Unable to deploy in house iOS app via Profile Manager to one specific iPad We have an in house iPad app that we have setup for distribution with the provisioning profile from our iOS Enterprise Developer account.

Before properly signing the app with the enterprise provisioning profile (it was signed ad-hoc) I uploaded the app to Profile Manager and attempted to push it to a device that was not configured for that ad-hoc profile. When I attempted to push it the iPad displayed a message that the server wanted to install the app, it then downloaded it and gave a message that this iPad could not run this app.

I removed that ad-hoc version from Profile Manager and properly signed it with the enterprise provisioning profile. I transferred the ipa via iTunes and it installed and ran fine.
I deleted the app and the provisioning profile from the iPad and uploaded the new properly signed IPA file to Profile Manager and attempted to push it to this same iPad. Profile Manager shows that it is sent but the iPad never prompts to install.

I was able to push it to another iPad enrolled in Profile Manager with no problems, but nothing I do will prompt the other iPad to install the app.

Any thoughts on what could be going on?

See page 5 of the iOS_Security_Oct12.pdf document. iOS won't allow an in-house app to run on a device that doesn't have the corresponding provisioning profile - this ensures that the app cannot be run on an unauthorized device.

http://images.apple.com/iphone/business/docs/iOS_Security_Oct12.pdf


Applications frequently become permanently unresponsive I frequently have applications become unresponsive while they're in the background. That is, I'm not able to switch back to them*, and the Force Quit Applications window shows them as "Not Responding". They never become responsive again no matter how long I wait.

Some features that make this problem unusual:

It's not limited to one or two applications. It's happened with MS Office applications, Textedit, BBEdit, Evernote, OpenOffice, Preview, and others.
It's not limited to times when the application is doing something intensive. In fact, it usually happens to apps that have been in the background and not doing anything in particular.
I've never observed it to happen to web browsers or to music players that are playing music.
It doesn't seem to be triggered by other applications doing things that are CPU or memory-intensive.
Other applications are not slowing down or hanging when it happens.
The non-responding application shows < 1% CPU usage in Activity Monitor.
If I force quit the application and restart it, then the problem usually doesn't recur quickly.

Does this suggest any potential causes or troubleshooting steps? I know the usual advice is to either start with a new account or disable all of my other programs and customizations one by one, but I'm hoping that the specific features of this problem might help me proceed in a more targeted way.

System info:
Macbook Pro, 2012 model, OS 10.9.4, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD with 160GB free

* Specifically, what I mean is that I can cmd-tab to the application's icon, but the program in the foreground doesn't change. If I expose one of its windows, I can move the window around, but clicking in it doesn't bring the application to the foreground or affect the contents of the window. Notably, I do not get the beachball / pinwheel pointer when hovering over it, as I do in other cases when an application is stuck.

update:

Here's the system log from an incident when OpenOffice became unresponsive. I discovered it at 8:17. I don't know exactly when it failed, but the last log message and the last revision time on my auto-saved files is 7:46, so I assume it was within 5 minutes of that. Note that the OpenOffice error in the log (appears as soffice) shows up twice, five minutes apart, meaning that the first one wasn't fatal and so I suspect the second wasn't the cause of the hang either.

OK,

I will work with you on this step by step.

First to eliminate the following:

process plugin-container[1362] caught causing excessive wakeups. EXC_RESOURCE supressed due to audio playback
9/11/14 7:58:33.000 AM kernel[0]: process firefox[1359] caught causing excessive wakeups. Observed wakeups rate (per sec): 163; Maximum permitted wakeups rate (per sec): 150; Observation period: 300 seconds; Task lifetime number of wakeups: 61563

These messages are triggered by a plugin that you're running.

Go to Tools : Add-Ons : Plugins (in Firefox), and one-by-one, for each plugin listed, please do the following:

1) Disable the plugin.
2) Restart Firefox and check if you still see the message.

Update and part 2:

Your Preview is generating lots of problems?

Lets start with obvious.

  Open Preview:

  File,

  Open Recent,

  Clear Menu

The reason: There seems to be a croup file in your Preview.


Downloading an application without the admin password I am a standard user of a Mac Mini. There are certain applications I would like to download from the web, but they require the Apple installer, which then requires the admin password. Is there any way I could circumvent this?

The whole purpose of the OS requesting authorisation is to prevent software being installed without permission. If there were a method of bypassing the request, that would be considered a 'security flaw' and Apple would (hopefully) fix it quickly.

If you are not the actual owner of the Mac, then you need to ask the owner for permission to install the software.


What are the specific restrictions on downgrading an iPod Touch to previous iOS versions? We want to test our iOS app on a few devices (iPhone 3G and 4 - or equivalent iPod Touch), but we also need to ensure it will run on the major releases of iOS, maybe 3.0.x, 3.1.x, 4.0.x, etc - I'm a little rusty on the version numbers and who got free upgrades to what.

I've read Is there a way to downgrade a 2nd gen iPod touch from iOS 4 back to 3.1.3? but I'm still unclear whether or not we can just buy a single iPod Touch and downgrade and upgrade as necessary, or if we'd have to buy an iPod Touch per iOS version we want to test.

So, what are the specific restrictions placed on downgrading? Can we just get our devices into DFU mode and apply whatever version we want? I don't want to end up buying a lot of devices if we only need one each.

We don't need any phone-only hardware such as the microphone or sending SMSs, so that's not a factor.

Cheers!

(I'm not certain of this answer -- it's a somewhat educated hunch, based on using iPods for 10 years and Apple products for 25, and looking at wikipedia.  If anyone knows from actual experience, use that answer instead.)

In general, I would guess that you can downgrade an iPod to the version of the OS that it was released with, but not earlier.  So, for example, an iPod Touch 2g could probably be downgraded to iPhone OS 2.1, but not 1.1 (which wouldn't really matter since there was no App Store in 1.x!).  Each iPod Touch gen-N ships with the N.1 release of iOS, about a month after the corresponding iPhone ships with the N.0 release.

An iPod Touch 2g should run all versions of iOS for the iPod Touch that have an App Store, though it doesn't support all the features of iOS 4.  The hardware differences between iPod models might be a bigger issue for testing, e.g., older iPods don't have a built-in microphone.


Pages question on Apple yosemite How can I get rid of the Right hand column (with Margin, layout info) on
the Pages. I just want the page to show my letter when sending.

I run Pages v5 on OS X Yosemite.

On the upperright, click on the selected tab (probably the layout tab is selected) to make it go away


apple mail 4.5 max. mbox export size limited to approx. 4.7GB following is a problem that we have been trying to solve for a while now...

we are attempting to archive a couple of rather large mail folders from within apple mail, they contain in excess of 20000 emails and the actual folders in...

~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes

... are around 14GB in size.

the problem is that if we archive these from within mail, the export only generates mbox files of around 4.2GB, which do not contain all emails from the original folder.

is this a known limitation of the mbox format or more likely apple mail?

the obvious alternative to the above approach is to directly backup / archive the actual mbox folders in ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes?

ds.

I'll assume your mac is running on HFS Plus - the default file system - and in that case, the limitation is clearly the Mail application and not a file size limitation. Mbox files are just text files, so there's not much going on in them. You'll need to follow your alternative and back them up from finder or consider moving them to a Lion mac to see if this issue is corrected there.

According to the Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and file limits  KBase article, a 2 GB file and volume limit existed from OS 10.0 to 10.1.5 and was raised to 8 GB from 10.2 to 10.2.8.

In your case on Snow Leopard (and any OS 10.4 or newer) - the file size limit is 8 exabytes.

Stop here unless you want all sorts of silly storage calculations that don't really apply since you'd need 2.6 million 3 TB drives to make this amount of real space.

8 EB is eight million terabytes. This insane amount of storage would list price cost $480 million for the hardware alone if you ran BackBlaze storage units.


Does Apple Watch Cellular clone the SIM card? I have read, that Apple Watch will have the same phone number as iPhone and if iPhone is far away, it can connect to cellular network itself.

Doesn't this mean that Apple Watch clones the SIM and how this corresponds with the statement, that modern GSM network SIMs can't be cloned?

I just checked the SIM ID on my iPhone and paired AppleWatch, and they are different.

I'm not sure why you are assuming that sharing a phone number implies cloning a SIM card. Carriers can design their networks to handle multiple SIM IDs associated with the same account. It's basically the same as two license plates being registered to the same person.


Changing iCloud accounts in order to sync Photostream pictures I have three iOS devices that I would like to have Photostream sync across. Right now, the iPhone 5 and iPad 2 sync because they are on the same iCloud account, but my wife's iPhone 4 doesn't sync - because it signed into a different iCloud account. I'm told all 3 iCloud accounts need to be signed into the same account.

I need to change my wife's iCloud Apple ID on her iPhone 4 to mine. When I go to Settings, iCloud, Account, her Apple ID is grayed-out, so I can't make changes.

How can I change the iCloud account on the iPhone 4?

Go to Settings.app > iCloud and Tap "Delete Account". When you do this it will give the option to keep iCloud contacts and calendars on your device. You will probably want to keep them on the iPhone. After deleting the account (this really only signs out of that iCloud account) sign back into your iCloud account.

From: this thread.

Keep in mind that the backups from her phone (if enabled) will now impact your storage amount.


How can I make Siri's geo-fenced reminders wait until I actually arrive? I'm walking my dog and tell Siri, "When I get home, remind me to take out the trash." It sets up a reminder keyed to my arrival at a location, my home address. So far so good, but the reminder actually goes off when I'm still about a block from home. By the time I actually get home, I've forgotten all about it.

Is there any way to make Siri/Reminders more accurately assess whether I've arrived or not?

You don't have precise range control over geo fenced reminders with non iBeacon input. Both GPS and WiFi and cell tower location can trigger locations a good block or more away from a precise location.

Until you have iBeacon hardware or software set up, you can snooze that reminder, set a follow on time based reminder or change the original reminder to go off time rather than proximity.

The best you could do is offset the home location to coordinates several hundred feet away from where you typically approach and keep the same default 100m/330ft radius that iOS lets you make larger, but not smaller on iOS 7.


