of specific keys I've spilled a coffee on my keyboard, as a result right and left arrows don't function any more. Is there a way to change locations or maybe to create a shortcut to represent those keys? for example shift + up arrow = right arrow, smth like that?

There is a free app called Karabiner that allows you to modify the keys.

A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for OS X.

You can easily customize from prepared settings.
You can also add your own settings by XML.


Boot Camp disk can not be partitioned I'm trying to install Windows 10 on my Mid-2012 MacBook Air running OS X 10.10.5 "Yosemite".

When creating the partition, Boot Camp stops after a short while displaying that the partition can not be created.

I have found the following earlier post: BootCamp, can't partition SSD
but my disk does not show a core storage volume and I am hoping that I do not need to reinstall the OS.

Here is the output from Terminal running diskutil list:

Any ideas what else could be preventing Boot Camp from creating the partition?

It doesn't look like you need to erase anything. Would you mind rebooting to Recovery HD and re-running Disk Utility to repair the drive? If that works, try again and see if you can get an error from Console or system.log if it fails you again. I'll dig into where BootCamp might log the failure in the mean time.


Can InDesign CS6 and CC run well on Mojave 10.14.5? I'm using a MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14.5 for work. My primary work app has been InDesign CS6, but a decision was made recently for everyone to switch over to InDesign CC.
Does anyone know if it's possible to run both the CS6 and CC versions of InDesign on Mojave 10.14.5? Is anyone doing this now? Anyone ever experienced any issues with either CS6 or CC?
Thanks!

You can have both CC and CS6 installed at the same time. Creative Suite works well for me on Mojave, though there are some minor interface issues.
Adobe's own website states that InDesign CC works on 10.13 and later. https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/system-requirements.html
CS6 definitely won't work on Catalina, of course. However, I'm not sure why you should need two versions of InDesign. The later one is just an updated version, which can still open old .indd documents without problem.


Is it possible to improve the condition of MacBook battery showing "Condition: Replace Soon"? I have a 2008 MacBook aluminium 13" (Model Identifier: MacBook5,1) which has started showing "Condition: Replace Soon" to describe the battery, so a couple of questions:

what is used to determine this?
does it matter?
is there anything I can/should do to correct it? (Let the battery exhaust itself repeatedly, for example)

Go to the Apple menu and choose "About This Mac"
Click "More Info..."
Click "System Report..."
Under Hardware, click "Power"
Under "Battery Information" you'll find "Health Information"
Under Health and Information you'll see "Cycle Count" and "Condition"

Cycle count can drive condition: over a certain numbers of charges and discharges condition will automatically drop. Given the age of your computer, my guess is you have a high cycle count.


Is it possible to generate or update a recovery parition We have started to replace hard drives in some MacBook Pros and Airs that are about 3 years old.

We found out the hard way that FileVault encryption requires a recovery parition.

If we install Mountain Lion or Mavericks from the USB installers that we have created, we do not get the option to create the recovery partition.

So far, we have only found 2 methods:

1) Internet Recovery - This takes a long time and usually installs Lion, which then requires an upgrade to Mavericks.  After upgrading to Mavericks, the recovery partition will reinstall Lion if the recovery partition is used to reinstall Mac OS X.

2) Take it to the Apple Store - This is not always practical in a business environment.

Is there any other way to do this?

In my experience, there is never an "option" to create a Recovery Partition. I've done a number of clean installs from DiskMaker USBs and each of them automagically resulted in recovery partitions being created during the installation process. For me, the typical upgrade process is to either wipe the existing drive or install a new one, use a DiskMaker X-created USB to install the version of OS X desired and then import the required apps, data and user profiles from Time Machine.

This has worked flawlessly with Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks on a variety of systems.

Internet Recovery always installs the version of OS X that was originally shipped with the product. Local Recovery will reinstall the OS X version that was used to create the recovery partition. A typical scenario would be to take a virgin disk installed in a system, boot to a Mavericks USB installer, use Disk Utility to create the install partition and then start the installation process. The OS X installer will resize the partition you created automagically and create the recovery partition. A reinstall from Local Recovery would feature Mavericks in this case.

I understand that you're seeing something different, but I have yet to see an install with Lion or newer that was missing its Recovery Partition when the install was done on a wiped or new HDD. A system with a series of in-place upgrades will miss out on the Recovery Partition, e.g., Snow Leopard to Lion to Mountain Lion, but that does not appear to be the scenario you're discussing.