How to switch between output window and code editor in Xcode I tried google'ing around and I could not find the shortcut that can send me to the "output window(if that's what it's called)" after telling my program to compile and run. Also, how would I switch back to my code editor from that output window?

I've done it before, but I forgot it.

Thank you

It is a little unclear what you really mean:

The Output pane is called the Console. It is displayed in the Debug area.

There are a few ways to get to it.

In the Toolbar Menu:

Use the Debug area toggle button.

From the Menu Bar : View Menu :-> Debug area :-> Show the Debug area menu
to open the Debug area set as it was last displayed

Note the shortcut for this:  cmd +  shift +   Y

Use View Menu :-> Debug area :-> Activate Console area to Show the Debug area with the Console showing.

Note the shortcut for this:  cmd +  shift +   C

Or just show the Console area if the debug area is already showing.

You can also use the Debug area show hide toggle to show/hide either the Variable View or the  Console area  view


How to open two ports (both TCP / UDP) using pf I own a MacBook pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013), running macOS Sierra 10.12.2 as host computer and VMware Fusion Pro Version 8.5.3 with Windows 10 and Linux as guests  OS's. So my question is how do I open the two ports 1338 (TCP and UDP) and 1340 (TCP and UDP) in my case using my Windows guest OS. Both ports have to reachable from the internet. The whole network is attached to a Linksys X3000 router which connects to the internet.

I have Murus lite, but I must confess that I don't know how to efficiently use it, even I can also buy the pro version anyway.

You have two options here: a very simple one and second one which requires a lot of work because unlike Parallels VMware Fusion doesn't provide a NAT & port forwarding interface.

Neither requires Murus or pf.

Bridged Mode

Instead of connecting the Windows 10 VM in NAT-mode use the Bridge Mode and choose - depending on the connection of the OS X host - either the Wi-Fi or Ethernet interface. In Bridge Mode your VM acts as a separate host in your main network.

If your main network has the network address 192.168.0.0/24, the router 192.168.0.1 and your OS X host something in the range 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.254 then you have to configure the Windows VM with a static but unique IP (e.g. 192.168.0.10) in the same range. This is done in the System Preferences of the VM! All other settings (Netmask/Gateway/DNS) there are identical to the settings of the OS X host. I also recommend to set the Mac to a fixed IP (e.g. 192.168.0.2)

In the Windows 10 guest also configure the Firewall and open port 1338 and 1340 to the world.

Now connect to your Linksys X3000 router and configure port-forwarding:

Navigate to the port forwarding section.
Click the Applications & Gaming link.
Click the Single Port Forwarding button to forward ports.
Create two port forward entries. In the To IP Address box you have to enter the IP of the Windows 10 host!

Application Name    External Port   Internal Port   Protocol    To IP Address   Enabled
1338server                   1338            1338       both     192.168.0.10       yes
1340server                   1340            1340       both     192.168.0.10       yes

Save the settings

I don't have access to Linkysys router so I can't provide screenshot and can only guess how it looks like.
NAT-Mode (which in fact is a double-NAT: first your router and then the VMware NAT)

Some basic knowledge of the CLI is required here.

To get port forwarding working in VMware you have to modify several files, set up port forwarding twice - on the router and in VMware - and add a route to the NAT'ed VMware network on the router.

Modify .../vmnet8/dhcpd.conf in Terminal.app:

Open in VMware the configuration of the Windows 10 host and make a note of the MAC address of the network interface (e.g. 00:0C:29:04:D7:33)

cat the file /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf and check the range  (that's the dhcp-range e.g. 172.16.106.129 172.16.106.254) and other used addresses (e.g. option routers 172.16.106.2).

Edit dhcpd.conf

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf

After the line “####### VMNET DHCP Configuration. End of "DO NOT MODIFY SECTION" #######” enter the following lines with the MAC-address found earlier and an unused IP-address:

host Windows10 {
hardware ethernet 00:0C:29:04:D7:33;
fixed-address 172.16.106.56;
}

Modify .../vmnet8/nat.conf in Terminal.app to enable port-forwarding:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/nat.conf

in the part [incomingtcp] add

1338 = 172.16.106.56:1338
1340 = 172.16.106.56:1340

in the part [incomingudp] add

1338 = 172.16.106.56:1338
1340 = 172.16.106.56:1340

Relaunch VMware Fusion
get the IP of your Mac connected to the router with ifconfig (e.g. 192.168.0.2)
Access your router
add port-forwarding like in Bridge Mode but to the IP entered in dhcpd.conf:

Application Name    External Port   Internal Port   Protocol    To IP Address   Enabled
1338server                   1338            1338       both     172.16.106.56      yes
1340server                   1340            1340       both     172.16.106.56      yes

add a static route to the 172.16.106.0/24 vmnet8 network:

Route Name: vmnet8
Destination LAN IP: 172.16.106.0
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.2 #the IP of your Mac's interface connected to the router (either Wi-Fi or Ethernet) you got by entering `ifconfig`.

Save the settings
Launch your Windows 10 VM and configure the firewall (see Bridge Mode)
Launch your "services" on port 1338 and 1340.
Done!

Make a backup of the files nat.conf and dhcpd.conf before updating VMware Fusion because they will probably be replaced.

In my answer I assume that pf isn't running or if it is enabled then with the default pf.conf. You can check whether the firewall is running or not by entering sudo pfctl -s all | grep Status. If it is enabled open Murus Lite and check the state of the firewall. If you see a yellow light in the upper right corner it's running with the default Apple rules (which don't block anything). If you get a green light you've enabled the packet filter with the default Murus pf settings and you either have to open the ports 1338 and 1340 for incoming traffic on your Mac's interface connected to the router (e.g. en0) or uninstall the (Murus) boot scripts (Firewall > Boot Scripts > Uninstall Boot Scripts ...) and stop pf (or reboot). Removing or uninstalling Murus (Light) is not required.

Without modifying the two config files of VMware you won't be able to "open" or "redirect" ports with Murus (Lite) to a guest VM because the VMware NAT behavior can't be controlled by pf.


Is it possible to tilt pdf in Preview? as you know we mostly forgot pdf applications other than Preview, yet it may not came handy for every task.
I have scanned some documents recently and need to tilt them only a few degrees right or left.

Is it possible to do that using Preview?

P.S. I am also open to other software or web app suggestions.

Try using the Terminal!

Type:

sips -r 5 --padColor FFFFFF test.pdf

Where 5 is the degrees, FFFFFF is for white (the background) and test.pdf is your pdf. To more easily use this, try only typing sips -r 5 --padColor FFFFFF and then drag a file on the terminal.

Edit: as user3439894 correctly points out this only works for single page pdf's and overwrites the original. You can append --out newname.pdf to the orginal command to create a new file instead. With a multipage document you could also export single pages, run the command on individual pages and then combine them again, though that will take some effort.


Ordering prints other than through iphoto I would like to order photo prints off of iphoto through phanfare because I like their quality of prints better than iphoto/kodak. Is there a way to do this?

Phanfare have an iPhoto plugin

http://www.phanfare.com/apps.aspx#Iphoto

So you can export to them directly from iPhoto.


How to recover data from formatted encrypted external hdd? First I formatted an external HDD with Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) with password "Psw1".

Then I add some files (*.jpg, *.txt) to it.

Then I reformatted the HDD with Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) but with password "Psw23" without wiping.

How can I recover my files if I know my password?

*I've already tried some recovery software (Stellar, EaseUs, etc.), but was unsuccessful.

Unfortunately, it’s gone.

When you encrypt your drive, it gets scrambled with a randomized key so, if you were to look at the actual sectors of the drive, it would just be a jumbled mess.  The key is what takes that “mess” and turns it into usable data.

Recovery programs can’t rescue your data because a) they can’t distinguish between the encryption you did the first time versus the second, and b) being encrypted it can’t “see” the actual file structure to associate what blocks go with what.  This is why and how encryption protects your data from nefarious actors; your data can’t be recovered.

This is also why having a backup is extra critical when you go this route.


Is there a way to trigger iPad sleep using gestures? 5-finger gestures allow you to do almost anything without pressing any of the 2 iPad buttons: except putting the iPad to sleep.

Anyone aware of a way to do this without pressing a button?

You can enable the assistive touch panel. From this panel you can put the iPad to sleep with the touch screen.

To enable assistive touch:

Tap Settings
In Settings Submenu tap General
Scroll down the General submenu to find Accessibility.
Tap Accessibility.
In the Accessibility submenu tap AssistiveTouch
Trigger Assistive Touch into ON state

This menu (which can be minimized into every corner on your screen) allows you to do several actions using the touch screen, including sleeping the iOS device.


Yosemite won't boot in safe mode with Shift held down I'm investigating some slowness with my late '13 rMBP which I upgraded to Yosemite on Sunday. Problem is, I can't boot into safe mode by holding the Shift when restarting or powering up.

I tried everything: Pressing and holding it right after I power up, right after I hear the chime, after restarting, after total shut down. Just doesn't work.

Should I be worried?

Ok, I managed to boot to Safe mode using this:

  Access the command line by either opening Terminal remotely, or by logging into the computer using SSH.

  Use the following Terminal command:

  sudo nvram boot-args="-x"

  If you want to start in Verbose mode as well, use sudo nvram boot-args="-x -v" instead.

  After using Safe Mode, use this Terminal command to return to a normal startup:

  sudo nvram boot-args=""

Yosemite is looking more worrisome by the hour though.


How to search in Safari's history on iOS? In Safari on my iPad, I want to find all the questions I have visited recently on Ask Different.

I type apple.st. Safari suggests me some pages.

In Bookmarks and history, Safari gives me at most 5 results.

How can I have all the results ?

I would like a solution for iOS 7. I am interested in solutions for iOS 8 too.

Thank you.

You can't list entire search results from your history on iOS. The most you can do is as you have done by searching in Spotlight search and using the ~5 search results.

If your Safari history is synchronised with iCloud, you can search the entire history in Safari on OS X. Open Safari and press ⌥⌘2, then use the search box in the bottom-right corner.