How can someone coming from Windows learn Mac OS X file system and Finder? I have recently purchased a Macbook Pro and I am very impressed with the machine and OS X. Coming from Windows the one thing I have struggled with is the file system and the Finder application. I suppose I am very used to drag and drop of files in Windows Explorer. As a aspiring Mac developer, should I ditch Finder altogether and use the Terminal only?

Also, whenever I am trying to decide where to put a document or file I wonder what all the directories in the UNIX file system are for and where files should go, and I end up just putting it somewhere and it seems to be a real mess now :).

Do you know of any resources/ tutorials that would be of any help?

In windows you got:

Desktop, and
My Documents

On OS X:

You got $HOME folder ( represented as ~ which also comes from OSX's unix heritage) . Here is the usual and expected place for user files. Your Documents, Music, Downloads as well as the Desktop folders all live in your home folder.

So, everything, what is YOURS put into $HOME folder somewhere. Make your own hierarchy if the default one is unpleasant or unuseful.

Music, Movies, Pictures are - as in windows
Public - your own Shared folder
Documents - for your documents
of course, you can make any number of sub-folders in your HOME.

Applications belong in /Applications or ~/Applications folder. You can put them in the another place too and OSX will find and run applications no matter where they are stored. You can make hierarchy here too, as I told once in my older post.

One more thing - Fonts, you can put fonts into $HOME/Library/Fonts, or into /Library/Fonts (for all users)

For the start, this is enough. Don't touch other folders yet (you don't need). If something needs to be used by multiple users on the same Mac, generally store it in /Users/Shared or change the permissions in the alternate place you store them.

for the common unix standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard


How to install RGtk2 on OS X 10.10.5? I am trying to install RGtk2. I have installed GTK+ and XQuartz with Homebrew:

$ brew cask install xquartz
Warning: A Cask for xquartz is already installed. Add the "--force" option to force re-install.
$ brew install gtk
Warning: gtk+-2.24.28_2 already installed

But when I try installing it I get the error

Rgtk.c:7:10: fatal error: 'gdk/gdkx.h' file not found

Have I missed installing some necessary package?

Seems like a problem with RGtk2 which does not support Quartz GTK on OS X (and provided by Homebrew). I followed the advice posted here:

https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/issues/43290

Which suggests installing the binary version:

install.packages("RGtk2", dependencies = T, type = 'mac.binary.mavericks')


How to selectively install new macOS features on my old and slow iMac? I want to install macOS Mojave on my mac.

My mac is highly customized, I have disabled certain things, deleted many useless extensions and processes along with some default macOS apps and services.

Now, the problem is whenever I install a new macOS update all the above said things reappears or gets re-enabled now turning everything off/disabling each and every services/extensions becomes an hectic process.

My question, how can I selectively update to a new version of macOS like I want only the dark mode feature to be installed on my mac (without screwing anything), how can I achieve this process of selective installation

The macOS installer does not provide the functionality you are seeking. With the default update process your goals are simply unachievable.

That is: my firm recommendation is: do not try this and be careful with the following.

That said, if Pacifist works with Mojave (not tested):

you might want to disable automatic updates
you might try to download a standalone updater from Apple, when it becomes available
you open the resulting installer package in Pacifist and look for all the features you want and install only those, ignoring the rest.

Looking at the size of the packages Apple distributes these days it seems quite questionable if this route is even remotely able to provide you with even the slightest advantage regarding time. The possibility to screw up even more is also higher this way. This is more a theoretical excercise along your intended plans and not really a practical solution.

The only practical solution for your plans is to let the default Apple installer run its course.  After that finishes, you disable SIP and then disable all those things you do not want.
Only this time you do record your steps and pour them into a script, like done here:

MacOS disable services or
Disable bunch of #$!@ in Sierra (Version 2.1)

That inconveniences you just a tiny bit more compared to a regular install left at all defaults and is finished after the next update in under 10 minutes. (If Apple didn't change too much under the hood: like introducing new services your  script doesn't know about (and you do neither) or introducing new dependencies to those things you threw out.) Given the status of Mojave your old and slow iMac might benefit from staying away from this bleeding edge. Older OSes do not change so much as is dutifully expected from this newest kid on the block.