Apple website images compression Ok I searched like the whole internet for this topic but couldnt find ANYTHING at all and thought maybe this is the right place to ask such a question. I was recently visiting apples iphone site and man they have a LOT of images in high resolution there. But when scanning the site to see how much MB I actually load I was stunned! All these images made up only 1. 4MB which is incredible. For example look at this picture here from the Apple Website:

http://images.apple.com/v/iphone/home/r/home/images/iphone_workshops_6s_xlarge.jpg

This high resolution image is only 182 KB big I cant get such results in Photoshop when saving jpegs. I mean you can clearly see that the details are kinda smudged so I am guessing this wasnt edited the normal way.

Does somebody have an explanation for that compression and maybe a tutorial how to achieve such low sizes? I am a web developer and when I create website with slideshows where I usually use image sizes like 1920 x 400 or something similar I never get images which are under 500-800 KB

A full-on image compression explanation is probably better suited for StackOverflow, but since you related it to Apple, I'll give an overview here.

The image itself actually determines the size of its file to an extent. With that, one can compress some images more than others without losing much apparent quality. For example, the JPEG image compression algorithm handles reds poorly. Consequently, if you have a photo with more red, you will likely need to keep the JPEG quality higher in order to not notice a difference. There are other quirks with different image compression formats that can impact the size of the file as well.

Second is how you save the file. Photoshop has a Save for Web feature that allows you to have more granular control over the save quality of the image. You can adjust the quality percentage (of original) and immediately see the affects on the photograph. A commenter noticed that it was 58% image quality. That doesn't mean it's 58% of the original file size, but is the number associated with the algorithm. It is likely that just that is less than 58% of the original size of the photo. You can easily see what they described by saving a photo in Photoshop using Save for Web and then setting it to the JPEG format and setting the quality to 58%.

After the photo has been saved, there is still another level of compression that can be done - in fact, there is more than one. The simplest, perhaps, is to run it through an image compressor. There are many out there and the one stand-alone app that comes to mind is JPEG-Mini. These can reduce file size significantly in some cases (though not all). You can also configure the server to provide a gzipped version of the image which further reduces the size. (You can determine if that photo was gzipped by looking at the headers for that image request/response.)

Image compression is extremely important, but is unfortunately overlooked all too often. I appreciate sites that show that their developers have done what they could to reduce image size so that all of their users can enjoy a faster load time. On that topic, responsive images are rapidly becoming supported and are sure to bring an even better UX as we serve browsers more specific content.


How to change WhatsApp notification & SMS tone for iOS 7? Does anyone know how to change WhatsApp notification & SMS tone for iOS 7 (on iPhone 5S)?

I would like to use a ringtone such as Chinese music uploaded from phone or apps instead of using the default tone for WhatsApp.

This feature has been added and can be found in Whatsapp -> Settings -> Notifications. SMS tone is in the same place as always, Settings -> Sounds -> Text tone.


Saving output from PDFs merged using Automator Using Automator, I tried to create a simple application, but I don’t know how to move ahead. I want to combine PDFs into a single file. The current workflow is:

Ask for Finder Items
Combine PDF Pages
?

What should I do to ask for a menu to save the combined PDF using a specified name?

When working with Automator workflows, it’s always good to check hat an action takes as its input and what it returns as output. Usually, this is indicated in the action’s description (accessible either in the bottom left below the action browser, or by clicking on “description” in the action’s bottom row. The actual output when running the action can also be checked (by clicking “result” in the bottom row of the action).

In your case, checking will show the “Combine PDF Pages” returns a PDF Document file. This file can be processed by any Automator action that can handle files in general (for file operations) or PDF files (for further editing). A look in the “Finder” category of Automator will show you likely candidates:

Move Finder Items will move the file to a target folder of your choice. You can set a fixed one, or tick “Show this action when running the workflow” in “options” (bottom row again) to select each time you run the workflow. This action, again, returns a PDF Document, which
Rename Finder Items will rename a file. As the action returns a PDF Document, you can daisy chain rename actions with different settings, for instance to give it a selectable base name (choose “rename single item” and tick the show option), add a date stamp (add another actions et to append the date) and a time stamp (same procedure, now with the time).


Iterate over an array of image sizes, and move them to a new folder So a few years ago a asked this question, on how to find an image of specific dimensions. That script worked (and works) great for me! But now, i want to find not just one (1) dimensions but 10 different dimensions. And with my current setup and system, and iteration of a specific dimensions takes about one (1) hour.

I have multipel executables of the same script, but i run them after each other ./delete180x180images && ./delete800x600images and so on.

Is it possible to compare the image dimensions agains an array? example DIMENSIONS=('120x120' '269x360' '360x269'), and if there is a match, move that file?

This is the script from my previous question that i currently use:

#!/bin/bash
targetDir="$HOME/Pictures/iPhoto-bibliotek.photolibrary"

HEIGHT=450
WIDTH=600

echo -e "Scanning \033[0;32m$targetDir\033[0m"
find $targetDir -type f \( -iname \*.jpg -o -iname \*.png -iname \*.bmp -iname \*.jpeg \) 2>/dev/null | \
while read -r filename; do
    hw="$(sips -g pixelHeight -g pixelWidth "$filename" 2>/dev/null)"
    h="$(awk '/pixelHeight/{print $2}'<<<"$hw")"
    w="$(awk '/pixelWidth/{print $2}'<<<"$hw")"
    if [[ $h -eq $HEIGHT ]] && [[ $w -eq $WIDTH ]]; then
        echo mv "$filename" $(pwd)/120x120images
    fi
done

#!/bin/bash
targetDir="$HOME/Pictures/iPhoto-bibliotek.photolibrary"

echo -e "Scanning \033[0;32m$targetDir\033[0m"
find $targetDir -type f \( -iname \*.jpg -o -iname \*.png -iname \*.bmp -iname \*.jpeg \) 2>/dev/null | \
    while read -r filename; do
        hw="$(sips -g pixelHeight -g pixelWidth "$filename" 2>/dev/null)"
        h="$(awk '/pixelHeight/{print $2}'<<<"$hw")"
        w="$(awk '/pixelWidth/{print $2}'<<<"$hw")"

        case ${h}x${w} in
            450x600) echo mv "$filename" $(pwd)/120x120images
                     ;;
            120x120) echo mv "$filename" $(pwd)/120x120images
                     ;;
            269x360) echo mv "$filename" $(pwd)/120x120images
                     ;;
            *)       echo "$filename ignored"
                     ;;
        esac
done

You can add additional dimensions in the same way, or change the target directory if required. Also, remove the echo once it works.


For a Macbook Pro, what are some recommend power plan settings for Windows 7 via Bootcamp I would like to ask if anyone has some recommendations on some of the specific settings for Window power plans (especially advanced parameters) for a Macbook Pro. For me specifically I have an early 2011 17".

As I understand it, OSX is better able to make use of the battery with specialized code that Windows lacks (or drivers from Apple perhaps?). I'm particularly interested in settings in Windows that make the most of the battery life as well as more generally any info that specifically addresses using Windows 7 with Mac hardware when it comes to power options.

e.g. what is Hybrid Sleep in Windows 7 and what does it do for Mac hardware?
e.g. what quirks to Windows power should be known when using Mac hardware?

Yes, as has been found through testing, Windows 7 gets lower battery life than OS X, for light usage, because OS X has more fine-grained and integrated power management, in a nutshell. There's not much you can do about it in Windows, except for the usual tricks - put down your backlight brightness, disable inessential wireless services like bluetooth or wifi, and allow the system to sleep the display when not in use.

It seems your particular model (MBP 2011) doesn't allow the integrated Intel graphics to work under Windows - this is going to have a huge impact on battery life. Hopefully Apple fix this, follow the issue on their discussion forums.

Hybrid sleep is primarily a desktop feature, according to Microsoft. Read more at Microsoft's sleep and hibernation FAQ.


Notification Center frozen in macbook pro with Yosemite 10.10.3 My notification center is completely frozen.  It's still in the upper right hand corner of my screen, but when I click on it, nothing happens. I do not get any notifications in a popup window when I receive a message from iMessage or Facebook like I had been.  I do still get a little red 1 on my iMessage app in the dock, though.

I have seen other forums with people having this issue being able to force quit notification center from activity monitor, but my activity monitor does not show notification center anywhere.  This same problem actually happened to me before few months ago, and after searching FOREVER I found out how to kill the application from terminal.  This does not work for me now, as when I type in "killall NotificationCenter" into the terminal it comes back saying "no matching processes belonging to you were found."

I have spend a bit of time searching forums for this problem again, and have tried typing other things into terminal and they don't work either (killall -3 NotificationCenter; killall -9 Notification Center, some other commands that are supposed to restart all running programs).  I've also rebooted my computer.

I just had an update for "Remote Desktop Client Update version 3.8.4" that was automatic last night, and I first noticed this problem this morning, so that might have something to do with it. This is very frustrating so if anyone can help me that'd be awesome! I'm not super knowledgeable about computers so please give detailed directions if you can.

The simplest and least destructive way to stop processes that run in your user space is to logoff, and logon again.

If you kill a process, it can't save any data correctly. Most system processes have good routines to handle this, but that slows things down the next time it starts and can leave things in a state where you need to clean up the mess by hand.

Logging out and back in will minimize the risk of causing further issues.


Superdrive doesn't accept disks any more I have two Superdrives. Since the upgrade to 10.11 (it might just coincide) they don't accept disks any more. I tried rebooting, sending eject commands to both drives etc.

They appear as "Unsupported" in drutil but look fine in "About This Mac" Storage.

   $ drutil list
   Vendor   Product           Rev   Bus       SupportLevel
1  Apple    SuperDrive        2.00  USB       Unsupported
2  Apple    SuperDrive        2.00  USB       Unsupported

I tried running drutil against both with all sorts of parameters (getconfig, info etc.).

I also tried rebooting the Mac and disconnnecting it from power for a minute. (It's a Late 2013 iMac.)

Update

Found this Apple support community thread: Superdrive not loading discs after upgrading to El Capitan

And I did try the drives with my AirBook (also El Capitan) as well with the same result.

Never could find out what happened. I bought to new drives (not Apple-made) and they work.