There is no safe way to do this. Backup hourly. At least. (Having a spare Mac or partition or VM to try this out might be an idea not easily dismissed as well.)


CloudMagic is about to stop working on September 30th. Can I prolong its life? As you may know, a great email client for Mac, CloudMagic, was recently renamed to Newton and switched to a subscription model. The last CloudMagic version is supposed to stop working on 30th September 2016.

Is there a way to prevent it from happening? Maybe I can block some IP address? I really like it, but I'm not going to use their new subscription.

There are two ways Cloudmagic could make their app stop working on a certain date:

The destruction date could be built in to late versions of the Mac client itself, checking on startup if it's September 30th yet or not.
The Cloudmagic server (yes, your email is on their servers, that's why they starting needing money to support it) could start checking to make sure every client it's giving data to is Newton and not Cloudmagic (on Sep 30): most likely Newton has a special verification key that Cloudmagic doesn't, which was added in the name-changing update.

Regardless of which of these routes the developers took, there's nothing you can do to prevent the built-in destruction date.

Edit: You should note that updating to Newton will get you a 12-month free trial with no strings attached; I'm taking advantage of that right now.


How can a new iPhone know the names of people in my photos? I recently got a new iPhone. As a part of setting it up I synced my photos from my PC to the new iPhone (as I did with the old device). After that, I waited for the phone to run it's face recognition. What surprised me was that some people got named correctly by the new phone (I provided the names to the old phone). I thought face recognition only runs locally. Both phones have iCloud Photos, My Photo Stream and Shared Albums disabled (the new phone had it enabled by default, but I switched it off in advance of syncing the photos).
Edit: The old phone was the first iPhone SE, the new one's the second generation. Both are running the newest iOS versions.
I was under the impression face recognition feature respect the users (and more important the users friends) privacy and is not crowd sourced and only exists on my device.
How is this possible?

The name data comes down from iCloud document and key-value-store sync. Even if you don’t use iCloud to store photos, metadata about photos does sync by default. This is similar how to small settings sync between devices. Apple could handle it like screen time where you explicitly opt in or out of this per device, but as of Big Sur and iOS 14 there is no granular opt in or out for this.
Apple doesn’t generate the names, you do on your phone or the iPad / web / macOS version of photos app and then Apple remembers it in your encrypted data store. The “identities” are all machine generated and one “person” can match several machine “matches” in practice.
Until you tell your device to forget that name or that face, that label is attached to the “identity” in the synced data store attached to your iCloud storage bucket.


"Differentiate without color" setting in Accessibility System Preferences In the Accessibility preference pane of El Capitan's System Preferences, I've noticed a "Differentiate without color" setting that I didn't notice before.

Does anyone know to what extent this setting will change the experience of Finder?

I couldn't find much in the help and the only link I found about this was very succinct (I can't believe this setting only acts on the dots of this exemple).

I would love to know exactly how toggling this setting would affect the Mac's OS display, and its apps.

The only change I've found so far is changing the dots in Messages, as some other users have pointed out. I couldn't find any changes in Finder, which surprised me, since Tags would definitely benefit from this feature.

EDIT 1: This book excerpt would seem to corroborate that: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/os-x-yosemite/9781491948484/ch09s02.html


iMessage (iOS 10) doesn't index messages properly Here's the situation. I backed up an old iPhone 5S to iTunes on Windows via a  USB cable. I bought a new iPhone SE and restored the backup onto it. Everything works fine...except...no past messages show in Messages. The view, that usually shows them in reverse chronological order, is empty. Using the search widget doesn't find anything either. However, after creating a new message, that goes to one of the existing contacts, suddenly all the past messages appear in the chain!

Obviously the messages are on the device, but not indexed properly, probably a result of the backup and restore. Is there some way to re-index them so they'll show in the chronological view and be searchable via the search widget? Would another backup and restore help?

Seems to be related to Weeks after updating to iOS 10.0.1, all but ~5 most recent messages disappeared, and messages would no longer organize by time and Old iMessages and text messages have all disappeared after iOS 10 update? neither of which got an answer.

According to Apple's engineering department, backups only store the past 200 messages in the search database. The rest are stored for regular viewing, just not in the database.

"What the customer is experiencing is actually considered expected behavior.  With the release of iOS 10, customers are now only able to search the last 200 messages with Spotlight or the in-app search. This would include the last 200 sent and received messages.

The 200 searchable messages limit is only after restoring from a backup prior to iOS 10.  This is why devices that had the same Messages database and were not restored from a backup when they upgraded to iOS 10 can still search prior to the 200 limit.

If the customer would like to see this function in a different manner going forward, please encourage the customer to submit feedback at apple.com/feedback. “


Why is it difficult to drag with the Magic Trackpad 2? I am using a Magic Trackpad 2. I do a lot of design, so I have to drag and move items several hours a day. I click with my right thumb near the bottom of the Trackpad, and I drag with my index finger. The trackpad is very close to the laptop, less than 8 inches away on the same table as the laptop, the battery is fully charged every day.
But the trackpad doesn't behave in a consistent way. Sometimes, when I want to click an object and drag it, the trackpad thinks I am scaling in or out, and scales the view on my page. So I have to undo the last action, and try again.
Other times, I click on an object and try to drag it, but nothing happens, my index finger just swipes the trackpad without anything moving on the screen.
And other times, the trackpad doesn't click when I press down on it, no matter how hard I press down.
I have been using trackpads for 20 years and it's the first time I find one so approximative and unreliable.
I am extremely annoyed and disappointed by this erratic behavior - I think it was much easier back when trackpads had a clickable bar, and a non-clickable dragging area. It makes me lost time and confuses me several dozen times a day.
Are there ways to make sure the trackpad understands what I am trying to do without getting confused?

I also have problems with my hands and using force to press down on the trackpad. I have mine set up to not need any pressing down at all, by enabling "Tap to click" in the Trackpad settings and using the options under Accessibility to enable dragging by quickly double tapping the trackpad and then keep moving my finger.
To set up this drag mode, go to System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Pointer Control -> Trackpad Options... and check the box in front of "Enable dragging". I use it with drag lock so that I can reposition my finger if I run out of trackpad to drag on, but you can try either way to see what feels best for you. There's also a three finger drag option here, so try them out and see if any of them feel better.


getting filters to use reply-to rather than the originating email address I'm receiving emails that are send to me by one email address (a web server)- which I don't want -  and have a reply-to field set to a users email- that I do want.

I'd like to auto reply to these emails so the users' know I have received them, but the filter is sending the reply back to the originator (which is a no-reply address) and not using the reply-to field address, whee I'd like it to go.

Does anyone know how to force Mac Mail to use the reply-to field when replying to a message?

You could use the

Rules in Mail and

When message arrives from ??

Forward to: someones.email.com

with predefined and automated message text that you write only once.


iCloud Drive shows up empty in Finder after logging out Some of my files and in my Macbook Pro 2015 were showing a dotted iCloud icon with an exclamation mark inside them, which, if my memory serves me right, means that I am out of iCloud storage. The thing is, I just bought 50GB of iCloud storage and all the files in my Desktop only amounts to more or less 12GB and I still had around 45GB left.

But that's not the problem right now. The thing is, I saw a suggestion online that told me to try to Sign Out of iCloud, shut down my Macbook, then Sign In again to fix the problem I mentioned above. However, that brought a problem of its own. When I checked my iCloud drive in Finder, it shows that I have nothing in my iCloud drive. I already checked my iCloud drive using my iPad and I am confident that they are still there.

Now then, how do I make my files appear? Can I do anything or is my only option to wait it out?

iCloud Drive takes a while to initialize. A loong while. Do not worry, so long as the files appear on iCloud.com they will be downloaded. This may take over 24 hours unfortunately and it won't appear to be doing anything at all. Leave your computer on and connected to the internet and wait it out.


Can I install OS X onto a separate external drive partition? There are plenty of articles explaining how to install OS X on a separate partition of your Mac’s internal drive and how to install it onto an external drive using a single partition. However, it’s not clear to me whether it’s possible to install OS X onto a separate partition of an external drive. It’s what I’d like to do, is it possible?

For what it’s worth, my external drive currently has a single 500GB partition, is formatted as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and has a GUID Partition Table. That should make it bootable, right?

Yes!

As the disk is the correct format, it will show in the disk list in the installer (click Show All Disks). You can install any version of OS X on a partition of the correct format, regardless of where the partition is located.

The OS X installer doesn't partition the disk for you though; do this first in Disk Utility.


iOS: App installed on device can't be found via the search feature I've got an iPhone 8 running iOS 12.3.1 (latest as of writing).