2013 Macbook Pro 13" - Running 2 monitors (not thunderbolt) Can I run 2 non thunderbolt monitors off a 2013 13" Retina Macbook Pro? One connected via HDMI, and one connected via a Thunderbolt to HDMI adaptor?

And if so, can I also run the laptop screen at the same time?

Yes, what you're suggesting will definitely work and you can use all three displays at once (MacBook display + HDMI display + Thunderbolt/HDMI display). This is the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter that I personally use and recommend.


Apps suddenly can't be opened? I had Terminal and TextEdit open, a couple of Finder windows, and possibly another app or two.
This was a few hours after updating to macOS 11.1 (20C69) in case that is the cause.
In Terminal, I did su - Admin to change permissions on a directory with sudo.  I forgot to exit before trying to open a new file with TextEdit, so of course I got an error (one account can't open windows in another app's GUI).
Exited Admin and tried again.  Got the same error!  Quit TextEdit and re-launched—same error!
Restarted laptop and logged in again.  Now, Terminal and Safari can't be launched (possibly others).  Pop-up appears and vanishes quickly. After several tries, I finally managed to read the first line: "Application (app) interrupted restart."
Switched user to Admin to send this question.  Safari & Terminal both functioning on this account.
In the Admin account, interestingly, when tried to use sudo, I was rejected.  Did id and found that that the shell (in Terminal launched by admin account) was running my non-admin account!!! Had to su to kill processes (see my answer).
Cause and/or solution?

Still uncertain about cause, but here's one thing that fixed it:
In Terminal, as Admin, I did
sudo kill -9 $(ps -ef | egrep -i "(terminal|safari)" | awk '{print $2}' | sort -nr)

Then shut down.  After power on again, things seem to be working properly.


If a folder contains sub-folders and files, is there a Terminal command to remove some sub-folders while not removing any files? If the folder structure is:
parentFolder
├── file1.rtf
├── file2.rtf
... #there are many more files.
├── moreFiles.rtf
├── subFolder1
├── subFolder2
├── subFolder3
... #there are many more subfolders.
└── moreSubFolders

How would I delete all subfolders except subFolder1 without deleting any  of the files?
I do not want to have to name each folder which should be deleted.
I also do not want to have name each file which should not be deleted.
I want a command that only deletes folders, not files, and allows the user to exclude some folders from being deleted.

Rule-based deletions tend to be tricky and can easily go wrong. In your case the following might work
find "parentFolder" -depth 1 -type d ! -name subFolder1 -ok rm -r -- '{}' \;

This

only looks one level beneath parentFolder (-depth 1)
only looks at directories (-type d)
skips subFolder1 (! -name subFolder1)
prompts for the deletion of any non-skipped directories (-ok rm -r -- '{}' \;)

PS: To skip several directories use ! \( -name subFolder1 -o -name subFolder2 \), to delete without prompting use -exec rm -r -- '{}' +.


Does anyone know any good Diagnostic tools? Does anyone know any good diagnostic tools for Mac?
something inline with Apple Hardware Test, Apple Service Diagnostics, tech tool pro, preferably more in depth perhaps something low level, pre-OS-startup

I need to do a complete hardware test on some MacBooks and one iMac, that is to do a thorough test of all components GPU, CPU, HDD, ODD, logic board, memory. apple hardware test would suffice however i don't have the option to use it on all the machines. if there is somehow a way to download and run it through say an usb thumb drive, this would be ideal.

basically as stated it needs to be ha hardware test similar to apples own hardware test. i need it for situations where i can't run AHT. For intel MACs

Also, I do not want benchmarks!

The likelihood that a single tool or utility will provide all of the diagnostic capabilities that you are looking for is very slim; if you do happen to find such a utility, there's a decent chance that its support for said capabilities will be shallow.  So while it may seem like a good idea to try to find a really generalized and versatile hardware diagnostics app, you'll probably be better off with getting smaller more specialized apps that are designed to only check one to a few of your system's hardware components.

In addition, some hardware components such as your system's PSU (power supply unit) are best checked with specialized electrical equipment designed to check for faults in your PSU, such as your PSU is no longer capable of sustaining the level of Watts your system requires.

Hardware Health Diagnostic Applications

Hard-Disk/Solid-State Drive

SMARTReporter

User Interface is kinda compact (feels a bit overwhelming with everything squished together).
$4.99
Available in the App Store.

smartmontools

primarily command-line only, GUI depends on the X Server,but even if you do have XQuartz installed, GUI doesn't show up. (Check man page for usage details: man smartctl)
Free
Install via brew: brew install smartmontools

DriveDx

Much nicer UI than SMARTReporter, feels much cleaner and less in your face.
Lots of statistics and info presented in a take your time kinda way.
$19.99
Available in the App Store.

Memory (RAM)

NOTE
I couldn't find much in the App Store with a few quick searches, but I do know of a couple different RAM diagnostic utilities, however, all of them require the use of a USB or a floppy or some other media type that can be booted into; while I have experience with at least one of these, I have never used any of these under Mac OS X.  So you're on your own.

memtest86

Free and Premium versions available
Supports both Windows and Mac

Check out passmark.com for other applications of a diagnostic/forensic nature

memtest86+

Free (and open-source)
Based on the previously mentioned memtest86.

memtester

A memory (RAM) stress-tester.
Free
install via brew: brew install memtester
see man page for more details: man memtester

Also, while this may sound super silly, I'd invest some time in checking the contents of your systems' logs, like tail /var/log/system.log, however, if I were you I'd check everything in /var/log just to make sure that you aren't missing anything.

In addition, be sure to run and check the output of sudo dmesg | less: in my experience, if your system is experiencing problems, there's a high likelihood that dmesg's output will shed light on the situation.

Mac OS X boot-time keyboard shortcuts (in no particular order):

Hold down D during startup

Takes you to Apple's Hardware Test utility (or Apple Diagnostics, depending on Mac model)
Option+D can be used instead to try starting up Apple Hardware Test or Apple Diagnostics over the internet

Hold down Alt+Cmd+P+R during startup

Clears the PRAM (parameter RAM) and NVRAM (non-volatile RAM): if either the PRAM or the NVRAM become corrupt, problems will ensue.  Hold the keys down until your computer restarts: release the keys after you hear the second startup sound.

Hold Alt down during startup

This will load the boot menu allowing you to boot to a different operating system partition you may have installed on your hard drive.  May also allow you to boot to a USB, but that's just a conjecture.

Hold down N during startup

if your setup includes a compatible network server (NetBoot), you can hold down the said key during boot to attempt a network boot.  You can alternatively use the Alt+N keys during startup to start from a NetBoot server using the default boot image provided.

Hold down T during startup

puts your Mac into Target Disk Mode, effectively turning your computer into a large removable flash drive.  (Allows you to transfer files to and from your machine with... ease?)

Hold down Shift during startup

Boot into safe mode.  Very similar to Windows Safe Mode; a great way to troubleshoot OSX applications and extensions that aren't working properly.

Hold down Cmd+V during startup

Boot into verbose mode.  A terminal-like interface will appear while booting.  It will contain information important to startup, allowing you to diagnose startup problems by seeing any errors that may be occurring during startup.  Verbose mode exits automatically when your mac finishes booting.

Hold down Cmd+S during startup

Boot into single user mode.
NOTE A knowledge of bash and the command-line (in general) is recommended.  Handy for advanced startup sequence troubleshooting.

Also, I'd check out Parted Magic and GParted, as well as any other distribution of Linux that offers a Live-disc version.  These can be used to ease the diagnostics process since they're (at least Parted Magic and GParted) are designed with system maintenance in mind--not to mention the fact that you'll have access to a far larger software repository with any given Linux (that has a package manager) than you would with brew, for example.


App Store email address / Apple ID Whenever I go to my Apple Store it shows an the incorrect email (it show an email that is no longer active)
How do I get my iPhone 6s to show the correct email so I can update my apps?

The "correct" Apple ID is the one used to purchase the apps originally.

It doesn't need to be tied to your current email address & in fact doesn't actually have to be an email address at all. You can change your primary email address associated with an Apple ID...

  Change your Apple ID

  Follow these steps to change the email address that you use as your Apple ID.

  Sign out of every Apple service and device that uses your Apple ID.
  Sign in to your Apple ID account page.
  In the Account section, click Edit. Under your Apple ID, click Change Email Address.
  Enter the email address you want to use as your Apple ID. A verification code will be sent to your new email address.
  Enter the verification code from the email into the fields provided and start using your updated Apple ID. Didn't get the email?
  Sign back in to all Apple services with your new Apple ID.

  You can change your Apple ID to any other email address you control,
  as long as it's not already in use as an Apple ID. If your email
  address ends with @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com, you might not be
  able to change your Apple ID. You also won't see Change Email Address
  on your account page.


Spell Correction using only the keyboard I am a long time OS X user and as such, I often enjoy the built-in dictionary available system-wide. It’s a small detail that, if you come from Windows (or Linux) turns out to be of great help (provided you really care about improving your typing skills). Available on most Cocoa applications by default (thanks to the underlying technology), it underlines incorrect words and obvious grammar errors. It has its bad days, but the results are usually better than nothing. I type mainly in English and Spanish and in both cases, it’s a decent solution.

But I just realized that I have a problem with it. I rarely use the mouse when I’m in “Type Mode”. If I’m writing I don’t need to use the mouse. I just don’t use it; I manage to perform most of what I have to with the keyboard and its shortcuts.

There are notable exceptions to the above (where a dialog requires mouse action, or there’s simply no way to get the focus of a particular UI element). Those exceptions are annoying (and frequent), but I guess I already deal with them (by grabbing the mouse and killing a kitten).

However, there’s one that I’d like to know how to solve, and maybe the minds behind the site can clear for me.

Imagine the following simple scenario. TextEdit.

You start typing this:

In order to fix the misspelled word, you have a few choices with your mouse, or you could use the ⇧Shift⌘Cmd: combination to bring this:

However that dialog doesn’t have keyboard focus and I am unable to get it, so I have to reach the mouse, click on it, and fix the problem. That’s not good.

What I want is to be able to bring this:

…with my keyboard.

That menu came when I right clicked on the word.

How do you deal with this? Do you use the mouse? Do you use the keyboard?

Enlighten me please.