Recently I've noticed that when I search for an app that is already installed on my iPhone by using the built-in search feature, the app is not found.

The only way I can locate the app is by either manually find it in a folder, or by going to the App Store, searching for it there, then tapping Open.

The app in question is 1Password.

Any idea why the app can't be found? Does it have to do with caching? And if so, how can I clear the cache?

Go to Settings app → Siri & Search → 1Password and check if Siri & Suggestions is turned off. If yes, turn it on.

Now, the app should appear in search results in Spotlight search.


How do I fix non-responsive keyboard and trackpad after sleep on MacBook Pro Retina 15? I'm having a problem with my MacBook Pro Retina 15.

I close the screen to put it to sleep.  When I open it back up, the screen wakes up, but the keyboard and trackpad do not work.

If I plug in a USB keyboard, it works fine and I see a message on the screen that says:

Bluetooth Mouse or Trackpad Setup

There isn't a wireless mouse or trackpad connected.

I'm running 10.8.5.

The problem seems to have stopped since I upgraded to OS X 10.9 Mavericks.


AirPrint doesn't work with router that has DD-WRT installed Years ago, AirPrint worked in my house on my current printer. It's an HP Photosmart Premium and it absolutely does support AirPrint.

Then a year or two ago, I installed DD-WRT on my Linksys WRT160N router. I installed it so I could add a guest wireless network, but I probably shouldn't have, because the technical specifics of networking that I see everywhere on the DD-WRT site and forums are mostly over my head.

Soon thereafter, I noticed that AirPrint didn't work anymore. I searched and searched for things I could try to fix it, but what few answers I found either didn't work or assumed too high a level of networking knowledge.

I've had other faulty or missing behavior with some other Bonjour-related services like Screen Sharing, too, and I'm about to the point of just shelling out for an Airport Extreme. But before I do that, I ask you wonderful people: Is there anything I can try that doesn't require me to get a degree in networking to understand?

If all else fails, you can always use the AirPrint Activator (an app for your Mac) that allows you to use any shared printer via AirPrint. If you can get the printer to be available over your network, you’ll still be able to use AirPrint this way.


Is there an app, or way to get a notification if someone starts to type a text message? I know you can look at a text message and see the "..." if someone is responding, but I was curious if there is an app or way to get a notification for this event?

There is no app for that. On iOS there may never be one because there is no API access for that, but for the macOS desktop messages app, one could be made via hack-ish techniques like code injection.


How to export Google API keys automatically on every login for Chromium in Sierra? I have tried writing launchd.conf, but it is not working.
I have edited Info.plist, but no luck!
Writing launchctl < /etc/launchd.conf in .profile not working either!

How can we do this without exposing keys in .profile?

Try this method

It is easy and safe by not exposing API keys to environment.


What is the command to copy a file from a directory to another directory in macOS? The command that I'm trying to execute for copying a file to a directory is given below :

cp /Users/anish/.m2/repository/org/apache/commons/commons-lang3/3.8.1/commons-lang3-3.8.1 /Volumes/Local Disk/Software Development/Courses/Maven/maven-learn-workspace/hello/target

After executing this, I'm getting this message :

usage: cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvXc] source_file target_file
       cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvXc] source_file ... target_directory

Can anybody tell what needs to be added so that this command executes ?

You need to protect any whitespace in the names with either "" or \

cp foo 'path/with spaces/to/target'
cp foo path/with\ spaces/to/target

Additionally

Using Tab Completion in bash and other shells will automatically insert \ where necessary
Drag&drop of a file/directory from Finder into a Terminal window will insert the full path of said file/directory, with appropriate escapes
ditto is an alternative to cp which is better at handling metadata, resource forks and other specialities of macOS-specific filesystems.
If you want/need to use environment variables as part of a path (path/to/$TARGET/directory), use "" instead of '' but look out for $ as part of directory/file names


How to share my internet connection with my xbox 360 slim? (over an ethernet cable) I have a Mac Mini with Snow Leopard (10.6.7). Now I want to share my internet connection with my Xbox 360 Slim. (Don't ask why I don't use the WLAN in my Xbox).

I found a few tutorials but nothing worked. The Xbox never connects to the internet.

Can anyone help me?

Well, this can be done on either Ethernet or Wi-Fi, but I'll make some basic assumptions for illustration.