UPDATE FOR LION OS X 10.7

As many of you are aware, OS X 10.7 "Lion" is out and it brings some changes in this area. Sadly, the biggest complain is still not 100% fixed.

The good news is, it is "possible" to spell check using the keyboard only, although we still don't have a nice popup like the "right click" over an underlined word.

The Spell Check pane can be focused now by using ⌃F6 if it loses focus, but has it by default when you invoke it with ⇧⌘:, this allows you to invoke it over a red-underlined word and press ⏎ to change the word (or TAB to focus the list of alternatives and then ⏎ to change it)… but not really because…

…the Bad news is, if I make a mistake right here and I try to bring the spell check, it will go to the next mistake, not the word I have below the cursor, which is annoying, because it means you have to actually go back with the cursor before invoking the spell checker.

Also there are no shortcuts on the Grammar Pane, so you have to TAB around the fields to click anything other than "Change". The order of the options is also weird:

1) Upon launching Grammar Pane, focus is on Change for "return" but you are ready to start typing a replacement if you want. So you could type the "right word" and press return, or you could press return to accept the first replacement on the list, or you could press TAB to move to that list, select a new one (with the arrow keys) and finally press return to accept it.

2) If you wanted to move to the next change without accepting anything for the current word, you need to press TAB four times and then the space bar to click on find next.

3) Focus is one way, if you reach the last option in that dialog, it won't cycle back to the first option, so you have to shift-tab back in the focus chain. (weird?)

4) You can't focus the Define, Guess or Automatic by Language Buttons/Combo boxes, unless you grab your mouse.

5) You can dismiss the panel by pressing escape.

Finally, going from "mistake to mistake" is achieved with ⌘;; this will jump from red underlined word to the next in a cycle.

Yo ! Man, I got the best thing for you.

Just type some of your characters of word & press F5 & see the magic, It is what you want. Suppose your not getting the word rub some & get what you want.

Here is snap-shot of what you want.  ( source of lots of shortcut keys )

Suppose, I am a user, I would do as follows.

Start typing
suppose I typed Compu
and then I would press F5 for getting hints

simple & short just F5 does all for you, no need to press Cmd+: and then get correct one from list. It will give you list on the spot.


Missing partition in my iMac Fusion Drive - can't do school work! I did a dumb thing while messing around with Boot Camp and managed to lose a partition that I had made earlier to install Windows on to.

A 300GB partition is now missing and I've tried everything since this morning to get it back but I clearly lack the knowledge and I need my Mac for school work.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can restore the lost partition without a backup?

Thank you!

    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 Macintosh HD            699.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         24.0 GB    disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            23.6 GB    disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            Macintosh HD           +722.0 GB   disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk1s2, disk0s2
                                 9449131B-67F8-4D97-82D6-F2BDEDB48B6C
                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive

diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group CF679B40-3999-4A00-AA41-4D7CC546FB41
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         722905776128 B (722.9 GB)
    Free Space:   106496 B (106.5 KB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume BF1C586C-AECF-4640-90A3-EF1F1B1B1776
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     23553724416 B (23.6 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 7018B90D-8378-4015-A9F5-B531B325FABE
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    1
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     699352051712 B (699.4 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 9AD3A7A0-D9E3-4A3F-B233-7EACB65C38BC
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Type:         None
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 9449131B-67F8-4D97-82D6-F2BDEDB48B6C
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          722000936960 B (722.0 GB)
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
            LVG Type:              Fusion, Sparse

Your Windows partition isn't missing after erasing it! You gained some unallocated disk space.

To reinstall Windows with Boot Camp Assistant you have to restore the ~vanilla Fusion Drive state. You can try to resize the whole Core Storage stack with the command with: diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size. In your case that's:

diskutil cs resizeStack 9449131B-67F8-4D97-82D6-F2BDEDB48B6C 1022g

If you get an error "... not enough space ..." choose a slightly smaller size like 1021500m or 1021g.

After poking around with Disk Utility or the Windows Disk Management tool (e.g. trying to remove/resize a Boot Camp partition with Disk Utility) the resizeStack command often fails with a cryptic -8xxxx error message because some internal CoreStorage structures are corrupted. Your OS X volume usually isn't affected though.

Then you have to either backup the OS X partition with Time Machine, rebuild a vanilla Fusion Drive and finally restore the TM backup or install OS X from scratch after rebuilding a vanilla Fusion Drive.

Then you can launch Boot Camp Assistant and install Windows 10 again.


How many additional numbers can I set in one contact? As the title says, how many additional numbers can I set in one contact? I was playing around with a script and I was able to get even 2000 of them in on an iPhone 6 simulator. However, would like some official response about what is the max.

There is no limit as to how many numbers you can get on a contact.


Changing Calculator Format I am using a Mac computer, and my calculator looks like the one below. Can anyone help me change it back to a normal simple calculator?


Cutting a Mac loose from Portable Home Directory I have a MacBook Air (currently running Mavericks GM) and a Mac Mini server (running Snow Leopard Server) in my home. The Air uses a portable home directory kept on the Mini.

Over time, the two home directories have drifted, to the point where the home directories don't even get close to fully syncing overnight (through a gigabit switch and Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter). Even worse, when the sync daemon triggers it tends to resurrect old files which have been deleted or renamed. Basically, at this point the whole thing is just irrevocably broken.

I think I'd like to just cut the connection between the two directories and move forward with separate home directories on the two machines. How can I get my Air to abandon the idea of syncing its home directory with my server?

Alternatively, is there anything I can do that might fix my home directory syncing? I currently can't upgrade the server from Snow Leopard, but that's likely to change soon.

A high level approach to make the network account on the server as a local account on the MacBook Air would be to do the following:

Unbind the MacBook Air from the directory and delete this user from it.
Copy over the user's home folder from the server into /Users/ on the MacBook Air.
Create a new user with the same shortname as on the server.
Choose OK when OS X prompts you asking if you'd like to use the already existing home directory for this user. This will fix the permissions on all files for this user.


How to conveniently restart pgAdmin 4? I have pgAdmin on my dock, and can open it when the process isn't already running (ie. after a restart, or if I manually kill it).

If I open pgAdmin, close the window, then later try to open it from the dock, the app doesn't respond.

This dock behavior is similar to MySQL Workbench, except that MySQL has the "running process indicator" (little circle on dock below the icon), while pgAdmin does not, which means that right clicking on the pgAdmin icon does not give me the option to quit.

I tried using a bash function, which for MySQL would look like this:

killall MySQLWorkbench && open /Applications/MySQLWorkbench.app

This works fine for MySQL Workbench, but isn't necessary since I can restart it from the dock.

For some reason, with pgAdmin, the process doesn't get killed, so the app never opens:

>> killall pgAdmin\ 4
No matching processes were found

The app is clearly visible in Activity Monitor with the name pgAdmin 4

The only solution I have currently is to manually kill the process from Activity Monitor, but this is quite redundant.

  How can I conveniently restart pgAdmin 4?

I would prefer a solution that allows me to restart it from the dock, but a bash script would also suffice.

Software:

pgAdmin 4 : 4.17
macOS Catalina : 10.15

pgAdmin 4 (/Applications/PostgreSQL 12/pgAdmin 4.app) is a simple launcher for /Library/PostgreSQL/12/pgAdmin 4.app which itself is some kind of a service wrapper.

Besides launching a small web server, it also starts the menulet "pgAdmin 4" (the black elephant) and probably does some other things too.

The recommended way to restart pgAdmin 4 is to quit the menulet pgAdmin 4 ("Shut down server") and launch pgAdmin 4 again from the Dock.

If you insist to use the shell or a shell script, the best you can get is probably something like:

kill -s TERM $(ps aux | grep '[p]gAdmin4' | awk '{print $2 }') && open -a "pgAdmin 4"

You have to clean up (i.e. close) the now defunct browser window of the previous session manually.

If you just want to re-visit the pgAdmin PostgreSQL management page (after accidentally exiting the browser or closing the browser window/tab or if you want to use another browser) you don't have to quit and relaunch pgAdmin.

The formerly displayed url (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:49211/browser/) won't work anymore but a file in your home folder contains a working url with an auth key:

cat ~/.pgA*.addr
http://127.0.0.1:49211/?key=c1b4f6c8-fa99-4af2-9ebd-06d71586c266 #example

Enter this url in your browser and you can visit the page without authorization error .

In the shell this is: open $(cat .pgA*.addr). This will launch your standard web browser and open the management page.


How can root launch a regular Mac application from a cron job in /etc/crontab? I want the cronjob to do some things as the superuser, and depending on the result, launch an app as me, the logged-in user.

I've tried a bunch of things but nothing I think should work does.

Similar questions:

How can I execute sudo commands as a cron job?
How can I automatically launch an application whenever the Mac goes idle?

I figured out the key was to use su with -l, -c and single quotes:

su -l myloginname -c '/usr/bin/open -a [App].app'

In context:

*/15 * * * * root if { !  /usr/bin/diff  /var/tmp/foo /var/backups/bar >> /var/log/foobar-diff.log ; } ; \
then  /usr/bin/su -l myloginname -c '/usr/bin/open -a /Applications/iProcrastinate.app > /dev/null 2> /dev/null' ; \
/bin/date >> /var/log/foobar-diff.log ; fi


How do I rotate a movie on the iPad/iPhone? I have a movie in my camera roll that is incorrectly rotated.  I would like to rotate it 90 degrees to fix the problem.

Using this tip I was able to rotate the movie using iMovie.

However, the problem is that the movie is now cropped incorrectly.  The movie is stuck in a landscape orientation instead of a portrait orientation, so that the bottom part of the movie is now cut off.

How can I rotate a movie in iOS while preserving its proper aspect ratio and dimensions?

I don't have any experience with this app but it seems like it will do what you are after: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/video-rotate-free/id626614962?mt=8


macOS can't detect my Feitian MultiPass U2F Device over BLE I'm enrolled in Google's Advanced Protection program, and it requires me to carry a physical U2F token when signing in through a new device. I've also started using this as my only second-factor authentication method.