Your Mac Mini is on Wi-Fi. In System Preferences > Sharing, activate Internet Sharing. Choose your From (AirPort) and To (Ethernet) connection types, and you should be good to go after connecting your Mac to your Xbox.


Unable to install 'Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 7 (with JDK 7u45)' I have downloaded an java j2ee and jdk installer from Oracle

When I run it I got this error message:

$ ./java_ee_sdk-7-jdk7-macosx-x64-ml.sh
Extracting the installer archive...
Extracing bundled JDK...

Could not locate a suitable Java runtime.
Please ensure that you have Java 7 or newer installed on your system
and accessible in your PATH or by setting JAVA_HOME

At the moment I have only got java 6 in my MBP (running OSX 10.9.4).

I would have expected the installer is smart enough to run from the unpacked bundled JDK.

Is there any workaround?

The Enterprise Edition of the JDK does not contain the JRE -- you have to install that stand alone first and only then install the JDK as detailed here :

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/webnotes/install/


Why won’t iCloud Keychain sync my passwords? I have set up two-factor authentication for my Apple ID and turned on iCloud Keychain. To test whether it backups my passwords, I turned it off and chose delete from iPhone. Then I turned it on and looked at my passwords, but nothing was there. I’ve tried many several times, but it seemed iCloud Keychain won’t store my passwords.

I think it might be because I turned it off, rather than signed out of my Apple ID, or it might be something wrong with my iCloud configuration.

Please help me resolve this problem.

If you have no other Apple devices, then when you chose to delete your passwords, you likely deleted them from your phone (at first).  But when you re-enabled iCloud, you synced your current phone status to iCloud, which is / was password-less and removed the content from iCloud as well.


Changing system font in macOS Catalina I am using macOS Catalina, and I would like to change the system font to something other than San Francisco.

I tried TinkerTool, but it doesn’t really work.

Our only hope is that the gentleman who makes this tool figures out a way to make it work. I have been using this tool for years and has made my experience much nicer as I am not a fan of the San Francisco font. There was a few promising details in the issue tracker but as of yet no workaround.

https://github.com/jenskutilek/FiraSystemFontReplacement


Is there any way to make a window transparent macOS Mojave? I liked the feature in Linux where you could simply turn a window transparent. I also had an app for Windows that did it, called Peek Through that did it. I finally came back to macOS and now I want a similar feature. I don't know the Swift/C langs, but I know the command line pretty well (kinda rusty, my short stint with windows didn't help any). I have seen the "Deskovery" app but I don't want to pay money for it. I have seen the old app "afloat" but I am pretty sure that doesn't work on newer computers. I am on a MacBook Pro 8,1 running macOS Mojave. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

Here is a post that uses Swift/Objective-C code to create a semi-transparency thing. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11174918/how-to-get-window-with-semi-transparent-blurred-background.


How do I remove GarageBand? I'm nearly out of space and ~/Library/Application Support/GarageBand is taking up 1.5 GB and GarageBand.app is taking up 381 MB of my hard disk space.

Can I simply remove the app itself and this folder to remove it from my system?

Yup, if you no longer want it on your system, those are the two biggest offenders in terms of size. To be completely thorough, have a look through ~/Library/Preferences/ for the .plist file and trash that too.

If you're on a purge, it may be worth looking at iMovie/iDVD too if you don't use those.


Combine Two Folders with Smart Folder Okay, so one thing I've wanted to be able to do for ages now in OS X is to create or view a combined Applications folder that displays the contents of both /Applications and ~/Applications (assume it exists).

Now, I know LaunchPad can do this, but I'd still like to be able to do this in a regular Finder window, for example using a Smart Folder.

Is this possible, and if so, what are the steps for doing this (either in the Finder itself, or via command line)?