My Feitian MultiPass U2F key device is BLE and can authenticate via Bluetooth. I had no problems pairing it with my phone, but when I tried pairing it with my MacBook, I couldn't even see it listed in the list of new devices.

At the same time, my MacBook can see my phone and had no trouble pairing with my headphones. I can use my U2F token with my phone just fine.

I also tried using it via Bluetooth with my wife's Macbook, and that didn't work either. The same problem, it didn't even show up.

Our laptops:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) running 10.13.5 High Sierra
MacBook Pro (2016 with Touchbar) running 10.13.5 High Sierra

It seems that they are not compatible with Macs via BLE.  Their site lacks this info and so does the amazon listing if you purchased there.  To top it even if you could connect your mac to the device the chrome browser is looking for a USB key.  This is pure garbage since all macs don't carry the same ports, I.E my mini is USB3, my pro is USB-C.  Returning and turning off Advanced protection.


How do I find my IP Address from the command line? I know you can do ifconfig | grep inet, but that shows you several IPv4 addresses. How do I get the specific one for SSHing et al?

Use ipconfig getifaddr en1 for wireless, or ipconfig getifaddr en0 for ethernet.

Update:

ipconfig getifaddr en0 is default for wifi interface.


El Capitan Mail 9.0 won't accept active accounts (MacBook Air, mid 2013, new install on wiped drive of OS X 10.11 El Capitan)

According to "Internet Accounts" preferences, I have five active email accounts: iCloud, gmail, yahoo, americtech.net, and Comcast. I thought I had set up Mail.app, but found only two accounts were listed: iCloud and Comcast. When I attempt to add an account (any of the remaining three), I am asked for username and password, then informed that the account is already active. Mail.app has not crashed, just won't accept any other accounts. I have all five running on an iMac (Yosemite) and an iPad.

No apparent way of manually setting up the accounts; I'm thinking of visiting the Genius bar!

O.K. I have an update. I had checked the "hand-off" to another Mac in the General preferences. I unchecked it and now have two of the accounts added. Then, finally, I unchecked all the Google items in the Internet Accounts pane, turned off any device with Google anything, logged into Google from the Internet Accounts pane and mirabile dictu! gmail is now in place and downloading messages.

So: 1. Handoff is a nice feature, but it sure can mess up Mail.
    2. Gmail is as quirky as many have claimed.

Thanks to bike for his answer.


When I search the help system, I never get any response My iMac is generally fast, but when I search the help system, I never get any response.

The help system works fine if I simply navigate it, but search never returns anything.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would download the demo of TinkerTool System and run the “Repair Help Viewer” routine.

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerToolSys4.html

Menu ▹ User – then the Repair panel – then Repair “Help Viewer”

See the online documentation:

http://www.bresink.com/osx/300644207/Docs-en/pgs/0220-User.html

Search for the literal text:

Repair “Help Viewer”

-ccs


MBP 15" Late 2011 Lion audio noise Today I noticed something unusual on my MBP's audio.

When I played some music on youtube today, I noticed that something was different. The sound is noisy, like when in a car, you put the volume very high, it starts distorting. But, on low volume on my Mac, it creates the same effect.

Anyone with the same problem? Anyone knows how to fix it? It didn't do it earlier... Maybe some SO update messed up the audio drivers/codecs?

  Update:
  I performed a PRAM and NVRAM reset and a SMC reset and it didn't solve anything.

  Also, deleted the *.plist files in ~/Library/Preferences/Audio as suggested here and again, it didn't solve anything.

  I'm getting desperate...

  Update2:
  Got in recovery mode, started Disk Utility and used the options Fix disk and Fix disk permissions and once again, it didn't solve anything.

If all sound from your machine is distorted there may be a hardware problem with your Mac's speakers.

To test, I would reinstall Lion from your recovery partition and see if it is the same. If you still have problems with the sound you should take your Mac to an Apple Authorised Service Provider.


Backup camcorder using Final Cut Pro or iMovie I have a Canon Vixia HF11 HD camcorder, Synology DS213 NAS, MacBook Air, iMovie '11 and Final Cut Pro 10.0.9.

I just backed up my camcorder using Final Cut Pro and ran into a couple problems:

The backup came out to 50gb total (the CANON.fcarch was only 25gb)
The backup included render files and original media (i.e. .mov files of each clip)
The backup can only be saved to my MBA's hard drive (i.e. can't save to my NAS)

My questions are, using Final Cut Pro or iMovie, is there a way to:

Only backup the camcorder's compressed AVCHD video (i.e. just the .fcarch file) without
transcoding/rendering everything out to .mov files?
Backup the camcorder directly to a network drive (i.e. my NAS) instead of my MBA's SSD?

Firstly, it's well worth upgrading your FCPX to the latest (2018: 10.4.3) it should remain compatible, costs you no extra, and is a massive improvement. Don't do this mid-project; allow yourself time to adjust.

1: Yes, FCP can archive a connected camera. It produces the .fcparch file (which is actually a bundle containing all the original video files on your camera). Basically, the .fcarch file is a clone of the video parts of the card from your camera, is roughly the same size, and the FCP X Import window can read it just like a connected camera. See "Create and Manage Camera Archives" in FCP X help.

2: If you want to backup your AVCHD camera to a NAS, just directly copy the PRIVATE folder you see at the root level of the camera card into its own folder on your NAS, which you could name after the card's number / reel number to distinguish it from all the other PRIVATE folders.


Apple Javascript (Script Editor) Documentation Is there a tutorial on how to use the documentation for Script Editor and Javascript?

I've been using AppleScript and Automator (with JavaScript) for a while but not extensively. I love how it works and what you can do with it. My problem is that I find very confusing the documentation (from Apple's website and from Script Editor's Library menu). I've been experimenting and doing stuff based mostly on examples.

I am familiar with PHP and Java Documentation which are great, is there some kind of easy to understand docs?

Apple has not updated their scripting documentation for JavaScript. The most recent documentation appears in the OS X 10.11 Release Notes - JavaScript for Automation.

There is extensive documentation for AppleScript in the AppleScript Language Guide.

MacStories has published a tutorial Getting Started with JavaScript for Automation on Yosemite.

Both this tutorial and Ash Ryan's Script Editor on Mac now lets you use JavaScript for automation mention a WWDC 2014: “JavaScript for Automation” which is probably the best place to learn more.


Which power cable should I use for a Macintosh 128K (upgraded to a Plus) I’ve just bought a Macintosh 128K, upgraded to a Macintosh Plus 1MB, and it didn’t come with a power cable. I’m told it needs a 110V kettle cable.
I’ve got a UK plug kettle cable which says “13A” on the fuse, but it says 1A on the back of the computer. Is this safe to use?
If not, which is the correct cable to use for this Mac?
Edit: on the plug it says 10A, 250V AC

If it needs 110v then you need a power transformer, not just a kettle plug.
The plug known as a kettle plug often isn't one…
See the list of power couplers on WIkipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60320#Appliance_couplers - a 'kettle plug' is actually a high-temperature [C15] version of the more common IEC C13 plug.
You can buy IEC 13s just about anywhere - & many people have spares from old computers etc still kicking around in drawers.
The C15 has a notch to prevent plugging a 'low temperature' C13 into it. Plugging the other way, a high temp C15 into a low temp C14 appliance is no issue.
Your issue isn't the plug, it's the voltage.
If you plug a 110v Mac into a 240v supply, you will kill it, stone dead.
If you can get a photo of the appliance rating sticker on the back, then we can be more certain.
Modern computing/electronics has universal voltage, anything from 100v to 250v would be fine. Older devices may need specific voltages, with only perhaps 10% tolerance.


How to replace the Comcast Calendar I have a Mac desktop computer and use Safari as my Browser on a Comcast account.  Comcast just sent a notice that they will shortly discontinue their Calendar application.   I have used this service for a long time and this is devastating to me as I depend on the calendar for notifications of important upcoming events.

Is there something comparable to the Comcast calendar service that will send me email reminders of upcoming events?

I am not the most computer literate person and will greatly appreciate any assistance in how to get this done.

Pretty much any service should have email reminders.

Personally, I use Outlook.com and while I have no need for email reminders, I did confirm that the features is available.  See below

You can use this with your existing email, but you will need to sign up with a new account. Your Mail App (email client) will be able to work with the Outlook.com service as well


Is encrypting an external hard drive prior to Time Machine equally secure as TM encryption? It's more it less an order of operations, but should I format and encrypt the external hard drive first without any data and then run TM?

I figured that way would be faster rather than TM having to encrypt the data on the fly.

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. A drive is encrypted only by virtue of receiving encrypted data, it does not encrypt anything itself. So if you write from your unencrypted disk to your encrypted one (via Time Machine), all data still has to be encrypted by your mac prior to being written to the external medium.
So I don't see why encrypting an empty drive before writing to it should change anything.

The reason why encryption does not noticeably impact performance is that the speed bottleneck in this business is the disk access, which is waaay costlier in terms of runtime than the encryption of the data. Modern processors even have specialised instructions to speed up e.g. AES which is used for Time Machine I think. So even if it worked the way you seem to think, it would probably not gain you much.


Transfering small tidbits of information from Mac to iPhone You found that the book you were going to order online is in stock at your neighborhood bookstore (it's a near fantasy for your neighborhood bookstore to stock a book you actually want, but it's just an example! It applies for any kind of shopping list).

You copy the ISBN from your desktop browser, but rather than copy it on paper, you enter it in tool X. Tool X will make that number available on your iPhone so that it's handy when you ask for help at the bookstore.

Does Apple produce such a tool X? You could use Google Keep, or you could email yourself and pick up the mail from your phone, but I'm wondering if Apple has a native application for this use-case in its eco-system.

There's multiple options when you're using the same iCloud account on your Mac as on your phone:

Add it to a Notes note
Send it to yourself as a Message
Add it as a reminder in Reminders
Add it as an appointment in Calendar
Use Universal Clipboard to paste the content on your iPhone that you have copied on your Mac


Clearing contents of my iPad I would like to back up and clear the contents of my iPad before I sell it off and buy an iPad 2.
What is the best way to do this?

You can remove all settings and information from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using "Erase All Content and Settings" in Settings > General > Reset.