I've experimented for searches of my entire computer for all Applications, however this only returns the application bundles themselves, ignoring any enclosing folders. Really I just want top level items for each of the applications folders; for example, I'd like to see the /Applications/Utilities folder, not its contents.

check the code below and I will explain
    <?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>CompatibleVersion</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>RawQuery</key>
    <string>(((kMDItemKind == "Application"cd &amp;&amp; ! ( ((kMDItemDisplayName == "*aam*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*aam*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*aas*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*aas*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*lic*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*lic*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*uninstall*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*uninstall*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*setup*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*setup*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*install*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*install*"cd)) ))))</string>
    <key>RawQueryDict</key>
    <dict>
        <key>FinderFilesOnly</key>
        <false/>
        <key>RawQuery</key>
        <string>(((kMDItemKind == "Application"cd &amp;&amp; ! ( ((kMDItemDisplayName == "*aam*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*aam*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*aas*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*aas*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*lic*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*lic*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*uninstall*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*uninstall*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*setup*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*setup*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*install*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*install*"cd)) ))))</string>
        <key>SearchScopes</key>
        <array>
            <string>/System/Applications</string>
            <string>/Applications</string>
            <string>/Users/USERNAME/Applications</string>
        </array>
        <key>UserFilesOnly</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
    <key>SearchCriteria</key>
    <dict>
        <key>FXCriteriaSlices</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>criteria</key>
                <array>
                    <string>com_apple_RawQueryAttribute</string>
                    <integer>104</integer>
                </array>
                <key>displayValues</key>
                <array>
                    <string>Raw query</string>
                    <string>(kMDItemKind == "Application"cd &amp;&amp; ! ( ((kMDItemDisplayName == "*aam*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*aam*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*aas*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*aas*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*lic*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*lic*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*uninstall*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*uninstall*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*setup*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*setup*"cd) || (kMDItemDisplayName == "*install*"cd || kMDItemAlternateNames == "*install*"cd)) ))</string>
                </array>
                <key>rowType</key>
                <integer>0</integer>
                <key>subrows</key>
                <array/>
            </dict>
        </array>
        <key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
        <array>
            <string>/System/Applications</string>
            <string>/Applications</string>
            <string>/Users/USERNAME/Applications</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

If you see the key SearchScopes then there you can add what paths to include.
So simple as that - then it can be done. To learn this I used HoudaSpot that saved it for me so I could learn how to set it up. So basically just open a pre-saved .savedSearch file and edit the contents with SearchScope key.


messages extension in the share menu does not work what i found is, if u uncheck iCloud contacts under internet account, then it work fine, i can then forward a website using the share menu in safari or file using the share menu in the contextual menu(right click)

All others do work as example if you want to forward a website or a file to someone by email that works but with iMessage nothing happens.

I'm using Sierra on a iMac.

I created a new user using the same icloud account and apple id and it works fine, the small iMessage windows shows up when i try to forward either a file or webpage. I have deleted the new user following this since it was just to test if my user profile was damaged or something.

So still looking to resolve this issue in my original user profile

I am using sierra as well I did what was suggest here:

I unchecked the contacts on icloud settings and then tried the share via imessage and it worked. Then I checked back on the contacts on icloud contacts and it worked again

I did this from safari, when I tried from a file folder it did not, so I went back to uncheck the contacts on icloud and repeated the sequence described above and it worked

It seems to me that from each place you want to share something via imessage you have to turn off contacts, try it, turn it back on again and this seems to correct whatever it is that was wrong

But after a little while it stops working again if you have contacts activate in icloud

I guess the next step is to try to loggoff from the icloud account and re login to see if this gets fixed


How to purchase Windows for Boot Camp? This is a clean install. New Mac. No previous versions of Windows has been purchased or installed.
I need an ISO, not a DVD because there is no optical drive on the new Macs
Microsoft only sells Windows 8 Update, not the full thing. There is a "system builder" edition out available through some "partners" and apparently it also only comes on DVD.
Windows 7 it seems can be bought from Microsoft but only in certain regions (mine is not included) and only in DVD form.
I see you can get ISOs of Windows 7 from Digital River but that only works if you have a product key, ie. you have already purchased Windows (currently no way to do this, see points 1-4).

Really Microsoft? This is why people run to Pirate Bay. Any solutions welcome :)

If Windows 8 has been released in your country, you should be able to find a reseller with the System Builder version available as a DVD. Local system builders is a pretty big business in most countries so just look around for someone offering custom built Windows systems.  A quick Google search on "create a DVD ISO on OS X" shows lots of how-to articles for that step.

You can either use an external DVD reader (maybe $30) or get somebody with a DVD to create the ISO for you.