From Apple's site.

edit:sorens is correct. The answer to the first part of your question is by default every time you sync with iTunes it backs up your iOS device. So just sync and reset.


Managing and sharing photos My wife is a prolific picture-taker, both on her iPhone 6 and her Nikon. As a result, both her 64Gig iPhone and 240Gig Mac Air are completely filled to the brim (the later has all sorts of others stuff too). As her devices are often running out of storage room, she sometimes uses my iPhone to take shots.

iCloud Photo Sharing would seem to be a solution, but... Unless I am reading the instructions wrong, it seems you have a 5000 photo limit, and also have to individually upload images to a shared folder using the sharing buttons? I'm looking for something that's completely automatic, and can hold at least 10k photos.

An external drive is another solution, but again, this takes away the automation side of things. Or is there a way to get iPhoto to see a second source of images if it is present and simply not show them if it's not?

My monthly budget is zero. My one-off budget is $100.

Solution

You can use Apple iCloud's "My Photo Stream" to hold more than 10,000 photos.

You can easily continue to use iPhoto/Aperture/Photos.app so there's no need to learn any new app or to migrate data.

Upgrade Storage

The only limit is the total size of your photos and the storage you are paying for. 5 GB are free with every iCloud account.

See iCloud storage plans and pricing for more information on the pricing in your country.

Details

My Photo Stream does not limit the number of photos that you can upload. Keep in mind that Apple has a soft limit on how many photos you may upload per day:

  My Photo Stream upload limits

  The My Photo Stream limits below are based on anticipated upload
  patterns. These are the My Photo Stream upload limits:

  Uploads to My Photo Stream per hour: 1000 photos
  Uploads to My Photo Stream per day: 10,000 photos
  Uploads to My Photo Stream per month: 25,000 photos

  If
  you exceed one of these limits, your uploads to My Photo Stream will
  pause temporarily, and you might see a notification on your device.
  Your uploads will resume automatically when you no longer exceed the
  limit, such as in the following hour or on the following day.

Source: Apple


How do I load the DiskManagement framework in single user mode? From single-user mode in OS X 10.5, I want to run

diskutil repairPermissions /

but I get an error:

Unable to run because unable to use the DiskManagement framework
...

Is there a way to load the DiskManagement framework or otherwise repair permissions in single user mode?

The Disk Utility Repair Permissions command is just a front end for the repair_packages program.
Use this:
 /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs

Suggestion: run /sbin/mount -uw /  prior to running the above command.  Sometimes the disc may be mounted as read only and the command above will not work until you mount it with write permissions. You will be then able to successfully restore file permissions using the command after mounting the disk as writeable. The command ran for over two hours.


-1006F error message when trying to recover mac my macbook pro crashed and i sent it for repairs.. so the guy installed a new hard drive but then sent it back with a screen having a flashing folder with a question mark.. so i looked at this page and basically restarted by pressing the option button. So I came to a screen that asked for my internet password.. then i clicked on a button that says internet recovery.. then i got this screen:

after a while I got a screen with error: apple.com/support -1006F.. any idea what that means or what I should do next?

Take a look at this discussion on Apple Support Communities about -1006f which contains this solution :

Hold Command and R keys while the Mac is starting to start in Recovery HD. If you can start up, open Disk Utility, select Macintosh HD in the sidebar and verify the disk. If it gives you an error, repair your drive. If it can't be repaired, you need a new hard disk.
If you can't start, hold Command, Option (Alt) and R keys


Down arrow key does not work in bootcamp So I decided to use my old MacBook Air 2012 as a Windows laptop. I installed Windows 10 Anniversary using boot camp. Everything went well and I've installed a bunch of programs, Visual Studio, etc. It builds perfectly and everything works great.

Except for one thing: the down arrow key does not work!

I've installed the latest driver updates using the pre-installed apple update software. For some reason there is no boot camp control panel installed.

Not sure how to fix/debug this!

Try booting into the recovery mode (Hold CMD + R at boot) and test wether it works there, if it does then is a software issues and a full bootcamp reinstall may be required if it doesn't then its likely a hardware issue in which case a repair would be your best bet. Also the absence of BootCamp Control Panel points to it being a software issue/driver, attempt the above and if it works try a reinstall following Apples tutorial to the letter! Good luck


How to install Mac OS X as a guest OS in VMware Workstation 8 (running in Ubuntu host)? How to install Mac OS X as a guest OS in VMware Workstation 8 (running in Ubuntu host)?

The author of this askubuntu question (in the question) claims to have done it, but doesn't say exactly how.  Haven't yet succeeded, tried various procedures (also with Virtualbox with no success) to get Mac OS X guest OS to run on VMware-Ubuntu host.

Example unsuccessful procedure: boot-from-installable-USB procedure based upon a install-Lion-USB-drive creation procedure and then employing the Plop boot manager in VMware.  Results in 'boot0: error' and hang of the guest machine.
Next unsuccessful procedure: same as above but using http://kakewalk.se.  However, the guest OS did boot off of the kakewalk USB stick, but the boot-up "crashed" (possibly because of "unsupported motherboard" or some such).

You can not legally install OS X on VMware Workstation or Virtualbox and VMware has checks to prevent it.  You have to hack it to get it to work and we don't provide hacks here.

You can read more about it here.


Does the iPad (2012, 3rd generation) have the most pixels of any tablet's display? I have heard this as a factoid from somewhere, and I'd like verification of it before I use it as a factual piece of information.

The new iPad (2012, 3rd generation) has a super high pixel count. Does this make for the highest resolution of comparable tablets on the market (i.e., those with similarly sized screens)?

For this answer, let's define that…

…the sharpness of a display is the ability to distinguish two distinct pixels.

Retina displays
There is no industry standard for retina display, therefore I'll follow Apple's use of the word. The term retina display is relative, as the definition follows the human eyes's perception of a display's sharpness:

The second picture means "300 ppi is the limit of the human retina at a distance of 10 inch"!
While the iPhone 4S is commonly used at a distance of about 10 inches to the eye, the iPad  will be used at a larger distance - e.g. 15 inches. Therefore, the iPad can have a similar reception by the eye even though the pixel density is lower.
Physical background of 'retina'
What does the formula mean? Let alpha be the angle at which the human retina will see two distinct pixels. d is the perpendicular distance to the display surface. h is the distance between two district pixels in one dimension.
Hence, we get:

As you can see in the table, the minimum angle at which the human eye can distinguish two pixels is larger than what it can see for both on the iPhone and the new iPad - at normal distances.
The perception of distinct pixels with the new iPad is even better than with the iPhone 4S. Apple is being fully reasonable when calling the iPad's display a retina display.

No other tablet can compete in similar measures for PPI and
display size of the iPad. It's even sharper then the iPhone in normal
use! It's the sharpest display on the market.

Of course, this assumption is based on the fact that the displays are able to display any two pixels that are next to each other - which @checksum has pointed out in a comment.
Competitors
As mentioned in this answer, there are competitors with higher pixel densities, but not at the display size of the iPad 4G (9.7''). Furthermore, it's not clear to me if they are able to display each unique pixel like it IPS displays used by Apple can.


Unable to create folder in root of 'Macintosh HD'? I am running macOS 10.15.4 and I need to create a non-user specific folder at the based of primary volume (Macintosh HD), but Finder does not allow me (option greyed out) and from the terminal I get denied.

From terminal:

mkdir /MyFolder
mkdir: /MyFolder: Read-only file system

Can anyone explain how this can be done? It was definitely possible in the past, before Catalina.

In Catalina the primary volume is read-only. This means it is not immediately possible to create new folders here.

In order to get around that, the system provides what is known as synthetic firm links. This allows you to create what appears to be folders at the root of the file system.

You need to create the file /etc/synthetic.conf, which should be owned by root and group wheel with permissions 0644.

The contents should look like this:

newfolder     Users/foo/bar

"newfolder" is the name of the virtual folder that will be created in the root of the file system. "Users/foo/bar" is the actual location of the folder. You need to ensure that this folder actually exists. It doesn't need to be inside Users, but can be anywhere in your system.

NOTE: It is important to ensure that the space between the two folder names is a TAB character, and not just a number of space.

After creating the file above with the specified contents, you need to reboot the system. After rebooting, you'll see the /newfolder folder.


Quick, automated way to verify the copy of a folder? I have a lot of files that I've been transferring around my network and to external hard drives.  For example, I just copied a folder with files representing an old laptop's disk image (created with clonezilla) from an external hard drive to my macbook pro.

Is there an app or script I can use that would allow me to verify that all the files in the folder were copied correctly and without corruption?  I want to be able to run something on the source and target folders that will give me confidence that they are identical.  Ideally, the tool would be able to verify folders on a network drive as well.

Two easy ways, one CLI and the other with a GUI :

With Terminal :

diff -rq folder1 folder2

Using FileMerge (which comes with the Developer Tools) :


"On my phone" Account option greyed in notes app - os10 I have a brandnew iphone SE with ios10 on it. I previously owned an iphone 5s with ios8, and when I pluged my new SE I did a "restore from backup". But since then, I cannot access the "On my iphone" account option in the Notes app; it is now greyed. I was wondering if something like that happened to one of you before, and if there's a fix for it. Thanks]1

Oh. You don't need to be worried about that. That simply says that there is "On my iPhone" section turned on but you haven't saved any note on that section Folder. All your notes are saved in the iCloud section folders.

There is nothing to be worried about. That is normal since you haven't saved notes on your phone but in iCloud section folders.

So if you want to make that toggle not greyed out, just goto Notes app -> click on left upper corner "<" mark.

1) Then you would see ICLOUD and ON MY PHONE sections and under both of them some folders named Notes or whatever. ( if you see folders under ON MY IPHONE section, just avoid 2) and goto A )

2)Or you may see no folders under On My iPhone section. If you see no folders, then create one using any name.

A: Then simply make a new note in any folder under  ON MY IPHONE section and save on that folder (just simply get out of that note. It would be automatically saved). Then check the settings. Greyed toggle may normal now.

Use this link to lean more about Notes : https://support.apple.com/en-lk/HT205773


Memory Upgrade: Planning to Use Different RAM Model I'm considering upgrading to a total of 16GB RAM. Currently, I have 4GB.

MacBook Pro: 13-inch, Late 2011
Memory  4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

The problem: it appears the local resellers no longer have such RAM model. My question is, will the new PC3-12800 DDR3 1600 MHz type RAM, designed for the Mid-2012 model, work on the Late 2011 model?

Any apple-endorsed reference would be good. Thanks.

As stated in Apple's technical specifications your machine officially only supports 8GB of memory total.

That said Other World Computing runs a massive on-site lab and has confirmed that the Late 2011 MacBook Pro can support 16GB without any stability issues. The memory does need to be PC3-10600 DDR3 1333 MHz however. You can find that memory available from Other World Computing as well as from other online retailers.

Do keep in mind however that, since it's an unsupported configuration, Apple won't support your machine with those memory modules installed (should you ever need to take it to the Apple store).


How to connect an external display to a MacBook Pro Late 2016? I would like to connect an display (Dell LCD monitor P2715Q) to a MacBook Pro Late 2016.

When connecting via USB and Mini DisplayPort, the display still says that there is no signal from the computer. I can't insert the CD that came with monitor since this model of MacBook doesn't have an optical drive.

Is it driver issue (and where could I download them) or is it compatability issue?

As I suspected, there is no such thing as a mDP to USB-C converter from Apple. You are using the Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter. It does not convert DisplayPort signals, only Thunderbolt.


Add a custom icon to OS X folder This solution from Apple replaces the generic, blue folder with the specified graphic element.

Is there a way to add a custom graphic 'over lay' to the generic, blue folder?  Dropbox is an example of this.

** edit **

I want to do this for one folder.  An alias to the folder should retain the icon as well.

I would prefer to do this without the help of a 3rd-party application.

The simplest way of doing it is just making it yourself. And there is a quite simple way of doing it.

Select a folder which has the Generic icon.
Do Edit / Get Info or Command+I.
Select the folder's icon, at the top of the Info Window, and copy it.

Open Preview.app
Do File / New from Clipboard or just Command+N. All of the actual icon's image sizes will appear. Select the first one as it's the biggest one.
Copy, from elsewhere, the image you want to use as overlay and paste it in the Preview document. For pasting it you'll have to click on the actual image, instead of Preview's selecting panel.
Now, either after clicking in the preview's panel or the actual image, do Edition / Copy.
Select the folder you want to change and do the Get info thing as you did before.
Select the folder's image at the top of the info window and paste the new icon by doing Edition / Paste.

This is the final result:

It's quite nasty, from a designer's point of view, but it will definitely do the trick.


Windows on a Macbook Pro with integrated Intel Iris Pro only I've been wondering about this since the last refresh of the Macbook Pro range...I have a need to run some Windows-only software, and I've read in the past that many people complained about lower battery life running Windows under Bootcamp on their Macbooks. This turned out to be the result of the Discrete Graphics Card always enabled for Windows, with no way to only use the integrated GPU.

I see now with the last refresh, that Apple have a Macbook Pro Retina with an Intel Iris Pro only option (no discrete GPU). Would it be reasonable to assume that I could get better battery life out of this new Macbook option under Bootcamp, than with previous Macbook Pro iterations? I'm certainly aware that Windows is nowhere nearly as optimised as OSX, and hence will not not be able to claim the same battery sipping status of it.

I work a lot on Magento and Drupal site development, and occasionally develop the odd nopCommerce (.NET based) project under Windows. I also make use of Adobe Photoshop CC for slicing up web designs handed over to me, and fool around in Sketchup every now and then. I don't play games on my laptop...purely work. So I believe that my graphics processing needs are very small.

Ok, I've gone off course a little, but getting back to the main question - Would it be reasonable to assume that I can achieve slightly better battery consumption by choosing the Retina Macbook Pro with Intel Iris Pro only option?

I have no sources other than personal experience to back up my claims, but I recommend the machine without the dGPU if you will be spending the majority of your time in Windows.

I have seen the difference, and the dGPU kills the battery in Windows. My machine with an integrated GPU gets significantly better battery life under Windows than another machine with a dedicated GPU. In fact, the machine with the integrated chip gets almost equivalent battery life under both Windows and OS X.

You may want to stick with the dGPU if you need it for 3D gaming or media applications that perform better with a dedicated chip.

In the end of the day, it is really up to you, but you will probably get better battery life without the dGPU. I have seen an hour and half difference in some cases.


Using the external accessory kit could one iPhone charge another iPhone with a double headed dock connector? Using the external accessory kit could one iPhone charge another iPhone with a double headed dock connector?

Or would the power supplied be so small that it wouldn't worth charging it that way?

I wouldn't recommend using this cable at all. The iPhone dock connector uses the pin 23 to provide 5V of electric flow. Since you're using a double headed dock connector, the most reasonable technique the manufacturer used is just to split the same cable that comes from the USB head into the four pins each dock connector should at least have to provide power and sync capabilities (or two pins if it only charges the iPhones).

Since the current must at least drop by half on each phone because of the splitting, neither would be properly charged. If both iPhones seem to charge, the least dangerous consequence would be that the charge time will be at least doubled.

Using this technique can (worst case scenario) disrupt the device's PMU. My advice: don't.


Diagnostics on M7 motion coprocessor I own an iPhone 5S and use the apps Argus and Nike+ Move that utilize the M7 motion coprocessor.

A few weeks ago both apps were unable to properly import motion data (they would hang when loading up trying to update motion information).

Is there any way to diagnose if the M7 motion coprocessor on my iPhone 5S is faulty?

Yes - you would use the health app and place steps and distance walked/run into your dashboard and then take the phone out for a walk or jog.

If no data is logged, you can conclude that the processor is likely faulty. You could confirm it by backing up the device and restoring a clean OS and repeating the step test.


MacBook Pro 2016 bottom of key loose I removed the T key on my MacBook Pro 2016 to clean under it, and when I tried to put it back on, the top part snapped on fine, but the bottom part wouldn't. I probably just put the key in wrong. Can someone guide me in the correct way to put the key back on? Thanks!

This video was very helpful for me while cleaning my MBP keyboard (late 2015)


Install Unison, simple way Is there any simple way to install Unison (text version), on OSX?

On Ubuntu it's 'sudo apt-get install unison'.
And that's it.

I have read the following guide: http://mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/freebsd/distfiles/unison-2.45.28/unison-2.45.28-manual.pdf
it's on page 8, lower half. But it strikes me as strange for they claim unix systems to need this complex procedure for installing as I have clearly seen none of this is necessary on Ubuntu. Therefore I wonder if there is not a comparably simple procedure available for OSX.

The difference is that you are using a pre-built package under Linux but are looking at the compile-it-yourself instructions (which would work both for Linux and for OS X).

There are at least two options to solve that:

Use one of the package managers available for OS X, e.g. Homebrew and install Unison by running

brew install unison

You will need Xcode installed as well for this
Follow the "Download" link on http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison and download pre-compiled versions from here.


Internal macbook pro microphone not working on any browser, but working in apps (skype, slack, photo booth) Specs:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
macOS Mojave v10.14.2
chrome version  71.0.3578.98
safari version 12.0.2

Using this website I can see the line but it isn't moving. The problem occurs on both chrome and safari. However, in safari the line doesn't even appear.

My google chrome settings are set properly (i.e. allow on request and no sites blocked)
I have attached a screenshot of my sound input settings
I have tried installing and uninstalling chrome
Microphone works fine on photo booth, skype and slack

Chrome wasn't allowed to use my microphone from the security settings in MacOS. Maybe this setting was lost after the update to Mojave?

Goto 'System preferences'
Click on 'Security & Privacy'
Click on the tab 'Privacy'
Select 'Microphone' from the left sidebar
Make sure 'Google Chrome' is checked
Let's celebrate, it's working again


Disable sparsebundle backups on Network-attached time machine (Lion)? I am running OS X Lion/10.7.4 and have set up a network disk hosted on an Ubuntu server using directions I found online. Time Machine recognizes the disk and backs up to it. However it backs up as sparsebundle "bands" files. I would like to be able to read the backed-up files from the Ubuntu server.

Is there any way to tell Time Machine to back up to regular files instead of using sparsebundle/bands files?

I found a github project a short time ago, which handles the "read the backed-up files" part of this question:

https://github.com/torarnv/sparsebundlefs

That is good enough for my purposes.


How much power can be drawn from the lightning connector by a external device? How much power can be drawn from the iPhone/iPad lightning connector by a external device?

Update: The use case is a audio-related device for iPhone/iPads. It would require around ~100 mA at 3,3 volts, so I'm trying to find out if we could draw this from the iPhone/iPad. (That would allow us to skip an external battery –> smaller size...)

(This question has been asked for the old 30-pin connector here, but a new connector might imply new power constraints.)

Since Apple doesn't publicly commit to power levels or even pin compatibility on the lightning connector, anyone interested in learning how hardware should be designed to work with Apple's dock connectors could choose to join the MFI program:

https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/

As a developer, Apple will provide you with detailed hardware requirements, schematics and even technical support. I haven't seen anyone take a current meter and volt meter to the devices and post publicly, but wanted to make you aware of one official avenue to get this sort of information across all of Apple's iOS product line wether they use the 30 pin dock connector, the lightning dock connector or some of the other specific iPod connectors.

Additionally, the pin out for lightning connectors requires an authentication chip according to wikipedia, so getting power out of a lightning device involves software authentication before power will flow.

The article describing 8 pins that are active (both above images are from wikipedia) indicates that when power flows into the phone (the opposite of your use), pins 1 and 5 are ground and power respectively. However, until your cable identifies itself to iOS, no power will be provided.


Can music be played simultaneously on Homepod and another device using the same account? When signed in with an Apple Music account on Homepod and another device, can I play music on both devices simultaneously? I believe it's not possible for e.g. iTunes and an iPhone; is Homepod an exception?

Specifically, it would be quite annoying if a family member at home started to play music and this disqualified me from listening on my iPhone on the go.

You can definitely listen to Apple Music on multiple devices simultaneously.

(In fact, my Homepod, Apple TV, and iPhone have an annoying propensity for all trying to play songs at the same time, instead of controlling one-another.)