Mac Terminal app - unable to use the up arrow to load previous commands when using SSH on remote server ( ^[[A ) I'm running into a weird issue where the UP arrow no longer restores commands previously entered on a remote server during SSH session:

:~ user$ ssh user@myserver
//... type the password, get welcome message
$ ^[[A  //<- This is what I see when pressing up arrow on the server
$ ls //<- I expect to see my previous commands to be visible

How can I make Terminal recall commands entered on a remote server when pressing the Up arrow? This is the behavior that I've observed previously, currently running OSX 10.11.2

Please try to temporarily change your shell, type the name of the shell:

$ /bin/csh

See if that fixes your arrow key. If so, your shell or shell profile is having the cause of the problem.

Possible solutions:

Fix your current shell or shell profile.
You can change to a different shell permanently.

Reference: Mac OS X: How to change the Terminal shell


Backing Up iTunes 11 Library All the articles I've read suggest that the correct technique to make a local backup of my iTunes 11 library is to:

Connect the pertinent device (iPod)
Go to the Summary Tab
Click "Backup Now" and follow the instructions.

Problem is there is no "Backup" feature of any kind offered anywhere in the Summary Tab or anywhere else in iTunes that I could find. Has anyone else noticed this?

It sounds like you have gotten a little confused with the difference between backing up your iPod and backing up your iTunes library. You can back up your iPod to iTunes on your computer, but this is different than backing up your iTunes library itself - all the music, movies, books, apps, and such that you have placed in iTunes.

If you want to backup your iTunes library
(Apple.com):

Open iTunes Preferences.

Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.

Click Advanced.
Make sure the option to "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" is selected.
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
Select the option to "Consolidate files."
Locate your iTunes library.

If you can't find it, open your iTunes Preferences and click "Advanced." The location of your iTunes folder will be listed in the "iTunes Media folder location" box.

Copy the iTunes library directory over to your backup location.

If you really would like to back up your iPod:

Plug your iPod in and view its details.
Under "Summary" tab there is a heading called "Manually Backup and Restore"
Select "Back Up Now" from under that heading.

For more information on backing up iOS devices in general, this article is a good start.


Applescript System Events Keystroke broken after 10.9.4 It seems like the recent Mavericks update has broken the keystroke command in applescript -- whenever my script reaches that point, it freezes. (I currently have ~20 zombie osascript processes...)

Furthermore, there isn't anything in the accessibility options to allow applescripts to automate keystrokes.

This is my script currently.

tell application "Terminal"
    activate
end tell
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Terminal"
    keystroke "t" using command down
end tell
tell application "Terminal"
    do script "cd ~/some_folder_here" in front window
end tell

If there's a way to tell terminal to directly open a tab (or if iterm 2 can do that) that could also be a solution.

It turns out that the System Events process on my machine was frozen (which I discovered after a node process refused to be killed). Performing a full restart fixed the problem.


Images sent over iMessages are low quality I capture images via iphone camera and attach to iMessages. When I send those over iMessages if it is using data image quality is very low.

For an example.

5 MB taken image once it is sent over iMessages using data is 107KB

Please note that low image quality is always switched off.

If I send over WiFi original image is received by other party.

Found the solutions after trying for several times. Finally.

Following need to take place to send full quality image taken via iMessages.

Low quality image mode should be switched off
Enable 4G without 3G
Turn off low power mode


Quicklook not working Usually after I open quicklook and then close it again I cannot open quicklook again. And if I right click on an icon it lists exit quick look as an option but when I click it nothing changes.

What's my problem here?

I am on OSX 10.11.6

Try the following:

Open the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
Type qlmanage -r and hit enter
Type qlmanage -r cache and hit enter
Close Terminal and restart your system

This should force QuickLook to reload the generator lists and reset the disk cache.

Source: https://www.macissues.com/2014/03/22/fix-quicklook-errors-in-os-x/


How to open a new blank document in Pages from spotlight? How can i open a new blank document in Pages app on Mac OSX Yosemite in Spotlight (and therefore in Alfred)?

Now, when i open Pages it first presents me with New document dialog and then Select Template dialog. Of course i click my way through all the prompts but it would be much more convenient to bring up Spotlight (or better yet Alfred) and just type something like Pages /n and go straight to typing.

Part of the problem can be eliminated by selecting a default template in the Preferences.

Then, when opening from Spotlight or Alfred, a click on the new document button opens your default template.  [Blank in the case of the setting shown above.]

Then, one could create an Automator or Applescript workflow that is attached to a service evoked by a keystroke combination.

Edit: OP @Rusl added this Applescript to a keystroke combination.

tell application "Pages"
  activate
  make new document
end tell